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5 Ideas For An At-Home Brunch

Posted by Katherine Sutton on in Uncategorized

Brunch can be a fun, festive time with loved ones. You can enjoy the experience at home. Here are five foods that you may wish to serve at your brunch:

1. Crêpes:

The nice thing about serving crêpes is that they are relatively simple to make and they are a crowd-pleaser. Crêpes have the ability to be either sweet or savory depending upon what you and your guests prefer.

You even have the option of making a crêpe station for the brunch with an assortment of fillings and toppings to choose from. Everyone can custom-make their own to their liking.

2. Hash Browns:

This dish is a classic brunch staple. Hash browns can be made savory with meats and cheeses or even kept basic with only potatoes and seasoning. Whichever way they are prepared, they will be a wonderful complement and side dish to the rest of the brunch foods.

If a lot of the other foods happen to be sweet, hash browns can be a nice change of pace to the meal. Most people enjoy hash browns, and they are simple to make. You can even buy pre-shredded potatoes to save yourself time with food preparation.

3. English Muffins:

Having English muffins for your brunch is a great choice. They can be used as a side like toast might. They can be served with sweet or savory toppings. English muffins are also integral to various brunch dishes like breakfast sandwiches or Eggs Benedict.

English muffins are filling. They have a pleasing texture to add interest to the rest of the meal as well. If you have time and want to wow your brunch guests, you could try making homemade English muffins for your get-together. Fresh-made food can really add some sophistication.

4. Fruit:

An assortment of fresh fruit will elevate your brunch. The most common fruits served at restaurant brunches seem to be melons like honeydew or cantaloupe. You are not limited to those. You can choose seasonal fruits or even exotic fruits.

You can also add yogurt and granola to your fruit area and let guests mix and match their perfect fruit parfait. Children will thoroughly enjoy the element of interactivity, but it’ll be a hit will any age. Fruit adds color, sweetness, and nutrition to the meal. That will help the brunch feel like it’s well-rounded and complete.

5. Drinks:

Brunches are a time of camaraderie and relaxation. They are known for drinks such as mimosas and Bloody Marys. Many people feel these cheery, colorful drinks are an integral piece of the brunch experience.

The lovely thing about these drinks is they can be tailor-made to your tastes. For example, if you don’t drink alcohol it can …

Learn The Best Ways To Cook The Best Chicken For Any Event Or Celebration

Posted by Katherine Sutton on in Uncategorized

The air fryer has come to be one of the decade’s hottest kitchen gadgets. You might already have recognized how it excels at making delicious and healthy french fries, but that’s only the beginning. Just to get your imagination fired up, consider the different ways your air fryer can turn common chicken into a nutritious treat your whole family will love.

Fried Chicken

One of the most attractive assets of your air fryer is its ability to make foods that are traditionally deep-fried in a way that drastically reduces the oil but leaves it with that crunchy on the outside, juicy on the inside fried flavor. Making air fryer Southern fried chicken should be one of the first things you make with it so that you can put it through its paces. Just let your chicken soak in your favorite marinade for a few hours, dip it in flour and place the pieces in your air fryer basket. You may need to do more than one batch since you should not layer them. Cook at 390°F, flipping chicken midway and spraying dry spots with oil.

Basic Chicken Breasts

On a busy night when you need to get food on the table fast, let your air fryer come to the rescue. Just coat chicken breasts with a mixture of butter, salt, garlic powder, smoked paprika and pepper. Place them in your air fryer basket, making sure to keep breasts from touching each other. Set to 350°F, cook for 15 minutes, turn chicken and cook for an additional 5 to 8 minutes or until juices run clear at the thickest part of the meat.

Tandoori Chicken

If you want to spice up your meal and take a gastronomical journey to the Indian subcontinent, you can make tandoori chicken in your air fryer; you definitely don’t need the classic clay oven that is traditionally used to bake this zesty dish at high heat. Just marinate your chicken breasts or drumsticks in yogurt, lemon juice, ginger, garlic and Indian spices – Kashmiri chili powder will give this dish its traditional bright red color – and cook in the air fryer at 360°F for 10 minutes. Flip, baste with oil and cook for another 5 minutes.

