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Rabu, 31 Januari 2007

Eating the right stuff

Dietitians say that a good meal is a balanced one. What does this mean? It means that you should eat everything: fruits, veggies, grains, meat and fats. The key is choosing the right healthiest item from each group.

Health Castle, a Web site dedicated to nutrition, recommends that a healthy meal should include the following elements:

Fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products.

Lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs and nuts.

Low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt, and added sugars.


DON’T GIVE IN WHEN YOU EAT OUT AND ARE ON THE GO

It’s important to make smart food choices and watch portion sizes wherever you are—at the grocery store, at work, in your favorite restaurant, or running errands.
Try these tips: • At the store, plan ahead by buying a variety of nutrient-rich foods for meals and snacks throughout the week. • When grabbing lunch, have a sandwich on whole-grain bread and choose low-fat/fat-free milk, water, or other drinks without added sugars. • In a restaurant, opt for steamed, grilled, or broiled dishes instead of those that are fried or sautéed. • On a long commute or shopping trip, pack some fresh fruit, cut-up vegetables, string cheese sticks, or a handful of unsalted nuts—to help you avoid impulsive, less healthful snack choices.*


Information taken from Healthcastle.com

Facts sheets on nutrition

What is a healthy weight?

Most of us have asked ourselves what's the healthiest weight for me. People have mistakenly related being skinny with being healthy. That is not completely true because your weight has various components such as height, age, and bone structure.

It is very important to keep close attention to your weight in order to avoid weight-related diseases such as Coronary Artery Disease, Sleep Apnea, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and strokes.


In order for you to find out whether your weight is healthy or not, you need to know your Body Mass Index (BMI) and that is calculated by using this equation:

BMI = 703 mass (LB) / height² (in²)
Below 19 = Underweight
19-24.9 = Healthy Weight (Low Health Risk)
25-29.9 = Overweight (Moderate Health Risk)
30-40 = Obese (High Health Risk)
Over 40 = Morbid Obesity (Very High Risk)

Rabu, 17 Januari 2007

How to make paneer, Homemade paneer!

This a Part repost, part recap Blog post!

How to make Paneer at home?
Fresh Paneer that you can use to cook mouth watering dishes like Palak Paneer ,or the reason this post was made about a year back. Mattar Paneer, or Paneer with green peas.
I started that post with the lines "The secret of making paneer unvieled!!!" And BTW, the layout for my new blog is almost ready.. Just a little tweaks here and there and we will be in our new distination soon. All fresh posts in there.. No importing of posts.. I just can't have the thought of deleting this blog. Some dishes I will cook again and repost even, for new readers who are too lazy to browze the archives..




The picture above is of the paneer, prepared myself. Turned out quite easy. Otherwise it wouldn't have been posted on Bachelor Cooking!
I had prepared it with inspiration from Atabela..

This is quite simple, simple enough for green horn cooks.

And it was indeed tastier than the Dairy manufactured Paneers that we buy.

Steps:

Boil Milk in a vessel.

* I boiled 1 litre of milk for the purpose.. and The ball above is just about the size of a Cricket Ball, so if you want a bigger Ball, get two litres. I eat alone so It was enough for me.

Boil Milk in low heat ( Low heat so that the milk don't spill, no use crying over spilt milk right?) Boil until about 1/4 or a quarter of the milk has evaporated has evaporated.

When 3 quaters of the milk remain, squeeze some lime juice.

OK put pre-squeezed lime juice. For 1 litre of milk, it took s table spoons of freshly squeezed juice to get all the milk solidify or coagulate. (For more milk use more lime).

The milk will now start to coagulate. That is what we wanted. When you see that the solid and watyre has separated, remove the vessel from heat.

Now lay a muslin cloth like the seen in the picture above over the mouth of another vessel, and pour the milk over it so that only the solid if caught in the cloth.

gather up the sides of the cloth and hold it like a sack or purse.

When you have gathered the sides on the top, hold tight and turn the solid below, so that the cloth tightens over the solid milk or paneer.

(**Now, hot water will squirt from the mesh in the cloth and it will be really hot, so do the tightening under a running water tap.)

Hand the sack for sometime, and then Open..

If you want to cook it, you make cut them into cubes as below.


Deep fry the paneer cubes slowly and slightly till the color below. It makes for much better mattar paneer, paneer Masala or any paneer dish.

Fry just till this brown.. Is it golden brown?