Long term weight loss isn’t about hunger, misery and crash dieting. It’s a whole new way of learning to prepare nutritious food that your body needs and enjoys. “Chicken Tikka” is one of a range of hunger fighting, low fat recipes to assist you keep your weight under control. This irresistible, no-hassle meal will help you reach your weight-loss goals - while making mealtime a real treat.

Variety is an essential element of any successful health program. If you get bored with foods, you’re much more likely to abandon your program altogether. Each main meal should be accompanied by an exciting range of colorful vegetables.

Chicken Tikka (serves 4)

Ingredients
200g low-fat natural yoghurt
juice 1 lemon
1 teaspoon finely chopped or minced ginger
1 teaspoon finely chopped or minced garlic

Green tea is known to provide 10-40mg of polyphenols and has antioxidant activity greater than a serving of spinach, broccoli, carrots, or strawberries. Studies show that green tea contains antioxidants, polyphenols, theanine, as well as a wide variety of vitamins and minerals. Green tea is definitely good for your body.

Enhances Health

Tea is known for its incredible power to prolong life. In recent research into green tea, results show its power in preventing disease as well.

Prevents Cancer

The death rate from cancer is known to be significantly lower for both women & men in Japan. Why is this you may ask? As much as 5-6 cups daily are consumed in areas that produce green tea, making it the main beverage to drink. This suggests that the main ingredients of green tea (tannin, catechin); in sufficient amounts lower the standard mortality rates for stomach cancer.

Restricts Blood Cholesterol

There are two types of cholesterol, one is “bad” cholesterol (LDL), and heavy accumulation of these in tissues can lead to atherosclerosis. The other is good cholesterol (HDL) that prevents accumulation of excessive “bad” cholesterol. It has been proven and demonstrated that green tea catechin restricts the excessive buildup of cholesterol.

Controls High Blood Pressure

High blood pressure is a serious burden on the vascular system and is known to cause heart disease, stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases. Green tea is known for lowering blood pressure.

Lowers Blood Sugar

Green teas given to diabetes patients cause a decrease in the blood glucose levels. Green Tea has the capability of lowering blood sugar. The sugars and carbohydrates in our food are digested mainly in the duodenum, where it is converted to glucose and then absorbed into the blood stream.

The agent that regulates the intake of blood sugar into tissues is insulin. Diabetes is characterized by lack of insulin or not the body not using insulin properly, which does not allow proper absorption of glucose into tissues and leads to a high blood sugar level that must eventually be excreted into urine. If this high concentration of blood sugar continues for a long period, it will affect the vascular system and cause serious diseases including arteriosclerosis and retinal hemorrhages.

Suppresses Aging

Oxygen plays a key role in metabolism, but can also be an unhealthful agent. As a free radical, oxygen in the body can corrode cell membranes, which will damage DNA and the fats. This then leads to diseases such as cancer, cardio-vascular disease and diabetes. Lipid peroxide created by fats combined with oxygen tends to build up in the body and create aging.

Consumption of antioxidants such as vitamins E and C promises longer life, and we already know that green teas are rich in those two vitamins.

Refreshes the Body

Green tea caffeine taken in proper quantity stimulates every organ in the body and clears your mind. The small amount of caffeine (about 9 mgs of caffeine) present in a normal serving of green tea can stimulate the skeletal muscles and smooth the progress of muscular contraction.

Deters Food Poisoning

It has long been known that green tea has the ability to kill bacteria and is known to deter food poisoning. Treating diarrhea with consumption of strong green tea. Green tea is a powerful sterilizing instrument for all sorts of bacteria that cause food poisoning.

Prevents and Treats Skin Disease

Soaking in green tea has been successful as a treatment for athlete’s foot. Bedsores and skin disease can be prevented or healed by using a green tea bath.

Stops Cavities

Green tea contains natural fluorine and is thought to aid in the reduction of cavities in schoolchildren. It has been known for some time that small amounts of fluorine can strengthen teeth and help prevent cavities.

