Campus café culture

Cafés offer more than just savory espressos or creamy lattes, but also a place to escape the grind of work and study. In Beijing, a number of university campus cafés are well established and popular among students. Here are some of the trendy campus cafés in Beijing that lure students with more than the fragrant aroma of coffee beans.
Motion Café, China Agriculture University
Affectionately referred to by students as the "café in the water tower," customers climb up to the second floor along a narrow, steep wooden ladder. Once safely on the patio, they can sit and enjoy the sunshine while sipping coffee and dipping into books, occasionally accompanied by geckos that crawl along a wall. Its inexpensive menu makes it a hit among students on tight budgets, with sandwiches highly recommended.
Address: Building No.1, east section of China Agriculture University, 17 Qinghua East Road, Haidian District
Paradiso Coffee, Peking University
This café is also popular among thrifty students for its low-cost menu. Its prices, including 10 yuan for a cup of coffee, are a refreshing change to those accustomed to Starbucks. Many foreign students come here to study while lazing on the sofa and practicing their Chinese with language exchange partners. Korean students will never feel lonely at the café, with a regular, daily hum of their native language almost guaranteed against the backdrop of light jazz music and other soft music that provides a comfortable atmosphere all day round. Conveniently located beside the university's library and under the PKU Centennial Auditorium and Theater, bookworms and film buffs alike can share their thoughts with one another over a hot cup of brew.
Address: First floor of Peking University Centennial Auditorium, 5 Yiheyuan Road, Haidian District
Tel: 010- 62769017
Campus Story Café, Communication University of China
Cafés have always been a favored haunt of intellectuals and politicians, who exchange their ideas with curious journalists. This makes the Campus Story Café a fertile ground of communication at the university renowned as the cradle for future media stars. Many social activities are regularly held at the café including the "workplace coffee" activity group, where invited alumni directors share their experiences in the industry with students. Journalists from Phoenix TV have also given career advice to budding reporters at the café. The café also holds swap fairs, where people exchange pre-loved goods among each other.
Address: 2nd floor of Animation School, Communication University of China, 7 Dingfuzhuang Nanli Road, Chaoyang District
Tel: 010-57217710
Water Stone Café, Renmin University
A Chinese idiom on achieving success through perseverance claims that "the constant drops of water penetrate the stone." Its also a fitting analogy for love, making the café a romantic location for young love birds. 
Located at China's prestigious Renmin University, the Water Stone Café is a quiet place where students can escape their heavy study load.
European-style coffees are anything but cheap, however they cater to the refined tastes of coffee connoisseurs. The café regularly holds various activities, such as film theme days and there is an English corner along with other social networking events.
An interesting detail worth noting is that each table has a notebook for visitors who want to leave a couple of words or draw simple pictures.
Open it to discover the musings of people sharing sometimes personal and intimate accounts. Just like the ups and downs we all experience in life, some stories are sad, while others are heartwarming and encouraging.
Free Wi-Fi is also available.

