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How to Set Up Your Kitchen Smartly
Top Meat Slicers To Consider When Buying
No matter how much you love cooking and regardless of how expert you are with the processes, there are certain elements that most of us would want to avoid at all costs. Cooking can be heavily dominated by knife work, be it cutting, chopping, slicing or dicing. While fruits and vegetables are still manageable, it is those big pieces of meat that can be the real horror story. Meat is available and is widely used as a major food ingredient in many cuisines, and is required to be used in various forms such as fillets, dices, cutlet, etc.
Since meat is not as tender as vegetables and fruits, cutting it in the desired form even with the best chef knives is a real struggle. Especially if you intend to make multiple pieces, cooks often struggle with keeping the sizes of all pieces even. The entire process not only gets very tedious and messy but can also be really time-consuming. A meat slicer is nothing short of a blessing under such circumstances. The culinary industry has invented many appliances and equipment to make life easier for cooks and meat slicers are one of them. If you are looking to buy one for yourself, here are some of the best butcher quality meat slicers reviewed for you.
BESWOOD 250 Premium Meat Cheese Slicer
This meat slicer by Beswood is inarguably the best one in the market. With its 240W and a premium chromium-plated carbon steel blade, this slicer is an excellent pick for both home and commercial use. The equipment itself along with its blade is exceptionally strong and well built. It is very user-friendly and easy maintenance, and despite its commercial grade motor, it does not make a lot of noise or vibration. On the downside, this meat slicer is bulkier than many of its competitors and has a higher price point.
KWS Premium Commercial Meat Slicer
This is yet another excellent meat slicer available in the market, which runs on a 320W motor and is mostly used for commercial use. With its exceptionally sharp blade and strong built, this is the best meat slicer for cutting frozen and tough pieces of meat, which are difficult to deal with any regular cutting equipment. It is a user-friendly and easy to maintain equipment with a Teflon blade which also makes it rust-resistant. However, this meat slicer also loses some points for being bulky and expensive.
Chef’s Choice 615 A Electric Meat Slicer
Before anything else, unlike other meat slicers discussed before, the compact and sleek design of this equipment makes it a great choice for home use. However, its technology also allows it to be used for professional purposes. This 120W equipment has the ability to cut your meat and vegetables into super thin pieces and deliver right into the platter. It comes with a food carriage and is very user-friendly. One of the main features of the equipment is that it auto-locks itself when not in use. This is an excellent safety feature, especially for home use.
Hopefully these three will give you something to think about when you’re looking at buying a meat slicer for home use.
Cooking With Kids eBooks {Expired}
Camp Cooking, Picnics And More With The Cadac Safari Chef 2
No Bake Rocky Road Fridge Cake Recipe
Barbecued Fruit Skewers With A Healthy Chocolate Sauce
30+ Honey Based Sweet & Drinks Recipes
Over on my other blog, Diary of a First Child, we’re celebrating Winnie the Pooh at the moment, as it comes up for the 91st anniversary this year. We’ve made various honey-based recipes over the last few weeks, so I decided to do a round-up of honey, honey, honey for those who want to play along at home. Here are 30 food and drinks recipes based on or heavily featuring honey!
