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

Archive for the ‘How To & Tips’ Category

September 26th, 2022

Blog, Breakfast, Crepes, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, Hiking Food, How To & Tips, Running Food

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Fresh Crepes with Nut Butter, Jam, Yogurt & Whipped Cream

Last post – I know, quite a while ago – showed how to make fresh crepes, which are just as easy to make as flapjack pancakes but are way more versatile, as shown with just a few examples above.

Whether you use your own crepes or pre-made store bought crepes, the top middle version, filled with nut butter and jam and topped with yogurt and whipped cream is very easy to make, killer flavorful and great power fuel for any kind of strenuous activity because of its combination of simple “get up and go!” sugars from the jam and cookie spread (optional), complex carbs from the flour in the crepe, protein from the egg in the crepe, Greek yogurt and nut butter, and fats from nut butter, yogurt (if you use whole milk yogurt) and whipped cream.

Here’s what I use to put together a crepe like this: homemade crepe (which can be substituted with a prepared, store bought crepe), then from left to right: whole milk Greek yogurt, almond butter, cookie spread (optional – I love both added flavor and light crunch!), jam, raisins and whipped cream.

Crepe with nut butter, jam, yogurt and whipped cream ingredients

Start by spreading nut butter, cookie spread (optional) and jam down the middle of the crepe.

Spreading nut butter, cookie spread and jam down the middle of a crepe

I fold over one of the crepe thirds and add a dab of nut butter to the middle of that third and then fold over the opposing third, as shown below, to keep the crepe folded in place when I warm it in the microwave oven.

Using nut butter to keep the folded crepe thirds together when warmed in the microwave oven

Warm the filled crepe in the microwave oven for 20 seconds.

Warming the filled crepe for 20 seconds in the microwave oven

Finish buy topping the warmed crepe with yogurt and whipped cream.

Finishing with a good shot of yogurt and whipped cream

This crepe just by itself is great. Here’s how I have it before a good crunch on the bike that keeps me satisfied completely with no need to refuel on the fly for distances of 30-50+ miles with plenty of North Carolina hills along the way.

Pre-ride crepe with nut butter, cookie spread, jam, yogurt and whipped cream

July 9th, 2022

Blog, How To & Tips, Salad Dressings, Salads

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How to Use Easy-To-Make 5-Ingredient Fresh Salad Dressings Examples

Two recent posts showed how to make an Instant 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing and a Fresh 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing. The only difference between the two: the instant dressing uses garlic powder to avoid any cutting or chopping; the fresh dressing just substitutes garlic powder with fresh garlic – and shows how to chop that garlic as easily as possible with picture book directions.

Regarding how to use the dressing, of course, either dressing goes great on any savory or sweet and savory salad, like the ones shown below – with picture book recipe links: Peach, Avocado & Baby Pepper Salad (top middle), Fresh Spinach and Berry Salad (bottom right), and Heirloom Tomato with Fresh Basil and Feta Cheese Salad (bottom left).

But, then here are just a few examples of how I used either dressing with dishes I’ve put together on the fly like: Pan Fried Chicken, Tomatoes and Parmesan Cheese (top left), Beans and Cheese with Fresh Tomato Onion Salad (top right), and Open Face Grilled Cheese and Tomato Pepper Salad (bottom middle).

Bottom line: your imagination is your only limit to how you use either dressing – or any dressing. For another example, here’s something I just had: Spinach and Ricotta Cheese Pancake topped with tomatoes, avocado, cilantro and fresh salad dressing. Yes, all easy and fun to put together – more about that pancake pretty soon – and all always with a keen eye on full-on flavor!

April 19th, 2022

Blog, Fruit, How To & Tips

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How to Speed Up Pineapple Ripening

At the end of the last post I promised I’d show how to improvise on very easy-to-make pineapple, yogurt & jam. That plan sounded fine until I realized that the pineapple I was going to use to make and shoot those directions wasn’t yet ripe even after I’d had it on top of my fridge for about a week, as shown below

No problem. Just another opportunity to improvise in a different manner. Though I’ve not done this with a pineapple before, I figured I could probably speed up the ripening process by doing what I do with other fruits and avocados that sometimes take days or longer to ripen out in the open.

Last night I put the pineapple in a paper bag (can’t use a plastic bag for this because plastic doesn’t allow for needed air exchange that makes ripening work; paper does),…

…then clipped the bag closed (because it would’t stay closed just by folding the bag top), and…

…put the bagged pineapple on top of the fridge, which I’ll now keep an eye on to see how quickly the pineapple ripens.