Guide to meals

Beijing is a city with hidden culinary delights waiting to be discovered by adventurous diners. Yet in the face of the sprawling capital, food connoisseurs might be baffled about where to start due to local flavors wafting on every street corner. Sometimes, you have to loiter around the whole city to get your appetite fix for different cuisines, local, inter-provincial or foreign.
Yet there is one easy way to dive into the heart of Beijing's myriad of flavors - and it will only set you back two yuan. Some buses happen to travel along routes that abound with traditional Chinese food restaurants. Bus No.22 is one of them.
Each day it carries people not only going to work, but also going to tackle their appetite. It might look and sound like any other city bus with its horn blaring as cyclists and pedestrians dodge out of its way, but it's also your ticket to some of Beijing's heartiest fare. Here is a preview of the menu offered along the route, which begins in Mudanyuan in the city's north, before snaking down in an L-shape toward Tiananmen Square:
Xinchuan Cold Noodle Restaurant: 
Not too sweet and not too greasy, nothing quite beats the summer heat like a dish of cold noodles. Despite attracting a large crowd at lunch, this restaurant is worth the visit. Noodles are served with your choice of sauce, such as sesame or spicy hot paste. Beside the main attraction of noodles, popular side dishes include vinegar-pepper cucumbers and spicy Chinese leaves.
Bus stop: Xinjiekou
Address: 14 Xinjiekou Nandajie, Xicheng District
Tel: 8328-0452
Opening hours: 6 am - 10 pm.
Average price: 20 yuan per person
Huguosi Snack Shop:
This restaurant not only enjoys hundreds of years of history, but retains its time-honored flavors of famous dishes. Here you'll find all kinds of Beijing snacks, including seasoned millet mush, snowballing usury, douzhi (a sour, fermented drink made from ground beans,) jiaoquan (crispy fried dough rings,) fried sugar cakes and almond bean curd. Reasonably priced and a favorite among locals, the restaurant does a roaring trade during breakfast hours. However, bear in mind that outsiders to Beijing might need a cast-iron stomach to get used to some of the snacks, douzhi in particular.
Bus stop: Huguosi
Address: 68 Huguosi Dajie, Xicheng District
Tel: 6618-1705
Opening hours: 5:30 am - 9 pm
Average price: 20 yuan per person
Luzhu Restaurant:
What this restaurant lacks in size it makes up for with customer satisfaction. Luzhu (a salty, baked wheat cake) is the restaurant's signature dish. Although there are other traditional foods served at the restaurant, many customers come primarily for the classic cake.
Bus stop: Pinganli
Address: South entrance to Pinganli Lukou, 21 Xisi Beidajie, Xicheng District
Opening hours: 5:30 am - 9 pm
Average price: 30 yuan per person
Huatian Yanji Cold Noodle Restaurant:
Like its culinary counterpart the Xinchuan Cold Noodle Restaurant, the Huatian Yanji Restaurant is equally famous for its cold noodles. In fact, many customers contend that the latter's noodles are more authentic. Apples, pickles and lean beef infuse the noodles (served in soup) with zest.
Bus stop: Xisi
Address: North entrance to Fuyou Jie, Xicheng District
Opening hours: 10 am - 9 pm
Average price: 20 yuan per person
Xiangfei Roast Chicken Restaurant:
For decades, this restaurant has built its reputation and customer base of loyal diners on its crispy roast chicken. The ambiance is akin to a Western restaurant, but the flavors are unmistakably Chinese. Apart from the roast chicken dish, the crispy sesame seed cake and soups here are also popular.
Bus stop: Xidan
Address: 2 Xidan Heng Ertiao, Xicheng District 
Tel: 6608-8676
Opening hours: 10:30 am - 8:30 pm
Average price: 20 yuan per person

Do you have guts to eat such chocolate?

