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Falafel recipe that is easy and great

2008-11-06T14:24:00.000-08:00

So this is the first of many recipes that i want to share with the world. Being a (mostly) vegetarian i am constantly on the lookout for healthy vegetarian recipes that actually taste good because, lets admit it, most vegetarian dishes that are served in generic restaurants absolutely suck. This falafel recipe is a modified version of the real falafel recipe because it is a bit hard to get the proper dried beans that it calls for. Also this is much healthier as it is grilled and not deep fried.

Falafel is a middle eastern dish which is simply scrumptious. They are little oval balls of a special bean mixture which is mixed with some spices and fresh herbs then usually deep fried to become crispy on the outside and melt in your mouth inside. For this recipe, since we are going for the healthy choice, we will grill them. They come out just as good this way but much better for you (lower in fat and all that other bad stuff). To serve they are usually wrapped up in pita bread with some Lebanese salad and yogurt.
Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

Falafel mixture
500g canned chickpeas
500g canned red kidney beans
6 garlic cloves finely chopped
6 spring onions finely chopped
1 tsp chilli powder
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1/2 cup coriander leaves chopped
1/2 cup parsley leaves chopped
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch sea salt
4 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs

Yogurt mixture
250mls natural yogurt
3 cloves garlic finely chopped
juice of half a lemon

Lebanese salad
1 cucumber diced
4 ripe tomatoes diced
1/2 Spanish onion sliced finely

To serve
Pita bread
Pinch of paprika

Method
1. Falafel. Drain the chickpeas and red kidney beans thoroughly and then mash with a masher until the mixture is combined and pureed but not smooth. Mix in all the other falafel ingredients and stir until well combined. Make golf sized balls with your hands from the mixture then flatten a little bit so they are thick ovals (sort of like a hockey puck).
2. Salad. Combine all the ingredients. Leave out at room temperature so that the salad is at room temperature when served.
3. Yogurt. Mix the ingredients together and keep in the fridge until ready to serve.
4. Cooking. To cook the falafel line the grill with foil and spray with some oil. Put the falafel balls on the foil and spray the falafel with a bit of oil. You should brown the falafel on both sides. When they are done they should smell aromatic and be a little crispy on the outside.
5. To serve. Lay a piece of pita bread out and put 3-4 falafels running down the middle towards you. Place some salad next to the line of falafel and then drizzle as much yogurt as you want over the falafal. To fold the bread fold the bottom of the pita bread up and the sides towards the middle so that an open blanket is formed. Enjoy

While i don't know the exact nutritional values of this dish i do know that the only oil is the spray and their is around 10g of fiber per falafel roll with tonnes of vegies

Enjoy!

Being overweight is the cause of...

2008-11-05T14:29:00.001-08:00

Being overweight sucks - its that simple.
Everything that I can think about it sucks. It doesn't look good on me and being overweight doesn't make me feel good.
Yet there are things that we don't usually associate with being overweight that add the the suckiness of being overweight

Acne.
One of the banes of my own existence.
Regardless of what i do i always seem to a few new spots every now and then.
Yet i didn't know that it was being overweight that has kept this trend up past my teenage years.
I did acknowledge the fact that the foods i was eating were not good for my skin. I thought that this was the main reason for my acne in the first place.

But it wasn't. Being overweight is another main culprit for skin woes.

Acne is thought to be caused by too much androgen (male sex hormones) being released into our bodies. It is these androgens which cause over secretion of our skin. These secretions react with bacteria that live on our skin and acne is formed.

Both men and women produce these male sex hormones - women producing less then men. Women who are overweight produce more male sex hormones then those who are in the healthy weght range. The same goes for men.

So to stop acne, we must limit the androgens being produced by us and to limit the androgens being produced we must do two things.
1. Start loosing the pounds
2. Stop eating so much of the bad foods

Now im not saying that we should stop eating bad foods altogether. If you read my previous post you would know that i concider these bad foods key to keeping up good food intake.
But by limiting these bad foods we can speed along weight loss and because the bad foods themselves contribute to poor skin, we can kill two birds with one stone.

