If you are looking to shed a few pounds, or you want to maintain your current weight, most people create a diet plan, but sticking to it can prove challenging, especially when time isn’t on your side. Those who lead busy lives struggle to make time to cook healthy foods, so they opt for fast food or prepared and processed foods on a regular basis.
So, how can some people manage to maintain a healthy diet and keep up with a busy lifestyle? Luckily, there are plenty of tips and tricks that make cooking great tasting healthy dishes possible in a short space of time. There are several modern cooking appliances that can help you reduce the amount of time you spend in the kitchen.
Plan Ahead
Meal planning is of vital importance when it comes to maintaining a healthy diet. When you get hungry, but you haven't planned anything, you might find yourself getting stressed. Instead of cooking some quality food, you might end up placing an order with a restaurant for some take-out food. When our appetite increases, our blood sugar drops, which is one of the reasons why we eat whatever we can prepare in a short space of time. Being prepared is key to maintaining a balanced diet, so make sure you write down a meal plan and try your best to stick to it.
Meal planning might seem like a straightforward task, but don’t be surprised if you fail during the first couple of weeks. It can take a little getting used to, but after plenty of practice, you will get the hang of it.
Meal planning can help you save a small fortune. If you have plenty of healthy foods stored in your kitchen, you won’t need to spend money on take-out meals. Some people like to buy their groceries in bulk, which might save you lots of cash. By having a plan in place and sticking to it, you will find it easier to avoid buying items in the grocery store you don’t need.
Purchase an Instant Pot
A lot of traditional cooking appliances seem to take forever to cook ingredients, which is one of the reasons so many people purchase processed food and take-away meals from fast food joints. However, over the past ten years, over 20% of American adults have invested in an instant pot to help them reduce the amount of time they spend cooking. These energy efficient kitchen tools make cooking complex recipes a walk in the park.
Home cooks all around the globe are loving their instant pots, and the multifunctional pressure cooker has managed to generate a cult following. There are tons of websites and groups on instant pots dedicated to instant pot recipes so you are never short of ideas of what to cook. Websites like Corrie Cooks publish a long list of healthy recipes that can be cooked quickly on their site. Even if you don’t fancy yourself as a top chef, instant pots are extremely easy to operate.
You can produce delicious healthy meals in a matter of minutes with your instant pot. For example, if you enjoy eating stew but you don’t have seven hours to cook the ingredients in a slow cooker, just pop it into the instant pot and your meal will be ready in less than one hour.
Not All Restaurants Serve Unhealthy Meals
Don’t assume that all fast food joints and restaurants only serve unhealthy meals. Most restaurants nowadays have healthier options on their menus. If you don’t have time to visit all the restaurants in your area, take a look to see if their menu is available online. There are several apps readily available which allow customers to place food orders, so you should have no problem accessing their menus. If they don’t offer their services through an app, they might have an official website or a social media account.
Even if you love eating dessert, some restaurants offer healthy dessert options, which often contain fresh fruit. If you want to avoid eating greasy or oily food, you might want to consider making contact with the restaurant’s employees directly.
Do Your Grocery Shopping Online
Most grocery stores are designed to encourage us to buy more items than we actually need. Impulse buying is difficult to avoid in today’s society, especially when each promotional display is strategically placed to entice you to buy more groceries. So you might have better luck shopping from home instead. Shopping for groceries on the internet puts a lot of pressure off the customer, and they often find it helps them stick to their budget.
According to a recent study, the average American will go to a grocery store 1.6 times each week. They will spend 43 minutes inside the store. This doesn't include how long it takes to drive to the store, nor how long it takes to find parking. Most grocery stores offer a delivery service, and many of them provide the service for free. Online shopping is a fantastic way of saving time, so you can focus on more important things in life.
Invest in an Air Fryer
If you love deep-fried food but you want to avoid ingredients covered in oil, then an air fryer might do the trick. You can produce healthy meals that taste just like they were cooked in a traditional oil fryer. You won’t need to use a lot of oil with an air fryer. Less oil means less fat and fewer calories.
This modern kitchen appliance is known for its efficiency. The preheating feature is extremely fast, so you can expect results in a matter of minutes. If you are in a hurry, use an air fryer instead of your toaster or deep fryer because it will help you cook food faster.
Don’t let the name fool you, because most air fryers have several functions and features. Some people use them to roast meals, bake, and even reheat leftovers. Just like instant pots, there are lots of air fryer recipes on the web. These devices are simple to use, and the basic interface located on the front of the device makes cooking with the appliance child’s play.
Keep Your Leftovers
Although keeping your leftovers might not seem like an exciting idea, if you lead a busy life, you might not have forty minutes to prepare a healthy meal. There are several easy to follow recipes that allow you to repurpose meals. If you have an air fryer in your kitchen, or an instant pot, you can use these appliances to reheat the ingredients. Not only will saving your leftovers save you time, but it will also help you save lots of cash too.
Many people believe that reheating meals kills all of the nutrients inside the food, which isn’t always true. There are some foods that will keep their nutrients when they are reheated, especially when you use an instant pot. The sealed appliance manages to capture all of the food nutrients inside during the cooking process, so you won’t have to worry about losing those healthy nutrients. Consider researching the different recipes that you can reheat.
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