Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay 

Everyone belongs to the kitchen — the kitchen has food! We all like to eat. And, for most of us, the majority of that food comes directly from our home kitchens. Making home-made food isn’t only healthy, nutritious, and affordable, eating together at home also brings the whole family together. 

Dining with each other is a sacred ritual the humans have been doing for thousands of years. It’s a place where we share our sorrows and worries, but also happy moments and goods news.

However, if you want to throw together a quick, nutritious meal or a healthy grab-and-go breakfast, you’ll need to have a well-stocked kitchen. You’ll need to have several food essentials that you should never be caught without in your kitchen. Of course, having coffee is already implied. Let’s explore them.

Low-fat Greek Yogurt And Canned Olives

If you’ve been to Greece, you would know what we mean. Scientists consider the Mediterranean Diet, which includes foods like yogurt and olives, to be one of the healthiest diets in the world. 

Low-fat Greek yogurt is the perfect food if you want something that’s creamy and looks heavy, but only has 100cal per portion. Moreover, it has 19g of protein in 6 ounces. You can also use Greek yogurt as a healthy replacement when making things like sour cream and mayo. Healthy because it is low-cal and has a small fat percentage.

On the other hand, canned olives will last you quite a while and contain healthy monounsaturated fats. Moreover, you can throw them into various dishes. Try to buy organic or natural ones that don’t have added sodium. Canned olives are versatile. You add into pasta, snack them, or just use them on salads. 

Besides, every olive has around 5cal, making them another healthy low-cal alternative to fast food. Go for them if you want to eat something with salt. According to dieticians, they are a more healthy and enjoyable alternative to processed snacks.

Whole Fruits

Everyone knows from childhood that the perfectly stocked kitchen always includes whole fruits for the kids and adults. Whether you like oranges, bananas, blueberries, or peaches, have them in your kitchen at all times. The kids will graze them often, while you have an instant, healthy replacement for Snickers. 

You should buy fruits when they’re in season. When fruits are in season, they are more flavorus and nutritious. Not to mention that they are cheaper then. This doesn’t apply to blueberries. You should eat even during the offseason. Blueberries are brimming with anthocyanins — powerful antioxidants that reduce the damage to your DNA up to 20%. You can safely keep your blueberries in your refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Pro tip: If your family doesn’t eat all the fruit quickly and it begins to rot, you can try slicing it and placing it in the freezer to prolong its shelf life.

Garlic

If you want to be healthy, you should also eat a lot more garlic. According to multiple clinical trials, garlic can reduce your LDL-C (bad cholesterol) and increase your HDL-C (good cholesterol). It will also reduce your total cholesterol by 10-15% and susceptibility to common colds by 70%. To experience its benefits, you’ll have to eat at least 2-3 cloves of it every day, for months. However, keep in mind that garlic can lower blood pressure in some individuals.

You can add garlic to basically any dish (without going overboard, of course). If you don’t like the bad breath it makes, or simply its taste, you can always eat it late in the evening. For example, crush it, mix it with greek yogurt, and drink the whole thing.

Vegetables: Frozen or Fresh

Here we again have an enormously versatile healthy food staple. Veggies are great as a snack, as a salad, or a side dish. The usual veggie “suspects” you should have include beans, lentils, yellow or green beans, carrots, broccoli, and more. However, don’t be afraid to try to add something to this mix, whether it’s something you like or have never eaten before. You should be able to find bags of frozen vegetables in the frozen vegetable departments in most supermarkets.

Lemon

Lemons have been trending in healthy diets for the last decade or so. Most health nuts are also lemon fanatics. And why shouldn’t they be? Drinking lemonade makes you more hydrated, as well as help with digestion and weight loss. Not to mention that lemons are chock-full of vitamin C, improve skin quality, and prevent kidney stones.

Remember to select the ones with the thinnest rinds. They give out more juice. You can also use fresh lemons instead of salad vinaigrette. Moreover, you can include their wedges in your sparkling water or beer. Yea, even beer. You should try it. It’s definitely a cool and fresh experience.

Lemons are also perfect for marinades — you can add lemon juice to seafood dishes and chicken. You can use limes as well. Whatever you like more.

Meats!

Always store a lot of meat. Meat is another food staple present in most kitchens. You should go for fresh meat produced in local butcheries. Of course, this depends on where you live. Although, always try to include beef, chicken, and other low-fat meats to your diet. Turkey and pork can be nice add-ons as well.

Egg

Eggs are full of vitamins, minerals, and protein, all while having under 75cal per egg. You can boil them on Monday and have multiple grab-and-go breakfasts, or snack them in the afternoon. 

On the other hand, fried eggs are an amazing heavy breakfast, if you like to follow the old saying: have a breakfast like a king, lunch like a duke, and dinner like the poor. 

Counterintuitively, heavy breakfasts are better for fat loss than eating little in the morning and more for dinner. This is likely because you expend more energy in the morning than in the late evening.