Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Seven Healthy Cooking Tips

Healthy cooking doesn't have to be hard and some of the best cooking comes from the best healthy cooking tips. These are the seven best tips you can find around for cooking healthy meals, losing weight and most importantly, enjoying it!
1. Cooking Begins with Shopping
With every great adventure, the first step is always to actually take that first step. That is, part of learning to cook healthy is shopping smart. For that, it is important to know that there are a few key rules to follow: (1) low fat versions of milk, cheese, yogurt and salad dressing, (2) leaner meat cuts - if you're not sure, check for a tick from the Heart Foundation and (3) skinless versions of chicken breasts. While shopping, it is also a good idea to look at the ingredients and health information provided on the product to figure out how much sodium, fats (both trans- and saturated) and even sugar are in the products. Finally, a good of thumb is to walk around the walls of the grocery store as most healthy products are found there while the bad food is situated in the middle part of the store.
2. Healthy Cooking Tips
Nutrients are essential and there are many healthy cooking tips that can be found. Here, we have four that would provide a great step towards smart cooking: First, scrubbing vegetables instead of peeling them will retain many nutrients that vegetable held as most are found in the skin. Steaming vegetable or using the microwave will also retain a lot of valuable nutrients. If you want to boil your vegetables, then do it in a small amount of water and not over boil them. Lastly, incorporating stir fry recipes into a healthy diet can also allow many vegetables to be cooked quickly while retaining nutrients that they harbour.
3. Everyday Repetition
A great healthy cooking tip would be adding vegetables to all aspects of eating throughout the day. That could mean using carrots chopped up as a substitute for chips, broccoli and cheese whiz or even celery with peanut butter and raisin. In regards to main meals, a great healthy cooking tip would be to add peppers to stews or chow mein. Also adding other colourful vegetables to any dish also helps meet a recommended daily servings. Fruit chutneys and vegetable salads are also great substitutions for heavy gravies and sauces.
4. Fight Fatty Favourites
Low fat food products do exist. They are available as low fat cheese, low fat salad dressing and even evaporated skim milk. A great healthy cooking tip for people who love eggs is to invest in low cholesterol egg products. Even using the whites of the eggs in exchange for a whole egg also reduces the fat and cholesterol of baked goods.
5. Grease Trapping
There are a few great healthy cooking tips that would help considerably with removing fats. For one, using olive or canola oils are a great ways to start. During cooking, draining fats as you go helps and then dabbing pan fried food onto paper towels will also trap more visible fats. For soups, chilling soup and then skimming it off the top is also a way to reduce fat intake.
6. Methodology of a Healthy Cooker
There are a few ways to improve healthy and smart cooking; one great healthy cooking tip would be to try roasting, poaching or even stir-frying all the meals of the day. Open flame grilling should be minimal since it may produce cancer-promoting compounds. Also, microwaving - in in short range cooking times - reduce the elimination of nutrients and adds no water or fat to the cooking.
7. Talk About It:
Finally, talk about the healthy cooking tips! When beginning on a new endeavour, it becomes easier and more fun when learning with someone or teaching a younger person comes into the picture. Learning to cook healthy is always better with others - doing it with friends or family can help take the healthy cooking tips presented and implement it with more earnest attempts. Communication the desire to eat healthier and talking about how it can be done always helps to not only remind yourself but get ideas from others. Overall, learning to cook healthy can and should be fun. You are not alone - and the amount of interest may surprise you if you ask if anyone wants to cook with you.
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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6281757

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Easy Tips for Cooking For a Crowd

Whether it is for 20 or 50 people, cooking for a large number can be fun! Careful planning and preparations are the secret to successfully hosting of family or friends get-together. Somehow, it may seem overwhelming and difficult but it can be done without subjecting yourself to all the tension and stress. Here are some tips that can help.
Cooking For a CrowdEstablishing the number of invitees who have accepted
First and foremost, like anything you plan out to do, the most important part is the preparation. How many people are coming? It is very important that in your invitation there should be an RSVP. What is RSVP? The term RSVP comes from the French expression "répondez s'il vous plaît", meaning "please respond". It means that the invited guest should inform the host whether they are coming or not for the purpose of head count for the planned event. If this is just a simple family get together and you don't see the need for a written invitation, you could always call up your guests and ask if they are coming or not. Once you have an idea how much number of people you are cooking for, it is time to plan out your menu.
Cooking For a CrowdPlanning your menu
When cooking for a big crowd, it is best to cook simple and easy recipes. You don't need to slave too much in the kitchen cooking and look haggard when your friends come. List down the menu you have planned and the ingredients you need to buy days beforehand. Measuring how much you need to purchase, it would be good to buy extra ingredients. For example, if half a kilo of ground beef will make 5-8 patties and you have 20 guests coming, buy at least 2 kilos of beef to make at least 30 pieces of beef patties. That way, you can be sure that what you cook is more than enough. Go for easy to do recipes especially ones that you can marinate days before. Examples of these would be Fried Chicken or Grilled Barbecue. Marinating it beforehand would allow the marinade to seep through and make the meat tastier. If you are planning to make strew or casserole, you can also cook this day before and keep it in the freezer. Side dishes like potato salad or any dessert can also be done ahead of time. If you are cooking fish or any seafood dishes, as well as vegetables, it is best to do it on the day of the event itself. Seafood should be fresh when bought and cooked immediately. Same goes with the vegetables.
Cooking For a CrowdFinal preparations
Prepare plenty of drinks for the party. You can always stock up days before. The utensils that you will need for the party as well as the trays you will serve the food from should be ready on the day itself. It would be good if you have family members that can help with the cleaning and setting of the main table while you are busy with the food. It would be best if you are done an hour or two before your guests arrive so that you will have time to relax, prepare and look your best.
Cooking For a Crowd
Cooking for a large number of people can be fun. With careful planning and preparation, it could even be one of the best parties you ever had.