Cooking tips

Healthy spring salad recipe with fresh peas and crispy fried shallots

Nifer — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:44:04 +0000

Now’s the time to head to the farmers’ market to find just-picked fresh shelling peas. Peas thrive in the cooler weather of late spring and early summer and they’re a good source of fiber, and with vitamins A and K they can help keep your eyes and bones healthy. Keep in mind that unlike their frozen counterparts, fresh peas take a little work. You do need to shell them, after all. But it’s worth it! Especially when you build a special salad around them.

How to make cream sauce without cream

Nifer — Wed, 01 May 2013 03:19:47 +0000

Anything draped in a velvety-smooth cream sauce is bound to be delicious. It’s also bound to be high in calories and full of saturated fat—which most of us could do without. So before you kiss your mother’s recipe for macaroni and cheese goodbye or take your last spoonful of a creamy, comforting soup, consider that you could make the same creamy recipes with WAY less fat and fewer calories by using no cream at all. Yes, really.

3 DIY tortilla tricks: How to make your own taco shells, taco bowls and tortilla chips

Nifer — Wed, 01 May 2013 02:56:51 +0000

I love Mexican food—tacos with crispy shells, crunchy taco bowls and salty tortilla chips. But I could do without the extra calories, fat and sodium in the salty, often deep-fried tortillas served at many restaurants or the less-than-healthy packaged versions of these foods sold in the supermarket.

How to make a healthy smoothie: best smoothie ingredients & 10 to ditch

Nifer — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 21:04:46 +0000

Whether you enjoy smoothies for breakfast, a snack or even dessert, they’re a great way to increase your daily servings of fruits and vegetables. But depending on the ingredients they’re made with, smoothies can quickly turn into unhealthy calorie-bombs filled with sugar and saturated fat. And drinking too many high-calorie smoothies could counteract their health benefits and sabotage your efforts to stay—or get—slim.

Being single never tasted so good: tips to make cooking for one delicious and easy

Nifer — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 21:34:24 +0000

You know what the best part of cooking for one is? You don’t have to cater to anyone else’s dietary restrictions and YOU can make exactly what YOU want to eat. Sure, it may be a little tricky finding recipes for one or to find the inspiration to get out your pots and pans instead of ordering takeout. But with a few simple tips and easy recipes, you can make delicious meals for yourself without wasting food and save money by not eating out.

EatingWell makeover: how to make a healthy banoffee pie recipe

Nifer — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 19:20:14 +0000

Love bananas? Toffee? How about whipped cream? Then you’ve got to try banoffee pie, one of Great Britain’s sweetest contributions to the confectionary world.

No denying that it’s irresistibly creamy, caramelly and sugary. But it’s also usually quite a calorie bomb, so we’ve taken the classic and given it a little nip-’n’-tuck.

Gluten-free? Not so fast. Watch out for this list of surprising foods that contain gluten

Nifer — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 18:02:37 +0000

If you have celiac-disease, gluten-sensitivity or for some other reason you’re not eating gluten—the protein found in wheat, rye and barley—you probably know to steer clear of big, obvious offenders like bread, pasta and baked goods.

Related: 4 Easy Ways to Avoid Gluten

How to make chicken stock and chicken broth

Nifer — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 18:51:54 +0000

One of the first recipes I learned in culinary school was how to make homemade chicken stock. Both stock and broth start with the same base of vegetables (carrots, celery, onions), herbs (parsley, thyme, bay leaf) and water, yet broth has an enhanced flavor from using the chicken meat while stock generally only uses the chicken bones. Many recipes and store-bought products use the terms interchangeably. You can use chicken broth and chicken stock interchangeably in recipes.

DIY easy slice & bake cookies (skip the processed refrigerator tubes)

Nifer — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:34:11 +0000

To me, cookies aren’t just for special occasions; I can find a reason for a cookie (or two) anytime. Before I had children, my cookie jar was always stocked with a fresh, homemade batch. Fast-forward 10 years: my time is limited and my cookie jar often bare. Some might resort to packaged cookies or store-bought dough, but being a baker and health-conscious mom, I try to steer clear of processed treats in favor of homemade.

Cooking spray: should you use it?

Nifer — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 17:00:45 +0000

In the EatingWell Test Kitchen, we use cooking spray because it’s a fast, no-mess way to make a tiny bit of oil go a long way so we can keep calories in check. Calorie for calorie, cooking spray is similar to other oils: spraying for 1 second (enough to coat a large skillet) is about 9 calories; 1/4 teaspoon canola oil is 10 calories and would be just enough to very thinly coat a skillet.

Retrain your cravings: 5 ways to learn to love healthier foods

Nifer — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 18:16:36 +0000

Trying to clean up your diet and eat healthier this year but having a hard time loving the new healthy foods you should be eating? I’m the same way: there are so many bad foods I love and so many good ones I feel like I’m forcing myself to eat.

9 “Bad” Foods You Can Feel Good About Eating

Fresh vs. canned vs. frozen: which is better?

Nifer — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 19:42:10 +0000

Nothing beats fresh produce. Still, in the kitchen, using canned or frozen fruits and vegetables can be a lot more convenient—but is it worth it? Are you giving up nutrition for convenience? Although a fresh fruit or vegetable would never be considered unhealthy, surprisingly there are a few circumstances where frozen and even canned could offer you more health benefits than fresh. Here’s a closer look at a few examples of fresh foods vs. their canned or frozen counterparts.

Burn 700 calories cooking thanksgiving dinner

Nifer — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 15:10:01 +0000

I love being in the kitchen on Thanksgiving. Between the delicious smells, nice company and constant foot traffic (everyone finds a reason to stop by the kitchen on Thanksgiving!), it’s the place to be in the lead-up to the year’s most sumptuous meal. But anyone who’s ever hoisted a turkey out of the oven or chopped so many veggies their wrists have cramped knows that making Thanksgiving dinner can be hard work. And though a lot of attention is paid to the calories consumed on Thanksgiving, not that much thought is given to the calories burned.

The 7 healthiest foods on your thanksgiving menu

Nifer — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 19:05:56 +0000

Thanksgiving is quickly becoming my favorite holiday. And why not? It’s a great time to hang out with family, watch football and, of course, eat an amazing meal.

Most people think of Thanksgiving dinner as being a bit of a calorie bomb. And, really, it is: in a recent issue of EatingWell we estimated that the Turkey Day meal clocks at least 2,800 calories.

4 mistakes that ruin stuffing (and how to fix them)

Nifer — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:48:33 +0000

What’s the best part of Thanksgiving? The turkey? No way. It’s the stuffing. And to think there was a time when I thought stuffing could only be made from a box! Don’t get me wrong—boxed stuffing is good, but premade packages of stuffing are a real damper in the creativity department. (Not to mention they’re loaded with sodium and other not-so-wholesome ingredients in the form of preservatives.)

Recipes to Try: Easy Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipes