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From the Kitchen, Just Pictures, Stories From Our Home

Spain Inspired Vegetarian Dinner for our 2019 Rakshabandan Festival

August 20, 2019 surreyfarms.net Leave a comment

Happy Tuesday!
Hope you had a great weekend!

Our weekend was busy prepping for the start of school for our twins, which starts later this week. We also had our annual dinner celebratingRakshabandan – the Indian sibling festival celebrating the bond between brothers and sisters. For this festival I usually mail my Rakhi (the thread bracelet that the sister ties on her brother’s wrist) to my brother who lives in Dallas, but this year I was in Dallas for my brother’s big birthday bashand got to tie it on his wrist in person, just a few days early. Continue reading Spain Inspired Vegetarian Dinner for our 2019 Rakshabandan Festival →

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Buy it with thought
Cook it with care
Use less wheat & meat
Buy local foods
Serve just enough
Use what is left
Don’t waste it

U.S. Food Administration – 1917

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Eat a salad boost brain power

Older adults who reported regularly eating one to two servings a day of green leafy vegetables slowed their rate of age-related cognitive decline. So much so, in fact, that they tested as if they were 11 years younger!

As reported in a recent study in the Journal of Neurology April. 2018

Red and White Meat are Equally Bad for Cholesterol

The study, led by scientists at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) — the research arm of UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland — surprised the researchers with the discovery that consuming high levels of red meat or white poultry resulted in higher blood cholesterol levels than consuming a comparable amount of plant proteins.

The study found that plant proteins are the healthiest for blood cholesterol. Nonmeat proteins such as vegetables, dairy, and legumes, such as beans, show the best cholesterol benefit.

“When we planned this study, we expected red meat to have a more adverse effect on blood cholesterol levels than white meat, but we were surprised that this was not the case — their effects on cholesterol are identical when saturated fat levels are equivalent,” said the study senior author Ronald Krauss, M.D., senior scientist and director of Atherosclerosis Research at CHORI.

There had been no comprehensive comparison of the effects of red meat, white meat and nonmeat proteins on blood cholesterol until now, Krauss said.

Krauss, who is also a UCSF professor of medicine, noted that the meats studied did not include grass-fed beef or processed products such as bacon or sausage; nor did it include fish.

But the results were notable, as they indicated that restricting meat altogether, whether red or white, is more advisable for lowering blood cholesterol levels than previously thought.

Source: 6/19 ScienceDaily.com

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190604084840.htm

Garden Color

Start Gardening To Eat Better

A new study in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics found that when older cancer survivors started an at-home vegetable garden, they boosted their daily produce intake, prevented some waistline weight gain, and reported feel greater “worth” compared to their counterparts who didn’t garden.

Cooking Light Magazine. April 2018

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Not exercising worse for your health than smoking, diabetes and heart disease, study reveals.

We’ve all heard exercise helps you live longer. But a new study goes one step further, finding that a sedentary lifestyle is worse for your health than smoking, diabetes and heart disease.

One of the big revelations from the research is that fitness leads to longer life, with no limit to the benefit of aerobic exercise. The study found that there is no level of exercise or fitness that exposes you to risk. Researchers recommend that once cleared by their physicians, patients shouldn’t be afraid of exercise intensity.

The benefits of exercise were seen across all ages and in both men and women, “probably a little more pronounced in females,” Dr. Jaber said.

“Whether you’re in your 40s or your 80s, you will benefit in the same way.

Source: Journal of American Medical Association https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/19/health/study-not-exercising-worse-than-smoking/index.html

What it means to be Californian

The New York Times asked Chef Samin Nosrat of Netflix show Salt Fat Acid Heat, what it means to be Californian. This was her answer.

Samin Nosrat: “And you asked about how being a Californian has influenced me: Above any other way of identifying, like above race or religion or anything — or nationality — I identify as a Californian. The way in which I’ve gotten to spend so much of my life outside in nature, in different landscapes, has absolutely affected me. I really love the beach. The beach has always been a constant in my life. Agriculture has affected me. The way there are so many different kinds of people here from all over the world — I’m so, so grateful for that. I remember being sick of the fact that it was always sunny in San Diego. My dad said to me: “What’s wrong with you? Everyone in the whole rest of the world aspires to live in California.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/29/us/california-today-samin-nosrat

diet quality, not quantity, is what helps people lose and manage their weight most easily in the long run.

The Times’s Anahad O’Connor reported this week, that new research published in the February 2018 issue of JAMA (The Journal of American Medical Association) supports the idea that diet quality, not quantity, is what helps people lose and manage their weight most easily in the long run.

In other words, the study found that if you cut back on added sugar, refined grains and highly processed foods and instead eat plenty of vegetables and whole foods, you can lose significant amounts of weight — even without limiting portion sizes.

The research was led by Christopher D. Gardner, the director of nutrition studies at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and carried out on adults recruited from the Bay Area.

“This is the road map to reducing the obesity epidemic in the United States,” said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University who was not involved in the new study. “It’s time for U.S. and other national policies to stop focusing on calories and calorie counting.”

