FREE RECIPES WITH STEP-BY-STEP PICTURES

AeroGrow AeroGarden Review - Read Before Purchasing

The AeroGrow AeroGarden is an aeroponic indoor garden built by AeroGrow International.

What is Aeroponics? Aeroponics is a dirt-free growing method in which plant roots are suspended in air within a 100 percent humidity, highly oxygenated growing chamber. The roots of the plant are bathed in ideal amounts of water, nutrients, and oxygen to create plants that are healthier, grow faster, and have a higher nutrient content than if grown in soil.

Aerogarden Parts and Setup:

The main piece is the base which contains the electronics. An extension arm with adjustable height settings plugs into the base. The next piece is the water reservoir with areas in the top where the grow pods are placed. Included are two grow bulbs or “daylight spectrum bulbs” which plug into the top hood piece. The underside of the hood piece has a reflective coating to scatter the light across the Aerogarden. The hood snaps into the extension arm. Setup was very simple.

Click Here to continue reading AeroGrow AeroGarden Review - Read Before Purchasing…

Brazil Nuts - Radioactive Yet Cancer Fighting?

Brazil nuts come from the Brazil nut tree which are among the largest trees in the Amazon Rainforest. The trees can grow to be 100 to 150 feet tall and live to be 1,000 years old. When the nuts fall from the trees, they are gathered up and shipped around the world for consumption and to use for their oils. Bolivia is the largest expediter of the nuts.

Radioactivity : Because of the extensive root system of the Brazil nut tree, the roots soak up the naturally occurring radium on the soil. Small amounts of this radium are deposited into the meat of the nut. Although the amounts are small, the nut still contains 1000 times more radium than other foods do.

After using a mortar and pestle to create Brazil nut butter from 3 nuts, Ray Johnson, who was chief of radiation surveillance at the Environmental Protection Agency in the 1970’s and 1980’s aimed his Geiger counter at the butter to find that it registered 33% hotter in radioactivity than the natural level of the room.

Research regarding the safety of the nuts in regards to radiation is scarce. However, in 1968 the Health Physics journal published a report on the nuts high radioactivity, stating: “it is to be expected that individuals who regularly eat Brazil nuts for many years will eventually build up elevated radium body burdens.”

Selenium - Cancer Fighter? : Several studies have shown a link between selenium deficiency and cancer. It is believed that selenium either acts as an antioxidant or improves the immune system. For more info on the possible cancer fighting aspect of selenium click here .

Brazil Nuts - A Selenium Super Food : Brazil nuts may contain as much as 544 micrograms of selenium per ounce. So consuming one ounce of Brazil nuts would provide you will 780% of your recommended dietary allowance.

Selenosis Risk : Too much selenium in the bloodstream can result in a condition called selenosis Symptoms of selenosis include gastrointestinal upsets, hair loss, white blotchy nails, garlic breath odor, fatigue, irritability, and mild nerve damage. The Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences has set a tolerable upper intake level (UL) for selenium at 400 micrograms per day for adults to prevent the risk of developing selenosis.

Want to try Brazil nuts? I found these on amazon, and they look pretty tasty, plus they are not glowing in the picture:

Ultimate’s Roasted & Salted Extra Large Brazil Nuts - 1# Tin

Have you ever had Brazil nuts? If not, would you eat them knowing they are radioactive?

Sources:

Washington Post Article | Wikipedia (brazil nuts) | Wikipedia (Selenium) | Gov Fact Sheet on Selenium

Salt Kills 3.5x More People Per Year Than Vehicle Accidents

According to health experts, a high salt diet contributes to 150,000 deaths each year in the United States. For comparison, according to a the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 42,642 people died in 2006 from vehicle accidents.

High amounts of salt raise blood pressure and in turn increase the likelihood of heart attacks and strokes.

The American Heart Association has set the maximum daily salt consumption at 2,300 milligrams, about a teaspoon of salt. Americans are consuming 2-3 times this amount.

Health experts are urging The Food and Drug Administration to tighten salt restrictions in packaged foods and to beef up packaging labels. The American Medical Association wants the FDA to cut the allowable amount of salt in foods by half.

A major problem is that foods you don’t associate with having salt usually contain high amounts. Just a few cups of your favorite cereal each morning can account for around 50% of your daily allotment.

Example: 6″ Subway Club with American Cheese, Mayo and a bag of baked chips: 1,720 mg sodium, roughly 75% of your daily allowance, in 1 meal alone.

