cardio · cooking · dining · family · food · gourmet · health · lifestyle · other · recipes · salads · sandwiches · Uncategorized · vegetarian

When the weather outside warms up, the kitchen can be a terrible place to be. There are many things you can do however, when it comes to cooking a nice home made meal that does not require traditional stove top or oven cooking.

Learn to make use of some of the less heat-creating equipment in your kitchen, such as the crock pot, in order to truly overcome the summer heat and keep your cool while preparing a nice hot meal for friends and family.

So, how does crock pot cooking actually help beat the heat? Simply put, the crock pot in and of itself gives off far less heat when cooking than an oven or stove top. This is the first and possibly the best reason to utilize the crock pot in your summer meal planning.

You should also consider the fact that by not heating the house by using your stove top or oven you are also lessening the load on your air conditioning (or other cooling methods) so you are not requiring it to work overtime in order to compensate for the extra heat that other cooking methods introduce.

This makes crock pot cooking a win-win situation as the expenditure involved in operating a crock pot are far less than the expenditure involved in operating a stove or oven. Whether electric or gas, your stove and oven are serious energy users. Add to that the fact that you are not raising the temperature in your home by traditional means of cooking and you are using even less electricity.

Regrettably, the general consensus has been that crock pots are meant for comfort foods and hearty winter meals. The truth is that the crock pot should be one of your best loved and most often utilized cooking techniques. When it comes to cooking with a crock pot, the options are almost limitless. Almost anything that can be baked can be made in the crock pot and many, many more wonderful and tempting meals and treats as well.

Benefits of Crock Pot Cooking

In addition to the cost benefits written above, when it comes to crock pot cooking there are many other advantages that are worth mentioning. First of all, the bulk of the work involved in crock pot cooking takes place early in the day when you are refreshed rather than at the end of a hectic work or play day.

The result is that you are less likely to forget an ingredient or make some other mistake, which can easily happen when trying to cook after a hectic day.

Second, many great crock pot recipes include the vegetables that ensure that we get the vitamins we need. So often, when preparing a meal at the last minute, vegetables and other side dishes are left out for the sake of speed. Crock pot cooking, on the other hand, is a meal in one dish.

Another great reason to use a crock pot for your summertime cooking is the ease of washing up. Unlike traditional cooking with a couple of pots and pans, most crock pot meals are completed in one pot. This obviously reduces the hardware required to be washed up or loaded into the dishwasher (or if you are the same as me – both) afterwards.

So, you spend less time cleaning up, just as you spent less time slaving over a hot stove. Well, make that no time slaving over a hot stove and once the washing up is done, you can get back to enjoying the sun set, mucking about with with the dog or kids, or just waiting for the first stars.

While there will never be a method of cooking that suits everyone, crock pot cooking comes very close. So, if you have a crock pot collecting dust somewhere in the back of your pantry it is time to get it out, dust if off, and dig up some great summertime crock pot cooking recipes.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with the 2 quart crock pot. If you have an interest in cooking or crock pots, please go over to our website now at Large Crock Pots

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There is nothing per se wrong with following a vegetarian regime if you are expecting a baby. Whether you were a vegetarian before you became pregnant or you have decided to be a vegetarian now that you are pregnant, the issue is the same as that for all mothers-to-be: namely, to make sure that you and the baby get all the vitamins and nutrients that you both require.

This is a somewhat more difficult quest if you are just starting off down the vegetarian road because of your lack of knowledge, but it is not that hard. There is so much information on the Net and in books now, and the doctors will be monitoring you, so you ought not miss out on anything you both require.

Your baby will have to grow a few pounds of bones, so calcium is one of your foremost priorities yet it is also one of the nutrients that a non-vegetarian can leave meat to provide. If you are at the level of being a vegetarian where you eat meals of meat and three veg but without the meat, you must have a major rethink, and you could take supplements and eat tofu, broccoli and other dark green leafy vegetables like spinach and cabbage.

Vitamin D is simple, but you do require a regular supply of it. Our skin synthesizes Vitamin D from sunlight, so you have to go out in the sun for half an hour a day or more. However, it is no good going out in the midday sun with suntan lotion on.

It is better to go out in the early morning or late afternoon while the sun is less expected to burn you. It does not even have to be strong sunlight for your body to obtain Vitamin D.

Vitamin B12 is abundant in red meat, but hardly present at all in plants. However, there are a few vegetable sources of vitamin B12: soya (tofu) is one of them and vitamin-enhanced vegetarian products (normally cereals) are another.

