Fruit Salad Making Tips

One of the most delicious desserts is actually the fruit bowl or the so called fruit salad. It is very much similar to the fruit platter, except for the fact that the fruit salad has a dressing, while a platter of fruits are just an assortment of cut fruits arranged on a plate. All over the world, the fruit salad can be considered as a favorite dessert, not only because of the sweet taste it provides, but also because of the many health benefits one gets from eating it.

The fruit bowl is not merely a dessert, but may also be eaten as an appetizer. The fruits may either be covered in a sweet syrup or may be lathered with the own juices of the fruits. Not all restaurants have a fruit salad, fruit platter, etc. as desserts, so if you are craving for fruits, the best way is t learn how to make a fruit salad yourself.

Making a fruit salad is not really difficult. You just have to make sure that you have all the necessary ingredients prepared. If you have fruit trees planted in your backyard, it will be truly easy for you to make the salad. You may also check out the nearest grocery store for fruits that may be hard to find in the backyard.

Most fruit salads have the following fruits as ingredients: grapes, apples, peaches, pineapples, and the likes. Berries such as strawberries and blueberries may also be added. Some people also utilize chopped mint and a little amount of sour cream, and of course, a little bit of honey for sweetness. More often than not, two cups filled with assorted fresh fruits are enough to make a fruit salad that can serve 3-4 people. Be reminded that all you have to do once you have the ingredients is to mix them well, and voila, you’ll have your very own fruit bowl.

Making the salad is actually similar to the way you prepare your fruit platter – the only difference is that you have to create a dressing for the salad. Dressings, of course, differ from one continent to another. In Europe, for instance, mayonnaise is used as the main ingredient for the dressing, while condensed milk is used as the main dressing ingredient for fruit salads in Asia. Those salads, no matter what kind of dressing, have one common taste: they are definitely meant to be sweet.

Both a fruit bowl and a fruit platter can promote healthy eating for as long as you make use of the right fruits and the right ingredients. It is best to select the fruits’ pureed syrup as one of your ingredients than to use canned syrup if being healthy is on the top of your list. Aside from berries, tangerines, cantaloupes, watermelons, and the likes are the recommended fruits to add into your fruit desserts for maximum health benefits as those fruits are richer in vitamin C, potassium, fiber, and have lower calorie content compared to other fruits.

How to cut back on soft drink consumption

Soft drinks consumption is soaring for the most part because they taste great, relieve thirst and come in a variety of flavors, sizes and shapes. At the same time, aggressive marketing and promotion from large beverage companies and soft drinks corporations, low pricing and caffeine being one of their main ingredients, has made soft drinks a complement of many foods and, ultimately, an addiction both for children and adult consumers.

However, soft drinks are often the culprit for a large number of severe health conditions associated with their excessive consumption, as a result of high fructose corn syrup, added sugars and high amount of calories contained in them. Scientific studies suggest that the overconsumption of soft drinks can lead to obesity, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, hypertension, tooth problems, bone weakening, bone demineralization, heart diseases, strokes and cancer, among others.

Although cutting back on soft drink consumption is not easy as consumers are addicted to drinking two or more cans of soda per day, reducing the consumption of soft drinks is a vital issue, related to improved health conditions, healthier lifestyle
and an overall change of mentality. To achieve that, an organized effort on a domestic, local and national level is required.

“Barbarism begins at home”

If Americans consumers calculate the gallons of soft drinks they consume per year, it is certain that they will feel both disgusted and scared. Admittedly, the appealing pricing of container sizes in the super market and the 32oz soda in the fast food, along with the good taste of soft drinks are good reasons to prefer soda over water. However, spending nearly $850 per year on soft drinks and consuming on average 1.5 12-ounce cans per day is a scary 2004 statistic. Although consumption of soft drinks has been slightly reduced in 2007 and 2008, a shift of consumer preferences towards a healthier diet is absolutely required, primarily on a domestic level. Parents should guide their children towards drinking milk and fruit juices instead of soft drinks and they should make sure to full their stock with healthy beverages.

“Society is our broader home”

Schools should ban soft drinks advertisements from their facilities in order to protect children from the great impact of those ads on them. Scientific studies suggest that childhood obesity is directly related to soft drinks advertisements. In this context, schools and other pedagogic organizations should stop the promotion and sale of soft drinks and junk foods in their cafeterias and promote alternative, healthier food choices that would contribute to children’s better physical development enabling them to have an improved physical activity.

Similarly, organizations specialized in cancer prevention and anticipation, heart diseases, bone health and so on, should organize campaigns to inform consumers on reducing soft drink consumption.

“Nation can put things in order”

On a national level, the State should require restaurants to disclose the calorie intake of soft drinks on their menu. It is extremely important to mention nutrition information on the restaurant menus so that consumers are aware of the high amounts of sugar they consume every time they drink a 12oz soda can. Also, vending machines should declare the calorie content of each item they offer.

