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blog http://www.eat.co.nz/blog/rss Tips: 101 ideas to ilove olive oil http://www.eat.co.nz/blog/tips-101-ideas-to-ilove-olive-oil/ 101 good ilove ideas with olive oil; 
We cant live without fat in our diet. Without it our body with convert carbohydrates to fat
<ol><li>Always buy the best cold pressed extra vrgin olive oil - You dont need to spend a fortune. We use Lepanto extra virgin from Crete, its clear, clean and not too grassy. It takes the ordinary to the glorious. Costs around NZ $38 for 3trs. </li>
<li>3 liter olive oil cans make a very funky vase when empty. Use your can opener to remove the top!</li>
<li>Use your olive oil fresh, heating olive oil kills the properties.</li>
<li>A little oil goes a long way. A plastic spray mister bottle (available from any supermarket) is great. The nozzle and tube is easily cleaned. DONT forget to label it!!</li>
<li>1 x teaspoon of Olive Oil = 1 x PPoint. In my opinion the benefit out weights the cost. Olive oil adds taste!</li>
<li>Give your vegetables real taste - Mist steamed vegetables with olive oil, a little oil goes a long way</li>
<li>Make a batch of crotinis. Slice leftover bread stick into thin slices, spray with olive oil, dust over fresh cracked pepper or dried herb. Place in a hot oven until golden, remove cool and store. Wonderful with soup or as a quick snack.</li>
<li>Make a wonderful fresh green salad for 1. (use mesculin or for real fresh greens, grow your own in a spare poly box) Simple Steps to salad heaven listed below</li>
</ol><ul><li>
<ul><li>Put a handful of fresh greens (any sort) in a bowl</li>
<li>Break up 1 slice of red onion and sprinkle over green</li>
<li>Cut 2 cherry tomatoes in half and place on top of onion</li>
<li>Spray EVOO over the top (or drizzle if your not watching the calories)</li>
<li>Drizzle a few drops of quality Balsamic vinegar</li>
<li>Sprinkle on some sea salt and a dusting of fresh cracked pepper</li>
</ul></li>
</ul>ADD YOUR IDEAS TO THIS FEED Thu, 16 Jun 2011 07:10:36 +1200 http://www.eat.co.nz/blog/tips-101-ideas-to-ilove-olive-oil/ eat ilove oil http://www.eat.co.nz/blog/eat-ilove-oil/ I recently read that the worlds longest living person was a French woman called Jeanne Calment. The story told that Jeanne rode her bike past the age of 100. lived alone until 110, had no signs of dementia, and on her 120th birthday told a reporter that she had just one wrinkle, the one she was sitting on. Jeanne died when she was 122! Jeanne attributed her youthful looks, good health and longevity to olive oil and port wine. It turns out that she was completely turned on by olive oil. Not only did she douse her food with it but she used it to keep her skin healthy. She also had an appetite for chocolate, consuming almost a kilo a week but thats a whole different story..
When I was girl we always had olive oil in the house, my mother bought it regularly, not from the local supermarket but from the local chemist. It was in a glass bottle, with a glass stopper and it lived in the medicine cupboard, not the pantry. It was something my mother used for curing constipation, easing ear aches, treating nappy rash and moisturising cracked heels. I had even seen my father used it as hair oil, and once when my brother shared his hat, olive oil was used to drown the nits. Olive oil was medicine but never an ingredient!!!!!
Thank god our world changed because….ilove olive oil, ilove it drizzled over hot 5 grain toast, ilove it drizzled over fresh steamed vegetables, ilove it with tomatoes and ilove it even more now I know it’s anti aging, it can help your body burn fat, it can lower cholesterol (if you have it) and more importantly, it's a perfect match with white wine. Want to know more………….
Olive oil is loaded with a powerful anti-aging ingredient called Tyrosol. Tyrosol is one of the strongest antioxidants we have. Its even more powerful than Arnold Schwarzenegger urge to unzip his trousers. It brings down aging in your cells, turns on your longevity genes called FOXOs and oh, yes, it eats up bad (LDL) cholesterol which can cause heart disease and cancer.
 
There are two little tricks to maxing out on good health, longevity and youthfullness properties of Tyrosol
Firstly, drink more white wine and secondly, eat more olive oil. Its true! According to the American Heart Foundation Research Centre - white wine drinkers have the edge and can reduce harmful free radicals nasties by 34% - it seems white wine antioxidant molecules are smaller so you get more. Thats the same for olive oil. Olive oil has tyrosol by the bucket load and its easily absorbed!
If its science then its right I say......... eat more, drink more, get more, live more!
