Cook Your Way to a Healthier Life
Eating healthier doesn’t have to happen at a certain time of year. Any time can be the perfect time to start putting your health first by making better choices when you’re thinking about making, cooking or preparing food. Here’s a list of some of the top things I think are important when you’re making a conscious effort to eat better-for-you things.
Salad Spinner
As much as I am guilty of buying the pre-washed and cut bagged lettuce from the store, it’s much more cost effective to buy the larger heads of lettuce or romaine hearts. If you take the lettuce home and tear it into smaller pieces and wash it yourself, you’re bound to save a ton of money (depending on how much salad you eat per week.) A salad spinner ensures you don’t have soggy lettuce when you go to put it away in the fridge. We registered for this on our wedding registry and I (hopefully) can’t wait to get it and use it!
Spiralizer
There are so many versions of spiralizers that I was having a hard time trying to decide on which photo to use. Your personal needs or potential use time you think you’ll get out of a spiralizer will determine which kind of spiralizer you should buy. My sister has the Vegetti, but I think I would probably splurge for the Vegetti Pro at the very least since I may have had a spiralizer-related injury the last time I used one.
Healthy Cookbooks
Cooking for yourself might be a challenge if you aren’t used to doing it a ton. Thankfully, there are plenty of healthy cookbooks to help you find new meals and flavors you might never have tried on your own. I gifted this cookbook to my friend for Christmas and she also gifted it to our other friend. Every recipe looks amazing and there are “quick” meals as well as meals that are cooked in a slow cooker. Which brings us to the next healthy cooking tool…
Slow Cooker
A slow cooker is great to have when you know you won’t have time to cook dinner but still want to have something hot to eat when you get home from work/school/whatever else you were doing all day. We love making chili, soups, roasted pork or chicken – really, the sky is the limit. There are plenty of recipes all over the internet and Pinterest!
Air Fryer
I’m not sure if these have become well known enough yet – but I WON mine by entering an online giveaway contest on Averie Cooks. I was ecstatic because 1) I never win anything, ever and 2) this thing makes some seriously great stuff! We love that it makes food really crispy without using oil. It also has a top cover that allows the airfryer to function more like a small-scale (and fast) mini oven. I’ve made quiches, chicken, french fries and mini appetizer bites, just to name a few. Reheated pizza slices are especially good in the airfryer too. Sometimes they come out better than the first day! This little gadget has helped me cook more at home because it takes such a short amount of time to heat up/cook your food. I have the digital model shown below and LOVE it!
A Powerhouse Blender
We currently use a Vitamix and Magic Bullet, but this Ninja is the one we put on our wedding registry! I love that it consolidates all of our current blender features into one functional blender machine. I’ve only heard good things about the Ninja, too. We whip up smoothies, spinach cubes, grind oats for oat flour, and sometimes even blend our soups down to a creamy consistency. Every once in awhile we’ll do a frozen coffee drink in the blender too.
Silicone Baking Mats
My fiance hates silicone baking mats because he’s always the one who is doing the dishes. To be honest though, they are not that difficult to clean and have probably saved me a big chunk of change from not having to buy as much foil or parchment paper. Although not exactly “healthy” they are especially helpful during holiday cookie baking season, but I also use these to bake chicken and roast veggies on. We love them.
Nonstick Cookware Set
This might be the one thing I am ecstatic about putting on my wedding registry. Cooking at home more often became more than just a resolution for me – it’s really just a great way to get exactly what you want for cheaper.
I love the satisfaction of cooking something delicious for a fraction of the price that you would pay to eat it at a restaurant. Plus, you know exactly what’s going in to your food because you’re the one creating it, which means it’s healthier. Although everyone has their own personal preferences, we like nonstick because you don’t have to add a ton of extra oil to get your food to not stick.
I hope I’ve helped spark a fire in you to help you achieve your healthy cooking goals!
