Recipes Cooking Food

During the warm days of summer, rare is the cook who wants to spend much time in front of a hot stove. Here’s one recipe that’s easy and quick, providing you with a tempting one-dish meal that is satisfying and nutritious and gives you an opportunity to serve lots of those fruits and veggies we all need more of in our diets. This shrimp salad recipe can also be prepared ahead of time, thus giving you the best of all characteristics in the culinary world. Let’s see if you don’t agree!

This recipe serves four, but is easily scaled up or down as suits your need.

Heavenly shrimp salad recipe
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1 head of Hearts of Romaine lettuce
1 pound of salad shrimp, cooked
4 hard-boiled eggs
2 avocados
4 medium vine-ripened tomatoes, cut into wedges
4 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro (leaves only)
alfalfa sprouts to taste
garlic flavored croutons to taste
1 medium fresh lemon, quartered

1.Chill dinner plates, if desired
2.Divide cleaned lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces on individual serving plates.
3.Mound ¼ pound of shrimp in the center of the salad.
4.Peel the eggs and slice, arranging the slices around the edge of each plate.
5.Quarter the avocados, remove the skin and portion out half an avocado per serving, forming a border around the shrimp mound.
6.Core the tomatoes, cut into wedges and place between the egg slices, using one tomato per serving.
7.Sprinkle cilantro, alfalfa sprouts and croutons over each salad.
8.Dress with Thousand Island dressing and garnish with a wedge of fresh lemon.

If you wish to prepare this shrimp salad recipe ahead of serving time, place each of the ingredients in separate plastic bags until you’re ready to assemble the salad, slicing the eggs and avocados at the last minute, to prevent discoloration. You can also add a teaspoon of lemon juice to your Thousand Island dressing mix for a little extra zip, if you like. When using frozen salad shrimp, thaw overnight in the frig.

Our shrimp salad recipe is versatile. Don’t hesitate to add or substitute other favorite fruits or veggies your family enjoys. You can even substitute crab or Krab(R) for the shrimp, keeping the rest of the ingredients as listed above.

Any way you cut it, this shrimp salad recipe makes an elegant, filling meal and is easy on the cook. Serve with a basket of garlic-buttered French bread and you’ve got a winning meal everyone will love!

The author has been writing articles online for 4 years now. Come visit his latest site Covert Cash Conspiracy bonus that discusses Covert Cash Conspiracy by Matt Benwell.

If you’re employed in the catering or hospitality industries preparing food for members of the public, you must make sure that you have received the relevant food hygiene training required to ensure that you don’t send your clients away sick with food poisoning.
Up until recently, food hygiene training could only be had by attending college classes or through expensive training companies, but now the internet provides a new alternative. For as little as $50 you can study and attain a food hygiene certificate via online tutorials and passing an online exam.
With such a low cost, convenience and all from the comfort of your own home, you would be silly not to undertake your food hygiene training online! To learn more, hit the link above for more information on available online courses.

The general consensus has been that crock pots were meant for comfort foods and hearty winter meals. The truth is that the crock pot should be one of your best loved and most often utilized cooking methods if you can manage it. When it comes to cooking with a crock pot, the options are almost limitless. Almost anything that can be baked can be made in the crock pot and many, many more wonderful and enticing meals and treats as well.

A great reason to use a crock pot for your summertime cooking is the ease of clean up. Unlike pots and pans, most crock pot meals are made in one dish. This means that there will not be mountains of dishes to be either hand washed or loaded into the dishwasher afterwards. You can spend less time cleaning just as you spent less time slaving over a hot stove. Make that no time slaving over a hot stove. Once clean up is complete you can get back to enjoying the sun set, chasing the lightening bugs with your little ones, or actually enjoy a tea party movement without slaving over the stove.

