Pass me the Seaweed!

My mom always tried to push me to eat seaweeds. She added them to stews and salads, but I hated them. They completely changed the flavor of the dish.
I forgot about them until I tried sushi not so long ago (as almost everyone in western cultures) and became adicted to Nori (the seaweed used in rolls). Now I don't care what kind of sushi I eat as long as it has Nori in it. I love the texture, the flavor, the consistency...and I know it's really healthy too!

the don't look so tempting in the ground :p

I made some research to sum up the benefits of seaweed:
Seaweeds contain every nutrient found in the ocean and every mineral found in the human blood. Thats something!:

<3

It contains B12 vitamin (it's one of the few vegetable sources), Vitamin A and Vitamin C, magnesium, iron, calcium, potassium.


It's great for weightloss, as it has almost no calories and its fiber content contributes to a feeling of satiety.


It helps in the digestion process, as it creates movement in the bowels helping the elimination of waste.


It is anti-cancerous and anti-inflammatory


It can substitute salt, reducing the risk of high bloos pressure (therefore, of heart attack and stroke)

Nori!

I leave you this series of videos to learn how to make california rolls, explained by a japanese boy :D

Honey I'm Home

Even before making any research I believed that honey must be much more nutritious than refined sugar, and I knew it can replace it almost always. But I wanted to know a little more so I learned a few interesting facts about honey:

Weight Loss: Though honey has more calories than sugar, honey when consumed with warm water helps in digesting the fat stored in your body.
Source of Vitamins and Minerals: Commonly, honey contains Vitamin C, Calcium and Iron, but it depends on the type of flowers used to produce it.
Antibacterial and Antifungal Properties: Honey has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties and hence it can be used as a natural antiseptic.
Antioxidants: Honey contains nutraceuticals, which are effective in removing free radicals from our body. As a result, our body immunity is improved.


I try to replace sugar everytime I can. For example, when making pancakes or sweet breads, I always use honey.
Here's a honey bread recipe I learned. It doesn't have any butter or oil, so it's light!

Honey and Ginger bread
3 cups of self rising flour
5 tablespoons of honey
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of grated ginger
1,5 cups of milk
Mix all the ingredients, you can add some nuts or raisins if you want.
Bake it and let it rest until cold, then cut it in very thin slices. The thinner, the better.


=)

Let's talk about Metabolism

What is metabolism? 


It's the breakdown of nutrients we have in the diet (fats, proteins, carbohydrates) to make the energy the body needs to build and maintain itself.
Metabolism rythm tends to slow down when we grow up and if we don't make excercise.
Increasing your metabolism can help you burn calories, replace fat with muscle and give you more energy!

Swimming is one of the favorite sports to speed metabolism

How can we speed up our metabolism?


Exercising! this will reduce body fat and increase lean muscle mass. Metabolism will increase and aid in the weight-loss process.
Aerobic excercise speeds up the metabolism even after you stopped excercising. Weight lifting does not speed up the metabolism but it burns fat and increases muscle tissue, which uses more calories than fat tissues.

Drinking green tea in the morning is essential

What can we eat to help metabolism?


Having breakfast is essential. The body has been deprived of food throughout the night, slowing metabolism downd. If the cells do not receive sufficient nutrients they begin to function less efficiently, and they actually store more fat to use during times of nutritional deprivation.
If you diet or skip meals your body's metabolism slows down to compensate for the lack of nutrients.
Green Tea is perhaps one of the best morning metabolism boosters you can drink.
Spices like chilli, ginger, garlic and mustard, are thought to raise metabolism by up to 50 percent for up to three hours after eating, due to increasing the heart rate.
Some other things to eat are: nuts, fish, vegetables, whole grains, proteins.

Sweet, sweet chocolate

After a little research I made, I concluded that the only reason to consider not eating chocolate is because it has a high percentage of fat, which will likely deposit on undesired locations, and its high number of calories packed in a little package (one ounce has 150 calories). 

Other than that, it has lots of benefits to offer:


It stimulates you central nervous system an relaxes your blood vessels. 
Dark chocolate has antioxidants (you would only need about one and one-half ounces of dark chocolate per day to get the antioxidant benefits)
Chocolate makes you happy (at least it makes Me happy). It raises the level of the serotonin in the brain, which elevates one's mood.
Chocolate may be a cancer preventative.
Chbocolate may decrease LDL (bad cholesterol) and raise HDL (good cholesterol)
Chocolate has beneficial cardiovascular properties 
Cocoa contains substances thay may inhibit the growth of the bacteria that leads to plaque and cavity formation.
Chocolate is not a direct cause of acne, contrary to what out grandmothers always tought us.


But beware, as not every chocolate you get in the market is good. Manufacturers often remove the healthy chemicals from chocolate (like flavanols) because these substances give chocolate its bitter taste and people tend to prefer sweeter chocolate. The problem is that what makes sweeter chocolate sweet, is sugar. And high sugar intake is unhealthy.


The conclusion is that if you like chocolate and you are in a general good health, you shouldnt stop eating, just control eating reasonable amounts, and always prefer bitter (and expensive) chocolate rather than cheap milky one.


