natural juice

View the original article here

Every Sunday is like the last, my wife sends me to the store with a list of items for the week. All the basics are on there:

You get the idea. Like a zombie, I mindlessly walk the store and get each item on the list and bring them home. While unpacking I start to make comments about each item (I probably should write an article on why I shouldn't do that) and why we don't need them.

I always get hung up on celery and lettuce. They don't do anything for me and I see them as a side item to my sandwich or meal. Actually, I would rather substitute spinach or broccoli for each of them, because I know those two vegetables are healthy (as long as Pop-Eye and my mom aren't liars).

So that got me thinking of researching and writing an article on the nutritional benefits of lettuce and celery. Exciting, earth shattering stuff, I know.

Well I was actually quite surprised by the minerals and nutrients each one packed. For instance, did you know celery is a great source of riboflavin, calcium, dietary fiber, and contains good amounts of vitamin A, B6, C, and K? I didn't either. All of these nutrients and vitamins are key cogs that keep our body functioning at a high level.

What about lettuce? Well, let me break that down as well. Lettuce contains thiamin, vitamins B6, A, C, K and (like celery) are very good sources for dietary fiber, folate and manganese.

So now that you know that you know the power that these watery, tasteless vegetables pack, here are some ways to incorporate them into your daily meals.

Celery, when I think of it, is seen as the main side with a plate of buffalo wings, Well, that may be very true but have you ever tried adding celery to soup? Your spinach salad? What about mixing it in with canned tuna and spreading it on bread for a sandwich? These are all great ways to get celery into your diet without having to eat it raw.

Want your kids to eat more celery. Will try the tried and true Ants on a Log recipe that kids have been devouring up for who knows how long. Simple cut each celery stalk into 3 pieces, smear peanut butter in the gap (or almond butter for a healthier option) and add 3 to 4 raisins (these are your ants) and voila!

How about lettuce? Well just because you buy it for taco night and then forget about it until it starts stinking up your fridge, doesn't mean it cannot be used as an enhancer to any lunch or dinner item. Making a turkey or other cold cut sandwich? Sprinkle some lettuce on it. Have a left over tomato sitting on the counter, slice it up and combine with lettuce for a quick salad.

There are plenty of easy and simple ways to get better use of celery and lettuce. While these two vegetables may not be the sexiest out there (I am looking at you radish... oh you devil), they still provide quite the punch of vitamins and nutrients and shouldn't be overlooked when meal planning.

If you liked this article about celery nutrition and lettuce nutrition, then please check out my website The Skinny, Fat Dad

View the original article here

Healthy Burger recipes, and healthy coleslaw without the guilt!

You can't beat a nice juicy burger with a creamy coleslaw! I would live on this if it wasn't so fattening and have more calories than a bargain bucket from the colonel.

But being conscious of the food I eat coupled with my ambition in the kitchen, I have come up with a healthier way to make one of my favorite foods.

You will need:

500g lean steak mince

250g low fat greek/natural yogurt

½ a white cabbage

½ a red onion

2 carrots

1 tablespoon tomato puree

Low salt/ sugar seasoning (I used barbecue seasoning from Penzeys. These guys are a US company) You can season these burgers with anything really, but be aware that many ready made seasonings are loaded with salt and sugar.

Fresh Parsley

Ground black pepper

1 clove of garlic

Chili oil
Make the coleslaw first
OK, Coleslaw is a great way to get some veggies into your diet. Normally however, it is quite high in calories as it is made with mayonnaise, even reduced fat mayonnaise is pretty high in calories.

We are still going to have a creamy tasty coleslaw but it is going to be made with low fat natural yogurt. This transforms the coleslaw from a half hearted attempt at eating something that is good for you into a protein packed health food!

First thing to do is get your V slice or greater out. (I use a V slice, it is an awesome bit of kit, you can make your coleslaw and loads of other things in literally seconds!)

Step 1

Grab a big mixing bowl, Slice up the onion using the Greater or V slice. Once this is done, take a small hand full of the onion out and put it to one side for later

Step 2

Slice up the Cabbage, carrots (I don't bother peeling the carrots) into your mixing bowl with the onion

Step 3

Throw in the yogurt, pepper. Now you can finely chop the parsley, (I like to go pretty fine with the parsley but you can have it courser if you like) Throw the parsley into the bowl as well. I also like to add a drizzle of chili oil at this point, not too much, just a drizzle.

