Cookbooks Go Digital

Whether you’re a novice or experienced cook anyone can improve their skills in the kitchen by downloading some of the fantastic cooking apps that are available. They give you access to easy-to-follow recipes with full-color photos that will make your mouth water. Here’s a review of some of the best out there.

Tim Ferriss’ Four Hour Chef

Tim Ferriss is the author of the New York Times Best Seller “The Four Hour Work Week,” and he has done it again with his new book, “4 Hour Chef” which you can get as a hard copy or as a digital copy.  He continues to promote the healthy eating ways of the famous slow carb diet. Find it on the shelves or online soon.

How to Cook Everything by Culinate, Inc.
Based on the cookbook of the same name by New York Times columnist Mark Bittman, this app costs $9.99 and is available on the iPhone and iPad, but is optimized for use on the iPad. It includes over 2,000 recipes and a how-to section with illustrated tutorials. There’s also a How to Cook Everything Vegetarian app available for the same price.

Cooking Light by Time, Inc.
Available on the iPhone and iPad for $3.99, Cooking Light lets you browse 300 healthy recipes, or sort them by entrée to search for what to make for dinner. This app is filled with photos as well as nutritional information for all of the recipes.

Grill it! and Grill it! XL by Sluice LLC
Great for newbies and grill masters alike, Grill it! for the iPhone and Android costs $0.99, and Grill it! XL for the iPad $1.99. The apps were featured in Maxim, contain only recipes for cooking on the grill, and a new recipe for the grill will download to your device each week .

My Recipe Book by Cross Forward Consulting, LLC
A former Apple “App of the Week” My Recipe Book allows you to import recipes directly from 12 different recipe websites such as MarthaStewart.com, Foodnetwork.com and AllRecipes.com. It even lets you enter your own recipes, including adding photos of them. Recipes can then be sorted by category or ingredients, marked as favorites, and added to a queue to try later. It is only available on the iPad, and is a steal at $1.99.

Epicurious Recipes & Shopping List by Conde’ Nast Digital
Conde’ Nast’s Epicurious Recipes & Shopping List is a free app that gives you access to over 30,000 recipes from magazines such as Gourmet, Self, Bon Appetit, as well as chefs and cookbooks, many with accompanying photos. Just save the recipes to your virtual recipe box, and the app can then create shopping lists filled with the ingredients you’ll need. Epicurious is available for the iPhone, iPad, Android, Nook Color, Kindle Fire and Windows Phone.

Download an app and try your hand at a new recipe. Your taste buds will be glad that you did.

Posted on April 23, 2012 by , Reply

Healthy Types of Meat To Eat

There are several healthy types of meat to eat to diversify one’s diet. Many people think they have to cut out all meats when they are beginning a health conscious lifestyle change. True, when people consume large amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables they tend to be healthier. However, eating lean high protein cuts of meat is also healthy. There are options such as fish, poultry, bison, ostrich and even some beef.

For beef eaters, they will be happy to learn they do not have to eliminate it from their lives forever in order to be healthy. Cuts such as sirloin and many other Select cuts. The main beef people want to avoid are cuts that have a high fat to meat ratio, such as Prime Rib. Although these cuts may be slightly tenderer, they are hard on the heart by raising cholesterol levels.

Poultry is what most people think of then they think of healthy meat, namely chicken breast. This is the leanest part on a chicken and all other poultry. However, one should not eat the skin, even on a breast portion. The dark meat, or the legs and thighs, along with the skin are high in fat and cholesterol.

Fish is usually the second meat dieters think of. Most fish is low in unhealthy fats and high in healthy fats such as Omega-3s. Not only is fish healthy for cholesterol level, but it is recommended by the American Heart Association. In addition, fish is an excellent way to meet one’s protein requirements.

One meat most people never consider is ostrich. This is because it has just not been made mainstream in America. However, it can be a better choice than beef. Dieters and lifestyle changers do not have to stay stuck in a food limitation rut. This can actually work against them in keeping their health and fitness goals. By people being too restrictive, they tend to fall off track by “cheating” on their diet. A diverse amount of meats and other healthy goals can help to keep them on track.

Posted on April 6, 2012 by , Reply

Where to Find Fresh Produce

If you are trying to eat healthy, you should be purchasing fresh produce. However, it is sometimes difficult to find fresh fruits and vegetable. If you really want to find the best fresh produce available, the best place to buy fresh produce is at the farmer’s market.

Local farmers sell their produce at a farmer’s market, and you cannot find fresher produce than those at the local market. Many of the foods are harvested and then sent directly to the market. These markets also normally have the best prices on produce. You can check online to find a market near you, or you can visit the chamber of commerce. Social networking sites might also give you information about farmer’s markets in your area.

When you buy produce from the grocery store, it will take days to actually reach the store. With produce from the farmer’s market, you are guaranteed to have the freshest products available. Therefore, the food will not spoil as quickly as food from the grocery store.

You can buy as much fresh produce as you want. There are no pre-packaged foods, and the foods will be fresh and delicious. In addition, farmer’s markets are helpful to the environment. The food has less distance to travel, so there will be less pollution. It also requires less packaging.

Buying produce at the farmer’s market also helps the local economy. Farmers are some of the most hard-working individuals that you can find. Buying the produce harvested by the local farmers shows these citizens that they are appreciated for their hard work.

