I know SEVERAL people whose answers to Oprah’s question were deleted, for various “reason”. Anyone else want to share their experience of NOT getting star treatment before this question is removed?

P.S. If you LOOOVE Oprah, that’s your gig, don’t put it here; she’s already gotten enough exposure on this site!

BBQ salads are the easy accompaniment to an outdoor cookout and do work really well but sometimes I like my barbecue menu ideas to be a little different. In fact, not just different, something that can become a bit of a talking point too.

My inspiration comes from cooking corn cobs. When doing them on the barbecue grill it’s important to soak the husks for a good 30 minutes in water so that when heat is applied the leaves steam and cook the kernels. Having tried the corn over charcoal idea a couple of times, sparks of inspiration started to fly in all directions as I thought about how we might steam other vegetables on the outdoor barbecue grill. No sooner had I tried the base concept and the menu ideas came thick and fast.

Essentially were going to steam the vegetables in foil packs and the real beauty of cooking this way is that you can put the foil packs on the grill while the charcoal is still settling down and because of the foil protection there’s no chance to burn the food. By the time the vegetables are cooked, the charcoal is ready for the meat, do the remainder of the cookout and while the meat is resting for five minutes simply slap the foil parcels back on to warm through.

Let’s take carrots as an example. Take a rectangular piece of foil, chop the carrots finely and place them in one half of the foil rectangle. Season with salt and pepper and fold the foil over and “scrunch” the sides together just leaving a hole at one point where we can add water. Pour in half a cup full of water and make the final scrunch to seal the package. Slap it on the grill and 15 minutes later you’ve got beautifully delicious steamed carrots. A knob of butter and “Bob’s your uncle!”

The same logic can be applied to many vegetables so why not experiment? The only thing to remember is to slice the vegetables thinly so that there’s a good surface area for the steam to work on.

For an easy variation on the theme, rather than water, why not try a little dry white wine? It adds and certain “je ne sais quoi” to the recipes and sure makes for some interesting questions when your guests see you filling foil parcels from a wine bottle. They really know that they’re in for a treat!

Alternatively how about potatoes? Again, slice them thinly, place them on one half of the foil and season, now add a tablespoon of crème fraiche and start the scrunching. Finish off by pouring a good lug of white wine before sealing the parcel and then it’s onto the barbecue grill. You’ll need to be a little more careful with this barbeque menu idea because too much heat can burn the cream so be a little gentler with the cooking and go for about 30 minutes cooking time.

One last tip - it’s also great to make individual packages so that everyone can rip into their own parcel and enjoy. It also makes it easy because all we have to do as the chef is throw a foil parcel onto each plate - how’s that for presentation? Healthy and tasty outdoor barbecue recipes

me being awesome

I am a regular mountain biker, but like to road-ride, too. However, my full-suspension is way too much drama for the pavement and even my hardtail is too heavy for efficient road travel. I want something lighter and better suited. The problem is, I am not super fond of the “feel” of road bikes. I saw that Trek (my fave) had “fitness” bikes and “urban” bikes and I am wondering if anyone can tell me what are the advantages/disadvantages to choosing a fitness or urban bike over a road bike?

THANKS! Just to add, a fitness bike is not a stationary bike. It is an actual style of bicycle like urban, road, mountain, triathalon, etc. I was just hoping that someone had some info on what might be better suited for me. Thanks to anyone who can help!

You’ve heard so much about Wii Fit, and many of you might have the question on your mind “Does Wii Fit Work?” I bought my Nintendo Wii Fit Starter Bundle online three months ago. During the past three months, I’ve been playing the Wii Fit Starter Bundle on regular basis. So I’d be glad to share my Wii Fit workout experience with you.

What’s  in the Nintendo Wii Fit Starter Bundle?

I placed an order online and received my Wii Fit Starter Bundle in the mail three days later. I couldn’t contain my excitement while opening the package. The package included my long-awaited Wii Fit game and Balance Board. I already got my Wii game console earlier this year along with all the necessary accessories such as the Wii remotes and nunchuck, so I was ready to start playing Wii Fit right away.

