Soups for an Easy Meal

By Kristen Thorpe

You can't beat the versatility of a good bowl of soup. People love the many tastes and textures soup offers, and lest we forget, there's also the classic comfort factor. Not just for winter, soup is actually favored year round. And your thick, hearty soups are a meal all alone. If you don't feel like hot soup, why not try nice chilled fruit soup instead. Here is some soup basics to get you started on your way to making your next homemade soup.

When you look at soups, you can generally categorize them into either stock-based or non stock-based soups. Then there fruit soups as well, which generally do not use stock base. Stock based soups can include broth, bouillon, and consomm while non-stock based soups are typically your cream soups, purees, chowders, and bisques.

The majority of soup stocks start with a meat. The classic meat choices are commonly beef, lamb, turkey, veal, chicken, and fish. Lighter color meats such as poultry will create a light soup stock while the other darker meats will make a brown colored stock. To flavor the stock you'll typically add vegetables such as carrots, celery, and onion. These soups stocks are the basis for your family favorites including chicken soup, tomato soup, broths, and beef vegetable soups.

If you're making a rich thick puree or cream type soup you'll find they can be a perfect main course for a light dinner or afternoon luncheon. Create such classics as creamed corn or creamed broccoli, split pea, oyster or lobster bisque, bean or potato puree, clam chowder, and much more.

Fruit soups are a wonderful chilled alternative enjoyed year-round, but especially in the heat of summer. Varieties include strawberry, peach, melon, cantaloupe, and cherry. You'll find certain cold soup recipes use vegetable based stock and others list fruit juice in the ingredients instead. Either makes a wonderful vegetarian dish.

Whatever soup you choose to make, there's nothing quite like coming home and savoring a well-made soup. Finish your cream soup off with a small garnish and serve in a large, flat bowl. Covered soup bowls are ideal for bean and onion soups. And don't forget to make enough for second helpings.

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Homemade bread is a great side dish for your soup. Bake up a fresh loaf in this great clay bread pan . You'll find that having quality kitchen bakeware helps produce great baking results.

Quick And Easy Dinner Recipes

By Jennifer Joy

For most families, dinner is one of the most significant meals. It is where most family members have the time to eat together and talk about the day's event. Dinner will not be complete without a healthy and heart warming food. Rather than bringing home ready for eating food, it is still best if you could prepare home cooked food for dinner to the delight of the whole family.

Since we are mostly tired due to a entire day's work, it is usually knackering to prepare food for dinner. But this is no problem at all as there are a lot of easy dinner recipes which you can easily prepare a heavenly food for dinner. For most families, dinner is one of the most vital meals. It is where most family members have the time to eat together and talk about the day's event.

Dinner won't be complete without a healthy and heart warming food. Rather than bringing home ready to eat food, it still is best if you could prepare home cooked food for dinner to the elation of all the family. Since we are typically tired due to a entire day's work, it is commonly knackering to prepare food for dinner. But this is no problem at all since there are a lot of easy dinner recipes which you can easily prepare a delicious food for dinner.

Are you on the hunt for a fast, straightforward dinner recipe? You have come to the right place, and you are to be commended for your dedication to serving your folks a home-cooked meal, even after putting in a long day at work. One of my favorites is a home-made burger mac.

Simply brown some ground meat in a skillet - about a pound will do - and throw in some green pepper pieces and cut onions while you cook the meat. Then, get a box of elbow macaroni out of the pantry ( or some other small pasta that you have available ) and boil it up al dente. Then, go the cupboard and grab a can or perhaps 2 of diced tomatoes or catsup or even spaghetti sauce.

Put the tomatoes in the skillet with the browned meat, onions, and peppers, and stir to heat the tomatoes through. Once the pasta is cooked, drain it and add it to the pan as well . Add in some mozzarella, provolone, or cheddar cheese, and there you have it! A straightforward quick straightforward dinner recipe that everybody will love.

You have more control of food you prepare at home. You are less sure to go overboard on the carbs and you can watch the fat, sugar and salt content too. Go for fresh, easy food and do as little to it as you can. Combine this with a relaxed exercise routine of say, thirty mins brisk walking a day, and the weight problem will just about clear up itself.

We're all so busy these days, but if you can make a home rule that everyone seems to be home at a certain time for dinner ( at least some of the time ), then you get the value of sharing a meal together as well as sharing some time together. This is formed all the more special because you've prepared the meal yourself. In fact, get the children concerned and teach them some valuable skills while you are at it.

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quick and easy dinner recipes quick and easy dinner recipes quick and easy dinner recipes

Weekly Meal Planner

By Martha Ella

Many folks are using blank meal planners nowadays. You could be asking what they are. Well let's take a minute and look into these handy household helpers and see what they are all about. Blank meal planners enable someone to arrange the meals that are going to be had in the home for days or weeks at a time. They will help you when it comes to your food shop shopping as you'll know exactly what and when you will need certain items, this could take a large amount of the guesswork out of corner store shopping and other chores that are found troublesome to many folk.

The time that folks save by using blank meal planners is another bonus they will see swiftly. No longer will you be staring into the fridge thinking about what to make for dinner. No more scouring through cookery books looking for some ideas. Everything that you need to understand is right there in front of you on the blank meal planner.

