This spicy, robust salad is perfect as a lunch dish on its own or as a side to a nice roast or steak...

Ingredients

• 2 medium red onions
• 4 tsp olive oil
• salt and black pepper (to taste)
• 2 cups mixed greens
• a handful of coriander/parsley leaves
• 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 30g walnuts, chopped
• 1/2 0r 1 red chilli (depending how hot) deseeded & finely chopped
• 1/2 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
• 3 tsp sherry vinegar (or red wine vinegar)

Directions

The raw food diet is undoubtedly the healthiest of all diets but using a food steamer and steaming food comes in at a close second.

When you cook by steaming food in a food steamer the food never comes into contact with the water, so vital nutrients are not lost in the cooking process.

A food steamer will retain the cellular structure of food tissues as well as their aromatic composition because the heat when steaming food is gentle.

Inside a food steamer, the steaming food is wrapped in watery steam and cooking takes pace through a convection process. You will also notice that meat, in particular, stays tender and tasty.

Which Foods to Cook in a Food Steamer

Steamed vegetables keep most of their flavonoids and vitamin content, so other than eating them raw, steaming vegetables is the next best way of cooking them.

Fish is also excellent when cooked in a food steamer because it retains all of its flavors and nutrient content such as the essential Omega-3 fatty-acids found in all seafood and fish doesn’t fall apart during the cooking process.

Stir-frying, boiling, grilling, and other high temperature heating methods destroy many important nutrients. If you want to maintain the nutrients and rich flavors of fresh foods, then steaming food is the key!

You can use your food steamer to steam fish, chicken, vegetables, dumplings and much more and reap the health benefits of fat-free cooking that produces crisp and delicious results.

A Food Steamer is a Healthier Choice

All it takes is a simple change to your dietary habits to greatly assist in promoting better health.

Good health and vitality go hand in hand with great tasting food, steaming food perfectly seals in all the natural vitamins and minerals of foods which are vital to maintaining a healthy and balanced diet.

A Food Steamer Preserves Vitamins and Minerals

Brown rice, for example, should be cooked in a food steamer, because this is the only method of cooking brown rice that guarantees the retention of its valuable vitamin B1.

A diet including five servings of steamed vegetables a day can help in the fight against aging and also protect against several serious diseases.

It’s the abundance of vitamins and mineral salts that is so important and by steaming food you will minimize the risk of losing these vital vitamins and nutrients while cooking.

Overcooking or burning food will destroy most, if not all, of the health benefits from eating it, this can be easily avoided if you use a food steamer.

If you are health conscious you may prefer steaming food in a food steamer to other methods which require cooking oil, resulting in lower fat consumption.

If you would like more nutrition secrets, tips and advice on weight loss, fat burning foods and fitness visit Elaine Woosey’s website Beauty-Secrets4U.com.

This is my recipe for making stuffed bell peppers in the crock pot. These are perfect for taking to a pot luck or as an easy dinner idea. I like to serve them with mashed potatoes, but they make a nice meal that requires no side.

Cooked peppers can be stored in the refrigerator for about 1 to 2 days. After that they start to get soggy. If you need to store them longer, then it would be best to freeze them. I’ve never frozen them so I’m not sure if they would still be good after thawing.

What you need:

• 6 Large Peppers (red, green, yellow, or orange)
• 1 Package of Lean Ground Beef (mix with ground pork if you prefer)
• 1/2 of an Onion finely chopped (substitute scallions if you prefer)
• 5 Garlic Cloves finely chopped (garlic powder works also)
• 1/2 Cup of Rice (white rice that has been rinsed)
• 1 Jar of Tomato Sauce (Sauce of your choice – I used mushroom flavored sauce)
• Seasonings (I used Tarragon, Parsley, and Garlic)
• Crock Pot

How to make it:

