Kitchen Gadgets - Making Life Easier

 

Cooking dinner can be a real chore, especially if it’s for a family. So much food to make, and so little time to do it all in. Let alone learning new recipes. When you’re crunched for time and don’t know what to make, you’ll often end up eating junk food, or going out to a restaurant and spending more than you mean to. Fixing dinner only gets harder if you don’t have much in terms of skills in the kitchen on top of it all. Luckily, we don’t live in the 1860s. Cooking today can be made much simpler and faster by having the right kitchen gadgets for making life easier.

One of the fastest things you can make in the kitchen with the most options is a sandwich, but that can get pretty boring pretty fast. There are about a million options for this though, and one way to add new life to your diet is to get a panini maker! These awesome kitchen gadgets add whole new life to your simple sandwich, and make you more excited to take a few steps to make fancier ones. A panini maker is a grill that heats both on top and on bottom. The idea is to take a sandwich (commonly filled with meat and cheese, but the possibilities are endless) and butter (or lightly brush oil) on the outside of the bread and grill it in a few minutes on the press. Voila! A fancy new meal option. You can also use your press to grill things like asparagus, tomatoes, or tofu.

A more complicated and expensive purchase, but one you can do a lot more with, is a food processor. This is definitely a kitchen gadget that will make your life easier. Cooking is a lot of tedious jobs-chopping, slicing, dicing, grinding, mincing, pureeing, and kneading doughs. These are all things a food processor can take care of. So if you’re going to make a nice soup full of different ingredients, you can just switch the blades in your processor and take care of all these tasks with one machine, in just a few minutes. You can also use this to grind up your coffee beans, and replace your old coffee grinder. This saves you time and hassle.

There are a lot of advantages to life with all of the fancy gadgets available to us in this day and age. It’s easy to overlook technology in the kitchen and only think about how it affects your entertainment, but today’s technology can make cooking so much more fun. These kitchen gadgets are making life easier, and making the kitchen a less intimidating room of your home.

There is a lot out there for easy to make food. For exciting sandwiches check out Panini Makers, and to make cooking amazing things simple, check out food processors, like the bullet food processor.

Categories: cooking, Food, food processor, gadgets, kitchen, kitchen gadgets, life, life easier, panini maker

Get Steaming

 

 

Written by Jenny Catton

 

When it comes to healthy eating, quite often the way in which we cook our food is just as important as the types of food we choose. Methods such as frying can be high in fat whilst grilling or boiling are much healthier. One healthy way of cooking food that has become popular in recent years is steaming.

 

Steaming is a great way to cook many different types of food as it doesn’t require added fat or oils within the cooking process. And when compared to boiling, more nutrients remain in steamed foods. For example, research has found that boiling vegetables can reduce the vitamin C content by 25% whilst steaming reduces it by just 15%.

 

A steamer works by using boiling water to create steam which is then trapped within a vessel along with the food to be cooked. The food doesn’t come into contact with the water but instead is gently cooked within the steam. The result is moist food that is generally low in fat and high in nutrients. Steaming is ideal for lots of different food types from vegetables to meat and fish. Many people find that steamed foods have a better texture and flavour than foods cooked using other methods – possibly because of the gentle way in which the food is cooked.

 

Today’s steamers come in all shapes and sizes. You can choose from large electric steamers capable of cooking several different ingredients at once to traditional inexpensive bamboo steamers which you can use over a pan of boiling water.

 

For more advice on healthy eating, visit: www.secretsofhealthyeating.com

 

 

Categories: boiling, boiling water, cooked, cooking, Food, Healthy Eating, nbsp, nbsp nbsp, steamed foods, steaming, steaming nbsp

5 Important Summer Grilling Safety Tips

 

Summer is finally here and many people are anxiously ready for planning to cook outdoors. However, while grilling and hosting barbecue parties can be a lot of fun, it’s important to make sure you follow a few safety guidelines to ensure that you and your guests have the best possible experience. The worst thing that could happen during your picnic would be if someone needed to go to the emergency room or the fire department has to be called!

