Idk how to cook or eat healthy
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mmeek1995
Posts: 1 Member
So I need to lose weight but most importantly get healthy. I need to majorly change my diet. My biggest problem is that I don't know how to cook so I can't think of ways to make healthy food taste good to me. I mostly eat sweats and bad carbs at the moment. Does anyone have advice on how to get started cooking healthy without hating everything I make (I can't do baked chicken and broccoli)?
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Replies
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Why not take some lessons or watch some cooking programs or YouTube videos? Look for info for beginner cooks.
Also, lots of things you can eat that don’t really need cooking.
Buy a precooked BBQ or roast chicken, chop up salad vegetables, add some feta, shred some of the chicken into the salad, add a little balsamic vinegar - and you have a chicken salad.
A chicken like this will last for say 4 meals, you can have it in salad, on a sandwich, or with cooked vegetables (carrots, peas, beans, broccoli - whatever vegetables you like).
Tinned tuna is also very easy to turn into a simple meal - cook some pasta (very easy, follow instructions on packet), mix the tuna with some vinegar and mayonnaise to taste and mix it through the pasta. This tastes good hot or cold ( if you make up a batch, put left overs in the fridge, can last several meals). Have a salad on the side.
Learn how to boil an egg - very easy. Can add eggs to a salad, or have them as a “smash” with avocado, (also taste good mixed with tuna), or egg and bacon sandwich.9 -
i watch the brothers green on you tube they have alot of info for young people and have a ton of ideas.1
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My biggest recommendation is to start small not overhaul your entire diet and routine overnight.
weight loss is mostly about eating at a calorie deficit regularly over time, not what those calories are (the type of food matters for feeling full and overall health).
If you are on social media follow some healthier food people. randomly pick out something simple to try.
day to day reduce portions of pasta and add in vegetables. Swap snacks for things like vegetables and nuts.
don't knock baked chicken if you find a good rub or marinade and don't overcook it!
skinnytaste.com has lots of great things. Hungry girl as well. Hungry girl will have lots of easy things using prepackaged vegatables (fresh or frozen) and proteins. Lots of super fast options.
https://www.hungry-girl.com/
https://www.skinnytaste.com/9 -
What do you like? If the issue with roasted chicken and broccoli is taste, have you tried getting a breast that's got the bones and skin and roasting that with whatever veg you like and some potato?
I'd start small by figuring out breakfasts and lunches, which often don't have to involve much cooking.
There are packaged meals that can help with starting out. Get a package of rice and beans and add chicken and vegetables. Make some pasta and add a jarred sauce (read ingredients and pick one that works for you) and add lean ground beef and vegetables. Sauce is easy to make but I'm trying to start you off easy. Do a stir fry by sauteeing whatever ingredients you want, adding to rice (follow the directions on the package) and add soy sauce and/or sriracha.
For learning to cook, I always recommend Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything books. Extremely easy to follow and should get you feeling comfortable in a kitchen and not tied to recipes.3 -
I tend to do easy cooking. My favorite way to have veggies (zuchinni, squash, green beans, carrots, fennel, broccoli, and califlower) is roasting them. Toss with a little oil and your favorite seasoning and put in the oven at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. Carrots would go a little longer. I've been adding two tablespoons of Balsamic Vinegar to the mix and it's great for switching things up!
Another easy thing I do is buy frozen salmon filets from Costco. Defrost, add Fox Point seasoning from Penzeys along with some lemon juice then bake. Also, seasonings are your friend, try some blends out! Also from Penzeys that I love is Mural of Flavor. It is great on roasted asparagus! I picked up a seasoning mix with garlic and Himalayan salt at a discount store. TJ Maxx had some good spices when I was there yesterday.3 -
Pinterest has so many great ideas. Just yesterday I was looking for low calorie work lunches, and sifted through hundreds of ideas from super simple to very detailed recipes. It's my go-to when I am in a rut or need to change my meals up. The links usually come with instructions but some also come with videos.
The only cooking I do during the week is dinner, and I just do scrambled eggs and bacon. On the weekends I like to get more creative with grilling or the instant pot, but just know that eating healthy or cooking healthier doesn't have to be difficult, complicated or hard. But always make sure you are measuring any oils, butters, etc that you cook with.1 -
Like others have said, start with the easy stuff. Eggs, etc. You can also eat a lot of raw veggies you like, with dressings/cheese (no cooking required).
Take a look around your local town. Often there are free or low cost cooking classes you can participate in. Ones in my town tend to be hosted by cookware stores.0 -
It’s very easy to make easy curry pastes to go with lost veg fish or chicken I also eat a lot of chillis!0
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Think of one thing you'd like to learn how to do, like bake chicken. Then plug into the search bar in google or you tube "how to bake chicken". Don't think it's a stupid question and you won't find anything! I've googled stuff I was embarrassed I didn't know how to do and have been surprised to find very basic video tutorials and step by step guides. You can also try picking up a cookbook for kids. And understand, for MANY of us, learning how to cook was a humbling journey of trial and error. I've eaten a lot of tasteless or slightly burnt crap because I tried and failed and didn't want to waste it
As far as eating healthy, there are lots of different opinions on that! For me, making my diet healthier involved getting more protein, more fiber from whole grains and beans, and more veggies and fruits. But others will define it differently.4 -
So I need to lose weight but most importantly get healthy. I need to majorly change my diet. My biggest problem is that I don't know how to cook so I can't think of ways to make healthy food taste good to me. I mostly eat sweats and bad carbs at the moment. Does anyone have advice on how to get started cooking healthy without hating everything I make (I can't do baked chicken and broccoli)?