Even so, you will almost certainly need to take supplements to get enough vitamin B12 for an expectant mother. Fortunately, your doctor will be keeping an eye on your Vitamin B12 levels and he or she will be able to counsel you.

You will also need lots of iron, which is also plentiful in meat, and also in many vegetables. You have to have iron to keep your blood in decent shape and a lack of iron shows up as aenemia.

Again, dark green, leafy vegetables are the recipe of the day here as are beans, seeds and nuts. However, due to the quantity of iron that you will require, you might require supplements for this one as well.

You require protein. A normal diet gets protein from dairy products like milk and cheese; from eggs and from meat and fish. You may or you may not be eating some of those products, but if you are not then you will need to derive your protein from somewhere else. Tofu is a decent source of vegetable protein, but vegetable protein is a pretty difficult one to find if you do not like tofu.

You will need zinc which again is abundant in meat. If you are looking for a vegetable source there are lots in the form of grains – all the different sorts of grains including those used for bread,

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on several topics, and is now concerned with low fat low cholesterol diets. If you would like to know more, please visit our site at http://vegetariancasserolerecipes.com

alternative · disease · environment · fitness · food · gardening · health · other · recipes · social issues · supplements · Uncategorized · vegetables · vegetarian

The control of waste is an important part of cooking, which is part of household management. One of the first items to comprehend when contemplating waste is the difference between waste and refuse. Waste is the disposal of something that could have been eaten, whereas refuse is the disposal of something that could not have been consumed.

This is an vital difference, because there is little you can do about something like, say, egg shells, yet if you buy so many eggs that half of them go bad before you can eat them, it is a another question. Over purchasing is a problem, especially if you strive to do most of your shopping in one session.

The secret to wasting less is in experience and knowledge. For example, if beef rises above a certain cost an inexpert cook might choose to buy pork or lamb, yet the choice is not that easy, because there is much more inedible fat in pork and lamb than there is in lean beef.

After poor choice of products, the next largest source of waste is choosing the wrong way of preparing or cooking the food. Peeling too thick or cooking at a very high heat are good examples of this problem.

A successful week’s menu ought to supply all the nutrients, vitamins and fibre that a person requires. We do not have to eat all vitamins and all nutrients every day, but there are some that we ought to eat each day and we ought to eat enough fibre each day too. This is not difficult to set up. Experts recommend eating five portions of fruit and vegetables every day, but maybe the skill comes in providing variation to prevent boredom.

Some individuals can achieve this variation pretty instinctively, but for the remainder of us there is another line of attack and it is known as planning. You can easily plan the meals for a week before you go shopping. Planning your meals like this will also save you money, because it discourages impulse buying. If you still have a problem with impulse buying, order your groceries over their web site.

Two decent tips for holding costs down yet for still providing variety were also largely ostracized in the Seventies and Eighties, but which are also experiencing a come-back now are: eating seasonal, local food and preparing three (or at least two) course meals.

Local seasonal ingredients are cheaper than stuff flown in from half-way around the world (or ought to be) and beginning dinner off with soup and a bread roll and finishing it with a dessert means that you do not have to eat so much of the main course, which is usually the most costly of the three courses.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on many topics, but is currently concerned with French dip sandwich recipes. If you want to know more or check out some special offers, please go to our site at Vegetarian Sandwich Recipes.

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If you have just been told that your cholesterol levels are out, you will probably be weighing up the alternatives that your doctor gave you. One option would be to take tablets and the other option would be to adjust your diet and take more exercise. The changes in diet are not radical, but they can have a big effect. Exercising might be more of a difficulty to most people who lead an inactive lifestyle.

People talk about cholesterol levels because there are two sorts of cholesterol. The two levels are HDL (good cholesterol) and LDL (bad cholesterol). LDL comes from animal fats (saturated fats), which are prevalent in red meat and full-fat dairy products like milk, butter, cream and cheese but it also comes from hydrogenated trans fats, which are common in margarines, pastry and crisps.

The first thing to do is attempt to cut out saturated fats by switching to chicken and drinking low-fat milk. You could also replace the margarine or butter with one of the cholesterol-decreasing margarines in the supermarkets. Just taking these two steps will make a huge difference to numerous individuals, however, others may have to go a little further.