If only they'd stick to the China Diet

An American teacher of English, who spent a semester in Hunan, discovers a surefire method to lose weight in what she calls the 'China Diet'. Diane Nottle reports.
Want to lose weight? I've discovered the ideal diet. You eat all you want, feel completely satisfied, and still shed kilograms. There's just one catch, the very first step. You have to move to China. I stumbled into "the China Diet" last year when I spent a semester teaching English in Hunan province. In less than five months, I dropped nearly 7 kg effortlessly.
Genetically predisposed to being more stocky than sylphlike, I've been weight-conscious most of my life. When I signed on for Hunan, the first thing everyone said was, "Oh, the food will be fabulous!"
I had adored Chinese food ever since my first dinner at Suzie Wong's restaurant in State College, Pennsylvania, circa 1973. After feasting on the real thing on a two-week tour of China in 1985, I brought back a few extra kilograms.
Not to worry, said Pamela Britnell, a colleague from New York who was starting her third semester in Hunan. "I always lose weight in China," she told me. "On the plane over, these jeans are tight, and when I come home" - she pulled her waistband out an inch - "they're like this."
Within weeks, my own waistbands were loosening. How does it happen?
It's not that we ate less in China; it's that we ate so differently. When in Xiangtan, do as the natives do. Of necessity I became a locavore, eating (to the best of my knowledge) foods grown just off campus and prepared according to local custom. That translated into far less meat than Americans normally eat; far more fresh fruit - sometimes four servings a day, rarely fewer than two - and vegetables; no bread, ergo no butter or other fattening spreads; next to no dairy; alcohol only occasionally; and rarely any sweets.
The reduced meat intake was by far the most difficult change; I felt empty and light-headed, especially the first month, until my body adjusted. Most Chinese dishes use meat more as a flavoring than the chief ingredient. It's also cut into much smaller pieces, generally with very little fat.
I was reluctant to order the skewered meats grilled at carts along the campus food street, since I didn't know what they were. For emergency snacks, I kept hard-boiled eggs in my refrigerator; later, from a store in Changsha, I added lean sliced ham resembling Canadian bacon. But the reduction in animal protein brought a corresponding reduction in animal fat.
China, like other Asian countries, does not have a dairy culture, so less dairy also meant less fat. Edible cheese was rare, but I got my fix in weekly visits to the surprisingly good local Pizza Hut.
The most common dairy product was yogurt - in small containers. Chinese ice cream seemed more like ice milk to someone who prefers butterfat content in the 13-to-17-percent range of super-premium brands such as Ben & Jerry's, so it wasn't even tempting.
Nor were the various yellow sponge cakes, and I deliberately stayed away from the candies that now line the checkout lanes of grocery stores. Chocolates were replaced with fresh fruits from the stand around the corner and the campus carts. They sold, in their seasons, first pineapple quarters on sticks, then fresh lychees by the bag, and later big wedges of watermelon and hami gua (a melon whose pulp looks like cantaloupe but is firmer and sweeter). Candied walnuts, with their burnt-sugar coating, were an occasional treat. A Coca-Cola now and then - real Coke, with sugar - did no harm.
Such changes put me on the right track, according to T. Colin Campbell, co-author of The China Study: Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-Term Health (BenBella Books, 2006). Campbell, a biochemist specializing in nutrition, reached "a defining moment" of her career when international studies suggested that protein-rich diets actually promoted disease. "This information countered everything I had been taught," he writes. "It was heretical to say that protein wasn't healthy." Campbell's subsequent study of nutrition and disease in 6,500 Chinese adults transformed him from a lifelong carnivore into a vegetarian. His advice: "Eat plants."
In China, eating plants was easy. Vegetables were indisputably fresh and cooked to perfection, that is, barely at all. I passed up salad greens, lacking dressing, but then I walked past a corner shop. "Salad bar!" I exclaimed. It was stocked with crisp sliced lotus root, eggplant strips, seaweed ribbons as thin as angel-hair pasta, various cold noodles, and the thin, crinkly tofu I love. All were tossed in a fiery dressing, heavy on chili oil and cilantro.
While teaching a class of Chinese students in New York this spring, one of my students Deng Yan explained that the same word - cai - came to mean both "vegetables" and "dish" because the Chinese traditionally had so little meat. During her childhood in northern China in the 1960s, she recalled, meat was scarce except during New Year celebrations.
The China Diet is the opposite of the Atkins Diet, which eschews carbohydrates in favor of meat, meat and more meat. In China, carbs remain the rule. Some days I had baozi (steamed buns) for breakfast, fried rice for lunch, and noodles or dumplings for dinner, but they burned right off.
In May, the New York Times columnist Mark Bittman noted that meat consumption in China is soaring. Bittman blames a "primal urge that screams, 'Listen, dummy, if you can find meat you'd better eat it, because who knows when you'll eat it again! "
Granted, factors other than food consumption helped make my China Diet a success. I lived in a fourth-floor walk-up, which meant several trips up and down most days. The apartment was more than 3 km from my classroom building; weather permitting, I walked one way each day. With no pool readily available, I replaced my regular swims with Pilates workouts from DVDs, which melted some of the fat. I probably also burned more calories just to stay warm in early spring, since classroom buildings in South China are unheated.
When I returned to the US, I declined bread and made a meal out of a single slice of pizza (which was, after all, the size of half a small one at Pizza Hut in Xiangtan). I chose fresh fruit for dessert. After nearly 18 months, I still haven't had a bagel with cream cheese.
Recently I had an e-mail exchange with my student Yummy in China. I asked her to "eat something wonderful for me".
She wrote back: "I didn't eat a lot because I'm trying to lose weight. Summer is here." A number of my female students thought they needed to lose weight. Some looked chubby in their winter clothes, but when spring came and they shed the layers, every single one became magically slender. Now they seem to be catching another disease of affluence: the distorted body images that plague Western women.
If only they'd stick to the China Diet.

CASSEROLE SOUP MIX

This recipe for homemade soup mix can be used in place of canned condensed soups such as cream of mushroom, cream of celery or cream of chicken called for in many casserole recipes.

Extra flavor and quality can be had by substituting low sodium soup base for chicken bouillon when the soup is reconstituted. This will allow for additional variations, such as using beef or vegetable flavorings instead of the chicken flavoring of the basic soup mix. Soup base is a concentrated and condensed soup stock available at restaurant supply stores and by mail order.

Corn starch may be replaced with modified food starch or potato starch, which has less of a tendency to lump and often has the ability to thicken cold liquids.

Adjust the seasonings to taste; we prefer smaller amounts of thyme and basil and we add a pinch of garlic and onion (powder or fresh). Of course, if you have a blender and fresh fruits available, fresh vegetable puree can be added.

