Some believe that the way to your man's heart necessarily passes through his stomach! In simple words, you can get your man in the perfect mood if you serve him the perfect foods! This is the philosophy which makes every dedicated wife come out with newer recipes every day or week! A lot of experimentation and loads of love combined together creates a great dish! But no one cares to look at the backstage operation! No one bothers to know about the quantity of oil used, the time or the temperature of cooking, the quantity of the spices applied, the type of meat chosen or the method of cooking deployed!
The concept of cooking leaner, lighter meals seems to get faded behind a rich smell. But no one can deny the importance of leaner, lighter meals. Here are a few tips on how you can cook leaner and lighter meals:
- Use a Teaspoon to Pour Oil: Never pour oil directly from its container, always use a teaspoon, or the best way will be to use oil sprays. Oil should be used in a proportion, half teaspoon in one preparation per person. This will help in cooking food with the minimum amount of oil and you will be able to monitor the entire family's oil consumption.
- Use Flat Bottomed Cooking Utensils: Use flat bottomed cookware rather than the dome shaped ones. Flat bottomed cookware will help you in cooking with less oil.
- Use Nonstick Cookware: Use nonstick cookware especially tawa/pan to make chillas, rotis (chapati) and pancakes with minimum oil.
- Increase the Fiber Content of Recipes: Increase the fiber content of your dishes by adding bran to your regular wheat flour, and by choosing whole fiber products instead of refined ones. For example, choose a whole wheat bread rather than usual refined flour sandwich breads, use whole wheat noodles and pasta or vermicelli instead of the ones made of refined flours (maida).
- Serve Your Salads in Style: Just cutting thin slices or cubes of raw veggies will make your family feel bored about eating healthy salads. Hence, try and use a variety of recipes to make your salads more interesting. Use a variety of veggies, sometimes sprouts and some time fruits. Cube them, slice them or grate them and dress them, with yogurt, lemon or olive oil to add more variety.
- Use White Meats or Lean Meats: While cooking meats, choose the white meat and avoid the red ones! Chicken is always better than using mutton. You can make the meat lean at home by freezing the freshly bought meat for some time and then cleaning the meat and removing the uppermost skin layer. While you freeze the meat, all the saturated fat in the meat comes to the surface and solidifies and this can be removed while cleaning the meat.
- Use Alternative Cooking Methods: Grilling, barbecuing, baking, and sautéing are better cooking methods and require very little amount of oil. Using these heart-friendly cooking methods are definitely better than deep frying.
- Choose Your Menu Wisely: Make sure you include foods from all the food groups everyday to incorporate all varieties of nutrients in your family's diet. Choose veggies which are bright in color like red, yellow, green and orange! Such fruits and veggies are high in their antioxidant contents and hence protect your family against stress, infections and other health problems.
- Use Milk and Yogurt: Using milk and yogurt for your vegetable gravies and sauces will help you in increasing the protein content of your family's meals.
- Use a Variety of Spices: Spices are rich in various micronutrients and minerals, and they also impart good flavor and taste to your meals. Spices have anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and antiseptic properties too.
- Be Careful if Diabetes Runs in Your Family: If you have a family history of diabetes or if anyone in the family suffers from diabetes, use cinnamon (dalchini) or fenugreek seeds (methi) while cooking as they help by bringing in an overall control in the blood sugar levels.
Smell, flavor and a rich taste are not the ultimate objectives of cooking! Cooking is an art and a good cook is one who balances taste with health!
yes nonstick pan are named so because they undergo a special treatment where the coating prevents food to stick to the pan, a fear due to which we often end up adding more oil to our preparations. as far as safety is concerened, tafflon coated cookwares are surrounded with a lots of myth, the safety can be compromised when the heating temperature crosses 500 degree F. Technicallythis kind of temperature is crossed only in case of cooking heavy items like hams and steak. also if the coating is flaking out, the use of this cookware should be avoided. the flaking can be avoided by proper handling of the cookware.