Ingredients

Extra virgin olive oil spray
4 chicken breasts, boneless -inch thick
1 1/4 cup flaked whole grain cereal
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 egg white
1/3 cup water

Phyllo dough is sold frozen. Defrost it in the package overnight in the refrigerator for best results.

Ingredients for apple strudel with walnuts

3 medium Golden Delicious apples, peeled and diced into 1/4-inch cubes
1/2 cup apple juice
1/4 cup apricot spread (100 percent fruit)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons currants
1/2 cup walnuts
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
4 sheets of phyllo dough (13 x 17 inches), thawed
Butter-flavored cooking spray
Powdered sugar for dusting

Directions for apple strudel with walnuts

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a medium nonstick skillet, combine apples, apple juice, apricot spread, lemon juice, and currants. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, until liquid is absorbed and apples are tender. Remove from heat.

Combine the walnuts, sugar, and cinnamon in a small food processor and pulse until finely ground.

Lay the phyllo sheets on a flat tray and cover with a piece of plastic wrap to keep them from drying out. Remove one sheet of dough at a time, keeping the rest covered, and place on a work surface with the short end facing you. Spritz the sheet with cooking spray and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of the walnut mixture.

Repeat the layering with the next three sheets of phyllo. Spread the apple filling over the pastry, leaving a 2-inch border at the top and bottom and a 1-inch border on the sides. Fold the bottom border over the filling, and roll up the pastry like a jelly roll.

Place the strudel on a baking sheet with the seam down. Spray with cooking spray and top with the remaining walnut mixture.

Put strudel in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake for another 15 minutes, until nicely browned. Remove from oven and cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing, or cool completely and serve later. Dust lightly with powdered sugar at serving time – and you’ll have a healthy dessert that tastes wonderful!

Nutrition facts per serving:

(1 slice): 197 calories, 7 g fat (32% of calories), <1 g saturated fat, 32 g carbs, 3 g protein, 2 g fiber, 19 mg calcium, 1 mg iron, 64 mg sodium

• If you will be serving pasta as a main course with, say, a salad and some crusty bread, count on 4 ounces of pasta per diner. In other words, a one-pound box of dried pasta will serve four as a main course. If the pasta will be a side dish to a protein (think chicken Parmigiana), allow only 2 ounces per diner.
• To cook one pound of dried pasta, first bring one gallon of water to a rolling boil. Once the water is boiling, add enough salt so that the water tastes like sea water. Don’t add the salt until the water is boiling, or the salt could pit your pot.
• Add the pasta all at once, bending long pasta into the water and around the inside of the pot as the boiling water starts to soften the pasta. Don’t break the pasta to fit the pot.
• Once the water has come back up to a boil, turn the heat down a bit to prevent the pasta from boiling over. Boil the pasta until it is al dente – just slightly firm in the center. Al dente translates to “to the tooth” or “to the bite,” and it means that the pasta should still provide some resistance instead of being completely soft all the way through.
• Should I Add Oil to the Water?
• Do not add oil to the water. As long as you are using at least 1 gallon of water per pound of dried pasta and your pot is large—the level of the water is at least 2 inches below the top of the pot, your pasta should not boil over. Adding oil to the water does nothing but coat the noodles with fat and keep them from absorbing sauce later on.
• When is It Done?
• Pasta boxes generally give you cooking times, but I have never found them to be accurate. Most directions will tell you to cook spaghetti between ten and twelve minutes. For my taste, it only takes about 8 minutes. So, use the directions on the box as a guide, but do check on the pasta a few minutes before. Reach into the pot with a long handled fork or pasta server and pull out one strand of pasta. Let it cool for a moment, and then taste it. When the pasta is done to your liking, it is time to drain it. I reserve about ½ cup of the cooking liquid and use it to finish the pasta with the sauce.
• How to Finish Pasta
• Thoroughly drain the pasta in a colander, and then return the pasta to the pot. Add about 2 cups of your sauce and the reserved pasta water. Cook and stir over high heat until the sauce has reduced to its original thickness. Then, depending on your recipe, add either a splash of heavy cream, or a tablespoon or so of olive oil or softened butter and stir this into the sauce.
• Your pasta will end up coated with a very silky sauce. Why does this happen? Stirring the fat and starch water into your sauce and pasta creates an emulsion of fat in water, which will give you a creamy mouth feel, like a well whisked vinaigrette. The starch in the cooking water further thickens the sauce and contributes to its ability to coat the pasta. To really gild the lily, stir in some freshly grated parmesan cheese at the end of cooking. Serve individual portions of coated pasta, and then top with some extra sauce.
• To Rinse or Not to Rinse
• Unless you are planning to serve the pasta cold, as for pasta salad, do not rinse it. If you are concerned about the pasta sticking together and you are not going to serve it immediately, just stir in a cup or so of sauce. This will keep the pasta nice and moist and keep the starches from gluing your noodles together.
• How to Cook Fresh Pasta
• Unlike dried pasta, which is most frequently made of 100% semolina, fresh pasta is made with an egg-enriched dough. As such, it is more delicate than hearty dried pasta. To cook fresh pasta, follow the procedure for cooking dried pasta, but decrease the cooking time to 2-3 minutes, and always taste to make sure the pasta has the texture you want.
  Finish fresh pasta in the pot, just as you would dried pasta, but be gentle in stirring since the pasta is more delicate.
• How to Cook Frozen Stuffed Pasta
• To cook frozen ravioli or tortellini, follow the instructions for cooking dried pasta. Once you add the frozen pasta to the boiling water, it will take a minute or two for the water to come back up to a boil. Once the water has returned to a boil, adjust the heat to maintain a gentle boil. Once the pasta floats, it is ready to be drained.