Record how much salt you consume for a day and post it as a comment. If you don’t live in the USA, please state what country you live in.

References: ABC News Story | NHTSA | Subway Nutrition Info

Tim Tams - Australian Chocolate Biscuits

A friend in Australia sent me a box full of treats. In the box were Tim Tams and they taste amazing.

What are Tim Tams? - Tim Tams are chocolate Biscuits made by Arnott’s Biscuits in Australia. A Tim Tam consists of light chocolate cream filling sandwiched between two chocolate malted biscuits, and all coated with a thin layer of textured chocolate. Tim Tams were first introduced in 1964.

Tim Tam Slam - The Tim Tam Slam is a name for the popular method of eating Tim Tams where a person bites both ends of the biscuit and then uses the modified biscuit as a straw to suck up a hot liquid such as tea, coffee, or hot milo. Right before the biscuit falls apart from melting the person plops the biscuit in their mouth to enjoy.

Why the name Tim Tam? - Ross Arnott, attended the 1958 Kentucky Derby in the USA and decided to use the name of the winning horse, Tim Tim, as the name of his new planned line of biscuits.

How popular are Tim Tams? - 35 million packs are sold each year, approximately 4oo million biscuits, or 1.7 packs per Australian.

Are they available in the USA? - It looks like a store called World Market has them, you can see the product page here with a store finder: Click Here

Halloween Recipe Challenge

Calling all cooks. Halloween is approaching. And it’s time to show off your spooky visual recipes. We are looking for your jello eyeballs, marshmallow ghouls, yummy mummy cakes, cookie graveyards, etc.

Take step-by-step photos of your creepy culinary creations as you cook, bake or fry them. Then sign in and add your recipe and images to our Web site with the easy-to-use visual recipe submission process.

The recipe that rattles our bones the most will be featured on all recipe pages along with your name if desired. It will also be featured on the site again next Halloween. All others will be found under a Halloween link in the left column of the pages.

Time’s a wasting! Get cooking on those edible creepy crawlers and send them our way!

New Site Design + New Features

Today we have launched a new site design and also a few new features that users have been requesting.

First, please let us know what you think of the new design.

New Features:

- Print function with 3 different print styles to choose from. All print styles remove background design. The print options are: 1. Print recipe with all recipe images. 2. Print recipe with finished recipe image only. 3. Print recipe with no recipe images.

- New cooking forum. If you have already registered to visualrecipes then all you need to do is log into the forum using the same information. New users, are automatically signed up to the forum.

- Most popular recipes side box showing the most popular recipes on the site.

- Most popular recipes by category box. Same as above but narrowed down by category.

- Newest recipes side box showing some of the most recent recipes added.

- 3 random recipes shown on top of homepage. All images are clickable, and on hover the recipe title will appear.
- Online store selling cookbooks, gourmet food & more.

- Recipe search page using google to search either this site or the entire web.

 :: If you have any suggestions, or something does not look right, please let us know. Thank you ::

Italians Build A Chocolate Igloo

click here to view story.

Dirty Secrets of the Food Processing Industry

Interesting Read: Click Here

Elvis Toast Art

Ever see a portrait of Elvis made from 35 pieces of toast?

Didn’t think so, so click here

A look at Chitterlings aka Chitlins

Chitlins are the small intestines of a pig that have been prepared as food. Chitlins are eaten most frequently in the Deep South of the United States, and are usually part of a larger meal that includes collard greens, fried chicken, and other traditional Southern soul foods. Also, chitterlings are used for sausage casings.

In Salley, South Carolina they hold an annual gathering called the Chitlin’ Strut. The festivals is said to bring in about 70,000 people.

Chitlins are also prepared in many other cultrues. For example, in Mexican cuisine, small intestines are known as tripas. Cleaned, boiled, and grilled, tripas are a popular filling for tacos.

Food Safety:

Care must be taken when preparing chitterlings, due to the high possibility of disease being spread with chitterlings which have not been cleaned or cooked properly. These diseases/bacteria include Yersinia enterocolitica [Factoid: Yersinia enterocolitica is a cause of gastroenteritis, and is closely related to the causative agent of plague, Y. pestis; ] as well as Salmonella. Chitterlings must be soaked and rinsed thoroughly in several different cycles of cool water, and repeatedly picked clean by hand, removing extra fat and specks of faecal matter. The chitterlings are then boiled and simmered until tender.

If you have any experiences with chitlins, please share as a comment.