Cooking for yourself or your family can save you a good bit of dough, and if done right a good bit of time.

Some see cooking to be a tiresome and time consuming task that they would rather not venture into.  A slow cooker can, if used correctly, give you the time you need without the rush to find something to eat at the end of  a long work day.

Getting that balance between your time and money is the real key.

So in steps the crock pot…

Or should I say the slow cooker, because the version we have today  is more commonly called a slow cooker,  and it is very different than what we used just a few years ago, and drastically different than your mothers old crock pot.

Many of the new slow cookers have gone digital, and have set it and forget it timers. So with just a modest amount of effort, you could have a meal setup in the morning, and ready for you when you return from work.

You wont see those paisley flowered ones your mother had anymore, but what you will see, especially at the higher end are the shiny stainless steal slow cookers, that really look nice today’s kitchens. They are not only highly functional but also have stylish look that can really brighten up your kitchen.

the types sizes and pricing can differ somewhat. They can range form $20.00 all the way up to $200. Your choice should depend on the size capacity and your budget.

The LA Times just posted a great piece about the slow cooker comeback that inspired this post, and me to go our and buy myself a slow cooker.  For some reason it is one of the few kitchen appliances that I haven’t used much in the past.  I’ll post  my experiences on which one I bought and how I like it in a future post

According the the LA Times slow cooking article…

Today, about 83% of American households own a slow cooker, according to the NPD Group, a leading marketing research firm. Of these households, almost half used a slow cooker within the past month.

That a lot slow cookin going on. I guess I need to find a few recipes to use so that I can use me when I recive it. Although, I guess it would come with some. Hopefully!

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Coffee is one of life’s simplest pleasures, and yet its not as simple as it may seem, if fact at it could be quite complex.

We settle on the cheap to but coffee at the local gas station, or even worse we drink the sludge they have in our office because we are too busy and or in a rush to sit down and enjoy a proper cup.

Once you decide to take a few minutes out of your for yourself each morning so you can have great coffee you will need to invest in a coffee grinder. But which one should you choose?

It really does matter and if you think all coffee is the same try and find a friend who is serious about coffee. Compare two different coffees one ground at home and the other bought from a store or even instant coffee.

You walk into you local store or search online and you look at the prices and you think sixty dollars for a grinder, how ridiculous? Trust me, I have been there, but I do not regret my purchase for a second.

If you want to be serious about coffee you need to get a burr grinder. These are normally priced around sixty dollars and may seem expensive at first but it is so worth it. Of course there are cheaper grinders out on the market but those are blade grinders. When you use these you end up with “dull” coffee.

Since I bought mine I look forward to mornings again. I race to the kitchen to grind up what I call my magic beans in my classy grinder.

The best thing about a burr one is you can choose how you want the ground coffee to be. Depending on what you use to brew your coffee you can choose coarser or finer coffee grounds.

If your weapon of choice is a French Press you need a coarse grind and if you make espresso you need a finer grind.

I know you may be thinking who cares but it is the difference between bitter and unappealing coffee and delicious coffee. Good Luck and happy drinking!

Toaster ovens have to be one of the most underrated appliances in the kitchen but if you own one you know that they are they greatest asset one could have while cooking a small meal. Ever since I got my Delonghi toaster oven I haven’t had any reason to use my regular conventional oven. Everything that you can do in the oven or microwave can be done in the toaster oven. Most models today come with the option to broil, toast or bake. With all these options, how could you go wrong?

The great thing about this appliance is that you can cook meals in half the time it would take to cook in your normal oven because there is less space to heat up. This helps not only save time but also money on the electric bill. You’ll also have the peace of mind knowing that you’re helping the environment by reducing your use of electricity through heating the oven and using the microwave.

This appliance gets its bad name from poor college students and low income families who have had to go buy one from the second hand store because they can’t afford to get any nicer kitchen appliances such as a microwave.

However this great kitchen appliance is making a comeback with everyone from grandparents to the environmentally conscious. Also those who believe that microwave ovens are hazardous to one’s health are also seeing them as a great alterative that still can make food quick and easy.

Over the past several years cookbooks for toaster oven cooking have become popular with all types of people. They have even come out with bake ware and pans specifically for use with this appliance. It seems like I am not the only one getting excited about all the potential.

With so many different models you’ll be sure to find the right one for you.
Many fall in the price range of $15 for a standard model up to $160 for an upscale model.
So maybe now you’ll think about your next kitchen purchase being the greatly underrated appliance we know as the toaster oven.