Just think about the time that you will have for the other items that need to get done. You will no longer need to make those last minute stop to the grocery store as you'll have all the stuff you need in the house already. What a blessing these things can prove to be for many people.

There is a bit of time that you are going to need to take when you first start to use the blank meal planners. But after you get past the first few weeks you'll see how way easier that things are and love it. You can put all your family's favourite meals on the planner and then go from there and use your mind with the other days and use some of the recipes that you have needed to try but have put off. It is entirely up to you what you put on the planner.

The internet takes a lot of the guess-work and decision-making out of the dieting process. If you've ever had difficulty maintaining a diet during the past, then a web meal planner might be something to think about using next time you undertake a diet routine. Sometimes what we need is to learn exactly what to eat, when to eat it, and what proportion of it to eat.

This kind of decision-free dieting can bring reassurance to people who need structure and who lack the willpower to fend for themselves when faced with choices : All you have got to do is follow precisely what the net meal planner tells you to do, and you are just about guaranteed of losing X number of pounds in Y number of days.

Of course, every online meal planner will come with some quantity of choice and offer some room in terms of adaptability. But even these selections, once made, must be sticked to strictly. For example, your internet meal planner might call upon you to choose from among 4 different starters for your dinner. Or it might call upon you to choose the order in which you eat your designated meals for that day. Or it'd call upon you to select any food in a specific food group.

Oftentimes, an online meal planner doubles as a teaching help. After all , you can use the meal plans that the planner generates for you and learn the way to evolve them to your post-dieting life, after you have lost all your weight. Or you may use the meal planner as a basis from which you can learn how to conform and deviate. For instance, if the meal planner doesn't list a selected food in its menu selection but you know from your own independent research that you can substitute it in and still achieve your required weight management results, then you're free to do so.

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weekly meal planner weekly meal planner weekly meal planner

Fondant vs. Gum Paste

By Theresa Happe

If you've never used them before, you probably couldn't tell fondant from gum paste. Both are used to make all kinds of cake decorations, but there are times when one is more appropriate than the other.



Fondant, not gum paste, is used to cover cakes. There are a variety of different recipes, but most rolled fondant consists of powdered sugar, unflavored gelatin, water, glycerine, and liquid glucose. Once the cake is covered in fondant, the cake should not be placed in the refrigerator, as it will become sticky. The fondant will help to keep the cake fresh, but if you fill the cake with a filling that requires refrigeration, fondant is not a suitable way to finish the cake. Fondant looks very pretty and really is versatile, but the taste leaves much to be desired. It is very sweet and chewy. In fact, many people peel the fondant off when eating the cake. Marshmallow fondant has a much better taste. Even though it's made with marshmallows, it tastes more like cotton candy. The chocolate version tastes like tootsie rolls. It's less expensive to make marshmallow fondant at home than to buy pre-made fondant. Both fondant and gum paste can be colored in any shade using paste food colorings. You can use luster dusts to add color to anything you make. There are methods for applying it both wet and dry to achieve different effects.



You can purchase all kinds of cutters and tools that will give you endless creativity. Fondant can be cut with fondant or cookie cutters to create all type of shapes. It can be folded over skewers to create a drape on a cake. It can be colored with food coloring or sprayed with a cake decorating airbrush. It can be pressed into molds to create all kinds of intricate, decorative appliqus for the cake.



Besides covering a cake in fondant, fondant can be used to cover the cake board and make some decorations that don't require too much flexibility, such as bows. Gum paste is softer and more pliable. It is easier to mold into all kinds of shapes. Gum paste is usually used to make figurines, many having tiny little details. While you can try doing this with fondant, it doesn't quite shape as smoothly and it's a bit more difficult to work with. While gum paste is considered edible, it will dry very hard. You can save gum paste figures and flowers as keepsakes and they will last a very long time.



The recipes for gum paste are similar, but the main ingredient in gum paste which gives it a softer texture is gum tagananth. You can make a recipe at home using this ingredient or by purchasing gum paste mix found in most craft stores. It needs to be stored completely protected from air so it doesn't dry out. Wrap well in plastic wrap and place in an airtight container. You can use the gum paste for 2 weeks after it's made.



After kneading either one, they are rolled out on a clean surface dusted with cornflower. The rolling pin should be dusted, too. Add additional cornflower if there is any stickiness. For creating smaller designs, the mini rolling pin that comes with rings is a great tool. The rings allow you to roll the mixture out to a certain thickness without guessing. Once you get the hang of working with fondant and gum paste, you are only limited by your imagination.

About the Author:

Theresa Happe is a baker, cake decorator and author of Cake Decorating Corner, where you will find hundreds of cake decorating ideas

Fruit Salad - Healthy Food That Tastes Good

By Rodolfo S. Cummings

If you talk about healthy yet mouth watering nibbles, then you surely can't miss out on the fruit salads. Fruit salad is the ideal option to go for vis nibbles as they're the yummiest of all snacks. In addition it doesn't bring along the problem like calories as is the case with other nibbles. Fruit salads can offer the required taste only when prepared in the correct demeanour. Let's take look at some of the measure that can help you come out with the tastiest fruit salads ever.