 
List of Antioxidants.” Antioxidant Chart; <a href="http://www.antioxidantchart.com">www.antioxidantchart.com</a>
<ol><li>Kops, G.J., Dansen, T.B., Polderman, P.E., et al, “Forkhead transcription factor FOXO3a protects quiescent cells from oxidative stress,” Nature Sept. 19, 2002;419(6904):316-21</li>
<li>Troupa, G.J., Latterb, Melissa, Cheahb, I, et al, “An EPR and antioxidant study of some brandies,” Alcohol In Moderation Digest Nov. 2005;9</li>
<li>Manna, Caterina, et al, “The Protective Effect of the Olive Oil Polyphenol (3,4-Dihydroxyphenyl)- ethanol Counteracts Reactive Oxygen Metabolite–Induced Cytotoxicity in Caco-2 Cells,” J. Nutr. Feb. 1, 1997;127(2):286-292</li>
<li>Miró-Casas, E., Covas, M.I., Fitó, M., et al, “Tyrosol and hydroxytyrosol are absorbed from moderate and sustained doses of virgin olive oil in humans,” European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2003;57:186–190</li>
</ol> Wed, 15 Jun 2011 17:59:17 +1200 http://www.eat.co.nz/blog/eat-ilove-oil/ Pass Me The Salt http://www.eat.co.nz/blog/pass-me-the-salt/ I’ve never been a salt freak... I’m not one for putting salt on my food before I try it but I know when food lacks seasoning and appreciate just how good quality ingredients can be transformed from yummy to yucky without the benefit of enough salt. Unfortunately this is not usual thinking.... We are being brainwashed into believing that salt is bad and cardboard food is good, so much so, that salt is becoming a bad and dirty word. Josh is so right, food tastes rubbish without salt!
Watching MasterChef NZ, I could hear the tut tuts of the salt police and see the uncomfortable squirm of the slightly informed when Josh Emmett, judged down Stu, Tracey Lee and Anthony for not using enough of the stuff. Sad but true, these Nigella hopefuls, lost their dream of fame, fortune, a cookbook, a new car and a year of swanning around NZ over a few grains of salt.
Would they have been so miserable with the salt if they knew that their heart, adrenals, liver and kidneys need salt to function? Yep, it’s a fact, (according to a new report by Craig Anderson, The High Blood Pressure Remedy Report) we can’t digest food without it. Salt carries nutrients across cell membranes into your cells, it keeps calcium and other ‘good guy’ minerals soluble in your blood, it maintains your body’s balance of fluids and yes it also regulates blood pressure.
So its official, the Emperor is'nt wearing clothes today! We don’t need less salt we need seasalt because its better for you ....all 82 trace elements including magensium, calcium and the all important potassium (potassium helps to keep sodium levels in check and optimizes blood pressure)...."Yes silly, there is published studies to prove the importance of potassium and how it too little will lead to increased blood pressure - Yes, of course I've referenced it.. at the end of the blog".
Table salt is the bad boy! Why, well its processed at 1000 degree temperature (to kill the goodness) and is full of chemicals and bleach to make it pour and be white. By the time we get salt to the shaker, it’s all sodium and additives!
So saltlings – rise up and enjoy your guilty pleasure. Now you can lower your blood pressure and improve your health by consuming the right kind of salt and boosting your potassium. Check out this IMPORTANT three-step plan to getting your salt and eating it..
1. Know how much salt is in your food. An adequate intake is thought to be around 1500mg with an upper limit of 2200mg. A teaspoon of salt is equal to 2,325 mg of sodium. Does that sound like a lot? Well most processed foods have many times that amount. For instance one packet of dry onion soup mix contains over 3,000 mg of sodium. Even sweet foods which may seem like they would have no salt are packed with it. Read the sodium content on the labeland watch for ingredients like metabisulfite, erythorbate, propionate and guanylate.(these are the sodium based preservatives in our wine, food, meat, water)
2. Replace table salt with sea salt. Sea salt tastes fantastic and cost more than table salt, it does'nt pour, so its easy to recognise – think of this…salt without the guilt. Maldon and Pacific are good pure and reliable brands.
3. Boost your levels of potassium. The best food sources are orange-coloured fruits and vegetables like apricots, cantaloupe melons, oranges, nectarines, peaches, kumara, butternut and squash. Other good sources are black and kidney beans, spinach, silverbeet, artichokes, bananas, kiwifruit, fish, meat, poultry and milk.