Fights Viruses

Green tea catechin and theaflavin, which are both present in black tea, have a strong effect on the flu virus. It is also thought that the anti viral capability of green tea catechin may have some beneficial effect on the AIDS virus.
Additional Information

Ten Proven Tips to buy the Best Meat Available

As you look through the meat section at your local grocery store you are probably like so many others asking yourself if the steaks you have chosen is really good meat. Here are some tips on how to make sure you buy good meat.

The quality grade does not necessarily mean that you will be getting good meat. Some cuts of meat are just naturally more tender than others. You should look for cuts from the less used muscles along the back such as the rib and loin sections. The shoulder, flank and leg cuts will be tougher.
How to make sure you buy good meat

As you look through the meat section at your local grocery store you are probably like so many others asking yourself if the steaks you have chosen is really good meat. Here are some tips on how to make sure you buy good meat.

1. The quality grade does not necessarily mean that you will be getting good meat. Some cuts of meat are just naturally more tender than others. You should look for cuts from the less used muscles along the back such as the rib and loin sections. The shoulder, flank and leg cuts will be tougher.
2. The USDA beef quality grade is like this prime, choice, select, standard, commercial, utility, cutter and canner. The best beef that you can find is of course prime, but this is very hard to find and does come with a large price tag. Most of the beef that you find at your local grocery will be choice, select or standard. Standard is usually sold as un-graded or as “brand name” meat
3. Roast and steaks should be firm. Do not purchase soft or squishy feeling roast or steaks no matter the type of meat.
4. Check the sale by date and no buy after that date. You should buy the meat either before or on the day that is the “sell by date”.
5. Check the packaging for any type of damage. The meat should be cold and wrapped securely.
6. The package should not contain any moisture. This could mean that the temperature of the meat has been above 40 degrees and that will cause the taste of your meat to be less quality.
7. Look for beef that is bright red in color and has thin creamy white fat evenly distributed throughout the roast or steak. On the other hand, veal should not be bright red; it should be almost white in color or lightly pink.

8. Before you buy any meat find out if it has been injected with flavorings. You do not want to purchase any meat that has been injected with flavorings, this can cause your meat to break down and become mushy.
9. Do your own tenderizing. Do not buy meat that has been tenderized by the butcher. He uses piercing products that allows the natural flavor and juices to escape from your meat and this will be produce a tough and un-flavorful meal. Try to purchase dry aged if at all possible. This type of meat will probably only be found at a butcher shop. Dry aging is a process where the meat is taken from the bag that it arrives in to the butcher and is hung in a cooler for a certain amount of time to dry out. This will make the cost go up, but the aging adds more flavor and also tenderizes the meat. If you buy your steak from the local grocery, the steak has been cut, wrapped in plastic and has aged on the way to the store.
10. When in doubt, talk with your butcher. He can answer all your questions regarding the different types of meat, cuts and may even have some great recipes for you to try.

Hans is author of Steaks, Seafood and
Barbeque Recipes at Steaks-Guide.com

Lean protein is your diet is essential to weight loss and weight maintenance. Fish is an excellent source of lean protein as it is lower in fat that red meats.

Long term weight loss isn’t about hunger, misery and crash dieting. It’s a whole new way of learning to prepare nutritious food that your body needs and enjoys. “Fish in Orange Sauce” is one of a range of hunger fighting, low fat recipes to assist you keep your weight under control. This irresistible, no-hassle meal will help you reach your weight-loss goals - while making mealtime a real treat.

Variety is an essential element of any successful health program. If you get bored with foods, you’re much more likely to abandon your program altogether. Each main meal should be accompanied by an exciting range of colorful vegetables.

Fish in Orange Sauce (serves four)

Ingredients
Juice of 2 oranges
Juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon margarine

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is one of the most rapidly accelerating diseases today in terms of number of people afflicted. Theories abound as to why this is the case; however, scientists are now looking at new ways to improve the overall health of those both at risk for and suffering from this disease.

Many of these scientists have found that drinking coffees can significantly reduce the risk and effects of the disease.

