jwells777

Well, I recently purchased some really nice cookware and now I would like to embark on an odyssey into the world of healthy eating. Apparently Dr. Quack's "Fast Food, Beer, and No Excercise" diet plan was a sham and now I need to lose a few pounds. With that in mind, could anyone suggest a few books or places to learn some recipes for the healthy minded individual? Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks,

J

isandro

I'd advise a venture into stirfrying- it keeps the vitamins and minerals and all that other good stuff in the veg AND you can make it lowfat. Combine with rice and ginger (and garlic etc) for light, easily digestable meals.
Personally, I think it's more fun, too. You can just buy veg and meats and recombine again and again to make different dishes.
I cook this way about 4 - 6 times a week and never get bored with it.

What's all that really nice cookware you purchased?

__________________
-Life, liberty and the pursuit of hamburgers.

la petite moi

If you cook anything in a pan, you can always use Pam. It's got practically zero calories and you can get it in butter, garlic, or olive oil flavour. Much healthier than the real butter or olive oil.

jwells777

Well, the nice new cookware is a 10 pc set of the Anolon Titanium series (Hard Anadoized Aluminium, Autograph II, and Dishwasher Safe!). As for the stir fry, I am sure that I will be experimenting with that a bit as I also got a free 12" wok with my set. Unfortunately, the only stir frys I have made before have been fajitas and the like and I remember having to use a fair amount of oil to get everything to cook nicely. At any rate, keep the suggestions coming.

isandro

fair bit of oil! naaah...
the thing about stirfrying is, it's active cooking- you got to keep your stuff moving to make sure it all gets heated properly. I use about 1 1/2 tablespoon of peanut oil and add some sauce later on; you can also add a couple tablespoon water to get your groove on.

__________________
-Life, liberty and the pursuit of hamburgers.

rockzilla

Steaming is probably the healthiest way to cook your vegetables, if you have a perforated pot that fits over a normal one, you can get some water boiling in the pot, put your veggies in perforated pot over (but not in) the water, cover it and let them steam until they are tender, but not mushy. The basic rule is, the less direct exposure to a heat source, the better.
Use brown rice. It takes a little longer to cook, but the reason that white rice is white is because it's basically had most of its nutritional value processed away. Whole wheat pasta is great too, much higher fibre content than regular pasta.
Speaking of pasta, if you use ground beef for spaghetti sauce, consider using something like 1/3 ground beef and 2/3 Textured Vegetable Protein. TVP is sold in a dry, cat-litter like form. You have to soak it in hot water for awhile before you use it. Although it apparently comes in different flavours, I just use plain, relying on the smaller amount of real beef to give the sauce flavour, while the TVP gives protein and fibre without adding any fat.
You can sneak wheat germ into just about anything to give you extra fibre as well. You won't taste a thing, I promise.
A couple of general rules for healthy cooking are, use meat, but only as an accent to the dish, the vegetables and the seasonings should provide most of the flavour. Eat a wide variety of foods from all 4 food groups, but you probably knew that. Try to avoid canned products, they're loaded with sodium.
I can't provide you with any specific recipies or books, but if you go out looking for cookbooks, keep away from anything that says 'diet' on the cover. They're just looking to make money. Take a look at a Mediterranean cookbook, Mediterranean cooking uses a few of the principles I've mentioned, and they live pretty long lives over there.