Mum’s Creative Juices

On November 8, 2012, in Diet, by admin

juicers

With obesity lurking from every corner, mum has now been more and more health conscience when she is preparing food for our family. Every morning, she will take the effort to freshly squeeze juices from what she claimed to be her best juicer from all her previous juicers she ever owned. But needless to say, I do enjoy her juices. Mum has a creative way of blending different type of fruits to make delicious juices which may not taste like their color.

The color of the juice may just scare you away, but once you take a sip out of it, you will be wanting more. I remember the day when she made the lemonade with the pink dragon fruit juice. The bright pink color made my younger sister so thought that she was drinking some magic potion that she was in tears when she was forced to drink the whole glass. Mum was just smiling away knowing that she did made a good drink!

 

A Detailed Review On The Best Mixer by Cuisinart

On January 18, 2013, in Cooking, by admin

Cuisinart Mixers are very popular nowadays. They are recommended by top chefs and cooks around the world. It can take care of most tedious kitchen chores. One can sit back and watch it works its magic effortlessly. Cuisinart has two top of the line stand mixers.

The 7 Quart SM – 70 stand mixers is the best mixer while the smaller 5.5 Quart version called SM – 55 gives it a close competition. These gadgets are a must have for any modern kitchen. The two models have been thoroughly reviewed in this article so that one can have a much clearer view about their capabilities. Go through the best mixer reviews online for further details about this product. 

Review of Cuisinart SM 70
1. Main features:
The SM 70 is a powerhouse and it can cut, chop and grind through anything you want. It is undoubtedly the Best Cuisinart Mixer. The 1000 Watt motor is equipped with 12 speed function that allows you to use that much power that is needed for your task. Have you invite few guests over and don’t know how to quickly cut and chop all the vegetables? The huge 7 Quart stainless steel bowl will allow you to cut and chop large amounts of vegetables at once.

2. Other features:
Apart from the main features there are few more small features that make it the best mixer. Do you have other works and don’t have time to stand by the mixer while it kneads the wheat flour? 15-Minute Countdown Timer can help you to do just that. The mixer shuts down automatically after the work is done or 15 minutes. It also has a Splashguard with Pour Spout which does not allow water or any other liquid to escape outside. Most other mixers don’t have this facility and it may leave you soiled. The Flat Mixing Paddle, Dough Hook makes it a better experience.

Review of Cuisinart SM 55
1. Main features:
This is the mini version of the SM 70. It comes with a 5.5 Quart Stainless steel bowl that is considered to be medium sized. It is powered by an 800-watt engine that makes it the best mixer in its class.

Durable die-cast metal is used to make the body of the mixer. The other functions like 12 speed precision control and 3 power outlets are present in this mixer too. It is a pleasure to work with this machine as it has really easy controls.

2. Extra features:
It has a Countdown timer similar to the SM 70. It comes with additional accessories like the Chef’s whisk, flat mixing paddle and a dough hook.

The final Verdict:
Both the mixers are right at the top of the best mixers list. SM 70 is the Best Cuisinart Mixer that does what it claim to do and hence there are no negative feedbacks about it. They give a solid warranty of 5 years on the motor itself. 3 year warranty is provided on the other parts of the mixer.

One can easily Cut fruits, grind meat, knead flour and make fruit juice or milkshake. Buying a machine like this is worth the cost and one can go forward to buy such an efficient piece of kitchen equipment.

 

Friday Is The Day

On December 30, 2012, in Diet, Personal, by admin

Many people like the Thanksgiving holiday because of the food and getting together with family and friends. I have to say that holidays are certainly different since my vertical sleeve gastrectomy weight loss surgery. I still like the food, but my little vsg post weigh loss tummy doesn’t hold much.

Then there are shoppers. They like Thanksgiving because of Black Friday, the Super Bowl of shopping. LOL I am always conflicted about it. I like the deals if there is something in particular I am shopping for, but I hate the crowds. I don’t do crowds well. This year there is also the consideration of the economy. We have definitely cut back as many people have. I wonder what this Friday will be like. Will it be super crowded with people desperate for bargains or will it be a wasteland with everyone staying home?

