Avocados – What a Diverse Fruit!

Let’s take a look at the amazing avocado. People have enjoyed avocados for more than 500 years, and they are becoming increasingly popular in today’s diet. These remarkable little fruits not only offer extraordinary nutrition, they also deliver many additional health benefits. Packed full of vitamins and minerals, avocados improve a wide variety of health conditions. On top of all of these other pluses, they taste good!

The origin of the word avocado is in a South American Indian language, but the definition has been translated over the years in English to mean “alligator pear.” Contrary to the common misconception that an avocado is a vegetable, it is actually a fruit that is a member of the berry family. Avocados are native to regions as far north as Mexico and to northern South America. They are typically harvested when they reach full maturity and do not ripen until after they are picked. The variety grown most commonly in the US is the Hass avocado, which is the only type produced year-round. Hass avocados have a blackish-green skin with a black pebbly texture and come from California.

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Easy Healthy Breakfast Burritos Recipe

We make these easy healthy breakfast burritos for breakfast and for supper. They are full of protein and taste great any time of the day. This recipe is versatile, and you can add any ingredient that is your favorite. It makes great leftovers for lunches the next day, saving you time and money.

Basic Breakfast Burrito Recipe:

2 lb breakfast sausage, from pasture raised pigs

12 eggs, from pasture raised hens

1-2 cups raw cheddar cheese, shredded

This is the simple basic recipe, for when you are in a hurry:

Crumble the sausage in a skillet and cook until done. Crack 12 eggs and stir in, stirring continuously to scramble in with the sausage. When the eggs are done, turn the heat to low and stir in the cheddar cheese. As the cheese begins to melt, cover with a lid and turn off the heat. This allows the cheese to keep melting without everything burning and sticking to the pan. Serve in butter fried tortillas and top with the toppings listed below. Continue reading “Easy Healthy Breakfast Burritos Recipe”

Avocado and the Candida Diet

Commonly treated as a vegetable, avocados are actually tropical fruits, thought to have originated in Central and South America. Avocados are pear-shaped, with green or brown skin that can be either smooth or rough. The inside of an avocado contains a yellowish slimy flesh often described as rich and buttery. Most people first encounter avocados in guacamole, a Mexican dip in which avocados are the main ingredients but you will also see avocados tossed in a variety of salads. The good news about avocados is that they not only taste good but they are good for you. Avocados are an excellent source of vitamin K, dietary fiber, vitamin B6, vitamin C, folate, copper and potassium. Additionally, avocados contain a high level of monounsaturated fats, specifically oleic acid, which research suggests has numerous health benefits.

Fortunately, avocados are permitted on the candida diet. The candida diet is a diet which seeks to restore balance to the microflora of the intestinal system by greatly reducing or eliminating an overgrowth of Candida albicans. Candida albicans is a typically benign type of yeast found in the intestinal system that ideally will work in conjunction with “friendly” bacteria to keep the body healthy. Unfortunately, bad habits common to our modern lifestyle often disrupt this delicate internal balance and it is very difficult to restore. Overuse of antibiotics, oral contraceptives, diets high in processed/sugary foods and stress all contribute to causing this internal imbalance. When the intestinal system is not in balance ill health can develop and many experience symptoms throughout the entire body. The candida diet eliminates many foods that feed Candida albicans but these are the foods that we are use to eating. We may even crave these foods but we can learn to enjoy new foods that are allowed on the candida diet and learn what foods may actually help restore balance to our intestinal system’s. Continue reading “Avocado and the Candida Diet”

Avocados Are a Wonder Food!

People can be really lukewarm about avocados. If you don’t know when they are at peak ripeness, they can be kind of weird both in taste and texture; that is, no taste and waxy in texture.

Until recently, people didn’t choose avocados partly because they thought they had no flavor, but mostly because they thought they were high in fat and cholesterol. We all needed more information to make a healthy choice about this fruit.