The best place to buy fresh produce is at a farmer’s market. You can find fruits, vegetables, nuts, cheeses and more at the market. Therefore, find the market nearest you, and you can enjoy the freshest and healthiest produce possible.

Posted on March 16, 2012 by , Reply

What to Wear While Cooking

What to wear when you are cooking is something that all of us who spend time in a kitchen have thought about. It is next to impossible to not get splatters or some food on your clothing. You want to be able to move along in the kitchen full speed ahead! A lot of people just do not have the time to come home from work and be a neat cook. Also, most quick food is put into pots or frying pans on top of the stove. So this will influence some of you to change your clothing before you begin to cook. If you are a person who does not have that kind of leisure before little league as an example, then you need to come up with another solution.

The older generation was very smart because they used bib aprons which are great for protecting your clothing. Not to mention how cute and pretty they can be. There are also smocks that can be purchased that have buttons or zippers down the front for a quick cover up. Not only are they durable and washable, but they dry fast too. You may feel that these aprons and smocks are costly because you are using them for cooking. Remember they will last sometimes for years. They also make great gifts for the women and men when you don’t know what to buy them. Men can have a barbecue design or a cuisine design on them. Women can have their favorite things on theirs. Aprons are also fun to hand down to someone else who can use them. Granddaughters usually love Grandma’s apron while helping them in the kitchen.

Next time you are making that mess in the kitchen think about an apron or a smock and all the worry that you would have saved. Purchase several of them and that way you will always have one handy when you need it.

Posted on February 11, 2012 by , Reply

How to Save Money on Meat Every Week

When having to feed a family it can be crucial to save money anyway you can. There are many ways to save money on various grocery items. One in particular that you can save money on is meat.

When deciding on what meals you are going to make for dinner, you need to decide the cheapest route. Whether you are rich or poor saving money is always great to do. The first way to save money on meats is to look for the section that has reduced meats. The reason these meats are reduced is because they will be expiring sooner than the other meats. Even though they are expiring sooner, you still have around 2 weeks to cook them. If you do your grocery shopping week by week, this is a great option for you. Another popular way to save money on meats is too clip and use coupons. You can get coupons from your local Sunday paper or online. Coupons help a great deal when trying to save money. One other way to cut your cost on meats is to try to purchase the cheaper meats. These include hamburger, hotdogs, bacon, and spam. Also there are boxes with complete meals that include meat in them. These can cut your household meat costs drastically. They are also very simple and take less than 30 minutes to cook. The last option is to buy meat in bulk and break it down in different packages. When you buy your meat in bulk you always get a better deal.

So as you can see there are many ways to save money. The reason we discuss saving money on meats over anything else is because meats are the most expensive part of a meal. Now that you understand that there are many ways to save money every week, go out there and save your family some money!

Posted on January 18, 2012 by , Reply

How to Start Your Own Meat Market

When deciding to start your own meat market there’s many things you need to take into consideration. There are many ways to start and run your company. Just keep in mind that every decision you make is crucial to your business.

The first step is to find a location to open your meat market. Once you have found a location you will then need to get a loan to help you start your company up. It can take weeks to process and get approved for a loan. While you are waiting for the loan to get approved you can start making necessary paperwork. After that is taken care of, you will then need to purchase all of the supplies and equipment you will need. While you are purchasing everything, you will need to start hiring employees. Now that we have a building, equipment, supplies, and employees it is now time to start advertising. Since opening a business can be very costly you will need to do cost effective marketing ideas. One affordable idea is making business cards and passing them out at local businesses. Another is making flyers with grand opening coupons and leaving them places. There are many other means of advertising but these two are the best ways for your money. Once you get further established you can try other ways of advertising. Now that you know the step by step process of opening your business you now need to learn how to run it. There are books and resources but it is pretty much a tough learning process.

So when opening your own meat market, make sure you put a lot of thought and effort into it. You will only get out what you put into it. Now go out there and open a successful meat market!

Posted on December 7, 2011 by , Reply

How To Market Your Butcher Shop

Almost anybody can open a butcher shop but it takes great marketing to keep it running and successful. There are many ways to market your butcher shop. Some of which are expensive and others that are cheap.

One pretty cheap and effective way is to make logo t-shirts. These you can hand out to family, friends, and employees. When somebody sees you wearing it they might ask questions or just go check it out. Another way to market your butcher shop is to pass out flyers with coupons on there. Almost everybody is looking for the next best deal. When they get coupons they are sure to at least stop in. One other option of marketing is to place an ad in the local phone book. This can be rather expensive but it is well worth it. Anybody looking for butcher shops in the phone book will be sure to see it and most likely check it out. The biggest way to market is “word of mouth”. This is best done with business cards and people ready to chat great reviews about your butcher shop. If you hire a few people to pass out business cards and say great things about your shop, it will go a long way. You could also try having somebody stand out your store and pass these out so they are sure to at least stop in. One more expensive option is to place a commercial on the television. This is another expensive but worth it option. The reason it is worth it is because 9 out of 10 people watch television. Almost everybody is sure to know about your increasingly successful business if you make a commercial.

So as you can see there are many ways to advertise. They do take some time but you can’t expect a great business without putting time and effort into it. So either get out there and do it or hire an advertising manager!

Posted on November 23, 2011 by , Reply