Friday, October 10, 2008

Your First Choice for Cheap Healthy Food

Virtually everyone's grocery budget is being stretched to the limit these days, but most people don't want to eat food that is just affordable but they want cheap, healthy food that is good for them while still fitting into their budget.  Anyone can pick up boxes of macaroni and cheese for a dollar each and have those for lunch or dinner, but there's very little nutritional content in items like this.  So what can you do if you're looking for Low Price Cooking healthy food that you can have on a regular basis?

The obvious answer is to eat more fruits and vegetables whenever you can.  These items are nutritious, tasty, and of course the best choice for Low Price Cooking healthy food that there is.  But the problem with fruits and vegetables is that they can sometimes get a bit boring and repetitious, and many people want a hot meal for lunch or dinner rather than just raw fruits and veggies.  So how can you incorporate these items into your meal plans so that you're getting the best of cheap, healthy food but not missing out on taste or enjoyment?

Learning to cook is of course one important part, or just following recipes for certain items can make a difference.  Stuffed peppers are a great choice for cheap, healthy food that can be a main course for any meal.  Of course there's a right way and a wrong way to cook stuffed pepper so that they come out tasty rather than mushy!  But they're one easy dish that just about everyone enjoys.  You can also have a vegetable stir fry and use different seasonings or sauces to dress them up.  They make a great meal and a good idea for a Low Price Cooking healthy food that you can have on its own or that you can serve over noodles or rice.  When you have other dinner items you can also just serve more vegetables and less meat; try steaming a variety of vegetables and filling up on those rather than the meat or other main course.  This means you're having a cheap, healthy food at every meal but not losing out on the taste of meat, if that's what you enjoy.

Fruit makes a great dessert in many cases; this is another way of having a cheap, healthy food that tastes good and that can be used in the place of something else that is less healthy or good for you.  Some fresh fruit with a little bit of whipped cream is a small amount of calories, especially when compared to ice cream or something else.  You might need to get a little creative with fruit as a dessert; for instance, try baking an apple with some cinnamon.  Baking it brings out the natural sugars.Everyone loves this food for dessert and the best part is is that its also inexpensive and healthy.  By using your imagination and getting familiar with different cooking techniques, you can use fruits and vegetables as cheap, healthy food every single day.

Low Price Cooking is a brand new community website for Cooking Nutritious Food at a lower price to help your family budget. Come by LowPriceCooking to get your free Ebook on LowPriceCooking Basics just for joining the Low Price Cooking community for free. You will find cooking Forums, cooking Videos, Low Price Cooking Community Members and more just for signing up for free to join and then you can get your free Low Price Cooking EBook on Low Price Cooking Basics. Stop by and join for free and be a apart of our new Low Price Cooking Community.

 

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Leave the coffee preparation to your automatic espresso machine:

Why do you think many prefer automatic espresso machine for preparing their tasty brew? Simple…it does everything automatically, that is, all by itself without any user intervention. Great…how much time is saved? What these automatic espresso machines do? Grinding of coffee beans, putting them in the hopper, filling and heating the necessary amount of water and finally giving you the best coffee each and every time is what these automatic espresso machines do. You need not worry about preparing coffee anymore. You just have to clean the dishes. How easy! Few automatic espresso machines even fill the hopper with coffee powder for you to use the next time.

If you think you will not be able to afford an automatic espresso machine because their prices may be dearer, it’s time you change this opinion. They are fairly priced and in general used in coffee shops. These automatic espresso machines not only pump your brew with great speed but also ensure you with tasty coffee every time you ask for it.

When you add the grounded coffee beans manually, it is not possible to ensure that the amount of powder you add in every time is the same. If there is a variation in the amount of added grounded coffee, taste differs. This problem is resolved in automatic espresso machines. As the amount of ground as well as water does not change, taste of every cup of coffee is going to be same. This way you save a lot of time that you usually spend on measuring the ground and water. Use this time to polish your nails or for trying out a different hair-do.

Preserving the personal touch:

There are some who even with using automatic espresso machines would prefer giving their brew a personal touch. Even though one need not worry about measuring the right quantity of ground and water, which will save a lot of time, there are people who wish to serve the coffee with their personal touch.

If you are an ardent lover of coffee or have people at home who love to drink coffee, owning an automatic espresso machine will make your job simple and easy. Quality of the brew as well as the price of the automatic espresso machine depends on how automatic the machine is. With things like quality of the espresso, the simple process of making it and the time that is saved; ardent lovers of espresso invest on automatic espresso machines. Own your automatic espresso machine and enjoy coffee every day, each day the way you want your espresso to be.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Who Said Coffee Is Bad For Health? Read What Doctors Think

Are you a coffee lover?

