Low Carb Breakfast Menu

10:12 PM |

Losing weight is never an overnight process. It requires a right diet and exercise regime. Here are few low carb breakfast menu ideas that will help you reach your goal faster.

The old adage, breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dine like a pauper has a new age health advice, if you read between the lines. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It provides our body with fuel to function throughout the day without any stoppages. It refills blood glucose levels after 8-12 hours of a break. This transforms into instant energy and allows the brain to perform its activities with efficiency. Breakfast is also an important meal for all the weight watchers, as it prevents them from binge eating and unnecessary food cravings. If you do not have the time to prepare the first meal of the day, then low carb breakfast on the go is good idea. Arduous attempts to achieve goals of weight loss, can come to fruition with a right diet that is combined with right amount of exercise. Here are a few low carb breakfast menu ideas for you, so that you can begin your day with a sumptuous meal that's low on fat but high on energy.

Low Carb Breakfast Menu Ideas

Scrambled Eggs and Veggies
Eggs have a high protein content and low carbohydrate level. This makes them an ideal choice for low carb breakfast menu. This is the reason why you will find eggs in most of the low carb breakfast recipes. Heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a skillet and add diced bell peppers, bacon and mushrooms. Sauté till they wilt and then add the beaten egg. Stir till it coagulates and remove from heat. You can add some cheddar cheese to it too. Eat it with a slice of whole wheat bread.

Yogurt and Berries
Blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries and gooseberries are rich source of antioxidants. They prevent premature aging and several cardiovascular diseases. Clean them with fresh water and remove the stems. Mix them with the yogurt, till the later gets a hint of the berry flavor. Fill it up in a bowl and eat to your heart's content.

Alaskan Omelet
This is more like low carb breakfast meals, but it can also make up for breakfast when you know it's going to be a long day at work. Beat two eggs in a bowl along with sour cream and tarragon. You can use some oregano if tarragon is hard to find. Pour the beaten egg in a skillet of preheated olive oil. Let the poured mixture sit till the base is cooked. Gently place pieces of canned salmon on the omelet and turn it over. Cook for about a minute and remove it when it turns brown.

Vegetable Frittata
To make this, heat a teaspoon of olive oil in pan. Add chopped florets of broccoli, corn, bell peppers and mushrooms to it. While these vegetables are getting sautéed, lightly mix eggs, milk, sauce of your choice and salt. Pour the mixture in the pan and cover it, till it gets cooked. Cut it into wedges and serve it hot.

Strawberry Smoothie
Low carb breakfast ideas cannot get easier than this. One cup strawberries, one glass of skimmed milk and one scoop of low-carb soy powder is all you need to make a delicious strawberry smoothie. You can add a tablespoon of sugar or use an artificial sweetener if the strawberries aren't sweet enough. Put all these ingredients in a blender and mix them for a minute. Pour it in a glass and garnish it with a few cut pieces of strawberries.

These were some of the ideas for low carb breakfast menu. Ready to eat items such as cereals, salads, fruits and barn muffins can also be included in your low carb breakfast. These items have high amount of fiber, which promotes weight loss by removing waste from your body and making you feel full very easily. Skipping your meals may accelerate weight loss initially. However, in due time it will make you malnourished and sick. Having a fat free diet and regular exercise is the key to a fit body.

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9:38 PM |

Cake Balls on a Stick

Cake balls on a stick is a delicious, new take on traditional cake. You have to try them out, so read this article to learn how to make them.

Who doesn't love cake? Chocolate or lemon or strawberry? So many frosting options. Another great thing about cakes is that you can do so many things with them. Cupcakes are a popular idea. A new trend for cake is cake balls. Bite sized treats, cake balls are balls made of cake and frosting, dipped in coating. You can have them plain or put them on a stick. Cake balls on a stick are also called cake pops or cupcake pops. They make great party food, as you don't need dishes to serve them and they are easy to eat. People even throw cake ball parties, where you come with the undecorated cake balls on a stick and then decorate them with different dipping chocolates and toppings. In this article, learn how to make cake balls on a stick along with different flavors and ideas for them.

