Showing posts with label Foods and Nutrition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Foods and Nutrition. Show all posts

Saturday, June 16, 2012

5 Commandments Of Cooking Healthy Meals


Cooking healthy for your family is important for everyone. Not only will you be eating healthy meals, but your children will learn a lot from eating healthy. They will get to experience healthy foods that they may have not even tried before, or wanted to. They will learn how to cook healthy meals so that they can pass down this tradition to their own children in the future. They will also come to enjoy healthy meals better than junk or foods that are bad for them.

Cooking healthy meals for your family will give everyone the energy they need for a full day, give them better concentration and focus, and help them do well in life. This will not deprive your family in any way. You will all be getting the proper nutrients you need without completely passing on all treats. Eating healthy is important for your health not just now, but for the future as well. Studies have shown that eating healthy can help to reduce the risks of various ailments, heart disease, stroke, and many cancers. You can help your family lead a healthier life by cooking healthy meals.

Guidelines For Healthy Cooking

1) Use Plenty of Fruits And Vegetables: Fruits and vegetables are often overlooked in today?””s diet. However, fruits and vegetables are very important because they have vitamins, minerals and even antioxidants to keep you healthy, strong and help you fight illnesses. It is important to use fresh ingredients when cooking. Do not overcook your vegetables, as this will take out some of the nutritional value of them. Consider serving your vegetables raw or just blanch them (boil for about 5 minutes). Kids will especially love blanched veggies because it brings out their colors and makes them a little bit softer. Blanching doesn?””t take out nutrients because you are only boiling them for 5 minutes. Just wait for the water to boil and place the veggies in. Put them on ice after the 5 minutes to stop the cooking process. You may also want to serve fruits with dinnertime as well. Most people don?””t and that is why most people don?””t get enough fruit in their daily diet. Serve a fruit and veggie with each meal.

2) Stick To Lean Meats And Fish: Lean meats and fish are an important part of your diet. However, too much meat can actually cause health problems. This is why adding fish to at least two meals a week can increase your health. Lean meats are better for you because they have less fat and sometimes less cholesterol than the other meats. Look for lean meats in your grocery store. Don?””t be afraid to experiment with different types of fish: salmon, tuna steaks, haddock, cod, etc. Fish has important fatty acids that are excellent for your body and mind.

3) Watch The Fat You Use: Try to wean off of real butter and other fatty foods. If you must use real butter remember that just one tab of it a day is enough no more. There are other options to choose from than just butter or lard. Add some of these items to your kitchen and your meals: olive oil, avocado, vegetable oil, butter spread made from olive oil, etc. You can also try using spices for your meals instead of fats. Try balsamic vinegar on your salad instead of salad dressing, or vinegar and olive oil. These can make great alternatives to other fatty foods.

4) What You Drink Counts Too! Do not forget about what you drink. As adults, we tend to not pay any attention to what we choose for beverages. A simple can of soda can have a lot of calories, sodium, sugar, and more in it. It doesn?””t really matter if it is diet or not. It is still unhealthy. Cut down on drinks like soda, juices, coffee, and tea. You can healthily have coffee and tea about two times a day that?””s two cups a day, especially if you use sugar and cream. Try using lemon in your tea instead of honey or sugar. The best thing to drink is water. Always try to choose water over any other drink. Kids should not have more than two cups of juice a day because of the sugar. Make sure they get water everyday and you too!

5) Treats In Moderation Are Ok: This is not a fad diet. This is a lifestyle change for you and your family. Yes, you can have treats in moderation. Have something every once in a while.

Are you ready to give healthy cooking a try? Start by getting your free menu planning basics report now at:http://www.menuplanningcentral.com

Article Source: ArticleSnatch Free Article Directory
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Friday, June 15, 2012

Importance of Food Elements


The purposes of food are to promote growth, to supply force and heat, and to furnish material to repair the waste which is constantly taking place in the body. Every breath, every thought, every motion, wears out some portion of the delicate and wonderful house in which we live. Various vital processes remove these worn and useless particles; and to keep the body in health, their loss must be made good by constantly renewed supplies of material properly adapted to replenish the worn and impaired tissues. This renovating material must be supplied through the medium of food and drink, and the best food is that by which the desired end may be most readily and perfectly attained. The great diversity in character of the several tissues of the body, makes it necessary that food should contain a variety of elements, in order that each part may be properly nourished and replenished.

