Make Plain Yogurt Tasty for Children and Adults - Add Cooked Pears

I should say I used to like all the creamy and tasty yogurts [yoghurt] out there, but then when I changed to a healthy life style and started to read labels, I was amazed what all kinds of stuff is added to make it delicious and for those who are conscious about weight, to make the fat free ones. Extra sugar, I still don't understand why. Probably because all the fruits added are not that sweet, meaning probably not riped too. Then fat free - you know that they add extra chemicals to reduce the fat content. Therefore, the best recommendation of mine is, get normal 1% up to 3% fat yogurt, have little bit and enjoy it.

Now, how to make it delicious. Peel bosc pears [the sweet one], dice and bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 350-375 F, then puree. Let it cool and add to yogurt as much as you want to make it tasty; however, do not indulge on the pears, but rather on yogurt. This combination makes yogurt nice and sweet, and some say even more delicious. Then if you like other fruit, you can cut up some fresh fruit , and spice it up with cinnamon. Note that if you get a nice sweet red delicious apples, this may have the same effect.

I actually like plain yogurt plain or with vegetables, but children may be a bit fussy about its taste, however addition of pears can make a difference. I introduced yogurt to my baby at 11 months, and if your doctor recommends earlier, then go for it. He actually didn't mind like me eating the plain yogurt too, probably because I ate so much during pregnancy. Plain yogurt is excellent for balancing levels of the bacteria cultures in our system. We all have bad bacteria, so it is always good to eat yogurt to add good bacteria. Its all about balance.

Here are nutritional benefits of yogurt in general: excellent source of protein, rich in calcium, rich in potassium, source of B vitamin riboflavin, it is easier to digest than milk due to the culturing process, boosts immune system, can reduce cholesterol, improves colon health and may reduce risk of breast cancer due to improved immune system, reduces yeast infection [Candidiasis], and it aids in healing intestine infections. The plain yogurt is better than the taste enhanced yogurts because they contain less calories than the one with added fruit or sugars, they contain less fillers to make it creamy, contain more protein and calcium, and you will note also that there are no added sugars.

When buying yogurt here are some pointers. Look for containers with ingredients containing live and active cultures of Lactobacillus acidophilus or Bifidus bacteria cultures. Look for the ones with no added sugar - bingo - choose plain yogurt. Lastly, the active bacterial culture decreases after the expiration date, therefore, guess what you really need to check the expiry date on the containers.

Wonders of the Chicken Soup and Recipe – Is it a Common Cold Relief Remedy or a Cure?

Chicken soup is the probably the oldest soup recipe in the world, and in addition to be a very tasty it’s been used as a remedy to relief a cold – also called a comfort food or feel-good food when you are sick. It has been known that there is no other remedy that effective as the chicken soup. For centuries it was believed that chicken soup had the healing powers or cure for the illnesses as a common cold. This sparked attention among researchers and scientists to conduct studies in that field. The research concluded that chicken soup was in deed a relief remedy for a common cold, and not a cure. However, with the continued advances in science and technology time will tell what other benefits will be discovered in the future.

Chicken Soup Scientific Research HistoryThe research done in 1978 at Mount Sinai Medical Centre, Miami Beach, Florida by group of lung specialists concluded that the chicken soup helped ease the nasal congestion than the hot and cold water. The study was performed on 150 individuals with colds who were told to drink hot chicken soup, hot water and cold water. The objective of the experiment was to measure how quickly the mucus and air flowed through each individual’s nose. Interestingly, note this: ‘Hot liquids in general can be soothing, if only because they require you to slow down, sit still, and sip patiently in order to consume them without scalding yourself’ – as Dr. Andrew Weil suggests in his article: ‘Can Chicken Soup Banish Colds?’. This one actually made me smile as he is right; we tend to forget the physical component of the eating hot stuff.

The research done in early 1990’s has shown that the home made chicken soup contains substances that can relief a common cold. This research was done by Dr. Rennard and his research team at the University of Nebraska. It was concluded that the chicken soup can relief cold symptoms such as a stuffed nose, coughing and congestion – typical signs when body is fighting a cold. In more detail, when we get a cold, neutrophils [cells that fight infection] move to the airways like an army to destroy the attacking virus. When virus is being destroyed our body responds with inflammatory reactions such as a stuffed nose, coughing and congestion. However, when chicken soup is consumed it slows down movement of these neutrophils thus the reduction in the cold symptoms, and therefore we feel better.

The most recent study in 2008 concluded that the ‘Chicken soup may lower blood pressure, study finds’ – an article you can read from USAToday. However, you may want to take a note of this quote: As this study suggests, some collagen in chicken may lower blood pressure," said Dr. Byron Lee, a cardiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine. "But be careful. The salt we put on our chicken and in our chicken soup may offset or even reverse this potential benefit."

