Benjamins Yarn

Medical insurance usually isn’t a priority when planning for a college education. Students are in the mindset where the idea that they may need medical insurance is not the first thing they think of. Young people are likely to imagine they will be around forever and that they will not find themselves suffering from a serious illness.

Regrettably, irrespective of how fit a person may seem, there is no way to anticipate their future health. An affordable health insurance policy is not simply a luxury, it’s absolutely necessary.

For those students who are included in a family policy, generally most family insurance policies should include a student up to their twenty-third birthday. For anyone who does not currently have coverage via their parent’s policy, an essential part of budgeting for school must be researching inexpensive health insurance. So what should you look for in health insurance targeted at students? So what’s your deductible? A deductible is essentially an annual payment which has to be made before your medical benefits start, comparable to an auto deductible. To illustrate, if your deductible is five hundred dollars, you must to pay that amount prior to claiming any financial benefits associated with the insurance policy. What’s a co-pay? When your deductible is met, most medical insurance plans require that you contribute a part of the cost of each doctor’s visit, medicinal drug or procedure. This, succinctly is a co-pay.

Exactly what should the insurance extend to? Numerous plans are Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) and PPA. This means certain specialists may be omitted from your “network” or not be included on a insurance policy. A extensive list of participating health providers should be provided with your medical insurance policy, so consider that before you select a medical policy designed for college students.

What exactly does the term catastrophic coverage imply? Restrictions are commonplace in student health insurance policies especially with regard to more serious illness, the cover included in virtually all student medical insurance policies is more often than not lower than any standard plan. Restrictions: Student health insurance plans may put in place various limitations. Study your insurance policy and find out what your policy includes. Keep any health insurance details nearby at all times. Accidents are not only not possible to plan for, they’re also likely to occur when not expected. Acquaint yourself with your insurance policy even should you be included in your parent’s policy.

Many years ago a nifty little device came out called the Crock Pot. You could cut up a bunch of veggies, meat, and spices, dump them in the pot, and it did all the hard work. You came home at the end of the day and Presto you had a nice hearty meal. Add a salad and some bread/rolls and you were set.

As I visit numerous on line boards and web groups/forums I see more and more people mentioning how they made their meal in the crock pot. I am happy to see it is making a comeback. With all the press which the obesity crisis and how bad we all eat is getting, it gives me hope for many Americans. Now we just have to worry about how to get the rest of them to eat healthier.

I am so tired of hearing from people they don’t have the time for home cooked meals. I work, I have the kids, yada, yada, yada. Everyone has some kind of excuse. However, if you ask these same people if they saw Survivor, Amazing Race or any number of other reality shows, they can recite the show from beginning to end. Well, how about using your hands for something other than stuffing your face while you are watching television. Cut up some meat and vegetables. If you really don’t have the time it will take to cook up the meat (anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes depending on the meat and how you like it) then buy pre-cooked meat.

If you take time each night you can cut up enough veggies and meat for meals all week. For lunch make it the night before. Buy yogurt on sale and take it to work. Or do what I did for years, I made my sandwich the night before. One slice of bread with chicken, turkey, tuna, egg salad with a piece of fruit. Not only will you eat better but you will save money too!

Breakfast, get up 15-30 minutes early and take the time for a glass of juice with a multi-vitamin and a bowl of cereal, oatmeal, eggs, etc. Be calorie conscious with the cereal, stay away from those high in sugar and calories. However, remember eating a good breakfast is of utmost importance. Research has shown that this is the most important meal of the day. It is the meal that is going to give you the energy to get through the day!

So start eating healthier today, you no longer have any excuses!

Copyright 2005, DeFiore Enterprises

About the Author

Introducing Keep Kids Fit: How To Help Kids For Fun And Profit! Solutions for parents who want healthy children in body and mind!Our motto, “Eat Healthy, Live Healthy, Help Keep Kids Fit” Keep Kids Fit asks the question: Do You Want To Help Foster A Healthy Lifestyle For Your Child! Visit our website today at: http://www.keepkidsfit.com

(NC)Why do people call coffee java? Java is an island in Indonesia with a warm, humid climate and rich volcanic soil - ideal conditions for growing coffee. The word “java” caught on after the Dutch colonized the island between 1619 and 1946 and brought the coffee plant to Java. Hence the name!