Here are 5 very important summer grilling tips to follow to ensure the safety of you and your guests:

1. Grill From a Distance: Grilling too close to houses, decks, fences, bushes, or trees can greatly increase your risk of a fire while cooking outside. A minimum safe distance should be 5 feet, with 10 feet or more recommended. When you are making foods such as hamburgers or steaks that can drip grease and fat it can cause many flames to shoot up from the grill. You will also want to make sure there are no nearby flammable objects or materials, such as extra propane tanks or aerosol cans. You should never grill indoors or in a garage or covered porch area as this can also be a fire risk. The only things that should be nearby are your cooking necessities and a fire extinguisher!

2. Keep Kids and Pets Safe: A hot grill can be very dangerous to children and animals, especially since they may not realize that it can potentially burn them. Keep kids and pets as far away from the grill as possible and have another adult keep them occupied during cooking to make sure they don’t accidentally bump into the grill.

3. Protect Your Body: It is very easy for grease to splatter when cooking, and anytime you are working near a hot surface you will want to make sure that you take precautions to minimize your risk for burns. Using special matches or lighters for your grill, long handled tongs, and heat resistant oven mitts will all help your skin stay safe while barbecuing outside. Make sure your clothes are not too loose also – hanging sleeves or a baggy shirt could easily catch on fire inadvertently.

4. Never Leave the Grill Unattended: It only takes a minute away from your grilling station for something to go terribly wrong. Never when cooking outdoors leave the area. Make sure before you start that you have everything you need including the food, dishes, utensils, seasonings, and maybe even a drink for yourself while you are working.

5. Follow the Manufacturer Recommendations: Different models will have different features and specifications. Be sure that you completely understand the user manual and directions and follow any other additional safety information that comes with your equipment. You should also make sure that you perform regular cleaning and maintenance. Inspect the parts and pieces before use for leaks if using gas or propane and if necessary call a licensed person to repair.

Following these simple safety tips will help prevent injury to you, your guests, or your property. Taking just a few minutes to do these things can reduce your risk and make sure that your barbecue party is a safe and enjoyable one!

Categories: cooking, follow, grill, grilling, Safety, safety tips, summer grilling

Cook Smart: Seven Health Boosting Cooking Tips

 

 

If you’re looking for easy ways to improve your family’s health, there’s no better place to start than in the kitchen. In fact the food you eat is perhaps the biggest factor in creating a healthy lifestyle. Eating the right foods can benefit every part of your body from promoting healthy skin and nails to maintaining a healthy heart and strong immune system.

If you prepare your own food, rather than relying on ready meals and takeaways, you’re already on the right track. But there are many simple changes you can introduce when cooking to make your diet even healthier. Here are seven ideas to try:

 

Get Grilling
When cooking meat, fish or vegetables try grilling rather than frying and you won’t need to use as much fat.

 

Savvy Seasoning
Too much salt in our diet can cause a range of health problems so add herbs or lemon juice for flavour rather than salt.

 

Extra Veggies
Serve one extra vegetable with each meal to boost your vitamin intake.

 

Cut the Fat

When cooking meat remember to trim off any excess fat for a healthier dish.

 

Steamy Stuff
Boost your vitamins – steaming rather than boiling helps vegetables maintain their vitamin levels. You may also find steamed veggies retain more flavour too.

 

Go Brown
Choose brown versions of everyday staples such as bread, rice and pasta which are healthier than the refined white options.

 

Keep it Varied
Don’t stick to the same ingredients day in day out; instead use a wide range of ingredients to ensure you are getting a balanced diet.