Hopefully in the future the above research areas can be repeated and fully validated, as it seems there was no further scientific studies performed to confirm the 1978, 1990s and 2008 findings.

Difference between Chicken Soup and Chicken Broth, Chicken Stock
May be this terminology should have been explained at the beginning, however, let me clarify now. Chicken soup is a mixture of chicken stock, vegetables, chicken itself, meat pieces, and/or some kind of noodles. Chicken broth is the liquid part of the chicken soup. And the chicken stock is a liquid in which chicken or chicken parts and vegetables been boiled. Confused? If so just call everything chicken soup.

How About Chicken from the Chicken Soup
Chicken also contains an amino acid called cysteine that is released when you make the soup. This amino acid thins mucus in the lungs, aiding in the healing process, and with the benefit of the hot chicken vapours it leads to even faster recovery and comfort. Coincidentally the cysteine is similar to the drug called acetylcysteine. Acetylcysteine is a drug prescribed by doctors to those who suffer from bronchitis. For those who like to learn more technical stuff about cysteine and acetylcysteine – just follow the link.

How About All the Vegetables from the Chicken Soup
Yes, how about all the good stuff cooked with the soup like carrots, onions, leaks, celery, garlic, parsley, black pepper, basil leaf, and sea salt. And if you adventures then you can also throw some cauliflower, parsnips, turnips and sweet potato. All these vegetables cooked in the chicken soup are loaded with many valuable nutrients. However, one may ask are they really loaded, since it has been know that heat can also kill nutrients. That I cannot answer, thus in my opinion, I doubt that all the nutrients from the vegetables do exists after prolonged and required cooking of the chicken soup.

Cleaning Chicken before Making Chicken Stock or Soup
It is very important that you clean raw chicken or chicken parts before making chicken stock or chicken soup. This is what I do. I usually clean chicken under running cold water, remove skin and extra fat, and then rinse it with white vinegar. I fill a pot with cold water, enough to cover the chicken and plus extra above the chicken. Bring to boil until the foam forms. This should take about few minutes of boiling. On the side I prepare a pot of measured water for chicken stock or soup and start heating up. Then I take the partially pre-boiled chicken, rinse with cold water again to remove residues of foam, and transfer to the other pot with correct amount of water. Now you are ready for nice clean chicken soup.

Are You Ready To Make Your Chicken Soup?
Now that you have cleaned your chicken or chicken parts, first you can prepare chicken stock, and then decide if you want to continue with chicken soup. If you search Internet you will find thousands of recipes for chicken stock or soup. And believe or not on some occasions you will find the same recipe copied from blog to blog, from web site to web site. I am not sure if you seen this one before, but this is what I do.

CHICKEN STOCK
Ingredients
3 L of Water
3 Chicken Drumsticks
2 Chicken Breasts
5 Bay Leafs
1 Table Spoon of Black Peppercorn

Procedure
[1] Simple, combine all, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 2 hours.
[2] If you planning to consume chicken stock, you can add pinch of salt here to taste.

CHICKEN SOUP
Ingredients
3 L of Chicken Stock
5 Large Carrots
1 Large Onion
½ Head of Cauliflower
4 Cloves of Garlic
1 Table Spoon of Salt [optional]
5 Table Spoons of Small Shell Pasta [optional]
Procedure
[1] Simple, combine chicken stock, carrots and onion, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for ½ hour.
[2] Add cauliflower and boil for another ½ hour.
[3] Remove chicken into separate container and store temporarily.
[4] Now that you have all nice and cooked, you can easily make nice soup with little of extra work. Take 4 carrots and onion and pureed them in the blender, pour back into the soup.
[5] Take left over carrot slice and put back to the soup.
[6] Take one chicken breast and mash in the blender with some chicken broth. Pour back to the soup.
[7] Take all chicken drum sticks, strip from the bone, cut them into pieces and put back to the soup.
[8] Add garlic, and bring to boil, simmer for about 20 minutes. Serve and enjoy.

Optional: Salt is optional and can be added on the end to taste. I noticed that pureed carrots, onion and chicken breast add nice sweet taste.
Optional: Add small shell pasta in Step [8].

How About that Extra Chicken Breast?
With extra chicken breast you can make nice chicken salad, but that is recipe for next future post.

Hope this post summarizes all you needed to know about the chicken soup. So now when you find that you are about to come down with a cold, get those ingredients going fast and make yourself home made chicken soup. In the future, I will be cooking different variations of chicken soups thus I will be sharing them here with you. However, if you are too sick to get to the chicken soup part, just enjoy nice hot chicken stock in the cup, you will be surprised how much better you are going to feel.