Hamilton Beach, makers of the BrewStationTM coffeemaker, offers this tasty recipe for a festive cup of java.

Hot Coffee Nog

2 egg yolks

4 Tbsp. granulated sugar

1-1/4 cups hot coffee

2 egg whites

Use a double boiler, placed on stove with burner at medium heat. Half-fill bottom section with water. Put egg yolks, sugar and coffee in upper section of double boiler; stir constantly until hot. Reduce heat and cover double boiler. Beat egg whites until stiff. Put equal portions of egg white into cups or glasses. Pour coffee mixture over egg white portions. Serve immediately. Recipe from: The Coffee Development Group

Visit www.hamiltonbeach.com for more exciting coffee drink recipes and innovative products.

- News Canada

About the author:

News Canada

Asparagus has some dietary fiber, vitamin A, and vitamin C. It is an excellent source of the B vitamin folate. A serving of six cooked fresh asparagus spears has 1 g dietary fiber, 490 IU vitamin A, 10 mg vitamin C and 131 mcg folate. Besides, it is also low in fat, sodium and practically no cholesterol.

The most nutritious way to serve asparagus is by serving it fresh, boiled and drained. Canned asparagus may have less than half the nutrients found in freshly cooked spears. As such it is encouraged to take asparagus when it is fresh.

Look for bright green stalks when buying asparagus. The tips should be purplish and tightly closed and the stalks should be firm. Asparagus is in season from March through August. Always avoid wilted stalks and asparagus whose buds have opened. When storing, keep it fresh in the refrigerator.

To keep it as crisp as possible, wrap it in a damp paper towel and then put the whole package into a plastic bag. Keeping asparagus cool helps it to hold onto its vitamins. At 32 degrees F, asparagus will retain all its folic acid for at least two weeks and nearly 90 percent of its vitamin C for up to five days. At room temperature, it would lose up to 75 percent of its folic acid in three days and 50 percent of the vitamin C in 24 hours.

The adverse effects associated with asparagus is that after eating, we will excrete the sulfur compound methyl mercaptan, a smelly waste product, in our urine. Eating asparagus may also interfere with the effectiveness of anticoagulants whose job is to thin blood and dissolve clots because asparagus is high in vitamin K, a vitamin produced naturally by bacteria in our intestines, an adequate supply of which enables blood to clot normally.

The white part of the fresh green asparagus stalk is woody and tasteless, so you can bend the stalk and snap it right at the line where the green begins to turn white. If the skin is very thick, peel it, but save the parings for soup stock.

What happens when we cook asparagus? Chlorophyll, the pigment that makes green vegetables green, is sensitive to acids. When we heat asparagus, its chlorophyll will react chemically with acids in the asparagus or in the cooking water to form pheophytin, which is brown. As a result, cooked asparagus is olive-drab. We can prevent this chemical reaction by cooking the asparagus so quickly that there is no time for the chlorophyll to react with acids, or by cooking it in lots of water which will dilute the acids, or by leaving the lid off the pot so that the volatile acids can float off into the air.

Cooking also changes the texture of asparagus. Water escapes from its cells and they collapse. Adding salt to the cooking liquid slows the loss of moisture.

About the Author: Cindy is the host of http://www.asianonlinerecipes.com, a Free Asian Recipes website dedicated to all things on Asian Cooking and Culinary Guide. She is also the host for http://www.vietnamese-recipes.com and http://www.making-coffee.com

Source: www.isnare.com

Mention instant coffee to any connoisseur and you are sure to get a frown of disgust. Yet, who among us hasn’t, after finding the coffee tin empty, scoured the cupboard in desperation with hopes of finding a long since misplaced jar or ‘hotel packet’ of instant coffee? And, after sighing in relief, relished in amazement that it is still good after all those years of obscurity, abandonment and outright neglect on the dusty top shelf at the back of the pantry. You haven’t? Well maybe I just like to live dangerously.

Instant coffee, or soluble coffee, as it was originally called dates back as early as 1771 when the British government granted a patent for a ‘coffee compound’. There have been many attempts since then to make instant coffee more palatable but capturing the essence of freshly roasted, freshly brewed coffee has proven a difficult task.

