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A bit overstuffed from Thanksgiving meals and leftovers?  Have another coming up on Sunday?  Time to lighten up a little in the whole food scene?  Smoothies are a great answer.  Simple, fast, and heatlhy.  Try this one:

• 1 cup soymilk or soy yogurt
• 1 medium banana
• 1 small peach
• 2 Tbsp wheat germ (optional)
• 5 ice cubes 

Put all ingredients in your blender and blend together until smooth.  Contains protein and fiber with no saturated fat and no cholesterol.  A nice refreshing drink.   Enjoy!

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I keep hot pepper flakes on my stove right alongside my salt and pepper, so, yes, I believe that the hotter the better. Taking a simple chicken skillet and turning it into a Hot Pepper and Garlic Chicken Skillet is right up my alley. Besides the hot pepper flakes, there is the pungent flavor and aroma of toasted garlic, and who can resist that? My youngest children don’t enjoy spicy foods as much as I do, so I usually save this one for grown-up night. Although, I have adjusted the temperature of the hot pepper flakes a bit by adding fewer flakes in the mix, and then sprinkling a few on my own plate at the table. Try it out, give the kids a few bites, and see if you’ve got a winner for all.

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The automatic bread maker is pne of the better inventions given to us from the 1980s. Prior to this invention, people would have to spend all day, making and waiting for their bread loaves to come out of the oven.

It was a tedious process of mixing the dough, kneading the dough and then waiting for the first rise. After the first rise, it was punched down and had to rise again before shaping and then rising a third time before baking. This process took many hours just to be able to enjoy a loaf of fresh bread.

panasonic bread maker
Thankfully, times have changed and you can enjoy fresh loaves with an automatic bread maker. There are tons of wonderful free bread recipes that come with the machine and you can even take a shortcut by buying the boxed sets. There are a wide variety of choices and some even feature sweet breads, such as cinnamon rolls.

What more could you ask for? Even the free banana bread recipes included in the instruction booklet are incredibly easy. You simply dump in the ingredients, close the lid and let the machine do the work. You come back three hours later and it’s ready to eat.

There are quite a few brands out on the market right now. You have to remember that the automatic bread making machine has only been around since the 1980s, but has surprisingly evolved quite a bit. Take for example the Panasonic SD yd250 automatic bread maker that does it all for you.

There are also other bread making machines out on the market such as the Cuisinart bread maker. All bread maker bread machines feature the same basic features but some are definitely better than others when it comes to making different items other than bread, such as rolls and sundry bakery products.

cuisinart bread
You’ll need to invest in a panasonic bread maker if you enjoy for fresh, warm bread. Some of the newer models will keep your bread warm if you are unable to get to the hot bread when it is done. You can enjoy all the benefits of having homemade bread without all of the work.

Your ancestors would have jumped at this opportunity! Think about how great your ancestors would have felt if they not had to slave away in a hot kitchen and spend so much time preparing loaves of bread for the family.

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Absolutely! But…. that’s controlled by the ingredients, of course. The healthiest smoothies will be the ones you make yourself in your own kitchen.

Maybe you have a favorite place you stop on the way to work or like to pick one up at the mall while out shopping. You’re subjecting yourself to lots of sugar, artificial flavors and mixers, which are loaded with additives. So the health value becomes questionable.

Your Kitchen is Best

At home, you know exactly what you are putting in that blender. You decide on the sweetener, if you even need one. The ingredients are fresh. You are in control.

So, Why Make Smoothies?

Why not just eat the foods that go into smoothies? Why blend them altogether? It has to do with the partnering of the enzymes and vitamins and minerals. Vitamins activate enzymes and the enzymes help digest the vitamins.

The real problem here is that people just don’t slow down and chew their food long enough before they swallow. This is where that partnering relationship begins. We’re supposed to be chewing our foods at least 30 times before we let it proceed down our throats. The practice of slow lingering meals in this country has been long gone for decades.

Just telling people to slow down while they are eating isn’t going to make it happen. That’s not the society we live in today. Food is an on-the-go thing for us. Smoothies are the ideal way to make the best vitamin and mineral foods portable.

Smoothie Basic Ingredients

The number one ingredient for smoothies is the banana. And rightfully so! Banana milk, like soymilk, is a complete protein. It contains all the eight essential amino acids in the most live form that we can get. (You put these together in a smoothie and you have a real protein powerhouse.)

Bananas are a prime example of a food people eat too fast. Since it’s a soft food, a couple chews and down it goes. But then many people suffer a stomach ache because the digestion process that should have begun in the mouth is trying to happen in the stomach. This problem is totally eliminated with smoothies.

