Simple tips to experience the health benefits!

Try these simple tips to experience the health benefits Watkins array of spices have to offer.

• Sprinkle Watkins Cinnamon on oatmeal, yogurt, French toast or in muffin batter.
• Add a dash of Watkins Thyme to scrambled eggs, omelets or soufflés.
• Stir Watkins Oregano into your favorite soup base, chicken, tuna salad or dressing.
• Try a sprinkle of Watkins Ground Ginger over fresh fruit for a refreshing dessert.
• Add Watkins Rosemary Leaves to mashed or roasted potatoes.
• Curry Powder can be added to rice dishes.

Mmmmm Watkins spices make everything taste so much better!

A Slippery Solution!

Did you know that a can of Watkins Cooking Spray in your cupboard has other uses you may have never considered? You can spray it on measuring spoons before measuring sticky foods like molasses and honey and they will easily slide off. You can also spray your knives before chopping dates or other dried fruits. Also, it can be sprayed on cheese graters to prevent the cheese from sticking.

Watkins Dip Hints

Mix Watkins Snack & Dip Seasoning with sour cream,
light sour cream, fat free sour cream or yogurt and serve
with chips, wheat thins, crackers and raw vegetables.

Mix Watkins Snack & Dip Seasoning with sour cream,
light sour cream, fat free sour cream or yogurt and serve
with chips, wheat thins, crackers and raw vegetables.
**** More Snack & Dip Tips ****
Bacon-Cheddar: Flavor deviled or scrambled eggs or on a
baked potato.
Bacon-Horseradish: Spread on prime rib, roast beef or
pork chop. Better than steak sauce!! Great as a sandwich
spread, to flavor deviled eggs or on a baked potato.
Bacon-Onion: Use to season vegetables, on a baked
potato or to flavor scrambled eggs.
Blazin’ Cajun: Use to add a “kick” to vegetables, soups
and stews. Awesome Spicy Dip!!!
Cucumber-Dill: Sprinkle on cottage cheese or a tossed
salad. Great as a dip and a sandwich spread.
Crab: Great in your favorite casseroles, crab cakes and
crab soups.
Garden Vegetable: Best dip ever!!!
Garlic-Dill: On a baked potato, or a sandwich spread or
sprinkle in your vegetables when cooking.
Mexican: Great for tacos, soups and seasoning. Great dip!
Salsa and Sour Cream: Great topping for tacos or
burritos, and a creamy dressing for taco salad. Great in
scrambled eggs, too!!
Six Onion Soup Base: Add to mashed potatoes or meat
balls, sprinkle on a roast. Makes a great cheese ball!
Tomato Horseradish: Great as a sauce for the bloomin’
onion, on salmon or as a sandwich spread.
Creamy Salad Dressing: Combine ½ cup mayonnaise, 1/3
cup low-fat milk, 2 tsp. vinegar, and 2-3 tsp (to taste) of any
of the following mixes: Cucumber-Dill, Garden Vegetable,
Garlic-Dill.
Spinach Dip: Add either Garden Vegetable or Bacon-
Cheddar mix into your favorite Spinach Dip recipe. Serve in
a hollowed out bread bowl.

Have a Picky Eater?

Try these creative ideas for making meal time interesting:

• Serve food on colorful and oddly shaped dishes.
• Make fun names for everyday foods such as, “Pirate Pineapple”or “Goblin Stew.”
• Let the kids make choices.

Having a variety of sauces for dipping or assembling their owntaco will keep kids busy and
make them feel special.
• Don’t forget the drink! Adding a garnish to a kid’s beverage makes it interesting. Try a strawberry on the rim of a glass of milk.

Lunch Box Lessons

Be sure to stock up on ice packs before the beginning of the school year. Making sure your child's lunch is cool will maintain the flavors of the food—and help protect him or her from food borne illnesses. Bacteria grows rapidly between the temperatures of 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit in certain foods. This temperature range is known as the "Danger Zone." Tucking an ice pack into the cooler or lunch bag will keep foods out of that dangerous temperature zone. To keep things ice cold, you can prepare cooked food, like meats or pasta salads, the night before to give it time to chill in the refrigerator before packing, or add a frozen juice box to their lunchbox as an
edible insulator. Certain foods don't need to be kept cool to be safe. Whole fruits and veggies, hard cheese, canned meat and fish, chips, breads, crackers, peanut butter, jelly, mustard and pickles are all safe at room temperature.*

* www.foodnetwork.com, August 2008

Super Soup to the Rescue!

Soup is another great way to use up those leftovers. Start with a one of Watkins soup bases then just keep on adding the contents of your refrigerator -- a cupful of rice, that lonely carrot, that last bit of a ham that's not quite enough for tomorrow's sandwiches, and so on -- until you've got enough soup for a meal. If the soup needs to be bulked up a little, you can begin with beans, split peas or lentils, or add some extra vegetables or meat from the freezer. Don't forget to add the finishing touches with Watkins herbs, salt and pepper!

