Spin The Wheel With Your Kids And Make Great Home Made Pizza

It is decades now since pizza became a household word. What a great feeling it is having the kids home and it is baking time all over again, with everyone lending a hand. No needs to order pizza all the time when you can have fun making pizza as a family and in the end save up some money in the whole process. Just like any delicious meal, pizza needs good preparation.

Since one is planning to have a swell time with the kids making pizza, then one can actually make it more interesting and get interesting kids baking tools. The net is a friendly place to be when looking for almost anything, there are different sites that one can shop for the playful chefs tools and at an affordable price as well.

While shopping for baking tools, there is one important part that we wouldn’t want to miss; having the magic gear and this is the pizza pan a special part of the whole baking process. Preferably, one can get a pan that is 12″ diameter x 2″ deep, with lots of small holes in it so as to let moisture out.

As part of the tools, one will need a pizza wheel or else slicing the pizza can be a very comical part. Besides getting a pizza wheel that can cut through different thicknesses, one should always remember the cleaning process. One should get a pizza wheel that is not going to cause a headache while cleaning and most importantly, it should be stainless steel.

One needs to know how to make homemade pizza with the Mediterranean touch. Just like any pizza, one will need lots of ingredients to get a recipe as there are lots of recipes one can refer to, either from the internet, magazines, or from friends. Mediterranean recipes can be salad, seafood, omelettes; chicken to pasta the list is simply long.

First, have the flour ready in a bowl and mix the dry yeast and salt. Mix the olive oil with warm water then mix it with the flour. After mixing then knead the flour well. After mixing the flour then cover it to let the dough rise. Prepare the vegetables, chopping them to ones preference. With the dough raised, then stretch it out with a rolling pin.

With the homemade pizza dough ready, spread out the onions followed by the tomatoes then the pepper cuttings and the rest follows. Spread olive oil sparingly over the homemade dough and cuttings. Final part is to bake for 30 minutes.

Making Pizza on a Grill

It is not very common among people to experiment when it comes to pizza. People use the same tools that could be found even in kids baking tools sets. The same-old technique of using dough making processors, or hands if needed, the baking pans, the usual toppings and the oven are always used. However, there is an unconventional way in which you can make a pizza; i.e., on a grill.

There are many people who are just surprised at the idea, as pizza is one dish that people can’t afford to have taste bad. That is why most of them try to stick to the conventional way. However, some people do try to cook the pizza on a grill, and their comments afterward are quite favourable to the new technique. The process is not very unconventional and requires all the basic tools, except for the pizza pan or the oven. There is no need for any special tools, such as, pizza peel or pizza wheel. It just requires a single or double sided grill.

It is easy to start, but it requires total attention later. First, start by making the pizza dough. Then, there are two ways that the dough could be baked. You can either cook just the one side of the pizza or put the already cooked or baked topping on it. The other method, which is usually used to cook both sides of the dough just a little, enough that it is golden brown and feels less soft. This could be achieved by using the two-sided grill, or by carefully turning over the dough on the grill. Next, you put the toppings and the cheese on the dough, allowing the cheese to melt down gradually. This step requires special attention, as the cheese should melt before the crust burns.

If heavy toppings such as beef, port or vegetables are being used, it would be a better idea to grill them separately. This allows you to avoid overcooking the pizza. However, readymade toppings could be used directly while making the pizza on the grill. It should be kept in mind to heat the topping prior to use, because excessive heat to warm up the toppings might burn the pizza crust. This could not taste very good.

There are many other distinct ways to make a pizza that includes baking it on a stone using wood fire. The taste is different and quite authentic. However, the grilled pizza, if made properly, could taste like any other home baked oven pizza or even better.

Authentic Pizza Made at Home

Pizza has something special about it, and the thought of ordering pizza is mostly received with big smiles. As much as ordering for pizza is fun, so is baking it from home. Baking from home is even more fun with the kids around, and in most cases, they are more than ready to lend a helping hand.

There is something about kids when it comes to dough, it is almost the same reaction one gets when one hands plasticise modelling material to a kid. Give a kid some dough and you’ll simply be left to do the fine kneading since most of the work should be done through playing. Through the dough process, a kid should be directed as well as for finer results.

With a kid willing to help, one should consider getting kids baking tools for neat sessions as well as to protect the utensils in the kitchen, since with kids’ clumsiness it is the rule of the day. While getting kids’ tools one may consider getting a pizza pan and a pizza wheel just in case they don’t have one. With a pizza pan one is bound to get crispy crust what one would expect from an authentic pizza, then finally neatly slice it up with the help of a pizza wheel.

With all the necessary tools ready one should pick up the necessary toppings for the pizza, preferably, one can make two variations of pizza. For example, one can be learning how to make a great Chicago style stuffed pizza and the other maybe, can be used to learn how to make homemade pizza with the Mediterranean touch.

