Tag Archives: Cooking

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Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients

3-1/3 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1-1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

2/3 cup cool to cold butter, cut into small cubes

1 (16 oz) can pureed pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling)

4 eggs, slightly beaten

2-2/3 cup sugar

2/3 cup milk

1 cup golden raisins (much softer than regular raisins), optional

1 cup chopped pecans or other nuts, optional

Glaze, optional

 

Glaze Ingredients

3 oz softened cream cheese, at room temperature

2 tbsp softened butter

2 tbsp milk, or as needed

1/3 to 1/2 cup powdered sugar, depending on how sweet you like your glaze

1/2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

 Combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until very smooth. add more milk if needed to get fairly thin drizzling consistency.

Pour over cooled bread or cake. Pass additional glaze at the table.

 Jane Evans Bonacci – The Heritage Cook

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Pumpkins Health Benefits

  • It is one of the very low calorie vegetables. 100 g fruit provides just 26 calories and contains no saturated fats or cholesterol; however, it is rich in dietary fiber, anti-oxidants, minerals, vitamins. The vegetable is one of the food items recommended by dieticians in cholesterol controlling and weight reduction programs.
  • Pumpkin is a storehouse of many anti-oxidant vitamins such as vitamin-A, vitamin-C and vitamin-E.
  • With 7384 mg per 100 g, it is one of the vegetables in the Cucurbitaceae family featuring highest levels of vitamin-A, providing about 246% of RDA. Vitamin A is a powerful natural anti-oxidant and is required by the body for maintaining the integrity of skin and mucus membranes. It is also an essential vitamin for good visual sight. Research studies suggest that natural foods rich in vitamin A help a body protects against lung and oral cavity cancers.
  • It is also an excellent source of many natural poly-phenolic flavonoid compounds such as α, ß carotenes, cryptoxanthin, lutein and zea-xanthin. Carotenes convert into vitamin A inside the body.
  • Zea-xanthin is a natural anti-oxidant which has UV (ultra-violet) rays filtering actions in the macula lutea in retina of the eyes. Thus, it helps protect from “age-related macular disease” (ARMD) in the elderly.
  • The fruit is a good source of B-complex group of vitamins like folates, niacin, vitamin B-6 (pyridoxine), thiamin and pantothenic acid.
  • It is also rich source of minerals like copper, calcium, potassium and phosphorus.
  • Pumpkin seeds indeed are an excellent source of dietary fiber and mono-unsaturated fatty acids, which are good for heart health. In addition, the seeds are concentrated sources of protein, minerals and health-benefiting vitamins. For instance, 100 g of pumpkin seeds provide 559 calories, 30 g of protein, 110% RDA of iron, 4987 mg of niacin (31% RDA), selenium (17% of RDA), zinc (71%) etc., but no cholesterol. Further, the seeds are an excellent source of health promoting amino acidtryptophan. Tryptophan is converted to GABA in the brain.

Source

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Blueberry Alien Pie

I made that up.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Pie

One 9″ Graham cracker crust

1 8 oz. PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese bar

1 can condensed milk

1/3 cup lemon juice

1 tsp. vanilla

Mix the cream cheese with the condensed milk with a mixer. Then add the lemon juice and vanilla. Mix well to thicken. Pour into crust.

Blueberry Topping

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

1/4 cup sugar

Heaping tsp. corn starch

Cook berries with sugar over medium/low heat, stirring well. Add a heaping tsp. corn starch to thicken. Mix well and cook about 5 min.

Pour over top of cream cheese mixture and chill for a few hours.

http://southernhospitalityblog.com/blueberry-cream-cheese-pie/

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This is not my recipe but close. We added layers of sliced bananas and it was called Million Dollar Pie.

This is the closest recipe, I saw a few on the internet that included crushed pineapple….so you choose.

 

My Tee Shirt Store

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Homemade Granola

I am a bit like granola, nutty, crunchy, and sweet. I don’t have raisins though. I love, love, love good granola. I am not, nor have I ever been a cereal eater, but granola…yum. You can tell that I am from California. I found this recipe on the net. I want some.

Ingredients

  • 3 cups rolled oats
  • 1 cup slivered almonds
  • 1 cup cashews
  • 3/4 cup shredded sweet coconut
  • 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup raisins

Directions

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts, coconut, and brown sugar.

In a separate bowl, combine maple syrup, oil, and salt. Combine both mixtures and pour onto 2 sheet pans. Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes to achieve an even color.

Remove from oven and transfer into a large bowl. Add raisins and mix until evenly distributed.

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown

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Water Chestnuts

About Water Chestnuts:

Water chestnuts – where would Chinese food be without them? The knobby vegetable with the papery brown skin is a staple in Chinese cooking. The water chestnut is actually not a nut at all, but an aquatic vegetable that grows in marshes. (This is why the ones that you purchase in the store may have a muddy coating.) The name “water chestnut” comes from the fact that it resembles a chestnut in shape and coloring. Indigenous to Southeast Asia, it has been cultivated in China since ancient times.

