Home Cooking and Good Health

Home Cooking and Good Health

Home cooked meals are the best things ever. I have a friend whose business entirely revolves around the home-cooked meal. When you cook at home, you save money and time. And the best part is that you know exactly what’s in your food. For those of us who count calories, this allows us to more accurately account for what we’re eating. But some people see the time and work it takes to cook a meal as a disadvantage. As someone who cooks at home most of the time (we have an altar to Julia Child in our kitchen), I can tell you that if you learn just a few techniques well, you can cut down on time and prep work, and actually enjoy the process.

Here are a few tips. First, choose a few quick and easy recipes that you like and know how to prepare. If you’re in a time crunch, you can pick one and put it together in no time. Add to your quick and easy recipe collection until you have at least a dozen, that way you won’t bore yourself to death cooking the same thing over and over. This will also help keep your family from planning a culinary mutiny.

Second, have some basic ingredients on hand. Those quick and easy recipes I mentioned above? They won’t be so quick and easy if you don’t have the ingredients in your freezer or cupboard when you need to prepare them. Here’s a thought: when you choose those recipes, collect small groups of recipes that each use the same ingredients. That way, you can change it up and still keep your ingredients list simple.

Third, let your supermarket do the prep for you. Some items like vegetables and fruits can be purchased from the deli counter already peeled, sliced, or chopped. In some cases, the portions will be prepackaged and in others you can take a “take-out” container and fill it with the items you intend to use. When you get home, you can assemble the rest of your ingredients and throw everything together. Well, maybe not throw, exactly, but you get the idea.

Fourth, get two or more meals from one. If you are cooking for two, you can make enough for four and freeze the extra portions for another meal. This works well for pasta dishes. Alternatively, you can turn leftovers into completely different dishes. I have a friend who can turn yesterday’s mashed potatoes into some of the best salmon patties you’ve tasted. This may require some experimentation, but it’s worth the effort.

Lastly, use the titans of meal preparation, the slow cooker and the pressure cooker. Slow cookers are amazing because you can put the meal together the night before and store the crock in your ‘fridge. In the morning before you leave for work, just pop the crock in the cooker base and turn it on low. Pressure cookers are exactly the opposite. When you get home, you can put a roast in your pressure cooker, and what would have taken three hours to cook can be done in 45 minutes to an hour. Modern pressure cookers are extremely safe, and there are even some electric models with digital displays.

Cooking at home can save time and money, and can give you a great tool in your journey toward good health. And if you really don’t have time to cook, give my friend Rudy a call.

Sources:
Susan Bowerman, MS, RD, CSSD, FAND. “5 Tips for Quick Meal Preparation”