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Healthy Eating Tips

Archive for the ‘Healthy Recipes’ Category

Free Salad Recipes eBook

I would like share with you this fantastic salad recipe ebook. This ebook has most of the “basic” salad recipe as well as some unknown ones. All recipes are easy to follow and doesn’t required much time to produce. Let me know if you find this ebook useful. Download eBook

Quick and Easy Recipe

You want to give your family the best, but time is in short supply and preparing a healthy meal has become a chore. Too often take out or frozen dinners have to do. Is there a way to combine healthy eating with convenience?

Healthy Family Meals – Better for Children, Easier for You
Yes! Quick and easy recipe, new methods of cooking and easy to prepare staples can change your eating habits and lead to a better eating style for your family. According to the ‘Kid’s Health’ Program created by the Nemours Foundation, family meals are an important part of developing healthy habits in your kids.

Eating as a family will encourage your kids to eat healthy foods like whole grains and vegetables. It will discourage unhealthy snacking and even make them less likely to try smoking, alcohol or marijuana.

There are lasagna recipes for vegetarians, low-carb, low-fat and even diabetic diets. Lasagna noodles now come in instant, no-cook preparations that cut time and energy when making this hearty dish.

For lasagna or other pasta dishes, try using whole wheat pasta and shredding carrots or zucchini into the meat sauce for an easy way to up the nutritional value. Using lean ground beef or even substituting with ground turkey or chicken can make for a surprising, yet nourishing result. Buy bottled pasta sauces for even faster preparation – many grocers carry a wide assortment that will add variety to your dishes.

We’re all concerned about our children eating healthier foods. Regular family meals will encourage kids to develop healthy eating habits – an important key to good health later in life. By making meal time less stressful you can focus on the joys of spending time together instead of the hassles of preparing healthy family meals.

How to Carve a Turkey

To someone who is just learning to cook, this topic may seem like one of the hardest meals you will ever have to prepare. Needless to say, if you’re having a turkey there’s usually company involved which means a number of hungry people are relying on you to prepare a great meal. This can be very intimidating. Luckily we have all the information you need, in order to ensure a great meal for you, your friends and your family.

In order to successfully carve a turkey, you will need to have the following pieces of equipment:

• One warm serving platter
• A pair of kitchen scissors
• An electric knife or a large slicing knife (you may want to choose a manual knife since they provide more control than electric ones)
• A small carving knife or fork for arranging and serving the meat

Now that you have the equipment you need to carve the turkey, follow these steps in order to become a turkey carving expert:

1. Leave the turkey to sit 20-30 minutes after roasting and before carving. This will make the meat moister and easier to cut.
2. After the turkey has sat for the time indicated above, transfer the turkey onto a cutting board; this is where you will begin carving the turkey.
3. Remove the Leg: To do this, hold the drumstick firmly with your fingers and gently pull the meat away from the body of the turkey. While doing this, cut through the skin between the leg and the body. Next, cut through the joint joining the leg to the backbone. Then separate the drumstick and thigh by cutting downwards through the joint, until the knife hits the cutting board.
4. Slicing the Drumstick (Leg) Meat: Once you have detached the leg from the rest of the body, you will want to slice the meat. Hold the drumstick in an upright position and turn the drumstick in a circular motion while cutting downwards. This will produce tasty slices of meat which are approximately equal size.
5. Slicing the Thigh Meat: When slicing thigh meat, you want to hold it close to the plate and secure it so it does not move. For best results when cutting thigh meat, make sure your knife is parallel to the bone and cut downwards towards the plate in slow, steady motions.
6. Slicing the Breast Meat: Make a deep cut into the breast of the turkey towards the body frame, as close to the wing as you can. Starting at the front of the turkey (about halfway up the breast) start cutting downwards, parallel to the cut you made to the wing. Only cut enough meat as you think necessary for the amount of people. Uncut meat will stay fresher longer.
7. Serve the Turkey: place all the slices of meat in an attractive manner on a large platter and serve to your guests.

Cooking With Fresh Herbs

Herbs are fun and easy to grow. When harvested they make even the simplest meal seem like a gourmet delight. By using herbs in your cooking you can easily change the flavors of your recipes in many different ways, according to which herbs you add. Fresh herbs are great in breads, stews, soups or vegetables. Every time you add a different herb you have completely changed the taste.

If you are a beginner start slowly, add just a little at a time adjusting as you go along until you have it just right. You will see in most instances that an individual herb is associated with a particular food item. Basil is paired with tomatoes, Oregano with sauces, Rosemary with lamb and Chives with butter or cream cheese. Of course, none of them are limited to these items, but you will see them paired most often with that particular food. Use your imagination and experiment, experiment, experiment!

You can make herb vinegars for salad dressings, marinades, or soups. Herb oils are very useful in cooking whenever a recipe calls for it.

Fresh herbs as garnishes dress up any dish making it look truly spectacular. Lay individual sprigs of rosemary over broiled lamb chops. Chop fresh parsley and sprinkle it over the top of your potato salad. The combinations are endless and the outcome delicious.

How to Cook a Really Crispy Duck or Chicken

If you’re like me you love the skin on the outside of duck, if it’s crispy. The texture of the meal can totally be changed with a crispy skin.

The secret is to make sure the duck is scored across the front and salted heavily.

This helps dry up the skin and makes for a super crispy skin. You will not be the only one that enjoys this Crispy Duck Recipe, but everyone else at your dinner table.

Take the duck that you’re going to use for your main dish make slits in the breast with a knife and poke with a fork. Salt the breast heavily use your discretion and taste. You can use this method for any recipe you can think of.

Just use the cooking instructions from the recipe you are using. Place the bird breast down on the baking pan and cook like that for about ¾ of the total time that the recipe says to cook it for, making sure to drain the fat from the bird, usually by sticking it with a fork under the wings and legs.

During the last ¼ of the cooking use the broil on the oven to finish cooking up the breast. This should make the skin crispy while the duck is still moist. Since this way of cooking can be used for almost any recipe for crispy duck recipe you have, it gives you more choices for the texture you want to use for your meal.

Cooking is all about mixing things up and building your own ways of cooking and recipes.

Also since you are slitting only the fatty layer of the bird you can use that to tuck away some hidden seasoning. Try tucking your favorite herbs into the slits under the skin, as the fat melts away it’ll trickle down and out of the bird but first it’ll seep into the meat.

This can add a new dimension to the meat, making it even more succulent. Taking these tips you should be able to use your imagination to come up with many more combos. With crispy duck recipes you can add extra flavors and also add a whole new texture to the dish.

Use these two together to try out new things, using the crispy skin to add texture to an otherwise smooth meal. So the next meals with duck you cook try out some of these combos, just using your taste and imagination. There are thousands of recipes in books and the internet to mix and match with.