Do a travel coffee machine and coffee mug is always part of your baggage?

But, you are scared to use your favorite keurig coffee maker considering negative impact of coffee on your health.

Here you will find latest research report on benefits of coffee and its positive affect on you.
Several studies have been done on the impact of coffee on health. According to the Centers for Disease Control and the American Medical Association moderate intake of coffee is not at all bad for your health. It is proved that a decent cup of coffee improves your sense of well-being, happiness, energy and alertness.

Coffee is not responsible high blood pressure or cancer on the contrary it just facilitate fat burning and speeds up your metabolism. It is found that conversion of fat to energy is about 30 percent more efficient when caffeine is consumed prior to exercise.

The Journal of the American Medical Association published that those who drink four or more cups of coffee each day have a 45% lower risk of developing gallstones. You can find this study report in June 9th edition. This report is based on a study of around 47000 men aged 40 to 75 with no history of gallstone disease. Total time span of the research was 10 years.

It is found that people who drank two to three cups of regular illy coffee per day had a 40% reduced risk of developing gallstone disease.People who drank four or more cups per day had a 45% lower risk of suffering from gallstone problem.

Gallstone disease affects 20 million Americans and is responsible for 800,000 hospitalizations every year in USA. 

Harvard University researchers monitored the mental health of 86,000 nurses over a period of 10 years and their study found that those who were regularly drinking between 2 and 4 cups of coffee a day are much less stressed.

However the result depends on individual health, level of intake, source and types of coffee.
Considering the positive affects of coffee over health, coffee gift baskets are always a save and good option as Christmas gift to men.

Disclaimer: Please consider this as information only. You must consult medical professional before taking any decision.

Monday, October 6, 2008

The Pros and Cons of Cooking Food in the Great Outdoors

Food that you prepare outside in the open seems to have more taste. And if you're camping, appetites are bigger and everything feels so much fresher. Chances are that you're cooking food that you've carried with you - but you've probably also added any herbs or berries that you found by the wayside on your travels.

Cooking food isn't the easiest or most appealing part of camping. We've all experienced trying to light the stove in the rain, running out of water just when you need to thin the soup or discovering that you're missing a vital ingredient - like salt.

As a teenager, I went hiking with a friend in the Lake District. Because we had to carry everything on our backs, we decided that we would only carry lightweight food - and our solution was to pack lots of packets of dried soup. By day three, not only were we sick of soup, we were experiencing some weird side effects from all the e-numbers in the mixtures. My ears glowed red from a mysterious inner heat - chemical in source. But we didn't have any other food to cook.

The key to cooking food on a camping holiday is planning.

Carry a good lighter, a good stove such as a Trankia and some lightweight cooking pots and pans, and cooking food in the great outdoors doesn't look so daunting. Remembering to bring the right cooking equipment and utensils is one thing. But you'll be cooking food. And carrying all that food can be the problem.

While I still carry packets of dried food - because they are so light to carry and take up such little space - I steer clear of anything that contains a lot of e-numbers. This leaves me plenty of room to carry fresh food. Cooking food in the great outdoors is most fun if you use fresh food. And the best fresh food is the berries that you pick while you walk, or the fish that you catch in the river or lake that you pass.

Yes, it sounds a bit too good to be true. But I usually make sure I pass a supermarket or two on route. There, the berries are easier to find and the fish easier to catch. The idea is solid, and it promises to make the best part of your holiday the food you cook.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

About The Bottled Drinking Water Company

Now that more and more people are starting to take notice in their health, there is an increase in profit for the bottled drinking water company. There is no doubt about it, the bottled drinking water company is making a lot of money off of something so simple such as water. But the question that is on the minds of everyone is whether or not it is really a safe drinking water bottle because of the chemicals within the plastic. Some people say there is nothing to worry about while others claim that the bottled drinking water company knows that the water is contaminated.

As of right now though, there is no hard evidence that the bottled drinking water company is aware of any true problems with drinking their water on a regular basis. But a person does have to wonder just where exactly are these companies getting their water and is it really any better then the water you would get through a filtered tap? There are a lot of products on the market for filters that attach to the faucet in the kitchen and they may do just as good if not better then the bottled drinking water company.

What You Can Do

If you want to be the judge for yourself and see if the bottled drinking water company that you are using regularly is better then the water you can get from your faucet, there are things you can do. There are kits out there on the market that can help you test not only your tap water, but also the water from the bottled drinking water company. You can take those two tests and compare to see how much better the water from the bottled drinking water company is for you and your overall health.

