I would love to say that I have the time to whip up amazing meals each night. There are a few problems with that thought. For one, I am not the best cook in the world, and secondly, I just don’t have a lot of time.

I remember my grandmother would spend most of her day in the kitchen, and that was something that she seemed to enjoy. For me, however, it is just not possible. Instead, I look for great and interesting meal ideas that I can make fast. That means that the 30 minute meals you can find are some of the best options for me.

I was never sure how I felt about Rachel Ray, but I love her 30 minute meals recipes. Not only are they pretty easy, they are also meals that are not the ordinary fare that I give my family all of the time.

We get stuck in a rut sometimes with the same meals over and over, and that is mostly because they are tried and true favourites. The meals in 30 minutes are great, and they don’t have to be extremely complicated to keep everyone happy with our menu.

Many of the 30 minute meals are so easy that someone like me can do them. I have make many mistakes in the kitchen, and I think it has to do with my short attention span. Finding great meals to make in 30 minutes is just about right, and is something I can concentrate on.

These are not your average meals either, so it does require some extra shopping. However, if you can plan your 30 minute meals ahead of time (a week or two ahead) you can get all of your shopping done without worrying about being out of or missing something essential.

You can watch Rachel to get your 30 minute meals, or you can find listings online if you want to plan ahead. You can also find meals in 30 minutes by buying one of her cookbooks.

Because she is so popular right now, you can find her books almost anywhere that sells cookbooks, or you can find them easily enough if you do a search online. After a while, you may even be able to come up with some of your own meals that you can make in a half an hour or less.

You’ll learn a lot about food and cooking by following along and figuring out how to put things together in a pleasing and fast way.

Click here to buy cheap 30 minute meals recipes.

By Jim Nettleton

Here’s another terrific recipe that’s a real tummy filler. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

1 15 ounce can Hunt’s tomato sauce

1 tblsp. finely chopped garlic

1/2 small onion, chopped in chunks

1 tblsp. parsley

1 tsp. black pepper

1 tsp. basil

1 whole mild Italian sausage

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup dry red wine - Cabernet Sauvignon recommended

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 cup freshly sliced mushrooms

1 cup coarsely chopped red bell peppers, with seeds removed

1 1/2 cups diced creamer potatoes

4 pieces veal, scallopini style

1/2 pint heavy whipping cream

2/3 cup Parmesan, Romano, Provolone cheese, mixed in equal portions and grated

1/2 cup olive oil for sauteeing

1 cup fresh snow peas in pod

Place tomato sauce in a large pot. Add garlic, onion, parsley, pepper, basil, water, wine, 1/4 cup olive oil and two small pieces (about an inch long apiece) of Italian sausage. Cover pot and bring to boil. Immediately turn heat down to simmer for 30 minutes.

While sauce is simmering, saute the following in the 1/2 cup olive oil, saving the oil for the next step: the rest of the sausage, by itself, for 10 minutes. Save sausage drippings and clean the skillet; then, together, the mushrooms, bell peppers and creamer potatoes for about 5 minutes; then, the snow peas for 1 minute.

Next, cut the veal into thin strips about 1/2 inch wide and 2 inches long. Using the saved oil and sausage drippings, saute the veal for about 2 to 3 minutes. Place all sauteed items aside. When sauce is finished simmering, strain to remove the onion pieces, but retain all other ingredients. Return to the pot and add heavy whipping cream (fat free ½ and ½ can be substituted, but will result in thinner substance) and the 2/3 cup mixed grated cheeses, stirring carefully to blend.

Now, add all sauteed items. Stir. Cover the pot and bring close to boil, then reduce heat and simmer until peppers and potatoes are tender and the sausage is completely done, about 10 to 15 minutes. Watch the pot carefully during this time and stir frequently to avoid burning.

Ladle into large soup bowls. Serves 2 to 4 as either a soup or a complete entree.

About the Author

Jim Nettleton is a radio and television professional who loves his food. He has been cooking and preparing gourmet meals for decades and loves to share his recipes with those who enjoy good food. He highly recommends The Secret Recipes From Your Favorite Restaurants - http://tinyurl.com/ypo2a8. Visit his French Gourmet Food blog for cooking tips, tricks and recipes at http://frenchgourmetfood.blogspot.com/.

