Healthy Food Recipes

What's holding you back from making health eating choices? If you're like most Americans, eating out has become the norm and your body might be paying for it.

Many individuals lack the time and skill to prepare meals for themselves. With the rise of fast food, it's often just more convenient to pack up the family and head out for burgers and fries.

However, eating healthy doesn't have to keep you in the kitchen for hours a day. In fact, there are many healthy recipes that can be prepared in less than 15 minutes. This being said, regularly consuming healthy foods shouldn't be a drain on your time or your pocketbook.

After all, some of the healthiest foods in the world (raw fruits and vegetables) take next to no time to prepare and provide your body with scores of vital, healthy nutrients.

How to Use Healthy Recipes

When you first get started in healthy eating, it's important to keep things simple. In other words, don't try to start out with a beef wellington recipe if the most complicated thing you've ever cooked in the past is macaroni and cheese from a box. Try picking your first recipes with these concepts in mind:

• Compile sets of recipes that incorporate a few of your favorite foods (strawberries or ham, for example). Using similar recipes helps you save money on shopping and minimize food waste.

• Use techniques that you are comfortable with. If you don't own a crock pot, look for recipes that only require an oven.

• On the other hand, use recipes as a chance to flex your cooking muscles. Never used a muffin tray before. Well, our delicious Apple Carrot Muffin recipe might be the perfect chance to give one a try.

• If you're cooking for one, choose recipes that reheat well. Eggs and other dairy-based products often lose their flavor when reheated. If you're planning on leftovers, choose recipes that taste just as good (or better) when reheated.

We provide all of the recipes you need to prepare a balanced, healthy diet right on this site -- so don't rush out to buy expensive cookbooks.

Learning to Cook the Healthy Way

One of the most important things you'll learn as a healthy food chef is how to make good substitutions for fatty or sugary ingredients that save on the calories without sacrificing taste or texture. Healthy recipes are characterized by ingredients list filled with natural ingredients. It's even a good idea to keep ingredients to a minimum when making healthy dishes; the less the ingredients, the more likely you are to use whole, natural foods.

Many vegetables taste just as good cooking in a bit of water in a frying pan as they do with butter. Leaving out fatty cooking oils and butter helps preserve the natural flavors of your food. Salt can also be the enemy of healthy eating, simply because many of the foods we have include too high of a sodium content for a balanced diet.

One of the main reasons why so many people are addicted to unhealthy foods is because they are convenient. Fast food can be prepared in less than minutes. Frozen foods only require very strait forward and quick directions.

However, these foods fail to provide your body with all the necessary nutrients that it needs to function properly. Looking at the problem realistically, it is simply inconvenient and time consuming to make home cooked meals that are nutritious and tasty. Yet, it doesn't have to be this way.

The following pages and articles are intended to provide a number of different healthy recipes that are quick and easy to prepare. We understand that not everyone is a gourmet chef and many of us lack, for whatever reasons, the ability to make food masterpieces. This doesn't mean that you have to completely abandon your attempts to eat healthy and nutritious food.

The following recipes cover a variety of different skill sets and time requirements. There are healthy food recipes that are intended for the person whose only cooking experience involves numerous peanut butter and jelly sandwiches along with recipes that are intended for the experienced cook.