Grains are very useful in the battle against cholesterol, because of the quantity of fibre in them. Therefore, you could give up your traditional English breakfast of cereals with milk followed by sausage, bacon, eggs and fried bread and instead eat Scots porridge oats with water or low-fat milk followed by wholemeal toast and cholesterol-decreasing margarine. This step alone will also significantly modify your cholesterol levels.

If you like a steak for luncheon sometimes, you may not have to give it up entirely, but if you normally order an eight ounce steak, order a four or six ounce one instead and if you eat that four times a week, cut back to two instead. Replace the steak with meals of skinless chicken and fish. Omega 3 fish oil is considered to be a great ally in the battle against cholesterol.

If you eat a great deal of junk food like greasy hamburgers and oily hot dogs, you will almost certainly have to give them up, but that is not a bad thing anyway. Endeavour to snack on citrus fruits as they are also your friends against LDL cholesterol.

It is not all doom and gloom on the dietary front for sufferers of cholesterol problems. The changes that will be suggested to you to sort out your cholesterol worries have probably already been suggested to you to sort out being over weight or having high blood pressure or even having diabetes.

They are fundamental, sensible minor lifestyle changes which will have a enormous effect on a number of aspects of your body. The same is true of exercise. Most people know that they should exercise more, it is just a shame that most of us need such a significant incentive before we do anything about it.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on several subjects, but is now concerned with low fat low cholesterol diet. If you want to know more, please visit our site at What Foods Lower Cholesterol?

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Radio frequency identification or RFID is an old idea that has quietly become a big part of everyone’s life. RFID has been around for at least 90 years and was initially put into practice about 70 years, but not many people realized it. These days, you yourself are most likely scanned every day by an RFID reader and the items you buy are certainly scanned at least once a week.

So what is RFID? Well, you can think of it as the update of the bar code although in fact, it is older than the bar code by 50 or 60 years. Bar codes were developed in order to integrate stock control with point of sales processing.

Everyone has seen this and is used to it: the sales clerk at the till takes the goods from your basket one at a time, looks for the bar code, flashes a light or a bar code reader over it and the cost of the article is added to your receipt.

What you do not see is that the computerized stock records for that item are lowered by one and the sales price is recorded along side it. That system worked well for 40 years, but now there is a requirement for more data to be recorded than a bar code can accommodate and there is need for greater stock control and even more speed at the till Nobody has any time anymore.

Enter RFID, an old technology brought back to life. RFID is the technology that they used to put in Second World War aircraft in order to identify friendly aircraft to the RADAR-controlled anti-aircraft guns. The same equipment, basically, that they still use in aircraft today to identify it to air traffic control. The difference is that until pretty recently, these radio signal emitters or transponders were as big as a suitcase and cost a lot of money.

These days they are the size of the tiniest coin in your change and cost about five cents. They win over the bar code because they can hold loads of information, like where and when and by whom an article was manufactured; how much it cost and how much it should be sold for; its colour, weight and description; which shelf and in which shop it should be kept on …. ad infinitum. The shop owner can write anything on that tag by means of an RFID printer.

And when it comes to the cash register… No more scanning each separate item by hand, because each RFID chip or tag, as they are called in the industry, sends out its own data on its own exclusive radio frequency, so so long as the RFID scanner is within three or four feet of the trolley, it knows what is in there instantaneously. No more unloading, scanning and reloading the basket.

In fact, no more check out clerk. Most people pay with a credit or debit card these days anyway, so as you walk past the scanner with your basket, you are scanned; you swipe your credit card through another scanner; if you are happy with it, you approve the payment and the barrier raises for you to proceed to your car. You only have to have a check out clerk for the people who want to pay with cash. Cheques are being done away with soon anyway.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on several topics, but is currently concerned with the RFID asset tracking. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Active RFID Management.

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Teenagers are very impressionable and tend to become more left-wing than their parents, because they are under the influence of their teachers, who tend to be more left-wing as well. This tends to make teenagers more in touch with environmental issues and other world problems. This can send teenagers off in many directions, and one of the most well-liked, especially among teenage girls, is vegetarianism.

This phase often passes for one reason or another. Sometimes the parents cannot be bothered to cater to their new diet and sometimes the teenager merely misses bacon sandwiches too much to sustain the diet. However, many do stick to their principles or come back to them later on in life.

Their children going vegetarian is often a cause for anxiety for parents, but it need not be. If your teenagers adopt vegetarianism you will probably be anxious that they get enough protein, yet that can be taken care of. Instead, be grateful that they will be missing out on all the rubbish food that most teenagers eat in these, their most formative years.

