Earthly Eating

• Fresh Ground Peanut Butter and Banana Ice Cream
Serves: 8

4 cups vanilla low-fat ice cream
1 cup mashed ripe banana (abut 2 small)
1/4 cup whole peanuts mashed in your own food processor. Add a bit of olive oil to make the butter creamy

Place a large bowl in the freezer and let the ice cream stand at room temperature. Combine the bananas and the peanut butter in a small bowl and mash with a fork until well blended. Combine the ice cream and banana mixture together till well combined in the chilled bowl. Cover and freeze to desired consistency.

• Chocolate Mocha Ice Cream
Serves: 8

4 cups chocolate low-fat ice cream
1/4 cup Kahlua (this is coffee-flavored liqueur)
1 tbs. instant coffee grounds
2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate finely chopped

Place a large bowl in the freeze and the ice cream stand at room temperature. Combine the liqueur and coffee grounds in a small bowl and microwave on high for 30 minutes. Stir until the coffee is dissolved. Allow to cool completely.

With a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon, combine the ice cream, coffee mixture and chocolate chunks in the chilled bowl. Cover and freeze to the consistency you are wanting.
____________________________________________________
Earthly Eating Tip:

The best diet is a diet that is healthy in more ways than one. Here are a few tips to living a healthy and chemical free eating lifestyle.

When you head out to the supermarket to update the stock in your fridge or pantry, keep a few of these tips in mind as well as keep these tips in mind for things your body really doesn’t need in the first place.

1. No refined white sugar
2. No dairy that isn’t organic
3. No caffeine (this is a negative for anyone)
4. No sword fish
5. No tuna fish (if you must eat tuna, make sure it’s only 1 can a week or less)
6. No alcohol (cooking with alcohol is a bit different. The alcohol is cooked out while the food cooks.)
7. No peaches unless they are organic
8. No strawberries unless they are organic
9. No celery unless it is organic
10. No processes meats such as lunch meats or packaged meats of any kind.

Happy Eating!

Just how crutial is breakfast? Research suggests that eating a healthy breakfast can control weight and lower cancer risk. Eating breakfast increases the metabolic and calorie burning rate. But when you skip this important meal, it can have the opposite effect. Slowing your metabolic rate, leaving you with less energy and making it harder to control weight.

A healthy breakfast is key for young people as well. Children and adolescents who eat in the morning perform better on tests and show improvements in memory. Many studies show that children who eat breakfast have a better overall diet, and are healthier. They tend to learn better than children who do not eat breakfast. Keep in mind that what you eat for breakfast is critical as well. To improve memory and concentration, consume breakfats that contain wholgrain foods and fruits. THese types of foods will release carbohydrates slowly into the bloodstream.

Pressed for time to eat breakfast? Many families find it hard to fit breakfast into their busy schedules. Fresh and dried fruits, nuts, smoothies, breakfast burritoes, and nutrition bars make quick and healthy breakfasts. Muffins, pancakes, and waffles can be made ahead, frozen, and defrosted at a later time during the day for convenient breakfast on the run. Also stock your kitcehn with whole-grain hot and cold cereals and low-fat yogurt. These items make a quick breakfast also withat will give you fuel you need to start your day.

**Need five reasons to buy a TV Tuner/Video Capture Box with Remote Control? Rob Andre over at Gadget Dose gives them all to you. The number one reason, that he lists, is the price. At $24.99 why keep putting it off? Read how to get your hands on one now, before Christmas for yourself or someone on your list.**
____________________________________________________________
Earthly Eating Recipe-Count Down To Christmas Recipe Of Sweets

Lemon Stand Pie
Serves: 8

1/3 cup Lemonade Flavor Drink Mix
1/2 cup Cold water
2 cups Vanilla ice cream, softened
1 tub (8 oz.) Whipped topping, thawed
1 Graham cracker pie crust (6 oz.)

Place drink mix in a large bawl. Add water and stir until mix is dissolved. Add ice cream. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until well blended. Gently stir in whipped topping and freeze if necessary, until mixture is thick enough to mound.

Spoon into graham craker crust. Freeze at least four hopuse or overnight until very firm. Remove from the freezer 15 minutes before serving. Let stand at room temperature until pie can easily be cut. Store leftover pie in the freezer.

Happy Eating!

The Truth About Folic Acid:
Foods to which folic acid has been added (like cerals and pasta) are what’s really responsible for the recent improvements in folic-acid blood levels not in dietary supplements found in common form which is unfortified items as recently thought.

