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Easy Treats For After School
Salads, Flavor Favorites
Even though salads have been enjoyed since ancient times, the variety can be both tempting and visually pleasing.
As we become more and more health conscious, salads become more popular, usually people think of vegetables when salads are mentioned.
However, there are numerous fruit salads at every family gathering and pot-luck in the country! Salads can contain anything from apples to zucchini and anything in between, just use your imagination.
Although lettuce has been the starting point for most salads, there are many other foods favorites you can start with:
*Watercress, cabbage or spinach
*Oranges, apples or grapefruit
*Beans or frozen peas
*Broccoli
*Potatoes
*Meats and seafood
Just about any food you can think of can be turned into a salad with a modest amount of creativity! You can create many kinds of salads:
*Jell-o salads with fruit
*Fruit salads with yogurt
*Green salads with every kind of vegetable imaginable
*Coleslaw
*Potato salad
*Tuna salad
*Chicken salad
Again, the varieties are endless, and the list can go on and on to eternity. One of my favorites includes a green salad with sunflower seeds or cashews, lettuce, tomatoes, celery, onions, carrots and ranch dressing.
With the dressings you can get just as creative, ranch, French, blue cheese and Italian are your basic dressings.
Now try some of these, mix a little concentrated orange or lemon juice to French dressing or mayonnaise for a delicious fruit salad dressing.
How about a dressing for grapefruit made with, sugar, pepper, paprika, dry mustard, grapefruit juice and catsup?
Add a little chili powder to concentrated juice, horseradish a cooked egg and mayonnaise for a spicy new taste.
Every nationality has their own favorite flavors in salads, get together with a few friends for a salad party; you would be amazed at the variety you will see.
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Efficiency will save you lots of time in the kitchen, to accomplish this, learn to do more than one thing at a time. Increased preparation time before cooking is another way to become a faster cook.
Read your recipe before starting, this will save you many headaches, like getting a dish ready and finding out you need bat wings and you dont have any! Just kidding, I dont stock bat wings in my kitchen either, but you get the idea.
Get everything you will need together, follow the order they are used in the recipe, this allows you to be sure that you have everything you will need. Once you are sure you have everything, measure out the ingredients according to the recipe.
Organize all of your ingredients on one side of the work area, as you use something, move it to the other side, lessens confusion as to whether you used it or not.
Use the cutting board for all of your non-meat items first, this avoids cross contamination. If you have to prepare the meat first, wash the cutting board thoroughly before using it for any other food items.
Keeping a sink of hot soapy water will help cleanup later on, just drop used utensils in the water and allow them to soak.
Sometimes it is better to use your hands to mix something than it is to use a utensil; it also saves time washing up later. I for one loved making mud pies when I was a child, the only difference is the mud is now hamburger and the crushed leaves are now herbs.
Salads are always mixed more evenly if they are tossed with your hands. Make sure to wash your hands thoroughly, inexpensive plastic gloves will help if you didnt like playing in the mud!
Coat measuring cups, spoons and molds with non-stick spray before putting anything sticky in them, the ingredients will slide right out. To prevent having to clean a burned on, sticky mess from your boiler pan, line the pan with foil and spray the rack with non-stick spray.
Re-sealable plastic is great for marinating and coating foods with flour or cornmeal.
Planning in advance can save you a lot of time in the kitchen opening up your evenings to spend more time with your family. |
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Quick Healthy Snacks
Vegetables and fruits are some of the better know quick healthy snacks available today. Keep fresh vegetables, cut up and cleaned in the refrigerator with dip for the kids to snack on after school, they wont miss the candies and cookies if they never get used to them.
It doesnt hurt to have those once in a while as long as they do not constitute your main form of snacking.
Keeping fresh fruit in a bowl on the counter is another good way to provide healthy snacks for your family.
Whatever is in season at the time will work; fresh apples and peanut butter are a great snack with a lot of protein in them.
Fresh fruit and cottage cheese are also high in protein and allows family members to deal with their sweet tooth in a more healthy way. However there are other snacks available that are equally enjoyable.
Whole grain snack crackers (there are an unlimited variety of snack crackers) with an assortment of cheeses are one form or snacking.
There are many kinds of cheese out there for you to keep on hand; you can even buy them already cubed if you dont have time to cut them up yourself!
Celery and cheese spread are tasty and easy to put together after school, at during lunch at work or school or as an evening snack while watching your favorite movie.
Dehydrated fruits are available including raisins, dates or many other kinds of fruits, trail mixes are very popular.
Trail mix is another snack food that has a wide range of tastes, from tropical to nut blends, something for every finicky eater in your family.
They are also easy to customize for your particular tastes. Just buy your favorite fruits and nuts, cereals, and even candies and mix your own.
Be creative with snacks and you will notice a difference in what your family eats.
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Stocking Your Pantry, Cooking For Two
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