Homemade Flavoured Butter

Nowadays, modern family find very little time at home as most of the time they are tied down at work. Thus, many are looking for quick fix without losing the quality of food and life. One of the things you can consider is to prepare flavouring butter.

You can flavour butter with different herbs and spices as spread or as marinade for barbeque foods on top of meats, fish or vegetables and leave it to melt. Flavoured butters can be made in advance and it can be kept for up to 1 week when chilled and 2 months when frozen, unlike some marinade and paste that can only keep for up to 3 days.

In this post, I will share with you two types of butter marinade.

For Seafood: (~500g fillet, prawns or scallops)

Mix 125g unsalted butter, 1 tsp of lemon juice, 2 finely chopped shallots, pinched of salt and black pepper. Chill the mixture in grease proof paper and form a regular block or cylindrical shape. When it is hardened, cut them up into slices.

For chicken or baked potato: (~1kg)

Mix 125g unsalted butter, 1 tbsp french mustard, 2 finely chopped garlic cloves, 2 tbsp chopped rosemary. Season with salt and black pepper. Chill the mixture in the same way into a regular block and slice them for use.

Lose Weight With Food Scent

Being able to enjoy eating food is a luxury to most of us. However, sometimes it gets a little harder to control the weight and we are often seeking for the pills that slim us down. The good news here is that it exist so long as your sense of smell is still sensitive.

Research Study has shown that overweight people who take time to sniff their food aromas are able to lose weight. More than 3000 overweight people participated in a trial and were given an inhaler containing the scent of apple, banana or peppermint whenever they felt hungry. This study was performed over a period of six months. The results show that the more frequently the subjects sniffed, the more weight they lose.

This finding means that you can use your scent to reduce your weight, though it may not be suitable for asthmatic conditions or people who lose their sense of smell. The following are some tips recommended to make use of the scent therapy to lose weight.

1) Take Time to sniff your food

Most of us, including me would charge into their meals once settled down while others might be busy chatting, reading or distracted while feeding themselves. There is just no habit to intensely smell the food before eating because most often, we take it for granted that we have smelled the food as we passed by or near to the kitchen. Perhaps, it is time to test it out.

2) Chew your food thoroughly

I have ever heard a friend telling me I should chew at least 10 times on my food to ensure that my food is properly digested. I have tried this once and honestly, I think the food become a little less appetizing to me and I end up speeding up on my food again. Perhaps, I was also rushing for time.

3) Opt for fresh and hot Food

Fresh, hot and unprocessed food typically gives more taste to the meal. The strong food scent would in turn be able to help you by stimulating your olfactory bulb and in turn makes you less hungry and full quite quickly. Needless to say, hot food typically gives more scent than the cold ones.

4) Add a strong herb or spice

As I mentioned in my earlier post on how to reduce your fat intake, strong spice can excite your food and reduce the salt you need to put into the food. In addition, the scent also saturates your sense of smell and thus suppress your appetitie.

5) Bring an apple with you

Green apples are the most hardy and I reccommend you use this fruit to stimulate your sense of smell whenever you feel hungry. If you are working at your desk most of the time, put the apple in front of you and clear away your titbits that is laid infront of your desk. This can help you to more effectively suppress your appetite.

Other related articles

1) Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation

Cucumber Salad Recipe

Cucumber is well known vine fruit that is used to reduce heat and inflammation. It is full of vitamin C and can be used to apply externally for inflamed, sunburn or eczema skin.

Fresh cucumbers can soothe heart burns or acidic stomach or gastric ulcer (drink 100-150 ml every 2 hours) and may be used in the treatment of gout and arthritis. It is also known as a tonic for kidney.

To motivate you, I have this cucumber recipe you might like to try as an appetizer before or after meals.

1) Clean the cucumber and slice off the skin.
2) Cut them into strips
3) Squeeze the juice from 1 or 2 lemons and add little rice vinegar. You can also use other natural vinegar such as apple cider vinegar. Do not use artificial vinegar.
4) Mix them well, cover the bowl with the wrap and refrigerate it before serving.

When you prepare this salad, you will notice the water is leeching out from the cucumber. You can drink the liquid portion as it is very nutritious as well. It is really cooling and the acidic taste gives the salad the additional zest to the chill.

Excess Breast Milk Uses

Having excess breast milk? Cracking your head on how to best use the excess breast milk? Or do you throw them away anyway because your baby doesn't want to take them, or finds semi-solid food more interesting. If you thought of offering to your family members, they might be uncomfortable about the idea of drinking your milk.

There are a few ways mothers can use their excess breast milk and that you might consider:-

1) Donate
Consider donating your milk to your neighbours or friends who needs it for their baby because they were not able to give them due to some health reasons or other circumstances. There are some who consider selling them too.

2) Add your milk quietly into food recipe
This idea sounds very cheeky but if you are not uncomfortable in sharing your breast milk with your family members, then the next option may be to add it into your baby's food. You can add it to your biscuits, pastries or even cake. It is really useful way but just make sure that you check your milk supplies first before using it for a meal.

3) Use it for facial wash
Haven't you heard of people using milk as a facial wash. Why not try the breast milk? Perhaps the excess breast milk can be a good excuse to pamper mothers on their face to relieve the tiredness especially after birth.

Interesting article

1) Holistic uses of Breast Milk