Basic Food Safety Tips Everyone Should Know

With people around the world doing all they can to stretch their kitchen budgets in these tumultuous economic times that we live in today, it can be very tempting to take a shorter route on food safety but you may end up hospitalized or worse. Following are leading basic food safety tips that must be followed to the letter to ensure you are observing food safety and that the food you are taking is safe and healthy.

1. Cured and dried types of meats can hold and hide countless germs. To be on the safe side, you might want to microwave the meats, then let them cool down before consuming them immediately.

Food Techniques

2. Never buy anything if you find that cooked food is displayed in the same place as raw produce.

3. Fresh fish ought to be shiny in appearance and very firm, not falling off from the fish bones. Similarly, it shouldn't have a strong 'fishy' smell.

4. When buying packaged chicken, ensure you are buying one that is pink in color, and not yellow or gray.

5. Nearly a third of the population thaw frozen meat or poultry on the kitchen counter, under hot water inside the sink, or in the oven. Always thaw frozen meat in a fridge set below 4°C.

6. Food safety is also about food preparation and not only cooking of food. Always ensure that all food is prepared in a clean and dry countertop. By the same token, ensure all pots, dishes, Tupperware, containers, wrappers, coolers, bag, and lunch boxes that will come in contact with the food that you are preparing are equally clean.

7. The safest food to carry with you on a trip are foods which are shelf-stable such as trail mix, single-serve cereals, canned food products, sandwiches, peanut butter, and thoroughly washed and cleanly wrapped veggies and fruits.

8. When observing food safety, you should also ensure you seal undercooked or raw meats tightly in an airtight plastic wrap. This way, you will prevent juices from coming in direct contact with these kinds of foods.

9. The other basic food safety tip, although often overlooked, is to never reuse a plastic grocery bag. Ensure you dispose it off immediately as it might carry the bacteria and harmful contaminants of what it had contained.

10. Food safety tips also entails obeying expiration dates on labels and packaging, particularly for packaged raw meats and poultry.

11. Be careful not to use the microwave to thaw without cleaning the platter and the insides thoroughly.

12. A sure way of cross contamination or transmitting germs is double dipping i.e. dipping a chip or vegetable in a bowl of dip or salad, biting a part of it off and then re-dipping again.

13. When shopping, always put meat at the bottom of your shopping cart or in a completely separate place to avoid contamination.

14. Leftover roasted ribs or chicken should always be reheated to 74°C before eating them.

15. When you are dining out at a bistro that smells bad or the utensils, cutlery, plates, spoons etc are dirty, just put the fork down and Run Away!

Basic Food Safety Tips Everyone Should Know

Kids Party Food Tips

Kids are fussy eaters but if you know how to find fun ways to prepare and set out their favorite foods, then you will find them enjoying your party. There are many fast party foods that you can prepare.

Pizza: Most children like pepperoni on their pizza. If you can get them to eat green and red pepper or other veggie on their pizza, it would contain more nutritional value.

Food Techniques

Cheese and Crackers: Protein and calcium help children in their growth and cheese is one food item that contains them. Cheddar and Monterrey Jack cheeses along with round butter crackers are a big hit with kids. Some children even like wheat thins, which are also beneficial to health.

Beef Sticks: The nutritional value of beef sticks is at best debatable but at least they are yummy. Additionally it is a source of protein.

Veggies and Ranch Dip: Most children do not like to eat vegetables. However those who do will like them more because they think Veggie and Ranch Dip makes them tastes superb. Hopefully those children who usually do not like vegetables will find them palatable when the dip is used. It's worth a try.

Potato Chips: This is definitely not the healthiest of foods but it is a party and children are supposed to enjoy themselves, so relax a little with those rules and let them enjoy.

Pretzels: Pretzels are a healthy, low-fat alternative to potato chips.

Ice Cream: This is one of the most commonly served and expected foods at a children's party. Ice cream goes well with almost anything and most children will be disappointed if it is not served.

Cake: Cake of course is the most important item on the food agenda. How else will a child be able to light up the candles and to sing a birthday song? A tasty alternative to this would be an ice cream cake.

Hot Dogs and Hamburgers: Usually all kids love hot dogs and hamburgers, even if they are not of the highest quality of food. They make good party food. Some children prefer them plain, others like a dab of ketchup.

