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Microwave ovens have become a part of every household kitchen today. In the presence of a busy lifestyle, the microwave oven provides an effective alternative because it lessens meal preparation time by about two-thirds as compared to the traditional method of preparing and cooking food.
Although it heats up your food, there’s really no guarantee that your food will turn out to be well cooked once you take it out of the oven. “Cold spots” or uncooked sections might still be evident because of the uneven way the microwaves enter the oven. Because of the irregular flow of waves, the food will also absorb the heat unevenly.
Defrosting
Food that was readily bought out from the supermarket’s freezer must be removed from its plastic wrapper first before putting it inside the oven. The same goes for those that were packaged using foam trays. The heat will melt the wrapper and will transport its chemicals to the food, thus making it already unsafe to eat.
Do not forget to cook the meat or poultry once you’re done defrosting it in the oven. Although the defrosting process has also begun heating some parts of the meat, not all of the parts are fully cooked. Harmful bacteria are still present on some of the portions that didn’t absorb regular amount of heat.
Cooking
As what was mentioned a while ago, the microwave oven does not spread out the right amount of heat to every part of the food. If you will be cooking your food inside the oven, it is recommended to arrange your food according to its size.
For example, put large pieces of meat all together inside the oven, and then put the oven in medium heat first. Do not cook it in high power right away. The best thing to do is to keep it in medium heat and just prolong the time of cooking so that the heat would be gradually distributed in all parts of the meat.
Also, you can rotate your food once in a while to prevent the occurrence of cold spots.
Reheating
If a food has already been cooked and will just be reheated, remember to put it in a covering or a container that is microwave-friendly. These include cookware such as glass, plastics and ceramic containers that are labeled as good to be used on microwave ovens.
Do not use containers that are intended for refrigeration because this will just melt once it is put inside the oven. An example of this is margarine or a butter tub. Chemicals present in this kind of container will just contaminate your food.
Once the food to be reheated is now in the oven, do some constant stirring to even out the heat. Always remember to put back the covering of the container every time you’re done with the stirring.
Follow these tips to ensure that your food is safe to eat. Also, keep your microwave oven manual handy so that you can always refer to it every time you have concerns about food preparation and cooking times. Remember, microwaves are cool, if you know how to use them.
The Best Slow and Easy Recipes book contains recipes compiled from the Cooks Illustrated magazine. The book features more than 250 mouth watering and easy recipes, from Beef and Barley Soup to Coq Au Vin, Osso Bucco, Beef Chilli, Braised Chicken with Almonds and Pine Nuts and oven-baked creamy Polenta, something for everybody. The focus of the recipes are on slow cooking using a crockpot, but if a crockpot is not available, the recipes also work in the oven on low heat.
In addition to the recipes, the cookbook also offers background information about the ingredients used, Dutch/French ovens, the cooking process, why different cuts work better than others and lots more.
The emphasis of the cookbook is on slow cooking and the various cooking methods like roasting, braising and stewing. Slow cooking allows the flavours to be more concentrated and the end result will be tender meats and beautiful flavors. The book offers advice on simple, fuss-free but nevertheless delicious recipes.
If you would like to experiment with slow-cooking, this book is a superb introduction to the advantages of slow-cooking and slow-cooking methods.
Slow cookers, or crock pots, are small appliances used by many families around the country. A look around will provide a myriad of cookbooks or websites on the internet with recipes for use with the crock pot. The benefits of slow cooking go far beyond the ease of finding recipes, however.
One of the main benefits of slow cooking is how easy it is. Unlike traditional cooking methods, you don’t have to stand over the stove to ensure the dish cooks properly. You can place everything into the slow cooker, set it, and then walk away. In fact, you don’t even have to be at home while your meal cooks as most recipes require four to eight hours cooking time.
Depending upon the recipe, you can place the ingredients into the cooker and the meal will be ready to eat either when you get up in the morning or when you return from a day at work. What could be easier than that? And the slow cooker did all of the hard work for you!