Document Release: 0; Document Last Modified: March 23, 2009

The Great Canadian Invention Series: Pablum Baby Food or Cereal

Time to feed your baby solid food. What are you going to feed her or him? Or do you have any ideas for breakfast for babies. Let me give you one suggestion, how about baby pablum - another great Canadian invention. Did you also know that Bobby Orr, Margaret Atwood, Margaret Trudeau and Anne Murray had pablum baby cereal for breakfast when they were infants. Well, I did not. The pablum baby food story started with three doctors working at the SickKids Hospital at Toronto back in 1930s who were concerned about the nutritional value of baby's daily diet. Back then cereals were part of the baby's diet, but there was not enough vitamins and minerals to ensure healthy growth and development. First, the nutritional biscuit for children was invented which was fortified with vitamins. After intensive research and testing in that area this lead to invention of the pre-cooked highly in the nutritional value cereal called pablum. It was based on the wheat meal, oatmeal, cornmeal, wheat germ, bone meal, dried brewer's yeast and alfalfa, and so it is now.

Cooking Tip: Baked Asparagus Recipe

This is how I prepare my asparagus - I bake it. It is the easiest method. Simply, wash the asparagus bunch. Take cookie try, spray with cooking spray Pam. Place all asparagus on the tray, and then give one nice spray with Pam again. If you want to you can also sprinkle with sea salt on top, but you don't have to, because baked asparagus already tastes good. Set your oven on 400 F and bake for 20-25 minutes, and then serve.

Corn Fed, Grain Fed Versus Grass Fed American Beef

I thought I post about something I read about corn or grain fed cattle versus grass fed cattle. It is interesting because it tells you that we, including all other living creatures on this planet Earth been designed to eat certain foods only - meaning our digestive system is designed for particular foods. Introducing processed food to our or animal digestive system can actually cause potential problems in the later food chain. I don't know how many of you know, or at least I didn't know, but the conventional American cattle is corn or grain fed, as oppose to grass fed cattle. Note that the cattle is designed to graze, therefore, when fed with corn and grain the cow's stomach becomes very acidic environment attracting bacteria like E.coli. The beef from grass fed cattle is much leaner and has more the omega-3 fatty acids than the today's conventional beef. To conclude, you may want to consider then the grass fed beef, which is also classified as organic beef.

The Great Canadian Invention Series: Mashed Potato Flakes and Other Instant Food Processes

It was Dr. Edward Asselbergs from the Canada Department of Agriculture in Ottawa who in 1961 develop a process for making instant mashed potato flakes that tasted like real homemade version of mashed potatoes. From this idea Dr. Asselbergs moved to make instant meat, chicken, fish and cheese products. If you interested Google Patent search engine is excellent for listing all kinds of patents, and here what I found for mashed potato flakes: PREPARATION OF DEHYDRATED COOKED MASHED POTATO Patent number: 3260607 Issue date: Jul 1966 Inventor: Asselbergs et al.

In addition, it was Dr. W. H. Cook from the Canadian National Research Council, a Director of the Applied Biology Division who came up with several methods to meet the emergency food requirement for troops during World War II. His invention was a special refrigerated storage system used to transport close to 20% of the perishable foods to Britain. He also devised an improved process for drying whole egg powder.

Useful Cooking Tip: Cooking Meat, Turkey, Chicken and Vegetables Clean

We all know that when we do cook red meat, turkey or chicken in the water, all kinds of stuff is generated, especially blood residues from red meat and foam from the turkey or chicken. Veggies just in general have sprays and other stuff on them. Well, the best way to take that at least partially is to change the first water all together. Simply take smaller pot and pre-boil red meat, turkey, chicken or vegetables for few minutes. In parallel, fill other pot with desired amount of water and start heating up. Once pre-boiled, drain water and rinse your meat or veggies with fresh water to remove any unwanted residues. Preferably use filtered water. Once this is done, just place it in the fresh water and cook as you wish.

For cleaning red meat, turkey or chicken for BBQing or broiling, always rinse with white vinegar. Don't be afraid to rinse the ground meats also. Don't just rely on the heat to kill all the bad stuff.

The Great Canadian Invention Series: Why the McIntosh Apple is called McIntosh?

The McIntosh apple was discovered in 1811 by John McIntosh on a little farm Dundas County, Ontario, Canada. John McIntosh found a group of trees growing wild on this farm, and since the apples then where part of farmer’s nutritious diet, he moved all of them closer to his farm house. To his and other farmer’s surprise one of the trees was producing juicy, crispy and very fragrant apples. However, it was only one apple tree that was bearing them. Branches of that one apple tree were grafted to other apple tree, a technique where branch from one fruit are transplanted into another tree. The result was successful. And this is how the McIntosh apple became the most popular apple in Canada started by the McIntosh family.