Step 4

Mix this up well, if you need to add more Yogurt at this point, go ahead. Once this is mixed well, put it in the fridge to stand. I have found that this gets all the flavors going.

Making The burgers

Step 1

When making burgers I find it is best not to handle the meat too much or it will make it a bit tough. So get another mixing bowl and put the meat in, separate the pieces

Step 2

Chop the garlic finely as you like and add this to the meat, add the tomato puree, and onion that you saved from earlier. Also you can now add your seasoning.

(you can be creative here, but as I said before, if you are on a calorie controlled diet you need to be conscious of what type of things you are adding. For example, I have tried these with peanut butter before... Yes this does sound strange, but they were like satay burgers, not too bad!. This obviously boosted the calories considerably.)

Step 3

Get stuck in and mix it up! Remember that the more you handle the mixture, the tougher it will be. But it is important to get all of the seasoning evenly distributed

Step 4

Make the mixture into a big ball. Half this and half again. This should give you four even "Blobs" of mince.

Step 5

Make these blobs of mince into balls and squash them until they are about 0.5 inches thick. If you have a burger press, great! Use that

Step 6

This is a tip to reduce the fat content a little bit more

Grab a baking tray and cover with tin foil (if you want to save on the washing up) Then get a "Wire rack" normally from your grill pan and place this over the top of the baking tray and tinfoil. Then put the burgers onto the wire rack. You should have something similar to this -

What this will do is cook out the excess fat, The burgers will not be sitting in their own fat, reducing the calories that little bit more.

Step 7

Put the burgers into a preheated oven at 180 Celsius/ gas mark 4 for around 25-30 Min's. This may vary on different ovens so try 25 mins, cut one in half and see if it is still pink in the middle.

Step 8

Once these are cooked, you can serve on a bun, or with a jacket potato to add some more carbs if needed

Nom nom nom! If you have a go at this, and want to let me know how it went, please leave a comment. If I have missed something also give me a shout.

Happy cooking and good luck!

By James Atkinson

If this has been useful to you, there are more articles on training, diet, healthy meal ideas and inspiration on my blog http://www.jimshealthandmuscle.com/
I would love to hear from you and I am always happy to help.

View the original article here

Chicken and rice cakes

Struggling to get your chicken and rice in?

This meal of the week is a bit different. Although I have aimed this at bodybuilders on a pre contest diet, this recipe is one of the best choices for anyone with weight loss plans who are after a tasty meal idea.

As some of you may know, I am into bodybuilding. I competed and placed in late 2012. I did struggle with the constant "force feeding" of chicken, rice and broccoli. If any of you have done a pre contest bodybuilding diet, you will know how tough this can be... It got so bad for me early on in the 20 week diet that I literally wanted to cry every 2 hours when it came to getting this bland mixture down.

As I am really into my food, I looked at better ways to cook chicken and rice for pre contest. As this diet is extremely strict you are very limited with the type of seasoning you can use. Anything with sugar is a massive "NO NO" and if you look at the ingredients on most seasonings you will see sugar and salt. All sauces are out of the question as these have a big calorie content, most again are loaded with sugar and salt.

The calories I got had to come mainly from chicken and rice.

So these "Chicken and rice cakes" are something that I managed to invent when I was struggling one weekend when I had some time.

The measurements of chicken and rice will vary for each person if you are competing. If you are just using this as a healthy option you can follow the measurements that I used.

You will need-

4 chicken breasts

300g of wholegrain rice (uncooked)

Ground Black pepper

1 chili

1 clove of garlic

A bunch of fresh coriander

No sugar/ salt seasoning. (I used Singapore seasoning made by "Penzeys spices") but any other seasoning that meets the criteria of your diet Will do)

Olive oil or "1 cal none stick spray"

Step 1

Cook the rice so it is ready to eat, leave this to cool slightly but don't allow it to go totally cold

Step 2

Wash and cut the chicken breast into chunks. We are not looking for anything pretty here, just chop it up and spray with the 1 cal none stick spray a few times.

Step 3

Crush or finely chop the garlic (If you have seen good fellas, you can use a razor blade) and cut the chili up. Make sure you remove the seeds from the chili here if you don't want it to be too hot.

Step 4

Pull apart or chop the coriander finely and mix with the garlic, chili and coriander.