1. Brown ground beef in a pan. This usually takes about 5 to 10 minutes depending on whether or not you preheated your pan.Its important to brown the meat, but don’t overcook it.
2. In a separate pan, fry garlic and onions until tender. Onions and garlic should be slightly brown. Wash your rice thoroughly.
3. In a pan, add 1 cup of water and 1/2 cup of rice. Boil the rice for about 15 minutes.
4. Once everything is ready to go; mix the ground beef, garlic, onions, and rice in a large bowl.
5. Add tomato sauce to the mixture.
6. Add seasonings and mix.
7. Wash 6 bell peppers, remove the tops and seeds.
8. I like to use a combination of red and green bell peppers.
9. For best results, use the largest bell peppers that you can purchase for the market or grocery store.
10. Fill all bell peppers with the mixture.
11. Place leftover mixture in the bottom of the crock pot and the bell peppers on top.
12. Add 1/2 cup of water to the crock pot. This keeps the peppers moist.
13. Cook on low for 3 hours.
14. When complete, sprinkle tarragon on top of the bell peppers and enjoy!

Serve with sour cream and bread if desired.

There are many people who believe smoked pork to be the best tasting meat. What kind of smoke or method that is used seems not to make a difference, you could use a wood fire smoker, an electric or a gas fueled smoker as long as you use some form of heat and wood in the proper way it is good. The main difficulty in cooking pork, but of course applies to any kind of meat, is it if you’re cooking it low and slow, which is the proper method for barbecue does have the potential to dry out. This is where your skill as a person that barbecues comes into play.

Smoking A Pork Loin

Prior to placing the pork loin into the smoker it must be prepared carefully. There are number of things that you can do to make the meat both flavorful and juicy. Most people who barbecue would put a dry rub onto the pork on all sides and in a sufficient amount to add flavor and create what barbecue cookers call a bark. Now some would actually brine pork loin first which entails the pork sitting in a bath of water that has both sugar and salt in the water. Then after 24 hours you would remove it from the refrigerator pat dry and then add the dry rub.

Prior to putting on the dry rub you could coat the entire pork loin in mustard or you could use oil as this helps to adhere the rub to the meat. Just prior to putting the rub on the pork loin you should get your fire started using a charcoal chimney and bring the temperature of the smoker up to around 225°F. Place some dry wood in the form of chunks or wood chips that have been soaked in water for about an hour on the charcoal. The type of wood is at personal discretion but Hickory is the most popular. The temperature should be maintained between 225°F and 250°F and when finished the internal temperature of the meat should be in the neighborhood of 150°F. The service of the meat should be nice and crispy and flavorful and the inner meat should be tender and juicy.

Create A Pork Shoulder

Smoking a pork shoulder is a wonderful adventure in making some fabulous pulled pork sandwiches. There are some barbecue cookers who will brine or inject the pork shoulder sometimes referred to as Boston Butt. Other people who barbecue would consider this cheating and prefer the purity and the challenge of making a juicy tender pork shoulder without the use of any added liquid.

The process is very similar to the pork loin in the sense of temperature of 225°F to 250°F. You would use Wood chunks or wood chips depending on the type of smoke desired. The choice of the wood is up to the individual. Hickory is always a good choice but then there’s also apple wood and cherry wood to consider along with many other types of fruit woods. To prepare the pork shoulder you would remove any excess fat, add the rub with or without the mustard. To clarify the mustard does not really impart any flavor or at least not much flavor, the sole purpose of the mustard is to keep the rub in contact with the meat.

The difference here is the internal temperature of the pork shoulder should reach in the neighborhood of between 190°F and 200°F in order to break down all of the fat in the collagen inside. Then to get it ready for service you would simply let the meat rest for at least a half an hour if not longer wrapped in aluminum foil. Then you would remove the meat slip out the chine bone and simply pull the pork part with two forks. After the meat has been pulled apart if you’d like you can even chop it and again that is a personal preference to chop or not chop. Then the most important thing to do is when and how to use the barbecue sauce. You can either pour the sauce over the meat and mix it thoroughly into the meat or you can just take parts of the meat and dip it into the sauce this is all your choice.

