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Crockpot Cooking Ideas For Cold Weather - Plan A Week Of Hearty Meals To Stay Cozy And Warm

If getting from your car to your door seems like a march through the tundra during cold winter days, a trip to the grocery store may be excruciating to think about. You may be entertaining thoughts of staying in your nice warm car and driving through a fast food place for dinner instead. But, that sort of impulse can really defeat a grocery budget, even though the nice warm car is tempting.
How can you feed your family a nice hot meal without suffering those icy cold trips? By planning one shopping day with one goal in mind - creating enough crockpot meals for a week. Let's see how this can be accomplished.
Start by gathering together your favorite crockpot recipes, picking a variety of dishes so your family doesn't get tired of the same old food. Make a grocery list that includes everything you need for the week based on the recipes you've chosen. Check your pantry for the standard supplies, too. Now do all your shopping for the week.
When you get home, carefully wrap and freeze the meat for the meals later in the week, chop up all your veggies for each meal and seal in containers. You are well on your way to a week of cozy meals without having to venture out in the cold. Here we go.
Sunday - Begin the week with a wonderfully aromatic Rotisserie Chicken. Your crockpot will produce a nice, crispy and juicy chicken just like a deli rotisserie. Make it a Sunday dinner by including your garlic mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli.
Monday - A Crockpot French Dip Roast is an easy way to serve a hot and satisfying sandwich for dinner. It may be just a sandwich, but it sure seems more like a meal when you use a good, hearty hard roll and add mozzarella cheese on top.
Tuesday - Time to spice things up a bit with a hearty White Chicken Chili. You control the spice, so this meal will satisfy everyone's tastes. Serve with a nice crusty bread and no one walks away hungry. You may have enough leftover chicken from Sunday for this dish.
Wednesday - This is your night to go meatless with a fabulously rich Minestrone Soup. You could replace the beef broth with chicken broth if you choose, but, as is, this is a frugal meal that will please even your staunchest meat eater.
Thursday - Time to surprise your family with Homemade Calico Beans for dinner. This dish is wonderfully satisfying and relatively inexpensive to make using dried cooked beans and ground beef. Save the leftovers for next week's lunches.
Friday - It's Smorgasbord time! One day of the week is always busier than the rest. You'll be glad to have a refrigerator full of leftovers for that day. You can use your creative nature to re-invent some of the leftovers into new dishes or you can simply arrange your leftovers on the counter with plates, bowls, and silverware, and have your family dig in.
Saturday - The races are on TV and we're not budging. So, when it comes time to eat, putting a platter of Pulled Pork Sandwiches on the table and having everyone help themselves, is a great way to enjoy the races and fill our tummies without missing a moment of the action.
Stocking up and preparing for a week's worth of meals ensures that you have a house full of food for your family. But, equally as important, when your family finally gets home in out of the cold, they will walk into a house fragrant with the savory aromas of a delicious dinner ready to enjoy. Give this plan a try for one week and I guarantee you won't miss those stops at the drive-thru for a moment!

Choosing & Cooking Chinese Christmas Recipes

With the Chinese New Year being the most important event in the Chinese calendar, you'd imagine that Christmas got swept under the carpet. Not so, as celebrating Christmas becomes more popular throughout China.
Whilst you won't find the hype and shopping madness of Western countries, in major cities you'll see lights, trees and Christmas decorations on the streets and in stores. Christmas Day is not even a bank holiday in China, although it is in Hong Kong and Macao. Whether this is just part of the Chinese interest in Western culture, or a sales ploy by the big stores, who can say?
With an increasing number of Christians, it can only be expected that more people will be celebrating the festive season in China each year. With little tradition and history, cooking for a Chinese Christmas dinner means you can cook any special occasion dish you choose.
However, there are a few suggestions we can make to get you started:-

Peking Duck
Cantonese Roast Duck
Kung Pao Chicken
Cookies
Five Spice Peanuts
Sesame Seed Balls
Spring Rolls

Whilst many of the recipes above are traditionally eaten for the Chinese New Year, they will serve just as well for a Christmas dinner. As always with Chinese cooking, use the freshest ingredients, prepare them well ahead of time, so that all you have to do is cook!

