Make Your Meals More Exciting

Here are 7 tips to help add some variety to your mealtimes.

Mix It Up The best way to keep your meals exciting is to use a variety of foods in your meals and introduce new ingredients whenever possible. This keeps your family from getting tired of the same food week after week. It’s also a healthier way to eat. Including a wide variety of foods in your diet is the best way to ensure that you get all the nutrients your body needs. Spend some time browsing the aisles at your supermarket and looking for new ingredients to try, or find ideas in downloadable cookbooks online or just purchase meals ready to eat!

Try New Spices There’s no simpler way to give a dish a makeover than by adding a little spice to it. Add cayenne pepper or chili powder for a little heat, or spice up your meat with herbs like rosemary, basil, and mint. The possibilities are endless, and it can completely transform your old, boring dish into something completely new! To infuse the flavor of the spices into your food, marinate your meat or veggies for 12-24 hours beforehand in the refrigerator.

Variety of Colors One way to make your meals more interesting is by using foods of different colors at each meal. It will look more attractive on the plate, and your family will be more likely to clean their plates. If you serve multiple veggies or a salad, make sure to include some color variety there as well. A plate full of greens is not going to be appealing to most children.

Add Texture Just like you want to include foods of different colors in each meal, you should also try to include foods of different textures. If the main dish is a soup or stew, make sure to include something crunchy like fresh carrot sticks, crackers, or a garnish of nuts. Vary your texture from day to day as well – try not to serve soup for 2 or 3 days in a row, for example.

Grill It! A grill is a great way for infusing extra flavor into your foods, and it can help to add some variety during the summer months. The good news is you can cook just about anything on the grill, from veggies to main dishes to desserts. You can also use an indoor electric grill during colder weather–it won’t be quite the same as the “real thing,” but you can enjoy the smoky flavor of the grill all year long.

Let Your Kids Help If you have kids who are picky eaters, one of the best ways to get them excited about their food is to let them help prepare it. Let them choose their favorite recipes (within reason!) and take part in the cooking process as much as they are able. Look for kid-friendly recipes in downloadable cookbooks online to get started. This is a great way to bond with your children and encourage them to eat new foods at the same time.

 

 

 

 

 

---

Characteristics of the Flavored Woods

Wood plays a very vital role in making your smoking food scrumptious. With electric or charcoal barbecue smokers, smoking food has become an easy task to do. Consider using these types of wood to enhance the flavor of your meats. Apple, Cherry, Hickory, Mesquite, Oak, Pecan, Maple, and Alder are the flavors that enhance your food.

Applewood

Is a slightly sweet and denser fruity smoke flavor that is best used with beef, poultry, game birds, and ham.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cherry wood

This is a sweet fruity-smoke flavor that is good to go with all meats.

 

 

 

 

Hickory

Is a pungent, smoky, bacon-like flavor and is the most common wood, best used with pork, and ribs.

 

 

 

 

Mesquite wood

Is a strong earthy flavor, best to go with most meats especially beef and most vegetables.

 

 

 

Oakwood

Oh, this heavy smoke flavor is best used with red meat, pork, fish, and heavy game.

 

 

 

Pecan Wood

This is similar to the hickory flavor, best used with pork, and fish meat.

 

 

 

 

Maple wood

Is a mildly smoky somewhat sweet flavor and is best used with meat, cheese, and vegetable.

 

 

 

Alderwood

A very delicate hint of sweetness that is best used with fish, pork, poultry, and light-meat game birds.

 

 

 

 

Black Walnut 

This heavy smoke flavor is usually mixed with lighter woods like pecan and apple flavor, best to use with red meat and game. This process doesn’t cook your food but gives it food smoky flavor.

 

 

 

 

---

Here’s how to solve the eggshell sticker…

 

Oh yea, here is something that has perplexed me for a while. It’s one of the annoying things about eating eggs that are cooked by boiling is attempting to unpeel them. I have never fully understood exactly why some eggs you’ll be able to peel so effortlessly yet others you wind up sacrificing half an egg from the peeling method. Therefore, here are several tips that might help ease some of that aggravation.

1. Use older eggs. Eggs that are a couple of weeks older or longer typically will peel a little easier in contrast to if they’re fresh.
2. Put the egg in the water at the boiling point. That egg white is going to bond more firmly to the membrane layer inside the eggshell if the eggs are cooked less quickly. Introducing a cold egg into the boiling water stops this from occurring.
3. Following that first temperature shock, shut the heat down. This will enable the eggs to cook at a reduced rate, which will allow the yolks to cook before the egg whites turn out to be overcooked, and thus rubbery.
4. Before peeling refrigerate to chill your eggs. When the egg is colder its structure will be firmer, and as the egg shell is removed craters probably will not be made in the egg whites. Holding it in the fridge overnight before peeling ought to also help.
5. Crack your eggshell throughout and peel under running water. Slowly breaking up a shell into smaller portions prevents more eggs to attach themselves to the white exterior. The cold running water helps to keep the surface of the egg firm. Having an egg organizer helps keep your eggs sorted by dates.
6. Eggs are good cholesterol and help with testosterone, all with the beautiful protein. I eat four eggs everyday and feel good.

These would be only some techniques to help to keep your boiled egg unaltered when peeling. I have found they will work in basically all cases, nevertheless for some reason often there are eggs which will always be difficult. This however should not stop us from making eggs a staple in our diet.