And now, I present you my ultimate chocolate brownie recipe :D

oooooohhhhhh

1 cup (2 sticks) butter/margarine

2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup flour
¾ cup cocoa
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt

Heat oven to 350F. Grease 9×13 in. baking pan. Microwave butter until melted. Stir in sugar and vanilla. Add eggs, beating well after each addition. Add flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Beat until well-blended. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 30-35 minutes, or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan.

If you want to improve your healthy habits, you can start by many other aspects that are more harmful than eating sweet, sweet chocolate :3

The nicest way to introduce Alton Brown: Avocados

Avocados! They are considered only the world's healthiest fruit!

They are sooo pretty.

Avocados are a very important element of almost every losing-weight diet, due to the big amount of nutrients they are stuffed with and their large quantity of calories used to replace any fatty unhealthy food:
Magnesium
Postasium
Vitamin A, C, K, B6
Healthy fatty acids
Fiber
Folic acid
Copper
Many more :P


They are great in salads, not only for the flavor they add, but because vegetable's antioxidants (mostly carotenoids from carrots) are better absorbed when combined with fat.

I like some sushi in my avocado

Why are they so expensive? I've made this question so many times and just found the answer today. Avocados have to be kept 13 months in the tree until they can be harvested. Furthermore, they can only ripe after harvested.


I want to leave you this video featuring Alton Brown on its food network show: Good Eats. If you like cooking and you are also a geek, you will fall in love with him <3

=)

Stomach ache is in your head

I used to have stomach ache every other day. It was very frustrating because I had to stop with my normal routine until it went away.
I used to relate it directly with the food I eat, but then I learned it had little to do with that. The stomach is a muscle. There is people that under stress tend to tense the back muscles, or the head muscles. Bur people like me tense the stomach muscles and therefore have digestive problems.

The zone where the pain is located will help you know the reason it caused it

 If you suffer often from stomach ache, you can try and visit a gastroentherologist, and you can also try these steps.


First of all, you must try and free your tension. 
Lay down, put a pillow under your feet and breathe in and out slowly.
Try to forget about your problems for the moment.
Put some relaxing music.
Drink some ginger ale or 7up, and lie on your left side for 5 minutes on a comfortable couch or bed. The esophagus enters the stomach on the right side of your body, so the bubbles of gas can rise to that entry point and make a burp possible.
Take a warm relaxing bath.
Take some herbal tea, like chamomile or ginger tea, or a glass of water with half a lemon.
Go to the bathroom if you feel like it.
If you feel hungry, grate a red apple and let it sit for 10 minutes before eating it, or bake it in the oven.

Ginger-Lemon-Honey tea is a good medicine and it tastes great

Try not to eat spicy or seasoned elaborated food!
If the pain lasts for more than 2 days you should visit a doctor, because it may be the symptom of some disease like celiac disease or some food intolerance.
Another good advice is to chew your food several times before swallowing. Enjoy the moment. This takes up a lot of work from the stomach.

If life gives you lemons, make a lemon pie!

Lemons are used all over the world for a bunch of different purposes.
I used to drink ONLY lemonade until I got tired of preparing it :P 

Green lemons are unripe, choose yellow ones instead

Lemons, due to their high contents of citric acid, aid digestion and help dissolve kidney stones.
They also have a high content of ascorbic acid (vitamin C), which acts like a natural anticeptic helping the body resistance against infections.
Lemons lower blood pressure, so if you are hipertense its great to add some drops of lemon juice to your water. This also will help in your digestion and to clean your liver.
It is a good habit to drink some lemon juice (always mix it with water) regularly in the morning,as it will act like a tonic tothe liver and stimulate it to produce bile to digest easily.
Lemons are also good for the urinary tract. It's a diuretic, so it helps flushing out toxins and bacteria.
In pregnancy, it helps building the child bones. 
Lemons cointain potassium, magnesium, calcium and phosphorus. 
To obtain all these benefits, you should do as follows:
If you are in good health and weigh less than 150 pounds, squeeze the juice of half a lemon (one ounce) into a glass of water and drink this mixture twice a day (one whole lemon a day.) 
If you weigh over 150 pounds, squeeze the juice out of an entire lemon into a glass of water and drink this twice a day. 
The lemon juice can be diluted more according to taste.


Lemon pie is one of the most popular sweet recipes whith lemons as main ingredient. I'll leave you this nice and easy recipe :)

Easy lemon Pie


1 pie shell (or mix vanilla cookies in the food processor and add frozen butter until you can squeeze it and it doesn't fall apart)
2 egg yolks, beaten
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup lemon juice
3 egg whites


Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Prick pie shell with a fork and bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes, or until crust is lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool.
In a medium mixing bowl blend egg yolks and condensed milk. Stir in lemon juice. Heat this mixture in a double boiler, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until it thickens. Pour into piecrust.
Beat egg whites with 1 teaspoon lemon juice to soft peaks. Gradually add the 6 tablespoons sugar, beating until stiff peaks are formed and sugar has dissolved. Spread meringue over the hot filling, covering completely. 
Bake at 350° for 12 to 15 minutes, until golden brown.
Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving.


Enjoy! :3