Turning Leftovers into a Dinner Delight

Done with your meal? What happens to the leftover portions not eaten?  Do they get consumed later or do they sit in the fridge until they start to smell and finally tossed? With the present economy using leftover is the most sensible thing to do. This saves time and when done right, yields easy, pleasing meals for your family. Leftovers usually do not sound good but with good planning, multiple means can result from the effort of preparing for one. Let me show you some examples.

Pork Loin and Rice

You had a good roasted pork loin and rice for dinner and there is some of everything remaining. You don’t want to serve the same thing for the dinner the following night so the pork loin get pushed to the back of the refrigerator.

That’s what usually happens. Not anymore! Eating leftovers the way they were originally served, can easily turn family members off. Let’s use some originality to keep that pork loin from going to waste and having an interesting and healthy meal.

Chop the pork loin up into bite size pieces. In a large skillet or wok, stir mixed vegetables (use a bag of frozen vegetables as a quick alternative), an egg, and the chopped pork loin. Add the leftover rice (or if there’s not enough leftover rice, make a new batch), with a little soy sauce and other seasoning to make pork  fried rice. Now you have a whole new dinner for your hungry family.

This is just one way of turning leftover into a new and flavourful dish. The same can be done using chicken, seafood or beef.

Hamburgers

Leftover hamburgers for dinner can be chopped so they would appear like ground beef once more. The meat can be combined with chilli powder and taco sauce to make beef tacos. Or simply combine it with sauce, tomatoes, chopped peppers and beans to have a pot of chilli.

Just be creative and imaginative and you can find so many ways of turning dinner leftovers into a flavourful and delightful dishes. Now you can have not only one meal for a day but several meals for the week making dinner easier. Sometimes you can prepare dishes on the weekend when you have more time and put them in the freezer to be pulled out for a quick dinner. You don’t have to have the same thing all week but can switch things around with different side dishes combined with leftovers from the main course that looks different.

Surely your family will be surprised in your ability to have different meals during the week that are both good and easy. Besides that, you will save money on your grocery bill by making things go further and not having to throw spoiled food in the trash. So, try these ideas and add some of your own to please the appetite of your family.

Saving Money on Grocery BiIls

With prices going up the scale for almost all commodities, a need to find ways on how to save money is really necessary. Food as a basic necessity eats up a very large percentage of the family budget. But there are still a lot more ways to save on groceries and might as well save on gas too. Save on gas because if the supermarket or the grocery store is nearby, just walk to exercise as well. Now, here are some tips on how to save on grocery bills.

Always take a list of the items to be purchased. This way, only the necessities are bought and thus avoiding those not needed. Be disciplined enough to stick to the list. 

Purchase by volume or bulk especially on staples. Some commodities are cheaper when bought by volume like detergent soaps, toilet papers, vegetables, meat products, cereals, juices and condiments. Just keep in mind what is frequently used.

Using collected coupons add up to savings, so, make it a habit to collect coupons from the papers. They are usually in the papers for promotional items or new products. Whether you like the promo item or not and just got curious about it, at least it was purchased at a discounted price.

Consider the items on sale but take note of the expiry dates especially on food stuffs. If the item is good in  maybe a week or month before the expiration just like fresh milk, soy sauce or other seasonings, canned goods and condiments and other items , at least it must be a fast consumable.

Refrain from buying prepared foods but instead go for the staple food that is cheaper. Always consider which costs less, a prepared food or one that is prepared and cooked at home like a box of spaghetti and cheese. There is an advantage when food is home-cooked. It can be cooked more than enough for the whole family at a lesser cost.

Never shop when hungry. It is more likely to pick up that extra food stuff like chips or cookies that are expensive when the craving for food becomes intense. Better do shopping after a meal, mind is alert and can have good judgement and decision.

Do your shopping on the same store. Being familiar with the area on where to find the stuffs needed helps not to get items in the list and makes familiar with the prices. This also avoids buying stuffs not needed as you go along the lanes where there is always a temptation to pick them. And besides, knowing the area where needed stuffs are found is also time-saving.