The various elements found in food are the following: Starch, sugar, fats, albumen, mineral substances, indigestible substances.

The digestible food elements are often grouped, according to their chemical composition, into three classes; vis., carbonaceous, nitrogenous, and inorganic. The carbonaceous class includes starch, sugar, and fats; the nitrogenous, all albuminous elements; and the inorganic comprises the mineral elements.

Starch is only found in vegetable foods; all grains, most vegetables, and some fruits, contain starch in abundance. Several kinds of sugar are made in nature’s laboratory; cane, grape, fruit, and milk sugar. The first is obtained from the sugar-cane, the sap ofmaple trees, and from the beet root. Grape and fruit sugars are found in most fruits and in honey. Milk sugar is one of the constituents of milk. Glucose, an artificial sugar resembling grape sugar, is now largely manufactured by subjecting the starch ofcorn or potatoes to a chemical process; but it lacks the sweetness of natural sugars, and is by no means a proper substitute for them. Albumen is found in its purest, uncombined state in the white of an egg, which is almost wholly composed of albumen. It exists, combined with other food elements, in many other foods, both animal and vegetable. It is found abundant in oatmeal, and to some extent in the other grains, and in the juices of vegetables. All natural foods contain elements which in many respects resemble albumen, and are so closely allied to it that for convenience they are usually classified under the general name of “albumen.” The chief of these is gluten, which is found in wheat, rye, and barley. Casein, found in peas, beans, and milk, and the fibrin of flesh, are elements of this class.

Fats are found in both animal and vegetable foods. Of animal fats, butter and suet are common examples. In vegetable form, fat is abundant in nuts, peas, beans, in various of the grains, and in a few fruits, as the olive. As furnished by nature in nuts, legumes, grains, fruits, and milk, this element is always found in a state of fine subdivision, which condition is the one best adapted to its digestion. As most commonly used, in the form of free fats, as butter, lard, etc., it is not only difficult of digestion itself, but often interferes with the digestion of the other food elements which are mixed with it. It was doubtless never intended that fats should be so modified from their natural condition and separated from other food elements as to be used as a separate article of food. The same may be said of the other carbonaceous elements, sugar and starch, neither of which, when used alone, is capable of sustaining life, although when combined in a proper and natural manner with other food elements, they perform a most important part in the nutrition of the body. Most foods contain a percentage of the mineral elements. Grains and milk furnish these elements in abundance. The cellulose, or woody tissue, of vegetables, and the bran of wheat, are examples of indigestible elements, which although they cannot be converted into blood in tissue, serve an important purpose by giving bulk to the food.
With the exception of gluten, none of the food elements, when used alone, are capable of supporting life. A true food substance contains some of all the food elements, the amount of each varying in different foods.

Uses of the food elements.
Concerning the purpose which these different elements serve, it has been demonstrated by the experiments of eminent physiologists that the carbonaceous elements, which in general comprise the greater bulk of the food, serve three purposes in the body;
1. They furnish material for the production of heat;
2. They are a source of force when taken in connection with other food elements;
3. They replenish the fatty tissues of the body. Of the carbonaceous elements, starch, sugar, and fats, fats produce the greatest amount of heat in proportion to quantity; that is, more heat is developed from a pound of fat than from an equal weight of sugar or starch; but this apparent advantage is more than counterbalanced by the fact that fats are much more difficult of digestion than are the other carbonaceous elements, and if relied upon to furnish adequate material for bodily heat, would be productive of much mischief in overtaxing and producing disease of the digestive organs. The fact that nature has made a much more ample provision of starch and sugars than of fats in man’s natural diet, would seem to indicate that they were intended to be the chief source of carbonaceous food; nevertheless, fats, when taken in such proportion as nature supplies them, are necessary and important food elements.
The nitrogenous food elements especially nourish the brain, nerves, muscles, and all the more highly vitalized and active tissues of the body, and also serve as a stimulus to tissue change. Hence it may be said that a food deficient in these elements is a particularly poor food.
The inorganic elements, chief of which are the phosphates, in the carbonates of potash, soda, and lime, aid in furnishing the requisite building material for bones and nerves.

Proper combinations of foods.

