Cast Iron Cookware Will Help Keep You and Your Family Healthy

Could your pots and pans be making you sick? If you are not cooking with cast iron cookware you might want to remember:

• that other non-stick cookware is required to carry a warning that the fumes emitted during cooking can kill your pet bird (if your Tweety Bird isn’t safe, what about you and your family?)

• to look at a “non-stick pot or pan” and see how much of the coating has flaked off. Where did that stuff go? Do you suppose you might have eaten it with your food?

• that you may need to toss your “non-stick cookware” or get Tweety, all of your family and you out of the kitchen when you cook.

Cooking in Cast Iron Cookware can actually be a vital component of a healthier lifestyle.

1. If your cast iron cookware is well-seasoned, is is virtually stick-free and thereby requires little or no oil, which is important for heart-healthy recipes.
2. You can use a cast iron skillet to cook healthy veggies and lean cuts of meat.
   

   Lodge 12 Inch Skillet to prepare any of the other dishes you would cook in a "non-stick" pan. Cast iron is not just good for the heavier "comfort foods" but you can prepare healthier, lighter fare with cast iron cookware.

3. Cooking is cast iron can also boost your intake of iron since trace amounts of iron gets absorbed into the foods you cook. That is better than the stuff that flakes-off the “non-stick” cookware you may be using.

Keep “Tweety Bird” Your Family and Yourself healthier by cooking in Cast Iron Cookware. It will allow you to TASTE THE FOOD NOT THE COOKWARE.

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Cast Iron Cookwareshop on Giving Yourself the Green Light to Go Green

Reader’s Digest is always so interesting, funny, informative and practical. The August 2009 issue is exceptional.

On the environment, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu is quoted from a discussion of California Researchers at a recent conference on global warming. Chu suggests that the solution to global warming could be as simple as painting every roof and road white. It could, he says, be the equivalent of taking every car in every country off the road for 11 years.

Cast Iron Cookware also has a role to play in helping you to go green in your cooking.

1. Replace your chemically treated pans with the true, environmentally friendly cast iron cookware. You may make a lab technician angry but who needs that potentially dangerous chemical substance flaking off in their food?

2. Join a Carrotmob Carrot mob, according to Time is a self-described “network of consumers who buy products in order to reward businesses who are making socially responsible decisions.” Their members make it a point to show up to buy products at a store that has promised to make specific environmental changes with the deluge of profits. Time reports Carrotmobs in 11 U.S. cities. Organized consumer purchasing can change business. Reward your local green market, organic food businesses and business enterprises who make environmentally friendly decisions. Carrots and other veggies are wonderful when they are cooked in a cast iron dutch oven.

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GO ON. GIVE YOURSELF THE GREEN LIGHT TO GO GREEN AND LET CAST IRON COOKWARE HELP YOU.

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Let’s Hear It For Cast Iron Cookware

I usually only buy what I consider essential. Things like fuel for my 2002 Harley Road King, tickets for sporting events, anniversary and birthday gits for my wife and sometimes for a favorite restaurant. Otherwise NOT buying things is my standard MO. But wait, there is another category that makes the cut. It is cast iron cookware No kitchen should be without it.

You may have seen reports mentioning health risks of all different types of non stick cookware coated with who knows what. I like to add spices and herb when I cook but I do not want coatings flaking off into my food. Possibly these coatings also emit potentially harmful fumes. I do not have the touch of a brain surgeon when I cook so I scratch, no matter how hard I try not to, the surface of these non- stick pans. Of course it is no comfort since all the promises of the manufacturers of non-stick cookware read: “no known effects on your health” and they always come with the proviso – “as long as the surface is not damaged in any way” which surely must be impossible.

Cast iron cookware is another story. It is essentially worry free. Some people make it sound like seasoning a cast iron pan is akin to rocket science in complexity. This is just not the truth. What really seasons cast iron cookware is usage. The more you use it, the better it gets. And forget the whole – “your food will have a metallic taste” – nonsense. What your food will get, is extra iron. It will not be so much that you could actually taste it, but if you are iron deficient – you could actually feel more energetic after using your cast iron cookware. Cast iron cookware allows you “To Taste the food not the cookware”.