Being a fairly new coffee drinker, I am just starting to tell the difference between a good cup of coffee and a bad cup of coffee. And although many restaurants are hit and miss, I can always count on myself brewing a simply horrible cup at home.

Nothing seemed to work. I tried different brands of coffee, but they all tasted the same. I changed coffee filters, hoping that would make a difference. Nope. I even bought a new coffee maker, which didn’t help either. Then my wife found a good deal on a coffee grinder, and I suddenly discovered the secret.

I don’t think there’s anything special about what my wife brought home – it’s a DeLonghi coffee grinder about the size of a Venti cup at Starbucks – but I now realize that the difference between freshly ground coffee and the coffee you buy at a supermarket is like the difference between canned fruit and fresh fruit.

The bladed coffee grinder I have is just the low end in this product category. It can get much fancier, and you can create fine or coarse grounds with more expensive models. But to me, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that I am grinding the beans, releasing all of the aroma and oils, and then immediately brewing the product, capturing all the flavor that has just been released.

The result is astounding. The taste is 100% better. No more stale, dried out powder, and no more stale taste, either. Instead, I take about 90 seconds extra to fill the coffee grinder and press the button. I feel like a barista!

If your coffee tastes tired and tasteless, spend $15-20 on a new coffee grinder. The aroma of the beans being ground will be enough to make it worth your while, and the taste of the finished product will be even better.

There’s something special about making ice cream at home in your ice cream maker, and it’s not just the taste.  As a kid, nothing caused as much excitement as seeing mom bring out the ice cream machine.  Making ice cream was always a family event.  Everyone helped, and everyone shared in the rewards when the ice cream was finished.  We always had great fun making ice cream together.

The ice cream machine we used was one of the big hand-crank types.  You can still find them today, but there are also fancier ones that are motorized and do much of the work for you.  They make the process easier, but take away some of the fun for the kids.  If your kids aren’t doing the cranking, you might prefer a motorized ice cream maker.

Basic ice cream only uses a few ingredients – milk, cream and sugar, although many recipes call for additional ingredients.  Recipes that require eggs are usually creamier, but require the eggs to be cooked in a certain way before adding them to the ice cream.  There are many free homemade ice cream recipes available online that you can find easily by searching for them in your favorite search engine.

The fun part, of course, is in the extras.  Think of all the different flavors of ice cream that are available in the store, and you’ll have just a hint of the possibilities available when making your own.  You can add absolutely anything your imagination can come up with, from flavor extracts and food coloring, to bits of candy, fruit or nuts.  Take a stroll down the candy and baking aisles of the supermarket for inspiration.

Make sure you include the kids in the ice cream making activities even if you aren’t using a hand-crank ice cream maker.  They will have fun helping you pick out flavors and add ingredients.  The treat is so much more enjoyable for them when they are involved in the process of making it, and it can be an educational experience for them as well.

Now you’re ready to make your own homemade ice cream in your ice cream maker.  Whether you use the old-fashioned type or a new Cuisinart ice cream machine, or one of the new motorized ones, making ice cream is great fun for the whole family.

Fried foods with less fat? sounded too good to be true but my curiosity got the best of me and I tried the George Foreman GSF026B Deep Fryer and all I can say is WOW! I can finally TASTE the food again instead of the oil!

I tried onion rings and I don’t lie when I say my fingers had no oil when I was done (try this at any restaurant and you have to get up and wash your hands!). French fries were also good and crispy. I did these 2 in HIGH speed for the smart spin. They call this smart spin technology… I call call it yummy.

We also made deep fried zucchini and stuffed jalapeno poppers. The deep fryer was easy to use, heated up quickly and the zucchini came out very crispy! And not greasy at all, which was very nice!

Honestly this works great! I can really taste the food (without the oil) and enjoy my fried favorites without all the guilt. I tried onion rings – they were perfect and very crisp with a bonus: no fat!

Then I tried french fries and chicken wings… just the way they should be! Juicy and delicious! My wife did all of these on the HI speed for spin and there was no crumbling. I believe there may be two models.  The GSF026B is the one we we have.

George Foreman Features:
•     Deep fryer spins food to remove up to 55-percent of fat absorbed during frying
•     2-3/5-liter oil capacity; 1-2/5-pound food capacity; quick-heating immersed element
•     Programmable thermostat; temperature-ready light; timer; cool-touch handle
•     Detachable magnetic safety plug; dishwasher-safe parts; recipes included
•     Measures approximately 14 by 12 by 15 inches

You can find several helpful  George Foreman GSF026B reviews here that should be very usefull.

