HOW TO CATCH CRABS 
The bait-on-a-line method is simple; just tie a bait to the end of a string and toss it into the water. Idea bait is pieces of chicken, fish scraps and apparently the oilier or smellier the better as crabs are attracted by the smell.  A crab line can also help stop the crabs from stealing your fishing bait off your fishing line.
Check the line every few minutes to see if there is a crab tugging on it. If there is, slowly pull the line up until you can see the crab just under the surface of the water, and then scoop him up in a net. 

BOILED CRABS 
Fill a large pot with half fresh and half sea water. 
Bring to a boil.
Add Blue Spinner Crabs.
Bring back to a boil, cover up to 20 minutes for large crabs, or until crabs turn red.
Remove and drain.
Serve with white wine vinigar and lemon juice to which you could add  spices, celery, onion, and 1 teaspoon crushed red or black pepper to taste and serve with a crisp green salad.

CRAB NUTRITION 
The good: Calorie value similar to white fish at close to one calorie per gram. A good choice for a restricted calorie diet. This food is low in Saturated Fat. It is also a good source of Niacin, Folate and Phosphorus, and a very good source of Protein, Vitamin B12, Zinc, Copper and Selenium.

The bad: This food is high in Sodium, and very high in Cholesterol. Cooking it in fresh water will lower the sodium content.

CRAB is MODERATELY, ANTI INFLAMITORY.
Crab meat is ideal for arthritis sufferers like Reg and I. Reg has gone fishing again, he has a list of almost a dozen different fish he has caught here at flying fish point, he keeps updating with pride. He keeps up with joint pain supplements each morning but he is so much fitter than when we left Victoria in Autumn, this has been a great recovery year for him.

Reg caught me a beautiful, Blue Swimmer Crab, yesterday, it caught him, too, lol J,  the nippers  got him on his little finger.  He loses quite a few crabs as they jump back it the water after he gets them on shore. I suggested he get a small net to pick them up but he felt that would be, one more thing he would need to carry to the beach and back each day. 

I did some research on the web looking for ideas for people who have arthritis and fish and I found  one handed fishing nets, and  lever boosters,  I will show them to Reg when he gets back with today’s catch J. 

 

I am always interested in the debates over if certain foods are good for you or not and am wary when manufacturers grasp at a small piece of information that says something in their product is good for you and then strive to push this information that an item filled with processed refined sugars and saturated fats is good for you because it has traces of something that has health benefits in it. 

This is the paradox of most commercially available chocolate today, which is so far removed from the healthy product.   I'll share some information I found interesting and you can make your own mind up, if you think chocolate is good for you or not


"This article is from http://www.facebook.com/l/dc1c7;www.astrologyzine.com/healthy-chocolate.shtml How Healthy Is Dark Chocolate? What Are the Health Benefits? "The beverage of the gods was Ambrosia; that of man is chocolate. Both increase the length of life in a prodigious manner." - Louis Lewin, M.D., in Phantastica Organic Chemical Compounds in Cacao Beans and Organic Dark Chocolate It is important to understand that most of the scientific research on the cacao bean refers to organic cacao in its raw, unprocessed, and unadulterated form. Note that when the cacao beans are processed by roasting or heating, there will be a loss of some of the nutrient value, and treating the cocao with alkaline salts in the Dutch process will reduce the concentration of flavanols and reduce its high antioxidant value.

So the levels of active nutrients and the health benefits discussed below may be not be fully applicable to all of the many kinds of commercially processed dark chocolate products marketed today.   So don't expect that eating ANY type of chocolate bar or chocolate candy is going to be good for your health. You need to know WHICH KINDS of chocolate actually provide the health benefits - and that will usually be the kinds of COCOA POWDER and DARK CHOCOLATE which are closer to the raw cocoa bean, undergo the least amount of processing, and have the least unhealthy additives like saturated fats and refined sugar.   I

n general, the healthiest kinds of chocolate (in order) are:   1.raw, organic, unprocessed cacao beans (called "nibs") or cocoa mass; 2.organic and unroasted cocoa powder not treated with alkalis; 3.organic dark chocolate with the highest percentage of cocoa liquor or cocoa powder and the lowest percentage of refined sugar (bitter or semi-sweet dark chocolate). Organically-grown cacao beans will not contain pesticide residues. Non-organic cacao may have some pesticide residues, but other than that, the same order as above will apply to non-organic cacao, cocao powder, and dark chocolate.  

