Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Fun Food Facts.


Did you know a packet of crisps takes 3 days to digest?


If you put a tooth in a glass of coke overnight, the sugar in the drink will make the tooth completely dissolve.


Carrots taste sweeter after they’ve been cooked.


Lemons contain more sugar than strawberries.


The first breakfast cereal ever produced was Shredded Wheat.


If you are cold you are more likely to be hungry because you use energy to keep warm.


70% of your body is water.


It takes 3500 calories to make a pound of fat.


The smaller the berry the sweeter the taste.


Popcorn has been around for 6000 years.


There are 1200 varieties of watermelon.


50 years ago Cheerios were called Cheerioats.


In New Zealand there are approximately 40 million sheep and only 4 million people meaning sheep outnumber people 10 to 1!


Ketchup and Tomato Sauce account for approximately half of all tomatoes eaten.


Taiwan's top selling pizza is a seafood delight with onions, peas, squid, shrimp and crab topping the pizza pie.


The average person could go without food for a month, but only for a week without water.


The first fruit to be eaten on the moon was a peach.


Almonds are a member of the peach family.


Apples are made up of 25% air, that is why they float. 


Apple seed contains cyanide. 


Avocado has the highest protein and oil content of all fruits, but most of this is the healthier unsaturated type.


Black-eyed peas are really beans.


Black pepper is the most popular spice in the world. 


Butter and margarine are similar in calories, the difference is that butter is higher in saturated fats, while margarine generally has more unsaturated fats. 


Capsaicin, which makes hot peppers "hot" to the human mouth, is best neutralized by casein, the main protein found in milk.


Chili heat is measured in Scoville units, named after the pharmacist Thomas Scoville.


Carrots were originally purple in colour, changing in the 17th Century to orange with newer varieties. 


Celery requires more calories to eat and digest than it contains. 


Cherries are a member of the rose family. 


Chocolate is a particularly good source of magnesium, potassium and calcium. It also has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. 


On the down side chocolate contains caffeine and has a high fat level. 


Coffee is the most recognized smell in the world. 


Cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them; a fully ripened cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball. 


Doughnuts were orginally made of raised dough with a nut in the centre.


Eggs contain most of the recognised vitamins with the exception of vitamin C.


Eggplants are actually fruits, and classified botanically as berries.


Fish consumption may be more than brain food but also help protect your eyes from age-related macular degeneration, a potential cause of blindness. 


The Himalayan gogi berry contains, weight for weight, more iron than steak, more beta carotene than carrots, more Vitamin C than oranges.


Honey is the only edible food for humans that will never go bad.


Margarine was first called Butterine in England when it was introduced.


Orange does not rhyme with any other word.


Peanuts caqn be one of the ingredients in dynamite.


Pear is a fruit that ripens from the inside out.


Pizza toppings of squid are the most popular variety in Japan.



Sandwiches are named after John Montagu, the Fourth Earl of Sandwich (1718-92), for whom beef was placed between 2 sliced pieces of bread so that he could stay at the gambling table without interruptions for meals.


Soup has its origin as a word from 'sop' or 'sup', meaning the slice of bread on which the broth was poured.


Soy flour and soya flour are richer in calcium and iron than wheat flour, gluten-free and high in protein.


Soy flour is ground from raw soybeans; soya flour from lightly toasted soybeans.


Strawberries are the only fruit which has its seeds on its outer skin.


Swiss cheese ferments with bacteria generating gas which bubbles through the cheese leaving holes; cheese-makers call them "eyes."


The herb Thyme's most active ingredient is thymol, the antibacterial ingredient found in mouthwashes and Vicks Vaporub.


White chocolate is not a true chocolate because it contains no chocolate liquor, instead its made of sugar, cocoa butter, milk solids, lecithin and vanilla. 


White shelled eggs are produced by hens with white feathers and earlobes while brown eggs are produced by hens with red feathers and earlobes; the colour has no relationship to the nutritional quality or taste of the eggs.


There are more chickens in the world than people!


Over the last half a century food production actually increased faster than population.


The onion is named after a Latin word meaning large pearl.


During a lifetime the average person eats about 35 tons of food.


In France, people eat approximately 500,000,000 snails per year.


Within 2 hours of standing in daylight, milk loses between half and two-thirds of its vitamin B content. 


