How to Make a Simple Cobb Salad

         Do not underestimate leftovers! Restaurateur Robert Cobb didn't. He took all the leftovers from his fridge at the Hollywood Brown Derby Restaurant back in 1930s, mixed them in a bowl and added dressing. That was he came up with one of America's most favorite, the Cobb salad.

Cobb salad comes in different variations but the classic one proves to be still the winner. It is kind of garden salad which main ingredients include vegetables, such as Romaine lettuce, endives, and watercress with crispy bacon, tomato, roast chicken breast, egg, avocado, Roquefort cheese, chives, and seasoned with red wine vinegar.

While most types of salad are tossed together, Cobb salad is served with all the ingredients arranged on the plate.

How To Prepare;

Below are your main ingredients and procedure for preparing your Cobb Salad.

Ingredients:

• Hard-boiled eggs 3 pcs. peeled and chopped
• Bacon Sliced
• Romaine lettuce 1 head, cut into bite-size
• Boiled chicken breast at least 4 cups, diced
• Avocados peeled and diced
• Tomatoes chopped
• Roquefort cheese 4 oz., crumbled

Dressing:

• Red Wine vinegar - 1/4 cup
• Dijon Mustard - 1/2 tsp
• Crushed garlic - 1 clove
• Worcestershire sauce - 1 tsp
• Salt - 1/4 tsp
• Olive oil - 1/3 cup
• Fresh ground black pepper - 1/2 tsp

Procedure;

1. First, fry the bacon, drain oil on a paper towel, and cut into crumbles.


2. Place romaine lettuce on a plate to serve as bed for the other recipes. Next, top the lettuce with chicken, bacon, eggs, tomatoes, avocados, and Roquefort cheese arranged in rows.


3. Prepare the dressing in a bowl. Mix the garlic, salt, pepper, mustard, Red Wine vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce. Then, put the olive oil and whisk. Pour the dressing on the salad and serve.

Health Facts;

The colorful and yummy Cobb Salad is not only a delectable dish with an interesting history. It also makes for a healthy main or side dish. For one, Cobb salad has enough proteins, the amino-acid carrying nutrient that is responsible for keeping your cells, skin, nails, and hair healthy. The Romaine lettuce is also rich in anti-oxidants such as beta-carotene, Vitamins C and K, iron, calcium, and folate, among others. Avocado is also high in B vitamins, potassium, and good fats.

Cobb salad is not actually an ideal meal for those who are on strict diet because of the high amount of calories gained through avocado, cheese, eggs, bacon and chicken.

But if you can't resist the Cobb Salad's tempting colorful, and yummy look, you can always put away half of the cheese, avocado, eggs, and bacon and leave just enough to satisfy your cravings without loading up the calories.

Click Here To Download your FREE, 77 page, step-by-step "The Beginner's Guide To Knife Skills and Kitchen Cutlery" eBook and start making your salad dressings, cooking stocks, sauces and much more now!

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Salad Basics - How To Make The Perfect Salad

        Salads have become a meal time standard. Toss up a starting course of some mixed greens, mix up a side dish of creamy potato salad or a hearty pasta salad for center stage. Now lets brush up on our salad basics.

Selecting Storing And Handling Salad Greens

You'll want to choose fresh, crisp greens with no bruises, discoloration or wilting.

You can choose from the below or mix as many of them as you like for a delicious green salad.

1. Arugula, has small slender, dark leaves that are similar to radish leaves. You'll want to choose smaller leaves for a milder flavor.

2.Radicchio, looks like a small loose leaf cabbage with small tender leaves and a some what bitter flavor.

3. Mixed Salad Greens (Prepackaged ) You'll find these for sale in most supermarkets and grocery stores and you can use these salad greens as a base for lots of other salads.

4. Spinach, you can choose packages of baby spinach and add a lot of flavor to any salad. Baby spinach is also very good for you.

5. Cabbage, you can add finely shredded red, purple, or regular cabbage to your mix and add a lot of body, flavor, and depth with this choice.

6. Wild Greens, you'll usually find these sold as a prepackaged mix and they include dandelion, oak leaf lettuce, chickweed, chervil, and a few others. These pack a lot of flavor.

7. Iceberg, This is one of the old time favorites that a lot of people use. Shred it up in long ribbons and add a delightfully unique texture.

Once you've chosen your green mixture you can add red sweet onion, radishes, bell peppers, green onions, chives, cucumbers, broccoli, canned washed and drained beans, hot peppers, tuna, chicken, baby corn, and lots of other choices to come up with a delightfully delicious salad that will have people including you wanting more.

You'll want to be sure to choose fresh, crisp greens that have no bruises, discoloration or spots. If the greens look wilted or discolored discard them and don't use.

For best results mix mild flavored greens with more flavorful ones. Try tossing iceberg with spinach with a few pine nuts thrown in to build a delicious flavorful salad with a lot of body and flavor. Top it with feta cheese, diced fresh tomatoes, and crumbled bacon for a tasty treat that will have you wanting more.

Tomatoes have a lot of water in them so wait until your just about ready to serve your salad before you add the tomatoes. Try all the new heirloom tomatoes showing up at flea markets and farmers markets now. If you do you'll find some delicious new flavors.

And finally no recipe is written in stone. Try thinking outside the box and come up with combinations that you like. Your going after flavors that you like or that compliment each other or you should be. Try adding pine nuts, fine chopped anchovies, crumbled blue cheese or other unique ingredients to bring out delightfully new flavors that people are sure to love.

Thomas Byers has been an award winning Chef and Herbal Researcher for over forty years now. You can click the below link and check out all his latest Hub Pages.

http://crazyhorsesghost.hubpages.com/

You'll find that he enjoys writing on a variety of subjects and he really enjoys sharing recipes, herbal information, and cooking advice with his readers. Mr Byers has been a working Executive Chef for over forty years and he has a lot of great cooking knowledge to share.

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Good Oils For Fat Loss

               Why are some oils and fats bad for cooking and make you fat? Some oils raise your LDL ("bad") cholesterol and lowers your HDL ("good") cholesterol, which increases your risk of heart disease. Relying on just any oil to cook with may be very bad for your health. Caution should be taken when buying and using cooking oil to prevent long-term health damage and increase your body fat.

Here are some tips for buying and using cooking oils.

• Soybean oil which is usually known as a vegetable oil. Contains synthetic trans fat and is probably the worst fat you can eat. Soybean oil is very high in linoleic acid and in omega-6 fatty acids. Your body needs a balance of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids for optimal health. Soybean oil goes rancid quickly which can lead to cancer and other diseases.


• Margarine is another oil or made of vegetable oil which is high in trans fats which are bad for you. Even if the label does say "low in trans fat" or "no trans fat" it can still contain up to 0.5 percent trans fat and the manufacturer can still claim "no trans fat".


• Canola oil is typically genetically modified. It contain a smaller amount of erucic acid than it used to but it has not been completely taken out. Erucic acid has been linked to heart damage.


• Corn oil is another oil which has an imbalance of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids, with more omega-6. Corn oil will last longer than soy and canola oil for going rancid, but caution should be taken with this oil too. The majority of corn these days is genetically modified also.


• Olive oil is very healthy for you but is not a good cooking oil. When used a higher cooking temperatures it releases free radicals which are bad for you. Free radicals are organic molecules responsible for aging, tissue damage, and possibly some diseases.

Ok, so if these are bad are there any good oils to cook with? Yes, there is. Here are some of the good oils and fats to cook with.

• Coconut oil is very good for cooking and can handle the high heat in the kitchen. It helps lowering LDL cholesterol in your body and it helps in lowering body fat also.


• Butter from grass-fed cows is great and helps you lose fat. This butter is rich in antioxidants and helps your cholesterol levels. Grass-fed cows are much healthier and contain conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) which fights fat so you can lose the weight.


• Sesame seed oil is good for cooking and salads. It's been linked to lowering LDL cholesterol levels and is high in antioxidants and vitamin E. It is healthy for you and helps in lowering fat levels in the body.


• Grape seed oil is good for cooking and is high in antioxidants. You can sauté or bake with this oil and is excellent on salads.

