General Nutrition for a special diet

General nutrition is taken under consideration when you want to go on a special diet with a custom plan.

You may need to avoid specific products, including those you may have allergies and affect your health. For example you may be allergic to nuts and therefore you cannot eat any product containing nuts.

It is advisable to see a professional nutritional dietitian to discuss general nutrition and your diet plans. You may need to discuss what your future plans are for the next year and what you wish to accomplish.

When it comes to general nutrition, it is always a little more complicated than you think. You have to learn how to read the sides of boxes and packages in order to understand what you are putting in your body and how it may affect your health.

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Chocolate Fondue Fountain for your next Big Event

Chocolate fondue fountains are popular for major events and are a party favourite as almost everyone likes chocolate. It may be the attractor factor for your next major event.

You will be amazed how people gather around the table with the chocolate fondue fountain to get their chocolate treats.

At your next party, instead of offering the usual savouries, why not have a table with a chocolate fondue fountain surrounded by chocolate treats created using the fountain? It is something different and unexpected.

Are you planning a once-in-a-lifetime event? Perhaps a wedding, 50th anniversary party, college graduation, retirement or other very special or corporate event?

A chocolate fondue fountain, which literally flows with chocolate, makes a spectacular decoration of edible contents!

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Deep fryer should only be used with safety in mind

Deep fryers are not popular these days as deep fried foods are considered unhealthy. This is especially for people with heart conditions or those with an inability to control cholesterol.

Though you may be tempted to have a deep fryer in your home, it may not be the smartest thing you can do.

There is nothing healthy about eating deep-fried food, even though you can use better oils when you’re deep frying.

There are people who use a deep fryer and enjoy the taste of the food. These people usually take the precautions and have good experiences.

To read more Deep fryer should only be used with safety in mind

Chocolate Brownies - a hot, freshly cooked, after dinner treat

Chocolate brownies are usually passed around the family as a delicious, fresh and hot desert after an enjoyable family meal.

There is a huge range of chocolate brownies with different ingredients and add ons. The main ingredient is chocolate. You can use local chocolate from your local food store or buy delicious Belgian or Swiss chocolate.

Chocolate brownies with Belgian chocolate are our family favourite, especially when they are hot and freshly cooked.

Chocolate brownies are a timeless classic, with many different tasty variations, something for everyone indeed! Of course, you must love chocolate.

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Whole Bean Coffee - Grinding for your own fresh and natural taste

Whole bean coffee is bought as whole bean rather than ground. The advantage is you can grind the coffee yourself and the coffee tastes fresh. The taste seems more pronounced when you have your first cup in the morning.

My mornings changed when I got one of my first writing assignments.

I was already a coffee fiend, but I didn't know very much about coffee then. My assignment was about whole bean coffee bought at coffee houses and how to grind it at home. I was amazed at the information I found, and decided then and there that I wanted to use whole bean coffee and grind it myself at home instead of buying already ground.

Once I started buying and grinding whole bean coffee, I found that indeed there was a difference in taste for my daily pot of coffee. I use a mr coffee iced tea pot and place it on a wrought iron coffee table. Its only in some of the dedicated coffee houses, that the coffee tastes better.

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Sabatier knives and how to maintain a sharp edge in the kitchen

Sabatier knives are the quality knives to use in the kitchen.

You can maintain their sharp edge by keeping them in a wooden knife block and using a wooden board when cutting your meat and vegetables. The sharp edge gives a clean cut to the meat.

They are easy to use in the kitchen and allow for the faster preparation of a quick meal as the meat and vegetable pieces can be cut in a short time.

After a long day at work, what you really want is a quick preparation of dinner, and my Sabatier knives really help in cutting down time in the kitchen and more time enjoying a nutritious meal.

Now, you’re probably wondering how I treat a knife with respect. That’s easy. First of all, you wash each of them by hand and towel-dry them. Kitchen cutlery is often high in carbon, which allows it to hold a great edge, but it will also rust easily.

I hone each edge on a steel sharpening rod before use. This touches up the blade and refines it a bit for ideal cutting. I always store my kitchen cutlery in a nice wooden knife block. I don’t want anything bumping the blades or edge in particular. Especially not other metals such as silver wear.

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Herbal Teas - to help soothe those aches and pains

Herbal teas are good to help you relax and soothe any aches and pains at the end of a long tiring day.