Budget Cooking Ideas For People Who Love Food

Saving money is certainly a newsworthy topic these days. Everyone's looking for places to trim their budget - welcome to the age of budget cooking! For some, it is a desire for simpler life; others have had to make changes due to economic hardship. Whatever the reason, there is no doubt that frugal cooking is a top culinary trend right now. So - how can a dedicated "foodie" make the most of this seeming dark ages of cooking? Actually - it's very easy to enjoy food and saving money when you learn how to cook. I'm not talking about recipes; I'm talking about learning the basic cooking methods that really teach you to cook. Once you learn some simple techniques, budget cooking is natural, fun and delicious!
Buy in Bulk
If you know how to prepare meat (chicken, beef, pork) quickly and efficiently, it makes sense to buy your favorite meats in larger quantities when they are on sale. Trim and prepare the meat, portioning it into serving sizes. Label and date each package and put each portion into the freezer. Now, when you are ready to prepare dinner some night, just take out a portion and prepare it using your favorite cooking method with your favorite ingredients. This budget cooking tip actually saves time AND money!
Celebrate at Home
Going out to a restaurant to celebrate a special occasion is always a treat, but it does have its drawbacks. For starters - if you want to enjoy a bottle of wine, expect to pay somewhere around 2 1/2 times as much as you would buying the same bottle at a store (and that's before tip!) But... when you know how to apply basic cooking methods to great ingredients - you can create very high caliber meals right at home. And you can do this quickly, easily... and cheaply! This can also justify using the highest quality ingredients you can find and afford. You'll still be saving money by toasting your occasion... at home.
Take the Whole Tenderloin - not just the filet
One of the nicest steaks you can prepare - especially on the outdoor BBQ grill - is the filet mignon. But even at the grocery store, this premium cut of beef comes at a premium price. So - I've got some great news for you! One of my favorite "chef secrets" is that breaking down an entire filet is actually much easier than most people think. I love purchasing an entire tenderloin (at a much better price than just the filet) and learning how to prepare it yourself. This is still one of my best money saving tips!
The not so Obvious
It might seem obvious, but the best way to save money on your food bill is to eat less, right? Well, the actual truth of the matter is that most of what is cooked is not eaten and goes to waste. A great way to save money is actually to make less - not necessarily eat less. Portioning is a secret of basic cooking method and a great way to save money. This is because most home cooks over-produce food rather than run the risk of running out of food, which everyone hates to do. However, if you portion correctly on the preparation side, you will save money and have another added bonus: proper portioning also ensures you will not have to even worry about leftovers. So you've solved another common budget cooking dilemma - what to do with leftovers? There won't be any!
Once you've mastered a few basic cooking methods and simple techniques for preparing great food, you'll find it to be a very simple and rewarding way to incorporate budget cooking into your frugal lifestyle.

Learn Homemade Pasta Sauce Recipes For Everyday Cooking

Do you think you need a pasta sauce recipe to make a great pasta dinner tonight? I promise you that if you learn three of the most commonly used (and so called) culinary mother sauces, you will be creating all kinds of dishes with a never-ending variety of options. You might even find a new favorite pasta sauce recipe to claim as your "signature." Even if you just want to get some great new ideas for everyday dinners, these three sauces provide endless opportunity.
Become a Master of the Marinara Sauce Recipe
Tomato Sauce is one of the five "Mother Sauces" in French culinary and the starting point for any marinara sauce recipe. There are two parts to this sauce that are made separately with their own procedure and then come together at the end: tomato concasse and a sauce "base". The sauce base can be meat, vegetables, broth, seafood - whatever you will be using to make YOUR marinara sauce recipe. Tomato concasse sounds fancy, but it simply means a mixture of tomatoes coarsely chopped. But - there is a trick to getting this mixture sans seeds and skins. Here's my quick technique for blanching tomatoes, which is the first step in making tomato sauce:

Core tomatoes on one end and score an "x" on the other side with a knife. This will be where the skin peels away during boiling.
Place tomatoes in a pot of boiling water.
When the skin at the "x" has peeled back, it is time to remove the tomato and shock it in an ice water bath to stop the cooking. This will vary by tomato due to size and ripeness.
Peel and seed the tomatoes. Peeling should be very easy. If it's not, the tomato didn't stay in the boiling water long enough.

