Posts Tagged ‘fitness’

Using Dieting And Exercise To Lose Weight

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

When it comes to living a long and healthy life, there are two necessary ingredients: diet and fitness. While some believe that they are inseparable, nothing could be further from the truth. It is quite possible to have a perfectly healthy diet with deplorable fitness habits. It is equally possible to be physically fit with less than perfect eating habits.

There’s a smart little line in the Jimmy Buffet lyrics “Fruitcakes” when his ‘lady’ is lamenting: “I treat my body like a temple, You treat yours like a tent”

I can’t help thinking about this line whenever I think about all the people around the world who are on these garbage in, garbage out diet regimens hoping to achieve the weight loss triumph of those who are promoting the products.

To be totally honest, it is possible to shed pounds by dieting alone. It is difficult but possible. It is also possible to be physically fit and still have a few extra pounds. To a large degree, we are what we eat. If we follow a high fat low fibre diet our bodies are going to lack the fuel required to burn the fat. At the same time if we are not providing our bodies with the tools it requires to create muscle it does not matter how many weights we lift.

When it comes to diet and fitness, the best results are achieved when they are combined together rather. Use your fitness routine to burn surplus calories and use your diet in order to provide your body with the nutrients and fuel it requires to build muscle.

A pound of muscle takes up less space on the body than a pound of fat. Pound for pound, I would much prefer mine be composed of muscle than fat. Dieting alone does not build muscle and that is something you would do well to remember.

You should also understand that as you are building muscle you may be shedding inches while not showing a great deal of progress on the scale. It is very important that you bear this in mind throughout the weight loss process. Do not measure your progress by the scales alone or you will observe deceptive results.

The problem is that far too many people do just this, become frustrated and give up when they are in point of fact making progress. Do not allow yourself to be a victim of the scales. Look in the mirror, try on your tight slacks, and measure your waistline. Measure your success by how you feel after climbing a flight of stairs not by the scales.

By incorporating exercise into your diet routine you are also enabling your body to burn off any extra calories you may have taken in during the day. This means that if you want to have a small ‘cheat’ during your day, you can make up for it by burning a few more calories than normal in the evening. This is not something that should happen often but an occasional incidence is not going to make or break your diet.

You should also consider dieting and exercise as a hand and glove type of relationship. They fit together. Diet and fitness when combined can create incredible weight loss results for those who take them both seriously.

The thing to remember is that neither works well alone and neither will work unless you are willing to do the work. You must make this a priority in your life in order to achieve the best possible results.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with why can’t I lose weight. If you have an interest in losing weight, please go over to our website now at Why Can’t I Lose Weight?

Alcoholic Drinks

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

In the West, alcoholic beverages are never far away from the arena at festive times, but do we aways know how to get the most from these expensive luxuries? Too many people these days just think its a question of ‘getting as much down as possible in as little time as possible’. This is the wrong approach.

After all, most people realize that a good meal does not consist of eating as many chips as possible in fifteen minutes, so why should that theory not apply to consuming a drink too? You will get far more enjoyment from a bottle of wine, if you spend an extra dollar on it and drink it slowly with a friend and some appropriate food than if you swill down a cheap bottle of plonk on your own. It makes evident sense, but not everyone sees it.

So, with that thought in mind, I have put together a few tips on how to get more enjoyment from your alcoholic drinks, if you are old enough and of that turn of mind.

Gin and Vodka - if these white spirits are your favourite snifter, always keep the bottle in the fridge, not the drinks cabinet. Keep the mixers in the fridge too. That way the ice will survive longer and you will not be tempted to have to swig it down before the ice melts. If you are having friends around, go one step further and put the bottle in the freezer. It will not go solid. You can even cut the top off a plastic lemonade bottle, put the bottle of gin or vodka in that, fill it with water and then freeze it. Remove the plastic bottle and you have an attractive “collar of ice” around your bottle.

