In many ways, white meat is a great resource for cooking. It will take any flavor that you give it, and no matter what you do with it, it will probably taste good. Unfortunately, this all has a downside. The cheapness and availability of chicken, pork, and other meats has made us lazy. It is too easy to make something that is reasonably appetizing. As a result, we eat too much meat. Our diets sufferer, our taste buds suffer, and ultimately our health suffers. Learning a few new fish recipes can be the perfect way to cure the meat and potatoes blues.
Many people stay away from cooking fish because they assume that it is too hard. Although fish recipes do take a little bit more effort than chicken recipes, They are easier than you would imagine. Perhaps the most classic fish recipe, baked salmon, is actually one of the easiest dishes imaginable. All you have to do is pull off the skin, coat the fish in oil, and bake it. There is some timing involved, and you can make things better by using spices, but even if you bake salmon in the most basic way imaginable, it will still taste good. Salmon is such a rich and flavorful fish, you see, that you need to do very little to prepare it.
Of course, if you are a little bit more adventurous, you can try fish stew recipes. Cooking fish stew is a little bit difficult for some people the first time they try it. You see, most people are used to making stew with beef. When you cook beef stew, you can cook it and cook it without ruining the flavor. With fish recipes, however, timing is always important. Too little cooking and things are not safe to eat. Too much cooking and you get tough, robbery, and unappetizing food. The key to fish recipes is learning just the right timing.
Although cooking fish and chips does not have the same nutritional benefits as many other fish recipes, it can still be a great way to introduce yourself to seafood. Besides that, it is a great way to introduce your kids to seafood! The bottom line is, if you make your own fish and chips, it doesn't have to be that unhealthy. Instead of frying it in vegetable oil, you can lightly sautéed it in olive oil. If you use a light coating instead of the thick coat of greasy batter than is usually employed, it is reasonably healthy for you, and absolutely delicious.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Healthy Lunch Recipes
People today are becoming more and more conscious of eating well and staying healthy. The media message is that we need to take care of our bodies, and the response from the public is that they agree. Magazines for women and men have more articles about exercising and staying fit, as well as information about foods we should eat and foods to avoid. Everyone’s well aware that staying fit is important, and we all know basic sports to keep ourselves in shape, but when it comes to meals, cooking healthy is a different story.
As far as foods and meals go, the barrage of recipes focus mainly on start-up breakfasts and family suppers, but it’s important to keep in mind that we need more than two meals a day. Humans are grazers and should eat frequently, in smaller portions. Grabbing lunch on the go or skipping it completely is something we all do and should avoid. So how should we curb the urge to miss that mid-day meal, the one that takes precious minutes of our day time away? Finding healthy lunch recipes that are fast and can be eaten on the go is the best solution to keeping the three-meal-a-day rule.
So where should you look for the best meal ideas? Start by picking up a magazine from the shelf, one that deals with family living or cooking. You’ll be able to find at least a few healthy lunch recipes sandwiched in between the supper ones. Try variations on healthy lunch recipes you find, and go one step further and convert the supper recipes to great make-ahead lunch ones. Cooking up a fancy pasta salad can do double-duty and you could have the meal carry over to mid-day instead of serving it at six.
More recipes can be found in cookbooks. Peruse the local book store and check the back covers of books and they’ll tell you faster if the book focuses on healthy lunch recipes than if you simply leafed through it. A trip to the library might be even better than a bookstore, as you won’t have to spend money for books, and you can copy out the healthy lunch recipes to keep.
You can also ask friends for any ideas they have for your mid-day meal. Quite often people will experiment trying to find healthy lunch recipes and they may be able to offer you some helpful meal plans.
The Internet can provide you with thousands and thousands of meal ideas, tips and tricks, and you’ll be guaranteed to find so many healthy lunch recipes that you may never want to cook another breakfast or supper meal again!
As far as foods and meals go, the barrage of recipes focus mainly on start-up breakfasts and family suppers, but it’s important to keep in mind that we need more than two meals a day. Humans are grazers and should eat frequently, in smaller portions. Grabbing lunch on the go or skipping it completely is something we all do and should avoid. So how should we curb the urge to miss that mid-day meal, the one that takes precious minutes of our day time away? Finding healthy lunch recipes that are fast and can be eaten on the go is the best solution to keeping the three-meal-a-day rule.
