Gina A. Herrera

I love cooking! It’s one of my biggest joys in life, and so is eating. But there are those days when, food-wise, it seems that nothing goes your way. The food tastes bland, you’re not in the mood to cook and when you do, you don’t like it.

Are you running out of cooking ideas? The foods that you used to like don’t seem all that appealing to you and the thought of eating the same thing again brings nothing but desperation. Even the restaurants which you used to love don’t thrill you anymore. You, my friend, are in a food rut! I’ve been there, too many times than I care to admit.

I’ve got 10 tips that will pluck you out of your unpleasant food rut and get your food groove back!

Try New Restaurants

​New restaurants are my salvation! They give me life… and food. Whenever I find myself in a funk, I take to Google and begin my search for new and exciting restaurants. I say search because, as a vegan, it’s a bit harder to find a place that serves cruelty-free food.

That said, when I do happen to find one, it really gives my taste buds everything they need to call themselves satisfied, and that really ends my food rut!

​Go On A Culinary Vacation

​Most times, when you’re tired of the food you’re eating on a daily basis, you’re tired of pretty much everything else. I know that my food rut often coincides with a work rut, or any other type of rut that seems to be killing me slowly. So, what is there to do?

Find a wonderful destination that you’ve been meaning to visit and go on a culinary vacation! Immerse yourself in a whole new culinary adventure and things will fall into place!

​Food Bloggers

​When it comes to new foods, delicious recipes, and stunning food photos, the Internet is a never-ending source of inspiration for me. Whenever I feel uninspired, I check to see what my favorite food bloggers are up to and, trust me, they never disappoint!

Oh She Glows is simply amazing and filled with some of the most awesome vegan recipes on the whole wide web. I also highly recommend Minimalist Baker and the lovely No Meat Athlete.

​Eat At A Friend’s House

​If you’re lucky to have a friend who cooks, then whenever

You know that fruits and vegetables are healthy, but what do they actually do? If you’re having trouble with dry skin, eye health, or high cholesterol caused by high blood pressure, there are certain foods you can eat to help eliminate these symptoms.

Although they cannot cure diseases, having a healthy diet can prevent harm to your body and keep every organ in your body working properly. However, if you have a severe deficiency, sometimes eating a serving of broccoli just won’t cut it. In this case, you can take a supplement to ensure you’re getting the correct quantity of whatever vitamin or mineral you may be lacking.

Check out Authority Reports first before purchasing a supplement to find brand comparisons based on price and quality. Keep reading to find out which foods you can eat to improve your skin, eyes, and heart.

​Foods For Your Skin

​You’ve probably heard this a million times, but the water content in your skin affects the color and quality of your skin. If your skin is looking gray and sallow, you better start gulping down some water. But there are foods you can eat which hydrate your skin by building the moisture barrier in your skin to make it smoother and brighter. Keep your skin looking fresh and dewy by eating:

Adding a few of these fruits and vegetables to your everyday diet can do wonders for your skin.

Surprisingly, omega-3 fatty acids are also beneficial to your skin. There are three types of omega-3 fatty acids: DHA, EPA, and ALA. You need a combination of DHA and EPA to get the full benefits from this nutrient. Omega-3 is an antioxidant, which eliminates free radicals in your bloodstream, keeping your cells healthy. It maintains the softness of your skin and keeps in moisture.

Foods that are rich in omega-3 are:

If you aren’t eating three servings of fish per week, you’re better off taking an omega-3 supplement. You need at least 1500 mg of both DHA and EPA omega-3 combined, so make sure the supplement you buy has the correct amounts.

​Foods For Your Eyes

​You’ve always heard carrots were good for your eyes, and this holds true. Carrots and other colorful vegetables contain vitamin A, which is also known as beta carotene. Beta carotene gives

With the rising cost of food and groceries in general, it is important to stay conscious of what we are paying for and receiving as a consumer. It may seem petty to some people, but knowing exactly how much of something you get for your money is only fair, including how many slices of bacon are in a pound.

This knowledge is also helpful when meal planning, so you can judge exactly how many servings you will get in a package of bacon.

​Visual Inspection

​When purchasing bacon in the grocery store, first have a look at the bacon itself. How much “white” do you see? This white is fat and as it cooks, will shrink your slices down, making it seem like less. Your 12 inch slice of bacon may shrink down to half that size once the fat renders away.

Therefore, you would require more slices to feed the family. Look at the cut of the bacon you are purchasing. Is it a thin sliced variety or perhaps a thick slice? Obviously, the thicker the slices, the less actual slices you will get in your package since each package usually weighs 12 to 16 ounces despite the cut of each slice.

