Low-Carb Italian Food

While many people love Italian food, those that are trying to stick to a low-carb diet often shy away from it. no wonder, with many meals centering on large amounts of pasta and bread. However, if you are looking for low-carb Italian foods then there are some to be found. Many Italian meals center on fresh veggies, olive oil, and herbs and are just as delicious as pasta and pizza. Here is a look at just some of the Italian foods you can try while sticking to your low-carb diet.

Starters And Appetizers

If you are looking for low-carb Italian food, one of the first places to look for it is in the antipasto course. Antipasto, Italian for "before the meal" includes numerous starters and appetizers, but many of these foods could work as a meal on their own. One example is a tray of Italian cold cuts and cheeses. Many marinated and pickled vegetables are also low-carb. Stuffed tomatoes and peppers, deviled eggs, and salads all work well as low-carb appetizers. Just avoid any antipasto items that involve bread or pasta. You may also need to pay attention to dips and salad dressings to make sure that they are not high in carbs as well. A simple dressing made of balsamic vinegar and olive oil is low-carb and delicious.

Salads

Italian salads are another great low-carb Italian food. You will have to use caution to avoid salads that use pasta and bread, but with some careful planning you can find many delicious alternatives. You can eat Italian salad as a meal of its own or as a side dish. Consider fennel and orange salad from Sicily for a unique taste.

Grilled peppers and olives also make great additions, as do many of the Italian cheeses. Even regular vegetables can become spectacular dishes when combined with Italian herbs and seasonings. You can easily make up your own low-carb meal by serving a large quantity of vegetables with some baked or grilled fish.

Soup And Stew

Italian soups and stews are often hearty enough to eat as a meal on their own, or served alongside a fresh salad. For low-carb Italian food, look for soups that are full of fresh vegetables and avoid those that are laden with pastas. Broccoli soup is one good option, as is tomato and basil soup. For protein you can often find soups that include seafood and other meats, some unusual like rabbit. Beans, chickpeas, and lentils can also be good sources of protein, but if you are on a very low-carb diet you will want to avoid these as well.

Frittatas

If you are looking for a substitute for bread and/or a way to use up last night's vegetables, frittatas are the way to go. Frittatas are an Italian version of the omelet, and are often cut into wedges for serving. They can be flavored with any number of ingredients, including vegetables, herbs, and salami or chicken.

Dessert

When you are looking for low-carb Italian food, there is no reason to skip dessert! Fruit is a common choice, whether baked or served fresh in a salad. The popular gelato is another low-carb dessert that you can indulge in. You will find that many Italian desserts are either naturally low-carb or can be adapted to your new diet.


Author : Anna Fiori

About the Author :

Anna Fiori writes food related articles for the Italian Traditional Food website at http://www.italiantraditionalfood.com.

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Authentic Romanian Recipes

In general, Romanians like eating different delicious kinds of food. Here you can find authentic Romanian recipes, which are usually cooked on special occasions, or you can try them whenever you like. Therefore, you can find out two recipes: traditional cheese ball and cabbage rolls. You know; when they want to eat something nice, Romanians do not lose time, so let us begin with the cheese ball, which can be found in the list of any authentic Romanian recipes books.

This dish is ready in about one hour. The ingredients needed are 350 grams corn flour, half of teaspoon of salt, 1 liter and a half of water, for a corn flour sauce. Then, for the stuff, you need 4 eggs, 50 grams of butter, and 300 g of cheese, preferably two different kinds. Here we have to mention that the best types of cheese for this dish are bellows cheese (branza de burduf) and a kind of salty cheese called "telemea". First, you have to cook a quite soft corn flour sauce and boil the eggs. Meanwhile, you must have available an earthen pot, which is a symbol of authentic Romanian recipes. In order to obtain the best outcome you have to keep this pot in cold water for 15 minutes, and then rub it with plenty of butter, so that the cheese ball will not stick to the pot. When the corn flour sauce is ready, you can pour a third of it into the pot, and put on its top the bellows cheese after you have flaked it using a fork, a little butter (about 1 teaspoon) and two halves of eggs. Then cover it with another third of corn flour sauce, and then put the salty cheese on it, together with the other two eggs and finally the last layer of corn flour sauce. To continue, cabbage rolls are famous too in the list of authentic Romanian recipes.

