Everyone loves to eat fast food every once in a while. We
just can't help it. Even if it's not that good, we convince ourselves it is.
It's quick, easy, and we can feel naughty eating something that's bad for us.
But what if we can have all the goodness of a fast food meal, without all the
fat, salt and sugar? If you cook your own meal at home, you can make something
that's not only as good as fast food, but even better. When you cook for
yourself, you can see exactly what's going to go into your meal. That makes it
easier to count calories and get rid of any unwanted and unnecessary fatty
additions to your food. You can make all your fast food
favorites, from pizza to tacos.
Tacos
Healthy tacos are pretty easy, and the main thing to worry
about is the meat you use and the salt and sugar content of the taco shells and
sauce. Use a leaner and better quality beef, and you'll have meat that's much
more healthy than you would ever find in a Taco Bell. Or if you want to avoid
red meat, you could use chicken or turkey mince. To make sure you have healthy
taco shells, you can make them yourself. Cook them in the oven, instead of deep
frying them, or use a low-fat fryer. But if that's too much of a hassle, look
for healthier store-bought ones. Instead of filling your taco with too much
cheese and meat, focus on beans and salad.
Burgers
One of the parts of a burger that makes it so unhealthy in a
fast food restaurant is the bun. They contain lots of sugar and preservatives,
so you can make your burger tonnes healthier at home by making your own buns. You can also buy some
fresh rolls from a bakery - if they only last a day, you know they aren't
packed full of preservatives. Apart from buns, cheese and sauce also play a big
role in the healthiness of your burger. Try to limit both, or use healthier
options. When it comes to your burger, you can make them from scratch too, using
ground meat or minced meat. Beef, turkey, chicken, pork or lamb are all good.
It depends on the fat content of the meat you use and what you use to bind it.
Don't forget the veggies!
Pizza
Making your own pizza is really simple and hardly takes any
time at all. You can start to make it healthier with the base. Make a whole
wheat base, use puff pastry, create a pitta base. The possibilities are
endless, and you can keep it healthy as long as you watch the ingredients you
use. But can homemade alternatives ever be as delicious as restaurants such as Pizza
Hut’s sauces and cheeses?
Make your own sauce so you know it isn't full of sugar and
salt. Mix it up a bit too, using pesto, ricotta, garlic sauce and more, instead
of just tomatoes. You can also use healthier cheeses, such as goat's cheese.
Then just add some healthy toppings, focusing on vegetables and greens, instead
of meat.
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I am definitely going to have to try doing this. I started using an app on my iphone, MyFitnessPal, to help track my calories and how many calories I should be eating. Plus when I walk at night, I just enter how long I walked and it lets me know how many calories I burned and subtracts it from how many calories I consumed that day. I don't go overboard with tracking my calories. I mean there are plenty of times that I over eat but I just try not to over eat as much. The app also lets you know how much fat, carbs, and protein you should be eating and how much you consumed that day. It is really helpful when I want to eat out b/c sometimes I already know what I want from like McDonald's or something and I'll enter into MyFitnessPal and then when I see how many calories it is (and if it is a lot), then I usually end up not getting it. A lot of McDonald's meals and Panera Bread's meals are like 1000+ calories. It is strange b/c a small chicken fry meal with onion rings and a soda at Burger Kind is only like 600 or 700 calories.
ReplyDeleteBurger King*
DeleteI love My Fitness pal!!!!! I don't go overboard with tracking either though. You dont want to make it a hastle for you or else youll stop doing it ya know?
DeleteYes, I know exactly what you mean! Plus I don't want to get crazy obsessive with it and then never allow myself to indulge in overeat ever. Every now and then you just have to let yourself go out to dinner without caring too much about the calories. My big thing is, I want to eat healthy but I also want to still enjoy food. I love food! lol
DeleteI love making my own hamburger at home.
ReplyDeleteI'm back in Weight Watchers so I buy 99% fat free turkey, beef, etc because their "Simply Filling" program is my favorite............you would be surprised at how you don't miss the fat and grease. I serve my burgers on the thin 90 or 100 calorie whole grain buns......you can make the burger meat go "further" by adding veggies directly in the meat (just like making meatloaf)....try a tiny bit of sriracha mayo on it (a TINY bit), it makes it HOT and ohhh so good, because of the heat, you hardly use any mayo :)
ReplyDeleteI hope it all works out well for you Caren! Kick some butt. Oh and yea i have a mayo addiction by the way rofl! ;)
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