First off that you only put the appropriate amount of fruit in fruit salad. Remember that fruits aren't the single thing which make a fruit salad. You also have to understand that it is both the quantity and spread of fruits in a fruit salad that matter. Ensure that you put less than five different forms of fruits and never let the general quantity be more than five / 6 of the whole preparation.

Fruit salads taste well only if you use fresh and ripe fruits. This is why seasonal fruits work the best for fruit salads. You will have them fully fresh from the nearby market. If you want to use exotic fruits or fruits that are not in season, ensure that you use them only as add-ons. You can sprinkle few pieces of canned pineapple or raisins on the salad.

Above the fruits, there should be acceptable dressing for fruit salad. Now this is the one / 6 of the 1/6 of the fruit salad so be really careful while you choose the dressing. Wrong dressing selection can mess up the taste and odour of whole thing. Honey is easily the best choice due to its universal taste acceptance. White lemon juice and if you can manage, some fruit juice will also help.

Make it colorful. That's the trick if you want to make your fruit salad visually appealing. A fruit salad that looks good will taste nice too. Try to have at least five different colours in your fruit salad. Mix in oranges, purple grapes, red apples, green pears, pail white lemon and you are sure to have a fruit salad that's all colorful. People will not be ready to struggle against this salad, thanks to the colours used.

The taste of the fruits salads is at the yummiest best when eaten chill. However, this in no freeze your salads. All that you should freeze your salads. All that of chilling of the fruits. Don't make the mistake of keeping the fruit salads in the fruit salads in the fridge for long. This may mar the whole flavour of the fruits as present in the salad. It's been noted that fruits exhibit their best taste and flavour when consumed at ordinary room temperature. Ideal would be to keep the fruit salad in the refrigerator for an hour only.

So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and prepare a flavorsome fruit salad that can tingle your taste receptors making you want for more.

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Read more about Caralluma Burn Appetite Suppressant and Caralluma Burn. Also get information about Caralluma Burn Review

The Best Waffle Recipe To Make Waffles From Scratch

By Ben Cook

I could assume that by you reading through this article, you are looking for an effective and tasty waffle recipe to make delicious breakfast treats from scratch. I have decided to give you one recipe, complete with an in depth, step-by-step approach to creating these culinary treats without too much trouble or ingredients.

This recipe is something that you can prepare anytime, and there are not a lot of steps and ingredients that are necessary to prepare it either. If you were to search out recipes for waffles, you will find that several different sources have different ways of making these treats, but I have complied what I use and consider to be the easiest way to make them.

Perhaps one of the most important, if not the most important factor in making any waffles using any recipe is a waffle iron. You see, without one of these, preparation of these delicious treats would be nearly impossible. They would basically just be pancakes that tasted a little more like waffles.

Okay, so lets get started with what you are going to need to make this happen. You are going to need a few staples to make this treat, and most recipes will include these you will learn. You will need cup of water, a pinch of sugar, 2 teaspoons of dry yeast, two cups of warm milk, eight tablespoons of butter, three teaspoons of salt, two cups of flour, two large eggs and teaspoon of baking soda.

So let's get down to business, you have to start off by combining the water and the yeast until it gets frothy. Ten minutes later you will add in the milk, flour, butter, and salt and blend very well into the existing mix. This mixture should sit in your refrigerator overnight and allow to thicken.

When you begin the preparation the following morning, you have to beat in the eggs and baking soda. There is a lot that you could do here to mix up your waffles through preparing them, and that might include adding fruits or flavoring. If you were going to do that, right here is where you would add it to the completed mixture. Then pour that mixture into an awaiting hot waffle iron and cook the waffle until it is a light golden brown.

You might be able to find a ton of ways to prepare and make waffles, but this might be the best waffle recipe that I have come across. I can vouch for the taste, as this is the recipe I use to make waffles for myself and my family. So try it out for yours.

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Today, tons people eat breakfast in the morning in order to complete their balance food nutrient throughout the day. The morning breakfast contains foods like waffles, eggs and sausage. To learn more information on waffle recipes for waffle makers look on the net.

Apple Crisp: The Secret Background of an American Classic

By Milly Hills

Nothing asserts fall like apple crisp, the warm cinnamon scent and sweet apples as much a part of autumn for many people as red leaves and cold weather. Or, presumably, it reminds you of highschool cafe, where a very sad and soggy version of apple crisp is a common staple of lunchtime.

Apple crisp, or apple crumble if you're from the United Kingdom, appears like the type of old time dish that's been handed down for generations. You can pretty simply imagine the travellers eating it at the first Thanksgiving. Despite this antique feel, apple crisp has an incredibly brief account.

Apple crisp doesn't make an appearance in cookbooks until 1924, so its creation potentially only goes back a few decades before. This is a record of a little more than a century, making it a reasonably fresh addition to the North American menu. The dish became speedily and immensely favored by some years of appearing in cooking books, as newspapers and personal recommendation spread the recipe.

