If you have the time a salad is a perfect lunch or dinner option and is another excellent portable food that can be deliciously healthy and really quite filling. Salads are perfect as you can include many grains, legumes and some great tasty proteins teamed with fresh seasonal leafy greens and vegetables. The most important aspect to a good salad is the dressing.
Wraps are the best way to enjoy a healthy lunch or dinner and they can include anything, Take advantage of wholemeal tortillas, lavash bread, and pita bread and use fillings such as boiled eggs, roast chicken, lean ham, curried eggs, poached or grilled fish, tinned tuna, salmon or sardines. You can flavour these with salsas, smashed avocado, mustards, a small amount of mayonnaise, pesto, hummus or yoghurt dips, even a squeeze of lemon.
This is a delicious Christmas Turkey Recipe I created with my friends at IGA and filmed by Wild Bunch Media!
Get creative and design your own personal festive look, use ingredients that you have on hand for the glaze, add a bright Christmas ribbon to finish off the look of your Christmas glazed ham.
You will need these ingredients:
Leg of ham, brown sugar, apricots, marmalade, ginger beer, orange juice, orange zest.
This is what you do:
Blend until smooth the apricots, marmalade, orange juice and zest;
In a saucepan combine the apricot mix combined with brown sugar, salt and cinnamon and simmer for 4 minutes.
Take a sharp knife and cut around the bone at the base of the ham and then gently slice under the skin to gently lift it off.
Score the fat in a diamond design and garnish with whole cloves.
Megan Rizzo Photography
Place the ham in a baking tray and pour in the ginger beer. Bake in 190-degree oven, continuing to baste every 15 minutes.
Serve with the apricot sauce.
For the full recipe, click here.
Watch on YouTube
Enjoy this perfect Christmas lunch dish with your family and friends.
If you would like a little recipe inspiration go my Festive Cooking recipes, and then subscribe to receive my Free Ebook . Perfect for festive new year cooking. It is free when you subscribe.
5 Top Budget-Friendly Christmas Roast Tips – Christmas on a Budget
Roasts can be the star or centerpiece of the Christmas table. Aside from fresh seafood, it can also be one of the more expensive elements to a Christmas Feast. This is a follow-up post to Christmas on a Budget, where I shared 3 top tips to get more from your meals this Christmas.
Here are my 5 Top Budget-Friendly Christmas Roast Tips:
Best buys for beef roasts are rolled rib, rib eye or round and if you are a BBQ fan then a brisket is great for that slow tender pull apart BBQ beef smothered in a smokey homemade marinade. Many less tender cuts of beef are tenderised further when cooking if you use the BBQ rotisserie.
Dress up the humble and old favourite roast chicken with some wonderful Christmas stuffings using, combinations such as apples, cranberries, sage, apricot, and pistachios or parmesan prosciutto and parsley. If you are buying your chicken from the butcher you could ask them to bone out the chicken, pick up some netting from the butcher and stuff the chicken yourself again the yield will be greater as you can then easily slice the chicken, minimal wastage and also is great cold the next day on sandwiches or with salads.
Instead of the Christmas turkey, purchase turkey breasts with the skin on, they can weigh in at 1-2kg per breast. A couple of these which is enough to feed a family of up to 12 as part of a banquet.
Pork roasts are a winner especially if you get the crackling right and the best cuts for a great pork roast is the pork loin you can also use the leg, shoulder or the belly, make sure that your butcher leaves the skin on and get them to score it for you as well. A 1kg portion will take about 60 minutes.
I love duck but it can be expensive and if you don’t know how to cook it properly it can sometimes come out a little tough, so the cheats and cheap way of a little duck with dinner is to either create a wonderful salad with duck legs or breast which you can now buy cooked and packaged in the supermarket, couscous, a couple of fresh figs, peaches, pears or fresh dates sliced, shallots, wild rocket and a wonderful orange dressing, or duck goes great with noodles, with some sliced bok choy, shredded green pawpaw and a simple Asian dressing. Heat the duck in the oven and serve it sliced with your favourite roast vegetables and a wonderful cherry sauce. You can also pick up the wonderful Peking duck in Chinatown, also a great place to shop for cheap Asian greens, herbs, and sauces.
