Natural Cooking Blog

Ok, I though this would be a nice mix of recipes for you to try out over the weekend. Let me know how they work out for you! Now this is something which nearly everyone likes and is easy to do too!

Chicken liver pate

Ingredients

butter, one finely sliced onion, two cloves of garlic finely sliced, two sprigs of thyme, quarter kg organic chicken livers and salt and pepper to taste, cooking sherry and bread slices.

Preparation

1. Soften the onion and garlic using about a teaspoon of butter. Then add the thyme and livers till the livers are cooked through and have turned a nice dark woodsy brown.

2. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to a food processor after removing the thyme twig. Use only the leaves of the thyme for a richer taste and about two teaspoons of butter to smoothen out the pate.

3. Melt some more butter and brown some thyme leaves in it and then spoon over the pate which you have stored in an appropriate container.  Serve  with toast points and pickles.

I love using fresh herbs to garnish my food. Growing organic herbs is the best way to have fresh herbs for your kitchen pot. If you want to have a good herb garden find out which herbs you would like to have to use commonly.

• Almost all herbs like a well watered mildly sunny place to grow.You can try companion growing or combining different patches of herbs to confuse insects and preserve your garden.
• Grow your herbs by the season they flourish in and then lay in a sufficient store for the rainy season. For the delicate herbs like lavender and dill select areas where you can control weather conditions well.
  
• Get good quality soil as well fertilized soil will get you a healthier plant with a better immune system and better yield. Add organic fertilizers like compost tea or diluted fish emulsion to help your herbs to grow.
  
• Don’t pinch off herbs till you have a good growth on your herbs. When you do need herbs harvest them early on a summer morning when the the essential oils in them are full.
• Don’t cut off more than one third of the plant for your kitchen use. And hang sticky bars to keep pests at bay.
  

Other than that you can also use a whole variety of newer variety of completely natural pesticides which will help you to grow organic produce for your own needs.

Diatomaceous earth- is a really abrasive powder found in tooth powder and made from the fossils of diatoms which are really tiny sea creatures. As the powder is really sharp it works with the action of slicing open the exoskeletons of insects which crawl in your garden soil. Once the exoskeletons of any animal is destroyed the animal gradually loses water and dies. You can use this variety of pest deterrent for insects like slugs, millipedes,earwigs, centipedes, cockroaches, silver fish and ants for indoors as well as the outdoors. As the pesticide works mechanically, the insects do not resistant to it and the you can use it again and again.

Garlic based insecticide and pesticides- are the next best things for you to use as pest deterrents. You can use these pesticides to preserve your fruits, vegetables, herbs and other plants. You can use the natural garlic you have with you or use a commercially prepared mixture from an organic manufacturer. A cheaper alternative is to manufacture the mixture at home as follows. Mix up one un peeled onion and one un peeled garlic in to small slivers and then add about one teaspoon of red pepper to boil it in three pints water. Cook for more than 20 minutes on low heat. When the spray cools put in to glass jars and you can store it for more than one month. Dilute the combination with one teaspoon of mixture in one liter of water for best results.

As the number of organic pesticides are really too many to have in a single article this will be a continuing series, so keep in touch.

The whole basis of organic foods is based on the understanding that almost all synthetically made pesticides, hormones and pesticides are banned from use in organic food farming. As a result the dangerous chemicals are not included into your food and don’t end up harming your body and your health.

But how is is possible for farmers to save their hard earned crops using no pesticides? Very easily using something called as Natural organic pest control. If you have been planning to get your tiny home garden converted to a completely organic patch then here’s something you can try to keep your food pesticide free.

Using companion planting is one really great technique that most farmers use to save their produce and the concept is really simple. Companion planting is a process in which different and specific plant combinations are grown to keep pests away as well as increase the strength of a plants’ immune system.

This is a really great way to make sure your plants are safe although you won’t get 100% pest free plants. The best companion plants are available as a complete listing on www.attra.org. I’m not really sure how this works but it seems to be effective to both varieties of plants to save then from pests.

The debate is always there regarding the worth of vegan food. For consumers who were not willing to eat food which was prepared using pesticides and fertilizers or genetically altered produce and irradiated meats, organic food was the best option. But the cost faction was always there!

For example, the definition of organic was according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture standards, 2002, National Organic Program, that all organic produce is grown with completely natural methods using no pesticides or fertilizers or synthetic ingredients or even sewage sludge. All most all organic produce like , meat, poultry, eggs and dairy products are not supposed to be provided antibiotics or growth hormones and are not in pens for grazing. As a result you can just imagine the manual labor required to get you healthy and pest free food.

This reflects in the food with a pound of conventional potatoes costing 69 cents when normally produced and $1.49 when its grown organically and 99 cents when its sold as health food!But scientists are not satisfied with the claim that organic food is really more  healthy and are claiming that the extra prices are really a ploy to hood wink customers to pay more for a simple tag!

This was really weird but I had never even heard of vegan fast food! I mean when you cut out all your meat and dairy products then its should stand to reason that you are eating a really balanced diet, right? Very wrong!