French Fries: French fries serve as a complement to hot dogs, fish sticks or hamburgers and they are not expensive.

In order to avoid stress, do your preparations ahead of time. Those foods that you want to buy can be ordered in advance. Some catered food or pizza and hamburgers offer home deliveries. If need be, ask your friend to help you to pick up the cake.

Children with food allergies will be the first to tell you so, but just in case they forget, so do ask them first. If there are, make sure either that type of food is not served, or if it is served, assign someone to make sure that the child with the allergy will not have access to it.

With all these preparations in place, parents should have a less stressful time preparing for the party but instead enjoy yourself with the kids as well.

Kids Party Food Tips

healthy Fast Food Recipes - How to Cook Them

Love fast food but hate the calories? Here's an choice that gives you the best of both worlds: cook your favorite fast food recipes at home and sacrifice the fat content in the process! Fast food restaurants often cook with the most fattening and salty ingredients inherent to get people hooked. Fortunately, you can cook many of these menu items at home and sacrifice the salt and fat without reducing the flavor. Here are a few tips on how to do it.

First, instead of deep frying, fry your food in a salutary oil, like olive oil. You can also use a reduced fat oil to further decrease the calories. This will allow you to get that deep fried taste without all the harmful fats that most fast food recipes use. Simply pour a small whole into a skillet and fry it up.

Food Recipe

Next, sacrifice the salt. A high salt intake causes high blood pressure and a range of other health problems. sacrifice the salt in the recipe to help sacrifice this problem. You won't even notice the difference. Also watch out for other seasonings high in salt.

Reduce high calories condiments. You can majorly lower the calorie content of your meal by reducing high fat condiments like mayonnaise, ranch, and sour cream. Instead, use a low-fat alternative, or just sacrifice the amount. You'll still get the great flavor, but you'll cut the calories nearly in half!

But how do I cook fast food recipes and dishes at home? It's surprisingly easy to cook most favorite menu items at home. Many of them can be made with tasteless household ingredients. All you need is a cookbook of replica recipes and a exiguous convention and you can be cooking salutary fast food dishes in no time! Give it a try, you can save time, money, and calories!

healthy Fast Food Recipes - How to Cook Them

Soul Food Recipes - Light Cooking Tips For Soul Food Recipes

Light cooking is definitely in. Especially when it comes to soul recipes and other southern dishes. With the growing problem of obesity, high blood pressure and other ailments among African Americans, eating healthier continues to grow in popularity. Condition experts continue to advise lighter cooking techniques and food preparing as explication to this growing problem

The problems with cooking lite has all the time been preserving the down-home taste and satisfying feeling soul food recipes have all the time represented. But today's light cooking has evolved into a taste sensation thanks to creative chefs and food experts.

Food Recipe

Lite Cooking Tips For salutary Soul Food Recipes

1. Try Using egg substitute in recipes that wish more than one egg. Here's a tip 1/4 cup of egg substitute equals one egg. This allows you to cut 5-6 grams of fat and over 200 whopping milligrams of cholesterol from your recipe.

2. Use A Lemon. Adding a dash of lemon juice to vegetables, fish or poultry is a creative way to add flavor to your dish - without using sodium.

3. Cook with lighter oils. One of the best ways to cook lighter is to use lighter cooking oils. For example, peanut, oil of sesame seed oil. As opposed to animal fats or vegetable oils.

4. Using cooking spray instead of oil, margarine or butter can cut your calorie intake up to 55%.

These are a few of the most favorite light cooking tips used by our readers with victorious results. For example, weight operate as well as loss, in expanding to getting a deal with on other related Condition ailments.

Soul Food Recipes - Light Cooking Tips For Soul Food Recipes

Soul Food favorite - Fried Cabbage

Fried cabbage is growing in popularity, not only for it's soothing taste, but because of it's condition benefits. Cabbage recipes, long praised for it's wholesome dose of vitamins A, B,C and E, as well as the intestinal benefits of fiber to boot. It has been a beloved vegetable of mine, it adds a unique interest to any dish, especially chicken, turkey or fish. Cabbage is also one of the most inexpensive vegetables for the number of edible parts (no steams or leaves to throw away), in expanding to the vitamin content.

