When you are craving a rich piece of chocolate cake, the box of white cake mix in your cupboard just doesn’t cut it. Luckily, with the addition of a few ingredients you may have in your pantry, you can turn that box of cake mix into a sweet chocolate dessert in no time.

Thin-sliced bottom round steaks can be cooked in a skillet, but it's easy to over-cook the meat and make the steaks tough. Bottom round steaks come from the beef rump, a tough cut of meat with connective tissue that is best broken down with moist cooking methods such as braising.

You can make a delicious spaghetti sauce with dried herbs, but cooking with fresh herbs gives the sauce a flavor as fresh as the herbs you add. One highly tasteful and fragrant herb commonly added to spaghetti sauce is sweet basil. Oregano is another herb with a powerful flavor and smell.

Bell peppers are very high in vitamin C and low in calories. One medium size pepper contains just 25 calories and 190 percent of the daily value of vitamin C. This versatile vegetable can be prepared in many ways, including baked and broiled, and it can also be eaten raw.

If you are considering trying rockfish for the first time, chances are good that you already have. While rockfish is the general name for this large species of fish, you may recognize and already enjoy red snapper or black bass, two of its more common varieties.

Fajitas are a classic dish in Tex-Mex cuisine, having originated in the Rio Grande Valley. They consist of sliced, grilled meat and vegetables wrapped in a warm flour tortilla and topped with salsa, sour cream, shredded cheese, lettuce and guacamole.

Oleic acid, or Omega-9, is a pale yellow, oily liquid with a lard-like odor. It is also a monounsaturated fatty acid. Fatty acids are the main components of food fats, oils and fat deposits in animals and man.

A rib-eye steak is the best cut of beef to cook in a pressure cooker, according to Victoria Wise, author of "The Pressure Cooker Gourmet."

Slow cooking in an oven as opposed to a slow cooker involves roasting at a lower temperature for a longer period of time. It offers the advantage of tenderizing leaner and tougher cuts of meat by minimizing the water loss that comes from cooking at higher temperatures. Use a Dutch oven or a roasting pan.

There are two types of shirataki noodle. One is a calorie-free — and thus carbohydrate-free — noodle made from water and the fibrous flour of devil's ear yams.

A stir-fry is a healthy alternative to the traditional meat-and-potatoes meal, allowing you to offer beef or chicken but with fewer calories, less saturated fat and less cholesterol. In addition to a healthier dish, you can prepare a less-expensive meal with stir-fry using cheaper cuts of beef.

While foil-packet cooking is most often done during camping, it's also a convenient way to cook lean cuts of steak in the oven. Wrapped in foil, the steak essentially cooks in its own steam, ensuring that moisture stays in the meat.