How To & Tips | Gotta Eat, Can't Cook

Archive for the ‘How To & Tips’ Category

November 13th, 2024

Blog, Chicken & Turkey, How To & Tips, Seasonal/Holiday Recipes, Thanksgiving Dinner

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Stress-Free Thanksgiving Dinner Grocery List and Timing Guide

Like I mentioned recently in Stress-Free Picture Book Thanksgiving Dinner Help, Thanksgiving’s by far my favorite holiday! All that’s expected is a good meal and getting together with family and friends. Not much more to be thankful about than that.

Of course, if you’re the one putting that uniquely traditional dinner together and are not comfortable in the kitchen, the challenge of pulling it off successfully can be overwhelming. I’ve sure been there, and relieving that stress is what this post and others like it are all about.

The two most important keys to putting together a successful and stress-free Thanksgiving dinner are planning and timing. That means making sure you have all the ingredients you need in advance (stores are usually – and thankfully – closed on Thanksgiving Day) and coordinating cooking timing in the kitchen.

To help you get the ingredients you need as efficiently as possible, click this link or the picture below for a grocery shopping list to make a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for 6-8 people that includes roast turkey, gravy, bread stuffing, fresh cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and pie dessert. Of course, just adjust those quantities as needed based on how many people you expect to join you for Thanksgiving dinner.

And, though though it’s a little early to start actually preparing any Thanksgiving dishes, click this link or the picture below for a timing guide that lays out clearly just about everything you’ll need to do to put together a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

More about specific Thanksgiving recipes to follow that we’ll have fun putting together!

September 16th, 2024

Blog, Empowerment, Food & Health, How To & Tips

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Gotta’ Eat, Can’t Cook: Empowering Yourself Beyond the Kitchen

Gotta' Eat, Can't Cook is all about providing the skills you need to empower yourself in the kitchen and beyond.

3 primary concerns determine your quality of life: what you eat, how regularly and rigorously you move your body and how you manage stress.

To illustrate that point, even though the photo below is fairly current, this is what we humans (homo sapiens) looked like 10,000 or so years ago.

Up until 10,000 to 12,000 years ago we homo sapiens were all hunter gatherers.

10,000 years is nothing relative to the 10 to 20 million years it took for us to develop as hominids (early forms of humans) from primates or even the 200,000 to 300,000 years since we started to develop as “modern man”, or homo sapiens, that we are today.

Now, fast forward to more “current” times. 10,000 – 12,000 years ago, we were all nomadic hunter gatherers. That meant we had to move our bodies – almost always a lot – to find or hunt for food. At the same time, we had to manage stress to survive periods when food couldn’t be found or avoid being eaten by the same wild animals we were trying to kill to eat to keep us alive.

The fact is: our bodies are still hunter gatherer bodies that developed over millions of years. I joke that despite food that’s now available 24/7/365 in developed communities around the world, we haven’t yet become “homo couch-us potato-us”. That means our hunter gatherer bodies still require foods that promote life, regular and vigorous movement (aka, exercise) and techniques to manage stress so that we can think and behave clearly when life demands it most.

This site is about providing you with the skills you need to empower yourself to make the foods your body needs on your own. Like I’ve mentioned before, no one, no matter how well intentioned or influential they are to you, can empower you. Empowerment comes from within. That means only YOU can empower YOU. And this site provides picture book and video guidance and support to help you do just that in the kitchen – and beyond – because real empowerment begets more empowerment.

Ha! Then there’s the fun of it all. That’s up next!

June 23rd, 2024

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Anti-inflammatory Recipes, Blog, Cycling Food, Dessert, Fitness Food, How To & Tips, Running Food

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Banana Ice Cream Full-On! Picture Directions

Adding commonly found ingredients to make banana ice cream with full-on flavor

Last post showed how to make fully flavorful (non-dairy) banana ice cream using only 3 ingredients: frozen bananas, vanilla extract and ground cinnamon. (Please also see Bananas Are Good Food! if you haven’t seen that post before or have been informed incorrectly by other sources that bananas are not good for you.)

This post show how you can easily use some of the commonly found ingredients in your kitchen to take that simple banana ice cream to full-on exciting. Here’s an example of what I used recently to help kick your imagination in gear.

