Here’s a healthy vegetable dish that is attractive and delicious.
When cooking, be sure not to overcook the asparagus. Steam it until it turns a bright green and then remove. It shouldn’t be soggy or limp.
Ingredients:
20-24 fresh asparagus spears
8 ounces white or cremini mushrooms, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
1 teaspoon lemon zest OR lemon juice (the zest adds better flavor)
1. Heat olive oil in small saucepan.
2. Toss mushrooms and lemon zest together on medium heat until mushrooms soften. Add a few teaspoons water if mixture gets too dry.
3. While mushrooms cook, steam asparagus for 2-3 minutes – just until spears turn bright green.
4. Serve mushroom mixture over steamed asparagus.
In Yiddish, a “tsimmes” is a long and involved procedure. To “make a tsimmes” means to make something unnecessarily complicated: “We were just going to serve coffee and cake, but she came in with a long list of recipes and made a big tsimmes out of the brunch.” Fortunately, there’s nothing complicated about this recipe. It’s as easy as it is delicious.
This is adapted from a traditional recipe from the Persistent Vegetarian State Web site.
Ingredients:
8 cups sweet potatoes, boiled, peeled, and cut into large chunks.
2 cups carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup orange blossom honey
1 teaspoon cinnamon OR baking spices
3 tablespoons margarine, cut into small pats.
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray a large baking dish (13×9) with cooking spray and add potatoes, carrots, and raisins.
3. Stir orange juice, honey, and cinnamon in small bowl. Pour over veggies.
4. Dot mixture with small pats of margarine.
5. Bake for 20-30 minutes, uncovered. Stir well, and bake for another 20 minutes.
Here’s a salad recipe that is wholesome and full of vitamins. The crunch and the different flavors satisfy taste buds young and old.
Combine fresh spinach leaves with sliced white mushrooms, orange slices, and toasted almonds. Tastes best with a light oil vinaigrette for dressing. The oranges and toasted almonds add a lot of flavor, so just a dash of oil and vinegar is needed.
Here’s a delicious appetizer that everyone enjoys. In some areas, these are called “Deviled Eggs.” But whatever you call them, guests love them – particularly children.
Ingredients:
12 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and sliced in half length-wise
2 tablespoons sweet relish
2/3 cup mayonnaise
salt to taste
¼ teaspoon paprika
1. Remove yolks from eggs and mash together in a mixing bowl.
2. Add relish, mayonnaise, and salt. Mix well.
3. Spoon mixture into eggs and sprinkle paprika over the tops.
These rich, chewy brownies don’t have the “matzoh” taste of so many Passover baked goods. It’s adapted from a recipe in “The Kids Holiday Baking Book” by Rosemary Black. We replaced some of the eggs with bananas and applesauce to reduce the fat and cholesterol.
Read the rest of this entry
Easter egg dyeing and decorating can be as easy as dipping a dozen eggs into dye from a store-bought kit. Or it can be a lot more creative and fun. Who needs a kit when you can just pull materials out of your compost pail and garbage can?
Here’s an easy to make lite dessert recipe that is healthy, delicious, and attractive to serve.
Ingredients
1 package of fresh strawberries – washed and hulled
8 oz of sour cream - low fat and fat free work great
3 tablespoons brown sugar - more if you like it sweeter
2 tablespoons amaretto liqueur
Sliced almonds (optional)
Place strawberries in a glass bowl. Drizzle cream sauce over top. Sprinkle almonds if desired.
Options – Try cream sauce with blackberries, blueberries, or mixed berries. Brandy can be substituted for amaretto.
Want more healthy eating ideas? Check out our article on Mixed Berry Pie and the Key Relevance Factors for Grading Honey and
Gain Instant Access to These Online Gluten Free Recipes and Cookbooks and Start Enjoying Food Again Today!
It seems that more and more Americans are being diagnosed with Celiac disease or food allergies. By some estimates, as many as 3.2 million of us are forced to follow a wheat and gluten free diet.
In years past, this meant that suffering silently while others indulged in delicious foods you could no longer eat, but thanks to the miracle of the Internet and some creative entrepreneurial wheat allergy sufferers, there are plenty of cookbooks of gluten free recipes that you can download now and begin enjoying right away.
Below we’ve listed just a few of the more popular gluten free cookbooks that are making the rounds on the internet. Best of all, they’re delivered to you instantly in an e-book format, and come with a money back guarantee! So, what are you waiting for? Why not try a gluten free recipe for dinner tonight!
