Healthy cooking for your family requires a commitment to making the time and gathering the resources you need. Preparing healthy meals at home gives you more control over your family's diet. Healthy cooking does not have to mean the same, bland foods every night. With creativity, planning and knowledge of what constitutes healthy cooking, you can change your family's diet, include them in cooking and learning about food, save money and improve your family's health.
Step 1
Cook with whole-grain foods instead of refined foods, which are stripped of nutrients and often have added sugars. The USDA recommends that you make half your family's grains whole, such as whole-wheat breads or pasta and brown rice.
Step 2
Add the smallest amount of oils possible when cooking family meals. Healthier oils do not have saturated fats, especially trans fats. Solid oils, such as lard, and stick margarine have saturated fats. Healthy choices contain monounsaturated or polyunsaturated oils, such as olive oil for cooking and salad dressings and canola oils for baking. Soybean and corn oils also are healthy choices. Plant-based oils do not have cholesterol.
Step 3
Prepare fresh, colorful vegetables, with less salt and oils, and fruits for meals, snacks and desserts. Make sure your family gets the health benefits of antioxidants and other nutrients in colorful vegetables, such as dark green broccoli and spinach and orange sweet potatoes and carrots. Steam your vegetables or sauté them using fat-free cooking oil spray. By preparing fresh vegetables, you control the amount of sodium, fat and added sugars in your family's food.
Step 4
Cook lean cuts of meat to keep your family's diet low-fat. Substitute ground turkey for ground beef to make burgers. Cut the fat off chicken before cooking and drain the fat from meats after browning. Meet your family's protein needs with different foods, such as fish, turkey and beans. Use a crock pot to cook one-dish meals, such as soups and casseroles, with less meat and more vegetables.
Step 5
Season foods with less salt and use alternative seasonings such as low-salt vegetable broth or onion and garlic powders instead of onion and garlic salts. Learning to use healthy seasonings creatively helps you prepare tasty, healthy meals for your family without breading and fatty sauces. Commercial marinades often contain added sugars, sodium and unhealthy oils. Make your own rubs and marinades using low-sodium seasonings and herbs, healthy oils, wines and citrus juices.
Step 6
Bake, broil or grill meats to avoid using oils in frying. Bake fish or broil burgers instead of frying. Grill your meats and vegetables without oils and use drip pans to capture fat and keep it away from the meat. Fat-free or low-fat cooking oil sprays help with the switch from frying to sautéing.
Tips and Warnings
- Use the U.S. Department of Agriculture food pyramid to make sure your family gets the recommended number of servings in each of the five food groups, which are grains, vegetables, fruits, milk, and meat and beans. Set aside a regular time during the week to plan meals and make shopping lists. Planning ahead of time helps you make healthy food choices and prepare to carry out your plans. Choose nutrient-rich foods that provide the vitamins, minerals and omega-3 fatty acids your family needs.
- Children and those with special needs should maintain sufficient caloric intake with the amount of fats or oils needed for healthy development.
