SPEAROLE

(GREEN TEA WITH SPEARMINT, OLIVE LEAF, AND GRAPE SEED)

CAN HELP FIGHT OBESITY

I saw this in the news yesterday and thought it was particularly interesting. Keep an eye out for this product in your health food shops.

Courtesy of:

BRISBANE POST / THE INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Monday, November 24, 2008

Three cups of green tea a day could keep obesity at bay. Research shows the tea helps the pounds melt away, even while still eating junk food.

Spearole Tea, a blend of green tea, spearmint, grape seed and olive leaf, also cuts blood pressure and makes it easier for the body to process sugar.

Researcher Dr. Lindsay Brown said: “If someone had told me you could do all these things with something as simple as green tea with olive extract I would said they’d been out in the sun too long. It is simply amazing.”

Dr. Brown, a pharmacologist at Brisbane’s Queensland University, studied the effect of the tea on the health of a group of rats. The creatures were fed a fat and sugar-laden diet caused the amount of fat around their bellies to double in eight weeks and their blood pressure to soar.

When Spearole Tea was added to their diet, their waistlines and their blood pressure quickly returned to normal.

This was despite the continuing to eat junk food, the Australian Health and Medical Research Congress will hear.

Dr. Brown said it was likely three cups of the tea a day could also help people stay trim, improving overall health.

Warning that the obesity epidemic threatened to wipe out the gains achieved by improvements to heart health, he said: “The UK, the US and Australia all have something like 60 per cent of the adult population overweight or obese. The decrease in cardiovascular mortality in the last 40 years has added on average six years to life expectancy. That is the biggest increase in life expectancy in one generation in the history of the species. The control of cardiovascular disease has had an amazing effect on survival and that is at risk from obesity.”

WHITE CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

WHITE CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

(Courtesy of the Easy Way Café and Foodtown Magazine Jun/Jul’07)

Today's post is a celebration post!!! It was one year ago this week that my amazing husband adopted my lovely daughter and we made everything official. She was the apple of his eye the day he met her for the first time, but it was all settled and we were finally able to share his surname, and all that entails, with him as a family one year ago.

I am extremely proud of my husband and daughter and never could have asked for more. Hubby is such a kind and loving man and I feel he makes me want to be the best person that I can be. Our baby girl (who is seven going on seventeen already) is very honoured and very happy about having such a great daddy too. I suppose there were a few long and lonely years when I was a solo mum, where she and I probably both thought we would only ever have or need each other, but Hubby came into our lives like a ray of sunshine and showed us both how good life really could be.

I had decided long ago NEVER again to settle for something mediocre, or comfortable. I decided that IF the day was to come that I would look for love again, my daughter would be grown and I would not ever accept anyone even slightly dishonest, "needy" or "clingy"...no "work in progress" for me ever again - I deserve better; someone honest and kind, and someone I could trust entirely and truly, deeply love. I wanted a man who was extremely confident and successful in life, not someone who blamed life for his shortcomings. I can tell you with 100% confidence now, that one should never "look for love"...trust me, let it find you when it's ready!

Now, this recipe came to my attention through my friend and neighbour, Linda (thank you ever so much). She made this for a special dinner she was having and it sounded sooo good, I had to ask for the recipe! Now that I have an extremely important and incredibly happy reason to make it, we are going to indulge a bit tonight.

Cheers to my family - may we always enjoy health, happiness, and each other!

MOUSSE – INGREDIENTS:

200 GMs Good Quality White Chocolate (must contain Cocoa Butter)
¼ Cup Coconut Cream
¼ Cup Bacardi White Rum
1 Egg Yolk
1 Tsp Caster Sugar (ultrafine sugar – smaller granules than normal sugar)
200 ML Cream
2 Egg Whites


DIRECTIONS:
First heat the white chocolate, coconut cream and rum in a double boiler or in a heatproof bowl over a pot over simmering water, until it is all melted together.

In a separate bowl, whisk the yolk and sugar together and then whisk it into the melted chocolate mixture.

Remove the mixture from the heat and cool. I fill my sink with cold water and immerse the bottom and sides of the bowl in the water whilst stirring to cool the mixture efficiently and evenly.

Now, whip the cream just until it begins to hold it’s shape and then carefully fold it into the cooled chocolate mixture.

Next, in a clean bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form and carefully fold that into the mix as well.

