Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Online Cooking Games


Online cooking games are one of the most entertaining ways to spend a fifteen minute study break. Playing online cooking games lets you exercise your mind in a totally different way than you’re used to in most cases. Those online cooking games can include anything from flipping burgers to making ice cream sundaes.

In an online cooking game, you’re putting the food items together to match the increasingly complicated orders. In a grilling game, you’ll be making hamburgers and hot dogs quickly trying to get them on the plates without burning anything on the grill in the meantime. Every plate that goes out successfully earns you points. Every food item that burns on the grill goes to waste and looses you points.

Cooking games online are a bit of a challenge. Playing cooking games lets you build up your speed and it engages the mind in a way you’re not used to when your brain has checked out during some English homework. Forcing yourself to concentrate and win the game will actually help you stay on track when you do return to your essay in a few minutes.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Cooking Games and Calories


When you play cooking games, some girls can’t help but think of calories. Calories aren’t really the enemy, however. Calories will exist in everything you eat, the number of calories present will vary wildly, of course. The more calorie in a particular item, the richer it is likely to be, and it will need to be considered carefully if you’re watching your weight.

High calorie foods tend to be yummy. Rich, fatty, sugary foods are delicious to eat, but often have more calories than they do nutrition. Cakes, for example, are fun to bake and fun to eat, but don’t do much for you nutrient wise. You can tackle this in two ways.

The first is to simply bake those cakes and other goodies for friends, family members and neighbors. Stick to the low cal treats, such as fruit, for yourself. The other option is to make the cake and eat it, too. Just know that you’ll have to cut way back on junk food for the next couple of day to counteract the calories from the one day of treats.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Cooking Games – Icing a Cake


There are plenty of ways to ice a cake, but the most fun is to do it with creative flair. Think about what you want from your cake. Do you want to make cupcakes of every color? Or perhaps you’ll be making a sheet cake for a friend’s birthday? How good are you with icing and art? If you have a pretty fair hand, you’ll be able to design a fun cake with a picture and writing. If you’re lucky to hold a spatula correctly, you can still enjoy sprinkles and other goodies.

Icing a cake is easily the most fun of the entire cake cooking game. Cooking games with icing are especially enjoyable because occasionally nibbles of icing make it into your mouth. When spreading icing, be sure that the cake is cooled completely. A hot cake will melt the icing and make things runny and a mess.

Spread the icing in thick layers using a spatula to spread it out. Start in the center of the cake and move outward. If you want an impressive presentation, plan on moving the cake to a clean platter once it’s iced. You can do this using a round piece of cardboard under the cake.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Cooking Games and Picky Eaters


Cooking games are one of the greatest things for picky eaters. Most picky eaters are choosy about what foods go into their mouths, and while mostly psychological, having control of the food as it is prepared can do a lot to help alleviate this problem. After all, many picky eaters aren’t doing it to be aggravating, they just don’t want to eat certain things for whatever reason.

If you have an older child who is a picky eater, turn him loose with a simple junior cookbook and oven mitts. Having him create his own meals or, better, the family’s meals at least once a week will encourage him to try new things and to experiment with dishes as well. This freedom is fun for the child to experiment with and it gives you a bit of a break as well from playing short-order cook.

If he hates one ingredient of a dish, but it sounds interesting, you can encourage him to substitute in something else or to leave things out to see what you get. Let him read through the recipes looking for things he’ll tolerate and let him put the full meal together including sides. Take him to the grocery store to show him to buy ingredients and teach him to be truly self-sufficient – a big treat for a picky eater.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Cooking Games: Making Fruit Salad Bowls


Fruit salad is delicious and nutritious, but there is no reason why fruit salad can’t be fun as well. Making fruit salad is as simple as cutting up your favorite kinds of fruit and mixing them together. But why not make the containers for your fruit salad just as interesting as the dish itself?

When making a large bowl of fruit salad, start with a watermelon. Cut away two “corners” of the melon to leave a handle in the center and a high bowl. Use a melon ball scoop to start removing the red in lovely little melon balls. Store them in a separate container for now. When you’ve created melon balls enough to empty the watermelon rind “bowl” scrape out any residue.

