10 ways of making our favorite foods.healthier

Growing up I remember always eating a well rounded meal. Now by a well rounded meal I mean we had a meat/seafood/poultry serving, veggies and almost always a serving of rice. I still remember waking up every morning before school and have my mother lead us to the dining table where we'd have fruit juices, a bowl of soaked almonds and an egg sandwich. I hated going through the routine as a child but years later I look back with gratitude and today I find myself doing everything my mother did to ensure Bunny girl eats healthy.

Here are ten ways I make our food healthier:

1. We love egg and chicken rolls and while most people feel it's tastier to use a flour tortilla I beg to differ. Store bought wheat tortillas taste just as great. We don't use oil to cook our wheat tortillas, I just heat both sides on a pan till each side puffs up and voila hot wheat tortillas are ready to go!
2. My favorite gift is our 'George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling Machine'. This is a great alternative to having a fried chicken dinner. Marinate your chicken with store bought tandoori masala (if you like Indian tandoori chicken) or lemon pepper and throw your chicken strips on the 'Grill'. This machine pulls off the fat on the chicken and collects it in the tray and cooks the chicken strips in less than ten minutes, thereby ensuring you don't kill the chicken's nutrients by overcooking the same. Put the chicken strips in a wheat tortilla (Check #1) and add some shredded lettuce to make a sumptuous, healthy chicken roll
3. Bunny girl doesn't like spinach so I have learned to hide it in dishes that she loves. I shred the spinach fine and throw it into our pasta with meat sauce, into mince buns and I've even concocted by own spinach marinated chicken recipe. She wonders why the 'green strands' are there but gobbles up her food without a murmur as the meat/chicken flavors generally overpower that of the spinach!
   
4. Now I know most people don't like boiled vegetables but what if you hid them in spiced rice....yum-yum, is what my family would say! Boil 1-2 cups of basmati rice with 2 cardamoms, 2 cloves, 1 bay leaf and salt to taste. Once the rice is cooked, throw in your finely cubed boiled veggies seasoned with salt and pepper (I use carrots, beans, corn and even broccoli and cauliflower) and serve the rice up with some curry or eat it with some baked chicken/meat. Hubby took this to work once for a potluck and a few colleagues hesitated trying the rice at first but once they had a few spoons full, they were back for second and third servings!
5. Bunny girl loves chicken nuggets and fish fingers. Now I don't serve these up as regular fare but on the occasions I do, I make sure I bake the nuggets and fingers instead of frying them in oil. They get just as crispy and my little girl thinks they taste great!
6. Our family loves milk puddings and when Bunny girl was younger she didn't like carrots as much as she does right now so I'd make her a recipe my mother taught me where one boils the carrots, blends them and then adds them into the milk pudding mix. Strangely enough my mother's 'carrot kheer' has now become my family's favorite milk pudding of all time!
7. If your children love the little boxed juices, try introducing them to freshly blended fruit juices using the fruits that are in season. (Fruits that are in season tend to be sweeter so you don't need to add any sugar to the juice) Just last night we had some chilled watermelon juice that was not only refreshing but healthy as it was made from scratch without any sugar.
8. My husband loves beef and so does Bunny girl so when we do buy meat we make it a point to buy 96% lean meat which is a little more expensive but much healthier and we always cook our meat and chicken without the fat.
   
9. For our sandwiches we've now switched to multi grain wheat bread instead of white bread. It took a while getting used to the change but now it's the only bread Bunny girl likes to eat. I love whole grain sandwiches as I feel they're also more filling.
   
10. For snacks we try to make sure we opt to munch on oatmeal cookies, nuts and fruit and to keep us from being tempted with crispy chips and chocolates we've just stopped stocking our pantry with the same all together!

I have learned to experiment by substituting 'not so healthy' food with healthier alternatives and have even learned to throw in healthy veggies into dishes that would ordinarily not have veggies in them. The results have been encouraging as Hubby and Bunny girl love whatever is served to them and the 'Healthy Chef' in me grins a big ol' smile!

What do you do to eat healthy but tasty food? Do you find you're beginning to cook just like your Mommy did? Put your thoughts together in a post and link on up here.





** EBMR Disclaimer: “I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and WeightWatchers SmartOnes blogging program, making me eligible to get a $50 gift card. For more information on how you can participate, click here.”

Labels: Mommy Tips, Twitter Moms

posted by Marina@EBMR @ 4:34 PM