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Make your own pasta

To make pasta for four people

Ingredients

• 200g (7 oz) unbleached white or wholemeal flour. Hard wheat flour, used for bread making rather than cake making, is best thanks to its a higher gluten content. It is a fascinating adventure to grind your own flour from wheat grains using a hand grain mill.
• 2 eggs
• ½ teaspoon salt

Mix the flour and salt in a bowl, form a well, and break the eggs into the well. Using your fingertips or a spoon, mix the flour into the egg until you have a smooth, firm dough.

Without a Pasta Maker

1. Lightly flour a clean work surface andknead the dough for around ten minutes, dampening with just a little water if the mixutre is crumbly. Divide the dough into several balls, and put all but one back in the bowl.
2. Cover the bowl with a damp, but not wet, cloth to prevent drying.
3. Roll out the first ball of dough using a rolling pin or a cleaned empty wine bottle until it is very thin, lightly flouring if necessary to avoid sticking.

Using your Home Made Pasta Sheets

When you first make pasta, make simple shapes such as lasagne or tagliatelle, thin strips of flat pasta. It is perfectly possible to make more complicated pasta shapes such as ravioli, but it is more fiddly and time-consuming, and can be frustrating until you are familiar with handling the fresh pasta dough.

Tagliatelle

Using a sharp knife, or the strip cutter on your pasta machine, cut your thin sheet of pasta into strips. Hand the strips up to dry for an hour; a simple way to do this is to support the two ends of a wooden spoon, or a clean wooden dowel on tall jars. Drape the pasta strips over the handle of the spoon or the wooden dowel.

Once dried, bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil, add the pasta and cook for 2-3 minutes only. Serve immediately, either simply with a little olive oil and herbs, or with a suitable sauce.

Lasagna

You do not need to dry lasagna or cook lasagne sheets before baking. You can use your fresh lasagne with any of your favourite lasagne recipes. Grease your oven dish, add a first layer of sauce, and cover with sheets of fresh pasta. Cover the pasta with sauce and then add another layer of pasta. Repeat alternating pasta/sauce layers to fill the dish. Add a topping of grated cheese or cheese sauce.

Bake in an oven at 200°C (400°F) for 45 minutes.

Runners Diet

Are you a runner who wants to keep off those unwanted pounds and optimize performance? Do you run and still fail to lose weight? You're not alone! Many runners assume they can rely solely on physical activity to control their weight, but that's not the case.

"Calories do count, and our underestimation of the amount we eat and the overestimation of the amount we burn is one of the fundamental reasons that recreational runners need a diet especially for them." – Dr. Madelyn H. Fernstrom

Don't struggle to find the right balance of diet and exercise to achieve your weight loss goals! Finally, there is a weight management program designed specifically for runners!

New Studies Showing Simple Dietary Improvements

CONAGRA FOODS RELEASES NEW STUDIES SHOWING SIMPLE DIETARY IMPROVEMENTS REAP BIG GAINS FOR HEALTH AND PRODUCTIVITY

Studies show reduction of daily caloric intake by as little as 100 calories has potential to save approximately $100 billion annually

OMAHA, Neb., June 30, 2009 – ConAgra Foods announced today the results of two new studies showing modest reductions in calorie and sodium intake can significantly benefit health, leading to improved productivity and a reduction in U.S. medical expenditures. The analysis of government data is the first of its kind to document the impact of positive diet improvements on a nationwide basis.

The research, published in the July issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion, is critical to understanding how to improve health through dietary choices, says lead author Timothy Dall of The Lewin Group. “One of the most revealing findings was just how big an impact 100 calories less per day can have compared to the more modest benefit of sodium reductions,” Dall said. 

ConAgra Foods commissioned the studies as part of the company’s overarching commitment to health and wellness, which it supports through programs like Start Making Choices, a consumer health and wellness program that encourages healthy habits for a balanced life.  The studies were conducted by The Lewin Group and Nutrition Impact, LLC. 

“As a leading food company, it’s important for us to create an understanding of the link between diet and health for our consumers,” said Mark Andon, vice president of Nutrition at ConAgra Foods.  “A key learning here is that making simple dietary improvements—such as a Healthy Choice meal in place of take-out lunch, Egg Beaters instead of eggs, and Orville Redenbacher’s SmartPop! as a whole grain, calorie-controlled, reduced-sodium snack—empowers people to make meaningful changes that can translate to healthier lives, less costly health care, and increased productivity.”

The studies documented the impact of diet changes among the 225 million adults living in America by using information from sources such as the National Center for Health Statistics, The National Academy of Sciences and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The results show eating 100 calories less per day for each adult would lead to more than $100 billion in savings over the entire adult population based on today’s costs. This would come from $58 billion worth of medical cost savings by reducing the number of cases of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and other diseases; plus an increase in national productivity of $46 billion due to reduced absenteeism and disability. By comparison, this research found that the combined economic gain from medical cost savings and productivity gains from reducing dietary sodium intake by 400 milligrams would be about $5 billion.

 “Larger changes in calories and sodium intake would generate greater medical cost savings and more improvements in productivity,” Dall said. “Based on our analysis, cutting calories by 500 per day would lead to $243 billion in savings, whereas, reducing sodium by 1100 milligrams would generate $11 billion in savings. Although many adults could benefit from cutting back on both sodium and calories, the return on investment for long-term health is clearly greater for calories.”

ConAgra Foods, Inc., (NYSE: CAG) is one of North America’s leading food companies, with brands in 97 percent of America’s households. Consumers find Banquet, Chef Boyardee, Egg Beaters, Healthy Choice, Hebrew National, Hunt’s, Marie Callender’s, Orville Redenbacher’s, PAM, Peter Pan, Reddi-wip and many ConAgra Foods brands in grocery, convenience, mass merchandise and club stores. ConAgra Foods also has a strong business-to-business presence, supplying potato, other vegetable, spice and grain products to a variety of well-known restaurants, foodservice operators and commercial customers. For more information, please visit us atwww.conagrafoods.com.

