Millet Bread Provides The Health Benefits Of Whole Grains

Millet is widely cultivated for the purpose of harvesting food grains and fodder for livestock. In the list of most important cereals in the world, they rank sixth, and serve as a staple food in many regions of the world. In fact, millet forms the major food crop in areas that are prone to prolonged drought spells. There are two ways of consuming millet, as whole grains and millet flour. Here, we shall focus on millet bread nutrition and making bread with millet.

Millet Bread Nutrition Facts

Nutrition wise, millet is a rich source of proteins, vitamin B, iron, calcium, potassium and other minerals. With protein content coming to about 11 percent of grain weight, its nutrition facts are nearly similar to wheat. However, unlike wheat, millet is free of gluten, thus making an important part of the gluten-free diet. Consuming millet will provide the health benefits of whole grains, while minimizing the risk for allergic responses. If you do not like the taste of steamed millet or cooked whole grains, try soft millet bread prepared with millet flour.

In baking millet flour bread, most people prefer to add other types of flour for better texture and taste. The point is nutritional value of millet bread will vary according to the bread ingredients used and serving amounts. On an average, serving one slice (36 g) of bread made from millet flour yields 110 calories, of which 27 calories are contributed by fats. The same serving amount provides 5 g protein, 4 g dietary fiber, 2 g sugar and iron in large amounts. In short, the nutritional value of millet breads is highly impressive.

Healthy Millet Bread Recipe

While millet bread is available in nearly all baking centers, you can also try making homemade bread by using millet flour. Also, people who are sensitive to wheat and alike grains, or are diagnosed with celiac disease can make gluten-free millet bread. The baking method remains the same with other bread recipes. However, remember that this flour type is not suited for making raised bread. Instead, you can try flat bread recipes with millet flour. The following is a basic method on how to make millet bread from scratch.

Ingredients

• ¼ cup lukewarm water
• 2 ½ tablespoons yeast
• 2 teaspoon cane sugar or honey
• 1 cup millet flour
• ½ cup fine cornmeal
• 1 cup potato starch
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 egg yolks
• ¼ cup butter
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 egg whites, slightly beaten
• ½ cup millet
• Parchment paper for lining loaf pan

Directions for Preparation

For baking millet bread, preheat oven to 375 °F, and line the loaf pan with parchment paper. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine together water, yeast and natural cane sugar (or yeast). Allow the mixture to set for 8-10 minutes, or until yeast is dissolved completely. By the meantime, sift and add the dry ingredients - millet flour, cornmeal, potato starch, baking soda and sea salt in a large saucepan. Take another mixing bowl and whisk together egg yolk, butter, buttermilk and yeast mixture. To the saucepan containing flour mixture, gently add wet concoction, while stirring continuously.

Work well to make a smooth dough with no lumps. But, do not overdo it, or else you will not get a fluffy bread. Make the dough into the shape of a loaf. Then, lightly brush the surface of the loaf with egg white. Sprinkle millet grains on top and sides of the bread loaf. Bake it in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until your millet bread is done. You can check for doneness by inserting a toothpick, if it comes out clean, your bread is baked well. Allow it to cool down in the cooling rack for 5-7 minutes, before slicing.

In a step towards healthy eating, dietitians suggest substituting white rice and its products with millet and millet flour. And to create variety, you can experiment different recipes of millet bread with your favorite nuts or fruit extracts. What about making orange flavored millet bread? If it sounds interesting, you can bake it with fresh orange juice and orange rinds. Accordingly, reduce the water quantity used in making bread dough, and follow the same baking directions.

You Don't Ignore A Craving For Thai Fried Rice

Thai fried rice is known as Khao Pad or Khao Phad and is a variety of fried rice, that is typical to Central Thai cuisine. To translate Khao Pad, khao stands for rice and pad is something related to being stir fried. However, it should not be confused with Chinese fried rice, as apart from the different sauces, spices, etc. the variety of rice used to make Thai fried rice is also different. To make Thai fried rice, the regular long grain rice is not used, instead a variety of rice called Jasmine rice is used. The ingredients, that are used to make this rice are chicken, pork, beef, shrimp, crab, egg, etc. Out of these Thai shrimp fried rice and Thai fried rice with crab is very popular. We will now see some of the Thai fried rice recipes, but before that do read on Thai herbs and spices.

