1. Introduction
To maintain health-conscious meals even during busy days, it’s important to choose prepared foods with balanced nutrition and incorporate home cooking techniques. This article introduces methods to supplement nutrients often lacking in prepared foods with home cooking, and how to easily arrange healthy menus. Let’s aim for a healthy and satisfying table while saving time and effort.
2. Practical Tips and Examples
- **”Choose low-calorie, low-sodium prepared foods”**When selecting prepared foods, it’s better to choose steamed or simmered dishes rather than fried foods or heavily seasoned dishes for lower calorie and sodium content. For example, “steamed chicken and vegetables,” “salt-grilled fish,” and “ohitashi” (blanched vegetables) have good nutritional balance with moderate fat and salt content. Using these prepared foods as your main dish and supplementing necessary nutrients with home cooking will help you achieve a healthy menu.
- **”Supplement missing nutrients from prepared foods with home cooking”**Since prepared foods often lack vegetables, adding side dishes like “broccoli salad,” “spinach and tofu salad,” or “marinated tomatoes” can supplement vitamins and dietary fiber. For instance, if you choose grilled fish as your prepared food, add a salad or hearty miso soup to create a menu rich in vitamins and minerals.
- **”Nutritionally balanced side dishes that can be easily prepared at home”**For creating healthy menus with prepared foods, quick homemade side dishes are also valuable. For example, storing make-ahead side dishes like “kinpira gobo” (sautéed burdock root), “spinach with sesame dressing,” or “simmered hijiki seaweed” in the refrigerator allows you to easily add necessary nutrients. If you prepare several types of side dishes on the weekend, you can simply combine them on weekdays for balanced meals.
3. Precautions and Tips
When creating health-conscious menus, it’s important to use prepared foods as only part of your main meal and be mindful of salt and fat content. If you choose prepared foods with strong flavors, adjust your homemade side dishes to be milder to balance the overall meal. Also, incorporating seasonal vegetables when possible will increase the nutritional value rather than relying too heavily on prepared foods.
4. Summary and Next Steps
By skillfully combining prepared foods and home cooking, you can achieve a healthy, nutritionally balanced menu without much effort. For your next shopping trip, try to select low-calorie prepared foods and ingredients for make-ahead side dishes to create a convenient, nutritionally balanced table. A menu incorporating both prepared foods and home cooking will surely make your daily meals more wholesome and healthy!
