Healthy Cooking for the Whole Family

Healthy cooking for the whole family is easier when it is done in one go, it is better to cook for the entire family rather than cooking say for example one person household or two person household. It is because the effort and the amount of electricity consume in the cooker for example is the same for small or big preparation. When you cook for the entire family, you can also save time and effort. I wrote a hub about healthy cooking with your children and cooking with your children helped in a way to develop among our kids healthy meal planning from learning about nutrition, buying fresh and healthy natural foods to cooking and preparation. In this hub, I will discuss how to cook healthily for the entire family. You will discover that it is fun doing it with your children and with your sweet husband or wife. The basic tenet of healthy cooking for the whole family is to enjoin the whole family, your love and the children in cooking, planning -- buying healthy foods, knowing about healthy foods and partaking the meal together as a family.

I wrote an article about healthy cooking and check it out if you want.

I use a wok when I cook, it is nice using it as I am used to it. My mother used it and so at a young agae I am familiar with it. A wok is a pan which originated in China but it is currently being used all over the world. It became popular because it is easy to handle it and safe as well. It is also convenient to cook with it -- the stir fry is best cook in wok. also be used many other ways, such as in deep frying, steaming, stewing, smoking braising. A wok is used with a long handled spoon with a long handle so that the food is not burned.

Instead of baking in a pan, I get a baking pan and don't sit the pork or chicken as the fats is absorbed more when it is seated in a pan.

Instead of just direct frying a chicken or a piece of work, you can also boil them first, and then drain the water, then you can marinade it with basic salt, little only and some vinegar, plus black pepper. Vinegar is good for marinating as it makes the poultry or the meat tender, save you some cooking time, plus it is also a good additive for flavoring purposes.

1. Going to the supermarkets with children. If you have lots of children, bring them one at a time. They learn how to do things and evaluate what is not good and not healthy foods when they see that you are doing it. Bringing along your children is a plus as they know what are the healthier foods and they are trained at a young age. Food preference according to health psychologists are a function of habit and the family upbringing. This is true as we eat what our mother cooks for us and then we grow up eating those foods, so it is very important that at a young age, children should be taught about healthy foods.
2. You should have a list on what things to buy to save time and so that you can make your shopping fun and you are not cramming when you are there at the supermarket. When I was small, my mother used to bring me along to supermarkets and my job is to checked whether we bought all what is in the list. I was trained at an early age to look for what is good and healthy foods. My mother will always tell me, the more greener the vegetables are the more healthier they are. We always buy all vegetables and fruits (as many as we can buy) for the whole week, tomatoes, peppers ( Iike chilis), bananas, oranges and watermelon.Fruits and vegetables that are in season are more preferable because they are not only cheaper, they are also fresher. I was lucky then because fruits and vegetables are not frozen to say, fresh from the farm. I also go to the meat section and buy beef, pork and poultry section. I also but fish at the fish section. Go to a market where you can find fishes as well as sea foods are important to your diet specially for the entire family. Coming to the big city when I was in college I was sad of course because food are usually frozen and I cant cook at the dormitory, I eat a lot of frozen meals and just reheat them.
3. Just like what I have said, I cooked with my children -- but I assist them, I see to it that they don't cut the stuff without my supervision, they just look and assist me with mixing etc. They have fun learning things and doing it, children always have fun doing things and pretending that they are an adult. it is nice learning and knowing about healthy foods as young as they are as it will become a habit for them.
4. Cooking for the entire family is easy if you have a meal plan, this is not easy at the beginning but once you always do it, it will become a hobby. This is a book which might be of help to you --- American Cancer Society Cookbooks,
5. The key is variation, that is why the caretaker or the ones in charge of the meal for the entire family should learn the basic of healthy meal planning and nutrition.
6. It has been found out that when a family eat at the same time in the table, the children are happier plus they are encouraged to eat healthy meals.
7. You need to vary your meal and be reminded that a complete healthy meals should be complete in the nutrients we need:

Sample whole day meal for the family. For children and adults:

Breakfast

• Cereals and a slice of fruit,
• or eggs or bread (wheat)
• Milk or juice (low sugar)

Lunch

• Poultry or lean meat (1 piece each)
• Rice, bread or mashed potatoes

Dinner

• rice with fish or burger sandwhich
• slice of fruit or veggie salad
• juice

This menu plan is just a sample menu plan, you can have variations, what is important is to incorporate the basic nutrients and as much as possible the basic nutrients our body needs.

Dining out

• It doesn't mean that when you dine out, you are restricted to a healthy meal. Once a week, you can treat yourself to sumptuous meal at the same time it is a healthy meal as well.