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Food and drink
It’s no secret that the path to weight loss success is to cut back on the fat and up the protein intake. But why? I’ve been having a read about the benefits of protein and why people rave about it so much and to be honest, I can’t argue. Aside from protein acting as a form of building blocks for your bones, muscles, cartilage, skin and blood, it also supports the building of enzymes, hormones and vitamins. Basically, as one of three nutrients that provide calories, it’s a pretty big deal.
It’s important not to get bored of a protein heavy diet though, so fishing around for new recipes to try is equally important. Food should be enjoyed, even if it is super healthy. Have you ever tried any of the recipes from Kraft? If you’re seeking protein-rich inspiration and ideas, it’s not a bad place to start.
Here are some other reasons protein gets our plus points:
- It has high vitamin B content which our bodies love. Vitamin B helps our bodies release energy, supports the nervous system and helps with the production of red blood cells and tissue.
- Iron is incredibly important and is used to carry oxygen in the blood… can you think of a more important role?
- Another support of building bones and releasing energy from our muscles is Magnesium, but protein also provides us with Zinc, which is necessary for biochemical reactions, helping the immune system to function properly.
But don’t just think exclusively of meat when I refer to protein. Eggs and fish are great sources too and will do just as much good as chicken and steak! One significant
advantage fish has over meat is that when it comes to omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in all different levels within seafood, it’s way up there. Aside from weight-loss, eating eight portions of fish a week is said to help reduce the risk of heart disease too – as the American Heart Association reports, research has shown that omega-3 fatty acids decrease risk of arrhythmias, abnormal heartbeats, which can contribute to sudden death. These acids can also lower blood pressure, albeit slightly.
An athlete’s diet should have about 15% protein in it. That sounds quite a lot, but if you’re going to work super hard exercising, lifting or toning, then you want to support your body in any way possible. Now that we’ve got that down, it’s time to dig out the kinds of recipes that will have you looking like a protein champ in no time.
Remember, this doesn’t mean you have to eat meat, fish and eggs alone, just that the weightier portion of your meal should be protein and vegetables. So, try a nicely-grilled flank steak with a hearty green salad, for example. Or a fillet of salmon, poached or fried (with as little oil as possible) in a pan with a side of rice. Plan your weekly meals around these principals and your protein intake should increase sufficiently.
Red Velvet Cupcakes
Ingredients (20 cupcakes):
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 fluid ounce red food coloring
Red Velvet Cupcakes
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease two 12 cup muffin pans or line with 20 paper baking cups.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs, buttermilk, red food coloring and vanilla. Stir in the baking soda and vinegar. Combine the flour, cocoa powder and salt; stir into the batter just until blended. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups, dividing evenly.
- Bake in the preheated oven until the tops spring back when lightly pressed, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in the pan set over a wire rack. When cool, arrange the cupcakes on a serving platter and frost with desired frosting.
Canadian customs have seized a shipment of Marmite and Irn-Bru bound for a British foods shop in Canada in a crackdown on banned additives.
Tony Badger, who owns Brit Foods in Saskatoon in central Canada, said he lost more than 20,000 CAD when the cargo from the UK was seized.
Irn-Bru contains the Ponceau 4R food coloring, while Marmite is enriched with vitamins and minerals which are unacceptable to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
Lucozade, Penguin bars, and Bovril were also in the package and seized, as they all fall foul of the country’s food laws. The CFIA is believed to be clamping down on foods that breach its laws.
Tony Badger told Canada talk radio station CKOM he had been importing and selling the products since 1997.
Marmite is enriched with vitamins and minerals which are unacceptable to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency
“We’ve been bringing Irn-Bru in since the very beginning. I haven’t heard of anyone dying from consuming Irn-Bru in Scotland or Britain.
“All we’re looking for is fair and equitable treatment. If a product is banned and they show us in writing it’s banned, then we’ll understand, it’s banned and this is the reason.”
Tony Badger said last October the shipment was detained for inspection, and he began to ask questions when the process took longer than usual.
CFIA officials then came to his store last Thursday and seized the remaining product from his shelves.
Shoppers describe the ban on Marmite and Irn-Bru as “insanity” in a country that allows the sale of “firearms, guns and bullets”.
AG Barr, the Scottish company which manufactures Irn-Bru, produces a Canada-specific product that does not contain Ponceau 4R.
The colorant is being removed voluntarily from its European recipe, following a request from the UK Food Standards Agency , which investigated concerns over links to hyperactivity in children.
Molly Schuyler, a mother-of-four from Nebraska, has smashed the world record for speed eating by devouring a 72oz steak in 2 minutes and 44 seconds.
The 125-pound woman finished the mammoth meal in just 2 minutes and 44 seconds using her hands.
The video of Molly Schuyler’s world record has since gone viral.
Molly Schuyler has smashed the world record for speed eating by devouring a 72oz steak in 2 minutes and 44 seconds
The previous record used to belong to an eater who was described as a “body building huge man”.
He only managed to eat the meal in 6 minutes and 48 seconds.
Molly Schuyler, 34, even had room to eat some french fries washed down with a drink of water after she had demolished her steak dinner.
She has had a rather impressive start to 2014. Just a day before, she also smashed another world record by eating a 12lb sandwich and 1lb of French fries in just 54 minutes, which saw her awarded $600.
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Halloween Stuffed Jack-O-Lantern Bell Peppers
Ingredients:
6 bell peppers, any color
1 pound ground beef
1 egg
4 slices whole wheat bread, cubed
1 small onion, chopped
1 small tomato, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup chili sauce
1/4 cup prepared yellow mustard
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Halloween Stuffed Jack-O-Lantern Bell Peppers
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease an 8×8 inch baking dish.
- Lightly mix together the ground beef, egg, bread cubes, onion, tomato, garlic, chili sauce, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper in a bowl.