Nutritional Information:

Nutritionally, water chestnuts are a good source of potassium and fiber. They are low in sodium, and fat is virtually non-existent. Caloriewise, one cup of water chestnut slices contains about one hundred-thirty calories. Low carb dieters, beware: water chestnuts are high in carbohydrates. You may try replacing them with low carb bamboo shoots.
Full Article:
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Benefits of Ginseng For Women

 

Benefits of Ginseng For Women

The benefits of ginseng for women cannot be overlooked in the modern world. It has been used for centuries to treat all manner of disorders and is a very popular herbal remedy with both men and women. It is often taken in capsule form or as a tea.

It is a widely-used herb, particularly in Chinese medicine. It comes in three varieties – American, Asian and Siberian.

The American variety is known as “cooling” ginseng. The Asian variety is also known as red ginseng. It is a stronger type and more warming and energy giving. Siberian ginseng comes from the same family of plants as the American and Asian varieties but is not a true ginseng.

Ginseng health benefits include:

  • Regulation of menstruation and PMS. Ginseng has hormone-balancing qualities, which is useful for women in the early stages of the menopause, as it regulates estrogen production from the ovaries. The American variety of ginseng is recommended for those suffering from hot flashes due to its ‘cooling’ qualities.
  • Anti-aging properties. A number of skin creams now include ginseng in their list of ingredients. It has a toning effect on the skin and can help to balance oil production within the skin.
  • The increase of the libido. Women frequently find that their libido diminishes during menopause, and ginseng can help to stimulate the hormones that regulate this. Men have for many years used ginseng to combat similar problems.
  • Fighting colds and infections. Another of the benefits of ginseng for women is its incredible ability to boost the body’s immune system, thus helping to ward off the common cold and aid healing when an infection is present.
  • Many use ginseng for energy and to increase stamina. Ginseng can stimulate blood flow and can be used to combat fatigue and improve sports performance. If taking the herb for this reason, it is not recommended to be administered at night, as this could interfere with sleep.
  • Fighting memory loss. Lapses in memory can be very distressing and this can be a symptom of menopause. Using ginseng in combination with other herbs can aid the sharpening of mental focus and avoid these lapses.

Ginseng Weight Loss
It is also thought that ginseng may be useful when trying to lose weight, an issue with which many women are familiar. Its primary benefit is to aid with regulating blood sugar, which in turn reduces the amount of carbohydrate that the body stores as fat.

It should be noted though that ginseng should be used in conjunction with a balanced, low-fat diet to promote weight loss and will have little benefit if it is not.

Its ability to reduce fatigue and increase stamina should also help with weight loss, as those taking it will have increased energy levels for exercising.

Ginseng Side Effects
Although the benefits of ginseng for women are many, there are a number of side effects, and one should consult a medical professional if in doubt. Side effects can include high blood pressure, insomnia, headaches, and agitation.

Those with a serious illness such as cancer or a heart condition should check with their doctor to ensure that it will not interfere with any prescribed medication.

http://www.herbal-treatment-remedies.com/benefits-of-ginseng-for-women.html

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Genetically Modified Food

The case for mandatory GMO labeling – even if you believe in limited government and the free market

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/036209

_GMO_labeling_ballot_measure_California.html#ixzz1zrG0M1C0

(NaturalNews) Now that the GMO labeling ballot measure has been officially accepted onto the California ballot, Monsanto is gearing up its propaganda campaign that aims to convince people you don’t need to know what you’re eating! Trust us, we’re the food companies! We never lie, do we?

For the record, I’m an opponent of most government mandates against individuals. When the government says you have to give your children vaccine shots, that’s a violation of your liberty. When Mayor Bloomberg says you can’t buy a 16 oz. soda in New York, that’s a violation of your liberty, too — even though I am opposed to soda consumption in general.

When the government says you can’t drink raw milk, or you can’t treat cancer with medicinal herbs, or you have to get EPA approval before building a house on your own neighborhood lot, those are all examples of government mandates against individuals gone terribly wrong.

But this GMO labeling ballot measure is not a government mandate against the People. In fact, it’s quite the opposite: A People-powered mandate against the corporations.

Forcing corporations to tell the truth

It is the People of California, after all, who developed this GMO labeling ballot measure, gathered the signatures, and put it on the ballot. And the point of it is solely to keep corporations honest about what they put in our food. It is, technically, merely an extension of existing food ingredient labeling laws, and I can’t think of a single person who would argue that food companies shouldn’t even be required to list food ingredients.

