Thanksgiving and Turkey Recipes of 2011

Thanksgiving and Turkey Recipes of 2011

 It’s the time of the year again where families all around North-America reunite and celebrate together the autumn harvesting season with thanksgiving. If you’re receiving this year, it’s the perfect time to show your guests what the Paleo diet is all about and that healthy food is in fact also really tasty.The stars around thanksgiving are the meat and vegetables usually seen in North-America at this time of the year. Turkey, beef, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, cranberries, mushrooms and apples are all standard fare.

What I’ve decided to do here is create a complete menu including the main thanksgiving turkey with the sauce, stuffing and cranberry sauce as well as another main of juicy rib roast, appetizers, vegetable sides and even a classic dessert, the pumpkin pie. All this in Paleo fashion.

Of course, simple olive, fruit and cheese platters are also welcomed by everybody to snack on, but the recipes included here will produce enough food to fill even the hungriest.Some thanksgiving recipes are already perfectly Paleo, but yet some needed to be adapted somewhat. The cranberry sauce presented here is a tarter version than the traditional one, but I think it’s an even more interesting taste to contrast with the turkey and stuffing. The stuffing, for its part, is made out of lean ground beef instead of bread and is absolutely amazing and tasty. Be aware that some of your guests will probably want to steal your recipe. Finally, the pumpkin pie is made on a nut crust and is lightly sweetened with some honey instead of being a massive sugar vehicle.

I hope that you and your family will enjoy preparing and eating those delicious recipes and that your house will become the favorite place to have a thanksgiving dinner for the whole family.

The Turkey 

The turkey is the centerpiece of most thanksgiving dinners and is at the heart of this November tradition. The wild turkey being native to the North-American forests, I couldn’t think of a better animal to feast on to celebrate the local harvest.

Of course, now that Thanksgiving has been commercialized and some of its essence lost, so is the traditional turkey. Now turkeys are selected for larger and larger breasts for more and more white meat, probably because of our global fear of fat. This means, unless you source some heritage turkey or hunt wild turkey yourself, that you’ll have to pay more attention during the cooking process not to end with dry meat. You’ll want to make sure not to overcook it and to baste it really often. A kitchen syringe is also a good idea here, to inject some juices into the meat itself.

It goes without saying that getting a turkey that as been properly raised and fed is really important not only for the advantage in taste, but also the health benefits of a better fat ratio and fewer toxins. The difference is worth the price.

Mushroom butter roasted turkey

The little twist in this roast turkey recipe is in the use of dried wild mushrooms to create a delicious flavored butter that will help cook the turkey and also be an integral part of the final sauce to serve with the bird. The sauce is created with the cooking juice so it’s very simple to prepare without even thinking about it.
Ingredients

Turkey

    * One 10-12 lb turkey;
    * Garlic powder;
    * Ground dried thyme;
    * Poultry mix or finely chopped fresh rosemary, sage, thyme, and marjoram;
    * 1/2 cup chicken stock;
    * 1/2 cup good quality and sugar-free BBQ sauce (can be homemade);

Wild mushroom butter

    * 1 1/4 cups dried wild mushrooms;
    * 1/4 lb room temperature butter or clarified butter;
    * 1 tbsp white wine;

Preparation

   1. Preheat your oven to 450 F.
   

2. Grind the dried mushrooms in a coffee grinder to a powder.  Mix that powder in a bowl with the soft butter or ghee and add the whine and mix again.
  

3. Clean and pat dry your turkey. Remove the organs if still present in the cavity. Place the turkey in a large roasting pan.
   

4. Cut the skin at a few places on the bird and place some of the wild mushroom butter between the skin and the flesh with a small spoon or a kitchen syringe.
   

5. Season the bird generously with garlic powder, dried thyme, the fresh herbs or poultry mix and black pepper. Also add the rest of the mushroom butter on the surface of the turkey.
   

6. Place a loose sheet of aluminium paper on top of the turkey and put it in the oven.
  

7. Reduce the heat to 350 F immediately after putting the turkey in the oven. Cook for about 18 minutes per pound. 3 hours and a half in our case. Season with salt and pepper after 30 minutes of cooking.
   