In Thailand, fried rice is served at lunch and is often served with cucumber and a wedge of lime. The unique taste of the Thai rice comes from a mix of fish sauce, soy sauce, chili peppers and lime. The rice is decorated with cilantro and a dusting of freshly ground pepper. When you make fried rice it is good to use a little dry rice, so that the rice does not stick.

Recipe # 1
This is the recipe to make Thai fried rice with chicken. Read on pad Thai recipe.

Ingredients

• Jasmine Rice (cooked) 1 cup
• Onion (sliced) ¼ cup
• Garlic (finely chopped) 1 ½ tsp
• Scallions (both the green as well as white parts) 2 tbsp
• Tomato (diced) ⅓ cup
• Chicken Meat (small pieces) ⅓ cup
• Salt ½ tsp
• White Soy Sauce ½ tsp
• White Sugar ¼ tsp
• Black Soy Sauce ¼ tsp
• Cooking Oil ½ tbsp
• Egg 1
• White Pepper Powder ¼ tsp

Method

• Chop the tomatoes into medium-sized pieces and make thin strips of onion. Chop scallions finely.
• Heat the oil on high till the oil is hot.
• Add onion to the pan and stir well.
• When the onion softens up, add garlic to the onion and stir a little.
• When the garlic becomes brown add the chicken pieces.
• Continue to flip the chicken, until it is white on all the sides.
• Now is the time to add rice to the pan, stir well and then add diced tomatoes and mix well.
• Move the rice to one side and pour little oil on the pan.
• When the oil heats up crack an egg on the oil and let the egg solidify a little.
• When the egg is solid flip rice on top and mix well.
• Add both the soy sauce, sugar and salt to the rice, stir well and turn off the heat.
• Remove the rice in a plate and garnish with scallions and pepper powder.
• Serve with lime wedges, cucumber slices and a small bowl of fish sauce.

Recipe # 2
This is one of the most popular methods to make Thai fried rice, as it is the Thai fried rice with shrimp recipe. You may want to read on authentic Thai food recipes.

Ingredients

• Olive Oil 2 tbsp
• Garlic (minced) 1 ½ tsp
• Green Onions (thinly slices) ½ cup
• Jalapeño Chilies (minced with the seeds) 4 tsp
• Cooked Jasmine Rice 3 cups
• Sugar 1 tsp
• Soy Sauce 2 tbsp
• Fish Sauce 2 tbsp
• Shelled and cooked Shrimp 1 ¼ cups
• Fresh Cilantro (chopped) 1 cup
• Fresh Basil Leaves (1 cup)
• Toasted Sesame Oil 1 tsp

Method

• Pour oil into a wok or a pan and let it heat over medium heat.
• Add garlic, onions, jalapeño chilies to the oil and stir often for about 4 minutes.
• Now add rice, sugar, soy and fish sauce to the onions and stir well.
• Reduce the heat to medium and stir the rice often, till all ingredients are well coated. This will take about 3 to 4 minutes.
• At last add shrimp, cilantro, basil, sesame oil and stir well again for about 4 to 5 minutes.
• Serve hot with cucumber slices and lemon wedges.

Bottled Cocktails Are The Perfect Chioce For You

So you are having a party and you want to serve mixed drinks, but you don't want to be behind the bar all night and your budget precludes the hiring of a bartender.

One possibility is the serving of bottled cocktails. This is not those RTD (ready-to-drink) beverages that you get at the grocery store. Bottled cocktails are simply a large batch of a mixed cocktail that is pre-mixed and chilled in a bottle.

