Thursday 12 December 2013

Blueberries – A Handful Of Healthy Food

Blueberries belong to the family of plumps and are known for their vibrant colors. They normally range from colors such as deep blue to purple and are small and round in shape. Though they are small, the amount of nutrients and health benefits are innumerate. Undoubtedly, all the best things in the world come in small packages. Read on to find some real benefits of blueberries.

Rich in dietary fiber

Blueberries are packed with dietary fiber and a handful of this fruit is enough to meet daily requirements. If you are suffering from chronic constipation, the fiber from blueberries can act as a cure. Besides, fiber is needed to maintain healthy heart and to keep a check over cholesterol levels.
 
Packed with phytonutrients

Blueberries is one of those remarkable fruits that contain phytonutrients such as polyphenols. They act as anti-oxidants that prevent cell damage and inflammation. Phytonutrients in blueberries will also help combat certain chronic conditions like cardiovascular disorders and age-related complications.
 
Full of vitamin C
 
As we all know vitamin C is important for collagen synthesis – an important protein for healthy gums, skin and immune system. Like most citrus fruits, blueberries are also a rich source of ascorbic acid. One serving of this fruit can fulfill about one-fourth of your daily requirement of vitamin C. 

Rich in Manganese
 
Manganese is a trace element found in few fruits and vegetables. It has an important role in bone development and various metabolic reactions. It has a role in the breakdown of protein, carbohydrates and fats to release energy.
 
Other advantages
 
More research is underway regarding the role of blueberries for cardiovascular health, brain health and a key role in reducing the risk of cancer. However, we are aware that it is responsible in promoting good health in general.

Thursday 5 December 2013

How Smart women can stay healthy and cut expenses

You don’t always have to be a spendthrift friend. Be reasonable when trying to impress someone. Think about the cash you have in hand and get some memorable or heart-touching gift that need not be expensive. It could be something that gives out a memorable experience. If you can’t afford to give lavish dinner in an expensive restaurant, then it’s reasonable to give up the idea. The idea of focus is healthy dinner.
 
Cut your expenses

No one can escape the recent impulsive buying patterns especially working women who are making a living. By cutting down expenses on unnecessary stuff and spending the money wisely, you can actually manage your finances. For cutting back your expenses, you need to educate yourself, invest in reliable insurance and try to plan your savings together.
 
Educating yourself

If you have already planned your goals, then financial planning becomes less complicated. For women who face lack of time for financial management, there is n option to hire financial consultant. Working with a professional financial manager, you will ultimately learn how this is done.
 
Invest in insurance

Insurance is an assurance to yours and your family’s health and it offers protection against physical assets. In fact, insurance is a lifelong investment that offers financial security to your dependants. The best part is that the burden of financial risk is transferred from you to the insurer when you take an insurance policy.
 
Planning investment together

If you have a spouse or other earning member of the family, it’s wise to share the burden of expenses and then make savings jointly. Try not to take any loans so that you have the freedom to quit the job whenever needed. Take charge of family finances and make sure you are aware about where the income is going. Also stay prepared for worst case scenarios, and discuss financial plans together with your spouse.

Tuesday 3 December 2013

Your Diet Talk Is As Boring As It Gets

When you are out in a social setting, there are a few things you should never mention at least not in great detail. How you slept last night?, what dream you had? And annoying details about your health do not interest anyone. It’s not like these topics are off-limits or anything, they are considered inappropriate merely because they are boring. Similarly, if you have to discuss about your diet, there are some ground rules.

Omit any fat talk

For most people, a normal conversation about diet starts from what they eat and eventually turns into fat shaming. I can understand how soon you can get an impulse to extrapolate fried chicken thighs with your own thighs. A self-degradation of this kind is not normally appreciated. Moreover, if this discussion starts, someone else feeling the same way will get involved in the discussion and that never ends well.

Cut out boring advices 
 
A simple diet talk can easily transform into diet evangelizing without you ever noticing. Then slowly but surely, your tone turns to “You should…”. Giving advices is no crime but you will know about the misery when you are on the receiving end. I have been at both ends in the past which is why I try to avoid it now until someone specially asks me.
 
Details are not needed

Sometimes, it's good to know what people eat but hearing an endless speech about every single thing you ate gets on the nerves. I know how this feels because a friend of mine always insisted on providing a detailed rundown of whatever she had since the last time I saw her. If the person listening to the detailed account of your dietary choices shows no interest, then we should take that as a signal to stop.
 
Your stats don’t mean anything to me
 
If your BMI is below the normal range, or your calorie count intake is unbearable, then I am not interested. For one, that is your part of the burden and secondly I don’t want to start that comparison in my head. It's ridiculous if a diet talk makes me feel guilty. 

