Homemade ice cream has many benefits. First, you get to personalize the flavor. It’s up to you to decide what you put into your ice cream. Another is that you are certain of the ingredients going into your dessert. You have the power to choose the freshest milk and the tastiest fruit. You can even make sugar-free, low-fat and organic ice cream.

If you don’t have an ice cream maker at home, then your arm and spatula would be your tools of the trade. Here are five easy steps to making your own ice cream:

1) Chill your ice cream mixture over an ice bath.
2) Pour your mixture into a durable freezer-friendly container and place it inside your freezer.
3)  After around 45 minutes, check on your ice cream. If you begin to see ice crystals form at the edges, remove it from your freezer. With a spatula or whisk, stir it around vigorously until all frozen sections are broken up. Then, place it back into the freezer.
4) Do this every 30-45 minutes.
5) In about 2 to 3 hours, your ice cream would be ready.

It’s that simple to make ice cream without an ice cream maker. Just be sure to really put your strength into whipping up you ice cream and it would come out rich and smooth.

CHOCOLATE
Rejoice, ladies! Chocolate is actually very healthful. Studies show that a small bar of dark chocolate everyday can actually protect your heart. Firstly, it has been seen to reduce Low-Density Lipids (or bad cholesterol) by as much as 10%.

Know that incredible feeling after biting into a bar of chocolate? That’s seratonin at its finest. Seratonin is the same compound that the brain produces when one is in love. Thus, it also acts a an anti-depressant.

LAMB
A nice rack of lamb can actually be as healthful as a seafood dish. This is because, lamb has been found to contain high levels of omega-3 fats. These are usually thought of to be found in fish, nuts and seeds. Lamb contains, on average, around 40 milligrams of omega-3 per ounce.

Omega-3 oils help to clean up the arteries. They break-up fat and plaque that have built up during the course of our lifetime. This lowers blood pressure and relieves the heart of blockages. Omega-3 also facilitates the brain development of a baby while in their mother’s womb. That’s why pregnant women are always told to ingest omega-3.

CHILI PEPPERS
Another thing most people don’t associate with a healthy lifestyle is the chili pepper. The spice actually benefits the body because of its capsaicin content, the compound in peppers which makes it spicy. Studies have proven that it can be an effective treatment for relieving pain caused by arthritis, diabetic neuropathy and psoriasis. Red chili peppers have also been seen to reduce blood cholesterol, platelet aggregation and triglycerides.

If you’re trying to lose weight, an addition of pepper to your diet can help you shed unwanted fat. That’s because capsaicin can curb your appetite, boost metabolism and break down fat.

Meatloaf has always been the go-to recipe in our home when we need to prepare something filling and delicious in a short amount of time. I don’t know how many times a meatloaf has saved us when guests suddenly arrive unannounced and we have to feed them.

What makes meatloaf such a life saver? Simple. It is so easy to cook. You just need to mix different ingredients, bake or steam it and you’ve got a very filling dish that will go well with anything – yes, even on a sandwich.

This recipe for a Savory Meat Loaf is from the Betty Crocker site. It is so easy to make, it will only take 20 minutes of prep time if you already have all of the ingredients on hand. In fact, here’s a handy tip for anyone who frequently experiences guest raids – have the ingredients for the meatloaf ready and well stocked in your pantry. That way, if you suddenly need to make meatloaf, everything’s there already. Another tip is if you run out of breadcrumbs you can substitute some quick cooking oats. It’s actually a great way to add some fiber into your meat dish.

Savory Meat Loaf

Ingredients

I may not have had the same interest in the culinary arts at that young age but the process of making jam was still interesting enough to warrant my attention. One thing that I found curious at that time was her addition of pectin to the jam. I’ve always wondered what it was for. At that time I thought it was an ingredient that added flavor to the jam. Only when I got older and starting reading about the stuff did I find out that pectin is used to help thicken the jam.

Pectin is a soluble fiber that is found in fruits and plants. It is used in jam making to help bulk up the jam and provide that “solid” jelly-like consistency. Different amounts of pectin can be found depending on the fruit. Some of the fruits that contain a high amount of pectin include sour apples, sour blackberries, currants, eastern concord grapes, lemons, plums, cranberries and quinces. These fruits can be turned into jam without having to add pectin to the mixture.

For all other fruits, you will have to add pectin to achieve that jam-like consistency. Fruits that do not have a lot of pectin include apricots, blueberries, figs, peaches, strawberries, and pineapples. For these fruits to get that jam consistency you will need to use pectin. There are many commercial pectin products that you can use when you make jam. As for the exact amount you need, it’s better to eyeball it. To find out how much pectin you need to use, get a spoonful of the jam you are cooking and place an ice cube at the bottom so that the jam will cool down. Look at the consistency. If it’s runny or still more liquid, you can add more pectin until it achieves the consistency you desire.

One thing that constantly stumps me whenever I cook a dish is thinking of other dishes to accompany the main course. You can only serve mashed potatoes or mashed cauliflower so many times before you guests think you’re not a really creative cook. You can have a stupendously delicious main course but without that side dish of carbohydrates that will serve as your filler, the whole meal can fall flat instantly. These side dishes serve to complement the main dish, mellow out some of the flavors while enhancing others, and as I’ve said before, it helps fill up your guests, sating them during the meal.

One dish that I have started to include in my arsenal is rice. No, not just the steamed rice that is commonly eaten in majority of countries on the planet (in fact, rice is the most widely eaten staple on earth), but a pilaf. A rice pilaf is a common accompaniment to dishes and you’ve surely been served a pilaf when you ate at a restaurant. A pilaf is easy to make and quite yummy because of the mélange of spices used in making the dish.

A pilaf is not hard to do. This recipe for Saffron Rice Pilaf is from simplyrecipes.com. It is easy to make and the resulting product is really delicious.

Saffron Rice Pilaf Recipe