If you eat a ripe avocado… that is, not too green and not over ripe, it is a delicacy! The flavor is amazing and the texture is so creamy!

If that isn’t enough to make you love to eat them, do you know how healthy avocados are for you? They have great benefits, especially for vegetarians.

One of the greatest challenges if you eat a vegetarian, or mostly vegetarian diet, is to get enough good quality protein. Avocados provide a complete protein! While the avocado ripens on the tree, the sun breaks down the proteins in the avocado into easily digested amino acids. Your body needs all 18 essential amino acids to create complete proteins, and you can get this complete protein from eating avocados! Continue reading “Avocados Are a Wonder Food!”

Avocado for Vaginal Yeast Infection

There is no one food that is the complete answer to yeast infection, but avocados are an example of food that is effective in bringing back the right intestinal context to stop aggravated vaginal infection. Does this mean that a food plan that includes avocado will help patients to get better and well faster? Well maybe. 75% of women mostly in developed countries will suffer a vaginal infection at least once in their lifetime, while some 7% will have to endure chronic Vagina candidiasis, also known as vaginal yeast infection. It is a common problem with women. Vaginal candidiasis has many symptoms ranging from discharges that often look like cottage cheese because it is thick and white, and the symptoms often time is redness and itching of the vaginal areas which can be very intense.

Although Candida is normally found in the body (intestine), but when Candida in the intestine grows out of proportion due to some irregularities, this then causes both systemic and local Infections. Many things can cause the irregularities in the intestine but one of the possible or common factors is the upset of the acid-alkaline balance in both intestines and the blood. Continue reading “Avocado for Vaginal Yeast Infection”

Parrot Provisions

When giving your parrots a well organized provisions schedule, take into account what could benefit both you and your parrot. Be aware what provision would make them lengthen their lifespan since they grow up quite differently from one another.

Science professional believe that there is still something lacking regarding the study and researches of parrot provisions so as to help them live in the wilderness. Professionals have agreed as well that a perfect provision schedule for your pet parrots does not exist. You also need not give your pet parrots seeds all the time. Seeds alone would not hold the necessary amount of nutrition for your pets since seeds lack vitamin A and is low in calcium. Seeds are otherwise, high in the fat content and must compose parrot provision up to 10% only. However, in the case of budgies and cockatiels, these types need 25% composition of seeds in their provision.

On one hand, parrot pellets are given to your pets because they compose the right amount of seeds, fruits, grains and vegetables, and coupled by minerals and vitamins. Now, with these pellets, you must avoid boredom if you give these to your parrots composed with their provision for about 50 to 60 % even. Continue reading “Parrot Provisions”

Louisiana Hot Sauce

When it comes to hot sauces, Louisiana isn’t lacking for variety. A tour of the condiment aisle in even the humblest grocery store reveals a range that vastly outstrips the selection of, say, ketchup brands. Or mayonnaise. Calandro’s Government Street location had not just a shelf, but an entire end cap display stocked with a galaxy of hot sauce offerings, with names ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. Apparently, even in our highly corporatized food culture, the hot sauce segment remains something of a wild frontier-one in which the hearts and long-suffering taste buds of pepper-sauce aficionados are still up for grabs. Why? Is it because hot sauce occupies a unique culinary niche-one that can be considered souvenir, pantry decoration, and manly rite-of-passage, as well as sustenance? Is it because the hot sauce department is the one section of the supermarket in which teenaged boys feel at home? How else to explain a food segment that can attract customers with names like Ring of Fire or Bayou Butt Burner? Try marketing salad dressing or guacamole on those terms. Nope; hot sauce is unique, so this month I set out on a highly subjective quest to decide whether one sauce could be considered superior to another; or whether, if you’ll pardon the expression, the whole thing is a lot of hot air. And here, I offer up my discoveries. Continue reading “Louisiana Hot Sauce”