Another perfect food for the smoothie is the tiny but mighty sesame seed. It’s mostly used for decoration sprinkled on top of other foods. But these tiny little seeds are loaded, absolutely loaded with calcium. Grinding them to a powder and adding that to smoothies is ideal.

It’s an Individual Thing

The most wonderful thing about smoothies is the availability to cater to individual tastes. Every member of the family can get all the vitamins and minerals needed and do it with variety. Virtually any fruit or vegetable can be thrown into a smoothie.

So if you’re going to do smoothies, do it right. Make them a part of your nutritional diet. Make them at home, take them with you. Use healthy ingredients.

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Ahhhhh! Just think about forking a succulent bite of fresh buy lobsters into your mouth and savoring it all the way down! How could anything taste more sublime? But before you rush out to your nearest Red Lobster and choose your live lobster for a $25.00 lobster dinner, let’s spend a little bit of time getting to know something about the critter that you’re drooling over.

Once upon a time, America was peopled by only Native Americans, and lobsters were plentiful. They were so plentiful, in fact, that the Native Americans used them as fertilizer for farm fields and fish bait. They never ate them! Yuck!

The early colonists didn’t like them much, either. They also considered lobsters to be fertilizer and used them only as food for the poor. They fed them to their children, slaves, and indentured servants. Indentured servants eventually started fighting back and refused to sign contracts until they were guaranteed to only have to eat lobster three times a week. Unfortunately, the children and slaves didn’t have contracts.

Until the early 19th century, people collected lobster shipped by hand from tide pools along the shore. The first lobster traps didn’t appear until around 1850. Lobster meat was only sold in cans, and the canned meat just didn’t have much flavor, so it wasn’t popular with consumers.

It wasn’t until our modern transportation system developed that live lobsters became sought-after luxury items. Shipped to the big cities, they quickly became expensive luxury food for the higher classes of our population.

If you’re like I am, you may feel a little squeamish about seeing your dinner lying serene and green in a tank one minute and bright-red and cooked on your plate the next. This feeling, too, dates back to the beginning of lobster-eating. Lobster experts swear, however, that it’s the only way to have fresh lobster.

During my lifetime I’ve known family members tracing clear back to my great grandmother who was born in 1873. Even when seafood came into vogue, she never ate it. As a Victorian lady, she would never have even wanted to think about throwing something live into a pot of boiling water. After all, women in the Victorian era were sheltered from the harsh realities of life.

It’s amazing how tastes change over the years. For centuries the succulent meat of much-maligned order lobster online went unnoticed and unappreciated. Then, almost overnight, lobsters moved from obscurity into the fanciest restaurants of the time.

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Some claim it as “purple gold,” health food stores stock it on their shelves, and it started in the Brazilian Amazon. It has been endorsed by health specialists across the globe and was even featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show The acai fruit finds its way into a number of juices, smoothies, and nutrition bars which means it is catching on in the U.S. Is acai worth all the hype, some ask.

The acai berry cures a number of ailments, provides energy, and increases the libido, Amazon tribes have said. The acai berry is one of the most nutritional foods in the world as shown by recent scientific studies. Grown in the Amazon, the Açaí starts as the fruit of palm trees in Brazilian rainforests The berry is filled with antioxidants, amino acid and fatty acids, and natural energy, and has a subtle chocolate taste. This combination creates a “superfood” that helps prevent high cholesterol, heart disease, and cancer, researchers say. Because the acai fruit destroys some cancer cells in the body, it is a leading ingredient in many alternative medicine diets.

Even though the acai fruit is a staple in the Amazonian diet, it is new to the U.S.. The U.S. phenomenon is credited to Southern California brothers who discovered the fruit on a surfing trip and returned to the U.S. to co-found the company Sambazon, which features the acai berry in a number of its products

Because the acai fruit spoils too quickly to be distributed widely in its natural form, it’s mostly found as a main ingredient in other food products, like protein bars and juices Recently, the acai berry has shown up in some health food stores in an unsweetened pulp form, which provides a higher concentration of the antioxidants normally found in acai juice products

To a society focusing more on sustainable development, the acai fruit is even more of a draw. Thousands of harvesters can harvest the acai fruit without destroying the Amazon rainforests. New concerns arise, however, as the popularity of Açaí juice products increases, requiring more of the acai fruit to be harvested

Nevertheless, the acai phenomenon will only grow in the U.S., with Açaí juice and products being widely distributed in a number of food chains, like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s Research already provides evidence that the acai fruit is worth the hype; now it’s time for Americans to fully embrace it

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The Acai Berry comes from the Amazon rain forests of Brazil. It grows on certain species of palm trees in bunches similar to bananas. It is similar in appearance to blueberries only smaller. The Acai must be extracted from the pulp of the berry and processed before consumption, the raw berries themselves are not considered good to eat.