Instant coffee is made by brewing a concentrated liquid solution of real coffee, then removing the water through various means of dehydration. What is left, the residue, is instant coffee. Early methods of dehydration involved spraying the concentrated solution into heated stainless steel drums and after the water had evaporated the drums were scraped and the powdery residue was packaged. The taste was scorched, pungent and bitter to say the least. If you have ever left a pot on the burner too long and have ended up with a charred disgusting mess in the bottom of the carafe, then you have made instant coffee.

The next advancement in instant coffee came in the 1960’s when the process of agglomeration was introduced. Particles of instant coffee were steamed and made sticky so they would clump together. The clumps were then redried by reheating. The result was a better looking product that closer resembled ground coffee but the flavor may have actually been degraded even further by the additional heating cycle.

Most recently the process of lyophilization or ‘freeze-drying’ has become the standard method of making instant coffee. This method is a vast improvement over other methods for two reasons. The first is that the coffee concentrate is extracted under high pressure so the water used never actually boils even though the water is well above the boiling point.

The second is that the water is removed without adding heat which helps preserve the coffee flavor. The concentrate is then frozen and placed in a vacuum chamber and the temperature is raised to just above freezing, at which point one would expect the mixture to melt. However, since it is in a vacuum the frozen water is prevented from becoming a liquid. But since the temperature is above freezing the solid water (ice) goes directly from a solid to a vapor. It is then vented to a separate chamber where it is refrozen as pure water. What is left in the vacuum chamber is the coffee residue.

Even with the improved process of freeze drying instant coffee remains a sad substitute for the real thing.

© Copyright Randy Wilson, All Rights Reserved.

About the Author

Randy has more articles on coffee such as Colombian Coffee, Coffee and Alzheimers and Coffee Breaks.

Be sure you check out this superb webpage for native american scholarships helping improve the tribe s quality of life recommendations

It isn’t simple to get a scholarship these days. University scholarships are unlike the regular student loan because they are a grant for education, so it doesn’t need to be paid off. While searching means to finance your degree, research afew of of the different options, such as southpaw scholarships. Southpaw Scholarships

A southpaw grant may look out of the ordinary, however consider this: Benjamin Franklin was left handed, so is the president of the United States, Barack Obama. Raphael, Da Vinci, Jimi Hendrix not to mention Charlie Chaplin were southpaws as well. An estimated 11% of the world’s population are left handed. Alas in the past southpaws have gone through significant discrimination, in modern times they are considered to be gifted intellectually and more artistic. Stigmatization is now a thing of the past, lefties are no longer thought to be different, in fact they are frequently associated with the exceptional people named previously.

There are many grants available specifically for left handed individuals when you know where to search. A Frederick and Mary F. Beckley Scholarship for $1,000 is available at Juniata College in Huntington, PA. Presented to students of Juniata College and established in the late seventies, this particular bursary has aided over forty southpaws through college. Numerous grants do have requirements or limitations. In some cases certain grades may be needed or particular financial requirements must be met. Multiple program applications will step-up your probabilities of finishing with a minimal level of debt. You might also look at community organisations, societies and hobby associated groups. Scholarships for lefthanded students are just one example; funding is even available if you’re the child of a veteran or are disabled, for instance.

Some scholars have to invest quite a bit of time researching university scholarships, but the rewards will be worthwhile. Utilized along with regular lending, they are effective at cutting the student debt generated by a university degree. Ensure you enquire into every last eligible scholarship. Left-handed scholarships are not the only option - study your community affiliations and make use of your creativity. Go for everything you think you are suitable for, you may keep your academic debt minimal, also you will look forward to improved prospects when you graduate.

Sports shoes is thought to be the most essential piece of equipment you will buy so it is very important that you select the best pair.

A great many people don’t realise that there are various differences in the way in which sports trainers support your feet. It’s not good for your feet if you take part in football or tennis in the identical trainers you use whilst jogging.

“It has been reported, that 65% of the Great Britain’s recreational men & women sportsmen wear the incorrect shoes for their elected leisure activity,” he says. “Trainers are the most significant piece of exercise gear you’ll ever buy & varying what you wear on your feet can thwart injuries.”