Exercises included in the Wii Fit Starter Bundle

There are over 40 different types of training activities offered by Wii Fit, including traditional exercises such as step aerobics, jogging, as well as modern stress busters such as Yoga and meditation. You can also choose  other fund exercises such as Hula Hoops, Snowboarding and rhythm boxing. The exercises offered by Wii Fit are so diverse that every member of your family will find their favorite ones no matter how old or physically active they are.

The pressure-sensitive balance board that comes with the Wii Fit Starter Bundle can hold up to a maximum of 300 pounds. Since quite a few of the Wii Fit games are based on player’s balance of her body, this is where the balance board comes in. Similar to a step aerobics board in appearance, the Wii Fit Balance Board can also measure player’s performance as well as weight, which alongside the height, age and gender determine the player’s Body Mass Index (BMI).

My Workout experience with Wii Fit Starter Bundle

I set up my Wii Fit system as soon as I got the bundle. Firstly, I entered basic personal data such as height, age and gender as instructed by Wii console. The machine calculated my BMI and my fitness level shortly. After my profile creation was complete, I was ready to start getting a taste of Wii Fit.

I am always a fan of Strength Training. So I started with muscle-toning exercises such as Leg lift, Squat, Lunge and more. Wii Fit offered Push-up challenge and it was quite fun. I also played Yoga with the Wii balance board. I have been practicing Yoga for quite a while, so I had no problem in catching up with Yoga poses included in the Wii Fit, such as Cobra, Bridge, Spinal Twist, Shoulder Stand, Warrior and more. It was actually quite interesting to play Yoga with Wii Fit.

My favorite exercise so far is Hula Hoop. It was quite challenging to keep the hoops in the air in the beginning. After a couple of days’ training, I learned how to balance myself. After that, keeping all the hoops in the air while catching some more was really enjoyable. And it was a great workout too.

Does Wii Fit Work for me?

I have been playing with Wii Fit for 40 minutes a day, 3 days per week, during the past three months. Here is the result I’d like to share with you: I lost 4 pounds so far and dropped from size 8 to size 6. I eat like usual during these three months. So I think Wii Fit does work for me, and I will keep exercising and shaping up with Wii Fit.

Will Wii Fit work for you?

Many of you might be on the fence asking “Will Wii Fit work for me?” My answer is “Yes, it will. As long as you do it right and do it regularly.” Don’t get me wrong, Wii Fit  is not going to make you lose weight if you eat excessively and doing 10 minutes a day on Wii Fit. You have to watch your lifestyle and diet too. If you exercise with Wii Fit regularly with a healthy diet, you will be happy to see the result 3 months later just as I did.

Wii Fit is like a home gym membership to some extent. However it is much more fun, and provides more motivations to get people started, especially for those who don’t have time hitting the gym every other day, or just simply don’t like go to the gym. Wii Fit turns the exercises into a fun experience. And there are so many activities included in the Wii Fit game that you wouldn’t feel bored at all.

To sum up, Wii Fit works for me, and it will work for you as long as you manage your expectation and keep a long-time commitment. WiiConsoleDeals.com is a specialized Wii for sale site that lists up to the minute deals on the Wii consoles, Wii Fit and other popular Wii games and accessories. Be sure to try this website when shopping for Wii Fit bundle.

When you have a history of heart disease in your family, it is important to take good care of your heart. Exercise is a main part of taking good care of your body, including your heart. Eating is important as well. But sometimes it seems like finding tasty food that is good for you can be difficult. And besides, who has time to prepare it? You do! Here are two delicious recipes that can get you started on the road to healthful and tasteful eating for your heart. And they’re easy to make!

Baked Dijon Chicken (4 servings)

Ingredients:

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken ****** (or you can use turkey), removed of visible fat

2 Tbl. lemon or lime juice

1 Tbl. course-grained or Dijon mustard

1/8 tsp. black pepper

1/2 tsp. minced garlic (from a bottle works nicely)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Rinse the chicken and pat it dry and arrange it in a glass baking dish.

Using a small bowl, stir together all the remaining ingredients and spread over the top of the chicken. Do this piece by piece.

