Nowadays, even a kindergartener can tell you that healthy eating comes in the form of a pyramid.
source: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/pyramid/
According to the Healthy Eating Pyramid, you should eat a variety of foods. A balanced diet is one that includes all the food groups. More importantly, the Pyramid shows that not all foods are created equal. You should eat more foods from the bottom part of the pyramid (vegetables, whole grains) than the top (red meat, refined grains).
In general, home-cooked meals are preferred over processed foods because with the former, you have more control over what’s put into your mouth. For many people trying to eat a healthy diet, this presents special challenges. How can you eat home-cooked meals when you don’t particularly enjoy cooking yourself? What options do you have rather than to hire someone to do the cooking for you?
I am not much of a cook myself. But over the years, I have found ways to make the cooking experience more pleasant. Cooking home-made meals doesn’t have to involve long hours of slaving away in the kitchen, as I found out.
First, you need to make sure you’re properly equipped. Three cooking utensils are indispensable to a kitchen and worth every penny you spend on them: a deep stainless pot that is sturdy enough for daily stir-frying, a slow cooker, and a pressure cooker.
Vegetables are probably the only food group in the pyramid that you can take in as much as you want. Many people know that vegetables are good for them, but they shy away from vegetables simply because they don’t like the taste. Nutritionists will tell you that the most healthy way to prepare veggies is to steam them, but those seldom taste very good. Is there a way to make veggies more appetizing and still relatively healthy to eat? The answer is yes. You can, for instance, stir-fry them with canola oil. At our house, we serve 2 kinds of stir-fried veggies at every meal.
By the way, eating veggies in the form of a salad isn’t necessarily the best practice for weight control, contrary to popular belief. Unless you prepare the salad dressing yourself, you have no control over what goes into your mouth.
A slow cooker is a big help to people running hectic lives. It is convenient in that you can just throw in the ingredients, set the timer, and walk way. You don’t need to watch it cook—it will cook on its own. Using a slow cooker, you can stew veggies with meats. When cooked this way, veggies will take on the flavor of the meats and appeal to the pickiest eater around.
A pressure cooker can also come in handy when you are into healthy eating and cooking. Foods such as beans and brown rice are excellent food choices, but the sheer amount of time it takes to cook them can turn people away. Do not worry. If you pre-soak them in advance, and cook them with a pressure cooker, you can whip up a meal in no time at all.