How to Make the Best Tasting Stew Recipes

By KC Kudra

Stews are very popular, especially when the weather is cool, and you want something warming and tasty. A stew is a combination of solid foods, usually meat, or fish with vegetables that have been simmered or cooked slowly in a liquid sauce to allow the flavors to combine well. The sauce is served as well as its contents.

Common stew ingredients include meat, chicken, seafood, fish, potatoes, carrots, beans, and fruit. Wine, water, beer, or bouillons are commonly used as the stew liquid and seasonings help to add more flavor.

What is the Difference between Stew and Soup?

Stewing is a good cooking method to use on tough cuts of meat because stewing is the only way to tenderize them. Stews contain large pieces of meat or fish and vegetables. Soups contain smaller pieces, if any.

Stew is served as a main dish rather than as an appetizer and always contains chunky ingredients. Soup can be served as pureed liquid only without any bits in and is always served in a bowl or deep dish. A chunky stew can be served on a plate.

Making Your Stew Rich and Flavorful

Combining meat, vegetables and water will make a stew but not a very interesting one! There are a few things to know if you want to make your stews tasty.

You can use different combinations of meat; fish, herbs, vegetables, and spices in stew recipes because the dish is so versatile. It is a good idea to season the meat with salt and pepper and sear it in a hot pan before adding it to the liquid.

You might want to roll the meat in flour to thicken up the stew. Meat chunks should be browned all over before you add them to the liquid. This means they will not dry out. This applies whichever type of meat you are using - chicken, beef, pork, or something else.

The next step in making an exciting stew is to saut some vegetables in the pan, then add water, wine, juice, broth or whichever liquid you are using and scrape the bottom of the pan to incorporate any stuck on bits into the liquid. Put the meat back into the pan and cook slowly.

You should check the pan periodically to see if you need to add more liquid or seasoning or give it a stir. When the stew is done, you might want to throw in some cider, lemon juice, crispy crumbled bacon or parsley to brighten up the overall flavor. You can serve it in big bowls accompanied by warm bread to mop up the juices.

It is easy and fun to make stew. Whether you want to make a Jamaican brown stew chicken or an Irish stew, using the above tips will ensure your stew recipe comes out perfectly.

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Whether your looking for homemade chicken soup recipe or for chicken soup we cover chicken and soup with great recipes and helpful information.

Learning About The Foods To Eat On A Low Carb Diet

By Haiyan Lai-Heskin

If you want to burn fat and gain muscle quickly and at the same time have a diet that can last you for the rest of your life, you should go on a low carb diet.

The very first thing you shold learn is what foods you should eat for a low carb diet.

There are foods for a low carb diet that you should include as well as some foods to avoid on low carb diet.

Meats are very important and all meats are allowed on a low carb diet except for liver, which should always be avoided. You should also not eat meats that have filler or breading because this will make them loaded with carbohydrates and very unhealthy.

Always read the label for carbohydrate information especially when you are buying canned meat, and the same applies to seafood. Simply stick to fish and shellfish which contains lower carbohydrates.

As for foods for a low carb diet to avoid, high glycogen fruits are one. This includes watermelon, bananas, citrus fruits and pineapple, to name a few.

One of the biggest misconceptions people have is that all fruit is okay to eat, and although it does all offer nutritional value of some sort, bananas and similar fruits are very high in sugar and should be consumed rarely.

You should restrict the starchy vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, peas and corn, for instance, as these are healthy but also full of carbohydrates.

It can be hard to deal with learning what foods to eat and what foods to avoid on low carb diet especially since some of them are probably your favorite foods to eat. Get some help from your doctor or even better a nutritionist.

And also internet is another good place to find the information that you want. Simply spend some time to browse the Internet will give you a ton of great ideas to start with.

Once you have made a list of foods for a low carb diet that you can eat, head out to the supermarket and buy them. The best idea is to buy food every week, so that you have enough to last you in between shopping trips and make sure that you will not be relying on unhealthy foods to get you by.

If you stick to the diet, you will start to notice results in as little as a few weeks, but keep in mind that real results will probably not be noticeable until about six weeks after you start the diet.