Depending how you'd like your marinara sauce recipe to end up, you can puree the tomato concasse or keep it chunky.
Now, onto the sauce base. For a simple marinara sauce recipe, you will probably keep this vegetarian, adding vegetables if you prefer a chunky sauce or vegetable broth if you prefer a smoother sauce:

Saute chopped onions and garlic in a hot pan with a small amount of olive oil.
Add your tomato concasse (or puree). This is also where you'd add any other vegetables, like mushrooms or peppers, to your tomato sauce.
Add vegetable broth and reduce to almost dry.
Add tomato paste to thicken and color - heat through.
Add the seasonings of your choice. Basil and oregano are the common ones, but experiment to find what you like.

You've now got a great homemade pasta sauce recipe that you can make almost any night of the week. My guess is that this process would take you about 30-45 minutes to prepare. During this time, your pasta is cooking and your meal is ready in under an hour!
Make any White Sauce Recipe with One Procedure
When you think of a white sauce recipe, most often what you are imagining has its roots in the French mother sauce, bechamel. Bechamel forms the foundation for every white sauce recipe - including the favorite fettuccine Alfredo or even the classic macaroni and cheese. The key to making this velvety white sauce smooth is knowing how much milk to add. This is something that is best determined with your eyes - not a recipe!
You start by melting butter on the stove and then removing it from the heat. As you add some flour - a little at a time - you will be watching for the mixture to thicken up to the consistency of wall paper paste. When it does, you've got roux and it is time to return to the heat. Your goal here is to cook the proteins out of the flour. You will know this has happened when the majority of the roux has turned from yellow to white. During the process, you will smell a toasty smell as the proteins cook out. Now you can start adding milk. This is the most important step in making this sauce so take your time here. You will continue to add milk - a little at a time - until the sauce stops thickening. So here's the process:

Add some milk and stir.
Stop stirring and observe.
If sauce starts thickening back up over the heat, add more milk.
Continue steps 1-3 until the sauce doesn't thicken back up (in step 3).

I like a garlic flavor to my white sauce recipe so here's a trick for adding garlic, but not adding the lumps of chopped garlic. I simmer whole garlic cloves in the sauce for a bit and then remove them before serving. This will infuse a nice garlic flavor into my white sauce recipe. Finally, if you are making an Alfredo (or macaroni and cheese), this is where you would add your favorite cheese(s), stirring over heat as they melt.

