This is the time of the year when the kitchen always smells great and when the table is full of delicious temptations. Eating smart doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy yourself, just make some

Oprah has come up with a list of foods to enjoy and foods to avoid so you’ll enjoy yourself without having to unbutton your pants. Here’s the best and worst choices for the holiday season.

COCKTAILS
Worst cocktail:
Gin and tonic (8 ounces)

Drink this instead:
Champagne

DIP
Worst dip:
Spinach and artichoke dip

Eat this instead:
Salsa (1/4 cup)

SIDE DISHES
Worst side:
Baked potato with butter and sour cream

Eat this instead:
Roasted red potatoes (1/2 cup)

HOT DRINKS
Worst hot drink:
White chocolate mocha (20 ounces)

Drink this instead:
Café au lait with peppermint syrup (20 ounces)

Continue for more tips Here.

Guest Author: Valery Fortie is the national awareness coordinator for the preservation of the Italian healthy eating traditions board.

People from all around the world are developing more and more health issues, due to being overweight. There is a knowncorrelation between heart problems and obesity, but people do not heed the warnings. These illnesses being left untreated or unmanaged, is a leading cause of premature death all around the world.

Being overweight leads to a variety of diseases and illnesses that attribute to poor health. High cholesterol, high blood pressure, clogged arteries and diabetes are just some of the health issues an overweight person may face. These health problems can also lead to a stroke. Strokes can be deadly or lead to severe debilitation.

It is a known fact that lycopene, a compound found in tomatoes, can help lower cholesterol. Dr. Andrew Carson, a senior lecturer at Birmingham University, has asked for further research to investigate the compound.

People who have been following the Mediterranean diet are much healthier than the average person. The Mediterranean diet includes a lot of tomatoes. The hope is to use lycopene as a way to lower a person’s cholesterol. The current medications used to manage a person’s cholesterol are very expensive, and not always effective. Lycopene would be much
cheaper, and save millions of dollars in medical costs.

The Mediterranean diet can lower the risk of heart disease, stroke, and cancer. The diet is simple and easy to follow. It involves using herbs and spices to flavor food, instead of salt. A high salt diet can lead to high blood pressure. Using healthy fats like olive oil and canola oil to cook food. The Mediterranean diet calls for a very small amount of red meat.
Meats like fish and shellfish are used in place of red meats.

Raw fruits, vegetables, pasta, rice and nuts are a big part of the Mediterranean diet plan. These foods can help lower the bad cholesterol levels and reduce high blood pressure. A woman can cut her chances of having a stroke by as much as 40%, just by following the Mediterranean diet. The diet itself is full of tasty food, and does not restrict any particular foods. It is simply using healthier food to cook or flavor the food you would normally eat. The diet also allows for an occasional glass
of red wine with your meals.

About the Author

Valery Fortie is the National Awareness Coordinator of Mediterranean book.com. She is also the blogger behind its directory of news focused on healthy eating ways to prevent high blood pressure pain to live longer and better.

Mediterraneanbook.com is a non profit blog founded in 2004 to preserve the Italian Healthy Eating Traditions and inform consumers on duty in all healthy eating fields.

Nothing warms up a cool day like romance.

Mother nature has created the perfect ambience for you and your special one during autumn. Enjoy the outdoors and one another with one or all of these great fall date ideas from Shape.

Apple Picking

Spend the day in a beautiful orchard and then schedule another day to bake an apple pie together!

Haunted House

Nothing draws too people together like an adrenaline rush. Hauntworld.com has a good list of houses near you.

Fireside Dining

Head to your favorite campground or local beach and find a fire pit (bonfires can be unsafe and are illegal in some areas) where the two of you can cozy up.

Pumpkin Patch

many patches have corn mazes, hayrides, and other festive activities to keep you entertained. This another great idea to schedule your next date with promises to carve them together.

Our pets can be just as much a part of our family as our spouse, so it’s important to include them in the family photo.

Wet Nose Fotos promises to “create a memorable collection of natural, gorgeous images of your beloved pet and their unique character, for you to cherish for a lifetime.”

The photo session is of your pet enjoying itself, instead of forced poses, and 100% natural treats and lots of cuddles are promised.

This is a great solution to capturing your pet’s personality forever! findsolve offers consumers other great solutions just like this one!

findsolve is the world’s only portal of solutions for businesses. It links people looking for a solution with those that offer them in any category across any industry.

Carve a great pumpkin and then pass it along to your friends with no clean up necessary!

Continue Here to get started.

So last night was the 2 hour season finale of Hell’s Kitchen Season 6 and it was H-O-T!!!

From the beginning I had a feeling it would come down to the two chefs who were injured early in the competition. Kevin rolled both his ankles and Dave severely broke his wrist, which he struggled with endlessly. They both grinned through the pain to the bitter end and found themselves facing a very proud and almost emotional Gordon Ramsay.

Throughout the season, both chefs displayed an amazing talent in preparing their individual dishes, they showed consistency in challenges and exhibited leadership during dinner services.