Google the following.
The Fighterdiet.com
Chris Powell
The biggest loser
Buy a book to get an idea of what to make, and what to use as a substitute.
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My mother never taught me to cook but she did give me a copy of "The Joy of Cooking" and that was all I needed. I do have considerably more cookbooks now, but keep going back to my JOC.
If you prefer the video format, try watching Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Meals.
ps - baked plain boneless, skinless chicken breast is indeed dreadful. This time of year, we like marinating chicken tenders in a little Greek salad dressing and grilling - they come out nice and tender and flavorful!6 -
Think of one thing you'd like to learn how to do, like bake chicken. Then plug into the search bar in google or you tube "how to bake chicken". Don't think it's a stupid question and you won't find anything! I've googled stuff I was embarrassed I didn't know how to do and have been surprised to find very basic video tutorials and step by step guides. You can also try picking up a cookbook for kids. And understand, for MANY of us, learning how to cook was a humbling journey of trial and error. I've eaten a lot of tasteless or slightly burnt crap because I tried and failed and didn't want to waste it
As far as eating healthy, there are lots of different opinions on that! For me, making my diet healthier involved getting more protein, more fiber from whole grains and beans, and more veggies and fruits. But others will define it differently.
I still Google a lot of the basics because I can't be bothered to remember them or want to make sure I'm not confusing what I plan to do with something else.
Besides YouTube videos, I strongly recommend a "generic" cookbook like Joy of Cooking or Cook's Illustrated. I personally love Cook's Illustrated because with each recipe they also go through some of the reasoning for why the recipe is designed the way it is.
https://www.amazon.com/Joy-Cooking-Irma-S-Rombauer-ebook/dp/B00AK78VTA/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=joy+of+cooking&qid=1559061967&s=gateway&sr=8-1
https://www.amazon.com/Cooks-Illustrated-Cookbook-Recipes-Magazine-ebook/dp/B005S0ADOU/ref=sr_1_4?crid=YJKXDJL7LW73&keywords=cooks+illustrated+cookbooks&qid=1559062005&s=gateway&sprefix=cooks+illustrated,aps,193&sr=8-4
You might also want to see if there are any affordable cooking classes near you.
Before you start any recipe, read through it twice. Do this before even going grocery shopping so you know what to expect and if it is something you want to try. Then do it again before you start cooking so you have an idea of the pacing of the recipe (will there be a lot of down time between steps or will you be actively cooking the whole time). I personally am really slow at chopping, so I like to cut up all of the ingredients before I start any of the cooking.3 -
Start slow, don't try to change everything overnight. Add one healthy food to your diet, get used to it, do another.3
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ps - my library system has tons of cookbooks, so you may wish to try some before investing in them.2
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Another option is to try out a meal-kit delivery service. They give you all of the pre-measured ingredients and detailed instructions to create the meal yourself. You don't have to worry about the grocery shopping or have leftover ingredients you may never need again.4
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Watch cooking shows to help you learn the basics. Borrow cookbooks from the library. Even take a cooking class.
I love chicken but not baked chicken. Take a boneless chicken breast and pound it flat. Preheat a pan and put the breast in, cover with salt, pepper, paprika. Cook it for 2 minutes. Turn it over, spice it, cover and cook for 4 minutes. Uncover and add a little water, broth, white wine, or vermouth with a dash of lemon and cook until no longer pink. Very juicy.
A chopped onion goes with most anything. So does sauteed spinach.
I second the roasted vegetables. A little olive oil and red wine vinegar go a long way.
Also, I find my most success with using cast iron cookware. Target carries American made Lodge brand.1 -
I'm not a big fan of chicken, either, but I do like broccoli.
What foods do you like best? What's your favorite meal? What do you like to order in restaurants?
Write down some of your favorite types of food and then look online for healthier ways to prepare them.
When you say you can't cook, does that mean you can't boil water and make pasta, or does it mean you don't routinely put a full dinner on the table every night. If it's the former, as someone else mentioned, a children's cookbook might be a good starting place. And I love to watch cooking shows on t.v. Ina Garten is my favorite.
Go to the library and browse through some cook books. Check out any that sound interesting to you.
I tend to just experiment when I'm cooking. When I use recipes they're usually from my mother or from the Trim Healthy Mama cookbook or from favorite websites. Does your mother or grandmother cook? Ask for some family favorite recipes with step-by-step instructions.
I think I've roasted a chicken once in my life and all I learned from that is that I don't like roasted chicken although I do like grocery store rotisserie chicken and a whole chicken cooked in the crockpot.
As others mentioned, The Joy of Cooking is a good book with lots of basic instructions for just about everything (and a lot of difficult, complicated recipes, too).0 -
What is wrong with your health other than needing to lose weight? I ask because a lot of people assume their health is worse than it is because they eat things that some "experts" are currently calling bad. Weight loss tends to improve health markers with little regard to the kind of food you are eating.5
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Start slow. Think of a meal you like. Google how to make that. I was raised by a non-cooker so when I became an adult I had no idea how to feed myself other than sandwiches and frozen chicken nuggets and things like that. I just picked meals I liked and googled how to make them. Lots of things turned out like *kitten*, and they still do, but less frequently. You can also eat simple things like sandwiches, rotisserie chicken with a baked potato and some vegetable.0
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There’s hope. You will have some learning experiences. It happens to everyone.
Most of my meals this week are frozen fruit or veggies with cheese and toppings (seeds, nuts, or nutritional yeast) or a sliced avocado.0
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