Archive for March, 2010

The Benefits of Consuming Fruit Salad

Friday, March 26th, 2010

Eating fruit salad will be an interesting thing; you will want to do it in your daily life. There are many reasons why people like such kind of food. The first is due to the fact that it is very nutritious, and the second reason is because this kind of food will never cause obesity. Some people even include fruit salad in their diet menu list. The following explanation will tell you more about the common ingredients and also the benefits of consuming such foods.

The common ingredients people will use for making fruit salad are kiwifruit, strawberry, and also orange. However, it is possible to use the other ingredients in it. It will greatly depend on your preference and health condition. Please remember that certain diseases will prohibit the sufferers to consume certain fruits. What about you? In a simple sentence, we can define fruit salad as a dish which consists of various kinds of fruit, served either in their own juices or syrup.

Besides, you can serve such kind of food as the appetizer, a side-salad, or a dessert. In American public schools, the small cups of fruit salad are commonly served for dessert. The great nutritious food is all people need to let them living healthier. The delicious taste can be got by adding mayonnaise on your serve. In fact, salad is not only known in America, but also the other countries around the world.

You can use your creativity in making the sauce for your salad. It is possible to use spicy sauce with peanuts and shrimp paste. If you try the salad in Philippines, you will find buko or young coconut added. Besides, you will find condensed milk to complete canned or fresh fruit.

Recipe to Make Hot and Spicy Food

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

Spicy food seems to be growing in popularity. Some of the cuisines that are associated with a lot of spice include Mexican, Thai, Szechuan Chinese, and Indian. How you create the spiciness for each of these cuisines will differ slightly due to the ingredients.

Mexican food, for example, is associated with spicy flavors, yet most recipes use milder chilies like jalapenos, serranos, and anchos. The more chilies that are added, the more heat you will feel when you eat the dish. Hot peppers like habaneros will really increase the flames. Try different chilies before you add several to your cooking. Build your spice gradually.

Many Asian recipes rely on chili oil. A few drops can really spice up a recipe. It is often used in soups, salad dressings, stir fries and other recipes. Infused oils like this are great for people who love the heat but cannot tolerate chili flakes or seeds in the actual food. Chili oil also blends into the food well, putting the heat in every bite.

You can use a variety of chilies to build up the spiciness in a dish. Anchos create a lingering heat that builds slowly. Jalapenos jump in with their heat, though chipotle and dried jalapenos will be less potent. Aleppo flakes are perfect for adding heat to Indian dishes. It is similar to the ancho chili, but hotter. It sneaks up on the diner and lingers on the palate. Cayenne fits many different cuisines and can be easily controlled in a dish when using the powdered version.

If you do not want to use chili peppers, ginger can give a nice spice to a dish. Use it in Mexican or Asian dishes to add depth of flavor. Ginger also blends nicely with other ingredients, adding that little “something extra” that we often find lacking in some recipes.

Making Fresh Pasta with Pasta Machine

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

Pasta is made through eggs and flour mixture. Preparing home made fresh pasta is easy as piece of cake if you have pasta machines at home.

Making fresh pasta manually is so time consuming, you need to flatten the dough manually using a rolling pin plus additional time will be consume when cutting a pasta dough into pieces. Doing it manually will not give you great results, pasta sizes will not be equally cut. Unlike having a pasta machine, preparing pasta dishes in just a minute is possible and it guarantees to give you perfect results.

Usually pasta machine has a built in rolling pin and cutting blades. You will just need to turn the handle when feeding the dough on the rolling pin. You may do this process many times until you acquire the desired thickness. Some machines have a metal clip used to attach in tables. This will stop machine from moving when you are working with the pasta.

When planning to buy a pasta machine, consider the quality, warranty and the inclusions. Choose a product that includes at least 5 different kinds of blades. This is useful in creating different sizes and pasta designs. Consider also the price. Don’t just shop at one store. Try to look for another store and compare their prices. There are some cases that they are selling the same product but different price.

Making Delicious Healthy Pizza

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

There are lots of types of pizza. You can have a thin, crispy crust or a thick, bread crust. There are various pizza sauces, including traditional tomato sauce, spicy sauce or even a parsley infused creamy white sauce. Pizza toppings vary enormously. Pepperoni pizza is the most popular pizza variety but this is only one type.

Some people like to stick with a theme when making pizza recipes. They like to use various types of meat for a meat feast pizza, white and green ingredients only for a “white pizza recipe” or the most colorful ingredients they can find for a grilled vegetable pizza. Other people enjoy mixing and matching their pizza toppings or using up anything in the refrigerator that needs to be used up.

Tips for a Nutritious Pizza

If you want to make a healthy pizza, there are a few things you can do. Choose a thin pizza crust rather than a calorific deep dish one. Use a tomato sauce rather than a cream sauce and choose your pizza toppings with care.

Vegetables are great for topping your homemade pizza recipes because they are colorful, flavorful and they suit any meat, poultry or fish toppings. You can add raw vegetables, grilled vegetables or thawed vegetables to your pizza.

Use reduced fat cheese instead of full fat cheese as a healthier topping for your pizza recipes. Goat’s cheese and reduced fat mozzarella are a good combination. Hard cheeses like parmesan are also good, firstly because the strong flavor means you will not need to use much and secondly because hard cheeses are lower in fat than soft cheeses.

How to Roast Bell Peppers

Roasted bell pepper is one of the tastiest toppings you can use on a healthy pizza recipe. Roasting your own peppers is very easy and you can roast red, yellow, orange or green bell peppers. Roasting them makes them succulent, juicy and bursting with flavor.

There are various ways to roast a bell pepper. The easiest way is to put a bell pepper over the burner of a gas stove or on your grill. Turn the pepper using tongs and keep cooking it until the skin is black and charred.

Alternatively you can broil a bell pepper. Rub vegetable oil all over it first, and then put it on a baking sheet. Use tongs to turn it when the top starts to go black. You can either broil a whole bell pepper or slice it into wedges and broil those. Another method is to cook the bell pepper wedges or strips in a skillet in olive oil. When they are tender, they are done.

The easiest way to get the skin off a roasted bell pepper is to put it in a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap. This traps the steam. Leave the bell pepper for twenty minutes then you should find the skin comes off easily. Pull the stem out before you take off the skin. Roasted peppers make a delicious topping for homemade pizza recipes.

Favorite Desserts in America

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

There is no denying that here in America, we love our desserts. We are always happy to try anything sweet. Yet, as time has passed, we have developed a few favorites we turn to over and over again. These desserts have become American classics; it does not matter where they originated. We have claimed them for our own.

Ice cream, chocolate cake, apple pie, and cheesecake are all dessert favorites in the USA. With such traditional choices, it is no surprise that many cannot choose which of these holds the number one spot for themselves. Each of these desserts has had a long history, and none were invented in the United States; nonetheless, they continue to hold the top few spots.

Vanilla is still the number one ice cream flavor, followed closely by chocolate. Chocolate cake is still the favorite of most people. Apple pie conjures up images of Americana, like baseball, swinging under a tree and playing fetch with the dog. Cheesecake, well, it is one of the most classic dessert choices of all time.

Let us take a look at one of these desserts: chocolate cake. This decadent favorite can be made simply, with a molten center, or so rich you are not sure which way is up by the time you are finished. Whatever type is your personal favorite, you cannot go wrong with chocolate cake.