After my cup of herbal tea, I am able to face the rest of the daily chores as required in family life. My favourite herbal tea is camomile tea. It is decaffeinated and it is the best tasting of all the herbal teas I have tried.
I have always liked herbal teas.

I think it is because they remind me of my grandmother. I remember when I was a little kid and we went over to her house every weekend. We would sit there and drink Herb tea for hours on end.

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German Chocolate Cake - My Story

German chocolate cake recipes are used when cooking with German chocolate and the finest chocolate ingredients. Its a favourite of my husband.

We all have our favorite food or foods.

This is usually a food that brings back a memory of a happy time or event.

Food has a way of doing this because it involves so many of our senses; the sense of taste, smell and sight. For some people this is the same reason that they dislike a food, because it is associated with a bad or sad time.

For others food can remind them of a happy time.

For my husband his happy memory of food is German chocolate cake with the finest chocolate ingredients. He is not usually a sweets eater, but he has a weakness for german chocolate cake. I did not know this until we were married for several months. For his birthday I was planning on making a nice dinner and baking him a cake.

To read more German Chocolate Cake - My Story

Hot Sauce Bottle - to add flavour and taste to your cooking

Hot sauce bottle adds flavour and taste to the food you are cooking. It is quite often the magic ingredient added to otherwise bland tasting food.

Some people add hot sauce to pasta, steaks, potatoes and peppers either while cooking, or shortly after, while the food is still hot.

There is a variety of hot sauce bottles, some of them are used while cooking or shortly after completed cooking. And some of the hot sauces are Hot while others are Extra Extra Hot, so read the label and choose wisely.

Hot pepper sauce is one of the more popular ones and is the hot sauce bottle most used in our household.

I’ve always found hot pepper sauce to be a delicious condiment, but I’ve never thought about cooking with it.

I keep a few hot sauce bottles by my table at all times, of course, and add them to all manner of foods. I’ll pour the spicy sauce over chili, steak, French fries, and other sorts of foods, but only after they are done cooking.

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Make jerky at home for those long trips

Make jerky is easy these days. Ensure you have fresh meat, a quality spice packet, salt, a good oven or a dehydrator and you can make jerky.

To make jerky in larger quantities, use an oven. Use the dehydrator for smaller quantities.

There are many cost saving things that you can do to enjoy food. We like to go camping, so we like to take many snacks with us when we go on various camping trips throughout the year.

I have found that if I make the snacks for us they are of higher quality and less expensive. We uses these snacks during travel as well as in the field.

To read more Make jerky at home for those long trips

Cheese recipes around the world

Cheese recipes are enjoyed around the world, from the delicious French and Italian cheeses all the way to Mexico and then up to the USA.

If you are a lover of the delicious food group of cheese, you probably want to try and slip it into as many foods as you can.

There are many different recipes in which cheese is a main ingredient, including lemon cheesecake and low-carb cheesecake, and therefore if you are in need of a new meal to introduce to your household, then you won’t have trouble finding one that makes use of the delicious cheeses that you enjoy so much.

There are many that you probably haven't even considered before. Here are some of the most popular recipes containing cheese. They are all delicious and easy to make.

To read more Cheese recipes around the world

Coffee Roaster to roast your own fresh morning coffee

Coffee roaster is the new black. Instant coffee is out as it is old-fashioned and tasteless.

There is nothing like freshly brewed coffee made using your own coffee roaster. All you need is fresh green coffee beans and place them in the coffee roaster and the aroma fills the kitchen with freshly brewed coffee.

Show a little patience and the coffee is ready for your early morning refreshment.

With the 21st century penchant for convenience, do you sometimes feel a bit of nostalgia for times when life wasn’t quite so mechanized and machine-driven?
Sure, it’s easy and convenient, when you’re tired and aching to just kick back, to make a quick stop at the grocery for a ready made pizza.

However, certain rituals require an old time approach for maximum enjoyment, where you can step out of the rat race and pretend, if for only a moment, that you’re back in a time and place where life was not simply rushed, but savored.

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Raw Sweet Potatoes - rich in vitamins, minerals and iron

Raw sweet potatoes are delicious when eaten fresh. They can be cooked the same way as white potatoes, except they are more nutritious and contain lots of viatmins, minerals and iron.

There are many foods that we associate with certain holidays. In fact there are some foods that are only eaten during certain holiday seasons. When I was growing up the only way to purchase turkey meat was to buy the whole turkey and roast it. As a result we only had turkey for holidays.