The Last Tot - five minutes or so after finishing a bottle of spirits, tip it out one more time and the bottle that you thought was empty will deliver one more tot of contents. It is not a lot, but it is a pleasant free surprise. The same works for many alcohol based products including underarm roll-on and perfume.

White Wine - white wines taste best when they have been gently chilled over a prolonged length of time, but if you get taken by surprise visitors, put the bottle of wine in a container of ice and cold water. Try not to have to put it in the deep freeze, it is too severe, but if you have to, then ten minutes is all that it takes.

Port - it is always better to decant port and older, heavier red wines, because of the sediment that may be in the bottom of the bottle, which tastes horrible and because it aids the aeration of the wine. However, it is not always easy to see when the dregs are coming. The manuals say to use a candle, but they were written a hundred years ago. The concentrated beam from a torch is far better. Try using a Durabeam because its rotateable head allows it to be directed more accurately.

Decanters - sometimes the stopper becomes stuck fast. Tap it with another glass item and it should come loose. If not, run the neck of the decanter under hot water for a few seconds and it will come out.

Labels - if you store your wine in a damp place where the labels are likely to rot or fall off, spray them with hair lacquer beforehand.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with researching the programmable crock pot. If you have an interest in cooking or crock pots, please go over to our website now at Large Crock Pots

Complex Carbohydrates Diets

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

When many of us decide to follow a diet, we are filled with joy because we are finally going to lose those unwanted pounds. All we need is the necessary diet info. However a few months down the road and not only have we not lost any weight, but we are also disappointed with our diet.

Why does something like this happen you might ask in exasperation? Well, the reply would be that we are not eating the right combination of foodstuffs to burn the surplus fat off. Following a diet that has complex carbohydrates foods which are good for you could be the answer to all whole diet problems.

When you first begin any of these diets, the first thing that will be explained to you, is what food you can eat and what sorts of food are not good for you. According to most low carb diet info, among the many bad foods will be various complex carbohydrates foods which you really need for your body to work well. The best approach to take with those diets is to understand the low carb diet info behind them and use the diet food lists that they provide sensibly.

This way you will definitely lose weight, because the foods that you will be having on your diet are the sorts of food that can make you lose your hunger pangs. By not desiring to eat lots of food, you will not be snacking on junk food and piling on the weight. According to most low carb diet information, complex carbohydrates foods for long lasting energy will release the quantity of energy that you need, slowly, throughout the day.

According to most low carb diet info, these foods also have the necessary dietary requirements that we need for our bodies to develop healthily. You should, however, remember the low carb diet info that the best way to have a great looking figure is to maintain a healthy balance between all of the complex carbohydrates foods in the other groups and to include regular daily exercise into your lifestyle.

When you go shopping for your dietary foods, stop a moment and see if the foods that you have planned for your meals, according to the low carb diet info you have, will help you in the long run or if you will be feeling worse than you do now. The reason is that some of the foods in these different diets don’t take your body’s health requirements into account.

If you don’t eat the right foods, you can end up with various illnesses and other complications that you had no problems with when you used complex carbohydrates foods like fruit and vegetables that were part of your normal eating habits.

Remember that, according to most low carb diet info, you have to take into account the health requirements of your body as well. Including fantastic tasting complex carbohydrates foods that you usually love to eat anyway, make dieting fun, especially since you are not really dieting. What you are doing is making a permanent change for a healthier future.

Do you need to lose those excess pounds rapidly? Well, take a free look at Complex Carbohydrates, by visiting our website called The Atkins Diet Plan

Busting The Rapid Weight Loss Myths

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to be slimmer just to have a sexier body. Many people have moulded their bodies to make them look more healthy and more attractive. However, there is no way to attain this new look in a day of two. The problem is that most people do not want to wait, they want it now.

This can lead to these people making rather rash and, it has top be said, rather silly decisions. They are not willing to wait and they are not willing to work for what they want. This is why so many people turn to rapid weight loss diets. Some ‘guru’ brings out a new fad diet and a good proportion of the ‘I want it now’ crowd jump on the band wagon. Only to be disappointed again within the year or less.