One awesome way of losing weight is to follow healthy vegetarian meal plans. This can be a big move for meat eaters and it’s certainly not for everyone, but if you are willing to give it a try you could not only get slim but also stay healthy as well. Read the full inside scoop in this Easy Veggie Meal Plans review which gives you a full run down of how this program works as well as what you get when you purchase. Not only do you get the guide, but you also get some coaching calls thrown in for free. Now everybody loves a healthy smoothie, so you get 8 smoothie recipes thrown in as well. These vegetarian smoothies are not only good for you, but also boost your energy levels so you’re ready for anything.

New Years Day often sees the beginning of many diets. These diets never last long and some find that they say they will then wait until next year to start up again after failing. That is a common mistake dieters made. Don’t make your diet your New Years resolution. Instead, think about eating healthy foods whether you are on or off a diet.

That way you can do your best even when you are not feeling your strongest. Some think that eating healthy meals is hard, but it is only as hard as you make it. Good food takes more prep time, but it is certainly worth that time for the sake of your health.

Read rest of article eating healthy foods from original site.

Many people in the West are seeking alternatives to caffeine based beverages and look to the benefits of green tea. This tea is a traditional part of daily life in several countries, including China, Japan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Korea and the Middle East. The caffeine content of the tea is much reduced and this is one of its attractive features as caffeine can cause side effects, such as insomnia.

Green tea is widely available now, in health stores and supermarkets. The guidance is to use one teaspoon per cup. Lots of people with sore throats drink the tea mixed with honey, as it is very soothing. It was first drunk in China and there are several varieties there. It’s grown across many provinces and the most well known variety is Longjing. Gunpowder Tea and Bi Luo Chun are also popular. The tea is graded according to quality. The Chinese are firm believers in the benefits of green tea.

Almost no other type of tea is consumed in Japan. They have a wide range of varieties at different cost. One of the varieties is called Matcha and it is a high grade tea used in the traditional tea ceremony. It’s also an ice cream flavor and it is used in sweets. As in China, green tea is part of the culture.

There have been many claims made, as the result of medical studies, clinical trials and anecdotal evidence as to the benefits of green tea. It is said to help in the prevention of a number of diseases, including diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease and certain types of cancer. Supporters also say that it lowers cholesterol, thus lessening the chance of heart attacks and strokes. Even bad breath is said to be affected by the benefits of green tea as it destroys the bacteria that causes it.

Many tests have been conducted on elderly people in order to assess their mental alertness after prolonged consumption of green tea. Green tea drinkers have shown less mental impairment and it is also believed that the tea boosts the immune system, fighting off disease. Green tea can also help to minimize stress levels.

Also read: Green Tea Extract - Learn All about The Making, Effects and Safety

Whether, the taste of the tea or the health benefits are the motive, there are numerous products available to buy. Loose tea is sold for tea making and there is also a powder variety, which is suitable for making ice cream and smoothie drinks. For convenience, tea bags containing loose tea are also for sale. There is even a Japanese Tea Ceremony kit, a very relaxed way of enjoying the benefits of green tea.

The truth can be so unintuitive sometimes. There has been a British research study done that has found that all the health benefits claimed for organic foods are really not that “natural”. They aren’t any better for you than what you get on the “regular” side of the store, nutrient-wise. It wasn’t actually a study all its own that found this, so much as a compendium of all the studies done on organic foods over the past half-century. It happens sometimes - we have all the materials we need to see something, but we need it all organized for us before we the point of it all. The damning thing they’ve found is this - in most ways, organic foods are no better for our diets than factory-farmed foods.

Still, in Britain and America, organic food companies have a great business model, convincing people of the tenuous virtues of their produce, and having people completely buy it all. In North America for instance, this is a market that’s been growing about 20% a year - and it’s been doing this for 20 years too. If you are looking for a total market share figure, organic foods have about 3% of the market. The reason it is good news that we can now prove that organic foods are no more nutritious than regular food is that people won’t feel the need now to waste extra money on the uncertain benefits of premium priced groceries anymore.