Monday 25 November 2013

Met Rx pros and cons


Met Rex offers a wide range of meal replacement bars that have been tested and proven to meet highest standards of quality control. A word of caution for Met Rex protein bar lovers is that it’s basically used for gaining weight and is not very effective when you intend to lose weight. On top of all that, the biggest disadvantage is that Met Rex protein bars are quite expensive.
If you like to work out, there are pretty good chances that you are already familiar with some or most of Met Rx product line. When it comes to bodybuilding, this brand has been praised time again for quality products. On the flip side, individuals who want weight loss supplements will not find the relevant product from Met Rx. 

To sum it up, Met Rx bars make an excellent source of nutrition that tastes great and can energize you for any activity. Made from up to 70% natural components, these bars have an awesome blend of fiber, protein and carbohydrates that can pump up your energy and keep it sustained during long-term activity. Met Rx bars are also the best post workout recovery bars. These bars cannot be classified as real meal replacement, but they are ideal for sudden and untimely hunger. Enjoy Met Rx bars in your favorite flavors. They provide sustained energy and so are ideal to be carried along on road trips and long duration journeys.

Here is a list of some prominent ingredients in Met Rx protein bar:

  • Soy butter
  • Soy protein
  • Dry roasted soybeans
  • Raisins
  • Grape juice concentrate
  • Rice syrup
  • Dates
  • Soy crisp rice

This was just a short list but stay relaxed because the remaining ingredients are fine and there is no such thing as refined sugar or artificial flavors in Met Rx protein bars. Usually protein bars are laden with artificial flavor from chocolates, peanut butter  but in case of Met Rx bars the flavors are naturally derived from fruits and nuts.

Monday 18 November 2013

Steamed Broccoli Recipe

Steamed Broccoli Recipe
Recipe by Edward Franklin






Summary:

Steamed broccoli is such a basic, go-to weeknight vegetable that it gives us the balance diet. It is really so good. Try this, even with half substitutions the recipe works so well!

Prep time: 1M
Cook time: 4M
Total time: 5M

Calories per serving: 64.6 kcal
Fat per serving: 1.92g

Ingredients
  • 0.25 tsp. Salt
  • 1 tsp. Sesame oil
  • 16 oz. Broccoli, raw
  • 1 tsp. ground Ginger root, raw
  • 0.75 tbsp. Sesame seeds, whole, dried
  • 1 tbsp. Soy sauce made from soy and wheat shout
  • 1 FL oz. Sake

Cooking Directions
  1. Take a large skillet; add broccoli, soy sauce, sake, ginger, oil and 0.25 cup of water. Cover and leave to simmer over medium flame.
  2. Steam for just 4 minutes or until broccoli is tender and a bit green in color. Dust with salt and sesame seeds. Serve hot.

Tasty and Healthy Easy Vegetarian Recipes for Dinner

Any diet regimen it is important to keep everything in good balance in order to have a healthy outcome. If you opt for a vegetarian diet it is a must that you plan your meals accordingly so that you will be able to meet your nutritional needs.

What’s the first thing that comes to your mind once you hear the words vegetarian diet? Most people think about a diet that does not include meat, poultry, fish, eggs and dairy products. That is true but vegetarian diet varies on what food you will include and exclude in your meal. There are four kinds of vegetarian diet these are: Lacto-vegan that excludes meat, poultry, seafood, eggs and dairy products. The Lacto-ova vegetarian diet excludes meat, poultry and seafood but allows dairy products and eggs. While the Ova-vegetarian diet excludes meat, poultry, seafood and dairy products but allow eggs. And lastly, Vegan diet excludes meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, dairy products and food that contain these products.  It depends on you which of these vegetarian diets you will follow.

To achieve any healthy diet it is important that you balance and plan your meals properly in order for you to meet the nutritional needs of your body. Everything should be well balanced and well prepared so that you will not feel deprived despite of the kind of diet regimen you are following.

Here are few of easy vegetarian recipes for dinner that you can prepare:
 
Feta, Bean and Pasta Salad

Soups for the Rainy Season

Zucchini (Courgette) Soup















Zucchini – the main flavoring ingredient of this soup is the reason for a tangy and nutty flavor in this recipe. Use a food processor to grate zucchini or simply do it with a hand grater or you can also fashion it into small chunks but that way, it will take more time to cook. Herbs can also be added in the end but the soup does fine even without it.

Ingredients
  • 4 cloves of finely chopped garlic
  • Zucchini (grated or chunked)
  • Parmesan cheese
  • 2 cups of tomato pasta
  • Half a bunch of flat leaf parsley or basil
  • Olive oil
Preparation


Heat some olive oil in a saucepan and stir fry the chopped garlic for 30 seconds. Lower the heat when it just starts to turn brown and you can feel its characteristic aroma. Add zucchini and stir fry for a while. Mix tomato pasta and pour 2 to 3 cups of water. Allow it to simmer for a while until zucchini gets tender. Add seasoning according to taste and some herbs if you desire. Pour out the soup in a serving bowl and grate cheese over it.