While it is important that our food should contain some of all the various food elements,  experiments upon both animals and human beings show it is necessary that these elements, especially the nitrogenous and carbonaceous, be used in certain definite proportions, as the system is only able to appropriate a certain amount of each; and all excess, especially of nitrogenous elements, is not only useless, but even injurious, since to rid the system of the surplus imposes an additional task upon the digestive and excretory organs. The relative proportion of these elements necessary to constitute a food which perfectly meets the requirements of the system, is six of carbonaceous to one of nitrogenous. Scientists have devoted much careful study and experimentation to the determination of the quantities of each of the food elements required for the daily nourishment of individuals under the varying conditions of life, and it has come to be commonly accepted that of the nitrogenous material which should constitute one sixth of the nutrients taken, about three ounces is all that can be made use of in twenty-four hours, by a healthy adult of average weight, doing a moderate amount of work. Many articles of food are, however, deficient in one or the other of these elements, and need to be supplemented by other articles containing the deficient element in superabundance, since to employ a dietary in which any one of the nutritive elements is lacking, although in bulk it may be all the digestive organs can manage, is really starvation, and will in time occasion serious results.
It is thus apparent that much care should be exercised in the selection and combination of food materials. Such knowledge is of first importance  in the education of cooks and housekeepers, since to them falls the selection  of the food for the daily needs of the household; and they should not only understand what foods are best suited to supply these needs, but how to combine them in accordance with physiological laws.
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Saturday, June 9, 2012

How Can You Be Sure Your Children Are Getting The Nutrition They Need?

Most parents would worry that if they keep their children from eating those fatty foods that they love, and only offer vegetables, that the children will starve, or have nutritional deficiencies.  These parents feel that the kids will just not eat the food.  If you think about it this way, how much nutrients are they receiving from the fatty, processed foods now?  If their diet consists of French fries, mashed potatoesapple sauce, chocolate pudding, and maybe chicken fingers, how could it be worse if you only offer fruits and vegetables?  Sure, maybe they will demand to have the foods they like, and not eat.  They will eventually get hungry and if you keep offering fruits and vegetables and do not give in, you will see that they will begin to enjoy it, especially if they see everyone else in the family eating healthier. Read more... ►How Can You Be Sure Your Children Are Getting The Nutrition They Need?

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Food And Nutrition Eat Wisely, Live Healthy!


Author: Sandra Essex
Food is very important. FOOD AND NUTRITION, a hand book that discusses the importance of having a proper diet states that “a good diet is the most basic human need� without sufficient food we would die.” That’s a fundamental truth we can easily appreciate when we take a look at those emaciated figures of starving men, women, and children who are denied this “most basic human need.”
There are still others who are able to meet this need to a considerable degree but who are still seriously undernourished. On the other hand, there are many others who could eat well but who end up eating wrongly�consuming large doses ofjunk food that provide very little nourishment. This is why it has often been said that food is one of the most abused of our possessions.
What constitutes a healthful diet? And what kind of adjustments can we make in our diet to ensure we are eating right? How can we take responsibility for our health and eat in a way that is likely to improve it?

