Robert's Healthy Eating Do's and Don'ts

Fitness and healthy eating are a huge part of Worst Cooks in America and Dinner: Impossible host Robert Irvine's daily routine. Here are his top dos and don'ts for delicious, healthy meals.

"When you say healthy eating, a lot of people think lettuce, tomatoes, that's it," Robert says. Healthy eating is just the correct balance of foods — mostly healthy recipes, like these flavor-packed chicken tostadas, with a few sinful treats now and then.

Flavorful, healthy meals don't have to be complex, and they don't have to include a main dish and two sides. "I love to cook lean proteins like chicken, salmon and sea bass on a grill, then top with a simple black bean salsa made with canned tomatoes, black beans, onions and a little hot sauce," Robert says.

"A 'diet' implies that you're depriving the body of something. I can eat French fries every day of the week if I want, but the time I eat them and what I eat in between and what exercises I do is the important thing," the Dinner: Impossible host says. "I believe that if you eat correctly, you'll never have problems exercising or maintaining your weight."

Heat your skillet before you cook a protein so it spends the least possible amount of time cooking. "Master heat control, then with any grill, any pan, any oven, you can cook nutritious meals," Robert says. Get your skillet extra hot to add char-grilled flavor to these marinated chicken fajitas.

A blender is amazing — you can throw (almost) anything in to make a flavorful sauce. "I use a lot of fruit, like strawberries and mangoes, to blend into sauces for proteins," Robert says. For a more savory sauce, try red onions and olives atop roasted vegetables or proteins, like these tuna burgers with tapenade.

"I grew up with my mother cooking vegetables; it was like drinking them through a straw," Robert jokes. It only takes a couple of minutes to cook fresh veggies — any more and they start to lose precious nutrients, not to mention taste. This lemony broccoli is ready in just 6 minutes.

"Rice wine vinegar and ginger are my go-to flavor boosters — they travel with me anywhere I go!" he says. Robert uses them for sauces, dressings or flavorful broths like the one in this ginger-scallion rice bowl. "Stone-ground mustard is also a big one, because you need it to emulsify dressings."