8. Baste the bird about every 20 minutes to make sure the meat stays moist.
  

9. You can remove the aluminium paper an hour before the end of the cooking process to obtain a golden and crispy skin.
  

10. Remove the turkey from the oven when fully cooked and set the turkey aside, out from the roasting pan and covered with the sheet of aluminium paper.
  

11. Place the pan on the stove top on a medium heat and deglaze with the chicken stock. Add the BBQ sauce.
  

12. Bring to a boil, then remove from the heat.
  

13. Serve the sauce immediately with the turkey.

Cranberry sauce

Turkey is almost always served with a sugary cranberry sauce at thanksgiving, but this sauce doesn’t have to contain that much sugar to be delicious. Of course, cranberries on their own are very tart, but in this recipe a cup of orange juice is added for a nice orange test and to cut on the tartness. No extra sugar needed. As an added bonus, this sauce is so easy to prepare, you could probably do it eyes closed. This recipe gives a cranberry sauce that’s a bit more tart than usual, but you’ll probably end up liking it even more than the cranberry sauce you used to know.

At this time of the year, you shouldn’t have any problem finding fresh cranberries, but you can always use frozen ones in the case you can’t find any.

Ingredients

    * 1 lb fresh raw cranberries;
    * 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice;

Preparation

   1. Place the cranberries and orange juice in a pot and slowly bring to a boil, making sure to stir from time to time.
   2. As the cranberries cook, they will eventually pop. When all the cranberries have popped, the sauce is ready.
   3. Cool in the refrigerator and serve with your thanksgiving turkey.

Beef, celery, walnut & apple stuffing

Who says turkey stuffing absolutely has to be made out of bread? This version made with lean ground beef, celery, apples and walnuts tastes amazing and is way, way healthier. The ground beef has to be very lean not because we are scared of the fat in any way, but because the fat changes the taste and texture and creates something much different looking and tasting than a traditional stuffing. With the celery, apples and spices used, the aroma and texture will be very similar to the traditional stuffing. Cooked outside the bird, stuffing was traditionally called dressing, but now the names seem to be interchangeable. The usual spices used in a turkey stuffing are often sold in a mixture called a poultry mix and include rosemary, sage, thyme, and marjoram. Of course, the result will be much better if you chop yourself fresh herbs than if you buy a mix of dried a dried version of them.

Ingredients

    * 1 lb extra lean ground beef;
    * 1 tbsp cooking fat;
    * 4 stalks celery, diced;
    * 1 medium onion, diced;
    * 1 apple, diced;
    * 2 cups finely chopped walnuts;
    * 1 clove garlic, minced;
    * Generous amount of poultry mix or springs of fresh rosemary, sage, thyme, and marjoram, very finely chopped;
    * Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste;

Preparation

   1. Preheat your oven to 375 F.
   2. In a large pan, sauté to ground beef and celery with the cooking fat for about 3 minutes. Make sure to crumble the ground beef to small pieces.
   3. Add the diced apple and onion and continue sautéing for another 2 minutes.
   4. Add the fresh herbs or poultry mix, minced garlic, walnuts and season with salt and pepper. Mix well. The meat should still be somewhat pink, it’ll finish cooking in the oven.
   5. Put the mixture in a baking dish and bake uncovered for about 30 minutes in the preheated oven.

Best diets for healthy eating

Best diets for healthy eating

U.S. News has released its rankings of the best diets that promote healthy eating dash diet US news best diet claimed the top spot. DASH diet nabs top spot on best diet list.Here are you see other popular diets ranked in the top 10:

Second TLC diet,The TLC Diet is an Effective, But Sensible, Low Cholesterol Diet.The TLC diet, or Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes diet, is a low cholesterol diet designed by the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) and belongs to a group of recommendations set forth by the NCEP for living a heart-healthy lifestyle. Therapeutic lifestyle changes include modifying your diet, increasing your physical activity, and weight loss.