Vegan Protein

The first place to get protein as a vegan is from certain fruits & vegetables, I’ll bet you didn’t realize spinach and cauliflower are a complete protein. There are many ways that you can eat these two vegetables. I don’t like to cook my spinach too much but I typically cook cauliflower to the point that it’s soft either by steaming or sauteing it. Cauliflower is an excellent replacement for rice in my opinion and healthier than your traditional white rice. I often times mix it with curry or beans as if it were rice or quinoa. I make my salads using spinach instead of plain watery lettuce. Spinach has a high nutritional value which makes it the perfect replacement so I like to mix it with avocado, oil and chick peas to make it creamier and more chewy. Some fruits are believed to be complete in protein such as Goji Berries because it contains 18 amino acids. I usually buy dry Goji berries by the pound at my local organic super market and eat it with my other dry nuts and seeds. These fruits and vegetables are one of the many options nature gives you for protein.

Nuts and seeds are a perfect snack food to give you what you need as far as Amino acids. Walnuts, chestnuts, pumpkin seeds, cashews, chia seeds, hemp seeds have all the amino acids needed to consider them a complete protein. There are many ways to incorporate these foods into your diet such as baking granola bars and adding nuts and seed to them or blending these nuts and seeds into a paste and mixing it with fruit preserves on some bread to make a tasty sandwich. Another cool thing I like to do is get the hemp in powder form and mix it in almond milk with a health natural sweetener and psyllium husk for fiber. You can also get a lot of these nuts and seeds in powder form and mix them in you guacamole which is what I do. You can also mix the powder into your pancake or muffin batter etc. Though I usually eat most of these protein sources as is throughout the day if I want to stay away from cooking, but you don’t have to do that it’s totally up to you. Continue reading “Vegan Protein”

Vegan Lunch Recipes – Ideas and Recipes For A Delicious Vegan Lunch!

It is important to ensure variety in your vegan diet to make certain that you are getting all of the right nutrients, to stay motivated, and of course, to enjoy your food. Many people on the vegan diet get stuck in a rut when it comes to preparing their lunches. What they may not realize is that there are many super easy and healthy vegan lunch ideas and recipes awaiting them, if they simply are willing to put in a little bit of effort in preparing them!

Listed below are 5 vegan food ideas and recipes for your lunch.

Veggie burger/lentil burger

Assembling a veggie or lentil burger is a healthy, easy and super delicious vegan lunch idea. Find a brand of vegan patties that you like, and cook the patties in a frying pan or in the oven according to packet directions. In the meantime, slice open your bread roll and add either pesto, hummus or guacamole to the base. Add your cooked patty to the bread roll, and top with some sliced tomato, grated beetroot and carrot and sliced pineapple. And voila, it’s completed! Continue reading “Vegan Lunch Recipes – Ideas and Recipes For A Delicious Vegan Lunch!”

A Classic Big Green Egg Burger Recipe

The Big Green Egg is the most versatile grill I have ever owned. It can sear steaks at temperatures up to 700F, or it can slowly smoke a 10lb brisket for 17 hours at 225F. It acts as a grill, an oven, and a smoker all in one! Another great feature of the Big Green Egg is that it is very fuel efficient. The grill easily maintains the desired temperature for several hours, or even overnight, using relatively little charcoal when compared to a normal grill. The best part about the Big Green Egg is that it is easy to make delicious food!

Burgers are one of my favorite things to cook on the Big Green Egg… Simple, fast, and of course delicious. There are a million different recipes for burgers, but they follow the same formula; bun, sauce, ground beef, cheese, seasonings, and bacon (all good burgers have bacon). My favorite burger recipe follows the same formula; jalapeno bun (from a local bakery!), seasoned ground beef, roasted corn guacamole, pepper jack cheese, and……Texas thick cut bacon. I call it, “Eric’s Famous.” With this recipe you can grill delicious hamburgers for your family and friends and take credit as a “grill master!”

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