A Dietitian’s Guide to Choosing a Recipe Online
More often than not, I find myself browsing through different social media platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest to help me get inspiration for a variety of healthy & colourful recipes. It can be so fun to see the different possibilities of recipes to make or foods to try, and the thought of eating & living healthily all the more exciting to get started on.
On the other hand, having access to a world of information can also sometimes feel extremely overwhelming and stressful, as there is seemingly an endless amount of options available to us. Decision fatigue anyone? The never-ending scroll, the human habit of comparing ourselves to others and the thought that “there is always something better out there” can make our realities feel small, and our personal daily efforts & progress, negligible. Oh, the perils of surfing the Internet!
Don’t feel discouraged though, it’s a pretty normal feeling.
When cooking oneself a meal, there are many different factors that we tend to consider: what tastes good, what is good for our bodies, what’s convenient & relatively simple to make (in that moment), and a more common concern nowadays, what won’t hurt too much of our weekly spendings.
Knowing how to narrow the search online can help us to find exactly what we’re looking for — that is, to accustom to our tastes, needs & preferences!
Here are some helpful tips to finding/coming up with healthy recipes when cooking at home:
Tip #1: Choose recipes using what you want or that you already have in your fridge/pantry
To start, a basic guideline to go by when trying to find a good recipe on the Internet can look like…
[ two-three key word ingredients ] + [ type of (balanced) meal ] + (optional) [ name of person/website ]
As someone who has browsed the foodie side of the Internet time and time again, having go-to websites and/or recipe books can help us to gain inspiration and avoid the feeling of overwhelm from too many decisions.
For recipe book recommendations:
Falastin: A Cookbook by Sami Tamimi & Tara Wigley
Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals by Jamie Oliver
For budget-friendly recipes:
https://www.simplyrecipes.com/
For vegan/vegetarian recipes:
For fun & creative recipes:
Tip #2: Always look to make your meals more balanced
It can be easy to fall into the intricacies of what will be going into the meal, thereby making us neglect certain important elements. To bring you back down to the essentials, try thinking of the types of balanced meals you can create with your array of ingredients, such as…
Sandwiches and wraps (ex: tacos, fajitas or subs)
Open-faced sandwiches (ex: avocado toast)
Stir fries
Vegetarian meals (ex: veggie burger)
Salad bowls
Poke or Power bowls
Tip #3: Keep it simple
Cooking can be stressful, but it’s part of developing the skill in doing so! Be sure to remember to…
Not always look for perfection; it doesn’t have to look aesthetically pleasing every single time!
Improvise ingredients; if you don’t have everything in your fridge/pantry, find simple swaps! (ex: mayo or sour cream > yogurt, potato > sweet potato, quinoa > couscous)
Happy cooking!
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