At the current pace of life, many are thinking about how to reduce the time for cooking or visiting catering establishments. Shops with fast food are very helpful. Of course, it is very difficult to call such food healthy. Here, the assortment includes hod dogs, hamburgers, french fries. Someone without hesitation swallows the next portion, but most people are well aware of how such nutrition affects health in general and the figure in particular. But is fast food always harmful? Is there any healthy fast food?
All attention to the composition
Indeed, it is impossible to row all recipes for snacks under one comb. The very concept of "fast food" today has become synonymous with something of poor quality, fatty and very high-calorie. And also cheap. There is one, and it is abundant around. But healthy fast food is also hardly a rarity. After all, fast food is limited by time, not by components.
Show a little imagination - and you can cook up dozens of options for snacks, spending each just a few minutes. At the same time, they will be made of quality, selected products. Of course, such a healthy fast food will appeal to even the most strict adherents of a healthy lifestyle.
World experience
The United States is considered the birthplace of hamburgers and french fries. But you need to understand that here, too, the consumer is offered a fork, both price and quality. If you want it quickly and cheaply - take a patty fried in butter with a roll of wheat flour and mayonnaise. A huge amount of fat, cholesterol, carcinogens. Ready to pay more - it means you can buy rice or bran cake filled with selected vegetables with chicken breast, sprinkled with olive oil. Throughout the world, healthy fast food is valued for its simplicity. And also such snacks save a lot of time.
Salad Bar and more
Let's expand the boundaries a bit. Indeed, for many, this concept is limited to a patty and a sausage in a bun. But the list does not end there. In Japan, sushi is considered fast food, selected and fresh fish. In Spain, tapas. In France, it is customary to snack on vegetable-based salads. But that is not all. This concept includes soups and sandwiches, rolls, juices and smoothies. There are enough options to understand that not everything fast is harmful. In addition, a healthy diet can be very tasty.
Choose a manufacturer
Today, new points are opening up all over the world where healthy fast food is being prepared and implemented. Do not expect prices to be low. Most often, these are restaurant-level establishments, where not only dishes are on top, but also checks for service. At the same time, much attention is paid to the choice of products. They remain fresh, not spoiled by frying in oil, canning or freezing. The principle here is simple: the less processing they receive, the more useful properties they retain.
A competent menu consists of fruits and vegetables, dairy and sour-milk products, meat and fish. That is, dishes should contain a set of proteins, vitamins and minerals, carbohydrates and a small amount of fat. Many people think eating sandwiches is bad. And if you use fresh bread and grilled chicken for them? Add to this cream cauliflower soup and vegetable salad. It turns out an excellent menu, light and satisfying.
Examples in the piggy bank
Let's think again, why is it not good to eat fast food? Most often, because the dishes served are overloaded with fats and do not contain fresh vegetables and fruits. We fix this drawback, and the minus in the assessment changes to plus. So, three whales wholesome and fast food:
- Soup. Of course, we are not talking about heavy, rich boiled pork stew. No meat and fish broths, only water and vegetables. You can flavor them with cream, cheese, spices. There may be plenty of options. Cream of cauliflower, lentil and carrot soup. How about potato-celery stew, tomato gazpacho or pumpkin and corn soup?
- Salad. The basis is green vegetables, and olive oil can serve as a dressing. Of course, this is not about mayonnaise. You can add almost any ingredients - this is boiled meat and fish, cheese, vegetables and nuts.
- Sandwich. There is room for creativity too. The main thing is to choose a decent foundation. Try to discard lush buns on wheat flour and yeast. Better choose bran cakes or sourdough bread.
Studying the world restaurant experience, it is difficult to understand why it is not useful to eat fast food. On the contrary, a balanced menu provides a chance for a productive day without digestion problems.
Salads
Only at first glance, they are not suitable for the role of a daily snack. Take a lunch box or other convenient box, put a fork with you. And you can cut the vegetables with neat little sticks so that it is convenient to take them with your hands. In any case, the body will be grateful. For example, chop the apples and carrots, beets, and radishes in large strips. It remains only to sprinkle with lemon juice.
In 5 minutes
Now let's learn how to cook healthy fast food at home. Salad recipes can be supplemented indefinitely. This is fertile ground for experiments that never end.
- Beijing Salad. The basis here will be the same name cabbage. Take all the ingredients in arbitrary quantities to suit your needs. The salad includes hard cheese, cabbage, oranges, onions, celery. For the best taste, sesame, vegetable oil, lemon juice, pepper, ginger are added.