For the record, I’ve actually lived in a country where food ingredients were not required to be listed on labels. It was a nightmare trying to avoid MSG because food companies consistently and tirelessly seek to deceive consumers about what they put into foods. Without labeling laws, we would all soon be eating melamine, human fetal cells, and mystery chemicals of dubious origin (even beyond what we’re already eating).

If the GMO labeling issue were up to the government of California, there would be no ballot measure whatsoever. The biotech industry rules over corrupt government bureaucrats and politicians because it can always buy sufficient influence to kill any legislative initiative. Such is the reasoning behind a people-powered ballot measure: It is the one lawmaking mechanism still available to the People who can bypass corruption and go straight to the voters. Of course, even if passed, the ballot measure is subject to state Supreme Court interpretation, and that’s an important measure to make sure the masses of any state don’t enact a law that would deprive other people of their constitutional rights and liberties.

But GMO labeling is a threat to no one other than the deceptively-operated biotech industry itself. GMO labeling is an effort to force corporations to simply tell the truth on food labels so that moms, dads, children and everybody else can know what they’re buying and eating.

The proper use of regulatory power

The People forcing their state government to mandate honest food labels is one of the few legitimate applications of government regulatory power. This is true even if you believe, as I do, that government is too big, too oppressive, too arrogant and way too expensive. Today in America, we suffer from bloated government that has become a serious threat to the liberty of the People. Yet to take that argument and use it to say that GMO labeling mandates are an encroachment of liberties is a logic error: this mandate is directed solely at corporations with a proven track record of deceiving the People. In no way is GMO labeling encroaching upon individual rights or liberties. If anything, it actually empowers individuals with accurate information about their free market choices of what they’re buying.

The free market requires accurate information about products

One of the most fundamental concepts of the free market is that both producers and consumers benefit from access to accurate information about what they are buying or selling. This is fundamental to the efficiency of any free market. But biotech companies selling GMOs want the market to be a one-way mirror — they know what’s in the food but you don’t!

Consumers therefore don’t know what they’re buying, and thus you don’t have a free market… you have a contrived market where products are deceptively labeled to make sure that consumers do not have access to accurate information about what they’re buying.

Think about it: the successful selling of GMOs depends entirely on consumers not knowing they are buying them. Nearly every other product is sold because people actually want it: People buy vitamin C because they want vitamin C. They buy whole wheat bread because they want whole wheat. But they only buy GMOs because they are not aware they are buying GMOs.

Genetically engineered food ingredients, in other words, are purchased entirely by accident by nearly everyone who buys them. That’s not a free market. That’s not transparency. That’s deception. It is what destroys consumer confidence in the free market, thereby harming the efficiencies of the market itself. How many corn-based food products, for example, are entirely avoided by informed consumers today merely because they suspect those products might contain GMOs even if they don’t?

If GMOs are so good, why don’t the food companies want them listed on food labels?

The other big question in all this concerns the GMO “feature” of foods. Genetically modified seeds, you see, are sold to farmers with all sorts of features. “These seeds are different,” companies like Monsanto promise farmers. “They will increase your crop yields and make you more money.”

But when it comes to food labeling, Monsanto speaks with a forked tongue to the FDA.” GMOs are no different,” they claim. “Therefore, there’s no need to list them on food labels.”

How can GMOs be different, and yet be not different at the same time? How can Monsanto apply for patents on GM seeds by claiming they are “unique” and then claim there’s no need to regulate them because they are “equivalent” to other seeds? It’s a bald-faced contradiction, as anyone can readily tell.

It’s easier to just call it a lie… a convenient lie that sells more food containing genetically modified ingredients. Because, again, the only reason most consumers even purchase foods contain GM ingredients is because they are completely unaware of what they’re really buying.

Monsanto would love to keep it this way. Its entire business model depends on a lack of transparency. Withholding information from consumers is central to its business model. Telling the truth on food labels would destroy its business revenues because consumers would then be operating with reliable information, making free market choices based on accurate information.

But Monsanto, you see, is the enemy of a free market. Just like the Rockefellers, the JP Morgans, Goldman Sachs… you name it. Powerful corporate interests that collude with government almost always do so as a way to somehow cheat or betray consumers. The last thing they want is to be forced to actually tell the truth about what they’re selling (and what you’re buying).

Want to audit the Fed? You’ll want to audit your FOOD even more…

Why do lovers of liberty wish to audit the Federal Reserve? Because we demand transparency. We all deserve to know what’s being done with our money, right?

By the same token, we should just as much wish to audit our food and find out what’s in it. After all, we eat this stuff. It impacts our health and lives in a profound way. Food labels are like little food audit reports: At a glance, we can know the ingredients and nutrition facts. With the help of GMO labeling, we will also be able to tell if ingredients are genetically engineered.

Everyone who believes in transparency from government and corporations by definition must also agree with mandatory GMO labeling. It’s about telling the truth so that consumers can make an informed choice in a free market economy.