The Essence of a Healthful Diet is basically about making good choices from the group of foods that are available where we live. For help in making healthy choices, the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends the use of a four-tiered food guide pyramid.
At the base of this pyramid are complex carbohydrates, made up of grain foods, such as bread, cereal, rice, and pasta. These foods form the foundation of what we can call a healthful diet. Following that (tiers two and three) are two equal sections, i.e. vegetables and fruits and protein sources. These groups also include forms of complex carbohydrates. Most of your daily diet should be selected from these three food groups.
Finally, at the very top of the food pyramid is a small area that includes fats, oils, and sweets. These are categories of foods that provide very few nutrients, and so should be eaten sparingly. The recommendation is that most of your foods should be chosen from the bottom part of the pyramid, and that you choose fewer from the top. But rather than sticking to the same food items from each section of the pyramid, it is far better to experiment with a variety of foods within those sections.
This is because each food has a different combination of nutrients and fiber. Some vegetables and fruits, for example, are good sources of vitamins A and C, while others are high in folic acid, calcium, and iron. A combination of these the various types will do your body a lot of good.
Health experts advise that it is best to keep dietary-fat intake below 30 percent of total calories and saturated fat below 10 percent. You can do this without necessarily becoming a vegetarian and without having to totally abandon ALL the things you enjoy eating. How?
Substitution is the key. Yes, Substitute foods low in total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol for foods high in these types of fats. Opt for vegetable oil and soft margarine in place of animal fat, solid shortening, or ghee (a type of clarified butter popularly used in India). Also, avoid the use of such vegetable oils as palm oil and coconut oil, since they’re unusually high in saturated fats. And most importantly, you should drastically limit your consumption of commercially made bakery products, such as doughnuts, cakes, cookies, and pies, since these commonly contain saturated fats.
Meat is a very important source of protein. And no one intends to suggest that you stay off meat altogether. Meat is actually listed in the same section of the Food Pyramid as poultry and fish. But note that fish, chicken, and turkey often contain less fat per serving than such meats as beef, lamb, and pork, depending on the cuts used and the method of preparation.
In addition, hamburgers, hot dogs, bacon, and sausages are usually especially high in saturated fat. Many experts recommend limiting the amount of lean meat, fish, and poultry consumed per day to no more than six ounces. And although organ meats, such as liver, may have dietary benefits, they should however be consumed with discretion since they’re known to be high in cholesterol.
Between regular meals many people delight in snacks, which often consist of potato chips, peanuts, cashews, cookies, candy bars, and the like. If you appreciate the value of a healthful diet, then you’d do well to replace these with low-fat snacks that include homemade popcorn (that has no added butter or salt), as well as fresh fruit, and raw vegetables like carrots, celery, and broccoli.
Indeed, the efforts we put into taking good care of our body is one of the best investments we can ever make. A healthy diet is very important in this regard. It could mean the difference between either living healthily or battling one health problem after another, either now or later in life.
As a Entrepreneur sometimes in our busy schedule we forget the importance of a healthy diet. So remember to eat balanced meals and exercise daily. If you would like more information on how you can prepare Healthy Meals visit 2yourgoodhealthrecipebook.com.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/recipes-articles/food-and-nutrition-eat-wisely-live-healthy-1977667.html
About the Author
Sandra Essex is a TOP Producing Internet Marketer. She enjoys helping new people learn how to build their MLM Business using the internet.�If I can learn these skills anybody can! For more information on how to market your business using the internet visit:http://www.uniquemillionaires.com visit my Blog: http://www.sandraessex.com FREE 7-day Video Boot Camp: “Finding Leads without Prospecting” http://www.uniquemoneymakers.com
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Saturday, May 19, 2012

Compare Famous Filipino Food Recipes


Compare Famous Filipino Food Recipes at WWW.Lutong Bahay.com byWebDotcom LocalSeo

Filipinos and non-Filipinos alike who love to cook can now try out and comparefamous Filipino food or “??pagkaing Pinoy”?? recipes. They can access and download any of these Filipino food recipes online quickly and easily at the www.lutong bahay.com website from anywhere in the world with a working internet connection. The website should be differentiated from lutong pinoy.com. The www.lutong bahay.com website is more of an active community of food lovers where Filipinos and non-Filipinos can gather to create new friendships, reunite with old friends and learn more about cooking.

Specify any of the dishes that belong to Filipino lutong bahay foods and you can most probably find it at www.lutong bahay.com. Pilipino cuisine is presented beautifully to be appreciated and enjoyed by everyone. The free recipes are made even more attractive with pictures from the Philippines. Pinoy breakfast recipes, viands or lutong ulam recipes and snacks or merienda recipes can be found in the website.

People around the world know Filipinos to be true lovers of good food and eating. In fact, even the simplest Filipino celebration is always marked by a lot of festive food. It is only logical, therefore, that there are a lot of Filipino dishes under Filipino or Pinoy cooking. Generations of families have regularly used and improved on these Philippine or Pilipino foods recipes through the years. This has given rise to many versions of traditional recipes and new spin off dishes. There are even cookbooks that contain only the many variations of the adobo dish. In fact, anyone who wants to really compare the many Filipino dishes can try to cook a different dish for the three meals of every day and will still need several months to go through all the dishes.

“??Mga lutong bahay”?? and “??lutuing bahay”?? are Filipino phrases that mean home cooked food while “??mga lutong Pinoy”?? and “??lutong Pilipino”?? mean Filipino cooking. The very best healthy and easy Filipino foods recipes are found in the online collection of lutong bahay free recipes or lutong Pinoy free recipes from the Philippines. Different combinations of regional specialties such as Ilocano, Pampanga, Tagalog and Visayan foods, dishes and recipes can enliven any lutong Pinoy menu. Busy cooks can still tackle traditional Filipino recipes using the Mama Sita recipes that feature ready mixes.