You do have many options for fat loss and nutrition
when cooking for yourself or your family. It can be easy and fun. Find more options here, http://www.squidoo.com/nutrition-and-fat-loss.

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Top Four Reasons For Choosing A Natural Health Remedy for Your Child

More children are on medication today than any other time in our history.

The facts alone point to this trend:

•  1 out of 4 kids today are on a regularly prescribed pharmaceutical drug (source: "Four Things Every Parent Should Know", Dr. Stephen Chaney, 2011)
• In 2008, the CDC reported that 2 out of the 4 most commonly used drugs were for children's asthma and stimulant drugs for adolescents. (source: Prescription Drug Use Continues to Increase: U.S. Prescription Drug Data for 2007-2008, CDC.gov, Sept 2010)

This drug increase does not seem to be helping to improve the health of our kids. It is only getting worse. More children are struggling with weight issues than ever before, and allergies in the school classrooms are becoming more and more common, just to name a few.

A natural remedy can be a helpful alternative for families wanting to see some different results.

1. To Avoid unwanted side effects

All medications come with side effects--some more obvious or serious than others. I heard recently that for every person taking a prescription medication, they are also taking at least one additional medication to treat it's side effects. The same is undoubtedly true for our kids.

For example, conventional treatments for ADHD/ADD, also known as psychostimulant drugs, have a wide range of side effects in kids. Most children have issues with insomnia and loss of appetite. These two areas alone rob children of the most beneficial methods the body uses to heal and repair the brain--sleep and proper nutrition.

We know several children on regular allergy medications as well, and they consistently exhibit lack of energy and large dark circles underneath the eyes.

Side effects may also come from regularly used over-the-counter treatments. Just pick up a bottle of children's medicine and read the warnings. These grave warnings simply don't exist when utilizing a nutritional healing approach. (I can see it now, "Warning: Too much vitamin C will increase the response of your immune system and might reduce some unknown inflammation.")

Prescription antibiotics also pose an insidious threat to the long-term health of our kids. While knocking out an infection, they also serve to wipe out the immune support system, leaving kids vulnerable to repeat infections and worse: candida overgrowth.

2. To Avoid Ineffective Treatment

Not all medical treatments or over the counter drugs are proven to be effective 100% of the time.

Children's cough and cold remedies are very slow to work (if they work effectively at all), whereas an effective herbal remedy can work within minutes and hours.

Antibiotic mis-use and overuse has caused many bacterial strains to adapt and become resistant to treatment.

It is not uncommon for people to undergo several different antibiotics to treat one strain of a flu virus before they find one that works. This trial and error could take weeks. Meanwhile, the pain and discomfort continue to linger and/or get worse.

The benefit of a proper all-natural remedy is that it works every time. The bacteria never build up a resistance to herbs or nutrients.

We use an infection "bomb" in our home that works on every single infection, no matter the cause or location. What a relief when you have kids in your home!

3. To Aid and stimulate healing

The conventional medical approach deals mainly with managing symptoms, not with actual healing at the root cause of the issue.

For example:

• Allergy shots to reduce body's response to allergens
• Acetaminophen to bring a fever down or take away pain.
• Antacids to reduce digestive discomfort.
• Creams and lotions to soothe irritated skin and rashes.

Those are all "management" solutions.

Our medical system has become great at treating symptoms but further away from the original intent of medicine which was to heal the body. (see: Hippocrates, the father of western medicine)

A natural, nutritional approach is more holistic in nature. The goal is to support the body's natural processes of healing, regeneration, and cellular repair.

4. To Save Time and Money

With a natural treatment from home, you no longer have to sit in doctors' offices or spend time hunting down several different specialists. No extra time out of school. No additional hours lost at work.

An effective natural solution that aids healing can ward off future surgeries or long-term medical treatments that may otherwise be incurred.

It is true that everything comes with a cost. It is our choice whether we pay now to invest in better health or pay later for unhealthy alternatives that really don't work.

Natural remedies can work miracles in children, whose bodies are already growing, responding, and metabolizing at a much faster rate than ours.

Bonnie Hershey is a work-at-home mom who began her own business in 2009. She is a health coach, speaker, and author of her first ebook, "The 6 Great Lies of the American Diet."

