Fresh and healthy Vietnamese Spring Roll

        Nom nom nom, yum yum yum, nom nom nom- Those are the sounds of you enjoying and devouring spring roll. Vietnamese food is known not only for being delicious, but also being healthy. This recipe is low in fat and full of nutrients, fiber, vitamins and minerals. Moreover, it is perfect to give your immune system a boost, give you your energy, aid weight loss, and spark your creativity. You can try various ways to make your spring roll. It is also a creative way to eat salad :P. Healthy snack time!!

Ingredients: 

 2 ounces rice vermicelli

 8 rice wrappers (8.5 inch diameter)

 8 large cooked shrimp - peeled, deveined and cut in half
 Boiled pork thin sliced

 1 1/3 tablespoons chopped fresh Thai basil

 Fresh herbs- mint, basil, garlic chives leaves

 Fresh cilantro

 8 leaves lettuce

 - Sauce:
 4 teaspoons fish sauce

 1/4 cup water

 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

 1 clove garlic, minced

 2 tablespoons white sugar

 1/2 teaspoon garlic chili sauce

 8 tablespoons hoisin sauce

 4 tablespoons smooth peanut butter

 4 tablespoons of water

 1/2 tablespoon rice vinegar

 1 tablespoon chopped peanuts
 Sriracha sauce (optional)

    Directions

-Boil rice vermicelli until al dente, and drain.

-Use a large bowl and fill it with warm water. Use 2 clean damp dish towel, on on the plate so that the rice paper will not stick on, and the other dip in warm water and use that cloth to lightly wet the rice paper until soft.
-Or you can dip the rice paper in the warm water directly for 1 second, take it out, shake off the excess water.
-Lay the rice paper flat on the damp towel. In a row across the center, place 2 shrimp halves, boiled pork slices, a handful of vermicelli, basil, mint, cilantro and lettuce, leaving about 2 inches uncovered on each side. Fold top side inward, then tightly roll the rice paper a bit. Fold 2 sides inward and continue rolling a little bit. Put some garlic chives leaves before your roll the rest of the rice paper. Repeat with remaining ingredients.

For the sauce:

-In a small bowl, mix the fish sauce, water, lime juice, garlic, sugar and chili sauce.

-In another small bowl, mix the hoisin sauce,smooth peanut butter, vinegar and chopped peanuts until the sauce is smooth. If you like the sauce to be light, simply add some water in. Also, if you like spicy, don't hesitate to put some Sriracha sauce in.

-Serve rolled spring rolls with the fish sauce and hoisin sauce mixtures.


 Voila!!!

P/S: Let your imagination run wild! You can try it with your favorite protein or veggies. Try to be creative and see how it taste :)

Enjoy your healthy snack!

Tibetan Cleansing

In some ayurvedic sources, this cleansing is called "the secret of Tibetan lamas".

Take regular rice in as many tablespoons as your age. Wash it and put in a jar. Then fill it with warm boiled water, close the lid and put in the fridge overnight. In the morning, pour the water out and take 1 tablespoon of rice from the top. Cook it for 3-4 minutes without salt and eat on an empty stomach before 7:30 AM. Fill the remaining rice with boiled water again and put in the fridge. Repeat next morning and continue doing so until the rice is finished.

The secret of this method is that the rice grain has a crystalline structure. When we soak the grains, we remove starch from them, what opens the small cells on their surface. The stomach does not digest such rice, and it goes right in the intestines, where grains act as adsorbent.

After the treatment, you will become not only healthier, but also younger-looking. Important: after this rice breakfast, staying away from any food or drink for at least 3 hours is strongly recommended. After applying this method, you should notice the relief of lumbar pain if you had any; and your neck will stop crunching.

Source: http://vk.com/yoga_vk?w=wall-44674375_20258. The information is presented in Russian and for registered users only. 

Georgian dish Chakhokhbili - Simple Version

Chakhokhbili (stress on the first "i") is a dish that was created in Georgia long time ago. Initially, it was meant for duck meat, but with time, people began to apply it for chicken primarily. Now, the recipe had spread around all former Soviet Union republics and got many interpretations. Today, we will show you how to prepare Chakhokhbili in 40 minutes from the simplest ingredients. We will use buckwheat on the side to illustrate the classic and healthiest serving, but you can substitute it with any side that you prefer: pasta, rice, or mashed potatoes. 

For 2-4 portions you will need: 

• 4 pieces of chicken with skin (the author prefers thighs). If you don't like skin, you can remove it after the cooking process will be finished. Skin makes gravy much better. 
• 1 big onion.
• 2 medium carrots.
• 1/2 red sweet pepper. 
• Italian parsley. Actually, it's the main type of parsley on the former Soviet Union territory, and it's called just "parsley" :) 
• 3 bay leaves. They give the dish its signature aroma.
• Sea salt.
• Ground pepper.
• Extra virgin olive oil.
• Buckwheat for the side. It's a classic side for many dishes in there. It is very good for digestion and a great source of protein. It contains NO GLUTEN. People eat it to reduce the levels of fat in their bodies.  

What are we doing now?