​Cut/Type of Pork

The type or cut of pork may change the quantity of bacon in the package. There are a few varieties of bacon available for purchase, depending where the pork was cut from the pig. Side bacon comes from the side of the pig and is the most commonly purchased variety.

Peameal bacon comes from center back of the pig and is a leaner cut. It is also called Canadian Bacon and tends to be more “ham-like”. This variety is usually heavy and thicker, therefore rendering less slices per pound.

​Overall, if you are purchasing a 1lb. package of bacon you almost bet you will get about 16 to 20 slices in your package. If you are opting for thin sliced bacon instead, you will get approximately 35 slices in a pound. These totals are specific to side bacon, of course.

If you wish to purchase peameal bacon then you can expect to get about half the amount of side bacon at approximately eight slices per pound.

​Hopefully this helpful outline has answered your question of how many slices of bacon are in a pound. It isn’t always straightforward with a few different

Are you a vampire chaser looking to keep your garlic stock fresh? Perhaps you are like me and love to cook with fresh ingredients but want to know exactly how long is garlic good for before having to throw it away. It is important to ensure your garlic is fresh because the flavor does change with time, which could alter the taste of your dish.

It isn’t a simple answer of course because there are several factors that could contribute to how long garlic is good for, including the humidity of your kitchen, where you are storing it and how you are storing it. With a few modifications, you should be able to keep your garlic fresh in your kitchen for some time.

What Kind Of Garlic Are You Using?

With this I don’t mean, are you using specific breeds from far off countries. I mean, are you looking for the shelf life of pre-chopped garlic? Or perhaps you are wishing to know the freshness of a whole bulb? The form of garlic you are using changes how long you can use freshly use your garlic for.

Fresh, whole garlic will typically last for three to six months, while chopped garlic only for about one week in the fridge. If you purchased a prepared jar of chopped garlic at your grocery store, it should be good for one to two months in the fridge.

Storage

How you decide to store your garlic will, inevitably, change the shelf life and freshness of the garlic. If you happen to place your bulb of fresh garlic in your pantry where it might be a little warm and exposed to light, you will see it lasts a shorter time than if you stored it somewhere cool, and dark such as a basement or garage.

If you have broken up your bulb into cloves, you will see that the garlic will last only about a week in a cool, dry place. Peeling the individual cloves will reduce that time even more, so it is best to keep your garlic bulb intact until you are ready to use it.

Maybe you

Prоfеѕѕiоnаl сhеfѕ аnd ѕеriоuѕ hоmе сооkѕ lоvе сорреr сооkwаrе. Cорреr hаѕ thе uniԛuе аbilitу tо соnduсt hеаt fаѕtеr thаn аnу other mеtаl thаt is nоrmаllу uѕеd in сооkwаrе. Bесаuѕе thе сорреr hеаtѕ uр ѕо ԛuiсklу, it mоvеѕ thе hеаt еvеnlу thrоughоut thе раn, еliminаting hоt ѕроtѕ thаt саn саuѕе ѕсоrсhing аnd ѕtiсking.

Sоmе сооkѕ bеliеvе thаt hаving thе right раnѕ саn imрrоvе thе реrfоrmаnсе оf thеir kitсhеn еvеn mоrе thаn buуing a brаnd nеw rаngе. Cорреr роtѕ аnd раnѕ rеѕроnd ԛuiсklу tо аnу сhаngе in thе tеmреrаturе оf thе burnеr, fаr ԛuiсkеr thаn раnѕ mаdе оf ѕtаinlеѕѕ ѕtееl оr саѕt irоn.

Thiѕ givеѕ сооkѕ muсh mоrе соntrоl оvеr thе сооking рrосеѕѕ. Thеrе аrе ѕеvеrаl tуреѕ оf раnѕ thаt fеаturе сорреr. Thе сорреr itself саnnоt соmе intо соntасt with fооd, ѕо thеrе muѕt bе аnоthеr metal оn thе inѕidе оf thе раn.

Cорреr Plаtеd Pаnѕ:

Sоmе сооkwаrе iѕ mаdе with аluminum оr ѕtаinlеѕѕ ѕtееl, аnd hаѕ bееn рlаtеd with a thin сорреr еxtеriоr. Thе bоttоm will uѕuаllу hаvе a thiсkеr lауеr of сорреr, аnd thе innеr ѕurfасе iѕ uѕuаllу ѕtаinlеѕѕ ѕtееl.

Sоlid Cорреr Pаnѕ:

Sеvеrаl Eurореаn mаnufасturеrѕ mаkе ѕоlid сорреr сооkwаrе linеd with ѕtаinlеѕѕ ѕtееl; Fаlk Culinаir frоm Bеlgium, Mаuviеl аnd dе Buуеr frоm Frаnсе. Lаrа Cорреr сооkwаrе iѕ hаnd-mаdе in Auѕtrаliа. Thе Hаmmеrѕmith Cоrроrаtiоn iѕ thе lаѕt ѕurviving mаkеr оf ѕоlid-сорреr сооkwаrе in thе Unitеd Stаtеѕ.