Used by Brazilians for many decades, Acai is well known in that country for its health benefits. Acai is loaded with antitoxins, having at least twice as much as blueberries. Although relatively new to the U.S. in alternative health circles Acai is becoming quite popular. Not only does it have a delicious flavor and can be used in many dishes but it is also known as a treatment for digestive problems, skin irritations, sexual dysfunction, and as a sleep aid. Acai is rapidly catching on in the U.S. as a super food

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I’m not sure if this qualifies as a salad or a main dish, but I think it could be served as either. The aroma of this Hot and Tangy Kidney Bean Salad is really a bit of a teaser, because the bacon gives the dish a hearty flavor. I don’t call it a salad when I serve it to my husband, so he will eat it as a main dish. Granted, I have to throw in a little crusty bread to round it out, but he agrees that this dish is the full-meal deal! I also serve it as a luncheon side-dish with some nice spring greens topped with finely chopped red onions and a vinegrette dressing. A little white cheddar cheese is a nice addition to the plate, also. No one ever complains when they push away from the table when this meal is served!

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Remember that saying?  An apple a day keeps the doctor away.  Like many of these little gems that have been around for years and years, there is a lot of truth to it.  It’s amazing what great things are packed inside one medium sized apple.  For starters:

• 80 Calories - Calories from Fat - 5
• Low in Fat - 0.5 gram
• No cholesterol
• No Sodium
• Carbohydrates - 22 grams
• Dietary Fiber - 4 grams
• Soluble Fiber - 3 grams

Are you always throwing bananas into your soymilk smoothies?  That’s absolutely wonderful.  They are loaded with goodies, too.  But for a change in flavor, try an apple instead.  Or better yet, blend them both in and have a power drink.

Look at these apple vitamins you’ll be adding to that smoothie:

• Vitamin A - 74.0 I.U.
• Vitamin C - 7.8 mg
• Thiamin - .02 mg
• Riboflavin - .02 mg
• Phosphorus - 10.0

We’re in the season here.  There are apples everywhere.  Don’t let these jewels pass you by.  When a fruit is in season and the market is flooded with them, take advantage of the lower prices and add their nutrients to your diet. 

Did you know that fruits and vegetables have calcium in them?  It’s a myth that you must drink cow’s milk to get your calcium.  Where do cows get their calcium after they’ve been weaned?  Plant life.  And they need lots of it, they have bigger bones than we do.

Add apples to your life and grab these minerals:

• Potassium - 159.0
• Iron - 0.25 mg
• Calcium - 10.0 mg
• Magnesium - 6.0
• Boron - 0.5 mg

Have a happy day and add an apple to it!

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Agave is grown in southern Mexico and is a source for one of natures best kept secrets, agave nectar.

This natural sweetener is gaining popularity as an incredible natural sweetener. It is 3 times sweeter than honey and has a very low glycemic index which makes agave nectar the ideal substitute for sugar, fructose corn syrup sweeteners and molasses. agave nectar can be used in any recipe or as a natural sweetener in your beverages like tea or coffee and is ideal for use in desserts and baking. Unlike sugar or honey agave nectar dissolves instantly in cold drinks.

Baking recipies with agave nectar
agave nectar can be used to replace sugar in your baking recipes. You can substitute the amount of sugar with 1/4 the amount of agave nectar. Due to its high water content however it is wise to also reduce the amount of moisture you use to compensate. When baking, lower the oven temperature by 25°F.

Agave nectar a healthy choice
In this day and age people are becoming more health conscious and are looking for save alternatives to sugar and the many artificial sweeteners. Artificial sweeteners like the much used Aspartame can have negative effects on your health and are best avoided completely. agave syrup is a healthy alternative natural sweetener. Due to its low glycemic index it has a lower effect on your blood sugar levels. This property makes agave nectar an often recommended alternative to conventional sweeteners for diabetics.

Agave and agave nectar
agave nectar is produced from various strains and types of the agave plant. Most commonly agave nectar is made from the blue agave plant. This is the same plant used for creating Mexico’s national drink: Tequila. When making agave nectar the plant’s leaves are removed so only the center remains. This center which looks a bit like a pineapple is called the Piña which means pineapple in Spanish. The piña is then cut and filtered to extract its juice. The juice is heated so the starches in the juice can turn to sugar. The juice is then dehydrated to form a syrup.

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