From its origins in Ethiopia, where the main coffee production is still from wild coffee tree forests, coffee consumption has spread throughout the world. But because of its requirement for ample sunshine and rain, the plants from which beans are produced grow only in tropical or sub-tropical regions.

Though it is enjoyed around the world it is produced only in areas close to the equator.  This product is harvested on a grander scale than almost all other products.

Columbia is known for its great coffee.  Because of this you might think that they are the majority of all copy produced comes from Columbia.  But surprisingly that is not the case.  The majority of all coffee in the world comes from Brazil.  They produce 28% of all the coffee consumed.  Columbia is the second largest producing 16% of the coffee consumed in the world.  Next is Indonesia at 7% and then Mexico at 4%.

Part of the coffee trees prejudice is that it prefers areas of high altitude.  That being said the tree has been acclimated to produce fairly well in other areas as well.

In Brazil, the plantations cover huge areas and employ hundreds of workers to tend the plants. In Colombia the rugged mountains and poor economic conditions mean transportation to processing centers is still largely carried out by mule or Jeep.

Can anything grow on a volcano?  Coffee sure can.  The Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii proves to the perfect location for coffee trees to thrive.  The hot tropical sun and afternoon rains make for the perfect environment.

The islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi in Indonesia produce a great deal of the world’s coffee and have for many, many years.  Like Columbia, their methods are primitive, but this does not hinder the growth of hundreds of acres of coffee trees or their production.

Plantations in Mexico, by contrast to Brazil, are primarily small farms but with over 100,000 of them the total still makes the country a serious factor on the world market. Most are located in the south, in Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas with the special Altura beans indicating their origin in the high altitudes.

Vietnam in recent years has rapidly been challenging Indonesia’s position as the Tonkin area recovers from decades of stagnation. First planted with arabica trees in the mid-19th century by French missionaries, the small plantations now produce robusta, one of the two main types of plant.

Coffee beans are seasoned travellers.

The word ‘beans’ is purposely in single-quote marks, since the thing that gets roasted and ground to make the drink isn’t actually a bean at all, it is a seed. Especially , it is the seed of a fruit that grows on trees that will simply reach twenty feet or more. Some wild varieties grow to over forty five feet or 15m.

The majority of those seeds come in a pair, though there’s a selection that produces only one ( the peaberry ). The berry resembles a cranberry, with a sweet pulp covered by a surface called a silverskin. In a band round the equator from roughly twenty-five degrees north or south, comes the overpowering majority of the Earth’s coffee output. Temperatures of between 60F ( 15C ) and 70F ( 21C ) are best as is rainfall of 6 inches each month or more. Loamy, good-draining soil is required and also useful is high humidity - lots of mist and cloud at the high elevations, over 3000 ft ( 915m ) for the good stuff.

At these elevations the oxygen content is lower, so that the trees take longer to grown up. The robusta, or coffea canephora, goes into making the bulk of coffee as it can be grown at lower altitudes and is more illness resistant. But it is the high-altitude coffea arabica that forms the base of a gourmet cup. Diffuse light and moderate winds are beneficial, both of which are occasionally produced by purposely growing in the shelter and shade. Against this, wine grapes like hot sun and plenty of it. Once planted, the tree takes about five years to grown up to first crop and even then a single tree will only make plenty for about 2 pounds ( one kilogram ) of coffee.

Those 2 pounds equal about two thousand coffee beans, ( correct or not, it is the standard term ), typically hand-picked by manual workers. Manual they could be, but ignorant they aren’t. Coffee bean cropping is a talent developed over time, where the picker learns to select good beans and drop the bad. The trees have broad, dark green leaves and produce a flower that resembles Jasmine. Some - in Brazil and Mexico, as an example, - blossom over a 6 to 8 week period. In nations that lie along the equator like Kenya and Colombia, though, a tree can have grown up berries growing alongside still ripening ones.

That is part of what makes picking such a specialty. Blossom to crop may cover a period of nearly 9 months depending on the weather and other factors and the cycle will be carried out for the life of the tree - about 20-25 years. With the best cultivation technology, a good crop will be between 6,600 lbs ( three thousand kg ) and 8,800 lbs ( four thousand kg ) per hectare. So, the next time you savor that brew, think about the long trip these coffee beans journeyed to reach your cup. It would make that high price appear less steep.

