Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with cooking and health

Duct tape and chickenwire and sh**

toodleydoodley — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:07:38 -0800

Can I use automotive-type silicone sealant to coat the metal handle of a kitchen utensil? I'm looking for some help in an inelegant solution to an intractable problem in the kitchen. Because our household heritage might best be described as Rednec-Tino (or Lat-Nec), a lot of messy, spattery frying and sauteeing goes on around here.

I finally found a 13-inch spatter screen that covers all but my largest (14-inch) pan, but it doesn't cover that one unless I rest part of the handle on the lip of the pan, which would make the stay-cool plastic center melt and leak out of the wire-loop handle of the splatter screen.

Here's what I want to do: I want to punch the plastic center out of the wire loop and replace it by coating the wire loop with silicone sealant, like Form-A-Gasket.

Will this poison me and everyone I cook for? How long should I let it cure?

caveat: I live in BFE, so bonus points for cheaper brands of silicone sealant that I can buy at ACE hardware.

Help a health-conscious snacker bake!

schmoo — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 08:28:08 -0800

Please suggest me some snacks, light or portable dishes that are both healthy and involve baking or cooking. I love to cook. I especially love to cook recipes that involve lots of chopping, stiring, mixing, frying or baking. I don't like recipes that are just an assembly of ingredients, or which only take 2 minutes. I like to be in the kitchen! That said, I'm not looking to spend hours in the kitchen, so something that takes 3 days isn't really an option!

I cook a lot of meals like this in the evenings, but I'm looking for snacks that I can bake or cook. - Things that I can take to work in my lunchbox, snack on after work, or leave in the fridge and graze on for a few days.

However, I'm also pretty health-conscious and trying to, if not lose a few pounds, definately not put any on. This rules out the normal things that I think I would find fun cooking - cookies, cupcakes, muffins, quiche, samosas, breads, etc. That list seems biased towards sweet things, but savoury are just as welcome, if not more.

The kinds of things that I am looking for, and have experimented with already are: falafels (baked, not fried), healthy lo-cal dips (would welcome more of these!) and glazed nuts (not the most low-fat of snack but at least has health benefits). I would love any and all suggestions for things along these lines. I would also welcome low-calorie versions of the things that I don't bake - cookies, cakes, etc.

So - give me your recipes for low-fat, low-cal or just plain healthy snacks and light dishes which involve cooking or baking.

I have searched previous posts, and while there are many on health snack ideas, none that meet my particular criteria! Thanks in advance!

Looking for some healthy recipe resources

Afroblanco — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:15:58 -0800

Looking for cookbooks, blogs, websites, and forums that specialize in simple, healthy recipes. I'm a single guy who doesn't have a whole lot of time to cook or wash dishes. But I'm tired of eating out all the time, and would like to change my eating habits.

I'm not looking for a "diet." I want to make a permanent change in the way I eat.

I like healthy/vegetarian food, but am not myself a vegetarian. So no dietary restrictions really, except that the food must be healthy, nutritious, low-fat and low-calorie.

I don't mind putting some effort into my meals, but ideally these recipes wouldn't require a lot of time-consuming preparation or cleanup.

Assume that I don't know anything at all about cooking, because, well, I kinda don't.

Has anyone ever truly lost weight and kept it off?

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:17:37 -0800

What kind of hope is there for the average person to lose weight and keep it off when someone like Oprah who has personal trainers and personal nutritionists and personal chefs and personal minders and more money than God can't manage to do it? I never used to be a heavy girl. I ate terribly, but I exercised at the gym every day, and I was slim and fit regardless. But then I moved, and I got older, and I put on close to 80 pounds in a decade. I have watched people all around me struggle to lose weight and then they put it all back on plus more. I can't even motivate myself to try because it looks like I'm just setting myself up for disappointment--I'd have to radically change how I eat (learning to cook, for a start, which is a whole other hurdle). I keep reading that none of it works anyway, and everyone has a "set point" or something, and only 5% of people manage to keep weight off after losing it.

Canned milkshakes are gross. I sat in on a Weight Watchers meeting once and I felt like I was in a cult. I'm at my wit's end.

Has anyone here managed to lose real weight and never gain it back?

Share your slow carb recipes

sid — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:50:34 -0800

Give us your slow carb recipes! We are attempting a slow carb diet, which for us means cutting out or severely reducing all flour, rice, potatoes, and bread. Our carb sources would be pulses, legumes, and sweet potatoes. It's going pretty well so far but I think we are going to soon grow tired of hummus! Please share any delicious recipes that would fit the stated parameters.

