What to Cook for Dinner

The time is 5 o'clock and your stomach clenches - What to make for dinner is the question racing through your mind. You know you want to prepare healthy meals for your family, but you're tired and you don't have all the ingredients for your favorite "go to" recipe so you pull out the frozen pizza instead. There are two fantastic and fun ways you can solve this ever arising problem.

Every family has its own dynamics, however here are two ideas that if used consistently can actually make meal preparation an enjoyable experience. Choose which one suits your family best or tweak an idea to suit your particular family.

First Idea:

Choose a day of the week (I suggest Sunday) to sit together as a family and go through some inspiring cookbooks. Children as young as three can participate in this activity. Each member of the family is responsible for choosing a recipe for the main dish, and a vegetable that would accompany that meal. A salad is a given, and a dessert is optional.

Have everyone take turns reading out the ingredients needed for their recipe. A parent will usually be the one who writes down the ingredients, however if your children are nine or ten years old they can take this over every once in a while (great for spelling practice!)

Be sure to create a chart either made on the computer or by hand that states the days of the week along the left side and the words, Main Dish, Vegetable, Salad, and Easy Desserts along the top. Depending on the age of your children, you could add the word "Chef" along the top as well so that you rotate the cooking responsibilities. (This should be reserved for children aged thirteen years or older).

After this is done, go shopping all together and have each person go off to find certain ingredients. As each ingredient is put in the cart, cross the items off the master list. The shopping trip will take less time and everyone will stay focused on the task at hand. If made to feel part of a team, your children will absolutely love to help out. Their self-esteem will grow because they feel part of a loving unit, that they are capable and that they are a respected, important member of the family.

Second Idea:

One parent takes the time to search through cookbooks and then asks each member to suggest a favorite recipe they would like to have that week. Again, they must list the main dish, a vegetable that would accompany that dish well, and a dessert if desired. Remember that a salad is always a must at every meal.

With this example you can decide to go shopping as a family as in the example above, just take one child, or go on your own so that you have enough time to read labels at your leisure.

Children as young as two or three can help during grocery shopping too. Simply give them three things to look for; usually one from the first few aisles, one from the middle aisles and one from the last couple of aisles. Good examples are simple items such as bananas, eggs, bread, chicken, cheese, milk and cereal.

Whichever method you choose, you can be guaranteed that the stress over what to eat, grocery shopping and providing healthy food for your family will ba a thing of the past. Not only this, but you will be teaching your children about healthy eating, how to plan and organize, cooperation, and self-respect. Pretty incredible, isn't it?

The Perfect Italian Dessert

There are some dishes that practically everyone likes, and that guarantee success at any dinner party. These are the dishes that I call the perfect menu just made of pizza and tiramisu. In my life I have not found anyone who does not appreciate this menu and more importantly fitting both for adults and children. There are anyway attentions that must be taken. For example, if there are children it is better to choose the recipe for tiramisu with no raw eggs with malt-coffee , the taste remains great and certainly your moms will appreciate this attention for the detail. And if you have people with the problem of CD, no problem, try the recipe for gluten-free pizza and everything is resolved.

Many are frightened by having to cook the pizza thinking that the pizza dough requires expertise from pizza, while it is one of the easiest things to make. And I'm not talking about buying pizza dough from the baker and dress and cook it, i'm talking about just do it by yourself. The ingredients of pizza are very few and easy to find and pizza recipes can be found in any book of recipes; the same thing for the tiramisu dessert recipe that is definitely among the best known and most widespread. But let's see how to make pizza and tiramisu so quick and easy. As there are many recipes for tiramisu, the one i'm proposing is the original recipe for this kind of easy desserts; beware of imitations, you will not get a satisfying result and you'll make a bad impression with your guests.

This is a classic Pizza-recipe: 800 grams of flour 0, 500 ml of water, 25 grams of yeast, a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of olive oil. Dissolve the yeast in water and add 500 grams of flour. It forms a very liquid dough (called poolishbe); set it to rise for about 1 hour. Add the remaining flour, salt, oil and mix very well. The pizza dough is almost ready. Put it to rise and when it is doubled in volume divide it in 2 parts and roll it out. Now you just need to dress as you like, for example with the classic tomato and oregano, but there are really a lot of ways to dress this kind of food, following your cooking inspiration. Bake it at 200 degrees for about 15 minutes, then add the mozzarella, a drizzle of olive oil and put it all in oven for about 5 minutes. Follow this recipe and you'll get the best home-made pizza of ever.

How just said, this is the original tiramisu recipe: 500 grams of mascarpone, 6 eggs, 100 gr sugar, 350 grams of biscuits, coffee and cocoa powder. Whip the egg yolks with sugar and add mascarpone, after softening it with a wooden spoon. Beat the egg whites until stiff and then add it to the cream. Now you just need to dial the tiramisu in a platter, alternating a layer of ladyfingers soaked in coffee with a layer of cream and finishing it with a fine dusting of cocoa. Follow this recipe and you'll get the best home-made tiramisu of ever, with the guarantee that this is a type of dessert that has always been a remarkable success. This is the best way to make a very good dishes.