So where should you look for the best meal ideas? Start by picking up a magazine from the shelf, one that deals with family living or cooking. You’ll be able to find at least a few healthy lunch recipes sandwiched in between the supper ones. Try variations on healthy lunch recipes you find, and go one step further and convert the supper recipes to great make-ahead lunch ones. Cooking up a fancy pasta salad can do double-duty and you could have the meal carry over to mid-day instead of serving it at six.
More recipes can be found in cookbooks. Peruse the local book store and check the back covers of books and they’ll tell you faster if the book focuses on healthy lunch recipes than if you simply leafed through it. A trip to the library might be even better than a bookstore, as you won’t have to spend money for books, and you can copy out the healthy lunch recipes to keep.
You can also ask friends for any ideas they have for your mid-day meal. Quite often people will experiment trying to find healthy lunch recipes and they may be able to offer you some helpful meal plans.
The Internet can provide you with thousands and thousands of meal ideas, tips and tricks, and you’ll be guaranteed to find so many healthy lunch recipes that you may never want to cook another breakfast or supper meal again!
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Dinner recipes
I love cooking. Cooking relaxes me, it soothes me, and it makes me feel capable. Not everyone is the same though. For some people, cooking and trying to decide what to cook just makes them feel anxious and stressed out. I know some people who dread the end of the day because it means that they have to try to decide what to feed their family. Many of them resort to convenient, packaged meals because it requires little thought. Let’s face it, we all do that once in awhile. But packaged meals don’t present the most healthy or balanced food options and using them on a regular basis is not the best idea. There are many dinner recipes that can take away the anxiety by presenting you with simple and easy meals.
Most family cooks are mainly concerned with finding fast and easy dinner recipes that the entire family will love. They’d prefer to come home at the end of the day and find a fully cooked meal on the table but that’s not overly realistic. What is realistic is the many recipes that can be found that will make your life easier. If you choose to buy a cook book (either in a book store or in one of the many online book stores), look for a book that uses simple ingredients that you would use everyday anyway. If you have no idea what cumin is, don’t buy “The Cumin Lover’s 100 Easy Dinner Recipes” book because they likely won’t be easy for you. I love to use my crock pot so I enjoy different crock pot recipe books or books that have an entire crock pot section.
If you are in a rush and need a dinner recipe using something specific – let’s say chicken breasts – there are many free recipes on line that can help you with your meal. Within only a couple minutes you can find recipes for several chicken dinners. In less than a minute I found a recipe for a chicken casserole (which I highly recommend because it means only one pot to wash afterwards!), chicken stir fry, and chicken fingers. All of these dinner recipes are easy to prepare and have a minimum number of ingredients.
While you are looking at dinner recipes, you’ll find other useful information online as well. You can find sites that will help you to plan meals (which sounds like a lot of work but will take away the need to look for recipes at the last minute), keep your kitchen sanitary, and prevent health risks.
Dinner recipes do not have to be extravagant or have a zillion ingredients. In fact, by finding about ten tried and true recipes, you can make your evenings simpler and more relaxed. Once you are comfortable with these recipes, you’ll soon be looking for more to challenge yourself with.
Most family cooks are mainly concerned with finding fast and easy dinner recipes that the entire family will love. They’d prefer to come home at the end of the day and find a fully cooked meal on the table but that’s not overly realistic. What is realistic is the many recipes that can be found that will make your life easier. If you choose to buy a cook book (either in a book store or in one of the many online book stores), look for a book that uses simple ingredients that you would use everyday anyway. If you have no idea what cumin is, don’t buy “The Cumin Lover’s 100 Easy Dinner Recipes” book because they likely won’t be easy for you. I love to use my crock pot so I enjoy different crock pot recipe books or books that have an entire crock pot section.
If you are in a rush and need a dinner recipe using something specific – let’s say chicken breasts – there are many free recipes on line that can help you with your meal. Within only a couple minutes you can find recipes for several chicken dinners. In less than a minute I found a recipe for a chicken casserole (which I highly recommend because it means only one pot to wash afterwards!), chicken stir fry, and chicken fingers. All of these dinner recipes are easy to prepare and have a minimum number of ingredients.
While you are looking at dinner recipes, you’ll find other useful information online as well. You can find sites that will help you to plan meals (which sounds like a lot of work but will take away the need to look for recipes at the last minute), keep your kitchen sanitary, and prevent health risks.
Dinner recipes do not have to be extravagant or have a zillion ingredients. In fact, by finding about ten tried and true recipes, you can make your evenings simpler and more relaxed. Once you are comfortable with these recipes, you’ll soon be looking for more to challenge yourself with.
