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National Iced Tea Day

Ok.  So, I’m a day late (and a dollar short LOL) for National Iced Tea Day.  I guess the official day is June 10, but hey, who knew?!?   Well, since I love me some tea (hot tea, iced tea……I don’t discriminate!), I thought it would be awesome for me to officially recognize this day and celebrate every year thereafter.

Master tea blenders Harney & Sons and mixologists at N.Y.C.’s West Village restaurant Lowcountry, each share two delicious tea-based recipes that are perfect for entertaining or just cooling off on these hot summer days.

Cheers!!!

xoxox………….Tara

Raspberry Champagne Cordial

• 8 tbsp or 6 teabags Raspberry Herbal tea

• 2 tbsp sugar

• 1 bottle champagne or Prosecco (chilled)

• 12-18 fresh raspberries

Step 1: Bring ½ cup (120ml) of water just to a boil. Stir in the tea leaves and sugar and steep for 3 to 4 minutes. Strain the liquid into a small spouted measuring cup, pressing to extract as much liquid as possible, and refrigerate until cold.

Step 2: Pour the champagne into 6 flutes. Slightly tipping each glass, carefully pour about 1 ½ tbsp of the chilled tea down the interior side of each flute. Add 2 to 3 raspberries to each. Serves six.

Recipe courtesy of The Tea Cookbook by master tea blender and Harney family patriarch, John Harney, with Joanna Pruess.

• First muddle 4 mint leaves and 3-4 blackberries

• Add ½ oz. simple syrup

• Add 1 ¾ oz. of Firefly sweet tea bourbon

• Add ¼ oz. of fresh lemon juice

• Top with splash of water, shake and strain over ice

• Garnish with lemon and mint leaves

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As most of you will come to find out, I am an avid watcher of Kathie Lee and Hoda.  My job is allows for me to watch it most days and I love it.  A new game show on OWN, Are You Normal, America, premiered last week.  The point of the show is to depict whether a person’s habits in life are normal or not by answering certain questions.

KLG and Hoda thought it would be fun to include the audience to see how normal they are.  Out of all the questions asked, one stood out the most and caused the most controversy.. is it normal to sleep naked?  Kathie Lee and Hoda BOTH thought that sleeping in the buff was absolutely normal but according to the survey, only 43% of people actually sleep in the nude.  Of course they were both shocked by this “revelation” and so were many of their viewers.

On today’s show they brought up the topic again because of the overwhelming response to last week’s show.  It seems as though the new game show got one wrong with that one.  Most people seem to be okay with sleeping naked, even Kathie Lee confessed to sleeping in nothing but her wedding ring – Go girl!!!!

I, myself, used to sleep in nothing but my underwear until our household grew and I felt that is was not appropriate to sleep naked, especially with a little one getting in my bed in the middle of the night.

Below, I included the link to the video and the article from www.KLGandHoda.com.  (Skip to the 6:20 mark on the video to watch this segment of the show.)

So I pose the question to you.. Is is normal or not to sleep naked?!?

xoxox…….Tara

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The X Factor boss is rumoured to be planning to branch out in a new direction, launching the hunt for Britain’s tastiest dish.

Food glorious food: Simon Cowell is reportedly interested in launching a cooking show Pic: ©Copetti/Photo Fab/Rex Features

Simon Cowell might be known for his enviable position in the music industry, but it looks like the X Factor boss is about to turn his attention to a new venture – cooking.

It is understood that Cowell’s production company Syco is in discussions to launch a cooking talent show that will hunt to find the ‘best British dish’. However reports that chef Gordon Ramsay on the show are believed to be untrue.

The show, which has a working title of Food Glorious Food, would see a range of cooks and chefs battle it out to create kitchen masterpieces.

They would also be expected to prove to the experts that the story has a strong British story behind it, in order to be in with a shot of landing the top prize of £20,000. The winning dish will then be sold on the shelves of Marks & Spencer.