Basic Casserole Soup Mix:

2 c. non-fat dry milk crystals
3/4 c. cornstarch
1/4 c. Instant chicken bouillon
2 tbsp. dried onion flakes
1 tsp. dried thyme, crushed (optional)
1 tsp. dried basil, crushed
1 tsp. pepper
butter

Combine all ingredients and store in an airtight container. To use a substitute for one 10-1/2 ounce can condensed soup, mix 1/3 cup of dry mix with 1-1/4 cup water in saucepan. Cook and stir until thickened. Add 1 tablespoon butter, if desired. butter adds 11.5 grams of fat.

Cooks Tip: We prefer to use low-sodium bouillon powder which we feel has extra flavor and less sodium in the bargain.

Yield: Enough mix to substitute 9 cans condensed soup.

Optional Additions:

Enhancements to the basic mix should be added at the last minute when making up the soup for your casserole.

Dehydrated vegetable powders may be kept on hand to flavor the basic soup mix; mushroom powder for mushroom soup, celery powder for celery soup, tomato powder for tomato soup, etc. Adding these extras to enhance the soup is entirely optional, and the flavorings should not be added to the basic soup mix, but may be added when making the soup up for your recipe, if desired. You can make your own mushroom powder by processing dehydrated mushrooms in the food processor. The same can be done to make vegetable powder. Keep these in an airtight container, separate from the mix until ready to use, since they will absorb moisture from the air readily.

The resolute restaurateur

Sitting at her restaurant, M on the Bund, overlooking the Huangpu River, Michelle Garnaut maintains her effervescence after returning from a business trip. As the owner of the three M restaurants in China and a pillar of the local restaurant community, the 53-year-old Australian never stops flying.

Over her career, Garnaut has gone from slinging plates to running some of the best-known western restaurants in China and founding a literary festival that has become one of the most significant events of its kind in the region.

"I didn't expect to be famous when I was a nobody, but I did think if I wanted to do anything, I would do it very well," Garnaut told the Global Times.

A humble beginning

A native of Melbourne who now lives in Shanghai, Garnaut was the oldest of nine children. Like many teenage girls, she was crazy for trendy clothes, CDs and jewelry.

But her wants were tempered by her parents' practicality.

Garnaut remembered how her mother once gave her two Australian dollars to buy a generic pair of jeans, adding that she would have figured out for herself how to get the rest of the money to buy the more expensive brand-named pair she really wanted. "I was always encouraged to be independent," said Garnaut, whose father died when she was 16.

At that age, she went to work part-time as a waitress so she could buy what she wanted without burdening the family.

The experience made her realize that she liked socializing, looking after people and making them happy.

At university, she studied English literature. However, her lack of interest in academia left her bored with campus life and her orthodox peers. "The idea of being a school teacher or working for the government for the rest of my life almost stifled me," she said, grimacing.

When she was 21, Garnaut left Australia to spend two and a half years traveling. She worked as a waitress, a cook, an English teacher - anything she could do to support herself. When she returned to Australia, she abandoned university halfway through her degree and enrolled in a catering program at a local college.

At the end of 1983, with one class left to finish, she left Australia, and never went back.

Her first opening

She ended up settling in Hong Kong where she continued to work as a chef. At the time, she was dating a chef who wanted to open a restaurant. "Open a restaurant? Are you crazy? We don't have any money! How are we going to open it?" she recalled saying.

Still, she saw an opportunity. "I felt very strongly that the type of restaurant that I liked was not the type of restaurant found in Hong Kong," Garnaut said. She thought that many of the city's restaurants at the time were pretentious and boring.

Garnaut and her boyfriend needed HK$2.5 million to open one of their own. She borrowed money from her mother and sister, giving them a share of the venture. Her boyfriend, however, did not stay. He ended up getting sick and departing Hong Kong, leaving her to finish the job.

She successfully got 20 people to invest and borrowed the remaining start up cash from a bank. In total, it cost HK$500,000 to start up M at the Fringe, which opened in 1989.

The restaurant was one of the earliest independent establishments to offer fine dining in the city. It was an immediate success, allowing her to pay back her investors and the bank in less than a year.

Garnaut attributed her success to "a little bit of luck" and "a lot of hard work."

In the early days, Garnaut spent all of her time on the business. "For me, my work is my life. There is no difference between work and life," she said.

She went on to open two other high-end restaurants: M on the Bund in Shanghai in 1999 and Capital M in Beijing in 2009. M at the Fringe closed in 2009 after Garnaut lost the lease on the building. She is still looking for a new location.

"Success is what you have achieved in your life," she said.

Another way to play host

Garnaut is fond of reading. In 2003, she founded the Shanghai International Literary Festival. Garnaut said the festival started almost accidentally. When the Glamour Bar opened in 2001 at M on the Bund, Garnaut thought it would be a good idea to host cultural events in winter where people could drink and enjoy gourmet food.