Take a look at your refrigerator and at what are you seeing? Do you see convenience items of vegan foods like, veg tacos, single-serve burritos, vegan snacks, TV dinners, vegan ready to eat stuff,vegan pizzas, oven snacks, as well as a surfeit of vegan fake meat. Its the same as stuffing yourself with a platter full of meat and high fat items!

Its simple; when you opt to feed your children ready made kettle fried wafers over a good vegan meal, then you’re guilty of eating more calories than you really need. This created bad eating habits irrespective of your vegan diet and lifestyle. So here are a few rules you can follow to make sure you do have a healthy vegan diet.

• Vegan does not mean automatically low fat but you have to make vegetarian food your main dish and cook it in a low calorie way to get the best benefit.
• Vegan serving size counts too. Whatever snack you like you have to make sure you eat it in moderation to have the best benefits.
• Being vegan does not mean you do not need to exercise. Make a 30 minute routine of enjoyable workouts like walking and jogging essential to your daily life.

Best of luck!

If you’ve never tried vegan food then its time to try it.Vegan food is as it recommends nothing but a purely vegetarian diet which is beneficial for your health as well as for the environment. All you have to do is follow a few tips and you have yourself on the way to perfect health.

1. Pulses especially from India can make a really good addition to any type of vegan meal.Add lashings of browned onion, olive oil and lemon juice to a really well-boiled pulses and you have your self a great protein rich meal.
2. Preserved lemons are a traditional addition to any Moroccan dish and they contain a whole lot of vitamins and minerals to add a zing to any dish.
3. Tofu happens to be a really great variation of soy beans which are rich in protein, contain lesser amounts of saturated fat and sodium, with absolutely no cholesterol and jam packed with vitamins and iron. Tofu is praised to be as the most comprehensive choice for almost any type of food need as its really tasty too. Its available in a variety of forms for common use.

Irrespective of the diet you do eat please do make sure you are eating the required amount of proteins carbohydrates as well as fats per day for optimum health.

There are many reasons you should be eating organic food and here are a few of the more important ones.

1. Buy certified organic foods from assured quality sources which do have the USDA 95% organic reassurances label on the food product.
2. Organic foods does not contain dangerous additives as well as  preservatives.
3. Organic foods do taste much more fresh and tasty as compared to conventional food.
4. Buying organic foods has the convenience of reducing dependence on the non-renewable resources of your country.
5. The organic food industry helps to preserve natural  healthy farmland and provides  a good source of income to the community as well as  tiny family establishments which  produce the organic food for you and your family.
6. Growing organic foods reduces the chemicals which are used and thus the amount of chemicals which have the capacity to contaminate the local water supplies
7. Farmers cna reduce the amount of chemicals they use and conserve the environment.
8. Organically grown food preferred for children and babies to prevent allergies.

Keep in touch more information on how to eat organic.

There are tons of places where you can get organic food for yourself and your family but you have to get of your dependence on supermarkets first.

Supermarkets search out the best looking fruits not the freshest produce. For them the longevity of the produce on the shelves is more important than the taste. Good places to find really good organic food is from specialty health food stores, farmers co-ops, farmers gourmet delis, local farmers’ markets, and local community-supported agriculture programs.Although these are just a listing, check to see what produce is made within a 100 miles of your locality and you are more likely to get fresh and organic foods.

Anther common worry for many households is the cost of organic foods. Many households complain about the cost of getting organic foods on a daily basis as really expensive. But unless you ask around you aren’t really going to find a cheaper alternative .A really good idea is to research the places where you can get organic foods for your requirements from your locality itself by entering the word organic and your locality into any search engine you could get yourself really good results.

Natural cooking is pretty simple! All you have to do is cook fresh minimally processed foods for the best taste and health you could ever get. Lets star by stocking up on your pantry of all natural and fresh ingredients.Natural ingredient mean ingredients which under go the least amount of processing containing the least amount of flavorings, colorings and any other chemical in the market.

1. One very good idea for everyone would be to skip out all types of processed wheat flour and sugar.Try organic milk , wheat, fresh fruits and even pasta.It just tastes so much better than the other conventional variety. Also opt for barley flour, oat flour or even soy flour which is so much more tastier than wheat flour.
2. Avoid Genetically modified as well as chemically fertilizes foods.We don’t know the longterm effects of these food on the human body and its best to avoid them completely.
3. The best advantage is that you get food which has not been interfered with like no more  hydrogenated fats, preservatives,artificial colors,  sweeteners and flavors, dangerous additives, lingering antibiotics, or artificial hormones in food .
4. Highly refined oils are another no- no.These undergo terrific processing to give the taste and fluidity you get with commercial oils but they contain no nutrition.Switch to unrefined and expeller pressed oils for the best advantage. A few good choices will be flax seed oil, hemp oil and even pistachio oil which is really expensive though.
5. Avoid refined sweeteners like white sugar and switch to home based alternatives like honey, blackstrap molasses, brown rice syrup.