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By Jim Nettleton

Cooking and preparing fine, gourmet meals has always been a hobby of mine. Over the years, I’ve originated dozens of recipes that have pleased family and friends. Here’s one that you can prepare rather quickly that will have your diners praising your skills.

SEQ CHAPTER h 1STUFFED SHELLS ELEGANCE

INGREDIENTS

1 15 ounce can Hunts tomato sauce

½ small onion chopped fine

1 tblsp. Parsley, chopped fine

1 tsp. Basil

½ cup water

½ cup dry red wine – Cabernet Sauvignon recommended

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

½ cup extra virgin olive oil for sautéing

1 whole mild Italian sausage (about 10 inches)

1 cup coarsely chopped red bell peppers with seeds and stem removed

1½ cups diced creamer potatoes

1 cup freshly sliced mushrooms

5 ounces small cooked shrimp

5 ounces cooked crabmeat

1/3 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 tblsp. freshly chopped garlic

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 box jumbo pasta shells (biggest you can find)

5 ounces flounder fillet

Parmesan cheese, grated

Place tomato sauce in a large pot. Add chopped garlic, onion, parsley, pepper, basil, water, wine, ¼ cup olive oil and Italian sausage. Cover pot and bring to boil. Immediately turn heat down to simmer for 30 minutes. When finished simmering, remove and save sausage.

While sauce is simmering, saute the following in the ½ cup olive oil: the mushrooms, bell peppers and creamer potatoes for about 5 minutes.

Bake the flounder until flaky and tender. Then, using a food processor (or chopping the ingredients very fine by hand - if done by hand, the resultant mixture should be thoroughly blended) - blend the shrimp, crabmeat, flounder, Monterey Jack cheese, garlic powder and cayenne pepper until smooth and creamy. Set aside.

Prepare the shells according to package instructions. When done, drain and pat dry. Stuff the shells with approximately 1½ heaping tablespoons of the mixture. To aid in judging the amount needed, the mixture should be enough to stuff about 10 shells.

Place the shells in a baking dish. Pour the sauce over the shells, using entire amount. Bake at 325 degrees until sauce bubbles.

Remove. Sprinkle shells with a small amount of Parmesan cheese. Cut sausage into small pieces. Serve with sausage pieces as garnish.

Enjoy!

About the Author

Jim Nettleton is a radio and television professional who loves his food. He has been cooking and preparing gourmet meals for decades and loves to share his recipes with those who enjoy good food. He highly recommends The Secret Recipes From Your Favorite Restaurants - http://tinyurl.com/ypo2a8. Visit his French Gourmet Food blog for cooking tips, tricks and recipes at http://frenchgourmetfood.blogspot.com/.

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If you’ve recently started taking heed of what you eat and drink, you probably understand the importance of being able to find the facts about chicken nutrition. Not all chicken is the same. Often, chicken products contain excess water and fat which you don’t really want to be puting into your system.

There are some basic chicken nutrition facts that can be found on the Internet but they are really just educated guesses because there is no one set of chicken nutrition facts that are the same for all products.

There are luckily some brands out there that have the chicken nutrition facts printed right on the packaging. For those truly trying to watch what goes into their bodies, these brands are probably the best to go with some the facts are right there in front of you. The same goes for fast food nutrition facts, as it is always better to eat chicken from these places where you have easy access to the chicken nutrition facts. A visit to their website might prove helpful if you can't find the exact information in the chain store.

More Things to Consider

Besides just thinking of the brands to pick from when shopping for chicken, make sure that you are remembering that chicken with the bone and skin tend to be a lot higher in fat then the other kinds. If you are not sure, just compare the chicken nutrition facts from two different brands as see for yourself.

Also, be careful of the serving size that is listed on the chicken nutrition facts, as it is not always the same for every single brand of chicken out there. There are no two brands alike so you really just have to keep your eyes open and pay attention to the small details.

The serving size listed on the chicken nutrition facts is going to be by weight rather than quantity since the chicken pieces in a package are not exactly the same size. This means the only real way to figure out your exact serving size is to weigh the chicken. Only then can you properly use the chicken nutrition facts and be on your way to a healthier lifestyle. Almost immediately, you will joyously notice the difference to your life that paying attention to these things can make. Not only will you start to look a lot better but you'll also start to feel better too.