Saving time is another benefit of slow cooking. The major portion of the meal is done by the slow cooker, which leaves a side dish or salad and your meal is done. If you have more than one size of slow cooker, you can make a different component of the meal in each one.
Another benefit of using a slow cooker is how versatile they are. You can cook nearly any style of recipe in a crock pot. Do you need something special for breakfast? There are slow cooker recipes for that. How about a casserole for dinner? There are many ethnic recipes. The fact is you can find recipes for any meal of the day, even dessert.
Slow cooking is also nutritious. Use fresh or frozen ingredients rather than ingredients which are full of chemicals or preservatives. You can use fruits that are in season rather than canned ones which have fewer nutrients. Cooking foods on low heat over a longer period of time also helps the foods retain more of the vitamins and minerals.
Some people think slow cookers can only be used during the cooler months. The truth is, however, you can use a slow cooker at any time of the year. Slow cookers won’t heat up the kitchen the way an oven will, but will provide you with delicious food your whole family will enjoy.
Finally, the benefits of slow cooking can also improve your pocket book. You can find ingredients which are on sale at your grocery store to use in your slow cooker. You can also use cheaper groceries such as dried beans, noodles, and rice.
It’s obvious the benefits of slow cooking are many. If the ease of use isn’t enough to convince you to get one, think about the time you can shave off of preparing meals or how much money you can keep in your wallet. Why not give it a try?
Menu Plan – Great Way to Save Time in the Kitchen
Like many families, you may feel the effects of a slowing economy. You may be searching for ways to save money and time. Think of making a menu plan – it’s a great way to save time and money in the kitchen.
Creating nutritious meals day in and day out may be tiresome. If you start with a menu plan, you can make weekly meals your family will love. Here are some things to consider about creating menu plans:
* A menu plan allows you to create a focused grocery shopping list. Knowing what you need for each meal keeps you from racing through the grocery store trying to find something for dinner.
* A menu plan also allows you to save time in the kitchen. By knowing what you need, you know you have everything in place before beginning to make the meal.
* You can make a menu plan for one week, two weeks, or more. Keep each week’s menu plan and you can take notes on them about which ones the family liked, which ones they’d rather never eat again, and changes to side dishes that might be better.
* Putting together a meal plan can be a great way to feed your family a meal they’ll love as well as end your family’s hectic day on a peaceful note.
Now you know how making a menu plan can save you time and money in the kitchen. If you’ve never made a menu plan before, you may like to learn. Here are some easy steps you may want to follow when making your first one; you may want your family’s help.
1. Make a list of all the main dishes your family enjoys; don’t forget anything. It won’t matter how neat the list is, it’s just to get the ideas down on paper.
2. Try to write down the amount of time needed to prepare each dish. You may want to mark dishes that take considerably longer than 30 minutes to prepare, not counting cooking time, so you can save those for days you have more time.
3. Put each main dish into categories such as Mexican, Italian, Sandwiches, Soups and Salads, or Casseroles.
4. Decide which day you’ll do your shopping. Many people do all of their grocery shopping on Saturday. You may want to have leftovers on Friday night to make shopping day easier.
5. Check your calendar and look to see if there are any really busy days. Plan on having soup and salads on that night.
6. Fill in the rest of the calendar with a category. Determine which category of food you’ll have each night and then plan on having that category of dish every week on the same day.
7. After you have your categories planned, now it’s time to look through your cupboards to see which ingredients you already have and which ingredients you need to purchase. You can create your focused shopping list based on the ingredients you need for the meals on your meal plan.
8. Be flexible. Plans change, people stop over, or meetings are called. By having a meal plan, you can choose to switch meals from one day to another and still know you have everything you need.
Menu planning can make meal time much easier for your family. Look at these suggestions and use those you find helpful. Then get out some paper, a pen, and your calendar and make your own meal plan – a great way to save time and money in the kitchen.
