There is a lot you can do to make meals fun for your children! Theme nights are a great hit. Try a pizza night, Mexican night, green food night or anything special that you can come up with. Even let your children in on it. This will be fun for everyone in the family! Read on for other great cooking tips, just like this one.
Stock up on ingredients at your local farmers' market. This fresh, healthy food pretty much prepares itself. The flavors of natural foods dress up the taste of any dish. Avoid over preparing these foods to preserve the natural flavor, and follow your instinct when it says to leave an ingredient out. Sometimes, the most simple dishes are the best.
Cooking can be a joy if you invest in a good, sizable cutting board able to handle all of your cutting and chopping needs. If a butcher block table is out of the budget, look for a durable bamboo or sturdy maple for the job. A cutting board with a recessed groove surrounding the cutting surface is handy to catch juices from carving meats and makes clean up easy. If you will be using a cutting board on a smooth surface, look for one with rubber feet to avoid slipping. Maintain your cutting board with food-grade mineral oil (vegetable and olive oils can turn rancid) and make sure that you properly clean, and more importantly, dry your cutting board after each use to prevent warping.
Chicken broth should be used when you are sauteing your vegetables. Chicken broth can be purchased at any grocery store. It is important to choose a chicken broth that is low in sodium so that you do not eat too much sodium. Sodium can cause you to retain water which is not good.
Do not flip your food too often. Flipping not only affects the sear on a piece of meat, but it can cause delicate foods to break and may cause the breading to slip off of pan-fried foods. Wait until the food slips easily off the pan or the food is halfway through its cooking time so that you only need to flip it once.
When cutting up apples for a fruit tray or lunch box, place the slices in a bowl of lemon-lime soda, ginger ale or pineapple juice to soak for 5 minutes or so. Any of these drinks will prevent the apples from turning that unappealing brown shade, and they won't drastically alter the flavor of your apple slices.
Cook your pasta one minute less than the package suggests, then finish cooking it in a pan with sauce. Your pasta will absorb more of the flavor of the sauce without having an over cooked texture. This can be a quick and effective way to prepare a pasta meal.
Choose cuts of meat when roasting. Large rib roasts or tenderloin can be terribly expensive. When roasting meat, consider buying a cut of meat instead. It will save you a lot of money. Legs of lamb, turkey breasts, even pork shoulder are all capable of being just as delicious while being far more affordable.
If you are out of bread crumbs you can try these simple substitutions in your recipe: cracker crumbs, matzo, crushed cornflakes, grounds oats, or even potato chips. Simply substitute an equal amount of the replacement food for the bread crumbs. You can also make fresh bread crumbs by finely chopping four slices of bread per cup you need.
The best part of cooking is that you can eat your mistakes. Don't be scared about trying something new. Even Julia Child's and Wolfgang Puck have made complete failures of dishes at one point or another. Cooking is all about learning and experimentation until you learn what works for you, so give it a shot!
Stock up on ingredients at your local farmers' market. This fresh, healthy food pretty much prepares itself. The flavors of natural foods dress up the taste of any dish. Avoid over preparing these foods to preserve the natural flavor, and follow your instinct when it says to leave an ingredient out. Sometimes, the most simple dishes are the best.
Cooking can be a joy if you invest in a good, sizable cutting board able to handle all of your cutting and chopping needs. If a butcher block table is out of the budget, look for a durable bamboo or sturdy maple for the job. A cutting board with a recessed groove surrounding the cutting surface is handy to catch juices from carving meats and makes clean up easy. If you will be using a cutting board on a smooth surface, look for one with rubber feet to avoid slipping. Maintain your cutting board with food-grade mineral oil (vegetable and olive oils can turn rancid) and make sure that you properly clean, and more importantly, dry your cutting board after each use to prevent warping.
Chicken broth should be used when you are sauteing your vegetables. Chicken broth can be purchased at any grocery store. It is important to choose a chicken broth that is low in sodium so that you do not eat too much sodium. Sodium can cause you to retain water which is not good.
Do not flip your food too often. Flipping not only affects the sear on a piece of meat, but it can cause delicate foods to break and may cause the breading to slip off of pan-fried foods. Wait until the food slips easily off the pan or the food is halfway through its cooking time so that you only need to flip it once.
When cutting up apples for a fruit tray or lunch box, place the slices in a bowl of lemon-lime soda, ginger ale or pineapple juice to soak for 5 minutes or so. Any of these drinks will prevent the apples from turning that unappealing brown shade, and they won't drastically alter the flavor of your apple slices.
Cook your pasta one minute less than the package suggests, then finish cooking it in a pan with sauce. Your pasta will absorb more of the flavor of the sauce without having an over cooked texture. This can be a quick and effective way to prepare a pasta meal.
Choose cuts of meat when roasting. Large rib roasts or tenderloin can be terribly expensive. When roasting meat, consider buying a cut of meat instead. It will save you a lot of money. Legs of lamb, turkey breasts, even pork shoulder are all capable of being just as delicious while being far more affordable.
If you are out of bread crumbs you can try these simple substitutions in your recipe: cracker crumbs, matzo, crushed cornflakes, grounds oats, or even potato chips. Simply substitute an equal amount of the replacement food for the bread crumbs. You can also make fresh bread crumbs by finely chopping four slices of bread per cup you need.
The best part of cooking is that you can eat your mistakes. Don't be scared about trying something new. Even Julia Child's and Wolfgang Puck have made complete failures of dishes at one point or another. Cooking is all about learning and experimentation until you learn what works for you, so give it a shot!
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