Healthy Cooking, Dietary, and Other Food Related

Tuesday, 17 September 2013

Fun at Home with Chocolate Making

Homemade chocolates and chocolate delight pudding dessert can be fun to make. With microwaves in almost every home now, the art of melting chocolate wafers without burning them has been perfected. Adding fruit essences to the melted ooey-gooey-ness personalizes them, then pouring your creation into shallow molds with different details appropriate for the season, be it winter, Christmas or other festive practices.

Now I agree with a lot of you and have to wonder, why make chocolates when you can go out and buy a box and even get it WRAPPED for no extra cost?! It is so much easier and less time consuming! If those are your thoughts, then making chocolates may not be for you, but I know it is something everyone needs to do at least once in their life. I did it with a Brownie troop and we had SO much fun!
Remember, you can put chopped up nuts in your chocolates, even marzipan! White, milk, dark...or swirled / marbled chocolates! I think there would be a way to get peanut butter in there too, who doesn't love that combo! There is no limit besides your imagination. Borrow books from the library to help you perfect the ideas you have. Of course, there is always the internet resource too. Do this at least once with your kids. They will love being able to give these personal gifts to their friends and teachers, and you will forever remember the joy and excitement of this weekend activity!
HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE: HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN

COOKINGWITHKARMA

·
2 YEARS AGO
Ingredients:

3/4 block of copha (1 block is 250g) This is also known as vegetable shortening
* Cocoa butter is much better than copha but it can be hard to find and a little expensive .. but well worth it!! You can also just use coconut oil.
1 cup of icing sugar
3/4 cup of cocoa powder
1/3 cup of powdered milk
1 capful of vanilla extract
Optional:
1 capful of coffee essence
1 tablespoon of coconut oil
Using your favourite liqueur would also be great!!
I used white chocolate, cashews and icing in a tube to decorate these. You can have them plain or decorate any way you like! ;)

Tips:

* If you find the chocolate a little "grainy" once it sets, melt it again and reset!
* Don't worry if it appears to "runny" when you first make it it will set!

Monday, 16 September 2013

Salad Recipe with Healthy Broccoli

This savory, cold broccoli with pasta salad recipe features fresh broccoli, eggs, bacon and raisins topped with a creamy dressing.

1 cup celery

3 cups raw broccoli, chopped

4 hard boiled eggs, chopped

8 slices of bacon fried and crumbled

1/2 cup raisins

Salad Dressing
1 cup mayo (not salad dressing)

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoon vinegar

Directions

Combine all the salad ingredients in a mixing bowl. Make the dressing and pour over the salad mixture; stir.

=> Broccoli Bacon Salad Recipe: Broccoli Cauliflower Salad

A beautiful white and green salad made with healthy, fresh broccoli and cauliflower, onions and bacon bits.

1 head broccoli

1 head cauliflower

1 medium onion

1/2 cup bacon bits

2 cups salad dressing

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Directions

Chop broccoli and cauliflower into bite-size florets. Mince onion and add to broccoli mixture. Stir in bacon bits. Stir together salad dressing and Parmesan cheese and mix into salad. Chill and serve.

=> Broccoli Salad Recipe: Broccoli Pasta Salad

This is a hearty salad featuring fresh broccoli, bowtie pasta, garbanzo beans and mandarin oranges.

Salad

4 oz. Bowtie pasta cooked tender and drained

11 oz. Can mandarin oranges, drained

15 oz. Can garbanzo beans; drained and rinsed

1 large bunch of fresh broccoli; washed, trimmed and chopped

2 green onions, sliced thin

Broccoli Salad Dressing

1/4 cup white vinegar

1/4 cup orange juice

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 teaspoon basil

1 teaspoon oregano

1/4 teaspoon minced garlic

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions

In a large salad bowl, toss cooled pasta with mandarin oranges and vegetables. In a shaker container combine ingredients for the dressing; shake to mix.

Pour dressing over the salad. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate until serving time.

=> Broccoli Salad Recipes: Broccoli Salad with Raisins and Sunflower Seeds

A crunchy broccoli salad with raisin recipe featuring fresh broccoli, raisins, sunflower seeds and bacon.