- Wash the peppers, and cut jack-o’-lantern faces into the peppers with a sharp paring knife, making triangle eyes and noses, and pointy-teeth smiles. Slice off the tops of the peppers, and scoop out the seeds and cores. Stuff the peppers lightly with the beef stuffing, and place them into the prepared baking dish so they lean against each other.
- Bake in the preheated oven until the peppers are tender and the stuffing is cooked through and juicy, about 1 hour.[youtube uM6ErLnAGW4 650]
Kadir Nurman, the Turkish immigrant credited with inventing the doner kebab, has died in Berlin at the age of 80.
Kadir Nurman set up a stall in West Berlin in 1972, selling grilled meat and salad inside a flat bread.
He had noticed the fast pace of city life and thought busy Berliners might like a meal they could carry with them.
While there are other possible “doner inventors,” Kadir Nurman’s contribution was recognized by the Association of Turkish Doner Manufacturers in 2011.
Kadir Nurman set up a stall in West Berlin in 1972, selling grilled meat and salad inside a flat bread
The combination of juicy meat, sliced from a rotating skewer, with all the trimmings and optional chilli sauce, has since become a firm fast-food favorite in Germany, and elsewhere.
According to the Berlin-based Association of Turkish Doner Manufacturers in Europe, there are now 16,000 doner outlets in Germany.
More than 1,000 exist in Berlin to tempt peckish late-night revellers on the German capital’s streets.
Kadir Nurman, who emigrated to Germany in 1960, did not patent his invention, and thus did not particularly profit from the doner’s subsequent success.
In a 2011 interview with the Frankfurter Rundschau, Kadir Nurman expressed little bitterness.
Kadir Nurman was happy that so many Turkish people were able to make a living from doners, he said, and that millions of people ate them.
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Ingredients:
2 pounds ground beef
1/2 onion, chopped
1 egg, beaten
1 cup dry bread crumbs
1 (1.25 ounce) packet meatloaf seasoning mix
1 cup cubed Cheddar cheese
3 (10 ounce) cans tomato sauce
Halloween Bloody Baked Rats
1 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 ounce uncooked spaghetti, broken into fourths
1/2 carrot, cut into 1/8-inch thick slices
1 tablespoon frozen green peas
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, onion, egg, bread crumbs, and meatloaf seasoning. Use your hands to mix until well blended. Measure out 1/3 cupfuls of the meat mixture and mold around a cube of cheese like a meatball. Shape into a point at one end and lengthen the body a bit by rolling between your hands. Place your ”rat” into a shallow baking dish, and continue with the remaining meat. Insert pieces of uncooked spaghetti into the rounded end of the rats to make tails.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the tomato sauce, sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over the rats in the dish and cover the dish with a lid or aluminum foil.
- Bake for 45 minutes in the preheated oven. Uncover the dish and continue to bake for another 20 to 30 minutes, basting occasionally with the sauce to glaze the rats.
- While the rats finish baking, heat the peas and carrots in a small bowl in the microwave for about 15 seconds.
- Carefully transfer the rats to a serving platter so that their delicate tails don’t fall off. Press peas into the pointy end to make eyes, and insert carrot slices to make ears. Spoon some of the tomato sauce around them and serve.
The World Food Day theme for 2013 is “Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition”.
The official World Food Day theme – announced at the start of every year by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) – gives focus to World Food Day observances and helps increase understanding of problems and solutions in the drive to end hunger.
World Food Day is celebrated every year around the world on October 16
Today almost 870 million people worldwide are chronically undernourished. Unsustainable models of development are degrading the natural environment, threatening ecosystems and biodiversity that will be needed for our future food supply. Calls for profound changes in our agriculture and food systems are becoming more frequent and more insistent.
World Food Day 2013 is an opportunity to explore these and other questions, and help bring about the future we want.
World Food Day is celebrated every year around the world on October 16 in honor of the date of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1945.
The day is celebrated widely by many other organizations concerned with food security, including the World Food Programme.
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Hans Riegel, the boss of German gummi bear maker Haribo, has died of heart failure at the age of 90.
Hans Riegel, the son of Haribo founder, died in Bonn, Germany, the company said in a statement.
He was in charge of marketing and distribution for Haribo and invented its “kids and adults love it so” slogan.
Hans Riegel, the son of Haribo founder, was in charge of company’s marketing and distribution
Hans Riegel inherited the company from his father in 1946 and built it up into a firm that now employs 6,000 people.
Haribo, which also makes sweets in the shape of cola bottles, jelly beans and milk bottles, has 20 factories across Europe and an annual turnover of about $2.5 billion.
Haribo is derived from the founder’s name and the German city where it is based – HAns RIegel, BOnn.
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Duck Dynasty stars Willie and Korie Robertson shared their secret to a wildly delicious meal in their new book, The Duck Commander Family.
Fried Alligator Balls
Ingredients:
1 stick butter
2 white onions, diced
1/4 cup green onions, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
8 cloves garlic, diced
1/4 cup parsley flakes
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp basil
2-3 dashes of Louisiana hot sauce
1 lb lump crabmeat (cleaned)
1 lb crawfish tails, cooked
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups Italian breadcrumbs
2/3 cups all-purpose flour
Peanut oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Duck Dynasty Fried Alligator Balls
Directions:
On medium-high heat in a medium size pan, sauté butter, white onions, green onions, bell pepper and celery until vegetables are soft, about 8 to 10 minutes.
Add garlic, parsley, thyme, basil and hot sauce. Place mixture in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper.
Add crabmeat and crawfish tails. Mix well. Beat eggs and add to mixture. Mix well.
Add enough bread crumbs to hold mixture together. Make small patties and roll in flour.
Deep-fry in peanut oil on medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes or until golden brown.
