Cooking Tips

• To reduce fat in the chicken by about 10 grams per serving, remove the skin before marinating it.
• If you have forgotten to soak pulses like chana overnight, just put the chana in a flask full of boiling water for an hour. They are ready for cooking.
• To make a soft fluffy omelet heat a non-stick pan and add a little more butter than usual. Now beat the egg and stir briskly (even while frying) with a fork. This way more air goes in your omelet, making it light and fluffy. Cook till done and serve hot.
• Coconut milk when kept overnight in the fridge forms a white layer on top. This layer can be used as fat instead of oil for frying mutton or chicken.
• Add a little oil and turmeric powder to the dal before placing it in the cooker. It will get done in ten minutes flat.
• Adding a cupful of grated carrot or beetroot to the coconut while making coconut burfi will give you natural colouring and nutritional benefits.
• To refresh stale bread, sprinkle it with water, wrap it in a foil and heat it in the oven on 200 ºC for about five to ten minutes.
• Adding a spoonful of curd to ladyfingers while cooking will ensure that they do not stick to the vessel or turn black.
• Sprinkle a bit of salt in the frying pan before adding chicken. It will cut down on the amount of grease splattering.
• Peel and cut potatoes and boil them in water to which a little vinegar is added. They will be done in no time and will retain the texture as well.
• While grinding the batter for idlis replace 1/5 quantity of rice with pressed rice (poha). This will make the idlis fluffier.
• Place rolled puris in the fridge for ten minutes before frying them, they will consume less oil and will be crisper.
• To make dosas more crisp, add a little fenugreek seeds to the lentil and rice mixture while soaking.
• Rather than using food colors, use a mixture of limewater and turmeric to get (almost) tandoori color.
• Always add salt to the water while boiling vegetables. This enhances their natural flavour and diminishes the need to add salt at the table.
• Add a pinch of salt to the oil while frying "pakodas" or "koftas" and you will use up less oil.
• To preserve the white colour in cauliflower and cabbage, add a teaspoon of milk or milk powder while cooking.
• When soups or stews get slightly burnt you can renew the taste by transferring it gently and carefully into a clean pan and flavouring with curry powder or mustard to camouflage the burnt taste.
• The art of making good naan khatais lies in beating of the mixture till it becomes light and fluffy. Also only vanaspati should be used to make them.
• When boiling potatoes for cutlets add the salt to the water itself as potatoes absorb salt better this way.
• Onions will brown faster if half a teaspoon of salt is added to the onions while frying.
• While cooking ladyfingers (okra) add a few drops of lemon juice or a spoonful of yogurt to avoid becoming sticky.
• Use crushed vermicelli to coat your cutlets for a change. The cutlets will have a nest-like appearance.
• Onions will boil faster if you make X-shaped cuts in the root ends.
• A pinch of turmeric powder and a teaspoon full of ghee added to dal before pressure-cooking it will give it a better flavour.

10 Small Changes To Improve Weight Loss

1. Drink at least 8 cups of water a day (Your skin will look great, too!)
2. Order half portions at restaurants, or share a full portion with somebody.
3. Limit fried foods to once or twice per week.
4. Replace ground beef with chicken or turkey.
5. Measure your portions until you're sure you know what a cup, a half-cup, and a tablespoon look like.
6. Dip your fork in a side of salad dressing before each bite, instead of pouring it directly on your salad. You'll find that you are satisfied with much less than you usually put on.
7. Make sure to eat something for breakfast - every morning!
8. Read food labels and check serving sizes.
9. Add vegetables to everything.
10. Plan meals in advance; use that information to make out a complete shopping list

10 Easy Ways to Cut Excess Calories

(NUI) - After a heavy meal, have you ever felt like you're carrying the weight of the world around your midriff? Who hasn't. It's moments like this that we tell ourselves we need to go on a diet.
It sounds simple. Cut calories and exercise. Yet so many Americans seem unable to make the simple dieting changes that will set them on the right track to a slimmer healthier person.
Much of it is just common sense. Here are 10 easy ways to cut calories painlessly:

1. Substitute lower calorie, lower fat foods for what you're currently eating.
2. Replace "empty calorie" foods and snacks with nutrient-dense foods. For example, rather than white bread, switch to whole grain bread that's packed with vitamins, minerals and fiber.
3. Cut back on fried foods such as those you get at fast-food restaurants. At home, cook your food in the oven instead of in fat.
4. Substitute leaner cuts of meat. Choose choice or select grades of beef.
5. Begin each meal with a large salad or a bowl of vegetable-packed soup.
6. Eat smaller portions.
7. When you're eating out, don't feel obligated to eat everything that's put before you. Ask to have leftovers put in a doggie bag so you can have them later at home.
8. List areas of your diet that need improvement. For example, if you feel that you drink too much soda, reduce your intake by one-third.
9. Be sure to have breakfast. Studies show this tends to prevent excessive eating during the day.
10. Find out why you want to eat so much. Maybe it's because you're angry or lonely. If that's the case, call a friend and talk it out. Above all, eat only when you're hungry.

