Now I am experimenting with zucchini which are the best loved of all squashes. They are versitile, easy to cook and easy to prepare as raw dishes, too. It doesn’t matter if you are vegetarian or a raw food dieter. Everybody should eat healthy and make it a number one priority. Zucchini are available all year through, but in summer time these vegetables are especially tender with a delicate flavor. The zucchini, cucurbita pepo is classified as a summer squash, so take advantage of it and bring it on to your dinner table.

Do you know that any vegetables taste best when eaten immediately after they have been peeked? Freshness is very important for zucchini. These veggies have relatively long season and are easy to grow in your home garden. We had them in our home garden as a must-have vegetable. My Grandma cut them very often to bring new, young baby zucchini. The more you cut, the more this plant will produce. If you leave zucchini unchecked, it will turn into marrows.

Zuchini with its deep green skin and firm pale flesh, sometimes called courgettes (pretty name, isn’t it?), and they are basically immature marrows. The name comes from Italian zucca, and courgette means miniature courge, which is French for marrow.
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  Greens are so good for you that you should eat lots of them. Whatever the  season, there is something for  everyone, vegetarians or meat eaters, when it comes to greens.

 Greens are also quite delicious and versatile when it comes to recipes. You can make inexpensive, nutritional and simple dishes with a surprising texture and delightful flavor. Try to make Cauliflower with Tomatoes and Mushrooms, Spinach Pie, Spinach Omelette, and Spinach and Cannellini Beans; Broccoli Crumble, Broccoli Tartlets and Broccoli and Chicken Lasagne; Stir-fried Brussels Sprouts, Chard Pasties, Kale with Garlic and Parmesan; Fettucine Pasta with Savoy Cabbage and Gruyere or Cheddar Cheese; Chinese Cabbage with Lime, Cocoanut or Mushroom Sauce; Greek dish, Dolmades (grape leaves) or my favorite, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish Golubtsi (grape leaves).

I compiled a List of the Best Greens for Healthy Family Eating that are an excellent source of vitamins A and C, calcium, potassium, iron. These Greens are  highly nutritional vegetables wheather are eaten raw or cooked:

• SPINACH: Spinach and Baby Spinach which is easy to grow and quick to cook, and delicious raw, served in salads.
• CAULIFLOWER: Baby cauliflowers, Broccoli romanescoes, Broccoflower; a member of the cabbage family, Brassica oleracea. Cauliflowers are excellent raw or  steamed, either whole or in florets.
• CABBAGE: Savoy Cabbage, in 3-4 minutes of cooking it gets tender. Green Cabbage, a very good cabbage for stir-fry with eggs and onions or Russian red borscht, and needs longer cooking. Red Cabbage,  should be cooked with a little vinegar added to the water or the color will fade. Red cabbage can be pickled or stewed with natural spices and flavorings. White Cabbage (Dutch Cabbage) and Spring Greens; delicious raw or simply sliced and used  in a coleslaw, or boiled, steamed and served with lemon and olive oil dressing.

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In my recent post “Keep Yourself Slim and Healthy with Versatile Spinach,” I did not mention another popular delicatessen, Spinach Pie. Spinach Pie is a great choice if you have some family members or guests at your home party that are meat eaters and vegetarians. How can you please these people with different approach to eating? Make this tasty dish and you’ll please both, vegetarians and meat eaters.

Usually these pies are made with ricotta, feta, Gruyere or Emmenthal cheeses that are grated or cut into small cubes. Then the mixture of cheeses, cooked spinach, fresh chopped marjoram and chervil, salt and pepper is wrapped in large or small sheets of filo pastry. I don’t like filo dough and never use it because it tastes like a parchment paper. Especially, the one produced commercially, “Ready-to-Use” that is offered by supermarkets. I prefer to make my own. It is different type of dough that is used traditionally in Greek and Russian cuisine.

So, now watch this video and try to make the same delicious Spanakopita that contains yummy feta cheese and fresh spinach in traditional Greek style. Bon appetite!

Submitted by Svetlana Konnikova.

For many people the word ’spinach’ is associated with Popeye, the cartoon character (if you remember) who used to eat huge amounts of spinach. Popeye was smart, but we are smarter. We can make hundreds of dishes using this versatile vegetable that offers us so many nutritious benefits, so who’ll refuse this opportunity?!

Let’s continue to explore my Green Recipes.  What about a fresh spinach salad? It is really tasteful because the leaves of spinach  have sharp, but not overpowering  flavor that is just in the right balance. Fresh greens are so good for you that you really should eat lots of them, so there’s no excuse if you don’t!

 Fresh Baby Spinach Salad (4-6 servings) 

Ingredients:

2 cups organic baby spinach, washed and chopped

1 avocado, diced

 2 cucumbers, sliced

  green onions, chopped

  10-12 walnut-halves, chopped

   1/3 cup olive oil

   1 small organic lemon

    A pinch of sea salt and paprika

Directions:

Place all ingredients in a large glass bowl. Carefully mix spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions, and walnuts. Sprinkle sea salt and paprika. Squeeze one lemon and combine  fresh lemon juice with olive oil in a small glass bowl. Pour this simple and flavorful dressing over the salad. Voila! You have a fresh, healthy and nutritions salad.

Sometimes I chop two organic hard boiled eggs and add to enrich this salad. It turns my spinach salad into  a main dish that is light, nutritious, and can fully satisfy your healthy appetite.
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I hope you had today a healthy lunch like green salad, a sandwich with grilled vegetables and freshly squeezed vegetable juice or cold green tea with lemon and honey. Every day new and innovative organic food cafes and restaurants open their doors to offer you just that. If you had a typical American lunch (real food!?), like hamburger, French fries and soda, do you realize that you voluntarilly put in your body the worst processed foods that can make you sick or gain weight?