You’ve all seen those directions in your roast chicken recipes:  “Roast until Done.”  Gee, thanks for all the help. The same directions can be found in recipes for grilled chicken, sauteed, pan fried or any other way there is to cook this favorite bird.

Intuitively, we know what “done” looks like – the meat should be white all the way through, not pink.  It should also be completely opaque, no translucent spots.  And pink or bloody liquid is a no no.  The juices should always run clear.

That’s all well and good, and important, too, especially with salmonella’s being such a problem when it comes to poultry.  But how can we tell for sure when the meat is done all the way through to the bone and not overcooked?  The skin can be golden brown and the chicken can smell great, but it might not be done in the center or it may be completely overcooked and dried out.

Cooking Variables

For starters, and most importantly, it is almost impossible to go by stated cooking times in recipes. Start looking at those times as estimates and estimates only.  There are so many different variables at play when it comes to timing recipes; the size and make of the oven, whether or not it’s a convection oven, did you preheat the oven and the precise size of your chicken and its temperature when you put it in the oven in the first place.

If you pull a chicken out of the refrigerator and it’s 40ºF, common sense tells you it will take longer to cook than a chicken that’s sat out for 30 minutes and reaches a standing temperature of 60ºF. For these reasons, “350º F for 45 minutes” is not very helpful.

Why?

Besides all the variables just mentioned, most of us are so afraid to undercook food that we tend to let it cook longer forgetting that all meats and poultry need to rest to redistribute the juices and while it is resting, it is continuing to cook.

At best, consider “time and temperature” a ball park estimate.  Set the oven to 350º F, but start checking the internal temperature at 35 minutes, realizing it could take well over an hour.  Forget the notion that the time and temperature estimations for doneness is the holy grail. Sure it’s much easier to cook this way, but also a great way to get over or under cooked chicken. Remember – Time & Temperature is just an estimation.

Whether you poach, grill, saute or roast your chicken, you need to find a reliable measure of doneness.  Cooking a bird for several hours “just to be on the safe side” is just as bad as serving undercooked meat.  It might be even worse.  You can always cook the chicken more, but there is no way to uncook it.

