Healthy Family Meals on a Budget

Lamb shish kebab, Pleasanton, California, 2008...

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As chaotic as life is for the average person in this fast-paced, demanding society, it is difficult to plan ahead. Unfortunately, this concept is particularly true when it comes to family meals. To remedy this issue, many people turn to fast food and eating out to accommodate the lack of time. However, eating out consistently costs a great deal of money, and can be unhealthy over the long run. Fortunately, it is possible to make healthy family meals on a budget, regardless of time restraints. Doing so will put healthier food in your family’s bellies and save money to boot. Below are a couple of simple elements for making healthy family meals on a budget.

Find Recipes That Work and Stick With Them

There are many resources to find healthy family recipes that can be put together on a budget. When you find a recipe that stays within your price range and your family likes it, save it. Simply repeat this process for any number of recipes you see fit. By saving the recipes that work, you will create your own cookbook of familiar choices, making it easier to plan the meals.

Plan Meals Ahead of Time

When working with healthy family meals on a budget, planning ahead is crucial. Planning allows you to go to the grocery store at the beginning of the week and buy all the items you will need for a week’s worth of meals. When you become familiar enough with the recipes you want to work with, you can use a prepaid credit card each time you shop to make sure you stay within budget and easily keep track of your spending.

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Time-Tested Tips and Tricks for the Kitchen and Grill

Ask anyone who takes cooking seriously, and they will tell you that they have their own tips and tricks that they use to consistently prepare delicious meals: Maybe it’s a secret ingredient or an extra step during preparation or perhaps hours of watching direct.tv cooking specials. Many of these tricks have been passed down from generation to generation, and some remain closely-guarded secrets to this very day.

And some of them are, to be perfectly honest, complete nonsense. But while that may be true, and while it’s not uncommon to receive five different types of advice from five different people when it comes to cooking, there are some well-known tips that will not only make food preparation easier but will also make the end result tastier.

Grilling Tips

  • Use tongues instead of a fork to turn meat on the grill. Poking holes in the meat will cause its juices to run out.
  • When preparing kabobs, soak wooden skewers in cold water for 30 minutes prior to cooking to prevent burning. Also, for best results make sure pieces of meat, fruit or veggies are threaded closely together with no space in between.
  • Never place cooked meat on the same plate that held raw meat.

Healthy Cooking Tips

  • Don’t remove skins from fruits and vegetables: The skins contain lots of healthy nutrients.
  • To retain vitamins and nutrients, keep the lid on the pot while cooking vegetables.
  • When sauteing meat or vegetables, use chicken broth instead of butter to reduce fat.

Tasty Tricks

  • Use fresh herbs instead of dried whenever possible.
  • When serving roast, let it stand for five to ten minutes before carving so that it retains its juices.
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Ditching the Carbs and Fats

 

Red Meat Makes America Great 1

Image by Taekwonweirdo via Flickr

 

 

Learning the tips and tricks to healthier eating is easy with an initial time investment. Constructing some simple rules about eating will give you an outline to live by and turn a diet into a new lifestyle. Don’t start a diet as diets are usually temporary. Instead, attempt to make food changes that are life changing.

Red meats are delicious for so many people. Cheeseburgers, steaks, etc. taste great but are best consumed moderately to prolong your health. Try consuming red meats only once a week and substitute lean meats over red meats. Lean meats like turkey and chicken contain far less fat than red meat and are better overall for your body. You get the protein and iron you need from red meat but without the artery clogging fat found in red meat.

Eating small controlled meals throughout the day makes it easier to eat food low in fat. Apples, fiber cars, and fruit make great snacks and are easy to pack. Peanuts can also fill your stomach without expanding your waistline. Portion off about 8 ounces of peanuts and eat them in tandem with a fruit or vegetable. This can serve as several of your six small meals throughout the day which will boost your metabolism and allow the pounds to melt off.

Eliminating processed foods and sugar drinks from your diet will be your greatest aid in ditching the carbs and fats. Turn to water and natural foods and you will be losing weight and feeling healthier even if you don’t exercise very often.

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Benefits for Your Customers

When you are traveling to different countries, one of the things you will likely be excited about trying is some of the native cuisine. Sampling the food in Venice, Italy, for example, will be a vastly different taste experience than when you go to your local Italian restaurant. You might be wondering which recipes the chef uses to provide such an authentic taste and whether you can prepare the dish in the same way when you return home.

Some restaurants provide postcards as a sort of souvenir for their customers. By providing these for sale or as a gift, the restaurant can build good business relations with its customers. If there is also a recipe on the back of the beautiful picture featured on the card, it will help the customer to recreate the wonderful meal they savored at the restaurant. Doing so will only enhance the memories that the customers have of their time in the establishment.

Another benefit of using postcards is that they can include all of the relevant contact information for the restaurant right there on the card. The customer can enjoy the beautiful card and know that the phone number, address, and website information of the restaurant are right there at their fingertips. This makes it highly convenient for those same customers to contact them again with any questions they might have. With such a vibrant and memorable souvenir in their hands, the customers will likely return again.

