The Light ‘Bulb’ Moment!

July 29, 2015July 29, 201516 Comments

Karina’s Environmental Cooking Tip!

There are many light ‘bulb’ moments in life, however, pay attention to this particular ‘bulb.’ All you need to do, in order to grow garlic, is the following:

1/ Buy some garlic bulbs.

2/ Reserve a few individual garlic cloves, allowing them to sprout from the top, as (photographed by myself above).

3/ Once the garlic clove has sprouted, it is ready to plant, precisely how it looks in the picture above. You’ll need a pot, some regular soil from your garden and/or from your lawn. You’ll also need to mix about a quarter of the soil with all-purpose premium compost. With the compost, you can either buy this by the bag from your local farmer, nursery or supermarket. If you really want to be green, you can make your own compost, by depositing vegetable scraps into your soil or canister, then mixing this up with the rest of your soil.

4/ Completely fill your chosen pot with this nutrient-rich soil mixture.

5/ Plant the individual garlic clove in this pot, ensuring you only allow the green shoot (at the top of the clove) to protrude.

6/ Water well, to allow the garlic clove to settle in well.

7/ Place and keep your pot out in part sun and part shade. Near a fence would be great.

8/ Every few days, monitor for signs of new green growth.

9/ Water your garlic plant every 2 days and allow to grow.

10/ Your garlic is ready to be harvested, when half the leaves are dead and half are green.

11/ Don’t water the plant at this stage (for approximately 9 days), as you want to prevent the garlic plant from rotting.

12/ After your garlic plant has dried a little (after waiting approximately 9 days), you are ready to pluck this straight out of the ground. Do this, by grabbing at the base of the garlic plant, to prevent breakage.

Have fun in the garden and the kitchen!

Enjoy!

Karina x

Not Letting Food Go To ‘Waist!’

July 15, 201516 Comments

Nathalie’s Healthy Cooking Tip!

My Mum, Nathalie, has taught me heaps about healthy cooking, which is why this post is dedicated to her. Every time my Mum cooks, it is healthy and full of flavour. With the right amount of ingredients, you really don’t need all this fat in cooking. My Mum has many great ideas, with regards to healthy cooking, however, I will just touch on a few of the main ones.

Make a habit of removing all the skin of chicken, prior to cooking it, in order to eat more healthy. Skin is full of fat, which may make your food go to your ‘waist’ i.e. don’t let food go to ‘waist.’ (Nathalie’s Cooking Tip)

Whilst cooking or frying food in a pan, it is advisable to only put the smallest amount of oil required to cook your food. Olive oil is one of the best oils to use, if you would be using oil. Better still, steam or boil your vegetables, rather than frying them, unless you’re attentively watching the fat content in your fry pan. (Nathalie’s Cooking Tip)

Whilst baking, use fruits in order to naturally sweeten your bakes. This way, your bakes will still taste great and will also taste sweet from the natural sugars coming out of the fruit. (Nathalie’s Cooking Tip)

Try to use as little butter as possible in your baking and cooking. Try to replace butter with olive oil or another healthy cooking oil. Your bakes and cooking will still taste great, with nowhere near as much saturated fat contained in your cooking. If the recipe really needs butter, try replacing at least 3/4 of the butter for olive oil, then put the rest butter. Alternatively, you can experiment by using olive oil spread, which still has less saturated fat than butter. (Karina’s Cooking Tip)

Whenever you make a pasta dish, try to avoid cooking white sauces, as these are usually high in saturated fat. If you really would like to use a white sauce, then make your own and use low-fat cheese, low-fat milk and olive oil spread instead of butter. (Karina’s Cooking Tip)

There are many more tips I can think of, however, I will leave you with all this for now.

Enjoy!

Karina x