Healthy Steps To Cooking With Ground Beef

A big juicy burger on a toasted bun with all the fixings is always delicious. I love them myself and crave them occasionally. But liking them does not make them healthy for me.

Are you conscious about what you eat? Do you make healthy food choices? I try my best to always eat healthy and make the right choices for my health and body. But, sometimes I do give in to the craving of the all-American hamburger.

Of course it is always a wise, healthful choice to choose the leanest ground beef while shopping for your family. But unfortunately it's not always in our budget to do so. Ground chuck and extra lean beef is much more expensive than the regular.

Did you know that you can reduce the fat in regular ground beef by as much as 50 percent? This is something I wasn't aware of until doing a simple search on another article that I was working on. If your family budget won't allow for the leaner ground beef, there are steps you can take to actually take out approximately half the fat. I found this quite intriguing.

The simple steps below takes out half the fat

Naturally we drain off a lot of the fat by simply straining it through a colander after cooking it. But there are additional steps to reducing the fat even more. If you are preparing beef that goes in spaghetti, chili, or even casseroles...drain the fat off of it thoroughly with a colander after cooking.

Then with a slotted spoon, take out the cooked beef and place on a paper towel lined platter and let sit for one minute. Meanwhile, wash and dry the colander and the skillet thoroughly and place colander in the sink.

Generously blot top of beef with more paper towels. Return the cooked beef back into the colander. Then pour hot water (approximately 150 to 160 degrees F) over it and let it drain for five minutes.

Repeat this last step one more time. This step also takes out some of the flavor of the beef, but you can add any herbs or seasonings you like after rinsing. If your recipe calls for onion, garlic salt, or other seasonings, you might want to add it after you rinse it.

Return the beef to your skillet. Reheat, and continue with your recipe.

Grilling Versus Frying

Let's face it...it's always wise to grill burgers rather than frying. And also any other meat that you cook. Grilling is great for the summer time. And for the winter months, you can always broil or invest in an indoor grill.

Alternative For Ground Beef

Try substituting your beef with ground turkey. It's a well-known fact that ground turkey is much lower in fat than ground beef. It is also less expensive. Lots of people have never even tried ground turkey. It is actually very good...turkey burgers are especially good. Most of the time, you can't even tell the difference in casseroles or pasta dishes. Try it sometime with your family and see if they notice the difference. If you find them asking "Where's the beef?"...then you know they did.

Happy Cooking!