It is true that it takes you about half of hour to prepare them, and if you want to cook them in the oven, you can spend with them one hour and a half. The ingredients you need are 1 kilo mince, 2 medium sized onions, a bunch of verdure, 200 grams rice, 2 spoons tomato paste, 1 teaspoon of salt, half a teaspoon of pepper, 2 leaves of laurel, 1 hot pepper, medium sized sauerkraut (which you should keep in water in order to make it release salt, two hours before). You can also use raw cabbage, but you have to scald it first. As far as equipment is concerned, you need specific kitchen utensils and a Romanian earthen pot.

Besides, as home appliances, you can use the cooker, which of course must have an oven, kitchen robot or mince maker. Hack meat using a kitchen robot or a mince maker. Mix the mince with the rice, the chopped onion, the verdure, after you minced it too using a knife, tomato paste, salt and pepper. Then you have to choose cabbage leaves and put the mixture onto them and roll them. These two authentic Romanian recipes are an expression of Romanian essential jobs in the past, which were shepherd and rich farmer, who used to enjoy eating, drinking a little natural wine or brandy and then telling jokes and feeling great.

Author : Amit

About the Author :

http://www.reprintarticlesite.com http://dishadvice.reprintarticlesite.com

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Cooking Tips : Barbeque On A Budget!:

For those of us who wouldn't dare let a little snow and cold get in the way of outdoor grilling or smoking, we're now faced with an even more daunting adversary; a tightened food budget! With all the sad economic news on television, it's no wonder that folks are afraid to spend extra money in such troubled times.

Barbeque though, is not one of those things we should cut back on, because great tasting meat cooked on a smoker or barbeque grill actually improves your mental health. It's a fantastic morale booster in that you have once again stood up against the elements and was successful in bringing home the grilled bacon.

Usually leftovers leave me cold, but by using some of the meat from your grilling, you can turn sad, unappetizing dishes into something unique. I've used the following recipes for years and they are easy to make and wonderful to eat, simply by using a little of the barbeque from the day before.

We all have to make meals go a little farther these days. Here's how I do that with chicken for instance. You can find a barbeque chicken recipe easily on the internet, so I won't include one here. After cooking the chickens thoroughly on the grill, I set aside about 1 ½ pounds of the freshly cooked meat and put it in a storage bag for the next day when I will make a chicken stew.

There are many chicken stew recipes on the internet, but I like the simple one that I threw together for the family one day:

1 ½ lbs of chicken cut into cubes, a mixture of white and dark meat. Leave the barbeque sauce on the meat.

2 cans of chicken broth
3 cups of Potatoes; cube and peeled.
1 cup Celery; diced 1 cup of Onion; chopped
1 cup Carrots; chopped
1 ts Paprika
1/2 ts Pepper
1 teaspoon Rubbed sage
6 ounce tomato paste
3 tablespoon flour, dissolved in one cup of cold water, then stirred into stew.

Mix all of the ingredients except the flour into a large cooking pot and stir. I use a slow cooker that I set for four hours. At that point I add the flour and cook for another 30 minutes. You will have such a unique taste due to the smoke and barbeque sauce, you will have to bar the door to keep everyone out of the kitchen. It's that good!

One of my favorite dishes made with leftover barbeque pork is Pinto beans. After I have cooked a Boston Butt for nine to eleven hours in the smoker, I pull it from the bone, hence the name pulled pork. I set aside about ½ pounds of lean meat for the beans, complete with barbeque sauce.

I'm too impatient to let the dried beans sit in water overnight, so I put a 2 lb bag of Pintos in a pot of boiling water and let them cook for 10 minutes. Then they'll sit in the water for an hour, after which I will pour off the old liquid and add enough new water to cover the beans about 2 inches. To this I will add the following:

2 chopped onions
2 tablespoons of granulated garlic
1 teaspoon of black pepper
1 tablespoon of Cajun seasoning
Salt to taste
Add water if necessary
Cook until the beans are tender.

The transformation of the Pinto bean into a gourmet dish is due to the smoky flavor of the barbeque pork and the barbeque sauce. These are just two ways to stretch your food dollar and enjoy a southern delicacy at the same time.

I buy most of the meat I cook on Mondays. Most grocery stores get their meats toward the last of the week. Any that hasn't sold over the weekend usually goes on sale at the beginning of the new week. You have to save money where ever you can these days.