Bake uncovered for 15 to 20 minutes. The chicken should be tender and no longer pink.

Rosemary Turkey With Mushrooms (4 servings)

This is a treat that you can serve company. It is an elegant and delicious dish.

Ingredients:

1 pound turkey ****** tenderloin slices

1/2 c. chicken broth, low sodium

1/8 tsp. each black pepper and salt

1 Tbl. cornstarch

2 Tbl. balsamic vinegar

8 oz. chanterelle or button mushrooms; these should be cleaned, trimmed, and sliced

1/4 c. shopped onions or shallots

1 tsp. fresh rosemary or 1/4 tsp. dried rosemary

Rinse and pat dry turkey and set aside.

Use a small bowl to stir together broth, salt and pepper, and cornstarch. Set this aside.

Use vegetable oil cooking spray to coat a large skillet and place it over medium-high heat.

Add half the turkey to the hot skillet and cook about two minutes on each side. The turkey should be tender and no longer pink. Set aside and do the same to the other half of the turkey. Remove the skillet from the heat, and keep the turkey warm.

Add the vinegar and rosemary to the skillet. Scrap up all of the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Then, put the skillet back on the heat and use it to cook the mushrooms and onions (or shallots). It should take about five minutes for the mushrooms to become tender.

Stir in the set aside broth mixture. It will take about three minutes for it to become a sauce, thickened and bubbly. Cook for two more minutes after that, stirring constantly. This sauce is served with the turkey. For an elegant tough, the turkey can be served on a bed of fresh rosemary.

Once you know what you can do to enjoy healthful meals without sacrificing the flavor, you can take better care of your body and of your heart. And that is a delicious proposition.

Article Title: Quick and Easy Heart Healthy Recipes

By following the basic rules of variety, moderation (portion control), and balance, you can plan your daily healthy recipes in accordance with Canada’s Food Guide. You can partake in almost any food without guilt or worry. You are able to use healthy recipes to learn to utilize foods to lower your risk of heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers.

By using healthy recipes utilizing any freshly grown local produce; preferably organic, pesticide free; where possible, eat fresh fruits and vegetables. Use the least amount of salt and sugar; where possible eliminate both, for your heart’s sake. Most fruits do not need sugar added, and most vegetables do not need salt.

Learn to eat less sweets and use Splenda, a natural sugar replacement as often as possible in healthy recipes, in order to keep sugar intake lower, and sea salt in place of regular table salt, to keep our intake of processed iodized salt. Packaged and canned products are usually heavily salted or sugared and it is not necessary - our bodies just do not need it. Choose light and low sugared and salted canned foods if you must.

Learn to read labels of packaged or processed foods, often the “healthy nutritious” part of the food has been taken out of the actual food by the time it reaches our mouths - home made healthy grown food, used in healthy recipes tastes much better than processed foods. It has been recommended that we use non-hydrogenated oils in our foods and stay away from as much animal fat as possible.

Using healthy meat in recipes means we use grain fed, pesticide free organic meats. It may cost a little more, and you may have to order ahead of date required (ie. organically fed - free range birds and free range organically fed cows). It is highly recommended for your good health as these animals will not have been fed anti-biotics, which normally would pass through the meat and into our bloodstreams as we eat the meat; thereby enabling our systems to build up anti-immunities to these drugs. The more we eat those antibiotic filled meats, the more anti-biotics become immune to new and old diseases. Stay with organic meats!!

Learning to eat healthfully by using foods that are pesticide free, organically fresh, locally grown, and not genetically altered, will show you not only the benefits of a healthy body, but a healthy mind.

Finally, learning to use healthful foods to benefit our healthy recipes, choose to using these recipes as a canvas and you be the painter. Healthful foods need not be boring or complicated or take ages to make. Using a healthful recipe is a creation of art, and especially so, when you learn the benefits of and what constitutes healthy eating.

Remember we are what we eat!

The Rachael Ray show was launched on September 18, 2006 as the first hour-long show by Ray. The show has been produced by Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions and King World. The national and international distribution was done by CBS Television Distribution. This show bagged the nomination for Daytime Emmy Award as the Outstanding Talk Show and rendered a nomination to Ray as an outstanding Show Host. The show entered its third season on September 8, 2008.