Third mediterranean diet,Choose this heart-healthy diet option,The Mediterranean diet is a heart-healthy eating plan combining elements of Mediterranean-style cooking. Here's how to adopt the Mediterranean diet.
     

Fourth +the mayo clinic diet,
     

Fifth Volumetrics Diet ,The Volumetrics Eating Plan is based on a basic fact: people like to eat. And if people are given the choice between eating more and eating less, they'll take more almost every time.

Unlike diets that are based on deprivation, the Volumetrics diet doesn't try to fight this natural preference. Its creator, nutritionist Barbara Rolls, PhD, argues that limiting your diet too severely won't work in the long run. You'll just wind up hungry and unhappy and go back to your old ways.
     

Sixth Weight Watchers Diet,Out with the old and in with new. In 2010, Weight Watchers retired its old points system and started a totally new program, called Points Plus, to keep up with the trends and science behind successful weight loss.

Weight Watchers Chief Science Officer Karen Miller-Kovach, RD, describes the program as a complete makeover. It is not a hybrid but an entirely new approach to safe, effective, and steady weight loss that takes advantage of cutting-edge weight loss science.With the old points system, you could use your points anyway you like. But we now know if you use your points wisely by eating foods rich in protein and fiber -- these foods fill you up, keep hunger at bay, and help you lose weight in a healthier and more nutritious way,” Kovach says.
Calories, Fat, and Carbs

Calories still count in the Points Plus program because the bottom line in weight loss is creating a calorie deficit -- burning more calories than you eat.

But there is so much more to successful weight loss, and where those calories come from makes a big difference.

Even when the calories are the same, protein- and fiber-rich foods get fewer Points Plus to encourage dieters to eat more filling food for their allotted Points Plus.

Calorie-dense foods that have more fat and simple carbs are assigned more points.

One new feature: You get unlimited quantities of fresh fruits and non-starchy vegetables.

“Most adults don’t eat enough fruits or vegetables. So our strategy was to allow these as free foods to encourage more consumption of these super-nutritious foods that are among the lowest in calories and very filling," Kovach says.

The old points may be gone, but the heart of the Weight Watchers program remains unchanged.

“We may be counting differently with the new Points Plus program but the foundation of Weight Watchers' successful model of scientific evidence, healthy, slow weight loss, exercise, behavior modification, and support remain the same," Kovach says.
     

Seventh +Jenny Craig Diet
     

Eighth ornish diet
     

Ninth +Vegetarian Diet
    

Tenth  Nutrisystem Diet

The Most Harmful Restaurant in the World

The Most Harmful Restaurant in the World 

"Taste worth dying for whose sake" - a slogan coined indiscreet John Bessie (Jon Basso) for the restaurant «Heart Attack grill», which opened in 2006 in Dallas. The name and slogan were not chosen randomly, the owner of the chain of fitness centers, Bessie was so impressed with the stories of their clients on how they stealthily, avoiding eating fatty food diet, he decided to open a restaurant with such harmful food, so she was shocked. The restaurant's menu: fries fried in fat, sugar cola with a natural, non-filter cigarettes, and most importantly: 4 types of burgers, the largest of which includes eight pieces of cheese, 16 pieces of bacon, a tomato, onion and pulls at 8,000 calories. And no salad, no Diet Coke on the menu.

Contrary to the rules of marketing, restaurant is not even trying to hide their harmful nature, calling customers - patients, putting them in pajamas and rolling in a wheelchair. The success seems counterintuitive, but there's no end of customers and the only restaurant quickly became the network.

With numerous critics Bessie agrees only one, saying: "Do not come here every day, it will kill you"

Food in Istanbul

Food in Istanbul

Food in Turkey in general and Istanbul in particular, everywhere! Do you feel like it captures your thoughts and how it affects your daily routine, as its beautiful view confuses you with a pre-planned path. Opposed to this useless, and do not want to. After all, how else can learn more deeply and more precisely to another country and its people, not as a meal?

Yes, my friends, if you are vegetarian in Turkey you will not sweet.