Author : Bob Alexander

About the Author :

Bob Alexander is well experienced in outdoor cooking, fishing and leisure living. Bob is also the author and owner of this article. Visit his sites at: http://www.redfishbob.com http://www.bluemarlinbob.com

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Avoid These Three Common Cookie Mistakes!

Making cookies seems like an easy task: mix a few ingredients, pop them into the oven, and presto! Fresh, homemade cookies. But, if baking cookies are so easy, why do your cookies crumble with the slightest touch, why are they so hard you could break a tooth, why are they always burnt on the bottom? Despite how frustrating these problems are, they are actually easily prevented.

One of the most common cookie complaints is dry dough, which usually leads to either crumbly cookies or cookies that are hard and tough. To prevent this, avoid adding any more flour than the recipe calls for. This means measuring out your flour carefully, by either the dipping or sifting methods. I prefer the dipping method, since it negates the need for a sifter and usually gives you a better measurement.

To measure by dipping, simply dip the proper sized measuring cup into your flour container. Level off flour with a straight-edged knife or flat spatula. Do not tap the measuring cup or try to pack more flour into the cup! You want to pack the brown sugar, not the flour.

If you are making cookies with cookie cutters, you will need to roll out your dough before cutting. Recipes usually call for a lightly floured surface to roll the dough out. However, this will add a little more flour to your dough, which will only contribute to dry, crumbly or hard cookies. Instead of using flour, use a light dusting of confectioners' sugar to coat the surface and your rolling pin. This will add a slight sweetness to your cookie, rather than drying the dough further.

Another common problem is cookies that bake unevenly. This problem is usually caused by one of two things, both of which are easily fixed. The first step is to make sure you allow your oven to heat at least 20 minutes before putting in the first batch of cookies. Your oven may say it's heated to the correct temperature, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the center of the oven has reached that temperature. Make sure to also place your cookie sheets in the middle of the oven, not too close to any of the sides. This will help the heat bake the cookies evenly across your sheets.

To prevent browning or burning on the bottom of your cookies, do not use a dark-colored cookie sheet. Instead use a heavy-gauge sheet with a dull finish. Aluminum is usually a very good choice.

Do not allow the cookies to bake more than the time recommended by the recipe. Check the cookies at the minimum bake time. If they are not done, then allow them to bake up to the high end of the recommended time range. Do not allow the cookies to go beyond a lightly golden color. Also, don't leave small cookies cooling too long on a cookie sheet after they come out of the oven. The bottom of cookies will continue to cook on the hot cookie sheet. Remove the cookies to a cooling cake as soon as possible.

If your cookies are still baking unevenly or burning despite these measures, place an oven thermometer in the center of your oven while the oven if on. After 30 to 40 minutes, check that the thermometer reads the same temperature that the oven dial does. If they are not in agreement, then adjust your oven's temperature either up or down accordingly.

These simple actions will help you bake the perfect cookie that not only tastes good, but also looks good. Your friends and family will think a professional baked them!

Author : Sophia Tyler

About the Author :

Make sure to visit my blog Christmas Cookie Recipes for helpful tips, advice, and recipes on making perfect cookies, such as Christmas Bells, Candy Cane cookies and much more!

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Are the Salads You Eat Really That Healthy?

All health conscious people love to eat salad and if you're one of those people, you probably know how sumptuous well-made salads can be. All that lettuce topped with your favorite dressing and sprinkled with other toppings is enough to make your mouth water. However, not all salads are really healthy as you might think, and discussed here are the factors you must consider if you have maximum health in mind while eating salads.

Most of the vegetable salads we know today are composed of a primary ingredient called lettuce. Now, don't get me wrong, lettuce is a very healthy thing to eat, however, its downside is that it really doesn't have much of an impact when regards to taste. That's why we include all those extras in our salads to enhance its flavor. Fruits can easily accomplish this, but most of the time, we add in a little bit sin to the meal.

These are the ingredients that make the salad not so healthy and if you'll like to have an actual example, then take a look at any local salad bar. If you take a closer look, many of the items in a salad bar are not for health conscious people, but all salad bar patrons love to include them in the mix. So, let's just take a closer look at these ingredients and provide some guidelines to lessen their consumption.

Obviously, fruits and vegetables are the healthy part of salad so we'll just look at the next tray of ingredients. Here we see bacon bits and croutons which are both adding to the downfall of your salad. Bacon bits and any other meat add fat to your body. But I'm not saying avoid them entirely, just moderate additional meat and you're perfectly fine.