Sweets for a Bear Who Likes Honey
- Strawberry Shortcake Lemon Curd Parfait from The Rising Spoon
- Homemade Toffee with Honey from The Rising Spoon
- Honey Lollipops from The Monday Box
- Soft Spanish Nougat from The Things We’ll Make
- Chocolate Honey from A Girl Worth Saving
- Mini Honey Balsamic Berry Cheesecake from ThriftyJinxy
- Hard Boiled Honey Balls from Keeper of the Kitchen
Healthier With Honey
- Honey Spiced Walnuts from Delicious Obsessions
- Creamy Pan-Fried Peaches with Cinnamon and Honey from The Rising Spoon
- Chocolate Honey Roasted Almonds from Mama Likes to Cook
Cakes & Cookies
- Strawberry Honey Layer Cake from Wholesome Yum
- Honey Applesauce Cake from Raia’s Recipes
- Honey Orange Cupcake from Raia’s Recipes
- Upside Down Honey Cake from TexanErin
- Honey Apple Pie from Raia’s Recipes
- Heavenly Honey Banana Cupcakes from Thrifty T’s Treasures
- Chocolate Walnut Honey Muffins from Healy Eats Real
- Honey Jumbles from The Monday Box
- Apple and Honey Cookies from Family Friends Food
- Honey Apple Galettes from Family Friends Food
- Honey Sesame Cookies from The Monday Box
- Honey Cookies from Keeper of the Kitchen
- Honey Dough Balls from Keeper of the Kitchen
Ice Cream & Faux-Dairy
- Honey Kiwi Soft Serve from Raia’s Recipes
- Honey Sweetened Coconut Whipped Cream from Raia’s Recipes
- Honey Peach Pops from Raia’s Recipes
- Whipped Honey and Cinnamon CocoGhee from Delicious Obsessions
Drinks
- Honey Sima (sweet mead) from Raia’s Recipes
- Orange Blossom Honey Bubble Tea from ThriftyJinxy
- Honey Mead from Storm The Castle
- Honey Raspberry Iced Tea from Sue Bee
15+ Free eBooks For Your New Years Foodie Goals
Christmas is over and January is looming and with it all the new year’s resolutions. The times for making plans and promises, and for hoping for change in the new year. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course – a wise man once said “The measure of success isn’t in how many times you fall, but in how many times you get up again”.
If one of your goals for the year ahead are eating healthier, more cooking from scratch or simply just adjusting your food habits, then here are 17 free Kindle eBooks * (free at the time of publishing. please confirm before downloading)
Don’t have a Kindle eReader? Never mind – you can download one of the multitude of free Kindle readers onto your phone, laptop or other device.
Free eBooks for Slowcooker Meals
Slowcookers really come into their own at this time of year, whether because you want a warm and hearty meal ready when you step through the door, or whether because it’s too hot to turn the oven no and stand cooking in the kitchen, the slow cooker is perfect. The Slender Slowcooker Cookbook (UK link) (US link) contains low calorie recipes for slow cooking under 200, 300 and 400 calories. Amazon says this book is for you if – you’re looking for easy low calorie slow cooker recipes, which keep an eye on your calorie intake, a slow cooker cookbook that’s full of flavour, and you don’t want to spend all your time in the kitchen. ” The slow cooker recipes are easy to put together in the morning, leaving you free to come home to a delicious meal in the evening”.
There’s also Low Carb Slow Cooker Recipes (UK) (US link) a book full of meaty recipes. There are over 100 low carb recipes here, and while it’s very Americanised, there should be some recipes for every slowcooker user.
Paleo Gluten Free Slow Cooker Recipes (UK) (US link) offers precisely what it says on the cover – paleo and gluten free recipes for the slow cooker. Loads of four and five-star reviews too!
Stirring Slowly (UK link) (US link) is a beautiful “short” with wholesome, gorgeous recipes. There are only a few recipes, meant to entice you into buying the book, but you can enjoy the freebie for a start.
I’ve always heard of the health benefits of bone broth, but have found it quite daunting getting started. This guide A Simple Bone Broth Recipe to Heal Leaky Gut Syndrome (UK link) (US link)
Plant based and Clean Eating Free eBooks
Want to try something new and different this year? Start with this free Plant Based Eating (UK link) (US link) – it doesn’t seem to be the book for those who already follow a plant based diet, with some reviewers calling it a ‘sampler’ of other books. It seems like a good place to start though – choose the recipes you like, and find out where to find more from those authors. For more on the subject, Plant Based Cookbook (UK link) (US link) offers 3 books in 1: Alkaline Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Recipes for Weight Loss & Health – loads of info for those interested in Plant Based diets.
Clean Eating Alice’s Spring Clean (UK link) (US link) is another sampler book – there are 8 recipes introducing clean eating, so if you like them, and get on with the author and the style you can invest further.
For a little more on the Clean Eating diet, Clean Eating by Dale Roberts (UK link) (US link) offers 30 recipes and an introduction to the diet.
If you’re thinking Ketogenic, there’s Ketogenic Vegetarian (UK link) (US link) – even if you’re not keen on the full Ketogenic diet, there are some really good looking spiralizer recipes here.