Simple Cake Balls on a Stick Recipe

Ingredients

1 cooled cake - any size, any flavor, unfrosted
Scraps of different cakes can also be used
1 can of prepared frosting or any home made frosting
Melted chocolate (amount varies based on number of balls made
Toothpicks or lollipop sticks

Directions

Cut the cooled cake into large pieces and place in a bowl. Use a fork and crumble the cake into crumbs. Run through the crumbs with the hands or a fork to make sure all pieces are crumbled. Mix in frosting to make a paste. Chill crumb mixture for at 2 hours. Use the hands or a melon baller to roll out balls from the crumb mixture. Stack the balls on top of each other, with waxed paper sheets in between, on a platter or tray. Place the tray with the cake balls in the freezer for 6 hours. Remove the tray from the freezer and stick a lollipop stick into each cake ball. One ball at a time, roll the balls in the melted chocolate. Make sure the entire ball surface is covered. Set on waxed paper to drip off.

Tips for Easy Cake Balls on a Stick

Make sure the cake balls aren't frozen solid before dipping
Try to make small balls, as they are easier to dip and eat
Keep the dipped balls at room temperature
Dip the balls in small batches, keep both coating and the balls in the freezer until you need them
Store the undipped cake balls in an air tight container sealed with both the lid and plastic wrap
Add sprinkles immediately after coating the cake balls on a stick. If the coating hardens, then the sprinkles won't stick to the balls
Use a styrofoam block to stick the cake balls on a stick into, while drying up the coating

Cake Balls on a Stick Ideas

The best thing about cake balls on a stick is that there are gazillions of frosting and coating options! Mix and match any cake and frosting combination to make a multitude of cake balls. You can use sprinkles, funfetti and jimmies for a festive touch, and get creative with decorating gels, mini candies and colored frosting. For sports fans, make cake balls with white coating and use green frosting at their base, to make golf balls on a stick! For the 4th of July, make cake balls from red velvet cake mix with vanilla frosting. Roll the balls in white chocolate and sprinkle with red, blue and white sprinkles!

A festive, homemade gift idea is to make cake balls on a stick for Christmas. A box of cake balls on a stick, decoratively wrapped, is sure to bring yummy, Christmas cheer to your loved ones. For that extra touch, make Christmas tree cake balls - plum cake mix, green frosting and icing balls and stars, in the conical shape of a tree. Or just plum cake mix, with differently colors of frosting, to make decorative cake balls on a stick. Cartoon character ideas too can be implemented for kids' parties, they would just have a ball.

Cake Balls on a Stick Flavors

Red velvet cake with cream cheese icing and vanilla or chocolate coating
Chocolate cake, milk chocolate icing, dipped in chocolate bark
Chocolate cake, butter cream icing, and dark chocolate coating
Fudge cake, mixed in peppermint chips and fudge frosting with dark chocolate coating
Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, dipped in white chocolate bark
Strawberry with vanilla frosting, dipped in chocolate
Lemon cake, lemon frosting and chocolate chips, dipped in white chocolate
Fudge mix, peppermint or chocolate chips, fudge frosting, dipped in dark chocolate
French vanilla cake with white chocolate almond icing, dipped in chocolate
Cherry chip cake mix and cream cheese frosting, dipped in white chocolate

Read these articles on Buzzle for some more great cake ideas:

Cake balls on a stick are a popular treat for parties and occasions. Kids love every step of making them, from licking the icing bowl to decorating the cake balls. It's a great way to use leftover cake too. So try making cake balls on a stick and enjoy eating them!

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How to Bake Bacon in the Oven

9:35 PM |

Most of us love bacon breakfast. Would it not be great, if we knew how to bake bacon in the oven, so that the task of making breakfast would become easier. In this write up, we will read about baking bacon in the oven.

Bacon has gone on to become staple American breakfast. Crunchy bacon is the special kind of bacon available in America, while in most other countries there is the flabby bacon, which one can eat. To make the bacon crunchy is not an easy task. It is a real challenge. The traditional method used to cook bacon is frying, however, frying bacon is a real big mess. After the introduction of microwave a lot of people took to microwaving bacon, but the problem lies in inconsistent results. At the same time, when one has to make large quantity of bacon, then either frying or microwaving them is a time consuming process. Another method of cooking bacon is to cook bacon in the oven. However, it is easier said than done. One has to know the procedure of how to bake bacon in the oven, so that one gets the best results. In this write up we will read on how to bake bacon, so that the next time you have friends or guests coming over for breakfast you will not find yourself in a tricky situation.

Baking Bacon in the Oven

Oven baked bacon is crispy, but it is not messy. When bacon is cooked in the microwave it curls up and leaves a lot of grease behind. To enjoy the best bacon, we will now see how to bake bacon in the oven.