Chicken Parmesan

Who knew that you can have delicious chicken Parmesan in your air fryer, complete with that unmistakable fried taste? You can use a traditional baked chicken Parmesan recipe; just coat the chicken with butter instead of egg before dipping it into the breadcrumbs. Preheat your fryer at 360°F for 3 minutes. Place two chicken breasts in your fryer basket and spray them with oil. Cook for 6 minutes, then add sauce and cheese to the top of …

The Best And Easiest Classic Apple Crisp Dessert Recipe For Dinner

Posted by Katherine Sutton on in Uncategorized

Once the leaves start to change color, your mind inevitably turns to the delicious comfort foods of autumn. At the pinnacle of that list should be those preparations that are made with the delicious, juicy and nutritious apple. Whether eaten on its own, baked into a pie or formed into apple crisps, this yummy post-summer gift from Mother Nature can’t be beat.

Believe it or not, apple crisps have not always been as popular as they are today. Their origins only trace back a century or so to World War I England. Because many of the more expensive pastry ingredients were not available, resourceful home cooks began using the apples from their victory gardens in combination with flour, butter and a bit of sugar. They discovered that not only could the best apple crisp be made in less time than is the case with fancier pies that held higher prestige, but also the end result was just as delicious.

The war is long over, but the popularity of apple crisp remains strong. Today, people prepare this dish in the microwave as well as the oven and have come up with numerous variations to suit their whims and dietary preferences. For some, apple crisp can be a delicious if slightly decadent breakfast while others make it their midnight snack of choice. Just be sure you have fresh green apples such as Granny Smiths and a few minutes to cut them up. Before you know it, you will be enjoying the best that fall has to offer.Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail…

How To Replace Bad Sugar With Healthier Alternatives In Your Home

Posted by Katherine Sutton on in Uncategorized

Comfort foods: They got that name for a reason. You long for them at times when you need a boost; you crave them when you’re celebrating. The only problem is that those impossibly sweet, salty, buttery or creamy items don’t get along well with your aspirations to be healthy and physically fit – or do they? The good news is that you can continue to have the same delicious snacks you want, just as long as you are willing to make some easy modifications. You’ll be amazed at how tasty and simple it can be to make healthier snacks.

CREAMY WITHOUT THE CREAM

Homemade macaroni and cheese, fettuccine alfredo and potato salad all get their appeal from rich and velvety sauces. Keep the taste and texture but instead of cream, use a combination of 1 cup low-fat milk and 4 teaspoons of all-purpose flour that is whisked together over low heat until thick and bubbly. You will save a whopping 680 calories per cup using this substitute while continuing to have a velvety sauce. Using low-fat mayonnaise saves you 75 calories per tablespoon and can turn heavy potato salad into a lighter and healthier alternative.

COOK WITH LESS OIL

Even restricting your cooking to using extra virgin olive and canola oils still means you are adding unnecessary calories. If you prepare foods with the right kind of cast-iron, nonstick or enamel cookware, you can reduce the amount of oil you need to add to your soups and sauces. You won’t even notice the difference.

FRY WITHOUT THE GREASE

It’s no secret that deep frying isn’t healthy for you. Fortunately, you can achieve delicious results without a sizzling pot filled with grease and seasonings. One option is to purchase an air fryer that cooks the food with circulated hot air instead of oil. You can also modify recipes like the one for fried chicken by dipping pieces in milk or egg, dredging them in seasoned bread crumbs and coating them with canola spray before baking them in the oven.

BAKE HEALTHY

You don’t need to give up the sweet muffins, cookies and pastries you love; just replace half of the all-purpose flour with the whole wheat variety. Taking this step will boost the fiber, B vitamins, zinc and magnesium in your baked goods. If you are making delicate cakes or pie crusts, choose whole wheat pastry flour.

CUT BACK ON BUTTER

As delicious as it is, butter is a real health downer. It contains seven times more saturated fats than does an equivalent amount of oil. Experiment with your favorite recipes to see how it turns out if you replace half of the butter with olive or canola oil.

IT’S NO …