An exciting menu can include dishes like the ever popular Batangas bulalo recipe of Batangas province; the pancit chami recipe which is a fiesta mainstay in Lucena, Quezon; and the pigar pigar recipe of carabao meat from Dagupan, Pangasinan. They can be accompanied by vegetable recipes such as sinigang sa bayabas, sinigang sa miso, ginisang togue and a saluyot recipe.


Filipino food recipes made from fish and seafood are recommended for people who have health issues that prohibit too much intake of pork, beef and chicken. These dishes include seafood kare kare recipe, the popular sweet and sour lapu – lapu recipe, the Spanish sardines recipe, the rellenong pusit recipe, the ginataang tilapia recipe and the crab Maritess recipe. While the ginataang tilapia recipe seems to taste best when cooked in a palayok or earthen pot, this need not be required.

The free Filipino recipes at www.lutong bahay.com also include a Jollibee style spaghetti recipe and a siopao sauce recipe as well as a hopia recipe, a sylvanas recipe and the best ube chiffon cake recipe. Instead of the recipes of sweets, fresh fruits can also be chosen, such as the sweet lanzones from the upcoming Lanzones Festival 2010 on the third week of October.


Lutongbahay.com
Website: www.lutongbahay.com
Lutongbahay.com is an interactive cooking portal site that highlights regional Filipino food recipes.

Article Source: ArticleSnatch Free Article Directory
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Monday, April 30, 2012

Delicious, Yet Healthy Meals


by Stacey Day

Mention organic foods to a room full of people and chances are a majority of them will turn up their noses, expecting for the food to be revolting. Why is this? Why do many individuals automatically assume that just because food is organic that it doesn’t taste just as good as non-organic? Well, one reason why people do this is they simply aren’t educated about what exactly organic food is. Organic food is food that was grown and/or processed without any artificial chemicals or additives.Organic food is usually more flavorful, has more vitamins and minerals, as well as enzymes, which help you to properly digest the food that you eat.


Non-organic foods could actually do more harm than good. The amount of pesticides and other chemicals that are on the outsides of regular produce is astronomical. Even if rinsed prior to consumption, this type of produce still harbors a large amount of harmful chemicals, which can build up in the body and cause various problems. And let’s not forget meat. Lots of people love meat, but non-organic meat is often injected with harmful antibiotics and hormones while the animal is still alive. And why do farmers do this? Well it’s the same reason why others do so many other things that could be potentially harmful to people: Money. The farmers’ rationale is that they inject the cattle and other animals being raised for meat, to prevent any type of disease. They can’t sell diseased meat to supermarkets. Their reason for using hormones on the animals is to get them to mature a lot faster, which creates a quicker turnaround for the farmer. But what happens when we eat this meat, laden with these unnatural products in them? Well, the antibiotics can cause the people who eat the animals that contain them on a regular basis to become antibiotic resistant. This means that when they contract an illness requiring the treatment of antibiotics that the medication that their doctor prescribes may not work because their body has built up a resistance to the particular drug. This could be extremely dangerous, depending on the type of illness a person contracts.

The hormones that are injected into cows, pigs, chickens, etc. can cause people to have hormonal imbalances, and can even affect thyroid functioning. So why take a chance with your body? Organic may be more expensive, but it’s worth the cost.

Stacey Day writes about Gourment.org Couponscooking Coupons code and Kitchen products

Article Source: ArticleSnatch Free Article Directory
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Tuesday, April 17, 2012

CIRCUMSTANCES IMPACTING THE QUALITY OF MEAT


During the period between the birth and maturity of animals, their flesh undergoes very considerable changes. For instance, when the animal is young, the fluids which the tissues of the muscles contain, possess a large proportion of what is called  albumen . This albumen, which is also the chief component of the white of eggs, possesses the peculiarity of coagulating or hardening at a certain temperature, like the white of a boiled egg, into a soft, white fluid, no longer soluble, or capable of being dissolved in water. As animals grow older, this peculiar animal matter gradually decreases, in proportion to the other constituents of the juice of the flesh. Thus, the reason why veal, lamb are  white, and without gravy  when cooked, is, that the large quantity of albumen they contain hardens, or becomes coagulated. On the other hand, the reason why beef and mutton are  brown, and have gravy , is, that the proportion of albumen they contain, is small, in comparison with their greater quantity of fluid which is soluble, and not coagulable.

