Coconut Dessert

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Coconut, Coconut Dessert, Coconut jaggery dessert, healthy desserts, Jaggery, Jaggery health benefits

I am a big time sweet tooth 😀 , but my hubby isn’t. I prefer sweet rather than salt and he is total opposite to me. These days there is a lot of awareness created about the disadvantages of sugar. My hubby is quite a health conscious person than me, he wouldn’t want me to use white sugar in particular, in any of the food.

In ancient India we did not have sugar instead we had Jaggery. Indians use jaggery or gur which is a complex form of sugar. Jaggery has innumerable health benefits. Jaggery is usually made with sugarcane or date juice. It has rough texture and does not dissolve easily. But the healthy benefits of jaggery are undeniable. In a comparison of sugar versus jaggery, the later wins hands down. Most of the desserts prepared by Indians would have jaggery in it.

Clicked a pic of Jaggery I had at home, this is how it looks.

Some benefits of Jaggery :

• Less calories
• Rich in Iron
• Cools stomach
• Cures pain
• Post natal food
• Delays Ageing

This is a very, very simple dessert. No heating , just mixing both coconut and jaggery thats it.

Grated coconut (finely grated)

scrape the jaggery and mix with very little water. make it to a paste. Since Jaggery is hard, we do this.

Mix this paste with coconut. I am not giving the amount of both, you can play around.

Once you mix it with coconut, jaggery would start leaving out water. Mix well, if need add some more grated coconut.

You can eat it directly. I made it to balls and refrigerated it for 4 to 5 hrs . It just so yummy.

Both coconut and jaggery is very healthy. For sweet tooth’s like me this is a good option 🙂

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Turmeric

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Indian spices, spices, Turmeric, Turmeric Powder

Turmeric is a spice used in cooking, as well as for medicine and as a dye for food and fabric. It imparts a subtle flavor and brilliant yellow color. Therapeutically, turmeric is known as a powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant, helpful in the treatment of skin diseases, digestive problems, bacterial and viral infections, wounds, and many other uses. In India it is the king of all spices. It is widely found in south Asian cuisine.

What does it look like? Fresh turmeric roots are small, knobby roots about the size of your finger with brownish skin and pale to deep-orange flesh. When boiled, dried, and ground, the powder turns a deep yellow.

What does it taste like? Turmeric adds a slightly bittersweet, astringent flavor to foods. The active ingredient is curcumin, which is unrelated to cumin seed.

What’s the best way to store it? Place ground turmeric in an airtight container and store in a cool, dark, dry place. Store fresh turmeric root in the refrigerator, wrapped in plastic or sealed in a glass jar up to several days; freeze for longer storage.

How is it used in food? Turmeric powder is widely used to color and flavor mustard, relish, chutney, and pickles. It is a component of curry spice mixtures and commonly used in Indian and Indonesian cooking, where it originated. Turmeric enhances the flavor of many foods, including meats, poultry, seafood, eggs, potatoes, rice, lentils, and vegetables.

What are some substitutes for it? For yellow color, you can substitute annatto seeds, marigold blossoms, saffron (which is much more expensive), curry powder, or mustard powder. However, there is no substitute for the flavor of turmeric and each of these substitutes carry their own distinct flavor.

Turmeric has a lot of medicinal benefits. You can find them in this link http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/20-health-benefits-of-turmeric.html

How to choose a Watermelon

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How to choose a watermelon, watermelon, Watermelon for summer

Last time on our list to purchase was watermelon, as its scorching hot in Irvine. This weekend we made a quick trip to Las Vegas , both me and my husband got totally dehydrated by roaming around 🙂 After coming back the refreshing thing was to eat watermelon 🙂 I read an article somewhere, I don’t remember where, it was about how to choose a watermelon. Yes it had helped a lot. I could get tasty melon’s 😀

• Always choose a melon which has proper strips.
• The ending lines should merge at the center of the Melon and should be visible distinctly.
• Don’t get those where these lines are smugged/distorted at the center.
• Try getting those where the lines are thin at the center as well.
• These would have better taste. Also you can tap on the melon and you should get a better sound.
• Beware of the wax which is used to ripe the fruit, try avoiding those fruits.