1 large bunch broccoli, cut into bite-size pieces

1 medium onion, diced

6-12 slices bacon, fried & crumbled

1 cup sunflower seeds

1 cup raisins

Dressing

1 cup Miracle Whip salad dressing

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons vinegar

Combine broccoli, onion, bacon, sunflower seeds and raisins. Mix dressing ingredients and pour over salad, tossing gently until completely mixed.
How to Make Delicious Broccoli Salad

ALLRECIPES

·
8 MONTHS AGO

Sunday, 15 September 2013

Healthy Recipes with Traditional Chocolate Fudge Pudding

Chocolate has that magical property of being loved by almost everyone. Some say it's because of the way it melts at our body temperature, with a soft, smooth sensation combined with delicious sweet tastes and good to produce healthy recipes. Some have more technical explanations, suggesting it's to do with the release of hormones like serotonin in our bodies. Whatever, our family, like most, confess to being chocoholics. And they are not making much progress towards addressing their addiction problem! One of the popular chocolate recipes in our home is a classic that has been in the family recipe collection for many years. It's a chocolate fudge pudding.

Apart from the great chocolate taste, it also has the merit, from a cooking perspective, of being a very easy chocolate dessert to make. It also looks great. It has a rich chocolate sauce that settles in the bottom of your cooking dish. You can turn it out upside-down for table presentation as a self-saucing pudding, or just spoon the sauce over each serving. It's best served hot with fresh or whipped cream, or with ice cream. A few berries or cherries, or some chocolate curls, add to the presentation. Our whole family enjoys it. Even the diet conscious and sporty members insist on joining in, "Just with a smaller serving please." But it is especially a winner the younger ones, and a top birthday party request. Decadent! This recipe serves 4, and takes about 1 hour. The ingredients are:
75g or 3oz self-raising flour

2 level tablespoons cocoa powder

pinch of salt

2 eggs

half a teaspoon vanilla essence

100g or 4oz butter or margarine

100g or 4oz castor sugar

1 tablespoon chopped walnuts

1 or 2 tablespoons of milk

And for the chocolate sauce:

100g or 4oz soft brown sugar

2 level tablespoons cocoa powder

3dl or half a pint of hot water

For the main dessert, sift or whisk the flour, cocoa powder and salt together in a bowl, and set them aside until needed. Cream the butter or margarine and sugar in another bowl, until the mix is light and fluffy. Lightly mix the eggs and vanilla essence together, then gradually beat them into the creamed butter and sugar mixture. Gradually fold in the flour mixture, then add in the walnuts, and just enough of the milk to get a smooth medium-to-soft consistency. Butter a 1 to 1 and a quarter liter, or 2 to 2 and a half pint, pie or baking dish, and spread the mixture evenly into it. Set it aside while you prepare the chocolate sauce.

To do this, combine the brown sugar and cocoa powder in a bowl. Add the hot water and stir the mix well into a liquid. Pour this sauce over the main mixture in its cooking dish. It will sit on top at the start, but when the pudding is cooked it will settle underneath. Cook your chocolate fudge pudding in the center of a moderately hot oven (190 degrees C, 395 degrees F or Gas No.5) for 40 minutes. Enjoy!
Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

COOKINGWITHCANDRA

·
2 YEARS AGO

Charcoal Grilling and Starter- Tips for Easy Use

If you are like me, you love outdoor cooking on a charcoal grill or barbecue. There is nothing better than sitting outside on a nice summer afternoon or evening, enjoying the warmth of your grill or fire pit, enjoying a drink and grilling up some delicious food. The flavors and aromas imparted by real wood charcoal are irreplaceable. A charcoal grill or a wood fire pit and my favorites because of the real wood fire,smoke and aromas they give off.

However, charcoal can be hard to work with, especially if you don't have much experience with it. So should you just give up the charcoal cooking and buy a gas barbecue? Not just yet! There are some tips for getting your charcoal going quickly which can help make the prep work on your outdoor grill easier.

I am going to cover three types of charcoal starter that can be used to fire up your coal and get cooking- for cooking tips you can always cooking videos online. Read carefully, because I have tips on how to use each one better and my recommendations on the best of the bunch, their advantages and disadvantages.
Ok, so here we go!

