Healthy Recipe: Chickpea, Carrot, and Currant Salad

For the healthy living people out there, we can say that beans are so healthy for us because of their high protein and fiber content. If you're looking for a new way to prepare beans, you've got to try this recipe.

This recipe features carrots which give the dish a crunchy texture, and the currants add a touch of sweetness. It's delicious on its own or topped on your garden salad.
Chickpea, Carrot, and Currant Salad

Ingredients
1 15-ounce can of chickpeas, rinsed
2 cups shredded carrots
1 cup currants
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon orange juice
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds, crushed
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1. Mix the chickpeas, carrots, and currants in a bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients. Pour this mixture over the chickpeas, carrots and currants. Mix well and refrigerate at least one hour in a sealed container before enjoying.

Makes about 10 half cup servings.

Enjoy!

5 Tips on Grilling and Marinating Meat

The barbecue season is upon us. It’s a time to celebrate by grilling. Grilling is an easy and lowfat way to cook. Here are some tips for you if you're grilling meat.

Protect your health by marinating your meat.

Tips on the whys and hows of marinating.

1. Marinating meat, fish, and poultry significantly decreases the amount of carcinogenic heterocyclic amines (HCAs) produced when the meat is cooked at high temperatures, like in grilling. Marinades can reduce HCAs by as much as 99 percent.

2. Marinades may slow the growth of harmful bacteria, like listeria.

Additional Tips
1. Marinating meat with like vinegar or citrus juices or any natural acidic ingredients tenderizes the meat, making the protein in it (the meat) easier to digest. Also, marinating meats help lock in moisture so that the meat won't toughen up or dry out.

2. Only use a half cup of marinade to every pound of meat to keep the calorie count down. This formula will be enough to coat the meat yet cut down the excess.

3. It is not advised to marinate meats at room temperature. Although marinade can slow the growth of harmful bacteria, such action cannot stop bacterial growth completely, so marinate your meat in the fridge.

Lesson 1: Learning the Important Attitude for Kitchen Success

Lesson 1: Learning the Important Attitude for Kitchen Success
A lot of beginners are having a hard time of being in the kitchen for seemingly weird reasons. Some of these are:

• Afraid of what to do in the kitchen (sounds familiar?)
• Afraid of using the kitchen utensils. (Not only afraid. But doesn’t know what utensil it is)
• Afraid of making mistakes.

What we can draw is the keyword AFRAID. Why afraid? These people are usually afraid because they were programmed and have allowed themselves to be swallowed by the social norm of NOT MAKING MISTAKES. But we will not talk about the norms here. Hey, were going to take on Cooking lessons. Cooking lesson for beginners.

First things first
As like any important event, task or in this case, work, we need to look at what is our goal in learning how to cook? Where are we going to go once learning all the secrets to a great menu? Why.. How? When.. Where?
We need to look at You. Yes You.. Why do you want to cook?

“The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”.

Do you want to learn how to cook because you offer this to a special someone? (Yipee!)

Do you want to know how to cook because you want to impress someone or you may want to wet those taste buds?

We may have varied reasons of wanting to know how to cook, but it’ll all boil down to your intention.

First, you must have the intention. Not just plain intention; but deep, strong, and powerful intention.

Second, we need to have the discipline. Because knowing how to cook will allow us to be disciplined individuals. It will require your patience, your time, your energy. It will require you (O Oh! Will you continue learning how to cook?). (Laugh) Seriously, you will those attitudes there

Third, we need to be reflective on our mistakes. Yes mistakes! We will experience cooking right. Cooking half-cooked or even cooking incorrectly. We need to look at our mistakes so we can see further in improving our style, improving the quality of our food.

“Experience is the best teacher”.
That is what they say. I totally disagree! Our reflection of our experience is the best teacher. Come to think of it, there are lots of old people (say 60 years old and above) who don’t even know how to correctly cook Adobe (A Filipino cuisine), correctly cook Steak (American meal). Right? Again, I say, our reflection of our experiences will be our best teacher!

Fourth, go get your stuff!

We’ll be starting to cook tomorrow!

I guess you may want to read an INTRO (click here)

For now, I want you to reflect on these insights and tips.
Hoping that we can journey well on the road of great cooking!

Ciao,

Van
Your friendly kitchen guru.

Cooking Lessons for Beginner's Intro

Many of us, have been afraid to try and walk in of the kitchen. For some reasons, some were afraid just holding a kitchen knife or just by peeking at the fridge to try the right stuff what the cookbook says.

We'll try to avoid the hard-to-learn and hard-to-understand cookbook lingos or fancy stuffs. What we want to do is just to bring the goodness of what the kitchen can do for us. How it can improve our taste sensation, perhaps even to help us with relationships. As they say, a way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

This is your friendly male kitchen guru. Ready to be of service to all of you.

I'll be posting tomorrow the basics and what to learn about the kitchen.

See you again!

Ciao,

Van