Diet Food

I have said before that I am for any kind of diet or weight loss program that works for you, not just weight loss surgery. I was talking to a friend who is interested in one of the diet food delivery programs. One of her main problems is that she doesn’t cook so she eats out a lot. She heard about these programs and thought that it would be a solution for her. She asked me to help her find a program.

After a little looking around I found BestDietFoodDelivery.com. It has extensive information on the top diet food delivery services. The companies covered are Medifast, Nutrisystem, Diet to Go, Zone, E-Diets and Bistro MD. What I especially like about the site is that user contribution is encouraged. There are posts from people who have used the various diet food delivery services with their thoughts and experiences regarding them.  

After reading through the site I can see where a diet food delivery program can be a great way to lose weight. You don’t have to stress about making food selections and counting calories. This diet food program didn’t require you to buy the best juicer or the best blenders or the best food processor, it just takes the problems of shopping and cooking out of the equation. The dieter can just pop their entry into the best microwave oven and enjoy their meal. It even looks like a great time saver. I think that once my friend makes her decision she is going to enjoy her diet food delivery plan.

Visiting Blogs

Visiting blogs is one of my favorite pass times when I have the opportunity. Sometimes when I am working on line and need a break I will visit some blogs to refresh my mind and think about something besides business. With the holiday this weekend I indulged myself and visited lots of blogs. I like blogs that blog about cooking, home improvement and travel.

I have decided to share my list with you. The topics are all over the place but I enjoy them all. You may even find something you like yourself. Here they are.

 

Best Yogurt Maker

On November 4, 2012, in Diet, by admin

A yogurt maker is a kitchen appliance that mixes milk with starter ingredients to produce custard like paste called yogurt. During the entire process this mixture is kept at steady temperatures to ensure the yogurt comes out smooth and perfect as possible. In as much as yogurt can be homemade without necessarily using complex appliances yogurt makers are quite appropriate and efficient with regard to the quality yogurt that they produce in the end.

The market makes available some of the best yogurt makers with the classification based on the price, design or efficiency. Some of these appliances come with glass jars and cups and air tight lids with perfect size to allow making different flavors in a single batch. These are easy to clean and safe with the dishwasher.

According to consumer research, the best yogurt makers reviews are as follows. Rated as the best appliance in the market is the Cuispro Donvier electronic yogurt maker. This appliance has the ability to make 6 cups in a single batch and features a heater base, thermometer stirrer, digital LCD display, electrical timer with 5 and 10 minute beeps to mark the end of the process. To top it up this appliance also comes with a recipe making it easy for anyone.

Next in line is the Euro Cuisine ym80. With the capability of making 42 ounces of yogurt at once, accompanied with 7 lid-sealed glass jars, chord storage and a timer it does compete for the top spot. This one is able to make yogurt from any type of milk in just less than 6 hours.

The Yogourmet 104 electric comes in third as one of the best yogurt makers. It is able to make 2 liters of fresh yogurt at a time. It features a water bath system with precision thermometer with step by step instructions for the process. It also comes with dishwasher safe PVC internal container for easy cleaning.

Lastly is the Euro Cuisine ym100. It also makes 42 ounces in 6 to 10 hours, comes with 7 lid sealed glass jars, auto shut off for safety and cord storage to ensure tidy appearance.

These four are some of the best yogurt makers according to consumer reviews with quite favorable prices. so in your search for a good yogurt maker, these four should feature in your list.

 

Delonghi Dehumidifier Reviews

On October 31, 2012, in Home, by admin

I hate to admit it but I had a bad mold problem in my house and I was in the market to but a dehumidifier for quite some time before I came across one I actually liked. It
ended up being a very great, smart and affordable purchase! I am so pleased that I bought the delonghi dehumidifier! It does everything I need it to do and with no problems what so ever! Not only has it been extremely helpful but it is also very easy and inexpensive to use! Now the mold problem is virtually gone! I would definitely recommend buying a DeLonghi dehumidifier for your house and these are my reasons why.

