You’ll never guess what is in this message created by great Italian young people who sincerely want to make you feel good even for a moment. You know, Italians are happy and positively emotional people. So, their message comes attached with free hugs…

Abbracci gratis a Sondrio, which means in Italian, Free Hugs from Sondrio. Is it not great to see how people are open, kind and loving? Watch this video, forget about your life problems and get good start to a new and joyful week.

Submitted by Svetlana Konnikova.

Both green and black teas possess numerous active ingredients, including flavonoids and polyphenols. Flavonoids and polyphenols are potent antioxidants.One widespread study has recently noted that one class of flavonoids called catechins has anti-cancer potential. Conclusion: tea is the best source of catechins in our diet. If you compare both teas, scientists say that green tea contains about three times more of catechins than black tea.

In laboratory studies, green tea dispayed amazing results. It has been shown to slow or even completely prevent development of colon, liver, breast and prostate cancer. Other studies that involved green tea have shown similar protective eggects in tissues of the digestive system, lung and skin.

Studies conducted in Asia where green tea consumption is common have also associated regular usage of green tea with lower risk for colon, stomach, bladder, pancreatic and esophageal cancers.

Do you want to brew a fresh cuppa of tea and do it right? Watch this video.

Drink only freshly brewed green or black tea, one-two cups a day. Don’t store it in refrigerator for the next day.

CAUTION: Very high amounts of green tea usually associated with overdosage of green tea supplements have been shown to interact with drugs that affect blood clotting such as aspirin and change the way the body metabolizes certain medications.

Source: AICR’s second expert report, Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective

Text and Photo Submitted by Svetlana Konnikova

Do you know that any vegetables taste best when eaten immediately after they have been peeked? Freshness is very important for zucchini. These veggies have relatively long season and are easy to grow in your home garden. We had them in our home garden as a must-have vegetable. My Grandma cut them very often to bring new, young baby zucchini. The more you cut, the more this plant will produce. If you leave zucchini unchecked, it will turn into marrows.

Zuchini with its deep green skin and firm pale flesh, sometimes called courgettes (pretty name, isn’t it?), and they are basically immature marrows. The name comes from Italian zucca, and courgette means miniature courge, which is French for marrow.

I love to roast or grill baby zucchini which need little or no cooking. Here is the recipe “Roasted Baby Zucchini”:

* Wash and slice baby zucchini;
* Place organic baby zuchinin in ovenproof dish;
* Scatter with organic, crushed fresh garlic;
* Add a few fresh basil leaves;
* Sprinkle with organic olive oil;
* Bake in a very hot oven until tender (don’t overcook)
* Turn the slices occasionally.
* When it’s ready sprinkle sea salt and mild paprika.

Here is another recipe “Zuchini Italian Style” for four people:

Ingredients:

8 small by zucchini or 4-5 medium size, cut into slices
2 tablespoons organic olive oil
1 large chopped onion
1 garlic clove, crushed
2/3 cup organic vegetable stock
To garnish add:
1 tablespoon fresh Italian parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Fry the onion and garlic over moderate heat for 5 minutes or until the onion is beggining to brown and soft. Add the zucchini and fry for 4-5 minutes until they just begin to show flecks of brown. Pour on the vegetable stock, salt and pepper and simmer gently for 8-1o minutes until the liquid has evaporated, but don’t over dry. Place the zucchinin into a serving clear glass plate, sprinkle with parsley and oregano, and serve.

When I serve any vegetable meal, I prefer to use any clear glass plates or bowls. This way you can see the beauty of of these superfoods, the gifts of Mother Nature. It looks very pretty, fancy and appetizing!

The tiny young zucchini need no preparation at all, and still taste great. You can make a great
raw meal with them. Do you love cooked pasta but afraid of gaining weight? Try raw Zucchini Pasta, and don’t have any worries. Just enjoy your healthy, green, fresh meal! Watch this video and see for yourself how easy you can make the healhiest and nutritious dish like “Zicchini Pasta with Marinara Sauce.”

Photo of zucchini flower by Kim Newberg.
Submitted by Svetlana Konnikova. Copyright 2010.

