Sonic Supper!

Archive for January, 2010

If you have decided to follow a diet plan to lose weight, you then need to decide how best to prepare your meals. Even though you may be having fresh fruit and vegetables, you won’t want to eat everything raw. There are several ways of cooking healthy food and you will be able to do so without having to make great changes from your usual cooking methods.

Baking is a good option for many foods in a diet plan. Wrap the food in foil to keep it moist and prevent drying out. The food will be tastier when you do that.

Boiling is fine for fish. Don’t use butter or oil for marinades and make sauces using water as a base. If you are boiling vegetables, do them in cook bags to prevent contact with the water, which would remove a certain amount of the nutrients from the veges. As an alternative use a steamer which holds the food above the boiling water.

Grilling is satisfactory. Again wrap food in foil to retain the juices.

Microwaving works well for a number of foods. There are many utensils suitable for use in a microwave oven. A microwave proof lidded container with a table spoonful of water in the bottom is great for cooking vegetables.

Does your Kitchen have the right Tools

How good are the tools in your kitchen? there is nothing in the world that can quite compare to cooking with the finest and freshest of ingredients, these things can only be enhanced by making use of the perfect tools for the job at hand.

When it comes to pots and pans and skillets you should keep in mind that conductivity is of extreme importance. You should also select pots and pans that are made of a heavier gauge. This allows your pans to heat evenly avoiding hot spots, which can lead to food that may ?stick? to your pan or scorch during the cooking process. This means that simply stopping in at your local mass market retailer and purchasing any old set of pots and pans is probably not the best course of action for the best possible quality in your kitchen.

Frugal cooking means keeping an eye on what you cook and how you cook it. These tips can help your food budget stretch that bit further.

Plan, plan and plan again. Last-minute shopping almost always leads to money wasted, as you buy more than you need or purchase expensive ingredients because they’re quick to cook, or unhealthy ready-meals when you could save money by cooking from scratch. Work out weekly menus and shop only for the ingredients you need. It doesn’t take much longer to make double the quantity of many favorite dishes like shepherd’s pie or curried chicken and it saves on time and fuel. Serve the same meal twice during the week with varied accompaniments, or eat one portion and freeze the rest for another day. Get creative with leftovers. Even a small quantity of a supper dish could make a snack or a lunch next day, or maybe a sandwich filling or the basis of a soup. Buy perishables with a view to how you’re going to use them, and purchase the right quantity to avoid waste. Grated cheese goes further than sliced. Grate the whole block in the food processor, freeze half and store the rest in a plastic bag or box in the fridge. Little pieces of veg cook faster than big chunks - cut ‘em small and they’ll be done in half the time. Remember to turn the heat down as soon as the water boils and always use a lid.

What are two words to describe the average college student? I choose busy and broke. I can say this because I am a veteran of the college experience and know what it means to bring my own beverage to a buffet to cut costs, or to use a sandwich maker to make breakfast. For some reason it is customary to be absolutely poor with no time to do anything about it when in college. Which means students are forced to try to purchase a meal plan or live on the “poor man’s diet.” If you’re a college student (or the parent of a college student) I know your struggles and want to help you to find a few easy solutions to help relieve the burden of having no resources or insight into cooking in college.

In the summertime, I like to use my crock pot (slow cooker) several times a week. One benefit to using your crock pot in the summertime is to save money on air conditioning costs.

Another great benefit is time. As a busy mother and wife, I don’t have hours to spend in my kitchen every day making meals for my family.

These days you can make just about anything in your crock pot such as: soups, stews, main dish meats, breads, desserts and vegetable dishes.

Time Saving Tips

The night before, trim fat from meat and cut meat into the desired sized pieces. Brown meat according to the recipe directions. Let cool; cover and refrigerate. Next, peel and chop your vegetables. Cover and keep them in the refrigerator overnight.

Resist the urge to lift the lid. The heat that you lose will add as much as 30 minutes to the cooking time. If you have to stir, resume timing when the mixture starts to bubble up again

Country-Style

2 1/2 to 3 lbs. spareribs
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 (1 lb) can sauerkraut, drained
1 apple, cored and diced
1 tbsp. sugar

Are you looking for a gift for someone who has everything? Consider gourmet chocolate gifts as birthday or Christmas presents for these hard to shop for friends and relatives. With the wide variety of gourmet chocolate gifts available there is sure to be something for everyone.

Gourmet chocolate gifts come in many different sizes and styles. They often contain a variety of different gourmet chocolate items. Some of the most common gourmet chocolate gifts include candy bars, truffles, boxes of candy, and hot chocolate mixes.