Besides, the State should require large beverage companies to declare on their labels that the overconsumption of soft drinks increases the likelihood of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and tooth decay, while it may displace nutritious foods from a balanced diet, thus resulting to osteoporosis.

U.S Senate is also considering putting a federal tax on soft drink consumption arguing that such a measure would raise $1.5 billion per year and will lower soft drink consumption 1 percent. The revenues from taxes on soft drinks will be allocated towards the promotion of a healthier lifestyle and diet. At the same time, governmental and federal agencies would continue sponsoring medical and scientific research to the further exploration of the impact of soft drink consumption on human health.

How to Taste A Cup of Good Tea

Making a cup of Tea, first of all, need to pick out tea and then appreciate tea, only the correct tea, it is able to decide its brewing method. Generally, there are many kinds of teas. According to the sequence of the time, which is divided into spring tea harvest time, summer tea, autumn tea, geographically, which can be divided into high mountain grown tea, tea in peace; according to Tan (different processing methods), which will be divided into seven categories, that is, difference green tea, black tea, green tea (oolong tea), white tea, yellow tea, black tea, scented tea.

Green tea is the largest production of all tea in China. Green tea has the quality of soup with green leaf. Tenderness good new tea, with green color, bud peak revealed and liquor color bright. Its representative species is of "Longjing", "Biluochun", and “Gunpowder" and so on.

Black Tea is the red leaves and soup, as is formed through the fermentation quality characteristics. The color of dry tea with black bloom, the taste with alcohol concentration and the color of soup with liquor color. Black tea have "Kong Fu black", "broken black tea" and "small kinds of tea" type, brand of "QI", "I would rather red" and "Dian Hong" the most representative.


Oolong tea belongs semi-fermented, with green brown color, such as iron, it is also known as green tea. The typical body of the middle of oolong tea is leaf green, red edges, known as the laudatory name, "Green Leaf red trim,” Its liquor color clear yellow, with natural flowers, taste with heavy and fresh. Its most representative tea is The "Goddess of Mercy", "Da Hong Pao", "Dongding blunder".

In addition to these six categories, there are re-processing of tea, that is, the tea which is based on in the above six categories, made from tea leaves by the re-processed varieties, such as tea, pressed tea, instant tea and so on. Tea, which servers baking tea and black tea as the main raw material in green tea, with tea and flowers to fight, and scenting system, so that tea derived from the name with absorption of flower tea, such as "Jasmine Tea", "Pearl Orchid Tea, "" Tea Rose "and so on. Pressed tea makes black tea as raw materials and then made certain shape by the autoclave process, such as "brick", "Kang brick", "Six Fort tea", "Tuo Cha", "m brick" and so on.

How to Make Cooking Great Meals Easier

Many people love to cook, and eat, great meals but few people these days can seem to find the time. With the hectic schedules involving work and children and household duties there is usually very little time left in the day to spend on cooking a healthy, home cooked, gourmet meal. We often find ourselves resorting to fast or frozen foods in order to cut back cooking time but not only are we losing many healthy ingredients by doing so but we are also eating more of the ingredients that we shouldn't and we are losing out on a lot of the taste that makes home cooked meals so great. If you take the time on one day of the week though to plan ahead for your meals you can actually get back in the kitchen and get cooking great home cooked meals for you and your family again with very little additional work. Listed are a few of the things you can do to make your life easier in the kitchen and your meal easier on the pallet.

The first and most important things that you can do ahead of time is cut up fresh veggies ahead of time and keep them in the refrigerator or freezer. Peppers and onions are used often in cooking and take up a considerable amount of time when it comes to cutting them so dong this ahead of time will save a lot of time each night when you cook. Just pull them out of the freezer and throw them in a pan for a quick and flavorful addition to any meal. Some veggies may not hold well in the refrigerator or freezer though so you will want to check in order to find out which ones will hold before attempting to do this.

Marinate meats ahead of time and you will have a quick and flavorful meal at your finger tips. You can seal certain meats in and airtight container the night before you use them so that all you have to do when you come home from work the next day is slip them in a pan and cook. This also works well for crock pots and instead of waiting you can just put your meat in the pot before work, be on your way, and come home to a gourmet meal.

A great way to save time in the kitchen is to invest in a pressure cooker. A pressure cooker will allow you to cook a gourmet meal in under an hour and it will be moist, healthy, and delicious to. Most of the frozen meals you find in the grocery store take more than an hour to cook so why not spend the time on cooking something you will actually enjoy.

Food may be a necessity for us to survive but that doesn't mean we shouldn't enjoy it while we're in the process of nourishing ourselves. There are many great time saving tips out there so that you can get back in the kitchen and start having your family enjoy meal time all over again.