Step 5

Season the chopped chicken with the Singapore seasoning or what ever you chose to use. (the Singapore seasoning will give the food a nice spicy Asian taste). Then mix in the chili, garlic, pepper and coriander. It is best to coat all of the chicken with this seasoning, so get stuck in to it with your hands.

Step 6

Put the raw chicken covered in seasoning into a food processor and also add the rice. Blend this in short bursts, you don't want to make a raw chicken and rice soup! It is personal preference on how fine you want to go here but I like to keep it fairly course.

Step 7

Once this is mixed or "Blended" take this out of the blender and put into a bowl. Make the mixture into a ball. Half the ball and half this again, you should end up with 4 balls... Nice! Squash these balls down so they are about an inch thick

Step 8

Use the 1 cal spray to lightly grease a baking tray or some tin foil, then place the 4 cakes onto the tray and again spray with 1 cal spray (This will give the cakes a crispy finish) or if you are not on a pre- contest diet, you could top with Parmesan cheese. (I haven't tried this but I imagine that it would finish off the cakes nicely)

Step 9

Put in a preheated oven at 180 Celsius or gas mark 4 for around 30 mins or until they have started to brown. Make sure that these are cooked thoroughly before eating.

Step 10

Serve with your favorite veg and eat while hot if you can. I have also eaten these cold as I will normally make a big batch. It's best not to reheat these as reheated chicken can cause you problems if it's not done right.

As I am into experimenting in the kitchen I came up with this healthy recipe but there are things that you could do to make this more exiting, like add onions (Another no no on my pre contest diet) or cheese, change the spices you put in or maybe make a blue cheese sauce to put over the top... I'm getting hungry now so I'm going to wrap it up!

I hope this has been useful. It certainly was for me when I fancied a change from the usual chicken, rice and broccoli mix on my pre contest diet.

Good luck if you are going to try this, let me know how you get on.

By James Atkinson

If this has been useful to you, there are more articles on training, diet, healthy meal ideas and inspiration on my blog http://www.jimshealthandmuscle.com/
I would love to hear from you and I am always happy to help.

View the original article here

Fruit Health

With our ever-increasing knowledge towards proper nutrition and illness prevention, fruit health has become an important cornerstone for many who want to embrace a healthier lifestyle. Barely two decades ago, most of us relied on medication as the cure to our major or minor ills. Today, people look to fruits and vegetables as the backbone of a healthier diet designed to prevent illness, not cure it once it has set in. That transformative mind-set is the key reason why more and more people are eating larger portions of fruits on a daily basis to help them achieve their personal health goals.

The secret to this sudden interest in fruit health lies in the following important facts:

· Fruits are an abundant source of vitamins and minerals. Each fruit is different in this regard as different fruits offer different concentrations of vitamins and minerals. Citrus fruits like oranges, tangerines, and grapefruit are rich in Vitamin C while yellow fruits like mango and papaya boast high concentrations of Vitamin A. Bananas are a great source of potassium for heart health. If you want to increase your intake of a specific vitamin to boost the health of the different organ systems in your body, you can simply pick the right fruit with the corresponding vitamin content.

· Fruits are also rich in antioxidants which are extremely useful for mitigating many types of diseases. Cherries, for example, are well known to counteract the effects of gout and many other types of arthritis due to its high anthocyanin and bioflavonoid content. Pineapples are rich in beta carotene and phytochemicals which help fight cancer. Tomatoes contain generous concentrations of lycopene. One of the biggest reasons why fruit health is gaining traction is because of our improved knowledge on the benefits of antioxidants as highlighted by the fruits that offer these health-giving substances.

· Fruit has a low-calorie content which makes it great as a snack alternative. One of the biggest health problems today is obesity, which is primarily due to fast food-based diets that pack a lot of fats, calories and carbs. Junk foods are equally to blame as the easier access to all types of junk foods has increased the incidence of obesity in young children. Fruits are great snack alternatives mainly because of their vitamin and mineral content, as mentioned above, but also because fruits don't have as much calories. A serving of cherries, for example, only contains about 70 calories while an equivalent serving of corn or potato chips can have as much as 240 calories. Keeping obesity and its related illnesses therefore requires greater focus on fruit health via fruits as a healthy alternative to junk or pre-packaged food snacks.