Classic tiramisu recipe

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces Italian mascarpone cheese
• 10 ladyfingers
• 2 small egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 ounces espresso or extra strong coffee, cooled
• 1-1/2 tablespoons dark rum or brandy
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
• Chocolate shavings for garnish (optional)

Directions:

1. In a bowl, whisk egg yolks, sugar and half of the brandy. Whip the mixture fast to thicken. Fold in the mascarpone spoon by spoon. The mixture should be nice and thick. If it isn't thick and comes out runny, use a hand blender with whipping blades and blend until thick.
2. Mix espresso and the rest of the brandy on a small plate. Dip each side of the ladyfingers quickly (do not soak) and add a layer to the bottom of your serving dish. Top the dipped ladyfingers with about 1/3 of the cheese mixture; then repeat and top with the rest of mascarpone.
3. Cover the tiramisu and rest in the fridge for four hours or overnight. Before serving, sprinkle cocoa and chocolate shavings on top.

Source: http://www.sheknows.com/food-and-recipes/articles/948171/classic-tiramisu-recipe

Different Types of Ice Cream Cake

During summer, everyone enjoys a cold drink or a frozen dessert. You can easily beat the heat of the sun by having a refreshing snack. If you are crazy about cakes and ice cream, you should try making a sweet treat by combining the two food items. You can make an ice cream cake that comes with a rich taste and an exciting look. This fabulous treat has several variations; you can add in slices of fruits as topping or as part of the mixture. If you love chocolates, you can also put chocolate chips or syrup to blend in the batter. Simply use your creativity so you can come up with a great ice cream recipe cake.

Chocolate cake is a classic favorite, and you can come up with a frozen treat using your favorite brand of chocolate. However, you might want to try something different to put a variation in the usual dessert you eat. If you like to discover great new ways to make ice cream cake, read along to find out about the several types of this cool and refreshing cake with ice cream.

1. Peanut Butter Ice Cream Cake

If you are crazy about peanut butter, you might want to try using it in the cake recipe. Simply add in about half a cup of peanut butter to the mixture. You can use whichever type of peanut butter for this recipe (chunky, creamy or crunchy). However, I suggest you use chunky peanut butter so it will go well with some chopped peanuts in the mixture. As for the rest of the cake, you may use crushed graham cracker to match the overall brown color of the cake. Garnish the top of the cake with chopped salted peanuts or walnuts.

2. Brownie Chilled Cake

This recipe is quite easy to make. You may decide to bake a batch of brownies, or buy about a dozen of your favorite brownies. Then, line them up in a cookie sheet, until the brownies has filled all the spaces in the sheet. Chill the brownies for about 30 minutes. Afterwards, top the brownies with raspberry sorbet mixed with a good quality vanilla ice cream. Serve with slices of fresh raspberries on top.

3. Cranberry and Pistachio

The fabulous mix of color of this ice cream cake recipe will surely be a feast to the eyes. The green pistachios and red cranberries make this recipe perfect for a Christmas dessert. You may opt to use fresh or frozen cranberries for the recipe. As for the pistachios, chop them into small pieces to create a crunchy appeal to the cake. Then, use vanilla ice cream to combine with crushed saltines or crackers. Garnish the top portion of the cake with a few chopped pistachios and some cranberries.

These recipes are truly fabulous because of their excellent taste and enticing look. Moreover, the ingredients used in each recipe are very nutritious; thus, these treats are definitely good for your health. Try making these great ice cream cake recipes that the whole family will love.

Cooking Fish Recipes

Even if you routinely use your slow cooker to make beef, pork or chicken recipe, you may possibly have totally disregarded fish dishes. Fish is recognized for its capability to cook quick so maybe you imagined slow cooking was not an choice for it. Really making use of a crockpot to make your fish and seafood recipes aids to hold the subtle fish flavor intact since no moisture is lost throughout the sluggish cooking approach and the heat is kept minimal.

You can use fish in casserole, stew, soup and pasta recipes. You can also poach or steam it in the crockpot. To poach fish, you just need to have to add it to the crock pot, cover it with h2o, stock or wine and add your chosen herbs or spices. Parsley and bay leaves are specially beneficial for fish dishes. Poaching might only take forty 5 minutes, based on the kind of fish you use and its thickness, so retain an eye on it. If you are using flat fish you can braise it. Roll it up ahead of adding it to retain it in 1 piece and preserve the flavor locked in.

How to Cook Shellfish in a Crockpot

Shellfish does not merge nicely with long cooking instances, so if you want to add some to a stew or soup recipe, add it close to the finish of the cooking time so it can warm through. Shrimp can be added to crockpot seafood chowders, soups or stews. You can possibly add them in their shells or de-shelled. Gumbo and jambalaya are sluggish cooker recipes and you can add some tasty shrimp to these, regardless of whether you make them on the stove or slow cook them. Clams and mussels are very good for generating stews, specially when you use a tomato or white wine based sauce. 

Slow Cooking Instances for Fish

Some meat dishes, particularly when you are utilizing hard cuts, can take up to 10 hrs to tenderize in a crock pot but fish cooks more rapidly, which is why sluggish cooker recipes for fish usually only require 3 or 4 hrs. Leaving the fish in the crockpot when it has finished cooking can dry it out so this is not one thing to leave in there all day even though you are out. You will require to serve the fish as soon as it is all set.

You can cook steaks from major fish like mackerel, salmon, haddock and cod. You would not be ready to fit a entire 1 of these fish into the slow cooker but the steaks cook nicely. If you have a whole fish and it is incredibly big, you can chop your very own steaks from it or get a fishmonger to do it for you. Flat fish tend to be scaled-down in common than these larger species, so you can cook a entire plaice or sole. The flesh of these fish is not muscular because they are not quite active. This implies the flesh will be delicate and soft when it is cooked.