Speed diets or rapid weight loss diets tend to put out great advertising copy that is very hard to resist. However, all diets, no matter which one you choose, Weight Watchers, Atkins or fad diet, depend on overweight people making lifestyle changes in order for them to work permanently.

There is a very apposite saying: if you always do what you always did, then you will always get what you always got. That says it all. You can lose weight with all but the stupidest of diets, but if you go back to your old ways when you hit your target weight, you MUST slowly, but gradually creep back to your old weight.

If you give your body more calories than it needs, it will store them for when it does need them. The problem is that that day never comes for too many people, because they never exert themselves. This is especially true of fad diets like the ‘cabbage water’ diet. Yes, you will lose weight on it, but you would lose weight by fasting whatever you did. For a while, and then you might get sick. For a diet to work, it has to be flexible and enjoyable enough for you to be able to stick with it for the rest of your life. Make no mistake, dieting is long-haul.

Many rapid weight loss programs actually only squeeze the water out of you. Just like a wet sponge. But a good dieter maintains his or her grip on that sponge, not letting it soak up water again. The problem with short term dieting, is that you let go of the sponge underwater.

This is why serial dieters first lose weight and are happy; then finish dieting, go back to their old weight and become depressed. In that state of depression they are suckers for the advertisers of the next latest craze diet. In other words, they are being manipulated and literally squeezed dry, but of their money too.

These silly rapid weight loss programs also include fat loss pills. They are not making you lose fat, well, maybe a tiny amount gets flushed out with all the surplus water you are carrying. They are only diuretics under another name. How many pills would I sell if I called them diuretics? How many more would I sell if I called them miracle fat loss pills?

Type the word diuretic into a engine and find out more about them. They are all around you in mild healthy forms. A diuretic will essentially cause your body to lose more fluid than was in the diuretic. Tea is a diuretic, for example.

This list of these dopey dieting aids to rapid weight loss goes on and on, but someone must be buying them and you can bet your bottom dollar that it is the sad, depressed dieter who let go of the sponge.

Slimming soap! Slimming soap is being advertised as being a rare Eastern remedy for obesity. Well, let me tell you, I live in the East and I have never seen it here. Asians are slim because they do a lot of physical labour and do not come under the pressure to eat junk food that Westerners do, although that situation is changing rapidly too.

Magnetic weight loss earrings, I ask you! Even being drunk without a present for your wife ten minutes before Christmas Day is not a good enough excuse to fall for this one, surely? The advertisers say that the secret of this set of earrings is that they are magnetic.

Well, if you believe this, why not get a pair of $1 children’s toy magnets or even a pair of fridge magnets and put one in each hip pocket? Two? Well, after all, you would not want to lose weight from only one side, would you? You would be lop sided.

Just remember, when you are looking for a rapid weight loss diet: there ain’t one ( that will work for life). If you are putting on weight, then your lifestyle is wrong and it is up to you alone to change it.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with how to lose weight online. If you have an interest in losing weight too, please go over to our website now at Why Can’t I Lose Weight?

Free Weight Loss Plans

Monday, August 9th, 2010

The race to health and fitness is on and a lot of people are getting in on it. Some people do it in order to have a beautiful body, some people do it because they are ashamed of their body, while others do it simply to remain fit and healthy. As such, there are thousands of fitness programs on the Internet, in gyms, spas and fitness centres all over the world. Some are too expensive - so expensive that you will lose weight quickly, just because you have to work hard to earn the money to pursue these fitness programs.

One might not have to go to the gym or the spa or any fitness center and spend much just to slim down and obtain that longed for sexy body. There are many books available in the bookstores] offering weight loss programs that are convenient and cheap. However, the books are not though. These weight loss programs, or diet plans are gaining immense popularity because of their publicity, testimonials and reviews and you might be confused as to exactly which one to follow. So before choosing which weight loss plan to follow, try reading the following summaries of the most popular diet programs out today.