The Casserole Quick-Fix

An easy way to use up leftovers is to throw all of them into a casserole dish. You can put almost anything into them and they'll taste great. Leftovers such as rice, potato, or noodle, plus some chopped or shredded meat that needs to be used up, plus any assortment of vegetables -- fresh or leftover -- equals one very tasty meal. Just cut all your ingredients into manageable bite-size pieces and mix them together with something that will moisten them and bind them together. This can be done with Watkins cream soup base, sour cream, eggs, mayonnaise, tomato sauce, cheese, Watkins broth mixes with a little cornstarch or a combination of these items. Season to taste and spread the mixture into a casserole dish. Then shred a little of your favorite cheese over it, and bake at about 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) until heated through and lightly browned on top.

Soup Bases - Versatile!

If you've never tried any of the Watkins Soup and Gravy bases, you need to! They might look similar to any old can of soup, but these are NOT the same as typical condensed soup that makes one or two servings. These are dry mixes, that make up to 50 servings or more. So they are very economical. Plus, they have so many uses for flavoring all kinds of dishes other than soup and gravy.

You can get these Soup and Gravy Base flavors:

* Beef
* Cheese
* Chicken
* Cream
* Mexican
* Mushroom
* Onion
* Six Onion

And these two Gourmet Gravy Bases:

* Country Gourmet
* Roasted Turkey

Additionally, Baked Potato Soup is part of this year's Seasonal Favorites line.

Here is how your fellow associates use these bases:

* I don't make much soup, so this may sound strange, but my favorite Watkins cooking products are the soup bases. I use them for so many things, sprinkling on chicken when I bake it, simmering it with rice, tossing it in with roasted potatoes. The uses are endless, and the results make the simplest dish seem like you really know what you're doing.

* I love the Chicken Soup mix! It got my kids to eat veggies after my mother-in-law used it in the cooking water.

* One of my favorite products is the Beef Soup Base. Before trying this product my children would not eat roast and after several days we would have to throw away left overs. Now we're lucky to get one meal out of a roast with my kids.

* The Mushroom Soup Base is a huge time saver for making homemade spaghetti sauce. Instead of cooking my sauce of hours I know add a few tablespoons of Mushroom Soup Base. It thickens my sauce and adds a lovely light mushroom flavour that even my picky step-daughter can deal with.

* My single most favorite product is the onion soup. I like being able to fix a cup of good soup instantly. My favorite soup is a pack of ramen noodles (throw away their seasonings), some pepperoni (turkey is best, less fat) and two teaspoons of the onion soup. It's delicious and ready in a couple of minutes.

* I take a bag of frozen green beans or green peas and I mix in 1 Tbsp of butter/margarine, 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, 1 Tbsp splenda (or sugar if you prefer), a couple shakes of Garlic Liquid Spice, 2 Tbsp of water and 2 Tbsp of the Six Onion Soup base, then microwave for about 5 minutes, and sprinkle with Minced Green Onion right before serving.

* We have a customer who's step-dad recently had part of his tongue amputated due to cancer. Due to the chemo, his taste buds are about shot. My customer said that she needs more Beef Soup base, that she is almost out. You see, the only thing that the family found that "dad" will eat is our Watkins Beef Soup Base, because, it is the only thing that he can taste and he LOVES the flavor.

If a recipe calls for a "cream" soup, like cream of mushroom or cream of chicken, just whip up one of the Watkins bases according to the "gravy" directions, which would typically be about the same consistency as a cream-style soup.

Don't Spoil a Good Thing!

Spicing up your foods not only makes them taste great, it can also help to reduce the presence of bacteria such as E. coli, and slow the spoilage of leftovers. In studies, garlic, onion, allspice, clove, cinnamon, sage and oregano were found to have the greatest antibacterial benefits, killing off most of the bad bacteria present in foods. Thyme, tarragon and cumin were also very effective. While researchers caution that foods must still be cooked to the proper temperature to prevent food-borne illness, it's clear that a sprinkling of spices can help keep bacteria at "bay" and preserve your leftovers for a longer "thyme." Watkins offers over 50 herbs, spices and seasoning blends, including Poultry Seasoning with sage, onion, garlic and other spices that can help to keep your Thanksgiving leftovers from going foul.

Brenda Koth, MS, RD

Hot News!

If you want to cool off and burn some extra calories this summer, here's a hot tip: A meal that includes hot peppers can boost your metabolism for several hours, helping to burn extra calories. Ironically, hot peppers can also help you stay cool by stimulating the cooling center of the brain. They can also help to lower blood cholesterol and reduce blood clots, cutting the risk of heart attack and stroke. As if that weren't enough, they might even make you feel better by stimulating the release of endorphins, substances in the brain that act as natural painkillers and mood enhancers. Watkins offers a variety of hot sauces, salsas and hot spices.