In a recent study done at the Channing Laboratory of the Harvard School of Public Health, at the Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston, Massachusetts, researchers explored the link between long-term coffees consumption and Type 2 diabetes mellitus.

The study followed over 120,000 men and women for eighteen years. The researchers found that long-term coffees consumption actually reduced insulin resistance, which is the key factor in Type 2 diabetes mellitus.

They were able to conclude that long-term coffees consumption significantly reduces the risk for Type 2 diabetes mellitus in both men and women and therefore benefits the health of the coffees drinker.

The results of this study were affirmed in another student by the Department of Molecular Medicine, of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. Although this study was of a lower scale (7949 subjects), it found similar results.

If the patient came into the study already suffering from Type 2 diabetes mellitus or impaired glucose tolerance (also known as insulin resistance or pre-diabetes), drinking at least 5 cups of coffees a day reduced their insulin resistance.

This was particularly true for women, who statistically suffer from a larger risk of insulin resistance than men. The health of those who drank coffees also benefited from enhanced insulin response.

The Department of Epidemiology and Health Promotion of the National Public Health Institute; at the University of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland, also did a study of over 14,000 middle-aged patients to see if there is a relationship between coffees consumption and Type 2 diabetes mellitus.

This study was particularly interesting because the Finnish people have the highest coffees consumption in the world. This study again found that the incidence of Type 2 diabetes mellitus decreased as the coffees consumption increased.

In doing this study, the researchers found that this relationship existed even when the results were statistically adjusted to account for other risk factors, such as age, smoking, weight, alcohol consumption, and filtered/non-filtered coffees.

As mentioned previously, women have a higher incidence of insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes mellitus than men. That may be why the Department of Medicine at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital/Ostra in Goteborg, Sweden, concentrated their study on women exclusively.

When they studied 1361 women with no previous incidence of heart disease or diabetes over a period of twenty years, they found that the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes mellitus for women who consumed five or more cups of coffees daily was almost half of that of women who drank three to four cups each day.

The study also found that it’s possible that the coffees had an affect on the women’s cholesterol levels, further benefiting their overall health.

Finally, the Centre for Nutrition and Food Safety at the School of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences at the University of Surrey in Guildford, United Kingdom, again confirmed the benefit of drinking coffees with regards to reducing the risk of Type 2 diabetes mellitus.

This study focused on the coffees effects on the gastrointestinal hormones that help regulate insulin secretion. The study found that caffeinated coffees actually lowered the absorption rate of the glucose, thereby reducing the effects of the Type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Overall, these studies suggest that drinking caffeinated coffees can be beneficial to those looking to reduce their risk of developing or worsening Type 2 diabetes mellitus.

© Copyright Randy Wilson, All Rights Reserved.

Randy has more articles on coffee and coffee beans at Ultimate Coffees Info such as Are Coffee Enemas the Real Thing?.

Green tea is believed to have many healthful benefits. If you have ever tasted a good cup of green tea it can be reviving and delicious. However the delicate nature of this tea does demand a certain watchful eye when preparing it. Here is an easy to follow guide on how to brew an outstanding cup of green tea.

Use high quality tea a lesser quality will not yield as good a flavor.

If using lesser quality, boil water and steep for a longer period of time. This will help extract the flavors.

When using the preferred high quality tea do not boil the water. Gently heat the water and steep the tea. Steep for about half the time recommended, if let go too long the flavor will turn bitter and sharp.

Never use an aluminum pot to boil water. It will change the flavor of the tea. A cooper pot is ideal.

Use only porcelain or ceramic to steep the tea.

If the water does boil allow it to cool for 1-3 minutes before adding the tea. To ascertain the proper water temperature, check the direction of the steam. If the steam is drifting straight up the water is too hot. When the steam drifts sideways the water is at the proper temperature.

Shauna Hanus is a gourmet cook who specializes in creating gourmet meal plans. She has extensive experience cooking with easy to find grocery items to create delightful gourmet meals. She is also the publisher of a no cost bi-monthly gourmet newsletter. Her newsletter is always fun and informational packed with tips and trivia you can use everyday. http://www.gourmayeats.com

Any liquid can be reduced just by heating it - but why would you want to do that?

