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Kitchen Tips
Less Salt
My husband once had to watch his salt, because the dr. thought he had
Meniere's Disease, (it actually turned out to be a tumor, which is is thankfully recovered from!), we have really noticed
how much salt is in everything.
The average person should get about 2400 mg. of salt in a day.
The average person is probably getting at least twice
that.
Here's some foods that might surprise you with the amount of salt. (We
thought some of these were healthy!)
1 serving, Cottage cheese--360 - over 400 mg.
1 slice, Whole Grain breads- 180 mg. or more (You can buy Ezekiel
low sodium bread for 0 salt. But it is a little dry.)
1 tsp. yellow mustard--55 mg. salt
5 olives-- 330 mg. salt
1 Tbls. Hellman's reg. mayo.--90 mg.
most cereals over 200 mg.
1 Cup, Beef broth, 50% less sodium, 440 mg. salt
1 Cup, Pregresso Soup, Beef and Veg., 480 mg.
1 Cup, Spartan Chicken & Rice soup, 870 mg.
1 Cup, Chunky Chicken Corn Chowder, 850 mg.
1/2 Cup, Cambell's chicken Noodle Soup, 660 mg.
Bisquick, 1/3 C.= about one bisquit, 490 mg. salt
Pregresso Spaghetti sauce, 1/2 C, 580 mg.
2 Table. Jiff Peanut butter, 150 mg.
Most Processed food are very high in sodium. Even much higher then many
of the foods listed above.
Check your packages!
We make just about everything homemade now. Most foods add so much sodium
for a perservative and to hold the flavor.
When your cooking fresh and healthy. You won't need all the extra salt.
Spices we like to use instead of salt:
Mrs. Dash
Onion flakes
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Lemon Pepper
Pepper
My Favorite Kitchen Tools!
#1- Pampered Chef Prep Bowls. There's 6 glass small prep bowls that come with lids
for about $20.00. They hold up to 1 cup to the rim. These bowls are very usable! I'm not one for gadgets and extra things
in the kitchen... but these prep bowls are wonderful! You can measure out your ingredients for your recipes before mixing
and your prep bowls keep it right at hand for you!
#2- The Pampered Chef Chopper, is wonderful for chopping
nuts or onions, or other fine chopped food you need.
#3- The see through plastic storage containers. Usually 3-6
come in a package. See through is the way to go so you know what's in it before you even open it!
#4- Wok- I like cooking cut up chicken in a wok! It cooks
fast and evenly. You don't need to only make stir fry with it, you can make chicken salad quickly or other cooked chicken
dishes. (I cook other kinds of meat in it as well.)
#5- My apron! I get really messy in the kitchen! Tara made
me the nicest apron I wear a lot when I'm cooking!
#6- A sharp perry knife. I think I use this every day to
clean my fruit and veggies! Can't go without!
#7- My food processor- I use this a lot! I even like chopping
onions in it so I don't get that onion smell on my hands! It works great for my salsa!
#8- My blender! I use my blender a lot! I like making smoothies,
chopping, blending, or my protein shakes etc!!
#9- I use my garlic press just about every time I cook meat! I love the pampered chef garlic press. It's well worth the $16 you'll spend on it.
#10- Three cutting boards, three different colors: Green: for Veggies, white: for meat; and Yellow for breads
(Other colors will work!) Using different boards for different categories helps prevent cross comtamination, espescially if
someone in the family has an alergy. (The link isn't the particular ones I have, but to show the idea: I linked to 3
colored cutting boards)
Replace them as needed too. Food bacterias can live in damaged cutting boards.
Read Labels!
I can't tell you how important it is to read labels on everything you buy! It makes the difference between being healthy
or not!
* Make sure you eat only a serving size. You make buy a small bag of potato chips, but there could be two or three servings
in it.
* Make sure you Check the calories, fat, sugar, fiber.. etc. (Check clean eating page for healthy notes.)
* Make sure your food isn't loaded with chemicals. Can you understand the items of the ingredients? Look at the back
of some of the junk foods while shopping. Isn't it surprising how many anti foods items are in a package?
Fruit & Smoothies
*Use the last bit of your fruit to make smoothies with instead of wasting it
or ending up throwing it away!
If there's not enough for a smoothie, just freeze it until you have enough extra.
*Freeze the last bit of your juice for smoothies too, until your ready to make one!
*I like to use really nice bananas for my smoothie.
*Try some other fruits too. Try a mango smoothie!
* Try cucumber water.
* Try Combinations of fruits in salads you may not have thought of before!
Choosing the right Sausage
While choosing *sausage, I noticed a big difference in ingredients. The Bob Evans and Johnsville both had Monosodium glutamate. But the Meijers Brand did not! I try to keep as many chemical, perservatives, or enhancers
out of as many foods possible. I thought this might help when your trying to decide what's a better food choice!
*Sausage wouldn't be on the clean eating list, but the one without monosodium glutamate would be better.
Garlic
I love cooking with garlic! I heard this tip from Tosca Reno, and from Rachel Ray. They like to roast garlic
cloves in the oven. It's a great taste for meats, soups, and main dishes.
Preheat oven to 400. Remove loose, papery skins from garlic, leaving head intact. Cut half inch off top of garlic. Or
break open just a little. (Rachel broke her garlic open a little) Drizzle with olive oil. Spinkle with salt and
pepper. Bake on rack for 40 minutes until garlic has softened. Remove from oven. Place on plate to cool. Once garlic is cooled,
squeeze roasted garlic into small bowl. The paste can be added to soup or meat dishes.
You can save time and energy by roasting a few garlic bulbs at once. Roasted garlic is great for several dishes! Store
extra in covered dish.
You can also save energy by roasting the garlic the same time you make something else in the oven, like baked potatoes
or a meat dish.
This really releases and brings out the flavor!
Kitchen Tools
What is a Zester?
A zester is a kitchen tool used for grating.
zesting of chocolate, hard cheese, citrus, coconut, ginger, and garlic.
You should rinse your zester in warm water immediately
after zesting. Then use a cleaning brush moving in the same direction of the teeth.
Zester's usually come in a fine, medium, or
coarse grade.
There are different sizes of zester's too. A
small hand held one, or bigger sizes. You can ususally find a Zester at most grocrey and hardware stores from about $6--$8.
A citrus Zester is simply 4 or 5 holed
stainless steal edge secured to handle. Just pull the Zester across the desired citrusm pressing firmly, and tiny strips
of peel are produced. Take care not to press so hard that the white layer underneath, the pith, is removed. The pith is very
bitter and should not be used unless the recipe calls for it. Also, be sure to zest your fruits prior to juicing or cutting
it. After peeling, the peel is still usable, but the task is messier and more time consuming.
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