Blog Posts - Page 64 of 74 - Carma's Cookery | Tips for Unleashing Your Kitchen Creativity

Dessert Ideas That Won’t Blow New Year’s Resolutions

January 16, 2008Healthy LivingDessert

Photo By Renee Comet
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Today, I continue my tips for keeping your New Year’s resolution to loose weight. Now, anybody who knows me knows I love dessert. In fact, its sort of my specialty in the kitchen. And, alas, one of the most difficult obstacles many face in loosing weight involves giving up sweets. Fortunately, you don’t necessarily have to. There are some excellent desserts that can be enjoyed without destroying a diet.

Giving up desserts entirely is not possible for some people (myself included). If you’ve got to have your sweets once in a while, there are smarter choices you can make. It is possible to satisfy a craving without destroying a diet. Moderation and portion control are the key. Here are some excellent choices to satisfy your sweet tooth without negatively impacting your diet:
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Foods That Work With Weight Loss Resolutions

January 9, 2008Healthy LivingExperimentation, Fruit, Healthy Cooking, legumes, meat, vegetables, weight loss, whole grains

By mimiliz2 via morguefile.com

When the clock struck midnight to herald the arrival of 2008, thousands of people all over the world made the decision to lose weight and eat healthier in the new year. Are you one of them? I, for one, renewed my 10-year resolution to lose weight. In fact, I started working out each morning, alternating upper and lower body workouts.

Alas, many of us will stray from their resolutions almost as quickly as they made them. Can you believe I forgot to do my workout this morning? I was so focused on coming to my computer to write this blog entry! Now, how’s that for an excuse?

Anyway, with temptations all around us, and fast food joints often making eating unhealthy seem like the easier choice, the odds just aren’t in our favor.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.
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Pumpkin Tiramisu

January 8, 2008Recipes

I love pumpkin and I love tiramisu. Here’s a recipe that brings the two together! An autumn take on the traditional Italian dessert.

Healthy Cooking With Ginger

December 26, 2007Healthy Living, Well Stocked Pantryginger, Healthy Cooking

P.R. via freeimages.com

I love ginger, both fresh and dried. It add a robust, but sometimes subtle flavor to a wide variety of recipes, from cookies to sauces. While ginger delivers a satisfying spice to cooking, it is also often used in traditional means of medicine.

When purchasing young ginger at the local grocery store, you will encounter a fragrant, fleshy, juicy, pungent root that supplies a mild taste packed with spice. Mature ginger possesses a great deal of fiber and is dry, which creates a spicier taste than younger samples. Today, an increasing amount of cooks are using ginger to enhance the nutritional value of their dishes.
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Easy Christmas Cooking that is Sure to Please

December 19, 2007Special OccasionsChristmas, food planning, holiday cooking

hotblack via morguefile.com

Christmas is a hectic time of year. (Now there’s an understatement!) Many families find that they barely have time to breathe much less cook dishes to bring for this or that function. In fact, a Christmas tradition that is developing for many is going out for Chinese! Grocery stores have gotten on the “help you have a happy holiday” bandwagon and offer “cheat” dishes that can be purchased and prepared for the occasions with very few people becoming the wiser. Though Christmas may be about being with friends and family it is not about broadcasting a possible lack of talent in the kitchen, time on hand, or a shortage of attention span that is required in order to prepare a stellar dish for your Christmas needs.

Of course, you could begin preparing and freezing large casserole favorites as early as August for the Christmas season. In this instance you could freeze all your family favorites and have great dishes not only for family functions that require a pitch-in dish, but also for those nights when you are far too busy to be bothered with something as demanding on your limited time as actually preparing a home cooked meal. If you prepare casseroles and similar dishes that work well with a holiday theme throughout the year be sure to double your efforts next time and freeze half for busier months such as November and December.
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Fun Christmas Cooking for Everyone

December 12, 2007Special OccasionsChristmas, food planning, holiday cooking

snowbear via morguefile.com

It’s great to have friends and family over for Christmas, but if you’re the one stuck in the kitchen doing all the cooking every year, that’s not so much fun. One way to avoid this is by rotating locations for the festivities from one year to the next. Another way — a much simpler way — is to delegate items of contribution from all guests in attendance each year so that the cooking and meal preparation duties are shared among them all.

Of course this isn’t a perfect plan. Pot lucks can often lack the flavor compliments that a meal prepared by one individual may have. So, another great plan is to prepare pieces and parts of your Christmas dinner well ahead of time. With careful planning there are recipes that can be prepared as much as a few weeks ahead of the big day and stored either in air tight containers at room temperature or frozen for heating or baking on the big day for best results. Any of the prep work that can be taken care of before the big day is one less thing to be taken care of when the time comes and that takes a load off your mind.
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The Pumpkin that Lasted Forever

December 11, 2007All Things Pumpkin

Have you ever created your idea jack-o-lantern and wished that you could keep it forever — and not just as a photograph? Well, Dennis and Tyler Szabo have just the thing for you. The Szabos are the father and son team behind Funkins, a company […]