Saturday, August 13, 2011

Ways to Use Up Those Garden Tomatoes: Tomato Bouillon, Baked Stuffed Tomatoes, & Green Tomato Relish


Now that the gardens and farmer's markets have an abundance of tomatoes, it is time to take advantage of this wonderful vegetable. Here are three recipes you might want to try. Tomato Bouillon, Baked Stuffed Tomatoes, and Green Tomato Relish are three very different ways to use tomatoes. The bouillon recipe uses tomato juice. You can easily make your own juice by putting ripe tomatoes in a heavy pot on the stove over low heat and cooking them down. Add a small amount of water if necessary. Strain the juice to remove seeds and peels.

TOMATO BOUILLON

1 3/4 cups water

1 1/2 cups tomato juice

2 tsp beef-flavored bouillon granules

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/8 tsp hot sauce

Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan, stirring until bouillon granules are dissolved. Cover saucepan and bring soup to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes. Serve hot.


Old Fashion Relish Recipes: Hot Relish and Carrot & Sweet Onion Relish

Add a little touch of something extra to your meals with homemade relishes. There is something very satisfying in putting a dish of relish on your table that you made yourself. Relishes are also perfect in gift baskets, as hostess gifts, etc. These old fashion recipes for Hot Relish and Carrot & Sweet Onion Relish are easy to make and offer two very different options.


HOT RELISH
Another old Southern Indiana recipe.

12 hot peppers
12 green tomatoes
12 cups red and/or green bell peppers
12 onions
3 cups sugar
3 tsp salt
2 cups cider vinegar

Grind vegetables. (In today's modern kitchen this can be done with a food processor.) Place in a large colander and run water over the mixture for 5 minutes.

Bring the sugar, vinegar, and salt to a boil in a saucepan. Place the vegetable mixture in a large saucepan or a stockpot. Pour the boiling sugar mixture over the vegetable mixture. Cook over med ium heat until very hot but not to a hard boil, stirring occasionally. Place in pint jars, attach canning lids and seals tightly. Be sure jars seal (they should make a popping sounds and/or the center of the lid will indent slightly.)

Makes 6 pints.


CARROT AND SWEET ONION RELISH

2 sweet onions, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped
1 bay leaf
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1/3 cup water

In a medium-size bowl with a lid, combine all the ingredients and stir well. Place cover on the bowl. Refrigerate the relish at least overnight. Before serving, remove the bay leaf and drain the liquid.

This is a good relish to serve with poultry, fish, and pork.

Enjoy!


Friday, August 12, 2011

Juices for Fasting - How to Get the Benefits


There are so many "lose weight" diets online; the water diet, the grapefruit diet, etc. - all promising spectacular results as long as you eat this, avoid that, drink some concoction and run three miles a day. They're all different and confusing, many with contradictory information it's enough to drive you to a pint of Haagen-Dazs. But most of the more sensible diets recommend that detoxifying and flushing out your body is a good first step. And the best way to do that is to drink plenty of fluids in fact, it's suggested that you fast for one day per week and drink only water. But stop a moment - why not try juices for fasting? It works and here's how.

Fasting is good for the body; it gives your digestive system a break so that it can work on detoxifying itself. But fasting means you're not taking in those nutrients which your body must have. All those nutrients - vitamins, minerals and trace elements are critical to health and using juices for fasting is the best, easiest and cheapest way to ensure you get them. Vegetable juices are loaded with nutrients and as you blend them, you'll find that your glass of juice will taste great. It's providing what your body needs and best of all, drinking juices for fasting bypasses your digestive system as they enter the bloodstream almost immediately, delivering nutrients to cells, bone, skin and tissue as well as supporting the detoxifying process.


Vegetable Juice Detox: Tips and Recipe Ideas


For juice fasting, it is not just fruits that you can juice. You can also consider juicing vegetables. A vegetable juice detox can help your body remove its toxic waste and its cleansing process.

Vegetables also contain an abundant sources of vitamins and minerals not found in other foods. In fact, if you find that you are not eating enough vegetables on a daily basis, you can also think about consuming vegetable drinks. In this manner, you will ensure that you do not give up on including phytochemicals for a balanced nutrition.

