Mediterranean way of nutrition:Mediterranean Diet

Mediterranean people know how to enjoy in life. They are such a bohemians and they charish it a lot! Every single tourst love their bohemian tradition, enjoying in fresh sea air, walking without shoes, eating delicious fresh food and glory to the sun. I bet you would like to do this ,, waking up by the Sun, having great time exploring the beach, enjoying in lovely and fresh air, walking trought olive yard and having great lunch on the coast with the glass of perfect wine." I bet you would love to!That gives you all experience that food can give you.

So let me introduce you in kind of food which is mostly extremely healthy, basics on the fresh sea food, vegetables and lovely dressings.They tend national culture of food, preparing it with many love and embelish it for the eye. Mediterranean area comprises the lands around and surrounded by the Mediterranean sea;climate with with mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers allow you to visit it at any time of the year.People there eat fresh, less processed foods, foods with a lot of nutrients, and their fruits, vegetables and baked goods are of excellent taste. For them, the meal time for enjoyment and relaxation, and the portions are large.
About the agriculture, wheat is the dominant grain grown around the Mediterranean, pulses and vegetables are also grown. The characteristic tree crop is the olive. Figs and citrus, especially lemons, are grown where irrigation is present. Grapes are an important wine crop, grown for fruit also . Rice and summer vegetables are grown in irrigated areas.All that hapends under the wing of warm Mediteranian Sun and with rich gifts of nature!

Did you know that mediterranean diet succesfully influence on many things?
This type of food is very old and thats why its based on ballast of healty nutrition. All olive products are extremely healthy for example, olive oil minify the value of blood-fat. Beside that, for all nutrients olive oil is ideal for:the digestive tract , prevents diabetes, the brain tissue, the growth and bone development of the child
has the effect of mother's milk and slows the aging of the high content of antioxidants.Yes, they use a lot of oils but this people dont have any problem with heart that is ussually linked with consuming oil in bigger portions. Many women also use olive oil for SPA treatman.Olives and wine, indeed, is traditionally present two specific and important elements of Mediterranean diet. Many experts claim that small amount of quality alcohol, like wine, are good for health. One glass per day can be a part of Mediterranean diet.Olives and wine, indeed, is traditionally present two specific and important elements of Mediterranean diet.
This diet are based on :local and seasonal fresh produce, moderate consumption of various fish, less use of full-fat and moderate cheeses, dairy products and yogurtl, ess meat consumption, olive oil is mostly used as a spice, many fruits, vegetables, potatoes, legumes, nuts, various seeds, bread and cereals. This is magic Mediterranean diet.
Risotto, Greek salad, tapas, fresh seafood, great dressings as tzatziki....it sounds delicious even before you try it!About the dishes, I ate great one in Greek:Cut the carrots into thin sticks and dip them in whole or in low-fat sauces such as the hommus or Tzatziki. Put olives, little feta cheese, green salad and pour a little olive oil.Grated carrot adds a tremendous feel of the many raw vegetable salads. This is rich meal that will give you a lot of power and not make you sleepy, of course, very healthy meal. You can add whatever vegetable you preffer and enjoy in great salad every single day!
They dont enjoy in fast-food, they dont like it at all. Maybe thats the recipe for healthy long living, by what Greek are known.The Mediterranean diet is based on consumption of foods rich in fiber like whole grains, fruits, legumes and vegetables), olive oil and fish, and it is recognized as a kind of healthy and nutritious diet, and also helps fight against cellular aging and cardiovascular disease.
Bread, fruits, vegetables, olives, and traditional glass of wine certainly help in establishing the longevity.
Dont forget this:European Union (EU) supported the proposal of the Spanish government to recognize the Mediterranean diet as a world heritage by UNESCO!
Live healthy, eat fresh, use Mediterranean tips for diet and you will have healthy, long life. Even better, take their way of preparing food, living and enjoying in every single moment and you will have extremely rich life!



Here are some fast recipes based on this diet that can help you ti start healthy life in 3,2,1...lets go!

Classic Greek salad

You need:
Ingredients (4 serves)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 choped small red onion
1 crushed garlic clove,
2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano leaves
200-250g tomatoes
1 large Lebanese cucumber, chopped
1 small red capsicum, chopped
1/2 cup kalamata olives
100g Greek feta cheese
*Place lemon juice, garlic, oil and oregano in a screw-top jar, add soem salt. Secure lid. Shake to combine.
Combine tomato, cucumber, onion, capsicum and olives in a large bowl. Top with feta. Drizzle with oil mixture. Enjoy in taste!
Tip: This is classic Greek salad - feel free to add less or more ingredients if you like it that way!

