Archive for the ‘Food Selection and Prep’ Category:
What counts as 1 cup of fruits and vegetables?
I’m participating in the Small Steps to Health and Wealth Online Challenge, a national Extension educational program coordinated by Rutgers Cooperative Extension in New Jersey. This free 6-week personal challenge event began yesterday. (You can still enroll in this personal challenge program THIS WEEK at http://njaes.rutgers.edu/sshw/. Join me!) This event encourages participants to focus on behavior changes that simultaneously improve their health and personal finances- 5 health and nutrition habits and 5 financial habits each day.
Eat 4 Cups of Fruits and Vegetable Daily
The first health habit in the SSHW Challenge is to eat 4 cups of fruits and vegetables each day. A one-cup amount is easy to measure with juices and cut up pieces of fruits and vegetables. But how about whole foods, or differently shaped pieces? Here’s a chart to help you track what amounts to one cup of a variety of fruits and vegetables:
FRUIT
- Apple- 1 small or 1/2 large
- Banana- 1 large, 8-9 inches long
- Grapes- 32 seedless grapes
- Orange- 1 large (3.5-inch diameter)
- Grapefruit- 1 medium (4-inch diameter)
- Peach- 1 large
- Pear- 1 medium
- Strawberries- about 8 large berries
VEGETABLES
- Broccoli- 3 spears (5 inches long)
- Raw leafy greens- 2 cups
- Carrots- 2 medium long carrots or 12 baby carrots
- Corn- 1 large ear (8-9 inches long)
- Celery- 2 long stalks (10-11 inches long)
- Potato- 1 medium
- Tomato- 1 large fresh tomato (3-inch diameter)
For more information on what counts as a serving of any food group, check out the charts at MyPyramid.gov.
“Knowledge for Life” provided by the Finney County Extension Office and K-State Research and Extension.
Subscribe to the comments for this postHoliday Kitchen 101
So you are hosting a festive holiday meal. The menu planning is done and the groceries are in the kitchen. Dinnertime is looming, but the mashed potatoes are sticky and the gravy is lumpy. Help! Here are some tips to de-stress holiday meal preparation:
Should roasted turkey rest before serving?
Yes, about 30 minutes. This helps juices soak back into the meat and keeps it from getting dry.
Does basting a turkey help it stay juicy?
Not really. It essentially runs off the turkey. Plus, the frequent opening and closing of the oven lengthens roasting time.
How can I keep the gravy hot?
Try using an insulated coffee carafe or a slow cooker or fondue pot. The carafe helps prevent drips.
Can lumpy gravy be saved?
When making the gravy, use a whisk to blend in the flour/water thickener. If it still gets lumpy, strain it through a fine-mesh strainer.
What equipment is best to mash potatoes?
Electric mixers may produce gluey potatoes. A hand masher or a ricer may leave a couple lumps. But a food mill makes smooth and silky mashed potatoes that are lump free.
Source: K-State Research and Extension Rapid Response Center
“Knowledge for Life” provided by the Finney County Extension Office and K-State Research and Extension.
Baking Boo-Boos
Any cook has had their fair share of culinary blunders. We are all human and mistakes happen. Here are some of the most common baking mistakes compiled by Cooking Light Magazine:
1. Not reading the whole recipe before starting to cook. Make sure you have all the ingredients you need.
2. Making unwise ingredient substitutions. While making recipes healthier can be beneficial, the results may not be the best. Baking is both a science and an art.
3. Using too soft sticks of butter or margarine. In baking, this can cause too much spread and improper creaming. Simply let sit at room temperature 30-45 minutes for the right consistency.
4. Not knowing your oven. Use an oven thermometer to know the real temperature inside the oven. Look for hot spots so over-browning does not occur.
5. Improper measuring can lead to many mishaps. Lightly measure dry ingredients into measuring cups and level with a knife.
Source: K-State Reseearch and Extension Rapid Response Center
“Knowledge for Life” provided by the Finney County Extension Office and K-State Research and Extension.
Have a healthy red & green holiday!
Eating several servings of a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables a day helps maintain good health, protect against the effects of aging, and reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease.
Have some fun with the red and green colors during the winter holiday season. Here’s a list of red and green fruits and vegetables from the National Cancer Institute.
RED
Tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, tomato juice, tomato soup, red peppers, red onions, beets, red cabbage, kidney beans, apples, pink grapefruit, red grapes, strawberries, cherries, watermelon, raspberries, cranberries, pomegranates.
Green
Leafy greens, asparagus, green peppers, broccoli, green beans, peas, cabbage, green onion, Brussels sprouts, okra, zucchini, Chinese cabbage, green apple, green grapes, honeydew melon, kiwifruit, limes.
Some quick red and green fruit/vegetable combos include:
-Red and green apple slices surrounding your favorite fruit dip like a wreath
-Cole slaw with red apple chunks
-Cole slaw with cherry tomato or grape tomato halves
-Tomato soup garnished just before serving with a sprinkle of green onions, sliced into small rings
-Small sprigs of red and green grapes used as an edible garnish around a holiday meat platter
-Peas garnished with bits of pimiento
-Juicy pomegranate seeds tossed atop a green salad
-Pizza topped with sliced tomatoes and chopped green peppers
For fruit and vegetable recipes, budget tips and a quick calculator to learn how many fruits and veggies you need daily based on your age, sex and physical activity,visit http://www.fruitsandveggiesmatter.gov.
Source: UNL Extension, Lancaster County, Nebraska
“Knowledge for Life” provided by the Finney County Extension Office and K-State Research and Extension.
Cooking fresh pumpkins
In today’s waste-not, want-not economy, people often ask if they can cook a pumpkin after it has served its decorative holiday duty.
All pumpkins are edible, but jack-o-lantern pumpkin varieties may be watery and less sweet than pumpkin varieties specifically grown for cooking. Their larger size also makes them more difficult to handle than cooking pumpkins which are usually smaller-sized.
But, considering the recent shortages of commercial canned pumpkin, you may want to try cooking a decorative pumpkin anyway. Here’s how:
1. Cut the pumpkin in half, scraping away the stringy interior mass and seeds. Rinse under cold water. Place pumpkin, cut side down, on a large cookie sheet. Bake at 350°F for one hour or until fork tender.
2. When the pumpkin is cool enough to handle, remove the peel using a small sharp knife or use a large spoon to scoop the pumpkin flesh away from the peel. Put the peeled pumpkin in a food processor or use a blender, food mill, ricer, strainer or potato masher to form a puree.
Pumpkin puree freezes well. To freeze, measure cooled puree into one- or two-cup portions, place in rigid freezer containers leaving 1/2-inch headspace, or pack into zip-closure freezer bags. Label, date and freeze at 0°F for up to one year. Use this puree in recipes or substitute in the same amount in any recipe calling for solid pack canned pumpkin. (If your cooked jack-o-lantern pumpkin is more watery than commercial canned pumpkin, you may need to slightly reduce recipe liquids for best results.)
For more information on cooking and preserving pumpkin, check out the Seasonal Features from K-State Research and Extension Rapid Response Center.