Ideas For Gourmet Cooking on a Budget

How much do you pay for a meal in a fancy restaurant? How much just for the entree? Even on the low end of the scale, you could be paying around $15 per person for an entree. Sometimes you may end up paying $20-$30. Well, you can save a lot of money by cooking at home, and you can make a meal just as good, if not better than you can find in a fancy restaurant. You can easily cook up a gourmet quality meal at home with ingredients that you can easily find in your local grocery store, and with what you already have in your kitchen. If you do some planning, and look around in your store for some good prices, you can make a meal for $5.00 per serving that would cost $15-$30 in a fancy restaurant.
The most important thing to do is to plan the meal ahead of time, before you go shopping. A typical meal consists of a main dish (fish, chicken, pork, beef), a starch (rice, pasta, potatoes), and a vegetable or salad. For example, you may go into a restaurant, and order a steak; typically, it will come with a potato and vegetables. You'll want to keep the three elements in mind when you plan your meal. The main dish, should be the primary focus of your meal, after all, you don't go into a restaurant and order a baked potato in order to get the steak. So, you'll want to start by deciding what the main dish is going to be. Look in your newspaper for circulars from your local grocery stores, and find out what is on sale. Pork chops are usually a good deal. I know I commonly find pork loin chops for around $1.00 per serving, and they are thick enough to stuff with other ingredients. Keep in mind the price per serving when you're shopping. $8.99 per pound for tuna steaks may seem like a lot, but 1 pound is 3-4 servings, meaning about $2.25-$3.00 per serving... not too bad.
Decide what you want to do with the main dish. If the meat is thick enough, you can add a lot of flavor by stuffing it. Here, you can add things like cheese or sausage, or use your favorite stuffing mix. This is an opportunity to add a lot of flavor without spending a lot of money. You can buy a jar of sun dried tomatoes for probably around $5.00. That may seem like a lot, but one jar can go a long way. You only need a little bit to add a lot of flavor to a meal. You can also whip up a quick marinade to add flavor to the meat.
The sides are probably the least expensive part of the meal. Grab a head of lettuce, a couple of tomatoes, and maybe a little bit of cheese, and you have a great salad. You can also chop up some of the sun dried tomatoes, mentioned earlier, and use them to add some flavor to the salad. You can find several varieties of frozen vegetables in the freezer section of the store that are just as good a fresh. Just heat them up and serve. For a starch, potatoes, rice, or pasta are all inexpensive, and you can find several ways to add variety to them. Add some roasted garlic and a little bit of olive oil, or you can use the aforementioned sun dried tomatoes.
It isn't hard to cook a nice meal if you just use your imagination. Choose your meat, and then decide on how you want to add flavor, and what you can do to make something a little different than what you usually do. Choose a nice inexpensive vegetable or salad, and a side dish, and you've got a complete meal. You can do it in your own kitchen, and you can make it for less than $5.00 per serving.

Cooking With Children: Healthy Ideas

Cooking with children can be a fun and delicious way to spend more time with your kids. Kids typically enjoy baking cupcakes and cookies and other not-so-healthy foods. If you start cooking better food with your kids early on, you can start a healthy pattern that will last a lifetime. It may be difficult at first to convince them that granola is actually tasty, but rest assured there are plenty of healthy recipes that your children won't mind making or eating! Save the cookie baking for more special occasions and try to cook healthy food with them on a regular basis. Here are some healthy cooking ideas for kids:
Recipe #1 - Cheese and Fruit Salad
Ingredients: 1 cup of lettuce, 1/3 cup of chopped carrots, 4 sliced strawberries, 1 stick of reduced-fat string cheese, 1/4 cup of cubed low-sodium cooked ham, 1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk, 1/2 cup light mayo, and 1/2 tablespoon apple-cider vinegar
You can clean a pair of safety scissors and allow your child to cut up the lettuce. Next, place the lettuce, fruit, veggies, cheese, and ham into a container and your child can shake up all the ingredients together. The rest of the ingredients can be mixed together to make a healthy dressing for the salad.
Recipe #2 - Strawberry Smoothie
Ingredients: 1/2 cup vanilla soy yogurt, 1/2 cup strawberries, 2 ice cubes, and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
This one is really simply. Just have your little one measure out all the ingredients and place in a blender until smooth. This recipe is also great for kids who have lactose intolerance.
Recipe #3 - Apple Slices with Peanut Butter
Ingredients: 2 slices of whole wheat or whole grain bread, 1 apple, peanut butter/chocolate peanut butter/chocolate soy nut butter, and 2 tablespoons granola
Let your child spread his favorite peanut butter on the slices of bread and then place slices of apples (or bananas if he prefers) on the sandwich. Then sprinkle the granola over the top and you're all done!
Getting your kids to eat healthy can be a challenge but continue to introduce them to new foods. Children have sensitive taste buds so avoid very bitter or strong tasting food. Give them sweeter fruits and vegetables like strawberries, oranges, tomatoes, and corn. You can sneak pureed or finely chopped items into your normal meals so they're at least getting the nutritional value. However, don't make this your only solution. Kids need to be exposed head on and learn how to expand their palates.
Always make sure the kitchen is filled with fruits, vegetables, yogurt, granola bars and other healthy items rather then stocking up on cookies and chips. This will give your kids only healthy options, but don't just leave fruit lying around. Buy cookbooks or look for recipes online to make that fruit more appealing to them. Cooking with children doesn't have to be an unhealthy task. It can be fun, rewarding, and yummy.