The Atkins’ New Diet Revolution by Dr. Atkins: This diet plan promotes a high protein diet and fewer carbohydrates. You can feast on vegetables and meat but must not eat bread and pasta. You are not restricted on your fat consumption so it is OK to pour on the (correct) salad dressing and freely spread on the butter. However, during the diet, some people may find themselves short on fibre and high on fat and cholesterol. Grains and fruits are also strictly limited.

The Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet by Drs. Heller. This diet plan also recommends a low carbohydrate diet. It suggests eating meat, vegetables and fruit, dairy and grain products. however, advises against taking in too many carbohydrates. So-called “Reward Meals” can be rather high in fats and saturated fats.

Choose to Lose: by Dr. Goor. Restricts fat intake. You are given a “fat” budget and you are given free reign on how to spend it. It does not pressure the individual to regulate his carbohydrate intake. Eating meat and poultry as well as low-fat dairy and seafood is fine. You may also eat vegetables, fruits, cereals, bread and pasta. This weight loss plan is fairly healthy, because it recommends correct amounts of fruits and vegetables as well as saturated fats. Watch your triglyceride levels though. If they are high, trim down on the carbohydrates and eat more unsaturated fats.

The DASH Diet. Advocates eating a fairly moderate amount of fat and protein yet lots of carbohydrates. It was initially created to lower blood pressure. The diet plan follows the pyramid food guide and encourages a high consumption of whole wheat grains as well as fruit and vegetables and low-fat dairy. However, some dieters consider it advocates too much consumption to create a significant weight loss.

Eat More, Weigh Less: by Dr. Ornish. Mostly a vegetarian food and low-fat program. Advises to look out for low-fat dairy and egg whites. This diet program is poor in calcium and limits the consumption of healthy foods like seafood and lean poultry.

Eat Right for Your Type: This scheme is quite unusual because it centres its advice on your blood group. For example, it recommends plenty of meat for people with the blood type O. However, diet programs for some blood types are nutritionally unbalanced and too low in calories. However, just for the record, there is no evidence that blood type can affect dietary requirements.

The Pritkin Principle: It focuses on cutting back on the number of calories by eating ‘wet’ foods that make you feel full. It recommends eating vegetables, fruits, oatmeal, pasta, soups, salads and low-fat dairy, which it says is OK, although it also restricts protein sources to lean meat, seafood and poultry. It is healthy because it provides low amounts of saturated fats and high amounts of vegetables and fruits. However, it is low on calcium and limits lean protein sources.

Volumetrics: It recommends eating fewer calories. It advises roughly the same foods as Pritkin but limits fatty food and dry foods like popcorn, pretzels and crackers. This plan is fairly healthy given the high amounts of fruit and vegetables. It is also low in calories and saturated fats.

The Zone: It is fairly low on carbohydrates yet moderately high on proteins. It encourages low-fat protein foods like fish and chicken plus vegetables, fruits and grains. It is also healthy but lacking in grains and calcium.

Weight Watchers: They recommend high carbohydrate meals, but are moderate on fats and proteins. A very healthy diet plan and very flexible too. It permits the dieter to devise his own meals rather than offering recipes, although there are Weight Watchers’ TV dinners in the shops.

Are you interested in a rapid weight loss diet? If so, please visit our website called Quick Weight Loss

Are You Hobbling Your Weight Loss Program?

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

If you would like to lose weight, you must have a plan, a route map to success. This is called a program or programme. There are thousands of programs, but many of them are just just batty. If they sound foolish, they probably are. Have you heard of the ‘cabbage water diet’? It sounds daft and it is. You cannot only drink cabbage water all your life!

Although there is a lot of claptrap talked about losing weight, there are some truths that have a role to play in nearly any program you choose to follow. One of these truths is that it is better to eat many small meals during the day (about 5-6), than to go all day without eating and then stuffing yourself at dinner in the evening. This is commonly called ‘grazing’.