Gingered Beef & Broccoli Salad Bowl

Gingered Beef & Broccoli Salad Bowl
Start to Finish: 20 min.

Gingered Beef & Broccoli Salad Bowl
Ingredients

* 12 oz. beef sirloin steak
* 2/3 cup bottled ginger vinaigrette salad dressing
* 3 cups broccoli florets
* 8 cups mixed spring or baby salad greens
* 1 medium red sweet pepper

Directions

1. Trim fat from beef. Thinly slice beef across the grain into bite-size strips; set aside.

2. In a wok or large skillet heat 2 tablespoons of the salad dressing over medium-high heat. Add broccoli. Cook and stir for 3 minutes. Add beef to wok or skillet. Cook and stir 2 to 3 minutes or until beef is slightly pink in center. Remove beef and broccoli from wok or skillet. Remove stem end and seeds from sweet pepper. Cut sweet pepper in bite-size strips.

3. In large bowl combine greens, sweet pepper, beef, and broccoli. Drizzle remaining salad dressing; toss to coat. Makes 4 servings.
Nutrition Facts

* Calories 237,
* Total Fat (g) 9,
* Saturated Fat (g) 2,
* Monounsaturated Fat (g) 1,
* Polyunsaturated Fat (g) 0,
* Cholesterol (mg) 60,
* Sodium (mg) 468,
* Carbohydrate (g) 17,
* Total Sugar (g) 10,
* Fiber (g) 4,
* Protein (g) 22,
* Vitamin C (DV%) 176,
* Calcium (DV%) 8,
* Iron (DV%) 21,
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

How To Track Your Milage

Map my fitness is another great tool to monitor your fitness and distance. Check out the following, MapMyFitness hosts an array of sites including MapMyRun.com, MapMyRide.com, MapMyWalk.com, MapMyHike.com, MapMyTri.com and MapMyFitness.com

A funny thing happened the other day...

I was taking my dog, Copper, for a run. It amazes me how he recognizes my running clothes and immediately starts to get excited, anticipating the upcoming exercise. I made sure I had a plastic bag attached to his leash, as he often stops for a poop break at some point on our morning runs. Now here’s a question I have always wondered about. If you clean up after your dog, and it happens to be trash day in the neighborhood you’re running through, can you put the poop bag in someone’s trash? I don’t know. So 2 miles in, Copper did his business and I cleaned up after him. Rather than risk a neighbor seeing me put the bag in their trash, I waited until I saw a construction dumpster. Jack pot! I dropped the bag in.

 After the turn around, Copper started circling in someone’s yard like he was going to poop again. “Oh no!” I thought, I didn’t have another bag. So now what do I do? He pooped in a nicely manicured yard and I was sure the owner was watching out the bedroom window waiting for me for me to take off without cleaning it up. As I was conflicted about whether I should ring the bell and let the homeowner know I didn’t have a bag but I would come back after my run to clean up, or just keep running. I remembered a time early on in Copper’s life when I was in similar situation. I was two doors down from our house when he pooped in the neighbors yard, I turned around to come home and get a bag, when the neighbor opened the door and yelled at me. I told him I lived two houses away and I was just going to get a bag. He gave me a smug “all right then.”

At this juncture of Copper’s poopie morning, I decided I’d ring the doorbell and let the homeowner know what happened.After-all, I always tell my kids it’s important to do the right thing. So I rang the doorbell and waited. I heard a dog barking inside and saw the cute little mutt that belonged to that voice. Just as I was thinking maybe they had gone to work for the day, the door opened and there was a man in his pajamas talking on his cell phone. “oh dear” I thought, I should have kept running. I started to say hi when his dog sprang out the door and started attacking Copper. The next 2 minutes were a series of catastrophes while he tried to pull his dog off of Copper, and Copper slipped out of his leash and a big beautiful flower pot tipped over spilling dirt all over the porch. Oh man, I really should have kept running and ignored the whole “do the right thing” mantra in my head. Once he got his dog inside, I kept apologizing profusely, I told him I just wanted to let him know my dog had pooped in his yard and I didn’t have a bag to clean it up. Luckily, he was so gracious. He introduced himself and said not to worry at all. He was more concerned about Copper’s well being and wanted to make sure his dog hadn’t hurt Copper.

In that ten minute delay, did it pay off to do the right thing? I would say yes. I met a nice neighbor and didn’t piss anyone off by leaving Copper’s mess in their yard. I might think things through a little more next time before ringing the doorbell, or at least I won’t throw away the used bag just in case I need it again.

Shrimp Bog

1/2 lb. sliced bacon, finely diced

2 med. onions, finely chopped

1 1/2 cups uncooked, long grain rice

3 1/4 cups lowfat chicken broth

1 1/2 cups peeled chopped tomatoes with juices

2 tsp. fresh lemon juice

1 1/2 tsp. worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. each of cayenne & black pepper

2 lbs. medium shrimp, cleaned/deveined

1/4 c. chopped parsley

In large pot, fry bacon over medium heat, drain and set aside. Pour off all but 2 Tbs. of fat. Add onions, cook for 3 minutes over medium heat, stirring

Add rice, 2 1/4 c. of broth, tomatoes with juices, lemon juice, worcestershire, salt, nutmeg, cayenne and black pepper. Bring to a low simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes

3. Stir in bacon, shrimp, and remaining cup of broth. Continue cooking uncovered for 10 minutes. Stir with a fork and top with parsley.