Cabbage is an easy vegetable to handle, put in order and cook. Meaning the leaves are sturdy, cleans indeed and cooks quick. All you have to do is just cut the cabbage into four pieces (this makes it more bite sized) . Next you slice thin into a shredded thickness. Now it is ready for the frying pan. With a small teaspoon of olive oil, butter, margarine or cooking spray in a large skillet or frying pan, you're ready to go.

Food Recipe

First place half a cup of chopped onion in frying pan and cook 3- 5 minutes. Next add cabbage and cover on medium high heat for 3 minutes. find and stir mixture, then cook another 3 minutes. Check and remove when cabbage is soft. Season with one teaspoon of butter or margarine, garlic powder, onion powder, and seasoned salt and a half teaspoon of black pepper. If you like yours a small spicy you can add a teaspoon of hot sauce if like your cabbage to bite back a little. Serve hot with your beloved meat. This method makes 4-6 servings. Yes, treat yourself and your house to this soul food fried cabbage method This taste of the south southern method will have your house advent back for more.

Soul Food favorite - Fried Cabbage

Free Raw Food recipe - Raw Hummus With No Beans

If you're looking for a good hummus recipe and especially a healthy hummus recipe that also has no beans then this raw recipes fits the bill. Hummus as we know it commonly contains cooked ingredients and includes beans but you can undoubtedly make the best hummus, without the beans or cooking it.

I've fixed and served this hummus many times and brought it to potlucks whether as a dip or to be served on the side. You can also spread it on raw crackers or tortillas and top with salsa, tomatoes, avocadoes, cilantro or other herbs and veggies. I often make it and just keep it in the refrigerator for a few days ready to use.

Food Recipe

For this raw recipe you'll need 2 medium zucchini or cut a huge one down, 1/4 cup olive oil, 2-3 garlic cloves, sea salt, 1 large or 2 small lemons for juice, sesame seeds, tahini (comes in a jar or in bulk at food coops), ground paprika and ground cumin.

When you put in order this hummus recipe make sure to reconsider how spicy you want it to be. I prefer mine on the mild side. I have tried it with 4 cloves of garlic and it was too many. You can also cut down on the paprika and cumin, so start with a petite and check by taste.

Here are the recipe ingredients: 2 medium zucchini, 1/4 cup olive oil, 2-3 garlic cloves, 2 tsp. Sun-dried sea salt, 1/2 cup of freshly extracted lemon juice, 3/4 cup black or white sesame seeds, 3/4 cup tahini, 1/2 tsp. Paprika and 1/2 tsp. Cumin.

Cut up the unpeeled zucchini and place in a food processor along with the olive oil and 2 cloves of garlic and process until gradually mixed. Add the sea salt, lemon juice, sesame seeds, tahini, paprika and cumin and process until mixed.

Refrigerate up to 3-4 days.

That's it. An easy raw food recipe that takes only minutes to make. So much better than the store brands, which also include cooked ingredients. Only raw ingredients go into this hummus recipe. You can market and sell it it's so good. You'll want to adjust it to your taste. Just make sure not to make it too spicy because many habitancy don't like hot or spicy foods or can't tolerate them. Raw foods don't have to be hot and spicy to be good.

Free Raw Food recipe - Raw Hummus With No Beans

Quick and Easy Raw Food Recipes, With 5 Ingredients Or Less!

Are you finding for easy raw food recipes? Well here are a few actually quick and easy raw food recipes with 5 ingredients or less for the raw food beginner.

The raw food diet is a type of diet where people eat the majority of their foods in their natural whole state without cooking them. Many people are adopting this lifestyle to eat a natural whole foods diet and to get the benefits of all the nutrients ready in fresh raw fruits and vegetables.

Food Recipe

Most raw food recipes ready on the web or in recipe books are complicated, time consuming, and want a lot of fancy kitchen equipment. This unfortunately turns a lot of people off to the diet because they think it is too hard and time involving to fit into their busy lifestyle. In this description I'm going to offer a few easy recipes that don't want any fancy tool or exotic ingredients.

*Most people already have a blender so some of these recipes want a blender.