So what exactly did they study in all these research papers that allowed them to tell with such certainty that organic foods were no better? To begin with, they found out that less than a third of all the studies ever done on organic foods were scientific. The rest of it was just shoddy science. In the studies that did take their stuff seriously, they found that there was no real difference between the one kind of produce and the other in how much Vitamin C they had, or how much they contributed to your daily intake of minerals like magnesium, calcium, zinc or copper. Why, there is even a US study of the same kind that’s been done; and it’s even more credible for the fact that it’s been done by the Organic Center at Oregon, a body that tries to push organic food over mass-produced stuff.

But the study at the Organic Center did find an important difference that placed organic foods ahead of the ordinary stuff. In their findings, organic foods give you much better levels of polyphenols and wholesome antioxidants. Seeing that better antioxidants is one of the reasons organic foods are so special, this actually does go in favor of sticking with organic foods. They found that the levels of antioxidants that you get with organic foods is so great, that choosing them would give you the nutritional equivalent of an extra serving of fruit every day. And there is another reason to take organic foods too - less poison.

Organic foods are famously grown on organic manure and natural pest control techniques, and they don’t come with a residue of concentrated poison they spray on regular farm produce to keep pests from eating them into oblivion. And pesticides are particularly dangerous for young children, for the way their brains develop, and for the way their vital organs function. Organic farm produce and organically raised meat has to answer to a number of strict government regulations that govern the way chemicals are used in their production. The regulations are always difficult to implement of course, but they do have an effect.

So in the end, the bottom line is this - with the regular farm produce, you get all the nutrients and minerals you get with organic food. With the regular stuff though, you lose out on the antioxidants, and you do get a residual dose of farm pesticide. Is that worth the extra cash you have to pony up for it? That just happens to be a deeply subjective choice.

The author has been writing articles online for 4 years now. Come visit his latest site CPA Instruments by Ritoban C that discusses CPA Instruments bonus.

While I am not precisely Martha Stewart, I do love to arrange terrific meals for my buddies and family. For me, there’s nothing more relaxing than spending the entire day attempting out different recipes. I typically cook or bake the identical dish a number of occasions over, with only a slight variation in each version as I try to make issues absolutely perfect. Relations often offer to help with either the cooking or the cleanup, but having too many people round me whereas I work just serves to throw every thing off. As a substitute, I might reasonably use some of my cool kitchen devices to assist get issues finished higher or faster.

It makes sense that someone who cooks as a lot as I do would have a bunch of cool kitchen gadgets to play with. But you don’t have to be a gourmand chef in an effort to get numerous use out of some of these items. For instance, the gadget I use most often is a salad spinner. All a salad spinner does is shortly take away excess water from your freshly washed greens by spinning the lettuce leaves round a strainer. That sounds pretty low-tech in comparison with different cool kitchen devices, but belief me, you will use this nearly every day. It is lots higher than making ready a salad with moist leaves or trying to dry them with a paper towel!

I cannot talk about cool kitchen gadgets without mentioning my french fry cutter. This is a nifty little device that squeezes complete potatoes into completely minimize fries which are immediately prepared for frying. You probably have children or if you happen to’re a french fry lover yourself, then this merchandise is a should-have. The fries you make from contemporary potatoes taste much better than any of the frozen manufacturers, and with a cutter, you don’t have to waste a lot of time cutting every potato by hand.

A listing of cool kitchen gadgets has to incorporate some electronic gadgets, so let me tell you about my distant thermometer monitor. This device appears to be like kind of like a baby monitor, with a base and a removable handset. In this case, the bottom has an connected thermometer you could put into a steak, hen breast, or turkey out on the grill. Then you’ll be able to carry the handset round with you and get prompt updates on the temperature of your meat without having to run out to the grill each few minutes. I find it irresistible!