Then, if you get a filter attachment for your home sink and test that water, you can then test it against the water from the bottled drinking water company. In the end, you may be surprised to see which of the waters is better and safer for you to drink. You may find that you can save yourself a lot of money filtering your own water instead of paying the bottled drinking water company for water that you could have gotten yourself. Do the tests and make a decision for yourself and in the end you will be much better off health wise and pocket book wise.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Any Occasion Is Ideal For Gift Baskets

Pasta gift baskets

Wine is essential to have around for any celebration or a special moment in life.  Parties and celebrations are thought of as being incomplete unless there is wine present, which makes it an ideal gift for virtually any occasion.  Wine and cheese gift baskets is a great gift, they are very affordable, and perfect for nearly any occasion - such as birthdays, weddings, festivals, parties, or anniversaries.

Wine gift baskets are trendy gifts that are very popular - in terms of price and taste.  Along with the bottles of wine, wine gift baskets also contain various accessories as well, such as wine glasses and corkscrews.  With most wine baskets, fruit and chocolate is included as well.Cheese is a great accompanyment in most wine baskets.

Depending on the occasion, there are suitable kosher gift baskets to choose from.  When you select a basket, there are several factors that you’ll need to consider in order to make the basket a truly special gift.  If you are giving a basket as a wedding present, then you’ll obviously want to choose a different basket than one you would give to a friend at a party.  There are wine baskets out there that are cheap in price - to those that are more expensive and more suitable for a wedding gift.

You may want to purchase a wine book to accompany the wine for a beggining enthusiast to learn more about it. If you are giving the basket to a wine enthusiast with a lot of experience, you may want to include a stopper.  No matter who you are giving the basket to, a wine gift basket with an assortment of fine wine is a great gift that can bring joy to anyone.

You can find gift baskets that includes white wine, fruity red wine, dry wine, and full bodied wines.  Red wine is ideal for main course meals such as meats, while white wine is ideal for seafood and white meat.  Sparkling wine on the other hand, is ideal for special occasions.  If you are giving the gift basket as a wedding present, sparkling wine is a choice that you can’t go wrong with.One of the most popular is sparking wine which makes it perfect for anniversaries and weddings.

If you have a bit of difficulty choosing a wine gift basket, you can’t go wrong with mixed baskets that offer a mixture of wines.  You can find these types of baskets in local stores or on the Internet.  They are affordable, starting around $20.00 and going up from there.  If you are thinking of getting fine wine gift baskets, you should keep in mind that it can be a bit more expensive.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Persistent stomachache? Check your Cooking Pots

Certain materials are more inert than others. This means the pots you use to cook with can interact with the food you make. Traces of metals can make their way into your food.

This is not so important for adults. For babies and small children it can be a risk to health. Experts are divided on exactly what the effects are. The biggest risks are attached to those who are allergic to certain metals. And babies can't always tell you what has given them a stomachache or that unsightly rash.

When your cooking pots are shiny and new, there is no risk. As soon as they begin to get chipped, the metals they are made of can get into your food. Here are some tips from the experts to help you avoid any health risks:

- Avoid using copper pots that are not lined or insulated to prepare your baby's food. Copper can break down folic acid and vitamins C and E once it is heated to a high enough temperature. Some foods are acidic - anything that incudes vinegar for example. Acidic foods break down the copper in your pots - and this is deposited in your food.

- Pots made of aluminium react with acidic food, releasing traces of aluminium that may get into your baby's food. A safer alternative is anodized aluminium cookware which prevents any aluminium getting into your food.

- Stainless steel pots are fairly inert and won't react with food even though they are made of a variety of metals. But you'd be better off not using them to prepare baby food if the pots are old - especially if they are dented or chipped.

The non-stick material coating non-stick pans can chip off into the food you're preparing, so you should avoid using them to prepare your baby's food. Toxic fumes may be released if you heat a non-stick pan to a high enough temperature.

In general, scrubbing your stainless steel cookware with an abrasive substance such as wire wool is not a great idea. As well as scratching your pots, it releases small quantities of of nickel and chromium into your food.

However, the news is not all bad. Cooking with iron cooking pots can benefit your health. When you cook acidic foods such as tomatoes in iron, the foods actually "pull" the iron from the pot. This boosts the important dietary iron in your food.

The FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition say that ceramic, glass and enameled cookware is safe. They recommend not using older enameled cookware because it may contain cadmium. Cadmium is toxic and is no longer used in the manufacture of cookware in the US.

This book is JUST PLAIN FUN ( and amazing)