PEANUT BUTTER vs. ALMOND BUTTER

The winner: Almond butter Almond butter has more calcium and magnesium, a mineral that's often lacking in runners' diets and is important for muscle contraction. While the two nut butters contain about the same amount of fat, the almond variety has 60 percent more monounsaturated fat.

"When consumed in place of saturated fat," says Dulan, "monounsaturated fat lowers harmful LDL levels to help decrease heart disease and stroke risk." Almond butter also has three times more vitamin E, an antioxidant that may reduce cancer risk.

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Vegetables with Spicy Peanut Sauce (Pecel)

100 g bean sprouts, cleaned
100 g spinach, cut
100 cabbage, shredded
add any vegetables you like (cucumber, cooked peeled corn, bitter gourd, etc)

200 g peanut, peeled and fried (or peanut butter jams)

Spice Paste
2 cloves of garlic
2 red chillies, seeded and fried
5 eye’s bird chillies, seeded and fried
5 cm kencur (kaempferia galangal), peel off the skin
1 tbs dried prawn paste (terasi), optional
7 kaffir lime leafs
2 tbs tamarind mixed and squeeze with 100 ml lukewarm water and drain.
50 g palm sugar or to taste
1 tsp sugar
fried prawn crackers

Fry garlic and the chillies. Set aside. If you use peanut butter jams, simply grind or blend jams with the rest of ingredients of spice paste. Continue blending to make it smooth. Add some of warm water to make the sauce thicken

Cook all the vegetables. Set aside.

Serve: Arrange the vegetables, pour with the peanut sauce, add some fried prawn crackers. Ready to serve.

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Fresh Vegetables Soup (Sayur Sop)

2 carrots
100 gram cabbage, cut into small pieces
100 gram bean, cut 3 cm long
200 gram potatoes, cut into medium cube
2 chicken hotdog (optional), thinly sliced
5 chicken wings for broth
2 stalk of celery leaves, chopped
1 stalk of spring onion, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons of fried shallots
800 ml water
salt and sugar to taste

Note: you also can add broccoli, read beans, sweet corns and many more!

Spice Paste
3 shallots (or half medium red onion)
4 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon of pepper

Place chicken wings in boiling water for 20 minutes to prepare the broth. Add the carrots.

Heat oil in the pan and fry the spice paste until its fragrant, and put it into the broth. Add the rest of the ingredients, salt and sugar to taste. Continue cooking until all vegetables well cooked. Add some water if it's necessary.

Serve with fried shallots.

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The Perfect Sunny-Side Up Fried Egg

Even if you don't cook much, it's not hard to fry an egg, right? Yes and no. It's the simple things that get us pretty heated about the best technique. It is possible to prepare a sunny-side up egg to perfection (tender cooked-through white and runny yolk). Here are five tips to get there:

1. Squash your impatience; go zen. Sunny-side up eggs need slow cooking over low heat.

2. Use medium heat to get the pan hot. If using cast-iron, heat it dry, then add olive oil and butter (for nonstick, heat the pan with the fat in it).

3. Turn the heat low and crack the egg in. If it splutters noisily, cool the pan off the heat briefly. Cover the skillet and cook the egg slowly, about 2 minutes. No browning. Check it. If the white around the yolk looks loose, cook it, covered, another 30 to 60 seconds, but check often, because you don't want the thin film of white covering the yolk to turn milky white.

4. Some pros recommend basting the whites with fat from the pan to help cook them through. That's fine, but tilting the pan to scoop up some hot fat makes the egg slide, too.

5. To make landing the egg foolproof, hold the skillet over the plate (hopefully with a piece of toast waiting for it).

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Saffron may help Lift your mood

Saffron has long been used in traditional Persian medicine as a mood lifter, usually steeped into a medicinal tea or used to prepare rice. Research from Iran's Roozbeh Psychiatric Hospital at Tehran University of Medical Sciences has found that saffron may help to relieve symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and depression.

In one study, 75% of women with PMS who were given saffron capsules daily reported that their PMS symptoms (such as mood swings and depression) declined by at least half, compared with only 8 percent of women who didn't take saffron.

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Roasted Tempe (Tempe Bakar Berbumbu)

3 pieces tempe medium size, cut into pieces (as desired)
300 ml water

Spices:
3 garlic clove, shred
2 cm galangale
8 small red onion, shred
1 tbsp tamarind juice
3 tbsp shaved brown sugar
3 tbsp soya sauce
1 tsp salt

mix the spices with water, boil
add tempe to the boiled water, cook and stirr once in a while till the water all gone
roast tempe, spread the spices residue to both side of tempe till aromatic, then remove and serve with steam rice.

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Green Soybeans Porridge (Bubur Kacang Hijau)

250 gram green soybeans
750 ml water
300 ml coconut milk (substitute fresh milk)
100 gram sugar (or 100 gram brown sugar)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 Pandan leaf

Coconut Sauce
200 ml thick coconut milk
2 cm ginger, crushed
a pinch of salt

Clean green soy beans. Then cook with water until it’s soft. Add more water until the soybeans become porridge. Stir well while cooking.