The answer comes back to two of our old friends, flavor and consistency (texture).

By reducing any flavored liquid you intensify its flavor and at the same time thicken it. You can continue this process until what you have left is a syrup if it contains sugar, or a sauce if it does not.

This is one of the most important tools in the kitchen, believe it or not, because a great sauce can rescue an indifferent meal.

And literally ANY liquid can be reduced.

A few uses

Wine is frequently used in cooking, both as a marinade and as an addition to sauces for meat.

There are some problems with it though, one of which is that you need a really good wine and quite a lot of it to produce a reasonable sauce for, say, six people.

On the other hand, if you use pure grape juice and reduce it to a syrup, that syrup, added to any sauce (or gravy if you prefer) will lift it into the realms of ‘gourmet’.

What’s more, you don’t have to make your reduction on the night you prepare your meal. You can reduce a liter of grape juice at any time to the consistency and flavor you want; then just store it in the fridge.

You can do the same thing with any fruit juice - prune is sensational - and store it until needed. Just about all of them will do things for ice cream, pies or tarts that will have your guests demanding the recipe!

Pork with apple sauce? Use a carton of fresh apple juice from the supermarket and reduce it. And if you want a real sensation add in a glass of apple brandy during the reduction process.

Are you getting an idea of how simple this is?

Take any carton of fresh stock straight of the shelf and reduce it. You will transform it into something even the manufacturer won’t recognize. But beware!

You need to start out with good quality in the first place, because when you reduce a liquid you intensify ALL the flavors, and not just the good ones.

If it’s salty to start with, for example, it will be salty beyond belief by the time you’ve reduced it even by half. So if you are going to use a supermarket stock, make sure it’s an extremely good one.

And believe me when I tell you that stock cubes should not be used for reduction sauces.

Thickeners

Because you will be tasting as you go (won’t you?), you may find that you get the flavor you want before the desired consistency is reached.

So here’s a couple of hints right now for your sauces.

Sweet ones can be thickened successfully without loss of color by adding in liquid glucose early on in the reduction process. Surprisingly, this will add little in the way of sweetness and produces a beautiful velvety sauce when whisked.

For meat sauces, one of the most effective ways to thicken is to mix corn starch with water and whisk this into your sauce a little at a time until the required thickness is reached. You do this at the end of the reduction time.

If you get it wrong and add too much, no problem. Stir in a little extra water to thin it.

Reduction pans

Reductions need to happen rapidly in order to preserve flavors. And the greater the surface area of the liquid the faster the water will evaporate.

For fast reductions, therefore, I often use a skillet, or frying pan, only transferring the sauce to a deeper pan when I want to whisk it. (whisking ‘finishes’ off a sauce, making it shine)

However you may want to whisk something into the sauce while its cooking - such as butter or olive oil for example - and for that I find a small wok is best; one with a handle.

A wok is less likely to reduce so fast that the sauce is burnt while your back is turned. But try both methods and see which you prefer. You may even end up using something totally different.

There’s no magic to this. Whatever works for you, that’s what you should use, in this and everything else to do with cooking.

Just bear in mind that what you’re after is speed and ease of use. As well as a great tasting result, of course. :>)

Keeping

For the most part, reduced liquids can be frozen in cubes and used as needed. However if the sugar content is high this may not work too well and they would be better stored, covered, in the fridge.

If they should dry out, simply add a little water and heat through.

Sauces containing meat juices of any kind must be frozen if you’re going to keep them, and should be brought to boiling point before being used again. There is no need to thaw them out to do this, in fact it’s better not to. Simply drop the frozen cubes into a saucepan, melt them over a gentle heat, and then bring swiftly to the boil.

Why do you do this? To avoid food poisoning, that’s why. You are making sure that any bugs introduced into the sauce during the preparation process are killed off.

Don’t worry, this will not be because of anything you have done wrong (I hope!), but because bacteria are part of our everyday lives and they exist in every kitchen, however clean.