Commonly found kitchen ingredients to take simple banana ice cream to full-on flavorful exciting

When you download the recipe, you’ll see I point out that I added a fresh peach not shown in the above ingredients. That’s exactly what I mean about improvising on the fly to suit your taste and/or dietary needs.

Please click this link or any picture on this page for complete step-by-step picture book Banana Ice Cream Full-On! directions.

June 3rd, 2024

Blog, How To & Tips, Special Recipes

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Easy Homemade Vanilla Extract

Picture book recipe shows how to make homemade vanilla extract

I’m a BIG fan of real vanilla extract. I love how it enriches the flavor of whipped cream, desserts, fruit pancakes, warm fruit toppings, breakfast cereals and much more as shown in a few examples below.

You’ll notice I’m using commercial or store-bought vanilla extract in the pictures above. Nothing wrong with that – except that the price shot through the roof years ago and is still high. The reason: Madagascar, the largest and most popular producer of vanilla beans, experienced storms, deforestation and labor shortages that meant that vanilla bean supply couldn’t meet worldwide demand (actually, vanilla beans aren’t real beans, like string beans, but are the fruit of the vanilla orchid).

.For me personally, that supply/price problem was a great nudge to learn how to make vanilla extract on my own – and it’s all very easy. All you need are vanilla beans, liquor that’s at least 35% alcohol content (70 proof), a container to pour off excess alcohol if you’re using a full bottle, sharp knife, cutting board, and then masking tape and a pen to mark the date, as shown below.

The toughest part of the whole process is ordering vanilla beans, which I recommend you do by searching “how to buy vanilla beans” online. Here are some links I’ve used: Beanilla and Amazon.

The next step is deciding what flavor of 80 proof (40%) alcohol to use: rum, bourbon or vodka. I’m a big fan of either rum or bourbon for their added flavor.

After that, it’s just cut into the vanilla beans to expose their flavorful middle where the small black seeds are, put the beans in the liquor bottle, close the bottle, mark the date you put the ingredients together with masking tape and a pen and store the bottle in a cabinet for at least 3 months to allow the vanilla flavor to infuse the alcohol.

Click this link or any picture on this page for step-by-step picture book directions – and enjoy!

April 24th, 2024

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Anti-inflammatory Recipes, Blog, Condiments, How To & Tips, Salad Dressings, Salads & Salad Dressings, Snacks

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Quick & Zesty Homemade Ranch Dressing – All in Pictures

As you can see in the graph below, Ranch Dressing was the number 2 most sold condiment in the US between 2019 and 2021. I can’t imagine that position has changed in the meantime.

The Quick & Zesty Ranch Dressing you see here is what I call a “base recipe” from which you can improvise however you like – flavor rules! – and I’ll provide guides about how to do that soon. The ingredients, shown below, needed to make this Ranch Dressing are all commonly found, require no cutting or chopping and are a lot more wholesome…

…than the ingredients you typically see printed on labels of store-bought Ranch Dressings, like those shown below. (By the way, the mayonnaise I’m using, far left in the picture above, is homemade, which you can see how to make by clicking this link. The yellow comes from added turmeric powder.)

Once you have the ingredients good to go, all you have to do is put them together,…

…mix them well and then let the dressing rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to bring out the full flavors of herbs and spices you use.

Click this lin k or any picture on this page for picture book Quick and Zesty Ranch Dressing directions, and enjoy!

April 4th, 2024

Blog, Condiments, How To & Tips, Special Recipes

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Homemade Tomato Ketchup: “Super” Easy, Fully Flavorful, All in Pictures

As shown in the Statistica graph below, ketchup was the number 3 selling condiment in the US between 2019-2021. I can’t imagine that’s changed between then and now.

At the same time, as shown in the images of store-bought ketchup nutrition/ingredient labels below, most of those store-bought ketchups contain about 1 teaspoon of sugar per tablespoon of ketchup (3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon).

Through most of my adult life, I’ve backed off ketchup mostly because I found it too sweet. But then, not too long ago, I found a sugar-free ketchup at a fresh food market in Easton, Pennsylvania. And though I loved the taste: fresh, zesty and rich tomato flavor, I wasn’t too hot on the price, something like $8.00 for the bottle you see below – and I found that price consistent for similar sugar-free ketchups on other store shelves across the country.

