Popular Italian Food Restaurants

Italian food is one of the most popular cuisines in the world. It has long been an American favorite and there are countless Italian food restaurants throughout the United States. While Italian food was first brought to this country by immigrants and ma and pop shops, like everything else in this country Italian food franchises are quickly defining this country’s perception of Italian food.

Probably the first and most well known of these franchises is the Olive Garden. The Italian food served here is heavy on spices and thick, creamy sauces. The salad is dressed with Italian dressing and served with breadsticks. Popular dishes include ravioli, lasagna, and minestrone. While this restaurant has done a great job of introducing people to the concept of Italian food, the food served here is a far cry from the real thing. The salad dressing and breadsticks served here would never be found in Italy. Since the menu is the same year round fresh ingredients are not a priority and hence the dishes are heavily seasoned to hide the fact that the underlying ingredients hold little flavor. Sadly, many people’s views of Italian food and the stereotypes surrounding this cuisine are only furthered by this Italian food restaurant.

However, there are other large chain Italian food restaurants. Places like Macaroni Grill, Carino’s, Buca di Beppo, and Carrabba’s give a much better Italian food experience. While the Italian food served at these places certainly doesn’t live up to the high standard of Italian food set by those who originated it, the food is still quite good. The ingredients at these restaurants are of a higher quality and the dishes are closer to an authentic flavor. Carino’s is a great restaurant to go to for a casual meal. Macaroni Grill and Carrabba’s are a little nicer and are great restaurants for an Italian food date.

These restaurants don’t rely on pastas with overly seasoned heavy sauces to convince you that you’re eating Italian food. They use a wider variety of ingredients that are more true to the spirit of Italian food. Buca di Beppo is a great family Italian food restaurant. The dcor is that of an Italian home and the meals are served family style. It is recommended that you find some friends or family that enjoy Italian food to share with because the portions are quite large.

While Italian food chains are certainly not the best way to experience Italian food, they have come a long way and more and more restaurants are raising the standard to bring good quality Italian food to the general public that can’t afford a plane ticket to Italy. More chefs are venturing out and trying new things with Italian food and the results are absolutely mouth watering. Italian food will always be popular in the United States. Just realize that when eating out at franchise restaurants you will never be able to replicate the flavor and quality of authentic Italian food made by Italians using recipes that have been passed down through the generations.

Tasty Low Calorie Recipes

There are so many websites and cookbooks focused on offering low calorie recipes, there is anything but a shortage of meals to try. However, just because low calorie recipes are healthy, does not mean they are tasty! Many of those recipes featured in various places taste like cardboard! Worse yet, they call for a bunch of ingredients that you and your grocer have never heard of! Where can you find tasty, low calorie recipes with all the ingredients you can pronounce,

The palatability of any meal is most often based on what you are accustomed to eating. If your primary food staple has been fried chicken and bon bons for the last few decades, you will likely have a hard time altering your eating habits or accepting low calorie recipes. Unless you can find recipes that call for bon bons, which is unlikely, you will have to make some sacrifices. If this is the case, you would be better off, instead of jumping headfirst into diet world, by gradually altering your diet by adding low calorie recipes and slowly removing the fatty foods. If you jump in to it too quickly, you are more likely to give up and go back to old habits. Another consideration, if you are making a drastic change, is to try to make the foods you already like in a different, healthier manner. You can broil meat instead of frying it, use fat free salad dressing, and other low calorie alternatives.

Once you ease into healthy eating, then it is time to really start making low calorie recipes. As stated earlier, there really are a lot of recipes available online and in cookbooks you just have to find some you like. You should start on the Internet and look for recipes with ingredients that sound good. Most likely, if the ingredients are good, the finished product will be good. When you are first starting out, you may not want to go out and buy a stack of cookbooks. You should get an idea of what you like before spending money on something that may very well end up collecting dust. Besides, individual recipes seem less obtrusive than bulky cookbooks that tend to always seem to big too read. No one wants to spend three hours looking through a book to decide what they want to eat. You can scan online and find something a lot faster.

The Different Kinds Of Salad Dressings

You would initially think that salad dressings are all the same, that the dressing for a particular salad tastes good once mixed with a different salad. If you do think so, then you are most definitely wrong. There are various types of salad dressings to make each salad’s taste perfect and more delicious.

If you are thinking of having a yard salad served on your get-together, then you must know that yard salads require its special kind of salad dressing. You have to prepare a tablespoon of raw honey. Do not risk your life trying to evade stings of bees for raw honey can now be bought in grocery stores. You will also need 1/3 cup of lemon juice; fresh ground pepper for that awesome taste; a teaspoon of minced fresh tarragon; and 2/3 of cup that contains olive oil.