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Cooking for a Vegan

When you are dating someone new it is always an adventure when you cook for them for the first time. When cooking for a Vegan this adventure can be a little more exciting and possibly a little more dreadful (depending on how good of a cook you are).

The basic rule to stick by for our vegan friends is of course: no meat, no eggs, no dairy. For those who are now clinging to their good luck charm or desperately flipping though a phone book to find take-out that you can pass off as homemade don’t worry here are a few tips to use for your next meal.

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  • No Meat!: Vegan don’t eat meat or animal products (like milk and eggs) that come from animals.
  • Honey: Some vegans also do not eat honey. Make sure to clarify on whether or not honey is acceptable.
  • Pasta: If you are not a gourmet chef place a safe bet in pasta. MOST pasta is vegan friendly (be sure to double check ingredients in advance) and more than half of the canned pasta sauce you can find at a local store will also be Vegan.
  • Bread: Most bread is NOT vegan. The best bet here is either visit a specialty store, or check out crescent rolls.
  • Vegan desert: Desert is one of those areas that animal products are typically standard in. However, a few acceptions exist such as a few select brands of brownies and surprisingly enough Oreos.

Just remeber the best part of cooking for a Vegan is not the creative things you can eat but rather how much you enjoy eating with your vegan sweetheart.

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Cheese Spreads – The other Cheese Form

Cheese spreads are often viewed as a cut below cheese, because they are often cheese “products” that simply “contain” cheese along with other ingredients.  This is true of many American made cheese spreads.  One product – an aerosol cheese spread was even listed on Stem’s Encyclopedia of Bad Taste.

Kraft Foods has clearly had the edge in the U.S. cheese spreads for many years.  The recipe for Velveeta cheese spread was developed by Emil Frey in 1918 as an American-style cheese spread.  The Velveeta Cheese Company was formed in 1923and bought four years later by Kraft.  The company eventually reformulated the spread.

Dairylea cheese spread is a Kraft owned British product that is sold as triangles primarily in England and the Republic of Ireland.  The spread was criticized in 2008 by the Food Commission, an independent consumer watchdog group, for containing unacceptable levels of the suspected carcinogen 3-MCPD.

Laughing Cow cheese spread is marketed in France by Fromageries Bel.  The spread was developed by Leon Bel in 1921 and has grown in popularity throughout Europe over the years.  The spreads are made in with a number of different flavors and is also made in bite size cubes that are marketed world-wide.

Cream cheese is another form of cheese spread that is eaten fresh rather than allowing it to age and usually has a sweet, mild taste.  References to cream cheese are found as early as 1651 in France and 1754 in England.  Philadelphia Cream Cheese is considered to be first American cream cheese and was first made in New York in 1872.  In 1880, the cheese was branded as Philadelphia Cream Cheese and the name is still used as a generic reference to cream cheese.  Today, the product is marketed by Kraft Foods.

Liptauer originated in Slovakia as a spicy cream cheese.  It was called Liptor cheese and every family had its own special recipe.  Today the Liptauer recipe can be made with any cream cheese and the required ingredients.

While cheese spreads may be looked at with disdain by some cheese aficionados it is still a popular form of cheese.

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Little Known American Cheeses

Cheese is an international food that has its roots in Asia Minor.  The art of cheese making made its way to Europe and was introduced to America as early as the Mayflower’s landing in what is now Massachusetts.  Over time new and original cheeses were made by American cheese makers.

Everyone is familiar with Cheddar, Provolone, Colby, and Monterey cheeses.  Here are some of the little known and truly American cheeses.

Bergenost cheese is a little known mild semi-soft cheese that was developed from a Norwegian recipe and sold almost exclusively at Yancy’s Fancy in Massachusetts.  In spite of its lack of notoriety it has won a number of awards.

Government cheese was a processed block cheese distributed by the U.S. government through food stamps during the 1980s and early 1990s.  It also became a derisive term used in reference to people on welfare.

Liederkranz cheese is an American version that is similar to limburger cheese and was introduced in 1891 by the same cheese maker who came up with the recipe for Velveeta cheese in 1923.

Maytag Blue cheese was a product of Newton Iowa, the home of the Maytag Corporation by members of the Maytag Corporations family.  It was produced in Newton until 1985 when the recipe and factory was sold to another company by the Maytag family.

Pinconning cheese originated around 1915 in Pinconning, Michigan, a town that was at one time considered Michigan’s cheese capital.

Provel cheese is a recipe that combines Cheddar, Swiss and Provolone cheeses.  The recipe came into being in St. Louis, Missouri specifically as the cheese for St. Louis style pizza.

Teleme cheese is a semi-soft cheese was first made by Serafino Iacona in a small northern California town shortly before the America’s entry into World War II.