Simon hasn’t commented on the stories as yet, but an announcement is expected to be made next month, for the show which will be on ITV.

We’d absolutely love to see Mr Cowell behind a hot stove himself with a pinny on, whipping up culinary creations himself, but we’re not quite sure that’s on the cards just yet!

Meanwhile Cowell has his hands full just now with the X Factor USAauditions, with new recruits Demi Lovato and Britney Spears settling in well alongside him and L.A. Reid.

The UK auditions are also continuing around the country, with Mel B currently sitting in with Tulisa Contostavlos, Gary Barlow and Louis Walsh as a guest judge.

Other stars who have filled the guest judge slot have included singer Rita Ora and former X Factor winner Leona Lewis.

Tara Little
I absolutely LOVE Italian food!  I could eat it everyday if I didn’t care about my waistline.  So while watching the Nate Berkus Show, chef George Duran shared an easy and delicious alternative to traditional lasagna recipes.
Now the recipe he provided is excellent but being the girl that I am, I had to add a few tweaks to the recipe to suit my taste buds and satisfy the hungry men in my household.  : )

Duran’s Stuffed Lasagna Rolls
Prep: 25 minutes
Cook: 7 minutes
Bake: 20 minutes
Yield: 5 to 6 servings

Ingredients
12 no-cook lasagna noodles
2 to 3 hot Italian sausages
1 ½ cups part-skim ricotta cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon kosher salt or ¾ teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1 cup shredded mozzarella

Directions
In a large pan of boiling, salted water cook the lasagna noodles for 3 to 3 minutes or until they are just soft (don’t overcook them). Drain and rinse with cold water. Drain on paper towels.Remove the casings from the sausages. Crumble the meat into a nonstick skillet. Cook over high heat about 5 to 6 minutes or until browned, breaking up the sausage with a wooden spoon. Remove from the pan and set aside, In a bowl mix the ricotta, Parmesan, egg, basil, salt, and pepper until combined. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a 13x9x2-inch lasagna pan evenly spread half of the tomatoes.To assemble the lasagna rolls, place a lasagna noodle on a work surface with the short side toward you. Put 2 tablespoons of the ricotta mixture on the bottom half of the noodle; add 1 tablespoon of the cooked sausage. Roll noodle starting at the bottom and place in the lasagna pan. Prepare the remaining noodles in the same way, lining them up in the pan. Spread the remaining tomatoes over the rolls and top with the mozzarella cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Uncover and bake for 10 to 15 minutes more or until the cheese is bubbling and lightly browned.

My Additions:

1 lb Ground Beef
1 Jar Spaghetti Sauce
1 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning
1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder
1 Tablespoon Onion Powder
1 Onion
1 Green Pepper
1 Cup Italian Cheese Blend

I made the recipe as described above but cooked the ground beef, seasonings, onion and green pepper with the sausage.  When that was thoroughly cooked, I added about half of the jar of tomato sauce to the meat mixture.  I used the remaining sauce to pour over the rolls.  We like extra cheese so I added the cheese blend in the rolls and on top too.

This was an EASY and YUMMY dish that I recommend everyone to try one to at least once!!!

Happy Cooking!!  xoxox………Tara

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Okay, I know most of you have heard about the fitness trainer that gained 70lbs in 6 months and lost it all within the same year, right??  Well I want to know what you think about it!!  The article below, written by CNN’s Jacque Wilson, tells the story of the man who did the unthinkable and shook up the fitness world.  I personally feel that it may not have been the best idea health wise, but at the end of his journey he learned more than he could ever have by doing nothing.  Drew Manning was a die-hard gym fanatic who felt that everyone who didn’t look like him was just lazy and couldn’t loose weight.  What he didn’t know was that being overweight is much more than a physical problem.  By putting himself in other peoples’ shoes, he learned firsthand the struggles and problems that people face when becoming overweight.  At the end of the day, Manning walked out of this with a whole new perspective and a more open-mind.