Chef Keith Snow makes absolutely fabulous green salad that can adorn any dinner table. What I like about this salad that he makes it with fresh greens gathered from his home herb garden. Imagine, fresh and delicate arugula, lettuce, rosemary, parsley that are not ‘abused’ while stored in the refrigerated containers on a long way from farm to the supermarket. These homegrown greens keep all vitamins and other nutrients in place, in addition to its tantalizing, earthy scent.

You see this salad comes with Pomegranate Dressing. Pomegranate is a great fruit. You can use it not only in salad dressing, but you can squeeze fresh pomegranate  juice and drink it. Here is the recipe:

— If you feel unhappy or fatigued, make fresh pomegranate juice, add one teaspoon honey to eight ounces, and drink it.

Submitted by Svetlana Konnikova

Source: Pomegranate juice recipe comes from the multiple awards-winning book, Mama’s Home Remedies: Discover Time-Tested Secrets of Good Life and the Pleasure of Natural Living, p. 209, Aurora Publishers, 2008

 Greens are also quite delicious and versatile when it comes to recipes. You can make inexpensive, nutritional and simple dishes with a surprising texture and delightful flavor. Try to make Cauliflower with Tomatoes and Mushrooms, Spinach Pie, Spinach Omelette, and Spinach and Cannellini Beans; Broccoli Crumble, Broccoli Tartlets and Broccoli and Chicken Lasagne; Stir-fried Brussels Sprouts, Chard Pasties, Kale with Garlic and Parmesan; Fettucine Pasta with Savoy Cabbage and Gruyere or Cheddar Cheese; Chinese Cabbage with Lime, Cocoanut or Mushroom Sauce; Greek dish, Dolmades (grape leaves) or my favorite, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish Golubtsi (grape leaves).

I compiled a List of the Best Greens for Healthy Family Eating that are an excellent source of vitamins A and C, calcium, potassium, iron. These Greens are  highly nutritional vegetables wheather are eaten raw or cooked:

• SPINACH: Spinach and Baby Spinach which is easy to grow and quick to cook, and delicious raw, served in salads.
• CAULIFLOWER: Baby cauliflowers, Broccoli romanescoes, Broccoflower; a member of the cabbage family, Brassica oleracea. Cauliflowers are excellent raw or  steamed, either whole or in florets.
• CABBAGE: Savoy Cabbage, in 3-4 minutes of cooking it gets tender. Green Cabbage, a very good cabbage for stir-fry with eggs and onions or Russian red borscht, and needs longer cooking. Red Cabbage,  should be cooked with a little vinegar added to the water or the color will fade. Red cabbage can be pickled or stewed with natural spices and flavorings. White Cabbage (Dutch Cabbage) and Spring Greens; delicious raw or simply sliced and used  in a coleslaw, or boiled, steamed and served with lemon and olive oil dressing.

