Preparing Healthy Meals For Your Family

Healthy cooking is often difficult as most of us do not want to spend time planning and preparing meals that our families refuse to eat. At the same time, we want our families to be healthy so we feel compelled to learn new and improved ways of preparing healthy foods for our family to enjoy.

With weight and nutrition being known as the culprit in so many health conditions it is impossible to ignore the importance of not only eating healthy ourselves, but also of teaching our children the importance of eating healthy. One way to ensure that your loved ones are eating healthy is to make sure that you are starting with healthy and nutritious foods for them. This does not mean that you cannot enjoy the occasional calorie splurge or even that you shouldn’t. The key to cooking healthy is learning to control portions and understanding the importance of moderation.


For those that are hoping to incorporate healthy cooking habits into their daily routines, try making simple modifications to your favorite dishes. For example, use ground turkey in recipes that call for ground beef.  Turkey is leaner, packs more protein and you will hardly notice the change.  Try adding it to your meat sauce for a healthier alternative.  Another interesting substitution is using cauliflower for mashed potatoes. When cauliflower is pureed, it has the same consistency of mashed potatoes, but is a healthier and tastier alternative. 


There are many that will argue that cooking healthy food costs more than cooking the prepackaged foods that pack on the calories and additives. The truth of the matter is that when you compare the costs with the medical bills of the future for failing to do so, they seem rather slight by comparison. Yes, good food costs more money. In many cases, that is a simple fact of life. However, by learning portion control and eating the proper portions you just may discover that you are actually spending less as you adjust to the proper amounts of food you should be consuming in order to maintain a healthy and active lifestyle.

Cooking healthy isn’t an overnight change; it is a lifestyle change that should be implemented one step at a time. You do not have to go into your kitchen and through out every little thing that you deem ‘unhealthy’ only work to not buy more of these items once they’ve been used. Make wiser decisions when purchasing fats for food preparation and you will discover that you’ve made a vitally important step in the process of incorporating healthy cooking and eating habits in your home.

It’s those small steps you take towards your goal of cooking healthy foods for your family that will matter far more than any giant leap. Before you know it you will find that you all have more energy and a better sense of overall health than you would have imagined before changing your cooking habits. The healthier your meals, the more likely your whole family are to maintain a healthy body weight.