Bottled Cocktails were first written about by the Professor himself, Jerry Thomas in How to Mix Drinks published in 1862. In his book he explains how to make a bottle of brandy cocktail and proclaims that cocktails are generally used on fishing and other sporting parties, although some patients insist that it is good in the morning as a tonic. His recipe is as follows:

Bottle Cocktail
2/3 Brandy
1/3 Water
1 pony-glass of Bogart’s bitters
1 wine-glass of gum syrup (simple syrup)
1/2 pony-glass of Curacoa

So what cocktails can we serve as bottled cocktails? I would say any cocktail that does not call for some type of carbonated ingredient would be a candidate to be bottled and served at your party. Cocktails with carbonated ingredients would most likely go flat because they are not being stored under pressure. The process is fairly simple…

First find a clean bottle. This can be a used liquor bottle, coke bottle, or just any plastic container. Next fill the bottle with water and then pour out the water into a measuring cup to figure out how many ounces or milliliters the bottle holds. For our example lets say it measured to be 25 ounces.

Now let’s say you want to make a bottled Manhattan. The following are the ingredients for my recipe for a single serving of a Manhattan:

2 oz Bourbon
1 oz Sweet Vermouth
2 dashes of bitters

At first glance you might think, “Okay just pour in twice as much Bourbon than Vermouth in the bottle, chill it, and I’m done.” But if you did this you would be missing a major ingredient… water. This is because we are not putting the ingredients in a mixing glass, stirring it, and getting the melted ice water in the drink. Instead we are just chilling it in a cooler. So, we have to add the water to the recipe.

Depending on how strong you like your drinks 1/4 to 1/3 of mixed cocktails are comprised of water. See this article for more information about water in cocktails:

So, in our 25 ounce bottle 8 ounces will be water. (25 x 1/3). That leaves us with 17 ounces for the other ingredients (25 – 8). Of the 17 ounces 2/3 is Bourbon and 1/3 is Sweet Vermouth.

Now for the bitters... Because the recipe calls for 2 dashes it is difficult to scale it up in the same way. So, what I do is think about how many 6 oz servings the bottled cocktail will make. In this case about 4 (25 divided by 6). So I will add 8 dashes of bitters to the recipe (4 x 2 dashes).

All this calculation has gotten us to the following recipe for a 25 oz bottled cocktail:

8 oz Water (25 x 1/3)
11 oz Bourbon ((25 – 8) x 2/3)
5.5 oz Sweet Vermouth ((25 – 8) x 1/3)
8 Dashes of Bitters ((25 divided by 6) x 2)

Pour ingredients in a 25 oz bottle, cap the bottle, shake a few times to mix up the ingredients, and put in a refrigerator for 3 to 4 hours.

You can double check your math by adding up all of the ounces. They should total close to the size of your bottle, minus some rounding. This same process can be repeated for just about any cocktail you would like to serve at your party. Just use the same ratio of ingredients and don’t forget about the water.

Now that you have one or two different chilled bottled cocktails in the refrigerator and your guests are due to arrive soon… The last piece of the puzzle is presentation and you will be ready for your party.

One idea is to fill a large tub with ice and then place your bottled cocktails in the ice and then arrange your cocktail glasses upside down in the ice. This will cool your cocktail and you glasses for your guest.

Now your guests can serve themselves and you can enjoy their company without having to mix a drink every 10 minutes.

Another party option is to mix a punch, but that is a post for another day.

Health Benefits of Dark Chocolate

Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seeds of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for hundreds of years in Mexico, Central and South America. Chocolate has become one of the most popular food types and flavors in the world. Gifts of chocolate molded into different shapes have become traditional on certain holidays. 

 

 

Even though chocolate is regularly eaten for pleasure, there are potentially many health effects, both negative and positive. Chocolate is rich in phenolics especially flavan-3-ols (catechins) and flavonoids. Dark chocolate's health values are because of its highest percentage of phenolics and flavanoid antioxidants.