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Try the part of Popular Diets In Hollywood to help your weight loss and exercise program. Read more Low Carb Diet For Vegetarians ideas.

Weight Gain After Menopause and Breast Cancer

By Ricardo d Argence

Some women think that gain weight during menopause is ok. Even if it just occurs naturally, it is not something you want to do.

Many women face the challenge and all of them have to tackle it. If you allow yourself to just pack on the pounds without doing anything at all about it, you are risking your health more than you may know.

Your chances of getting breast cancer increase as you gain weight during menopause. You must realize what kinds of issues could go along with it if you discover that you are gaining pounds at this stage of your lifetime. The risk level is reversible though. Lower your risk of breast cancer by lowering your weight.

Indeed, studies done at the Harvard Medical School of Public Health have shown that women who've put on 55 or more pounds since the age of 18 are 45% more apt to get breast cancer in comparison to those who didn't gain that many pounds. Using postmenopausal hormones can actually increase the risk of cancer.

The best thing to do is to make sure that the weight is not put on to begin with. Sometimes things in life happens though and if you have found yourself in a position where you need to lose some weight then you can do just that. The sooner you act the better. The quicker you get that extra weight off the less likely you will end up with breast cancer.

The key to success is to make certain that you diet and exercise properly. You want to make sure that you are doing everything in moderation. Getting enough protein and everything else that your body needs is very important. You may be able to lose the weight with a regular exercise routine and a diet change.

Losing one or two pounds per week is the healthiest route. It's not just that wanting results quicker is bad for your body, it's also a way to almost insure that the pounds are going to come back quite soon. The best way to lose weight is to go slow.

Even though there is the fear of breast cancer you could damage your body in other ways by not taking care of yourself when dieting and exercising. Know the facts and get yourself in action and you will be on the path to a healthier and better looking you.

About the Author:

Even if you are a teenager, there's nothing like a healthy lifestyle if you want to look great. But, during menopause, it is even more important. If you are looking for the best diet for menopause, in my website you will find a lot of articles and info that will help you to understand in a better way this period of your life. web hosting

Whoever would have thought that green coffe

By Cliff Eppalton

For the majority of coffee drinkers, the green coffee beans are something alien to them, in their endeavour to find a coffee that they can call their favorite brew. Again, a fact, unbeknown to the masses is that it is the quality of the 'green coffee beans' that impart the flavor of your coffee blend. Although totally unusable in the brewing of coffee in it's raw green unripened state - ripened coffee beans have a storage life of approximately 12 months. This is a significantly longer storage life than for both roasted and ground coffee.

With the price of some boutique coffees it is hard to conceive that coffee is actually grown from trees, but, it is the actual process of coffee production that is so labor intensive. Beans, in their raw state are picked by hand, both the ripe and unripened cherries. However, it is only the ripe cherries that have to be processed to produce the green coffee beans that are marketed and shipped for further processing.

Methods used to remove the outer hull and the inner parchment surrounding the beans can be a long process. Taking into account cost effectiveness, many smaller processing companies leave the beans lying in the sun to dry out before washing away the inner materials, Once the green coffee beans (seeds) have been cleansed and dried, they are bagged in shipments to be despatched to the coffee roasters. The price of the beans reflect their appearance, their size but also the coffee plantations from which they were taken and the region of that coffee plantation.

Coffee roasting - a tedious, labor intensive process

The green coffee beans have to be prepared for roasting and the actual time these beans are exposed to the heat, determines the flavor of the coffee. When beans are lightly roasted they exhibit the flavor of the region from which they were grown. For example, the beans grown for cultivation in Kona, Hawaii or Java are usually lightly roasted to retain the flavor of the soil in which they were grown. That is why coffee grown in different regions has it's own unique flavor.

If the green coffee beans are roasted for longer, they turn color and often they have a coating of oil on the outer part of the bean. The longer the roasting period, the more of the inherent flavoring of the individual growing regions are lost and, it is nigh impossible to determine from which coffee growing region of the world dark roasted beans may have been grown in and therefore originate.