Sоlid сорреr сооkwаrе iѕ muсh mоrе еxреnѕivе thаn рlаtеd оr сlаd сооkwаrе, but thе роtѕ аnd раnѕ mаdе оf ѕоlid сорреr rеѕроnd muсh mоrе ԛuiсklу tо сhаngеѕ in hеаt thаn аnу оthеr раnѕ. Prоfеѕѕiоnаl сhеfѕ inѕiѕt оn ѕоlid сорреr, whilе a ѕеriоuѕ hоmе сооk mау сhооѕе juѕt оnе - реrhарѕ a ѕаuté раn оr mеdium-ѕizеd ѕаuсераn - thаt iѕ uѕеd mоѕt оftеn.

Onсе уоu сооk with сорреr cookware fоr thе first timе, уоu'rе unlikely tо gо bасk tо аnуthing еlѕе. It'ѕ nо wonder whу аll grеаt сhеfѕ hаvе a fеw рiесеѕ оf сорреr cookware in thеir соllесtiоn.

​Cорреr Cооkwаrе Bеnеfitѕ

For those learning how to bake a cake, you all know that the frosting plays a key role in how tasty your cake is and how it looks. You absolutely can do it on your own, but it is a challenging task to get delicious frosting while you have to spend lots of time on it.

Alternatively, it is much more convenient and time-saving to buy the ready-made frosting rather than making it on your own. However, the bought frosting sometimes can’t bring you the desired taste and flavor, and of course, it doesn’t taste home-made.

Don’t worry; you absolutely may learn how to make the store bought frosting better within some steps with simple ingredients and equipment. If you hope to get the frosting of your preference, don’t skip any part of the article since you will be provided with a comprehensive guide on what you need to prepare to get the job done and how you do it.

​What You Need To Prepare

Before kicking off doing your frosting, you have to prepare some essential ingredients and equipment.

Obviously, the first thing you need to do the tutorial is ready-made frosting. You can easily buy some ready-made frosting at any supermarket or grocery store. Choose any of your preference. There are different flavors, but the most popular are vanilla, chocolate or fruit.

If you want to get a specific flavor for your frosting, the easiest way is to add in some jams or flavor extract based on your preferences. Coconut milk extract, vanilla extract, strawberry and orange jam are great ideas for adding flavor to the frosting. But remember to choose organic jam and natural extract to get the best taste and flavor.

It will be great to mix frosting with other ingredients like extracts, jam or sugar with a hand mixer or the stand mixer because the precise repeated speed of the machine brings you the best texture and taste of the mixed frosting.

However, if you don’t have the equipment in your house and don’t want to spend money on them, you may use the spatula instead.

For the spatula, we have silicon spatula and a wooden spatula. But I highly recommend the wooden one since it doesn’t melt when meeting heat. Also, it takes your more time, attention and skills to get desired texture and taste with

Regardless of your plans in the morning, breakfast is indispensable for a healthy lifestyle. However, things might be more complicated when you want to maximize your energy for training.

So, if you are addicted to training in the morning, what is the best breakfast for you? This article will help you find out the right option!

Why Breakfast is Important for Training

Despite its great importance, breakfast is the most commonly skipped meal in the day. And that causes countless problems that you might not even realize.

Skipping breakfast may lead to obesity because you crave for more foods for lunch or dinner. Besides, if you are used to training after that, breakfast plays an essential role. It offers you with proteins and carbs that enhance your energy level. This is crucial for strenuous exercise.

More importantly, these nutrients have significant effects on repairing your muscles after a workout. Without them, your muscles cannot grow as you wish. But what should you eat in breakfast to maximize the benefits of training? That has been a tough question for years. The secret is now revealed!

Top Breakfast for Training

Forget a cup of coffee and a packet of sandwich for breakfast! You will need healthier food for breakfast which has important effects on your day. Below are some types of foods that we believe you will find useful for training.

Undeniably, this food is a familiar name for gym lovers and athletes. It is an excellent source of fiber. This substance supports the production of carbohydrates into our bloodstream.

This process provides the body with a stable energy level. Thus, you will finish your workout with better results. Oatmeal is also one of the most popular choices for the pre-workout meal. You can easily find many versatile Do-It-Yourself recipes to make oatmeal shining in breakfast.

Even when you are not interested in nutrition for fitness, the egg might still be one of your favorite and most popular options for breakfast. Nevertheless, if you care about training, you need to know that egg white will do better than egg yolk.

