Kitchen Tidbits

Nutri-NewsAs the weather turns colder, you’€™re turning to carbs, right? There are darned good biological and psychological reasons for this but the bottom line is, if you keep doing so, you are going to feel it in your, er, bottom line. Your secret line of defense is soup. Studies show that having a bowl of broth based soup before a meal actually helps you eat less during that meal. Sipping on a cup of miso soup at 3 pm instead of a latte may nourish you right up until dinner for a mere 20 or so calories. Here are some more tips for making simple, great soups.

Key Ingredient
Beans go well beyond the few kidneys in your chili. It has been shown to improve your risk of heart disease if you add just ½ cup of beans to your diet each day. There are insanely delicious ways to accomplish this starting, such as adding canned chick peas to salads or including hummus on every sandwich. They don’€™t need to play a starring role in the day, even a handful of roasted soybeans as a snack can help. That said, there is nothing like a French-inspired cassoulet to warm up a day. This bean dish often has sausage and/or poultry stewed in but a vegetarian version is great as a side dish when you have a flexitarian household to keep happy. Here’€™s a simple cassoulet recipe to get you started.

Useful Tool
Slow cookers are a boon to the rushed or non-cooks, but do you ever wonder why slow cooker recipes lean so heavily on cans and jars (and are therefore stratospheric in salt)? It’€™s the inherent flaw in the cooking method that is to blame. There are two important elements missing from slow cooker food that end up begging for the compensating effects of salty cans. (Maybe) In order to develop colour and flavour in any dish, you need high heat and evaporation. Two things that the slow cooker is designed to avoid. Here is the simple solution.