The Paleo Cookbook
This book of gluten free recipes was written for followers of the Paleo Diet — a hunter-gatherer diet created by a Colorado State University professor which touts itself as being the healthiest diet in the world. The two gluten free cookbooks on this site contain 120 recipes each, but you can get 10 gluten free recipes just for visiting. Click here for more details.
The Sensitive Chef
Sharon Morse suffers from food allergies and has a daughter with Celiac disease. Not one to take these circumstances laying down, she put together a cookbook with allergy and gluten free versions of her favorite recipes, including lasagna, gluten free pizza and carrot cake. She’s another author who gives away a free recipe just for visiting the site.
Guilt Free Desserts
Indulge your sweet tooth with this book of guilt free desserts, which includes over 30 gluten free dessert recipes. The book also includes a section of 15 Healthy Holiday Hors d’Oeuvres and comes with an 8 week money back guarantee.
Also worth mentioning…
The Celiac Report
This information-filled report is written by Angela Morken, a Celiac sufferer who also has a child with the disease. More than just a book full of gluten free recipes, it offers insights into how to live and manage a gluten free lifestyle for you and your loved ones.
The gluten free recipe cookbooks mentioned in this article are just the tip of the iceberg of the great gluten free recipes and information that you now have access to via the internet. Hopefully, these will get you on the path to enjoying food again and maintaining a healthy and delicious gluten free diet.
**Please note, that the purpose of this article is to provide you with a convenient source of information about some of the most popular gluten free recipe books on the internet. We do not endorse or scientifically validate the claims of any particular book or author.**
Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Hanukkah are all holidays associated with strong food traditions. We like to stuff things: turkeys, geese, stockings, even ourselves. This happy time for people is a dangerous time for dogs. Not because families regularly include the local taxidermist in their holiday plans; rather, many favorite holiday foods are just as tempting to your dog as to your guests.
Scavengers by nature, dogs will eat anything. Truly. Anything. We once had one dog who ate half a roll of fiberglass insulation; another consumed half a bag of fire ant bait. Although neither item is likely to be a feature of your holiday meal, other traditional foods can sicken – even kill your pet. A few precautions can save a lot of heartache.
The Rich History of a Modern Holiday Treat – Fruitcake
Can you imagine a world without fruitcake? One where it’s actually illegal for Great-aunt Gladys to drag out the family fruitcake recipe and bestow her traditional, indigestible gift on all the nieces and nephews?
It could happen. It has before.
As much as we laugh at fruitcakes now, they were once considered delicacies so rich, so tempting, that eating them was akin to a near occasion of sin. Step back in time and learn what all the fuss was about.
One of the biggest differentiating factors between a self-schooled chef and one who has graduated from a formal culinary institution is the inclusion of French cooking techniques into his or her repetoire. According to Wikipedia.org, “Almost all culinary schools use French cuisine as the basis for all other forms of Western cooking.”
Therefore, it stands to reason that if you’ve been fully trained to prepare classical French cuisine, you’ll have a greater chance of obtaining a well-paying position working for a prestigious, high-end restaurant, hotel or spa.
You Can Never Have Too Many Kitchen Gadgets
Everyone appreciates good food, but those who love cooking appreciate good kitchen gadgets just as much. Read on for our top favorite kitchen tools. These handy tools were designed to make your life easier, save you time, make your culinary creations more authentic… and even give you that expert flair that makes you feel like an old, “seasoned” cooking pro!
Ready for the Top Favorite Kitchen Gadgets? Here goes:
Latin influenced menus are enjoying great success in the culinary world today – and can be traced back to the homeland. South American-born chefs who perhaps started in an entry-level position in a restaurant now find themselves on the front lines, creating dishes and menus to tempt palates from all walks of life. They have brought with them a fusion of culture and a passion for preparing authentic cuisine.
There are several dishes and ingredients which are considered mainstays in the heart of the Latin chef. Such recipes often rely on tried and true common foods while at the same time lending colorful inspiration and a flair for the unusual.
Want to learn about some of the unusual ingredients that make Latin cuisine special? Read on.
Five questions to ask yourself before heading to the kitchen
It takes time and effort to find the perfect recipe and decorate a special container, so make sure the recipient will actually appreciate – and eat – your food gift. You want your gift to be savored and appreciated, not tossed unopened into the trash can. A little thought and advance planning will prevent that from happening.
