If you’re anything like us, you hate slaving away in the kitchen when the temperatures start rising. Beat the heat with these delicious, low-maintenance recipes that are perfect for the dog days of summer. Best part? You won’t even need to touch the stove! The recipes below each serve 4-6 people and only take about 30 minutes to prepare. Served all together, this a great menu for a light and healthy summer dinner. Buen Provecho!
TRADITIONAL GAZPACHO:
Ingredients
10 oz of bread (soaked)
21 oz. of chopped tomato
2 …

The first step to healthy weight loss is educating yourself in the calorie counts of various foods .

Few basic calorie counts of certain foods that are consumed daily are sorted out here to guide all of you how much they are contributing to your diet.

For your ease to convert 100 gm serving use this .

3.5 oz = 100 gm = 7 tablespoons

These are rough estimates as various sites quote different counts however its to give you an idea of the basic calorie range so you can do a quick mental count when eating .

So part of the Challenge is to make people aware of the calories they are consuming and many times we under-estimate the calorie counts especially since most of our traditional foods and snacks are fried.

Breads :

1 medium chappati…………….119

Ingredients:
——————
► 1-3/4 tbsp cumin seeds
► 1-3/4 tbsp black peppercorns
► 6 cloves
► 2 cardamom
► 1tsp coriander seeds

One of Karachi’s most popular restaurants always hit by Tsunami of public. It is not easy to get a seat especially at weekends but if you succeeded in sitting it’s worth visiting. Karachites descend to devour their delicacies to this exotic restaurant.
It serves at least 2,500 – 3000 people every night. The restaurant is built over 4 storeys, with the rooftop being the ideal spot to enjoy your tikkas, kebabs, ribs and naans hot off the oven.  Food quality has remained consistently excellent for over 15 years and prices are reasonable …

Early research in the 70s already showed the benefits of shiitake mushroom in lowering cholesterol. Research conducted in Japan identified a specific amino acid in shiitake that helps speed up the processing of cholesterol in the liver.
In a 1974 study (reported by Kenneth Jones in “Shiitake Medicine in a mushroom,” Herbs for Health, Jan/Feb 1997), 40 elderly individuals and 420 young women consumed nine grams of dried shiitake or the equivalent amount of fresh …

Rule of thumb:
Use the oil-grease analogy when you buy foods:
when you can see liquid oil, the food most likely will increase your good cholesterol
when food is solid and fat, without liquid oil (butter, cookies) they will increase your bad cholesterol
Diets for high cholesterol, that is: diets to lower cholesterol levels, should include lots of fruits and vegetables, replace meat with fish and use oil for

Pomegranate juice has become popular in the past few years, but does it really live up to the hype? It looks like it.

Several recent studies have shown significant potential health benefits from drinking pomegranate juice. Here are eleven of them for you:

Fights Breast Cancer
Studies in Israel show that pomegranate juice destroys breast cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone.

If you chow down on curry dishes regularly, give yourself a pat on the back (or tummy). You probably gobble the spicy stuff because it’s delicious, but here’s another good reason to load curry sauce on your veggies: turmeric, the main ingredient in curry, is proving to have numerous health benefits. Ounce for ounce, few spices can compete with the health-promoting effects of turmeric. Commonly used in curry sauces in South Asian cuisine, this golden yellow spice is showing up with increasing frequency in medical journals all over the world …

Sometimes it is hard to trace a recipe’s origin. Take the Red Velvet Cake. There are many theories; some say it comes from the South, others say it originated in the North. But in actual fact all we really know is that it has been a favorite for decades, not only in the States but also in Canada (it used to be sold in Eaton’s Department Stores). It is a very dramatic looking cake with its unusual bright red color that is sharply contrasted by a creamy white frosting. A Red Velvet …

Start with Batter for a 2-Layer Cake and Evenly divided the batter between the 2 pans.Instead of baking the batter in 2- 8 or 9-inch round pans, divide the batter between one 8-inch round pan and one 8-inch square pan.

After the cake has cooled (15 minutes in the pan and completely on a rack) evenly cut the round layer in half.
It’s a good idea to verify the fit. As you can see, they aren’t exactly even.

Take a cake knife (finely-serrated long-bladed knife) and slice some cake off of the bottom …