Cooking heart healthy meals at home gives you more control and knowledge over exactly when you’re putting into your body. The first step in healthy cooking at home is shopping healthy, a topic we covered last week. Once you’ve accomplished a healthy trip to the grocery store you’re right on track to creating heart healthy meals.

Most heart healthy food goes astray in the preparation process, by adding too many unhealthy spices and cooking methods. Cooking with healthier spices is a lot easier than it sounds. By avoiding prepackaged seasonings and using fresh herbs you will lose a lot of excess sodium intake and gain flavor at the same time. Using dried herbs or cutting up some spicy peppers for flavor can also add a healthy kick to meats and vegetables and a little of both go a long way. You can also use citrus fruits, mushrooms or onions to add flavor.

Heart healthy cooking methods include stir frying, roasting, grilling and broiling, baking, poaching, sautéing and steaming. All of these methods produce delicious healthy food options. When roasting, grilling or broiling be sure to use a rack to separate the meat and vegetables from fat drippings and baste with fat free liquids like wine or lemon juice. Use a tiny bit of canola oil for stir frying or sautéing instead of using butter or margarine.

There are many cooking options for heart healthy meals. By picking up one of the countless cookbooks targeted at this rapidly growing percentage of the population you can find an almost endless option for recipes that fit your taste and lifestyle.

About the Author:  Bridget Bean is an Extension Program Assistant and Better Living for Texans educator with the Brown County AgriLife Extension office.  Bridget may be reached at 325-646-0386.