Bonnie is passionate about kids' nutrition and excels in helping families find all-natural solutions for common health issues. She has used these same practices with her own family for the last seven years.

The online arm of her business is ProvenNutritionForKids.com where she is able to branch out and help families not just locally but all around the world. She also has begun training other parents to become health coaches as well and create a movement for better health.

For more information, visit http://www.ProvenNutritionForKids.com and sign up for the monthly ezine and a free copy of her ebook.

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Weight Loss Options For Children

           Weight loss options for children are becoming increasingly available as the epidemic of childhood obesity becomes common knowledge. If your child is significantly overweight you may want to consider a weight loss camp or residential weight loss program. However, your child needs to have motivation and willingness to lose weight. It is not recommended to force your child into a weight loss program or send him or her off to a weight loss camp against his or her wishes.

If your child is agreeable, getting out of the home environment by going to a weight loss camp can be a good experience. Your child may find it considerably easier to lose weight in a safe, clinically appropriate environment. Of course, it will be important to research the programs available to select a good program or camp for your child.

The single most important action a parent can take to help his/her child lose weight is to be a good role model. Parents can, without thinking set their children up to become and/or stay overweight. Providing children with Little Debby cupcakes, chips, ice cream treats and candy bars for snacks sends a bad message to kids and helps them pack on the pounds. Treating children with high sugar and or high processed foods is another way to increase chances of having an obese child. To be a good role model, buy fresh fruits, vegetables, low fat cheese, lean meat and whole grain products.

Include exercise in your family routines. Take walks or bike rides, for example on a regular basis.
Keep appropriate lengths of time for TV viewing or computer use. Your children need to move around. Sitting in a chair or on a couch will not help your child drop weight.

Jeanne Simmons is a Nurse Practitioner and Weight Control Therapist with many years experience. Visit her blog and read about the one plan she recommends which will be the last plan you'll every need.

Read more about Jeanne here.

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Healthy Weight Loss for Children and Teens Starts In the Mind

           We care about our children and want them to be healthy. The truth is it's not always easy to introduce or maintain healthy eating habits in our busy lives when we are constantly bombarded with the unhealthy. Our western society today includes a lot of daily TV programming with an abundance of unhealthy food commercials, not enough exercise, insatiable fast food dining and not enough healthy family meals gathered around the dinner table.

However, the good news is that there are numerous ways to help your child or teen feel great about him or herself and lose those extra unwanted pounds without any quick weight loss schemes.

Weight loss starts in the mind and it goes hand and hand with how we view ourselves. Coupled with unhealthy eating habits, many children and teens already at this tender age, see themselves as unhealthy, not beautiful and many even call themselves downright fat. Those unhealthy projections create the energy for what becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. As loving parents, we can help our children by educating them, and sometimes that even includes reeducating ourselves. Before even touching on the subject of food however, the power of words and thoughts needs to be clearly understood and skillfully used.

First, being by teaching your child about visualization. Visualization is holding an image of a desired result in the mind. When a child understands that mind is the builder of experience, he or she can begin to focus energies upon what is desired rather than what one believes is true or inevitable. Let's say for example that every day you look at yourself in the mirror and you say "look how fat I am!" What happens over time, because of your constant visualization and the power of your very own words and thoughts, what you believe long enough will eventually manifest itself. Little by little the scale will creep up. For you, it will just be confirmation of what you thought you saw in the mirror. Now the scale says it too, so it must be true. Do you see the never-ending cycle here? It is self created and self propelled. This is not to say that food choices do not matter. But feeling fat and getting there are usually traveling partners accompanied by unhealthy food choices.

Use the power of visualization for good. Use it to create your ideal body and help your child or teen do the same. Sometimes it can be difficult for a child to imagine what she will look like thinner. If this is the case, just ask her to just imagine if she were just a bit thinner or healthier and see if that is more helpful. Ask her to imagine how she will physically feel when it is easy to run up and down stairs or do anything that seems difficult at present due to extra weight. Close your eyes together and engage your child every day in a creative daydream. It's a fun activity. It will bring you closer and help your child feel your support and loving encouragement.

