Going Meatless a Few Nights a Week

by Ann Martin

Ever wonder what it would be like to be a vegetarian, but don’t want to fully commit to a lifestyle change just yet? Why not try preparing a few meatless meals a week to see if it’s for you or for your family? Even if you are looking for ways to save on the weekly grocery bill, eating a few meatless meal a week will really save you money. More and more people, no matter their reasons are going meatless at least a few times a week.

There are health benefits for eating a few meatless meals throughout the week. By having the meals focused on vegetables, grains, beans, etc, you will be consuming more nutrients and vitamins. Since these food items are typically high in fiber, in turn you will feel full and eat less. For those people that include ample fruits and vegetables into their diet know that they are low in both calories and fats and help them maintain their ideal weight. Finally, by including more and more vegetarian elements into your diet, you will drastically reduce your risk of heart disease. Put out your dinnerware and get ready to try some delicious, yet healthy vegetarian dishes.

Here are some helpful suggestions on how to include some protein into your diet, without eating meat.

• Eggs – They are the perfect food for morning, noon, and night! Try a vegetable frittata for lunch or maybe a fris?e salad with poached eggs (of course, try and leave out the bacon!)
• Milk – It may seem silly, but you can incorporate milk into so many things, like: sauces, soups and desserts. See if you can squeeze in that extra cup where and when you can.
• Tofu – This can be substituted in almost any recipe that calls for meat. There are many varieties of tofu, so make sure you read up on which one would hold up best in the recipe that you’ll be using.

Now, there are some wonderful meatless recipes out there for you try. Here are some menu ideas to get you started to making a few meatless meal for you and family to enjoy during the week. Who knows, maybe you’ll make very Monday a “Meatless Monday”!

• Ravioli with Tomatoes, White Beans and Baby Spinach
• Shell Pasta with Chickpeas and Broccoli Rabe
• Eggplant Lasagna with Ricotta and Asiago Cheeses
• Stir-Fry with Tofu and Oriental Vegetables
• Homemade Pizza (think of all the yummy toppings you could add!)
• Cheesy Tomato Risotto (again, add in mushrooms, peppers, etc.)

As you can see, there are endless possibilities that you can create in the kitchen that do not require meat. So get online, talk to some friends and see who can come up with the most delicious meatless meal! After creating your recipe, set up a buffet using your Noritake colorwave platters and have your family and friends sample your meatless masterpieces.

Save Some Cooking Time Mom

Below are some quick ways to get ahead on a couple of meals for those long work days.  Nothing fancy, just some ideas to get in that freezer.

Make Ahead Freezer Meals – For Women on the Go

by Darlyn Burkle

Make ahead freezer meals could be the answer to a busy woman’s dinner time blues. Have you ever come home from work or running the kids to their activities, to find that you have nothing in the house to eat for dinner? Maybe you have come home and you were too tired to prepare a full meal for your family? Did you know that make ahead freezer meals could save the day?

Make ahead freezer meals are perfect for a family, couple, or single person. Let me tell you a little bit about these meals. They are easy to prepare and are a wonderful life saver.

Make ahead freezer meals require proper planning. You will need to plan at least a couple hours but three or four hours would be better. The reason for this is you will be preparing the meal from start to finish and you will be doing more than one meal during this time period.

There are a couple of ways to prepare make ahead freezer meals. You can do each one of them separately or you can prepare them all at once. Here is an example.

If you are preparing four meals, two are with chicken and two are with hamburger, you could prepare the chicken meals together and when you are finished prepare the hamburger meals or you could put the chicken in the oven to cook and prepare the hamburger meals while that cooks. Once the chicken is complete you would finish that meal.

If you don’t want to prepare the entire meal you can cook up the chicken so the only thing needed is to warm it up. You can do the same with fried hamburger. If your family enjoys hamburgers, you can create the patties ahead of time so you won’t have to do that step. You can even add the seasoning to them if you wish, and then pop them in the freezer until you are ready to use them.

Make ahead freezer meals are also possible with crock-pot cooking. Creating crock pot meals ahead of time is super easy. All you do is put all the ingredients needed in a bag with the seasoning. Then all you have to do is open the bag and dump it into the crock pot and turn it on. What can possible be easier than that?

Here is a list of items that can be created ahead of time for make ahead freezer meals.

o Fried hamburger – cooked
o Baked Chicken – baked
o Hashbrowns – baked and shredded
o Potato squares – baked and cubed
o Hamburger patties – seasoned and ready to cook
o Chicken strips – cooked and sliced

Cooking or at least preparing these items ahead of time can save you anywhere from a few minutes to a half hour of time. I don’t know about you, but that’s a lot of time for me.

Make ahead freezer meals are meals that are already cooked and sitting in your freezer. All you have to do is place it in a dish and into the oven to warm it up. Other make ahead freezer meals can also include meals that are all put together, all you have to do is cook them. These types of meals are wonderful for a family on the go, a couple who works long days, or a single person. Whatever your situation is, make ahead freezer meals are the way to go.

Pickling at Home

I grew up with a great-grandma, grandma and Mom that canned.  Pickles was just one of the many things that were put in a jar to save from our gardens or the local produce stand.  I lucked out and my mother-in-law also liked to make pickles.  We’ve spent many a summer coming up with new twists on what we will pickle.