Each of these cheeses is part of America’s cheese history and part of the legacy carried on by American cheese makers today.

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The Use of Cheese in Literature

Along with providing a great addition to meals, cheese has made its mark in literature as well.  There are a number of books in which cheese plays a part in the story line.

Stephen Crane is one of America’s literary icons.  His 1897 story, “the Open Boat,” follows four survivors of a shipwreck in a small boat as they search for a way to get to land.  In the story line Crane refers to the “sacred cheese” – one of the few foods they have to share.

In Samuel Beckett’s 1934 novel “Dante and the Lobster” the award winning author’s main character walks into a fromagerie to buy some Gorgonzola cheese to eat with his lunch.  To his disgust he discovers that the cheese is not moldy enough for his taste.  In spite of an argument with the cheese maker, he ends up taking the cheese.

Avery Ames has written two novels as part of her Cheese Shop Mystery series.  The first book, “The Long Quiche Goodbye” (2010) establishes the heroine, Charlotte as the fledgling owner of a cheese shop in a small Ohio town.  The book intertwines the cheese shop and the cheeses she sells into the story line.  Her second book, “Lost and Fondue” (2011) continues Charlotte’s mystery solving adventures in the same cheese laden setting.

“I am the Cheese” has been described as a young adult’s novel.  Written by Robert Cormier, the book tells the story of a young man who finds himself alone after his parents’ deaths.  Throughout the book, the main character recites the same verse from the children’s song, “The Farmer in the Dell” – “the cheese stands alone” and recognizes that, like the cheese, he stands alone.

In “Who Moved My Cheese?”  by Dr. Spencer Johnson, cheese becomes the author’s metaphor for dealing with change in life and at work.  He uses cheese to show readers how to anticipate and react – or be proactive – to the inevitability of changes in a person’s life.

Good cheeses, like well written books, take time to be prepared and enjoyed.

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Meal Prep Ideas for Date Night

A cook sautees onions and peppers.

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When dating that special someone, you want to show them how much you care. Whether it’s the first date or you’ve been dating a while, nothing shows you affection more than cooking a romantic dinner. If you love to cook, this would be ideal for showing off those culinary skills. As the old saying goes, “A way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”

How Many Courses

It would be a good idea to make a nice three course meal and make small portions. Eating loads of food doesn’t scream romantic when you’re dating. You also want to eat small portions so that you can do other activities, like a night out on the town, rather than watching television or falling asleep afterwards.

Make Sure to Cook What Your Date Wants

When cooking a meal for a date, it’s all about the other person. Part of what makes the meal special is you’re taking the time to express how well you know and how much you care about him. Always keep what he likes to eat in the back of your mind so you can have it on the menu to surprise him.

Don’t Experiment

Sometimes we want to show off so we can be more impressive. Your date night is not the night you want to create something you have no experience in. Nothing is worse than trying something new and having to order a pizza. Keep it simple! If she likes baked pork chops and potatoes, then do that. A soufflé may be a tad much!

Prep Work is Key

If you’re cooking for your date, try your best to get as much of the prep work done the night before or early that day. You don’t want to spend the whole night in the kitchen abandoning your guest!

Candles, wine and soft music will complete the meal and show just how much you care. Now roll up your sleeves and get started.

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The Growth of American Cheese Making

The art of cheese making in the United States had its beginnings through the immigrant farmers and cheese makers from Europe.  Today, many of the descendants of these artisans are still carrying on the tradition of making fine cheeses.  They are also being joined by a new generation of American cheese makers who are intent on making uniquely American cheeses.

While cheese making creameries and farms can be found all over the United States, the most recognized and award winning cheese makers are found in Wisconsin, Vermont, Washington and California.  Wisconsin has always been the recognized hub for cheese making in America and produces 25 percent of the cheese marketed in the United States.  Ninety percent of the milk produced in the state is used to make cheese.  Wisconsin is also a recognized center for teaching and innovation.  New and established cheese makers from all over the world come to the University of Wisconsin to attend accredited courses in the latest science and art of making cheese.

On the east coast, Vermont is well known cheese making region.  The Vermont Butter and Cheese Company has won a number of national and international awards for its goat cheeses.  Grafton Village is well known for its maple-smoked cheddar cheese and there is Willow Hill Farm makes a highly respected butternut cheese.

On the west coast, Washington dairy farms and creameries have carved their own niche.  At Seattle’s landmark Pike’s Place Market, Beecher’s Handmade Cheese has developed Flagship cheese – and original combination of cheddar and gruvere cheeses.  Quillascut Cheese has come up with a new cheese based on the famous Spanish Manchego recipe.  Trailhead cheese is another new cheese from the Mount Townsend Creamery.

Further down the coast in California, a cheese making business with a different name – the Cowgirl Creamery – is known for its outstanding Blue cheese.  Further down the coast near Los Angeles an outstanding Gouda cheese is made at the Winchester Cheese Company.

Cheese making is clearly alive, prospering and growing in the United States.

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