First off, the cost of the delonghi dehumidifier and the cost it takes to run it. Dehumidifiers in general can get quite expensive when you really need one that does a great job, so when I saw the price for the delonghi dehumidifier I was very pleased! Also, since it is an energy star rated appliance, it only costs a few cents to run! This humidifier is not only economical but it also gets the job done with excellent results as well as with very little complications, which I think it’s one of the best dehumidifier you can get in the market.

The delonghi dehumidifier has electronic controls for easy control and easy setting of what temperature and humidity level you like. Not only that but the water tank is in the front and is also transparent. This allows you to actually see how much water you have collected with your device!

If storing up the water is not your intent (and believe me it isn’t mine either) this machine can actually pump the water out up to 16 ft with the proper hose attached! You can also read Delonghi dehumidifier reviews for further details on this dehumidifier.

I use this to get the water out my kitchen window to a plant box right outside and I never worry about the tank filling up, which is a 50 pint tank so it’s not like I would worry often anyway! Not to mention it has helped fix the mold problem at my house and I see no signs of it returning any time soon!

When it comes to your safety and the safety of others in your home due to air born mold spurns, do not settle for number two! It would be an awful thing to actually buy a different dehumidifier just to end up hating it and spending even more money to replace it later on! Or even worse, have to make repairs to your house due to mold or mildew!

For all the reasons to get a delonghi dehumidifier I really don’t see any down side to it, and if you think you do not need a dehumidifier at all… think again! Mold and mildew can be anywhere so it is much better to be on the safe side and have one available in your home just in case the worst should happen. It’s always better to be prepared than to be unsure and get sick later on down the road! So go out and buy yourself a DeLonghi Dehumidifier, you can thank me later!

 

Advantages of Using A Bread Machine

On September 25, 2012, in Baking, by admin

Many people like to bake their own bread at home and if you are reading this article then it is highly possible that you are one of us. I admit that I prefer the lazy way of doing it – by using a bread machine. There are people who claim that handmade bread is better and even have therapeutic benefits, but I have tried and tested both methods, and decided to stick with the machine. Check out the best bread machines here.

The main reason is that I don’t have to knead, of course, but it is more than that because I also don’t have to do a lot of other things. All the ingredients are measured and put into the machine in one go, which means I don’t have to add them one by one into a mixer. There is nothing left for me to do after adding the ingredients, except to set the bread cycle.

If I use a mixer, I would still have to grease a bowl, cover up the dough when it is ready for rising, and move it to a warm place for proofing. None of that is needed when I use the bread machine. Also, the mixing of the floury ingredients will not spray about and dirty my counter top. The whole process is so neat!

The other advantage of using a bread maker is that it really kneads the dough much more thoroughly than by hand or by any powerful mixer. It is, after all, designed for that specific purpose. Dough that is kneaded by the bread machine rises higher and yet you don’t see a lot of air pockets inside when you cut the baked bread.

The texture is fine and it is firmer than handmade bread. One thing you can be sure of is the reliability of the bread machine to come out with bread that is good in texture and flavor, as long as you got the ingredients right. That might not be the case if you use a mixer or your own hands.

That does not mean you have to abandon the flexibility of making different types of bread. I often use my bread machine just to knead the dough. After the dough has risen and is ready to bake, I will take it out and shape it before baking it in a toaster oven. I have often made rolls, pizzas, and even hamburger buns besides the regular loaf shaped breads. You can also bake your loaves in the oven instead of the bread machine if you prefer that. On a side note, you can find some bread machine recipes on this site.

Another thing I like about using the bread machine is perhaps a fancy thing – the timer. It is so convenient to have freshly baked bread ready to eat when I wake up, or pizza dough ready to roll out and bake as I come home from work. Planning ahead is as simple as putting in the ingredients and setting the cycles and timer. Why eat store bought bread when bread making can be as simple as that?

If it is your first time with a bread machine and you worry about the results, I can tell you that practice makes perfect, and with bread machines, perfection comes faster.

