Eat well, live longer

If you want to live longer, take a look at the foods in your weekly shopping basket. It may sound like trite advice, but a healthy diet really is key to longevity.

What you put into your mouth has a dramatic effect on the way your body functions. Food is far more than just fuel to keep you going and to stop the hunger pangs. It’s an essential source of energy, assists in growth and repair, and helps to regulate and protect the body. Your body is an intricate machine with many complicated functions and your body needs many different nutrients to keep it functioning well. As soon as you start disturbing its delicate balance with an unhealthy diet and lifestyle, you are bound to get ill.

Read further . . . . . 

Beef Tips and Noodles

"This is a great dish that's very easy to make with just a few ingredients. Great with rolls of any type. I got this recipe from my mom years ago and it is a family favorite."

Julie

For the recipe, click here . . . . 

Creamy chicken and potato curry

Ingredients

·         8 chicken thighs

·         3 Tbsp. butter

·         1 large onion, finely chopped

·         2 cloves garlic, crushed

·         1 tsp. ginger, finely chopped or grated

·         1 tsp. ground cumin

·         2 tsp. ground coriander

·         ½ tsp. ground cinnamon

·         ½ tsp. ground nutmeg

·         1 tsp. turmeric

·         2 Tbsp. hot garam masala

·         3 large potatoes, cubed

·         500ml chicken stock

·         300ml cream

·         150ml milk mixed with 2 tsp. corn flour

·         Salt to taste

·         Fresh mint

Method

1. In a large saucepan/pot, brown the chicken and set aside.

2. In the same pot, melt the butter and fry the onions until soft and translucent.

3. Add the garlic and ginger and fry for another minute.

4. Add all the spices and allow frying until fragrant.

5. Add the chicken back to the pot and also add the diced potatoes.

6. Stir to coat in all the spices.

7. Pour in the chicken stock. The stock should just cover the chicken pieces.

8. Add 150ml cream and turn the heat down.

9. Cover and allow simmering gently for 20-25 minutes.

10. Check that the chicken and potatoes are cooked then add the rest of the cream and the milk mixture.

11. Allow bubbling until thickened and season to taste.

Serve with steamed rice and a good scattering of fresh mint.

Acknowledgement: Simply Delicious

Oven-Fried Rice Balls with Gruyere

I could easily have eaten about half the rice balls on that platter – they were that good.  I made them the night before and just let them rest in the refrigerator on a baking sheet.  They tasted incredible just out of the oven but were still good after sitting out for an hour or so.

Full recipe . . . . . . 

Quinoa Taco Salad

My vegan quinoa taco salad is sans tomatoes. And bean-free. No customary black beans here. But if you love black beans with a white hot passion, add 'em in. You can also add crumbled goat cheese on top if you desire.


Complete recipe . . . . 


Jenny Love

LIVER WITH LENTILS AND YOGHURT

INGREDIENTS

·         1 bay leaf

·         1 onion peeled and thinly sliced

·         160ml lentils

·         160ml brown rice

·         5 ml salt

·         2 ml freshly ground black pepper

·         500ml water

·         1 carrot thinly sliced

·         250g liver, cut into 5x 1 cm strips

·         12,5 ml sunflower oil

·         5ml mustard

·         125ml plain yoghurt

·         Parsley

METHOD

1.       Put the onion into a saucepan with the lentils, rice, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Pour in the water and bring to the boil. Cover the pan and simmer for 30 minutes. Add the carrot and simmer for another 15 minutes. Check occasionally, and add more water if the mixture becomes too dry; there should be just a hint of moisture by the time the rice and lentils are tender, without the need to drain.

2.       When the lentils and rice are done, remove bay leaf and quickly sauté the liver in the oil for about 2 minutes per side. Take the pan off the heat. Stir the mustard into the yoghurt; then turn this mixture into the slightly cooled liver. Make a nest of the lentils and rice and put the liver mixture in the middle. Decorate with a sprig or two of parsley.

MAKES SIX TO EIGHT SERVINGS

Jenny Love

CHICKEN A LA KING

Ingredients

·         1 cup fat-free milk

·         1 tin evaporated  milk

·         1 tsp. salt

·         2 tbsp. brandy

·         1 onion, chopped finely

·         1 cup stock mixture (½ cup boiling water, 1 tsp. chicken stock powder and ½ cup white wine).

·         1 green pepper, sliced

·         1 yellow pepper, sliced

·         1 punnet brown mushrooms, sliced

·         2 cloves garlic, crushed

·         2-4 breast fillets, sliced across the grain into thin strips

·         2 tbsp.  Maizena (premixed in a little water)

·         1 cup basmati rice

Method

1.       Put the rice and water on to cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring 2-3 minutes.

2.       Dry-fry onion, peppers, mushrooms and garlic.

3.       In a normal pan cook the onions dry over a high heat. Whilst you are waiting for them to stick to the bottom, make the stock mixture (½ cup boiling water, 1 tsp. Chicken stock powder and ½ cup white wine, mixed together). When the onions are sticking to the base of the pan, use a wooden spoon to lift them and toss them around the heat to get browned on all sides. As they begin really sticking to the bottom of the pan, carefully add tiny amounts of the stock mixture, to create very hot, scalding steam. Do not add so much fluid that the onions simmer –you will have lost the plot entirely. Toss the onions about and when they start sticking again, add a tiny bit more of the mixture, creating the same hot steam. Wait until they stick before adding the next bit. Continue until the onions are very brown indeed. Then, add the rest of the stock mixture, stir up the brown bits off the bottom of the pan, and let the mixture simmer down. When the fluid has simmered down, you have a pretty effective non-stick pan in which you can continue cooking.

4.       Add the chicken strips and brandy, and cook until seared and cooked through (About 3 minutes).

5.       Add the milk, evaporated milk, salt and premixed Maizena, and stir over medium heat until thickened.

6.       Serve over rice with freshly ground black pepper, with boiled courgettes and butternut on the side.

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