G, I Need A Kitchen Intro
Newbie's Guide to Cooking with Fresh Pumpkin
If you can cook squash, you can cook pumpkin. With these simple instructions you'll be a pumpkin processing expert in minutes! There's a couple quick recipes you can use here too!
                  Want more ideas on using fresh pumpkin?
Food Safety 101: Household ZONE Defense
 Don't let raw meat sit at room temp
Food safety certification was a required course in cooking school. For the last 4 years I've worked as a certified food safety trainer for food pantry and food service staff. Health departments inspect restaurants and pantries to keep customers safe, but many people get food poisoning (aka foodborne illness) from improper food handling at home. Protecting your food from the feared Temperature Danger Zone is another important rule. Disease causing bacteria (pathogens) multiply like crazy between 40 and 140 degrees. So storing and keeping cold foods at 40 degrees or colder and hot foods hotter than 140 degrees is an easy way to keep food safe. Anything that sits out for more than 2 hours is unsafe to eat.
A food thermometer is the safest way to know your food is cooked to the proper temperature. But doing an online search for safe cooking temperatures will produce many different results. That's because your local health regulations are decided on a state level. Although the federal food safety guidelines get updated every couple years, each state decides whether its going to follow those guidelines as they're written or follow some slight variation. Foodsafety.gov recommends the following safe cooking times for chicken and other foods that need time and temperature control for safety:
High risk foods must be handled safely from the time you buy them at the store til they're served up from your kitchen. No amount of cooking is going to destroy the illness causing bacteria that's allowed to build up in food that's not properly stored. Easy Baking Tip
Bake - to cook food in the oven using dry heat
   Budget Friendly Cooking Tips
Instead of buying bread crumbs, make your own with stale bread (including whole wheat bread). It can be ground in a food processor and stored in freezer bags. Use them to add a crunchy topping to your favorite casseroles.
Homemade Panini Sandwiches: Save your money and just make your own panini using whatever kind of bread you've got, add some lean meat and/or veggies and cheese and throw it on the Foreman Grill! Made a grilled cheese and veggie sandwich as another food coupon recipe idea. Need More Easy Recipes? |
Scroll thru G, I'm Hungry easy recipe categories and my Food Coupon blog, Culinary Tourette's for a variety of easy recipes you can make today!
Germainesolutions.com's version of Cooking for Dummies To make the most of the easy recipes you'll find in G, I'm Hungry, you gotta learn the basics: easy cooking tips, safe cooking times and food handling tips, cooking substitutions, how to eat on a budget, and a few fast and easy recipes, just to get you started.
Getting comfortable with the basics is key to enjoying your time in the kitchen. If you still have questions, please ask and I'll be happy to fill in the blanks. Bon appetit! How to Boil Water Fast
Turn stove on high. Use a covered pot of hot water and you've got boiling water in minutes. I was messing around with Weebly's new features while boiling water last night, but I'm sure it took less than 8 minutes for the water to boil. G, why are you boiling water? Good question, just cooking up another food coupon recipe idea.
 Electric stove set on high. Just add a covered pot with water as hot as you can make it. Our water gets to about 120 degrees.  In 8 minutes or less you have boiling 212 degree water! CAREFUL with the steam though. Quick & Easy Chicken Recipe
Lazy Chicken 2.0
We've all heard that chicken breasts are pretty healthy. But do you avoid them because they come out as dry as calculus on a sunny day? Lazy chicken 2.0 to the rescue!
Preheat oven to 350. Thoroughly rinse frozen pieces of chicken. Dry with paper towels. Combine dry seasonings in a small bowl. Lightly coat large baking pan with spray. Sprinkle bottom of pan with seasoning mix. Arrange chicken pieces in pan. Spray chicken with cooking spray and top with the rest of the seasoning. Bake for an hour and 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. When properly cooked, chicken should hold a temperature of 165 degrees or higher for 15 seconds. Quick & Easy Appetizer RecipeLow Fat Ranch Dip
I'm starting to believe that kids would eat dirt if you served it with ranch dressing.
This ranch dip is a hit with kids of all ages. Since its low in fat, you don't have to feel guilty if they double dip. 1 cup plain fat free yogurt 1 cup fat free mayonnaise 1/2 packet dry ranch mix Combine ingredients in a bowl and chill in the frig for 3 hours before serving. Variation - Ranch Dressing: Thin dip to desired consistency with a little skim milk. Get Your Food
|
