ks Kitchen Online
Healthy LIfestyle and Foods
Saving Money on Toothpaste
Dec 15th
Toothpaste’s job is to help clean the mouth of plaque and germs so that the teeth stay healthy and strong. Everyone has seen the commercials with the tube of toothpaste generously lying across the bristles, with a little curl at one end and another curl at the other end. This makes it look so easy, and inviting. Almost as if a designer had placed it there. (Well, it’s a commercial, so a designer probably did.) Although nothing is verbally said in these commercials, the visual is so strong that it is clearly remembered, and when we go to put the More >
Brown Sugar Tips
Dec 7th
Brown sugar is one of the most useful items in any well stocked kitchen. It is as sweet as white sugar, but tastes slightly different because of the molasses content. Dark brown sugar has about twice as much molasses as light brown sugar does.
Here are a few tips for using it.
1- Store brown sugar in the freezer. This will help keep it for hardening.
2- If the sugar is already hard, just a few seconds in the microwave should soften the molasses up a bit. Place a bowl of water to the side of the sugar.
3- You can put really hard More >
4 Healthy Snacks
Dec 5th
We all want a snack from time to time. Perhaps dinner is late, or we somehow missed lunch. For whatever reason, eating snacks between meals is not at all a bad thing. What you need to remember is to eat a good one, one low in fats and sugars, that will not make the day’s calorie count go way over the top.
Here are some good ideas for healthy snacking:
Frozen Grapes- these little wonders are super easy, just pop them in the freezer, and they are good fun to eat. Somehow, they never freeze too hard (not like little marbles) and More >
The Fabulous Fuji Apple
Dec 1st
The Fuji is a cross between the Red Delicious Apple, and the Ralls Janet (or Genet, or Jennet) Apple. While the Red Delicious apple is a deep red, Fuju’s have a reddish pink skin. Fuju apples didn’t exist until around the 1950’s when they were bred in Japan, and it took another 30 years for distribution in the US to become common.
Today, they can be found in most supermarkets here in the States. We grow them in the US now in Washington State. They have a better flavor if they are allowed to ripen longer, being harvested in late October More >
5 Tips For Grilling
Nov 18th
Mmmmm… the smell of someone’s dinner on the grill. Grilling out is always a favorite. Here are a few tips to help the occasion go even better.
1- Make sure your grill is clean before starting. Clean off any old sauces or drippings that may have been left behind from previous meals.
2- Let the grill heat up properly before putting the food on. Many meats benefit from having the outside seared first, and then letting the inner parts cook more slowly. If you do not have the heat up high enough at first, you may loose valuable and delicious juices.
3- Turn More >
How Fresh is Fresh? A Case for Your Local Farmers’ Market
Oct 13th
Naturally when we think of wholesome, healthy foods, we think right away of fresh vegetables. And, it’s true, fresh vegetables are the highest in nutritional value. However, just because you bought vegetable from the produce section of your grocer, does not really guarantee that you are getting the freshness you expect.
Some vegetables have spent quite a bit of time in process and transit on their way from the farm to your nearby supermarket. From the pickers, the cleaners, the packers, the trucks, the distributors, and finally your local shop, each stage takes time. Often the vegetables you put in your More >
The Best Benefit of Eating Fruit- Weight Loss
Sep 20th
Better for you, and much healthier than taking diet supplements, or getting radical with the latest fad diet, is the wonderful world of fruit. Eating at least five portions a day will fill you up, and cut down on snacking. My sister always said to me, “if you want to lose weight, eat more fruit!”
For one thing, fruit has lots of fiber in it. This helps the body feel full, and decreases the tendency to snack later. Even if you do wish to snack later, just eat another piece of fruit. Try a different kind for variety, as this will More >
Keeping Bananas for Banana Bread
Sep 14th
Just a quick note here for those of us who plan to make banana bread this winter. Have you ever started to get everything out, only to discover that someone had eaten the last of the bananas that morning for breakfast? Isn’t it a pain to have a major ingredient missing from your plan? Or, perhaps, you know you have bananas, but when you go to get them, they are hard and green, and you just know that your banana bread is not going to be as sweet and delicious as it could be, if you’d had those browny, spotting, More >
3 Weeds You Can Use
Aug 15th
Wild growing plants have a bad reputation, but they often have overlooked uses that our grandparents knew all about. If you know which ones to get, your walks in the fields and woods could result in the gathering of fine, useful flora that you can transform into healthy healing balms, ointments, and teas. Be sure to gather them respectfully, making sure that the environment is not damaged, and that the plants will be able to re-propagate.
Here are 3 overlooked wild plants (we dare not call them weeds) which you can use at home:
Blackberry- the blackberry leaves can be made into More >
Home Made Popcorn
Jul 19th
Back in the Good Ol’ Days, we used to pop popcorn right on the stove in a pot, can you believe it? Microwaves were unheard of, and we had to do it somehow…
Anyway, just in case you’ve heard that microwaves are not-so-good for you, and you’re trying not to use them, here is how we used to do it way back then. The little bit of sugar adds a sweetness to it, kind of like today’s “kettle corn”. But better.
4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup popcorn kernels (yellow is fine)
4 tsp sugar
3 Tbs unsalted butter (if using salted butter, just cut More >