It’s no secret that preparing meals at home is way healthier then grabbing something at a restaurant! But it’s also important to keep track of what is going into your home-cooked meals. Sometimes ingredients in our favorite meals can add a lot of un-needed calories and fat! Here are some simple ways to make your favorite meals healthier.
One easy way to cut out fat is using non-stick cookware. There is no need to add grease or oil which saves you unnecessary fats and calories. If you don’t have any non-stick cookware, you can try using less fat or oil – or better yet find a healthier alternative, try coconut oil!
When baking, you can replace a lot of fats and oils with applesauce, replace about ½ the oil with applesauce. Even better then applesauce, you can also use pureed sweet potatoes! If your recipe calls for 1 egg, you can replace it with 2 yolks. This will give you the same results without the cholesterol. You can also replace butter with avocado! Lots of options here!
When a recipe calls for white flour, try replacing half the white flour with whole wheat flour. Experiment with it and maybe you can end up replacing ALL white flour with whole wheat!
Sugars and Salts: do you really need what the recipe calls for? Because a lot of the time – you don’t. Especially when adding it after the goods are already baked. There is no need to top cookies and pancakes with extra sugar.
Adding skim milk instead of 1% or 2% to recipes is an easy way to reduce fats and calories, just like replacing heavy creams with half-and-half. The same goes for cheese and yogurts, try looking for the healthiest options.
In the end it’s all going to come down to experimenting and finding healthier alternatives for your ingredients. It will be well worth the extra work if you can find a way to enjoy your favorite foods instead of telling yourself you just can’t eat it anymore because it’s ‘bad for you’.
What is your favorite way to cut calories in your home-cooked meals and baked goods?
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