Cooking Healthy Meals Even Your Kids Will Love
Ranked #15,273 in Healthy Living, #237,318 overall
Give your favorite meals a healthy makeover
Having trouble giving up your favorite comfort foods for your health goals? Or maybe your having trouble getting your family on board with a new meal plan. Here you will find some great tips to reduce calories and fat in some of your favorite meals while making them more nutritious. You don't have to sacrifice your favorite flavors or lose that feeling of "comfort food" , nor do you have to alienate your family during dinner time. So, it's okay whether you want to lose weight or get the whole family on a healthier path - don't skip pizza night!
Pizza
Try a whole wheat crust. Many Delivery places now have that option, or make your own at home. Most grocery stores carry both ready made whole wheat crusts that you just top and bake and/or mixes that you can just add water to and make yourself. When you Make your own pizza use a part skim mozzarella cheese and avoid topping with pepperoni. Processed, prepackaged pepperoni is not only high in fat but has up to and beyond 5 grams of saturated fat! If you like meat on your pizza, cook up some ground turkey sausage or turkey bacon for a topping. All veggies are free game, of course! These simple changes will make pizza night easy on the waistline and healthier for the whole family. Not only will the fat and calories be lowered, your adding fiber. Be adventurous with the vegetables! It's a great way for adults and kids to add essential vitamins to their diet without being scary. For children (and adults) that are fussy eaters try chopping the veggies really fine and put them UNDER the cheese! What Is Your Favorite Pizza Topping?
Vote For Your Favorite Here
I always top my pizza with mushrooms, red onion, turkey bacon, black olives, and diced tomatoes, but if I had to choose just one topping it would mushrooms hand down!
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Spaghetti & Meatballs
If you use store bought meatballs buy Turkey Meatballs instead. They are quite tasty and seasoned well. If you make your own use a leaner ground beef (90% or higher), or use ground turkey instead . Replace bread crumbs with quick oats and replace your usual pasta with a whole grain pasta. I personally prefer multi grain pasta to whole wheat. Multi grain pasta is about the same color, texture, and flavor as regular pasta, so my kids don't even notice the swap. Serve your meal with whole wheat bread instead of the usual Italian bread or garlic bread . Just slice thick, brush with olive oil, sprinkle a little bit of garlic salt or Italian Seasoning and bake until its toasty. This meal still incorporates all of the same familiar flavors your family loves but adds fiber and greatly reduces sugar, calories, and fat. My Favorite Spaghetti Pot
Excelsteel 8 Quart 18/10 Stainless Steel 4 Piece Muti-Cookware Set With Encapsulated Base
This pot makes cooking and draining pasta a breeze and it's great for steaming veggies too.
I have on just like this and I use it all the time.
This pot makes cooking and draining pasta a breeze and it's great for steaming veggies too.
I have on just like this and I use it all the time.
Excelsteel 8 Quart 18/10 Stainless Steel 4 Piece Muti-Cookware Set With Encapsulated Base
Fried Chicken and Mashed Potatoes
Depending on how far you want to take it you can use a normal cut up fryer chicken and just simply remove the skin or you can use skinless boneless chicken breast. I personally have nothing against dark meat poultry. Yes, the white meat is somewhat lower in calories and fat, but really not so much that I would remove dark meat from my diet, just NO skin... I know, I love the skin too! Dredge the chicken in a mixture of egg whites and low-fat milk and coat with panko bread crumbs (japanese bread crumbs). Bake at 375 degrees on a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spay until the juices run clear (usually 45 min. or so). Make baked potatoes instead of mashed. Be creative with your toppings. Instead of gravy, butter, or sour cream I top mine with salsa! Also, try plain yogurt or low-fat cottage cheese with some garlic and herbs mixed in.
Some of my favorite Healthy Cookbooks
Here are some great cookbooks. I like these because they contain healthy, simple, family friendly recipes using normal every foods.
Burgers and Fries
I don't really care for Turkey burgers. When I want a burger, I want a real burger! A big thick meaty juicy burger! Now, we all know that a good juicy burger needs at least some fat for moisture, so I use 85% lean ground beef for burgers. Better than the usual 73% or even 80%, but still enough fat content to keep it moist. If you use a good quality low-fat cheese that melts well you won't even notice the difference. I like Sargento. Replace your usual buns with Whole Wheat Buns and avoid fatty toppings such as mayonnaise. My favorite burger: Low-Fat Swiss Cheese, raw spinach, romaine lettuce, red onion, tomato, and spicy brown mustard. YUM! Replace those fatty deep fried fries by slicing potatoes into wedges, place in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt and cracked pepper along with any other spices you like (I love to use Mrs. Dash for things like this) Toss it around to coat evenly and spread on a cookie sheet and bake. Mmm....I'm getting hungry! Thanks For Reading My Lense
I have two teenagers that are not exactly adventurous eaters. The meals I have featured here are some of their favorites, but just a small example of the little changes you can make to strip calories and fat while adding nutrition to your everyday meals.
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poddys
Apr 11, 2011 @ 3:18 pm | delete
- Good meal ideas. In the UK we can get turkey burgers that are coated in crispy breadcrumbs, and when these are grilled in a skillet they are good and tasty. We usually try to eat healthy these days, but only it the meals are going to taste as good as the real thing.
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Gordon_Hamilton Nov 28, 2010 @ 8:10 am | delete
- Always good to read about healthy eating tips and you provide several. Very much enjoyed reading your lens.
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