Tag Archives: vegetarian

Chris Hunt Blog is moving!

So, after having so much fun with my blog over the past few months, the limitations of having it on the free WordPress hosting have become just too unbearable. So today my blog will be moved to the new domain address of www.chrishuntblog.com.

This move should be seamless, and the new domain hosting should be up and running by this evening, but if there are any problems then please let me know because I do not want to lose any of my valued subscribers or readers.

So here’s to a brave new world. Well, it’s not so new. And it isn’t really brave either.

Chris is an international Pilates presenter and educator based in Barcelona, Spain. He is the creator of Pilates EVO©, bodyFUNC©, and CEO of Pilates Rehab Limited and Sport Core Strength.  He also organises Pilates Carnival and Fitness Carnival, conventions where all profits go to local children’s charities. For more information about Pilates with Chris in Barcelona, please click on Barcelona Bienestar. To learn more about Chris, please read Just who is Chris Hunt anyway?

 

Zero Noodles: The perfect dinner?

Before I ever recommend anything, I always try it first. From juices to footwear, exercises to music.

I’ve been vegetarian for many years and also wheat free, and tonight I will be tucking into a plate of Zero Noodles. They have so few calories that you burn whatever calories they do have whilst you are eating them. They are also gluten free and organic.

Sounds too good to be true? It will all come down to how they taste, and I’ll tell you that later! If the taste matches the other impressive features, then they might just be a great way to eat healthily and help control your weight.

(How many people are now praying for Zero Chocolate? That would make a few pounds for the inventor).

Try this lovely, quick recipe for your noodles. You can use whatever vegetables you can get your hands on.

Ingredients
1 packet Zero Noodles (200gms, 7 Oz )
4 spring onions, sliced crosswise, greens and whites separated
About 1 cup purple cabbage, shredded
1/4 cup frozen beans
About 1 cup thinly sliced multi colored capsicum
1 medium carrot, julienned
1 medium celery, thinly sliced
1/2-1 cup bean sprouts
1-2 garlic, finely minced
1-2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
1-2 tbsp chilli sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Cooking Method
1 Boil the noodles as per the package instructions. Add the salt and oil to the water.

2 When 85-90% cooked, drain the noodles and toss lightly with cold water. Drain completely and set aside until ready to use.

3 Heat a Wok with about 1 tsp of oil until it smokes. Make sure you have all the vegetables ready as its all about quick cooking. Add the garlic followed by spring onion greens, bell peppers, cabbage, celery, carrots and beans. Toss on high flame for 2 minutes. Don’t leave the vegetables on their own since at this stage they can get lonely and easily burn. You need to keep tossing them.

4 When you find the vegetables softening slightly, add the noodles, soy sauce, salt, pepper, chilli sauce, bean sprouts along with spring onion greens.

5 Give it a good toss and saute for another minute or so.

20131215-145807.jpg

When is meat not meat? Read this before you go shopping…

As most of you know I am vegetarian, so can I write an unbiased blog about meat? I certainly can if my information is based on facts.

I really have no issue with people who eat meat. I am totally tolerant of other people’s choices (as any good Buddhist should be). I choose to be vegetarian for many reasons, one reason being my concerns about the quality of much of the meat that is on sale. I never try to “convert” people, but I think it is important to have all the facts available so we can all make an educated choice.
The reason for my blog today is a couple of reports this week. The first is about the water content of frozen chicken sold in leading supermarkets. A recent study has found that between 13% and 18% of frozen chicken is simply water. That means that people are paying around £1.50 (2€) per kilo for water! So why is there so much water in the frozen chicken? The manufacturers say it is essential to improve the flavour and moisture. Believe this is you want, but the other reason is of cause to add bulk and therefore increase profits.

If this was not bad enough news for frozen chicken eaters, it gets worse. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) in the UK are investigating a major UK importer of poultry who it is claimed, imported frozen chicken from Brazil, defrosted it, added water, then froze it again for sale. But the water that was added also included additives to help the meat to absorb the water. It is common for extracted protein to be used to bind in the extra fluid, and some years ago there was controversy as it was claimed that the added protein in chickens also included proteins from beef and pork. The FSA are again today investing new claims that undeclared proteins have been added to chicken.

Also this week there was an official report produced for the UK Government following the horsemeat contamination that hit the UK and Europe earlier this year. This involved several beef products in several supermarkets being found to contain horse DNA. This report concluded that large amount of meat of “dubious origin and quality” is still being sold by a web of international traders. Some gourmet burgers were found to contain offal such as heart. Most worryingly, the report concluded that some of the meat on sale was not fit for human consumption, and was intended for dog food rather than supermarket shelves.

The food scandal extends beyond meat. It is an interesting fact that the UK alone consumed 1,800 tonnes of Manuka Honey, when the only official producers in New Zealand only produced 1,700 in total for the whole world! Also, as pomegranate’s popularity increases as a “superfruit” there are questions being asked as to how 400 new drinks are now available without any way of an immediate increase in pomegranate trees (they take two to three years to start producing fruit).

We are what we eat. Really. It amazes me that some people buy higher quality products for their pets or the cars than they do for themselves. In my opinion we should always buy the best possible food that we can afford, and always try to know as much about the source of the food. Whilst this can never remove all the risks of buying something of a poor quality, it can reduce the risks.

Generally speaking, if something seems too cheap to be true, then it probably is.