How to Use Everyday Foods to Make a Perfect Barbeque

Summer is on its way, and with it, the opportunity to have a more varied and interesting diet. With skimpy summer clothing making its way towards the front of your wardrobe, you’ll likely want to focus a bit more on your nutrition to help shed some winter pounds, and just generally look after your wellness and wellbeing.

 

One of the best things about summer is having an impromptu barbeque. When you’re having an impromptu grilling session, the ingredients is already likely to be in your kitchen. Your meal can be as simple as you like, and can actually make the best kind of meal. Trying to put together too many flavours can lead to an overload and detract from the natural flavour of the meat. You can do a bit of experimenting to make your own sauces, marinades and rubs, combining simple pantry items to make flavours of your own personal preference.

 

Salt is one of the most basic ingredients, but can be great for rubbing into meat, or for sprinkling on top of cooked steaks. Other seasonings and spices can be used too. Paprika, onion powder, granulated garlic and cracked black pepper can make a great rub, when all combined together.

 

To make a marinade, you probably want to start with a vinegar base. White wine vinegar and apple cider vinegar are the two best vinegars for this purpose, and you can try injecting them directly into the meat to tenderise it. You can also add oil to help tenderise the meat, and mild oils such as canola oil are best for this.

 

Dark brown sugar is another pantry staple that can be great in a sauce or a rub. Molasses is also great for this. To add a bit of tang, stir in a little mustard to the mix. You can also use mayo to rub the meat with before adding another mixture. If you’re going with a more oriental flavour, peanut butter can be part of a great sauce or marinade.

Categories: barbeque, BBQ, grill, meat, nbsp, pantry, Summer, Vinegar

Natural Health:The What,How and Why of Apple Cider Vinegar

America isn’t really known for it’s ancient wellness practises, but one remedy has really stood the test of time: apple cider vinegar (ACV). From an aid to weight loss to providing heart burn relief, ACV has a range of uses that can truly benefit your wellbeing.

 

Before we go any further, the ACV we’re talking about here isn’t the translucent orange stuff you see on supermarket shelves; it’s organic, raw, unfiltered ACV. You’re looking for a variety that hasn’t been pasteurised and has a cloudy mass settling on the top and the bottom of the bottle (which is known as “the mother”). It’s really up to you as to how you take it, but a good, basic regimen to follow is to add two tablespoons of ACV to an eight-ounce glass of water, and have one of these mixtures three times a day. Some people add honey to taste, as the vinegar obviously makes it quite bitter, while others prefer to put the ACV into a shot glass, and chug it down with a tall 16oz glass of water right behind it.

 

A lot of the evidence as to the efficacy of ACV is anecdotal, so it would be remiss of us not to include some top tips from ACV users. Amy from Hartford, Connecticut, details, ‘I was on prescribed allergy medicine for 17 years. I started the honey and ACV mixed with water three years ago and rarely even have to take an over the counter allergy pill. It takes about four to six days of taking it twice a day to build up in my system, and then I usually only have to take it once a day. I’m a massage therapist and I recommend it to all of my clients who come in with allergies, many of them have become faithful to the ACV too. So glad someone told me about it!’ Shawn from Boulder notes, ‘Mixed with ginger ale and white grape juice, ACV tastes terrific. Very similar in taste to Kombouchu tea.’

 

According to John from Caledon, Ontario, ‘Apple cider vinegar is easiest to palate when mixed with apple juice. It tastes like apple cider, plus you get the numerous antioxidant and natural benefits from the apple juice.’ However, Lara from Milwaukee, Wisconsin writes, ‘I took Apple Cider Vinegar with a shot glass of Welches Grape Juice. It tastes a lot like wine to me this way. Much easier to take this way. I have a lot more energy already and I have only been taking it a few days.’ Lisa from West Plains, Missouri comments, ‘I like the benefits I’m having since I’ve started taking ACV. But I did not like the taste and surely I’m not alone. I tried it with mango tea and one spoonful of the vinegar and an equal amount of honey. It tastes wonderful. I drink it at least four times a day. It’s that good. Lipton tea has mango and I’m sure other brands will work.’