Also, the nature of the heat source will affect the flavor of the roasted green coffee beans and the temperatures of the roasters can affect and change the flavor as well. On top of all that - the quality of the beans will begin to deteriorate at the time of roasting and up to the time the beans are vacuum packaged. Up until the advent of vacuum packaging for roasted beans,many roasted beans were discarded if not used within two weeks.

About the Author:

Cliff Eppalton very often creates detailed papers on things associated to home cappuccino machines and coffee makers and cappachino machines. On his site you might find out more about his writings on cappucino maker and home cappuccino machines.

Advance Wellness Research Promotional Offer

By Linda Kemp

There are a number of different health issues that can befall you over the course of your life. Some of these can be accidents while others can be disease conditions that occur because of the passage of time. Of course there's also the issue of wear and tear on your body. Having said all of that, there is one simple way that you can minimize the effect that all of these conditions will have on you over the course of your life: taking Pure Acai Berry every day!

Pure Acai Berry concentrates all of the goodness of the fruit of the acai palm of the Amazonian river basin into an affordable, easy to take, and highly effective nutritional supplement! With this one product you can guarantee that your body will have all of the nutrition that it needs in order to maintain itself and stave off illness.

One great example of the efficacy of the acai berry is the effect that it has on the human circulatory system. The fact of the matter is that over the course of our lives our circulatory systems become weaker and more apt to give us trouble. This is evidenced by the increase in blood pressure that often occurs as we approach and move beyond middle age. The fact that we're more likely to suffer strokes and heart attacks are also evidence of this tendency. There are a number of different factors that contribute to this happening. For one thing, the walls of the blood vessels become less elastic as we age. That, and the weakening of the heart muscle is caused by free radicals damaging those tissues. Another factor is the build up of cholesterol and plaque on the insides of the blood vessels. All of these things make the circulatory system function less effectively than it should. The short term symptoms of these problems include higher blood pressure and a decrease in energy and the longer term symptoms include a greater risk of stroke and heart attack!

The acai berry actually improves the condition of the human cardiovascular system by clearing the deposits out of the blood vessels and rejuvenating the tissues of the heart and blood vessels! Powerful antioxidants neutralize the free radicals that damage cardiac and blood vessel tissues while the minerals present in the acai berry help those tissues to recover to their youthful vigor. At the same time, the soluble fiber of the acai berry will cleanse that cholesterol and plaque out of the blood vessels! The result of all of this is lower blood pressure, a stronger heart, and more energy!

The acai berry, in the form of Pure Acai Berry, will also help your body to flush various kinds of contaminants. The main way in which it does this is by improving the functioning of the kidneys as well as the liver. That allows them to scrub the blood clean of toxins and contaminants. It's especially good for scouring out the things that the soluble fiber frees from the walls of the blood vessels!

When you combine these positive benefits of the acai berry with all of the other things that it does you can see why it's so valuable! After all, with improved memory, increased virility, greater resistance to illness, and quickened recovery from injury; you can see the value of using Pure Acai Berry!

About the Author:

This article is for consumers looking for information on Advance Wellness Research . It provides a resource for finding Pure Acai Berry , and any great Advance Wellness Research Offers that are currently available.

To Enhance the Baby Shower Theme: Consider Sweets and Desserts

By Edie Mindell

Baby showers are not complete without sweets! Desserts, fruit, and pastries add sweetness and charm to special events. Sweets are an important part of a baby shower, so do not forget to include them in your menu. If you have reservations in a restaurant, the restaurant will probably offer a dessert menu from which you can choose your selection of sweets and post-meal indulgences.

If you are hosting the baby shower at a banquet hall or at someones home, the dessert menu is completely up to you to decide on. You can make desserts fun, sweet, and baby themed to match your event. If there is a specific theme that you are focusing on, like "Pink Tea," design your dessert menu around your theme. Popular sweets for baby showers are pastries, clairs, truffles, fruits, chocolates, and the ever-classic cake.

