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Video about Swiss Cuisine

Everyone assumes that European cooking is heavy and unhealthy. Especially when it comes to Swiss cooking and Swiss recipes, everyone thinks, cheese, chocolate, potatoes, meat, etc. but that’s just nonsense.  Cooking light recipes is what the Swiss are great at. Their lunches and dinners tend to be much smaller in proportion, and not as filling as American dishes. Often times, European dishes are thought of as heavy, greasy and overwhelming, but in reality, when you visit Europe, the meals tend to be light and perfect proportioned.

I personally remember when I traveled across Europe. Often I was still feeling hungry after I ate. Typically a breakfast will be small, either oatmeal with fruit, maybe some bread and cheese, or even just a soft boiled egg and some yogurt. The typical meal is just enough to keep you feeling less hungry, but not overstuffed.

Here in the United States, too many restaurants believe in overstuffing their customers. Unlike many European restaurants, we Americans are allowed to take things home in a “doggie bag” or “to go” container. In many European restaurants, if you don’t finish your food, well, too bad, it will be thrown out. Generally they do not give you “to go” containers. You may even take the chances of insulting the Chef if you don’t finish your food. They might think you did not like your meal, or something else was not to like. It’s better just to come hungry and eat all that you can.

The Swiss are great at cooking light recipes. Bircher Muesli, is the perfect example of a tasty, light recipe. It is basically chilled oatmeal with fresh fruit slices of oranges, apples and even raisins. Not only does it taste great, but it’s a healthy way to start the day. It will give you tons of energy and is very low in calories. For lunch, you could try a Sausage salad, otherwise known as Wurstsalat. It may sound like a heavy meal, but it is actually quite light. You can always use thinner slices of sausage, if you don't feel that hungry. Just like any salad, you can use as much or as little sausage as you would like. I generally cut enough just to cover the top of the salad and leave the rest for onion slices, pickles, lettuce and other ingredients.

Staying healthy does not mean you have to throw out flavor. There are several recipes that are low fat and tasty. If you are into cooking light recipes, and want to try something new, you may consider Swiss Recipes. There are dozens of great Swiss Cooking websites and recipes to be found online. Here are a few:

• http://swisscookbook.com
• http://www.about.ch/culture/food/wurstsalat.html
• http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes.php?categ=15,187
• http://homecooking.about.com/b/2009/07/07/swiss-cheese-recipes-hole-y-delicious.htm

When it comes to making your own food, you can choose to cook light and cook healthy. Choose your ingredients correctly and you will always have delicious, healthy meals that you will love.

The nutritious little seed tastes great and is fast and easy to prepare. If you want to eat healthy foods try cooking quinoa. Qunioa is fast and easy to prepare. And the little seed has a great taste.

With a taste somewhere between rice and lentils with a nutty flavor it is a very good replacement for rice, pasta, couscous or potatoes.
Quinoa is very nutritious and a good source of:

• vitamin E
• vitamin B
• vitamin C
• calcium (contains more than milk)
• phosphorus
• iron.

Since quinoa contains all essential amino acids it is an excellent source of protein. But it is still much easier to digest than proteins from meat and dairy.

Quinoa is gluten-free and has a low Glycemic Index (GI) which makes it prefect for anyone with diabetes or anyone who would like to lose weight.

How To Prepare Quinoa:

To bring out the great nutty flavor prepare it like this.

1. Most quinoa needs to be rinsed before you boil it.
2. Boil the quinoa according to instruction on the package.  Usually you need 2 cups of water for 1 cup of quinoa . Boil til the water has been absorbed (10-15 min).
3. Alternative  to bring out the nutty flavor: Take the boiled quinoa and fry it gently with sliced garlic in wok or frying pan.

Other spices that work really great with quinoa are cumin and coriander and fresh herbs.

Quinoa is prefect to add to soups,  stews and chili.

When you make a quinoa salad cook the quinoa according to step 1 and 2 above. Let it cool. Then add your favorite salad ingredients. Truffle oil and basil makes your quinoa salad absolutely delicious.

Or why no start you day with hot quinoa cereal.

Ingredients (serves 4)

2 cups water
1 cup quinoa
1/5 cup raisins
1/5 cup dried apricots
2 teaspoons of chopped almonds

Bring the water to boil. Add quinoa and boil at low temperature for 5 min.
Stri in the other ingredients and heat gently until all the water is gone.

Another way to get a really healthy breakfast is to drink a Loaded Quinoa Smoothie. The protein is prefect to kick start your metabolism in the morning. It is also a great drink before and after exercise.

For more healthy cooking ideas with quinoa, try for example Quinoa Paella.

The Incas worshiped quinoa and referred to is as “mother of all grains”. The seed is seen as one of the reasons that the Incas became so powerful. When the Spanish came they banned quinoa to weaken their opponent.

Grass-fed beef is donning the dining tables of more families than ever before. The nutritional value of grass-fed beef is very attractive. Low in saturated fat, people are starting to enjoy beef again, where once they were warned to stay away from it by their doctors.

Ranchers get a bigger paycheck when they feed the herd with man-made grains. These grains contain animal carcasses many times. Dead cats and dogs used to be acceptable to grind into cattle feed until that practice was banned in 1997. Natural feed is healther for the cow and for you.

Beef from grass-fed cattle has less fat then grain-fed beef. With 50% of the fat being saturated, grain-fed beef is not very healthy. With grass , only about 10% of the fat is saturated. Grass fed beef contains extra Omega 3 fats, which helps fight coronary artery disease.

Omega 3 fats may help treat or prevent arthritis, high blood pressure and coronary artery disease.

With grass feeding, the meat is high in beta carotene and vitamins A and E. Cancer and diabetes risks may be reduced by CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid). Kids with ADHD show improvement in attention span when given Omega 3 and CLA.

Grass fed beef is naturally lean, which is a great benefit.  This is a great incentive to insert it into your weight-loss plan.Hamburgers are one of the staples of the American diet along with roast beef and meatloaf.

Once you discover grass-fed beef, you can find great recipes for preparation in The Healthy Urban Kitchen Cookbook. You want to be sure that as you cook this leaner, healthier beef, you are not going to taint it with other harmful fats or additives.