You can cook your roast in a hooded BBQ, no need to make the kitchen any hotter at Christmas.
Using the BBQ is also another option if you are running out of room in the oven if you are cooking for the masses
There is so much to do and see when you travel to Sicily, and one of the most breathtaking places to visit in this area, is the Aeolian Islands.
From the beautiful north Sicilian town of Milazzo, take the ferry to the stunning Aeolian Island of Salina.
Recipes for Summer Flavours
Click here for your Free EBOOK – “It’s All About The Flavour” a “Thank You” for Subscribing to Chef Dominique Rizzo.
” Its All About The Flavour” a collection of delicious recipes. Above all, recipes for easy summer cooking and fresh new flavours.
Simple recipes and ideas. Firstly to help you in the kitchen, secondly to give you more time to enjoy your time with family and friends.
Society as a whole and the internet, in particular, seem to have finally gotten to an evolutionary point where we genuinely value eating healthy above, well, not eating healthy.
If you’re new to the sport, and you find it sounds like a time-saving and health-boosting practice but you’re unsure where to start, take a look at our guide on meal planning:
Why should I embrace meal planning?
There are several benefits to planning your meals, not limited to:
● You can save money, as you won’t be spending on ingredients that end up untouched.
● At the same time, you’ll be cutting down the amount of food you waste.
● You can choose to eat healthier this way.
● You can save yourself some valuable time and reduce your cooking-related stress levels.
● It’s easier to try out new recipes and foods.
Where do I start?
There are three steps to meal planning you need to add to your weekly schedule:
Image by Jeff Sheldon on Unsplash
The first thing you need to do is actually plan out what you want to eat next week. Take into account your actual schedule: how many nights a week are you out, do you already have lunch plans on certain days, etc. When choosing recipes, try to choose things you know and love, and add in one new dish every week. You can base a variety of dishes around similar ingredients, so you minimize the risk of waste.
Image by Scott Warman on Unsplash
Before you head out to the shops, compile a list of ingredients. Start with the base ingredients (the major things each dish needs, like pasta, meat, rice, etc.) and go down to the smallest condiments and spices. Once you know what you actually need, check what you already have and can use. Finally, head down to the shop and get what you need.
Another good idea is to work with seasonal ingredients and plan your meals accordingly. Also, don’t forget that some ingredients can’t be kept in the fridge for an entire week, so you may need to make more than one trip to the shops. In that case, add this second (or third) grocery run to your to-do list, and attach the grocery list too.
There are different ways you can go about meal prep at this point. You can prep as many of the dishes ahead (for example over the weekend) and freeze them or keep them in the fridge, then just heat them up any day of the week. Or you can prep partly (chop up your veggies, measure out ingredients, mix sauces, etc.) and cook each meal on the day, or the day before. The decision will mostly come down to your own schedule and routine – you don’t have to do the same thing each week.
What do I eat?
The beauty of meal planning is that you get to try all sorts of different dishes, and fall in love with new favorites. The internet offers such a huge range of recipe ideas that you will simply be spoiled for choice.
● You can develop an AIP meal plan if you’re suffering from an autoimmune disease or digestive problems.
● You can try to add more fish to your diet by focusing on certain types of meals three times a day.
● You can contribute to the environment by eating more sustainable meals on several nights a week.
● You can lose weight by cutting down on your calorie intake through meal planning.
● You can boost your workout routine with a complementary meal plan.
● Store all your recipes either in the same online space or in a recipe book you can reach for at any time.
● Buy a meal planning calendar you can keep on the fridge, so you never forget what’s on the menu.
● Schedule yourself reminders to look for new recipes.
