Healthy Cooking For Those With Little Time
By Tony Robinson, Tue Jan 10th

Everyone who has ever juggled home, family and kids knows howdifficult it is to create healthy meals when pressed for time.Cooking healthy, delicious meals can be difficult, but someadvance planning can allow you to make the most of your cookingtime.

One way to cook healthy meals that are easy to prepare is toplan your meals around several key foods that can be prepared inlarge quantities and used in several different recipes onconsecutive nights. This method of making meals last is totallydifferent from the usual strategy of making a huge batch of foodand living on leftovers for the rest of the week. Your familywill certainly appreciate the difference.

There are some key elements to this way. The first stepis to promptly separate and refrigerate the portion that will beused for the next days meal before you place tonight's meal onthe table. Refrigerating the unused portion of the prepared mealis important to preventing food borne illnesses, especially whenserving meat, poultry, seafood or any meal containing eggs ordairy products.

The foods that have been prepared ahead of time should be storedin shallow containers to allow it to cool more quickly in therefrigerator. Thicker foods like stews, puddings and meat slicesshould be stored in bowls no deeper than two inches. The foodshould be stirred occasionally as it cools.

The left over refrigerated foods should be used within one totwo days. If the food is to be stored longer than that, itshould be frozen for later use and thawed overnight in therefrigerator. Thawing food at room temperature should beavoided, since it can be a gateway to food borne illnesses andother pathogens.

One of the easiest examples of the leftover strategy is chickenbreasts or turkey cutlets. Poultry works great for thisstrategy, since it is easy to cook large quantities.

Start by extra chicken breasts or turkey cutlets. Halfof the chicken or turkey should be refrigerated overnight foruse the next day. The remaining half can be topped with yourfavorite spices, sauces and seasonings and served right away.

The brilliance of this strategy will become apparent the nextevening, when the other half of the turkey or chicken can beused in an entirely different way. One great way to use theother half is to cut it into strips, add lettuce and saladdressing and create a delicious Caesar salad. Thus one staplefood becomes two delicious and totally different meals.

Rice is another great staple that works well for planned aheadmeals. The rice dishes start with and preparing a largequantity of rice. While the rice is cooking, add some groundbeef or ground turkey to tomato sauce and flavor

#ARTICLE_CONTENT2