- Vitamin salad of radish and cabbage. To do this, in equal quantities, chop the cabbage and grate the radish. Add natural yogurt for dressing.
- "Carrot miracle." Chop the carrots into strips. It needs to be slightly mashed so that the salad is tender. Now cut the apples into thin strips, you can use a grater. They should be sprinkled with lemon juice so that they do not blacken. A great option for a snack, especially if you add a little walnut.
- Mozzarella and eggplant salad. It takes a little more time to cook it, but judging by the reviews, this is a very popular recipe. Useful fast food should satisfy the needs of your body and cover the need for nutrients. You will need a few eggplants, 200 g mozzarella, tomatoes and basil. In addition, cook apple cider vinegar and olive oil. Eggplant should be cut into circles, put on a baking sheet and bake in the oven. Put them in a salad bowl, grind the remaining ingredients and add dressing. This is not just a snack, but a full meal.
Yoghurts
What could be easier and healthier? It would seem that a solution has been found. Just go to the store, buy the treasured jar and the snack is ready. But most products in supermarkets contain a large number of dyes and preservatives. Their shelf life is such that all useful microorganisms should have died long before the jar hit the table. But the benefits of fast food depend on the quality of the products used. Therefore, there is nothing else to do but cook it at home.
To do this, you need milk (not rustic, but not fat-free), as well as sourdough. It is usually sold in pharmacies. Dry powder must be mixed with milk and left overnight. In the morning it remains to pour the finished yogurt into a convenient jar with a lid and take it with you. And in them you can add fruit and freeze the mixture in the freezer. It turns out an alternative to dessert.
Pancakes
Many begin to doubt whether they should be considered a healthy snack. Why not? Of course, in cheap eateries, the composition may include low-quality cooking oil, but if you trust the cook, then you can please yourself with such a dish. Pancakes are fried in a dry frying pan, which reduces their calorie content. Let's give ready-made recipes, and you yourself decide whether fast food of such a plan is useful:
- Pancakes on rice broth. To do this, you need a glass of broth, two glasses of flour (you can take a mixture of wheat and rice, linen), 4 tbsp. l vegetable oil, a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of sugar. Mix all the ingredients, from this mass we will bake pancakes. Boiled rice with raisins or low-fat cottage cheese will be an excellent filling.
- Pancakes can be stuffed with boiled chicken and vegetables, fruits, cottage cheese and herbs. Such peculiar rolls can be taken with you on the road. They are tasty, nutritious and light.
Sandwiches
Where without them, if we are talking about fast food? Is sandwiches good or bad? It all depends on the ingredients that are selected for their preparation. It is better to exclude sausage, and use butter in minimal quantities. Then sandwiches will be a great option for a day snack.
We’ll change the loaf for pita bread or whole grain bread without regret. Not sausage will go to the filling, but boiled or grilled chicken. You can replace the fish, it will also be very tasty. Complete with fresh herbs, cucumbers and tomatoes. If you use sauces, then choose yogurt, not mayonnaise. It turns out a full meal with a sufficient amount of carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Enriched with fiber and vitamins. It’s also very tasty.
Fast food in spanish
If your city has an institution that offers classic dishes for this cuisine, then they are definitely worth a try and fast food. Healthy dishes are served as delicious snacks that you will definitely want to eat tomorrow. This is a variety of tortillas and hot sandwiches, croquettes with cheese, hot dogs based on dried sausages. Instead of the usual mayonnaise and mustard, a special sauce based on tomatoes and basil is used here. It includes a dozen more secret spices, which the cooks do not extend to.
All variants of tortillas with filling can be either exclusively vegetarian or familiar to the average person. Fish and white meat are cooked on a special, metal board, which is heated over an open fire. The process practically does not require the addition of oil. At the same time, the meat is juicy, with a golden brown.
Lavash roll
It may well claim the title of the most wholesome fast food. Thin pita bread made from rice or corn flour is a source of valuable carbohydrates. This is not a rich bun, which gives a huge amount of calories. Of course, rolls are only useful when using quality ingredients for the filling.
Fried chicken and mayonnaise, even in combination with herbs and vegetables, is a bad option. Therefore, preference should be given to meat on the grill or cooked. And of course, flavor it with fresh vegetables, a good bunch of salad and other greens. Get a great snack or even a full meal.
Pizza
It can also be different. Thick cheese sauce, ketchup and mayonnaise, smoked meat - all this creates a rich taste, but it is completely unprofitable. Therefore, we learn to choose only what your body needs. The rules are simple: when choosing pizza, ask not to use mayonnaise and ketchup, ask that the dough be thin, and put a lot of vegetables. The result is a pretty healthy lunch that your health won't be able to undermine. The main thing is not to eat the whole whole at once. Better add salad or soup to a slice of pizza.
