Tips on Great Dips

Dips can make or break a snack table. Find a sour cream that you like, as it's likely you'll be using it a lot. Most family dips are just sour cream and a few other ingredients, so stating with a good sour cream is always key.

A good basic dip can be created with a small amount of dill in sour cream (about a teaspoon per two ounces).

Pico de gallo makes for a great dip, especially when an appetizer is needed.

Hummus is easy to create. Just ground up a couple cups of chick peas until it is a paste, and then add seasonings, such as pepper, cumin, or garlic salt, as desired. A small amount of other vegetables, such as peppers and tomatoes can be added. [A good basic hummus can be created by throwing a 19 oz can of garbanzo beans drained of half the liquid,, four teaspoons of lemon juice, two teaspoons of tahini sauce, one teaspoon of salt, and a clove of chopped garlic into a blender until you get a creamy paste, and then cover with pepper to taste and two tablespoons of olive oil.]

A good no-beans chili or speicy diced tmatoes mixed into either nacho cheese or a microwaved processed cheese block can be a great dip as well.

Tips on a Great Chili

Chili is another favorite. Soak two pounds of beans overnight and throw it in the slow cooker, along with six cups of water, four 8 oz. cans of tomato paste, and two 16 oz. can of tomato sauce per pound of beans. Yeah it sounds like a lot of liquid, but a lot of that will reduce.

The best seasonings are salt, pepper, garlic salt, cheyenne pepper, cumin, paprika, and seasoned salt. Cumin and paprika have the subtlest flaor add, but they do add just enough flavor to be worth it. Cheyenne pepper adds the heat. Play around with the spices until you find the mix you like. You can also add brown sugar to cut any acidic taste, but keep the addition light for diabetics.

You can add pretty much any meat into the chili as desired. As with anything else, play around with it until you find the mix you like, starting with a pound of meat. Strong-tasting meats add the most flavor, such as beef, venision, bison, sausage, or even lamb, while meats with a weaker taste, such as chicken, fish, even snake, usually just add protein. Just remember to fry it off and drain the fat off as much as possible and you should be okay.

You can also add vegetables as desired. Whole or stewed tomatoes are the best, as well as diced onions or minced garlic. Diced peppers work great, especially those that add heat. Frying off the vegetables helps bring out the flavor.

If you want more of a wet chili, such as for nachos or chili dogs, subsitute a basic roue for the beans (basically melt two cups of butter and then mix in two cups of flour) for the beans and then mix in thoroughly. Also, fry off the meat so that it is as small as possible; uncased sausage or hamburger is best for this. 

Tips on How To Use a Slow Cooker

A slow cooker can be your best friend. Put a large piece of meat, two or three potatoes, a diced onion, and two cups of water in one on low before work and you'll have the start f a great meal when you come home.

Chop the meat into bite-sized pieces, add some stewed tomatoes, dice the potatoes, and another cup of water along with a package of gravy and a couple of cans of vegetables, and you have a great stew.

Chowder is not that hard. Two cans of 12-ounce condensed milk, a few cans of vegetables, two cups of milk, and a pound of clam meat or other sea food, ad you have a decent sea food chowder.

There are a number of great vegetarian options as well. Using the stew, take out the meat and substitute a pound of red kidney beans that soaked overnight.

Chicken noodle soup is even easier, but takes some prep. You need to boil a chicken  off the night before; in a stew pot put enough water to fill it halfway, as well as some pepper and garlic salt. When it boils throw in a whole chicken. Boil long enough so that the water reduces to just covering the chicken. Pull the chicken out, let it cool, and then pick the meat off. Store the meat and the water until morning. In the morning, throw all of that in the pot with two cups each of celery and carrots with two cups of any small noodle, such as elbow macaroni or egg noodles. When you come in you should have a great soup!

Some Advanced Salad Ideas

Salads are not only healthy, but they are also easy to make. Once you have decided on your ingredients (see last post), you have a number of options to explore. The basic option is to just eat the salad right when it is prepared; this is the simplest and makes the most sense for most occasions. You can also set it in the refrigerator for an hour or so to chill it a little first. However, there are some other options you may want to explore..

An obvious cheat for those that want to spend some time making a salad but do not want to fix it every day is to fix a large salad, put in the fridge, and take it out as needed. This allows you to create a salad with all of the fixings you wish and take some time doing it. If you do do this, you can put pretty much any of the meat and vegetable parts together, but keep out the bread parts (such as the croutons) and dressing until you need them; the croutons will turn soggy quickly and the dressing will cause the lettuce to wilt faster. Keep in mind also that this can cause the lettuce to wilt faster, so it's best if you only fix it for the next three days or so.

The other option is to pickle the salad. Start with a basic oil and vinegar dressing recipe, but take out the oil and add in a tablespoon of sugar. Not an ideal solution for a diabetic, but it does keep the salad fresher for a few days and gives you an additional option. This really works out well if yoiu add some large red onion rings to the salad, but you may wish to omit meat ingredients, although fried tofu does still work. You may also wish to omit croutons (or equivalent) in order to avoid sogginess. Note that you can do with Caesar salad dressing as well, especially if you use Romaine lettuce as your base.