No other appliance has revolutionized the way we do our cooking in the 20th century than the microwave oven.  Cooking can be done faster than ever, and foods have been developed specifically for speedy use inside this appliance.  They also are efficient users of electricity, as only the foods placed inside are heated.  The vast majority of American homes own one.

The history of this machine is interesting because scientists did not set out to create a device for cooking.  In World War II, the magnetron was invented, a tube that produces actual micro-waves.  By installing magnetron’s in Britain’s radar system, the waves were used to track down Nazi war planes on their way to bomb England.

It was only after this that Percy LeBaron Spencer of the Raytheon Company realized that these waves could heat up the internal temperature of foods much faster than a regular oven. When he was experimenting, he found this out when a candy bar melted in his pocket.

Raytheon released its first microwave oven in 1954.  This release was very large and unwieldy, and was really only practical for institutional use for places like restaurants.  It wasn’t until 1967 that the machine was for sale for home use, though it was still expensive.  It wasn’t really until 1971 that the price had come down enough for it to be easily accessible to the majority of American families.

How do modern microwave ovens work?  Using the radio waves mentioned above, they work at a frequency of roughly 2,500 megahertz.  At this frequency, radio waves can be absorbed by water, fats and sugar, but not by glass, some plastics, or ceramics.  This way only your target food is heated up.

Modern microwaves are much smaller and efficient than their large predecessors.  As they’ve been improved, these machines have become a staple in the American kitchen.  By targeting your food and speeding up time spent preparing meals, the microwave has given us more time and revolutionized the way we cook.

Today a lot of women are working and spreading themselves pretty thin, so cooking tasty meals for their families could become a problem.  With an active family, finding time for cooking becomes even more of a challenge.  How can she provide her family with quality cooking when time is so limited?

In 1971 Rival slow cooker was introduced.  This was our first introduction to this marvelous device that solves a huge problem for people who want quality meals for their families with limited time to invest in cooking.  By maintaining a low heat temperature instead of high heat, no one has to slave over a stove.

Slow cookers are also called crock pots.  This is due to the removable insert, usually make of ceramic or porcelain, and can be used as a serving dish plus the added advantage of making this cooking device easily washable.  What could be easier?

Slow cooker come in a wide variety of sizes and design.  Most of them have two temperature controls, both low and high, to accommodate the length of time of cooking.  This can enable someone to work a full day, come home and a tasty meal is ready and waiting, or cut the time about in half if need be.  This means that the family can spend a day out and still come home to a great meal.

An added bonus of a slow cooker is that you can use your cheaper meat cuts because they taste a lot better when cooked at slow temperatures.  I have found that nothing tastes better than using a slow cooker to make a beef stew using inexpensive chuck meat.  The same holds true for chicken dishes.

Recipes are plentiful for using this marvelous kitchen device, so you can either purchase cooking books for them or simply go on line, make a query into finding recipes specifically made for this purpose and enjoy your easily cooked meal.  As long as you have a computer and can go on line, it’s the cheapest way to go.

One of the most useful things that a student who is about to go away to college should buy is a rice cooker. I realized this my first year in college, when I experienced my first few all-night cram sessions on an empty stomach! Rice cookers are convenient, easy to use, affordable priced, and more flexible than you might think! Although they were primarily designed to cook rice, in fact, they can be used to prepare many other foods.

Some foods that can be cooked well by a rice cooker include noodles, hot cereal, soups, and eggs. These are just a few of the foods that can be prepared – all you need is a little imagination to fill a whole menu and your stomach.

One great benefit of using an electric rice cooker is that it is safe. Most will come with an automatic timer. This eliminates the hassle of having to “mind the pot” and you won’t have to worry about leaving the oven on and burning down your apartment. This wonderful appliance can pretty much run on auto-pilot.

You might be wondering how much something like this will cost you and you may be surprised to find out that they are not expensive at all! The one I have is a     Panasonic SR-G10G 5.5 Cup Rice Cooker. It only cost me $27.31!

Of course, higher-end models with more functions are also available. The Zojirushi NS-LAC05 Micom 3-Cup Cooker and Warmer, for example, is made of stainless steel and boasts 5 different settings specifically for making white rice, sushi, porridge, brown rice, and quick-cook items. A quick search online puts it at a retail value of about $123.00.

Lastly, one of the absolute best things about having a rice cooker at your disposal is that they are highly portable! If you are going to be traveling or changing apartments frequently, you’ll find it very easy to bring your cooker along. Try doing that with a microwave or toaster oven!