Blog Posts by The Editors of EatingWell Magazine

By Hilary Meyer, Associate Food Editor, EatingWell Magazine

I have a small kitchen that doesn't have a lot of storage space. Because of that, my refrigerator looks more like a pantry-a very full, disorganized pantry. After one of the shelves on the door broke off for about the 100th time under the strain of every condiment known to man, I decided to finally do something about it.

Don't Miss: How to Stock Your Pantry

Some items needed to leave the fridge. But what? After some research, I learned a few things that made me feel a little better about my fridge situation-amongst the chaos, there were indeed some foods that truly belonged. Here are 5 surprising foods you might want to refrigerate:

1. Natural Peanut Butter
Natural peanut butter is peanut butter in its purest form-in most cases it's just ground-up peanuts and maybe a dash of salt. Because of this, natural peanut butter acts a little differently than "regular" commercial peanut butter-in natural peanut

By Kerri-Ann Jennings, M.S., R.D. Associate Nutrition Editor, EatingWell Magazine

You know that one of the keys to losing weight is eating fewer calories. But it can be hard to know how to cut back without feeling deprived or hungry. As a registered dietitian and the associate nutrition editor of EatingWell Magazine, I know there are a bunch of tricks that can help you consume fewer calories without feeling deprived.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind
It's hard to resist temptation when it's staring you in the face. When office workers were given candies in clear dishes to place on their desks, they helped themselves to candy 71 percent more often than a similar group that was given the same candy in opaque dishes so that the candy wasn't visible, according to research by Brian Wansink, Ph.D., director of the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab in Ithaca, New York. "We're all on the 'see-food' diet," he says, "so don't let yourself see what you don't want to eat." Do yourself

By Emily McKenna, Recipe Developer & Tester for EatingWell Magazine

For some reason, food eaten outdoors under the sun tastes better. There is nothing like a burger or hot dog cooked on a grill with a side of macaroni salad, coleslaw or watermelon to celebrate summer.

Don't Miss: Best & Worst Foods to Eat at a Barbecue

Unfortunately, the longer cooked and raw foods sit outside in the sun (such as at a Memorial Day picnic or any warm-weather cookout) the higher the chance for food-borne bacteria to multiply. To keep you and your family safe this summer, we have compiled a list of the 5 most common picnic hazards to avoid-along with our easy tips for safely preparing, cooking and storing food for picnics.

Related: 10 Kitchen Rules Every Cook Should Follow

Hazard #1: Keeping All the Food and Drinks in One Cooler
You should always have one cooler for food and one for drinks. This way, guests can take as many drinks as they want without repeatedly exposing any

By Nicci Micco, M.S., Content Director, Custom Publishing & Licensing for EatingWell

This weekend marks the unofficial start to summer and that means it's time for picnics (or, depending on where you live, you might call your outdoor gathering a barbecue or a cookout). I love the traditional foods of summer: burgers and dogs, creamy salads, yummy desserts.

Must-Try: EatingWell's Top 50 Healthy Summer Recipes

Unfortunately, these foods tend not to be the stuff that's going to win any nutrition awards. But you can partake at a picnic and still walk away with your shorts buttoned. It just means making the right choices--and no, you don't have to limit yourself to corn on the cob and watermelon.

Don't Miss: 7 Tricks for Staying Slim All Summer

Just skip (most of) the worst choices; the best ones are often just as satisfying. Here's your guide:

1. Main Dish to Skip: A cheeseburger. A quarter-pound beef burger with a slice of cheese will set you back 510 calories (26

By Hilary Meyer, Associate Food Editor, EatingWell Magazine

Macaroni salad is one of those dishes that you just have to have at a Memorial Day gathering. The ingredients are cheap, it's easy to make (and make a lot of) and has a wonderfully creamy texture and mild flavor that everyone loves.

But if you think your typical macaroni salad is harmless, think again. Right when you're about to squeeze back into that bikini, good old macaroni salad will make that task a little more difficult. A typical 1-cup serving packs 370 calories and 22 grams of fat. Yikes.

Don't Miss: Pasta Salad vs. Potato Salad. Which Is Healthier?

Before you throw that salad into the swimming pool, know that you can enjoy that same 1-cup serving with nearly half the calories and more than half the fat. Here's how to make your macaroni salad healthier:

Tip 1) Use Whole-Wheat Pasta
Although using whole-wheat pasta doesn't make much of a difference calorically, it does add fiber. Fiber

By Matthew Thompson, Associate Food Editor for EatingWell Magazine

I love the smoky bite of a hot dog mounded with sweet and tangy toppings and the delicate, salty balance of meat with the bun. But I'm not a huge fan of the buckets of sodium and oozing fat many hot dogs contain. Still, while hot dogs are not exactly a nutritionist's favorite food, they can shine as the calorie bargain of the barbecue: you're better off with a 100- to 150-calorie hot dog on a bun than with a 230-calorie hamburger or a 285-calorie bratwurst.

Don't Miss: What to Eat & What to Skip at a Cookout

That's one of the reasons I was so excited to participate in EatingWell's hot dog taste-test. We identified a number of brands with less than 370 mg of sodium and no more than 3 grams of saturated fat per dog--our baseline standard for a healthier dog. These we separated into three categories: Poultry Dogs, Beef and/or Pork Dogs and Vegetarian Hot Dogs.

From there, we went on taste--determining

By Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D., Nutrition Editor, EatingWell Magazine

When a food in my kitchen appears to have passed its prime, my husband and I often disagree about whether to keep or toss it.

He's traveled the world and has eaten many unrecognizable foods, so how harmful is a little mold? "Just cut it off," he'll say. I, on the other hand, have worked in hospital foodservice and before becoming an R.D. took courses in food safety and food microbiology. Moldy? Chuck it!

Related: Do Food Expiration Dates Really Mean Anything?
4 Foods with a Surprisingly Short Nutritional "Shelf Life"

Turns out we're both right (or wrong, depending on how you look at things). According to the USDA, some foods can be used even when they're moldy, while others need to be discarded.

Don't Miss: 10 Rules for a Healthy, Safe Kitchen

Here are 4 moldy foods you can eat (but if it's completely covered with mold, throw it away):

1. Hard salami and dry-cured country hams.

By Matthew Thompson, Associate Food Editor for EatingWell Magazine

A few months ago, I took on an ambitious cooking project that made my wife scratch her head. It left our kitchen a mess and the entire house smelling like smoke; it took up an entire Saturday and, worst of all, it didn't even produce a viable meal! My poor spouse thought I was crazy: what had I gained from all that effort? But then she tasted the result.

I had created a thick, brown, butter-like paste called "beef extract"--a sort of bone-marrow jelly--by boiling beef stock into oblivion. It tasted amazing. It was earthy and deep--not salty, exactly, but with a hint of filet mignon, portobello mushrooms and homemade broth. It had a roundness and depth to it that filled your entire mouth the way the sound of a foghorn fills your chest. A teaspoon of it imparted an unspeakable savoriness to tomato sauces, added depth to stir-fries and transformed toast into a kind of crispy, hot drug. We couldn't get enough.