Popular Suggestions That Don’t Work

Many cooking resources advise that you cut into the leg to see if juices run clear.  There are a couple of problems with this method.  For one, and rather obviously, not everyone cooks whole chicken, and often we cook boneless cuts.  Another issue is that when juice runs out of the chicken, as it most certainly will when you slice it open, you end up with dry chicken.  So, even if you haven’t overcooked the bird, it might still taste overcooked just because it is drier than it should be.

Other cooking resources advise you to jiggle or tug on the leg to see if the bone feels loose in the socket.  I don’t think much of this method, especially since it’s the way I test for doneness when I’m slow cooking a rack of baby back ribs.

Yes, the meat will be done when the bone is loose in the leg socket, but most likely it will be overdone, as the looseness is a sign that the connective tissue that holds the bone in place has gelatinized. This is a good thing when what you are looking for is lip-smacking goodness.  It’s not such a good thing when you want tender, juicy, perfectly cooked roast chicken.  Plus, as I stated before, you might not always have a bone in a socket to wiggle.

How to Know When the Chicken Is Done

The most reliable and accurate way to test for doneness, regardless of cooking method, is using an intant read thermometer. Just pierce the meat in the thickest part, being sure not to hit bone (the bone will be hotter than the meat).  Try to aim for the center of the piece of meat.  If you’re not sure, go ahead and pierce all the way to the bone (or all the way through, if you’re cooking a boneless cut) and then back it out halfway.

You’re looking for a final internal temperature of 165º F for white meat and about 180º F for dark meat.  Keep in mind that these are the USDA recommendations, and many people feel that they are set too high.  They are set for your safety though, so I find it is best to stick with these temperatures, especially when dealing with poultry.

Once you take a piece of meat out of the oven, its temperature will continue to rise.  How much it rises depends on the size of the piece of meat and the temperature at which you were cooking it.  For smaller pieces of meat, such as breasts, the temperature may only rise one or two degrees.  For larger cuts and whole birds, the temperature can continue to rise as much as 10-15 degrees over a half hour to forty-five minutes.

Keep carryover cooking in mind when you roast any sort of meat, and allow for it in your temperature readings.  For example, when roasting a whole chicken, take it out of the oven when the breast reads an internal temperature of 155º F-157º F, cover it and let it rest, allowing the temperature to rise to 165º F.

When roasting a chicken breast, remove it from the oven at an internal temperature of 162-163F, letting it rest, covered, until it reaches 165º F.  Not only will resting the bird allow for carryover cooking, it also gives the juices in the bird time to redistribute evenly throughout the meat, resulting in a juicy, tender bird.

Experience

You might ask if professional cooks use instant thermometers and I can tell you they all carry them on their person at all times because it is the law and I imagine most of them use them. I’m also sure after cooking thousand and thousands of chickens they intuitively know when they are done. I’ve even been told by one chef she could hear when a chicken breast is perfectly cooked while sauteing. Cooking by ear – sounds interesting.

You may find it a pain at first to check everything you cook with an instant thermometer but I think after a few perfectly cooked outcomes, you will make it a standard part of your cooking experience.

Here are some tips to become a great griller:

Be sure your grill is hot enough before starting.

Grill meat and veggies about 4 inches from heat source and chicken about 6-8 inches away.

To add more flavor, try adding pre soaked chunks of natural hardwoods like Hickory.

Make sure grill is clean before cooking.

To prevent sticking, brush or spray a light coating of oil on grid.

If your grill has a top, close it to allow smoke to add it’s flavor.

To keep poultry from drying out, grill with bone in and baste continuously.

Poultry dark meat takes longer than white meat so start it sooner.

Sear chicken on the skin side first.

