Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts

16 Quick Tips for Eating at Restaurants or Work

16 Quick Tips for Eating at Restaurants or Work

Most of us eat at restaurants for a variety of reasons; time and convenience are the most common motives. Here is a prepared list of quick tips for eating out of your home.

Most of us eat at restaurants for a variety of reasons; time and convenience are the most common motives. Below is a prepared list of quick tips for eating out of your home.

If you eat healthy food or sensible portions, that you like, you can stick with eating healthy for life.

Your portions should be spaced out over the course of the day. Water should be a part of every meal.

After you eat, your stomach should be half full, or less, with food. For every two parts of food consumed, you should drink one part water. Leave your stomach at least one quarter empty for movement of air.

When eating at a restaurant, eat half a portion, maximum, and wait five or ten minutes. Restaurant portions are commonly two to four meals on a single or double plate.

This is way too much to consume at a single sitting and you may find out that, once you pause and sip your drink, you are already full.

In the Providence, RI area, there are some restaurants where the single portions could feed a family of four. No wonder a man of 200 lbs. is now considered thin. Do not make comparisons to other people. Eat to live and enjoy your food, but do not use someone else’s over indulgence as an excuse for your own.

Establish control over your appetite. Most of us feel guilty if we don’t finish a plate. This is usually conditioning from your childhood. Bury your guilty past and have the rest “wrapped to go.”

Always eat something for breakfast and never “skip it.” When you skip breakfast, you will over-consume for it, later in the day.

Eat slowly and thoroughly chew your food.

Make sure your last meal, or last “snack” of the day, is small and nutritionally dense. Examples: Cereal with fruit, vegetable salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, rice with vegetables, and light popcorn, without the extra butter and salt. For those who eat meat or fish: turkey, chicken, or salmon salad on top of fresh greens.

In the later part of your day, skip desserts, sugary cereals, bread, and second portions.

If you absolutely must have sugar: Eat fruit, strawberries with yogurt or low fat cottage cheese, fruit with rice, or almonds with yogurt.

If you must have coffee or alcohol, beware that these should be consumed in extreme moderation. Both substances will dehydrate your body, and you will have to drink extra water to make up for it. Wine is much better than hard alcohol, but one or two glasses a day is the limit.

9 Things You Need To Know About barbecues


9 Things You Need To Know About barbecues
Its almost like a tradition but in the spring time of every year people in America blow the dust of there barbecue sets and start to bulk buy all their meats.
Its almost like a tradition but in the spring time of every year people in America blow the dust of there barbecue sets and start to bulk buy all their meats. But how much do we really know about barbecuing?

1) Barbecues originated in pig-pickin’s, before the civil war it was common to throw parties and elaborate meals outside, they would roast an entire pig on an open flame. 

2) “Smoking” has been used for over 6 millenia to safely cook and store food. The meat was treated to bellows of smoke and low heat this was done to prevent any bacteria cultivating. 

3) Barbecuing is not that common, well not barbecuing as we no it barbecuing is a length cooking experience that cooks at a temperatures similar to boiling water in order to tenderize the meat while preserving the juices. Today the method most commonly used is in fact broiling, cooking at in much less time and a far higher temperature, about 300 degrees higher. 

4) According to surveys done by the Barbecue Industry Association, half of all marshmallows consumed in the U.S. have been flame roasted. 

5) One of the insanely easy ways to check your gas tank level, use bathroom scales. 

6) The origin of the word barbecue is unclear. Some believe it came from the American-Indian word barbacoa for a wood on which foods were cooked. 

7) To add a Smokey flavor to food cooked on a gas grill cooked or food that you cook inside the house, use “liquid Smoke.” Liquid Smoke is a condensation of actual smoke, this product is simply added to any barbecue. 

8) Brisket, this incredibly dense cut of meat taken from a cow’s chest, cooks in 1 to 2 hours per pound on a barbecue. This works out at an average of 12 hours cooking time on the grill for a basic 8 pound piece! 