16 Kitchen Safety Tips For Children

Make cooking fun and your children will beg you to help in the kitchen. Make cooking a chore, and your children will run for cover the moment you mention it's time to cook or make your life so miserable you kick them out of the kitchen. Either way, your children need to understand the importance of kitchen safety and safe cooking.
Understanding the dangers of the kitchen and how to prevent them is an essential life tool that all children should learn. Whether your children want to take over as household "Chefs" or simply wants to learn how to feed themselves when they move out on their own, I invite you to read these important kitchen safety tips and share them with your children, today.
Kitchen Safety Tips:

1. Supervise young children and first-time chefs. Never let your child cook alone.
2. Develop patience. Your children will make fewer mistakes when they are enjoying the process and not worrying about getting yelled at.
3. Handle kitchen products properly. Don't assume your children will know what to do with kitchen products just by watching you in the kitchen. Take the time to explain how each product works, as it's needed for each recipe.
4. Understand fire safety. Explain how the fire extinguisher works, how to put out a grease fire, and when to call Rescue / Emergency.
5. Wear short sleeves. Long sleeves have a chance of catching fire or falling into hot grease or boiling water.
6. Wear an apron. Aprons help protect clothes and add extra padding in case of spilt hot water, splattered oil, etc.
7. Use oven mitts. Never use a towel to move hot pans because the loose parts of the towel can fall onto a hot burner and catch on fire. Oven mitts are safer because they help your children hold onto the handle of a hot pan more securely.
8. Wash your hands. Hands carry germs and can contaminate food.
9. Keep pan handles facing in and over countertops. Pan handles should never extend over the hot stove and definitely not out towards the floor where someone could bump the handle and spill a pot of hot food on him.
10. Never leave food unattended. Unwatched pots can spill over causing fires and other kitchen hazards.
11. Clean up spills. Serious injuries occur when others slip and fall because of wet floors or foreign objects, so make sure your children understand the importance of cleaning up a spill as it occurs. (Always have a mop or rag handy.)
12. Speed clean ups. Teach your children to clean while they wait for the next stage in preparing the food (i.e. water boils, soup simmers, etc.).
13. Never eat raw meats or poultry. Raw poultry can lead to food poisoning (i.e. salmonella).
    Wash surfaces where raw meats and poultry touched. Surfaces touched by raw meat should be cleaned before placing another food product on that surface to prevent cross contamination.
14. Keep raw food separate from cooked food. Never place cooked food back on a plate that once contained raw food.
15. Metal and microwaves don't mix. Any object that contains metal or aluminum should not be placed into a microwave because doing so could cause a fire.
16. And finally, listen to your children. Making your children cook foods they don't like could cause them to cook out of anger, become careless in the kitchen, and in the end get seriously hurt.

16 Kitchen Safety Tips For Children

Make cooking fun and your children will beg you to help in the kitchen. Make cooking a chore, and your children will run for cover the moment you mention it's time to cook or make your life so miserable you kick them out of the kitchen. Either way, your children need to understand the importance of kitchen safety and safe cooking.

Understanding the dangers of the kitchen and how to prevent them is an essential life tool that all children should learn. Whether your children want to take over as household "Chefs" or simply wants to learn how to feed themselves when they move out on their own, I invite you to read these important kitchen safety tips and share them with your children, today.
Kitchen Safety Tips:

1. Supervise young children and first-time chefs. Never let your child cook alone.


2. Develop patience. Your children will make fewer mistakes when they are enjoying the process and not worrying about getting yelled at.


3. Handle kitchen products properly. Don't assume your children will know what to do with kitchen products just by watching you in the kitchen. Take the time to explain how each product works, as it's needed for each recipe.


4. Understand fire safety. Explain how the fire extinguisher works, how to put out a grease fire, and when to call Rescue / Emergency.


5. Wear short sleeves. Long sleeves have a chance of catching fire or falling into hot grease or boiling water.


6. Wear an apron. Aprons help protect clothes and add extra padding in case of spilt hot water, splattered oil, etc.


7. Use oven mitts. Never use a towel to move hot pans because the loose parts of the towel can fall onto a hot burner and catch on fire. Oven mitts are safer because they help your children hold onto the handle of a hot pan more securely.


