Monday, December 03, 2007

The Best Way to Prepare Garlic

Garlic lovers rejoice. Here's some good news for your heart and your breath.

Lightly cooking garlic to help soften the smell won't rob it of those heart-protective compounds known as thiosulfinates. So you can cut back on the mints and start feeling better about baking, boiling, or sauteing it. Just don't microwave it. Wondering why?

Get a Crush on Garlic
When researchers set out to see how various preparation methods affected garlic's ability to break up clusters of artery-clogging platelets in the bloodstream, they tried boiling, baking, and microwaving both crushed and uncrushed garlic cloves. Lightly cooked crushed garlic aced the test -- as long as it wasn't cooked in the microwave. This cooking method sapped the garlic of all its good-for-you attributes. No matter how you serve it up, always crush garlic first. Crushing the cloves is what releases the beneficial thiosulfinates in the first place.

Sweet Garlic Dishes
Share this great garlic news with folks at your next holiday gathering, and let them sample its heart-healthy powers by bringing some Garlic and White Bean Dip. Also, try this Garlic Lover's Rub on your favorite meat or veggie.

Read this article for pointers on how to prepare produce so it packs the most powerful nutritional punch.
RealAge Benefit: Training your taste buds to love foods that thwart aging can make your RealAge at least 3 years younger. TRY IT!

Roasted garlic is delicious and it's super easy to bake. Experiment with this Tuscan Jumbo Garlic Baker, which looks and cooks great. Each clove emerges mellow and nutty, ready to add to mashed potatoes or spread on crusty whole-wheat bread. RealAge Editor's Holiday Gift Pick!

I got this information from a RealAge newsletter that comes to my email box. I found it very interesting, especially since I love eating recipes with garlic. Garlic is such a healthy food to eat and it is wonderful in killing germs and bacteria. I gave my husband garlic capsules after he came home from the hospital to help him kill off any bacteria he picked up after taking so many antibiotics. Click on the recipes above and also the article on how to prepare produce so it packs the most powerful nutritional punch. I found it very interesting.

What’s Lucy been doing lately? I’ve been busy working on our annual herb and spice order. Once a year our church group goes together to order herbs and spices. This year we are a little later than usual in ordering but it is done and the spices were shipped today and should be here by next Friday. Take a look at this website to see what we can order?

Tomorrow I will be ordering nuts, seeds and dry fruits and here is there website. If you get an order of 20 pounds or more, you get free shipping. Walnuts, almonds and pecans are cheaper at Sam’s Club, but everything else is reasonably priced. If you are interested you could get together with a couple of friends and easily put together a 20 pound order and get your free shipping. I was recommended this site by a very good friend of mine who has ordered from them before and says that their products are very good.

Thanksgiving is over and Christmas will be here before you know it. Today I made my ginger bread dough for my annual cookie baking. TF’s family loves this special recipe. If you are interested in the recipe, take a look here. I need to get to work on the P.J.s that I will be making for my granddaughter for Christmas. I haven’t done much sewing in the last couple of years but I just had to do this for my little princess. Our ladies group at church is working on doing a service project for our local assistance ministries. We are doing a food drive and making candy jars. I am working on a flyer, that I can put out in our neighborhood, to gather non perishable food and Christmas candy. This is going to be a very busy Christmas season for me and I look forward to it.

On a special note: My daughter Bonnie is going to Florida this Wednesday to watch the Space shuttle launch. An opening came up between classes and her finals that will allow her to go. She will be able to stay at her grandmothers while she is there. Bonnie has been wanting to go watch an actual flight for a long time and this will probably be her only opportunity for a while. I know she will have a great time. Keep your fingers crossed that the flight doesn’t get cancelled……

10 Comments:

At 11:07 PM, Blogger LZ Blogger said...

Good luck to you and Bonnie, that would be awesome to watch! Also the best way to prepare garlic (for me) is to let someone else do it. ~ jb///

 
At 12:35 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh yuck! Could you imagine cooking garlic in the microwave!? No, no, no. You got it right on the nose girl!

 
At 5:46 AM, Blogger Granny Annie said...

These are some great tips. We love garlic but I was never real sure how was the best way to prepare it. Also, my mom made the best garlic rub for roast. I never knew exactly what she did, but I'm going to try your recipe. My fingers are crossed for the space shuttle launch. Hope you'll get to share exciting stories from Bonnie after it's over.

 
At 7:17 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

But what happens when you nuke leftovers containing garlic???

 
At 9:27 AM, Blogger Danny Sims said...

I'd love to see a shuttle launch. I wonder if they have any garlic in those little silver pouches of dried food they take up there? :)

 
At 7:48 PM, Blogger Big Dave T said...

Those nutty guys do have some decent prices on nuts, but their gift baskets are kind of steep. We ordered some nuts from the Peanut Factory, which we visited in Savannah. Spent over $100 for gift tin collection for four people on our Xmas list. Expensive, but they were tasty nuts when we tried them down south.

 
At 5:40 AM, Blogger Merle said...

Hi Lucy ~~ Some great tips there. You always have such useful info for us.
Thank you so much for your comments and I am glad you enjoyed the story about Time and using it wisely. As you say, the clock never stops ticking. Take care, Love, Merle.

 
At 9:54 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

i'm lazy and buy mine chopped in a bottle with olive oil. I wish I could find out how to make fried garlic.

 
At 10:33 PM, Blogger Mountain Mama said...

Thanks for a very informative post. I have often wondered if cooking destroyed the value. I have wanted to try baking it like I've seen on TV. The whole globe,they cut it in half then they squeeze out the soft garlic onto italian bread. I'm going to try that.
I wonder if microwave cooking destroyes the good in other foods

 
At 12:05 AM, Blogger Shoshana said...

I didn't know that about garlic...so is dried garlic spice any good at all?

 

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