Life After 50 Expo

Quick and Easy Pasta Recipes !

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Do you want to make a quick and easy recipe using pasta? Well there is and one thing you can make that is rich in carbohydrates is carbonara.

But what is carbonara? Basically it is spaghetti using white sauce. The core ingredients for this quick and easy recipe include a mixture of cheeses, eggs and freshly cracked black pepper. You can add cream, bacon, mushrooms and bacon to make it tastier.

There are two ways to make this dish. There is the Italian and the American version even if both use the same ingredients.

If you want to make the Italian version, make sure that you are using long pasta such as spaghetti, linguini, or fettucini. To make the sauce, be sure to mix pancetta and garlic together with butter and olive in a separate pan before setting this aside. You should all throw in some eggs and cracked better that are beaten in a bowl along with some cheese and pecorino.

When the pasta is ready, be sure to drain it and then save some of the water so you can use it to mix with the pasta and the pancetta. After several minutes, you can put this in a plate and then serve.

For those who want to try the American version, cook the pasta while frying pancetta or bacon in a pan with garlic and thinly sliced shallots. Make sure the pan is partially drained to remove some of the fat before adding heavy cream.

In a separate bowl, make the sauce using eggs, pepper and cheese. When it is ready, mix this with the pasta before being served.

Since we are talking about pasta, there are other dishes you can make using pasta and the simplest one is spaghetti.

For that, all you have to do is buy spaghetti sauce and then mix this with minced pork and sausages. Other alternatives to this include meatballs, tuna and a few other things so experiment a little so eating pasta is different each time you make it.

When this is being heated in a pan, boil the pasta while throwing in a few pieces of salt. Get a small piece off pasta from time to time to be sure that it is not undercooked before turning off the stove.

Once the pasta and the sauce is ready, mix it together or put one in a plate and the other in a bowl. That way, people have the choice to put as much sauce as they want. To make the pasta taste good, be sure to sprinkle some pepper and some cheese.

If these two dishes are too easy for you, try making lasagna. How to make this dish is very similar to spaghetti. The only differences is that this is done in layers since you are putting pasta and sauce alternately over a 10-by-18-inch baking dish until it reaches the top. You also bake it in the oven for several minutes before serving.

Pasta is one of the quickest and easiest recipes to make given that you just need to do some cutting, boiling and frying before putting everything together. Aside from following recipes that can be found in cookbooks or online, try coming up with a few concoctions of your own and share this with other people.

Simple Fixes for Vegetarian Recipes

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If you love to have guests at your house, you must always be ready with various types of food that everybody will appreciate. You cannot expect that everyone will enjoy your delicious roasted chicken or pork. You must always anticipate receiving guests who are vegetarians and won’t eat anything else but vegetables. On your collection, you must include quick and easy vegetarian recipes to help you on this purpose.

If you are not a vegetarian, you may think that this is too tasking to handle. But you are mistaken. There are many ways for you to come up with simple treats that your vegetarian friends and relatives will surely appreciate and enjoy. The best thing about it is that you have considered their preferences and have actually done something about it. It is also not easy on their part to impose on what they want to have whenever they go and visit other houses. But you don’t want them to starve themselves while inside the premises of your home just because you didn’t prepare something for them.

Here are some quick fixes that you can apply when you are faced with this situation.

1. You can create salads on the spot. Pick out the fresh vegetable that you can include at this recipe, blanch them to achieve crispiness and put them out ready to be served. You must always have on your stock various dressings that can be used for this purpose. You must also have vinegars that are mostly used on salads for those who prefer such on their vegetable salads.

2. You can have your vegetable pre-cooked before the arrival of your guests. You can stock them on the freezer so that you will have lesser preparation time when your guests start to come in. You can also create vegetable soup before the date of the occasion and stock it on the freezer as well. Your efforts will surely go a long way, especially to your guests who are vegetarians.

3. Try using tofu on recipes that require meat. But make sure that you buy the fresh and new ones so that they will taste great once combined with your recipe. There are restaurants that are able to fake this quite good that you will not be able to determine that you are actually having tofu than real meat. If you will be able to formulate how this is done, you can have such meals served for everyone, even those people who are not really vegetarians.