• BRUSSELS SPROUTS , have sweet, nutty flavor unlike cabbage, even two are closely related. Brussels Sprouts boiled just for three minutes or stir-fried in a little olive oil taste grat with onions and ginger.
• SPROUTING BROCCOLI and CALABRESE:  Calabrese Broccoli , cook in a little boiling water for 4-5 minutes until tender, then drain. Never steam this variety of broccoli because its vibrant green color tends to turn  gray. Purple Sprouting Broccoli, steam for 4-5 minutes until tender.
•  KALE , a variety of green-leafed vegetables of the brassica family: Collards, Curly Kale, Purple or Silver Kale  are the best when boiled in salted water for 3-5 minutes until tender and simply paired with potatoes.0
• TURNIP TOPS, like beet greens are delicious and nutritious when boiled or steamed for a few minutes, then drained and served with butter or olive oil/lemon/lime dressing.
• GARDEN and WILD LEAVES: Vine Leaves, an ideal for wrapping various meats and vegetables and are edible afret simmered for one minute in Greek Dolmades and Russian, Ukrainian, Polish Golubtsi. Dandelion, the best when fresh, youg leaves are added to salads. Sorrel, delicious with its sharp, lemon flavor is great  in salads, soups, and sauces to accompany fish dishes. Orache,  this beautiful red and golden-leafed plant is called mountain spinach.  Its large leaves can be treated like spinach, even if orache is not related to spinach. Nettles, very young leaves are excellent  addition to green spring soups.
• CHINESE GREENS, most are members of the brassica family: Mustard Greens, the young leaves can be added to lettuce to spice up the salad. Older leaves are best stir-fried and dressed with a light Chinese sauce.  When cooked with garlic and onion, mustard greens make a tasteful side dish to bacon or pork meal. Chinese or Napa Cabbage Leaves (Pe-Tsai),  an essential ingredient in many Oriental dishes, such as winter salads and stir-fried. Pak-Choi or Bok Choy–Chinese Celery Cabbage,  can be stir-fried with garlic and onions, or cooked and served as you would chard. Chinese Broccoli, can be sliced, cooked and  and served the same way as Chinese Mustard Greens.
• CHARD: Ruby or Rhubarb Chard is similar to spinach, but more stonger and more robust; a member of the beet family. It is also called Sea Kale Beet and Spinach Beet, but unlike beets or sugar beet, chard is cultivated only for its leaves. The ribs of the leaves can be simmered in a little water until tender and the leaves added a few minutes later or steamed over the top, and served with butter. Chard is also good for pies, gratins and frittatas.
• KOHLRABI, Purple Kohlrabi,  a root vegetable with taste of a cabbage and a turnip in combination. Very small kohlrabies can be cooked whole because they are tender. If this vegetable is bigger than 2 inches in diameter, it can be stuffed with fried onions and tomatoes, ut hollow out a little before cooking. Sliced kohlrabi can be cooked until tender and served with creamy sauce. Whole kohlrabis can be parboiled and  baked in the oven covered with cheddar cheese sauce.

Submitted by Svetlana Konnikova.

Usually these pies are made with ricotta, feta, Gruyere or Emmenthal cheeses that are grated or cut into small cubes. Then the mixture of cheeses, cooked spinach, fresh chopped marjoram and chervil, salt and pepper is wrapped in large or small sheets of filo pastry. I don’t like filo dough and never use it because it tastes like a parchment paper. Especially, the one produced commercially, “Ready-to-Use” that is offered by supermarkets. I prefer to make my own. It is different type of dough that is used traditionally in Greek and Russian cuisine.

So, now watch this video and try to make the same delicious Spanakopita that contains yummy feta cheese and fresh spinach in traditional Greek style. Bon appetite!

Submitted by Svetlana Konnikova.

Submitted by Svetlana Konnikova.

Let’s continue to explore my Green Recipes.  What about a fresh spinach salad? It is really tasteful because the leaves of spinach  have sharp, but not overpowering  flavor that is just in the right balance. Fresh greens are so good for you that you really should eat lots of them, so there’s no excuse if you don’t!

 Fresh Baby Spinach Salad (4-6 servings) 

Ingredients:

2 cups organic baby spinach, washed and chopped

1 avocado, diced

 2 cucumbers, sliced

  green onions, chopped

  10-12 walnut-halves, chopped

   1/3 cup olive oil

   1 small organic lemon

    A pinch of sea salt and paprika

Directions:

Place all ingredients in a large glass bowl. Carefully mix spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions, and walnuts. Sprinkle sea salt and paprika. Squeeze one lemon and combine  fresh lemon juice with olive oil in a small glass bowl. Pour this simple and flavorful dressing over the salad. Voila! You have a fresh, healthy and nutritions salad.

Sometimes I chop two organic hard boiled eggs and add to enrich this salad. It turns my spinach salad into  a main dish that is light, nutritious, and can fully satisfy your healthy appetite.

I love to combine baby spinach and cannelini beans. I make this hearty, main dish with my favorite cannelinis, but you can make it with any dried beans or peas, such as  chick peas or black-eyed peas.

