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Creative & Healthy Vegetables

Good old saying that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach has taken a new meaning lately. We used to think the best method for enticing a lover was to ply him with rich, buttery sauces, heavy meat dishes and decadent chocolate desserts. These days we're more likely to protect the heart of the one we love by serving lighter and healthier foods that won't clog the coronary arteries or raise cholesterol levels. While it's true that love is ultimately less about what you eat than whom you eat, a little help from our creative and healthy vegetables cookbook doesn't hurt.

Root Vegetables

Edible roots are a commonly neglected bunch, but have recently emerging from the shadows to make their presence definetly known. They have never inspired love at first sight anyway. Beneath their rough skinned, knotty, and ugly outer cloak, they harbor a wealth of earthy flavors and nutritiens. They are excellent sources of fiber, minerals, vitamins and low calorie energy. It is important to know that not everything that grows below ground is a root vegetable.

Potatoes, jicama, turnips, cassava, kumara, yams, rutabagas, sweet potatoes, manioc, oca, these are just a few of dozens of underground tubers that sustain modern humans, who boil, bake, and fry them for lunch, dinner, and sometimes breakfast. Tubers are storage organs which preserve the plant in a dormant state through the winter, and give the plant a boost in making new growth in the spring. The tubers come in many shapes and sizes and are an excellent source of nutritiens.

Onions, garlic and shallots are underground bulbs. Each root has its own unique taste and nutritional value, so be daring and expand your taste buds! Roots to know: beet, burdock, carrots, celery root, celeriac, horseradish, daicon radish, parsnips, radishes, parsley root, salsify... More...

While tomatoes are the best source of lycopene, many studies have suggested that tomato products such as tomato sauce, ketchup, tomato paste and coctail sauce seem to contain a much higher concentration of the chemical. Processing and cooking, because of the high temperatures involved, release lycopene from its food matrix and make it more easily absorbed by... More...

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THE ONION STORY
No other group of ingredients is more versatile and basic to cooking than the famous member of the allium family - onion. Cultivated around the world for over 5,000 years onion is thought to be of central Asian origin. Allium family encompasses more than 500 members and most of them are edible, but not all... more...	Breads, Muffins, Scones... The Great Cookie Treasure Pies & Pastries Cakes, Tortes, Tarts & Related Tasty Desserts Holiday Dishes Tips & Guides Food Handler Guide
	Preserving:
Tips & Ideas For Healthy Eating To reduce saturated fat, control the size of your portions, trim the fat off meat and remove the skin from poultry before cooking. Make a meat marinade from non-fat or low-fat salad dressings, wine, flavored vinegars and citrus fruits, such as limes, lemons and oranges. Try healthy cooking methods that don't call for fat, such as braising, baking, grilling... more Spring Spring, nature's most special season is a time of re-emergence and expectation. The sleeping earth slowly begins to aweken with the lenghtening daylight hours and first tentative rays of sunshine. During this season of rejuvenation, nature offers some of her most luscious culinary gifts: tender young greens, spring onions, tasty tomatoes, asparagus, sweet peas and new potatoes-all at their best. Take advantage of these succulent ingredients in meals that are not only easy to make and delicious to eat, but also signal the seasonal transition from hearty to lighter fare. more... Powerful Carrots Carrots are nature's BEST source of the very powerful antioxident Vitamin A! Antioxidants protect cells from free radicals which can damage the basic structure of healthy cells. Many studies show that the nutrients in carrots may reduce risk of... more... Salads & Dressings Salads usually take their name from their chief ingredient, as, for instance, potato salad, chicken salad, tomato salad, etc. Just what place salads have in the meal depends on the salad itself. A high protein salad, such as lobster salad, should take the place of the meat course, whereas, a light salad of vegetables or fruits may be used as an additional course... more... Fruits Although we usually think of citrus fruits as the main source of vitamin C, black currants contain much more of this vital nutrient. Just one cup has nearly 203 mg. of vitamin C, or about 338 percent of the RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance), compared with about 69 mg. for a 4-1/2 oz. orange. The oil from... more...	A careful selection of the food that is to be preserved is the most important part of the whole process. The flavor of the finished product also depends a great deal on the condition of the food. So, whenever possible, any food that is to be preserved should be perfectly fresh. The sooner it is preserved after it has been gathered, the more satisfactory will be results. Keep in mind that a successful preserving depends entirely on destroying harmful micro-organisms that are present in the food and preventing those present in the air from entering the food.... more... Drying is an convenient way to preserve foods and it is one of the oldest methods of food preservation for later use. It is simple, easy to learn, safe, and requires only basic equipment. It is not difficult, but it does take time and a lot of attention. With the renewed interest in gardening and natural foods, drying foods at home is becoming popular again. Many kinds of fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, meat, and fish can be dried... more... If you grow and dry your own herbs, you will always have a fresh, inexpensive supply close at hand for making delicious foods. For people on salt-free diets, herbs enhance the flavor of otherwise bland foods and do not add calories to foods. If you want to cut down on salt or calories, you can use herbs and spices to give zest to familiar, low-calorie or low-salt foods. For example, a pinch of rosemary dropped into the water that potatoes or rice are boiled in will give a delightful taste to these vegetables... more... Watch humidity and ventilation during the drying process very carefully. Humid air slows down evaporation. Food contains a lot of moisture and rapid dehydration is desirable. The higher the temperature and the lower the humidity, the more rapid the rate of dehydration will be... more... Curing and smoking is an excellent way to preserve animal products such as meat, poultry and fish. Smoking and curing affects the texture, color, juiciness and flavor of meat. The quality and safety of the final product depends on how the product is handled before, during and after curing and smoking... more... Spices Spices are dried seeds, fruits, roots, bark or other vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for the purpose of flavoring, and indirectly for the purpose of killing and preventing growth of pathogenic bacteria... more...