Hints for the Cook
Recipe for Category Food Tips, Hints & Articles
Contributed by Prescription for Dietary Wellness-Using Foods to Heal (Phyllis & James Balch)
Prescription for Dietary Wellness - Using Foods to Heal, by Phyllis and James Balch, is one of my favorite reference books. It is a guide and cookbook with facts, suggestions and recipes. It covers everything from tofu to healing juices. It explains how your immune system works and what specific claims on food labels mean. It's not the kind of book you'd read cover to cover but it is very interesting reading.
They call one chapter in this book "Hints for the Cook". Healthy eating, and cooking for that matter, did not come naturally to me so I have found some of these hints extremely helpful. I find that eating healthily can sometimes be an overwhelming, time-consuming task. Little hints and suggestions are always welcomed in our house.
(Jennifer Peachey)
* Fresh herbs may be chopped and frozen for future use in cooked dishes. Use frozen, no need to defrost.
* Submerge lemons in hot water 15 minutes before squeezing to yield almost twice the amount of juice.
* Store grains in a cool, dry place. Add a bay leaf to the container to deter insects.
* Use a clean coffee grinder for pulverizing nuts and seeds.
* To soften nut butters, add one teaspoon of hot water and stir.
* Pour boiling water into a thermos, over your breakfast grains, place the lid on and let it sit overnight; in the morning, your hot cereal will be ready to eat.
* Keep all nuts and seeds in the refrigerator to be sure they do not become rancid.
* Freeze tomatoes whole for cooking. Skins will slip off easily when the tomatoes are defrosted.
* Do not peel vegetables and fruit. Eat the whole fruit to get the bulk of the nutrients that are just under the skin.
* Lemon effectively removes garlic and onion odors from the hands.
* When using herbs, which are to be removed after cooking, place them in a stainless steel tea ball.
* Lay a large spoon or spatula across the top of a pot to prevent the contents from boiling over and splashing during cooking.
My husband was the first person to tell me about that last hint. He always used that method when he cooked his Kraft Dinner. We don't eat Kraft Dinner anymore but we do use some of the above hints. Hope they are helpful for you too!
Ingredients
n/a
Instructions
n/a