For most families, dinner is the most important meal of the day. This is the part of the day in which all family members are present and can catch up on all important family and school matters. The parent who is in charge of preparing dinner will have more time to cook and won’t have to rush through making dinner, during breakfast, when everyone is rushing to work or school.
Since dinner is usually the only time during the day when everyone can be present at the table, you’ll definitely want to spend less time preparing the meal and more time interacting with the family. As such, it will be helpful to know a few tricks to make cooking healthy and delicious dinner meals a breeze. Below are some of these tips that you can follow to make cooking easy as well as make healthy dinners:
• Make a meal plan for dinner. Set aside some time during the weekend (when you’re free) to come up with a dinner plan for the week. Make sure you have healthy recipes in your meal plan. So, don’t forget to include whole grains, greens, lean proteins and other healthy and nutritious ingredients.
• Also take the time to do some preparation. When you have some free time, do the essentials of meal preparation as well. This means peeling and chopping vegetables and fruits and storing them properly in the fridge. You can even cut up some extra fruits and vegetables so you have extra for everyone’s breakfast or to add to other meals.
• You can also make sure you always include healthy vegetables in your meals by buying pre-cut fresh vegetables like broccoli, squash, and mushrooms without spending a lot of time on prep work.
• Always store and use healthy cooking staples. For easy, healthy meal prep, always keep your staples on hand. These include extra-virgin olive oil, egg substitutes and fat-free or light soymilk. Leading nutritionists recommend using extra-virgin olive oil in a spray bottle as a surefire and easy way to reduce the fat and calorie content of a dish.
• Modify your cooking methods. Finally, by changing your usual cooking methods, you can effectively reduce everyone’s fat and calorie intake. So, if you always pan-fry chicken, consider baking or roasting it. You will spend less time watching what you cook while serving healthy dishes and eating. Grilling, broiling or poaching fish is also a healthy option. You can also avoid using a lot of oil by microwaving chopped vegetables like onions and greens instead of frying them.