Easy Green Smoothie Recipe

2 bananas 4 kale leaves chopped with stems removed 1/2 of an apple 1 cup water

Blend in a blender until smooth. This nutritious green smoothie can be eaten for morning meal or as a mid afternoon snack. By blending the kale you are production all the nutrients in the kale leaves such as A,K,C, Iron and calcium easy for your body to suck in and digest. The sweetness from the bananas makes the kale leaves palatable, you'll be surprised by how good it tastes! Serves 2.

Easy Cucumber Salad

2 cucumbers chopped 2 ripe tomatoes chopped 1 red bell pepper chopped 1 bunch cilantro chopped 1 avocado chopped pinch sea salt

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and enjoy as a simple and delicious side salad. The juices of the tomato and bell pepper will marinate with the cilantro to dress the cucumbers. The flesh of a cucumber is a very good source of vitamins A, C, and folic acid. The hard skin is rich in fiber and a collection of minerals along with magnesium, silica, molybdenum, and potassium. Serves 4.

Easy Avocado Salad Dressing

1/2 an avocado 1 cup orange juice 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 tablespoon chives pinch cayenne pepper pinch salt

Blend all ingredients except for the chives in the blender until level and then mix in the chives. If you don't have a blender mash the avocado and then whisk the ingredients in a bowl until smooth. Avocados supply nearly 20 primary nutrients, along with fiber, potassium, Vitamin E, B-vitamins and folic acid. Serves 2-4.

Easy Mango Pudding

2 mangoes peeled and diced 1 teaspoon honey 1/2 cup raspberries 1/4 cup water

Blend all ingredients except for the raspberries in the blender. Put the mango pudding in a bowl and then ornament with the raspberries or layer the mango pudding with the raspberries in itsybitsy dessert dishes to make a healthy parfait. Serves 2.

I hope you enjoyed these recipes and are encouraged to try production them at home. For more free easy raw food recipes please check out the resources below:

Quick and Easy Raw Food Recipes, With 5 Ingredients Or Less!

10 Food Contamination Prevention Tips - How to Fight Contamination Without Chemicals

You cannot keep a tidy kitchen just by being able to store, prepare and serve foods. Know that, in the kitchen, it is absolutely critical to store perishable items properly, ensure that all food services are kept clean, and that the meal preparation methods do not cross-contaminate.

A Word Of Warning About Food Contamination

Food Techniques

Handling raw meat can leave behind bacteria such as coli and salmonella on several objects such as knives and towels that are reused for wiping up spills. These bacteria can be very harmful to the health of any human being. You can get sick from it, and even die.

Especially children and elderly are risk. Meat and eggs are considered the biggest threats, but there are other sources too like packaged spinach. Clean food handling practices cannot fully prevent food-borne illnesses, but they sure cut way down on these risks.

Strictly paying attention to precautions to fight contamination can seem challenging to your environmental principles. Many of these steps involve liberal amounts of hot water and you may even need to use disposable wipes or towels to prevent contamination. Another precaution, or safe way to deal with foods, is to throw a way foods when their freshness is questioned. Additionally, your concerns about possible infection and diseases might even force you to use dangerous chemicals that are both environmentally unfriendly and your own health.

There are however many ways to fight food contamination without chemicals which are as effective, if not more effective.

10 Food Contamination Prevention Tips: DO's and DONT's

DO keep your refrigerator at 36 and 39 degrees F. DO respect expiration dates of all foods, especially meat. DO keep foods well-wrapped, especially refrigerated foods. DO keep fruit and vegetables separated from meat products. DO store meat on the bottom shelve, eliminating the risk of juices dripping down on other foods. DO wash all foods that are to be eaten raw. DO NOT prepare vegetables and fruits on the same surfaces you prepare meat on. DO use separate cutting boards for meats and vegetables. DO use separate towels or use disposable paper towels for cleaning the meat and vegetable surfaces. DO NOT reuse plastic bags that held meat or any animal product or wash them thoroughly and dry before recycling.