If your teenager wants to be a vegetarian, you ought to encourage it, even though it will cost you more time especially if you do not know much about vegetarianism yourself. It will be a steep learning curve for you and your children in the starting.

One of the first things that a parent has to assess is to what degree does their child hope to go. Does he or she merely want to give up meat or also give up fish or go the whole hog (!) and give up milk, dairy and eggs as well. These three levels make vegetarianism progressively harder.

One of the foremost worries about going vegetarian (particularly for developing teenagers) is vitamin deficiency. Meat is concentrated vegetable food and is our main source of vitamins such as calcium, vitamin B12 and iron.

You cannot live without these vitamins and a number of others besides, so if you abandon meat, you will have to take them in tablet form until you find or take up a means of re-introducing them into your diet naturally.

There will be many new foods for your teenager to taste in their task to replace meat and some of these alternatives may be unpalatable, depending on your child’s outlook on eating new foods.

Tofu is one. Some people love it and some people can’t stand it, and yet it is a very handy alternative to meat. There are others, but it could be a long process of trial and error and your teen might just stop.

If your teenager wants to quit, it is probably a good idea to make it easy for them to do so without them losing face or feeling that they have failed. It is difficult to undertake lifestyle changes even at that relatively young age and who knows, maybe they will return to (a level of) vegetarianism after they leave home and begin cooking for themselves.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on several topics, and is now concerned with low fat low cholesterol diets. If you would like to know more, please visit our site at http://vegetariancasserolerecipes.com

alternative · disease · environment · fitness · food · gardening · health · lifestyle · other · recipes · social issues · Uncategorized · vegetables · vegetarian

RFID (radio frequency identification) chips or tags as they are better known are the size of the smallest coin in your pocket, but they can store huge amounts of data that can be manipulated in methods that can do incredible things.

For example, RFID tags are in most office identity tags and in a few passports, allowing the holder to pass through security quickly while keeping the building or the country safe.

They are a modern version of the bar code. Remember before bar codes and bar code readers? When a shop assistant had to type prices into the cash register, correct errors and look up prices that they could not remember? People do not have any time for that anymore.

It is OK at the newsagents, but picture a teenager typing in your two trolleys of weekly shopping at the superstore every Saturday. You would still be there on Sunday! Supermarkets have thousands of articles and dozens of special offers – no-one could remember that lot.

No-one can, but bar codes make it straightforward and so do RFID tags. Bar codes work well, but they have to be seen to be read. RFID tags send out their information on a unique frequency which can be read out of line of sight. In other words, an RFID scanner does not need to see the tag to read it.

The scanner can see what is in your trolley without you having to unload it and as you pass by that scanner and pay for your things, they are deducted from stock straight away so that the warehouse manger can see what people are buying and what nobody wants to buy. So, if one brand of cat food is selling better than another, the manager will see that on the computer print-out and buy more of that make, thus keeping more people happy.

This use of RFID in inventory control or asset management to give it its more official title, can translate itself into other uses too. An RFID tag can be placed under your cat’s fur or in its collar so that you can find him if he gets lost. The police and the wardens scan stray animals for a tag as part of their routine these days. Zoologists have been doing this with wild elephants, big cats and other endangered species for years. Now you can have it done with your pets also.

Company vehicles, as assets of the business, often carry RFID tags and you can have one placed in your car to aid recovery if it is stolen. Baggage handlers at airports or bus terminals can (and do) use them to avoid lost luggage.

The US government requires RFID tags be used on all vehicles carrying explosives or dangerous substances and have done for almost ten years. The US military is in fact the principal user of these tags in the world. RFID tags are used to track military assets such as weapons, battle tanks, fuel, containers, guns, you name it.

Some people worry about RFID technology. Where is the line between their convenience and their personal information? For example, they do not like getting junk emails from people that have been able to trace the purchases they made with their credit cards.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on several topics, but is currently involved with the RFID asset tracking. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Active RFID Management.

animals · computer · equipment · food · GPS · hardware · other · pets · products · RFID · Shopping · software · stock · technology · Uncategorized

Everybody likes a meal properly cooked. The proof of this, if it needs proving, is that members of religious orders like monks often have to eat dreary food like porridge, gruel and unleaven bread for penance.

I would like to share a few tips with you to help you get the most out of your food.