"Most chocolate, in fact, isn't flavanol-rich," says Norm Hollenberg, a radiology professor and flavanol expert at Harvard Medical School. "But all chocolate is rich in fat and calories." Hollenberg studied the Kuna Indians of Central America, island dwellers near Panama who grow their own flavanol-rich cacao beans.   The Kuna people drink a lot of cocoa, and they don't have high blood pressure or diabetes ...except for those who move to the mainland and start drinking flavanol-poor commercial cocoa. Hollenberg also fed cocoa with flavanols or cocoa without flavanols to a split study group in the United States, and discovered that flavanols in cocoa seemed to improve blood flow throughout the body.  

Even when a chocolate product is made from organic cacao beans or nibs, this does not necessarily mean the finished product will have the same health benefits as the raw cocoa, if the way it is processed by the manufacturer has reduced the nutrient value of the cocoa beans, or if the addition of milk products limits the ability of the body to absorb all the natural antioxidants.   Also note that the CAFFEINE in the cacao fruit is found mainly in the shell or membrane which encloses the cacao beans. Most suppliers of cheaper cocoa powder grind up this outer membrane along with the beans, which helps to increase the yield and lower their cost of producing cocoa mass. But when the membrane is removed before shipping the raw cacao beans or grinding them into cocoa powder, the chocolate made from those more expensive beans will be of higher quality and essentially free of caffeine.

http://www.astrologyzine.com/healthy-chocolate.shtml

I am on a ‘role’, with the strongest fat burner system I have found, since I weight stalled ages ago at half way to my weight loss goal.  No I do not use pills, my way is lifestyle change. 2010 is my year to complete my weight loss journey to goal weight. I am doing this weight loss journey, the natural, healthy slimming then weight managment way, by lifestyle change, an eating plan and exercise routine I want to maintain for life.  If you would like to read more about my slimming journey I have been blogging at artslim.org since last May.

Here are some suggested Snacks, I eat up to two snacks a day, usually just a piece of friut, if I feel I need the snack and I skip it if I am not hungry and have my friut with a meal, like breakfast.

Carrot Sticks: 1 carrot sliced,1 tablespoon LF cottage cheese, or LF hummus,

Bag of snowpeas

1 pear sliced into discs, with a teaspoon of cottage cheese on top (so the pear is like a cracker), add a couple of raisins

LF yoghurt in individual tub

Celery stick lined with LF ricotta and a couple of raisins sprinkled on top

Capsicum with cottage/cream cheese,  ricotta or a low fat dip.

Cold boiled egg

Muesli bars (Be Natural bars are 150 cal)

Hot chocolate: mix powder (eg Jarrah) with water and munch on 10 cherries. It’s a low cal version of a cherry ripe!

LF protein shake (measure VERY carefully as these can be packed with cals!)

A skinny latte

 10 almonds (measured and put into a zip lock bag so the rest of the packet is nowhere in sight)

 Chopped carrot/celery/capsicum/cucumber and homemade hummous

Home-made brown rice pudding (no sugar, no gelatine or other nasties, just 100g brown rice poached in 350ml water or rice milk with half a chopped pear, half a cinnamon stick & half a vanilla pod - makes 2 serves)

4 x wholemeal Vita Wheats with 40gms of low fat cottage cheese

A piece of fruit

A crisp granny smith apple

Nestle diet yoghurt - Lemon Meringue flavour is popular.

2 corn thins topped with cottage cheese and sliced tomato and cracked pepper

1/2 apple with 1 Tbsp raw peanut butter ( around 145 cals )

50 frozen grapes ( 150 cals )

 2 medjool dates ( 132 cals and they taste like toffee, but better! ) or open the date and put an almond in the center (146cals)

3 baby cucumbers with a Tbsp home-made pesto ( 110 cals )

 1/4 cup goji berries ( 110 cals )

 Banana-spinach green smoothie ( 1large banana, 2 cups raw spinach, water - blend ) (149 cals, and a great post-workout snack ).

Salmon Tempters

Mini babybel light (50 cals) cut into four slices on top of 4 rice crackers (29cals)

If I feel like some real tasty cheese I have found bega strong and bitey Vintage in a 6 pack at 18g each (73 cals per 18g) the fat content is not good but have a small piece of strong tasty cheese than a larger serve of cottage or ricotta..Just don’t choose high fat snack too often.

A zip locked bag, of sliced capsicum red and green with cherry tomatoes.

air popped popcorn with some cinnamon sprinkled over it

instant miso soup is one of my favourites and less than 50 calories.