Read the article and let me know what you think.  Was Manning crazy for doing that to his body or  was the outcome worth it all??

xoxox…………Tara

Article:

by Jacque Wilson, CNN

(CNN) – When Drew Manning stepped out from behind the cardboard cutout of his former fat self on Monday, the audience of “Good Morning America” was appropriately shocked.

The fitness trainer’s journey had come to an end after successfully losing more than 70 pounds — six months after he purposely gained the same amount. “Like it never happened,” host George Stephanopoulos said.

“Kind of,” Manning said. Both Manning and his wife, Lynn, can attest that a lot actually has changed in the past year. While Manning’s body may have returned to its six-pack heydays, his mind, in many ways, has not.

Always a fitness junkie, staying in shape comes naturally for Manning. He’s that guy at the gym the rest of us love to hate, the one who likes to use his biceps for pumping iron instead of changing channels, and who prefers sucking down a spinach shake to indulging in a brownie sundae.

Because of that, Manning was a “judgmental” trainer, his wife says. “He would look at someone who was overweight and say, ‘They must really be lazy.’

“I was convinced people used genetics or similar excuses as a crutch,” Manning writes in his new book, “Fit2Fat2Fit.” “You either wanted to be healthy or you didn’t.”

That point of view wasn’t helping Manning help his clients. When he failed yet again to push someone over to the light side, he knew something was wrong. In order to better understand the struggles his clients were facing, he had to face them himself.

He gave up the gym and started consuming junk food, fast food and soda. In just six months, he went from 193 pounds with a 34-inch waist to 265 pounds with a 48-inch waist.

Lynn saw the difference in her husband in less time than that. He became lethargic, stopped helping around the house and was less than eager to play with their 2-year-old daughter.

“He was so insecure — saying ‘I’m so fat. I look so horrible,’ constantly complaining about how he looks,” she said.

Manning says he didn’t realize the effects of his weight gain would be more than physical. It altered his relationships and his self-confidence. Returning to the gym after the Fit2Fat portion of his journey made him nervous. The fact that he had to do push-ups on his knees was almost humiliating.

“The biggest thing [I learned] is that it’s not just about the physical. It’s not just about the meal plan and the workouts and those things. The key is the mental and the emotional issues. I realized those issues are real.”

Of course, Manning had his critics. Experts said that his stunt was dangerous. His blood pressure and cholesterol shot up with such dramatic weight gain. But Manning has no regrets. The followers on his website have encouraged him with their own tales of weight loss.

“We see the success stories of people losing all this weight, but it’s more common now,” he says. “To see someone do it in reverse on purpose — it’s mind blowing. A balance of craziness and inspiration.”

Manning suffered through soda deprivation headaches and food cravings on his way back to fit. The journey was easier for him than for most, he’ll admit, but he’s eager now to provide tips for others to follow in his footsteps.

Lynn is just glad to have her husband back, maybe a bit better than he was before. Before Fit2Fat2Fit, the self-described foodie wife would make treats, and Manning wouldn’t even look at them.

“Now he craves them,” she says with a laugh. “It might be cruel, but I like that. I like that he’s humanized.”

CNN’s Ashley Strickland contributed to this story.

by Sarah B. Weir, Yahoo! blogger

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been hit with a backlash of dissent in recent days for his proposed ban on the sale of sodas and other sweetened drinks in containers over 16 ounces. Some critics have gone so far as to say the mayor’s proposal is a “fascist”attack on American freedom. Is soda really so unhealthy that it needs to be regulated?

Related: Movie Theater Owners Fight Back Against Mayor Bloomberg’s “Nanny Approach” Soda Ban

Soda and obesity

About two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. The Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) reports there is a strong link between the consumption of soda and weight gain. Soda accounts for about 7% of our average daily calorie intake–the largest percentage of any single food source. Soda contains empty calories, and drinkers are less likely to feel full consuming a sweetened beverage than if they were eating the same amount of calories in food. Just one soda a day can add up to 15 pounds of fat gained over the course of a year.