10 Food Contamination Prevention Tips - How to Fight Contamination Without Chemicals

simple Chicken recipe - Chicken Breast Stir Fry With Peppers and Onions - An Easy Food recipe

Want to make an easy chicken recipe. Stir fry dishes are ideal when you are looking for a uncomplicated chicken recipe. Most of your time will be spent in the preparing step. Chopping the ingredients takes time, but if you know how to use kitchen tools, such as the chef's knife, it is not that difficult/ If you do your cooking at a higher temperature, and the ingredients are cut into very small pieces, the actual cooking time becomes very short. I sometimes use a Wok, but the vessel I use most is a black iron chicken fryer. Most of the stir fry dishes I make are served over rice. I use a microwave oven for the rice and I always start the rice first so that it is cooking all the time I am preparing the ingredients and cooking them. Stir fries are not only quicker, but are also easy to make. About the only way you can mess them up is to over cook to the point where the ingredients burn. To forestall burning you must keep stirring and when it's done, remove the Wok or skillet from the heat source.

This uncomplicated chicken recipe can be made with whether raw chicken or you could use leftover cooked chicken. If you use leftover chicken it should be added last, as it will not require as much cooking time as the vegetables. whether way thisw dish is easy to make. If you have a Chinese Wok, this could be used here but I still prefer to use a cast iron chicken fryer. The best way to serve this chicken recipe is over cooked long grain brown rice.

Food Recipe

Chicken Breast Stir Fry with Peppers and Onions

Ingredients

2 chicken breast tenders (3 - 4 ounces total), cut into bite size pieces
1 small yellow onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons flour
Instructions

1 - Place the flour, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl and stir together, then dredge the chicken and vegetables in it.
2 - Heat up cast iron skillet or Chinese Wok.
3 - Add extra virgin olive oil.
4 - Add the chicken and continuously stir for 2 or 3 minutes. If using cooked chicken, it can be added last.
5 - Add the chopped onions and chopped pepper and continuously stir for 2-3 minutes.
6 - Add 1/2 cup of water to help thin the sauce.

Serve over cooked long grain brown rice.

simple Chicken recipe - Chicken Breast Stir Fry With Peppers and Onions - An Easy Food recipe

Tips For Getting The Most Out Of Your Food Processor

A newly purchased food processor comes with a small manual. Most of the content included is related to safety and warranty information. Little is dedicated to getting optimal performance from your new kitchen appliance. This can lead to frustration on the part of the user and eventual complete abandonment of the food processor.

It doesn't have to be this way. A properly used food processor can give you invaluable assistance in the kitchen when used properly. It can become quite indispensible once you are familiar with the inherent limitations and intended uses. Here are a few tips to help you along the way:

Food Techniques

Never use the food processor for something too hard for your kitchen knives. The blades are meant to perform as well as a good knife and as such they come with the same limitations. Never use them to chop ice or grind hard spices. The pulse button is the most crucial tool to master. It is how you will control the speed of processing and therefore how you will determine the texture of the finished product. Always use short bursts until you get the hang of it. Press the button for one quick second and let go;continue on this way until you are comfortable with the pulse feature. There are certain times when you will need to keep your ingredients cool. Any motor will give off heat, although heat output is minimal in more efficient models. Counteract this by chilling the bowl and blades in the refrigerator for 15 minutes prior to starting the project. Examples of when this will be helpful include when making butter, whipping cream or preparing a pastry crust. Use appropriately sized batches. The best volume to work with will vary from machine to machine. In general, you never want to fill the bowl more than halfway with liquids or three-quarters with solid foods. Recognize the limitations on the other side of the size scale. A few garlic cloves in a 14 cup bowl will not have very much contact with the blade. As a result, the cloves will not be evenly chopped and chunks will stick to the side of the bowl. Your best bet is to use a smaller machine or bowl, or to chop small projects by hand. When using the food processor to emulsify, slowly add the oil through the feed tube while it is running. Adding oil too quickly will cause it to pool within the dressing or mayonnaise rather than creating the desired emulsification. Spend a minute or two at the beginning of meal preparation to think about how the food processor can help. Having a plan will prevent you from realizing you could be using your food processor halfway through a task.

These are a few basic tenets of proper food processor usage. Simply knowing these seven crucial items can avoid annoyance and countless headaches. Remember, the food processor is there to help you, not to cause more problems. If you follow these guidelines and are still struggling, it may be time to shop for a better model.