Grilled or sizzle pan browned, with a spray of EVOO, mushrooms on dry linseed bread toast.

2-minute microwave asparagus with one slice of low fat tasty cheese melted in microwave for one minute, on top.

Nuts are a risk unless you count them and pre pack them as its so tempting to eat more than planned.

There are so many types of snacks but do not get too caught up on what to have, they are just to tide you over until the next meal. If you are still hungry, drink more water or try herbal tea.

Who has some other snack suggestions?  I would love to hear about your 100 to 150cal snacks

 

  Ginger Almonds

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown, 2009 and thank you Roma Strong Zanders, my facebook, friend, for sharing this great recipe with me. J

·         Cook Time: 27 min ·         Level: Easy ·         Yield: 1 pound or approximately 4 cups 1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 teaspoon dark sesame oil

1 dried arbol chile, stemmed and broken into small pieces

1 pound whole naturalalmonds

1 tablespoon less-sodium soy sauce

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Directions

Heat the oven to 250 degrees F.

Combine the ginger and salt in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

Heat the olive oil and sesame oil in a 12-inch saute pan over medium-low heat. Add the arbol chile and cook, stirring frequently, until the chilli begins to give off an aroma, 30 to 45 seconds. Add the almonds and cook, stirring frequently until lightly toasted, approximately 5 minutes. Add the soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce and cook until reduced slightly and the pan looks dry, approximately 1 minute. Immediately remove the nuts to the large bowl and toss with the ginger mixture.

Spread the coated nuts into a single layer on a half sheet pan lined with parchment paper and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove the pan to a cooling rack for at least 30 minutes or until completely cool. Store in an airtight container, for up to 1 week.

I often see chilli recommended as a metabolism booster and as one of the ingredients in diet pills, when I have looked at diet pill reviews, and being a natural food product, I am happy to include it in my diet, in it’s natural for. Ginger is also a food I love to include in my diet for it’s taste and anti inflammatory properties and almonds, well I just wrote a rave review about being nuts about nuts, in my Art Slim, blog.  http://www.artslim.org/2/post/2010/02/nuts-for-weight-control-and-health.html

Illustrated with a card from the Kathy Shell, cards from art, collection. 

 

Rain beautiful rain.

After the short heatwave, what could be more welcome than rain?

I was preparing to go shopping and I realized I could scratch a line through most of my shopping list.

I am going to get a plump ripe crop of silver beet, peas, beans, tomatoes strawberries, nectarines and potatoes out of this rain and warm weather. :-), I will not need to buy very much at all, :-), just let the rain and sun provide. Capsicum, corn and eggplant,, all progressing well too.

I planted six different varieties of tomatoes to try to space the harvest time, also five different  potato varieties, just the same i will need to search for multiple ways to prepare and cook the large crop of ‘tommies’ I will have for the next few months.

From my favorite source for my coking and how to, home use ideas:-About.com:-

Tomato Recipes

Tomato recipes and information, including how to peel, fried green tomatoes, tomato ketchup, and more.

Green Tomato Recipes @ Salsa Recipes (27) Green Tomato Recipes Tomato Links

Homemade Ketchup
This homemade ketchup takes time, but the final result is well worth the effort. Homemade tomato ketchup recipe with spices, onion, garlic, and other ingredients.

Spicy Tomato Jam
Use this delicious tomato jam as a ketchup alternative in meatloaf or on burgers, or serve it with cheese and crackers or as a dip for shrimp

 

That is IF the tomatoes ever make it to the kitchen. I LOVE eating them ripe of the bushJ, nothing tastes more beautiful than sun ripened, fresh harvested and eaten in the garden fruit.

Health Benefits of Tomatoes :

Tomatoes is said to promote clear skin and purify the blood, by detoxifying the liver and assisting in the health of the gallbladder, even helping to dissolve gallstones.

Tomatoes are a natural antiseptic, add garlic to your tomato dishes and you have a powerful natural way to help counter infection.

The Nicotinic acid in tomatoes can help to reduce blood cholesterol.

Tomatoes strengthen bone both as the Vitamin K content assists calcium formation in the bone, doing the same job many of the drugs prescribed for osteoporosis do, but in a SAFER, more natural way and without the side effects. of the drugs. Vitamin K also helps prevent haemorrhages. 

For more  House Home Garden and useful stuff, check out my, http://www.functional-art.net 

For more, Health and nutrition posts, check out my , http://www.artslim.com 

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