Beef jerky - Recipes
Although beef jerky is a popular snack food, it did not start that way. Beef jerky recipes were a necessity, not a luxury. People would cook recipes beef jerky because it would help them survive. If they had a long way to travel in the wilderness, for example, or if they had to find a way to keep meat through the winter, they could use beef jerky. Preserved meat would be used on ships, by armies, and by travelers because there was no refrigeration.
Nowadays, however, beef jerky recipes are a popular way to prepare a delicious – if unhealthy – snack food. Most of the time, people who cook up a beef jerky recipe are hunters. The best beef jerky, after all, is made from wild big game. Deer, moose, elk, and other similar animals all make great beef jerky recipes. It doesn't even occur to most of us non-hunters that we can make our own beef jerky recipe. Whoever heard of cooking beef jerky at home, after all? I had been eating Slim Jim jerky for years before I even realized that I could make my own. I wish I'd realized sooner. It is much cheaper to cook your own beef jerky recipes, and the taste is out of this world!
I have been perfecting my beef jerky recipes for several months now, and have impressed a lot of people who were not beef jerky fans. My mother would not touch the stuff before she tried mine. She thought it was disgusting, oily, and awful. I can understand where she came to that opinion. Most of the store-bought beef jerky recipes really are pretty poor. They've been sitting in plastic bags for months, and have been stuffed so full of artificial preservatives and MSG that most of the original flavor is lost.
Homemade beef jerky recipes, by contrast, preserve the flavor of the meat intact. When you dry the meat and turn it into beef jerky, it actually intensifies the flavor. Beef jerky recipes are not for people who only like mild food. They often have an intense and gamy flavor. Nonetheless, a lot of people find these beef jerky recipes delicious. Even if you have not enjoyed beef jerky in the past, if you have a chance to try some homemade beef jerky, you should. After all, if you don't like it you don't have to keep eating it. If you do like it, however, you will have found a delicious new treat!
Nowadays, however, beef jerky recipes are a popular way to prepare a delicious – if unhealthy – snack food. Most of the time, people who cook up a beef jerky recipe are hunters. The best beef jerky, after all, is made from wild big game. Deer, moose, elk, and other similar animals all make great beef jerky recipes. It doesn't even occur to most of us non-hunters that we can make our own beef jerky recipe. Whoever heard of cooking beef jerky at home, after all? I had been eating Slim Jim jerky for years before I even realized that I could make my own. I wish I'd realized sooner. It is much cheaper to cook your own beef jerky recipes, and the taste is out of this world!
I have been perfecting my beef jerky recipes for several months now, and have impressed a lot of people who were not beef jerky fans. My mother would not touch the stuff before she tried mine. She thought it was disgusting, oily, and awful. I can understand where she came to that opinion. Most of the store-bought beef jerky recipes really are pretty poor. They've been sitting in plastic bags for months, and have been stuffed so full of artificial preservatives and MSG that most of the original flavor is lost.
Homemade beef jerky recipes, by contrast, preserve the flavor of the meat intact. When you dry the meat and turn it into beef jerky, it actually intensifies the flavor. Beef jerky recipes are not for people who only like mild food. They often have an intense and gamy flavor. Nonetheless, a lot of people find these beef jerky recipes delicious. Even if you have not enjoyed beef jerky in the past, if you have a chance to try some homemade beef jerky, you should. After all, if you don't like it you don't have to keep eating it. If you do like it, however, you will have found a delicious new treat!
Monday, March 10, 2008
Feature Of Italian Cooking And Flavours
Italian cuisine dates back to the days of ancient Rome, with its roots beginning in Greece. As a matter of fact, one of the first cook books was written by a Roman, Apicus by name, in the first century A.D. Italian food today is enjoyed with relish by millions of people in countries around the world.
Italian cooks are very serious about their food, using only the freshest of ingredients which are available in season. The Italian menu is typically organized seasonally for this reason. At the base of the philosophy of Italian cooking is the belief that the freshest ingredients, combined with flavors and seasoning that complement each other will always produce a superior dish. It's small wonder that Italian cooking is one of the most popular world wide.
In addition to using only ingredients which are in season, Italian cooking is regional in nature. Although, in modern times, certain dishes have 'migrated', like pizza, coming from the south to become standard fare in the north, regional cooking is still deeply ingrained in the Italian cook, where traditional dishes are prepared in the manner they have been for centuries, with fresh ingredients found in each region.