Even when you're not visualizing together, ask your child or teen to picture her goal each and every day, several times a day even, and make it as real as possible. Ask her to feel herself walking, playing, and moving inside her new, ideal body; continually imagining how she is more slender and healthier as she moves closer and closer to her goal.

Sadly, overweight children are often the victim of bullying. In fact, overweight children and those considered obese are bullied far more than other children. Chances are, your child will have felt the effects of bullying at some point. This is a big concern to parents and we want to help our children be healthy, safe and not be victims. Your child may feel embarrassed about any bullying she has received, but it's important to openly discuss the issue. If you are reluctant to speak about the issue of weight loss, guide the conversation in such a way that your child will have the opportunity to openly express her opinions and feelings. Many children come to us pleading for answers. They already know a change is needed, they are just not sure how to begin. Remember that weight loss will be a natural, easy consequence of sustained healthy eating and lifestyle choices. Weight loss should not be the only or primary goal. If weight loss is the only goal, then the new improved lifestyle may not last because once the weight is gone, old patterns will resurface and the weight will most likely be regained. We want to ensure permanent change for the better, and get to the fundamentals rather than just temporarily easing the symptom of extra pounds.

Relaxation should be coupled with the daily visualizations to heighten the inner experience and bring it closer to home. Relaxation allows us to fully focus our attention on the images and to imagine more easily. This can be done by quieting the mind and body before visualizing or using a guided relaxation Cd.

Affirmations are another excellent tool to teach and support children and teens while they are losing weight and getting healthier. Affirmations such as "I make healthy food choices" "I am beautiful" " I am getting healthier each day." "I am at peace with my body" "I take care of my body" and "I love to move my body and play" are all excellent affirmations. Affirmations are always positive in nature and should be truths. If a child doesn't feel beautiful, then help her say "I am beginning to feel prettier each day." Ideally, affirmations should be used several times a day and repeating them in the mirror is very helpful.

Next you will need to root out any misguided behaviors like comfort eating. Some overeating issues stem from "comfort eating". Physiologically, we do know that certain foods have specific effects on our bodies - chocolate for example soothes the nerves and it increases endorphins in the brain - therefore reducing stress in the body, and making us feel happier. When endorphins later decrease, we reach for more. It's important your child know the difference between real bodily hunger and eating out of comfort. It's important then to address any emotional issues and stressors in your child's life and use stress management and relaxation techniques with your children.

Sometimes children learn from our own coping behaviors, and sometimes they learn these things on their own. If you feel your child may be eating to comfort herself, then take extra time to talk it out and let your child know that you are available and ready to talk whenever needed. Help your child discover the joy and relief of sincerely sharing what's on their heart with someone who truly cares about her. Additionally teach relaxation techniques along with stress and anger management to help your child thrive and not reach for food out of comfort or stress relief.

Finally, be the healthiest family you can be and support your child in making healthy choices. Make sure to acknowledge those healthy choices and how proud you are of your child. Make yourself an example as well by eating healthy foods that taste delicious and are good for you, at home, eating out, and at the store. Make your meals revolve around healthy fruits and vegetables and use everything else as a condiment. If something in particular is giving your child or teen difficulty, just don't buy it. If it's not in the house, it's harder to get. Grab some healthy cookbooks from the library and learn to prepare food together and have fun sharing this new adventure. Most importantly, remember that healthy eating must be enjoyable to be sustainable. As you retrain your family's palate to natural foods, infuse love and joy into the process. Make it fun to make educated choices. Ask your child to feel the energy brought by better nutrients and how much more energy the body has available. Healthy eating will affect your child not only physically, but emotionally and psychologically as well. You will start to notice drastic positive changes just within in a few short weeks. As parents, we should feel that our job educating our children about nutrition ends when the healthy choices become the usual and less healthy choices are the exception. So let's start today enjoying good nutritional food. Here's to our family's health. Bon Appetite!

Mellisa Dormoy is the founder of ShambalaKids Relaxation CD's for kids and teens. Mellisa specializes in guided imagery and children and teen's self-esteem.

You can find more information about Mellisa and her work, including more articles and resources at http://www.kidsmeditationcds.net/healthseries.htm

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