How To Build Your Own Food Pyramid:
If the food pyramid was based on your eating habits instead of the ideal diet from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), what would it look like? Go to USDA/CNPP. Click on the link under the “Healthy Eating Index” , register and list your lastest meals. In return, you will get a non-hold-barred analysis of your diet, including a personalized pyramid. If it’s a little off, don’t fret. You can record up to 20 days’ worth of eating habits, so you have the opportunity to build a better pyramid.

Organic: What It Really Means:
Don’t give up if you don’t know the difference between products labeled “organic” and “100% organic.” Though the U.S Department of Agriculture just implemented its national standards, the word is still slow in getting out on what the many newly defined terms actually mean. To learn more, check out A Practical Guide to Understainding Organic by Stoneyfeild Farms.

**MAC’s newest holiday collection is more than just shiney it’s almost antique. Marco Felgueiras over at Hot or Not Beauty has the entire story on how popular it is and where you can get your own MAC’s shiney collection. Read how here.**
__________________________________________________
Earthly Eating Recipe: (Day 3 of Low-Fat Eating)

Low-Fat Milk And Your Diet:
Drinking low-fat milk before or with a meal helps you feel more full sooner and eat less the next time. The lighter the milk, the greater the effect. That is, fat-free milk works better than 1 precent, and both work better than 2 precent. Going low-fat also takes a load of calories out of your diet. Nearly every successful strategy for cutting fat from your diet includes drinking lower-fat milk.

Low-Fat Frozen Desserts:
Many people keep eating until the have had something sweet. Fortunately, that doesn’t have to be bad. Frozen desserts are a good way to satisfy a sweet tooth without piling on calories. A Creamsicle® weighs in at just 100 calories, and a Tofutti Cutie® vanilla or wild berry sandwich is only 120 calories. A half-cup of chocolate frozen yogurt adds a modest 115 calories to your dinner. Of course, people who have gotten used to this appraoch can use another treat. Have a satisfying amount of low-energy density food at your meal and then for dessert eat one piece of the most delicious chocolate you can find.

———–
Raspberry-Orange Smoothie
Serves: 2

1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup frozen raspberries
1 orange, peeled, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup raspberry or orange flavored yogurt

In a blender, combine all ingredients and blend until smooth. Pour into glasses that are fluted and serve.

Happy Eating!

What can be frozen without worry and what can’t? Here’s a little information to help you get in the know.

• Which can be stored longer: Ground beef or fresh shrimp?

Fresh shrimp. Fresh shrimp can be kept up to 12 months when ground beef can only be kept in the freezer for up to 3 months. A lot and I mean A LOT of people eat ground beef from the freezer after 3 months and with that they “could” be eating past-prime meat. To benefit from the maximum shelf life, your freezer should be kept at 0°F.

• How long will frozen food last is there’s a power outage?

Two days, if the freezer is full. Reasoning: The frozen food will keep itself and other frozen items around it frozen for a maximum of two days. Longer if it is cold weather and the freezer is outside and able to take advantage of the cold climate. If not, better start making meals that work around your frozen food items.

• Is it OK to store ice cream in the freezer door?

NO. Ice cream is best when stored between -5 and 0°F.; it will be firm enough to hold its shape, but easy to dip between 6 and 10°F, the ideal serving temperature range. Store ice cream in the main part of the freezer, not in the door where it is subject to more fluctuating temperatures. (Souce: Easyhomemeals)

12 Reasons Why Frozen Foods are Best for your Household

Availability

Frozen, eliminates losses experienced from spoilage and shrinkage. Frozen at the peak of perfection, there is presently no better method of food preservation. Seasonal limitations are a part of the past.

Convenience

Frozen foods are so convenient. The cleaning, picking, dicing, chopping and squeezing has been done. It’s all prepared, ready to take from your freezer, heat and serve.

Economy

Frozen foods are economical. You do not pay for stalks, pits, skins, rinds or damaged food. They cost less than their fresh counterparts.

Food Safety

Frozen foods offer explicit cooking directions. And because the preparation (dicing, chopping, etc.) has already been done, all you have to do is heat and serve—less chance for contamination in the preparation process.

Freshness

Freezing foods seal in freshness. Foods designed for the freezer are selected at their peak of nutrition and flavor, quickly processed and frozen within hours, before there has been any deterioration in quality.

Labeling

Frozen food packages tell you what you’re eating. Packages have ingredient and nutrition labeling. If you’re health conscious, counting calories or on doctor’s orders, frozen foods can help.