Dessert is not a taboo
Healthy eating and sweets do not mix well. Especially if it’s store cakes on margarine with preservatives. Examples of healthy fast food allow you to make an afternoon snack the most interesting meal of the day:
- Jelly dessert. A lot of options and obvious benefits for the body. You will need gelatin, yogurt or kefir, bananas or any berries. You can take fruits, but for this it is advisable to bake and grind them in mashed potatoes. Then everything is very simple. We leave gelatin to swell, dissolve in a water bath and add to yogurt. Put a fruit pillow in the mold, and pour the future jelly on top and in the refrigerator. Instead of yogurt, you can take the curd mass, and for the base, bake a thin biscuit.
- Homemade muffins are also a good option. As a basis, take wheat flour, and replace the oil with sour cream. More berries and fruits - and you get a wonderful dessert.
- Or you can just cut apples and pears, oranges and grapefruit into cubes. Add to this a little natural yogurt - and the dessert is ready for the whole family.
What and how much is
We continue to consider the useful types of fast food. Do not waste time and fill your cookbook with fresh ideas. After all, so often we are faced with the problem of what to take with us to work as a snack. Sausage, sausages, cookies and sweets are quick and convenient, but not useful. But you can do without a lot of time, but even on the road to eat properly and healthy.
It would seem that fast food and wholesome food are two incompatible concepts. But it only seems so. The main thing is to understand what a particular product carries. Potatoes are a source of valuable substances. But the same product, frozen with special additives (sold in bags, already cut into cubes) and fried in oil, is a completely different matter. He will not give anything good, except for a portion of fat. Try on everything you are going to eat. Butter, cheese, lard, at first glance, are sources of an enormous source of fat, but the body needs them, just in small quantities. But breaded chicken is better not to eat. In extreme cases, clear the meat from the top layer.
Smoothie
Listing the types of healthy fast food, we got to the drinks. Smoothies are nutritious cocktails that are only gaining popularity today. They do not last long in thermoses, therefore they are unsuitable for travel. But how to have a snack on a picnic or at work is a great option.
How to make fast food useful? Do not add harmful ingredients to it. In this case, it is sugar, chocolate, caramel, cream, ice cream. Of course, with them the drink will be tastier, but the very meaning of a healthy snack is lost . The optimal ingredients would be low-fat cottage cheese, kefir. You can use egg whites and yolks, bananas and berries. Do not refuse from a variety of vegetables. A smoothie can also be a protein shake. This is a great source of protein without extra calories. Another plus smoothie: among berries and vegetables, you can mask the unloved, but necessary and useful vegetable.
How to reduce the harm from fast food
If you still went to a traditional fast food cafe, you need to think carefully before placing an order. The key point for you is the following: eat and cause minimal damage to your health. How to achieve this:
- Do not order ready-made lunch. Such options are more affordable by adding cheap and harmful ingredients.
- Choose not pies and sandwiches, but soups and salads.
- Instead of french fries, order baked vegetables.
- All deep-fried fries are harmful. View grilled foods.
- If only hamburgers are available, do not eat the top bun. It is usually soaked in sauces.
- Choose pizza not meat, but with vegetables and mushrooms.
- For drinks, choose water without gas.
Are there any contraindications
Be that as it may, even healthy and wholesome fast food is a dry food. Smoothies are an exception, but so far the tradition of their preparation in our country is not too developed. Therefore, if you have problems with the digestive system, it is better to forget about this method of satisfying hunger. Many are convinced that you can only take pies and the like dry rations from home with you. But nothing of the kind. No one bothers to get convenient lunch boxes for soup and porridge. Grab a thermos with rosehip tea. Do not be ashamed to stand out from the crowd, you can decide for yourself whether fast food is useful. Let your colleagues stand in line at McDonald's, and you will spend this time quietly on a bench in the park.
Instead of a conclusion
From an economic point of view, a healthy fast food restaurant is more expensive. Take, for example, the need to use olive oil instead of margarine. In addition, all food should be prepared immediately before use. Semi-finished products are not so useful anymore. But otherwise, the cost of raw materials can be compared with those in ordinary fast-food establishments. And of course, high-quality, tasty and healthy food attracts customers, and they will come again. Much of the menu is pretty simple to repeat at home. It is enough to have a desire and a simple set of products. Try it and soon you will not have sausages and burgers on the table either.