So you’re ready to eat healthier, right? You know what to do. You want to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, low fat proteins. Eating food prepared at home sounds like a good idea.
The problem is… you don’t know how or what to cook! Hopefully this post will give you a few ideas on getting started with healthy cooking at home.
You might be surprised by my cooking history. I had to learn to cook after I got to college. Ask my mom. I had no intentions to learn to cook when I was growing up. I avoided it like the plague. My brother was the one baking cookies and selling them. He liked to cook popcorn. Me? No way!!
Then I got to college and everything was cooked for me or I ate out. About my third year at NCSU, I decided to stop eating meat. At that point I focused on getting the nutrients I needed including protein, zinc, iron, etc. I had to start cooking.
Thus started my cooking adventures and here I am 8 years later. I actually like it!! I have learned to enjoy eating many things that I hated before and also developed a taste for foods that I never knew existed.
Did you know it takes trying a new food 10-15 times before you will like it? I guess the 10th time I tried beans in a new way, I finally started to enjoy them. Just because you haven’t liked something in the past doesn’t mean that you won’t like it prepared a new way. I have to give credit to my Mother-in-law who taught me many new foods to try and lots of ways to prepare them.
Now that you know my cooking history, it’s time to work on your own! Here is an excellent and PRACTICAL cookbook written about healthy cooking for busy people, called Lickety-Split Meals.
It’s written by Zonya Foco (www.zonya.com), a dietitian that I have seen speak and is enlightening. I use this cookbook for myself and when I do classes. Just this week I used the recipe for Mexican 5 Bean Soup. It is tasty and uses a slow-cooker so it’s easy too!
You can also get many recipes online. However, it’s hard to tell if they are healthy or not. Here’s another place to start where you can be guaranteed healthy recipes: AICR’s recipe corner.
Next time I will post on meal planning and tools you can use to make it easy. So try some new recipes this weekend. Make cooking a hobby and an adventure!
– Julie
Hey Julie,
I think in a previous post you mentioned not eating charred foods. Why is that exactly?
Thanks for your interest! Healthy grilling will be a post of it’s own sometime in the future.
Charred foods, especially charred meats have shown to have potential cancer causing compounds called heterocyclic aromatic amines (HCAs or HAAs and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
When meat is grilled, these chemicals can form. As our bodies process them, these chemicals gain the ability to bind to our DNA and cause the kind of damage that could theoretically spark the beginning of cancer.
To avoid these, be sure that your meat does not touch the flame. Also, by marinating the meat or precooking them in the microwave or oven before putting them on the grill, you can decrease the chance of these chemicals forming.
I love the Zonya cookbook. I made LaZonya last weekend! 🙂
So if you’re cooking meat in a skillet in hot oil and it blackens…is that the same thing as charring?
Usually blackening meat is accomplished with spices and not by burning. If the meat burns in the frying pan it is less risky. The danger is mostly related to grilling. I think that it’s related to the fact that when you grill and the meat burns, the meat itself is touching the flame and burning. In a frying pan or when you marinate a meat, there is a barrier formed by the oil or marinade. That way when the flame touches it doesn’t actually burn the meat itself.
Thanks for the question!