We all love a takeaway from time to time. After a hard week at work or a night of drinks there’s nothing better than a pizza delivered right to your door. If you have found yourself becoming a bit too reliant on the delivery man bringing you food and you feel like your waistline is suffering, you may be surprised to see how simple it is to make healthy versions of your favourite takeaways from home without losing the great taste.
Burger with fries
From McDonalds to Wendy’s, not much beats a burger when you need some fast food quickly. Luckily burgers are one of the easiest meals to make at home, and with this you can control exactly what is going into them. The fist thing to start with is the bun – instead of a processed white bun that will last longer than most buildings when the world ends, try a multigrain option. These have more nutrients and more fibre making them better for your digestive system. Next comes the meat. Go for a lean meat and then combine it with a binding agent like egg to keep the meat together. Traditionally burgers are made with high fat meat so this is a great way to minimise calories. Then moving on to your toppings is where you can make your burger really stand out. Go for lots of lettuce for a nice crunchy texture, a bull-tomato sliced and then any other vegetable options you can think of. Just avoid too much cheese and extra bacon! When making your fries oven bake them rather than frying them in fat. This will drop the fat of the meal considerably as well as minimising the calories.
Pad Thai
A classic takeaway from Thailand, the traditional recipe is not unhealthy. The issues come from western tendencies to add fatty sauces and doubling up on the number of noodles in the meal to make this a less than healthy choice. When making your Pad Thai at home focus on seasoning to replace fats to make the meal taste good. The secret to Pad Thai is balancing flavours, so stock up on rice vinegar, fish sauce, ginger, lime and a little chili and ground peanut. Which this you’ll have enough flavour to match anything from jollibee singapore (a great place to order for a quick and lazy dinner).
Healthy at-home pizza
Perhaps the king of takeaway food, pizza bought from a store or a takeaway often comes dripping in fat from oil and cheese. Choose to make a pizza at home and you will be making a healthier option almost regardless of what you do. Start with a store-bought or homemade base and then choose your toppings. For the tomato sauce try making your own with a combination of tomatoes, garlic, basil and a little olive oil. Store bought sauces are generally loaded up with sugar which is what makes them unhealthier. For the toppings feel free to add cheese, but go for some veggies too to bring up how many nutrients you are getting from the pizza, as well as how good it tastes!