Good Vegan and Vegetarian Food

Health food doesn’t need a definition, does it? We all know what health food is it’s yogurt and granola, whole-grain cereal and organically grown vegetables and fruit. It’s 100% natural, no preservatives or dyes, unadulterated, pure. When you put all that together, you should have healthy food, yet all too often, what’s marketed as health food these days barely classifies as food, let alone health food.

Take a look at one of our favorite health food choices - yogurt. It hit supermarket shelves in the early seventies, though it had been available before that in health food stores and restaurants. Real yogurt has two ingredients: milk (whole, skim or low fat) and live yogurt cultures. That’s health food - calcium, vitamin D, vitamin A, protein. Next time you’re at the supermarket, take a look at the dairy case. You’ll find row after row of hyper-sweetened brightly colored rainbow swirled and candy-sprinkled yogurt packaged in ways that appeal to our littlest consumers - children. Millions of parents buy the enticing packages, secure that because it’s yogurt, they’re buying food that’s healthy for their children.

One look at the label, though, and it’s clear that these kiddy yogurts (as well as most of the yogurt that’s marketed to adults) are a far cry from heath food. Some of the most popular yogurts for children contain anywhere from 3 to 10 added teaspoons of sugar. Considering how many teaspoons of yogurt are in a single serving, you might as well hand your child the sugar bowl. In addition, most yogurts include “natural” ingredients that have little to do with health food. Ingredients like pectin (to thicken yogurt), carrageenan (a seafood extract that gives some yogurts their body, and annatto (for color) add little nutritionally to yogurt. They’re in the mix to serve one main purpose: to help yogurt survive its trip from the factory to your table.

You’ll find the same situation with other foods that originally made their debut as health foods in the seventies. Granola has become granola bars with chocolate chips and gooey caramel. Whole wheat flour is bleached and denuded of its flavorful kernels. Sunflower seeds are roasted in oil and salted. Even brown rice comes in the instant variety.

Healthy food not health food
The secret to feeding your family (and yourself) a healthful diet of healthy food is to read the labels. The United States Food & Drug Administration has laid out strict guidelines for nutritional labeling of all food products. The nutrition label will tell you all you need to know to choose real health foods. Some things to keep in mind when reading nutrition labels for health foods:

* In the ingredient’s portion of the nutrition label, ingredients are listed in order by amount. The ingredient that’s listed first is the main ingredient, followed by the next largest amount, etc.
* The nutrition facts label must list each of the required nutrients even if the food provides 0% of the recommended daily value.
* The nutrition facts label must list what portion of the food’s calories is derived from fat, from sugar, from protein and from carbohydrates. It will also break down the fat into saturated and unsaturated fat.

Reading labels on everything you feed your family is the best way to tell whether a food is really a health food - or just masquerading as one.

About the Author

Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing companies on the web. Visit this Food Website and Majon’s Food directory.

The history of olives and olive oil can be traced back to at the least biblical times. When the waters of the great flood subsided and Noah sent forth a dove it was an olive leaf she returned carrying in her mouth. It is known that as long as 6000 years ago olive oil was used as fuel in lamps. Maybe it was this olive oil that created such a beautiful Genie for Major Anthony Nelson to rescue in the popular television sitcom I Dream of Genie.

Today in modern grocery stores there are dozens of gourmet olives widely available. Gone are the days of canned black olives and green olives with pimentos as the only choices. For those of us who remember the days of opening a can of black olives and placing one on each finger then systematically biting them off here is the new olive.

Nicoises: Is a earthy rich olive commonly used in salad. The curing of this olive in red-wine vinegar gives it a distinctive taste.

Green olives with herbs de Provence: This vibrant citrus flavored olive is a delightful blend of herbs de Provence spices and large green olives. It is an excellent choice to use in surf dishes and with sweet spices.

Mount Athos green with Sicilian herbs: This is a second olive that utilizes herbs to dominate the pallet. Rosemary, garlic, mustard seed, and red pepper flakes give this olive a spicy appeal.

Mount Athos green stuffed with garlic: For a modern twist on the martini this olive is an excellent choice. It is stuffed with rich flavorful garlic and lends itself well to pizza as well as martinis.

Mount Athos green olives with sun-dried tomatoes: Sun-dried tomatoes give this heavy olive an intense flavor that is sophisticated and ideal for snacking.

Sun-dried olives: The drying of this olive gives it a rich flavor that blends wonderfully in sauces for serving over pasta.

Kalamatas: A tangy black olive cured in red-wine vinegar that can be from Italy or California. The California variety is denoted with a ‘c’ spelling rather than a ‘k’.

Alfonsos: This robust winey tasting olive is soft and similar to the kalamata. It is a popular choice in antipasto salads.

Halkididis: Very similar in flavor to the kalamatas this olive is excellent blended with cream cheese and garlic for a flavorful dip.

Lucques: This meaty buttery olive contains pits but is still a wonderful choice with provolone cheese and bruchetta.

About the Author

You too, can manoeuvre in the unfamiliar waters of gourmet cuisine, with just a few well-learned techniques that are easy to master, and build a repertoire of literally hundreds of dishes and deserts. Let Geoffrey set you on the path today, to gastronomical delights! http://www.free-recipe-books.com

“Luo Han Zhai” (Luo Han means arhat in Buddhism) has become a regular vegetable dish on every Guangzhou family’s dinner table since it served as the “food for monks” in Song dynasty. Not only does it carry the delicate fragrance of Buddhism, but also has the joy of the mortal world.

Guangzhou’s Luo Han Zhai is known by the “Eighteen Disciples of Buddha Zhai”, or the “18 Luo Han Zhai”. It wins the reputation from people being fastidious about the rich ingredients, but this dish is rarely seen today. It is too luxurious and does not carry on any spirit of Buddhism, and it simply cannot stand well with the intense competitions under the current Chinese market economic principles.

The cooking methods of any ordinary Luo Han Zhai are approximately the same among Guangzhou’s several large vegetable restaurants, and there are also not much differences comparing the nation’s main cuisines. But in the folk, people cook the dish in their own ways and the procedures can be very different. Rich families, of course, will always have “three mushrooms & six ears (wood ears)” (the phrase implies “rich” in China), and everything else needed. But it is also called “Luo Han Zhai” if cooked with just three or five main ingredients in low income families. Such spirit comes from the Buddhist for sure.

Ingredients:

1/2 turnip
1 carrot
1 bunch broccoli
soup stock
salt
3 bamboo shoots
2 dried mushrooms (soaked)
5 champignons
20 gingko nuts
4 tablespoons oil
1/2 cup (100cc) soup stock
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon cooking wine
dash of monosodium glutamate
1 teaspoon cornstarch

Method:

1. Cut turnip and carrot into 2.5cm (1″) pieces and scoop into balls with baller. Boil in soup till tender. Drain.
2. Boil broccoli in soup with salt added till tender.
3. Drain and cut broccoli into pieces. Slice mushrooms and bamboo shoots. Shell gingko nuts and boil in salted water.
4. Heat oil. Add and sauté in this order: mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and champignons. Add soup, turnip, carrot and seasonings.
5. Sauté and mix well. Thicken with starch mixed with water.
6. Add broccoli. Server while hot.

Cooking Time: 50 minutes

Nutritional information:
Yield: 4 servings
Each serving provides:
Calories: 197
Protein: 7.3g

Note: You may freely republish this recipe as long as author bio and active hyperlinks are kept intact. Thank you.

About the Author

Jacklyn Chen - Webmaster of news-blogs.com. She is a full time mom who works very hard to make living with multiple web sites. For holiday and gift shopping, visit http://holidays.news-blogs.com