Many gourmet chocolate suppliers have websites that allow you to purchase gourmet chocolate gift sets directly online. Many will also give you the option of having the gift mailed directed to the recipient, which is a nice feature for friends and relatives who live far away.

Many gourmet chocolate gifts are sold in sets, often packaged in a nice basket. Items can also be purchased separately and combined together anyway you want. Sometimes non-chocolate accessories are included in gift sets as well. For example, many gourmet hot chocolate gift sets come with a variety of cocoa mixes as well as mugs, spoons, and marshmallows. Christmas gift sets are especially nice, often including holiday decorations such as ornaments or stockings along with the delicious gourmet chocolate.

How to Cook Healthy Meals for your Family

Do you have trouble know how to cook healthy meals for your family? The good news is that there are recipes that are very healthy but the healthy nature of these recipes is somewhat disguised. What they do not know in these instances truly should not bring harm their way (outside of allergies, which should never be ignored).

Healthy cooking is often difficult as most of us do not want to spend time planning and preparing meals that our families refuse to eat. At the same time, we want our families to be healthy so we feel compelled to learn new and improved ways of cooking healthy foods for our family to enjoy (and unfortunately in some cases scorn).

With weight and nutrition being known as the culprit in so many health conditions it is impossible to ignore the importance of not only eating healthy ourselves but also of teaching our children the importance of eating healthy. One way to insure that your loved ones are in fact eating healthy is to make sure that you are cooking healthy and nutritious foods for them. This does not mean that you cannot enjoy the occasional calorie splurge or even that you shouldn?t. The key to cooking healthy is learning to control portions and understanding the importance of moderation.

Hamburger recipes are pretty easy to come by. The following recipes are crockpot specific, and are recipes for dips.

CROCKPOT HAMBURGER-SAUSAGE DIP

* 1 pound ground chuck

* 1 cup picante sauce

* 1 can cream of mushroom soup

* 2 pound Velveeta cheese…cut into pieces

* 1 pound pork sausage

* 1 teaspoon garlic powder

* 1 can Rotel tomatoes

* 3/4 teaspoon oregano

Combine picante sauce, garlic powder, soup, tomatoes, oregano and cheese in Crock Pot. Brown ground chuck and sausage until it is done. Drain very well and place in slow cooker/Crock Pot. Cook on low until cheese is melted. Serve with your favorite chips.

HAMBURGER DIP

* 2 pounds lean ground beef

* 1 cup chopped onion

* 2 cloves garlic, minced or 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

* salt to taste

* 2 cans (8-ounces each) tomato sauce

* 1/2 cup ketchup

* 1 1/2 teaspoons oregano

* 2 teaspoons white granulated sugar

* 2 package (8-ounces each) cream cheese, softened and cut in cubes

* 2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Pasta. Pizza. Yawn. Today, we are so exposed to ‘Italian’ food on the high street that it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that Italy has a far richer edible heritage than tomato sauces and bland, made-over pastas. Perhaps the key to understanding the real beauty of Italian food is to learn about the strong - and widely differing - regional heritages.

In the North of the country, close to the rest of Europe, the pizza has achieved near hegemony. Purely a Napolitan and Roman tradition this basic bread and tomato recipe is nearly ubiquitous. Alongside the bland, heavy, cheese-laden pasta dishes that line up for our attention on supermarket shelves has frogmarched over our perceptions of Italian food, despite its most common incarnation having more in common with the kitchens of Manhattan than the simple rustic traditions of Italian food.

The really interesting side avenues of Italian food are to be found in the South of the country - where the proximity of Africa and a tradition rooted in overt poverty has resulted in an exciting clash of flavours and styles a world away from what you might expect.

Most Italian recipe and cookbooks are not at all authentic. You might eat some tasty meals, but they most certainly won’t be anything like the cuisine of Italy.

I was amazed when I moved to Italy ten years ago to find that certain dishes like Pasta Alfredo don’t even exist in Italy. Ten years later I am much the wiser.

With the help of my Italian wife I have selected some of the most wonderful books on Italian cooking. These books we have selected using our ten years of experience of life in Italy. In our opinion they contain superb cooking tips, great recipes but that is not all…

Much more than just recipes they also offer a window onto a wondrous world. Explore a vibrant colorful country, a country where food is an essential part of the Italian way of life. These books leave you not only hungry and with a desire to start cooking, they also leave you with a hunger to journey to the villages, markets and country towns so lovingly portrayed.

This article focuses on one of my favorites:

A Passion for Piedmont: Italy’s Most Glorious Regional Table