Food Holiday

Hot and spicy foods are stimulants. They stimulate the circulation and raise body temperature. If you eat spicy food in a hot climate, it actually cools your body down – it reduces the difference between your body temperature and the surrounding air and it makes you sweat, which cools the body when the perspiration evaporates. Spicy foods are also believed to stimulate the appetite by setting off the production of saliva and gastric juices, a nutritionally important effect for people in tropical areas where the high temperatures act to reduce the appetite. Chili peppers can help you lose weight by boosting your metabolism and curbing your cravings for fatty and sugary foods.

Hot and Spicy Foods Fun Facts

1. The heat produced by spices or foods is measured in Scoville Heat Units.
2. Ghost chili peppers are the hottest pepper around.
3. Cayenne is a very hot powdered spice, adds kick to any dish.
4. There are 140 varieties of chili peppers grown in Mexico.
5. Chili peppers are good for you. They are high in vitamins, a good source of beta carotene, calcium, and potassium, and may help reduce cholesterol.

Spicy Food Recipes:

1. Charif Recipe - Charif is the Hebrew word for sharp−and boy, does this recipe have a kick! It’s not for the faint of heart. But that’s the beauty of preparing a dish like this from scratch. You can make it mild or burning hot.
2.  Spicy Thai Beef Salad - This crunchy salad is nice light way to use leftover beef. Cut down on your chopping prep time by using shredded cabbage and carrots.
3. Chili-Roasted Carrots - If you’ve never roasted carrots, you are in for a revelation. Zesty Southwest flavors of chili, lime and cilantro add zing.
4. Chili-Rubbed Steaks & Pan Salsa - Any cut of steak will work for this recipe, but we especially like the flavor and texture of rib-eye with these seasonings; look for steak that has been thinly cut. A cold ale, sweet potato fries and vinegary coleslaw can round out the meal.
5. Szechuan Braised Meatballs - Rich in vitamins, this spicy Szechuan Meatball recipe gets its zing from a five-spice powder.

For more Spicy Food Recipes click here.

Nutritional Information for one order of General Tso’s Chicken from your local Chinese food place:

Calories: 1578
Fat: 87.5 g
Saturated Fat:15.5 g
Carbohydates: 128 g
Protein: 69 g
Sodium: 2327 g
Fiber: 5 g

The first ice cream was made centuries ago, in Asia, from snow and fruit, and has evolved over time into this delicious confection that we can buy in the supermarket or at an ice cream shop. The earliest reference to ice cream given by the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1744. (Pennsylvania Mag. Hist. & Biogr. (1877) I. 126 )”Among the rarities..was some fine ice cream, which, with the strawberries and milk, eat most deliciously”. In 1776 the first ice cream parlor in the US was opened – in New York City. Commercial production was begun in North America in Baltimore, Maryland, 1851, by Mr. Jacob Fussell. In 1926 the first commercially-successful continuous process freezer was perfected. This allowed the ice cream industry to become a mass producer of its product.

Five fun ice cream facts:

1. Strawberry is the third most popular flavor of ice cream*.
2. Neopolitan ice cream is made with strawberry, chocolate and vanilla ice cream..
3. 8 degrees F is said to be the optimum temperature at which to serve ice cream.
4. Approximately 9% of milk produced in the USA today goes towards ice cream manufacturing.
5. It takes about 50 licks to eat one scoop of ice cream!

Five Strawberry Recipes:

1. Strawberry Ice Cream - Home-made ice cream made with fresh fruit is always more delicious, and far healthier, than store-bought. This recipe is so easy, and so rewarding that I make it over and over again each spring. - 
2. Mango Strawberry Soup - This is not only a fruit soup, it’s amazing as a sauce over ice cream! Serve it cold as an app, or drizzle a few spoonfuls of it over pound cake and a scoop of ice cream for dessert. It’s one of those wonderful, versatile things that will work for you in lots of ways.
3. Strawberry Sorbet- lower in fat than regular ice cream but just as delicious.
4. Strawberry Peach Daiquiri -A good frozen cocktail made with freshly frozen fruit so that it gets nice and thick and not diluted by ice.
5. Strawberry-Raspberry Sundaes - Nothing says summer like fresh berries. Try this simple sundae sauce over frozen yogurt for a scrumptious summertime treat.

Click for more Strawberry Recipes.

Nutritional Information per half cup serving:

Calories: 127
Fat: 5.5 g
Saturated Fat: 3.5 g
Carbohydates: 18 g
Protein: 2 g
Sodium: 40 mg
Calcium: 79 mg

 *Source: Punchbowl.com

Peach Melba is a dessert that was created in the 1890s by famous French chef Auguste Escoffier. He created this dessert for world renowned Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba (hence the name). For the dessert Escoffier poached peaches, sliced them in half, added vanilla ice cream, and later, raspberry sauce. Initially it was created without the raspberry sauce and served with a beautiful swan ice sculpture – a nod to Dame Nellie’s appearance in the opera of Lohengrin.  It can be made with other fruits, other flavors of ice cream and sauces – the combinations are endless.

Five Fun Facts:

1. Peach melba is a dessert that serves up poached peaches with vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce.
2. To get the skin of peaches for this dessert they need to be put into a pot of boiling water, plunged immediately into ice water, drained, and then take the skin off.
3. Escoffier also created melba toast in Dame Nellie’s honor!
4. Dame Nellie Melba was an opera soprano who performed often in London’s Covent Garden and in New York’s Metropolitan Opera.
5. Dame Nellie was afraid that eating ice cream would damage her vocal cords, but the raspberry sauce in Escoffier’s dessert warmed up the ice cream thus enabling her to enjoy ice cream with no risk to her voice.