Now, pour the mousse into your serving vessels (wine glasses, martini glasses, ramekins, whatever…), and chill well for at least an hour before adding the topping. A transparent glass or bowl will highlight the light and dark contrast between the mousse and its topping to give you a very polished presentation.


TOPPING – INGREDIENTS:

60 GM Good Quality Dark Chocolate (minimum of 72% cocoa)
100 ML Cream

DIRECTIONS:
First, break the chocolate into small bits and place them into a heatproof bowl.

Next, in a small saucepan, bring the cream to a boil and immediately pour it over the chocolate bits in the bowl, whisking until all of the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.

Cool the topping thoroughly.

Next, you carefully pour the well cooled topping over the mousse and tilt the glass/bowl until you have an even layer over the top of the mousse about ¼ of an inch thick.

Now, chill the glasses/bowls until fully set – about 30-60 minutes.

Finally, INDULGE!!!

LUMPIA

Lumpia is the Filipino version of a spring roll or egg roll. I learned to make lumpia when I was still in middle school. My home economics instructor back then was a lady from Hawaii and she taught us about many different, weird and wonderful (or, some not so wonderful) foods from places all over the world.

This teacher even brought in Poi one day for us to taste (eeyuk). For anyone unfamiliar, from what I remember Poi is a gooey paste made from mashed Taro root and, if not eaten immediately, the paste is left to sour/ferment for up to a week. It is supposed to be very nutritious for babies with dairy allergies, but once it begins to ferment, it is rarely eaten without adding milk & sugar.

Anyway, I digress, Lumpia and sweet & sour sauce was one of our first cooking lessons (I think I was 12 or 13 at the time) and they turned out lovely, so I have continued to make them ever since. This is my own version, although I am sure there are heaps of recipes out there. I made pork lumpia on this occasion, but I think I like beef the best, but I have added shrimp on occasion and those were nice as well.


INGREDIENTS:

2 Tbsp Sesame Oil
1 Lg Yellow Onion, finely diced
3 Cloves Crushed Garlic
500 Gm (approx 1 Lb) Lean Minced Pork (or chicken, or beef)
2 Med Carrots, peeled & grated or julienned
¼ Head Cabbage, sliced finely
½ Cup Mung Bean Sprouts (more or less)
4 Cups Stock (whatever kind you prefer, I used chicken)
1 Pkg Rice Vermicelli Noodles (adjust to suit depending on how many rolls you are making)
¼ Cup (packed) Coriander or Parsley, finely chopped
3 Lg Scallions (spring onions)
*Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1 Pkg (approx 20 ea) Spring Roll Wrappers or Lumpia wrappers (if you can get them)
*Peanut Oil for frying rolls

*Amounts vary to individual tastes


DIRECTIONS:

Heat your sesame oil and begin to cook onions over medium heat.

As the onions begin to go clear, add garlic and cook for an additional 30-60 seconds before adding in the meat of your choice.

Brown the meat and be sure to cook thoroughly, as the frying of the rolls at the end will not be long enough to get the rolls to a temperature high enough for a long enough time to cook the meat at that stage.

As the meat is browning, in a separate pot, bring your stock to a boil.

Once meat looks cooked, add in the carrots, cabbage, and bean sprouts.

Once the stock boils, remove it from the heat and add your rice vermicelli noodles and allow them to soften about 2 minutes.

Once the noodles are soft, drain them and add them to the meat mixture.

Remove the meat mixture from the heat and add the coriander/parsley, the scallions, and the black pepper and make sure to combine everything well and set aside until cool enough to handle.

Now you need to remove the wrappers from the package and lay them onto a damp tea towel. You will remove one wrapper at a time and fold the damp towel over the top of the remaining wrappers while rolling each lumpia roll.

Depending on who you talk to, traditional lumpia rolls are fairly small with very little filling however…I tend to make them bigger and more the size of a spring roll, but it’s up to you how much filling to roll up in each wrapper.

To fill and roll lumpia, as with most spring roll/egg roll items, you begin with the wrapper angled with corners on both sides and placing the filling across the bottom corner.

Next roll the bottom corner up and the sides in toward the center. Continue rolling up from the bottom and with clear water, moisten the top corner to “glue” it to the roll.

Once you have all of your rolls made, you can heat up the peanut oil and fry them 2-3 at a time to cook the wrapper until it’s golden brown and crispy.

Lumpia is best served with a sweet and sour sauce. You can find a simple recipe for my sauce with my post for Coconut Prawns.

Enjoy!!!