1. Cut onion (on half-rings), carrots, parsley and pepper.
2. Pour olive oil into a pan (not too much!) and heat it on a maximum temperature. 
3. Apply salt to the chicken chunks from both sides. Put them into the pan.
4. Wait till the chunks become a little goldish. Than flip them over and do the same with the opposite side. Important: do not reduce the heat; we want chicken to remain raw inside. It gave us the juice; leave juice heated in the pan. We will use it for our vegetables soon.
5. Take the chunks out of the pan and put them into a medium-sized pot. Cover with a lit and leave the pot for now. Do not put it on heat yet.
6. Put onions into the same pan and fry till they're half-raw but goldish. Add carrots, fry together for 2-3 minutes. Do not cover the pan. 
7. Boil about 0.3 litres of water.
8. Put the pot with chicken on heat (heat level 10/10). Add the bay leaves and as much ground pepper as you like. 
9. Put our half-fried vegetables above the chicken. Put raw red pepper and parsley on the top. Add a bit of salt, but remember that chicken is salted already. 
10. Pour boiled water into the pot. Chicken has to be fully covered, but vegetables should not. 
11. Cover the pot. Bring the contents to boil, reduce the heat to 3/10 and leave for 25-30 minutes.
12. While you're waiting, cook the buckwheat.
13. When you will see that the chicken's meat got separated from the bone a little bit, the dish is ready. 

ENJOY! 

                                     

Delicious way to stay hydrated and healthy - Lime&Lemon Detox Water

              Summer is knocking at the door and when the temperatures increase, staying hydrate is important whether you are working outside in the sun or playing sport with your friends or just sitting in your backyard enjoying our day off. Drinking enough water is critical for your health because it is good for your heart and your body's detox system. Your heart will not have to work as hard when you are hydrated. Moreover, water also helps flush bad toxins & waste out of our body, and assist the function of organs like liver and kidney. There are many way to stay hydrated and today we will talk about quick and healthy detox water with lime and lemon.

              This refreshing drink not only helps you to stay hydrated but also your body to flush out toxins and boost your immune system.  Lemon or lime juice contains high vitamin C and has antioxidant properties. Vitamin C is one of the most antioxidants as well as antibiotic vitamin. Vitamin C is not only boosts the function of your immune system, but also helps your body to neutralize free radicals, which are damaging healthy cells in your body and can cause trouble in your organism along with the "C word"- Cancer. Moreover, this drink can also help to flush the fat away. With this drink we can fight not only the "C word" but also the "F word". 

So what do you need for making this refreshing yet healthy drink?

You will need:

- A glass pitcher full of water

-1/2 lime

-1/2 lemon

- mint leaves.

-Couple teaspoon of honey (optional)

Directions:
- Wash and rinse your ingredients
- Slice lime and lemon
- Put half a lime and half of a lemon sliced into the water pitcher (1 to 2 liter pitcher depends on your taste)
- Put a couple of mint leaves into the pitcher
- Couple teaspoons of honey -(optional)
- Fill  the pitcher all the way to the top with cool water
- Let this cocktail sit overnight in the fridge for the flavours and juice to infuse into the water.

Voila

Final step: Enjoy this refreshing drink and stay hydrated.

P/S:  Mint is not only used for flavour, but also helping your digestion. Mint also have the calm effect that can help us relax more.

                                                               

Salmon Time! Simple and Delicious Solution

We are so lucky for living on the lovely West Coast, where freshly caught seafood is as cheap as regular chicken. Don't forget to enrich your diet with wild sockeye salmon that is extremely beneficial for your health: it's a great source of protein and omega-3 acids that feed your brain and elevate your mood. In the wild, this fish has initially grey colour, that changes with the time to red after the fish eats and digests enough krill. Thus, the bright colour of salmon indicates that it had healthy diet; and now it's your turn to have it. 

The meal combination we are suggesting is very simple and quick to prepare. The dish is very beautiful and can be as your weekend dinner as your after-work food intake even if you are in rush. 

Ingredients:

- 7 asparagus sprouts 

- 4 small broccoli crowns

- 1 slice of wild sockeye salmon 

- 3 tbsp of quinoa

- extra virgin olive oil

- sea salt

- ground pepper

YHD tip: the author was using a pan and olive oil, but the food doesn't look fried, does it? To achieve the same result, cover your pan with a lid at all times during the cooking. Pour a little bit of water inside and leave your salmon, broccoli, and asparagus for 7-10 minutes. The salmon will become a little goldish, but it still will be steamed, not fried. Boil quinoa separately. 

We bet you will love it!

Use this kitchenware for the best results:

                                   

Foods For Your Brain

Did you know that even simple foods can do amazing things with your body?

In our modern World, we are overloading our brain with multiple tasks all the time. We always want it to react quick, memorize more, and understand everything. We wake up in the morning and immediately check news feeds. We have tons of information that is falling on us from countless media. We receive, filter, learn, check, recall, and repeat again.

We want to be ahead, on time, and productive. We want a lot from our brain, but are we giving it something back?

Check the article below to discover what foods should in your menu on a regular basis:

9 Foods That May Help Save Your Memory

Picture credit: health.com