Five Peach Recipes:

1. Peach Muffin With Streusel Topping - this muffin is made with canola oil – it wakes up the flavors in food. It allows you to bake healthier without compromising taste or texture.
2. Roasted Peaches with Mint and Raspberry Sauce -Summer peaches are sweet and juicy, they almost never need anything but themselves. On the other hand, a bit of sugar and herbs and the heat of an oven intensify the fruit flavor.
3. Grilled Peach Sundaes -Fruit on the grill? Most definitely! Try grilling other fruit or pineapple too!
4. Roasted Peach Sundaes - This easy dessert satisfies a sweet tooth while adding another serving of fruit, contributing vitamins and antioxidants.
5. Sauteed Peach Ice Cream Torte - Starting with a base of pre-made ice cream, this torte is a snap to make. The addition of ripe peaches and refreshing mint make it a standout dessert you will want to make again and again.

Click for some more great Peach recipes.

Curried Chicken is a chicken dish that has been cooked with the primary ingredients of curry – coriander, cumin and turmeric, plus other ingredients. It is best served with hot rice and fresh naan bread.

Five fun facts:

1. The word “curry” is an anglicized version of a Tamil word “kari” – a dish cooked with spices.
2.  Curry powder is really “garam masala” -a blend of spices.
3.  To make a hot curry mild, all you need to do is add coconut milk when it’s cooking.
4.  The concept of curry originated in India, but there are many different variations from all over the world.
5.  Curcumin, the yellow pigment in curry powder is being seriously looked at by scientists as a tool that fights Alzheimer’s Disease.

Some curried chicken recipes:

Curried Chicken and Rice Soup
Curried Chicken Salad Canapes 
Curried Chicken with Fresh and Dried Cranberries
Curried Chicken Soup
Curried Orange Chicken

For more chicken recipes click here.
For more curry recipes click here.

Did you know that milk doesn’t only come from cows? While it is true that 90% of the milk produced is cows’ milk, milk is also produced by goats. Camels’ milk is depended upon by some nomadic tribes – it doesn’t curdle and it is high in insulin, making it good for diabetics. Then we have soy milk, coconut milk and almond milk too – proof that  ”milk” doesn’t have to come from animals. Milk is comprised of 85-95% water – the rest is carbohydrates, vitamins, protein and fat.  If you drank the milk straight after a cow was milked, you would find it very hot – 97 degrees F!

Five Fun Facts:

1. Milk contains nine essential nutrients and vitamins, including protein, vitamins A, D, and B12, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, riboflavin, niacin, zinc, and magnesium.
2. It takes 10lbs of milk to make a lb of cheese.
3. A cow udder can hold between 20 and 50 lbs of milk.
4. Milk was delivered only in glass bottles until the plastic bottle was invented in 1964.
5. It takes about 345 squirts to produce one gallon of milk.

Some milk drink recipes for you to try:

Avocado Pineapple Milkshake
Pina Colada Smoothie
Zesty Citrus Dark Chocolate Milkshake
PB&B Smoothie
Spicy Hot Cocoa with Kahlua

For more milkshake recipes click here.
For more hot cocoa recipes click here.

National Bittersweet Chocolate Day is today. Chocolate comes from the seed of the cacao plant, which in itself is bitter. It has to be fermented in order to let the flavor develop. Many people think that chocolate contains a tremendous amount of caffeine. The truth is that a regular bar of dark chocolate has about 5 -10 mg of caffeine, whereas a cup of coffee has 90-100mg of caffeine! Chocolate is a great energy source – one chocolate chip can give enough energy for someone to walk 150 feet. Chocolate was primarily enjoyed as a beverage until 1847, when a British company introduced “eating” chocolate. Thirty years later, in Switzerland, milk was added to chocolate for the first time, and milk chocolate was born.

Five fun facts about Chocolate:

1. Dark chocolate is high in antioxidants, compared with other chocolate – this can lower the risk of heart disease.
2. Chocolate comes from the cacao plant, native to Central America.
3. During the time of the Aztecs the cacao beans were used as currency.
4. One ounce of bittersweet chocolate or cocoa contains 10% of the daily recommended intake of iron.
5. It takes about 400 cacao beans to make 1 lb of chocolate liquor – the substance used to make chocolate products.

Here are some delicious chocolate recipes to try.

Chocolate Fondue
Caramelized Pear and Chocolate Ganache Pizza
Thick & Rich Drinking Chocolate
Spicy Hot Cocoa with Kahlua
Brownies

Click HERE for 200 more chocolate recipes!

Today is National Apricot Day. Apricots are in season in North America from May to August, but are available canned all year round. Apricots are small orange fruits that are smooth and sweet. The fruit is ready for eating if it is slightly soft to the touch. A hard apricot has not been ripened on the tree and will not have that perfect flavor. Choose an apricot that has a rich orange color. Add sliced apricots to your breakfast cereal, or slice on top of pancakes. Add them to a green leafy salad for a lovely burst of sweetness.

Here are five fun facts:

1. Apricots originated in China and were brought over to the US by Spanish explorers.
2. The apricot is called “praecoquus” in Latin – which translates as “early ripening” as the apricot ripens earlier than most other summer fruit.
3. Apricots are low in fat, high in vitamins A and C, and are a good source of potassium.
4. One apricot has 17 calories.
5. Dried apricots are higher in sugar than fresh.

Some delicious apricot recipes for you to try:

• Apricot and Raisin Compote
• Apple Apricot Bread Pudding
• Apricot Chicken Tajine
• Veal Stew with Apricots and Prunes
• Apricot Canapes

Click HERE for more apricot recipes.