 

For more healthy tips, visit: www.nhs.uk/change4life/Pages/change-for-life.aspx

 

Categories: cooking, cooking meat, diet, Healthier, Healthy, nbsp

Super Slow Cooker

 

 

Wouldn’t it be great to return from work to a delicious home-cooked healthy meal without having to spend hours in the kitchen? Well thanks to slow cookers, you can. These traditional kitchen gadgets are currently enjoying a resurgence in popularity as people are realising how convenient they are for making cheap, healthy family meals.

 

A slow cooker is an electrical appliance that sits on a kitchen worktop. It usually consists of a large ceramic cooking pot with a lid and uses electricity and water vapour to cook food gently over a period of several hours. Some models need to be switched on before you head off for the day, whilst others can be programmed to come on at a particular time. Some can even be set to change from cook mode to keep warm mode after a certain length of time.

 

The principle of a slow cooker is that you simply throw your chopped raw ingredients, for example meat and vegetables, into the cooker along with a liquid such as water or stock and then leave the slow cooker to cook the food at a low temperature over several hours. The result is a perfectly cooked dish ready to eat at the end of the day.

 

Slow cookers are ideal for cooking many different types of stews and casseroles as well as soups, chillies and curries. You can even use them to cook traditional desserts such as sponges or rice puddings. They are also great for cooking large cuts of meat such as gammon. And because a slow cooker keeps food moist, it is a particularly good method for cooking cheaper cuts of meat which might not fare so well with other cooking methods.

 

Some people worry about leaving a meal to cook all day but because of the low temperatures, it’s almost impossible to burn a slow cooked meal. And as an added bonus, the slow cooking method results in very little washing-up – making it ideal for busy families or those working long hours.

 

If your family regularly needs to eat at different times, slow cookers make it easy to feed everyone at the time that suits them. The slow cooker keeps the food hot, meaning that individual family members can simply serve themselves when they are ready for something to eat.

 

So if you’d like a change from ready meals or take-aways when looking for a convenient after-work meal, why not invest in a slow cooker. You will find them in electrical stores, department stores and some larger supermarkets. Alternatively take a look online for a wide selection ranging from cheap and cheerful basic models to more expensive versions with a range of various settings.

 

For more information and recipes to try in your slow cooker, visit: www.bbcgoodfood.com

Categories: cook, cooker, cooking, hours, nbsp

Why Home Cooking Beats Restaurant Dining

Dining out is, without a doubt, one of life’s great perks, but doing so regularly can lead to not just expense but also bad health. If you’re trying to maintain a toned physique, spending every day at your favourite restaurant isn’t the best way to achieve it. The good news though is that you can recreate some of your favourite dining experiences at home, for a fraction of the cost and calories, and still enjoy the restaurant feel. Restaurants really aren’t your friends when it comes to a healthy diet. You can make things better by opting to have your dressing on the side or your chicken grilled rather than fried, but the real importance lies in the nutritional value in what you’re eating. There’s no substitution for a home cooked meal, where you can really make healthier choices across the board. And once you get into the habit of cooking at home you’ll want to do it more and more! The kitchen is a place where you can really get into a creative mind-set – the world is your oyster with regards to home cooking, so get to work creating some delicious and healthy meals for you and your family. The first step towards creating a good environment for cooking is to ensure that everything is clean and organised. With a little bit of planning and strategy, you can capture the quality and the aesthetics of a really great restaurant kitchen – all conducive to a healthy cooking environment! You also need to ensure that your kitchen is immaculate in terms of cleanliness so as to keep the kitchen a place you want to cook regularly. This means keeping work surfaces clean and uncluttered, keeping the fridge clean on a daily basis and checking the dates on food so as to avoid wasting too many ingredients.

