Cooking Tips from the Pros
Most of us could eat healthier if we just prepared more home-cooked meals. Dining out or buying prepared meals makes it difficult to know the ingredients in them. Even if calorie counts are included, figuring out portion sizes can be tricky. To help you make healthy meals at home, here’s a short list of cooking tips!
Cooking wholesome meals at home doesn’t mean you have to deprive yourself. For example, it’s easy and fun to make pancakes in the morning by using a simple cooking tip!
Cooking Tips #1: Pancakes without the Mess (less than 10 minutes)
Even if you’re on a weight loss program, it’s possible to enjoy healthy, homemade pancakes:
– Add flour, baking powder, a touch of salt, milk, and eggs to a sturdy freezer bag.
– Measure directly into the bag to avoid clean-up.
– Massage and shake the bag after sealing tight.
– After mixing, there’s no need to use a ladle or spoon to scoop pancake batter onto the griddle.
– Amaze your family with pancake shapes. Use the piping bag to make stars, hearts, or any shape you’d like.
– Cut the corner of the freezer bag to form a toss-away piping bag. Prepare the griddle to proper temperature, flip the pancakes, and serve with jam, powdered sugar, or maple syrup.
For extra-fast pancakes in the morning, whip up a batch of the batter at night.
thinkstock
Cooking Tips #2: Cut a Wholesome Homemade Cake into Perfect Layers (less than 10 minutes)
Everyone can enjoy dessert when it’s made at home. Let’s say you make a wholesome homemade carrot cake and want to make extra layers for an elegant presentation. This cooking tip will make family and friends marvel at your culinary skills!
– Cool a single 8 or 9-inch layer cake on a rack.
– Measure the height of the layer to find the center point.
– Insert toothpicks at the midpoint to provide a guide for cutting the layer in half.
– Use a long string of waxed dental floss to perfectly slice the cake.
– Now there are two thin layers.
– Repeat steps to divide a second layer if making a four-layer cake.
– Make a simple egg white cooked frosting or frozen whipped skim milk and fruit to garnish.
And voila! If you want, you can use floss to cut perfect slices of the cake!
thinkstock
Cooking Tips #3: Poaching Eggs (less than 10 minutes)
Eggs are enjoyed at breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Knowing how to poach an egg can add simple panache to green salads or take center stage with a slice of whole grain toast. Here’s how to poach perfect eggs every time:
– Soak fresh eggs in a small bowl of water (about two cups) and white distilled vinegar (about one-fourth cup) for about five minutes.
– Carefully break an egg into a small bowl. Avoid breaking the yolk.
– Place the egg in slowly simmering water in a large saucepan.
– Use a slotted spoon to move the egg in simmering water until the white is firm, about four minutes for a still-soft yolk.
– Remove the poached egg and serve immediately.
This simple cooking tip can make you a kitchen legend. Whipping up simple poached eggs on fresh, simply dressed greens is an elegant, romantic meal for anytime of day or night. Plus, poached eggs are pure protein without all the calories!
thinkstock
Cooking Tips #4: Perfectly Peeled Hard-Boiled Eggs (less than 10 minutes)
Because eggs are such a naturally healthy meal or snack, you’ll probably want to know how to make perfect boiled eggs!
– Allow boiled eggs to cool.
– Gently crack the wider base of the egg.
– Peel the shell away from the membrane, between the egg and shell.
– Insert a kitchen teaspoon: if done correctly, you’ll see the spoon beneath the membrane.
– Guide the spoon gently around the egg to remove the shell and membrane.
This cooking tip yields perfectly peeled hard-boiled eggs every time.
thinkstock
Cooking Tips #5: Enjoy Potato Gnocchi (about 10 minutes)
Nutritionists say that most Americans should eat more potatoes. Gnocchi is a wonderful food that’s simple and quick to prepare!
– Follow a gnocchi recipe to make the Italian dumplings.
– Prepare the dough and place onto a flour-covered cutting board.
– Avoid kneading the dough with your hands. Kneading the dough releases gluten in flour and adds to the gnocchi’s density.
– Use a pastry cutting tool instead. Chop the dough and, as you chop, the (small amount) flour on the cutting board will adhere to the dough.
– Roll gnocchi dough into logs and cut into pieces.
– Place gnocchi in simmering water.
– Serve with your choice of sauce.
Once you learn to make gnocchi, it’s easy to prepare this hearty but elegant dish for friends and family in a few minutes.
thinkstock
Cooking Tips Short-Cuts and Tricks
Most cooks add to their list of favorite cooking tips, short-cuts and tricks over time. Cooking fresh meals at home can add to enjoyment at meals and make it easier to become or stay slim.
We covered a few of the interesting cooking tricks here. You can learn more by taking classes with companies such as Cozymeal. They offer hundreds of cooking classes with various themes in San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Seattle on the West Coast as well as Boston and Washington, D.C. on the East Coast. By attending a class with a professional chef you can make better sense of any cooking trick you learn online.