Fun Cooking Ideas With Chocolate

The western world has a mild obsession with chocolate, and rightly so. Not only is it delicious, but it is also good for your health. Dark chocolate is full of antioxidants. Some brands of chocolate, such as Xocai, have more antioxidants than red wine or even acai berries. Chocolate also creates a hormonal reaction when consumed that feels a lot like sexual afterglow or falling in love. Dark chocolate is full of a good kind of saturated fat that can help boost brain function in ways similar to fish oil, and it is satisfying enough to eat in small quantities. Chocolate has non-food applications in skin care products and make-up, and there are endless products available that showcase its properties, from confections to body wraps. One of the best ways to enjoy the benefits of chocolate is to cook with it. Here are some great ways to cook with chocolate.
1. In drinks
Drinking chocolate has become a popular delivery method for chocolate consumption in recent years. It is a combination of melted chocolate and cream, as opposed to the cocoa powder/sugar/milk combination usually used in hot cocoa. It is a thick and rich chocolate drink that seems to send those happy chocolate feelings straight to your toes. To make drinking chocolate, combine 2 oz heavy cream with 6 oz of milk in a saucepan. Add a cinnamon stick and a vanilla bean that has been split down the middle. Heat the infused milk mixture very slowly for 15-20 minutes. Remove the vanilla bean and the cinnamon stick and add 2 oz finely chopped or grated dark chocolate. Heat, stirring, until chocolate is fully melted. Top with whipped cream and a dusting of powdered cinnamon.
Chocolate makes an excellent smoothie addition. Combine 1/4c hot cocoa mix with 8 oz milk. Add in 1 frozen banana and 1/2 of an avocado. Blend until creamy. If dairy is not an option for you, water or coffee can be exchanged for the milk.
2. In Mousse
Mousse is a fluffy, decadent use for chocolate that doesn't have to be too sweet. Here is a recipe that combines coffee with chocolate for one of the fluffiest mousses out there:
12 oz grated dark chocolate
4 eggs
6 oz hot coffee
Blend together eggs and chocolate for 1 minute. With blender running, add coffee in a smooth stream. Mixture should froth up and fill blender. Pour into dessert cups and refrigerate for at least an hour, if you can stand it.
3. Chocolate cups
Chocolate can be used as a delivery method for some other decadent dessert by making thin cups out of it. Using good melted chocolate, spread it in a thin layer over baking cups. Refrigerate at least one hour or until hard. Remove from refrigerator and peel off baking cups. The resulting chocolate cups can now be filled with whipped cream or frosting or filled with custard and fruit to make little chocolate tarts.

Delicious Cooking Ideas For Shrimp

There are so any recipes that use Shrimp you should never become bored with eating the same things. It is one of our most versatile foodstuffs and is delicious both spiced up and sobered down. The Shrimp meat contains healthy fats so it is often included in weight loss plans. Shrimps can be found worldwide, and at the last count I knew over 600 different recipes for them.
There are two things to do when cooking Shrimps to make sure that you don't lose any flavor and you keep their texture. The first one is, if you can, cook them in their shell. This retains much more of their flavor as it can't escape. Only cook them until their skin becomes opaque; keeping on cooking them and they will go dry, rubbery and pretty nasty.
If you love highly seasoned food and have a spare ten minutes, knock yourself up a Shrimp scampi. Apart from your shrimps all you will need is onion, garlic. Green peppers, red peppers, olive oil and parsley.
Two of my favorite foods are shrimps and pasta, so combining the two is very much food heaven for me. Garlic shrimp is so quick it beggars belief. You will need lemon juice, parsley, butter, garlic and salt. Serve with cooked pasta; delicious.
A delicious Shrimp Alfredo made with pasta makes a compete meal and doesn't need any sides. Once you have your basic Alfredo ingredients you can add them to a ready made sauce you can buy from anywhere. If you like Shrimp you will love Shrimp Alfredo.
A great recipe for summer get togethers is barbecued Shrimps. Get together basil, lemon juice, a bay leaf, rosemary and garlic. It takes a very short time to prepare and cook this tasty dish that is equally good as a main course or starter.
Why so many people still think that you need to be a highly trained professional chef to cook Shrimp is beyond me. These recipes are some of the simplest there are, and absolutely everyone can make them.

