new mom

My tips for healthier cooking/eating: -

Use the grill more but If you do need to fry, shallow fry using a vegetable or sunflower spray to lightly coat the pan, do not soak the food.

Trim any visual fat from meat where possible or buy the leaner cuts. When fried, drain any excess fat/juice from meat before adding other ingredients.

Substitute beef/lamb mince with chicken or turkey mince.

Reduce full fat milk to semi-skimmed or semi-skimmed to skimmed. Within a week or two you will not notice the difference.

Change butter for margarine, or even diet margarine (80% less fat).

Use accurate scales and ensure you measure your potion sizes/ingredients correctly or you can use a cup measure especially for vegetables/salads.

Look for lower fat alternative dressings/sauces and don't use half the bottle in one go. (I love BBQ sauce!!):laugh:

Don't keep unhealthy snacks in the house if possible as they will be tempting. Low fat baked crisps, high fibre ceral bars and cracker style bread are handy substitutes.

Generally I use a lot of stock cubes, herbs and spices to improve the taste.

When shopping always check out the nutritional information looking for the kcal(calorie) and fat content per 100g/ml. There is usually a lower fat/calorie alternative with most products.

And finally, if you drink fizzy drinks, make sure they are low sugar or diet. Initially they will taste funny, but after a couple of weeks you will not notice the difference. The sugar content in a lot of normal fizzy drinks is not much difference to beer/cider.

I hope this helps, good luck and stick with it.