Tuesday, August 27, 2013

The Incredible Effects of a Healthy Vegetarian Diet

I often heard the saying: "You are what you eat". In the past years, I kept thinking that it was just a saying and that people were acting in a freak way when it came to choose what to eat and how to eat. Yet my idea completely changed in the past few months. I now believe that most of the health diseases our society knows nowadays could be easily passed to history if people ate better. Now the big question is: HOW to eat better?

I have been reading tens of books on nutrition in the past years, but most importantly, I have experienced positive changes in my health by wisely choosing my food. What I found is this: humans have forgotten how to eat to be healthy. Wild animals don't have diabetes, cancer or asthma. The only two kinds of animals who do have those kinds of diseases are humans and their pets, or the animals whose diet is controlled and altered by humans. Our bodies didn't change that much in the past 30,000 years, while our diet has drastically changed in the past hundreds of years, too quickly for our bodies to adapt.

How exactly did humanity in general eat a few millenniums ago? We don't know exactly the proportions and amounts, the food combinations, etc, but there are a few things that we know for sure. For instance, people did not eat any transformed foods. No MSG, no transgenic foods, no white sugar, aspartame, white "enriched" flour, no pesticides, etc. And if they ate meat and dairy products, which are very hard to digest, they hunted it, so they very probably didn't eat as much as we do today, as sedentary people lazily going to the market. And they still ate a lot of plant products to compensate.

In fact, our digestive system doesn't seem to assimilate meat and animal products as easily as plant untransformed products. More and more studies confirm this simple fact. Vegetarians or even vegans with a well balanced diet live longer and have a better health than the average meat eaters.

The main reason being that animal proteins are very hard to digest. They acidify the organism and leave a lot of waste and toxins inside the body, bringing it to be less effective, accumulating fats and leaving less oxygen to our cells which then develop a lot of diseases like asthma, cancer, and artery problems. Another reason is that we often associate meat with unhealthy foods such as French fries, oils, pasta and starchy foods, which just don't go along well in our poor stomach.

And the probably most important reason is that we always cook meat, killing some precious enzymes which are only present in raw foods and are the key to a healthy body.

For all those reasons and many more, becoming vegetarian or vegan, and eating less transformed and more raw foods is probably the best move one can make to feel more energized and healthy.

Monday, August 19, 2013

Arabian Chicken Stuffing Recipe (With a Vegetarian Version)

This is an adaptation of my grandmother's Jerusalem recipe for chicken or turkey stuffing. And it really is a standalone dish too - make loads more than you need for stuffing, freeze the rest, and serve it as a future meal. Or just make the stuffing and serve as a meal of its own right.

Are you vegetarian? Great; forget the fowl and just have the stuffing!

I use wholesome and natural ingredients wherever possible. This includes butter, which is increasingly getting its pardons from accusations of unhealthiness. This recipe makes versatile use of rice. Long-grain, Basmati, brown, you choose. You also can use any proportion of nuts you like, depending on availability and price. Boiled and peeled chestnuts are a great addition if you can get hold of them, but are optional. This stuffing is best served with live wholemilk organic yoghurt as a sauce. I'm a label-reader and try to ensure the yoghurt has only live yoghurt in it. Yoghurt needs no preservative, thickeners, or colorants. It must be unsweetened and unflavored for this savory recipe. If you cannot find reliable yoghurt, make your own. I live in South Africa, where so much prepared food is messed-with, but find the Cape Town amasi the least messed-with yoghurt-like thing. I used to always make my own yoghurt and plan to in the future. If you want to know how, just write to me and ask. Why do I make such a big fuss of yoghurt? Well, such a delicious stuffing deserves only the best sauce! If you cannot get hold of yoghurt at all, some nice home-made gravy will do.

I usually make at least double this amount, so you may want to. Per 2 persons as a standalone, or per four people as purely stuffing, you need:

  • 75 g Pine kernels
  • 75 g Blanched almonds
  • 75 g Pistachio nuts
  • 2 Tsp butter per 75 g nuts
  • 1 Cup (about 250 ml) rice
  • Half a tsp turmeric
  • Pinch of saffron (if available)
  • Pinch of allspice if using a meaty broth, none if vegetarian
  • Quarter tsp cinnamon or (preferably) bit of cinnamon stick
  • 1 Cardamom seed (for one, or if using more, per 2 cups of rice)
  • Small handful of boiled and peeled chestnuts (if not available, use more rice or nuts)
  • 2 Cups (about 500 ml) of boiling chicken, beef, turkey, or vegetable broth (you can use home-made or cubes. If using cubes, avoid MSG and such additives) - Use a little less (for example, cups of about 230 ml) if using more than two cups (for example, about 500 ml) of rice. Or simply use as much broth as the amount of water you usually use to cook your rice.
  • Salt to taste

Fry as many nuts in the bottom of the cooking-pot as will cover the bottom only one layer thick. Remove as soon as they brown lightly and fry the next lot in the same way. Put them all aside for later. Add the rice, spices, and broth to the remains of butter at the bottom of the pan and quickly bring to the boil. Bring the heat down, cover and cook at very low heat until the rice is cooked. This is roughly 30 minutes for brown and 15 minutes for white. Then turn off and remove from the heat.