Tips For Getting The Most Out Of Your Food Processor

Food Photography Techniques for Capturing Minimalist Cooking

The rise of minimalist cooking is changing the art of food photography. The following is a look at some of the techniques adopted by photographers to capture the simplicity and the spirit of this modern cuisine. Whether it is because of the recession or a genuine desire to downsize and simplify, minimalist cooking has become extremely popular.  Everything from expensive and hard to acquire  ingredients to rarely used, specialized utensils and equipment have been pared back to the bare minimum. Less is definitely more. Many photographers have noticed this change, either consciously or intuitively and are evolving and adapting their techniques to suit. The old sumptuous saturated glistening overfilled image just doesn't seem to be a good match for this new approach to cooking and food in general.

The photographers who get this and have a feel for the subject have started to utilize a few specific techniques which serve to emphasize the subject matter but in a much more understated way and this article will lay out a few of these basic techniques. It is not intended to be a comprehensive photography primer and most of the techniques will not require expensive equipment. It needs to be stated though, that even a basic dSLR camera will be capable of much more flexibility than even the best point and shoot due to the amount of control available to the operator. This does not mean however that perfectly acceptable results cannot be achieved with the point and shoots, just that the range of possibilities is smaller.

Food Techniques

Simplicity is the Key

When composing the shot keep things very simple, plain white plates and brushed steel or plain counter tops work very well. If the image needs a bit of additional color, a sprig of a fresh herb such as sage is more than enough. Shoot on a level with or just a few degrees above the food. We are used to looking down on food and, in photography, offering a fresh perspective is always a good idea as it wakes the viewer's brain up. It also adds interesting possibilities for lighting but more about that later.

A blurred background is generally a good thing as this emphasizes the subject. This can be achieved by either using a long lens e.g. a 300ml with a wide aperture from a few feet away with a dSLR or by utilizing the macro setting on a point and shoot and getting in really close, normally within a foot of the subject. Both of these approaches have the added benefit of giving a very narrow depth of field. This means that only a small proportion of even the main subject is likely to be in focus. This concentrates the viewer's attention even more. 

The Tripod

The only piece of equipment that is essential for taking high quality food photographs, other than a camera of course, is a tripod. It may not be required for every single shot but not having one would rule out a lot of potentially good shots. The choices would be between a small  tabletop model, probably best with the smaller point and shoot camera. This would enable the tripod to be set on the same surface as the item being photographed, very useful when the camera has to be close to the food. There is a small tripod available that has flexible legs enabling it to be wrapped around objects such as  tree branches and signpost poles. This type of support would come into its own for say, picnics or barbecues. The bigger dSLR cameras tend to be too heavy for the smaller tripods  and generally require a normal sized model. The advice usually given to photographers is to buy the most expensive tripod that they can afford. I would say buy the tripod that will do the job without breaking the bank.

Whatever tripod is used always either release the camera's shutter remotely or use the timed delay function built into just about every camera now on the market. Pressing the shutter causes the camera to vibrate so doing this off camera or giving the camera time to settle down before the shutter release makes for a much sharper photograph. This leads us to the main reason for using a tripod: the photograph can be taken in natural light, i.e. flash isn't essential. As a rule of thumb good natural light is always preferable to artificial if the choice is between one or the other but often the best photographs use a combination of the two.

Lighting

While the above applies to food photography in general  there are specific lighting approaches that give a more minimalist feel. The use of a very strong  back light is one such approach. The best source is a window that occupies the entire background. This will give a very bright background with any colors reduced to pastels and objects such as trees, cars or other buildings reduced to abstract shapes. Now if this were the only light source used the food itself would be silhouetted and appear far too dark so a little fill light is needed. This is a blast of light from the camera's flash that is not as powerful as it would be if there was no ambient light but is powerful enough to illuminate the main subject. Point and shoot cameras generally have a setting that automates this process while a little more experimentation may be required with dSLRs and flashes.

A couple of quick points about lighting that applies to all photography. Direct light is harsh and produces heavy sharp shadows. I think that it is safe to say that in all minimalist food photography this is a bad thing so we need to soften the light. This applies to both natural and artificial light. With expensive off camera flashes a small diffuser that fits over the bulb is usually enough. In the case of smaller cameras with built in flashes a little ingenuity goes a long way. If the flash can be covered with a piece of semi transparent clear plastic or even a piece of greaseproof paper results can be improved dramatically. The worse light source for photography is the small built in flash units on cheaper cameras. As for natural light, direct sunlight is to be avoided which is why a North or south facing window is best. If direct sunlight is the only option then a semi transparent plastic shower curtain attached to a frame of plastic piping makes for a great diffuser.