Another part of salad we cannot do without are dressings. Generally, dressings are unhealthy, so the greatest way around the use of dressings is to measure just enough of them before you begin eating the salad. At an average, a two tablespoon of dressing will accumulate eleven grams of fat in your body. Not really a lot, but it can certainly build up overtime if you consume more.

Unfortunately, a salad is not a happy salad unless it has a dressing on top and adding flavor to every bite. That is why in order for you to cut back on the calories, here's a handy little tip you can implement. Try using a fat free or low calorie dressing to add flavor to your salads. Nowadays, this is already a very famous option seen on groceries, with most of our favorite flavors already having its low fat counterpart.

The downside to all these is that low fat dressings doesn't really taste the same as their original counterparts. This will probably make you use more of them, which is a downside to cost savings. For this problem, here's a possible solution. Instead of spreading the dressing evenly across the salad before you eat, try putting it in a small cup. Use the dressing as a dip for your salad, taking in only a few portions just to add taste to the vegetables. This way, you can monitor well your calorie intake and see more progress in your health efforts.

To sum it up, in order for a salad to become really healthy, you must pay attention to the ingredients you put in it. I know it takes a bit of self control but hopefully with these little tips, you can still enjoy eating your favorite salads without much toll on its taste.

Author : Letty Velasco

About the Author :

There are many ways for you to approach preparing some recipe for salad in your household. Visit the Food Menu Blog to read more articles about recipe for salad and other cooking ideas that you will certainly love to share with your family and friends.

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Cabbage Soup Information

Cabbage indeed has been used both as a food and a medicine for quite a long time. Cabbage is rich in manganese, calcium and potassium, as well as phosphorus, iron and magnesium. Cabbage is also a source of folate and omega-3 fatty acids, known to help with brain development in young children as well as maintain a sharp mind in adults. Cabbage has been found to have very low calorie content and is therefore perfect for weight loss. Cabbages are also a good source of vitamin C and vitamin A. Cabbage soup recipes are synonymous with diet recipes, and the cabbage soup diet recipe is one of the most famous diet recipes around. Cabbage Soup Recipes are amongst the most popular soup recipes in the word because of the nutritional value the humble cabbage contains. Cabbage soup recipes are just what you need for quick and inexpensive fall and winter meals. Cabbage soup is even the main part of a diet plan called the cabbage soup diet.

Cabbage soup recipes have been around for a long time, but it's only recently that a cabbage soup diet made this dish even more popular. Cabbage Soup Diet is programmed to be low in calorie, low in fat, and rich in fiber that is set around the cabbage soup, added with various fruits and veggies on assigned days. Cabbage soup is a very restrictive, low-fat, high-fiber, low-calorie diet plan, directed towards fast weight loss. Cabbage soup can be eaten at any time you feel hungry during the day, and you can eat as much as you wish as often as you like. Cabbage soup should include the following ingredients: Half a head of cabbage12 cups of water Diced vegetables (can include celery, peppers, mushrooms, celery, etc. Cabbage soup is the main part of the diet and can be eaten as often as you like throughout the day. The cabbage soup diet has been reasonably popular over the years resulting in a number of books. Cabbage Soup Recipe: 6 large green onions 2 green peppers 1 or 2 cans of tomatoes (diced or whole) 1 bunch celery 1/2 head cabbage 1 package Lipton Soup Mix 1 or 2 cubes bouillon (optional) 1 48 oz. Cabbage Soup Diet is a perfect way to reduce your weight. Vegetables are an important part of all healthy diets.

Recipes for the cabbage soup vary, but all are based on cabbage, onions, tinned tomatoes, green peppers, celery, carrots, mushrooms and onion soup mix. Combine all the ingredients for the cabbage soup in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil. Green Cabbage Soup Recipe: Ingredients: One-half of a green cabbage, chopped3 large onions, diced1 large green pepper, sliced1 cup fresh mushrooms, washed and sliced1 or 2 cups washed fresh spinach leaves1 can of diced tomatoes1 envelope of dry onion soup mix3 vegetable-flavoured bouillon cubes8 to 12 cups of water Oregano, cilantro, garlic powder, basil, pepper, and/ or parsley to taste.

Author : Delmondo Sorell

About the Author :
Delmondo Sorell had studied in health, diet, fitness niche for many years.
He wrote several articles about Dinner Recipes,Nutrition , and Diet & Fitness

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