Phytonutrients are plant based compounds that help prevent obesity, cancer and heart disease. The “green” color group that we should eat more of includes spinach, broccoli, kale, brussels sprouts, green beans and soybeans. For example, try putting some spinach in your eggs for a wonderful spinach frittata. These green veggies will fight Alzheimer’s disease, macular degeneration and lung cancer.

The “red” color fruits and veggies we should eat more of are strawberries, tomatoes, apples, cranberries, pomegranate and watermelon. They help our bodies fight cell damage, breast and prostate cancer. It is not so hard to add these to our diet in the summer, when everything is in season and is so plentiful. Make sure you do things like add tomatoes to your soups in the winter and still eat your apples for lunch.

The “orange” color fruits and veggies that would be healthy for us to eat are squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, apricots, cantaloupe, oranges, corn and pineapples. Visit me at eatdinner4two.com for some great ways to fix sweet potatoes. This group will help us prevent heart disease, stroke, asthma and rheumatoid arthritis.

The “white” color foods that we should include in our diet are garlic, onions, pears and cauliflower. They will help reduce high blood pressure, high cholesterol and bone loss.

The “purple” colored grapes, figs, blueberries, red cabbage, eggplant, black beans and plums will help prevent memory loss, premature aging, cancer and heart disease.

So, next time you sit down for a meal, make your plate look like a kaleidoscope of color and your body will thank you for caring. Cover half of your plate with fruits and vegetables as they will make you feel full and you will eat fewer calories. The end product will be a great tasting meal and a healthy weight for you.

Brussels Sprouts (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Food handler safety precautions take on a special importance when we consider that food prepared in restaurants and food-processing plants is meant to be consumed by vast numbers of people. Any small slip could lead to dangerous bacteria entering the food and infecting many – the sinister thing about microorganisms is their ability to multiply quickly. That’s why a good home-cook won’t necessarily make a first-class caterer. When it comes to cooking for a big group, there are food handler safety guidelines that must be followed religiously.

First, it’s necessary to be prepared. You’ll need facilities such as enough stove stop space, large enough containers and preparation space. When you’re catering on site rather than cooking in a restaurant, you’ll also have to know whether there are facilities at the location for cleaning equipment, as well as toilets and wash stations for staff. Next, keep those microorganisms in mind. During the actual preparation and cooking of food, make sure that nothing that’s touched raw meat – the breeding ground for all kinds of parasites, many of which are capable of eating out a human brain – will touch clean utensils or anything that’s meant to be eaten raw or is ready-to-cook. Anyone who’s touched raw meat should wash and dry their hands after their tasks as well.

Be mindful of temperatures too. When storing food, store it below five degrees Celsius. Between five and sixty degrees, bacteria will thrive. When you’re cooking, make sure you cook it to the temperature that will destroy these bacteria. Be careful when partially cooking food – this can actually help foster the growth of bacteria since something warm and moist is the perfect host. When transporting food to a venue, you should also keep warm food warm and cold food cold. Finally, if you’re in doubt about any food item, throw it out – a little money lost and food wasted is nothing compared to the headaches you’ll get if any customers end up with food poisoning.

A picture of myself (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There’s much more to cakes than making a simple presentation of it at a birthday or christening because most chefs find it a real challenge to come up with structures that are almost unbelievably stunning.

While some of these professionals had it in their blood and were able to grasp the methods pretty quickly, many others had to attend many cake making courses to learn all the nitty gritty stuff that beautiful cakes are made of.

Although basic classes can show a student how to make a cake and cover it with icing, there are various advanced classes that teach their students a lot more and anyone interested in going up to a professional level should take a little trouble to find such cake decorating courses if he wants to become a success.

There are so many mysteries and tricks that will be unraveled at these classes making you realize how little you knew about the subject of decorating cakes until then. Another advantage of attending the advanced classes is that you get to interact with so many experts in the business that you get to learn a lot from them as well.