Is it healthier to wait after cutting garlic before cooking it?

tractorfeed — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 19:51:53 -0800

Is it healthier to cut garlic, wait a while, and then cook it (as opposed to cut-then-cook-right-away)? I swear I just read an article in the past week or ten days about this, and I thought it was in the NYTimes, but searches there do not come up the the article I thought I read there, and google is giving me Botox hits (??!!??!!). There was something about a reaction to being cut that changes the garlic fundamentally, and you get more health benefits if you cut, wait, then cook.

my wife is pregnant; we need easy healthy things to cook.

BigBrownBear — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 12:50:01 -0800

my wife is pregnant; we need easy healthy things to cook. on the weekends we make great thing: homemade pastas & pizzas, fresh fish, stews, etc. but during the working week we don't have the time or energy to prepare elaborate dishes.

any suggestions for things quick and easy (that will also be good for the bun in the over)?

Best-ever slow-cooker recipes?

agropyron — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 18:46:44 -0800

What are the most amazing low-fat slow-cooker recipes in the world? My wife has about 5 really fabulous slow-cooker recipes that are nice and healthy. Low fat and low calorie. Three are beef stews and two are chicken dishes.

What are your favorites? I suspect there are a lot of health-conscious slow-cooker chefs here.

Brilliant "dinner hacks" anyone?

zharptitsa — Sun, 22 Jan 2006 23:22:23 -0800

Nutrition filter: I am looking for unique ideas for making quick, easy, heathy, inexpensive dinners (in my case, for two) every night... or at least most nights. "Dinner Hacks" you might say. I feel like I've tried all the standard "solutions" already (for example, cooking a few big meals on the weekend and eating leftovers the rest of the week). There must be something else I can try. Here's the gist... I come home from work somewhere between 7 and 9 PM every night (and generally go to sleep no later than 11 PM). I have an extremely stressful job and I am absolutely zonked when I get home. The idea of cooking anything for dinner at that point makes me want to curl up in the fetal position. But when we don't order pizza or get something prepared from the grocery store, I do manage to muster up the energy to make tuna melts or spaghetti or something equally super-easy. My husband does grill every once in a while, but can barely boil water otherwise. Side dishes and salad only exist at my house on holidays.

This has gone on for a couple of years. I am now at the point where I've been getting really sick and I know a large part of this is due to my bad nutrition and eating habits. I NEED to start *consistently* eating a real, healthy dinner every night or I'm going to fall apart. (Actually, I need to eat a healthy breakfast and lunch too, but one thing at a time...) As I mentioned, I've feel like I've tried all of the standard tricks: crock pot cooking; making dinner in the morning (yeah, right); cooking a bunch of meals and freezing them, you name it. Nothing sticks. I think the biggest problem is that although I actually like to cook, I HATE to plan meals. For a while, my husband and I had a deal where he would (in theory) plan the meals for a week and I would cook them. The problem was that he hates planning meals as much as I do and whenever he would choose recipes, he would choose pretty elaborate ones. (I consider anything with more than five ingredients elaborate.)

Anyway, I know the real answer to my dilemma is to just suck it up and plan and cook dinner every night. But having really, really tried to suck it up on numerous occasions and failed miserably, I am now looking for some brilliant suggestions. Is there a certain way you go about planning/cooking dinner that has changed your life? A favorite cookbook? A website? If I have another grilled cheese sandwich for dinner, I may turn into one. Thank you!

Fatten us up and slim us down

LittleMissCranky — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 09:57:18 -0800

Piggyback filter: I need help with two things. First, getting healthy, tasty food on the table for two people in under half hour. Second, finding a personal trainer. More about the first topic: my husband and I are really pressed for time, but would like to eat at home much more than we do. We don't have much time for grocery shopping, so we need tips on consolidating grocery trips into one or two trips a week. We are ridiculously spoiled right now, since we eat out literally every night. We have a hard time planning for meals in advance, since we tend to like exactly opposite things and tend to "not feel like" eating things that we have planned. Things that freeze exceptionally well would be appreciated. Also, if you know of any services similar to this in the Houston area (or that delivers to the Houston area), that would be great. We recognize that we're going to have to get over some of our pickiness and spoiled-ness, so suggestions on how to do that beyond "stop being so picky and spoiled" would also be welcome.

Second part: We also want to start with a personal trainer, but don't really know how to find a good one. We would like to do sessions together, if feasible, but don't really know how that would work.

