A healthy kitchen is one that makes it easier for you and your family to eat healthier.
You don’t have to hire a contractor or rearrange your cabinets to update the health of your kitchen.
Instead, here’s what I recommend:
1. See the rainbow. Though the crisper drawers may help keep your fruit crisp, they’ll also keep them out of sight. We like to keep a bowl of colorful fresh fruit eye level in the refrigerator so they’re the first things you see when you look inside. If you buy multiple apples, oranges or bunches of red grapes, just keep a sampling of each in your fruit bowl. The others can stay in the crisper. Replace the fruits in the bowl as you eat them so you always have a colorful array of fresh fruit staring back at you. This will entice you to eat more fruit… as long as they’re not sitting next to the cheesecake.
2. Assemble time savers. Since you’re probably short on time, a healthy kitchen should contain foods that can be assembled for quick meals on the run. Chopped lettuce and vegetables, low-fat yogurt and cottage cheese, canned soups, tuna, salmon or baked beans, boxes of brown rice that can be cooked in minutes, whole grain pastas, pasta sauces, oatmeal packets, cold cereal, frozen vegetables, meats and calorie-controlled dinners are just some of the items to look for. If you can have 3-4 healthy meals each week that you can whip up in minutes, then you are well on your way to having a healthy kitchen!
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3. Think portion control. A healthy kitchen ensures that you always have portion- and calorie-controlled treats on hand. These treats can be in the form of Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches, fudgsicles, individually wrapped pieces of dark chocolate or packets of microwave popcorn. If money is tight, considering using baggies to make your own portion-controlled snacks of nuts, high fiber cereal or a calorie-controlled cookie like Fig Newtons. Ideally, you want to keep the calorie range of your snack foods between 100-200.
4. Eye your counters. When you clear clutter from your counters and even organize your cookbooks, you’ll be more apt to check out and prepare healthy recipes. It’s also important that you have a system in place for keeping a running tally of your shopping list. Keep a pad of paper or post-its on your counter so everyone in the family knows where to write when they’re low on certain items. Shopping from a list will increase the likelihood that you will get the right foods in your home for the week ahead.
I hope these four tips will help you make over your kitchen into a room that encourages you and your family to eat healthier.
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