Simply Healthy Dinner Recipes are a Breeze with a Well-Stocked Pantry

With today's hectic urban lifestyle, working professionals often resort to fast food after a busy day at the office. It's convenient but also unhealthy. Fixing dinner shouldn't have to be a chore. Even if you're no culinary whiz, simple healthy dinner recipes are possible if you have a well-stocked pantry. The idea is to avoid the need to go grocery shopping every time you cook, because it cuts through the food preparation time.

Knowing what to keep on hand makes it easy for me to cook a delicious, nutritious meal every night of the week that doesn't involve burgers, fries, pizza or anything deep-fried. The benefits of cooking my own meal over opting for take-out are fairly obvious - I control the amount of salt, fat, sugar that goes into everything as prepackaged food items contain preservatives and additives that have no business in my food or my body. Eating real food goes a long way in improving my mealtime habits.

Still confused on what to pick at the grocery? Allow me simplify things by sharing food items that could be staples in your home. Adjust it according to your family's lifestyle and eating habits and you'll be whipping up a meal in a snap.

Flours - unbleached white, wheat, rice, cake, almond

Sugars - brown, cane or beet, powdered, turbinado or demerara

Dry Pastas - a few different shapes and sizes

Grains - couscous, rice, barley, quinoa, oats, flax, cornmeal

Oils - olive oil, canola oil, coconut oil, peanut oil, sesame oil

Vegetables - onions, potatoes, garlic

Canned/Jarred Tomatoes - sauce, diced, stewed, paste

Spreads - peanut, almond & hazelnut butters, jam, jelly

Natural Sweeteners - honey, maple syrup, agave

Vinegars - balsamic, white, red wine, apple cider, rice wine

Specialty Sauces - hot sauce, Tabasco, oyster sauce, mirin, rice wine, soy sauce

Nuts - almonds, walnuts, pecans, pine nuts, coconut

Dried Fruit - raisins, apricots, dates, cherries, cranberries

Dried or Canned Beans- black, navy, pinto, kidney

Canned fish/seafood - tuna, salmon, clams, sardines, anchovies

Specialty Items - artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, olives

Herbs and Spices - oregano, basil, parsley, rosemary, cumin, peppers and many more

Salts - kosher, sea salt, pickling salt, rock salt

Baking Ingredients - baking powder, baking soda, yeast, cream of tartar, chocolate

Extracts - vanilla, almond, lemon, peppermint

Beverages - coffee, tea, cocoa

You don't have to buy everything at once. The trick here is to consider the food items you eat regularly. Make a list of the foods you eat at least once a week because chances are you will need the same items when you replenish your stock. Build up your pantry gradually. Remember to also clean out your pantry occasionally and dispose of anything past its expiration period. A well-stocked pantry makes grocery shopping easier because you only need to buy perishable items (meat, vegetables and other fresh ingredients) and not every herb, sauce or condiment needed for a particular recipe you have in mind for dinner.

I cook from time to time so I'm pretty much familiar with the stuff I have in my kitchen. Mom says I make the best buffalo wing sauce while my raspberry vinaigrette dressing recipe is fast becoming a favorite at family gatherings. I've recently experimented with marinades using what I have in my pantry and I'm close to perfecting what I consider to be the best marinade for chicken. Now who says cooking is boring, huh?

I credit my love for the culinary arts in keeping me healthy all these years. I am now conscious of what I eat and even more with the food preparation. To eat healthy, I made healthy choices in what I eat all the time - meals and snacks. Eating a healthy, balanced diet provides me the necessary nutrients I need. These nutrients give me energy and keep my heart beating, my brain active, and my muscles working. And it's all thanks to my well-stocked pantry.

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Banana Cake - Refreshing, Tasty and Healthy

It is a proven fact that the banana cake has as an abundant supply of different types of nutrients such as vitamin B6, vitamin C, potassium and the like. The banana cake is also said to have the capability to prevent different types of kidney diseases including kidney cancer to a certain extent. Here are some of the superb banana cake recipes.

Ingredients

Desiccated coconut 2 ½ cupsMashed ripe bananas 750gRice flour 1 ¼ cupsWhite sugar 1 ½ cupsCoconut milk ¾ cup

For serving

Desiccated coconut ½ cup

How to prepare it?