Sesame sweets

Ingredients (4serves)
300g turkish delightes
200g cooking chocolate
20g margarins
200g baked sesame
*melt turkish on small fire, add there melted chocolate,and add bakes sesame.Leave it for a while and then, on oil base, put mixture and than chop it to look like bombone.
Tip: Add little lemon juice in mixture.Left for an hour and enjoy in taste!



Couscous with spicy fish on Spanish way

Ingredients (4 serves)
1 cup couscous
600g firm white fish fillets, trimmed
1/3 cup olive oil
1 small red onion and 1 small yellow capsicum, finely chopped
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped
2 teaspoons spicy Spanish seasoning
*Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Cook onion until softened, add capsicum and cook for 2 minutes.
Meanwhile, bring stock and peas to the boil in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Place couscous in a large, heatproof bowl. Pour stock mixture over couscous. Stir to combine. Stand, covered, for 3 to 4 minutes or until stock is absorbed. Add onion mixture and parsley. Stir with a fork to separate grains. Cover to keep warm.Coat fish lightly in seasoning. Heat remaining oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Cook fish for 2 to 3 minutes each side or until cooked through. Serve with couscous mixture.
Take a glass of good wine and enjoy in lovely & healthy life!Cheers!

Serbian national kitchen-original recipes 1.part

In future, I will share with you many nationals kitchens. I will start with mine, and continue with the I love to.
All this recipes are Serbian, mostly are very healthy, cjeap and fast.
So, enjoy in this :)


I will start with one of the most popular serbian-balcanian meal.

Cheese Burek

You will need:
fat
2-3 eggs
cheese cream
salt to taste.
600 g leaf crust for baking
150 g of salty cheese
How to make it:
Grease a bit the baking pan, then place into a two or three crusts so that the edges of crusts hang down around the outside of the pan.
In a medium sized bowl stir eggs until blended, add cheese and cream cheese and stir well with a fork or a whisk, and salt to taste.
Crumble cheese as desired, and other bark crease and arrange them in a baking pan one to the other, sprinkle with cheese and those prepared topping with eggs. At the end of lap one ends through complex crust, add some of the remaining of those prepared topping with eggs (just a little without crumbled cheese) and put to bake in the strong temperature.
Usually, burek ut into a quarters or eighths with a bakery knife.


TIPS:Although there are other ingredients with which it can be filled (meat, pizza ingredients, mushroom), burek with cheese is the most popular.

Serbin pancakes

Main difference between this and american pancakes are in tickness!
You will need:
oil for frying
3 eggs
1 / 2 kg flour
1 / 2 liter milk

and then:Well whisk egg, add flour, put a little salt and add milk.
Mix continuously to become equal weight with no blob. Put some oil in a frying pan and put on stove to heat up well.
At the heated oil, pour a small ladle batter and immediately spread quickly in a pan to make pancakes that were thin. As soon as one side turn over and fry bake another.Ready-made pancakes you can pour the jam, nuts, sugar, or euro-cream, and roll in the reel. Serve hot.
Enjoy :)

Fried dough

This is quite fast meal for breakfat, brunch or whatever you feel like.
You will need:
250g flour
1 sachet of baking powder (12g)
salt
1 / 4 l oil.
4 eggs
1 cup of sour cream (2 dl)

Preparation and cooking of these fried dough without yeast takes about 20 minutes.
It is served with white Serbian cream cheese or jam, with sour milk, regular milk or tea.
In mixing bowl break the eggs, mix them, add cream, mix on and gradually pour the flour with baking powder and salt. Continuing rile mixer or wire until the dough is completely equal. Leave it for about ten minutes to settle the interference.
During this time in less pan heat oil. Spoon drop the dough in the pan and bake in a moderate temperature. When fried dough become flush with all sides, remove them and dispose of a small strainer into a bowl.
Drop new dough and bake until the dough to spend. Serve warm.
TIPS:You can serve this with whatever you want like nutella, cheese, sour creme.