While making the dough one needs to be patient with stretching out the dough so as to get it thinner and even. With patience and mixing up the correct amount of olive oil, salt, sugar, and flour, one is bound to come up with dough that is smooth and elastic. If wetness becomes a problem during the kneading process adding some flour should help. After the dough is fine it’s time to cover it up with a plastic wrap and let it rise.

The next step would be to divide the dough into several pieces two to three then cover and let it stay for about five to ten minutes. Next, one by one with the topping all set aside you flatten out the dough and place the toppings sparingly since putting too much topping may spoil the pizza and making it rather soggy in the end. With all the toppings done it is oven time which should last approximately 25 minutes all depending on the toppings.

Diabetes Drug Metformin Delays Disease, Lowers Health Costs - Study

By: Jennifer Corbett Dooren
Source from: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110628-712090.html

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--Treating people at risk of developing diabetes with a common diabetes drug metformin lowered the risk of developing the disease, along with slightly cutting health-care costs, according to an analysis of a landmark diabetes prevention program.

The cost analysis of the National Institutes of Health funded program showed that an intensive lifestyle intervention was more effective at cutting the risk of developing diabetes compared to metformin, but at a cost of about $1,500 over 10 years. The analysis was presented Tuesday at the American Diabetes Association's annual meeting.

Doctors said the lifestyle intervention cost is similar to treatment with cholesterol-lowering medications that aim to prevent heart attacks and strokes, and far cheaper than things like kidney dialysis needed by many patients with advanced stages of diabetes.

The diabetes prevention program was a 10-year study that compared the diabetes drug metformin and a lifestyle intervention that was aimed at helping people lose at least 7% of their body weight through diet, exercise and behavioral counseling, compared to people in a placebo group.

Patients in the study were overweight and had elevated blood sugar levels, which put them at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease. About 26 million Americans have diabetes.

One of the diabetes prevention program's researchers, William Herman, a professor of medicine at the University of Michigan, explained that a criticism of the initial study was that the lifestyle intervention likely wouldn't replicated on a broader scale because it would be too expensive. So Herman looked the cost of medical care in and outside of the study including the cost of metformin and the lifestyle intervention.

The lifestyle intervention started with a 16-lesson curriculum covering diet, exercise and behavior modification that was taught by case managers on a one-on-one basis, followed by monthly individual sessions and group sessions with case managers.

During the first three years of the study the lifestyle intervention cut the risk of developing diabetes by 58% while metformin cut it by 31%, compared to patients where nothing was done. The study was then extended for another seven years with a less intensive lifestyle intervention and metformin.

Over the entire 10 years of the study, those in the lifestyle intervention group had a 31% reduced risk of developing diabetes while those on metformin had a 19% reduced risk compared to patients in the placebo group.

Metformin is an inexpensive generic drug and is usually the first drug given to newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes patients. Herman's analysis showed that giving metformin to patients at high risk of developing the disease reduced overall healthcare costs by about $30 over 10 years.

Herman said it is likely that a lifestyle intervention similar to the one used in the diabetes prevention study conducted on a group basis instead of individually would save the healthcare system money.

Indeed, researchers at Indiana University developed such a program. It is currently being rolled out at YMCAs nationwide with funding from UnitedHealth Group (UNH).

Weight Loss Supplements Over Liposuction

Some people believe that the only way to loose a couple of pounds is through the use of liposuction. To some people, this is there only resolution to excess fat and saggy legs. They never considered any other healthy alternatives in order to feel well and to look great. A liposuction can have an altering effect in your life especially when you do not consider its negative effects. There are some cases, although rare, which were about failed liposuction operations. Several patients experienced infections and post operative stress due to the sudden loss of body mass. That is actually one of the best reasons why people should be more on the natural way of weight loss rather than the operative approach. Rather than using a costly operation, people should consider weight loss supplements and other healthy alternatives which are known to have fewer side effects and more on the positive results.

Supplements are effective but they would only work if you have the right discipline. The first step is to consider the supplements that are for you. There are supplements which are based on a certain vitamin such as Vitamin C and B. Some are rigged with several minerals such as iron and calcium. If you should choose then try the one which has all the vitamins and minerals. However, they are costlier than other supplements so you should be careful. There are also supplements that are for several diseases. For instance, if you are lacking RBC or Red Blood Cells then you should consider one which would have an added iron. This would help you regain the lost platelets in your body. If you want to gain some extra pounds then there are also several supplements which have protein contents. They would help you gain the muscles that you want in well over a couple of months.

Most supplements are based on products found in nature. For instance, fruit and vegetable supplements obviously came from vegetable extracts and from pulps from fruits. The extract coming from vegetables and fruits are collected by manufacturers in order to create several supplements. They are still as potent as actual fruits and they have all the necessary vitamins that your body needs. So, if you want to loose weight and be healthy at the same time, you should stick with supplements rather than engage in costly operations. Through using the natural means, you will be able to avoid any dangers in the future.