Mom would prepare turkey dinners on Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. She would serve the same meal for all three holidays. She made the best meat stuffing as well as rich flavorful gravy.

We would also have mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn and a green whipped gelatin salad. This was the only three times a year that mom would make the gelatin salad or sweet potatoes.

To read more Raw Sweet Potatoes - rich in vitamins, minerals and iron

Slow cookers can be used to create a quick and nutritious meal

Slow cookers are used to cook meals that are easy and quick to prepare and meet the requirements of a nutritious meal after a long day at work.

You can reward yourself and your family with a hot cooked meal that includes meat and vegetables. You can add a sauce and some chili peppers to increase the flavour of your meal.

This is where a slow cooker proves to be an excellent tool to use in the kitchen. Look, whoever thought up the idea of slow cookers deserves a cook’s Medal for Convenience Award.

Although they’ve been around for a long time and have been in and out of style a few times over the years, slow cookers are still with us, making one part of life’s many tasks – cooking – a heck of a lot easier.

To read more Slow cookers can be used to create a quick and nutritious meal

Hot Peppers - The Secret Ingredient in Spicy Food!

My family loves spicy food. My mother never thought a dish was complete if it did not contain hot peppers. The majority of her dishes had that extra kick to them that you can only get from the use of hot peppers.

When my husband first joined the family he needed to adjust to the spicy flavors in mom’s cooking. He developed a taste for the spiciness and so we began using the hot peppers and other savory spices in our cooking.

We were planning a dinner for his family. We were celebrating the birth of his brother’s first grand daughter.

The father of the baby is from India, so he appreciates spicy foods. We decided that we would have a few spicy dishes on the buffet.

To read more Hot Peppers - The Secret Ingredient in Spicy Food!

Jalapeno stuffed olives - a spicy treat

Jalapeno stuffed olives are spicy and delicious as a savoury snack or as an entree before the main meal. But these olives are rather different than the ones you can put in your martini. For one, they are spicy and unusual.

They are becoming popular. Jalapeno stuffed olives seem to be creeping into the mainstream slowly but surely.

I had my first taste of this spicy treat at a summer barbeque and I think that I may have to search for this product in my local gourmet store or through the World Wide Web.

The summer barbeque party that I attended was held by a couple who are really savvy about good food. They make award winning chili from scratch and they each have a collection of recipes dedicated to memory.

The jalapeno stuffed olives were one such recipe that I had to request.

To read more Jalapeno stuffed olives - a spicy treat

Meal Plans tailored for you and your family

Meal plans are tailored for your individual and or family needs to help with your dieting.

These meal plans can be devised with the help of a professional nutritionist to ensure the meal plan is right for you and your family.

There are also online sources to get meal plans, but you need to make sure you get the right plan to meet you and your family needs and to meet your dieting requirements.

For example, do you need a low carb, high protein plan or do you need a low carb, low cholesterol and low protein plan? You should also consider if you have any food allergies and get tested for those to confirm if you are positive or negative for those allergies.

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Spicy Hot Pepper Sauce - delicious addition to your meal

Spicy hot pepper sauce is a good addition to most meals, it gives that extra taste and kick and makes the meal most delicious.

Spicy food is something you either love or hate. If you've grown up with boring bland cooking, you probably still like boring bland cooking. But if you are like me, you know that a little bit of a kick makes the meal. That is why it is so important to select the right hot pepper sauce.

If you're not familiar with Cajun cooking, Indian cuisine, or any of the other styles of food that rely heavily on hot pepper sauce, you'd be surprised by how much effort people put into getting just the right flavor with just the right kick.

From Tabasco pepper sauce through powdered cayenne pepper and beyond, there are hundreds of thousands of flavors available. There are even whole brands that make nothing but hot pepper sauce. But my favorite thing of all is the hot pepper sauce Festival.

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Quick and Easy Dinner Ideas - Preparation is Essential

Quick and easy dinner ideas are needed when you come home exhausted after a long days work and you don't want to be cooking for two hours.

We've all got busy lives today, and by the end of a workday, chances are you're looking for some easy dinner ideas, nutritious and delicious but still easy and quick.

It's hard enough to find time to spend with your family or for other leisure activities without spending a couple of hours in the kitchen. Well, here's some good news. If you stock your pantry and prepare for a meal, you can have an easy dinner your family will love on the table, from start to finish in less than half an hour.

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Dinner Party Ideas - Pick a theme for your next gathering

Dinner party ideas can include preparation for a dinner party with a theme, to add a level of interest for the guests.