● Cut down on prep time by cooking more than one dish at a time, especially if they call for some of the same ingredients.
Once you get into meal planning, you’ll wonder how you’ve ever managed to feed yourself before. Remember that this shouldn’t be another boring chore – it’s actually a great way to have fun and eat well at the same time!
Colombia produces 810,000 metric tons or 1,785,744,000 pounds of coffee beans every year. That’s why Colombia is a major player and ranks third in the top ten countries when it comes to coffee production.
You can make different types of coffee using one coffee bean, like the Columbian medium-roast arabica beans.
It uses a medium-coarse grind, and it’s considered the grandfather of pour-over coffee makers. The signature bitter taste of this coffee is due to the use of a paper filter which removes a lot of oil from the South American coffee beans.
Now, you won’t need to add sugar because Chemex has a sweet caramel-like flavor. You probably need a little cream. Among the different types of coffee-making, Chemex uses the thickest paper filters, so the sweetest notes shine. While you can always brew fine-ground coffee beans for a less sugary flavor, it takes a longer time to brew.
The Siphon is also referred to as a vac pot. When making this coffee it uses a siphon that’s made from cloth, pressure, and heat to infuse water with Colombian coffee beans. The grind is finer than drop and coarser than espresso. If you like to enjoy a full-bodied taste in a moderate amount, Siphon is the right one for you. The coffee beans become a little less sweet and more fruity in a light roast.
The French Press makes another plunger in your house. This type of coffee uses coarse ground Colombian coffee beans. The coffee beans are plunged for about three to five minutes. You’ll come up with a thick, bittersweet honeyed coffee cup that almost appeals like a French roast. Get close to the pure taste of the coffee beans, but still get a lighter and sweeter cup by brewing it for less time. The best coffee for a french press, which is roasted no more than 3-4 weeks ago and grind before brewing. To find out more, check out this site. The grind must be large. Coffee particles are the size of sand sugar. Get close to the pure taste of the coffee beans, but still get a lighter and sweeter cup by brewing it for less time.
The Stovetop Espresso has been one of the most favorite types of coffee using a stovetop steamer in Colombia in the 1900s. Since the 1930s, the stovetop steamer has been the preferred household coffee-maker in South America and Europe. The grind is slightly coarser than the true coffee espresso.
The pressurized water intersperses with the fine-ground Colombian coffee whenever heat is added. It produces a lower pressure as compared to standard espresso. The resulting taste isn’t quite as bitter. This coffee-making method showcases the most bitter notes of Colombian coffee beans that came off slightly metallic and toasted malt.
In the coffee world, blending is usually regarded as a “dark art.” Blending is a simple concept which involves combining coffee beans that come from two or more origins or different roast levels. It produces something different or a unique-taste from each type of coffee bean used.
This idea isn’t new because blending has been used when coffee was commercially produced. Now, consumers aren’t limited to one coffee type alone because blending coffee has more to offer, to suit everyone’s taste.
● Blended coffee tends to be more satisfying as compared to those made from either one of these types of coffee beans alone.
● Large-scale roasters blend coffee and aim to produce a more consistent flavor.
● Consistently offers a coffee displaying similar flavor profiles every year.
● Come up with a decent-tasting coffee using less expensive coffee beans for volume and combined with more expensive coffee beans to improve the coffee’s overall flavor.
● Smaller-scale roasters try to improve a single-origin coffee bean combining it with another type of coffee bean. It aims to come up with a coffee blend that’s better than the sum of its parts. Blended coffee beans help people create a new and unique coffee, such as a cup of coffee with notes of chocolate or strawberry.
Conclusion
You can do many different things with Colombian coffee beans. There’s always something for everyone to enjoy, from the Chemex, Siphon, the French Press, and the Stovetop Espresso. These methods are well-known to Colombian coffee farmers themselves, with years of experience producing coffee beans and making their coffee recipes at home.
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