Hope everyone enjoys this 🙂

Avocado Smoothie

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Avocado, Avocado Smoothie

South Indians have this tendency and urge to eat food that doesn’t require a lot of chewing, basically a little lazy 😛 I am no exception to it. Rice is the staple food for us and it doesn’t require chewing and easy to eat. There were days when I used to eat just rice with Yogurt mixed without any vegetables.

Actually that took a toll in my health, I got sick ,very fat, without nutrition I was weak. I couldn’t climb stairs. No physical exercise. Every one just made fun of me. I never used to care for my health. It took some time for me to realize it. By that time I had grown really fat.  I was a 5 footer with 155 pounds 😦

But I tried correcting myself by exercising every day. But did not correct my food, a big mistake again. Just exercise will not help. I realized this as well very late. Nevertheless I found it that both physical exercise and proper way of eating is the right way. After this yes I did slim down. I started practicing every Thursday with fruits and milk. Yes at first it was hell. I used crave for food and get exhausted. But slowly I adapted it. Now I am enjoying it. I feel very light after every Thursday when I do this fruits day.

Avocados are a good source of fiber, potassium, and vitamins C, K, folate, and B6. Half an avocado has 160 calories, 15 grams of heart-healthy unsaturated fat, and only 2 grams saturated fat. One globe contains more than one-third the daily value of vitamin C, and more than half the day’s requirements of vitamin K. Check this smoothie that I prepared with avocado.

Ingredients:

Avocado : 1 medium

Milk : 200 ml

Honey : 1 tablespoon

Cinnamon Powder : 1/8 teaspoon

Method:

Cut and slice the avocado, scoop the pulp out, add milk, honey and cinnamon powder and put it in a blender. Blend it to a smoothie, If you need you can add some more milk or water. I prefer honey rather than sugar as honey is much healthier than sugar. Enjoy this healthy smoothie dear friends 🙂

Dried Ginger, Corriander tea/ sukku malli kaapi

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cold cough remedy, Corriander tea, Dried Ginger, home made sukku malli kaapi powder recipe, Home made tea, how to make sukku malli kaapi powder, sukku malli kaapi

Do you have a sore throat, cold or flu? A perfect home made medicine is sukku malli kaapi. This is ideally made with karuppatti( Palm candy) since I did not have stock I have used jaggery.

Spring season is on and pollen allergy as well. First time I am experiencing the pollen allergy. As in India, we never had this allergy. I had a very bad sore throat, my hubby suggested me to prepare this suku malli kaapi( Tamil version of dried ginger, corriander seeds). It helps a lot during the cold, cough, sore throat. After having this yes I had some relief from the sore throat. It doesn’t have any caffeine. Also this helps in digestion.

Ingredients:

To Grind

Dry Ginger -1/2 inch length or Dry Ginger powder – 1 and a half table spoon

Corriander seeds – 1 1/2 table spoon

Cumin seeds – 1 table spoon

Black Pepper corns – 1 table spoon

To prepare tea:

Water – 200 to 250 ml

Palm jaggery/candy – 1 tablespoon ( I used Palm Jaggery)

Above ground mix – 1 tablespoon

Method:

• If you are using dry ginger, grind it to a smooth powder. I used the Ginger powder which we get in grocery.
• Next dry roast the coriander seeds, cumin seeds, black peppercorns for 3 mins.
• And mix with the ginger powder and grind it to a fine powder mixture.
• Now your tea powder is ready.
• Next boil water and add the palm jaggery/sugar. I used palm Jaggery as it is very healthy.
• Now once it is in the boiling stage, add the tea powder and reduce the heat to Medium – low.
• Let it boil for 5 to 6 mins.
• Then have it hot.
• It really help when you have cold and flu.

Ginger

Tags

Benefits of Ginger, Ginger, Health Tips

I am a crazy lover of Ginger. I would say the most awesome food/spice in the world is ginger. When I was a child I used to hate them to the core. In food , if I found it, the day is gone, I would start yelling around :). It all changed few years ago, when I had severe cold, I used to get yellow fluid of mucus eeeekkkks, I used to hate myself those days. One of my friend suggested just have a piece of ginger in your mouth and slowly intake the juice. It would be helpful. It was a big deal for me, yet i tried it. Suddenly i found that awesome taste of ginger, pungent spicy, oh my god, I started loving it…..

Some of my karnataka friends who are awesome cooks, used to always have ginger in almost many things they prepare. Later even i started taking it everyday, include even in my tea. Almost in most of my cooking there would be ginger. I would love to post some of the benefits of Ginger here….