1. Cocoa or dark chocolate may positively affect the circulatory system. This is mainly caused by a particular substance present in cocoa called epicatechin. Dark chocolate, with its high cocoa content, is a rich source of epicatechin and gallic acid, which are thought to possess cardioprotective properties. It reduces blood pressure, improved blood flow, and anti-clotting effects that may help prevent plaque formation.

2. Limited amounts of dark chocolate appear to help prevent heart disease.

Dark chocolate has also been said to reduce the possibility of a heart attack when consumed regularly in small amounts. Cocoa possesses a significant antioxidant action, protecting against LDL oxidation, perhaps more than other polyphenol antioxidant-rich foods and beverages. The oxidation of LDL cholesterol is considered a major factor in the promotion of coronary disease. When this waxy substance oxidizes, it tends to stick to artery walls, increasing the risk of a heart attack or stroke.

3. Prevention of premature ageing and cancer.

The study regarding antioxidants report direct correlation in prevention of premature aging and cancer.

4. Many researches found that cocoa-based prescription drugs could potentially help treat diabetes, dementia and other diseases.

5. Brain stimulator.

Chocolate is a mild stimulant mainly due to the presence of theobromine, the primary alkaloid in cocoa solids and chocolate. A specially formulated type of cocoa may be nootropic and delay brain function decline as the people age.

6. Muscle recovery.

Post-exercise consumption of low fat chocolate milk provides equal or possibly superior muscle recovery compared to a high-carbohydrate recovery beverage with the same amount of calories.

5. Prevention of cough.

As a cough suppressant, theobromine was found to be almost one third more effective than codeine, the leading cough medicine.

7. Antidiarrheal effects. 

Flavonoids can inhibit the development of diarrhea, suggesting antidiarrhoeal effects of cocoa.

8. Aphrodisiac.

Romantic lore commonly identifies chocolate as an aphrodisiac. It has been found that methylxanthine, an active biological substance found in chocolate, competes with adenosine, a presynaptic inhibitor modulator, and blocks its receptor that leads to arousal. Phenethylamine, an endogenous alkaloid sometimes described as a 'love chemical' is quickly metabolized by monoamineoxidase-B and does not reach the brain in significant amounts.

The Benefits Of drinking Wines

One of the most controversial issues is whether or not drinking of wine is beneficial for health. The response is equally yes and no. Study tells us that there are certain health advantages of drinking wine, especially red wine. In spite of this, it must be observed that excessive amounts of anything will always lead to harmful effects. Wine when ingested within limits coupled with a healthy diet is of great benefit.

Wine contains anti-bacteria agents and something called procyanidins that both work in wonderful ways in your body to help improve your health. Wine also, being an alcohol, helps to thin blood and let it flow more smoothly through your body. These factors create many benefits that you experience just from drinking wine.

Good heart health. Wine is good for the heart because it helps to thin our blood which allows the heart to work a little less. Additionally, studies have shown that people who consume wine in moderate amounts have lower occurrences of heart disease and other heart problems then people who do not drink wine.

Lowers risk for stroke. Just as wine helps with heart disease it helps prevent stroke. The thinning of the blood helps to prevent clots that lead to stroke.

Lowers risk for cataracts. Studies have shown that wine helps to prevent cataracts. More studies are needed to determine why, but it has been shown in study after study that people who drink wine regularly have a lower occurrence for cataracts.

Lowers risk for diabetes. Studies have shown that drinking wine helps to reduce the risk for developing diabetes. The make up of the wine and its alcohol base help to extend the function of the pancreas and sweep glucose from the body, allowing a person to avoid diabetes onset later in life.

Wine has been shown to help lengthen your life. With all of the health benefits it is no wonder that drinking wine will help you to live longer. Wine has been shown to help slow down the aging of the brain and therefore allow better brain function longer.

Wine lovers will rejoice when all these studies are completed and finally prove that wine is good for you. The one thing, though, that should be noted about the benefits of wine is that these benefits have only been shown to outweigh the negative effects of alcohol consumption when wine is drank in moderation.