All grains, with the exception of rice, and the various grain meals, require prolonged cooking with gentle and continuous heat, in order to disintegrate their tissues and change their starch into dextrine as to render them easy to digest. Even the so-called “steam-cooked” grains, advertised to be ready for use in five or ten minutes, require a much longer cooking time to properly fit them for digestion. These so-called quickly prepared grains are simply steamed before grinding, which has the effect to destroy any low organisms contained in the grain. They are then crushed and shredded. Bicarbonate of soda and lime is added to help dissolve the albuminoids, and sometimes diastase to aid the conversion of the starch into sugar; but there is nothing in this preparatory process that so alters the chemical nature of the grain as to make it possible to cook it ready for easy digestion in five or ten minutes. An insufficiently cooked grain, although it may be palatable, is not in a condition to be readily acted upon by the digestive fluids, and is in consequence left undigested to act as a mechanical irritant.

Water is the liquid usually employed for cooking grains, but many of them are richer and finer flavored when milk is mixed with the water, one part to two of water. Especially is this true of rice, hominy, and farina. When water is used, soft water is preferable to hard. No salt is necessary, but if used at all, it is generally added to the water before stirring in the grain or meal.

The quantity of liquid required varies with the different grains, the manner in which they are milled, the method by which they are cooked, and the consistency desired for the cooked grain, more liquid being required for a porridge than for a mush.

All grains should be carefully looked over before being put to cook.

In the cooking of grains, the following points should be observed:

1. Measure both liquid and grain accurately with the same utensil, or with two of equal size.

2. Have the water boiling when the grain is introduced, but do not allow it to boil for a long time previous, until it is considerably evaporated, as that will change the proportion of water and grain sufficiently to alter the consistency of the mush when cooked. Introduce the grain slowly, so as not to stop the sinking to the bottom, and the whole becomes thickened.

3. Stir the grain continuously until it has set, but not at all afterward. Grains are much more appetizing if, while properly softened, they can still be made to retain their original form. Stirring renders the preparation pasty, and destroys its appearance.

In the preparation of all mushes with meal or flour, it is a good plan to make the material into a batter with a portion of the liquid retained from the quantity given, before introducing it into the boiling water. This prevents the tendency to cook in lumps, so frequent when dry meal is scattered into boiling liquid. Care must be taken, however, to add the moistened portion very slowly, stirring vigorously meantime, so that the boiling will not be checked. Use warm water for moistening. The other directions given for the whole or broken grains are applicable to the ground products.

Place the grain, when sufficiently cooked, in the refrigerator or in some place where it will cool quickly (as slow cooling might cause fermentation), to remain overnight.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 3/4 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup honey
• 3 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 cups sliced celery
• 1 1/2 cups sliced carrots
• 4 teaspoons canola oil, divided
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in 1/2-inch strips
• 1/4 cup coarsely chopped peanuts
• Hot cooked rice

Nutritional Analysis:

One serving (1 cup chicken mixture, calculated without rice) equals 348 calories, 11 g fat (1 g saturated fat), 66 mg cholesterol, 636 mg sodium, 34 g carbohydrate, 3 g fiber, 30 g protein. Diabetic Exchanges: 1 starch, 1 vegetable, 1 fruit, 1/2 fat.

Ingredients

• 3 cups broccoli florets
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves – cut into 1 inch strips
• 1/4 cup sliced green onions
• 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
• 1 tablespoon chile paste
• 1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1/8 cup chicken stock

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 161 | Total Fat: 6.2g | Cholesterol: 36mg

Cereal is the name given to those seeds used as food (wheat, rye, oats, barley, corn, rice, etc.), which are produced by plants belonging to the vast order known as the grass family. They are used for food both in the unground state and in various forms of mill products.

The grains are pre-eminently nutritious, and when well prepared, easily digested foods. In composition they are all similar, but variations in their constituent elements and the relative amounts of these various elements, give them different degrees of alimentary value. They each contain one or more of the nitrogenous elements, gluten, albumen, caseine, and fibrin, together with starch, dextrine, sugar, and fatty matter, and also mineral elements and woody matter, or cellulose. The combined nutritive value of the grain foods is nearly three times that of beef, mutton, or poultry. As regards the proportion of the food elements necessary to meet the various requirements of the system, grains approach more nearly the proper standard than most other foods; indeed, wheat contains exactly the correct proportion of the food elements.

