Goji berries are also well known in English as wolfberries, but they have a number of other names used, and is more popularly marketed as the goji berry. They are brightly colored red, elliptical berries that grow on one to three meter high bushes. These bushes grow naturally in China and Mongolia, but most of those seen in the west come out of China.

Historically gogi berries have been cultured and consumed in China since the seventh century or earlier, the goji berry has only been used in the west in recent years but is vastly known and taken as a health food supplement. It holds status as a superfruit because of it’s high mineral, vitamin, antioxidant, and protein content. These berries have many other macro and micronutrients and are very healthy.

Probiotics are microorganisms that you hear about as those ‘friendly’ or ‘good bacteria’ that is naturally in the human dietary system. They are usually used by consumers as a dietary supplement but are also found in certain foods.

As live microorganisms, probiotics are deemed to be very healthy to the body system and are usually utilized to treat certain sicknesses but are also very common to promote general wellness . Probiotic means ‘for life’, which is just the opposite of antibiotics. These good bacteria seem to be stirring up a lot of interest lately, with three times as many being sold in recent years than in 1994.

There are numerous species or strains of probiotics. Each of these has a slightly different character, and the effects seen when one is administered may not be seen with a different strain. Also, even within the same strain, if the preparation is different it can affect what the probiotic is capable of doing for the body.

Probiotics are commonly utilized as complementary or alternative medicine. Regular doctors do not usually recommend probiotics, as there is not significant scientific backing for the effects they can have. However, many people have seen the results of taking probiotic supplements, and will continue to do so.

Shopping for food storage container set? One long established brand is Tupperware. These storage companions come with lifetime guarantees and they also make great gifts for friends and family…

Want to keep and preserve your leftovers fresh for the longest time? There are many ways and options available. Find out the available food savers that best fits the type of food that you are attempting to store…

Want quick and easy dinner recipes? Become an organized freezer pack-rat!

Isn’t it such a disappointment to be cleaning out the frig and find a small serving of leftover food spoiled? It’s natural to save the bits of food left over from mealtime. The trouble is, it’s not sufficient for a meal, so everyone ignores it until it’s a science project. This happened to me too many times, so I finally came up with a solution to this waste. It so happens I’ve also made many a meal out of these little bits and pieces, which makes my heart smile, along with my wallet.  A triple bonus comes with this method, in the form of quick and easy dinner recipes.

Those little bits and pieces do add up. Just four or five small veggie portions can be combined with rice or pasta. Add a little meat and you’ve got a thrifty, quick and easy dinner recipe. Just one piece of fried chicken leftover? Remove the skin, wrap it in plastic wrap inside a freezer container and freeze. Next week, when someone’s looking for a quick lunch, use the meat for a chicken pita pocket sandwich, garnished with a bit of lettuce, tomato and onion. You can also save these leftover chicken pieces until you have enough for a casserole. Make a chef’s salad.

Even with prices the way they are, I’ve been guilty of forgetting one tomato, nestled in its paper bag in the frig (a paper bag lengthens the shelf life of many veggies), until it was no longer edible. The same with mushrooms, slap my hand!

Here’s how to avoid this sort of waste. For tomatoes, store them in the paper bag. Stick a small pad on the frig door to remind you. If you buy six tomatoes, write the date of purchase and mark them off as you use them. If you just can’t find a use for them, dice up the remainder and freeze. The texture won’t be suitable for sandwiches, but work well in a casserole or addition to a pot of chili or beef stew. Save enough tomatoes and you’ve got a wonderful marinara sauce. Buy mushrooms in quantity, when they look good and are on sale. Slice and sheet freeze, then pack in a freezer bag. Again, they’re not suitable for raw salads or sandwiches, but are just as excellent so long as they are cooked before serving. Every leftover is a candidate for a quick and easy dinner recipe creation!

This stashing of little bits of foods in the freezer really pays. The practice becomes almost like a game. You’ll find yourself serving snow peas as a side for chicken breasts one evening, all the while planning to freeze a portion to gain a diversity of leftovers! While my husband thinks I’m a little strange with my pack-rat freezer technique, he also agrees that our food budget benefits and that he enjoys a diverse number of dishes.