One of Garnaut's friends knew Australian writer Frank Moorhouse and suggested that she invite him to perhaps do a reading at the restaurant. After word got out that Moorhouse was coming to Shanghai, members of the Hong Kong International Literary Festival called Garnaut to see if he could participate in their festival before going to Shanghai. "At that time, we joked that we should start the Shanghai International Literary Festival," Garnaut said.

Although it started as just a joke, in the end, they decided it was a pretty good idea. "In the following years, we got more and more writers to join," she said. "We are now up to more than 50 writers with about 4,000 people attending this year. I am interested in ideas, and the festival is open to opportunities and new ideas."

Garnaut believes life is about expansion, including everything you are interested in, she said.

Gnudi with burnt sage butter

Ingredients

400 grams fresh ricotta from the deli section of the supermarket
3 bunches fresh spinach washed and centre stems trimmed
1 egg
2 egg yolks
1 tbsp finely grated parmesan cheese (plus extra to serve)
35 grams (1/4 cup) flour plus extra for dusting
1 pinch finely grated fresh nutmeg

Method

Drain ricotta if required
Blanch trimmed spinach for 20 seconds
Run spinach under cold water, drain well and squeeze out as much water as possible
Process in a food processor or blender and set aside
Combine drained ricotta, egg, egg yolks, parmesan, flour, nutmeg and any seasonings.
Add spinach and loosely fold through til just incorporated.
Roll into walnut sized balls
Roll in flour to coat
Refrigerate until well chilled (40 minutes)
Bring a large saucepan of water to boil and then reduce to simmer
Dust gnudi in flour and shake off excess, add to water in batches
Cook til gnudi float to surface (2-4 minutes)
Remove with slotted spoon and drain on absorbent paper and keep warm

Note: Gnudi is also very good served with burnt sage butter

Easy Simple Marinade for Meat Steak and Vegetables

There really isn’t a whole lot that goes into making a marinade. They are simple in general…really. Now let’s take a look at how to make your own marinade.

The basics are fat,acid, and flavorings. Marinades are typically used for 2 things…. First, they are used to tenderize items. Second, they are used to impart flavor. When you are using a marinade, you are usually going for both.
As far as tenderizing meat, the active ingredient is usually acid. Acid can come in the form of many different things. They can be citrus juice like lemon. They can also be from things like wine, or vinegar. Depending on the type of cuisine you are working with, that is what usually calls out which marinade you need to use.
As far as flavoring, many different things are used. They can be liquids like soy sauce, or molasses. They can be herbs and spices. Again, the cuisine being cooked and you imagination really come into play and make the differences in what the marinade will have.
When you are going to marinade something, the general rule of thumb is 6-8 hours. And for that time frame, you want to have pieces of meat that are probably no thicker than 1 inch. Any thicker, and you will need to pierce the meat with a fork to allow penetration throughout the piece.
The following is a really easy marinade recipe that you can use to start with. The marinade will tenderize and offer a subtle flavor as to not overpower whatever you are marinating.
Easy Simple Marinade:
1 cup olive oil
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup water
1 smashed garlic clove
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Method:
combine all the ingredients and shake well. Use enough to evenly surround and coat the meat.
One thing I like to do is put the meat in a ziploc bag and then the marinade. You will need less marinade as the bag will allow even liquid dispersion.

How to Blanch Asparagus

When it comes to cooking asparagus, there are actually many ways to get the job done. Some of the more popular ways for cooking asparagus comes from blanching, steaming, and grilling.

I’ll cover each pretty quickly, and you’ll also see that it can happen pretty fast.
How to Blanch Asparagus
Get a pot of water rapidly boiling. You want to make sure that there is plenty of water so that the asparagus will be submerged and have lots of water still around in the pot. When the pot of water is boiling, add in enough salt so the water tastes salty.
At that point, drop in the asparagus. Depending on how thick the pieces are, cooking will vary. I usually check in about 2-3 minutes. Take a piece and bite the stem. If you like the doneness, then drain the asparagus. If you are going to serve it right away, then you are good. If you are going to serve it later, then you need to stop the cooking in ice water.
How to Steam Asparagus
Set up a steamer according to manufacturer instructions. Place the asparagus in the steamer and steam for 5-6 minutes. Again, check one piece for doneness before serving.
How to Grill Asparagus
Get your grill nice and hot. It should be medium high heat. Take the asparagus and drizzle with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper. Place the asparagus on the grill and let it sit for about 1 minute. Then roll it a bit. Let it cook a bit more. From there, check for doneness. Enjoy!
So, that’s pretty much the down and dirty when it comes to cooking asparagus!
Leave me you comments and questions below!