When the green soya is ready, add coconut milk, vanilla and pandan leaf. By the time the coconut milk is half left, add sugars (or brown sugar) and salt. Keep stirring it.

Cook until it becomes thick like porridge. To prepare the coconut sauce, just by boiling all the ingredients.

Serve the green soybeans porridge (bubur kacang hijau) with the coconut sauce.

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Cilantro, Soapy but has many Health Benefits

This herb, popular in Mexican and Asian dishes, is surprisingly divisive. There's even a website dedicated to cilantro-haters. The aldehydes give cilantro its fragrance and give off that soapy smell and flavor, but some people find it pleasing.

Want to make it more palatable? Crush up the leaves, which converts the aldehydes into a less noxious aroma, making it easier to eat.

On the other hand, Cilantro has many health benefits, such as:

Protects against the Salmonella bacteria
Reportedly works as a natural chelation treatment
Aids in digestion and helps settle the stomach and prevent flatulence
An anti-inflammatory that may alleviate symptoms of arthritis
Protects against urinary tract infections
Prevents nausea
Relieves intestinal gas
Lowers blood sugar
Lowers bad cholesterol (LDL) and raises good cholesteraol (HDL)
A good source of iron
A good source of magnesium
Rich in phytonutrients and flavonoids

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Sweet ,Spicy, and Sour Fruits Salad (Rujak Buah)

Unripe Mango
Pineapple
Melon
Cucumber
Sweet potato
all fruits thinly sliced

Sauce :

100 g fried peanut
2-3 bird's eyes chillies (optional)
1/2 teaspoon dried shrimp paste
100 g palm sugar
1 teaspoon tamarind juice
100 ml water

Peel and Clean all fruits then sliced. Store in the fridge for 15 minutes
Grind and blend all ingredients for the sauce.

Serve fruits with sauce.

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Health Benefits of Sage

Do you know that Sage may help Preserve memory, soothe sore throats? Herbalists recommend sipping sage tea for upset stomachs and sore throats, a remedy supported by one study that found spraying sore throats with a sage solution gave effective pain relief.

And preliminary research suggests the herb may improve some symptoms of early Alzheimer's disease by preventing a key enzyme from destroying acetylcholine, a brain chemical involved in memory and learning.

In another study, college students who took sage extracts in capsule form performed significantly better on memory tests, and their moods improved.

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Chile Peppers Boost Metabolism

Chile peppers add a much-appreciated heat to chilly-weather dishes, and they can also give a boost to your metabolism. Thank to capsaicin, the compound that gives fresh chiles, and spices including cayenne and chipotle, their kick.

Studies show that capsaicin can increase the body's metabolic rate (causing one to burn more calories) and may stimulate brain chemicals that help us feel less hungry. In fact, one study found that people ate 16 percent fewer calories at a meal if they'd sipped a hot-pepper-spiked tomato juice (vs. plain tomato juice) half an hour earlier.

Recent research found that capsinoids, similar but gentler chemicals found in milder chile hybrids, have the same effects-so even tamer sweet paprika packs a healthy punch. Capsaicin may also lower risk of ulcers by boosting the ability of stomach cells to resist infection by ulcer-causing bacteria and help the heart by keeping "bad" LDL cholesterol from turning into a more lethal, artery-clogging form.

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Apple "diet" foods that make you hungrier

Yes, we all know that apples are great for you, particularly for those who are in diet. They contain lots of vitamins and fiber, but a single apple is not a balanced snack. If you don’t eat anything else with your afternoon apple, you may overeat at dinner.

Better choice: Apple with 5-10 almonds or a cheese stick. Spend a few more calories on your snack so you won’t be ravenous later.

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Health Benefits of Turmeric

May help: Quell inflammation, inhibit tumors. Turmeric, the goldenrod-colored spice, is used in India to help wounds heal (it's applied as a paste); it's also made into a tea to relieve colds and respiratory problems.

Modern medicine confirms some solid-gold health benefits as well; most are associated with curcumin, a compound in turmeric that has potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Curcumin has been shown to help relieve pain of arthritis, injuries and dental procedures; it's also being studied for its potential in managing heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease.

Researcher Bharat Aggarwal is bullish on curcumin's potential as a cancer treatment, particularly in colon, prostate and breast cancers; preliminary studies have found that curcumin can inhibit tumor cell growth and suppress enzymes that activate carcinogens.

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Rice Cake (Lontong)

10 tablespoons of jasmine rice
alumunium foil (or banana leaf which is best)
750 ml water

Rinse and stir the rice very well under water until the resulting water becomes clear.

In a pan over medium heat, bring the water to a boil and add in the salt. Slowly stir in the rice then let it boil and cook until the rice become smooth (but not as smooth as porridge). Add more water if necessary.