Have you ever wondered why this might be so? Well, the fact is, that the average human body can only process about 250 calories an hour. If you eat more than that, you are almost certainly overloading your digestive system. This is why it matters, because if your body cannot handle all the calories that you give it, it will stockpile them.

Your body can only use up what it needs to execute the task that it is busy with, that is, what you are putting it through. If you are watching TV, a lot of of those 250 will be stored. If you are exercising, most will be burned up. It stores the remainder as body fat. Your body has learned through evolution that tough times will come, so it prepares for them. It is like us putting excess money in a savings account or people hoarding food if a bad winter is predicted.

However, these days in the West, we rarely face those hard times anymore. Therefore, that fat is never used up and we just keep adding to it until we decide, by choice, to limit our intake of calories or increase our amount of exercise.

Knowing this information, what can we do with it? Well, if you were to want to lose weight, you should be consuming no more than 1,500 calories a day (or whatever your program tells you), so 1,500 divided by 250 is six. if you ate 250 calories every other hour, that would give you twelve hours.

Therefore, eating light but often would be a beneficial strategy or program to follow, because firstly, you are only providing your body with what it needs, when it requires it and secondly, you are able to better maintain a steady blood sugar level, which means that you level out the spikes and troughs you experience in a normal day’s cycle.

Two hundred and fifty calories does not seem a lot, but it is amazing what it will stretch too, if you take the time to investigate. It is true that you will have to rigorously restrict some foodstuffs, like bread, pasta, rice and potatoes, but whoever honestly thought that you could lose weight by eating that stuff anyway?

If you do not have time to cook a number of times every day, look in your supermarket. There are loads of ‘250 calorie’ microwave meals. You don’t want to eat that? I can’t blame you. so get a good cookbook, which shows calorie content. You are at work all day? OK, eat some fruit, but choose wisely. It can be done, it only requires a little will and planning.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with lose weight programs. If you have an interest in losing weight, too, please go over to our website now at Why Can’t I Lose Weight?

Food: Five Tips On Cooking Food

Saturday, July 31st, 2010

There can not be many individuals who do not enjoy their food, but the human race, being what it is, I expect that there are a a small number of them. However, for the remainder of us, food is a source of daily delight and, like drink, it is frequently employed to commemorate a happy event. not only that, but various foodstuffs are used for the various meals or distinct events.

Festive meals were unquestionably planned around the seasonal foodstuffs on hand, but some foodstuffs were ferried huge distances for the consumption of those who could afford them. For example, my Dad deemed it a grand luxury to be given an orange in his stocking on Christmas Day 60 years ago. How the times have changed! Very few kids would think an orange a gift, special or otherwise, any day of the year these days.

Nevertheless, the storage of foodstuff is still a daily affair and therefore, I have written a few good tips on storing foodstuff below, so that you will obtain the best from that which you have purchased or grown in your garden even a long time afterward.

The Quickest Quiche: a quiche is the conventional healthy fast food and this is one of the finest quick methods to make one. Put one onion, four eggs four ounces/125 grammes of butter, half a pint/250 ml milk, baking powder, 2 ounces/60 grammes of grated Cheddar cheese, parsley, salt and pepper and whatever else you like into a strong food mixer/blender. Whirl it all up together and pour it into an appropriate dish, lined if you have it with some pre-made, shop bought, pastry. Bake at 190C/375F/Gas Mark 6 for 40 minutes. It serves four and is delicious.

Heavenly Hamburgers: next time you make hamburgers, do not salt the meat before cooking them. Use your traditional recipe and make the patties as normal. Then, put a handful of sea salt in your favourite heavy duty frying pan and heat it up to very hot. Drop the hamburgers onto the salt and cook as usual. The outside of the hamburger will go crisp and the fat will be kept to the absolute minimum.

