Cozy Fall Cooking: Try These Pumpkin Recipes

It wouldn’t be fall without pumpkins—and those orange globes are for way more than just decoration. Try some creative pumpkin recipes this season, and you’ll become addicted to the rich, fabulous flavors.

Homemade Pumpkin Pie

Make from-scratch pumpkin pie with your own pumpkin purée—it’s easier than you think! Make it even better by creating a super-flaky crust with these tips for the perfect pie crust.

Pumpkin Butter

Have you tried homemade apple butter? YUM. Take that flavor and amp it up a bit by whipping up a batch of pumpkin butter. Start out with one of the best pumpkin varieties for cooking, and you can’t go wrong. With your pumpkin butter, you can make Pumpkin Butter Cake, Pumpkin Milkshakes, and Pumpkin Bread (recipes all included in the above link).

Flavor-Packed Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Don’t toss those pumpkin seeds when you’re carving or cooking your pumpkins! Instead, spice up and roast your seeds for a simple snack. This link will take you to recipes for sweet, spicy and zingy pumpkin seeds.

Happy fall!

Related Care2 articles:

• Fall Recipe Ideas
• Growing and Cooking with Sweet Potatoes
• Gluten-Free Pie Crust

Photo from Fotolia

Read more: All recipes, Appetizers & Snacks, Desserts, Food, Thanksgiving, Vegetarian, cooking tips, homemade, pie, pumpkins, recipes

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How To Strengthen Your Immunity?

In order to prevent the viral infections in the autumn we need some help

All experts advise that during the cold season we have to strengthen our immunity

Autumn-winter period is known for the constantly attacking viruses. All experts advise that during the cold season we have to strengthen our immunity, but how to do this?
Zinc prevents viral infections, supports the functions of the brain and enhances immunity. It is essential and it contributes to protein synthesis and the formation of insulin. Zinc controls and our need for food – that feeling called hunger. People, suffering from zinc deficiency need food more than two times than the normal. Another interesting feature is that the zinc maintains the proper functioning of the male reproductive system and the synthesis of testosterone and other male hormones. It is important for normal growth, maintenance of a healthy immune system and has a strong influence on the healing of internal and external wounds. It is an essential part of human DNA and it depends on the production of over 200 enzymes in our body. In zinc deficiency increases the risk of getting colds, diabetes, reduced sperm formation and eczema, acne and psoriasis. Other common diseases include hypertrophy of the prostate and aortosclerosis. One of the first signs of zinc deficiency is loss of taste and smell. Good sources of zinc are oysters, meat, eggs, seafood, tofu, wheat germ and brewer’s yeast.

Source : dailyhealtharticles[dot]com

7 Ways to Use Herbs to Freshen Your House

Our sense of smell is one of the strongest ways we connect to our memories. Pine needles conjure up the holiday season, this-or-that soap takes you right back to Grandma’s house, wet earth suggests spring, and pumpkin spice means autumn; it goes on and on.

Surrounding ourselves with pleasing scents is an easy, effective way to produce feelings of comfort and calm. Commercial air fresheners exist, but they’re chock full of chemicals – some potentially carcinogenic, some certainly toxic, and many that are known allergens. Using fresh or dried herbs instead is a natural way to fill your space with the scents that you love the most. Here are 7 simple ways to get your groovy fragrance on:

Boil

Spices such as cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, cardamom pods, fennel seeds, etc., can be boiled in a pot on the stove. They’ll fill every nook and cranny with a warm, spicy, autumn-y aroma. To shake it up a bit, throw some orange slices in there.

Burn

During the winter, you can use pine cones, dried rosemary branches, and cinnamon sticks as kindling in your fire place. These awesome little fire starters will leave the whole place smelling quintessentially seasonal.

Grow

Aromatic plants like jasmine, honeysuckle, and tuberoses can all be grown indoors. Herbs such as rosemary and mint are also easy houseplants, though they’re less fragrant then their flowery alternatives.

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Read more: Bed & Bath, College Life, Crafts & Design, Crafts & Hobbies, Eco-friendly tips, Food, Green, Green Kitchen Tips, Health, Holidays, Home, Household Hints, Life, Natural Remedies, Non-Toxic Cleaning, carpet-cleaner, herbs, holiday scents, natural scents, potpourri, sachets, scent, smells

By Sayward Rebhal, Networx

Source : care2[dot]com

Autumn SNEEZING Story

Autumn-winter season brings with it plenty of nasal secretion

Ah, bodily fluids! To be in tune with the season, I have chosen to deal with snot, and without that it will deal with them with urgency, inverse to atmospheric temperatures.
But where are my manners? In cultural scientific literature will not find such thing as “snot”. It is called mucus. First you should know that the mucus is your friend.

10 Autumn Tips to Keep Cold and Flu away

Do you know the effect of chicken soup on nasal mucus velocity?

Data on secretion in healthy people is controversial, but this is understandable due to the difficulty of measurement. While some authors assume that its volume is 10 to 100 milliliters, others cite values of 0.1 to 0.3 milliliters per kilogram of body weight. In case you’re interested, boogers are composed of 95% water, 2% glycoproteins, 1% protein, 1% fat and 1% inorganic ions. Many proteins are substances with antimicrobial, antioxidant activity and inhibit degradation of proteins.
Under normal circumstances (ie, when not ill) nasal mucus is part of the system, which serves to purify the air we breathe. That air is swirled into the nasal cavity warms and all dust and other particles unfriendly received him with a stick covered with mucus epithelium of the nasopharynx. Quite coincidentally epithelial cells have cilium that literally sweeps these intruders to the pharynx.