Kebabs, shish kebabs, doner, duryumy at every step. Do not succumb to the seductive aromas of being only five seconds from the table, but not for long. After 30 minutes, after a hearty dinner, fragrances continue to tempt the next.

Only at the end of our journey, we started a little understanding of the types of kebabs and shish kebabs, before ordered at random. Now we know that everything at the round spit (what we call in Russia or shawarma shavermoy) - Doner is (döner means "rotate"), chopped meat on a skewer - it Adana kebab, shish kebab - shish kebab.

With meat is often served bulgur. The Turks sometimes referred to as his turkish rice. Very tasty cereals, something resembling a pearl barley, only a very, very gentle. And after all, strangely, despite the similarity of taste, is made ​​from barley barley, bulgur and millet.

When not know what to choose, caring owners institutions will always offer a mix of all possible kebabs.

No less important than the kebabs, the Turkish cuisine take stewed vegetables and meat. Ignore this is impossible, but try everything for a few days will not succeed. Only eggplant stewed with meat, we met with a dozen different recipes.

In second place, after the eggplant with meat dolma is. Marinated grape leaves dolma for sale almost everywhere. But not strange in grape leaves dolma we have not tried, but tried in a pub! Stunningly good. In fact stuffed peppers is also a variation on dolma.

In fact, begin a story about going to Turkey I had to chechivichnogo soup. In Turkey, not a great selection of soups, most of them preparing for yogurt, almost all soups - mashed potatoes, but the lentil soup with dry mint served in any establishment where food is better fed than tea. And we even thought that the lunch hours, this soup is served to all without reservation, although it may just all bought.

We tasted it too much. Even have prepared at home. It turns out very quick, tasty and unusual. Be sure to share the recipe later.

Or not. I had to start with either kebabs or the lentil soup and eggplant, and with bread. Tastier bread than in Turkey, we did not eat anywhere else! The trouble is that he served there for free, in the wild amounts (see above bowl), and there is no way it is not. At our house there is no balance, but it is suspected that for a week we got there a couple of pounds to our weight.

Grain stores must occur in every quarter. They do not sell anything except bread. But only the freshest bread and certainly not less than 6.7 species.

And this is the worst part of Turkish cuisine. Bagels with sesame seeds from mobile vendors. You know what horror? The fact that they are everywhere and they are terribly good. So you go out after dinner, it takes about 40 minutes, no, no, nothing like the feeling of hunger you still do not feel, but you can breathe freely after a meal. And then there are vendors with fresh bagels with sesame seeds and a few seconds you're standing with a bagel in his hand.

And with delicious bagels are freshly bought on the market bastourma and olives the size of a kitten's head.

And do not need any restaurants, cafes and fast food. You can bask in the sun and observe the life around him.

This is a pide. In Russian it means pita. These are the pita with toppings too sold on every corner. They are perfectly fresh. Here are the ones that brought in the picture for a few seconds before I photographed them. Half an hour later they will not be new and bake. You probably should not say that they are delicious?

Cheese. Cheese very much. Goat, cow, pigtail, soft cheese and hard.

You can buy the ubiquitous bagel with sesame seeds, a little pickled beans and cheese on a lira (about 20 rubles) and a nice dinner.

Another common type of "fast food" - burek. In general, we have tasted burek in Israel. But there they were basically cooked with potatoes and cheese in Turkey, which resembles cheese.

Usually burek sell the same place where doing (as well as almost all of Turkey). So there was nothing more beautiful in the morning, as two cups of strong tea and hot, straight from the oven burek. By the way, this is important. If you buy burek in a location where it does not bake, then it will be 99% and not half so delicious what could be. So the spy place where there is the stove.

And this famous Istanbul sandwiches with mackerel - balik ekmek (or rather until the inscription, about which they are sold here), but to see him back a bit later. White fluid on the right photo is probably the pillar of all Turkish Cuisine Turkish or food - Ira. Me with my hatred of all the milk, did not try this drink, but the local drink it completely with any meal. It tastes salty, and spoke very well with meat dishes. By the way, in a cafe with food often is not tea, because the Turks drink tea only with sweets, but there is always Ira!