Fluff rice up with a fork. Remove cardamoms wherever possible. Add the nuts and their butter, plus the chestnuts, cut in half. Stir lightly with a fork.

Your stuffing is now ready to go into the fowl.

Or, let the rice mixture rest for 5-10 minutes, then serve as a delicious standalone dish. Serve with yoghurt or gravy to pour onto the rice mixture. Enjoy!









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Monday, August 12, 2013

Becoming Vegetarian One Day at a Time

Going vegetarian is one of those goals that a lot of us like to set for ourselves, but never actually live up to. I know I can think of quite a few failed attempts to become a vegetarian that ended up lasting on a couple of days before I caved in and went back to eating meat. Part of the reason this can be such a difficult change, and really why any dietary change can be difficult, is due to the supposed enormity of the change. After all, there are few habits more deeply ingrained into our being than the way we eat. We do it every day, multiple times a day, largely unconsciously. Because it's such a large goal, many people find it easier to become vegetarian, or make any dietary change, one day at a time.

So what does that mean exactly? Well, essentially what you do is decide on what change you want to make, and you start out by making that change for a single day a week to start. For this article that change is going to be going vegetarian. So, what you do it decide on one day a week when you absolutely won't eat meat. Maybe it's for a Friday, maybe it's for a Monday, maybe for Sundays. The day doesn't really matter, but generally you'll have an easier time if the day won't present a lot of temptations to eat meat. So if you always go out to the steak house on Friday's, then maybe your lazy Sundays spent in your house are a better bet to start.

Once you have your day in place, it's a good idea to be as fun and adventurous with this day as possible. Most people think becoming vegetarian is a real dietary limitation, while many vegetarians argue that it greatly expanded their diets. It's a good idea to take out some vegetarian cookbooks, or maybe join or start a vegetarian meet up group for this day. The idea is to make the vegetarian day a fun event that will be something new and exciting. Try new recipes, eat food that you like to eat, share your experiences with other people, do what you need to do to make the day something special. Besides the immediate benefit of making the day something you look forward to, you'll also find that you're slowly building a reserve of relationships and recipes that will help you make the larger transition to being a full time vegetarian.

Once you feel comfortable with your vegetarian day, for instance once you've practiced the day once a week for a month straight, you can then move on to giving yourself two vegetarian days a week. Saturdays and Sundays are good for this, as they are two days already set apart as something special for most people. Do two days a week for a month, then expand to three, then four, and so on until you make it to being a full time vegetarian.

Personal change doesn't need to happen all at once, and most people find it far more effective to make gradual changes that build up to something large and life changing. Try this approach the next time you want to make the change to a vegetarian diet, and in a couple months you'll find it second nature to live in accord with your beliefs.

Monday, August 5, 2013

Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes That Are Easiest To Prepare

There are innumerable healthy slow cooker recipes to try. So, if you do not have a slow cooker, get one immediately, and feel the difference of cooking in a crockpot!

Do you know crockpots are used to add sensuality in dishes? The slow, uniform cooking quality of these pots helps to release the aroma of the food gradually, enveloping every chunk of food. When you lift the lid after the food gets cooked, you get mesmerized by the heavenly aroma that gushes out of the pot. When you take a spoonful, the food tends to sensationalize every corner of your mouth, giving you an enriched experience in eating.

For centuries, it has been the favorite cooking appliance of chefs. It was their tool to seduce their customers with food. Today, crockpots have made a comeback. It's getting huge acceptance in modern kitchens. People have no time to cook a healthy meal. Healthy slow cooker recipes give you a chance to relish food with all its nutrients, tastes, aromas, and sensations put together.

How To Bake Or Roast Vegetables In A Slow Cooker

When you bake food in the oven, it takes time, and you need to be present. Baking is relatively easier. You can also bake without oil or herbs. When you bake vegetables, water is not needed because vegetables have sufficient water content in them. Because of the slow cooking quality, they do not dry up fast, unlike in the oven. Many of these recipes include baking.

You can easily bake a big yam or potato in about 4 hours at low. If you keep at high, it takes 2 hours. Potatoes and root vegetables, when cut in large chunks, take less time to bake. The flavor of roasted or baked vegetables in a crockpot is tantalizing. Serve them with garlic bread, fresh salad, noodles, or fried tofu for a hearty meal.

To experience the joy of cooking, try this recipe. It is one of the easiest healthy slow cooker recipes.

Spicy Apple Squash Dish

YOU NEED: one butternut squash, 4 apples, half onion diced (the white variety), ¾ cup dried cranberries, 1-1/2 tsp ground nutmeg, and 1 tbsp cinnamon ground.

DO THIS: Peel and seed the squash. Cut into cubes. Peel and core the apples. Slice them. Put together all the above ingredients. Set the cooker at high. Cook for 4 hours or until squash cubes become tender. Stir occasionally.

Feel every bite of the dish as it melts in your mouth. The aroma stimulates all your senses and soothes you like nothing ever did before. Stress-what's that!

There are more such healthy slow cooker recipes that de-stress you. The good thing about vegetarian slow cooker recipes is that they are easy to prepare. If you love cooking, slow cooking can become one of your biggest stress busters.










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