9) Kansas City, Missouri and Lexington, North Carolina both claim to be the barbecue capitals of the world. Memphis, meanwhile, stakes a claim to being the pork barbecue capital.

5 Ways To Better enjoy a Barbecue


5 Ways To Better enjoy a Barbecue
Since Americans in the South began publicly roasting pigs at parties and get togethers, Barbecues have been a common item in the lives of North Americans.
Since Americans in the South began publicly roasting pigs at parties and get togethers, Barbecues have been a common item in the lives of North Americans. 
For most of the population using a grill is a essential part of cooking and for the hard core barbecuers once the summer comes in it's barbecues all the way. 

Every barbecue is always a good fun family event. Here are 5 ways to make your routine evening barbecue a more unique experience: 

1) Who said you have to only barbecue meat? There is quite a lot that can be done with bread or fruit and veg over a naked grill. One way to make barbecues and grilling more fun to the whole family is to use pastry cutters for what ever it is you are grilling. It is up to you or your kids what design and type of food you use. 

2) Try some of those foil packed recipes which cook in less than 20 minutes which are very handy and clean and kids will also love the surprise element. Combos can be great fun as you can mix it up any way you want and it makes a great game for the kids mixing different items of bread, fruit and veg. 

3) They say variety is the spice of life so if you only ever cook the same old sausages and steaks why not try something different like a nice bit of cod or a juicy bit of venison. Similarly, try to mix it up with condiments and seasoning. 

4) Barbecues should not be rushed, they are supposed to be fun, many of the die hard barbecue fans out there will state that broiling is an insult to the barbecuing criteria. Barbecues should represent a process of slow cooking on low to high heat and while you wait for the food to grill its a great opportunity to have a good laugh with who ever is in your party be it friends and family. 

5) When we were all small children are moms told us never to play are food, well there is an except to every rule isn't there? Barbecue games are a great way to have really good fun while cooking. In the game Glutton, every player gets either mashed potatoes, turnip or mac cheese, then they must pick at random a utensil from the kitchen and eat and the first person to eat all of their dish wins

5 Reasons To Grow Your Own Fruit And Vegetables

More and more people are returning to the old tradition of growing their own produce, ranging from as little as a small herb patch right up to full self-sufficiency producing all their own fruit and vegetables. Why is it becoming popular again, and why should you start your own food garden?

Having your own vegetable patch or fruit garden was once commonplace, but fell out of favour as the food industry become more commercial and supermarkets began to take over. In recent years however, more and more people have started explore growing their own produce again. Here we give 5 reasons why you might consider starting your own kitchen garden.

Freshness

Fruit and vegetables taste better and are healthier if eaten as soon as possible after picking. Most fruit you buy from supermarkets and the like is picked well before it is properly ripe, to extend shelf life, and this usually has an impact on flavour. Growing your own lets you taste the freshest possible produce as it's meant to taste.

Quality

Commercially grown crops are often selected for their high yields, uniform appearance and long shelf lives rather than for quality and taste. When you grow your own, you can concentrate on the quality rather than the economics.

Price

Much supermarket fresh produce is hugely overpriced, despite their advertising claims. Growing your own from seed is about as inexpensive as you can get, and even growing from small plants you buy is likely to provide you better food at a lower cost. With many plants, you can use the seed from one growing season to provide plants for the next - a self sustaining cycle that will cost you only time and effort to keep going.

Provenance

More and more people have concerns about how our food is produced, with chemical pesticides and GM food a particular worry. With your own vegetable patch, you know exactly where your food is from and how it was grown.

Variety

There are literally thousands of different varieties of fruit and vegetables, but supermarkets tend to concentrate on only the most profitable and easy to sell. This means that our choice is often limited to a few select varieties of apple, for example, rather than the hundreds of traditional kinds that exist. Growing your own lets you pick the varieties you like the most, and experiment to find new ones you'll rarely see on sale.

There is of course a downside to all this - it takes time and effort. In these increasingly busy times, we might not think we have the time to spare, but starting small with a few herb plants on your windowsill, or even the odd tomato plant, will give you a taste of growing your own and might even be enough to hook you into it for life!