Kitchen and Food: Making Over Your Kitchen :

Want to make better food choices? It starts in the kitchen.

By Carol Sorgen
WebMD Weight Loss Clinic - Feature

Reviewed By Michael Smith, MD

For those thinking about redecorating your kitchen, instead of repainting your cabinets, you may want to think about what you're putting in those cabinets first. Rethinking how you shop and how you shop and how you store groceries could help your family eat healthier meals.

"People are so busy today," says Karen Cullen, PhD, assistant professor of behavioral nutrition at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. "We've really gotten away from menu planning and weekly grocery planning. "Eating healthy is not an accident," she continues. "You can have healthy meals, and prepare them quickly and easily, as long as you have the ingredients on hand."

Think small. Bulk purchases may be less expensive per pound, but individual portions are more convenient, more practical, and more nutritious from the standpoint of watching how much you're eating. If you prefer to buy in bulk, repackage the items in individual portion sizes. Keep the refrigerator stocked with plastic pint bottles of water and low-fat milk, boxes of 100% calcium-fortified juice, small containers of yogurt, low-fat string cheese, and snack bags of mini carrots. In the pantry, keep mini boxes of raisins and other dried fruits. Break down packages of whole wheat crackers and trail mix into ready-to-go snack bags.

Think convenient. Use no-fuss "salads in a bag." Keep skinless, boneless chicken breasts in the freezer, and consider grilling extra chicken to slice and freeze for quick chicken quesadillas and barbequed chicken sandwiches, or to add to soup. Also, keep plenty of canned and frozen vegetables on hand. "Vegetables don't have to be fresh to be healthy," Cullen says. If canned vegetables have too much sodium for your liking, just rinse them off.

Create attention-grabbing snacks. Place a bowl of easy-to-eat fresh fruit on the kitchen counter. "If healthy snacks are accessible, you -- and your kids -- will be much more likely to reach for them instead of for cookies," she says. Snip washed grapes into snack-size portions. Keep precut fruits, ready-to-eat vegetables, and a small bowl of low-fat dip on the most visible shelf in the refrigerator.

Make healthy changes. Switch to 100% fruit juice from fruit drinks, and use 100% whole-grain bread (not to be confused with whole wheat, which often just has molasses added for coloring and flavoring), whole-grain ready-to-eat cereals, whole wheat pasta, brown rice, soft or liquid margarine, and low-fat milk and dairy products. Add nuts, seeds, or fruit to salads. Select more fish, poultry, and leaner cuts of meat. Add meatless entrees, stir-fry dishes, or other vegetables and grains into your menu planning. Beans, for example, canned or dried, are a great source of fiber and protein and have virtually no fat.

Downsize treats. "Nobody needs a 48-ounce soft drink," says Cullen. Don't buy supersized bags of snack foods that will just tempt you to keep snacking without thinking. Also consider limiting the variety of snack foods you keep in the house to reduce temptation.

Advertise. "We're a very visual society," she says. Post "ads" on the front of your refrigerator and inside the pantry door to let your family know what healthy foods are in the house. You can even make it a family project by having the kids help design signs.

Natalie Allen, a registered dietitian at BJC Health System in St. Louis, offers several other suggestions for making over your kitchen. If you like to bake, keep applesauce on hand to substitute for oil in cakes and muffins (but it doesn't work quite as well for cookies, says Allen). If you're buying snacks for the kids, think about pudding cups, fruit rollups, or homemade trail mix with dried fruit, sunflower seeds, and nuts.

Pay attention to how you're cooking as well as what you're cooking, Allen says. If you live in a part of the country where you can't grill outdoors all year round, think about buying an indoor grill. "They do a great job of getting out a lot of the fat when cooking," Allen says. An egg separator will help you get to the egg white and get rid of the yolk where all the fat and cholesterol lie. Use a vegetable steamer to steam a week's worth of veggies so that you can quickly add them to lunches or dinners. For low-fat cooking, consider a wok and a crock pot, both of which let you cook without a lot of added fat.

A bread machine is another useful kitchen appliance, says Allen. "You can make a great whole-wheat bread or pizza crust with a bread machine, or use up bananas that are overripe by just throwing them in and making a banana nut bread. Bread is not fattening or unhealthy itself; it's what you put on top of it that can get you into trouble."

When it comes to shopping, Allen says, shop with a list, don't go when you're hungry, and try to shop the perimeter of the store where the less-processed foods are

Here's a great snack that's not only easy to make but also tastes great and is nutritious to boot, says Allen.

Granola Bars
(makes 48 bars)

3 cups oats
1 cup peanuts
1 cup raisins
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup sunflower meats
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1 cup margarine, melted

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare 15"x10" jellyroll pan by spraying generously with nonstick cooking spray. In large bowl, combine all ingredients, mix well. Press evenly into prepared pan. Bake 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for about 3-5 minutes, then cut into bars. Remove from pan and cool on cooling rack. Do not wait too long to cut and remove from pan. Store loosely covered at room temperature.

Per bar: 98 calories, 3 grams protein, 4 grams fat.

Originally published September 2, 2002.

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Last Editorial Review: 1/31/2005 4:43:10 AM

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