Let's Not Take WATER -

Let's not take WATER for granted.
Without getting into the technicalities and science of water-
We obviously need water for many things.

I used to buy Deer Park spring water bottles by the cases all the time.
I would have so many plastic bottles to the point of foolishness.

I came across this water bottle that is very cool.
You can get the one for hot beverages or for cold water
(non thermal) I've purchased the one for cold water and
realized how much I save on plastic water bottles being
everywhere and saving by filling up on the filtered water
from my sink. Water bottles make it easier to use if you're
taking it with you in the car, an outdoor event, to the library,
bookstore etc... You can use any bottle you'd like BUT...
if you purchase one from water.org
100% of the money you pay for the water bottle goes to
help provide safe drinking water to developing countries.

Water.org is a "U.S.-based nonprofit organization committed
to providing safe drinking water and sanitation to people
in developing countries."
-founded by Gary White and Matt Damon.

Jambalaya

Jambalaya was started from the French Quarter in New Orleans.
It was attempted by the Spanish to make "paella" in the New World.
Paella has saffron it it but due to the unavailable import costs- tomatoes
were heavily substituted and as time past, Jambalaya became the New
World paella. In Louisiana today, there are many varieties of this dish,
Creole, Red and Cajun just to name a few.
Below is a simple recipe for general Jambalaya.

I usually make chicken, shrimp and sausage Jambalaya but you
can substitute any meat or no meat or tofu even!

Ingredients:
1 chicken breast
shrimp (enough for maybe 4-5 per person)
2 medium (or to your liking) sausage links
S & P (for the salt- I recommend Old Bay season salt)
oil to fry
1 onion chopped
1-2 cloves of minced garlic
half of a bell pepper (I like to mix 1/4 of a red & 1/4 of green)
if you like it very spicy-you can add diced hot peppers)
2 stalks of celery cut about 1/2 inch or so
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 cup long grain rice
1 can of stewed whole tomatoes
S & P (heavy on the P!)
1/4 fresh parsley or scallions
drizzles of hot sauce (to your liking)

Make Hot Crab Dip...

Ingredients:
1 container (8oz) fat free cream cheese @ room temperature
1/4 cup reduced fat sour cream
splash of hot sauce (frank's or to your liking)
1 clove of garlic minced
juice of half a lemon
2 TBS parsley (fresh chopped preferred)
S & P (salt & pepper) to taste
1 can of crab meat (about 120z)
2 scallions thinly sliced

Procedure:
Grab your favorite saucepan and start by stirring the
cream cheese and sour cream together on medium low heat.
Once it all mixes together and gets smooth, add your
splash of hot sauce and S & P. Lastly, fold in the crab meat,
lemon juice, parsley and scallions into the base of the dip,
all in your saucepan. Heat all together for about 3 minutes or
so and then place into your favorite dip bowl/plate.
Good to serve with bread or crackers. Stick with multi-grain or
whole wheat to keep with the healthiness of the fat free
sour cream and cream cheese.

You want to serve this immediately... so you can
heat this 5-10 minutes before you actually eat it.

Smoothie Ready To Go!

As the weather starts to get warmer...
nothing is healthier tasting than a good
smoothie. If you're a morning person, smoothies
for breakfast are great and even if you are a evening person
smoothies can be enjoyed as an after dinner treat as well.
Most smoothie recipes call for ice so they are cold. No one
wants a warm smoothie... right?

Here's a tip- go to your farmers market, super market,
garden- wherever you get your fruit from and cut them all up.
They don't have to be cut pretty because they will be going
into the blender anyway. After you cut them all up and mix them
in a big bowl, stuff your little zip lock bags full of fruit... mixing
some veggies is really great too! For example: adding carrots
to a smoothie is excellent. Once you've filled all your zip lock bags-
put them into the freezer. Whenever you are ready for a smoothie,
they are ready for you on the go. Once you've taken a bag out of
the freezer, due to the fact that is is frozen solid- you can either
microwave your bag of goodies for about 45 seconds - 1 minute
or place the frozen bag in a bowl of hot water for 5 minutes or so-
just so that the blender is a little happier rather than a big block and
because it's already frozen- you don't have to add any extra ice.
You will probably need a little liquid to make it not as thick and
that can easily be done by adding a little bit of orange juice or apple juice!

Cutting What?

What kinds of things have you cut on your cutting board?
How many wet things has your cutting board touched?
Cutting boards can get really dirty...
deep down where we can't even really see.

I've heard many people say the best basic way of cleaning
a wooden cutting board is to use 1 tsp of bleach in a
gallon of hot water and scrub away. The negative to that is-
many times your cutting board has that bleachy smell.

Let me share a way that smells way better but also cleans
really well, AND gets any stains out of a bamboo cutting board-
stains that get acquired from cutting green herbs, red spices etc...
Sprinkle a little sea salt, especially on the stained areas,
cut your lemon in half and rub it all over your cutting board
pressing down a little bit. Then let it sit for a while- 30 minutes
if you can - the longer the better and then rinse it with hot water.
Once your done rinsing... your cutting board is clean from
visible stains and clean deep down where you can't see AND
it has that fresh lemony scent.
Win, win.

"Jiffy" Mix

After you've finished your peanut butter, rinse it out well and save
the jar and the LID. It works really well when it comes to mixing your
dry ingredients in a "jiffy". Simply measure out your ingredients
into the jar, put the lid on and then shake away.
It's great because there is no dust, no mess, no extra bowl to wash
and you already bought the peanut butter, use it as double duty!

Light, Regular, Nonfat, Greek, Frozen...

Yogurt.
What exactly is yogurt and what's the difference between them all?
Yogurt is a dairy product that is made from fermenting milk
with a bacteria. Good bacteria of course- otherwise known as
yogurt cultures. Generally speaking, lactose (sugar found mostly in milk)
is mixed with the yogurt cultures and then it produces lactid acid-
which acts on milk protein to give it- it's texture and it's slight tang
in plain yogurt before all the fruit, nuts and fancy things are
added to or with it.

Cow's milk is most commonly known in making yogurt but, yogurt
is also made from water buffalo, goats, sheep, yaks and camels.
There is also non-dairy yogurt typically known as
Soya Yogurt which is made from soy milk which is
made from soy beans.

Dairy yogurt is made by heating the milk to first kill off any
bad bacteria- followed by the milk being cooled and then the bacteria
(cultures) being added for the fermentation process which can be
anywhere from 4-7 hours.

As far as the light, regular and nonfat types of yogurt...
those are obviously determined by the type of milk that is used,
whole milk, skim, etc...

Sometimes a stabilizer, like a gelatin might be added to
ensure firmness usually which is referred to as "blended" yogurt-
most commonly known as custard like the ones served at
Rita's Water Ice  www.ritasice.com  or other water ice shops.

Greek yogurt is made slightly differently-
it has been filtered out by a cloth or filter and has a higher
culture content than the average yogurt making it slightly
thicker and healthier but also can be a little more tart at times. Without all the other technical terms and processes of yogurt-
you basically want to try to eat yogurt that contains
active yogurt cultures and that isn't heat-treated yogurt...
for heat treated yogurt has been heated after culturing and
thereby destroying all the beneficial and live yogurt cultures
that is beneficial for aiding in digestion.

We can think about it like this-
1 serving (about 8oz) of plain low-fat yogurt provides us
with about 400 milligrams of calcium, whereas an 8oz glass
of milk gives us about 300 mg of calcium.
Yogurt also provides us with as much potassium as
a banana and as much protein as an egg.

Enjoy your YOGURTing!