The quality of the flesh of an animal is considerably influenced by the nature of the  food on which it has been fed ; for the food supplies the material which produces the flesh. If the food be not suitable and good, the meat cannot be good either. To the experienced in this matter, it is well known that the flesh of animals fed on farinaceous produce, such as corn, pulse, &c., is firm, well-flavoured, and also economical in the cooking; that the flesh of those fed on succulent and pulpy substances, such as roots, possesses these qualities in a somewhat less degree; whilst the flesh of those whose food contains fixed oil, as linseed, is greasy, high coloured, and gross in the fat, and if the food has been used in large quantities, possessed of a rank flavour.

It is indispensable to the good quality of meat, that the animal should be  perfectly healthy  at the time of its slaughter. However slight the disease in an animal may be, inferiority in the quality of its flesh, as food, is certain to be produced. In most cases, indeed, as the flesh of diseased animals has a tendency to very rapid putrefaction, it becomes not only unwholesome, but absolutely poisonous, on account of the absorption of the  virus  of the unsound meat into the systems of those who partake of it. The external indications of good and bad meat will be described under its own particular head, but we may here premise that the layer of all wholesome meat, when freshly killed, adheres firmly to the bone.

Another circumstance greatly affecting the quality of meat, is the animal’s treatment  before it is slaughtered . This influences its value and wholesomeness in no inconsiderable degree. It will be easy to understand this, when we reflect on those leading principles by which the life of an animal is supported and maintained. These are, the digestion of its food, and the assimilation of that food into its substance. Nature, in effecting this process, first reduces the food in the stomach to a state of pulp, under the name of chyme, which passes into the intestines, and is there divided into two principles, each distinct from the other. One, a milk-white fluid, the nutritive portion, is absorbed by innumerable vessels which open upon the mucous membrane, or inner coat of the intestines. These vessels, or absorbents, discharge the fluid into a common duct, or road, along which it is conveyed to the large veins in the neighbourhood of the heart. Here it is mixed with the venous blood (which is black and impure) returning from every part of the body, and then it supplies the waste which is occasioned in the circulating stream by the arterial (or pure) blood having furnished matter for the substance of the animal. The blood of the animal having completed its course through all parts, and having had its waste recruited by the digested food, is now received into the heart, and by the action of that organ it is urged through the lungs, there to receive its purification from the air which the animal inhales. Again returning to the heart, it is forced through the arteries, and thence distributed, by innumerable ramifications, called capillaries, bestowing to every part of the animal, life and nutriment. The other principle the innutritive portion passes from the intestines, and is thus got rid of. It will now be readily understood how flesh is affected for bad, if an animal is slaughtered when the circulation of its blood has been increased by over-driving, ill-usage, or other causes of excitement, to such a degree of rapidity as to be too great for the capillaries to perform their functions, and causing the blood to be congealed in its minuter vessels. Where this has been the case, the meat will be dark-coloured, and become rapidly putrid; so that self-interest and humanity alike dictate kind and gentle treatment of all animals destined to serve as food for man.
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Sunday, April 15, 2012

Cooking with Oils


Everyone knows the foods to eat that improve health, although how we cook the food can be just as important. With there being so many oils and butter products claiming to be the best, it can be quite difficult to know which ones to use and which ones to avoid.
1.  Canola oil
Canola oil is a popular oil, with many physicians  claiming that it has the ability to lower the risk
of heart disease.  The oil is low in saturated fat, high in monounsaturated fat, and offers the best
fatty acid composition when compared to other oils.
You can use canola oil in sauting, as a marinade and even in low temperature stir frying.  It has a bland flavor, which makes it a great oil for foods that contain many spices.  Unlike other oils, this
one won’t interfere with the taste of your meal.
2.  Olive oil
Olive oil offers a very distinct flavor with plenty of heart healthy ingedients.  The oil is rich in monounsaturated fat, helps to lower cholesterol levels and reduce risk of cancer.  It’s also rich in antioxidants and has a very long storage life.
Even though it can be used in cooking, it’s the healthiest when uncooked, such as with a salad or dipping sauce.  When you use it with cooking, you should heat it on low to medium temperatures, making sure to avoid high heat.
3.  Butter
Butter is one food that has been around for many, many years.  Butter tastes good, and offers sources of Vitamin A and other fat soluble vitamins such as E, K, and even D.  Butter is also made from natural ingredients and not chemically or artificially processed.
You can use butter with cooking, baking, or even as a spread.  You can also pair it with creamy sauces, marinades, baked dishes, or even bread.
4.  Margarine
Margarine was first introduced as an alternative to high fat butter.  When it was first created however,  it was loaded with trans fat, a substance that we now know raises bad cholesterol.
As a cooking oil, margarine tastes good, it’s lower in fat than most oils and butter, and it’s quite easy to spread.  It’s available in a variety of different products and a good source of vitamin E.
When it comes to cooking with oils, there are  several at your disposal.  There are many more than
what is mentioned here, although the ones above are the most popular.  Eating healthy involves cooking healthy food – which is where your cooking oil really takes center stage.
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Sunday, January 29, 2012