And this is simply the tip of the iceberg as far as all my cool kitchen gadgets go. I’ve a bunch extra that make everyday tasks and chores lots quicker and simpler to complete. Should you take pleasure in cooking however need to lower down on quite a lot of the drudgery concerned, you then would possibly need to consider picking up a number of of those cool kitchen devices for yourself. They’re inexpensive and sensible, which is a terrific combination!

kitchen tools devices is a weblog about all the useful tools obtainable at the very best price to assist and to ease your cooking. kitchen instruments, kitchen devices, cooking gadgets and kitchen utensils.

Spotted Zebra started over 10 years ago as a small home based catering company called Alpha & Omega Caterers. Started by Greg Bold, who at the time was a manager at Café Veneto, it grew from a little sandwich delivery business into a small home catering company.

Encouraged by the success of his business providing fresh meals prepared in daily, Greg ventured out into more elaborate catering, ensuring the same fresh ingredients and service. Within two years, Alpha & Omega could no longer cater from home as proper licenses and fat traps and health and safety regulations needed to be implemented. Purchasing extra equipment to handle the demand from a colleague led to a change in name to SPOTTED ZEBRA and a re-location to kitchens at Kirsten’s Mall in Westville.

Spotted Zebra’s are NOTICED, they stand out in the crowd and if anything, that is who we are!
We are not the largest catering company, or the fanciest, but we sure try to stand out and be noticed, offering the best service and the friendliest staff and by far the most enjoyable meals of all!

From Westville, our grew from 5 staff members into the ten man crew it is today. Spotted Zebra handles catering for both the corporate and private sectors in Durban and KZN. Our catering ranges from simple hot and cold snack platters to chiq butler style canapés. From the traditional spit braai for 40 friends and family to braai banquets for thousands. From breakfasts to Dinners and everything in between, Spotted Zebra simply loves good Durban food and that really is what we are about!

Easy ground beef recipes are my favorite accomplishment. Lol, for me they are simple as I like ground beef more than most everything else. If I had to choose one food it would be ground beef as it’s tasty and it’s so easy to blend it in with different things.

While I’m not a formally trained chef I have been cooking my own food for over 55 years. My grandmother started teaching me to cook at age 4 and the first thing she taught me was to fry a hamburger on the stove. I stood on a chair to flip the burgers and I learned to stay away from spattering grease. Cheeseburgers are my favorite meal.

If you’re looking for some quick hamburger recipes for the grill here’s a very simple yet tasty recipe you can use as your ace in the hole when you have company but need something easy to make.

As luck would have it this burger recipe for the grill is so simple you can have your guests help and have some fun at the same time. It’s pretty much a no fuss, no muss grill recipe and it’s so simple anyone can make it to perfection.

I love chocolate dessert recipes any time of year, but especially during the autumn and Halloween. I enjoy cooking and sharing the results with others.

Chocolate comes processed in many forms, including powdered, chips, and bars. With these simple forms, thousands of original chocolate recipes can be created. Among other treats, chocolate bars, crunches, cookies, cakes, pies, and brownies all equal chocolate satisfaction.

One chocolate recipe that can be altered in so many ways is the chocolate cake. Interesting enough, the basic packaged chocolate cake mix can serve as a platform for a chocolate dessert ‘made in heaven”. Combine Dutch-processed cocoa, sugar, a dab of butter and a little water to form a rich liquid you can swirl through the prepared batter just before baking. The result is a sinfully rich cake fit for a Queen – or a chocolate-craving King.

Read more of my thoughts on chocolate dessert recipes here.

The other day a friend challenged me to name the ten healthiest foods. I found the questions interesting as there are literally thousands of foods from which to choose! We all know that excessive amounts of fat, sugar and processed foods aren’t good for us, so that cuts out a lot of what the supermarket offers. Not surprisingly, most of the best foods are found in the produce isle. Produce is perhaps the most neglected item in our diets, despite being high in vitamins, minerals, micronutrients, and antioxidants.