Not So (O)Lean: Eating Faux Fat Makes Rats Real Fat

By COURTNEY HUTCHISON, ABC News Medical Unit
Source from http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Diet/eating-fake-fat-makes-real-fat-olestra-study/story?id=13893613

Another diet myth bites the dust: Products containing the calorie-less fake fat Olean, of fat-free potato chips fame, may make you gain weight, not lose it.

In a new study released today by Purdue University, researchers found that rats who were fed Olean-containing potato chips as part of a high-fat diet ate more overall and gained more weight than those who were fed a high fat diet and regular, full-fat potato chips.

This counter-intuitive finding shakes the conventional wisdom that substituting lower calorie, lower fat foods for the full-fat versions will help reduce overall caloric intake and encourage weight loss.

"Fat substitutes can interfere with the body's ability to regulate what it eats, and that can result in overeating," said Susan Swithers, lead author and psychology professor at Purdue University.

But overeating may not be the only reason why fat substitutes make you pack on the pounds. Researchers suspect that fake fats actually mess with our body's ability to digest and metabolize food, making us more likely to retain weight from what we eat.

"Our bodies make predictions on what to prepare to digest based on taste and how food feels in our mouth," Swithers said. When something tastes sweet or fatty, our body gears up to digest a high density of calories, stimulating the metabolism and triggering a chain of hormonal secretions to process the fat, calories, and nutrients.

"When we get cues that something is fatty, but no calories arrive -- like with fat substitutes -- our body gets confused," Swithers said. "This confusion can make the body stop preparing to digest fatty food when it does come."

Olean is the brand name for Olestra, a calorieless, fat-free fat-substitute discovered accidentally by Procter & Gamble in 1968. Olestra was approved for use as a food additive in snack foods in 1996 and soon after became famous for its negative gastrointestinal side effects, including intense diarrhea and anal leakage.

High Fat Versus Low Fat Diets and Olestra

In the Purdue study, researchers put rats on either a high fat or low fat diet and allowed them to eat as much as they wanted. The rats were also fed a few grams of potato chips a day: Half the rats received only regular chips, while the other half got a mixture -- some days they got full fat, some days they got fat-free Olestra chips.

Researchers found that rats that ate Olestra-containing chips consumed more of their regular food and gained more weight than those rats that ate the higher-calorie, full-fat potato chips.

At first, this effect didn't seem to hold true for rats on a low-fat diet, until researchers gave these rats access to a high-fat chow. Even though all the rats had stopped being fed potato chips, fat-free or otherwise, those rats that had been consuming Olestra tended to eat more and put on more weight when they were later exposed to a high-fat diet.

This suggests that eating Olestra was changing the way the rats' bodies learned to respond to food, interfering with their natural ability to regulate how much fat was "enough."

"It goes against what you might think -- you remove calories from food and you'll lose weight, but at the end of the day the chemical manipulation of food leads to increased weight. We don't understand exactly why yet, but research continues to show this is true," ABC News Medical contributor Dr. Marie Savard said.

Swithers warned that while rat findings can't be directly applied to humans, rats have very similar biological responses to food as humans. The study was published today in the APA journal Behavioral Neuroscience.

Calls made to Procter & Gamble for comment were not immediately returned.

Weight Loss Supplements for Obese People

Weight loss supplements are one of the most widely searched phrases in various search engines nowadays. And from the statistics, it is not women alone who search for this phrase—even men type in these keywords in order to learn more about supplement that could help them burn fat.

Actually, these type of supplements are most needed by people who are suffering from serious medical conditions like obesity. Obesity seems like a norm in many countries like the US where a whopping 34% of the entire population is said to be obese (according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). What statistics like this one, people are getting used to seeing obese and overweight people and that makes the condition somehow more of a laughing stock and less of a condition that needs medical attention. But people need to be vigilant about it. Obesity can cause various health problems like heart failure or Diabetes. And just before you consider undergoing surgery to instantly remove all of the fat in your body, it would be best to try natural methods first such as taking weight loss supplements. The first benefit is that you do not have to spend too much for a surgical operation for fat removal. The second is that supplement therapy will be able to help burn fat while keeping you healthy. You get twice the benefit by simply taking these supplements.

Fruit and vegetable supplements will be able to help the body get enough energy to get going throughout the day. Even with a significant cut in the carbohydrate intake of the obese person, these supplements will provide the nourishment the body needs for a fairly strenuous day of working out in the gym. There is no need to be afraid of suddenly fainting in the midst of the workout. With enough hydration and healthy food served when needed, a person will be able to endure the workout

If you are obese and you believe this is the best time to make a change your life, go to your dieticians and ask for advice on how you should revise your diet. Most likely, you will get a referral to a nutritionist who will then give you the supplements you need in order to keep your body healthy while aiding your metabolism throughout the whole process of losing weight. It will take some time before an obese person can cut a significant bulk of his weight but it will all be worth it.