Being thus in themselves so nearly perfect foods, and when properly prepared, exceedingly palatable and easy of digestion, it is a matter of surprise that they are not more generally used; yet scarcely one family in fifty makes any use of the grains, save in the form of flour, or an occasional dish of rice or oatmeal. This use of grains is far too meager to adequately represent their value as an article of diet. Variety in the use of grains is as necessary as in the use of other food material, and the numerous grain preparations now to be found in market render it quite possible to make this class of foods a staple article of diet, if so desired, without their becoming at all monotonous.

In olden times the grains were largely depended upon as a staple food, and it is a fact well authenticated by history that the highest condition of man has always been associated with wheat-consuming nations. The ancient Spartans, whose powers of endurance are proverbial, were fed on a grain diet, and the Roman soldiers who under Caesar conquered the world, carried each a bag of parched grain in his pocket as his daily ration.

Other nationalities at the present time make extensive use of the various grains. Rice used in connection with some of the leguminous seeds, forms the staple article of diet for a large proportion of the human race. Rice, unlike the other grain foods, is deficient in the nitrogenous elements, and for this reason its use needs to be supplemented by other articles containing an excess of the nitrogenous material. It is for this reason, doubtless, that the Chinese eat peas and beans in connection with rice.

We frequently meet people who say they cannot use the grains, that they do not agree with them. With all deference to the opinion of such people, it may be stated that the difficulty often lies in the fact that the grain was either not properly cooked, not properly eaten, or not properly accompanied. A grain, simply because it is a grain, is by no means warranted to faithfully fulfil its mission unless properly treated. Like many another good thing excellent in itself, if found in bad company, it is prone to create mischief, and in many cases the root of the whole difficulty may be found in the excessive amount of sugar used with the grain.

Sugar is not needed with grains to increase their alimentary value. The starch which constitutes a large proportion of their food elements must itself be converted into sugar by the digestive processes before assimilation, hence the addition of cane sugar only increases the burden of the digestive organs, for the pleasure of the palate. The Asiatics, who subsist largely upon rice, use no sugar upon it, and why should it be considered requisite for the enjoyment of wheat, rye, oatmeal, barley, and other grains, any more than it is for our enjoyment of bread or other articles made from these same grains? Undoubtedly the use of grains would become more universal if they were served with less or no sugar. The continued use of sugar upon grains has a tendency to cloy the appetite, just as the constant use of cake or sweetened bread in the place of ordinary bread would do. Plenty of nice, sweet cream or fruit juice, is a sufficient dressing, and there are few persons who after a short trial would not come to enjoy the grains without sugar, and would then as soon think of dispensing with a meal altogether as to dispense with the grains.

Even when served without sugar, the grains may not prove altogether healthful unless they are properly eaten. Because they are made soft by the process of cooking and on this account do not require masticating to break them up, the first process of digestion or insalivation is usually overlooked. But it must be remembered that grains are largely composed of starch, and that starch must be mixed with the saliva, or it will remain undigested in the stomach, since the gastric juice only digests the nitrogenous elements. For this reason it is desirable to eat the grains in connection with some hard food. Whole-wheat wafers, nicely toasted to make them crisp and tender, toasted rolls, and unfermented zwieback, are excellent for this purpose. Break two or three wafers into rather small pieces over each individual dish before pouring on the cream. In this way, a morsel of the hard food may be taken with each spoonful of the grains. The combination of foods thus secured, is most pleasing. This is a specially advantageous method of serving grains for children, who are so liable to swallow their food without proper mastication.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 506 | Total Fat: 12.1g | Cholesterol: 78mg