Chicken Tarragon – I love chicken tarragon, but this is my favourite version. Take: 1 chicken; .25 teaspoon of chopped onions; 1 heaped tablespoon of dried tarragon (double of fresh); brown stock or Bovril and water, cream, flour and salt.

Roast the chicken, carve it and put in a plate. Pour off the fat and make a gravy with it, the salt and the flour. Bulk the gravy up with the stock or Bovril and water. Add the tarragon and cream and cook for a minute or two. Serve with the gravy already poured over the chicken or serve the gravy separately. Add your favourite vegetables. This recipe will serve four.

Chicken Left-Overs – if you are unsure what to do with left over chicken, you could do worse than try this recipe.

Chop the chicken up small and mix it with sliced avocado. Cover with mayonnaise and sprinkle with crumbled, fried, crispy bacon. If this sounds good to you, take it from me that it tastes even better.

Apple Sauce – if you like apple sauce with your pork, bake a couple of cooking apples alongside your joint of pork. Prepare and core them just as you would as if you were going to cook them separately. Sprinkle with sugar, if you like. Then, run a knife tip around them, so that they will puff upwards, but still retain their shape. Gorgeous.

Sauces – if you cannot get the sauce right, just strain it and do not tell anyone. Nobody will know the difference and what are strainers for if not straining?

Soups And Stews – if you find that you have added too much salt to a soup or stew at the last moment, do not worry. Put a cube of sugar in a big spoon and lower it into the liquid for twenty seconds. It will absorb the surplus salt. If you have longer, and it is fitting, add a diced potato and it will absorb the salt too.

Pie Crust – if you want a fast, yet flexible topping for a savoury pie like chicken or beef, leave the pastry off. Take a large bag of crisps; pop the bag to let the air out and scrunch it up until the crisps are but crumbs. Pour this over your pie before you bake it. It is unusual but you can carry out trials with different flavoured crisps.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with researching the Rival Versaware crock pots. If you have an interest in cooking or crock pots, please go over to our website now at Large Crock Pots

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There can not be a lot of individuals who do not enjoy their food, but the human race, being what it is, I suppose that there are a few of them. However, for the rest of us, food is a font of daily enjoyment and, like a beverage, it is frequently employed to denote a happy event. not only that, but various foods are used for the different meals or distinct events. Celebratory meals were indubitably planned around the seasonal foodstuffs available, but some foodstuffs were transported huge distances for the benefit of those who could afford them.

For example, my Dad considered it a grand treat to be given an orange in his stocking on Christmas Day 60 years past. How the times have changed! Very few children would judge an orange a present, special or not, any day of the year nowadays.

Yet, the storage of food is still a daily affair and subsequently, I have written a few top tips on preserving foodstuff underneath, so that you will obtain the best from that which you have bought or grown in your garden even a long period afterward.

Chicken Stuffed With Spoons: a great way of preparing chicken to be eaten at a cold buffet or in sandwiches, is to put as many spoons as possible into the cavity of the chicken (not silver or plated ones though). Then, place the chicken in a large saucepan or pot and bring the water to the boil slowly. Simmer for 10 minutes, cover and leave until the water is room temperature. The spoons will retain the heat and cook the chicken from the inside out. it will be one of the most succulent chickens you have ever eaten.

Roasted Crisp And Light: if you like crisp-skinned roasties, it is best to parboil them first, but that is only half the story. so, boil the potatoes for five minutes and drain thoroughly. Put the lid on the pan and shake it about violently. Bang it hard on the chopping block several times. The harder the better. Then put the parboiled potatoes in the baking tray with the meat or fowl to cook as you would normally.

Salad Soup: Do not throw away salad that has been soaked in salad dressing. Whisk it up in a food processor with a can of tomatoes of tinned soup. Add lots of garlic to taste and adjust the thickness to suit your taste. Chill it down and you will have one of the most delicious summer soups ever.

Curdling Cure: if your mayonnaise has curdled there is one sure fire way to bring it back to life. stir in a couple of tablespoons of Hellmann’s mayonnaise and your problem will be over.

Simply Scrumptious Topping: a really, quick, delicious and almost infinitely variable topping for a savory pie can be made in seconds. Choose the flavour you want from the crisp rack; puncture the bag to let our the air and then crush the contents in the gag. it really adds something to a pie. The same trick can be used on the bottom of a potato pie a Texan housewife told me.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with researching the programmable crock pot. If you have an interest in cooking or crock pots, please go over to our website now at Large Crock Pots

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