Gastrointestinal Relief — Gastric problem, take few pieces of ginger and cut slices out of it. put them in water and boil it well. drink the water, you can mix honey if you want. Believe me gastric problem vanishes.

Asthma/Cough/Cold : I had already spoken about this 🙂 Ginger is the best medicine for cold.

Ovarian Cancer : Ginger Induces Cell Death in Ovarian Cancer Cells

Immune Boosting system: I would 200% recommend that ginger boost immunity. After I started taking ginger in my tea everyday, I would say I haven’t got cold/cough touch wood 🙂 It fights infections fast.

Muscle pain caused by exercise : Yes , any muscle pain caused by exercise can be eliminated with the help of ginger

Painful Menstruation : If you have heavy periods pain, and intake ginger tablets , reduction of pain is just awesome.

At time yes we need to avoid ginger for few people, You should not take ginger if you suffer from a bleeding disorder or take blood-thinning medications (such as warfarin or aspirin). It also lowers blood sugar.

Always remember too much of anything is not good 🙂

Natural Foods, Spices that fights cancer

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Cancer fighting foods, cancer prevention, Health Tips, spices

Research shows that a large percentage of cancer-related deaths, may be even the majority are directly linked to lifestyle choices such as smoking, drinking, a lack of exercise, and an unhealthy diet. The food you eat has a powerful effect on your health, including your risk of cancer. You may land up eating many foods that fuels cancer, while neglecting the powerful foods and nutrients that can protect you. If you change your diet and behavior, you can minimize your risk of disease and possibly even stop cancer in its tracks.

Some of them are given below
Turmeric/Curcumin: This is the king of spices. This retards the growth of cancer cells causing prostrate cancer, melanoma, breast cancer, brain tumour, pancreatic cancer and leukemia among a host of others.

Fennel Seeds: Its a great antioxidant which fights the cancer cells.A tomato-fennel soup with garlic or fresh salads with fennel bulbs make for an ideal entree prior to an elaborate course meal.

Cumin : It aids digestion. In India, after a heavy lunch people chew a bit of these cumin seeds, so the digestion is eased. This antioxidant helps reduce the prostrate cancer.

Cinnamon: It takes not more than a half teaspoon of cinnamon powder every day to keep cancer risk away. A natural food preservative, cinnamon is a source of iron and calcium. Useful in reducing tumour growth, it blocks the formation of new vessels in the human body. There are many ways where we can include cinnamon in our daily food 🙂

Ginger: This humble spice boasts of medicinal qualities that help lowering cholesterol, boost metabolism and kill cancer cells. Easily added to vegetable dishes, fish preparations and salads, ginger enhances the flavour in cooking. Chew on fresh parsley if the odour bothers you

Oregano : This not only aids digestion also fights cancers cell for prostrate cancer.

Others: Cloves, anise, basil, garlic, caraway, fenugreek, mustard, mint leaves, rosemary, Limonin (fresh lemon), virgin olive, vinegar and avocado are other cancer-fighting diet components.

Black Pepper/Peppercorns

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Benefits of pepper, Black Pepper, Health Tips, Indian spices, Peppercorns

Black Pepper/Peppercorns.

Black Pepper /Peppercorns are one of the widely used Indian spices, this has great health benefits.

It helps/aids in digestion – When you eat Black Pepper, your taste buds gets stimulated. They send signals to your stomach to increase its production of hydrochloric acid. This acid helps your body digest food so you don’t suffer from indigestion.

Cold/Congestion – the best medicine for cold/sore throat/congestion is black pepper. In India we prepare rasam with pepper when we get cold. We can powder the black pepper, add little honey and have the paste every morning. If we have it in a small amount also helps reducing cold. When I get severe cold, I would take 4 to 5 peppercorns and chew it. Though very spicy, its a great relief.

Weight loss — Yes, black pepper is one which increases urination and sweating. This extracts the unwanted toxins in the body and aids weight loss.

Prevents Cancer — Black Peppers helps preventing cancer. The piperine content of black pepper plays a key role in preventing cancers. It further stated that when combined with turmeric its anticancer properties are heightened. Apart from the piperine, black pepper also contains Vitamin C, Vitamin A, flavonoids, carotenes and other anti-oxidants that help remove harmful free radicals and protect the body from cancers and diseases

Instead of using Red/green chilies, we can substitute with Black peppers.