More soon!

April 8th, 2022

Blog, Breakfast, Fruit, How To & Tips

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How to Ripen and Cut Fresh Pineapple Picture Book Directions

The sweet, tropical flavor and soft crunch and pop texture of fresh pineapple is just as fully satisfying on its own as it is mixed with other flavors. More about that later.

First, the picture book directions you can get by clicking this link or any picture on this page…

…show how to ripen a pineapple (that almost always comes to market underripe),…

…how to make a ripened pineapple take up less space in your refrigerator and…

…how to cut a pineapple as easy as possible.

Next blog: some easy-to-make pineapple recipes. All fun and full-on flavorful!

April 2nd, 2022

Blog, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, How To & Tips, Nutrition, Running Food

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More Specific Banana Nut Butter Bar Ingredient Details

Timing can be great!

Last post earlier this week discussed what’s really in an ingredient and what that means to you, especially if you have dietary restrictions. Then, entirely coincidentally, this week I got a text from a good cycling bud asking whether to use sweetened or unsweetened coconut flakes and what type of chocolate chips to use to make Banana Nut Butter Power Bars. He couched his question with a note that his skills are pretty much limited to toasting Pop Tarts. Excellent on all fronts!

I loved the question! Right away, I tore down the old recipe to revise it with this more descriptive list of ingredients and…

…these new directions that you can get by clicking this link or any picture on this page.

Always glad to make changes – that’s “learning and adapting” life in action. And what I like best is hearing what works and doesn’t work for people actually using any recipe I put on this site so that I can help make your work – and mine – in the kitchen as easily fully flavorful as possible. That’s life enriched!

March 28th, 2022

Blog, How To & Tips, Nutrition

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What’s Really In a Recipe Ingredient?

What really is in an ingredient needed to put together a recipe?

That question – and the idea of fairness – popped in my head while I was laying out the last post that compared the ingredients of a random sample of store bought packaged power bars…

…with a homemade power bar sandwich made with the ingredients shown here.

As shown above, the packaged bars all have their ingredients listed by quantity in order of the most used to least used ingredient.

I listed the ingredients used to make the power bar sandwich in the same way: whole grain bread; choice of honey, jam or cookie spread; nut butter; fresh fruit; raisins; and chocolate chips.

But my list doesn’t say it all. Sure, bananas are bananas, blueberries are blueberries and raisins are raisins. And, the nut butter I use I make myself with just lightly salted and unsalted almonds and ground flaxseed, as shown here.

But the rest of the ingredients are much more complex, meaning that they themselves are made with a lot of ingredients. Here’s what’s in the whole grain bread I used to make the power bar sandwich:

Though I’m not a big fan of the added sugar, the rest of the ingredients look fine to me – and I’m sure not going to start off making the power bar sandwich by first baking the bread needed to make that sandwich.

Then there’s the choice of honey, jam and/or cookie spread. As shown below, the honey is just honey. The jam is made with fig paste, sugar, water and lemon juice. Simple enough.

But then there’s the cookie spread, which tastes great but is also made with many more ingredients than the honey and jam, including a good shot of added sugar. (A quick side note regarding nutrition labels: the first thing to check on any nutrition label is serving size. As you can see in the above picture, the cookie spread serving size is 2 tablespoons, which is twice the serving size of the 1 tablespoon serving size for honey and jam. That means that tablespoon for tablespoon, which is about all you need to make the power bar sandwich, fig butter has 45 calories, honey has 60 calories and cookie spread has 85 calories.)

Finally, here are the ingredients needed to make the chocolate chips:

The point here is that there are actually a lot of unseen/unnoticed ingredients that go into complex ingredients, like the bread and spreads, needed to make the power bar sandwich just as there are many ingredients that go into making any recipe that calls for prepared ingredients like canned or jarred products, sauces and seasonings – or just about anything found in the center aisles of the the grocery store.

The key take away here is that it’s important to be curious about what exactly you are putting into any food you make, especially if you have dietary restrictions. Being curious then means actually looking at nutrition labels in the store and deciding what works best for you before actually buying that food. Yes, that takes a bit more time, but the payoff to you and those sharing what you make for them to eat is well worth that time.

February 18th, 2022

Blog, Cooking Technique, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, How To & Tips, Pasta, Running Food, Videos

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How to Cook High Protein-High Fiber Pasta Picture Book and Video Directions

Picture book and video directions show how to cook fantastically versatile high protein-high fiber pasta

Just put out this 4 minute YouTube video showing how to cook high protein-high fiber pasta using a combination of black soy bean and edamame (young, green soybean) pasta.