The advantage of apple crisp is that it's significantly better to make than apple pie, another fall favorite. Instead of needing to be able to create a crust for a pie and then get it baked right a surprisingly hard task, apple crisp only needs that you be ready to layer the ingredients in an acceptable pan.

At its most simple, apple crisp is just a dessert composed of baked apple covered by a crisp crust. Generally, the crust is also covered in brown sugar and cinnamon to add an extra level of sweetness to the top, in addition to the brown sugar that's to be expected with the baked apples.

More specifically, you are going to find cooked apples, butter, sugar, flour, cinnamon, and often oats, brown sugar, ginger, and / or nutmeg. There are about as many different recipes for apple crisp as there are individuals that eat it, and even veteran bakers infrequently make it a exact same way twice.

There are heaps of variants possible from the choice of sugars to using oats to including other fruits. Peaches are a reasonably common addition to apple crisp, and it's not at all uncommon to find stuff like raspberry or blueberry crisp on the menu.

Rhubarb is a popular ingredient, as it provides a tart taste that contrasts with the sweetness of the pie. For the same reason, you want to consider your selection of apples, the most elementary ingredient in the dish, when you decide to make your apple crisp.

An apple, of course, isn't just an apple. They come in lots of varieties, with a huge range of sizes, tastes and textures. Apples can range from fairly sour to very sweet, and making sure to get the right sweetness is essential so that you'll know how much sugar to use.

Similarly, apples can have a range of textures, from crisp to almost floury, and it's imperative to grasp the feel of your apples before baked them so that you get an apple crisp that basically tastes good and has a nice mouth feel.

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Try my favorite apple crisp recipe here: http://applecrisprecipe.org

How The Crepe Is Used In French Cooking

By Claire Benoit

French cooking is seen by many as beyond the skills of the average cook. Yet many of these culinary concoctions have gained popularity worldwide because of their versatility and universal appeal. One that comes to mind is one of France's most popular dishes, the crepe. Mostly known as a dessert snack, this ultra thin pancake wrap can be served in several different of ways, and as both a sweet and savory dish. In fact, the crepe makes perfect sense for any meal of the day.

Sweet

Nearly all of the "sweet" varieties are served either for breakfast or as an after dinner treat.

The French don't usually sit down to a large breakfast, so the Nutella crepe is ideal. It's merely the standard thin pancake with a smear of hazelnut chocolate in the middle. This is especially popular among children.

For an after-dinner treat, the Suzette a French classic. It's served with orange zest, doused in the French liqueur, Grand Marnier, and includes a dollop of whipped cream. This is sure to pop up on any French restaurant menu.

The Savory Crepe

Considering that it is merely a wrap in its bare form, this delicacy is ideal for experimentation. It's for this very reason that so many cooks and diners have grown to love it served as a savory dish.

As for meat lover entrees, chefs have been known create them with fish, chicken, beef and pork. Just about everything really. There isn't a classic savory version per se, as with the sweet, but some menus include Bacon and Mushroom or Chicken Pesto as well as Salmon.

There are less heavy options available as well. It wouldn't be French unless cheese was allowed to make an appearance and it has throughout a range of recipes. Vegetable fillings such as spinach and leeks have become a popular inclusion as well for those seeking a healthier snack.

An Enduring Staple

With such versatility, it would be hard to imagine anyone disliking this delicacy. Certainly in the context of French cooking, it has evolved into so many creations that there has to be at least one that satisfies any diner's cravings. There's no mystery why it's a culinary favorite and no doubt that its variations will only continue to grow.

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Next check out more tips and resources for french cooking, french wines, and travel in France.

Health Food Surprise - Hot Chocolate!

By Ellie Checchin

Hot chocolate was a in style beverage as far back as 2000 years ago. The Mayans and also the Aztecs believed that chocolate was a food taken from Paradise and given to man by the god Quetzalcoatl. Chocolate was thought-about a powerful a drink and so the nobility served it in golden cups that were thrown away after the chocolate was consumed. Those ancient people believed that chocolate was a nourishing and healthy drink, capable of maintaining youth and arousing sexual prowess.

And surprise, surprise! Recent experiments have confirmed that those ancient Aztecs knew what they were talking about; everything they claimed chocolate could do has been shown to be scientifically true.

First, drinking hot chocolate releases flavonoids into the blood stream. These flavonoids are anti-oxidants that remove free oxygen radicals from the body, forestall tissue breakdown and preserve youthfulness. As much as 500 times the anti-oxidants in blueberries are the statistics for cocoa anti-oxidants.

Second, flavonoids additionally help to regulate blood pressure by producing nitric oxide in the blood stream. In this method, it also helps to improve the flow of blood within the body.

Third, of the three varieties of fat that are found in chocolate, solely one has been found to extend the LDL(unhealthy) cholesterol in the body. The oleic acid found in chocolate actually gives the body healthy fats. Therefore dark chocolate provides you one part of fine fat, one half of neutral fat and one part of dangerous fat.

Fourth, hot chocolate also contains ingredients that relieve persons in states of depression, improve congeniality and friendliness and increase sexual power.