So, how ’bout I learn to make it on my own?

First step, find a decent recipe on line, like the one you see here from Tastes Better From Scratch.

As noted in red above, though the recipe above looks perfectly fine (thanks, Lauren!), I improvised (any recipe is only a guide) by:

using crushed tomatoes because I like that better than tomato sauce
cutting the sugar amount from 4 tablespoons to one tablespoon
skipping water – no flavor – and because I used a can of crushed tomatoes (14.5 ounces) that was almost twice the size of the 8 ounce can of tomato sauce called for in the recipe above
cutting out the salt because I didn’t think it needed it
skipping the onion powder because I didn’t have it on hand and, instead, used 1 full teaspoon of garlic powder
added 1/4 teaspoon of ground clove because I love that flavor
skipped the red pepper/hot sauce just to find out how the ketchup would taste without it – I could always add either later

Bottom line: here’s what I came up with that’s “super” easy to make (no cutting needed), low in sugar and salt, and, most importantly, fully flavorful – that you can see how to make by clicking this link!

March 6th, 2024

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Anti-inflammatory Recipes, Blog, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, Hiking Food, How To & Tips, Running Food, Salads & Salad Dressings

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Easy Fresh 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing Picture Book Recipe

About a month ago, I posted this extremely easy-to-make Instant 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing that’s so versatile, it goes great, of course, on salads, but also on pasta, rice, sandwiches, cooked vegetables – imagination is your only limit.

This post is about how to make that dressing fresh-er just by substituting garlic powder with fresh garlic.

I’m a big fan of fresh garlic for its rich, bold flavor – and its broad spectrum health benefits that include: improved immune system, lowered blood pressure and cholesterol, cancer prevention, improved athletic performance – and more (for more details in short, easy-to-read form, click this Spice World link).

Two quick practical tips about fresh garlic. First, choose fresh garlic bulbs, like the one shown below, that are firm to a hand squeeze, heavier in weight (more water content) and show no signs of dark grey mold under the skin or green shoots growing out of the bulb.

Second, to make peeling the garlic skin easy, which is the least fun part about dealing with fresh garlic, first crunch the individual garlic cloves with a forceful press and satisfying garlic skin pop using the side of a wide-bladed chef’s knife, as shown here.

Once you chop the fresh garlic, as shown briefly below, the rest is all down hill. Just add mustard, ground black pepper, vinegar and yogurt.

Peeling the skin off a fresh garlic clove, then slicing and chopping that fresh garlic clove

You can see all the above – and more – by clicking this link for the complete Fresh 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing picture book recipe.

January 29th, 2024

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Anti-inflammatory Recipes, Blog, Cycling Food, Empowerment, Fitness Food, Hiking Food, How To & Tips, Salad Dressings, Salads, Salads & Salad Dressings

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Pear and Avocado Salad Picture Book Directions

Last pos t showed how to make a fully flavorful, exceptionally easy to make, highly versatile Instant 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing. I made that dressing most recently to start a “Gotta’ Eat Smartly” series of food demos with AARP at Eastway Recreation Center in Charlotte earlier this month. That series is designed to give senior citizens the hands-on kitchen skills and knowledge they need to empower themselves to make life-promoting/quality of life improving meals.

If you’re a regular to this site – or know me personally, you know flavor rules – always! Here’s an example. Sure, we could’ve used that Instant 5-Ingredient Salad dressing on a traditional lettuce and tomato salad, but where’s the flavor fun in that? So instead, I showed the group of a dozen very engaged women how to make a Pear and Avocado Salad – and then how to improvise on that very easy base recipe. First, here’s what you need to make the base recipe – and you’ll see that we replaced a store-bought salad dressing in the top picture with our Instant 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing.

I mentioned “improvising” above, and by improvising I mean adding or substituting ingredients based on either/both your taste and/or ingredients you have on hand – and remember, recipes are just guides. So, for example, I asked the women if they thought it would be ok to substitute or even supplement the pears with apples. Sure! And then I suggested adding adding flavors as they liked based on personal taste.

That last sentence fired up a lively discussion. “Can I add chicken or any other meat?” Yes! “What about fresh herbs?” Sure!