Some unussual food

I watched on Tv a couple of interesting films about molekular cooking. Its brand new, its unussual, its great. I found very interesting frozen olive oil in shape of rain! This is basic things about it, in case you have never heard about it!

,,Imagine an orb shaped dish brimming with fluorescent orange foam is placed in front of you. As you place the spoon on your tongue, the foam vanishes leaving behind nothing more than the essence of fresh, sweet carrots lingering in the back of your throat.
A single peeled grape, still attached to its stem, is dipped in creamy peanut butter and then wrapped in a gossamer sheath of brioche. In a play on a childhood classic, it elicits at once the comfort of familiarity and the shock of the completely unexpected.
Progress for the Food Movement's SakeDespite the ultra-modern equipment and strangely presented food, the goal is not to completely alter the concept of cooking, but rather to find a new way of expanding on a foundation that has been building for centuries.
Ferran Adrià, the chef/owner of the restaurant El Bulli, explains it as a way of using "new techniques to elicit new emotions." He considers this type of cuisine a play on tradition, one which is at once both familiar and jolting.
The term molecular gastronomy conjures images of laboratory derived experiments more than a dining experience, but in most cases it's actually both. Many practitioners do create in laboratories, which are simply modern kitchens outfitted with new high-tech equipment.
Anti-Griddle. A reverse cook top that instantaneously, at minus 30 degrees, transforms liquids to frozen solids.
Sous vides cookers. Food encased in plastic is placed in water and slowly cooked at a precisely maintained temperature.
CO2 dispenser. Converts practically any liquid into an ethereal froth or foam.
As the meal progresses, however, facial expressions alone seemingly capture the essence of the entire philosophy. With each bite his expression shifts from fear to curiosity to confusion and ultimately morphs into to a huge smile that at once exudes the whimsy of childlike wonderment and the realization that the concept does make sense. You cannot help but smile along with him.The intent of molecular gastronomy is consistent with the chapters of the culinary movement that have preceded it-innovation, amusement, inspiration, and ultimately pleasure."
Is this a future? Can be.We will see.
Think about this!

Sources:
Wall Street Journal Online Portrait of an Artist as a Chef, by Kat McLaughlin
Kymos.org Molecular Gastronomy and the Science of Cooking
The Observer Molecular gastronomy is dead. Heston speaks out
Andreas Viestad A Bulli in My Kitchen
Chow You're Mispronouncing "Achatz", by Lessley Anderson

Poison in food

There have been a lot of talking about additive in food.Many researches told us its a posion, dont use it! But how we can absolutely avoid it?
Food additives are substances added to food to preserve flavor or enhance its taste and appearance. Some additives have been used for centuries; for example, preserving food by pickling (with vinegar), salting, as with bacon, preserving sweets or using sulfur dioxide as in some wines. With the advent of processed foods in the second half of the 20th century, many more additives have been introduced, of both natural and artificial origin.

To regulate these additives, and inform consumers, each additive is assigned a unique number, termed as "E numbers", which is used in Europe for all approved additives. This numbering scheme has now been adopted and extended by the Codex Alimentarius Commission to internationally identify all additives,[1] regardless of whether they are approved for use.
E numbers are all prefixed by "E", but countries outside Europe use only the number, whether the additive is approved in Europe or not. For example, acetic acid is written as E260 on products sold in Europe, but is simply known as additive 260 in some countries. Additive 103, alkanet, is not approved for use in Europe so does not have an E number, although it is approved for use in Australia and New Zealand. Since 1987, Australia has had an approved system of labelling for additives in packaged foods. Each food additive has to be named or numbered. The numbers are the same as in Europe, but without the prefix 'E'.

SOME OF THEM:
Preservatives
Preservatives prevent or inhibit spoilage of food due to fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms.
Stabilizers
Stabilizers, thickeners and gelling agents, like agar or pectin (used in jam for example) give foods a firmer texture. While they are not true emulsifiers, they help to stabilize emulsions.
Sweeteners
Sweeteners are added to foods for flavoring. Sweeteners other than sugar are added to keep the food energy (calories) low, or because they have beneficial effects for diabetes mellitus and tooth decay and diarrhea.
Acidity regulators
Acidity regulators are used to change or otherwise control the acidity and alkalinity of foods.
Anticaking agents
Anticaking agents keep powders such as milk powder from caking or sticking.
Antifoaming agents
Antifoaming agents reduce or prevent foaming in foods.
Antioxidants
Antioxidants such as vitamin C act as preservatives by inhibiting the effects of oxygen on food, and can be beneficial to health.
Bulking agents
Bulking agents such as starch are additives that increase the bulk of a food without affecting its taste.
Food coloring
Colorings are added to food to replace colors lost during preparation, or to make food look more attractive.


