Cooking at home is an important step to successful weight loss. But if you follow a stereotyped recipe or “make” something too novel, you may not get the results. Here are 32 cooking tips for you to lose weight!
Read through these “small but mighty” tips to end the kitchen wars and bolster your weight loss efforts. Luckily, here are tips for better cooking, easier food prep and still helping you complete your weight loss journey. In the end, you’ll realize cooking has never been so easy!
1. Seasoning in your own way
When cooking with a recipe, try to avoid over-precise measurements of salt and pepper. Your taste buds are much more precise than a measuring spoon, so taste and adjust your taste. Season with your fingers like a chef, it will give you more precise dosing control.
2. Cooking Tip: Consider Salting Time
The timing of adding salt to a dish is just as important as the amount of salt added. Some chicken, turkey and pork dishes will take up to 8 hours to marinate, because the salt needs enough time to penetrate the meat, making the dish tastier and fuller. Therefore, you should learn carefully about the dish you are about to cook to get the most perfect taste.
3. Correct mistakes
Too much salt? Use a little vinegar to neutralize the salt thanks to its acidic content. Too much chili? Then you can add a drop of honey to soften the spiciness of the dish.
4. Buy food on Monday or Tuesday
More specifically, it is recommended to buy food on Monday or Tuesday before 10 am. This is the time when supermarkets are least crowded, and the best conditions for you to choose fresh produce without having to jostle.
>>> See more: 20 cooking tips to keep the flavor and nutrients intact
5. Cooking Tip: Gradually soften the meat and dry the fish before frying
The moisture on the surface creates steam when the meat or fish touches the pan, which prevents the food from having a nice brown color. Therefore, you need to use a pestle or knife to gradually soften the meat and dry the fish to minimize the amount of water left on the surface. If it’s a scaly fish, use an iron knife to squeeze out any leftover juice.
6. Don’t put too many ingredients in the pan
Cooking multiple ingredients at the same time will cause the temperature in the pan to drop drastically and the end result will be a dish that feels more like steaming than frying or sautéing. This just takes up cooking time, not to mention the lack of flavor of the food. All ingredients must fit comfortably in the pan, so you need to choose a pan that is large enough and suitable for each dish.
If not, stir-fry each group of ingredients separately, transfer to a plate, and finally mix them together. The meats will be stir-fried first, followed by the tubers, and finally the leafy vegetables and seasonings.
7. Cooking Tip: Don’t Burn Non-Stick Pans
Teflon – a synthetic plastic – can degrade at high temperatures, so save the nonstick pan for light tasks like frying omelets or cooking fish. Nonstick pans can release potentially carcinogenic toxins into the food.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has also recommended against using all nonstick cookware because the long-term health effects of nonstick chemicals have yet to be determined. Better yet, choose a cast iron pan to ensure safety for your health.
8. Cooking Tip: Crispy Food with Seasoning
Nothing can beat crispy chicken skin, but fried foods are not good for the weight loss phase. Instead, sprinkle a teaspoon of salt over the meat and refrigerate (unwrapped) before cooking to give it a crunch. The air and salt will absorb the water in the chicken, so simply pat the meat dry with a paper towel on the surface before cooking.
9. Using the oven
Although grilling in the charcoal oven sounds delicious, it is recommended that you use the oven. It’s important not to forget to turn the meat over when grilling (in any oven). Chicken, pork chops and steaks are usually cooked on one side in about 10 minutes.
10. Improve dishes learned on TV shows
Surely many of us often watch cooking shows on TV, YouTube … and make them at home. Make your dish more innovative, such as adding fresh herbs, a little citrus or a drizzle of olive oil to make the frozen meat used in the recipe become richer and more flavorful.
11. Cooking tip: Avoid keeping tomatoes in the fridge
Similar to peaches and potatoes, tomatoes (regarded as one of the eight best fat-burning foods) will suffer in flavor and texture if the temperature is too cold. Therefore, keeping tomatoes out of the refrigerator is the best way for you to enjoy the full flavor as well as ensure its nutritional texture.
12. Cooling the pantry
Lightly chilling the plate (or cup) in the refrigerator is a “small but powerful” secret to increase the freshness of cold dishes like summer salads or also a way to help your ice cream melt longer. .
13. Creative in combining ingredients
You don’t have to spend time going to the supermarket just to buy a bunch of celery because it goes well with the dish you’re making. The bottom line is that, if you understand the basic techniques and know what can be put together, there is no need to worry when the refrigerator only has a few items left. Creativity in the kitchen is limitless!
14. Shop for seasonal foods
There are three great reasons to shop seasonally: cheaper, tastier, and better. Out-of-season foods often have price and quality inversely proportional to each other.
15. Make friends in the market
Talking, saying hello regularly with the butchers, fish, vegetables at the market or mini supermarket near your house will benefit you because they will be happy to recommend the best ingredients they have.