A vegetable juice detox allows your body to absorb quickly what you consume without activating your digestive system as it would if you eat the more fibrous vegetables. Your digestive system can then get to work on all the toxic waste that has been accumulating in your body.

Do bear in mind that a vegetable juice detox should not be carried out as an ongoing exercise. At best, you can only fast for up to a week. Surviving on a vegetable juice diet would not be able to give you all the nutrients you need for energy and health if you extend such a diet for more than it should.

Vegetable Juice Recipes - The Taste of Pure Nutrition


When we were in our younger years, our parents have always stressed the importance of eating vegetables and the benefits of everything they put on their vegetable juice recipes. We on the other hand, would complain and ask why we cannot have that tasty pizza or chocolate cake for a meal instead.

As we grow older though, we realize how right our mothers were about broccoli, carrots and celery. Today, many diets have incorporated vegetables in their lists of must eat foods. Apart from becoming a major factor in these dieting trends, many recipes about vegetable juicing have also popped out everywhere, thus, giving the health buffs and not so health conscious people an equal chance to enjoy nutritious drinks that are much more appealing to the palate.

Since all of us are required to consume around five servings of veggies each day for optimal health, vegetable juice recipes are great options that we can simply prepare within a busy schedule. The only equipment you need is a proper juicer. There are many tasty vegetable juices that can be done in a jiffy.


Thursday, August 11, 2011

Steps For Making Grape Juice


Want to make grape juice but you're just not sure how? Well the process is really quite simple and all it takes is a little commitment and hard work on your part to make this wonderfully tasteful juice which is loaded with vitamins and minerals and is great for your health. Grape juice, like any other juice, takes a little work to make and this article will give you the basic steps for making the perfect batch of juice for you and your family.

Before we get started on making the juice, let's make sure we have the proper tools and equipment to make the grape juice. After all, you can't make the juice unless you have the right equipment right? Here is what you are going to need for this process. You'll need the grapes (obviously), large spoons and ladles, sugar if you want to sweeten up the juice a little, strainers, jar grabber, a large pot, water bath cleaner, ball jars, lids, and rings. Be sure to wash all equipment before use. This will make sure that everythi ng is sanitized and the juice does not become contaminated.

Magic Green Drink


If you ever will not own a Vita Mix, I highly recommend you buy one. You will discover a million recipes that the Vita Mix can be applied for. It can be worth each penny. Oftentimes your local Costco will have the Vita Mix Business come in to do three days of demonstrations. Check with Costco on line for data. The unit can also be purchased directly from the Vita Mix Business itself (privately owned).

This is really a powerful green ingest that keeps all of the fiber intact. I make adequate for three days and place every days ingest in a quart canning jar. No matter what anybody could possibly say, the ingest is as fresh and tasty on day three as it's on day one.

Green Drinksa are often associated with the Liver. Preserving the liver balanced keeps you balanced € end of story.

I use only natural vegetables. On the other hand if natural is not obtainable use what is. Of all vegetables, celery may be the only one that definitely ought to be natural. Be creative, play with the ingest, change it around and make it your own.

Two stalks of celery

A handful of parsley

A handful of cilantro

A handful of Spinach

3-4 Collard Green leaves (stem and all)

3-4 Kale Green Leaves (stem and all)

1-2 Apples (for a touch of sweetness)

1 Cucumber

A little piece of Ginger should you feel like a slight "zing"

I also enjoy including anything else I have around just like a zucchini or yellow squash, another type of greens just like turnip greens, possibly a mustard green etc.

I at times will use Dandelion which is great for the Liver but indeed will make the juice on the bitter side. If using Dandelion makes certain you use two apples.

What I will not use in this ingest are carrots, any type of radishes, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, beets, burdock root, turnip root etc.

Fill up a container inside Vita Mix and add some water towards the mix to dilute just adequate to ingest.

Set inside jars and have one per day for lunch! Needless to say, refrigerate!

Also take a look at the following related health resources:

- Hillcrest Chiropractic - Useful holistic health providers and means for wholesome living

- Healthy Eating & Yoga - Fantastic sources for Yoga workout and nutritious eating quality recipes.