Posted in Recipes | |

Beef is one of the western world’s favored meat products, and it has each right to be so.

In recent days, we’ve listened to copious controversy on the question of whether beef is a safe food safe for everyone, or a cause of health problems to be shunned and eaten only in small quantities.

As if that wasn’t confusing enough, even amongst dieticians and nutritionalists, the issue is unclear, but during the course of this page we will deliver many appropriate facts on beef, destroy a few fabrications and ensure that you’re given the true information you need to decide for yourself.

However, before that, here’s a delicious recipe that you can cook for your kids.

This is a wonderful recipe for ‘macaroni beef chili’. It isn’t complicated and is a good meal for a growing family.

Ingredients:
—————-
Macaroni – uncooked : 1 x cup
Quality Minced Beef : 1/2 lb
Garlic powder : 0.5 tsp
Hot cayenne or chili Powder : 1 x tsp
Salt : 1 x pinch (to taste)
Ground black pepper : 1 x pinch (to taste)
Good quality tomato soup : one Can
Cheddar cheese : 1 ounce (grated)

Preparation:
—————-
Bring a good sized saucepan of water to the boil add the macaroni, bring back to the boil and cook for about 7 minutes.
Quuickly fry the meat until browned in another big saucepan and carefully drain any fat that has appeared.
Add the garlic, chili powder, salt and pepper and then stir with a wooden spoon until well blended.
Reduce the heat and cook carefully for approx. 5 minutes.
Mix in the macaroni and tomato soup, and bring to a rolling boil.
Cook for a an additional few minutes until the dish is at a uniform temperature.

At the last minute add the cheese, and cook a little more till it has melted.

Ladle into bowls and serve with a strong fruity red wine.

This is a useful beef recipe to cook in bulk as left overs can be safely kept in the fridge and eaten the next day.
If you want to cook the recipe a long time in advance, you can leave the cheese out and freeze portions for later. Simply add the cheese just before you finally serve the recipe.

This is one of those tasty beef recipes that some folk think benefits from being prepared in advance. If you want to find some other interesting ways to prepare beef, why not look for a few BBQ recipes. If you are looking a wider variety of beef recipes, there are many sites offering a big recipe collection on the web that will satisfy your cravings.

As mentioned earlier here are some concrete nutritional facts:

1/. There are people who hold the view that you must stay away from beef because it possesses big amounts of fat. Although this might have been true a few years ago, lean beef produced in modern times is much leaner than it was previously, and well over half of the fats present in today’s beef are monounsaturated fats which are thought by physicians to be more ‘heart friendly’ than other fats.

2/. The zinc that’s in quality beef is imperative for human growth, improves the body’s immune system, is known to help remedy cuts and grazes, moderates appetite and can affect your capability to taste food.

3/. Just a 3 ounce offering of quality beef might contribute over 10% of the consumers required daily value of vitamin b6, protein, vitamin b12, zinc, iron and niacin.

4/. If you think about it objectively, quality beef is virtually as healthful as buying multivitamins as it is a top notch source of vitamin b6, protein, vitamin b12, zinc, iron and niacin.

5/. Quality beef contains Vitamin b6 and vitamin b12, which are thought by doctors to help to prevent heart attacks and strokes and also help the body to make haematids (red blood cells).

6/. Some people claim that dieters should avoid beef. A real dietician will tell you that this isn’t the case, in reality the 3 ounce serving of beef that many specialists prescribe as a sensible daily limit, is truly just 10% of the regular 2000 calories daily target.

7/. Measuring the uncooked weight, 100 grams of beef provides:

* approximately 200 calories
* zero grams of Vitamin C.
* 16mg of Calcium.
* 3.8mg of Zinc.
* 53mg of Sodium.

I trust this article has given you a superior awareness of both the good and bad aspects of consuming beef, and hopefully given you a flavorful new recipe for your recipe book.

Posted in Cookbooks | |

Food is made to be tasted. However, the flavor of food can’t be communicated on paper. Food also has a beautiful appearance. This appearance can often stand in for the taste for the purpose of luring people. The food photographer is the artist who can convey a sense of the flavor of the food through original, well composed food photography. The food photographer takes food, interesting dishware, and light to create an arrangement that highlights the freshness, juiciness, plumpness, and bright colors to make the viewer’s eyes see flavor and smell aroma. The world of product photography is a world of the five senses.