Poing by point, those are specifically what the Aztec kings claimed chocolate did for them. One Aztec king loved hot chocolate so much that he drank up to fifty cups every day of it. Of course, the hot chocolate the Aztecs drank wasn't sweetened. It had been laced with different spices and fragrant herbs, hot chili pepper and generally with corn.

So as to avail of the health advantages of hot chocolate it's better to use unsweetened powdered cocoa. Powdered cocoa has a lesser amount of fat and less chocolate than processed commercial chocolates. Mix in just the proper quantity of sugar to deaden its bitter taste. Preferrably, use dark brown sugar or molasses to sweeten it. Adding a pinch or two of cinnamon can increase the health value of your hot chocolate. You can additionally follow the instance of the Aztecs and add some corn flakes to it or lace it with medicinal herbs.

Do not use candied chocolate preparations for your choco health drink. Black and bland chocolate made from unsweetened cocoa powder may be a smart health drink if not taken in excess. The intake advice for sweet chocolate is 100 grams daily, for unsweetened chocolate it is more. 2 cups of hot chocolate a day, mildly sweetened, with a touch or two of cinnamon will work to preserve your vitality, your good mood and your health. Black and hot, chocolate is one among the healthiest supplements you'll be able to get.

About the Author:

Ellie Checchin will always be a girl that loves to sit in front of mirror, playing with make up. Ellie has codes a site containing reviews on makeup train cases, as well as travel cosmetic bag.

How to Plan a Diabetic Menu - Adapting Regular Meals to Your Diet

By Leslie Bogaerts

If you've been diagnosed with diabetes it's important to remember that managing diabetes is all about control. With your medication, the right workout plan and a smart diabetic menu your life can go back to normal. You can control your diabetes through your food choices and a comprehensive exercise plan. Let us show you the best ways to create your diabetic menu.

The first thing you should know is: not all diabetics have the same requirements. Maybe you need to lower down your calorie intake while others should lower the fat content in his foods. Further more it is important to spread your meals during the day. It's better to have three or four smaller meals so you can spread out calories and carbohydrates throughout the day. This way you can control your blood sugar levels.

Key to a good diabetic menu is the types of ingredients you use in your recipes. What types of foods can be used? Well, you can most likely keep right on eating what you already eat.

If you want to adapt your normal planning into a good diabetic menu, you should keep the following tips in mind:

* Consume only plain potatoes, top them with a small amount of a low calorie topping or margarine.

* Make sure every meal you eat is the same size.

* Use only a small amount of oil when stir frying vegetables, you can still add plenty of seasoning!

* Stay away from fried foods completely.

* Have your meat or fish boiled without to much butter.

Keep these tips in mind and you can create a wonderful diabetic menu for yourself. Train yourself to adapt your meals in the ways we've suggested, it'll become a regular habit before you know it!

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Having problems planning a healthy and tasty menu that you can eat without worrying about your diabetes? Visit the diabetic menu site for information related to the diabetic and glycemic index menu plan.

Shrimp Scampi Recipe

Looking for something different to make for dinner? Here is a shrimp scampi recipe that your family and friends will love, and it is simple and fast to prepare. Enjoy!

Shrimp Scampi

8 ounces angel hair pasta
1 3/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt-free lemon-pepper seasoning
1/4 cup chopped green onions, divided
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley, divided
1 pound uncooked shrimp, peeled and deveined

Cook pasta according to package directions.

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, combine the broth, garlic, lemon-pepper seasoning and 3 tablespoons each green onions and parsley. Bring to a boil. Add shrimp; cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until shrimp turn pink. Drain pasta and place in a serving bowl. Top with shrimp mixture and remaining onions and parsley.

Serves 4.

Nutritional Analysis: One serving equals: 250 calories, 398 mg sodium, 136 mg cholesterol, 33 gm carbohydrate, 23 gm protein, 2 gm fat

Diabetic Exchanges: 2 starch, 2 very lean meat, 1/2 vegetable


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Easy Recipes That Can Feed A Family

By Adriana Noton

With our lives becoming much busier these days, it can be difficult to find the time to make meals. Because feeding a family can be a time consuming task, many people are now looking for easy and quick to make recipes. Fortunately, there are many great easy recipes one can make for the entire family. Below are a few easy recipes one can make to feed their family.

Orange Chicken with Rosemary: Ingredients: 1 lb boneless and skinless chicken portions, 1 tsp paprika, 1 tsp pepper, 6 oz thawed juice concentrate, 1 tsp rosemary, 1 tsp thyme, and 1 tsp marjoram. Place the chicken in a casserole dish. Lightly add pepper and paprika over the chicken. Mix the other ingredients in a bowl and pour over the chicken. Bake the chicken covered at 350F for approximately an hour.

Tasty Tacos: Ingredients: 1 pound lean ground beef, 1 ounce taco seasoning packet, 2/3 cup water, one can of kidney beans, 1/3 cup light sour cream, 1/3 cup medium salsa, 4 cups shredded iceberg lettuce, 2 cups chopped tomatoes, 1 cup grated cheddar cheese, and flour tortillas. In a frying pan, cook the lean ground beef until crumbly. Drain the fat. Add taco seasoning packet, 2/3-cup water, and beans to the meat. Mix everything together and cook. Reduce heat and let simmer for about 5 minutes. Stir as it simmers. Remove from heat and let it cool while covered. Divide all of the lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, salsa, and sour cream in separate small bowls. Set aside and let it cool a bit. Add sour cream and salsa to a small bowl and mix until well blended. Warm the tortillas shells in the oven or microwave. Place the meat filling in the tortilla shell. Allow each member of the family to add their choice of vegetable toppings.