Iron-rich foods

I had always managed to keep up with my workouts, even during and after my pregnancy, but
last month I felt a low energy sluggishness that had me cutting my gym time in half. After a trip
to the doctor I was stunned to find out I had low iron! Though iron is an important vitamin for
everyone, it is crucial to women throughout their lives. From puberty with the beginning of
menstruation, through the childbearing years, pregnancy, nursing, and into menopause iron is a
vital nutrient to keep women at their healthiest and best. Many women suffer from an iron
deficiency called anemia without ever realizing what they are experiencing. Signs of iron
deficient anemia include: feeling weak and tired for no reason, experiencing a slower energy in
your daily life, having trouble maintaining a normal body temperature (many women with
anemia are very cold, but this is not always the case), an increase of colds and other illnesses due
to a decrease of immune function, and glossitis (an inflamed tongue). If you’ve noticed any of
these symptoms recently it might be a good idea to try adding more iron into your diet. Those
most at risk for an iron deficiency are pregnant women, pre term and low birth weight babies,
infants and toddlers, teenage girls, women of childbearing years, people undergoing dialysis for
renal failure, and those with certain gastrointestinal disorders than cause them to not absorb iron
normally.
What’s the best way to add iron into your diet? Well, certainly the easiest is to start taking an
iron supplement. Many multi-vitamins have iron added (all prenatal vitamins do) and you can
also get a stronger iron supplement from your doctor. But many iron supplements can have side
effects that are unwanted such as constipation. Another way is to add more iron rich foods into
your diet. Meat and fish are great sources of iron; you can try chicken livers, oysters, beef, clams,
turkey, chicken, tuna, and even shrimp. But many of these foods can also be high in cholesterol
and off limits to vegetarians. Great non animal sources of iron include beans, oatmeal, spinach,
grits, raisins, whole-wheat bread, molasses, and tofu.

Dunkin Donut K Cups are Here!

 

If you're anything like me, a cup of coffee is most likely one of the first things on your agenda each morning. I am an addict of Dunkin Donut coffee, sometimes 2 a day - but then the price started going up and up - and I started thinking....wouldn't it be great if they made K cups? Last Christmas my brother bought me a Keurig Coffee Maker, and I have to say, I love it! I get up first thing in the morning and am able to make a cup of coffee without driving down to Dunkin Donuts. And still I kept thinking.....wouldn't it be great if Dunkin Donuts made K cups?

In early 2011 it was announced that Dunkin Donuts and Green Mountain were teaming up to create K cups, Finally!! And beginning the summer of 2011, they started rolling them out throughout New England. They are out in my area, which is Connecticut, and I can assure you, I'm one of their biggest fans once again!!

Egg white omelet

Eggs are a great source of protein, vitamin A and vitamin D, the perfect food to fuel you up for a hard workout. I love to hit the gym in the morning before work and I always started the day with a couple of scrambled eggs (sometimes hardboiled if I was in a hurry!) and fruit. I thought I was being healthy, and I was, sort of. Turns out eggs are high in cholesterol. Not something I ever thought about in my twenties, but as I started getting older I realized I needed to pay attention to how much fat and cholesterol I was putting into my diet.
I didn’t want to give up my morning eggs, I tried to switch to cereal or pancakes but they just left me feeling tired and sluggish. It was then I read about egg whites. The yolk of the eggs is what carries the fat and cholesterol, and the egg whites are still loaded with protein and nutrition, minus the bad stuff. I started experimenting with different herbs and veggies to create an egg white omelet that would still taste great without the yolk. Here’s a recipe for one of my favorite below. This egg white omelet only has 81 calories, 1.6 grams of fat, and 5 grams of cholesterol while still containing a whopping 13.4 grams of protein! Perfect for a before your workout meal. Feel free to substitute your own fresh herbs, vegetables, or whatever sounds delicious to you.

Ingredients:

• 3 egg whites
• 1 tablespoon milk (use nonfat or even soy to keep the calories down)
• 1/2 tsp dried mixed herbs (my favorites are oregano or basil for this omelet)
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup chopped fresh baby spinach
• 1 tablespoon feta or goat cheese (you can also use a reduced fat cheddar if you prefer)

Directions:

1. Combine egg whites, milk and herbs in a small bowl. Coat a small nonstick skillet with cooking spray and heat the skillet on medium to low heat.
2. Add chopped spinach to skillet, pour egg white mixture over the spinach and allow to set
   around the edges. As the edges set, lift them gently with a spatula and tip the skillet to allow
   remaining liquid underneath.
3. When the egg whites are set, sprinkle the cheese on top, then fold the omelet in half. Serve
   immediately.