8. Wash your hands. Hands carry germs and can contaminate food.


9. Keep pan handles facing in and over countertops. Pan handles should never extend over the hot stove and definitely not out towards the floor where someone could bump the handle and spill a pot of hot food on him.


10. Never leave food unattended. Unwatched pots can spill over causing fires and other kitchen hazards.


11. Clean up spills. Serious injuries occur when others slip and fall because of wet floors or foreign objects, so make sure your children understand the importance of cleaning up a spill as it occurs. (Always have a mop or rag handy.)


12. Speed clean ups. Teach your children to clean while they wait for the next stage in preparing the food (i.e. water boils, soup simmers, etc.).


13. Never eat raw meats or poultry. Raw poultry can lead to food poisoning (i.e. salmonella).
    Wash surfaces where raw meats and poultry touched. Surfaces touched by raw meat should be cleaned before placing another food product on that surface to prevent cross contamination.


14. Keep raw food separate from cooked food. Never place cooked food back on a plate that once contained raw food.


15. Metal and microwaves don't mix. Any object that contains metal or aluminum should not be placed into a microwave because doing so could cause a fire.


16. And finally, listen to your children. Making your children cook foods they don't like could cause them to cook out of anger, become careless in the kitchen, and in the end get seriously hurt.

15 Time-Saving Kitchen Tips!

It's always nice to hear about an easier or faster way to do something--especially if that something is in the kitchen, where we spend so much of our time!
Try these time-savers!

1. Mix up your pancake batter in your blender, then pour right out of your container onto the griddle. You'll have lump-free batter and lots less to clean up.
2. Having a children's birthday party? The day before, scoop ice cream into a muffin pan lined with paper liners. Keep in the freezer till serving time.
3. For quick frosting on a cake or pan of brownies, sprinkle a 12-oz. bag of chocolate chips on top while cake is still warm. Let it sit for a few minutes, the chips will be soft enough to spread. Try using mint chocolate chips, too!
4. We've all made small pizzas using English muffins, but have you tried using flour tortillas? Just top with pizza sauce and your other favorite things, and bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes or so.
5. Your kitchen shears are the best tool for cutting fresh green beans into pieces. You can even cut more than one bean at a time.
6. Instead of making a white sauce for your veggies tonight, mix equal parts of mayo and the water the veggies cooked in. Add salt and pepper to your taste.
7. When you have cooking odors you would like to get rid of, boil a few cinnamon sticks in water for a few minutes.
8. Another way to clean up pots and pans quickly-- boil a little vinegar and water in the pan. Then stuck on food is easily cleaned out.
9. Another use for your electric knife: it slices chilled cookie dough very neatly.
10. Don't fry your bacon, cook it in the oven! Just lay the slices on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees until crisp and done. Easy cleanup, too.
11. An easy, quick way to shred carrots for carrot cake: place pieces of carrot in blender, add eggs the recipe calls for and blend until of desired consistency.
12. Want to have spaghetti for sauce but no time for making sauce? Just blend a can of Italian diced tomatoes and heat.
13. If you spill cooking oil on the floor or counter, sprinkle flour over it; wait a few minutes for it to absorb and wipe or sweep up.
14. An easy way to peel a tomato: rub all over with the back of a knife. Then it peels easily.
15. Use a small funnel to easily and quickly separate an egg. The white will go through, while the yolk will stay in the funnel.

10 Tips To Reduce Fat In Your Diet

1. Steam, boil, broil, or microwave vegetables, or stir-fry them in a small amount of vegetable oil.
2. Season vegetables with herbs and spices rather than sauces, butter, or margarine.
3. Try lemon juice or fat-free dressing on salad, or use a yogurt based dressing instead of mayonnaise or sour cream dressing.
4. To reduce saturated fat, use vegetable oil or tub margarine instead of butter or stick margarine when possible.
5. Replace whole milk with skim or low-fat milk in puddings, soups, and baked products. Substitute plain nonfat yogurt, blender-whipped cottage cheese, low-fat sour cream, or buttermilk in recipes that call for sour cream.
6. Choose lean cuts of meat, and trim any visible fat from meat before and after cooking. Remove skin from poultry before or after cooking. Monitor portion sizes. (Lean meats end in "loin".)
7. Roast, bake, or broil meat, poultry, or fish, so that fat drains away as the food cooks.
8. Use a nonstick pan for cooking so added fat will be unnecessary, use a vegetable spray for frying.
9. Chill broths from meat or poultry until the fat becomes solid. Spoon off the fat before using the broth.
10. Eat a low-fat vegetarian main dish at least once a week.