Salmon In The Papers: a fantastic way to cook a whole salmon is to cook it in newspaper. You ought to try it. Prepare your salmon according to your favourite recipe. Then wrap in three or four thoroughly drenched sheets of newspaper (any one). Make a nice parcel out of it; as neat as you can. Place the soaking-wet parcel on a baking tray in the centre of a moderate oven. Bake until the paper is dry on the top and then turn it over. When that side is dry the salmon is done. It’ll take about an hour. If you want to eat it hot, peal the paper off straight away and dish up. If you want to eat it cold, leave the package until it is cold and then unwrap. Either way the skin will stick to the newspaper.

Off The Wall: if you are unsure when spaghetti is fit to be eaten, through a strand at a tiled wall. If it sticks, it is done.

Cheap And Cheerful: for a quick, healthy, unusual summer sandwich filling, pick some fresh, young dandelion leaves; wash them thoroughly; dress if you want and put between slices off a good loaf of bread.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with researching the Rival Versaware crock pot. If you have an interest in cooking or crock pots, please go over to our website now at Large Crock Pots

How Often Should You Work With A Personal Trainer?

Sunday, July 25th, 2010

As a personal trainer for 10 years, I have worked with clients as infrequently as once a month and as frequently as 6 times a week. A good rule of thumb is the less experience and knowledge you have about exercise, the more necessary it is to meet frequently especially in the beginning. Maybe you have been working out a long time but you still need that accountability so one weekly appointment is enough. Some people are motivated to workout on their own and just want to ‘check-in’ once a month to get some new material. There is no right answer because it depends on your particular needs and wants. Below are my recommendations:

If you are totally new to exercise, schedule 2 or 3 appointments a week for at least 3 weeks. The beginning of a new attempt to start exercising is a critical time. Most people fall off in the first month due to injury or lack of motivation. Think of all of the people who make new years resolutions to get in shape. You know as well as I know that the odds are not with them that it will last. If this sounds familiar, you have to break the pattern!

Lots of people are very well aware of what to do at the gym but just can’t seem to get to the gym. If this sounds familiar, it’s probably a good idea to always have a weekly appointment on the calendar. Accountability is a very legitimate reason to have a trainer. My clients say to me all the time: “If I didn’t have this appointment, I wouldn’t have exercised today.” Be honest with yourself and if you know you won’t do it on your own then some accountability might be just what you need.

If you are at a pretty good level of fitness but you do the same exercises all the time, having an appointment once a month to spice up your routine is a great idea. Here’s why: Have you heard people talk about the need to ‘confuse your body’? What it basically means is that you don’t want you body to become too comfortable. This happens when you do the same thing all the time. Ideally, you should be challenging your body and ‘confusing’ it by doing different exercises with different levels of exertion. This is the best way to optimize your exercise. So, if you find yourself bored in your routine or not challenged but motivated enough to do it on your own, you would greatly benefit from a once a month appointment. The new material will keep you challenged and engaged.

Of course when you’re trying to figure out how often to see a trainer budget is going to come up. The two of you can talk about what you have to spend and they will help you to get the most out of your money. It’s the trainer’s job to assess the situation and make suggestions about what they think will be helpful. The two of you can then decide together how you will move forward.

Remember that the frequency of your training is not set in stone. Sometimes it may be more frequently, other times less frequently depending on what’s going on in your life. Your trainer will always work with you to do what is appropriate at any given time. If you’re lucky enough to have a trainer that you really enjoy and that’s helping you to get the results you want, they’re probably going to be in your life for a long time!

Picking the correct Denver Personal Trainer will make or break your goal to get fit. We can be your fitness confidant and create a individual workout plan that is best for you. Visit www.filettifitness.com right now for more information.

Basic Tennis Psychology (Part 1)

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

Tennis psychology is only understanding the workings of your opponent’s mind and assessing the effect of your own strategy on his/her mental viewpoint and also understanding the mental effects resulting from the various external causes on your own head.

However, it is true that you cannot be a successful psychologist of others without first understanding your own mental processes. Therefore, you must study the effect on yourself of the same thing happening under different circumstances. This is because people react differently in different moods and under different conditions.