Dissolve the honey in lemon juice first. After that, add the tarragon and pepper, and then stir. Afterwards, add the olive oil in a cruet. Shake the cruet vigourously to prevent any clotting of the mixed substances, and also for a better blend. Once done, just acquire of a few tablespoonfuls for your yard salad, the remains can be used for later use.

Things will be different for parsley dressing. You will be needing, not one, but three tablespoons of olive oil; two tablespoons of lemon juice and another two for chopped parsley; and of a teaspoon that holds onion powder. Once you are done preparing the ingredients you need for you self-made parsley dressing, beat the olive oil, lemon juice and onion powder well. Afterwards, add the chopped parsley. When you already want to serve it, confident that your parsley dressing tastes good, do so on lettuce wedges.

Making a honey mustard dressing is another story. You must prepare a half cup of spring water, so it is supposed that you need to go hiking for a fresh water spring; a half cup of olive oil; one teaspoon of mustard powder; 1/8 teaspoon of garlic powder; two tablespoonfuls of honey; and a pinch of white pepper. The ingredients do not change if you want to make a peppercorn dressing, but you just need to add up 1/8 of a teaspoon of white pepper.

There is also such thing as a lime, oil and garlic dressing. You just need teaspoon of kosher salt, and you may add a little more if you think it is necessary; one teaspoon of garlic which you have chopped into fine pieces; two tablespoons of finely chopped shallots; one cup of extra virgin olive oil; 1/3 cup of lime juice, you may use lemon if you have no supply of the former, you may also add more if needed; and freshly ground black pepper.

Use a small bowl and whisk the salt, garlic and shallots in it, together with the lime juice. Continue doing so and do not stop until the salt is dissolved. Slowly whisk in the olive oil until the mixture is emulsified. Taste it to be sure if it is the kind of mixture that you want. Season your creation with pepper and a little more salt, and add a little more lime juice.

There are even more styles of salad dressings and each one is perfect for a particular salad. Making these various salad dressings are very easy, all you need is patience. It is very easy to look for the aforementioned ingredients, but what is not easy is when you are already making it. You have to be patient when making salad dressings because the processes used for them may take some time. If you are not patient, then your salad dressing will not taste good.

Who would want to eat a salad with a foul-tasting salad dressing? Nobody, that’s who.

Healthy Eating Tips To Keep In Mind

Being the old adage goes, you are what you eat. If your regular diet consists of oversize and cholesterol – rich foods, you may run the risk of addition dreadful diseases such due to diabetes, heart disease and more. According to ration experts, healthy eating starts with learning the ability to eat smart. Its not just what you eat, but how you eat. The food you choose to eat can help decrease your chances of developing illnesses like cancer, diabetes, heart disease and others. Learn how to plan your diet, and expand your range of healthy food choices too. Here are some helpful tips for planning a healthy diet.

Start Slow, And Gradually Change Your Eating Habits

The quest to achieving a healthy diet starts with a slow but calculated step. The way for planning and implementing a healthy diet begins with a number of small and manageable steps. Approach the diet changes gradually, and youll be able to achieve a healthy diet no sooner than you think.

However, instead of fussing over counting calories or measuring serving sizes, set your sights on finding the food you love, and vivacity for easy recipes which incorporate fresh ingredients. Make small but significant steps, like adding salads or your daily diet, or use olive oil instead of butter. By making gradual changes, your diet will slowly become healthier and more savory too.

Ensure That You Regularly Cater Yourself Smaller Portions

These days, serving sizes have blown out of proportion, especially in restaurants. If youre dining out, dont immediately order an entre, or verve on a buffet fete. Instead, go slow, choose a starter, or split a dish with your buddy, and never super – size your orders. Your servings of poultry, meat and fish should only be equal to the size of a deck of cards, and the oil or salad dressing you use must only be as goodly as the size of a matchbook.

Its How You eat, Not What You Eat

The key to healthy eating lies not in just what you eat, but in how you eat. Learning to develop healthy eating habits can easily be achieved, since eating is not just about gulping down large amounts of food, but in viewing food thanks to a source of home cooking. Practice eating a wide array of fruits and vegetables everyday. Most nutritionists continually stress that the brighter and deeper colored the fruits and vegetables are, the higher their concentrations of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants will be. Go for green leafy veggies, sweet vegetables and a wide array of fruits.

In addition, make sure that you consume healthy amounts of healthy carbohydrates and fibers, particularly from whole grains. Apart from being tasty and satisfying, whole grains are also rich in antioxidants and phytochemicals, which strengthen the immune system, and protect condemn cardiovascular diseases. A numeral of studies have indicated that people who consume sizable portions of whole grains have healthier hearts.

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