Why high protein-high fiber pasta? First: flavor always rules here, and just like traditional wheat-based pasta, you can add flavor to it any way you like. I’ll show examples in future posts like what you see below: full-on flavorful high protein-high fiber pasta with fruit and mozzarella cheese.

High protein-high fiber pasta with fruit and mozzarella cheese

Second, but most importantly for your body, just about everybody could use more fiber and high quality protein in their diet. Click this link or the picture below for a quick take on fiber and what it does for us.

What is fiber and why do we need it in our diet?

You can also click this link or the picture below for How to Cook High Protein-High Fiber Pasta picture book directions.

February 8th, 2022

Blog, Cooking Technique, How To & Tips

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Is It Safe to Cook with a Microwave Oven?

Cooking with a well working microwave oven is quick, easy and safe

Next couple posts – and many more in the future – will show how to warm easy to make pasta meals in the microwave oven. Before actually showing how to make any of those meals, I first want to address a concern some people have about microwave oven cooking safety prompted by a recent comment left on my “How to Make Microwave Cooked Broccoli” video stating that microwave cooking changes vegetable cell structure and therefore makes those microwave cooked vegetables potentially cancerous.

I’ve heard that comment before. I’m sure you have, too. It is not true. Microwave cooking does not change cell structure other than potentially bursting their cell walls as steam builds inside the cells when they are heated the same way vegetable cells can burst through stove top or oven cooking.

Here is a description explaining how microwave ovens cook food that I paraphrased from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and World Health Organization (WHO) resources listed at the end of this article: An electronic tube, called a magnetron, inside a microwave oven converts ordinary wall socket electric power into 2450 Megahertz microwaves (electromagnetic waves that are about 5 inches long) that cause molecules in water, fats and sugars in food to vibrate very quickly. That fast vibration and friction, like rapidly rubbing your hands together, causes heat which then cooks the food.

Here’s what the magnetron looks like in my microwave oven.

In order the ensure safe cooking, as detailed in your microwave oven owner’s manual,…

…make sure there are no cracks inside the microwave walls or door seal. Use only microwave safe containers or dishes when cooking food in a microwave oven and don’t cover foods with plastic wrap to prevent splatter because some of the plastic can melt and get into your food. As shown below, I use a wetted paper towel to prevent splatter, which works great!

Below are some excellent resources for more detailed information and answers to common microwave oven use questions.

Click this link or the picture below for Cooking with Microwave Ovens from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Click this link or the picture below for the US Food & Drug Administration’s Microwave Oven Radiation webpage.

Click this link or the picture below for Questions and Answers about Microwave Radiation by the World Health Organization (WHO).

July 17th, 2021

Blog, How To & Tips

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How to Sharpen a Kitchen Knife Without a Knife Sharpener

First, sorry for the delay between the last post and this one. Had to focus on other parts of life – but always made sure to make the most of putting together something good to eat for all meals. That is non-negotiable!

This is the last knife sharpening tip, but it’s a good one to deal with the most important tool in the kitchen, a sharp knife.

Now, let’s say you’re away from home, and the knife you’re given to use is dull and there’s no real knife sharpener to be found? No problem. Here’s an excellent tip I learned from a great group of Gelug Tibetan monks while making lunch together with them years ago. To sharpen a dull knife, just run the blade you want to sharpen over the hard-edged back of another knife as shown below.

It’s actually very easy and effective to sharpen a knife “on-the-fly” like this, though using a real sharpener does a better job keep the blade both sharp and true without pits and gouges that can develop on the knife edge if you use only this method.

Here’s how to use the same technique to sharpen a short-bladed knife, like a paring knife.

All right! Next posts: food!

April 18th, 2021

Blog, How To & Tips

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How to Sharpen a Kitchen Knife with an Electric Knife Sharpener Picture Book Directions

Last two posts showed how to sharpen a kitchen knife with a handheld knife sharpener and a sharpening steel. This post provides a direct link to picture book directions that show how to sharpen a kitchen knife with an electric knife sharpener.

ne thing to note: electric knife sharpeners come in many varieties. Any will sharpen your knife, though those with multiple stage slots, like the one shown below, are more efficient (and, as expected, more expensive) at taking a knife from a coarse to a finely sharpened edge. Before using an electric knife sharpener, make sure you are familiar with the sharpener manufacturer’s owner’s manual (yep, this coming from a guy who routinely avoids directions unless absolutely necessary) and then use the picture directions you can get by clicking this link or any picture on this page.