Longer Storage

Frozen foods have a longer storage time than fresh, offering maximum flexibility. Frozen broccoli, for example, stays fresh in the freezer for up to eight months, whereas fresh broccoli usually must be consumed within a week.

No Waste

With frozen foods you have food that is 100 percent edible. You don’t pay for waste such as the pits of fruits, the shells, peels and outer leaves of vegetables, bones in fish or the fat on the meat. In addition, frozen foods in poly bags (vegetables, fruits, pasta) offer easy portion control. Just pour out the amount needed and return the rest to the freezer for future use.

Nutrition

There’s no better known means of preserving food than by freezing. Commercial rapid-freezing processes maintain nutritional quality of products without chemical preservatives. And food quick-frozen and properly stored keep their high nutritional value.

Quality

Frozen foods are consistent in quality. Only the best ingredients are used. That’s because of industry quality control procedures that begin on the farm.

Taste

Frozen foods can pass the most discriminating taste tests. An entree which has been correctly formulated, maintained at 0°F. and heated according to manufacturer’s specifications, should taste identical to an on-premise prepared item.

Value

Because frozen foods fit the way people live and eat today, they offer incomparable value in a number of ways: dollar savings, nutrition and quality, time savings.

**Having trouble adjusting to the time-change? Well, over at Current Events Watch, Doug Robertson writes “After clocks are turned back this weekend, pedestrians walking during the evening rush hour are nearly three times more likely to be struck and killed by cars than before the time change, two scientists calculate.” So given that information, it’s a valid escuse to linger. Read the rest of the story here.**
___________________________________________________
Earthly Eating Recipe: Week Of Salmon Recipes

Teriyaki-Glazed Salmon With Noodles
Serves 4

Cooking Spray
2 tbs. water
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tbs. rice vinegar
2 tbs. reduced-sodium soy sauce
1/2 tsp. ground dried ginger
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
4 (5-oz) salmon fillets
8 ounces uncooked vermicelli or somen noodles
2 tsp. dark sesame oil
1/4 cup chopped fresh scallions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. (Salmon may also be grilled or broiled 3 minutes per side until fork-tender.)

2. Coat a shallow roasting pan with cooking spray. Set aside.

3. To prepare teriyaki glaze, in a shallow dish, whisk together water, brown sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, and garlic.

4. Add salmon, and turn to coat. (Salmon can marinate, covered, in the refrigerator up to 1 hour.)

5. Transfer salmon to prepared roasting pan, and pour teriyaki mixture over it. Roast 15 minutes or until fork-tender.

6. Cook noodles in a meidum-sized pot of rapidly boiling water according to package directions. Drain and trasfer to a large bowl. Add sesame oil, and toss to coat.

7. Transfer noodles to four individual plates, and top each with a salmon fillet. Spoon any teriyaki glaze remaining in pan over salmon, and sprinkle chopped scallions on top.

Happy Eating!

The flavor is:

Tofutti Chocolate Cookie Crunch: Chocolate marbles cookie-kissed cocoa-rich faux cream, making this a gift for dairy-challenged chocoholics. ($3-4)

It’s Soy Delicious Mango Raspberry: Fresh raspberry sauce is swirled into “creamy” mango, all at less than 2 grams of fat per serving. ($2-3)

Purely Decadent Mocha Almond Fudge: Get your buss with this coffee-flavored concoction loaded with roasted almons and infused with cocoa syrup. ($3-4)

Double Rainbow Blueberry Soy Cream: Organic soy milk and whole blueberries are whipped up into an improbably creamy treat that’s only 160 calories per serving. ($3-4)

**Are you trying to make the change from MS Office 2003 to MS Office 2007, learn how here.**
____________________________________________________
Earthly Eating Recipe:

Spicy Chicken Mac-Skillet
Serves: 6

1 package (7 1/4 oz) macaroni & cheese dinner
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
1 can (14 1/2 oz) diced tomatoes and green chilie, drained
1 can (14 1/2 oz) diced tomatoes, drained
1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup mexican style shredded cheese or colby & monterey jack cheese or mild cheddar cheese

Prepare dinner as directed on package. Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet and stir for 5 minutes or until lightly browned and cooked through . Reduce heat to medium, stir in tomatoes and soup. Cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add dinner; stir until well blended. Sprinkle with cheese; cover. Cook 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. arthly Eating Recipe:

Happy Eating!