Fruit health is something that is available to everyone and works much better from the perspective of disease prevention than any other medication will once an illness has set in. If you truly want to be healthy, slimmer and disease-free, you can benefit from increasing your daily intake of fruits so you can power your body with the vitamins, minerals, nutrients, and antioxidants that are widely abundant in every serving of fresh fruit.

If you would like to know more about the nutritional content of different fruits, be sure and look at our articles on each individual fruit. This will give you a good idea why fruit health can be so advantageous to our overall health.

www.fruithealthbenefits.com/fruit-health-facts.shtml

Robert Perry specializes in writing medical related articles and the building of income producing niche websites, usually using Google AdSense ads. For $100 he builds a 5 article website that the search engines love.

The Niche Builders

View the original article here

When trying to cook healthy food it can be difficult to find meals that are low in refined sugar and saturated fat AND taste good enough to remove the temptation to eat junk food. A lot of "healthy cooking" can seem like a lot of work very little taste. It can be un-appetising at the best of times, especially when you're standing in a shop eyeing up the sausage rolls.

However, it only takes a touch of creativity to turn something like a boring chicken breast portion into something much more appetising. The foods, spices, tips and tricks below can all be used as an important part of any healthy eating plan, helping you to keep on the straight and narrow by adding taste to potentially dull dishes and keeping the calories down.

Spice Up Your Life

Whether you're using fresh basil or ground cinnamon, herbs and spices give healthier food the flavour it sometimes lacks, and have zero calories in them. They can be picked up pretty cheap, and last for a long time. These plants and powders can stop you from resigning yourself to a disappointing meal and using them might even spark off a whole new appreciation for food or a passion for cooking.

For example:

Marinating chicken completely changes the taste of the meat and stops it from drying out under the grill.

A sprinkling of garam masala on rye crisp-bread and cottage cheese makes this healthy snack a whole lot better and parsley, oregano, chives or paprika can all be used to spice up scrambled eggs.

If you don't consider yourself much of a cook then consider buying a herb and spice guide to teach you which flavourings go best with which foods. One final bonus of eating spicy food is that many spices have thermogenic properties, meaning that they make you produce more heat, thereby burning more calories.

Getting Saucy

Instead of reaching for the vegetable oil, ketchup or barbecue sauce, consider alternative oils and sauces to help bring out the best in your food. Lemon juice gives a citrus kick to anything you put it on, wasabi naturally reduces your appetite and vinaigrette can be chucked on vegetables, beans, meat or fish to make them much more appealing.

Coconut oil is a particularly impressive substance - it helps increase the flavour and juiciness of anything you throw it on, and has a very high concentration of medium chain fatty acids. These MCFA's are a kind of carbohydrate substitute that don't send your blood sugar levels soaring, making coconut oil a top-notch fuel for the body. Various vinegars can also provide a strong taste to a meal, and with such a variety to choose from - balsamic, wine, sherry, herb - you're likely to find something you like.

Like for Like

Sometimes you can't resist a meal with unhealthy components, even though you know that the rice in your curry is full of carbs and the flour you use is packed with gluten. However, substituting unhealthy ingredients for healthier alternatives can allow you to have your cake and eat it.

Black beans or whole wheat flour can replace white flour in a cake or cookie recipe while stripping out a lot of the gluten.

Avocado purée or mashed banana can be used as a replacement for butter in baking, providing the necessary texture while avoiding the high fat and salt content of the dairy alternative.

Quinoa is a great replacement for couscous - it's a whole protein with a delicious nutty taste that knocks the comparatively flavourless, gluten filled couscous out of the park.

Zuchinni ribbons or whole wheat pasta are perfect replacements for pasta

Cauliflower has a number of uses as a replacement food - if you steam and grate cauliflower it can go alongside a chilli or a curry in the place of rice, and mashed cauliflower is a much healthier alternative to mashed potato

Prosciutto or pancetta can be used to give you the smokey taste of bacon with far less sodium, and replacing ground beef with ground turkey will make any meal much healthier with hardly any difference in taste.

Sweet as Sugar

When it comes to finding an alternative to white sugar, artificial sweeteners like aspartame and saccharin should be completely avoided. However honey, maple syrup and molasses are all healthier ways to satisfy a sweet tooth than refined sugar. An even better alternative is agave nectar - a type of sugary syrup made from the agave plant. It has a very low glycemic index and tastes pretty good to boot. It can be added to teas or poured into porridge to sweeten things up without sending your insulin levels through the roof.