DIFFERENT WAYS TO COOK RICE


Rice needs to be thoroughly washed. A good way to do this is to put it into a colander,  in a deep pan of water. Rub the rice well with the hands, lifting the  colander in and out the water, and changing the water until it is clear; then drain. In this way the grit is deposited in the water, and the rice left thoroughly clean.
The best method of cooking rice is by steaming it. If boiled in much water, it loses a portion of its already small percentage of nitrogenous elements. It requires much less time for cooking than any of the other grains. Like all the dried grains and seeds, rice swells in cooking to several times its original bulk. When cooked, each grain of rice should be separate and distinct, yet perfectly tender.

Steamed rice.
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Soak a cup of rice in one and a fourth cups of water for an hour, then add a cup of milk, turn into a dish suitable for serving it from at table, and place in a steam-cooker or a covered steamer over a kettle of boiling water, and steam for an hour. It should be stirred with a fork occasionally, for the first ten or fifteen minutes.

Boiled rice (japanese method).
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Thoroughly cleanse the rice by washing in several waters, and soak it overnight.  In the morning, drain it, and put to cook in an equal quantity of boiling water, that is, a pint of water for a pint of rice. For cooking, a stewpan with tightly fitting cover should be used. Heat the water to boiling, then add the rice, and after stirring, put on the cover, which is not again to be removed during the boiling. At first, as the water boils, steam will puff out freely from under the cover, but when the water has nearly evaporated, which will be in eight to ten minutes, according to the age and quality of the rice, only a faint suggestion of steam will be observed, and the stewpan must then be removed from over the fire to some place on the range, where it will not burn, to swell and dry for fifteen or twenty minutes.
Rice to be boiled in the ordinary manner requires two quarts of boiling water to one cupful of rice. It should be boiled rapidly until tender, then drained at once, and set in a moderate oven to become dry. Picking and lifting lightly occasionally with a fork will make it more flaky and dry. Care must be taken, however, not to mash the rice grains.

Rice with fig sauce.
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Steam a cupful of best rice as directed above, and when done, serve with a fig sauce. Dish a spoonful of  the fig sauce with each saucer of rice, and serve with plenty of cream. Rice served in this way requires no sugar for dressing, and is a most wholesome breakfast dish.

Orange rice.
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Wash and steam the rice. Prepare some oranges by separating into sections and cutting each section in halves, removing the seeds and all the white portion. Sprinkle the oranges lightly with sugar, and let them stand while the rice is cooking. Serve a portion of the orange on each saucerful of rice.

Rice with raisins.
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Carefully wash a cupful of rice, soak it, and cook as directed for Steamed Rice. After the rice has began to swell, but before it has softened, stir into it lightly, using a fork for the purpose, a cupful of raisins. Serve with cream.

Rice with peaches.
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Steam the rice and when done, serve with cream and a nicely ripened peach pared and sliced on each individual dish.


Browned rice.
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Spread a cupful of rice on a shallow baking tin, and put into a moderately hot oven to brown. It will need to be stirred frequently to prevent burning and to secure a uniformity of color. Each rice kernel, when sufficiently browned, should be of a yellowish brown, about the color of ripened wheat. Steam the same as directed for ordinary rice, using only two cups of water for each cup of browned rice, and omitting the preliminary soaking. When properly cooked, each kernel will be separated, dry, and mealy. Rice prepared in this manner is undoubtedly more digestible than when cooked without browning.
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