“What about adding potato salad?” Absolutely! And that potato salad question led to a talk about mayonnaise in potato salad and which mayonnaise brand I like. My comment: I don’t like using processed foods, like store-bought mayonnaise, with long paragraphs of ingredients, some of which are NOT found in nature. So, I improvise and substitute mayonnaise with Greek yogurt, mustard and spices.

“If you do that, then what about making homemade mayonnaise?” one of the women asked. “A friend of mine makes it all the time and says it’s easy.” Great idea! I’ve never made it before, but I’ll learn and we’ll make it together next time we’re together.

Next time is coming up fast: Thursday, February 8th – and I’ve already started practicing.

I first picked a top-rated homemade mayonnaise recipe from Inspired Taste. I then improvised a bit, as they suggested, and will need to do more of that. You know the flavor deal. I’m not rolling out my version until that flavor kicks it full-on.

In the meantime, back to the Pear and Avocado Salad featured here. Please click this link and pass it on for the easy to follow picture book recipe shown below. And remember: that recipe is just a guide. Play with it. Improvise. And, most of all, have fun!

More soon!

January 24th, 2024

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Anti-inflammatory Recipes, Blog, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, Hiking Food, How To & Tips, Running Food, Salad Dressings, Salads & Salad Dressings

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Instant 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing Picture Book Recipe

Last post mentioned work I’ve just started with AARP (American Association of Retired People) and Eastway Rec. Center in Charlotte, NC, to help senior citizens empower themselves in the kitchen to make life-promoting foods.

The first recipe we made together was the Instant 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing shown below, which is just as incredibly versatile as it is easy to make.

First, a quick back story. The first time I ever made this recipe was with a group of fellow veterans who were turning their lives around through Veterans Incorporated (Vets Inc.) in Shrewsbury, MA. One of the guys in the group, a fellow Navy veteran – and terrific character, chimed in when I listed the seven ingredients I intended to use: garlic powder, salt, ground black pepper, mustard, honey, vinegar and oil.

“Why do we need the added salt and sugar? A lot of guys here have diabetes and/or high blood pressure. We don’t need that _____(4-letter word for “stuff”)!”

I get blunt beautifully and had to agree about the added salt and sugar. But this was the first recipe I was rolling out with these guys and first time I’d ever met them. My inner thought: “Fine, I’ll cut the salt and honey – but, boy, this dressing’s gonna’ taste like crap.”

I quickly made the dressing and asked the guys to taste a spoon of it full-on before I tasted it myself. The stunner? They loved it – and so did I.

Not only does this dressing taste great (most important), but it’s also incredibly versatile. As shown in the few sample pictures below, it goes great on any kind of warm or cold salad, over cooked vegetables, meat, chicken, fish, pasta, rice – imagination is your only limit.

Here are the ingredients needed to make this salad dressing. You’ll actually see six ingredients below because I often use two different types of vinegars for added flavor, which you certainly don’t have to do.

Click this link or any picture on this page for a complete step-by-step picture recipe that includes information about the sourness of different vinegars and why this recipe is considered low in both salt and sugar.

November 9th, 2023

Blog, Breakfast, How To & Tips, Seasonal/Holiday Recipes, Special Recipes

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Fully Flavorful Whipped Cream Variations – Even If You’re Lactose Intolerant

Flavor rules – always!

Last two posts showed how easy it is to make fully flavorful fresh whipped cream and then how to boost flavor to that same whipped cream by just adding ground cinnamon. This post shows a couple ways to vary whipped cream flavor very quickly and easily – even if you’re lactose intolerant. As always here, imagination is your only limit!

To kick that imagination in gear, here’s Pumpkin Pumped Whipped Cream.

Killer easy to make! As shown in the picture thumbnail sketch below,…

…just add pumpkin butter and pumpkin pie spice to the base fresh whipped cream recipe. And you don’t have to be limited by pumpkin butter. You can use apple butter, your favorite jam, butterscotch spread – anything you like to get the flavor you want.

Then if you or someone you know is lactose intolerant, here’s how you can easily switch out heavy cream with coconut cream and coconut milk to make both a basic coconut based whipped cream and then use the above ideas to vary the flavor any way you like.