The reason is that egg yolk provides some fat which our body metabolizes quite slowly. As a consequence, you may experience bloating when training. On the other hand, egg white does not contain any fat in its content.

It even supplies up to 4 grams of

“I bought my vacuum sealer after watching an online ad out of excitement and it has since been lying in my kitchen cupboard, never having seen the light of the day.”

Sounds Like You?

Well, don’t worry! There are many out there just like you! But don’t blame this amazing gadget on your sloth. There is still time to utilize this amazing item. Here are a few tips that will help you freeze food for longer and save up on a few bucks at the same time!

Every time you try to vacuum out the air from a bag of fruits, meatballs, etc., the food gets squished. You wonder why you should use the vacuum sealer at all! Well, news is that you’re not doing it the right way. When freezing food items like berries, freeze them on a plain sheet, before putting them in a packet and vacuum sealing them. Moreover, in case of soups, freeze them in plastic bowls or containers.

Because of the differences in the consistency and type of food, each food when frozen will not heat well. While there are soups and other semi-liquid food items that reheat well, it is very likely that something like meatballs might remain cold from the inside. So it is better to freeze it uncooked.

When putting anything in the freezer, label it properly with the name of the food item as well as the day it is stored. This will ensure that you do not mistake tomato puree with chili sauce. Moreover, each food item has a certain expiry date even when it is frozen.

You do not want to forget when you store a certain item and use it after its expiry. Labeling packs also ensures that your refrigerator is organized.

Though vacuum sealing keeps all kinds of food preserved, it is not effective to freeze food only. If you vacuum seal the foods with their boxes in your pantry, you will be able to increase their shelf life as well. So do not limit the use of the vacuum sealer.

Food items like flour, cheese, etc. can all be vacuum sealed. In case of powdered food like flour, just make sure that the vacuum sealer does not directly come in

Belly fat cure! This is the single most interesting topic that engages most of the people across the world. Everyone, in the same way or the other, worries about losing weight. Now, the general idea is, the lesser you eat, the lesser the weight gain and thus your weight remains in check! But this is far from the real truth! Not eating is not the solution here.

Controlled and selective eating is the answer. Here, we are listing some of the best ideas for protein food that leads to belly fat cure.

​Belly Fat Cure By Protein Foods

This is not only useful for the good old Popeye, but it has several positive effects on the human body. You would be surprised to know how much protein is contained in spinach. One cup of this leafy vegetable has as much protein as a hardboiled egg. But it might not be that pleasing to the taste buds.

So you could steam it instead of having the food raw. Also, you could team the spinach with some pasta or omelette to toss in the vegetables to make for an exciting meal. Apart from proteins, it has a good combination of vitamins for the body too.

Guava is one of the most important and nutritious foods around. In fact, it is the fruit with the highest protein content. It offers a rich 4 grams of proteins per cup of the fruit. Guavas are delicious to taste and healthy to consume. So, having these in your regular fruit content might be an exciting prospect to get the weighing scales to go down.

You would be surprised if we really told you peas are protein rich foods. In fact, this vegetable has a lot more proteins than the conventional spinach. The best part about peas is that they offer a high dose of vitamin C as well. So one cup of these peas on a regular basis can really keep your immune system on a high.

You could use peas in your regular cooked food or even use it on your sandwiches or omelets in order to have a complete meal and get started with the whole process of weight loss.

This is a great idea for snacks every now and then. Be it an early morning snack just before those long jogging sessions or

Everybody takes white rice in their daily food but no one familiars that it has only less nutritional value than the brown rice. At all the times, brown rice is better than white rice because of its nutritional difference. Most of the people think that the difference between these two types of rices is only color.

It is a wrong thought because the brown rice is completely different from the white rice. In real fact, the brown rice is only a natural food with full of protein and existing brown rice nutrition. Only the top layer of the brown rice will be removed and all nutrients will be preserved in it. But the white rice is a polished form of brown rice. Generally, the rice has several layers on its top to preserve its nutrients.

​When the brown rice is milled or polished, almost all healthy layers of the brown rice will be removed and resultant rice will be white with no nutrients. The brown rice has several nutrients such as phosphorous, selenium, manganese, iron, protein, dietary fiber, essential fatty acids, vitamin B1, vitamin B3, vitamin B6, with no cholesterol.

These vitamins and nutrients are not available in the white rice. This is why brown rice is a healthiest food than white rice.

Some Reasons Why Brown Rice Is A Healthiest Option Than White Rice.

By no means, I wish to claim that certain foods alone can cure cancer and guarantee that you will be immune to all diseases. The right ingredients however, will help reduce the risk of poor health. I know which option I would rather take!

Below is a table of health benefits listing more than 100 ingredients and an explanation of essential acids and antioxidants.

The Following Table Lists Shows How Ingredients May Benefit Your Health: