Common Cooking Mistakes made whilst cooking at home!

Are your choices in the kitchen reflecting your results? Cooking at home is great, a great place to be imaginative, and try new things. However you could be making the wrong choices which may be sabotaging your results. Below are some common mistakes I see being made.

Portion Size

Getting this right can be hard, we are often far more generous than we need to be. To avoid this I recommend using measuring cups, using a smaller plate and to always serve your own meal.

Adding extra toppings or the wrong sauce

I think this one is because Kiwis love their toppings and sauces. Extra cheese plus sour cream, sauce drenched and did I say extra cheese? Try adding fresh toppings instead like chopped herbs, even adding a garnish of salad/spinach. When it comes to choosing, a sauce making your own is best, store bought ones are usually full of added sugars

Using the wrong oils

Portion control is just as important with the oil and butter that you use for cooking with as it is with the portion of our cooked meals. I recommend just using 1 tsp per dish. I also recommend to use butter over oil. However, when you do use oil it is important to select the right one. Choose peanut oil, sunflower oil or grapeseed oil as these have a high smoke point, this means less is needed. Also, when you heat an oil past the smoke point, it can cause it to break down therefore losing their health benefits, some oils can also produce free radicals and toxins when heated past their smoke point.

Using fat, salt and sugar as flavours

With the choice of herbs and spices it is really unnecessary to add fat, salt or sugar to our foods. By including these in our everyday eating we get more addicted to them and rely on the flavour to satisfy us.