Set Up your Kitchen for Healthy Cooking
The kitchen is more than just a room where to prepare or to eat food.
It is the place where many secrets are revealed, where traditions are shared and where many values are passed through generations. It is also a place of reunion, of conversations.
The kitchen plays an important role on your diet and lifestyle, it strongly influences your food choices. Depending on your space, organization and supplies, your kitchen can support you on staying lean, healthy and strong.
So lets see how we can transform ours into a more healthy kitchen.
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How should be the perfect kitchen?
The ideal kitchen space would be a light room that invites you to relax and let you focus on what you’re eating and cooking. It should be packed with useful supplies that makes cooking an easy task.
Create more open and welcoming space by keeping flat surfaces clear and uncluttered. Let go anything that gets in your way, things that you don’t use any more or that are damage.
The material of the supplies matter. Wood tools as boards or utensils are much cutter, the plastic ones are better, for safety reasons, they are more durable and safer to used since you can deeply sanitize them and don’t promote the growth of bacteria.
Porcelain, glass or iron are the best materials for cookware. They are safe, efficient and cook evenly. Stainless steel are poor heat conductors unless is layered with a highly conductible metal like aluminum. Teflon has been proven to be toxic to humans, animals and the environment.
What are the Basic Utensils every kitchen need?
All kitchens must have:
- a cutting board
- environmental safe pots, pans and bakeware
- good quality knives
- a colander for draining and rinsing fruits, veggies, pasta… I also use it as a steamer basket when I don’t have one on hand.
- peeler
- measuring, can be scales, cups, spoons or jugs
- glass containers for storing dry ingredients like grains, nuts and legumes, but also for storing cooked food. They are better than plastic container because they won’t stain or absorb odors and can be used in the oven, refrigerator and freezer
- food processor, it’s a time saver. It helps you prepare food with speed and efficiency
More advanced tools would be a pressure cooker, a juicer or a high-power blender, but these are not essential for a healthy kitchen and cooking.
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Clean out your pantry and your fridge!
When it comes to your health, fridge and pantry are the most important kitchen zones.
Carefully inspect your kitchen and get rid of all the food that don’t support your health like processed and junk food, unhealthy salad dressings, expired ingredients …
Make sure the fridge and pantry hold the kinds of food that will lead you to success. Pack them with fresh fruits and veggies, whole grains (cooked and raw), spices, dry herbs, legumes…
Organize the items by categories and in a way that makes the most sense to you. For example, I put the baking stuff closer to my mixer.
In the fridge, place raw meat and fish in the lower part to avoid cross contamination. Don’t keep eggs or milk in the door, they should be placed at the cooler part.
Do you follow any other healthy kitchen organization tips? Please, leave a comment below and share them with us, or tag #healthyforkful on Instagram with a photo of your healthy fridge. You could also follow HF Kitchen Inspiration Board on Pinterest and breed more visual tips.