How can I learn to like brown rice?

lilboo — Thu, 10 Feb 2005 12:10:01 -0800

I have never liked the taste of brown rice, but I would like to try to develop a taste for it, since it is so good for you. Is there something that I can add to the rice to make it taste different (and possibly better?) Other suggestions for cooking or preparing the rice, besides the standard are appreciated.

bad smells at work what to do

naxosaxur — Thu, 27 Jan 2005 13:32:12 -0800

Noxious cooking, chemical, and exhaust fumes at work [m.i.]: I am currently working through my first couple of months of relocation at an old, neglected office building with about thirty floors. My office is on one of the top floors, in a sixty-by-fifteen-foot rectangular, tiny space. Downstairs in the lobby, there is a fully functioning deli with a grill and ovens, and they do a high volume of cooking throughout the day. Every morning and lunchtime, my office fills with the smells from the deli: various fried food odors, raw onions, a weird peanut smell, barbeque, etc. By the time I get home, my clothes and hair stink of crap and grease, and are completely saturated down to my undergarments. So it's clear that whatever is being done in the deli travels into the office (via stairwell, through doors, up the elevator shaft, etc.), and I’m constantly breathing this in. Some mornings upon arrival to the office, the entire space is saturated with the smell of stale cooking grease.

Anyway, that's bad enough, but it gets much worse: Since October 2004, I've noticed that on most afternoons, at least 3 times a week, from about 3:00pm-6:00pm, my office fills with fumes of a chlorine-tinted, heavy, burnt cooking odor. The smell is definitely coming from the deli, because I can smell the same thing in the lobby if I go downstairs. The only way I can properly describe the odor is like maybe they're cleaning the ovens with bleach and it mixes with burnt food. It definitely has a chlorine odor, and its kind of a 'burnt foody' smelling. I unfortunately can't pin down the composition of the fumes, because I’ve never smelt anything like it before.

The fumes are so strong that by the first hour, I am dizzy, disoriented, and unable to concentrate. My eyes burn slightly from it, too. The first month of this, I developed congested lungs, and would 'decongest' for like 3 hours each night after work by coughing-up phlegm, but I must have gained a tolerance to it, because that doesn't happen much anymore. My lungs still do get inflamed a little after breathing the fumes for about an hour. If I take a walk outside, my head clears up within twenty minutes, so I know the physical reaction is from the fumes.

The building is old, so we have opening windows, which is the only way to combat this. So I leave the windows as far open as I can tolerate (but it’s 7 degrees fahrenheit today), and run a fan at the window. As much as this makes it a little better, the fumes are still very cloying, and I still get dizzy with burning eyes. My superior here knows about it, but he sits on the opposite end of the office, and the fumes do not reach him very often. He knows I have a problem with it, but he has told me to keep up with the issue on my own end, so he clearly does not want to get involved. Which is fine, but I can’t take it to him.

And by the way, yes, I've taken it up with building management and the acting manager, and that's not what I want to focus on. It is extremely frustrating because it takes about 20 identical requests to get anything done with management. I have sent about a dozen emails to the building manager since October 2004, and I really only complain when the odors are particularly strong. I smell them everyday incidentally, but some days I can deal with it better than others. Management promises that they're doing something about it, and that's all I can get from them.

So here's my question: Obviously the deli is doing some sort of chemical cleaning to their equipment after the lunch crowd rush, as I always smell the chemical fumes start around 3:00 pm or 4:00 pm, and it usually lasts three hours. I have no experience of kitchens and cooking, as I have never worked in a restaurant at all. Therefore, do delis clean their ovens and grills daily like that? Do they use chemicals? Do they use bleach? Do they 'burn off' food after the big crowds? What is responsible for making me so goddamn dizzy? Is there not proper ventilation for the building? Why are the fumes traveling all the way up here like 30 floors? Is this normal for older buildings? Does anyone have a similar experience? What did you do? Is this something I should bring up with OSHA or the EPA?

Turkey

bondcliff — Mon, 22 Nov 2004 07:22:38 -0800

Somewhere I saw advertised a metal rod that you stick into the cavity of a turkey to conduct heat into the stuffing to eliminate the bird/stuffing safe temperature conflict. Google fails me. Anyone know about this? Does it work? Where can I get one before Thursday? I'm doing a turkey for the first time this year and my wife is doing the stuffing. We're at odds about cooking it inside the bird. She says it tastes better inside the bird. I agree, but to cook the stuffing requires overcooking the bird. This rod might solve my problem and save my marriage.