According to the experts at Conscious Cooking, steaming is one of the best ways to cook food. Steaming creates a pleasing texture, but uses hot water to cook foods rather than fats. Steaming is ideal for preparing vegetables, but it can also be used for meat and fish. A bamboo basket or metal steamer insert are tools that make steaming easy and efficient.
Grilling is a health conscious way to infuse plenty of flavor into foods, while keeping the fat and calorie content under control. Grilling is idea for chicken, fish, steak and pork. The meat can marinated prior to cooking by using low calorie items such as soy sauce, honey, vinegar, herbs and spices. A light brushing of oil is all that’s needed when grilling. Fitness Republic also recommends grilling vegetables, such as squash, potatoes, carrots or bell peppers for healthy side dishes.
Roasting involves cooking foods at a high temperature with a small amount of cooking oil. Roasting is ideal for vegetables, but also works well for chicken and fish. The health conscious choice to roast foods is ideal for busy people because an entire meal can be roasted in one pan.
Baking isn’t just for desserts. In fact, most foods can be baked with herbs and spices and just a dab of cooking fats. Meats, vegetables and potatoes are all perfect for baking, which is another way to prepare an entire meal with just a couple of dishes.
Finally, sauteing or stir frying is perfect for making vegetables and meats, though it’s important that the ingredients are cut into uniformly sized pieces. This health conscious cooking method is done over high heat, so it requires very little oil to produce flavorful and evenly cooked foods.