Smoking Pork Ribs

Smoking pork ribs is one of the delights of all people who smoke their meat. Because the meat is less than other ways of cooking pork it becomes a challenge to get the meat tender and juicy without drying it out and being tough. The temperatures remain the same cooking between 225°F in 250°F this cooking time usually last about 4 to 5 hours depending upon the method that you use.

One step that is different is the removal of the membrane. The membrane is removed for two reasons, first to ensure full flavor of the rub is distributed throughout the ribs and secondly to make the ribs tender. As was other meat you would want to reduce the fat anyplace that it could. In this method most people not everyone sauce is their meat in about the last hour of cooking to keep the barbecue sauce from burning and giving an ugly taste to the cherished ribs.

Enjoy Your Barbecue Pork This Summer

Of course this is just a quick overview of what you can do when you are smoking pork for the barbecue. There is a lot of nuance to creating these types of meals. There is no better way to share family and friend time that in the great outdoors smoking pork and then sitting down and enjoying it with everyone. The above is some of the best examples of cooking pork in a barbecue smoker to give your meat the best flavor along with tenderness and a great deal of juicy goodness in the pork.

Ever wonder why children eat everything along with tomato ketchup. This is a question that parents have been asking themselves for many years. Most children can’t go a single bite without dipping their food into the tomato chutney. It might be disgusting to watch but it seems like one of only a few ways for kids to cope with their food.

Most parents find their kids dipping virtually everything in tomato ketchup. Children smother everything from fries in it to meats to fruit and cookies. Unfortunately, ketchup isn’t the healthiest choice for youngsters out there, either. It’s loaded with sugars and sodium and worries parents when their children are using more than a bottle a week during mealtimes. But, there isn’t much to be done about it, when kids will barely touch their food without the stuff.

We are all curious as to why this red sauce has such an effect on kids. When in reality children actually have different taste buds than adults making them more susceptible to the strong bitter tasting foods that adults have no problem eating. This factually explains why a majority of kids won’t eat their greens such as spinach or broccoli. But, as kids grow older they usually learn to love more of the green stuff and more than likely stop eating the sweets. So there’s hope for parents after all!

There are healthier low sodium and low sugar types available to buy in the supermarket, but sometimes kids can tell the difference. It’s also possible to make your own ketchup but only if you really enjoy canning your own vegetables. Most parents find it easier to just to pick up the cheap bottle in the condiments aisle and call it good.

No one knows for sure how each individual child’s taste buds will mature as they grow older, but usually they start eating a larger variety of foods with stronger and bitterer tastes. And until they reach that point and their taste buds start developing it seems that tomato ketchup is the only thing that gives children a great escape from eating those foods that taste bitter and disgusting. Having a bottle of ketchup on the table for your child assures them that whatever you’re eating that night for dinner will ultimately taste delicious as long as it’s dipped in the sweet red sauce.

The tomato chutney that kids find so delicious helps them to cover any and all unpleasant flavors in food they’re eating by giving it a sudden sweet taste making the meal more enjoyable and more bearable. For parents it’s almost startling and disgusting to watch as their child immerses their entire meal in the dip. But, at least the kids are eating their dinners, right?

Learning to cook organic foods isn’t that difficult. It’s all about doing some research and finding out the reason why you want to them. Is it because you want to be healthier? Or maybe you want to help the environment? It’s important to realize why so that you can put your full effort into learning to cook organically grown foods. Eating organically is in fact way easier than trying to keep up with the latest fad diet. You never have to worry about harmful side effects or complicated eating instructions.

Here’s a couple tips to learning to cook natural, healthy foods:

Tip #1: Find out the difference between organic foods and other traditionally grown foods at the grocery store. Realize that organic foods are readily available at most grocery stores.

Tip #2: Realize that if you can already cook, you are already half-way there to being able to cook organic foods. Cooking organically-grown foods isn’t that much different from cooking the foods you already do! And if you don’t know how to cook, no big deal. Learning to these foods is simple.