In 2008, the show grabbed Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Entertainment. And why not! The Rachael Ray Show has an average of 2.6 million daily viewers. It has become one of the highest viewed shows during the daytime. Out of the four syndicated talk shows, Ray’s show was the only one to be renewed through 2010, thus, adding a couple of years more to the already two years it had obtained.  

Behind The Scenes

The idea behind creating such a show was to highlight, along with Ray’s culinary skills, her love for other things in life. The show features celebrity interviews, musical performances, provocative discussions, and path breaking issues. The show runs parallel to The Oprah Winfrey Show. The wonderful feature of the show is that the audience is seated on a rotating turntable so that each one is able to view what’s happening on stage up close and personal.

Entertainment Tonight revealed on March 7, 2007 that the theme music of Rachael Ray Show was written as well as recorded by John Cusimano, Rachael’s husband. The song is performed by R&B, The Neville Brothers, which is a Soul and Jazz Group. The singer is Aaron Neville. The rhythm of the song is similar to “Yellow Moon”, the group’s classic hit, but has different lyrics.

Rachael Ray Show projects the other side of Ray’s persona, something that people are not aware of. According to her, “People know me for my love for food, but I have so much more that I want to share.”

Having a healthy colon is the key to long term health and finding good colon healthy recipes is one way to help keep your body healthy. While it might be difficult to actually locate recipes that are labeled to be healthy for the colon, you can learn to recognize them by the ingredients that they contain- namely fresh fruits and vegetables. In addition, a healthy recipe will contain little or no white flour and white sugar. Perhaps the best recipe for colon health, however is to include lots of fruits and vegetables in your meals as described below.

The large intestine or colon is where the results of the entire digestive process gather up to leave the body. Due to poor eating habits, most people have an unhealthy colon resulting in constipation. If your colon is not in tip top shape, food can get trapped in the lining and start to rot. It can also become hardened in there and can even be trapped in your colon for years!

Of course, food plays a big role in the health of your colon. There are many arguments for the pros and cons of a vegan diet, however when it comes to colon health, a vegetarian way of eating has many benefits.

Animal foods are hard to digest where plant foods are quite easy to digest. So, colon healthy recipes will include little or no animal foods and be based mainly on whole grains, fruits and vegetables. In addition to good colon health, using recipes made with these foods will have a pronounced effect on your overall health in general.

Vegetables and fruits are very colon friendly and can be processed or digested quite easily by the body. They contain a variety of vitamins and minerals as well as enzymes and fiber- all things that are essential to good health. Fiber, in particular, is good for your colon health as it adds bulk which helps to pass the food along the digestive tract.

One simple and easy breakfast recipe could be a fruit salad with oatmeal (not the packaged or instant stuff). Natural fruit juice can be quite healthy too although it does not have fiber and drinking a lot of water will help with the digestive process.

Always try to include a salad for lunch with lots of dark leafy greens. Stay away from the iceburg and try to include romaine lettuce and spinach as these have more vitamins. Broccoli, carrots, cauliflower and kale are great additions to any salad. Don’t forget the olives and artichokes for a little zest. Instead of bottled dressing which is probably loaded with sugar, try olive oil and vinegar- you might even mix in some fresh herbs and create your own salad dressing recipe!

For snacks, stay away from anything that comes in a package and go for raw nuts, fruit, veggies or even a nice fruit smoothie- made with real fresh fruit, of course! If you need something crunchy try spreading all natural peanut butter on celery (this can also help to satisfy any cravings for sweets).

Colon healthy recipes for dinner follow the same common sense rules. Try cutting down on the red meat and eating fresh fish along with a salad and perhaps some steamed broccoli, zucchini and carrots. If you need something more substantial try adding brown rice, corn on the cob or potatoes.

Just like with any other aspect of your health, eating nutritious healthy foods is a sure fire way to keep your colon, and your whole body, in good health.

i was watching rachael ray and they put a magnetic sheet inside a computer armoire door . i didnt catch what kind of material they used.. did anyone watch this show?? please help