4. You can serve fruits for snacks and desserts. This is healthy and will be loved by almost everybody. This will be appreciated by both adults and kids. You can get away by simply slicing the fruits that you’ve got. You can also mix them, create fruit salads or use them on juices.

5. You must also have some potatoes on your stock. You can never go wrong with such. If you have less time, you can just boil some and pour over tomato sauce on them. You have to make sure that before you do this, you have to wash the potatoes thoroughly. You can even use a clean brush to make sure that you get rid of all the dirt on its peel. If you have more time, you can mash them or bake some.

And that will do for your quick and easy vegetarian recipes.

Quick and Easy Appetizer Recipes !

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Let’s say you have a get together at your place. This means that you have to prepare some food to feed to the guests. If you want to impress them during their visit, here are some quick and easy appetizer recipes that you can use.

The first is tortilla chips. To do that, you will need some corn tortillas, lime juice, ground cumin, chili powder and salt.

Since you will be baking this, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit while you cut the tortilla into 8 wedges similar to what you would do for a pie or pizza and then arrange the wedges in a single layer on a cookie sheet.

If you have mister, good because this will make it a lot easier to mix the oil and lime juice. If you don’t, you will have to work with a spray bottle. When the mixture is ready, spray this over each chip wedge until it is moist. Next, combine the cumin, chili powder and salt in a small bowl and sprinkle on the chips by hand.

Bake the chips for about 7 minutes and then rotate the pan and bake for another 8 minutes. Make sure this is not too brown and then serve this with your choice of garnishes, guacamole or salsas.

For those that have done this before and want something different, they can try and serve buffalo or chicken wings. The ingredients you will be needing for this include a few pounds of chicken wings, black pepper, salt, vegetable oil, butter or margarine, Tabasco sauce and white wine vinegar.

First, chop off the tip of each chicken wings and get rid of it. Then chop the wing in half so you have 2 pieces. Next, grind on fresh black pepper and sprinkle with salt if desired.

Since this is not yet cooked, put these into the deep fryer until it is golden and crisp while you are stirring or shaking occasionally. When ready, remove and drain using paper towels.

Now melt the butter or margarine over medium heat in a heavy saucepan, add the hot sauce and a tablespoon of wine vinegar. When ready, put the chicken on a warm serving platter and pour the sauce on top.

If you want to keep things simple, you don’t have to bake or cook anything. The only thing you have to do is bring out different kinds of cheese so everyone can try them out. Such an activity is known as a cheese tasting party. To make it interesting, put the cheese varieties with some crackers but be sure that it does not dominate the flavor.

The cheeses that are ideal for such an activity include Bel Paese, Boursin, Abbaye de Belloc (a rich French cheese), Fontina, Gouda, Havarti, Mozzarella, Port du Salut, Scamorze, and Swiss. Of course, there are others out there you can try if these are not available so have fun buying different kinds from the store and serving this to your guests.

These are just a few of the quick and easy appetizer recipes you can serve to your guests when they come over so read up on new ones and then experiment a little so it is not the same each time. If you enjoyed the appetizer during your visit in another house, get the recipe and learn how it was done.

Quick and Easy Clubhouse Sandwich Recipe!

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We all know how to make a peanut butter sandwich or even a hamburger. But if you want to make something bigger than comes in three layers, why don’t you learn how to make the quick and easy clubhouse sandwich recipe.

The clubhouse sandwich has been around for a very long time. It is believed that this originated in club cars of passenger trains. But regardless of where it came from, there are certain ingredients that this meal will always have.

This includes toasted white bread, some chicken crispy bacon and few vegetables. If you don’t have chicken, you can try changing it for either turkey or shrimp instead.

To start this recipe, you need the following ingredients so check your refrigerator and bring out at least 6 stalks of celery, 2 onions, 8 slices of bacon, 12 slices of toasted white bread, 2 pounds of chicken, 2 medium sizes tomatoes and 4 lettuce leaves.

