What Exactly is Greek Yoghurt?

You may have recently heard about a “new” food Greek Yogurt and wondered what all the fuss is about. Is it better for you? How does it taste? What is so special about Greek yogurt? Let’s take a look at this food and compare it to it’s American counterpart.

Yogurt basics:

This is a common food, a dairy product produced by bacterial fermentation of milk. Fermentation of the milk sugar (lactose) produces lactic acid, which acts on milk protein to give it its texture and its characteristic tang. It is nutritionally rich in protein, calcium, riboflavin, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12.

Yogurt has nutritional benefits beyond those of milk: people who are moderately lactose-intolerant can enjoy yogurt without ill effects, because the lactose in the milk precursor is converted to lactic acid by the bacterial culture. The reduction of lactose bypasses the affected individuals’ need to process the milk sugar themselves. Continue reading “What Exactly is Greek Yoghurt?”

New Orleans Recipe – Roux And What is That? No Fail Roux

Every good cook wants to know the secret of the roux in cooking.

Roux is basically brown flour used to thicken the consistency of gravies or in New Orleans just about everything.

Most recipes for dishes utilizing a roux tell you to sautee’ your vegetables in oil and then add the flour and stir and cook until it is brown enough.

One problem with this approach is it takes a lot of time and many people who don’t cook a lot end up burning the roux and all the seasonings and then you have to start over.

Today you can buy packaged roux mixes at most supermarkets but if you cook a lot that can get expensive. My mother learned how to prepare her flour and make it into a roux so that it was ready anytime she needed some. When I was young, those products that are packaged were not available and she cooked a lot. Continue reading “New Orleans Recipe – Roux And What is That? No Fail Roux”

How Do You Store Medifast Foods And Meals?

People sometimes ask me how much space is needed for your Medifast foods. Another common concern is whether you need a refrigerator or freezer to keep the Medifast meals fresh. You really don’t need a lot of room for the Medifast meals. In fact, I’ve heard of people storing them in boxes under their bed. Most of the prepackaged meals come in small boxes that contain pouches of the foods. People sometimes mistakenly assume that the shakes, puddings, or soups need to be refrigerated. They don’t. You mix them from the dry ingredients that come in pouches or boxes. The same is true for the brownies, soft serve, and chilli. Now, the bars and the chips, nachos, and puffs don’t need to be mixed or constituted. For them, you only have to open the wrapper. Continue reading “How Do You Store Medifast Foods And Meals?”

5 Tips to De-Sugar Your Kids Diet

I have two beautiful boys, with lots of energy and boundless joy. My one son was having some difficulties with behaviors, I suspected some food allergies, so we had him tested and now we are a gluten free household.

Obviously, with me being a Sugar Mama and conducting 7 day sugar cleanses with my clients, we are now a family that is gluten and sugar free. This journey of finding alternative foods for the usual social event, birthday party, holiday gathering, school outing, can be a challenging endeavor.

I assure you with a little bit of food planning and healthy conversations with your children, this all can be accomplished.

Below are some tips to help support you to De-Sugar your Kid’s Diet: Continue reading “5 Tips to De-Sugar Your Kids Diet”

Bakery Boxes Can Be Important

Cake boxes, made with lightweight cardboard, have a top that will fold to cover up what is in the box. During transporting of baked goods, these help keep the food from getting smashed or damaged. A wide variety is available which include many colors and many sizes. Other shapes are available also. They can hold donuts and many other products.

The boxes are not designed to be airtight. Whatever is put in them will need to either be eaten within a short period of time or put in another container that will keep them fresh. They are normally used when there is a large quantity of baked goods or for decorated cakes for birthdays or many other types. To clean up effectively after these occasions, the use of paper towel dispensers is needed.

Designs and lettering can be custom printed onto these boxes. Not all box supply companies have this option available though. Certain sizes and shapes can be special ordered or you can get them in a standard size.

Continue reading “Bakery Boxes Can Be Important”

The Booming Catering Industry: Facts and Statistics

Factual and Statistical Info

The revenue from the catering market worldwide is expected to reach $265 billion US dollars 4 years from now with an estimated compound annual growth rate of 5 percent according to Research and Markets. Significantly, the market encompasses the major sectors in various communities including schools, elderly facilities, sports centers, and even hospitals. These institutions outsource their food service needs so they can lessen their spending and focus their labor force on more important matters.

