5 Ways to Make Unhealthy Meals Healthy

Get Rid of the Guilt, Keep the Pleasure

If you’ve been looking to make smart changes to your diet, you’ve probably hit a few blocks along the way.

Rethinking your approach to food takes some planning and can mean eliminating and adding some things to your diet. That can be a challenge with looking at some of your favorite foods. The good news is, you don’t have to give them up!

At its core, healthy eating means developing healthy habits and approaches to preparing meals and food. Watching your ingredients and changing your cooking methods can help you cut back on some things that might be doing more harm than good.

Focus on a few main pillars to start: cut down on refined oils and refined carbs, limit your intake of processed ingredients, limit your sugar and watch your portion sizes.

The best part is that you can gradually introduce and experiment with these approaches to find the right balance for your life.

With a few health-conscious changes and some healthy ingredients, you can keep enjoying your favorite meals without sacrificing your healthy eating habits! Here are 5 ways you can make unhealthy meals healthy again.

 

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5 Ways to Make Unhealthy Meals Healthy Again

Unhealthy meals and habits got you down? Focus on what you can control: ingredients, lifestyle, and attitude. Watch your refined oil and refined carb intake, keep processed ingredients to a minimum, and regulate portion sizes as best you can.

By gradually introducing healthy eating and cooking habits into your lifestyle, you can phase out the stuff that isn’t working. Ready? Let’s get started:

1 – Invest in an Air Fryer

If you’re used to coating a frying pan in oil, you’re probably adding a ton of unnecessary fat to your meals. A fried chicken breast can contain nearly 30% more fat than roasted chicken. It’s no secret that these refined oils damage your body, especially in the long term. If you love fried foods, why not invest in an air fryer? Air fryers still use a bit of oil, but significantly less than a traditional deep fryer. This lets you cut down on some of the fat content without giving up that fried-food goodness.

2 – Ditch the Grains

Rice and pasta pack in tons of carbs with each serving. They’re a staple that people love. Of course, you can make a few smart swaps here, too! Pasta noodles can easily be replaced with spiralized veggies, such as zucchini. You can also rice your cauliflower, cutting the florets into smaller pieces for a delicious and nutritious rice substitute.

3 – Poach Your Eggs

How do you take your eggs? If you said “fried,” each time you crack an egg you’re getting an unhealthy dose of overheated oil with it. Try poaching your eggs instead! You can get a delicious poached egg by gently cooking it in a hot water bath. Crack the egg into a poaching container or directly into hot water, and let it cook. For runny yolks and cooked whites, poach your egg for around 3 minutes, while a hard-poached egg should take about 5 minutes.

4 – Cut the Wraps

What about tortilla wraps? While they’re certainly not as calorie-heavy as traditional bread, wraps are still just as likely to contain unhealthy processed or refined ingredients. Try using avocado boats, lettuce wraps, or collard green bowls for a healthier option. You can even create your own tortilla shells by riced cauliflower and mixing it with an egg before rolling it out and baking it.

5 – Elevate your cooking game

You’re probably used to roasting your meats directly on a pan in the oven. The problem here is that there’s no way for saturated fats to drip out of your meal. One solution is to use an elevated grate or roasting rack to lift the meat off the pan and out of these unhealthy fats. Don’t have a rack or grate? You can clean up some open metal cookie cutters and lay them in the bottom of your pan! Voila – DIY roast racks!

You’re not going to win every battle, but taking a bit of time to think about your ingredients and your approach to food prep can help cut back on some unhealthy habits you’re probably not even thinking twice about. The best part about bad habits? You can always break them and learn better alternatives!

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