Watermelons are 97% water, whilst lettuce 97%, tomatoes 95%, carrots 90%, and bread 30%.


Carrots are rich in beta-carotene, a substance our bodies convert into vitamin A.


When an egg floats in water, it is “off” and should not be eaten. As eggs age, gases build up inside the shell making it more buoyant. This is the best way to test whether an egg has gone rotten without having to break open the shell, risking the foul odor escaping.

Approximately 44 million tons of bananas are produced annually, compared to more than 60 million tomatoes. Apples are the third most popular (36 million tons), then oranges (34 million tons) and watermelons (22 million tons).


Coca-cola was originally green in colour. 


Eggplants are actually fruits, and classified botanically as berries. 


Fish consumption may be brain food, but also help protect your eyes from age-related macular degeneration, a potential cause of blindness.

Flamingos owe their pink or reddish colour to the rich sources of carotenoid pigments in the algae and small crustaceans that they eat. 

Fortune cookies are not Chinese, they were invented in Los Angeles around 1920.

Lettuce is the only vegetable or fruit which is not sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form but fresh.

Pineapple is the international symbol of hospitality.

Pizza originated in the early 1700's in Naples, Italy.

A raisin in a glass of champagne will keep floating to the top and sinking to the bottom.


Tomatoes used to be considered poisonous.


Wrigley's gum was the first product to have a bar code.


An ounce of chocolate contains about 20 mg of caffeine.


Chocolate is the number one flavour in the world, beating vanilla and banana by 3-to-1.


Over 90% of all fish caught are caught in the northern hemisphere. 

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Weird food holidays for 2012

May 27: Grape Popsicle Day
This is the one day that you can rejoice in the fact that you adore grape popsicles. For those of you that have never had a grape popsicle TRY IT. Don't just leave it in the box for it to get freezer burn.

June 13: Kitchen Klutzes of America Day
For those that are a klutz in the kitchen this is the day to celebrate you. We honor you and say "You did your best."

June 29: Cheese Sacrifice Purchase Day
Yeah it is always nice to make a super cheesy meal but don't you normally just want to keep it to yourself but today is the one day that you really have to decide to share or to keep it to yourself.

July 9: Don't Put All Your Eggs in One Omelet Day.
Just remember to not put all of the eggs into one omelet today.

August 12: Julienne Fries day
This is not the day to eat wedge fries or crinkle cut fries. This is the day to eat straight fries.

August 30: Toasted Marshmallow Day
This is the day to just have toasted Marshmallows by themselves with out the graham crackers and chocolate.

September 2: Blueberry Popsicle Day
Blueberry popsicles all day today. Now how awesome is that?

September 9: Wiener Schnizel Day
No this is not the day to eat at the hot dog place but to actually have breaded and friend meat.

September 10: TV dinner day
Forget making a actual meal (who really has time for that?) but actually sit down in front of the tv and just eat a good ole' tv dinner.

October 8: Fluffernutter Day
This one stumbled me. But with some good research so here is what Fluffernutter is: take two pieces of bread (any kind of bread), put peanut butter on one piece and marshmallow fluff on the other one. After spreading place the two pieces together and enjoy.

October 15: Chocolate Covered Insects day
This is the day where you get to live like a wild person and eat a insect best do it this day.

October 28: Wild Foods day
See those wild berries and other fruits on the side of the road? Be a dare devil and try them today

December 13: Ice Cream and violins day
Just sit back and listen to violin music while eating your favorite ice cream or while trying a new one.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Apple and Onion Salad Endive Spears

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 5 minutes
Ready in: 35 minutes

Serves: 30 servings

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup walnut pieces, minced
  • 2 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored, and minced
  • 1 large sweet onion, minced
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
  • 1/4 cup raw apple cider vinegar (such as Bragg®)
  • 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
  • 6 Belgian endives, separated into individual leaves

Directions

  1. Toast walnut pieces in a dry skillet over medium-high heat until aromatic and lightly browned, 3 to 5 minutes. Let cool to room temperature.
  2. Combine apples, onion, chives, and parsley in a bowl and toss well.
  3. Pour vinegar into a small bowl; drizzle and whisk olive oil into vinegar until emulsified. Pour dressing into apple mixture and toss to coat.
  4. Gently fold walnuts and blue cheese into apple mixture just before serving. Spoon filling onto each endive leaf.

(From allrecipes.com)