The Computer

Of course the process does not end with pressing the shutter. Once the session is finished, or even during the session, the images are uploaded to a computer and edited. Usually the editing consists of little more than a bit of sharpening, a slight color correction or a minor crop. It is possible to use the computer for just these technical chores but, with a little imagination, the computer, can become a creative tool in it's own right. A minimalist approach to photography requires an awareness of what is essential to the image and what is incidental. It is often possible to lose information by increasing the exposure at this stage, often an increase of two thirds to a full stop can really make an image pop. Part of the reason that this is so effective is because it makes dull and off  whites bright. This effect is often used in fashion photography but works equally well with food. 

Technique and Eye

There is no great mystery regarding what makes for great minimalist food photography. The best advice, as with all types of photography, is to find images that you like which were taken by others, see which techniques were applied, then practice. Hopefully a combination of good technique and a practiced eye will produce something unique. The following techniques work well for me: diffuse natural light from behind the subject and fill flash to fully illuminate the subject; a low point of view, get close to the same level as the food; blur the background and aim for a small depth of field; on the computer, sharpen the image a little, crop and color correct if required. Above all, experiment and have fun. One day I may be practicing and writing about a technique that you have discovered.

Food Photography Techniques for Capturing Minimalist Cooking

straightforward Baby Food Recipes

Homemade baby food is the best option when it comes to feeding your baby. Baby food recipes are so easy to make and are far healthier than buying jarred baby food. Make a large batch and store it in the fridge or freezer. Listed are a few recipes for simple, healthy, homemade baby food.

Almost everything your baby will eat in the first 6 months of their lives will be pureed. Purees are so straightforward and very health for your baby as they are fresh and only need one or two ingredients. Fresh food for your baby can be as straightforward as mashing a ripe, peeled banana or throwing it into a blender with a bit of breast milk to give it a smooth consistency. This is far great for your baby than purchasing jarred banana baby food. Your baby deserves the best, so take 2 minutes and whip up the healthier version for them to enjoy.

Food Recipe

When your baby is ready to enjoy more textured foods there are several easy recipes to try.

Cook fruit such as pears or nectarines in boiling water. Once soft drain the fruit, put it in the blender and add rice or oat cereal to thicken the aggregate and add texture.

Babies loved mashed potatoes and there are so many things you can add to make them a bit more enchanting and nutritious for your baby. They are also a great way to disguise some foods your baby may not like on its own. Boil potatoes until fully cooked. Puree in a blender with a little bit of butter. Serve them plain or add green beans, broccoli, cooked egg yolk or even add meat such as chicken or beef. There are many things you can add to mashed potatoes that will be good for your baby and add nutritional value. Experiment with different foods to see what they like.

Another great recipe for babies is to blend plain yogurt with fruit and add a little bit of cinnamon. Cinnamon is so good for you - it's a bit strong on its own but the flavor will blend nicely with yogurt and fruit. You can mix any fruit with yogurt, anything your baby likes. This is an easy and healthy alternative to serving store bought mixed yogurts to your baby, which are filled with added sugar.

Once your baby starts to eat meat there are a few things you can try. Puree skinless, boneless chicken with avocado, cooked broccoli or sweet potatoes. Or you may want to add rice. Add ½ cup cooked chicken and ¼ cup cooked rice with 2 tablespoons of milk to a blender and puree. This is a great alternative to jarred chicken and rice baby food which likely has added salt and doesn't taste nearly as good. Make a larger batch and freeze in small sections. When ready to use again take it out of the freezer with sufficient time to thaw. Reheat and serve to your baby.

Homemade food is far great for your baby. It's nutritional, fresh and so easy to make. There are endless recipes to try when making baby food. Baby food recipes are so easy when your baby is under a year as most recipes need only a few ingredients. As your baby gets older try dishes with more collection and introduce your baby to as many healthy, nutrient packed foods as possible.

straightforward Baby Food Recipes