Tip #3: You can grow your own natural foods right in your own backyard or apartment. Realize that you don’t need a farm or huge garden to grow your own foods.

Tip #4: Understand how much healthier organic foods are for you and your family. Organic foods are grown without the harmful pesticides and man-made chemicals. Do you really want those chemicals and poisons going into your body?

See, learning to cook your own natural foods is easier than you think. All you have to do is make the decision to do it.

Find out more information about how cook organically-grown foods at: http://organiccookingguide.blogspot.com/.

Did you find these tips on “How To Learn To Cook Organic Foods” useful? Get more tips and information about cooking natural foods at: http://organiccookingguide.blogspot.com/.

Whether you live in an urban high-rise or have a little plot of land in a suburban neighborhood, you can grow your own garden and bring this practice back to favor. If you aren’t convinced, consider these 5 reasons why you should grow a garden:

Access to Fresh Food

When you grow your own garden, you always have access to fresh food. You don’t have to buy food that has been grown in artificial conditions or that has been grown in climates on the other side of the globe. You can walk right into your backyard (or onto your porch) and harvest foods that are available right now. Fresh food is more nutritious and more delicious.

Access to Healthy Food

You can’t grow a Snickers bar in your garden. All the foods you grow are going to be healthy and nutritious foods that you can indulge in without guilt — and can actually feel encouraged to eat without abandon. When you grow foods organically, you can also be sure that they are not treated with pesticides or other harmful chemicals, making your personally grown produce more healthy than that which you could buy in the store.

Budget Savings

Growing your own food costs pennies on the dollar for what you would pay buying the same foods in the grocery store. When you grow your own garden, you can cut down your grocery budget significantly. Depending on how much you grow and how many other types of foods you eat, you could conceivably save up to 90 percent of your grocery bill just by growing a garden.

Food Education

If you ask most children where bread comes from, they will tell you the store. Few people have a proper understanding of the farm to table food chain. By growing your own garden, you learn more about how food is produced, how the eco-system is affected, and a little bit about the politics of the food industry. Those are good lessons for yourself and good lessons to teach your children.

Environmental Assistance

Growing your own food helps to reduce your environmental impact. When you don’t contribute to the industrial food chain, fewer foods have to be raised with the assistance of harmful chemicals and fewer foods have to be shipped long distances, using up natural resources like gas. Choosing to grow an organic garden can increase your environmental stewardship even more.

Growing a garden may seem like an old-timey tradition, but many people are beginning to understand the rewards of growing a garden and are reviving the practice. If you aren’t convinced that you should join the local foods renaissance, consider these reasons for why you should grow a garden.

Do you grow your own garden? Share your reasons in the comments!

Bridget Sandorford is a freelance writer and researcher for  Culinaryschools.org, where recently she’s been researching  culinary schools in vermont. In her spare time, she enjoys biking, painting and working on her first cookbook.

This dish is another farmer's market favourite that we love to make as a nice tasty fresh dish..

Ingredients

• 1 lb. soba noodles
• 1 1/2 TBS sriracha sauce or other hot sauce (taste as you go!)
• 1 large cucumber, peeled and cut into matchsticks
• 5-8 medium carrots, peeled and cut into matchsticks
• 5 scallions, trimmed and sliced thinly
• 1/2 c. chopped cilantro
• 2 TBS vegetable oil
• 3 TBS minced garlic
• 3 TBS minced ginger
• 4 TBS sesame oil
• 3 TBS rice vinegar
• 3 TBS sugar
• 3 TBS peanut butter
• 1/4 c. sesame seeds
• honey-roasted peanuts, for garnish (about 2-3 TBS per serving)

Directions

Avocado, Shrimp & Endive Salad from LEAFtv on Vimeo.

A very tasty recipe that I came across recently, and needed to share

Also, chicken makes a good substitute for shrimp