When the rice is done, turn off the heat. Wait 5 minutes.

Take alumunium foil (or banana leaf is best), wrap the rice

Boil the water and put lontong to cook for 2,5 to 3 hours. When cooking, puncture the foil with toothpick so the water will go through inside and make it cook. Add some water while cooking.

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Butter or olive oil?

From a health standpoint, olive oil is the better choice. But butter still has its place. All oils are a mixture of fats including monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and saturated fatty acids (SFA)—but in each oil (and in butter, too, which is basically a solidified oil), one type of fat dominates.

Olive oil is predominantly rich in heart-healthy monounsaturated fat, which decreases your risk for cardiovascular disease by lowering LDL cholesterol and increasing HDL cholesterol. On the other hand, butter is mostly saturated fat, which increases LDL cholesterol and causes inflammation in your body. So generally, it’s best to use olive oil.

However, the distinctive smell, flavor and consistency of butter works best in certain baked goods—including cakes, cookies and pastries—so it’s OK to make these occasionally and enjoy the butter. Another butter-vs.-oil difference: Because butter is solid at room temperature, you have more control over how much (or how little) of it you spread on bread; with olive oil, it’s difficult to gauge how much oil is absorbed. So dip lightly!

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The differences between regular olive oil, virgin and extra-virgin

Simply put, olive oil is made by crushing olives to make a paste that’s then put under a press. If the oil that comes out has a low acidity and a good taste and smell, it’s labeled extra-virgin or virgin. (Virgin is slightly lower quality than extra-virgin.) These types are ideal to use for bread dunking, drizzling on veggies and other foods, and making salad dressings, since their delicate flavor and aroma will be lost when heated (some chefs still prefer to use extra-virgin for cooking). The deeper the color, the more intense the olive flavor.

If the oil is highly acidic or not great quality, it’s refined and mixed with virgin or extra-virgin oil to make “regular” olive oil; this all-purpose oil is good for cooking.

The heart-health benefits of all types of olive oil are pretty much the same, although the virgin and extra-virgin ones have extra antioxidants.

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Sweet Marinited Tofu (Tahu Bacem)

250 g tahu/tofu, cut into 6 - 8 pieces
2 Salaam (Bay Leaves) leafs
1 cm of galangal or 1 tablespoon of galangal powder
250 ml thick coconut milk or 250 ml coconut water
250 ml water

Spice Paste:
4 shallots or half medium red onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp of coriander
1 tsp of tamarind (asem jawa)
2 tsp of palm sugar/brown sugar
salt to taste

Grind or blend the spice paste.

Boil the coconut milk/coconut water together with tofu, galangal, salam leafs, and spice paste. Add the water and continue cooking until the spices and water are absorbed. Then cool them off.

Heat up 50 ml oil into deep frying pan and fry the tofu both sides, but don't do it too much (too dry/crunchy).

Serve with green bird's eyes chillies.

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Cassava Leafs Saute (Tumis Daun Singkong)

2 bunches of cassava leafs

1 garlic clove

2 small red onion

1 stalk lemongrass, press a bit

1 table spoon salt

1/2 table spoon sugar

3 fresh chili (or to taste)

water

1 table spoon cooking oil



Clean the cassava leafs, knead with 1/2 tablespoon salt, boil with water till cooked, drain.



Heat cooking oil in a pan, add garlic and red onion, saute till aromatic.



Add cassava leafs, add a cup of water, then add lemongrass and chili, wait till boiled up.

Add salt and sugar, mix a while, remove and serve.

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How to Fulfill Your Daily Protein Requirement

The human body uses protein to repair damaged cells and to build new ones. Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition at NYU and author of What to Eat, estimates that the average adult man needs about 65 grams of protein a day and the average adult female needs about 55 grams. Some sources, such as the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization say you can maintain a healthy diet with even less.



What does this actually mean in terms of food choices? The National Institutes of Health explains that most people can meet their daily protein requirement by eating two to three small servings of a protein-rich food a day.



Examples of a single serving of protein include:

1 egg

2 tablespoons of peanut butter

2-3 ounces of red meat, poultry, or fish (about the size of a deck of cards)

½ cup of cooked dried beans such as black beans or chickpeas



Whole grains, seeds, and some vegetables also contain protein, so consuming enough is not difficult even if you don’t eat meat. Vegetarians and vegans can easily get what they need by balancing complimentary proteins such as corn and beans or rice and tofu. Nutritionists used to recommend combining foods at the same meal, but research now shows that is unnecessary.

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Spinach Saute with Fresh Garlic (Tumis Bayam Bawang Putih)

2 bunch of spinach, take the leaf

1 garlic clove, shred

2 small red onion, shred

salt to taste

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon cooking oil



Heat the cooking oil in a wok

Put the garlic and red onion shred, mix them till aromatic



Add the spinach leafs, mix it again, use a high heating

Add salt, sugar, and pepper, beat them about just 1 minute,



Remove from stove, serve.

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