Pastries and clairs can be bought or baked. Visit your local bakery to find out about any special deals and offers that they can offer for a large quantity of pastries purchased. You can also find some good recipes online or in a cookbook, and bake the pastries yourself. A great alternative to this is to buy frozen pastries at your local grocery store, or better yet, at a wholesale grocery store. These are affordable and scrumptiously delicious. B.J.s and Costco supermarkets have amazing clairs that nobody will ever know were bought frozen.

Trufas are a Latin American version of truffles. Truffles are not necessarily made out of chocolate in Hispanic countries, but can be made with coconut, vanilla, and other flavors. Two popular flavors in Latin America are coconut and cocoa-flavored truffles. An easy recipe for truffles calls for one can of sweetened condensed milk, a box of crushed vanilla wafer cookies, and a half of a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Cocoa, sweetened shredded coconut, and sprinkles are good add-ons.

Crush the cookies until you end up purely with cookie crumbs. Slowly add the sweetened condensed milk until you reach the desire consistency of tough clay. Add the vanilla flavoring along with the chosen flavor (cocoa, coconut, etc.). Use you own taste to decide how much cocoa or coconut to use. Roll into small, round truffles. As a finishing touch, roll the coconut truffles around in shredded coconut, and roll the cocoa truffles in cocoa. Sprinkles are optional.

Fruits and dip is a healthy and fresh option for a sweet treat. Serve apple slices, strawberries, pineapple, grapes, and melon alongside fruit dip, and you have got a fabulous and nutritious treat! Popular choices for fruit dip are caramel, chocolate, and yogurt dip.

Chocolate is a must-have for any baby shower. Small chocolates can be bought in bulk and served on tiny cupcake cups, for an elegant touch. You can also buy pastel-colored white chocolate (sold in bags in most craft stores), melt it, and pour the melted chocolate into small baby-themed molds (also can be found at a craft store). Refrigerate, and voila: delicate and adorable little chocolates!

Whichever sweets you decide to include in your menu, and whether or not you decide to make or buy them, do not forget about the cake! Whether you order it and have it made especially for your shower, or make it yourself, make sure that you are 100% satisfied with its outcome and that it ties into your baby shower theme.

About the Author:

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Acai Berry Side Effects

By B. Moffett

Acai berries are small fruits found primarily in Brazil. It has been a staple of the South American diet for hundreds of years, however traces of its use have been found in ancient medical records from numerous ancient civilizations.

The popularity of the Acai berry fruit as a key source of anti-oxidants, and its importance as a beneficial food supplement has seen a meteoric rise in only the last few years, greatly aided by adoption by top nutritionists and diet experts.

The increased demand has turned the acai berry into quite the cash crop and led to a drastic increase in farmers planting the powerful anti-oxidant fruit.

Adoption in the US in bars and restaurants as a preferred alternative to wheat grass drinks have given the Acai berry fruit as the choice of health conscious connoisseurs. There are a lot of medicinal benefits of this tasty fruit, some of which are:

has even been reported to act as an aphrodisiac

Increased stamina and energy

Reduction in fatigue and soreness

It helps support the immune system and fight disease.

It helps improve digestive functions.

Suppressing the appetite (helping with weight loss)

The fruit is armed with many more health benefits. The side effects of the Acai berry arent as evident as other fruits. Infact, the side effects of this fruit are very few and hardly noticeable.

Naturally, the acai berry side effect that is most often cited is the loss of appetite. While this may sound unpleasant to some, consider for a moment that there are several pills and medications out with the sole purpose of acting as an appetite suppressant. And, unlike medications, the berry doesnt harm the liver or kidneys, quite the opposite in fact. Since the berry is so high in fiber, acai berry juices or drinks help cleanse the body of harmful toxins and other substances.

That appetite suppression side effect means that you get healthy, and you get trim, without having to jump on some fad diet that may or may not work out properly for you. This side effect is not that common and varies from person to person, with every individual reacting differently to this revolutionary fruit. If we compare the beneficial health effects of the acai berry fruit, and the side effects, we find that the pros far outnumber the cons. We can safely conclude that the acai berry fruit is the food supplement that should be a component of every healthy household.

About the Author:

Be sure you read all the information on acai berry side effects and acai berry diets before determining whether acai products are right for you.