One thing that really struck me about the quest for a healthier lifestyle it was the amount of hidden calories in our food and the effect that different cooking styles can have on our calorie consumption. For this weeks One Step Closer to Healthy post I wanted to talk about healthier cooking alternatives, which can make your favourite foods healthier, even your fry up!
1. Oven baked
There is nothing like a good fry up at the weekend, but let’s face it as enjoyable as they are they’re not the most healthiest of food choices. I’m all about enjoying myself and this extends to my food. Restrictive eating has never worked for me so I like to find healthier ways to enjoy the food that I love.
When it comes to your weekend fry up change it up a little by roasting your sausages and bacon in the oven. This method cuts out the extra fat from cooking oil as none is required. As the meat cooks it will release it’s own fat, which allows it to cook as if you had added additional oil. Also check out my cooking method for steamed eggs for tasty runny yolks with out the need for frying.
2. Roasting
If you are a fan of a fish supper, this can easily be made at home. Using the oven baking method above for the fish and and roasting your potato chips in the oven eliminates the use of a deep fat fryer.
Sweet potatoes make wonderful chips, by roasting them in the oven you can still obtain that crispy outside and fluffy middle without loosing any of their health benefits.
3. Steaming
The Chinese were really on to something when they invented their bamboo steamer. You can steam anything from fish, meat and vegetables for a healthy and well balanced meal. After getting a bamboo steamer as a wedding gift I’ve been doing a little bit of experimenting and come up with a lovely Chinese Steamed Salmon recipe:
![IMG_7348[1]](https://drjemma.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/IMG_73481.jpg "IMG_7348[1]")
![IMG_7332[1]](https://drjemma.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/IMG_73321_thumb.jpg "IMG_7332[1]")
- 1 salmon fillet
- 2 spring onions chopped
- 1 chilli deseeded
- 2 slices of lime
- 1/2 a clove of garlic grated
- A thumb sized finger of sliced ginger
- 2 tsps of honey
- 2 tbsp of soy sauce
- 1 tbsp of rice wine vinegar
- Place the salmon fillet on a square piece of foil and add the garlic, ginger, chilli, slices of lime and spring onions on top of the fish. Fold the foil into a parcel around the salmon leaving one end open. Pour in the honey, rice wine vinegar and soy sauce. Fold over the remaining flap of foil to enclose the salmon and the liquid. Carefully place in the steamer and cook for 10-15 minutes.
4. Cooking oil choices
We are quite lucky that we are now spoilt for choice in the supermarkets with the variety of cooking oils that are on offer. Different cooking oils can add extra nutritional benefits to your diet.
A regular favourite and go to cooking oil for me is coconut oil. Other’s include avocado oil, rapeseed oil (canola oil) and hemp oil which will give you a healthy boost as opposed to regular vegetable oil. Moreover, I have found that measuring my oil rather than free pouring really helps to prevent excessive amounts of oil in my meals.
Cutting out your favourite foods can be be hard and almost tortuous at the best of times. By making simple changes, even to your cooking methods your favourite meals can instantly be made that little bit healthier.
If you missed my first post in this new series on the blog you can catch up here. Please share your tips on healthy cooking methods below as sharing is caring and all that jazz. =)
What cooking methods do use others to keep your meals healthy?
Do you measure out your cooking oil or do you prefer to free pour?
I would totally contradict myself by steaming something and then free pouring extra virgin olive oil on it so it would taste good lol
Hahahaha! There is that downside I guess but steamed food tastes great.
I love grilling meat as it drains away any excess fat that gets released. Otherwise I’m into dry-frying and also dry-roasting 🙂
I really should grill meat more, it adds such a lovely tast to food.
That steamed salmon looks beautiful.
I love roasting and steaming veggies. So good.
I tend to measure out of oil when cooking. I find 1 tsp per person is enough or 1 tbsp for four.
Your are right, you really don’t need that much oil. You can always add a splash of water if things start to stick to the pan aswell.
Mmm the salmon looks great! I need to roast more salmon…I tend to just stick with trout or haddock as it’s cheaper and you get more for your money, but a good piece of salmon is delicious!
Salmon is expensive, but so worth it! I cannot get enough of it at the moment.
I love steaming and roasting veggies. I do measure out oil, usually a couple of tsps per recipe. Water sautéing is another great tip if you don’t want to use oil.
I use the water trick too, it’s great!
I’m a massive steam-fiend ever since my mum brought me a two-tiered steamer. Love steaming fish and I am so going to cook your steamed eggs! There’s a cantonese dish where we whisk eggs together with a little olive oil and steam them with scallops and that’s pretty darn tasty too 🙂 I know it doesn’t classify as cooking, but avoiding cooking and having foods raw is a great way to bulk up meals and getting lots of nutrition in! As for oils, I like coconut oil and olive oil (though the latter can’t be heated too high or it turns toxic). I normally tbs my coconut oil (as it’s usually hardened), or free pour olive oil for dressings etc. I’ve also got a little olive oil spray thing if I want to shallow fry… I’m also a massive fan of just using a splash of water with a little oil to ‘fry’ things in…
The water tip is one of my faves too, cannot beat it for using less oil!
Firstly, I love the steamer recipe because I got a bamboo steamer for my last birthday and I haven’t successfully made anything with it yet. Also, I did not even think of cooking my bacon in the oven – what a novel and marvelous idea! 🙂
It comes out just the same way, so why not! 🙂 The bamboo steamer is so great healthy cooking.
I have a little spray bottle so I normally use that instead of pouring oil (it just has olive oil in there) and that means I use a lot less.
The spray bottle for oil is such a cool idea! 🙂