Today many of us want to eat in a healthy way and be well. We try to avoid processed foods and include in our daily diet more fresh vegetables, fruits and natural beverages. But sometimes we don’t deliver our promises to ourselves and find all possible excuses to go just one time for “real food” like hamburgers and sugary sodas. We see also very strange things happen with people who by their profession must be examples of healthy lifestyle and know more than others about nutrition and proper diet… I am talking about medical professionals.

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Believe or not, but this respectful organization, American Association for Cancer Research, admitted that it was a mistake to promote soy products, as cancer saviors. However, FDA approved soybeams for human consumption. Now watch this video and you’ll see how careful you should be about including soy, soybeans, and soy oil in your daily diet.

Do you know that June is a nationally registered Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Month? So, celebrate it with fresh superstar foods. I love to make vegetable sandwiches for my lunch. There’s nothing like enjoying the flavor of fresh vegetables whether you grow them in your home garden or pick them up sparkling with morning dew from the local farmer’s market.

Can you imagine a divine taste of these vegetables if you grill them in your summer kitchen, and then stuff your veggie sandwiches with these natural gifts of Nature? Yummy and good for your health!

Now watch how chef Keith Snow easily makes them.

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Do you remember what your Mama told you? “Eat, eat your breakfast!” She was right, as always. Never miss your breakfast. Low-calories, nutrient-dense  breakfast is the most important meal of any day. It fuels you with energy and good nutrition for the whole day ahead, and keeps you healthy. It doesn’t matter it’s a working day or a weekend day. Healthy breakfast should be No.1 in your diet.

Need any healthy breakfast ideas? Of course you need, especially this Memorial Holiday weekend. You’ll be invited to the parties, and definitely will indulge into many fabulous foods prepared for the occasion and fun.

Now watch and listen Natalie’s five great ideas for your healthy breakfast and see what kind of ingredients are used in these easy-to-make nutritional meals.

 If professor Dmitri Mendeleev (1834-1907), Russian chemist, was alive today, he’ll be astonished with the fact how modern chemistry progressed with so many new and harmful chemical compounds that are used today in our food industry.  He became world-famous for his formulation of the periodic law and the invention of the Periodic Table, including a classification of the elements. In 1869 he published the first Periodic Table of the atomic elements and  laid out the elements from lightest to heaviest.

The term ‘elements’ (stoicheia) was first used by Greek philosopher Plato in about 360 BCE. At this time, he started Timaeus, a long monologue  about the composition of inorganic and organic bodies which became a rudimentary treatise on chemistry. Many centuries ago, the ancients started exploring a puprose of the universe and nature of physical world. They tried to define a distinction between the physical world and the eternal world. As they said, the physical is one world that changes and perishes: therefore it is the object of opinion and unreasoned sensation. The eternal world is the one that never changes: therefore it is apprehended by reason.

When Dmitri Mendeleev came up with the Periodic Table, he predicted that as-of-yet unknown elements existed with properties appropriate to fill gaps in the table. Elements are pure chemical substances composed of atoms with the same number of protons. Common examples of elements are iron, copper, silver, gold, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. As of March 2010, 118 elements in total have been observed, of which 94 occur naturally on Earth.

I always wonder, why modern chemists are working so aggressively on creation of new and proven to be harmful, manmade chemicals that are enthusiastically applied to our food products instead of 100% natural elements? Is it because the physical world changes and can perish one day or there are other reasons that big food corporations pursue in a hunt for an unlimited enrichment?

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by Svetlana Konnikova

The English name of this plant is adapted from the French dent de lion” meaning lion’s tooth. Dandelion got this name for its sharp, serrated leaves that resemble lion’s teeth. “Pissabeds” is an English folk name for dandelion because it works effectively as a diuretic. It also has the name “blowball” because this hearty broadleaf weed grows very easily. Once started, its parachute ball blows apart and sends fine filaments as far as several miles away. These filaments start new colonies of sunny, smiling dandelions.

As you see on the picture, a bee sits on the dandelion. It’s because dandelions are important plants for bees. First of all, their blossoming is an indicator that the honey bee season is starting. Secondly, dandelion flowers are a valuable source of nectar and pollen early in the season, and contain luteolin, an antioxidant. Roasted dandelion roots can be found in natural coffee substitutes, and the flowers are used to make certain wines.

“Dandelion use is generally considered safe. However, there have been rare reports of upset stomach and diarrhea, and some people are allergic to the plant. People with an inflamed or infected gallbladder, or blocked bile ducts, should avoid using dandelion.” (from the article ‘Dandelion’ by National Center of Complimentary and Alternative Medicine)

Dandelion pollen is also considered as a common allergen and a common ingredient in bee polen. Sensitive people with allergies should be very careful because this allergen can provoke allergic rhinitis, allergic conjuctivitus, asthma and contact dermatitis.

However, dandelions flowers, roots and leaves have been used for centuries in European and Asian countries. In Europe, herbalists incorporated this plant into remedies for fever, eye problems, boils, diabetes, and diarrhea. Dandelion medicinal teas have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for liver detoxification, digestive disorders, appendicitis, and breast problems, such as inflammation or lack of milk flow.

Studies conducted by the University of Maryland scientists show that dandelion leaves may normilize even the level of sugar in blood. Native American made dandelion decoctions (liquid made by boiling down the herb in water) to treat kidney disease, skin problems, swelling, hearburn, and stomach upset. Today, dandelion roots are maily used as an appetite stimulant, digestive aid, and for liver and gallbladder problem. Dandelion leaves in teas or salads help as a diuretic to stimulate the excretion of urine.

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