When you follow this practice over a period of months, you’ll also find you can have a rotating inventory of ad-lib, money saving, quick and easy dinner recipes from which to choose.

If you want to save money, time and effort, be a freezer pack-rat. Save those little green beans, corn and rice. If it might go bad, freeze it first! Your reward will be many quick and easy dinner recipes, accolades on your cooking ingenuity and plenty of meals that might have gone into the compost pile. The cook with the most leftovers wins!

A new and delicious take on that American favorite, the potato salad recipe

If there’s a recipe for all seasons, potato salad is it! Popular as a side dish for summer barbecues, tail gate parties and picnics, it’s just as welcome in winter as a side for a burger dinner or with a Hoagie for lunch. Truth be told, I personally like having some on hand for a snack! Almost every family has their own favorite potato salad recipe, but once in a while, it’s fun to try something new. The potato salad recipe we feature here is more unusual and makes an elegant side that’s good with just about everything, from everyday to gourmet fare.

There are several key ingredients in this recipe that distinguish it from the usuals. Instead of white or Yukon Gold potatoes, this is made with new red potatoes. Rather than a dressing made of mayonnaise or salad dressing, this potato salad recipe uses a combination of mayonnaise (or salad dressing) and sour cream. Fresh dill replaces the usual parsley. While the resulting taste is much different than the typical potato salad, it’s absolutely delicious and you can expect many compliments on this one!

Choose small red potatoes for the best flavor, and leave the skins on. The skin of red potatoes is quite thin, contains valuable vitamins and minerals and is a good source of fiber. So here we go!

Easy and Elegant New Red Potato Salad recipe
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10-12 small new red potatoes
4 hard boiled eggs, chopped
1 stalk celery, finely sliced
about 2-3 fresh dill fronds, chopped
mayonnaise or salad dressing and sour cream, in a 4:1 ratio, in an amount that suits your taste

It’s as easy as it sounds and quite economical. Here’s how to prepare this wonderful side dish:

1.Wash the potatoes and cut each into 4-6 pieces, depending on the size of the potatoes. You want bite sized chunks. Boil them for about 10 minutes, testing with a fork. You want them to be somewhat firm. Red potatoes, especially in small chunks, will become mushy if overcooked. Drain in a colander and set aside to cool.

2.While the potatoes cool, boil, peel and chop the eggs. Slice the celery. Wash the dill fronds gently and chop finely.

3.When the potatoes are cool, combine all of the above ingredients in a large bowl.

4.For this amount of potato salad, you might want about 2 cups total of mayonnaise (or salad dressing) and sour cream. In keeping with the 4:1 ratio, this translates to a half cup of sour cream and a cup and a half of mayo or salad dressing. Adjust the amount of dressing to your taste, using less for a drier salad, more for a creamier dressing.

5.Mix in your dressing. That’s it!

Because of the dill, this potato salad recipe tastes best when made a day ahead of serving. This allows the flavor of the dill to really shine through. Enjoy thoroughly!

Pizza Delivery

Usually, I like to eat healthily and cook my own food, but some nights I just like the convenience of food delivery. You see, I work pretty hard and live in a kind of difficult climate. Chicago’s great during the spring, but it can be hard during the summer and winter. In the summer, it gets hot and humid. In the winter, it gets icy cold. Some days, I’m just not up to cooking food after the difficult commute home. I want to relax, put on a movie, and eat something tasty and a little bit unhealthy. That is why I go for pizza delivery.

A lot of the time, I get Pizza Hut delivery. I used to eat Pizza Hut all the time growing up, and to my mind it is the epitome of takeout pizza. It has the taste I have enjoyed ever since I was a little kid, and it is perfect with a Hollywood blockbuster movie. Other times however, I like to get a little bit fancier pizza delivery. There is a new pizza place that opened several blocks away about a year ago. It has some of the best pizza that I have ever had, and it even delivers. Of course, it is a little bit pricier, but sometimes it is well worth the expense. Anyway, when I want to get some kind of fancy pizza with artichoke hearts are avocados on it, there is no other place in town that makes it quite so good.

