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Comfort Food Trends Bring Us Back to our Roots

Posted by jie cai on November 30th, 2009

Comfort food. It even sounds warm and welcoming - like cuddling up by the fire on a cold winter day. Comfort food trends have seen a real resurgence in recent years and our desire for comfort food seems to be holding strong. So what is comfort food? Generally it's the food we have good memories about, the food we think of when we hear the word homemade, and that reminds us of simpler times. The list of favorite comfort foods can be different for each of us. While homemade macaroni and cheese ...
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Fast Food Takes Its Place

Posted by jie cai on November 29th, 2009

What if someone asked you to name the great cuisines of the world? What would you say? French food, of course, is famous. Italians are world-renowned. Greek food has its own following. What about America? Well, what comes to mind when you hear the words "American cuisine"? Personally, I think of the 1950's drive-up restaurants, with milkshakes and old-fashioned hamburgers and Coney Islands dripping in mustard. That's probably not the typical definition for the word "cuisine", but it ...
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Food Allergies

Posted by jie cai on November 28th, 2009

An allergy can be described as a malfunction of the immune system, an exaggerated response to certain substances. Your body mistakenly believes that something it has touched, smelled or eaten is harmful to it and your body releases massive amounts of chemicals, such as histamine to protect itself. It is believed that 11 million Americans suffer from food allergies. These allergies are as varied as food itself is. Some people suffer from an allergy to one food, some to many. The most common food ...
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Healthy Foods That Your Kids Will Love

Posted by jie cai on November 27th, 2009

Is getting your kids to eat healthy foods is a battle in your home? If so, you'll love these tips that will make your kids happy and give you the satisfaction of knowing you are feeding them foods that are good for them. Start the Day Right You can give your kids a delicious, healthy breakfast by getting rid of the ready to eat cereals and pastries and replacing them with bran pancakes and low-sugar syrup and/or fruit. Whole-wheat tortillas filled with fruit, scrambled eggs, or cheese ...
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Ceiling & Lighting Requirements for Food Processing Plants

Posted by jie cai on November 26th, 2009

INTRODUCTION Ceilings in the food processing plants can be a source of contamination and therefore they should be carefully designed and constructed to prevent adulteration of food products. Ceilings play an important part in the food processing plants. The type of ceiling used in a particular plant depends on the nature of the food being prepared and/or manufactured. Ceilings must not adulterate food products physically, chemically or microbiologically, as to render food products unsafe for ...
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Kid Party Food on a Shoe-String Budget

Posted by jie cai on November 25th, 2009

Party food is an important aspect of a great party. It is possible to have delicious snacks on a shoestring budget. Here are a number of ideas to help you have a great party. Firstly, establish how much you can spend and stick to it. Be careful not to over cater. Many hostesses are left with huge amounts of half eaten cake and wasted snacks after a party. Something to drink and about two savory and two sweet snacks are more then enough. Something Wet Juice mixed with water is far cheaper then ...
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Healthy Eating Shopping List

Posted by jie cai on November 24th, 2009

Healthy eating starts with careful planning and organization. Since fresh produce has a very limited shelf life, regular grocery shopping is a must. Creating a menu for the week and writing out a shopping list will save you time and money; while helping you stick to healthy recipes. Local health food stores and farmer markets are very money-wise solutions. Plus, frequent visits will allow you expand your culinary horizons as well as mingle with other health-concerned people. Healthy eating ...
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Garlic Lemon Chicken, a healthy break during the holiday season

Posted by jie cai on November 20th, 2009

Garlic Lemon Chicken is a wonderful dish during the Holliday season. Christmas and Thanksgiving often mean spending a lot of time in the kitchen; this tasteful but easy dish is great for those other days during this cozy family season. Your family will love it and you won't have to spend all your time in the kitchen. Besides, garlic is very healthy and a bit of a counter weight to all those heavy cholesterol rich foods that are consumed during this time of year. Are you ready for this truly ...
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Variety Is The Key To A Healthy Diet

Posted by jie cai on November 19th, 2009

When examining the diets of my clients, I commonly find that even of those who tell me they eat from a healthy diet actually eat from a very narrow selection of foods. Most of their food choices are also processed or heavily prepared before eating. These people also frequently complain of failed diets and of their desire to maintain a more healthy weight and to feel the benefits they expect from a healthy diet. One of the most frequently cited reasons that diets and attempts at healthy eating ...
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Choosing Fruits and Vegetables For A Healthy Diet