The latest program i am with is listed below.
Weight Loss
Ever since i have bought this program my skin has cleared up and those dreaded acne spots are becoming few and far between.

Another factor that effects your skin is genetics.
Genetics is the thing that codes for everything about you, from how you look to the amount of hormones you secrete. While there is nothing that can be done to change genetics we can still treat the reason for acne with topical treatments. These will reduce the amount of secretion which reduces the amount that bacteria have to react to. This will reduce acne.

A topical treatment which will helped a lot is Proactiv solution. I use it religously (yes i am a man yet am not afraid to say it). I don't know the exact details on how it works but i can assure you that it does. This will work regardless of whether your cause is genetic, bad food or being overweight because it treats the major cause - oversecretion

When I get a link I'll post it.

All in all...
I FEEL GREAT WITHOUT ACNE AND WITHOUT MY EXTRA WEIGHT

Losing the pounds with ease

2008-11-04T00:30:00.000-08:00

Most diets are getting it all wrong.

All popular fad diets such as the low-carb high-protein diet or the raw food diet are getting one essential concept wrong...

ALL OF THESE DIETS AND MANY MORE RESTRICT MAJOR FOOD GROUPS NEEDED FOR OPTIMAL PHYSIOLOGICAL FUNCTION

To be in peak condition for weight loss your body needs to be in optimal physiological function which is contingent on one thing - eating a range of food group items. MOST DIETS DO NOT FOLLOW THIS FUNDAMENTAL RULE

Lets look at one of the fad diets mentioned before...

The raw food diet insists that you can lose weight by eating over 75% uncooked and unprocessed foods. They recommend the following foods should make up almost all of your diet: raw vegetables, fruits, nuts, breads, seeds, beans, seaweed, fruit juice.
The flaw in following this diet can be seen straight away. It lacks many of the major food groups that the body needs to function at its peak.
Here the major food group missing is meat and dairy. As a general rule these are the major sources of protein in the western diet. Protein is needed for proper cellular function and tissue regeneration.
But this is just the start of what is wrong with this diet.
By cutting out many of the other food groups this diet cuts out all the major sources of essential vitamins and minerals. Without the proper balance of these the body cannot function.

The results of the raw food diet were
1. Unnecessary suffering of boring foods
2. Diarrhea
3. NO WEIGHT LOSS

These results speak for themselves. Not only was there little to no weight loss but also there was a major reaction of the body to the diet. Diarrhea suggests that the body does not find the diet compatible as it gives too much of some things and not enough of others.

Most other fad diets follow along this path. Major food groups are taken out or eaten too much which ends up in physical symptoms which tell us that our body is not functioning properly anymore on these diets.

DIETS ARE NOT BRAIN SCIENCE - BUT SOMETIMES WE NEED A LITTLE HELP TO FIND THE WAY

A healthy diet consists of EVERYTHING IN THE FOOD PYRAMID.
Diets should consist of not just fruit and veges but also the 'bad foods' such as cheese, bread, even chocolate. A healthy diet is one which balances all the food groups to give an individual well balanced nutrition.

BUT BAD FOODS HAVE ALMOST NO NUTRITIONAL VALUE. WHY ARE 'BAD FOODS' ESSENTIAL FOR A GOOD DIET?

The answer to this is simple. You are correct in saying that bad foods do not add to the nutrition side of things in a diet. Yet they function in a completely different but in just as important way. They allow you to keep to the diet.
'Bad foods' are essentially the ones we love to eat. When we eat them our brain releases endorphins which make us feel all nice and cozy. By including them in a balanced diet we can make it become not just another fad diet but make it into an everyday thing which we don't really have to think about. Feeling good is the aim of the game here and the reason so many other diets crash is because they are all pain with not gain.

THIS HERE IS NOT A DIET - IT IS A WAY OF LIFE

Here is the best program i have seen - Weight Loss - I have personally been on this program and was surprised at how instinctive the things they told me were. I have a university degree in health sciences yet did not relate the word diet to 'foods we eat' but related diet to 'hard work'. This program offers a way to change your life in steps, not offering a diet but a WAY OF LIFE.

Visit the website for more information.
You can thank me later.