 

What You Should Know About Toaster Oven

On September 17, 2012, in Baking, Cooking, by admin

The quality of toaster ovens needs to be tested and so we have devised a few experiments for the toaster oven. Before you read on, you need to know that the range between low end and high end toaster ovens are quite wide apart. Go can search for reviews on the best toaster ovens  to find more information about the different toaster ovens and which the best ones are.

The experiments we do on our toaster ovens are cooking experiments that can be done by anybody with a toaster oven. First is the test to toast evenly. A toaster oven that can toast evenly will be able to do a range of other cooking tasks well. By placing six pieces of bread in the toaster oven to toast, a pattern of brownness shows whether the toaster oven heats its interior capacity evenly.

Later on, we test the same toaster ovens for melting cheese, heating frozen casseroles and baking cookies. The toaster ovens with bad performance in toasting evenly also was not able to melt the cheese evenly on pizzas; the casseroles still have cold centers even when the surfaces were browned; and the cookies had dry and brittle edges.

The design and the shape of the toaster oven also played a significant role in the cooking. Those models with a divider in the middle to separate the bun warming section and the oven are too small to accommodate large servings like an entire chicken.

On the flip side, the tall models with a large interior cooking space are not good for small sized or flat food items because the heating elements and the walls are too far away. However, a large cooking space is still better and nowadays toaster ovens come with adjustable racks to let you place food nearer to the heating elements.

To be able to cook well, a toaster oven must be able to achieve and maintain temperature throughout cooking. The lesser quality toaster ovens will not be accurate with the temperature settings, giving you more or less than what you need.

The best oven will have small discrepancy in the temperature and will not lose heat over time. Only one of the best toaster ovens we tried was perfect in every aspect. It browned toast nicely and evenly without turning it into a crisp, and all six pieces of toast were beautifully browned without hot and cold spots.

The cheese and casseroles posed no problems for the toaster oven, and even the chicken fitted nicely in it. The interior is spacious and yet not too big for baking the bite size snacks. There are heating elements on the top and below, and you can set it to use both or only one of them.
The material that made the heating elements will decide how responsive it is to temperature change, and how well it maintains the temperature. Quartz is the best material for responsive heating compared to chromium and nickel. The heat will be constant and more even.

As a conclusion, a good toaster oven can be difficult to choose if you require it to be as multipurpose as it is described to be, but if you are willing to compromise a couple of functions that you don’t often use, it is very likely that you can find a decent one. Looking for toaster oven recipes? Check out here.

 

Something To Consider

On August 9, 2012, in Personal, by admin

There are so many people looking for work these days. It is sad to see people lose jobs that they have had for years. I know my area is being hard hit just like the rest of the country is. While it may sound funny to talk about starting up a new business there are good opportunities out there. Just because the economy is bad is no reason to give up your dreams. I never gave up my dream of weight loss. Just like I was successful after weight loss surgery a new business can be successful in this economy.

Let Down

Remember when I blogged about how excited we were anticipating the return of 24 to television? Ummm, scratch that. LOL My husband and I were there front and center but we both thought that it was a big disappointment. We sat down with our popcorn, something that I love to snack on since my weight loss. We were expecting the beginning of the plot for the season, you know, the whole 24 thing that the show is based on? Instead it was two hours of Jack running around. There really was not much point to the whole thing. I hope when the actual show starts it is better, if not I’ll scratch one more show off my viewing list. Bummer, there’s not much left to watch!

Tick Tock

I remember when watches were just watches. They all pretty much looked the same and nobody spent much money on them. Now watches are a major fashion statement. Some celebrities spend more on a watch than many people will make in a life time. I was watching TMZ the other day and saw a celebrity wearing a watch that was so encrusted with diamonds I can’t believe he could raise his hand. And I thought my weight loss surgery was expensive!

Those over the top ones aside, I have to admit there are some really beautiful ones out there. I go for the more classic styles myself. I like a watch that will not be out of style in a year or two. There are some very reasonably priced Seiko Watches that fit that category. There are several in their stainless steel with diamonds line that I would love to have. They look much more expensive than they are. Since my weight loss surgery my old watch is too big!