Not only will you be able to learn the various different techniques of making and decorating the perfect cake, you will also get to know about the specialized tools and equipment that can be used to make your job easier and the final product look more professional.

Additional stuff such as where you can get your ingredients and equipment at discount prices and where the best cake shows are held and the various seminars you can attend can be learnt when you attend these courses and before long you will even be invited to these conventions and seminars if you’re able to prove your worth amongst the professionals.

There is certainly no dearth of cake decorating courses anywhere in the world today and it’s up to you to go beyond the basics and find a course that would help you to reach high in your chosen career.

Cakes can be molded, sculpted and decorated to resemble just about anything, even a cheeseburger! Photo by Michael Prudhomme. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Roast beef and pan-seared vegetables

While this might not sounds like a particularly healthy dish, it can be as long as it’s prepared properly.  Instead of choosing cuts that are high in fat, like prime rib, you should choose leaner cuts such as round or rump roasts.  The fat content in these cuts is a lot lower and the amount of healthy proteins in them is a lot higher.  It’s also really important to marinate the meats with low fat seasonings such as fresh herbs and olive oil.  Try to avoid marinades that are high in artificial flavors such as pre-packaged seasonings and bottled sauces.  Heavy sauces and marinades can increase the fat content in roasts by quite a bit.  If you keep the marinades fresh and seasonal then roasts will come out tasty but still healthy.  Pan-searing the vegetables in olive oil is a great way to give them flavor while retaining all of the nutrients and crunchiness in them.

Steamed salmon and mashed potatoes

Salmon is a great dish because it tastes great and it’s easy to prepare.  As long as you have an oven and a bit of tinfoil, it’s possible to make an elegant but tasty salmon dinner.  The first thing that needs to be done is the marinating of the salmon fillets.  A few drops of olive oil and some springs of rosemary should be placed on the fillets which should then be placed on sheets of tinfoil.  The foil should then be folded over the salmon fillets and placed into an oven that’s heated to 375 degrees.  After about 15 minutes the salmon should be done and about ready to serve.  In order to avoid the cream and butter that’s usually put into mashed potatoes, skimmed milk and low-fat margarine can be used instead.  It’s also important to whip the potatoes well since this will give them a fluffy and creamy texture.  This is a simple but still healthy meal that comes across as very impressive and thoughtful.

These are two terrific dishes that you can make for any romantic occasion.  Instead of wracking your brain for gift ideas for boyfriends or girlfriends, consider making them a home cooked meal.  The fact that you’ve spent time in the kitchen making a meal from the heart makes this one of the most romantic giftsanyone can give.

Marination (Photo credit: moyrj)

Production Costs

The primary factor that makes up the price of any product, from egg to sportscar, is how much that product costs to produce. Since white eggs are the standard, we’ll use them as a baseline in our comparisons from here on out. The White Leghorn hen, which produces white eggs, is a relatively small bird with a high egg-to-feed ratio. This means that for every pound of feed the hen eats, the number of eggs produced is high. This reason alone is why they are the overwhelming favorite when it comes to laying hens.

Brown eggs, as we said before, come from brown or red hens, such as the Rhode Island Red or New Hampshire. These varieties of hen are significantly larger than their ivory-plumed sisters, which means that they need to eat more feed each day in order to stay healthy and continue producing eggs. The number of eggs they produce, however, is on par with the White Leghorns. Given that it takes more food to produce the same number of eggs, we can extrapolate that it costs more to produce a brown egg than a white egg, hence a higher price for the consumer.

Healthier = More Expensive?

Nutritionally speaking, there is no difference between brown chicken eggs and white chicken eggs. Aside from the color of the shell, they are completely identical. Still, many people believe that brown eggs are a healthier choice than white eggs. Why this food myth persists, no one can say, but egg producers are only too happy to capitalize on this mistaken belief by charging just a little bit more. After all, a more expensive product means a superior product, right?

When you shop for eggs, you are bound to come across a wide variety of options. White eggs, brown eggs, duck eggs, quail eggs, pasteurized eggs, egg whites in a carton, and Easter eggs are all commonly available if you look for them. In the end, for most of us, it comes down to white eggs or brown eggs, and brown eggs are the more expensive variety because of shopper misconceptions and a higher production cost. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to save a few dollars by sticking with the white eggs.

This guest post was contributed by Tim of Chicken and Apples, a healthy food blogthat works to make eating healthy simple for the busy cook.

Some green and a brown egg standing on end with the help of some salt. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cakes have also come a long way since the days of our grandmas’ who used to bake butter cakes, sponge cakes and even chocolate cakes on which they spent countless hours cutting, mixing, whipping etc. all of which had to be done by hand.

Today however, all the innovative tools and equipment such as cake beaters and electronic equipment have made cake making so much easier and very much quicker. If you take a look at an old recipe on how to make a cake, you might be quite amused to see the elaborate preparations that had to be made long before the mixing of the batter began.

Even so, those cakes were also wonderfully made and good to taste although most of the recipes today have been improved upon to give them a new twist and a better taste.

Most people know how to make a chocolate cake or layer cake because these are the most popular of all cakes and are favorites for birthday and anniversary celebrations.

Cake making and decorating has become a big business today with cake making classes being held in all countries across the world so that everyone gets a chance to prepare those mouth watering and amazingly beautiful structures that take our breathe away.

There are so many varieties of cakes today, had our grandmas lived would have surprised them no end. With names such as banana cake, carrot cake, devil’s cake and cheese cake not to mention fried ice cream cake and chili cake, they would never believe that all these are based on the simple butter and chocolate cakes with various ingredients added or taken out.

Whatever said and done, cake is one of the most popular and favorite deserts of all time and  learning how to make a cake would be of immense help to any home maker because there’ll be enough and more times when a freshly baked yummy tasting cake would no doubt come in very handy when friends drops in suddenly.

Image via Wikipedia

Things have certainly changed: my teenagers usually have a rehearsal or meet of some kind at about the same time as dinner, while my husband comes home later than before. My daughter eats a vegetarian diet now, and I’ve been lightening up meals for the rest of us carnivores.

I knew I had to adapt, without giving up the positive steps we were all taking. So, I challenged myself recently to put together a whole week’s worth of meals. I had three main goals:

1. Make them simple but delicious
2. Keep the cooking time below 1 hour
3. Stay within the household budget

Planning

I needed a good plan. Fortunately for me, I’m an organizer by nature. I started by making a list of meals my family liked and ate already. That kept me in my comfort zone. For this week, I weeded out the dishes we all enjoyed but were labor-intensive. I figured I could always add one back in for the weekend when I had more time to cook. But probably no beef burgundy this week.

I then thought about each remaining dish and if it could be stretched out into two meals. We could have servings at the beginning and the end of the week – two meals down already.

I chose Chicken Cacciatore first: a one-pot meal with only a handful of ingredients. Next I tried to come up with other ways to use ingredients I’d be buying, so some of the foods could do double duty.

I noticed that hamburger was on sale at the grocery store I usually shopped at, so I incorporated that, along with veggies that were reduced. From that, I filled out the schedule.

The week’s menu:

• Monday – Chicken cacciatore, pasta, Italian bread
• Tuesday – Hamburgers, carrot and green pepper sticks
• Wednesday – Black beans and rice, squash
• Thursday – Chicken and rice soup, bread
• Friday – Calzones/Pizza, broccoli
• Saturday – Chicken cacciatore, pasta, bread, peas
• Sunday – Chili, rice, bread, carrot sticks
  

  Image via Wikipedia

Note: Your market’s weekly flier or website is a great tool for deciding on mealsfor a given week. The listed specials may even give you some new ideas.

Shopping

Here’s the list I came up with:

• 4 pounds Chicken Thighs
• 4 pounds hamburger
• Veggies: 1 pound bag of carrots, 2 green peppers, 1 bag each of peas and corn, 1 box frozen butternut squash, 2 broccoli crowns
• 4 cans of whole tomatoes
• 1 package white or baby bella mushrooms
• 2 cans black beans
• Hamburger rolls
• 1 package Pizza dough or pre-made crust
• 2 boxes of spaghetti or linguini
• 1 bag of rice, medium or long-grain
• 2 loaves of Italian bread or any kind your family likes
• Chili mix
• Spices like chili powder, pepper, red pepper

Tip: Buying the meat in one larger package instead of several smaller ones saves money, and it only takes a minute to re-package them into smaller amounts.  Veggies, pasta and rice may also be less expensive overall bought in bulk.

My bill for these came to about $42. I had to add in a few extra dollars for veggie burgers and tofu, but I still managed to stay below $50. Not bad for a week of dinners.

Prepping

If I had been very ambitious, I would have set aside one day to pre-cook. But I settled for just prepping this time.

The chicken got left alone. I would need to brown all of the thighs to use in the cacciatore and soup, and doing them all at once on Monday wouldn’t take too much extra time. I split the hamburger into three containers – about 1 1/3 in each. I had planned for two meals using it for the week, so the extra could be part of next week’s plan.

I cut up about 5 carrots and 1 of the green peppers into sticks and put them into an airtight bag. And I cleaned the mushrooms (wiping them gently with a damp paper towel) so they’d be ready to cook.

Recipes

Here are two of the recipes I used that week. I put pre-made pizza dough on the shopping list for convenience sake. But after discovering that I could actually make my own I prefer it, and it’s more cost-effective. You probably already have flour, sugar and olive oil in your pantry, and three packages of dry yeast only cost around $2.

Chicken and rice soup

2 tbsp vegetable or olive oil

1/2 a medium onion, chopped

2 cups chicken or vegetable broth (or water with bouillon)

2 cups cooked chicken (dark meat or white) in slices

1 cup carrots, chopped

1 cup peas

1 cup corn

1 cup cooked rice

1 cup milk

2 tbsp flour

Heat up the oil in a soup pan. Saute the onions until tender. Pour in the broth and heat till boiling. Add in the chicken and vegetables, simmering for about 20 minutes until well heated. Put the rice in.

Stir the flour into about 1/2 cup of the milk and mix until smooth. Then add that along with the milk into the soup. Cook for another 10 minutes to thicken up.

Serve with bread.

Image via Wikipedia

Homemade Pizza/Calzone Dough

1 package dry yeast

1 cup hot water

1/2 tsp sugar

2 3/4 cups of flour

2 tbsp olive oil

Combine the yeast in a bowl with the hot water, add the sugar, and let it sit for at least 5 minutes until it is foamy on top. With a wooden spoon, stir in 1 cup of flour. When flour is mixed in well, add another cup of flour and stir in.

Sprinkle some flour on a cutting board or other flat surface. Transfer the dough out onto the surface. Incorporate the rest of the flour as you knead it for 5 to 10 minutes, until the dough springs back at your touch.

Put the oil into the bottom of a large bowl. Place the dough into the bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Let the bowl sit in a warm place for an hour until the dough has doubled in size.

This recipe yields dough for 2 pizzas or calzones. Spread out on oiled baking sheets into pizza or calzone shape. Let the dough sit again for a few minutes, then spread out as thinly as you want the crust.

Bake with your favorite toppings at 480 degrees until the cheese lightly browns.

The recipes for Chicken cacciatore and for Black Beans and Rice can be found at http://kitchentweaks.com/

There are many questions you need to be asking the waiter/waitresses.  Some people who just went gluten-free might have questions like “are steel cut oats gluten free” or “do eggs have gluten”.  They are not yet familiar with what foods have gluten and what don’t.  Assuming you have been gluten-free for a while, you need to ask more specific questions.  Make sure they are not putting any extra gluten-containing sauces or toppings on the item you are ordering.  I cannot even count the number of times I have gotten sick because a restaurant added something with gluten to a dish that doesn’t normally have any gluten.  I blame myself for not making sure it was definitely gluten-free.