At first I thought Kevin would take it, since in my opinion, he was the most consistent chef of this season. In fact I think one of the only times he screwed up was in last night’s challenge, where the 3 remaining chefs had to make a dish using ingredients from a specific county taking part in the 2010 winter games in Vancouver. Kevin had to prepare a dish using ingredients from Mexico, I think there’s even a sound bite of him saying “Mexico, everybody’s made Mexican food, this will be the easiest dish ever. Unfortunately Kevin forgot one of his key ingredients, the mole sauce, when presenting to the 3 top chefs representing their respective countries. Dave was thrown a curve ball when he was challenged to make Indian food. Dave had never eaten or cooked with such ingredients, but as usual he took it with stride and prepared what he thought would please the chefs. Unfortunately Dave though he was being clever when he deduced, that since cows are sacred in India, he better cook with pork… SORRY WRONG ANSWER!!! Thankfully the Indian chef wasn’t too offended, ’cause Dave more than made up for the mistake with his superior quality dish.

As anticipated, the final dinner service not only brought back interesting characters like Van and Robert who cooked up a storm for their respective chefs, but served up one of the tightest and most intense Hell’s Kitchen finale ever.

Now in case you didn’t see it, here’s the spoiler… Dave won!!!

But let me give you my rationale for why I think he won and why Kevin did not. Again, this is my opinion, please feel free to comment with your own theories…

DAVE WAS ON DRUGS - Throughout the season he seemed very mellow, never raising his voice or a fist (not that he could even if he wanted to). Kevin on the other hand, although consistent, was not shy about “Ramsaying” up himself in the kitchen while on his own station or even worse, on the pass as we saw in last night’s final dinner service, he almost blew it before he even got started, Amanda or no Amanda.

Dave stayed cool, calm and collected from beginning to end… Something tells me it was from all the pain killers he was probably taking : )

Now that the competition is over and real life kicks in, does Dave have what it takes to run the Araxi Restaurant in Whistler B.C. for the 2010 Winter Olympics?

I would say, he could do it with one arm tied behind his back.

Have dinner on the table half an hour after you get home! Women’s Health Magazine has 11 great recipes that are not only quick and easy, but yummy too!

Try out these meals this week:

Apricot Pork Tenderloin
Spicy Lime Tilapia
The Even-Faster Stir-Fry
Seafood and Mushroom Pasta
Thai Chicken and Pasta
Quick Burritos
15-Minute Black Bean Soup

Beef and Broccoli
Roasted Red Pepper Pesto Pizza
Easy Parchment-Baked Halibut
Grilled Salmon with Citrus Salsa

From FoxNews.com:

The towering burger is called the “Super Scooby.” It’s 6-inches tall, weighs more than 3-pounds and packs a whopping 2,645 calories — more than the 2,550 recommended for men and much more than the 1,940 recommended for women.

Spiros Lomvardos, who co-owns the Jolly Fryer fast food joint with his brother, Andreas, said the idea of the super-sized snack started out as a joke.

“A few months ago, me and my brother and another gentleman, Karl Ford, who’s an employee, were sitting at work on a dead quiet night when we saw an ad from a well-known burger chain,” Lomvardos told FOXNews.com. “And we said to one another, ‘The burgers always look big in the ads — but they never look like that in real life,’ and then we started discussing making our own big burger.”

Ford had a better idea, came up with all the ingredients and made the burger that same night. They took a picture and put it up in the store, and as Lomvardos said, that’s when things started to take off.

Here’s what makes the “Super Scooby” special:

— 4 quarter-pound beef patties;

— 12 onion rings;

— 8 slices of bacon;

— 8 slices of cheese;

— 6 slices of tomato;

— 2 sesame buns;

— Barbecue sauce;

— Lettuce;

— And a good slathering of mayonnaise.

“It started as two burgers originally and has snowballed into four,” Lomvardos said, laughing. “I guess you could say it’s grown from there.”

At first, the Jolly Fryer didn’t intend to sell the “Super Scooby” to customers, but once people started seeing a picture of the gut-busting burger posted on the wall, the orders started rolling in.

“Customers love it, Lomvardos said. They think it’s brilliant… they gasp… and burst out laughing. It seems to put a smile on people’s faces.”

If your stomach is strong enough to finish the burger, which comes with a side of traditional British chips, you even get a free Diet Coke to wash it all down with.

“Obviously we wouldn’t recommend for someone to eat this every day,” Lomvardos added. “It’s not to be taken too seriously. It’s something that we would encourage on a special occasion for someone who wants to challenge themselves. It’s just a little bit of fun, really.”

One person who might be able to gulp down the “Super Scooby” without any problem is Olympic gold medal swimmer Michael Phelps.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends 2,500-3,000 calories a day for men, depending on age and activity level. But Phelps consumes 12,000 calories a day while in training, just to maintain his weight. He could scarf down four of those burgers and still need a milk shake or two to maintain his competitive edge.

Aristotle once said that “no democracy could last without middle-class rule; the rich and the poor simply distrust each other too intensely to let the other have the reins.”

The people of the middle class are considered to be the most important to the economy- they’re also the most difficult to classify.

The only universally accepted definition of middle class is the “neither rich nor poor” one. Middle class is more than just your annual income, but a family’s “ccupation, education, wealth and even attitude fit in relation to those of others.”

Continue reading.

Also known as Ashure, Noah’s pudding has come to be considered a symbol of peace and diversity in the Turkish culture. The dish, which resembles rice pudding, is often distributed to friends, neighbors and fellow community members. It is thought to have originated in the times of Noah’s Ark: when food ran scarce, the scraps of food that remained were mixed together and formed Noah’s Pudding. In an effort to foster understanding and acceptance of different cultures, the Dialog Foundation presented an event at which people from diverse backgrounds could come together. In this video, WatchMojo.com learns more about this dish.