In September 2007, research financed by Britain's Food Standards Agency and published online by the British medical journal The Lancet, presented evidence that a mix of additives commonly found in children’s foods increases the mean level of hyperactivity. The team of researchers concluded that "the finding lends strong support for the case that food additives exacerbate hyperactive behaviors (inattention, impulsivity and overactivity) at least into middle childhood." That study examined the effect of artificial colors and a sodium benzoate preservative, and found both to be problematic for some children. Further studies are needed to find out whether there are other additives that could have a similar effect, and it is unclear whether some disturbances can also occur in mood and concentration in some adults. In the February 2008 issue of its publication, AAP Grand Rounds, the American Academy of Pediatrics concluded that a low-additive diet is a valid intervention for children with ADHD:
"Although quite complicated, this was a carefully conducted study in which the investigators went to great lengths to eliminate bias and to rigorously measure outcomes. The results are hard to follow and somewhat inconsistent. For many of the assessments there were small but statistically significant differences of measured behaviors in children who consumed the food additives compared with those who did not. In each case increased hyperactive behaviors were associated with consuming the additives. For those comparisons in which no statistically significant differences were found, there was a trend for more hyperactive behaviors associated with the food additive drink in virtually every assessment. Thus, the overall findings of the study are clear and require that even we skeptics, who have long doubted parental claims of the effects of various foods on the behavior of their children, admit we might have been wrong."

Celiac desease

This is my other blog about celiac desease, receipes etc.about gluten free food. There is also translator for non serbian natives. Hope we can share receipes and experience!

Salads!

Apple and Spinach Salad 2 Tbsp fresh lime juice 2 Tbsp fresh orange juice 2 tsp Dijon mustard 2 tsp honey 1/4 tsp salt freshly ground black pepper to taste 1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion 8 cups fresh baby spinach (about 8 ounces) 1 large apple, cored and thinly sliced 1/4 cup (1 ounce) crumbled blue cheese Combine juices, mustard, honey, salt and pepper in a small bowl and whisk together. Place onions and spinach in a large bowl. Add dressing and toss together. Top with blue cheese. Summer Seafood Salad . r 4 ears corn, shucked 2 cups finely diced zucchini 1 cup finely diced tomato 6 ounces of your choice: crab, surimi crab sticks, or lobster 1/2 lb shrimp, cooked and peeled 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper 2 Tbsp. olive oil 1/2 cup slivered fresh basil leaves, divided recipe directions: Cook corn in boiling water for 7 minutes, or until done. Remove to a plate and let cool. Cut kernels from cobs and place kernels in a large bowl. Bring water to a boil again and add zucchini, and cook for 2 minutes. Drain and add zucchini to the bowl with the corn, and toss in the diced tomato. Whisk lemon juice, salt and pepper, and oil in a small bowl and set aside. Cut shrimp in half, and chop lobster or surimi. Place seafood in a medium mixing bowl, and add half of the basil. Add 2 tablespoons of the dressing mixture to the seafood and toss well. Add remaining basil and remaining dressing to the corn mixture in the large bowl, and toss well. To serve: Place lettuce leaves on 4 plates or a platter. Top with corn mixture, then top that with seafood mixture. Mexican Pasta Salad 8 ounces dried fusilli or rotellle pasta 6 green onions, ends trimmed and sliced thin 3 Roma tomatoes, chopped 2 fresh jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced 1 red bell pepper, cut into thin slivers 1 cup minced fresh cilantro 1 can (8 1/2 oz.) reduced-sodium kidney beans, rinsed and drained 1/4 cup red wine vinegar 1 Tbsp. salad oil 2 Tbsp. grated parmesan cheese Salt to taste recipe directions Cook pasta according to package directions until just tender to bite. Drain, then rinse with cold water until cool; drain well. In a large bowl, combine the pasta, onions, tomatoes, jalapenos, bell pepper, cilantro, and beans. Add the vinegar, oil, and cheese; mix well, and salt to taste.