Food For Thought~Helpful Tips...

Big Mother Is Watching

by Diane Lofshult

Moms (and dads) who want to find out what their kids are eating at school have a new weapon in their arsenal. MyNutriKids monitors what your children consume in the cafeteria. Sign up at http://www.mynutrikids.com/.

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A Greener Kitchen

Cooks who want to save the planet can help by taking small steps to conserve water. Adopt these water conservation habits, and make your kitchen a little greener in the process.

• Don’t run the faucet until the water comes out cold. Instead, keep a pitcher of fresh water in the fridge each day and encourage your family to use it.
• Instead of buying plastic bottles of drinking water, fill your own bottle each morning before you leave the house.
• Wash your produce in a large bowl, and use the leftover water for your garden.
• Instead of using your garbage disposal, peel produce scraps right onto a sheet of old newspaper and throw the whole thing away when you are done dicing. Better still, make a compost using old eggshells, coffee grounds, tea bags and produce scraps.
• Make sure your next dishwasher is energy efficient.
• Keep the ice maker in the freezer turned off, and turn it on only when the ice supply gets low.
• Wash pots and pans immediately, before food hardens on them; you will use less water. If necessary, fill dirty pans with water and let them sit a while to loosen the residue, rather than scrubbing them under running water.
• Run the dishwasher only when it is full, and wait until after dark to turn it on.
• Don’t bother rinsing plates and utensils thoroughly before putting them in today’s dishwashers.
• If possible, use two sinks to wash dishes—one for hot, soapy water and the other for rinsing.
• Restrict each member of your family (and visitors, too) to using one glass a day.  
• Don’t thaw frozen food or cool hot items using running cold water. Instead, put them in a bowl filled with ice water, or thaw food in the fridge overnight.
• Save leftover cooking water, and let it cool on the counter for use in the garden.
• Steam veggies in a scant amount of water rather than boiling them in a pot filled to the brim with water.
• When heating a pot of water, always use a lid, since the water takes longer to heat without one.

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The Yolk's on YOU

Did you know that egg yolks are one of the few foods that contain all of the fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K)? Still, the lowly egg yolk continues to be much maligned, due to its relatively high cholesterol content. Although the American Heart Association recommends that adults limit their yolk consumption to no more than four per week, eggs are still a great source of high-quality protein. One way to keep your consumption of egg yolks down while increasing flavor is to mix one yolk in with several egg whites.

Cooking with eggs at this time of year can be a bit tricky. Egg salads and hard-cooked eggs should be kept refrigerated. When you are eating outdoors, keep eggs out of the heat to prevent spoilage.

To avoid the nonharmful but unsightly greenish-black tinge that can appear when eggs are hard-cooked, follow these simple steps. First, make sure you simmer your eggs, and never let them boil. Simmer eggs for 15 minutes, as cooking too long can cause yolk discoloration. After the eggs are done simmering, immerse them in cold water to minimize the release of sulfur gas, which can migrate to and stain the yolk.