In fact your food, and especially your meat, is crawling with wildlife that you will never see. Don’t worry about them. Careful handling and simple precautions will ensure that these miniature monsters can never multiply enough to harm either you or your guests.

For more information on the subject, see my booklet “Hygiene In The Kitchen”, which is available free through the Cool Cook’s Club.

Michael Sheridan is an acknowledged authority and published writer on cooking matters. His website at http://thecoolcook.com contains a wealth of information, hints, tips and recipes for busy home cooks.

Penne pasta is a product of Naples, Italy. The pasta was created
to remind the clever Neapolitans of the days when their ancestors
dipped feather quilled pens into bottles of ink in order to
communicate the written word. Although the pasta has an air of
delicacy, it is able to hold its weight from the lightest to the
heaviest of sauces.

Deliberating over how to begin a meal, it is not easy unless it
happens to be a soup that can be light enough to be served as an
appetizer or stand alone as an entree.

Penne Pasta Soup
(Serves 4 bowls or 6 cups)

3-cups swiss chard, julienned(cut into long strips)
3 or 4 cloves garlic
1-Tlb. olive oil
3-cups penne pasta
1-medium onion, chopped
4-14oz. cans chicken broth
2-cups water
1-8oz. can Italian tomatoes with basil
2-whole carrots, sliced thin,precooked
1/2-cup parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp. dried basil

Directions: In a dutch over or a soup pot:
Heat the olive oil and saute the onion and the garlic until they
are wilted. Add the precooked carrots and the swiss chard. Add the chicken broth and the water. Let the ingredients simmer(medium-low) in the broth until they are tender. Add the cooked
penne pasta, the canned Italian tomatoes with basil and the dried
basil. Simmer on low for an additional twenty minutes. When all
of the ingredients are finished cooking, ladle into soup bowls or soup cups and sprinkle the parmesan cheese on the top of the
soup. Serve with Italian bread and some ripe olives.

A rich dense portabella mushroom sauce works well with the delicate balance of penne pasta.

Portabella Mushroom Sauce
(Serves 4)
2-cups portabella mushrooms, sliced
1-medium onion, chopped
2-Tlbs. butter
1-tsp. flour
1-cup half and half
1-tsp. worchestershire sauce
2-Tlb. parsley flakes
1-cup parmasean cheese
1/4-cup red or rose wine
4-cups penne pasta

Directions: Saute the sliced mushrooms and onions until they are
tender. Add the worchestershire sauce and the half and half. Stir
the ingredients and then add the red or rose wine and the parsley
flakes. Boil the penne pasta in salted water and drain it in a
strainer.After the pasta is drained put into an oiled baking dish
and pour the mushroom sauce over it. Cover with foil and bake at
350 degrees for thirty minutes.

A ham and cheese sauce is for those times when a meal needs to
be prepared in a hurry.

Ham And Cheese Sauce

2-cups ham, precooked
1-cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2-cup parmesan cheese
2-cups half and half
2-Tlb. butter
1-Tlb. all purpose flour
1/2-cup frozen English peas
4-cups penne pasta, parboiled

Directions: Line the bottom of a medium sized baking dish with
foil and brush it with some olive oil. In a saucepan: Combine the butter and the flour. After it is incorporated add the half and half and the two cheeses. Stir until the ingredients are of a
sauce consistency. In a baking dish: Arrange the penne pasta and
mix in the ham and the peas. Pour the cheese sauce over the
ingredients. Cover the ingredients with foil and bake at 350
degrees for thirty minutes.

A penne pasta salad is a topic of debate over whether to use fresh plum tomatoes, a favorite brand of canned plum ones, or the
sweetness of the sun dried. Whatever the outcome of the discussion, any type of plum tomato will do.