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About

I want to share with you my passion for everything beautiful. Nature, beautiful flowers, cooking delicious foods, celebrating festivals, meeting with friends and family, and anything that brings joy and happiness.

What you will find here are a variety of healthy vegetarian recipes chock full of good for you vegetables, legumes, eggs, milk, cheese, and yogurt.

I love photography and love to take photos of my garden, places I’ve traveled to and of gatherings with families and friends. Here you will find a little of everything, recipes, pictures, stories and everything happy.

Welcome to Surreyfarms. A healthy state of mind.

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Quotable Quotes

“Feeding the mind with good books is nearly as important as feeding the body with good food. Both ensure that you will remain straight and tall in all the important ways…”

The Shed at Healdsburg, California

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Healthy Tip

“Green, leafy vegetables such as arugula, kale, collard greens, broccoli, spinach, and Swiss chard are among the foods that support brain health. Across several studies there is fairly consistent findings that green, leafy vegetables do seem to be related to decreased risk of cognitive impairments or dementia,” CBSnews.com

The joy of herb gardening

5 Lifestyle Habits that could help you live 10-years longer

Not smoking
Eating healthy
Excercising regularly
Maintaining a normal weight
Drinking only in moderation

“The new findings come from two studies by Harvard University that have followed over 123,000 U.S. health professionals since the 1980s. Over the years, the participants gave detailed information on their diets, exercise habits and other lifestyle factors.

On average, the researchers found, people who adhered to the five healthy habits were 74 percent less likely to die during the study period, versus those who maintained none of those habits.

Those who followed all five good lifestyle habits were also 82 percent less likely to die of heart disease or stroke, and 65 percent less likely to die of cancer, the findings showed.”

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/5-habits-that-could-help-you-live-10-years-longer/

On Instagram

Happy Friday! Dreamy Dahlia blooms from my garden. #dahlias #dahlialove

Hanging out with my brother and cousins in Dallas for my brother and sis in law”s 40/41 birthday bash. #4041 #awesomecousins #dallas #themensstyleguy

Dancing the night away at My brother Kiran and sister in law Prachi”s 40/41 birthday bash!!!! #4041 #themensstyleguy #prashe

Awesome birthday bash for my bro and sis -in-laws 40/41 celebration!!! Best time EVER!!!! #awesomeparty #prashe #themensstyleguy #4041

Pool party sliders with goat cheese and tomato #poolparty #sliders #veggiesliders

Celebrated my birthday in Sevilla today! Got decked up in my flamenco style dress and earrings heading to a flamenco show followed by dinner on the riverbank and ending the night with a flamenco show outside our hotel! #awesomebirthday #seville #spain

Carriage ride around Sevilla at twilight #sevilla #spain

First evening in Sevilla. Looking forward to a wonderful holiday here! #sevilla #spain

Low-carb diets might be best for maintaining weight loss

“We found that the type of diet people ate had a major impact on their metabolism. Those on the low-carbohydrate diet burned about 250 calories a day more than those on the high-carbohydrate diet, even though all the groups were the same weight,” said Dr. David Ludwig, principal investigator of the study and co-director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children’s Hospital.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/14/health/low-carb-diet-weight-loss-maintenance-study/index.html

Gardening could be the hobby that helps you live to 100

According to a recent BBC article Many of the world’s centenarians share one common hobby: gardening.

Dan Buettner the author of “Blue Zones” who has studied five places around the world where residents are famed for their longevity: Okinawa in Japan, Nicoya in Costa Rica, Icaria in Greece, and Loma Linda in California and Sardinia in Italy attributes gardening as one of the long-life hobbies.

“People living in these so-called “blue zones” have certain factors in common – social support networks, daily exercise habits and a plant-based diet, for starters. But they share another unexpected commonality. In each community, people are gardening well into old age – their 80s, 90s and beyond.”

He says there is evidence that gardeners live longer and are less stressed. A variety of studies confirm this, pointing to both the physical and mental health benefits of gardening.

Source: BBC.com http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20181210-gardening-could-be-the-hobby-that-helps-you-live-to-100

A little about edible flowers

Using edible flowers in cakes and salads is an age old tradition that dates back centuries that became not so fashionable over the last few decades, however with the recent revival of organic gardening and holistic natural healing remedies, using edible flowers and herbs is coming back into popularity.

You may be surpried to learn that the list of edible flowers is huge with over hundred herbs and flowers that are edible. Just make sure to do your research before you head out into your garden and use flowers and herbs in your cooking.

As for me, I’ve always loved the idea of incorporating flowers and herbs as edible decorations in my foods. I tend to use edible flowers from my garden that I am familiar with that look pretty and are pesticide free. Most of my edibles are roses, nasturtiums, pansies, and marigolds. I also use the flowers that form on vegetables and herb plants.

Once you see the potential of using edible flowers and herbs in your desserts, salads, soups and stews, the possibitlies are endless.

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