So, the sandwich with the fish. To make it clearer, I am strongly of fish cool, especially the sea and especially the mackerel, but even with all of this seemed to me that balik ekmek the most delicious food in the world. Just imagine svezhayuschuyu fish, fried on a grill directly on the boat and immediately filed for eaten bread, with lettuce, onion and lemon juice. A?

All you can eat it right here on the waterfront.

And this is how it looks like a miracle.

Yes, in Istanbul, with fish everything is fine. You can drop in on one of the many fish markets, and there, right among the rows, you will find tents cafe with freshly-cooked fish, which will be served with the same tub of fresh bread and salad.

But the most delicious of all fish were small inconspicuous anchovies (hamsi). They gutted and fried in boiling oil, after which the fish can eat completely bridou onions, green leaves of strangers and bread. In this cafe, we got into the habit of going to taste the fish, there were only local residents, with their families and all the ordered portions of fried anchovies. It looks like the cult place.

Not to mention about a very important discovery! More precisely misleading. We were confident that the pickled tomatoes, cucumbers - a lot of Russian cuisine and more draw. Something like a business card, our cuisine. Not so! The Turks know how to do the same and make a delicious salinity, and they are very similar in taste to do that as the salinity of our grandmothers house. In addition, the salinity in the wildly popular in Turkey.

They even sold on carts, usually on the waterfront.

For 1 lira (20 rubles) you can buy a plastic cup pickled cabbage with chopped cucumber and all bathed in a delicious pickle. It is a pity that we did not have time to Istanbul to cheer with a hangover. I am sure that there is such a pickle, hangovers trifling matter:)

But the steady sales of delicacies on the market. Choice is quite impossible. Only 3.4 of cucumbers, 5-6 species of olives, cauliflower, cabbage, peppers, beans and all that you can think to come up with a pickled.

And after breakfast or dinner, you go out, and there you meet a trader of fresh juice. And now you tell me who renounces a cup of freshly squeezed juice in April and only 20 rubles? It does not matter that neither eat or drink there is no effort:)

Oh yeah! Then you go on a small street and out of each gate in addition to magical odors kebabs, pilaf and burek, the smell of freshly brewed Turkish coffee.

That's all it would seem. Tested meat, fish and vegetable dishes, juice and coffee is drunk, what else? But we must not forget that it is Turkey. And do not try Turkish sweets would not be forgiven.

It's good that we do not sweet-toothed! Because otherwise the streets would be almost impossible to move! Because so many sweets that are sold in all possible halls, shops, markets, kiosks and carts, does not know any other country.

Sweets in Turkey so much that if we are to kinds of kebabs poorly understood ill for six days, here we did not even try to understand. From a mere pohlavy, to completely banal halva not at least 10 varieties, and really quite unexpected krube 5-6 species. (All life is thought that the Soviet kurabe biscuits with a French name. It turns out that age-old oriental sweet!)

And it's awfully tasty Turkish kunafe (künefe). It seems that it is prepared of cheese, but we do not vouch for.

All possible kinds of halva.

Pieces of fruit in syrup. Especially beautiful amber dried apricots!

You'd think that now everything exactly? And you can safely proceed with looking at sights? Go to the Hagia Sophia, for example? No. It's too early. The meal can not end so simply, sweets and tea. On the street you must meet traders chestnuts.

And even if you do not like chestnuts as a class. Pass by and have a look even for a second to the sellers of chestnuts - is blasphemy. You should have seen with what care, with what tenderness and care they take the chestnuts for roasting. As they shift from side to side of a charcoal fire. How carefully cleaned of their husks. Honestly, you can look at it infinitesimal. And the smell, the smell of roasted chestnuts! If you know the smell of roasted chestnuts, you know the smell of Istanbul.

Just do not forget to add the smell of kebabs, fish sandwiches, freshly ground coffee and newly baked bread. Now just turned out the smell of Istanbul!