Super Summer Cooking Ideas

Summer is fast approaching and that means it is time to dust off the grill and think about cooking al fresco! We tend to opt for lighter dishes in the summertime, although both hot and chilled foods are popular. There is no rule, of course, to say that you cannot enjoy a winter stew or a thick, hearty soup recipe in the summer but this time of year does tend to be the time for salads and grilled food.
Fish is more popular in the warmer months because it tends to be light and you can try some steamed or poached fish dishes. Try poaching fish in white wine to give it a gourmet flavor, and serve it with boiled rice or noodles, as well as a colorful salad or vegetable platter.
Chicken Recipes for Sunny Days
Grilled chicken is really nice when the weather is warm and it smells so good while it is cooking. You can thread marinated chicken pieces on to skewers and grill the kabobs. This would be a very healthy recipe, especially if you serve it with some salad or grilled fresh vegetables.
You might want to make some smoked chicken salad recipes or a chilled chicken breast recipe. Chicken is great with salads and there are literally hundreds of different ingredients you can use.
Recipe for Summer Grilled Beef Kabobs
This recipe is easy to make and it tastes wonderful. The sweetness of the pineapple and bell peppers is perfect with the marinated beef and vegetables. You can use any colors of bell pepper you want. It might be nice to use one of each color - red, green, yellow, and orange. Use an eight ounce can of pineapple chunks if you do not have a fresh pineapple.
What you will need:

1 1/2 lbs boneless beef top sirloin, cut into 1 inch cubes
4 bell peppers, seeds and stems removed and cut into 1 inch squares
2 peeled red onions, in wedges
2 teaspoons garlic powder
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 chopped fresh pineapple
1/3 cup olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Nonstick cooking spray, as required

How to make them:Combine the lemon juice, salt, pepper, olive oil, garlic powder, and vinegar in a bowl to make a marinade. Add the vegetables, beef, and pineapple to a big Ziploc bag and pour in the marinade. Leave the bag overnight in the refrigerator or for a minimum of five hours.
Spray the grate of the grill with cooking spray and heat it to moderately hot. Thread the beef, pineapple and vegetables on to metal skewers, or bamboo ones, which have been soaking in cold water for half an hour, then season with salt and black pepper.
Grill the kabobs for eight or nine minutes, until they are tender and the beef is cooked through. You can also broil them five inches from the element for about six or seven minutes. Serve immediately.

Olive Oil Cooking Tips and Ideas

Some people do not use Olive Oil in their recipes and cooking due to some Urban Myths that surround Olive Oil. There are cooks who think that there are special circumstances or procedures that must be used before one can use this oil from the olive fruit. I'm here to tell you to stop the worrying, buy you a bottle of EVOO and start cooking. Here are a few tips you'll need to keep in mind and a few cooking ideas to help you along.
First, never use Extra Virgin or Virgin Olive Oil for high temperature cooking. The oil will break down and lose its flavor. If you must use high temperature for cooking, look for an oil labeled as "pure" or just "olive oil". These oils are more refined and have a higher smoking point.
Also keep in mind that your oil should be kept in a cool dark place. Sunlight and high temperatures will break down the oil and make it rancid.
Olive Oil can be used instead of butter in some dishes. There are plenty of conversion charts on the Internet, find one and print it off and keep it handy. Use it the next time you don't want to use butter in a recipes and see how it turns out. Also, OO will help keep butter from burning. Just add a little to the butter.
I like to brush Olive Oil on prepared lasagna noodles. It makes them easier to handle for your recipes.
Instead of using butter, margarine, mayo, mustard or ketchup on your sandwiches, try spreading some extra virgin olive oil on the sandwich to give your food a robust flavor without all the calories. Bread or toast is also great with EVOO spread over it instead of butter.
Use EVOO or Virgin Olive Oil in your favorite stir fry recipe. Just remember not to get the oil too hot. Remove veggies from the pan and sprinkler with fresh herbs for a meal to remember.

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