How To Cook Broccoli Properly

Here are some tips on cooking broccoli from Allrecipes

Pick the Perfect Floret

What to look for when shopping for broccoli:

The best broccoli will have dark green tops with lighter green stems.
Buds should be tightly closed, with no mushy spots or signs of yellowing.
The stalks should feel firm and crisp, never limp or wobbly.

Cook it, Cook it Good

Perfectly cooked broccoli is an appetizing bright green with a mild, pleasant flavor and a tender but firm texture. To avoid overcooking, uncover once it’s done and serve right away. You can also plunge it into an ice bath to stop the cooking - this will preserve the color, flavor, and nutrients.

And here's one more so you never say broccoli is boring! :)


How To Properly Prepare Broccoli

Read Also:

Top 5 Reasons Why Green Vegetables Are Good For You

How to get your children to eat more veggies
Add Color To Your Diet!

Best Green Vegetables for Your Fun Healthy Diet

Ok, I knew that green vegetables are good for health, I just didn't know how much good they are.

There's so much written about it that I felt a bit lost in all that information. So I decided to start with some research on green vegetables and then continue with my Green Monday Fun and Healthy recipes.

Well, here's my Top 5 Green Vegetables that are not only healthy but also really tasty.

1. Broccoli

It's so dietetic and so healthy and it can also be so yummy if you cook it right. It's high in vitamins C, K, and A, as well as dietary fiber; it also contains multiple nutrients with potent anti-cancer properties, such as diindolylmethane and selenium. Broccoli's also nice: meals with broccoli look like pieces of art. Broccoli definitely gets number 1!

2. Avocado

It's not leafy and actually it's not even a vegetable but it's green, healthy and one of my favorites. Be careful: about 75% of an avocado's calories come from fat (the good one but still fat...) So don't overdoze and everything will be fine.

3. Lettuce

There's no diet without lettuce as it's a great source of fiber and very low in calories. The secret with lettuce is to get the right proportion with other veggies and with a dressing.

4. Cucumber

Simple but good: poor in calories, rich in fiber and vitamins!

5. Spinach

Spinach is known mostly as a rich source of iron and calcium. I have to confess: I'm not really familiar with this one though I know it's full of healthy benefits. Promise to do some homework and to come up with some delicious recipe of spinach :)

Didn't get into the top but also worth mentioning:

Asparagus, Zucchini, Cabbage, Kale, Green Beans, Celery, Green Pepper, Swiss Chard...

Next time I'll share with you a great broccoli recipe - for those who doubt broccoli's culinary values and those who just want to eat healthy and have fun at one time.

Thanks Wikipedia for the help with the research.

Read Also:

Top 5 Reasons Why Green Vegetables Are Good For You
Add Color To Your Diet!
Crack The Code: Unlock Your Weight Loss and Fat Burning Potential

Top 5 Reasons Why Green Vegetables Are Good For You

Moving on to Green Monday (from the Add Color to Your Diet post), I'd like to talk a little bit about health benefits of green vegetables.



1. Green leafy vegetables provide our body with many essential vitamins and minerals, such as vitamins A, C, and K, folate, iron and calcium.

2. Regularly eating green leafy vegetables reduces the risk of heart diseases.

3. Increased consumption of green vegetables may prevent some kinds of cancer.

4. Spinach, kale, broccoli, and other green leafy vegetables lowers the risk of developing cataracts.

5. Green vegetables are rich in fiber which is really good for health and is especially recommended for weight loss.

You may say: all right but I just don't like the taste...

In my next posts I'll prove that green vegetables can be delicious, you just need to know how to cook them properly so they are yummy and (don't forget!) healthy.

Read Also:
Best Green Vegetables for Your Fun Healthy Diet
How to get your children to eat more veggies!
Add Color To Your Diet!

Red Sunday - Russian Borscht

I'm really enjoying this Red Sunday as there are so many tasty recipes with RED ingredients.

I wanted to write about Borscht (Red-Beet or Beet-Root Soup) but then I came across this nice video recipe and decided not to waste your time in reading.

Watch and enjoy!

P.S. If you'd like to make this recipe healthier - just don't add sugar!

P.P.S. If you prepare the same but without any meet, you also get a very tasty and a very dietetic soup ;)

Red Sunday - Italian Style Tomato Pasta

Today I'm continuing the Colorful Diet concept with a great Italian recipe. As we're still at Red Sunday I suggest to prepare a delicious Tomato Pasta for your lunch.

Here's a very successful variation of Tomato Pasta Sauce from cuisine.com.au:

Ingredients:

150ml olive oil

4 onions, finely shredded

2 garlic cloves, finely shredded

1 tbsp sea salt

Freshly ground white pepper

400g tin whole tomatoes

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 bunch basil, leaves picked and roughly chopped

Warm the olive oil in a heavy-based saucepan over medium heat. Add onions, garlic, salt and pepper. Cook for 10 minutes, turn heat to low and continue to cook until very soft, about another 10 minutes. Add tomatoes, sugar and half the basil. Simmer until thickened and tomatoes have cooked out. Stir through remaining basil just before serving.

In order to make this yummy recipe a bit more healthy, use a whole wheat pasta.

The Mediterranean Cuisine is known for its wonderful tasty and healthy food. So there's no reason not to make it part of your Fun and Healthy Diet!

Red Sunday - Royal Fruit Salad

As I promised in one of my previous posts, I'm going to share with you my favourite recipes that will add bright colors to your diet.

Let's start from Sunday, it'll be totally RED DAY which means that in every meal we'll add some Red ingredients.

For your breakfast I suggest to prepare a king of the diet food - Royal Fruit Salad! It's simple, healthy and very tasty.

Fruit Ingredients:
strawberries
bananas
apples
honeydew melon
kiwi fruit
any other fruit you like :)

All fruits should be fresh and sliced.
I won't give you exact quantities as I think everyone has his own preferencs.
If you're a big fan of strawberries (as I am), don't hesitate to make it the main component of the salad.

The secret of this recipe is in its dressing. 

You'll need for it:
juice of 2 limes
3 tablespoons of berry juice 2 teaspoons of chopped mint leaves

Toss together all the fruit ingredients in a large bowl. In a small bowl, combine lime and berry juice, add mint and stir.
Cover with this dressing the fruits in a large bowl.

This Royal Fruit Salad can be easily made into filling breakfast by adding some plane nonfat yogurt and granola.

Enjoy your red & healthy breakfast!

Do You Know What Diet Actually Is?

Before I continue, I'd like to ask if you really know what is diet. Many people associate the word "diet" with a restricted food regime BUT THAT'S NOT TRUE.

Here's the Wikipedia's definition for diet:

In nutrition, the diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism.[1] Dietary habits are the habitual decisions an individual or culture makes when choosing what foods to eat. Although humans are omnivores, each culture holds some food preferences and some food taboos. Individual dietary choices may be more or less healthy. Proper nutrition requires the proper ingestion and equally important, the absorption of vitamins, minerals, and fuel in the form of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Dietary habits and choices play a significant role in health and mortality, and can also define cultures and play a role in religion.

So diet is just the way we eat. And it's our personal choice to have healthy and tasty meals every day which also helps to be in a good shape. I also suggest to be creative about it and to add a little fun to your diet=food=nutrition.