For most other dishes, we preheat the oven. Likewise, when you have to cook bacon in the oven, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
So that the oven is not messy and you can clean the oven easily after use, line the baking sheet with a foil. It is best to use a heavy duty foil
There is absolute no need to grease the baking sheet, once you have placed the foil. For that matter the foil does not have to be greased either, as a lot of fat will be released from bacon, when it is been cooked, which will ensure that it does not stick.
After these basic preparations have been made, line bacon in the baking sheet side by side. When you are placing the bacon make sure that the bacon pieces do not overlap with one another. It is best to leave a little space between two bacon strips, which ensures that they become crisp and brown well.
Now comes the question, how long to bake bacon in the oven. Bake the bacon strips for about 10 to 15 minutes. When bacon is golden brown in color, it is cooked. However, if you like crisp bacon, then you will have to let it bake for some more time.
It is important to pay attention to the bacon in the last stages, to make sure that the bacon strips do not burn.
If the slices are thick, then you will have to increase the cooking time by 4 to 6 minutes, depending on the thickness of the bacon slices.
Once the bacon is cooked, using tongs to lift them from the baking sheet and place them on a couple of paper towels immediately. This will ensure that the excess grease from the bacon is absorbed into the paper towels. Now bacon is ready for use.
If you like bacon, and would like to have it for breakfast, then you can also slightly under cook the bacon and cool it after removing it from the oven. Once bacon cools down, place it in an airtight zipper bag and freeze the bag. In the morning, you can reheat the bacon for 30 seconds and have them for breakfast.

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Whole Foods for Healthy Kids

8:59 PM |

Children need whole foods to maintain health. As parents, we need to provide them with a variety of the freshest, organic, whole foods so their little bodies can be healthy and develop fully. Whole foods are unrefined grains, beans, nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables. Your child's body relies on the nutrients from these foods for proper growth as well as mental and physical vitality. A deficiency of even one important nutrient can cause imbalances that can lead to serious disease. Whole foods also provide a wealth of protective compounds that can help prevent disease.

Whole Grains
Whole grains are much more nutritious than refined (white flour) grains. A grain is whole and unrefined if the entire kernel is left unaltered and intact. There are three parts to a whole grain - the endosperm, germ and bran. The endosperm contains mostly starch and protein. The germ is rich in unsaturated fats, protein, carbohydrates, vitamin E, B-complex vitamins and minerals. The bran provides a large concentration of fiber and also contains minerals and B vitamins.
Through the process of refining, the germ and bran are both removed, leaving only the endosperm. This process strips the grain of most of its nutritional value, including precious compounds and plant sterols that are important in preventing disease.
Many grains are now refined for commercial purposes. Refined products are white flour breads, rolls, baked goods and most crackers and cereals. Enriching refined products by adding back some vitamins and minerals (as some white breads and most children's cereals do), does not make the grain whole again. Many other elements have been removed and lost through refinement. Nature created whole grains with nutrients and protective compounds that work together synergistically to provide all our body needs. Enriched grain products rob your child's body of essential nutrition.

Fruits and Vegetables
Fresh, organic fruits and vegetables are essential to a healthy diet. The USDA Food Guide Pyramid says that we should eat 3-5 servings of vegetables and 2-4 servings of fruit each day. A serving is:
Age one to three years - one tablespoon per year of life
Age four to eight years - 1/4 cup fruit or vegetables or 1/2 cup salad
Age nine to adult - 1/2 cup fruit or vegetables or 1 cup salad
These wonderful whole foods provide important vitamins, minerals and enzymes as well as fiber to your child's diet. In addition, there have been many studies done which show that fruits and vegetables are loaded with active compounds such as antioxidants and phytochemicals that can prevent cancer and other serious diseases.

Fruit Juice - Not a Whole Food
Fruit juice, which is consumed heavily by children, is not a whole food and adds little nutritional value. Juicing removes the fiber, and unless the juice is freshly squeezed and consumed immediately, most of the nutrients are lost. Commercial canned or bottled juices are mostly sugar (even if you buy unsweetened) and could contain pesticides.
Many researchers and health care providers are now saying that a lot of fruit juice consumed every day can be harmful to a child's health. This is due to the large, concentrated amounts of sugar (even though it's natural) contained in the juices. In addition, fruit juices contain sorbitol, which isn't absorbed well and can create gas and bloating or even chronic diarrhea. Apple juice has high sorbitol levels. White grape juice doesn't contain sorbitol and may be tolerated better than other juices, although you still have the problem with sugar and pesticides. Drinking large amounts of juice can also decrease the appetite. If your children drink a lot of juice, they may not have an appetite for the food they really need.
A child who drinks a lot of fruit juices may be susceptible to yeast overgrowth. This can lead to chronic nasal congestion, eczema, or throat and ear infections. If your children are drinking too much fruit juice, you can wean them by diluting one-third white grape juice with two-thirds water. You can slowly cut the juice out altogether. Pure water is the best drink for children.