You’ve got to wonder: What business is so ashamed of its products that it doesn’t even want its technology identified on product labels? The answer, of course, is the biotech industry.

To oppose GMO labeling is to side with Monsanto

The final point here is that to oppose GMO labeling — full transparency so that consumers to know what they’re buying — is to play right into the hands of Monsanto itself. This corporation, in fact, will likely spent tens of millions of dollars attempting to defeat the California ballot initiative in the hopes that foods containing GMOs can continue to be deceptively sold to consumers who have no idea what they’re actually buying.

Again, Monsanto’s business model depends on consumers NOT having access to accurate information about what they’re buying. Market success means withholding information from customers. Gotcha, sucka!

What’s beautiful about the GMO labeling ballot measure is that people from all walks of life strongly support it: Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and almost everybody else. People overwhelmingly agree — over 90% in the polls I’ve seen — with the simple principle that we have the right to know what we’re buying and eating. It’s not a complicated issue. It’s a fundamental principle of consumer choice and free market efficiency.

This is why I will personally continue to strongly advocate support for this GMO labeling initiative, regardless of what the biotech industry might do to try to obfuscate the issue in the minds of voters. That effort will be significant, no doubt. Everything is on the line for this industry which is terrified of having to tell the truth. When full transparency would cause an entire industry to lose 90 percent of its customers, you have to scratch your head and wonder what they’re selling people in the first place.

The California GMO ballot measure — a grassroots measure put on the ballot by the People in the face of fierce corporate resistance — would force the biotech industry to simply tell the truth. It is the ultimate expression of the People demanding fundamental transparency from an industry so powerful that it has successfully threatened states (http://www.naturalnews.com/035628_Monsanto

_Vermont_GMO_labeling.html) and even entire nations (http://www.naturalnews.com/030828_GMOs_Wikileaks.html) with economic sanctions.

Passage of this GMO labeling initiative will be a victory for transparency, a victory for the free market, and a victory for the People. It is time that We the People demanded full transparency from the companies that produce the food we feed ourselves and our children.

NaturalNews thanks all those who support this honest labeling effort. With your support, we can make history together and end the scourge of GMOs in America — even in the face of powerful corporations and governments which would greatly prefer we all stay uninformed.

Learn more about GMO labeling

www.LabelGMOs.org
www.JustLabelIt.org
www.OrganicConsumers.org
www.ResponsibleTechnology.org

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/036209_GMO_labeling

_ballot_measure_California.html#ixzz1zrGFkZ5f

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Almonds

Good for brain: Almond is a source of many nutrients which help in development of the brain. Almond induces high intellectual level and has been considered as an essential food item for growing children. Many mothers give almonds soaked in water to their children daily in the morning (2-3 pieces of soaked almonds are good enough, you can also remove the outer shell if it causes allergy to you.

Regulates cholesterol: Regular consumption of almonds helps to increase the level of high density lipoproteins (HDL) and reduce the level of low density lipoproteins (LDL), thereby effectively controlling cholesterol levels. LDL cholesterol is called bad cholesterol.

Good for heart: Mono-saturated fat, protein and potassium contained in almonds are good for the heart. Vitamin E acts as an antioxidant and reduces the risk of heart diseases. The presence of magnesium in almonds helps to avoid heart attacks. Almonds help reduce C-reactive protein which causes artery-damaging inflammation. Almond is also a source of folic acid. They therefore help to reduce the level of homocystein, which causes fatty plaque buildup in arteries.

Skin care: The benefits of almond for skin care are well known, and hence a massage with almond oil is often recommended for new born babies. Almond milk is also added in some soap as almonds help in improving the complexion of the skin.

Regulates blood pressure: Potassium present in almond helps to regulates blood pressure. Almonds are very low in sodium which also helps in containing blood pressure.

Prevention of cancer: Almond improves the movement of food through the colon, thereby preventing colon cancer.

Protection against diabetes: Almonds also help in reducing the rise in sugar and insulin levels after meals. This offers protection from diabetes.

Good in pregnancy: Almond contains folic acid. Folic acid helps to reduce the incidence of birth defects in newborn babies.

Weight loss: Unsweetened almond milk helps one to reduce weight. The mono-saturated fat contained in almonds satisfies appetite and prevents over-eating. Studies have revealed that almond rich low calorie diet is good for obese people to assist in shedding their weight.

Prevention of constipation: Almonds are rich in fibre. Like most other fibre rich food, almonds also help in preventing constipation. Make sure you drink good amount of water after eating almonds.

Boosts energy: The presence of manganese, copper and Riboflavin helps in energy production.

One avoids the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by consuming almonds. But just like any other food, even almonds have their cons. They contain oxalates and excessive oxalates can cause crystallization. So people having kidney or gallbladder problems should avoid eating almonds.

Article link:

http://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/seed-and-nut/health-benefits-of-almonds.html

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