Easy Heart-Healthy Cooking Tips for Everyday Meals

No matter how much time you have or don’t have to cook, you can prepare heart-healthy meals by following these simple tips.

What Is Heart-Healthy Cooking?

Heart-healthy cooking means choosing good fats and avoiding saturated fat. It also means eating less salt and adding more fiber to your meals. A good rule is to make sure half of your plate is filled with vegetables and fruits at each meal or snack.

Easy Heart-Healthy Cooking Tips for Everyday Meals

What’s on Your Plate?

Start by changing the portions on your plate. Proteins should not take up most of your plate. Instead:

• Fill three-quarters of your plate with colorful vegetables and fruits, and whole grains like brown rice and whole-grain bread.
• The remaining one-quarter of your plate can have lean proteins like fish, chicken, lean meat, or plant-based proteins such as chickpeas, lentils, or tofu.
• Try to choose plant-based proteins more often.

Cut Down on Saturated Fat

• Trim the fat from meat and remove the skin from chicken to reduce unhealthy fat and calories.
• Instead of frying, cook food in the oven, on the grill, or in a roasting pan (with a rack so the fat can drip away).
• Fish can be cooked by boiling it in water, low-salt tomato juice, or low-fat milk.
• Use a non-stick pan or a small amount of olive oil or canola oil, which are good for your heart.
• Plant proteins naturally have less fat.

Cook Double for Later

• When cooking vegetables or grains like brown rice, make double portions so you have enough for another meal.

Healthy Swaps (Substitutes)

• Use low-fat plain yogurt instead of sour cream.
• Choose low-fat, low-salt cheese instead of full-fat cheese.
• Use skim evaporated milk instead of cream.
• Pick whole-wheat pasta instead of white pasta.
• In baking, replace part of white flour with whole-wheat flour.

Use Less Salt

• Season food with fresh or dried herbs instead of salt.
• Try dill on fish, paprika on chicken, or ginger on beef.
• Garlic, onions, and red peppers add great taste and are healthy.

Eating Together

Studies show that families who eat together eat healthier. Even if you’re busy, try these tips to make family meals possible:

Problem: No Time to Cook?

Tip 1: Prepare meals ahead. Cut extra veggies, cook extra rice or noodles, or marinate meat for the next day.

Tip 2: Take shortcuts. Use pre-cut vegetables, bagged salads, canned or frozen beans, and shredded cheese.

Tip 3: Cook double and freeze. Make two meals on the weekend and freeze one for later.

Tip 4: Bake extra vegetables. While baking one meal, add sweet potatoes, beets, and squash in a separate pan for another dinner.

Tip 5: Use a slow cooker. Make soups and stews in the morning so dinner is ready when you get home.

Quick and Healthy Meal Ideas

• Whole-wheat ravioli with pasta sauce (some sauces have six vegetables!). Cooking time: 5 minutes.
• Stir-fry onions, celery, broccoli, and chicken with store-bought BBQ sauce. Serve with whole-wheat couscous. Cooking time: 15 minutes (couscous: 5 minutes).
• Microwave lentil and eggplant curry, serve with a fresh salad. Cooking time: 35 minutes.

Problem: We Don’t Eat Together

Kids are busy with soccer, dance, skating, and music. Here are ways to still share meals:

Tip 1: Plan meals around activities. Use a slow cooker on busy nights. Offer healthy snacks like yogurt, cottage cheese, veggies, and fruit before dinner to avoid extreme hunger.

Tip 2: Theme nights. For example, spaghetti Tuesday, homemade pizza Friday, pancake brunch Sunday.

Tip 3: Let everyone choose a favorite meal to cook together. Kids are more likely to eat what they helped make.

Tip 4: Plan picnics and outings to eat together and talk.

Tip 5: Review family schedule. If you're out every night, try cutting one or two activities to have time to eat together.

Ordering from Restaurants

People love ordering from restaurants. You can enjoy eating out and still make heart-healthy choices.

Smart Restaurant Tips

• Ask how food is cooked and make special requests (like dressing on the side or baked potatoes instead of fries—skip the butter and sour cream!).
• Avoid meals full of fat, calories, and salt—these can raise your risk of heart disease and stroke.
• Many restaurants now show the nutrition facts on their menus.

Good Words to Look For

If you see these words, the food is usually healthier:

• Baked, grilled, roasted, poached, steamed, sautéed.
• Vegetarian options are often lower in fat.

Foods to Avoid

Watch out for these words—these foods are often high in fat and calories:

• Alfredo sauce, cheese sauce, battered, breaded, buttery, creamy, crispy, fried, in pastry, hollandaise, pan-fried, rich, thick sauce, mayonnaise.
• Pickled, smoked, soy sauce—these are high in salt (ask for low-salt soy sauce).

Portion Size

Restaurant portions are often too big. Share a meal or save half for later.

Desserts

• Pick fresh fruit for dessert.
• If you really want a rich dessert, share it and enjoy it only sometimes.

Medical Sources

1. American Heart Association: www.heart.org
2. Mayo Clinic - Healthy Diet: www.mayoclinic.org
3. Harvard School of Public Health - Healthy Eating Plate: www.hsph.harvard.edu
4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - Heart Disease Prevention: www.cdc.gov