Posted by jie cai on November 18th, 2009

The new food guidelines issued by the United States government recommend that all Americans eat about nine servings of fresh, raw fruits and vegetables each and every day. This is important to provide your body with the minimal levels of essential nutrients and antioxidants needed by each and every cell in your body to support optimal health. When you first hear that number, it may seem like a lot, but it is actually much easier than you think to fit that many servings of fruits and vegetables ...
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Making delicious fish and seafood part of your healthy diet

Posted by jie cai on November 17th, 2009

Maximizing protein content while minimizing fat and calories is a goal of many people who are trying to lose weight, gain fitness or just enjoy a healthier diet. There are few foods that combine low fat, low calories and high protein the way fish and seafood do. In addition, the protective oils in many cold water fish are being studied for their possible role in preventing heart disease and lowering levels of cholesterol in the bloods. In addition, fish dishes are delicious, easy to prepare ...
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Why Food Safety?

Posted by jie cai on November 16th, 2009

Socioeconomic Burden Of Foodborne Diseases: Safe food is essential to human survival and can convey risks to health and even life itself. In the United States, as many as 81 million cases of foodborne diseases and up to 9000 deaths per year have been attributable to food-related hazards. The estimated annual mortality of food and water-borne infections in developing countries amounts to 2.1 million deaths, mainly of infants and children. In the United States, the annual cost of ...
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American Fast Food Restaurants

Posted by jie cai on November 15th, 2009

As a staple of life our need to eat has developed from a basic form of simply feeding our bodies with the fuel it requires, to a complicated art of presentation and taste combined with our intrinsic need to experiment with everything we see, touch, smell and of course taste. The ever-increasing divergence of foods that is now available to us at our local stores and eating-places only help to confuse and tantalise us into new culinary experiments and delights. From the sandwich shop to the ...
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Planning healthy meals for yourself and your family

Posted by jie cai on November 14th, 2009

Planning healthy meals can be difficult and time consuming, but with some advance planning and some basic knowledge of nutrition, it is easy to create a week's worth of healthy meals that everyone in the family will love. The key to creating healthy, delicious meals for the family is planning, planning and planning. Planning the week's meals ahead of time is the best way to create meals you can be proud of, while keeping cost and time commitment to a minimum. Convenience devices such as slow ...
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Save On Food - Ten Ways

Posted by jie cai on November 13th, 2009

To save on food, be an opportunist. Buy what you like, but buy on sale. Do you need oranges every day? Buy them when they're cheap, then buy grapefruit or orange juice when it's on sale. Opportunism is the key to low-cost living in general. You get everything you like, and lots of variety, because everything goes on sale once in a while. Here are ten more ways to get cheap food. 1. Stock up during sales. We recently bought 20 or 30 cans of tomato paste on sale for 10 cents per can. That's ...
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Soul Food

Posted by jie cai on November 12th, 2009

The history of American soul food can be traced all the way back to the days of slavery. More often times than not, the slaves were given the most undesirable part of the meal, the leftovers from the house. Pairing this with their own home-grown vegetables, the first soul food dishes were invented. After the slaves were freed, most of them were so poor that they could only afford the most undesirable, inexpensive cuts of meat available to them. (The leftover, unwanted parts of a pig such as ...
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British Food In The Countryside

Posted by jie cai on November 11th, 2009

There is a lot of misunderstanding on the surface about the subject of British cuisine. This is mainly because British cuisine varies widely, depending on what part of the country you're visiting. The cuisine of London, for example, is far different from the cuisine of Yorkshire, or the cuisine of tiny, unfamiliar regions scattered across the country and virtually unknown to Americans. In my opinion, the true cuisine of the British is not what is found in the big cities, but the ...
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Mackerel Dinner Pet Food

Posted by jie cai on November 10th, 2009

Heat 1 tsp. corn oil in a skillet and fry 1 small mackerel until it flakes apart easily. Remove and cool. Pour 1/2 cup hot water into the pan and scrape the brown bits into it. Remove the bones from the fish and mix with the juice. For dogs, serve in pieces with kibble; for cats, grind with the pan juices As a pet owner, no doubt you want to give your dog or cat the best care possible. And caring for your pet means feeding him the best diet you can. Animals, because they are color blind, ...
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Do you know these smart shopping tips for healthy eating?