16. Cooking tip: Refreshing shriveled vegetables
Vegetables when stored in the refrigerator compartment often wilt due to dehydration. Don’t worry, just put all the vegetables that are being shaken in a large bowl of ice water before cooking to let the ice seep into the cells, to restore the crispness.
17. Make use of materials
Did you know that microwaving a lemon or orange for 15 seconds before squeezing it can double the amount of water? In this simple way, you can get the most out of your ingredients.
18. Go to the farmers market early
Going to the market early will help you choose the best ingredients. Latecomers can only pick up foods that people try to sell out during the day.
19. Turn the meat several times during cooking
The researchers found that repeatedly turning steaks, chicken, and chops not only shortened the cooking time, but also helped them cook more evenly.
20. Cooking tip: Let the meat rest after cooking
If you immediately cut the meat as soon as it is done cooking, the precious juices will escape. Wait 5 minutes before slicing your first roast chicken, 7 minutes before slicing a steak, and 15 minutes before slicing a large chunk of meat.
21. Cooking tomatoes
Cooking or baking tomatoes increases the lycopene content significantly. This is a powerful compound that has been shown to fight free radicals and reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease.
A study at Ohio State University showed that people who ate ketchup cooked for 40 minutes had 55% higher blood levels of lycopene than those who did not cook tomatoes.
22. Sometimes it is necessary to replace the baking ingredients even though the results are not so standard
Although baking powder and baking soda are not the same thing and are not interchangeable, adding a small amount of baking powder with baking soda will preserve the most antioxidants in chocolate, which is often lost. during baking. But you need to be aware that the cake will not puff at all.
23. Bake bread
Toasting bread clearly lowers the glycemic index of this food, according to a study published in Journal of Clinical Nutritiong European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. As a result, the glucose content from the bread will be lower, reducing the risk of weight gain. Or better yet, the bread should be frozen before baking to minimize glucose loss without changing its taste.
24. Hard-boiled eggs
Recent research shows that hard-boiled egg yolks contain 50% more nutrients than hard-boiled eggs. To boil poached eggs, you need to first prepare the eggs (at room temperature), then boil about 500ml of water (or more depending on the number of eggs), add 15ml of vinegar and lower the heat. Next, boil the eggs for about 6-7 minutes, take them out and immediately put them in ice cold water to quickly cool down and make the peeling process easier.
25. Cooking Tip: Add Coconut Oil to Rice
According to a study by the University of Chemical Sciences in Sri Lanka, adding about 1 teaspoon of coconut oil to a pot of boiling water before cooking rice produces 10 times more resistant starch. This is a good sign that slows down digestion, which means you’ll feel fuller for longer, leading to less calorie intake.
26. Freeze Blueberries
Another way to store healthy foods is to freeze them, specifically blueberries. According to a study by Southern Dakota State University, USA, the antioxidant properties of blueberries are concentrated mainly in the skin, which is especially protected when frozen. This will ensure that the body will absorb 100% of the antioxidant content of the blueberries.
27. Eat cold pasta
Similar to how oil is added to rice, pasta that is left to cool overnight before cooking is healthier for you (and perfectly fine to reheat). In this way, pasta dishes will increase the feeling of fullness more than just cooked and eaten immediately. Refrigerating pasta is one of the best tips to help you maintain your weight and still enjoy this delicious dish.
28. Avocado storage
Leaving avocados on the stovetop to cook them faster and keeping them in the fridge when they’re ripe is the key to preserving the nutrients until you’re ready to eat them. There’s nothing better than enjoying a ripe avocado with a salad.
29. Cooking Tip: Don’t Slice Strawberries
Instead of slicing or halving strawberries and storing them in the fridge to enjoy, it’s best to keep them whole. Vitamin C in strawberries is very sensitive to light and oxygen, so they lose their antioxidant capacity when exposed. The same thing happens in oranges.
30. Frozen herbs
Instead of letting the bunch of herbs wilt because they can’t be used in time, chop them up and put them in the freezer like ice cubes. You can easily use it by adding it directly to soups, smoothies or any other dish you like.
However, we do not recommend doing this with onions as they absorb bacteria extremely quickly. You also shouldn’t use leftover or pre-cut onions.
31. Cooking Tip: Cure Burnt Cookies
We’ve all probably gone through this problem at least once when we wanted to bake some delicious, crispy crackers. Just use a knife or a lemon peeler to scrape off the burnt layer.
32. Peel garlic quickly
The fastest garlic peeling process is: place the garlic clove on a cutting board and use a large knife to crush it. The operation is very simple, but it saves you time, and at the same time, peels garlic more easily, helping you to be more diligent in eating garlic – which is a very good spice for health.
Reference source
32 Kitchen Hacks for Healthy Eating https://www.eatthis.com/cooking-tips-for-weight-loss/ Accessed: 9/1/2021
Hi everyone, I’m Tony Scotti, an expert in the field of height increase with many years of experience researching and applying height increase methods, and have achieved promising results. I have created increase height blog as a personal blog to share knowledge and experience about what I have learned during the process of improving my own height.