A cookbook’s sales are enhanced by photographs of each recipe. Cookbooks are bought in bookstores, far from the aromas and flavors of the kitchen. With just the list of ingredients and directions, the purchaser must use her imagination to mentally turn this boring text into a flavor. Pictures spark the imagination in this task. Back in the kitchen, the cook might look at a recipe and say, “I might make this if I knew what it is supposed to look like.” If the cookbook is illustrated, viola, there it is. And when it comes out of the oven, the cook can tell without tasting whether the culinary masterpiece turned out as it should.

Magazines build their success on good food photography. How often have you seen a women’s magazine that appealed to you with a headline saying, “Lose 10 pounds in 10 days” next to a picture of colorful cupcakes? That’s a double-whammy for your brain: advice for the parent in you and cupcakes for your inner child. The inside the magazine is stuffed with pictures of food. One variety of photos illustrates the recipe section of the magazine. These pictures serve the same purpose as the cookbook pictures. Then scattered through the pages we find the ads. Those that aren’t for the latest fashions are for food. You see the add for cheese with the melty cheese sandwich. This is followed by a salad dressing ad with crisp lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, and onions.

When you look at the menu at a family restaurant, what do you see? These restaurants usually have pictures of their menu items to whet your appetite. These pictures don’t have to be as imaginative as magazine pictures, but they need to be realistic. If you find yourself in a fast food restaurant, you’ll probably see the menu plastered on the walls and hanging from the ceiling. These pictures in the restaurant also serve a more serious purpose. They allow people with disabilities to place their order by pointing to the dish that they want to eat.

Fast food restaurants want to make the traveler on the highway hungry enough to stop in for something to eat. These restaurants lure the driver with tasteful pictures of their food on billboards. They don’t just serve the purpose of informing you of their location. They are convincing you to stop in even if you are not hungry.

Good food photography conveys more sensory information than just the visual. It stimulates your senses of taste and smell.

“The Nutritious Goji Berry”
Author: Editor

March 26, 2009

Posted in Cookbooks | |

Nutritionally, goji berries are a great choice, packing plenty of carbohydrates and protein which make it a fantastic snack food. As a juice, more of the vitamins remain intact and the goji berry is certainly a healthy choice as a drink. Dried, the fruit can be added to meals or sprinkled on dishes for a splash of colored. Goji Berries can also be enjoyed raw.The taste is nice, somewhere between a cross of cranberry and raisin. Not too tart; not too sweet. The goji berry certainly expands the choice of healthy snacks and drinks our body needs for nutrition and can be enjoyed by people of all ages. Replacing soda pop with goji berry juice is a smart choice, and chips can take a backseat with dried goji berries on hand.

Maintaining A Healthy Diet With Natural Foods
Author: Editor

March 25, 2009

Posted in Healthy Eating | |

Farming organic foods decreases the amount of pollutants in our groundwater and creates richer plant soil, says the Organic Trade Association. It is also believed that the absence of pesticides allows plants to produce more natural vitamins and antioxidants.

Of course, there are economic reasons why consumers may choose genetically modified foods instead, since buying organic can cost as much as 50% more. Therefore it’s important to consider all aspects of this foods market.

natural foods
Many people are often confounded when standing in the produce section, looking at the organic foods, conventional foods and weight loss foods. For instance, both tomatoes may look plump, juicy and red but one is labeled “organic” and the other is not. They both provide vitamins, antioxidants and nutrition, but what are the differences?

Conventional farmers use chemical pesticides to keep pests and plagues away from their vegetables. They use chemical fertilizers to promote plant growth, and manage weeds using chemical herbicides. They may also give their animals antibiotics, growth hormones or medications to prevent illnesses and encourage growth.

By contrast, organic foods meet strict governmental standards for certification. Organic labels can read 95% organically produced, 100% organic or “made with organic ingredients,” which implies 70% of organic ingredients or more.

There are other food labels in the raw foods market that say “all-natural,” “free-range” or “hormone-free.” Some advocates say that organic foods taste much better, but that is really a personal consideration.

In many ways, organic foods are more of a lifestyle choice than an actual safety concern. The huge shift toward environmentally-conscious practices is driving consumer trends toward this pesticide and hormone-free diet.

weight loss
When shopping natural foods , it is important to read the label to see what is being purchased exactly. Many items masquerade as being “organically produced,” but may not meet all government standards.

Only “USDA Organic” labeled products have been government-certified. Certainly, there are many points to consider when grocery shopping and buying your favorite foods for meals and snacking, so it’s important to research and identify which issues are most pressing.

Baking Coconut Cup Cakes
Author: Editor

March 19, 2009

Posted in Recipes | |

The coconut lovers are surely going to care about these great coconut cupcake recipes. One of the easiest recipes for coconut cup cakes is as follows.

Easy Coconut Cupcake
The ingredients required for this coconut cupcake are four eggs, 1

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