Pickles are very easy to make and with so much more variety than our grocery shelves can show.  There was a time in history when pickling was one of the best ways to preserve food, but with better shipping available, it fell out of favor.  Today, you will find most pickles in the form of cucumbers that have been made into bread and butter slices or mixed with dill.

There are many different kinds of pickles out there.  Fresh-pack pickles only need to be cured for a few hours in a vinegar solution before they are ready to eat, and as you can see, they are quite simple to make.  Fermented pickles are soaked in brine for a month and are quite a bit stronger.  Fruit pickles use whole or sliced fruit that have been simmered in a syrup of some sort, while relishes are made from chopped vegetables that have been cooked in a vinegar solution.

To get started making pickles, take a look at a simple recipe.  Wash some cucumbers and slice them down to about three to four inch chunks before soaking them in a brine solution that is roughly1 cup of salt to 2 gallons of water for about 12 hours.  Then drain them and put the pickles into a  jar, adding spices like mustard seed or dill before covering them with a boiling solution of one and a half quarts vinegar, half a cup of salt, one-fourth a cup of sugar, two quarts of water and two teaspoons of pickling spice.

With this basic recipe, you can get to pickling quick.  But you’ll find it can get even simpler.  In many Asian countries, the large white radish known as the daikon is often pickled.  Unlike the European radish, the daikon is quite mild and even a little sweet.  To pickle a daikon, simply sprinkle cut slices of daikon with salt for an hour before gently rinsing them clean.  Then cover them with white vinegar or rice vinegar for a few hours and you’ll find that they are quite ready to eat.  Depending on your taste, you can add a little bit of sugar or pepper to the mixture.

Pickling in general is a largely intuitive process, and you’ll find that with just a little bit of practice, you can make some excellent pickles that all of your friends and family can enjoy.  Experiment to find out what crazy twists your family can come up with.

Freezer Cooking Reheating Tips

Reheating certain foods can be tricky. Many times over the years of learning, I’ve overcooked the pasta in a casserole or soup and had mush. Not very appetizing.  Here are some simple reheating tips so your foods will look and taste better:

• Soup can be a simple but very hearty and satisfying meal.  When it comes to freezer cooking, simply freeze the ingredients.  Frozen soups can lose their consistency when reheated.  If you make your own broth, you can definitely freeze that.  Add a package of frozen broth and a package of frozen chicken broth to one jumbo storage bag and label “chicken soup”.  When it’s time to eat the chicken soup, simply thaw the broth and chicken.  Add your veggies the day you will actually eat the soup.

• If you find your family doesn’t like a certain ingredient after it’s been frozen, simply omit that item and add it the dish as you are cooking it for that night’s supper.  My family prefers broccoli more firm.  This means I add it to a recipe at the last minute whenever possible.

• If your dish calls for pasta, remember to assemble it with slightly undercooked pasta.  The pasta will finish cooking when you reheat the dish.

What You Need To Know About Herbs and Spices

Years ago, I received a nice spice rack and 25 jars of herbs and spices for a wedding gift. I remember sitting there thinking to myself, how am I going to use these? Back then, I was not an educated cook!

Don’t get me wrong, I was appreciative of this great wedding gift. However, I lacked the knowledge that I needed to know about using them.

As a new cook, I thought herbs and spices were the same thing and quickly discovered that they are different. According to Wikipedia, spices are made from a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, leaf, or vegetable substance and used to add flavor to a food dish or used as a preservative. An herb is made from leafy green plants and used for flavoring purposes.

Here are some great tips that I have learnt over the years.

Using a Mortar and Pestle: Dried herbs, aromatic seeds, garlic cloves and nuts will release more of their flavor when crushed with a mortar and pestle. The mortar is a deep bowl in which ingredients are placed. The tool used for crushing is the pestle. For a uniform grind, crush a small amount at a time. It is important to make sure your mortar bowl is completely clean and dry before using it.

Substitutions: To substitute fresh herbs for dried, use three times more of the fresh herb.

Freezing: You can freeze fresh herbs by washing young tender leaves in several changes of cool water. Pat the leaves dry with paper towels. Seal small amounts of the leaves into freezer bags, label and freeze.

Shelf Life For Spices

Ground Spices: 2-3 years
Whole Spices: 3-4 years
Seasoning Blends: 1-2 years
Herbs: 1-3 years
Extracts: 4 years, except pure vanilla, which lasts indefinitely

*tip* Here in Pennsylvania, we observe daylight savings time. Every season when we change our clocks, I will take the time out to go through my spice cabinet and remove any outdated products.

How To Properly Store Herbs and Spices

You will want to keep them in a cool, dry, and dark place. A good place would be inside your pantry closet or inside your kitchen cupboard. You never want to leave them out in sunlight or right near your stove where heat and moisture can destroy them.

When it comes to cooking with herbs and spices, you need to know the basics. Once you know the basics, you will feel more comfortable in using them. There are several good books out in the marketplace that you can purchase to use as a guide. The book I like to recommend is by Jill Norman. It’s called, Herbs and Spices, The Cook’s Reference.

Shelly Hill has been working from home in Direct Sales since 1989 and is a Manager with Tupperware. Shelly enjoys cooking and baking and spending time in her kitchen. You can visit Shelly online at http://my.tupperware.com/Ravish30
Recipe Blog: http://wahmshelly.blogspot.com