Of course, one of the great things about Chicago is that it has such an abundance of pizza places. You can really get good pizza from dozens of places all over the city. Not all them deliver pizza, but some surprisingly good ones do. Anyway, public transit is so good that you can easily stop by a pizza place on the way home and get takeout food if you want to.

I used to work in a pizza delivery place when I was a little younger. At the time, it was a great job for me. I loved being able to cook pizza for people all the time, and I didn’t usually mind my delivery routes. After awhile, however, it got too hectic. You are always pressured to get there as quickly as possible and get back to start the next run. I think, all things considered, I would rather be the one buying the pizza than the one making it. I will leave pizza delivery to younger men than myself.

Order Girl Scout cookies and give support to your local community!

Who hasn’t gone shopping during the annual Girl Scout cookie selling season, finding local Girl Scouts sitting outside with smiles and a load of delicious cookies? It’s easy, especially when money’s tight, to smile back and say, “I’m sorry, sweetie, I just can’t afford your cookies right now?” However, you really should think twice. Chances are, you’re going to buy some dessert treats for the family anyway. Why not cross those treats off your list and invest a few bucks of your grocery money to order Girl Scout cookies? Here are several good reasons to order Girl Scout cookies.

First, it’s not like you have to wait for them to be mailed to you. You plunk down your money and choose your cookies. You walk away with more than a bag of sweet treats. You’ve got an array of delicious cookies to pick from – everyone enjoys these tasty cookies.
You also gain benefits for your community. When you order Girl Scout cookies, the profits these industrious sweeties gather go to fund Girl Scout outings. If you’ve got daughters in the Girl Scouts, you know how valuable these activities can be, in imparting values and building self esteem for these kids. Kids enjoy a sense of pride in making a difference in the community at large. Girls learn work ethics that last a lifetime.

The Girl Scouts often sponsor events and activities that benefit disadvantaged kids, resulting in trickle-down philanthropy. Imagine the happiness you can spread when you order Girl Scout cookies. A simple act, whereby everyone gains and you help those little sweeties spread goodness throughout your community, while building their own self confidence and their continuing enthusiasm for doing for others.

Remember, too, that charity starts at home. The example you set when your order Girl Scout cookies, encourages our kids to be proactive in the local community and allows them to see that their individual efforts make a difference. When you order Girl Scout cookies, your home town is better off, for your small act of generosity and support.

Most of all, when you see that little troop of girls with their cookies, think about your own kids. You do everything within your power to support their endeavors and build values they’ll carry into adulthood. If you don’t have kids yourself, remember when you were a kid. Did you have a lemonade stand? Didn’t you experience a sense of pride and competency when you sold enough lemonade to make the most modest of profits? You’re lending a healthy dose of support to these young girl’s dreams of being productive members of this society and caring about others.

Don’t pass by these opportunities to nurture good values. Instead of just walking by, order Girl Scout cookies! Your family is served and you’re supporting the Girl Scouts!

Healthy salad recipes that are delicious and a dieter’s dream come true!

So many of us are on a perpetual diet, never seeming to make headway on that goal of losing weight – and keeping it off. While you may have tried every new diet that promises you’ll achieve your objective, we’re living proof that these fad diets are, more often than not, empty promises.

You strictly adhere to your chosen program of dietary restrictions, high this and low that, for a couple of months. You do lose some weight, but keeping it off is the trick. After a couple of months of boring food, it’s too difficult to continue. You add a little of this or that and soon fall back into old eating patterns. Those pounds soon creep back. You naturally become discouraged and disappointed. “Do I have to live like this?”

Part of the enjoyment of life is eating, right? This is why the fad diets don’t bring lasting results. Your taste buds crave a little happiness. The unending parade of bran muffins and protein just doesn’t prove satisfying. So how can you devise a diet program that works, in the long run?

First, you need to understand that lifelong eating habits die hard. If you’re used to scarfing up sweets, junk food and high fat dishes, you’ll not achieve your goal of losing weight and keeping it off. You need to change your eating patterns in a sensible way that pleases your palate, offers diversity of menu choices and establishes a pattern of food choices that, in the long term, keeps the weight off.

