06.28.07

What’s So Great About Slow Cooking Anyway?

Posted in Cooking Articles at 4:44 pm by henri

As I walked through the grocery store aisles a few weeks ago, I noticed the increase in prepackaged slow cooker meals. I’ve been using my slow cooker and reaping the rewards for years, so it was no real surprise to me when others started proclaiming the benefits of cooking with a crock pot. Why did it take the rest of the country so long to catch up? With this increase in popularity, I’ve recently been asked by a few "newbies" -What’s so great about slow cooking anyway?-

That’s an easy question to answer even if all you’ve ever done is make chicken stew with your slow cooker. It’s just so dang simple and the food tastes better when cooked slowly and evenly in a crock pot.

I’m a work at home mom. I operate a Family Child Care and also have a busy online business, both of which keep me going all day long. That on top of my daughter’s activities and the in and out nature of my husband’s business, we’re usually searching for time to sit down and eat, especially eating together as a family. There’s where the slow cooker comes in handy. I have tons of slow cooker recipes, and can find just about anything to cook that my kids and picky husband will like to eat.

Since I work at home, having the kitchen stay a comfortable temperature is a must, as I spend quite a bit of time there preparing meals and snacks for my day care kids. I use my crock pot year round, and love its usefulness during the warm weather months when I can fix the beginnings of the meal in the morning when I’ve got other "stuff" out on the counter anyway, put it all in the pot, and then clean up the whole mess when I’m done. The crock pot requires very little clean up itself, so there you have yet another major reason for why slow cooking is so great.

For those of you who work away from home, consider this scenario: As the day goes along, the slow cooker is busy fixing your meal for you, and when you walk through the door at the end of another grueling day at work, your dinner is waiting. All you need to do, depending on the recipe you’ve selected, is prepare a side dish or salad, add some bread, set the table, and call the family in to eat. Simple, simple, simple; and very satisfying to come home to.

Here is a favorite slow cooker recipe that you can try with your family. I?m sure you’ll all love it.

Country-Style Crock Pot Chicken

6 carrots, sliced
6 celery stalks, sliced
8 chicken pieces
1 can (10-3/4 oz) cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
1/3 c or chicken broth
2 tsp cornstarch

Slice vegetables place in crock pot. Place chicken on vegetables. Spread undiluted soup over chicken. Sprinkle dry onion soup mix. Do not add any water. Cook on High 4 hours, or until chicken is done. Stir often. 10 minutes before serving, mix broth and cornstarch. Pour over chicken, stir well. 
Serves 4.

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06.27.07

Tips For Cooking Low Carb

Posted in Cooking Tips & Tricks at 4:44 pm by henri

If you are committed to the low carb way of eating, but also craving some of your old comfort foods you may still be able to satisfy those cravings with a little bit of creative substitution. Some of the foods that you used to know and love, have a low carb alternative available - the taste might be a little bit different but you will soon get used to that and be well on your way to happier and healthier eating!

Here’s some tips you can use to make your low carb cooking easier and tastier:

1. Make low carb bread crumbs for breaded foods. Foods like chicken Parmesan and stuffed peppers need to have a bread crumbs to have that full taste. While you may be able to buy low carb bread crumbs, you can also make them by using low carb bread. Simply toast the low carb bread in the oven on a cookie sheet. Once it is hard, grind it up in the food processor or blender.

2. Use soy flour or bake mix. When you need to use flour for baking or coating breaded foods, substitute soy flour or a bake mix like Atkins bake mix. You can convert your favorite recipes that use white flour to use these.

3. Use low carb chocolate bars for cookies and muffins. Now that you’ve converted your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe using soy flour, you don’t want to put in those high carb chocolate chips. Chop up a low carb chocolate bar into small pieces and use that instead.

4. Use Splenda instead of sugar. Recipes that call for sugar can be modified to use Splenda instead. It is much lighter so you will have to expirement with it and it may not work for everything but if does bake up nice for the most part.

5. Make great smoothies with low carb yogurt. Ok, well it’s not technically cooking, but if you love smoothies you can make them with low carb yogurt and fruit. Just make sure you use fruit that is low in carbs and the whole fruit not the juice as the fiber will help keep down the net carbs. 

6. For a great low carb pasta substitute use spaghetti squash. We all know that low carb pasta tastes horrible so why not try a food that is low in carbs and natural too. Cut the squash in half and bake at 400 degrees F for about 40 minutes. The squash will scrape out in strings and gives the texture and feeling of spaghetti. Trust me, it taste a lot better than the low carb pasta and has about 7 grams carbs per 1 cup serving.

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