One Serving

Strawberries Are Packed With Fibre

Debbie — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 11:17:50 +0000

Even Bane knows the importance of good nutrition, as shown in this video of “outtakes” from The Dark Knight Rises.

The Guacamole song

Debbie — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 19:30:36 +0000

In celebration of today’s new serving size post, Avocado, I invite you all to enjoy the Guacamole song!

G-U-A-C-A-M-O-LE!

I love my simple guacamole recipe. Check it out over at Forkd. The song’s recipe calls for chilli and onions but I like to eat my guacamole with spicy tacos or beefy fajitas, so I keep it nice and cooling.

Do you like your guacamole spicy with tortilla chips or some other way?

Tasting Dark Chocolate

Debbie — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:36:50 +0000

I’m a big fan of dark chocolate; not so much for milk or white. London is a great place for gourmet chocolates. As well as the UK-based Artisan du Chocolat, we also have plenty of Hotel Chocolat shops, the Parisian La Maison du Chocolat and a whole host of Belgian outlets for the likes of Godiva, Leonidas and so on.

Artisan du Chocolat is by far my favourite and, best of all, they run a stall at Borough Market every weekend which sells the misshapen chocolates that don’t make it to the stall. They’re cheap and still taste gorgeous! :)

Today I ran across a fabulous guide to tasting dark chocolate from Chow. Chocolate is incredibly complex, but the tasting process itself should be focused around into 4 distinct areas: Visual, Aroma, Texture and Flavour.

Texture: Break a chunk off. A clean snap indicates that the chocolate’s been well tempered. Put it in your mouth. Close your eyes and think about what you’re experiencing. Chew a few times to break it up, and let it melt in your mouth.

See the full article; How to Taste Dark Chocolate over at CHOW.

Now Featuring Almonds!

Debbie — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 17:35:18 +0000

I’ve been hard at work expanding database over the past few weeks. I noticed that a lot of you have been searching for almonds. Look no further, they’re here by popular demand!

One Serving of Almonds

Easy-Peel Tomatoes

Debbie — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 23:44:15 +0000

Cut a small cross into the skin of each tomato. Drop them into boiling water for about 10 seconds. Fish them out (mind the hot water!) and the skin should peel away easily.

What Really Counts As One Serving?

Debbie — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:42:05 +0000

How big is one serving or portion? Good question. It depends on what you’re eating. Food can be put into 5 different groups: Fruit and Vegetables; Starch, Grains and Cereals; Nuts and Seeds; Proteins and Fats, Oils and Sugar. Each group has a different set of nutritional requirements.

Fruit and Vegetables

Common wisdom says you should eat at least five servings of fruit and vegetables every day. Problem is, what actually counts as a serving size?

According to the World Health Organisation, adults should eat a minimum of 400g (14 ounces) of fruit and vegetables every day to help stave off chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity.

In other words, one serving or portion of fruit and vegetables is 80 grams. That’s 2.8 ounces. Eat five portions every day and you’ll hit your daily target.

Great. But what’s that in real terms?

Ah, now you’ve hit the crux of our site. Have a look around. You’ll find photos of one measured serving of all kinds of fruit and vegetables, along with their calorie counts, glycaemic load and a load of other useful information. Here are some to get you started:

Nuts and Seeds

Nuts and seeds are a huge segment of food. You’ll find all sorts of nutrients in different seeds, so it’s not appropriate to use a general weight measurement for serving size. Instead, we’ve settled on 160 to 180 calories as a reasonable amount of energy to eat in one sitting.

Have a look at these pages to see how different 170-odd calories can look from seed to seed:

Proteins

According to dietician and nutritionist, Dr Mabel Blades, one serving of meat is approximately 100 to 150 grams of uncooked meat, or 3.5 to 5 ounces. This will shrink depending on how the meat is cooked.

We’ll update this post to include the other foods groups in the next couple of weeks.

Grating Zest

Debbie — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:46:54 +0000

Zest is a great way to flavour things – put it in butter to add a zing to your vegetables, add it to fruit pie fillings, boil it up to give depth to your gravy… there’s no end to the tasty stuff you can make with a bit of citrus rind.

When grating citrus fruits for zest, make sure you only get the coloured part of the peel. Don’t go all the way through to the white pith; this will taste unpleasantly bitter. It’s possible but difficult to do this with even the sharpest of knives; I recommend getting a proper zester even if you only use it a few times a year. Traditional zesters
are good for doing a couple of fruit but can get tedious if you’re doing a large batch of zest. I’m a big fan of Microplane and their coarse grater should give you a good amount pretty quickly.

Raspberry Coulis

Debbie — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:54:23 +0000

Tangy raspberry coulis is a fabulous way to add some zing to a rich creamy dessert. I serve it with vanilla ice cream or drizzled over a plain cheese cake. Here’s a simple recipe:

What you need:

15-20 raspberries
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp icing sugar

Equipment:

A food processor
A sieve
A bowl

Instructions:

Throw everything into the food processor.
Blend until uniformly liquid.
Strain through a sieve into a bowl.

Nice and simple, right? You can adjust the quantities of lime and icing sugar to suit your dessert.

Tangerine + Chocolate = Heaven

Debbie — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:39:38 +0000

Tangerine segments are fabulous dipped in chocolate fondue. If you’re making fondue, try to get tangerines early in the season when they’re still tart but juicy. Heavenly!

Liven Up Your Couscous

Debbie — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 12:45:05 +0000

Abby used to think couscous was terribly dull. She’s since discovered some great ways to perk it up:

this week we had some gorgeous couscous that required a little more effort, but not much. i mixed the couscous grains with finely diced red chilli and shallots plus shredded mint, basil and parsley before adding the stock, into which i’d stirred the juice and zest of a lemon plus a pinch of saffron. when the couscous was done i stirred in some pomegranate seeds and it was ready to go.

See more of her couscous ideas at eat the right stuff.