Take a look at this 10 healthiest foods list and see if you don’t agree. If you’re also looking to lose weight, here’s a list of foods that burn fat and build muscle.

1. Berries: Nearly all berries are rejuvenating tonics for your heart and blood. Several studies have shown that a daily portion of berries, which are rich in potassium, can decrease your risk of stroke by as much as 40%. In addition, most berries have antiviral properties to some degree, are excellent blood purifiers, and work wonders for your complexion.

2. Broccoli must be included on our list of the 10 healthiest foods. Like most dark, green leafy veggies, broccoli is packed with nutrients and antioxidants. Naturopathic physicians recommend generous daily servings of broccoli to patients recuperating from a lengthy illness, as this veggie has been shown to speed their return to good health.

3. Avocado lowered blood cholesterol levels in a V.A. Study. Patients ranging from 27-72 years old were given 1/2-1 ¼ avocados each day. Fully 50% of the patients experienced a decrease in serum cholesterol, ranging from 9-43%! Avocado is also beneficial in cases of psoriasis and eases deep muscle inflammation. Given that we all need to monitor our cholesterol levels, this tasty fruit deserves a spot on our list of 10 healthiest foods.

4. Bamboo shoots: besides being good in Asian, and many other, dishes bamboo shoots are reported to be an ancient remedy for peptic or duodenal ulcers. Bamboo shoots are low in fat and calories. One cup of half-inch long slices contains a mere 14 calories and half a gram of fat. They are also a good source of fiber. The same serving size provides about 2.5 grams of fiber; which is approximately 10% of the recommended amount needed in a day. Fiber helps keep cholesterol levels in check and plays a role in preventing colon cancer.

5. Bananas make the list for a number of reasons. High in fiber and potassium, bananas are good for your digestive system and makes an ideal mid-morning snack or breakfast dish. One study, of blue-collar women workers, showed that daily consumption of bananas reduced their incidence of illness, while improving morale, attentiveness and energy levels. A retirement home study found that all 117 residents no longer suffered from digestive disorders, after consuming just one banana a day!

6. Garlic and onions, both members of the allium family, might well be called ‘miracle’ foods, and should be included in as many dishes (as appropriate to your taste.) Why? Both contain allicin, the active constituent which produces their medicinal benefits. These veggies are reputed to help prevent blood clots, reduce HBP, reduce the ‘bad’ cholesterol while raising the ‘good’, increase longevity and eliminate worms – in both man and beast! Type 2 diabetics benefit from garlic and onions in reduced blood sugar levels. Garlic is also a natural antibiotic.

7. Olive oil is well known as a healthful and tasty alternative to many other cooking oils, with heart-healthy and cancer preventative properties. Olive oil also reduces the ‘bad’ cholesterol levels, without adversely affecting the ‘good’ cholesterol. In countries where olive oil is the primary source of dietary fat, the incidence of cancers of the breast, prostate, ovary and colon are markedly lower when compared with data from 30 other countries, where olive oil is not generally used.

8. Parsley may seem a surprising choice in our 10 healthiest foods list. Packed with vitamins A and C, parsley provides more protection against cancer than you might have imagined. Parsley contains more histadine, an important amino acid that inhibits tumor development, than almost any other vegetable. Put it in omelets, soups, sandwiches, gravies and salads. It’s also an excellent breath freshener!

9. Peppers, whether sweet or hot, have to be included on any “10 healthiest foods” list. Habaneros bring relief to arthritis sufferers and dramatically reduce blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetics. Generally speaking, the medicinal benefits increase along with the pepper “temperature.” Cayenne pepper serves as a cholesterol lowering antidote to a greasy, fried meat entree. When indulging in such a meal, make your beverage an 8-ounce glass of tomato juice, spiked with 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice. Blood clots are said to be another of the issues improved by regular consumption of hot peppers. Ironically, cayenne capsules (1 capsule, 2-3 times daily) helps heal ulcers.