Meat Free or Vegan Free eBook Recipes
I find the idea of Veganism quite intimidating, especially when you look at egg or dairy free living, so a book on baking Vegan foods – in this case Vegan Baking(UK link) (US link) – that still look and hopefully taste good is positive.
If Vegan Baking seems like a lofty starting point, you could try the Vegan Cookbook for Beginners (UK link) (US link). This eBook contains everything from breakfasts to dinner party treats, so it seems a good starting point, even if you’re just catering for a Vegan friend.
Juices and Smoothies Free eBooks
I don’t juice because I can’t be doing with the cleaning, but the recipes in 40 Juicing Recipes For Weight Loss and Healthy Living (UK link) (US link) give some lovely new flavour combinations that work well for smoothies, and also tell you why each recipe aids in health and weight loss. The first recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of sugar, which seems to have made reviewers heads explode, but there aren’t any in the rest of the book, but some good new recipes and ways of combining fruit and veg.
If you’d rather try a smoothie book for smoothies, Smoothie Recipes For Weight Loss (UK link) (US link) is a good one, by the looks of things. Some reviews are fairly negative about the amount of juice or fruit in the recipes, so use your own discretion.
Time for a little something?
Yeah, we should all be healthy, but there’s always time for cake, right? And one of those resolutions for the new year may be to make more friends? Well, if so – look into the Clandestine Cake Club, and their Clandestine Cake Club Sampler B0ok.
Mrs. Claus’ Christmas Cookies (UK link) (US link) is filled to the brim with Impressive Holiday Treats. This book is great for learning the science and techniques of cookies, which can be a fantastic transferable skill to the rest of your baking.
Spices make a lovely gift for any time of the year, and Seasonings (UK link) (US Link) contains 31 recipes that will help you improve your cooking repertoire.
Please note that these are FREE books at the time of publishing. As such, while they are affiliate links, they won’t currently cost you anything. Please check before you ‘buy’ though to make sure the price hasn’t changed.
Pumpkin & Parmesan Soup
Pumpkins in the UK have been a bit of an education for me. Where I grew up, pumpkins came in one size: big. And they had thick, hard-to-cut-through skin and bright, dark orange flesh, and tasted… well, like pumpkin. Here I find pumpkins come with thin skins, and light flesh that doesn’t taste like a whole lot of anything, so I normally try to mix some butternut squash in for a bigger hit of flavour if I’m making a soup.
I think it may vary again in other places because I have read on US boards that they say the smaller pumpkins have more taste than the bigger ones, but this certainly isn’t my experience. In South Africa, we used to make pumpkin fritters, and they definitely were bright orange and tasted of pumpkin!
The smaller pumpkins are very easy to cut, though, and to scoop out, so they make a convenient soup bowl if you’re making this recipe for two – three people.
I love fresh sage, lightly fried in butter to crumble over this, but I can’t always find fresh sage. Never mind. If you like chillies you can add some spice to this soup too, and if you have a bit of spare time, sautee an onion first and add it at the start with the rest of the ingredients. If you have fresh or homemade chicken stock, that’s even better than a stock cube too.
Pumpkin and Parmesan Soup
If you're able to find fresh sage, lightly fry the leaves in butter till the edges go brown, and sprinkle over the soup for a crunchy, tasty topping. 2
Author: Keeper of the Kitchen
Serves: 3 servings
Ingredients
- 700 - 800g Pumpkin or Butternut Squash, cut into cubes
- 20 - 50g Parmesan Cheese
- 1 Chicken or Veggie Stock Cube
- 250g Water
- 1 Teaspoon Sage
- 1 Teaspoon Garlic Granules (or 1 Fresh Clove of Garlic, crushed and sauteed)
- ½ Teaspoon Salt
- Pepper to Taste
Instructions
- Add everything except the pepper to the Thermomix® Bowl
- Put the MC in place, and hold it down while you liquidise - 30 seconds/ speed 10
- Turn the heat up to Varoma/15 mins/speed 3. Keep the MC in.
- When it's done, serve and top with pepper.
Nutrition Information
Calories: 419 Fat: 16 Carbohydrates: 55 Sugar: 19 Sodium: 3568 Protein: 26