Locking Nutrients In

Steaming is much healthier than boiling, as it stops vitamins getting leeched out into water and also retains colour, consistency and taste in most vegetables. Eating food raw is actually considered healthiest, as any form of cooking tends to destroy some of the nutrients in foods. This may not be to everyone's taste, but cooking food a little less rather than charring meat on the barbecue or turning vegetables into limp mush will definitely help you get the most out of your meals.

Wrapping Things Up

We're so used to having strong flavours with no thought required when eating junk food, so when it comes to cooking healthy meals it can be hard to figure out how to make stuff taste good without taking cookery courses! It is a more involved process than just frying up some bacon or boiling some pasta, but the benefits that come from avoiding processed foods stuffed with additives make it well worth the effort. Hopefully you've now got some ideas on how you can make your next meal delicious, allowing you to look and feel great and still eat awesome food that you love.

The Cookery School at Braxted Park, Essex, combines a stunning location with award-winning chefs and a diverse range of courses to suit all abilities. Perfect for corporate hospitality and food fanatics alike, it is the ideal way to learn new skills from the some of the country's finest chefs; Paul Boorman, Mark Webb, William Grinsted and Peter Bayless to name just a few.

Whether you are looking to explore the world of cooking with a new cuisine, throw the perfect dinner party or create the ultimate team building experience, you will find the ideal solution for you at Braxted Park. For more information on the Cookery School at Braxted Park or the courses it runs, visit http://www.braxtedparkcookery.co.uk/

View the original article here

Pancakes are not the best choice of food from a health and fitness point of view, they are not the best thing you can eat.

I like a bunch of pancakes swimming in lemon juice and sugar but eating something like this is not great when you're looking to pack on some lean muscle or lose some fat so I have come up with a healthy alternative.

When I was stripping off the fat for a bodybuilding show I tested out all sorts of things with the limited food I was allowed to eat. My breakfast consisted of Oatmeal, egg whites and low carbohydrate protein powder.

With a bit of water and cinnamon, you've got ingredients for pancakes!

Now as these are low fat, no sugar and high protein pancakes they are not the best tasting, but they are awesome if you are on a fat loss or muscle building diet, they fill you up and because of the sweetener from the protein shake and cinnamon, they satisfy your sweet cravings. So here is what you will need to make these protein packed alternatives to your traditional pancakes -

Ingredients for protein pancakes

The mix is pretty simple to make, you just put all of the ingredients into a mixing bowl or food processor and blend.

I use a hand blender with a detachable end for easy cleaning, this should help you out with time saving also. Its a great bit of kit because you can use it lots and it is very easy to clean. Blend the mixture. (This is personal preference but If you blend this well so the mix is very smooth, the pancakes turn out better).

Once this is done, you will need to heat a none-stick pan so it is hotter than the sun!... Or as hot as you can make it. This is important if you don't want scrambled eggs and protein shake in a pan!

Once the pan is hot you need to add a small amount of vegetable oil. To cut calories even more, I put a small amount of oil in the pan and quickly wipe around the pan with a folded piece of Kitchen roll to remove excess oil and spread evenly. Depending on your pan, this should be enough for up to 3 pancakes, and then the oil may need to be applied again.

When the pan is hot enough and the oil has been added, you now need to add a small amount of the mix to the pan. (The more you do this the more you will see what kind of amount you need to add per pancake, you can have thick ones or thin ones).

Once the mixture is added to the pan leave it until you see small bubbles forming on the top. It is now time to ease up the sides with a spatula and flip! It should take around 30 seconds per side, "Rinse and repeat".

This will make a fair amount of pancakes. If you are bodybuilding or dieting you may need to adjust the amounts of ingredients here.

For my pre-contest diet, I had to eat all of these for breakfast. If you are not on a very strict diet, you may want to dust with sweetener or eat with sliced fruit or honey. This would still be a healthy alternative.

I will finish with saying that these are a great choice for breakfast as they are filling and have slow release nutrients, they are low in fat/ sugar and have a high protein content, which is also great for weight loss.

If this has been useful, you will find more great recipes on my blog. I have tried and tested all of these myself. All of the recipes here are of high quality, healthy nutrition. As I am into my food as well as my fitness, I always try to make these as tasty and as interesting as possible. You will find more ides here ->

http://www.jimshealthandmuscle.com/category/jims-kitchen/

Good luck! Let me know how it works out for you

View the original article here