Getting friends or co workers together for a dinner party is a fantastic way to have a fun evening while having everyone come into the comfort of your home.

The only difficulty is that while hosting, you are responsible for everyone having a good and memorable time, which can be quite a daunting task, especially for a hosting novice.

However, there are some dinner party ideas that can aid you in providing your guests with a good time.

Many dinner party ideas center on having a party place and a party theme. Whether this is a cuisine or game, these ideas can hold your guests’ interest due to providing something different.

For example, you can host an Italian food dinner party and serve all Italian foods and wine, including pastas, breads, olive oil dippings, antipasto platters and fine Italian wines.

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Vegetarian Crock Pot Chili is an easy to cook meal for working families

Vegetarian crock pot chili is a popular meal for working families, as the pot is set for slow cooking during the day and by the time the family arrives back from work, the dinner is ready.

Everyone can help setting the table and then include the crock pot chili as the main meal. The children need not know there is no meat in the pot as the meal tastes so delicious and they wont know they are eating a vegetarian meal.

Every mom will tell you that trying to come up with new and tasty dinner ideas is challenging. We all have our own standards we fall back on time and time again.

However, to keep your family interested in meal time you need to come up with different dishes. One delicious dinner that takes just a few minutes to make is vegetarian crock pot chili.

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Turkey Recipes - include spices and herbs to add flavour

Turkey is often enjoyed on special occasions like Thanksgiving and Christmas when all the family gather to meet the one time of the year and enjoy a delicious meal.

A large turkey can feed a whole family and there would be no need to buy more than one bird, unless there are a large number guests. Your guests must have come to eat your delicious cooking.

Our family and friends always enjoy a delicious well cooked turkey on these special occasions. Its the only time of the year when grandparents, parents and children all come together to enjoy the company and the festive occasion.

Whenever we remind the children of the coming occasion, they always ask if turkey is going to be the main meal.

This fact alone ensures they will attend.

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Steak Cooking Sauce adds to a better tasting meat for your bbq!

A favorite of families, steak sauce was no longer a masking agent, but a sumptuous, gourmet add-on that could be enjoyed without wondering if the meat was good or not. Especially when the meat has been cooked with due care to leave some of the juices still present.

The early steak sauces often demonstrated problems with the recipe. With too many spices, the sauce became too intense to be used as a condiment. No one wanted a sour bite every time they tried to savor their beautiful steak.

As a result, steak sauce makers eventually refined the balance between spices and vinegar. Home-brewed with precision and special care, steak sauce was once again a favorite among beef connoisseurs all around the world.

Today, very little has changed in the world of steak sauce. But with its strong flavor, too much can easily overwhelm the taste of a perfectly good steak. Too much vinegar may add a sour accent rather than a complimentary one.

Luckily, many companies have developed a sauce that perfectly enhances the steak, instead of overwhelming it with questionable taste.

To read more Steak Cooking Sauce adds to a better tasting meat for your bbq!

Barbeque Sauce - to add flavor to the meats

Barbeque sauce is widely used to add extra taste to the freshly cooked meat or fish.

I like to create cooking sauce with a secret barbeque recipe I have devised myself, to use when my family and friends are enjoying a barbeque in the backyard. This barbeque sauce adds the extra flavors on the barbeque ribs and turkey meats being cooked.

When I am in contact with friends around the world, we discuss the local delicacies and what we would miss the most if we had to move to another country.

For example, I have a friend who lives in Australia, and we love to send food and other interesting items to each other. We try to send things that we can’t get in our own countries, and some of the things she has sent me were rather interesting.

To read more Barbeque Sauce - to add flavor to the meats

Lemon Pepper Chicken is simply delicious

Lemon pepper chicken is simply delicious when cooked under the right conditions with fresh ingredients.

I went to visit my friend with my husband. My friend wants to prepare some lemon pepper chicken for us and likes to chat while she is preparing the ingredients.

I like to have a glass of wine and kept up a constant conversation while she seasoned the chicken breast with the lemon pepper and heated their gas grill. She put on a large pot of salted water to boil and began making a salad.

She started the oven and placed a loaf of bread in to warm. The entire time she was preparing the meal we were chatting about different people and about our children.

To read more Lemon Pepper Chicken is simply delicious

Jerky Meat Recipes - flank steak and spices make for a simple delicious meal

Beef Jerky meat recipes are popular all around the world and there is such a huge variety of recipes, it is easy to make your own version, to suit your taste of delicious meat.