How To Cook Salmon Apple Salad

Apple recipes are one of the best things about fall, my favorite season. The crisp air, the sweet smell of flowers at their peak, scuffling through leaves; all are enhanced and brought to mind by a crisp, juicy, and tart apple. And apples work so well in so many recipes! These recipes, for desserts, salads, sandwiches, main dishes, and breads, are all delicious and easy. Enjoy.

I love this salad; it's so simple, but has lots of flavor. I like to use Granny Smith apples in this salad because they don't turn brown as quickly.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 8 minutes

Total Time: 23 minutes

Yield: 6-8 servings

Ingredients:

• 16 ounce package rotini pasta
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons prepared horseradish
• 2 tablespoons honey mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 Granny Smith apples, chopped
• 6 stalks celery, sliced
• 2 cups cubed Colby cheese
• 3 (5-ounce) pouches salmon drained

Preparation:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, combine mayonnaise, yogurt, lemon juice, horseradish, honey mustard, thyme, salt, and pepper in a large bowl; blend well. Stir in apples, celery, cheese, and salmon.
Cook pasta as directed on package until al dente; drain and add to salad; stir gently to coat. Cover and chill for 1-3 hours before serving.

How To Make Healthy Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat rotini pasta
• 4 teaspoons cornstarch
• 2 cups low-fat (1%) milk
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• Salt and ground black pepper (to taste)
• 4 ounces reduced-fat (2%) pasteurized process cheese spread, cut into 1⁄2-inch cubes
• 2 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1/3 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese
• 2 tablespoons plain dried bread crumbs
• 1 medium tomato (sliced thin)

Directions:

1. Preheat broiler. Use nonfat cooking spray to grease 1 1/2-quart baking dish.
2. Heat large covered saucepot of salted water to boiling over high heat. Add pasta and cook about 10 minutes
3. In 2-quart saucepan, add cornstarch into milk; heat to boiling over medium heat, whisking occasionally. Boil 1 minute. Remove saucepan from heat; whisk in mustard, 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper. Stir in cheeses.
4. In small bowl, combine bread crumbs with remaining Romano.
5. Drain pasta; return to saucepot. Stir cheese sauce into pasta; spoon into prepared baking dish.
6. Arrange tomato slices on top; sprinkle with crumb mixture.
7. Place baking dish in broiler, cook 2 to 3 minutes until completely browned.

Frozen yogurt recipe

In this case of this frozen yogurt recipe, what you get is big, round lemon flavor, sweet and tart at the same time, underlined by the tang of plain yogurt. I like the idea of smashing it between two chewy ginger cookies and eating it that way, but like I said, all you really need is a teacup. The stripe of blueberry sauce is a very nice addition, although you could skip it, if you wanted one less dirty dish. But I wouldn’t.
Lemon Frozen Yogurt with a Blueberry Stripe
Adapted slightly from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home
Be sure to let the frozen yogurt sit and thaw slightly – for 5 or 10 minutes, say – before you scoop and serve it. The texture is best that way. Also, I use Brown Cow brand yogurt.
Blueberry sauce:
1 ½ cups blueberries
¾ cup sugar (or a bit less, if your berries are especially sweet)
Frozen yogurt base:
1 quart plain low-fat yogurt
1 ½ cups whole milk
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 ounces (4 Tbsp.) cream cheese, softened
½ cup heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
¼ cup light corn syrup
Zest from 1 lemon (reserved from below)
Lemon syrup:
2 to 4 lemons
3 Tbsp. sugar
ONE DAY AHEAD:
To make the blueberry sauce, put the blueberries and sugar in a small saucepan, stir to mix, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the berries are very tender and the sauce is slightly thickened, about 8 minutes. Remove from the heat, and let cool. Refrigerate until cold before using.