 

You should have one designated shelf in the fridge for uncooked meats, a drawer for vegetables and a shelf for dairy produce, so that everything remains uncontaminated. After you’ve cooked a meal, you should wipe down the stove top, the worktops and anywhere else you’ve handled the ingredients to remove the risk of bacteria forming. Also, you need to maintain your motivation to eat healthily. Create lists for your week for each day of meals so you know what you’re making when, and create a collage of phrases and photos to maintain your motivation to achieve a healthy body – believe it or not, it does actually work! Organise your kitchen so that you keep all of your unprocessed foods together and away from any processed foods that the rest of your family may be buying. This will limit your temptation to snack on things you shouldn’t be. Keep a large bowl filled with fresh fruits next to the blender so you’ll be motivated to make your morning smoothies and juices. Put your grains and measurable foods in clear jars so that you can see them clearly and will be encouraged to use them in your dishes. You should also keep an accurate inventory of the food you have so you can plan your weekly shop properly. These tips will help you to create a really inviting place to cook and eat, so that you can avoid dashing out for takeaways and last-minute meals at restaurants instead of cooking a family meal. So start cooking today and see your wellbeing improve by the second!

Categories: cooking, Food, Healthy, Healthy Eating, Home, home-cooking, kitchen, restaurant

How to Make Your Kitchen the Centre of Family Wellness

Your kitchen is more than a place to prepare food; it’s a creative space at the centre of family wellness. If you want to take care of your family’s wellbeing by cooking and eating well, the first thing you need to do is sort out your kitchen wellness. According to natural personal chef and holistic nutritionist Marni Wasserman, ‘The kitchen should really be the centre point of your home.’ So, how do you give your kitchen a healthy makeover?

 

1. Let your light shine: In many homes, spacious, well-lit kitchens are where everyone congregates and connects, so make sure you let in as much natural light as possible, even if that just means opening the blinds. Wasserman details, ‘Connecting with nature will inspire your food choices. We installed a skylight, which brightens my kitchen when it’s sunny and provides a cosy, comfortable feeling when it’s raining.’

 

2. Go au naturel: Natural, earthy tones like greens, browns and yellows make for good bases colours when you’re repainting your kitchen. Wasserman notes, ‘I always say, the more natural the better, but it’s really about finding a colour palette that makes you feel good.’ If natural is a bit too neutral for you, spice up your room with bright artwork or a funky-patterned glass backsplash. Another good way to add some colour and freshness to the room is to create a beautiful and simple centrepiece of a glass bowl filled with fresh and exciting fruits. Don’t just go for the staple apples and oranges but branch out and keep replenishing the bowl with whatever colourful fruits are in season. Not only will this liven up the kitchen, but it will give you lots of exciting options when you’re cooking or in the mood for a snack.

 

3. Always go for glass: If you want to keep your counters organised and your ingredients fresh, but still have a gorgeous kitchen, glass bottles, vases and mason jars are just the thing you need. Wasserman suggests, ‘Fill an oversize vase with lemons to give your room some colour.’ Another good idea is to store nuts, grains, seeds and beans in glass jars and display them on your countertop in an organised fashion, as this will make them more tempting to eat. However, while you should have these things on display, it’s important to keep them out of direct light.

 

4. Plant an indoor garden: Bringing a little bit of the outdoors to the indoors is always invigorating in any room, but why stop at fresh flowers (which will soon be not-so fresh) when you can instead plant a small indoor herb garden?  Fresh herbs will infuse your kitchen with natural aromas and ‘potted basil and oregano will liven up your windowsills and add flavour to your favourite recipes,’ says Wasserman.

 

5. Update your appliances and cooking utensils: Inspire your inner chef with some shiny new toys to play with. Wasserman recommends, ‘When choosing a stove, a gas burner is ideal. It looks great and the quality of cooking is much better.’ However, you don’t have to install a new oven if yours is working perfectly well (why would you?) Instead, try updating your cooking tools to match the vibe of the room. If you have earthy tones in your kitchen, displaying bamboo utensils in a matching basket works really well. If, on the other hand, black and silver is more your style, mount a brushed stainless-steel utensil rack near your stove. Wasserman adds, ‘Titanium pots and pans are the nicest looking and best quality for cooking.’