Posted by jie cai on November 9th, 2009

Any healthy eating plan begins at the grocery store. Learning to make smart choices when shopping for food is the key to the success of any healthy diet plan. Learning to recognize the healthiest, freshest foods is a skill every grocery shopper must learn. Of course, the logical place to start the healthy shopping trip to the grocery store is at the produce section. Most large modern supermarkets have huge produce sections, often taking up a large portion of the store. It is not unusual for the ...
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How to choose the leanest cuts of meat for healthy eating

Posted by jie cai on November 8th, 2009

Choosing the right cuts of meat is one of the most difficult things to do when following a healthy lifestyle. Meat can be among the most calorie and fat dense foods, and it is not always easy to spot the leanest cuts of meat in the butcher's case. It is important, however, to choose lean cuts of meat when cooking healthy dishes. Even the lowest fat meal can be sabotaged by the addition of a high fat pork chop, roast or other cut of meat. Of course it is still possible to include meat in a ...
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How to shop smart for a healthy lifestyle

Posted by jie cai on November 7th, 2009

A big part of enjoying healthier eating is buying healthier foods, and that means making smart choices where it matters most - at the supermarket. Choosing the freshest, healthiest foods is an important first step toward making healthy and delicious meals your whole family will love. In general, most supermarkets are laid out with the healthiest, most nutritious foods around the perimeter of the store. That is where most stores locate their produce section, their dairy section, their meat ...
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Variety the spice of life & your key to a healthy diet!

Posted by jie cai on November 6th, 2009

It has been said that variety is the spice of life, and that is certainly true when trying to eat a healthy diet. No one likes to eat the same thing day after day, and boredom is the enemy of a healthy diet. Fortunately for those trying to follow a healthy diet, there is plenty of variety to be had in healthy foods. In addition to the hundreds of varieties of fruits and vegetables available at the average grocery store, there is a wide variety of beans, lentils, nuts, meat, dairy products, fish ...
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Enjoy a variety of vegetables for healthy living

Posted by jie cai on November 5th, 2009

Eating healthy is important for everyone, and one of the most important keys to eating a better diet is eating more fruits and vegetables. Many people are unsure how to use vegetables more effectively as part of their diet, but it may be easier than you think to provide yourself and your family with healthy, nutritious meals at a great prices. One way to create wonderful meals that are healthier than ever is to take a stroll through the produce section of your local grocery store. Most major ...
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Chicken Soap Pet Food

Posted by jie cai on November 4th, 2009

Combine 1 chicken liver, 1 giblet, 1 chicken heart, 1 chicken neck, 2 cups water and 1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley. Cover and simmer until the giblet is tender. Chop all the meat for dogs removing bones and mix with kibble; for cats, you may want to grind the meat in the blender. As a pet owner, no doubt you want to give your dog or cat the best care possible. And caring for your pet means feeding him the best diet you can. Animals, because they are color blind, choose their foods ...
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Do you eat a wide variety of foods for a healthy diet?

Posted by jie cai on November 3rd, 2009

One of the most frequently cited reasons that diets and attempts at healthy eating fail is boredom. Many people simply do not know how to keep a healthy diet interesting day after day, and it can be quite a challenge. Given the huge variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, meats and other healthy foods at the local grocery store, however, it is definitely possible to create exciting, nutritious meals that will keep boredom at bay. Your key to healthy eating The key to the success of any ...
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Can you buy healthy foods at the grocery store?

Posted by jie cai on November 2nd, 2009

The local grocery store is a great place to find healthy, nutritious foods. Unfortunately, it is also a place to find less healthy foods and many junk foods. Learning how to follow a healthy lifestyle means learning how to shop for the healthiest foods, and learning how to avoid temptation. Learning to read labels is an important skill for any healthy shopper. The information on nutritional labels is very valuable, providing complete information on the percentage of many vitamins and minerals a ...
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Freezing Homemade Baby Food

Posted by jie cai on November 1st, 2009

With our twin boys getting ready to start solid food, I have been reading about making and freezing my own baby food. It is very easy! You can make up large quantities of baby meals and freeze them for later use. Green beans are in season and were on sale at the grocery store, so I bought several pounds to prepare and freeze. I steamed them in an electric steamer for about 20 minutes and then blended them in the blender with some water until they were pureed. I then poured the puree into ice ...
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