You must realize the effect on your game of the ensuing irritation, joy, confusion, or whatever other form your reaction takes. Does it increase your efficiency? If so, strive for it, but never offer it to your opponent. Does it deprive you of concentration? If so, either remove the cause, or if that is not possible, try to ignore it.

Once you have accurately measured your own reaction to circumstances, study your opponents in order to determine their temperaments. Similar characters react similarly, and you can judge men of your own kind by yourself. Opposite characters you must seek to compare with people whose reactions you know.

A person who can control his/her own psychology has an excellent chance of reading those of someone else for the minds works along definite lines of thought and can be examined. One may only regulate one’s own thought processes after studying them meticulously.

A regular, unemotional baseline player is rarely a keen thinker. If he were, he would not adhere to the baseline. The physical appearance of a player is often a fairly clear indication of his/her kind of mind. The impassive, easy-going player, who normally advocates the baseline strategy, does it because he does not want to activate up his/her torpid mind to think out a reliably safe method of getting to the net.

Then there is the other type of baseline player, who would rather remain on the back of the court while directing an attack intending to disrupt up your game. He is a very dangerous player, and a deep, keen thinking antagonist. He achieves his/her results by mixing up his/her length and direction and worrying you with the variety of his/her game. He is a good psychologist.

The first type of player mentioned above simply strikes the ball with little thought about what he is actually doing, while the latter always has a definite plan and adheres to it.

If you are interested in the psychology of tennis, you ought to go to our website entitled Tennis Tips for Beginners

Crock Pots - Are They Any Good?

Sunday, July 18th, 2010

Have you ever used a crock pot? Or what we call a slow cooker in the UK? My father gave me a crock pot for Christmas twenty-five years ago and I only had to replace it, because it got stolen. Some thief must have heard the were great and pinched it for his wife.

It was good-looking enough to leave out on the work top and I guess that is how it caught my burglar’s eye. It was stoneware, really nice.

That is one of the points I would like to make in this article, some of the crock pots from the better manufacturers are pretty enough to take to the table. The other point I would like to make is that crock pots are not only for making soup or stews in.

I have recipes in the house for bread and cheesecake. Really, most people just do not believe me when I tell them what you can actually do with a crock pot, especially the modern programmable ones.

To prove it, I have reproduced one of my cheesecake recipes below. If you can not be bothered to make, just take it from me that it is gorgeous, simple enough to make and practically automatic to make. Those of you do get around to making it will agree with me, I am sure.

APPLE-NUT CHEESECAKE

Crust:

1 cup (scant) graham cracker crumbs 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 2 tablespoons sugar 3 tablespoons butter, melted 1/4 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts

Filling:

16 ounces cream cheese 1/4 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup granulated white sugar 2 large eggs 3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream 1 tablespoon cornstarch 1 teaspoon vanilla Topping: 1 large apple, thinly sliced (about 1 1/2 cups) 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/4 cup sugar 1 tablespoon finely chopped pecans or walnuts

Combine the crust ingredients and pat into a 7-inch spring form pan. Beat the sugars into the cream cheese until smooth and creamy. Beat in eggs, whipping cream, cornstarch, and vanilla. Beat for about 3 minutes on the medium speed of a hand-held electric mixer. Pour the mixture into the prepared crust. Combine the apple slices with the sugar, cinnamon and nuts and then spread the topping evenly over the top of the cheesecake. Place the cheesecake on a rack (or “ring” of aluminum foil to keep it off the bottom of the pot) in the Crock Pot. Cover and cook on high for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Let it stand in the covered pot (after turning it off) for about 1 to 2 hours, until cool enough to handle. Cool it thoroughly before removing the pan sides. Chill before serving; store leftovers in the refrigerator for any normal shop-bought cheesecake, but yours will be better..

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with researching the programmable crock pot. If you have an interest in cooking or crock pots, please go over to our website now at Large Crock Pots