Hamburger Pizza Pie: Ingredients: 1 pound of lean ground beef, 2 packets of pizza dough mix, 1 can spicy pizza sauce, 1 pound of mozzarella cheese. Brown the ground beef in a frying pan until crumbly. Drain the fat. Follow the directions of the dough packet mixture to make the crust. Grease the bottom and sides of a pizza pan. Press the pizza dough into the pan, including the sides to make a thicker crust. Sprinkle flour on your hands to keep the dough from sticking to fingers and hands when you press it for the crust. Add a layer of the spicy pizza sauce over the crust. Add of the ground beef to the bottom of the pan. Cover the top with grated Parmesan cheese. Repeat the process to have another layer. Sprinkle the top of the pizza with mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350-degrees for approximately 20 minutes and the crust is brown. Remove from the oven and let it sit for a few minutes before cutting and serving.

It is never easy to make quick and easy meals for the family. By being a little creative with simple and quick to prepare recipes, you will make the task much easier and your family will love the delicious meals.

About the Author:

For more easy recipes, consider using healthy ingredients like eggs.

A Pasta Meal in a Flash, Quick and Easy Recipes

Pasta meals are pretty easy to cook. The pasta itself just needs to be placed in boiling water and can be cooked in 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the type of pasta of course. And while the pasta is boiling you can already prepare your desired sauce, whether it may be tomato based, pesto or cream based, you can be finished in now time. You can have a pasta meal in a flash, provided you know what you’re doing.

To those experienced in the kitchen, this kind of meal is easy to make. But to the novices might still find pasta a little daunting or troublesome. One thing that you should watch out when cooking pasta is the noodles. You need to test every now and then to see if the noodles are done. The pasta cooks pretty quickly and leaving it too long can result to soggy noodles.

Avoid placing the pasta when the water is not yet boiling. This will help prevent the pasta from becoming all mushy, soft and sticky. Also, keep the water at a boil at all times. You can help make the pasta firmer if you add salt into the boiling water. Note that you should not cover the pot when you already placed the pasta. When the pasta is done, take it off the boiling water. The pasta will continue to cook if you leave it there. With that, one half of your pasta meal is done. The other half would be the sauce.

The good thing about pasta is having several choices for sauces. Actually, at some point you will be stomped on what kind of sauce to make due to the varieties. If you’re a pasta person then having a couple of sauces stored in your refrigerator would be the best ways to go. If you have pesto, you can use that to sauce your pasta. Add additional garlic, some mushrooms or even Italian sausages and topped with cheese and you can have a good meal.

Bottled or canned sun-dried tomatoes can go well with pasta. I always try to have some sun-dried tomatoes ready since you can just pour it over your pasta and voila! A tomato based pasta without the traditional tomato sauce and pastes. Top with grated cheese and partnered with bread and you can have a fulfilling meal in no time.

If you want a cream-based sauce, just prepare some sliced olives, cream, oregano and grated cheese. Mix the cream, olives and oregano together with your pasta and finish off with grated cheese on top. A simple cream-based pasta but can be quite joyous to the palette.

Olive oil is also a staple sauce for pasta and can be quite easy to use as well. You can mix olive oil with canned seafood or slices of meat or sausages to create a sauce for your pasta. You can add basil for flavor and don’t forget the grated cheese. If you want to experiment, try adding spicy flavored meat or canned seafood. Spicy pasta may not be for everyone but still a good dish in my account.

A pasta meal in a flash is really just that. In a span of 15 to 20 minutes you would have already prepared a good, hearty meal of pasta in either tomato, cream or olive-based sauce. It is a quick meal that I personally won’t get tire off.


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Cooking and Weight Loss

By Lisa Wood

Common opinion is that weight loss is boring and asks too much from you or that you have to say goodbye to your favourite meals almost for forever.

It can be different and not boring at all. You can still eat tasty dishes by replacing certain products with others and by improving them using different techniques. Knowing the right things you can still enjoy your food and lose weight.

Following and executing tips bellow is simple and they won't change your food making habits massively; just some can take some extra time but benefits are far greater than few minutes.

It's an easy process and weight loss can be enjoyed which is proven bellow. Healthy low calorie but very tasty meals can still be enjoyed.

I am sure that tips bellow are suitable to your weight loss plan. Let's start with weight loss cooking tips:

1. Reduce fat content in beef by 50% with rinsing it down in hot water (once you have drained and browned it). Great thing is that it does not affect its flavour.