Penne Pasta Salad
(Serves 4)

4-cups penne pasta, precooked
2-green onions, chopped
1-Tablespoon parsley flakes
3/4-cup plum tomatoes (canned or sun dried)
1/2-cup ripe olives
1/2-cup roasted red bell peppers
3-Tlb olive oil
2-Tlb red wine
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions: Rub a salad bowl with a clove of garlic.Combine all
of the salad ingredients.Whisk the olive oil and the red wine
vinegar. Season the pasta salad with the salt and the pepper.
Combine the vinaigrette dressing with the ingredients.Refrigerate
the pasta salad for thirty minutes.

A light finish to a penne pasta meal is a simple fruit salad made
with oranges, freshly chopped mint and toasted coconut.

Orange Mint Fruit Salad
(Serves 4)

4-cups sliced oranges
2-mint leaves, finely chopped
1-cup toasted coconut
1-anisette cookie for a garnish

Directions: Lightly combine the fruit salad ingredients and then spoon the fruit salad in individual bowls with with an anisette
cookie as a garnish

Cooking since the age of fifteen, the author has always loved
the cuisine of Italy.

Top Ramen Noodles can be made in such a way to contain lots of the vitamins and essentials we need. They make a perfect food for space colonists, says at least one study for NASA. It does make sense and as long as you have water and heat you can take these packs without expenditure of much fuel to get this out of the atmosphere.

Now then, if we use these types of foods as part of the strategy for space colonists on Mars, we maybe able to sustain life using this concept. When building a colony on Mars, which has water in the form of ice, it maybe helpful to have such foods which do not weigh very much but can be added with water when we eat them. A colony on Mars, which is set near or in the ice cap makes sense. By chipping off a piece of ice, boiling it for safety and then adding noodles to it, may be the answer to food supply and nutrition.

Although some work will need to be done on this concept, it certainly makes a lot of sense to take a little Top Ramen Noodles with you if you are going to be stuck without food on another world or in route during long-term space flights. Think on this.

“Lance Winslow” - If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs

Starbucks Coffee Company was founded in 1971 by three businessmen in Seattle, Washington who had a love for coffee and tea. It was important to them that the city of Seattle to have access their coffee.

The Starbucks Coffee Company grew slowly but by 1981 had 4 retail stores and a roasting plant that sold whole bean coffee in Seattle only.

By 1983 the marketing manager had a vision of re-creating the magic and romance behind the Italian coffee bar and wanted to test out the concept of selling espresso by the cup. When Starbucks Coffee opened its 6th store in downtown Seattle, the idea had become a hit. Within 2 months the new store was serving over 700 customers a day and it was selling 3 times more than the whole bean locations.

In 1987, the owners of Starbucks Coffee Company decided to sell their coffee business along with the name to a group of local investors for $3.7 million.

The new investors were told that they would open 125 Starbucks coffee stores in the next five years. Starting from a base of 17 stores in 1987, the company expanded rapidly to Vancouver, Portland and Chicago.

By 1991 Starbucks had expanded into the mail-order catalogue business, licensed airport stores and expanded further into the state of California.

In 1992 the company went public and after the initial public offering, Starbucks continued to grow at a phenomenal pace that no one had ever seen in the coffee world before. By 1997 the number of Starbucks Coffee stores grew tenfold, with locations in the US, Japan and Singapore.

Starbucks initiated several successful product and brand extensions including offering coffee on United Airlines flights. They also began selling premium teas through its Tazo Tea Company and offering people the option to purchase starbucks coffee online to enjoy at home.

They began distributing whole bean and ground coffee to supermarkets through an agreement with Kraft Foods. They also produced premium coffee ice cream with Dreyers. Starbucks even sold CDs in its retail stores.

Starbucks began turning its name into a household word not through advertising but through word of mouth. In fiscal 2004, Starbucks opened a record 1,344 stores worldwide. The once small regional roaster, Starbucks Coffee Company, now has more than 9,000 locations in 34 countries serving over 20 million customers a week.

Copyright © 2005 Perfect Coffees.com. All Rights Reserved.

This article is supplied by http://www.perfectcoffees.com where you can purchase starbucks coffee online, tea, cups, mugs, coffee makers, delicious desserts and sugar free desserts online. For a free monthly coffee newsletter with articles like these go to: http://www.perfectcoffees.com/newsletter.html