Now, consider this. Don’t you enjoy a fresh garden salad now and again? Healthy salad recipes satisfy all of the above objectives. This doesn’t mean that you have to live on salad. It does mean that, with a little imagination, you can use a healthy salad recipe to improve your nutrition in a tasty approach. Here are a few ways to achieve that objective, load up on nutrients and never feel cheated.

The chef’s salad is the King of healthy salad recipes. Why? Because you can make the chef’s ingredient the star of the salad. If you’re used to having a dinner salad with your main course, why not combine the two and do away with the fattening ingredients which are so often contained in the entree? Making healthy salad recipes that make you and your taste buds happy and which are filling and satisfying, is not so difficult as you might think.

Shrimp or crab are the centerpiece of the famous Louie chef’s salads. These delectables are certainly healthy salad recipes. Start with a bowl filled generously with the greens of your choice. A mixture of iceberg, Romaine and mesclun is tempting all on its own. A cup of shrimp, crab or both has your mouth watering. A single hard boiled and sliced egg, laid atop the greens adds both protein and appeal. A vine ripened tomato makes it even better. What else? Remember, you can pretty much go wild on your veggies. These are low in calories, high in fiber and add aesthetic appeal to boot. Add some diced red onions for color and cardiovascular benefits. A teaspoon of minced garlic, sprinkled over the salad, helps prevent infection, provides a boost to your immune system and, most importantly, adds taste. Sliced avocado provides yumminess and loads of vitamin E. Sprinkle sliced olives and some grated cheese and you’ve got something to savor to the Nth degree, a healthy salad recipe without compare.

If you don’t care for shrimp or crab, chicken, ham or slices of pork loin can be equally delicious.

Were you to make a healthy salad recipe your regular dinner, at least three times  each week, you’d find that not only will you continue to lose the pounds, but you’ll look forward to this feast. You’ll change your eating patterns for good. Making a healthy salad recipe for dinner means you won’t be consuming a ton of calories you won’t burn off while sleeping. You’ll not only sleep better, but you’ll feel satisfied, especially when you read the numbers on the scale tomorrow!

With skyrocketing grocery prices, how about some free food? Yes, free!

Although it’s often said, “There’s no free lunch”, this is no longer true. Grocery prices today produce sticker shock at the checkout. It’s become quite difficult to come home with enough nutritious food to feed your family, let alone many treats. Most of us find it necessary to cut back on pricier foods, such as that fancy pesto or Asiago cheese we love, but can’t afford any more. Well, here’s some information you can use today to better manage your food stocks and subdue that grocery price shock. Best of all, it’s free. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Here’s how to start collecting free food samples from manufacturers, who would like to make you a future customer. Type ‘free food samples’ into Google, or your favorite search engine. There are no shortage of results! You’ll find both food companies and websites dedicated to compiling free food sample offers. Most of the free food sample websites will ask for your email, to send you coupons, some need your address in order to send you the actual food sample right through the mail. You may be asked to fill out a short survey. This is little trouble indeed when your battling today’s high grocery prices.

You’ll find food samples that cover just about anything you might buy at the supermarket. For example, some products which are definitely expensive these days are juices, breakfast cereal, organic foods, coffee and, lately rice. How about getting some for free? You can. With the money saved by trying some of these foods, maybe you can get your pesto!

Another advantage you gain in the grocery price battle is that by trying new foods, such as a breakfast food that’s new on the market, or a new flavor of juice, is that you can add variety to your current repertoire of meals. If you’re a coffee lover, that free sample of upscale coffee may be enough to convince you it’s worth the price, at least on occasion. Besides, along with these samples, the manufacturer often includes a generous coupon to urge you out of a reluctant state. They want your business.

Organic food manufacturers offering free samples are well represented on such websites. With grocery prices what they are, organic food companies have a hard row to hoe, competing with conventional food companies. You may know that organic food is probably better for you, but you simply can’t justify the expense. Maybe the sample you receive will convince you otherwise. Again, a coupon is often provided as an incentive for a purchase. The coupon value can make up the difference in cost – at least for the first purchase.

Yet another way to get some free food to ease that grocery budget is contests. You can enter for free and just might win free groceries. Dollar amounts of $100 and $250 are not uncommon.

Now go tame that grocery price monster. It’s easy and free.