Lighter Fluid - Lighter fluid is the traditional way to start your charcoal. It works, but can be difficult and messy. How to use it - Start by building a pyramid-shaped pile of charcoal in your grill or barbecue. It helps to have a small indentation at the top rather than a point. Turn your bottle of lighter fluid upside down and firmly squeeze for about 3 to 5 seconds, aiming the fluid into the indentation at the top of the pile of charcoal. Close and store your lighter fluid and then light the charcoal with a match. I recommend using long fireplace matches to avoid burning your hands! The coal will immediately ignite in flames. However, flames are not the goal, you want the charcoal to get hot enough to start burning themselves, developing hot, glowing embers. This takes some time. Some tips are to give the charcoal some time and avoid wind. Wind will blow out your fire. However, you don't want to cover your grill just yet because it needs oxygen to get ignited. Your charcoal is ready when most of the briquets have a layer of grey ash developed over most of their surface. If your charcoal stops burning before it is lit and does not seem to be progressing, you occasionally need to add more lighter fluid. Try to avoid using too much and be careful, it will flare up as soon as you spray more lighter fluid on those hot coals! Pros - Lighter fluid is available everywhere, cheap and it does work, eventually. Cons - Lighter fluid is much less reliable in getting your charcoal lit, often taking several tries before your coals are ready. It can take longer than the other methods. Also, you are using chemicals, like kerosene, to ignite your charcoal. While this does burn off before you add your food theoretically, I definitely don't want chemical aromas or fumes in or near my food.

Electric Charcoal Starter - These are basically a metal loop attached to a handle which plugs into a standard power outlet. The electrical supply creates a current in the metal loop which heats it to very high heat, similar to an electric stove burner. This heat is used to ignite your charcoal. These electric charcoal starters are generally available in home supply stores and anywhere grills and barbecue supplies are sold. How to use it - Spread a layer of charcoal briquets on your charcoal grate in your barbecue. Next, lay the metal loop of your electric charcoal starter on top of this layer of charcoal. Then cover the starter with more charcoal. Plug in the electric starter and wait. After about 8 to 12 minutes the coals around the starter have ignited sufficiently, getting a grey ash covering their surface, to get the rest of the coals around them started. Unplug your charcoal starter and remove it. You may need to wait a while longer before the rest of your charcoal has ignited and the majority of briquets have a layer of grey ash on their surface. Pros - The electric charcoal starter is an easy way to start your grill. You don't need to deal with flames, flammable materials or matches. There are no chemicals involved and it is reusable. Cons - Obviously, you need an electrical outlet nearby your grill for this to work. If you are grilling at a park, beach or campground, this may not be practical. Occasionally these can take a bit longer to start your charcoal but are generally faster than using lighter fluid.

Charcoal Chimney Starter - This is my personal favorite way to start my charcoal! Chimney starters can also be found in most home supply stores and anywhere grills and barbecue supplies are sold. I recommend finding the largest chimney you can find so that all your charcoal can be started in one step. I personally use the large Weber brand chimney starter which is widely available. Otherwise, after the charcoal in the chimney is dumped out, you have to add more briquets that take time to ignite off of the initial charcoal. If you have a very large grill, another option is to use two or more chimneys at the same time to get your charcoal ready. How to use it - The chimney is basically a large cylindrical metal tube with a large handle and a metal grate in the middle to hold your charcoal. The bottom edge has holes in the metal sides to light your fire. The first step is to fill the top portion of your chimney with charcoal. Fill to just below the top rim, but avoid over-filling it. Next, crumple up two or three pieces of newspaper and place them in the bottom part of the chimney from below (below the grate holding your charcoal). You don't want so much that it is packed tightly as it needs some oxygen circulation to light easily and burn hot. Set the chimney down inside your grill on the charcoal grate. Now light the newspaper. This is best accomplished using long fireplace matches which you introduce through the holes in the bottom of the chimney. Light in multiple places to ensure all your newspaper gets ignited. If you don't have long matches, you can lift up the chimney and use a lighter or small match to light the newspaper. Now just sit back and wait! The burning newspaper inside the chimney will ignite the lower charcoal. As this burns the flames will ignite charcoal higher and higher in the chimney. Keep an eye on it, but wait until there are small flames starting to be visible near the top of your chimney and you can see the lower levels of charcoal glowing. At this point simply tip the chimney over and pour out your burning charcoal on the the charcoal grate in your grill. They are ready to use when there is a layer of grey ash covering most of the briquets. Pros - The chimney starter is easy to use. It ignites all your charcoal quickly and does not require any chemical starters. It is reusable and lasts a long time. Cons - Very rarely, your charcoal will not ignite with the first try and will require the addition of one or two more pieces of wadded up newspaper. Otherwise, the only downside to the chimney fire starter is that you need a few pieces of newspaper handy to get it lit!