Although Italy is a relatively small country, there are no less than eighteen separate regions, each with dishes developed with ingredients found in their locale. In the north west region of Lombardy, rice figures prominently in this region's cooking, with over fifty different versions of risotto. A bit of history you may not know: butter was invented in Lombardy.
While butter is used lavishly in Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna's traditional Italian cooking, olive oil is the choice in the southern regions, where olive trees are abundant.
As you might imagine, Italian cooking in the coastal regions feature seafood dishes, particularly Calabria and Sicily, famous for fresh tuna and swordfish native to their waters.
This abbreviated discussion can not hope to represent all the treasures of Italian cooking. Only in Rome will you find all regions represented in restaurants, prepared in the traditional way, which makes Rome an Italian cooking enthusiasts' dream come true.
Italian cooking brooks no shortcuts. You won't find frozen or out of season foods in the typical Italian refrigerator. Unlike in the United States, where we typically shop once a week, stocking up on produce and meats for a week's worth of menus, Italians shop daily for bread, fruit, vegetables, fish and meats as needed for the day's meals.
The Italian philosophy of freshness above all, with the artful combinations of flavors which complement rather than overwhelm and the centuries old traditions of food preparation, make Italian food a gastronomic delight. If you're only familiar with pizza and lasagna, you'll do well to find an Italian cookbook which can teach you the art of this wonderful tradition of Italian cooking. Prego!
Italian cooks are very serious about their food, using only the freshest of ingredients which are available in season. The Italian menu is typically organized seasonally for this reason. At the base of the philosophy of Italian cooking is the belief that the freshest ingredients, combined with flavors and seasoning that complement each other will always produce a superior dish. It's small wonder that Italian cooking is one of the most popular world wide.
In addition to using only ingredients which are in season, Italian cooking is regional in nature. Although, in modern times, certain dishes have 'migrated', like pizza, coming from the south to become standard fare in the north, regional cooking is still deeply ingrained in the Italian cook, where traditional dishes are prepared in the manner they have been for centuries, with fresh ingredients found in each region.
Although Italy is a relatively small country, there are no less than eighteen separate regions, each with dishes developed with ingredients found in their locale. In the north west region of Lombardy, rice figures prominently in this region's cooking, with over fifty different versions of risotto. A bit of history you may not know: butter was invented in Lombardy.
While butter is used lavishly in Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna's traditional Italian cooking, olive oil is the choice in the southern regions, where olive trees are abundant.
As you might imagine, Italian cooking in the coastal regions feature seafood dishes, particularly Calabria and Sicily, famous for fresh tuna and swordfish native to their waters.
This abbreviated discussion can not hope to represent all the treasures of Italian cooking. Only in Rome will you find all regions represented in restaurants, prepared in the traditional way, which makes Rome an Italian cooking enthusiasts' dream come true.
Italian cooking brooks no shortcuts. You won't find frozen or out of season foods in the typical Italian refrigerator. Unlike in the United States, where we typically shop once a week, stocking up on produce and meats for a week's worth of menus, Italians shop daily for bread, fruit, vegetables, fish and meats as needed for the day's meals.
The Italian philosophy of freshness above all, with the artful combinations of flavors which complement rather than overwhelm and the centuries old traditions of food preparation, make Italian food a gastronomic delight. If you're only familiar with pizza and lasagna, you'll do well to find an Italian cookbook which can teach you the art of this wonderful tradition of Italian cooking. Prego!
Best Cooking Courses In The Community
Though my husband tells me that he loves my cooking, even I have to snicker when he says it. I’m not a bad cook; I just don’t know how to cook a lot of things. Most of the meals I know how to make are simple, though they are very good. I think he gets tried of the same things, and I am thinking about taking a few short cooking courses to see if I can learn some new things about cooking so perhaps I can make something a little different on occasion.
Cooking courses can offer the basics of cooking, or they can offer you new meal ideas. It all depends on what you need to learn and what is available where you live. If you have all the basics of cooking down, you may not even need to take any cooking courses, you might just want to watch the Food Network. They have great shows on there that give you recipes and meal ideas for all sorts of budgets and tastes. My husband watches it all the time. Perhaps he is trying to tell me something.
As much as I like the Food Network, I think I might go for the cooking courses anyway. I might be something fun to do a few nights a week for a month or two, and it might be a good way to meet new people. I haven’t lived in my town for long and I don’t really know anyone. It might be a good time to make some new friends and learn some new meal ideas as a bonus. I know the local community college offers all kinds of cooking courses and that is where I will probably go.