2. Replace butter with chicken broth in pasta, rice and stuffing dishes.

3. Swap oil to chicken / beef broth or wine and reduce the fat and get more flavour.

4. In marinades instead of oil use wine, salad dressing or fruit juice. This reduces the fat and improves the flavour.

5. Full cheese replace with soft cheese such as cottage cheese in your pasta dishes. This will reduce calories and fat.

6. Replace mozzarella with cheddar cheese and cut calories by half and reduce fat.

7. Save 8 grams of fat per glass by replacing whole milk with skimmed.

8. Cut down more calories with replacing 1 whole egg with 2 egg whites.

Write down these changes and get used to them while you cook. These are just the most common weight loss cooking techniques and there are plenty of different ones available.

Give these tips a try and see how they work for you. The bottom line is that you don't have to suffer when losing weight; you can still enjoy your meals if they are cooked the smart and healthy way.

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Dr Atkins Low Carb Diet Recipes

By Joy Mitchell

So you're going on the Atkins Diet. It's not necessarily your first diet and until you try this, you can't be certain that it will be your last dieting attempt. Everything you've attempted so far has failed you and you're on the verge of giving up dieting altogether. Of course, this has been the case many a time before and yet you've still found yourself trying diet after diet without too much regret. Now however you live in the hope that with the Atkins low carb diet recipes that you have tucked firmly in your pocket, that you'll be able to beat your track record of yo-yo dieting.

You go home full of excitement and plans to buy that little black dress you've had your eye on now for a few weeks. You won't go out and get it immediately of course, no, that would just put a jinx your dieting efforts, but with the help of the Atkins low carb diet recipes you shouldn't have very long to wait.

After you get home, you sit in your kitchen going through the lists of low carb diet foods you're allowed to consume, and you're wondering what you got yourself into. You have absolutely no idea how you're going to cook half of these low carb diet foods, and besides they don't sound half as appealing as Joe's pizza from around the corner.

What despair! So, you say good-bye to that little black dress. After all, there's no way you can eat these low carb diet foods, since you don't think you could even prepare them if bought the ingredients. That's when inspiration hits and you remember the Atkins low carb diet recipes that you have lying in your purse.

You had put the two objects in two different parts of your huge bag and had entirely forgotten about the Atkins low carb diet recipes which you had been given previously. You are happy again and you can see the black dress within your grasp. So now you sit down and create a list of the low carb diet foods that you'll need to start your very first Atkins low carb diet recipes.

The first thing you need to do though, is take all that lovely high carb food in your cupboards to the nearest shelter and make a healthy donation of food. You don't care what the family says, they're all going to eat Atkins low carb diet recipes.

The next you have to do is hightail it to the supermarket and buy the ingredients off your food list that you'll need to prepare the first meal on your Atkins low carb diet recipes list. And on the way back, you'll stop off at the little dress shop around the corner and promise the little black dress in the window, that you'll be it's wearer soon, so long as you stick with those Atkins low carb diet recipes!

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Do you need to lose those excess kilos real fast? Well, take a free look at Atkins low carb diet recipes, by visiting our resource called The Atkins Diet Plan

Creative Cooking For A Vegan Diet Plan

By Ben Pate

When cooking a strict vegan diet plan, it will be important to do some research on the types of substitutes that can create the flavor you want in a quick and easy way. Vegans do not eat any foods that are made from animals or animal products. This include honey and foods that you may not think had animal products used in their processing.

When cooking for a strict vegan vegetarian diet, you will want to substitute ingredients in recipes that meet the needs of the vegan, but which will also be tasty to the non-vegans who may eat the food. With most of the recipes, where plant substitutes are used for protein and other ingredients, you will want to use more spice than would be used normally. Most of the ingredients used for cooking vegan foods do not have the level of taste that is in other foods. Many will absorb the flavor of the food being made.

There are many alternatives for sugar and honey that can be used when baking or cooking. The most healthy substitute is natural maple syrup. When you are using a syrup instead of a dry sweetener, be sure to reduce the amount of liquid you use in your recipe to accommodate the liquid of the syrup.

Agave Syrup, Date Syrup, and Golden Syrup are also commonly used with cooking and sweetening hot drinks. Each syrup will impart a different flavor in the recipe you are creating. Experimenting with a small amount of syrup with the other ingredients will allow you to find the best sweetener for your recipe. When finding the best sweetener for a hot drink you will find that herbal teas react differently to each type of syrup.

Baking and stovetop cooking require different substitutions in recipes. Almond and Soy milk make perfect substitutions for milk when a person is baking. Both of these milks have fats in them that combine with the ingredients just as regular milk does. When a gravy is being made, rice milk and cornstarch are an excellent combination. Rice milk will not burn or scorch as easily as Soy and Almond milk and is a great medium for other herbs and spices.

Rice milk does not burn easily and when you want to make gravy, using this milk with cornstarch will blend very well. When you want a creamy, sweet milk that is very easy to whip or use for cream, Coconut milk is an excellent choice. When using this milk you will want to cut the sweetener you use as it is very sweet when used as whipping cream.

When cheese is needed for a pasta dish, it is very easy to create a Ricotta cheese substitute. Silken Tofu or Mashed Tofu that is blended with a bit of lemon juice gives the Ricotta cheese flavor and bakes in pasta just like the real cheese. This cheese also works very well when making old-fashioned cheese break. When using substitute ingredients in recipes, a touch of lemon juice can brighten up the flavor of any dish.

