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The Flavor of the Holidays

Much like Thanksgiving is bombarded with pumpkin spice, the flavor of Christmas is most notably peppermint. There's peppermint mochas, chocolate peppermint bark, cool peppermint pies and delicious peppermint cookies. It's the chief mint chosen to flavor candies and gum, and it comes to good little...
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Catch that Gingerbread Man!

Somewhere packed between holiday shopping, stringing of lights and putting up the tree is a marathon day of cookie baking and candy making. A platter of goodies just wouldn't be the same without the famous gingerbread man. While this little guy may try to run away from being eaten, he's too tasty...
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Waste Not From Root to Stalk

Do you ever feel remorse when you toss out those broccoli stems or radish tops? With a growing fight to reduce food waste (it's estimated that America wastes 70 billion pounds of food each year!) even the so-called food "scraps" need a second look. Many of these stalks, stems, leaves and peels are...
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Sausage Doesn't Have to Be Off Limits

Much like its breakfast competitor, bacon, everything tastes better with sausage. Whether it's a sausage lasagna or sausage on top of pizza, Americans have grown accustomed to seeing the meaty protein in various dishes. While sausage is simply ground meat stuffed into a casing, different types of...
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Is it Stuffing or Dressing?

It's arguably the most common side dish at the Thanksgiving table: stuffing. Or is it dressing? Is there even a difference? Some refer to it as "stuffing" if it's cooked inside the bird and "dressing" if it's cooked outside the bird. However, according to Butterball, 78% of Illinoisans and those in...
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Should I Choose the Muffin?

Muffins are one of those breakfast foods that seem like the healthy choice. It's surely better than a doughnut or a bagel with cream cheese, right? Not so fast. A muffin found at a bakery can clock in around 550 calories and over 20 grams of fat. An original glazed doughnut, on the other hand, is...
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Cooking for One or Two People

Most recipes make a family-sized portion, causing a weeks' worth of leftovers for someone who's only cooking for one or two people. While beef and noodles may be your favorite meal you probably hesitate buying a whole roast knowing you'll grow tired of
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Using Kale in a Salad

Kale is the queen of greens. It's been hailed as one of the healthiest vegetables on the planet. We're talking about a green plant that provides 1,000 percent of your daily requirements for vitamin K and over 100% of your daily requirements for both vitamins A and C. Yep, it's super. But is it...
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All About Almonds

Your recipe calls for almonds but when you get to the store to quickly grab a bag you realize you have to choose between natural, blanched, unblanched, roasted or raw. Who knew there were that many choices for one little nut? More than likely, the only almond you've ever had was produced in...
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It's the Year of Pulses

The 68th United Nations General Assembly declared 2016 the International Year of Pulses. What in the world are pulses you ask? Pulses are a subgroup of legumes; legumes refer to the whole fruit enclosed in the pod of the plant, but pulses refer to only the edible seeds within the pods. Common...
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