Cooking Healthy Thursday

It’s Cooking Thursday and each week I will lay out what I love to cook with, sources of great recipes and products that I feel are helping me (and, hopefully, you) cook healthy, great tasting meals.  Face it.  If you are to be successful in eating healthy foods promoting weight loss, you need to cook at home.  Few of you can afford private chefs.  I also know that it can be tough when you have a family to cook for.  But there is no reason you cannot whip up good food that tastes great in your own kitchen.  Okay, so you say you can’t cook.  Well, that’s not an excuse.  TRY. Then TRY AGAIN.  Prepare well, pay attention to what you are doing and practice often.  You'll do fine.

Today, I’ll clue you in on four items I couldn’t be without in my kitchen and my favorite cooking magazine that has never let me down.  Let’s start with four great tools that make cooking easier and fun.

The Magic Bullet is one of the best gifts I’ve ever received.  Thanks, Reagans!  This handy little blender is used in my home for two or three tasks.  1: Beating eggs.  I add some fresh basil for a nice taste.  Please don’t be making cheese omelets with your Bullet and limit your eggs to a few per week.  2: Salad dressing.  We have not bought salad dressing in years.  It is waaaaay too easy to make your own and it is eons better than anything on the market.  Much cheaper as well.  Experiment with cutting the oil in half and using water instead.  Mustard makes a nice emulsifier.  3: Spice blends are a good way to add a lot of flavor to meats and fish, without adding extra fat.  Throw in some salt, pepper, rosemary, garlic powder and fresh parsley.  Whiz it up in the Bullet and you’re good to go.  Oh, and the Bullet also makes a great coffee grinder.

The Salad Spinner is a godsend when making salads or sautéing veggies.  If you try to sauté wet vegetables you will wind up steaming them instead and wet salads are kinda gross. Love the salad spinner.

A good chef’s knife is essential to food prep.  Using that small steak knife to cut an onion or whack any large melon is unsafe and impractical.  I have Global brand knives, which can be pricey, but Victorinox makes a great knife for $25.  It has also won tests against much more expensive knives.  Also, keep it sharp.  My Tabitha says she never enjoyed cooking until she used good knives.  Makes all the difference.

A rice cooker rocks!  We have a Zojirushi model that costs a little over $100, but for me it’s worth it.  You can find less expensive models as well.  The rice is perfect every time and you set it and forget it.  (Scuse me, Mr. Popeil, for stealing your line.)

Lastly, a great source for healthy recipes; Cooking Light Magazine (CLM). And the best thing is you don’t need to buy it!  We get it delivered, but you can go to www.myrecipes.com and get all of the recipes online.  This site is also home to other magazines' recipes from the same parent as CLM, but look for the CLM ones.  Southern Living isn't kown for lowering your cholesterol.  The CLM recipes give you the nutritional values and you can even save your favorites in your own virtual recipe box.  Every one a winner to date.

More healthy cooking info next Thursday.  On a side note, I managed to get into a tussle with gravity today and lost.  I was walking out of a restaurant that I often sing at and tripped.  I took a nasty fall.  The bruises on my hip and ankle won’t compare to the ones on my ego.  Much thanks to the sixty-something lady that came flying out of the building from having her own lunch to see that I was ok.  She actually tried to help me up.  I guess she was a crane in another life.  I didn’t walk today as a result being so sore.  Going to try tomorrow, though.

Cya Friday,

M

What I ate today:

Breakfast ~ ½ a grapefruit, 2 egg omelet w/veggies and decaf w/skim

Lunch ~ Mesclun salad w/about 2oz broiled salmon, dressing on the side

Mid-afternoon treat ~ a big mug of broth whilst doing paperwork

Dinner ~ I ‘Iron Cheffed’ it tonight  Using what I had on hand I concocted veggies w/crispy tofu in a green coconut curry sauce over a rice blend.  Pictured here.