Are You Ready to Make Your Own Apple Sauce?
Yes you are because it is very simple. Get your ingredients, the McIntosh apples – as many as you wish. Peel, slice or dice all the apples, and cooked them in covered pot until mushy – low heat please. Serve warm or cool, with ice cream, yogurt, or oatmeal.

Nutritious Bananas Not Just for Adults But For Babies Especially

Bananas, a world’s most popular fruit is a very nutritious fruit full of vitamins and minerals, and let’s not forget it is also a very tasty fruit on its own or in baking or cooking. Everyone, adults, toddlers, babies enjoy it, and let’s not forget the monkeys.

What Do We Know about Banana’s?
I am not going to give you everything here about bananas, but you should know that bananas likely came from Malaysia. It is hard to believe, because I always thought they came from South America. However, since it is a very popular fruit consumed, it is also highly cultivated fruit in most tropical areas around the world.

Nutritional Value of the Bananas
Bananas are high in potassium, and are obviously recommended to patients who are low on potassium. Go figure. However, if you are pregnant then most likely your baby is consuming all your nutrients during pregnancy; potassium is one of them that will deplete and you will know it by getting sometimes a charley horse in your legs. Therefore, you have that one banana or two. However, watch out in some cases bananas can cause constipation – moderation is the key. Let us not forget the fiber, protein, carbohydrates and sodium. Now, you can see how this can be an excellent fruit for malnourished children. In addition to make this fruit even more nutritious, it contains vitamin A, B, C and few minerals like Calcium, Magnesium along with small traces of Zinc and Iron.

What Is a Connection between Bananas and Monkeys?
This for a life of me I couldn' answer, and here is one answer I found on the ezine: Monkeys and Bananas. I hope it is true, and if it is I have nothing to do with it.

How to Eat Banana?
Yes you are probably saying, who doesn't know how to eat bananas. Well, if you already know, here are few tricks I did learn over the years. First, in order for the banana to ripe nicely keep them in one bunch, if you you want to preserve them longer, take them apart. But remember when you pick them avoid bruised ones. Another interesting trick someone told me one day is to peel banana from the bottom, and all the strings will go away with it. So much for fun peeling my banana, they had to ruined it. So not you know how to eat banana, so go banana.

How to Feed your Baby Banana?
Finally, something related to the title of this post. I started to give banana to my baby at age of 4 months. Just a little bit, not even a full baby spoon. This was for my baby to learn how to eat with the spoon. I did some research, and I found that you don't have to cook bananas before giving them to babies. However, I am one of those paranoid mothers, so I would always steam them in the steam of the boiling water. When feeding baby I would lightly scrape surface of the banana to generate mashed banana. It works very well, you don't really need any equipment to do that.

Important Note: 'Nitrates and vegetables. Some types of strained vegetables and fruits - including spinach, beets, turnips, carrots, green beans, mixed vegetables and bananas - contain nitrates, and should therefore not be given to infants younger than 4 months...In sufficient concentrations, nitrates can cause these children to develop methemoglobinemia, a condition in which blood cells do not transport oxygen efficiently.' [1]

Things People Say about Bananas

‘On a traffic light green means go and yellow means yield, but on a banana it's just the opposite. Green means hold on, yellow means go ahead, and red means where the hell did you get that banana at...’ once said by Mitch Hedberg, an American Comedian, 1968-2005.

‘Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana’ once said by Groucho Marx, an American Comedian, Actor and Singer, 1890-1977.

‘Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana’ once said by Bill Gates, an American Entrepreneur and Founder of Microsoft Co., b.1955.

And the last one, ‘Monkeys throwing bananas at keyboard could have written a better post’, the best one I have seen and you can read it about yourself.

Time to Frame the Banana
No I am not talking about putting a banana to jail. I am talking putting a nice picture of a banana on your wall. Hopefully you have learn something new here about bananas, therefore we should feel like we own something to bananas so why not framing nice banana picture on your kitchen wall? Here are some of the best photos of the bananas I have seen on Internet, some free and some for purchase.

Fotosearch.com
Crestock.com

Time to Go Banana
Here you can find banana humor. I am sure some of them are composed images, but they are darn funny. Read more...

REFERENCES
[1] 'Better Baby Food', 2nd Edition, Your Essential Guide to Nutrition, Feeding & Cooking for All Babies & Toddlers, by Diana Kalnins, MSc, RD, and Joanne Saab, RD, The Hospital for Sick Children, pg 46.
Document Release: 1; Document Last Modified: March 16, 2009