Come to Terms with Cooking :

If you're trying to eat healthy , but you want your food tasty, it's great to experiment by using different recipes and cuisines. The health aspect requires a little bit of kitchen know-how, so you can pick and choose recipes, and modify recipes to make them lower in fat and calories. Some recipes' cooking techniques make them inherently difficult, if not impossible to modify. When you know the lingo, you can make healthy choices.

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Broil: To cook food directly under the heat source.

Bake: To cook food slowly with gentle heat.

Grill: To cook directly over the heat source, with coals or a gas grill.

Pan-broil: To cook in a heavy skillet without adding fat and draining off fat as it accumulates.

Parchment paper: Heavy, heat-resistant paper used in cooking. Fish or chicken breast cooked with spices and fruit comes out deliciously tender and healthy -- a great cooking technique that requires little or no fat.

Poach: Fish or chicken, simmered in liquid, could be seasoned broth or water. Another great, healthy cooking technique.

Pressure cooking: Here's a cooking technique that I recommend to all healthy home cooks. A pressure cooker is essentially a saucepan with a locking lip. It uses steam heat to produce high temperatures that quickly cooks food, which leaves food tender and retains nutrients. Soups, stews and vegetables, especially dried beans and lentils are a snap with a pressure cooker.

Sauté: To cook quickly over direct heat, with just a little added fat or broth.

Steam: To cook over boiling water in a covered pan: Better than boiling, steaming retains the food's nutrition and texture. Steam vegetables, fish, shellfish or chicken: use a small metal insert in a large pasta pot with lid, or bamboo steamer.

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