When you have everything ready, you start by cooking the chicken and then let it cool after 25 minutes. As you know, the chicken that is used for the clubhouse sandwich is turned into chicken salad which is why you have to mix it with other ingredients.

Once the salad is ready, it is time to cook the bacon until it is crisp and brown which should be done within 4 to 6 minutes. You better transfer the bacon to a paper towel first to drain the excess oil which is not good for those who have high cholesterol.

The last thing to do now is to put everything together. You get a piece of bread and then spread the chicken salad on the surface. Put some bacon, tomato or lettuce in between before putting the next layer of bread over it and then doing it one more time until you have three layers of bread.

With that, you now have a clubhouse sandwich. With the number of ingredients you used, you can share this with 3 other guests. Remember, a clubhouse sandwich has to be cut into quarters and then secured with a toothpick. That way, the sandwich won’t fall apart before it reaches your mouth. You can also put some side orders in beside the clubhouse sandwich by adding chips or fries.

Now that you know how to make a clubhouse sandwich, you can have this anytime you want rather than ordering it from the restaurant. What is even better is that you can do this at a much cheaper price especially if some of the ingredients are not readily available because you can replace these with something else.

It doesn’t matter where the clubhouse sandwich came from. What is important is that you know how to make it so can enjoy it and share with others.

One thing you should know about the clubhouse sandwich is that is more than just a snack which is why a lot of people eat it for lunch. Its light and healthy at the same time because it gives you a combination of B vitamins, iron and protein.

So the next time you feel hungry try having a clubhouse sandwich instead of a large meal. This is a quick and easy recipe you can make rather than another dish that will take you double the time to prepare.

Quick and Easy Pizza Recipe !

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Who has not eaten a pizza? Living in the US, you surely have but did you ever wonder how it is made? Well there are quiWck and easy recipes that you can make. The only you can do it is by having the right ingredients and equipment.

There are 5 basic things that make up a pizza namely the dough, tomato paste, cheese, the toppings and olive oil. The first one which is the though can be purchased from the supermarket and these come in different sizes. But if you prefer to do this by hand, well that is a different story because for that, you will flour, dry yeast, brown sugar, salt and some hot water.

Since we want to keep things simple, let’s just work with the premade dough. One thing that can change when you make a pizza is your choice of toppings. You can use sausage, ham, mushrooms, anchovies, green pepper and a lot more. So you get the idea, lets work with ham and cheese pizza.

If there is no tomato sauce available, an alternative will be to use spaghetti sauce which also tastes good.

Once the premade dough is laid out on the kitchen table, we get a kitchen knife and spread tomato paste all over the surface of the dough. Next, we put in pieces of sliced ham and then sprinkle cheese all over it.

The last thing to do before we can eat the pizza is to put this in the oven. Before you put it inside, be sure to preheat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit or 180 degrees Celsius and spray the oven tray with olive oil to prevent the pizza from sticking to the surface. That way, you can have your warm pizza ready for consumption after 5 to 10 minutes.

But what if you don’t have an oven? Can you still make a pizza? The answer is yes because you can also make it happen using your microwave or a griller. The advantage of using this equipment compared to an oven is that it is much faster to cook.

For those who want to impress their guests, forget making ham and cheese pizza. You should try instead making something that Shakey’s or Pizza Hut offers like Pineapple pizza. The ingredients for making this is similar to ham and cheese pizza. The only thing you added is the pineapple chunks.

When you put toppings on pizza, make sure to spread it over the pizza so everyone will be able to taste the toppings. Cut eat evenly and since it is still hot the second you take it out of the oven, wait two to five minutes first before serving it.

A word of advice for those who love pizza is to watch it at all times so it does not get burned. Keep your kids a safety distance away from the oven so they don’t get hurt.

There are other easy and quick recipes you can try out when making a pizza. You can look for these in cookbooks or online but if you want to experiment, go ahead and do it because the preparation phase is the same regardless of what you are planning to make. If you are too lazy to make it, just buy one already made in the grocery then heat it in the microwave.