Categories: cooking, earthy tones, Family Wellness, fresh, Indoor Garden, kitchen, Natural, Natural Light, Neutral Tones, wasserman

What Everyone Ought to Know About Cooking With Oil

Have you seen the cooking oil section in your local supermarket lately? The range is huge, and it can be mind boggling trying to work out which ones make a good contribution to your diet, which ones have the right credentials in terms of nutrition and which ones are pure fat that will go straight to your hips! The good news is that there is a really a simple answer to this – using olive oil is far better for your wellness and wellbeing than any of the other types of oil!

Olive oil has numerous health benefits, including the fact that it actually reduces your blood pressure. A recent study was carried out which proved that virgin olive oil resulted in a reduction in the need for blood pressure medication.

Cholesterol can also be benefitted by the use of olive oil, as recent studies have shown that using olive oil can significantly reduce your body’s levels of harmful cholesterol. On top of this, olive oil has also been shown to increase the body’s levels of good cholesterol!

Olive oil is known to be good for your heart, too. The American Heart Association has backed this, stating that olive oil provides numerous benefits for a healthy heart.

It’s not just the heart and blood that can benefit from the use of olive oil; further studies have shown that there are links between the use of olive oil and the body’s ability to fight or protect itself against cancer.

A study on rats showed that those fed a diet high in olive oil produced few cancerous tumours, despite being fed carcinogens, too. In another study, it was shown that olive oil could help to prevent colon cancer by helping to protect the digestive system. Olive oil reduces bile acid in the stomach and this can lead to a reduction in the rates of colon cancer.

Categories: Blood, blood pressure, colon cancer, cooking, heart, oil, olive, olive oil, shown, study

Caring and Cooking for Someone with Type 1 Diabetes

If you are caring for the wellness a loved one with type 1 diabetes, you know that it means ensuring their wellbeing with a healthy diet and correct food preparation. Sue Tocher MS, RD, dietician and diabetes clinical program coordinator at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta says ‘You don’t need to buy special foods’ but instead ‘You should prepare the same healthy foods that would be recommended for someone without diabetes. That means plenty of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and a low concentration of fats and sweets.’

When it comes to diabetes, moderate glucose levels are all-important, and need to be checked regularly as well as maintained through the proper intake of insulin and carbohydrates. Your loved one should keep regular hours of eating and snacking, as well as a similar daily intake of carbs, and avoid skipping meals. According to Tocher, ‘Carbohydrates are the most important food group for diabetics’ because these are the foods that ‘impact glucose levels’, and good source are bagels, crackers, dried beans and peas, fruit, and pasta and rice.

A good way to make food choices is by following the food pyramid. This has six colour-coded categories, each representing a different food group, and Tocher explains ‘The foods closest to the bottom are the foods that are closest to their natural state, such as whole grains, fresh vegetables, beans, and fresh fruit. You want to get your calories from the bottom up.’ Foods from the bottom also provide vitamins, minerals, and fibre, and the next level up represents milk products, meat, and meat substitutes like eggs, fish, and tofu. Fats and sweets reside at the top of the pyramid, so your patient needs the least of these.

Next, think about portion sizes. You should try to provide 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, as well as 4-11 servings of grains and starches such as whole-grain bread or pasta, brown rice, beans, corn, and potatoes. You should be giving your loved one low or non-fat dairy products 2-3 times a day, limit meat protein to 4-6 ounces a day and boost oily fish up to at least 2-3 times a week. A few final tips: use low fat oils, sauces and dressings and try lemon or lime juice instead of salt. Steam vegetables in water or low-fat broth and remember that steaming, roasting, grilling and boiling are better than frying. Finally, remove fat and skin from meat products and make sure that if you’re caring for a child with diabetes that he or she gets plenty of vitamin D.

Caring and Cooking for Someone with Type 1 Diabetes

Categories: Advice, cooking, Diabetes