Well there you have it! Three options for starting your charcoal for easier, quicker outdoor grilling. These are not the only ways to start charcoal, but they are the most common and in my opinion the more reliable and easy.

For other tips on outdoor cooking on a fire pit, grill or barbecue or even cooking in your fireplace, see The Fire Pit and Grilling Guru Guide.

Have fun and enjoy your charcoal grilling!
Best way to light Charcoal

SCOTTIEDTV

·
3 YEARS AGO

Saturday, 14 September 2013

Internal Organs and Alcohol Consumption

Action on the stomach.

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The action of alcohol on the stomach is extremely dangerous that it becomes unable to produce the natural digestive fluid in sufficient quantity and also fails to absorb the food which it may imperfectly digest. A condition marked by the sense of nausea emptiness, prostration and distention will always be faced by an alcoholic. This results in a loathing for food and is teased with a craving for more cheap wine. Thus there is engendered a permanent disorder which is called dyspepsia. The disastrous forms of confirmed indigestion originate by this practice.

How the liver gets affected.

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The organic deteriorations caused by the continued use of alcohol are often of a fatal character. The organ which most frequently undergoes structural changes from alcohol, is the liver. Normally, the liver has the capacity to hold active substances in its cellular parts. In instances of poisoning by various poisonous compounds, we analyse liver as if it were the central depot of the foreign matter. It is practically the same in respect to alcohol. The liver of an alcoholic is never free from the influence of alcohol and it is too often saturated with it. The minute membranous or capsular structure of the liver gets affected, preventing proper dialysis and free secretion. The liver becomes large due to the dilatation of its vessels, the surcharge of fluid matter and the thickening of tissue. This follows contraction of membrane and shrinking of the whole organ in its cellular parts. Then the lower parts of the alcoholic becomes dropsical owing to the obstruction offered to the returning blood by the veins. The structure of the liver may be charged with fatty cells and undergo what is technically designated 'fatty liver'.
How the Kidneys deteriorate.

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The Kidneys also suffer due to the excessive consumption of alcohol. The vessels of Kidneys lose elasticity and power of contraction. The minute structures in them go through fatty modification. Albumin from the blood easily passes through their membranes. This results in the body losing its power as if it were being run out of blood gradually.

Congestion of the lungs.

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Alcohol relaxes the vessels of the lungs easily as they are most exposed to the fluctuations of heat and cold. When subjected to the effects of a rapid variation in atmospheric temperature, they get readily congested. During severe winter seasons, the suddenly fatal congestions of lungs easily affects an alcoholic.Similarly smoking has its own impact on the lungs.One of the drugs used in quiting drugs is zyban.

Alcohol weakens the heart.

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Consumption of alcohol greatly affects the heart. The quality of the membraneous structures which cover and line the heart changes and are thickened, become cartilaginous or calcareous. Then the valves lose their suppleness and what is termed valvular disorder becomes permanent. The structure of the the coats of the great blood-vessel leading from the heart share in the same changes of structure so that the vessel loses its elasticity and its power to feed the heart by the recoil from its distention, after the heart, by its stroke, has filled it with blood.

Again, the muscular structure of the heart fails owing to degenerative changes in its tissue. The elements of the muscular fibre are replaced by fatty cells or, if not so replaced, are themselves transferred into a modified muscular texture in which the power of contraction is greatly reduced.

Those who suffer from these organic deteriorations of the central and governing organ of the circulation of the blood learn the fact so insidiously, it hardly breaks upon them until the mischief is far advanced. They are conscious of a central failure of power from slight causes such as overexertion, trouble, broken rest or too long abstinence from food. They feel what they call a 'sinking' but they know that wine or some other stimulant will at once relieve the sensation. Thus they seek to relieve it until at last they discover that the remedy fails. The jaded, overworked, faithful heart will bear no more. it has run its course and the governor of the blood-streams broken. The current either overflows into the tissues gradually damming up the courses or under some slight shock or excess of motion ceases wholly at the centre.
How alcohol affects the body long term

BUPAHEALTH

·
4 YEARS AGO