10 Meal Planning Tips For Stress-Free Holiday Meals

When it comes to hosting holiday parties and family events, it is important to plan ahead and come up with a game plan several weeks before the big day or event.

Here are 10 important tips to help you enjoy a stress-free holiday party.

1. When hosting family gatherings, we tend to over invite guests. Keep your guest list manageable and only invite the amount of people that you feel you can handle. Inviting too many guests will cause over-crowding and unnecessary stress.

2. There is nothing wrong with asking others to help out by bringing a dish, dinner supplies or even showing up early or staying an hour late to help you prep or clean up after the meal.

3. Keep your decorations and decor simple. You don't need to go all out and decorate every nook and cranny of your home or entertaining space.

4. Clean your home and entertaining space a week in advance. Then the day before the gathering, go back in and just do some light cleaning.

5. Plan your menu weeks in advance. You can precook or bake a lot of your foods and freeze them for the big day. Just thaw the day before and reheat on party day. If you don't have time to cook and bake, consider a fully catered or partially catered meal.

6. Two weeks before the holiday gathering, draft up a supplies list. Make sure you will have enough dinner plates, bowls, serving utensils, silverware, tablecloths, chairs, etc. If you don't have enough, there is nothing wrong with asking some of your guests to bring their supplies along.

7. Make clean up a snap by loading your dishwasher or washing dirty dishes, pots and pans as you go along. After a big meal, the last thing you want to do is spend hours in your kitchen cleaning up.

8. Ask your spouse and children to help you prepare for the family gathering. They are quite capable of cleaning the house, setting up tables and chairs and decorating, which will free you up to do the more important part...cooking and baking for your guests.

9. I like to over cook and have an abundance of food for my guests. It is better to have extra food than not have enough. Go to your local discount store and purchase several plastic food storage containers and you can send home leftovers with your party guests.

10. If you are serving alcoholic beverages, don't over do it. Only purchase and serve enough alcoholic beverages for each guest to have two drinks. By limiting what is on hand, you won't have to worry about intoxicated guests driving home. Make sure you have plenty of bagged ice on hand for serving beverages.

By planning out your holiday meal in advance, you can cut down on pre-party stress and anxiety. Take your time, make your lists and don't be afraid to ask for help from family and friends. You want your holiday party to be as stress-free and as enjoyable as possible.

3 Healthy and Delish Chocolate Smoothies Recipes

You see smoothies everywhere, so much that you finally decide that you’ll make some for yourself and your family (or friends, if you’re single). You have the fruits and vegetables you need, but there is one particular ingredient that makes the smoothie craving go on a different level, yet you hesitate to put it in. Yes, the everlasting question remains: How to make smoothies healthy but flavored with the guilt-ingredient called Chocolate?



One only has to look at chocolate ads to know that there is a tempting yet forbidden aura to it. To us not endowed with the perfect body, to even smell it is a sin, a crime worthy of capital punishment. But did you know that chocolates have health benefits too?

Cocoa, most especially dark chocolate
, contains antioxidants – surprisingly 8 times more than found in strawberries. The flavonoids also help lower blood pressure and lowers blood cholesterol. If you’re depressed you are allowed to eat chocolate because it contains serotonin, the happy neurotransmitter that makes you a little happier. Plus, it tastes good – correction, very, very, very good – and keeps you awake. So this is good news.

That said, here are some recipes that are sure to tickle your taste buds:

Cocoa-Banana Smoothie (finally, a recipe that doesn’t need a blender)

Ingredients: 2 tablespoons cocoa mix, 1 cup of frozen whipped topping (thawed), 2 ripe bananas, 8 chocolate cookies (crumbled. Note: These are sandwich cookies, not chocolate chip ones.)

Procedure: Stir cocoa and whipped topping. Fold in the banana and half of the crumbled cookies. Divide into 4 glasses and top with remaining cookie crumbs. Refrigerate.

Choco Protein Smoothie

Ingredients: 2 cups of milk, 2 tablespoons of chocolate milk syrup, 1 frozen banana (or half a teaspoon of dry chocolate pudding mix), one-fourth cup of peanut butter, 1 cup of ice, 1 to 2 tablespoons of whey powder (optional).

Procedure: Blend and process for about 30 seconds. Serve while cold.

Chocolate Mint Smoothies

Ingredients: half a cup of instant cocoa drink (made with a heated half cup of milk and one-fourth cup of instant cocoa mix), half a teaspoon of vanilla extract, one-eighth teaspoon of peppermint extract, 1 pint of vanilla ice cream, 1 and a half cups of milk.

Procedure: Blend almost all the ingredients (except for the ice cream) until smooth, for about 30 seconds. Add ice cream and blend until smooth. Serve immediately.