Grapefruit May “Help” You to Get Pregnant!
Unfortunately described mechanism does not give one hundred percent anti-virus protection, ie man can live well, sometimes ill. In this situation enters mucus hypersecretion of trying to get rid of the culprit for your troubles. Sometimes it succeeds, or at least cope with the task of ensuring you (almost) smooth breathing. Other times you fail and then your nose is clogged, your sinuses become infected and you begin to sound like a sewer system designed by a hamster trepanation. In addition, otherwise your mucus becomes transparent soft yellow or even romantic green color with which to decorate millions of white towels. By the way, the green is due to iron enzyme myeloperoxidase, which is secreted by white blood cells in an attempt to destroy the virus or bacteria.
As to the question how come all these snot, you should know that the producing glands (submucosal gland epithelial cells) raw materials derived primarily from the blood that you and you know it’s a lot. These substances (mostly water, as already mentioned) diffuse through the walls of capillaries and eventually find themselves or in your throat or a handkerchief.

Hydration: Main Factor in Preventing Sinusitis
Last but not least, you might be interested to learn that in scientific journals appear and articles that examine the effect of chicken soup on nasal mucus velocity. The result is that there really is a soup that catalyst which is solid supports for the belief of its healing powers. It plays a major role inhalation of hot steam, except that dilate blood vessels and contribute to hyper secretion, liquefy mucus, ie increase its viscosity. Add two generous tablespoons cayenne pepper and you have a recipe for a little nasal tsunami.

Source : dailyhealtharticles[dot]com

Apples for Health, Apples for Fun, Apples Yum

Tis the season, for apples, apples, apples!

Did you know . . .

• Apples date back to 6500 B.C.? Remains of apples were found during the excavation of Jericho in the Jordan Valley, which was dated to this time period.
• In 79 A.D.., Pliny the Elder described 20 varieties of apples in his work, Natural History (note: I actually have a nephew named Pliny. He’s awesome. An architect that does a lot of green design [for Whole Foods stores around the world] although people often ask him to repeat his name.)
• Apples are actually part of the rose family?
• The average American eats 45 pounds of apples a year!
• “An apple a day, keeps the doctor away,” comes from an old English saying, “To eat an apple before going to bed, will make the doctor beg his bread.”
• In 1100 A.D., the medical school of Salerno, taught that apples could help disturbances of the bowels, lungs and nervous system.

Health benefits of apples . . .

• Great source of fiber with about 4 grams for a medium apple (only about 95 calories)
• Good source of immune-boosting vitamin C
• Can help loose weight
• Can help lower cholesterol
• Can help reduce risk of diabetes
• Can reduce risk of certain cancers:
• One study of showed that the flavonoids, quercetin and naringin in apples could reduce lung cancer risk up to 50%
• Scientists from the American Association for Cancer Research found that consuming flavonol-rich apples could help reduce the risk of developing pancreatic cancer by up to 23%
• Researchers at Cornell University identified triterpenoids in apple peel that have a lot of anti-growth activities against cancer cells in the liver, colon, and breast.

I’m sure this is all great, but I’m sticking to organically grown apples – minus the toxic chemicals please! Apples are the #1 worst foods (loaded w/ pesticides when non-organically grown) on the Dirty Dozen foods list published by Environmental Working Group in their annual study of conventionally grown foods v. organic foods in terms of pesticides.

My recent apple picking adventure . . .

lil green dude mason on our apple picking excursion

When did apple picking become such a competitive sport? We went out with a couple of the kids and our grand kids this past weekend, and when we pulled up to the farm driveway and saw lots of official looking men with flags to direct traffic and that cars were already overflowing into a new parking field at 10am, we kind of knew we might be in for a serious adventure. We noted all the “security” people and it just didn’t seem congruent with a day at the farm.

We also weren’t entirely prepared for the myriad of farm-related activities that were far more thrilling for the kids than the apple picking would be. We spent a lot of time feeding, interacting with and being entertained by all kinds of animals. The frisky goats were fun, especially this one little tough guy who kept head-butting a COW out of the way every time someone tried to feed it. There were bunnies – FAT bunnies, donkeys (even a super cute baby donkey), a gorgeous pregnant horse, chickens, geese, ducks, oh my! The pony ride was almost as popular with lil Green Dude Mason as the hay bale tunnel, which he kept disappearing into!

green divas carly & vivi enjoying apple picking

This fun family farm fest all took place at Alstede Farms in Chester, NJ. I like this farm because they have a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program, participate in local farmer’s markets, grow some certified organic produce, use integrated pest management in other areas, work to grow responsibly and sustainably, and do a lot for the community. I’ve met them at farmer’s markets, but who knew they had a virtual farm circus back at home base! The place is HUGE and the pick-your-own crops include acres of fruits and vegetables, pumpkin patches AND fresh-cut flowers. In order to get around, there is a hay ride route with about a dozen stops that takes almost an hour to go through all the stops and back to the starting point.

green dude wayne travelin via hay ride

We came home with a crate of apples and a crate of veggies including huge eggplants, fresh tomatoes, even found some jalapeno peppers out there, but they were having a spud fest and we couldn’t resist picking up a few fresh and dirty potatoes – yum! So, I immediately got creative and made up an apple crisp/crumble recipe. I also made fresh salsa with some of the other goodies and canned it, but that’s another post – stay tuned.

click here for GD Meg’s yummy apple crisp/crumble recipe . . .

Read more: Community, Diet & Nutrition, Eating for Health, Family, Food, Fun, Outdoor Activities, The Green Divas Podcast, Vegan, Vegetarian, apple picking, apple recipes, apples, apples for health, farm fun, pick your own, pick-your-own apples

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