Because it doesn't require cooking oil, broiling is a great way to cook healthfully. It works particularly well with thin, lean cuts of meat, which cook through before they dry out.

Chicken cutlets, thin cuts of pork, and fish are perfect candidates. Low-fat cuts sometimes lack flavor, so you may want to compensate by using a marinade, a glaze, or a spice paste. Try looking beyond traditional American ingredients and exploring other cuisines for low-fat condiments, like hoisin sauce and rice vinegar. A plus: Less than 10 minutes of a broiler's intense heat creates something that's too often lacking in low-fat cooking—a crispy crust.

Steaming, which creates a closed environment that envelops the ingredients in moisture, has a nutritional advantage besides requiring no fat: It retains among the highest amounts of nutrients of any cooking technique.

When you poach, the liquid gives an exceptionally tender texture to the food, which in turn infuses the liquid with its own flavor.

To poach, place chicken or fish in a large, shallow pan, add just enough water or broth to cover it, simmer gently so that only a stray bubble breaks the surface, and wait while the house fills with a wonderful aroma. (If you're making chicken, you can keep the meal on the skinny by removing the skin before you poach it. That immediately cuts the fat grams by more than half.) Instead of pouring the cooking liquid down the drain, turn it into soup by adding vegetables and perhaps some pasta for substance. Recent research indicates that when people eat soup, they tend to fill up quickly due to the volume of liquid. As a result, they consume fewer calories overall without feeling deprived.

A combination of steaming and baking, this cooking method works splendidly with fish and chicken, which dry out easily, because the paper pouch traps the moisture and the juices.

Recent research has found that people who eat baked or broiled fish are more likely to reap the heart-healthy benefits of fish consumption than those who eat it cooked by any other means. That's because how you cook is just as important as what you cook. Parchment cooking looks fancy—and sounds fancy, when you use its French name, en papillote—but it's simple enough for everyday meals. Just place food on a piece of paper, wrap it up, and put it in the oven. When it's ready, as you pull away the crinkly, slightly burnished edges of the parcels, you'll feel almost as if you're unwrapping a gift.

To say that something this creamy is good for you may sound dishonest. But it's no lie. When you puree vegetables, they go from ordinary to velvety with the touch of a button.

Pureeing involves two basic steps: simmering the vegetables (say, squash or broccoli, sweet potatoes or cauliflower) until they're tender, and blending them with broth until they're smooth. (Adjusting the amount of broth determines whether you end up with a soup or a side dish.) If you want to put a little olive oil in your puree, fine.