Create melon balls of honey dew melon and cantaloupe as well. Mix in blueberries and a few strawberries before carefully pouring all of the mix back into the “bowl” of watermelon. Tie a fun ribbon on the handle and you’re ready to serve. The concoction is a fun centerpiece and it’s also delicious.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Grilling Cooking Games


Using an outside grill is one of the best ways to cook. The outside grill lets you heat up food over an open flame and the barbeque results are almost always yummy. There are endless varieties of foods you can cook on a grill, but if you plan on learning to use the grill, be aware of a few things.

Grills take some time to heat up. You can’t cook on a grill like you can the microwave. Leave the grill at least fifteen minutes to warm up before you put any food on it.

You’ll need to watch the grill. Unlike the oven, you can’t stick food into the grill and then walk away and wait on the timer. Cooking on a grill requires you to be present and ready to deal with any surprises. Fat dripping into the fire from a yummy steak can start a fire, for example. Granted, closing the lid on the fire with the vents closed ought to take care of it quickly enough.

Grilled food has a distinctive flavor. Grilled foods cooked over an open flame have a very distinctive flavor. You can change the flavor by adding different kinds of wood and different levels of smoke.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Cooking Games and School Lunches


If you’re trying to figure out how to throw together a fast school lunch without worrying about eating cafeteria food or heating things up, you’ll need to get creative. Cooking games with school lunches almost never involve heat, but if you invest in a good thermos, you can do pretty terrific things with school lunches. Here are just a few suggestions of ways to improve your school lunches.

Soups. In a high-tech thermos, store your piping hot soup from the morning and you’ll have warm, if not hot, soup a few hours later at lunch time. The soup you boil in the microwave can be poured into a thermos. Sip it straight out of the thermos or pour it into the attached cup lid for a yummy, filling lunch.

Sandwiches. Toast a sandwich in the morning and it won’t be soggy by lunchtime provided you don’t include mayo or mustard. Toast a ham and cheese and store in the lunchbox wrapped in foil. It might be warm, but it’s better than a soggy cold sandwich. You can do the same thing with quesadillas whipped up in the mornings.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Cooking Games – Omelets


Creating your own custom omelet will give you a bit of variety in the mornings, and omelets are a great choice for hurried dinners when you’re not starving and want to try to get in a few healthy choices. Omelets can be heavy, but most often they are a lighter choice for breakfast or a nice brunch option.

Preparing for Cooking Games
To make an omelet, you’ll need:
  • Eggs
  • Skillet
  • Butter
  • Cheese
  • Bacon or Ham
  • Chives
  • Mushrooms
  • Other toppings you enjoy

Cooking Games – Omelet
To make the omelet, heat the skillet on the stove using medium heat. Whip the eggs up in a glass until they are blended. A quick shot of milk can make the eggs fluffier if you prefer. Melt a pat of butter in the skillet and be sure it is well coated. Pour the eggs into the skillet.

Allow the omelet to cook for a while and then carefully pour your topping choices into the center of the omelet. As you see the eggs beginning to harden in the pan, flip the omelet over. It will continue to cook once it is removed from the pan for a minute, but be sure that you wait until the eggs are mostly cooked – nobody like a runny omelet.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Cooking Games and Sleepovers


The best cooking games come from sleepovers. When you’re having your best friends over, you can get creative with all kinds of cooking games. The best ones are the ones you play together – not the ones you play before your friends come over, although all of the cooking games are fun.

Omelet cooking games are fun for a light evening meal or for breakfast. Scramble eggs and let your friends create their own omelet from the topping you have laid out on the table. Start the eggs and dump in the toppings one by one to make a special dish for each friend – this works best with smaller groups since the omelets take a while to cook.

Ice cream cooking games are another crowd favorite. $10 in ice cream, candy and whipped cream can make the ice cream games a lot of fun. Pass out fancy ice cream dishes and then load them up with different flavors of ice cream covered in fudge, caramel and toppings galore. Then sit down and enjoy the results of your cooking game in front of a great movie.