You may be trying to eat better, but just how healthy are your meals? And what tips and tricks can you use to make healthy meals at home? Healthy meals do not equate to several hours of slaving away in the kitchen, in fact the healthiest meals are often very simple and quick to prepare. Read on for some healthy meal ideas or consult your local nutritionist or dietitian.
So What Should Be in a Healthy Meal?
A healthy meal should contribute to your daily needs of carbs, good fats, protein, vitamins and minerals. For this reason you should always aim to include a source of breads/grains (wholegrain if you can), a source of lean protein (like fish, lean poultry, lean red meat. tofu, eggs, lean dairy products or legumes) a source of good fat (for example seeds, nuts, avocado, olive oil, oily fish), and fruits or vegetables. When adding the fruits or vegetables to your meal, aim to include as many colours as you can. The more colour on your plate, the more nutrients you will consume.
Reducing the Amount of Fat You Use
A great way to make a healthy meal is to reduce the amount of fat that you use. Good ways of doing this include:
- Use low fat or skim milk in cooking instead of full fat milk
- Use a low fat cream substitute instead of cream (reduced fat cooking cream)
- Use evaporated milk with a little coconut essence instead of coconut cream
- Use less of a stronger cheese, like parmesan, instead of a lot of milder cheese
- Spray oil onto a pan instead of pouring out of the bottle
- Remove all visible fat from meat before cooking (once cooked it may be hard to distinguish between the fat and meat)
- If your recipe uses steps always drain meat before moving onto the next step – you will be amazed at how much fat you can get rid of by doing this
Get Great Flavour Without the Extra Kilojoules
Instead of using fats (oils, butter) or refined sugars to create flavour, try using herbs and spices. There are many different spices available in your local supermarket or store that you can use to spice up your meals. Herbs are also easy to buy or grow and can add great flavour to your healthy meals. A great example of adding flavour without extra energy is to use garlic and low fat milk when making a mash, instead of butter and full fat milk. Another way to reduce the kilojoules in your meal is to make sauces from scratch. For example it is very simple to make a homemade pasta sauce using tomatoes, chilli, garlic, onion, a little olive oil and basil – and you know exactly what has gone into it.
Reducing the Amount of Sugar You Use
Many meals can be made with less sugar. If you are baking you can substitute pureed apple (or any other fruit) for sugar. If you do this you also add more nutrients to your meal. Using honey as a sweetener is also a good idea if you would like to use a more natural product. It is also a good idea to simply reduce the amount of sugar used in recipes as you will find that over time your taste buds will get used to less sweetness.
Add More Fibre
Fibre is essential for a healthy digestive system and you can easily add more fibre to your meals by using these tips:
- Leave the skin on fruits and vegetables when possible
- Use whole wheat flour instead of white flour
- Add oats into recipes in place of some of the flour
- Add lentils to a casserole or mince based dish
It is not hard to make your meals healthier, plan ahead so that you know what you are having, make sure your meal has all the components of a healthy meal and look for ways to reduce the fat and sugar you use, and to increase the fibre content.
Originally published on Sep 20, 2011