Innovative recipes on cooking games

Cooking games is a field that most females want to investigate. Even so, the sight of kitchen knife, the range, the spices and various items you see in the kitchen can be in particular terrifying if you are not that familiar with the kitchen. Cooking games encompasses pastries and preparing, cooking food palatable dishes, garnishing salads and pizzas, and also fusion tasty recipes that mix traditional and modern tasty recipes to recreate both into a single and superp dish. It is the enjoyable part of cooking games, the art of recreating old tasty recipes into new one. Nonetheless, there is one more reason why cooking games is exciting- you can find out to cook dinner a lot of dishes that would generate you and your appreciate types happy. If you want to find out culinary arts, click on cooking games at the web and find out cooking food in no time. Plus an additional advantage of not slicing your pores and skin or being spilled with hot h2o simply because you do the cooking food virtually. Let's investigate cooking games online and have fun-filled studying!
Finding out culinary arts is easy with cooking games. With the digital kitchen, everything you need are currently obtainable which involve the ingredients, the kitchen utensils, the spatula and also the microwave oven or the range.
Start studying culinary arts by reading the formula book cooking games online. Get familiarized with the ingredients and all the items that you need for the cooking games. Immediately after you have all the ingredients that you need, prep all such as the equipments and utensils that you need. Examine the cooking gamesprocedure cautiously to guarantee that you do the cooking food right.
One of the meals that you can find out by way of digital kitchen is how to bake cake, how to generate pizza, do pasta and spaghetti and generate scrumptious sweets. Let us find out how to do each of these tasty recipes and find out culinary arts effortlessly on cooking games online.
How to bake cake. Fundamentally, preparing cake is as easy as mixing ingredients collectively. You will need flour, preparing powder, glucose and butter cream. You will need one more set of ingredients for the taste of your cake. An essential notice to recall is to pre-heat the microwave oven cooker first just before you put the cake combination inside.
Cooking food pasta and spaghetti on cooking games.An additional scrumptious formula that you can generate is spaghetti. You need noodles, spaghetti sauce, meats and spices, and mozzarella cheese. Initially boil the h2o, when the h2o starts off to boil, add the noodles. To guarantee that the noodles does not stick collectively, add one tablespoon of cooking games oil. Once the noodles get cooked, removed from h2o and add ice cubes collectively with the noodles to avert the noodles from being overcooked. Drain the noodles. Now it's time to do the sauce. Mix garlic and onions collectively, add the meats and the tomato sauce. Taste according to preferences. You may opt to add milk products or mozzarella cheese to the spaghetti sauce for creamier result.
There are a lot of facets of culinary arts that you can find out at cooking games. Learn each of these and enjoy cooking food your favorite meals on cooking games as easy as a click.

Make Nice Meals with Dietary Cooking Recipes

Whipping up unique and healthy cooking recipes has turn out to be quite simple because the advent of the internet and its elevated usage. Persons are increasingly indulging in attempting out new recipes that they discover on the internet for his or her friends and family. Just like the frequent term ?health buff? there is now a term ?cooking buff? in use for those people who are diligent cooking enthusiasts. Owing to the simple accessibility to recipes, earlier unknown, people don't shrink back from experimenting with them. An individual from a small city may try out an unique dish frequent to a far-off land and a person from a big, trendy metropolis may attempt the delicious earthly style of some conventional village food. There are countless options for a foodie at a worldwide level.

Amassing Recipes
At the moment, it is rather easy to find a good recipe which is able to cater to your need. Chefs and housewives alike, all over the world, have large collections of recipes collected from magazines, cooking networks, internet, even their very own discoveries! An individual can discover a cooking recipe in accordance with their lifestyle, schedule and their taste. As an illustration, these in search of quick and wholesome cooking recipes with nominal hassle and effort can discover infinite recipes in a wide range of online cooking recipe websites. These recipes could possibly be from someone who has tried it in their own kitchen or from any famend chef. To many individuals such recipes are like a prized possession.

Potentialities to Be Explored With On-line Cooking Recipes
The modern world had turn into a global village where there's a profusion of diverse cultures and plentiful traditions which have their very own distinctive character. Each tradition has its personal distinctive tastes and dishes, the secrets to which at the moment are easily accessible over the internet. There are quite a few possibilities that one can come across on account of this. Some of them are as follows:
These recipes are very helpful when there's a special occasion. They help in producing a superb feast to your beloved ones. So,we should proudly call them as healthy cooking recipes.
One can host gatherings or cooking teams where members can cook and exchange their very own signature recipes. This fashion folks educate and learn to cook numerous dishes. Every person can convey their recipes either written down or they'll cook dinner one in all their favorite dishes and bring it for everyone to taste.
There are cooking videos available on-line which is definitely more helpful than written recipes.

Advantages of Online Recipes
There was an awesome enhance in the number of cooking recipes and movies available online. The benefit right here is that there has been a development in the variety of nutritional dishes. At the moment persons are very well being conscious and are always on the lookout for recipes which is able to teach them what to cook for a low calorie yet tasty meal.
Thus, it can be safely stated that lots of the online recipes help in fulfilling the craving of the taste buds and likewise offering you with a nutritional meal. They help in pleasing your loved ones and friends in everyday life or particular parties. So just discover an thrilling recipe and begin cooking!