There is so much talk in the news about how bad red meat is for us. We’re told to avoid it to help lower and control our cholesterol, but most people can afford to have a bit of red meat every now and again.

One especially delicious way to include red meat in your diet is with beef jerky. With all the beef jerky recipes out there you can customize one to make it please your taste buds perfectly.

A few years ago there was a big dehydrating fad. Everyone was buying a food dehydrator to make dried fruits, nuts and jerky.

The problem with these machines was that it seemed to take forever and you had to follow a list of detailed instructions including the beef jerky recipes that came along with the machine. However, anyone can make beef jerky at home without a specially designed food dehydrator.

To read more Jerky Meat Recipes - flank steak and spices make for a simple delicious meal

Gourmet Food Baskets - A Perfect Gift for Mothers Day!

Gourmet food baskets are the perfect gift for most occasions. They contain food ready to eat and often a bottle of wine and glasses, to wash down the delicious gourmet food. There is a huge range and it can ordered online or bought from a store.

No matter what the situation may be, chances are good that gourmet food baskets are the perfect gift. There are many reasons why this type of gift works for almost any occasion and for almost any person.

If you are stuck in a situation where you don’t know what to get your mum for Mothers Day, this may be something that you want to consider. Though they may cost a little more than some other gifts you may buy, they are well worth the price or the trouble you might have to go to.

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Caviar - An International Delicacy

Caviar can be sourced from Russia to the USA and Europe. In some areas, the fish source of these caviar are endangered. This is one of the reasons the prices are so high.

Luxury food delicacies are one of life's pleasures, most of us only able to afford them on special occasions. Caviar from its original source, the Sturgeon fish is highly prized.

There are cheaper alternatives however, the roe of many other species is processed and becoming more popular.

Hors d'oeuvres at expensive functions often serve caviar spread on bread or crackers. Special caviar spoons can also be used to scoop the tasty delicacy. This combination is a favorite with champagne at wedding receptions. There is a hierarchy with different varieties being valued above others.

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Irish Recipes for an Unforgettable Saint Patrick's Day

Irish recipes are popular around the world and are enjoyed by more people on St Patrick's Day, celebrating the patron saint of Ireland.
You are welcome to visit the Irish pubs in your city on St Patrick's day(17th March) and drink green beer, or better still, escape to Ireland, and enjoy the Irish hospitality.

If you visit Ireland on 17th March, you will be greeted by a festive mood, for on this day the Irish celebrate the feast of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of the country. It is a national holiday in the Republic of Ireland and in other parts of the world.

One of the noticeable traditions during the feast day is all the Irish are wearing green, which symbolizes spring and prospering of the crops. Aside from the green wear, there is a thanksgiving party that is conducted to celebrate this holiday.

And one of the highlights in the festivity is the vast array of foods spread out across the dining table.

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Chocolate Covered Strawberries - For a Romantic Evening!

Chocolate covered strawberries are delicious when you want to give something different to your partner. It would certainly be a delicious surprise.

Women who are avid fans of daytime dramas will tell you that one thing spells romance. That’s champagne and chocolate covered strawberries. When a couple is sharing this specialty it speaks of their adoration for one another.

It doesn’t need to be a part of a fantasy though; you can make this delightful treat at home to share with your partner.

The candy bar from the corner store is not going to work in this instance. The best chocolate strawberries are dipped in French or German chocolate. You don’t need to purchase a large amount. A bag of high grade chocolate chips will do just fine.

To read more Chocolate Covered Strawberries - For a Romantic Evening!

My Italian Cooking

Italian cooking is popular around the world. There are Italian restaurants in the USA to Europe to Asia and the Middle East. I am sure there must be a few Italian restaurants in African countries serving pizza, pasta, sauces and those delicious Italian wines from Tuscany.

I enjoy Italian cooking on special occasions for my family.

My husband claims to love my cooking. I’m not sure what is wrong with him, but he does. He especially loves when I make Italian dishes, though we both know that I don’t really know anything about true Italian cooking.

I do make a good lasagna, and spaghetti is always a hit here, but it isn’t true Italian cooking, and we all know it. All the same, what matters is that we love it and it works well for us.

If you have the same affliction I do, you can do something about it. If you aren’t happy with sauce from a jar, you can most certainly learn Italian cooking to make your own special sauce to serve to your family.

To read more My Italian Cooking