10. Kiwifruit is the last, but not the least, of the foods on our top ten list. Fairly new to the American consumer, Kiwifruit has rapidly gained in popularity. It’s usually available fresh in the produce aisle and is also found in juices, either as all kiwi or in a mix of strawberries (delicious!). It’s sweet taste finds favor with kids, having a flavor sometimes described as a mix of melon, bananas, strawberries and pineapple. Now for the health benefits: It’s a great choice for dieters, with about 46 calories per average sized fruit, loaded with vitamins C, E and niacin. It’s highly recommended for people on hypertensive meds, due to its high (average 250mg) potassium content. Anecdotal reports, gathered from medical anthropologists investigations, indicate that kiwifruit, eaten three times daily, dramatically reduces HBP to normal levels within just a couple of months! That’s not all. This cute and tasty fruit also provides relief from heartburn and acid indigestion.

As you can see, chowing down on the veggies and fruits can have major health benefits. All of these 10 healthiest foods are readily available and are easy additions to a variety of menus. Add in a workout routine, like some good core fitness exercises, and you’ll be glowing.

There’s no question that the microwave oven is here to stay. The microwave is probably one of the most-used kitchen appliances in the modern kitchen. However, while we tend to use it almost universally to prepare a dish in a hurry, it does have certain limitations. Here we offer some microwave tips that allow you to make the most of your microwave oven. The novice cook may want to use the ‘nuker’ for just about everything in their cooking repertoire, but there are some cooking tasks that the nuker just doesn’t do well. You need to know which it does really well and those which are better done with another appliance. Let’s take a look.

The ingredients and texture of the food you’re cooking are paramount to a successful outcome. Among meats, chicken and fish are perfect candidates for microwave cooking, while beef, pork and shellfish don’t fare well in our beloved kitchen gadget. The microwave is great for defrosting any type of meat, with the exception of shellfish, which should be defrosted in the frig.

Almost any type of produce adapts well to microwave cooking techniques. You can cook a large baked potato in the microwave in just 8-10 minutes, compared to 45-60 minutes in the oven. While the texture of a ‘nuked’ potato is somewhat different than an oven cooked potato, the resulting taste becomes a matter of preference, not quality.

As for veggies that you might normally cook on the stove top or in a steamer basket, the microwave provides a quick and delicious result which retains the nutrients through a quicker cooking process, using little water, by which those valuable nutrients might be lost in the conventional cooking process. Steaming veggies in the microwave is a healthy way to serve those 5-9 servings, but there are cooking situations which demand a little more care. You can saute onions with the microwave cooking technique, but you can only caramelize the onions in a frying pan.

Melting butter or creating a broth with bouillon cubes is a quick and economical alternative to the stove top method. On the other hand, cheese becomes tough in the microwave cooking method and is best done on the stove top.

Eggs don’t do well in the microwave. The microwave cooking of an egg is a delicate process. Egg proteins become tough, such that you’ll wish you’d just broken the egg in the frying pan! You’re certainly better off taking the few minutes required with a frying pan to fry your egg.

One of the oddities of microwave cooking is that thick foods, such as soups or stews, take a long time to heat, yet don’t retain the heat you enjoy while eating. This is just one of the limitations of microwave cooking.

Although some microwave cooking experts laud the abilities of the microwave in terms of breads and baking, this microwave technique is not for the faint of heart. Hey, what can we expect of one kitchen gadget? You can cook an entire menu of fish or chicken, potatoes and fresh veggies to perfection, all in the ‘nuker’. So long as you choose the right foods, microwave cooking makes meal preparation a breeze!

The author has been writing articles online for 4 years now. Come visit his latest site Quick Cash Concept review that discusses Quick Cash Concept by Eric Rockfeller.

If you would like for your family to start eating healthier or maybe you just want a new hobby, you should check out this tutorial on organic vegetable gardening. Find out exactly what organic vegetables are and how it can affect your lifestyle.