Baby Spinach and Cannelini Beans (4 servings)

Ingredients:

8 ounces (228 g) cannelini beans (Soak them overnight)

1 lb (453 g) baby spinach

4 medium size tomatoes, chopped

5-6 baby carrots, chopped

3 tablespoons cold pressed olive oil

1 yellow or 2 shallot onions, chopped

1/2 cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped

2-3 garlic cloves, chopped

A pinch of paprika

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Drain the beans that you soaked overnight. Place them in a saucepan and cover with spring water. Bring beans to a boil and boil over hot heat for 10 minutes. Then cover and simmer for about 1 hour until the beans are soft and tender. Drain and keep the beans in a saucepan.

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a frying pan and fry the onion over low heat until soft and golden. Then add the tomatoes, carrots, parsley and continue cooking over low heat.

Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large pan. Stir in the paprika and add spinach. Cover and cook for a few minutes until the spinach has wilted. Add the onion, tomato, carrot and parsley mixture to the spinach. Mix well and stir in the cannelini beans. Add one cup cold spring water and chopped garlic  into the spinach and bean mixture. Cover and simmer over low heat for 20-30 minutes. Add more water if necessary. It is very tasteful dish that you can serve on a cold summer, fall or winter evening.

Source: photo “Fresh Spinach Salad” by the author of this article.
Submitted by Svetlana Konnikova. Copyright 2010.

 Spinach can be used in so many ways. You can chop it and serve with butter. I prefer to use organic, cold press olive oil mixed with freshly squeezed lemon juice because it’s healthier. You can also serve spinach with baby carrots, beets or small white or young  fava beans. You can also make one of my favorite meals, green spinach omelette.

Once in a restaurant in Paris I ordered an omelette with spinach. It was so delicious! So from that time, I started making the same for my family breakfast or weekend lunch. I asked the French chef in this restaurant to share his recipe with me, and he kindly told me his secrets of making this puffy and airy nutritious meal. Now you can make the same,

GREEN SPINACH OMELETTE

Ingredients:

2 cups of fresh spinach leaves

3 organic eggs, beaten

1 tbsp. Parmesan diced or Mozarella cheese

A dash of sea salt

A dash of black pepper or paprika

A dash of cream or 2 tablespoons organic milk

1 tbsp. organic Italian parsley or dill, chopped

Directions:

Chop the spinach finely. Place in a  small glass bowl and stir in Parmesan or Mozarella cheese. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add a dash of cream or organic milk and mix well. Pour the mixture into a hot frying pan and let it cook for several minutes. Put omelette on a large flat plate, sprinkle with pasley or dill and serve immediately. Serves 3-4.

There are other ’tricks’ with nutritious spinach that can be added to soups, main meals and pies. First of all, don’t forget that spinach leaves are delicate, so wash them gently in cold water and remove any large or tough stalks before cooking.  At the start throw the leaves into a large size pan. Add water to just cover the leaves. Sprinkle a pinch of sea salt and place over a low heat. Cover the pan so the spinach will steam in its own, nutritious juice. Shake the pan time by time to prevent the spinach sticking to the bottom. Spinach is ready in 5 minutes, wilting down to about one eighth of its initial volume. Drain and press out the remaining liquid with a wooden spoon.

Want to see how easy is to boil spinach? Watch this video.

***Read about my other Green Recipes With Spinach in the next post.

Submitted by Svetlana Konnikova. Copyright 2010.

Centuries by centuries world famous composers created music that even the gardens could not resist listening to the Argentinian tangos and classic rhapsodies, noctunes, valses and popular songs. We listen to these masterpieces year after year. We enjoy, admire and get inspired by music. We never get tired to listen it again and again. But the most interesting is that not only we, people, love music. Everywhere, in different parts of the world, the gardens and its green inhabitants also love wonderful music the same way as we do. Don’t you believe me? Observe yourself, discover this phenomenon and have fun!

Don’t you know that vegetables, fruits and flower gardens grow much faster and blossom much longer under the generous sunny rays, gardeners’ loving care, and sounds and words of the beautifully written melodic songs? Now watch this one that I heard many times in our family garden in July, my favorite month of the summer…

Have a great weekend!

Submitted by Svetlana Konnikova.