Who is the recipient?
Give homemade food gifts to family and close friends – people who have eaten at your house and enjoyed your food. More distant friends and aquaintances may stay away from homemade gifts because of concerns about cleanliness and food safety.
Schoolteachers, in particular, receive loads of homemade gifts every year. Many say they throw everything away uneaten and unopened! My mother was a teacher and she never let us eat the things kids gave her, noting: “I watched one kid drop an open jelly sandwich face down on the sidewalk, pick it up, and eat it like nothing had happened! Yuck!” She always wondered if the kid learned that by example in his own kitchen.
By Guest Blogger Frank
Ever wonder why it seems that the single guy has his problems in the kitchen? There are guys that can dazzle you with their cooking, but those guys tend to be few and far between. For most of us of the male gender, our fridge usually consists of the four basic food groups. They are:
- Liquids (beer, water, soda, juice)
- Sauce Packets (ketchup, mustard, soy sauce)
- Frozen Foods (pizza, hot pockets, TV dinners)
- Desserts (chocolate, cookies, ice cream ).
On a low salt diet, but want flavor?
My mom was a registered nurse and insisted on eating healthy long before it was a fad. We always had several vegetables with our meals and she avoided excessive amounts of salt. We weren’t on a low sodium diet, but she wanted us to learn to enjoy other seasonings than salt.
The following is a recipe for a saltless seasoning. My mom would make it up in advance and keep it in the cabinet ready to use on salads, meats and vegetables. The seasoning brings out the flavors in the food and even as kids we loved it.
Healthy eating doesn’t have to be difficult. It can be doing something as simple as adding vegetables or fruits to an existing recipe. For example, my husband and I like to make our own lasagna. Almost all the lasagna recipes we saw had meat in them. When we stated thinking about eating healthier and eating lower on the food chain, we took a lasagna recipe we liked and experimented with replacing the meat with different vegetables.
Spinach, minced carrots, zucchini were some of the vegetables we tried. We decided we liked them all and we didn’t miss the meat. Now vegetables are standard ingredients in our lasagna recipe and our family loves it.
Want ideas on eating more healthy? Here are some things we do in our home.
More Flavor, Lower Cost, Less Salt
As days grow shorter and nights grow colder, a steaming pot of soup is a welcome addition to most supper tables. Food manufacturers make it easy; powdered, canned, jarred, and even frozen soups crowd grocery store shelves. But the price of convenience can be high for people on special diets. Most prepared soups are high in sodium. Low-salt and salt-free brands sound great – until you check the price and fat content of many varieties.
So why not make your own soup? It’s easier than you think – and tastes better than you ever imagined!
Face it: Halloween just isn’t what it used to be. This ancient relic of pre-Christian Europe used to involve wandering souls, fortunetelling, bonfires, and groups of people going from house to house asking for food. Oh. Well, maybe things haven’t changed as much as we think. One new aspect, though, is Halloween’s growing popularity. It’s the sixth largest spending holiday in the US, with over 70% of adults planning parties, costumes, or decorations.
As Americans eagerly head to the stores for costumes and candy corn, few realize the origins of the holiday’s symbols, customs, and traditional foods. For instance, the jack o’lantern, a carved, illuminated pumpkin, is arguably the most common symbol. But how many people realize that the ubiquitous orange gourd was originally a turnip?
This spinach and artichoke dip is rated EXCELLENT by my family of taste testers.
Growing up as a military brat I remember my mom having to host frequent parties at the house. She would have my brothers and me act as the “catering staff” so we learned early about the importance of hospitality and treating our guests in style. We also learned how to make yummy party cuisine.
One regular dish that was always a favorite was my mom’s hot spinach and artichoke dip. I guess she liked it to because I noticed at the top of her recipe card for this dish she had written Excellent!!!! If you’re looking for a hot appetizer for your next gathering, try the recipe below.
Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip
1 package frozen spinach (cooked and drained)
1 10 oz can of artichokes (if marinated, rinse well)
1 cup parmesan cheese
1 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp garlic power
Salt and pepper to taste
Place in a baking dish and bake at 350 degrees until brownish and bubbly. My mom always served it in a chaffing dish to keep it warm. Its best still hot.
Want other ideas involving artichokes? Check out our related articles on
Six Easy Ways to Jazz Up Your Menu
and Getting to the heart of the matter with artichokes.