 

So that’s the what and the how, but why should you take ACV? The benefits include:

• Getting rid of acid reflux


• Reducing allergy symptoms


• Lowering your blood pressure


• Rebalancing your body’s pH factor, which helps prevent colds


• Preventing migraines


• Stopping night-time leg spasms


• Lessening gout and arthritis symptoms


• Avoiding food poisoning


• Preventing yeast and fungal infections (Strong ACV can actually cause a yeast infection, so be careful and start slow)


• Natural detox


• Energy


• B Vitamins


• Healthy shiny hair, and a glowing complexion

Categories: acid reflux, Apple, apple cider, apple cider vinegar, apple juice, cider, cider vinegar, detox, grape juice, shot glass, Tastes, Vinegar

Cleaning Tricks You Never Knew Existed Until Now!

Housework is a bore at the best of times, but when it comes to cleaning the trickier areas of the home, it can be daunting too. If you’re looking for some inexpensive ways to clean those stubborn parts of the home, from the showerhead and beyond, here are some tricks you’ll be eternally thankful for.

1 – Washing your fruit and veggies can be tiresome, especially if you buy in bulk. Put them in a clean sink topped up with water and a dash of white wine vinegar and let them soak for a minute or two to kill off the bacteria and leave your produce ready to eat in no time.

2 – You can magically remove floor cuffs easily with the use of WD-40 – this unknown household trick could save you plenty of time scrubbing the floors to no avail. Simply spray a little on the mark and scrub with a dry brush for a few minutes to lift the stain.

3 – For a clean shower head that’s free of limescale, mix 1/3 cup baking soda with a cup of white wine vinegar and put in a plastic storage bag. Place the bag carefully over the head of the shower and tie to the shower pipe, leaving for a couple of hours to let the solution break down the build-up. Be careful when putting the solution in the bag, as it’s a chemical reaction. Once it’s had time to sit, remove the bag and rinse the solution off the shower head.

4 – Got a spare sock and some white wine vinegar? If you have blinds which gather dust and can be tricky to clean properly, simply add a splash of vinegar to an old sock and place over your hand – you can now grip the bars of the blind carefully and slide the sock over the plastic to remove the grime and dust easily and effectively.

5 – If you’ve lost an earring behind the sofa or kitchen cupboard, don’t consider it lost forever. Simply tie the foot of a pair of tights over the end of your vacuum tube and switch it on – you’ll be able to suction it back up without losing it in the vacuum.

Categories: cleaning, Family, household, shower, shower head, simply, solution, Vinegar, White, white wine, wine vinegar

How to Fight Belly Fat with These Four Foods

Let’s be honest; if you want to lose weight, chances are that you want to lose it in the belly area. Very few of us will look in the mirror and say “I love it when all my other body parts look trim, but I wish my belly was bigger and fatter” (except for maybe one female character in Pulp Fiction who did want a pot belly – but Bruce Willis wasn’t keen on the idea if memory serves). So what foods can help you to target belly fat specifically?

 

Firstly, when your sweet tooth starts tingling, and you find yourself in the confectionery aisle (how did that happen?!) try dark chocolate. Dark chocolate is closer to chocolate’s purest form, which, although it may be surprising, can actually help you lose weight. According to a study carried in 2005, which was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, participants who ate dark chocolate were more sensitive to insulin and less resistant to it compared with the study volunteers who ate equal quantities of white chocolate.

 

If you’re after something a little more tart, go for tart cherries. A study from the University of Michigan, carried out in 2007, fed rats small quantities of tart cherry powder. The results revealed that the rats lost 17% of their belly fat in as few as three months. Another study, this time from 2009 and published in the journal Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry, showed that vinegar may be the way to go for a tart fat buster. The results showed that people who consumed an acetic acid compound found in vinegar along with fatty food developed less body fat than those who didn’t consume the acetic compound.

 

Finally, you’re probably already aware of the health benefits of green tea. This is the beverage of choice for many wellness enthusiasts, as green tea is rich in phyotchemicals and antioxidants, but the fact that green tea may also aid in weight loss puts it at the top of the list for just about everyone else. According to a 2009 study published in the Journal of Nutrition, the catechins in green tea may speed up your body’s metabolic rate and promote fat loss, especially in the abdomen.

How to Fight Belly Fat with These Four Foods

Categories: Dark Chocolate, green tea, Vinegar