The last option is, well, stir fry. This works rather well for most salads, especially those with a lot of different ingredients. Keep out the dressing and croutons, and stir the salad into an oiled pan (or, better yet, a wok) at medium heat, and then mix your choice of soy sauce or sesame seed oil into it. You don't need much; a tablespoon should be more than enough unless you want some flavor, then maybe two tablespoons. You actually want to wilt the lettuce a little bit, and combine with chunky meat, such as fried hambburger, fried tofu, or even some micorwaved nuggets. Serve on either chow mein noodles or rice, and you have a great little dinner.

That should give you about five different ways to serve a salad: prepped, pickled, stir fried, regular, or even chilled. Combined with all of the different ways there are to make a salad, and you should have fun experimenting!

Tips on Acceptung Grocery Delivery

If you are usually in a rush debate having your groceries delivered. A lot of supermarkets usually have some sort of service set up, especially in big cities. This service allows you to create a grocery list, send it in, and pay for it and then have it delivered when you or someone else is home. You not only avoid the long lines at the supermarket but you can also make the list while looking at your own pantry and save money by avoiding impulse shopping.

Local farmers also have delivery set-ups. This may be random, but it gives you access to a lot of local foods with no  pesticides or other chemicals, fresh from the farm. Although it's usually for vegetables, eggs and some meats are available in some areas. However, be aware that some prices, especially for eggs, may be higher than the stores.

The best option is a mix of the supermarket delivery and local farm, if possible. The vegetables are fresher and better if delivered from the farms, and you still have the access to the variety of the supermarket.

Obviously shut-ins benefit from delivery systems, but so can harried parents.

Delivery is also a major advantage when you are crunched for time, such as when preparing for a large party. If you start noticing that you are out of some things you can place an order for quick delivery and prepare other items as you wait, saving the precious time that you would have been shopping.

How To Make A Basic Salad

I guess I should look at salads. Tey may sound simple to cook, but there are a number of different ideas on how to make one. So let's talk salads...

Dressing: Let's start off with a healthy dressing. I prefer a basic vinegar/oil dressing. In a bowl, combine two cups of olive oil (or your preferred oil) with half a cup of vinegar. You can use any kind of vinegar really, but as I'm diabetic I prefer to keep away from cider, balsamic, and rice vinegars as they have too much suugar for my good. Add in a quarter cup of the mustard of your choice (I prefer stone ground), two tablespoons each of pepper and minced garlic, and a tablespoon of salt. Throw in any other spices you like and you should have enough dressing for about a week.

Toppers: Here's where a lot of the crunch comes in. Tortilla strips can make for a beautiful salad, especially if you get the multi-colored or red ones. Sunflower seeds also work, especially as they have a number of health benefits. Croutons are always good.

Lettuce: Keep it simple: Chopped Romaine works well, as does iceberg lettuce. Both are also usually pretty cheap. Bagged lettuce also works, especially the so-called "garden mix" with iceberg and cabbage in it.

Others: I try to keep it simple and so I usually go vegetarian with my salads; I usually don't add any meat. But if you do, crumbled bacon, chopped sliced ham, and finely sliced hot dogs are the best way to go. Most other meats seem to add a wrong texture or overpower the rest of the salad. That said, the vegetables rule here:

Sprouts: A nice little protein boost, also add a certain amount of crunch.
Mushrooms: Additional VitamIn B, as well as nice textureif eaten fresh. I prefer white mushrooms due to cost and that slight crunch.
Tomatoes: A little sweetness as well as other vitamins.
Kale Chips: A lot of Vitamin K, as well as a nice smoky flavor. Kale chips are made by cooking oiled and de-ribbed kale leaves at 350 degrees for fifteen minutes. I then crumble them.
Avocadoes: Some nice fats and proteins, as well as a nice texture. Sliced or diced.
Brocolli/Cauliflower: Some nice cunchy texture, as well as some color and additional vitamins.
Chili Peppers: Additional heat. Preferably diced.
Bell Peppers: A little additional spice and nutrients without ay real heat. Preferably diced.
Black Olives: Prefered sliced, but can add their own earthy flavor to the salad.
Purple Onions: A little additional spice and crunch, as well as a nice selection of vitamins.

Obviously you can add pretty much anything to your salad. Experiment and figure out what you like, but have some fun with it and just go crazy!

Tips on Eating Sushi

If you've never had a particular type of sushi before, just have one piece of it. Some types of sushi are definitely an acquired taste, while others are only good in small amounts.

Sushi is good for some diets, horrible for others. For those allergic to wheat gluten, it can be a great thing as it doesn't have any, well, wheat gluten. For diabetics, however, it can increase blood sugar after just a few pieces.

For most people the best balance between salty and spicy is to combine one pearl of wasabi and one tablespoon of soy sauce, smashed together via chopsticks. Adjsut the amount as needed, of course.

If you are going to order pufferfish (fugu) make sure that the chef has been properly licensed. If it is not properly prepared, it can be very poisonous, leading to a hospital stay for varying degrees of paralysis, or even death.

If your supermarket has a sushi chef, take advantage of it  It not only gives you access to a greater variety, but you also know that it's fresh.