Some of my favorite restaurant meals might be a little surprising.  Breakfast is easy because eggs and bacon are almost always gluten-free.  You can throw in some fruit and you have a very filling meal.  Lunch and dinner can be slightly more tricky to find things to order, but usually the menu has more items during this time, so it actually can really open up the options.  I love getting salads when I am out, but they can get a little dull after a while.  If you are at a health food cafe, a gluten-free BBQ tofu sandwich is a delicious treat.  A burger with cheese and no bun is another staple of mine.  Grilled chicken (not breaded) with steamed vegetables is a healthy, delicious meal choice.  Italian restaurants can be extremely hard to find dining options for gluten-free folks, but I have found more and more of them are offering gluten-free pasta nowadays.

The biggest thing with dining out is asking questions.  I have no doubt in my mind that the number of times I have accidentally been “glutened” would be way down if I had just checked with the waiter.  Also, if you let the waiter know you are gluten-free, I have found the chef will almost always go out of their way to make you something that is gluten-free.  The majority of restaurants are extremely accommodating because there are so many people with food allergies.

You can also visit this gluten-free website, This Gluten-Free Life for more information.

Image via Wikipedia

Try to source locally produced food in season, so that it is fresh. If possible, wash vegetables with soil on them in an outside sink.

Use separate chopping boards for raw and cooked foods. If you are handling high-risk foods such as intensively produced chicken or pork, wash, scrub and dry the board and knives carefully before using them again. Cloths and tea towels can be a major source of cross contamination in a kitchen so be aware where they hang and how they are used, and change regularly – at least once a day and much more regularly in a busy restaurant kitchen. Ensure that the fridge and freezers are operating to the correct temperature: the fridge at no higher than 5°C, ideally 4°C, and the freezer no higher than -18°C.

Knifes are the main and most important instrument for any chef. Always keep your knives sharp; sharp knives are safer than blunt knives.  Keep your knife by your side as you walk in a busy kitchen otherwise you may inadvertently stab someone if they suddenly reverse into your path. Never, ever, leave a sharp knife in the sink.

Put a piece of wet kitchen paper underneath your chopping board to prevent it from slipping and don’t forget to turn handles of saucepans inwards on the cooker top (but not over a hot ring or flame). Do not put wet food into a deep fryer; the water will boil and may cause the deep fryer to overflow and cause a fire.

Store cooked meat above raw meat in a fridge. It’s best to keep food covered as far as possible. This also prevents transfers of flavours. In a restaurant business, you will be required to have separate fridges for different foods, particularly raw and cooked foods. Consult your Environmental Health Officer and local Health Authority for guidelines and regulations for your area.

Another idea is to use blended fruits instead of the usual ice cream sundae. What you can do is to freeze a couple of peeled bananas and blend them once they’re hard. Afterwards, put them in a bowl and add some peanuts and dark chocolate chips for added flavor.

We all love chocolate in fulfilling our sweet craving. Chocolate, especially milk chocolate isn’t that much healthy as it contains more carbohydrates. If you are making your own almond turtles or any other dessert, it would be better if you use dark chocolate or cocoa chocolate instead of milk chocolate. Dark chocolate is even great for weight loss.

As an alternative in using white flour in baking cookies, opt for wheat flour. The latter contains grains so it’s much healthier. If you still want to retain the same texture that you get with white flour, you can put half of both white and wheat flour in the recipe instead.

Lastly, nothing beats just a mix of different fruits together. It’s refreshing and full of vitamins that you need. You can make your own fruit cup with honey and lime. Mix different fruits in a cup. Whisk honey and lemon zest and juice together until well-blended. Drizzle the mixture over your fruits and mix. ]]> http://foodpyramidcounsel.com/5-healthier-dessert-options/feed/ 0