Take a cake pan and properly grease it. Introduce desiccated coconut into a bowl and add cold water into it. Let it stand for 10 minutes. Strain it using a fine sieve and get rid of the excess water, if any. Shift the sieved coconut into a bowl of large size and add the combination of ingredients such as banana, rice flour, sugar and coconut oil. Stir it well so as to make a perfect mixture out of these ingredients. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Cover it well with foil. Introduce the cake pan into a steamer. Carefully set it over a large saucepan containing boiling water. Make sure that the water does not make any contact with the base of the pan. Cover the steamer with a lid. Steam the cake for at least 2 ½ hours or until it is fairly cooked. Take the cake out of the steamer. Keep it cool. Carefully transfer it onto a plate. Spread the toasted coconut over the top. When this is finished, serve it. It would be better if you serve it along with fresh fruits.

Upside down banana cake

Ingredients

Melted butter 6 tablespoonsBrown sugar 1 cupRipe bananas 5Yellow cake mix 18 ouncesEggs 3Rum/ milk / water 1/3 cupVegetable oil ¼ cup

Method of preparation

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Take two 9 in round pans and properly grease and flour them. Melt the butter by heating it over low temperature. Split up the melted butter between two pans. Disperse half of the brown sugar into each pan. Take one ripe of banana and cut it into pieces. Then, arrange it on the bottom of the pan. Take another ripe banana and cut into small pieces so as to arrange the bottom of the pan. Make a combination out of the ingredients such as cake mix, eggs, oil and rum. Beat it well using an electric mixer so that all the ingredients are properly mixed for at least 2 minutes until the mixture is fairly moistened. Mash well the leftover bananas and introduce the mashed bananas into the cake mix. Split the mixture into each pan. Keep it in the oven and bake it for 30-35 minutes until the cake tester inside the cake mixture comes to vision clearly. Allow it to cool for 5 minutes. Transfer it into serving plates. Then you can serve it.

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Healthy Recipes to keep you Fit - Chicken and Peach Salad (India Network)

Preparing food the old fashioned way--at home in your own kitchen--doesn't have to be time consuming or complicated. With some simple guidelines, you can create quick, delicious meals the whole family will enjoy. Many people feel too busy to take 15 minutes for breakfast every day. But this vital first meal of the day gets your metabolism going and gives you energy. People who eat breakfast are less likely to be overweight. Breakfast can be quick, easy, and nutritious. If you have a busy schedule, lunch can often be a rushed meal--a takeout eaten at your desk or a quick bite in a diner or restaurant. But with a little planning, it's easy to prepare a nutritious and tasty lunch yourself.
Things like sandwiches or leftovers from a previous dinner can make quick, easy, and healthy lunchtime meals. You must strike a perfect balance in the ingredients that make a pivotal part of your breakfast and lunch recipes. Most of the people nowadays lead a hectic lifestyle. This makes it very hard for them to maintain proper balance in their early morning breakfast and lunch routine. There are many recipes that you can consume to maintain proper balance between enjoying tasty food and eating healthy. Let us discuss one such recipe which is not much time consuming in preparation. Along with that it also helps you to strike a chord between taste and health.

Chicken and Peach Salad
Ingredients:

7 green onions
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons red wine
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 small chicken breast fillets, trimmed

120g mixed lettuce leaves
30g snow pea sprouts, trimmed
1 Lebanese cucumber, sliced
415g can peach slices in natural juice (see note), drained
1/2 cup pistachio kernels
1 avocado

Dressing
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon sweet chili sauce
2cm piece ginger, peeled, grated

Method
Thinly slice 3 onions. Combine soy sauce, red wine, honey, sugar, garlic, cinnamon and sliced onions in a large, shallow ceramic dish. Add chicken and turn to coat. Cover and refrigerate overnight, if time permits.
Make dressing: Place oils, sweet chili sauce and ginger in a screw-top jar. Secure lid and shake until well combined. Set aside until ready to serve.
Preheat a barbecue grill on medium heat. Remove chicken from marinade. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes each side or until cooked through. Transfer to a plate. Cover with foil and stand for 5 minutes. Slice.
Thinly slice remaining onions. Combine onions, lettuce, snow pea sprouts, cucumber, peaches and pistachio kernels in a large bowl. Peel, quarter and thinly slice avocado. Add to salad. Pour over dressing and gently toss. Spoon salad onto plates. Top with chicken and serve.

There are many internet sites and channels that provide an array of recipes to make your off day subtle. India Food Network is one such website which is very well known for different types of recipes both vegetarian and no vegetarian. It also provides many health tips and recipe short cuts to make cooking a fun filled hobby.

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