Five Foods That Are Better Homemade
There are plenty of things that you can buy pre-made at the store and easily add to whatever dish you’re making, but just because they’re easy it doesn’t mean they are good for you. In fact, many of these things can be crammed full of stuff like sodium that aids in expanding your risk of heart disease. Instead of being lazy and risking your health, you could easily make these food items and home, and then you’ll know exactly what is in them.
Sauces
Canned sauces you buy at the store in a jar or aluminum cans are often extremely high in calories, and they are full of preservatives. You can make much healthier sauces right from your own home, with fresh ingredients. Instead of dowsing your spaghetti with a bland store-bought sauce, make something fresh with tomatoes and fresh herbs from the farmer’s market (or your own garden).
Prep time can be a little extensive, but it is well worth it. Leftovers can easily be frozen to use for future meals.
Soups
Canned soups are full of sodium, so much so that it’s not at all funny. When you make soup from home you can cut back on the salt, or use many other flavors in place of it that won’t make you miss it at all. Soups are great because you can combine so many of the food groups into one bowl.
Whether you make it in a crockpot or a pot on the stove, consider making your own broth. You can buy low sodium broth at the store, but you can get more health benefits out of boiling down your own meat and bones at home to make fresh broth (and you can freeze the extras for future soups and for making gravy).
Gravy
The best and healthiest way to make gravy is to use that homemade broth and add some fresh spices, then boil it until it’s rolling and add some cornstarch (you can find suggested measurements on the side of your cornstarch box). Less sodium and more flavor are what you’ll get making homemade gravy!
Bread
One of the reasons American seem to be so addicted to bread and bread products is that they have an addictive substance added to them, sugar. Yes, your loaf of bread has sugar in it, and there really is no reason for it. The best way to get around this is to bake fresh bread at home.
Salads And Sandwiches
Use that homemade bread, along with great finds from the local butcher and the farmer’s market (or your own farm and/or garden) to make fresh sandwiches at home. This way you know what’s in them, and you can make them portioned properly.
This also goes for salads. Restaurants have a tendency to go overboard with portions, so make your own at home that isn’t going to be two or more meals in one.