Making the Transition to Whole Foods
A typical child's diet contains high amounts of refined grains, processed foods, sugar and fats. It is not a major catastrophe to sometimes let your children eat these foods. Children love a special treat and it is often hard to avoid it at birthday parties and other events. But if these foods are the majority of your children’s everyday diet, their health will suffer. Filling up on foods that provide little nutritional benefit can cause serious nutritional deficiencies. Before giving your children processed food or sugary snacks, a good question to ask yourself is what whole foods have your children eaten that day that can provide the nutrients they need. The majority of your children's diet should be whole foods.

An organic, whole foods diet may seem a little overwhelming at first, if this is completely new to you. Relax, go slowly, and have fun with it. You don't have to make major changes overnight. Start by making small changes to your family's diet. If your children have been exposed to a lot of unhealthy foods and do not have very good eating habits; that's okay. It's never too late to start healthy eating. It's amazing how quickly poor health disappears when good nutrition is established.

Choosing Whole Foods
You may be pleasantly surprised at how delicious and readily available whole foods can be. Brown rice is a delicious whole grain that can be added to many recipes. You may want to introduce brown rice to your family slowly, at first, by mixing it with the white rice they are used to. You can also try brown basmati rice, buckwheat groats or whole grain bulgur if you feel adventurous. Quinoa is a whole grain that has tremendous nutritional value.

Fortunately, whole, organic foods are becoming more readily available, since there is a growing awareness of the necessity of these foods. I live in a small city that has at least three large health food stores with an abundance of bulk, organic, whole foods. Bulk foods are cheaper and better for the environment than buying the already packaged foods. I find a huge variety of beans, nuts, seeds and grains as well as excellent organic produce at these stores. Delicious whole grain breads, cookies and crackers are also available. Try to find a natural foods store in your community. You may also be able to join a food buying coop. Coops are great because you can get excellent whole foods at wholesale prices and share the cost with other families. In addition, there are a growing number of organic farmers who sell their produce at Farmers' markets.

I've been emphasizing organic throughout this article since it is important to buy organically grown instead of the conventionally grown foods found in most grocery stores. Conventionally grown produce contains pesticides and other dangerous chemicals. It is usually grown in depleted soils, which may make it mineral deficient. Organic produce is grown with no pesticides or other harsh chemicals. This is especially important for children since what are considered "safe" pesticide levels for adults can be harmful to a child's small, developing body.

Buying organic ensures a healthier planet for our kids since organic farming promotes sustainability of the land and is less polluting to the air and water than conventional farming. In addition to being more nutritious, organic produce is also more delicious. You can actually taste the difference! Try to buy organic products for most of your foods, if not all. Ask the store manager for organic produce, even if you know they don't have it. The more people that ask for it, the sooner the demand will be met. You can also start your own organic garden, even if all you can do is a window garden for herbs and lettuce. You and your child can make your own sprouts from beans and seeds. This can be a great learning experience for kids.

Phytochemicals are substances in plants that prevent cancers and other diseases. These beneficial chemicals are formed as the fruits and vegetables ripen on the vine. Produce picked before it is ripe may be deficient in these important phytochemicals. Produce grown locally is usually healthier than produce shipped from other areas. Produce that has to be shipped is picked before it is ripe and artificially ripened with chemicals. It is also more likely to contain pesticide residues.

Serving organic whole foods does not have to be difficult. What can be easier than giving your children a carrot, banana, apple or slice of whole-grain bread? There are also many quick and easy, as well as delicious recipes for preparing wholesome, healthy meals. Eating whole foods can be a very rewarding and satisfying experience for your entire family!

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Low Carb Breakfast Menu

Cake Balls on a Stick

How to Bake Bacon in the Oven

Most of us love bacon breakfast. Would it not be great, if we knew how to bake bacon in the oven, so that the task of making breakfast would become easier. In this write up, we will read about baking bacon in the oven.

Whole Foods for Healthy Kids