Implementing all of these help beat high prices and still feast on the food you enjoy and in time can see the actual savings. The thing is, just be serious with the implementation and think of other ways than what are mentioned above and surely make that dollar go a long way for that food stuffs.

Alternatives for Gluten Free Foods for a Healthy Living

The stay of my mother in the hospital for more than a week, made me realized that a healthy lifestyle is really that important. Though she is now 85 years old, she is still up and about. After all these years , this was her second time to be hospitalized due to pneumonia. But i really admire my mom's courage and fighting spirit and yes i admire her most for adhering to a healthy lifestyle. By now, i would like to share with you one way of keeping healthy, and  that is- eating  gluten-free products.

Health issues are mainly the reasons why one eats gluten free foods.  So, it is best to have the knowledge on what food contains gluten so it can be easily removed from our diet and find a substitute instead.  Gluten is a kind of protein which is very strong and elastic particularly found in wheat, barley and rye. Baked products usually contain gluten.  It is gluten that binds ingredients in cookies, pies, and cakes and also makes them moist. The texture of baked products is a result of the air trapped within the sticky boundaries of the products. 

Some develop allergies and many avoid gluten because of a gluten intolerance or what is known as celiac disease. People suffering from this experience immune system reaction that actually breaks down the lining of the intestine that leads to malabsorption of nutrients.

Here are some alternative flours that are gluten free so there is little need to not be able to enjoy baked products.

• Potato starch flour – gluten free thickening agent perfect for cream based soups and sauces. A perfect substitute because of its high starch component.  Mix with a small amount of water for hydration to start it works like a glue. Then, substitute it in place of flour but use half of the amount of flour called for to get the right proportion in the recipe. This is available in health food stores.
• Tapioca Flour – light, white and very smooth flour from cassava roots. Use this kind of flour for  a  nice, chewy baked products like French bread or white bread. This easily combines with soy flour and cornstarch and is available in health food stores.
• Corn Flour – milled from corn and blends well with cornmeal for muffins or cornbread. This is perfect for waffles or pancakes. This can be purchased in health food stores. 

• Soy Flour – a nutty tasting flour rich in protein and high in fat content. The fat content makes baked products smooth in texture. This is combined with other flours to bake brownies, muffins and cookies or any baked products with fruits and nuts. Available in health food stores.
• Cornstarch - a refined starch that comes from corn. This is combined with other flours for baking. Mostly use as clear thickening agent for pudding, sauces and Asian cooking. Readily available in grocery stores and health food stores.
• Cornmeal – a ground corn that comes from either white or yellow meal. Usually combined with other flours and gives a strong, delicious corn flavour in white cakes, pan cakes and waffles. This can be bought in grocery stores and health food stores.
• Brown Rice Flour – comes from unpolished brown rice and has more nutritional value than typical flour because of the bran that it contains. Excellent for baking muffins and cookies or for more dense breads.

• White Rice Flour – a perfect basic flour for gluten free baking. This is excellent for baking because it doesn’t impart any unwanted flavours.  This works well when combined with other flours. The best white rice flour is the fine textured one. This is readily purchased in Asian stores and health food stores.

Gluten Substitutes:

Since gluten is the substance that holds together baked products and make them moist and provides  good  textures,  there is  a need to find a substitute  that will provide similar characteristics without changing texture or flavour.  The following are best substitutes for gluten.

Xanthum Gum – this is formulated in the laboratory, and comes from the dried cell coat of Zanthomonas Campestris.  This works well as a gluten substitute in yeast bread and other baked goods. This is available in health food stores.

Guar Gum – this is a powder form produced from the seed of Cyamopsis  tetragonolobus.  A  more natural binder and an excellent substitute for gluten. This can be purchased in health food stores.

Pre - gel starch – an acceptable gluten substitute. This reduces crumbling in baked products.  Available

 in health food stores.

Eating gluten free is not really hard.  It’s just knowing what best replaces gluten for the recipe that are being prepared. It is a matter of figuring out what works best as a replacement.