How To Toast Pecans

Pecans are one of my beloved nuts to use for Cooking and especially baking. Not only do they have a range of condition properties but they also add a nice texture and a bit of a sweet flavor to many Foods, especially if they are candied. Some recipes work well with raw pecans, but other times a formula works better with toasted pecans. Here are a few dissimilar ways you can toast pecans.

How To Toast Pecans

How To Toast Pecans

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How To Toast Pecans

How To Toast Pecans

Toasting Pecans In The Oven

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the pecans evenly in a single layer on an ungreased baking sheet or cookie sheet. It is best to place them on a baking rack in the middle of the oven. If they are too close to the upper or lower coil they may start to burn. Bake for 5-10 minutes checking on them periodically. When they turn golden brown they are ready.

Oven toasting allows nuts to become more uniformly browned than some of the other methods.

Toasting Pecans On The Stove

You can toast them on the stove as well, whether with or without an oil. Use a skillet with a heavy bottom so it sits evenly on the heat source. If you want to use butter or oil add it to the heated skillet, using a medium heat, and cover the surface. Add pecans. Be sure to stir or shake the nuts often so they do not burn. Pecans can burn no ifs ands or buts so don't get distracted when toasting pecans on the stove. Toast for about 5 minutes or until they turn a fragrant golden brown.

Nuts toasted this way will not be quite as evenly brown as those toasted in an oven, but some habitancy love to add a puny butter or oil which works better with the stove top method.

Toasting Pecans In The Microwave

I prefer the oven or stove method, but if you prefer using your microwave you can also toast nuts in the microwave.

Spread nuts evenly on a plate and using the high setting microwave for one minute. Take off and stir the nuts to check on progress. Continue to cook in one puny intervals until they are toasted. Keep in mind they will continue to cook a bit after they are removed from the microwave.

Toasted pecans can add a lovely flavor and texture to many dishes or desserts. Once toasted they can be kept in an Air tight box for about a week.

How To Toast Pecans

wholesome Desserts

Healthy and dessert are two words that are not regularly related together. Maybe that's because we consider dessert to be a compound of sugar and fat, loaded with fat and other bad stuff. The reality of a healthy dessert can be yours though if you are willing to try something different. Oh yeah, fruit is already a dessert in some countries, but in the Usa we consider it a treat only when it's baked inside some kind of crust and loaded with sugar.

wholesome Desserts

wholesome Desserts

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wholesome Desserts

wholesome Desserts

Granted, if you have a serious sweet tooth, this alternative healthy stuff is probably not going to satisfy you but if you are also trying to be healthier and weigh less, it will help a lot. The easiest way to give yourself a healthy treat is to go for a indeed good yogurt-like Bulgarian yogurt, or Greek yogurt-which can be found in your local condition Food store. Then rove down the aisle where they keep the cacao products and grab yourself a container of cacao nibs. To that you can add some Goji berries or golden currants but stay away from the Incan golden-berries unless you are a great fan of Tart and sour tastes (those exiguous things may be packed with great antioxidant power but boy, are they tart). Throw in some chopped nuts, add a exiguous stevia for sweetness, mix it all up, and you have a great healthy dessert. an additional one healthy treat is to put the same things in some ricotta cheese. That's a exiguous heavier but just as tasty and regularly doesn't require any sweetener.

Okay now let's get real and talk about chocolate, which is what you are indeed reading this for right? Yes, you can have your chocolate and still be eating something healthy. The cacao bean is chock full of antioxidant power; it's the sugar that gets added that is the problem. You can get the cacao bean and grind it up with some coconut oil or organic cream and get yourself a creamy treat but you'll still have to add some sweetness to it. You can get the sweetness either from stevia (a natural-source sweetener called Honey Leaf) or just add honey, fruit juice or sugar. To be healthiest though, use stevia. If you just make the creamy cacao compound you can spread it on something healthy like apple slices or make some almond bark. Keep in mind that this is supposed to be a healthy dessert, right?

Another healthy alternative is to put some nut butter on fruit; that works best on apple or pear slices but you can always thin the butter out a bit with some coconut oil or cacao and dip strawberries, cherries and the like...and then roll them in nuts. Whipped cream is also an easy addition to make some fresh fruit special and if you fry some bananas in butter or coconut oil, dip them in cacao cream and then throw some chopped nuts on them, with a Dollop of whipped cream...well...Elvis would have gone for that, I'm sure.

©2010 Dr.Valerie Olmsted All proprietary Reserved

wholesome Desserts

Ben 10 Birthday Party Ideas

Ben 10 is a very popular television show right now that centers on Ben, a teenager with superpowers from a Watch he found at a crash site of an alien spacecraft. Kids love this show and might ask you for a Ben 10 themed birthday Party, and you'll need to be ready to provide that for them.

Ben 10 Birthday Party Ideas

Ben 10 Birthday Party Ideas

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Ben 10 Birthday Party Ideas

Ben 10 Birthday Party Ideas

This may seem like a very difficult task, but using Supplies and some helpful Party ideas, you can in fact provide a great Ben 10 birthday Party.

Aliens In the House

Ben is able to turn himself into varied alien creatures because of the Watch, who all have superpowers, so why not let the kids go nuts with manufacture alien costumes? Just use some paper bags they can wear on their bodies and heads, and let them color them and decorate them with Ben 10 birthday party Supplies. Once they are done you can marvel at their creativity in the varied alien life forms they come up with.

Show Them Off

Now that they have made the alien costumes, have the kids do their best impressions of aliens. This is something very easy for them to do and it will be a great laugh for every person at the birthday party. This will in fact be one of the most fun parts of the enTire birthday party for some of the kids.

watch The Show

If you are going to have a Ben 10 party, then you are going to need to provide the kids with the show to watch while you get ready the Food and presents. This will be great to do after the alien impressions because they will be Tired and ready to rule down to watch one of their popular shows. It works great, it keeps them occupied and it allows you to get some things done.

Ben 10 is a hugely popular show right now and kids all over the world dream of looking their own watch to help them convert into aliens so they can help habitancy with their superpowers. While you can't give them that watch, you can give them a great Ben 10 birthday party, faultless with aliens and more, using Ben 10 birthday party Supplies and these party ideas.

Ben 10 Birthday Party Ideas