Soda and chronic disease

Soda is a dumping ground for cheap sugar in the form of high fructose corn syrup. One can contains about 10 teaspoons of sugar. To avoid health risks, the American Heart Association recommends that adults consume less than six teaspoons a day. Kids are limited to three teaspoons. Many teens consume nearly 34 teaspoons a day, mainly through soft drinks.

Related: Is Diet Soda Addictive?

Guzzling soda sends blood sugar spiking. Over time this can lead to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and maybe even cancer. Researchers at HSPH say that people who drink as little as one 12-ounce soda daily are 50 percent more likely to have developed metabolic syndrome–a group of factors that can lead to coronary artery disease, stroke, and diabetes.

If teens continue to drink large amounts of soda, this could mean serious health consequences for a large percentage of adults in the coming decades.

Soda and bone health

Another issue for growing young people is bone health. As kids and teens drink more soda, they consume less milk. Milk contains calcium for building strong bones as well as protein and other important nutrients. Colas also contain phosphates, minerals that can harm bone density if consumed in a disproportionate amount to calcium. Studies show links between cola consumption and osteoporosis in older women.

Soda and tooth decay

With so much attention being focused on obesity, the link between tooth decay and soda is frequently overlooked. It’s not just the sugar, but also the acidity in soft drinks that can “aggressively” harm teeth by eroding enamel studies show.

While an occasional soda isn’t bad for you, the problem is the approximately 50 gallons a year that the average person drinks over many years–even decades. As for freedom, Bloomberg’s ban doesn’t actually limit how much soda you can purchase at one time, it curtails buying huge containers advertised as single servings. A recent infographic by the Centers for Disease Control shows how, over the last 50 years, beverage sizes have ballooned from a modest 7 ounces to a huge 42 ounces.

Since we haven’t been particularly good at self-regulating–especially our consumption of cheap, abundant sugar, maybe it’s time for a push from our government. In a June 1, 2012 letter to the New York Times, Walter Willet, chair of the department of nutrition at the HSPH writes: “Of course, this alone won’t halt the epidemics of these diseases sweeping our country, but it is a valuable and creative step in the right direction that deserves the support of everyone who cares about the well-being of our children and all Americans.”

Salt Fish and Cassava

Ingredients:

1-2lbs of salted fish (Cod or Pollack)

1-2 lbs of peeled and packaged Cassava or Yucca
1 large tomato sliced

1 green pepper, diced
1 scallion sliced
1 medium onion sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 scotch bonnet  or habanero peppers(optional) or use whatever hot pepper you have or like
½ tsp fresh ground black pepper
2-3  sprigs thyme (optional)
1 teaspoon ketchup

1 lime

1 lemon
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Instructions:

Please perform the following steps a few hours before cooking the dish:

Start by placing the salt-fish in a fairly deep bowl, pour enough boiling water to completely cover it. Cut and squeeze the lime into the liquid and allow this to soak for about 30-40 minutes. Rinse with luke-warm and squeeze out any extra water (remember to make sure the water is too hot so you don’t burn your hands).  Shred the salt-fish, either by hand or in a food processor.

If you are using a food processor place the salt-fish in the container and pulse it a few times until shredded. Remove contents and set aside.

Cooking the Cassava or Yucca

Remove the peeled cassava or yucca from the packaging and place in boiling water.  After 20-25 minutes stick with a fork, the pieces should be fork tender.  Remove from the water and allow to cool.

Cooking the Salt-fish

In a large heated sauce pan, add 3 table spoons of olive oil and toss in the pieces of saltfish. Allow this to cook for about 1-2 minutes so the oil is flavored with the salted fish. Then add the garlic, pepper and onion and allow this to cook for another couple minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients including the cassava and salt-fish

Be sure to add a dash of fresh ground black pepper and stir everything around. Allow this to cook for another couple minutes, then it’s ready for serving. If you wish, at the end you can toss in a teaspoon of lemon zest and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.

Complete the meal with a fresh garden salad.