Best of all – cast iron is both durable and inexpensive. You could pick up cast iron cookware at the antique’s dealer or a thrift shop – just clean it – scrubbing it with either steel wool or just a plastic brush, then re-season it (covering it in oil and baking it for one hour) and you are in business. You can order your cast iron cookware online and shop securely from the convenience of your own home. Cast iron can be passed down to your children and grand children. Also, it is not expensive, especially compared to every other pan on the market. Many people prefer the smaller sized pans and skillets because the larger ones are heavier. However, if you need a larger pan they are not too heavy to use comfortably. I like to use an 8 inch or a 10 inch skillet.

Lodge Cast Iron cookware, in my opinion is the best and it is made in the USA with the exception of the enameled cookware. which you can find Cast Iron Pizza:

Cast Iron Pizza recipe:

½ package dry yeast
cup warm water (optional)
¾ cup – flour of choice – I use gluten free, but any “all purpose” will do
tsp salt (optional)
¾ tsp sugar or agave nectar
toppings of choice

1. Preheat oven to 425º. Mix yeast and water. This should be slightly foaming – let it sit for a couple of minutes. Add the sugar flour and salt. Stir well. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let it sit in a warm place.

2. After dough has risen – about 15 minutes or so – knead the dough and push the dough into your slightly oiled pan. By the way – if your dough does not rise – don’t panic – you can still make the pizza – it just will be more reminiscent of thin crust pizza – my family actually prefers those.

3. Add your toppings of choice and bake at 425º for about 15 minutes.

With this handy pizza pan (14 7/8″ x 10 1/4″ x 1 7/8) by Universal you can make crispy or deep crust pizzas with ingredients that your family likes best. Kids and grown-up kids will love it.Your preseasoned castiron pizza pan will bake and grill and can also be used as a griddle. Biscuits will brown on the outside and be moist on the inside.
The taste is great and the clean-up is super easy.

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Make A Clean Getaway With Cast Iron Cookware

When you plan your getaway, whether it be a camping trip, vacation, “staycation” or tailgating outing, make it a “clean getaway“.

Keep food safe:

1. Clean Always start with a clean scene. Wash your hands vigorously and frequently with warm water and soap. Use friction and soap and wash as long as it takes to sing “Happy Birthday”. Try singing under your breath without moving your lips.

2. Separate: Do not cross contaminate cooking surfaces. For example do not place others foods on surfaces you have used to prepare meats. When handling raw meat, poultry, seafood and eggs, keep these foods and their juices away from ready-to-eat foods.

3. Chill: Refrigerate properly. You might want to freeze foods in zip lock bags and keep them on ice in a cooler. If you have a portable generator and a portable refrigerator this can be useful. However, the noise can be unpleasant and always make sure your generator is properly vented. Use the foods first that are most apt to spoil.

4. Cook: Always cook your meats to the proper temperature. Do not get in a hurry even though you may be ravenously hungry. Meats are safe to eat when cooked to a high enough internal temperature to kill the harmful germs that cause illness. You cannot rely on color or sear marks as a reliable indicator of being done. An investment in a meat thermometer is a wise investment.

5. Other Thoughts: As wonderful as cast iron cookware is, cook your food in it, serve your food from it but do not use it to store your food.

Do not waste food but be careful of trying to save leftovers. Take care of leftovers right away. Never allow raw meat, poultry, eggs, cooked food or cut fresh vegetables to sit un chilled for more than two hours before putting them in a refrigerator or freezer or back in the ice chest. If the temperature is 90 degrees or above, limit the time foods sits out to one hour. or less. Keep your campsite clean.

Camping is fun, healthy, makes lasting memories and is kind to the family budget. Use a Tripod Grill Grate or a Cast Iron Dutch Oven for campfire cooking. Choose a Sportman’s Grill where campfires are forbidden or impractical. Make waffles in a cast iron waffle maker. Pop corn in a corn popper. Kids will love using camp cooking accessories like the S’more maker and a wiener or marshmallow roaster. A Fire Pit Cookout Kit is also very useful.

Have fun and enjoy your summer. Keep food safety in mind when you cook out. Make your outing a “Clean Getaway” Make it an occasion to remember not an illness from which you must recover.

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