If you want to find cooking courses in your community, you should also look to your local community college. They may or may not have classes for you. If they don’t, you may find that someone else does. You might even look in your local paper for cooking courses. If that doesn’t work for you, ask someone you know to help you out. We all have that one friend that is a whiz in the kitchen, and they are usually quite happy to show you what they know. If that doesn’t work out, you may have to bite the bullet and ask your mom. She may tease you, but she will be happy to help you out if you just ask.
Cooking courses can offer the basics of cooking, or they can offer you new meal ideas. It all depends on what you need to learn and what is available where you live. If you have all the basics of cooking down, you may not even need to take any cooking courses, you might just want to watch the Food Network. They have great shows on there that give you recipes and meal ideas for all sorts of budgets and tastes. My husband watches it all the time. Perhaps he is trying to tell me something.
As much as I like the Food Network, I think I might go for the cooking courses anyway. I might be something fun to do a few nights a week for a month or two, and it might be a good way to meet new people. I haven’t lived in my town for long and I don’t really know anyone. It might be a good time to make some new friends and learn some new meal ideas as a bonus. I know the local community college offers all kinds of cooking courses and that is where I will probably go.
If you want to find cooking courses in your community, you should also look to your local community college. They may or may not have classes for you. If they don’t, you may find that someone else does. You might even look in your local paper for cooking courses. If that doesn’t work for you, ask someone you know to help you out. We all have that one friend that is a whiz in the kitchen, and they are usually quite happy to show you what they know. If that doesn’t work out, you may have to bite the bullet and ask your mom. She may tease you, but she will be happy to help you out if you just ask.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Basics Of Cooking
Though my husband tells me that he loves my cooking, even I have to snicker when he says it. I’m not a bad cook; I just don’t know how to cook a lot of things. Most of the meals I know how to make are simple, though they are very good. I think he gets tried of the same things, and I am thinking about taking a few short cooking courses to see if I can learn some new things about cooking so perhaps I can make something a little different on occasion.
Cooking courses can offer the basics of cooking, or they can offer you new meal ideas. It all depends on what you need to learn and what is available where you live. If you have all the basics of cooking down, you may not even need to take any cooking courses, you might just want to watch the Food Network. They have great shows on there that give you recipes and meal ideas for all sorts of budgets and tastes. My husband watches it all the time. Perhaps he is trying to tell me something.
As much as I like the Food Network, I think I might go for the cooking courses anyway. I might be something fun to do a few nights a week for a month or two, and it might be a good way to meet new people. I haven’t lived in my town for long and I don’t really know anyone. It might be a good time to make some new friends and learn some new meal ideas as a bonus. I know the local community college offers all kinds of cooking courses and that is where I will probably go.
If you want to find cooking courses in your community, you should also look to your local community college. They may or may not have classes for you. If they don’t, you may find that someone else does. You might even look in your local paper for cooking courses. If that doesn’t work for you, ask someone you know to help you out. We all have that one friend that is a whiz in the kitchen, and they are usually quite happy to show you what they know. If that doesn’t work out, you may have to bite the bullet and ask your mom. She may tease you, but she will be happy to help you out if you just ask.
Cooking courses can offer the basics of cooking, or they can offer you new meal ideas. It all depends on what you need to learn and what is available where you live. If you have all the basics of cooking down, you may not even need to take any cooking courses, you might just want to watch the Food Network. They have great shows on there that give you recipes and meal ideas for all sorts of budgets and tastes. My husband watches it all the time. Perhaps he is trying to tell me something.
As much as I like the Food Network, I think I might go for the cooking courses anyway. I might be something fun to do a few nights a week for a month or two, and it might be a good way to meet new people. I haven’t lived in my town for long and I don’t really know anyone. It might be a good time to make some new friends and learn some new meal ideas as a bonus. I know the local community college offers all kinds of cooking courses and that is where I will probably go.
If you want to find cooking courses in your community, you should also look to your local community college. They may or may not have classes for you. If they don’t, you may find that someone else does. You might even look in your local paper for cooking courses. If that doesn’t work for you, ask someone you know to help you out. We all have that one friend that is a whiz in the kitchen, and they are usually quite happy to show you what they know. If that doesn’t work out, you may have to bite the bullet and ask your mom. She may tease you, but she will be happy to help you out if you just ask.
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