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Grilling Made Easy and Safe
According to a recent poll most of us think that cooking outdoors is easy, costs less, is more economical than dining out and encourages time outdoors.
June Featured Recipe-Vegetable Fried Rice
I’m ready for some sunshine and warm weather so I can work and play outside. This means that meals have to be extra quick and easy. Vegetable Fried Rice is one of my “Go To” recipes. It’s super easy, costs about $.70 a serving, very versatile and I almost always have everything I need.
MyPyramid Changes to MyPlate
Last week MyPyramid changed to MyPlate.
GRILL, PORTION, FREEZE, ENJOY
I have been enjoying grilled chicken, sirloin steak and fish for lunch the past couple of weeks even though I haven’t taken the cover off the grill. How do I do it? I grill extra when I have the marinade prepared and the grill heated. When everything is cooked I make 2 ounce portions, just enough to top my salad. Then, before work, I prepare my lunch by putting greens and whatever raw vegetables I have in the vegetable drawer – carrots, broccoli, onion, mushrooms, or cucumbers – in a plastic container, add one of my meat/fish packets and a piece of fruit to my lunch bag and I am good to go. When lunch time comes, I finish defrosting my meat/fish packet, slice it up and top my salad. Yum.
CHOOSING THE PERFECT CUT
Ok, I admit it. Most of the time when planning a meal I start with the protein food. I think this is a carryover from growing up on a farm and having a freezer full of homegrown beef, pork and chicken to choose from. The type of meat and how it will be prepared (grilled, broiled, oven roasted, pot roasted, stewed, etc.) effects the rest of the meal. My mom taught us the importance of matching the cooking method to the cut of meat. I didn’t make the mistake of turning a great rump roast into a pot roast more than a couple times.
How much do YOU spend on food a week?
Last week I showed a group of nutrition professionals features of the SpendSmart.EatSmart web page including the Cost of Food at Home calculator. You put in the number, age, and gender of your family members and the number of meals eaten away from home. The calculator then tells you how much your family would spend at the grocery store according to the low-cost food plan.
Time for a Picnic, Try Pita Pockets
This month’s featured recipe is Peanut Butter Pita Pockets.
It’s Too Hot To Cook!
Who wants to cook when it is this hot? Not me. But, I still want to eat! Here are some ideas for quick, easy, inexpensive meals with links to my favorite SpendSmart.EatSmart. recipes.
Summer Vegetables Ready for Delicious Eating
While I don’t like temperatures in the 90’s and high humidity, the vegetable plants in our garden seem very content especially if they get enough water.
Directions Available for Home Food Preservation
Have you noticed the interest in home food preservation? Equipment sales are up, cookbooks are selling and home cooks, from beginners to experts, are enjoying the pleasure of canning, freezing, jams, jellies and drying foods. Some are doing it for creativity or to give as homemade gifts. Others want to control salt, sugar and other preservatives in the foods they eat. Some want to save money by preserving the excess garden bounty.
Let the Buyer Beware
Grocery and discount stores like to promote groups of different products for the same price (i.e. mix and match for a $1.00). Some are good buys, some are the regular price, and sometimes they are more.
How Clean is it? – Washing vs. Sanitizing
I have been thinking about sanitizing a lot lately. Not just getting things washed, but sanitized. When I wash something, I get all the visible dirt, crumbs, pet hair, etc. off of it. When I sanitize something, I get the germs off of it to prevent my family from getting sick. I know that if I can keep the germs off the things in my home that my family touches a lot, I can keep them out of the doctor office, which saves me time and money.