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The flavors of the low fat vegan diet dishes that are made for people are very personal. Once a substitute is found that has the taste that is being sought, it will be important to write down the combination of ingredients that were used so you will have it on hand when you cook for a vegan diet again.

Quick And Easy Dinner Recipes

By Veronica Milton

Do you have the skills to help you transition from drive thru mind-set to preparing full family dinners? Yes, I laughed at this concept too. The entire idea that I could have the time or energy to make dinner for my family each day is laughable. Then I started implementing these tips and our family life really changed. I want to share with you how to make quick and easy dinner recipes work for you on a day-to-day basis.

Post a shopping list on the inside of your cupboard door. Have a pen always close by to make notes. This may help you to recollect all the necessities that you need as you go through the week. The quick and easy dinner recipes are generated with your shopping list.

Purchase a calendar so that you can write down each day what dinner is going to be. Get everyone concerned and have them jot down some suggestions too. This can help in your organization and everyone likes to see a follow up on their suggestions for dinner plans. Attempt to plan at least one week in advance. Don't forget to be flexible however.

Get everyone else involved. I have 2 children so they get to choose one meal every fortnight. My daughter picks one week and then my child the next . I find a day that looks good and ask for their choice ahead of time. They get excited to for having dinner at home because it's their choice and I don't have to force anyone to eat anything.

Subscribe to blogs or internet sites that have great recipes emailed right to you each week. I have been lucky enough to sign up for a program that helps me out fantastically. Not only has it got a big library of recipes to pick from, but it helps me put the recipes onto a list and then even makes a corner shop list for me. I don't know how I ever lived without it. There are quite a few of these sites out there, but the one I use can be found here.

If you follow these tips and tenets you can make dinner time fun and well organized. There isn't any need to fret about what is for dinner each night with a little planning and some great quick and easy dinner recipes that you will be collecting. Try it for yourself and see if it creates a difference.

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quick and easy dinner recipes

The List Of Health Benefits Of Red Wine

By Thomas Sinclair

Red wine has been enjoyed by people for the past hundreds and hundreds of years. Many doctors recommend that a person drink one glass per day to keep their health in good condition. If we look at the benefits of red wine, you will find several examples of its healing properties.

The process of making wine is relatively easy. A winery picks the grapes when they are ripe. The grapes will be fermented on the skins. The red wine color comes from the skins. The grapes are fermented by adding yeast on top of them. The longer the fermentation process the deeper the color of wine.

Upon completion of fermentation, the grapes are pressed, skins and anything else is removed. The wine ages in the barrel. Once completely ready, it is bottled. The wine is ready to consume.

There are health benefits to consuming red wine. Red wine contains resveratrol and other polyphenols. A polyphenol is a chemical compound that is found in grape skins. This compound acts as an antioxidant. These antioxidants help the body keep disease free. Resveratrol is also an antioxidant.

Another health benefit from drinking red wine is the cardiovascular assistance. A study found that red wine stopped the synthesis of a protein called endothelin-1. This protein can lead to the development of atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is a build up of fatty material along the arterial walls. Another study found that red wine drinkers had a sixty eight percent reduction in the incident of colorectal cancers and abnormal growths.

Drinking a glass of red wine each day is beneficial to a person.. 's overall health. There are properties in the wine that assist a person with maintaining their cardiovascular health. Also the antioxidants in red wine help with fighting and keeping disease away.

About the Author:

Thomas Sinclair has been in the field of organic remedies for a long time and maintains a website about Benefits Of Red Wine where you can get answers to the rest of your questions.

How To Cook A Stress Free Meal

By Michael Mancienne

Creating a meal that pleases your family or friends can be an exhausting experience. Then there's the cleaning up afterwards! Preparation and planning, as with other tasks, are perhaps the the most important aspects.

These simple, yet effective suggestions, will help you better organize yourself. You'll likely be surprised at just how effortlessly a meal can be had and cleaned away. A cleaner and more organized kitchen will be an added bonus.

1. Plan ahead. The more you do so the easier it'll be when the times comes to perform.

2. Organize your kitchen. Just because you've always kept particular items in a certain place, doesn't mean you should. Box up or give to others items you no longer use, and better organize the things you do. For example, if the items that most often are put in the dishwasher aren't in the cabinets closest to it - move things around.

3. Keep a plastic bag on the work surface where you cook. All the garbage will end up in there without a second thought. Then make one trip to the garbage can when you're done.

4. Place your ingredients back in the cupboard after you use them. Use some time to clean up whilst cooking, and you will be surprised at how improved the state of your kitchen is when you're done.

5. Buy in bulk where possible. Have dry goods in stock that you know you will use regularly in order to avoid last minute grocery store trips.

6. Clean a dish here or there. Sure there will be dishes to clean after the meal is done, but if you can clean some of the dishes used in the preparation in between simmers and stirs, there will be less.

7. Set the table as early as possible. If this is done early it won't compete for your attention at mealtime.

8. Delegate tasks to others. Ensure that family members know prior to eating what their job is i.e. doing the dishes, clearing their plates etc.

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