 1 Ray, Patricio E., et al, "Chronic potassium depletion induces renal injury, salt sensitivity and hypertension in young rats," Kidney International 2001;59, 1850–1858 2 Gu, Dongfeng, "Effect of potassium supplementation on blood pressure in Chinese: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial," Journal of Hypertension July 2001; 19-7:1325-1331 3 “Lowering Salt in Your Diet,” FDA Consumer Update May 18, 2010 Tue, 17 May 2011 15:05:04 +1200 http://www.eat.co.nz/blog/pass-me-the-salt/ Tip: Reheating frozen and EATLITE http://www.eat.co.nz/blog/tip-reheating-frozen-and-eatlite/ Fresh is best... there is no doubt about it. We truly believe this and I never thought we would do a 'Frozen' range...
That was until we went to a prepared food conference in France... The three of us, Our head chef, Margaret and myself... walked over to this German vending frozen meal outfit... Honestly we looked like we were three judges from Masterchef... Marg and I being the two 'hard faced' and our chef being the one most open to it all... he was about the technology, science... and obviously taste, but food is a science and understanding that was what he loved! Marg and I just loved eating! Anyway, push button, bang, voom and pop.. meal selected , heated and on table. Hello - Frozen. The quality was amazing... we wanted some of that! Fresh may be best but frozen is pretty good too! Lots of questions about the process to the Germans(in my head it all sounded really hard! They are VERY precise people... I am a little more go with the flow.. flexibility is key kind of person!) and I thought we had left it there...
Back home in NZ... our Head chef was cooking , freezing, packing, regenerating... he was keen on the frozen. Slowly but surely (when we were shown that it wasn't 'that dfficult' we were back to being keen on frozen too. 
Everything we do - We TEST! We could cook the most amazing dish but that dish is filed in the rubbish if it has no quality of taste on reheating... That's the key! How do we regenerate this meal from chilled or frozen and make it taste like it just came out of the oven/pan/pot? The meat tender, the veges(we will never please everyone with the veges... our senior set like them well cooked, younger set like them al dente) tasty, the sauce still a sauce and not a clumpy gluey mess! A lot more goes into this thing than ingredients... I assure you. 
So... EATLITE: When we designed Eatlite we wanted food that was tasty, contemporary and something we would love to eat... It needed to be exciting, healthy and satisfying. Being on a diet or eating healthy does not and should not mean starving or deprivation. We didn't want anyone to feel they were missing out. Marg looked at millions of ideas, recipes, nutritional facts and breakdowns... argghhh... selected some bright ideas and then came cooking and tasting and testing each and every one of them... Some passed and some failed! What we have ended up with WE LOVE and hope you love too... The feedback has been brilliant. Loads of people re-ordering - that's the best! And like anything we have had people who have not loved it as much as we did... for some it is a matter of taste and different strokes for different folks... and for others it is that we are realising that people are killing their food with the re-heat process! 
So.... at the risk of sounding like a PETA protester (not that I think there is anything wrong with PETA... everyone should wear Fax fur!) 
PLEASE DO NOT KILL YOUR FOOD ON REHEAT FOR THE SAKE OF A FEW MINUTES. 
Save your meal now by following a few instructions -
<ol><li>Microwave will heat better than an oven in most cases - sorry but thats just the way it is! </li>
<li>Defrost your meal before re-heating... preferably by leaving in the fridge all day or out on the bench for a few hours! </li>
<li>If you have a new and powerful microwave... heat it for three mins and not 4 mins.. </li>
<li>You will enjoy your meal more if it is served on a plate... but you can eat out of the tray. </li>
<li>Last but not least.. Lick the bowl... grab every last calorie! (Obviously only do this if you eat alone and certainly never do this infront of children! )</li>
</ol>If you have feedback on a meal (My sisters feedback on eatlite was that the chicken was missing the skin - EATLITE was my response to that!) then please let us know what you think. We would love to hear what can be better and also if you love something.. we want to know that too. Last week a customer wrote to tell us that she loved the sunshine salad but we had changed the noodles (my idea... which turned out to be a rubbish idea!) I re-heated one and she was right... the noodles were a disaster and I had made a terrible assumption that slightly thinker noodles were better than skinny stringy ones and we never tested this theory - One word: Shambles!. Actually thicker noodles take on all the water from the beans, spinach, corn etc... and then it turns to glue on re-heat.. Mmmmm Mmm! All current stock was taken off the shelf and we made new ones with the old vermicelli! 
Julia Roberts say's: EAT PRAY LOVE...
I say: Defrost, HEAT, EAT, LOVE...
 
Alley
Eat delicious, look delicious Fri, 01 Apr 2011 10:52:02 +1300 http://www.eat.co.nz/blog/tip-reheating-frozen-and-eatlite/