Recent Technomic study shows that the catering industry in the U.S. made about $537 billion dollars in total sales last 2017 with a continuous growth rate due to easy and fast online ordering system. There are more than 10,000 caterers in America, employing about 110,000 people altogether. Most of these businesses are small and locally controlled that don’t account for a large portion of the market share. The demand for their services is higher in densely populated areas. Continue reading “The Booming Catering Industry: Facts and Statistics”

Making Food Preparation Easy With Varied Commercial Kitchen Equipment

Modern kitchen technology in commercial areas is getting advanced more and more with every passing year, offering new appliances and equipment that make a kitchen work (ranging from cooking, cleaning the dishes to keeping proper food storage) lot more efficient, safe and easy. In service or hospitality industries like hotels, restaurants, industrial canteens, food courts, mess and the likes, use of kitchen tools and equipment are very much crucial.

The primary reason for this is that this kitchen equipment reduces time and effort to perform various tasks, including preparing a large quantity of food appropriately and swiftly; proper storage of the food for their long time usage; proper cleaning of the dishes and cooking utensils, serving the food, and more.

In today’s market, you will find various types of technologically upgraded equipment for commercial use. All these types of accessories and tools are categorized into kitchen equipment, refrigeration equipment, service equipment, storage equipment, cleaning equipment, to name few. This commercialized kitchen equipment makes execution and management of different activities clutter-free. Here, is some of the equipment that you can use in hotels, restaurants, and in industrial areas to serve your customers better. Continue reading “Making Food Preparation Easy With Varied Commercial Kitchen Equipment”

Why Chef Hats Are Important

Uniforms in many occupations are important for a variety of reasons from making or giving a good impression, suggesting responsibility and producing a sense of unity in the workplace. Chef hats help to signify seniority in a kitchen and creating an air of respectability as well as having practical safety considerations. A chef hat is one of the most easily recognised hats in the world and can be found in kitchens in every country.

The iconic, tall white hat or toque blanche (French for white hat) is much more than just for show, it was first developed in France during the 16th century as a means of keeping the hair out of the food. One story is that one of the French kings got annoyed with his cook because he found a hair in his dinner so had the unfortunate cook beheaded. This started the practice of wearing a hat while working in the kitchen.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, it was uncommon for men and women to cut their hair this meant that many men had long hair. This often meant that the older the person the longer their hair would become, so with age goes with experience and seniority. The hats became taller to accommodate the longer hair. The older the chef the taller the hat, with the head chef being the oldest and having the tallest hat. Continue reading “Why Chef Hats Are Important”

The Uses and Benefits of Platform Trucks

The solution has been found through the introduction of platform trucks. They are hand trucks, which are constructed of flat sheet metal. They have a handle at the back and wheels at the base. That means a person can push it from the back using the handle. The wheels help the user to swivel the machine easily when turning the truck.

What Are The Major Uses?

In most cases, these machines are normally used in hospitals, schools, offices, and libraries. How are they used in hospitals? Here, nurses use these equipments to transport drugs and food to different patients in their respective wards. In schools, platform trucks are used to transport audiovisual devices from one place to another by teachers. Still on the same note, restaurants and caterers use them to move their stuffs from one place to another. In the library, the concerned people use these machines to lessen the hassle of book shelving process. In retail stores, platform trucks that have multi-level shelves are used to move goods from warehouse to the sales floor. Some employees use them to unload merchandise from cargo trucks to the store or warehouse. Continue reading “The Uses and Benefits of Platform Trucks”

Do Your Grocery Shopping Online to Help the Environment

Although we use the Internet to do more and more of our shopping, one type of shopping that most people still do offline is their grocery shopping. If you are someone who is conscious of your environmental footprint, grocery shopping online is something that you may want to consider. A study performed by the Carnegie Mellon Green Design Institute in 2009 showed that shopping online can reduce our environmental impact by as much as 66%. Grocery shopping online has many of the same benefits. Let’s take a look at some of them.

1. Less gas

By far the biggest help in reducing environmental damage is the amount of gas reduced. When you order online, you don’t need to drive your car to and from the grocery store. Instead, a large truck will deliver the food to you. Now, you may be thinking that even though you’re cutting down on the amount of gas used, the truck must still use gas to drive to your house. That’s true, but consider which of these scenarios uses more unnecessary energy: a single person hopping into a 2 ton vehicle to drive to and from the store; or a few extra pounds of groceries placed on a huge truck that was already going to be driving through your neighborhood anyways. The exception to this is if you choose express overnight delivery on an airplane. If you want to help the environment, you should consider avoiding that option on all your online purchases. Buying online also requires extra packaging, but this is more than offset by the energy that is saved.

Continue reading “Do Your Grocery Shopping Online to Help the Environment”