Soba noodle soup














In the making of this soup, you will need buckwheat instead of the regular one because this one has a subtle flavor. However, if that is unavailable, you can use any type of noodles you want. Similarly, the veggies in this recipe can also be substituted according to your taste or whatever is available in your refrigerator. Adding book Choy to the broth would do the trick. Also keep in mind that you must keep the soup slightly undercooked for best flavor.

Ingredients
  • One and a half cup of vegetable stock
  • 50 g of soba noodles
  • 2 tablespoon soy sauce
  • Red chili flakes
  • Have a bunch of book Choy leaves
Preparation

Use a cooking pot to boil vegetable stock and add soba noodles to the broth to be simmered for a while. Add the book Choy or spinach, whatever is available along with soy sauce and red chili flakes. Allow it to cook for some more minutes and then turn off the stove. Taste the soup to check if any further seasoning is required. If so, add more soy sauce and serve the soup while it’s still hot.

Russian Chicken with Feta Cheese

It isn’t really hard to envisage the pains moms go through to please their children for meals. However you may try many fruitless attempts at dishes but your kid won’t go for anything that is rich in nutrition but not so great in taste. Here comes the Russian Chicken with Feta Cheese that may actually meet with your child’s taste. A huge descended souvenir from the Russian Empire, this dish serves your family with both great taste as well as healthy nutrition.

Ingredients
  • Butter approximately 3 tablespoons 
  • Around eight pieces of boneless chicken
  • One piece of crushed garlic
  • A quarter piece of minutely cut onion.
  • A tablespoon of flour
  • A quarter cup of vodka
  • A tablespoon of tomato paste
  • 3 quarters of a cup of chicken broth
  • A half tablespoon of salt and properly crushed pepper (or as desired)
  • One and a half teaspoon of dried parsley and sour cream
  • A quarter cup of feta cheese
Procedure

The beginning phase in preparation of this recipe is to melt up around 3 tablespoons of butter in a large pot over mild heat. Now you can add the chicken and let it fry about ten minutes until it starts leaving its pinkish shade and enters a cooked stage. Once you are done with this, you may place it in a large baking dish and leave it there while you may work with the sauces.

The next step would be to lower the heat level to medium temperature and add the remaining butter to a pan and place it over the stove. Now you may add the garlic and onion and cook for around 2 minutes in the butter until the onion starts to soften up and darkens in its color. Add flour to the plan and carry on with the stirring for about five more minutes.

You can now add the vodka and lower the heat a little bit. Allow the onions and garlic to cook in the vodka and now add the tomato paste, salt, pepper, chicken broth, sour cream, parsley, and feta cheese in the quantities prescribed.

You can now arrange the oven and heat it to over 175 degrees C. Now the baking dish we initially set aside with the chicken pieces in it has to be used. Pour the sauce made in the pan and keep it in the oven and allow it to heat for around 20 minutes. As the chicken starts reaching brownish shade, remove it from the oven..

The feta cheese brings a really unique taste to the chicken and kids as well as adults will enjoy this taste. The most amazing part of this recipe is that; although it uses a large amount of butter and cheese in the preparation, you may still be able to achieve a large amount of proteins through the chicken. It’s like trading up the calories with a finger licking and mouthwatering taste.

Restaurants with Quality Pho

As it turns out Pho is the basic constituent in any Vietnamese diet. The locals can be spotted slurping onto their noodle broth on every other pavement across the cities. However, you might not fancy dining on the street. Not to worry because there are quite a few air-conditioned restaurants serving pho.

Ho Chi Minh City
 
Besides that, you can enjoy a wide variety of other international cuisines. From the American-style burgers to the Japanese sushi, you can enjoy any taste you like. Some quality French restaurants and Italian cuisine adds explicit European flavor that tourists seem to enjoy quite a lot. If you are looking for single women dining spaces in the Ho Chi Minh City, then they are mainly centered on the downtown district.

Dong Khoi 

This place is perfectly positioned around the five star hotels from where the tourists are expected to pour in. The region is home to the swankiest eaters where you get the Vietnamese specialty dishes along with diners serving Chinese, Italian, Mexican, Brazilian and Spanish foods. Though the diners are a bit over-priced, the exceptional service and perfect ambiance makes you forget all that and enjoy the moment. 

This restaurant depicts spiritual motifs and is a perfect place for tourists especially singles who would not like to have unknown company. In the menu, you can find exclusive seafood varieties of fish and shrimps. You can begin your dining experience here after taking spirited cocktails and that is probably the best way to go.

Huong Lai

Get ready to dine with a difference for the Huong Lai restaurant will remind you of the old French era. They have a wide array of well-presented traditional Vietnamese food. A unique feature of this place is that it provides training, education and a place to live for the children living on streets.
 
Restaurant 31

for most part, single women are comfortable dining indoors but for a change, restaurant 31 can provide the perfect outdoor eatery. Barbecued beef is the specialty of this restaurant that is served with top class salad. Besides serving some unique seafood dishes, the place offers quite a few cuisines. The best part is that the staff is cheerful and greets you in English. So consider this a safe dining space if you are not well-versed or can’t speak the native language at all.