Food Point

1. Use small pieces of lumber as a turkey rack. We all know turkey cooks better if it’s sitting up on a rack, not in the bottom of the pan stewing in its own juices. But how many of us actually bother to get this special piece of equipment for something we cook only a couple of times a year? Metal jar lids are usually recommended for improvising a rack, but wood does nicely too. We used two eight-inch long,unfinished pieces of 1×2 - finish grade. (Yes, wood can be both finish grade - the non-splintering kind used for woodwork that shows - and unfinished.)
2. Stuff the turkey only partway, with vegetables and spices. This is an idea I got from Rick Rodgers’ Turkey Cookbook. One onion, one carrot, one stick of celery, and a few spoonfuls of spices are all you need for a small turkey. The turkey cooks much more quickly, and the vegetables combine well with leftover turkey, gravy, and mashed potatoes to make a pie the next day.
3. Put the turkey neck on to boil on top of the stove, and if you need liquid to keep the pan drippings from burning, use that. When you’re getting ready to make gravy, combine the remaining liquid with the pan drippings. Take as much as you need for the gravy and put it in the fridge so the fat will rise to the top. (Save the rest for later.) Then spoon off the fat, thicken, and there’s your gravy.
4. Make raw cranberry sauce or relish. This is something else I got from The Turkey Cookbook. Just grind up the berries with sugar, maple syrup, fruit, and nuts. No standing over a pot of boiling water and sugar - no settling for canned cranberry sauce, either. And it tastes great.
5. Bake some pumpkin pie filling without a crust. Got too much filling for your piecrust? (This happens a lot, no matter what the recipe on the canned pumpkin label says.) Just pour the excess into a greased baking dish and bake it along with the pie. This makes a somewhat lighter dessert for the days after Thanksgiving, with enough of the pumpkin pie flavor to bring the holiday mood back for a moment.

Vegetarian burgers unlike burgers made of meat are a healthy and substantial food. There are several ways to make a vegetarian burger and I will list the way I like mine made.

The first is a vegetarian burger recipe, for one, that not everyone will like because it has onions:

Ingredients:

1 small onion chopped fine
1 very small or half of a medium size bell pepper (green, red, yellow does not matter)
1 small shredded carrot
1 cup of cooked dark beans (drained can of kidney beans is fine)
salt and pepper to taste.

Procedure:

Place chopped onions, peppers and shredded carrots into a bowl and add the beans. Mash all of the ingredients together thoroughly. The beans will act as the base for the burger keeping all of the other ingredients together. Form into a burger. Dip the formed burger first into milk (vegans use soy milk) then into either cracker, corn flake or bread crumbs. In a skillet heat about one tablespoon of olive oil. Place the burger into the olive oil to fry. Brown it on both sides and serve on a bun with a slice of tomato and some lettuce. If you love onions place a thin slice of onion on it too. You can serve this with any kind of side dish you like along with a slice of pickle.

Benefits of a plant-based diet, even the federal government recommends that we consume most of our calories from grain products, vegetables and fruits. And no wonder: An estimated 70 percent of all diseases, including one-third of all cancers, are related to diet. A vegetarian diet reduces the risk for chronic degenerative diseases such as obesity, coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and certain types of cancer including colon, breast, prostate, stomach, lung and esophageal cancer.

• You’ll ward off disease. Vegetarian diets are more healthful than the average American diet, particularly in preventing, treating or reversing heart disease and reducing the risk of cancer. A low-fat vegetarian diet is the single most effective way to stop the progression of coronary artery disease or prevent it entirely.
• You’ll keep your weight down. The standard American diet—high in saturated fats and processed foods and low in plant-based foods and complex carbohydrates.
• You’ll live longer. If you switch from the standard American diet to a vegetarian diet, you can add about 13 healthy years to your life, says Michael F.
• Want more proof of longevity? Residents of Okinawa, Japan, have the longest life expectancy of any Japanese and likely the longest life .
• You’ll build strong bones. When there isn’t enough calcium in the bloodstream, our bodies will leach it from existing bone.
• You’ll reduce your risk of food-borne illnesses. The CDC reports that food-borne illnesses of all kinds account for 76 million illnesses a year, resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths in the United States .
• You’ll ease the symptoms of menopause. Many foods contain nutrients beneficial to perimenopausal and menopausal women. Certain foods are rich in phytoestrogens, the plant-based chemical compounds that mimic the behavior of estrogen.
• You’ll be more “regular.” Eating a lot of vegetables necessarily means consuming more fiber, which pushes waste out of the body.
• You’ll spare animals. Many vegetarians give up meat because of their concern for animals. Ten billion animals are slaughtered for human consumption each year.
• You’ll avoid toxic chemicals. The EPA estimates that nearly 95 percent of the pesticide residue in the typical American diet comes from meat, fish and dairy products.