Football can put a lot of stress on the feet, especially when playing on non-natural pitches such as AstroTurf. The football boots can also put strain on your feet, & it’s not unusual for a footballer to suffer from corns, calluses or damaged, thickened and ingrown toenails. A excellent, well-fitted pair of shoes is crucial and there should not be any signs of pressure on the foot after a match or training session. Find superb deals on swimming fins online today.

Racquet sports: It’s very important when taking part racquet sports, for example table tennis or badminton, to elect to choose trainers exclusively designed for the purpose. These sports activity involve lots of right-to-left movement and jogging footwear won’t provide the apt strength. Racquet sport shoes are heavier & more harder than jogging shoes, because their toes are constructed for stop-and-go action. Comfort must be your central priority and It’s very important to substitute your sports footwear commonly.

Walking is a terrific way to start off a fitness regime, whereas the more daring go for climbing. It’s wonderful for your cardiovascular health but is lower impact and so comes with reduced risk of damage.

In any number of cookbooks and recipes you will find advice on which herbs go with what. I’m not going to take that route.

While there certainly are marriages that are tried and tested, such as tomatoes and basil or lamb and rosemary, the reality is that the use of herbs is every bit as much a matter of personal taste as any other aspect of cooking.

Consequently, what I want you to do is to sample as many herbs as you can and try to marry up the flavors with the foods you are familiar with. That’s not as difficult as it sounds. Just close your eyes and think about it.

You will find, after a while, that you will instinctively know which flavoring to use, when to use it and how much of it you need.
Do this with both fresh and dried herbs. Crush a little between finger and thumb and smell it. This is much more important than your sense of taste.

Something magical will happen. You will come to realize that fresh herbs are not better than dried ones, they simply impart a different flavor. There are two major exceptions to this.

One is mint, which has a strange musty flavor when dried, and the other is chives, which are so delicate that the flavor rarely survives cooking. Using dried chives is therefore pretty pointless.

One other point to watch out for is that some dried herbs can remained inedible even after thorough cooking. Rosemary is a very good example of this and needs to be filtered out of any liquids in which it has been used as a flavoring.

In any case, fresh or dried, it is better to chop up herbs such as this before using them.

Using herbs in cooking

Many herbs, such as basil and coriander (sometimes called Chinese parsley and cilantro in the USA) are terrific simply torn up in salads. Note that I said torn up and not cut; only cut herbs if you intend to cook them.

It’s important to recognize that some herbs lose flavor with extended cooking, even in their dried state. Fortunately it’s fairly easy to spot which those are.

Tough leaved herbs such as bay can be safely added at the start of cooking time and will maintain their flavor. In fact, they may need to be in the food for as long as possible in order for their flavor to fully develop.

Herbs with light and delicate leaves, however, will lose their flavor very quickly once in contact with heat. To use basil in a soup, for example, you needed to add it, not to the hot liquid as you might expect, but rather to the warm plate you intend to serve the soup in. Then pour the soup on top of it.

Alternatively, simply sprinkle it on top of the soup and leave it there. It will make an attractive decoration and impart a wonderful aroma as you take the soup to the table.

What’s that? You want to use a tureen and server the soup at the table? No problem. Sprinkle the herb in its raw state on top of the soup anyway. The effect, when you remove the lid, will be the same. Just stir it in as you serve.

The spices of life

Most people, including most professional chefs, use spices that have already been prepared.

That is to say they have been ground up, ready to use. The main exception to this is probably black pepper, which you should always grind yourself. Not difficult. You can buy a pepper grinder just about anywhere and the peppercorns are available in any supermarket.

Of course you can, if you wish, go to the trouble of buying a pestle and mortar, tracking down the raw spices and then grind them yourself.
If you do this, you will be richly rewarded with deep and penetrating flavors. You may also find that you get tired of doing it very quickly. However I would highly recommend it for a special occasion, or a wet weekend in Bargo.

Generally speaking, though, the shop bought variety are fine, providing you don’t keep them hanging around in a cupboard for too long. They will lose their flavor.

As with herbs, it’s very important that you learn the taste and smell of each individual spice and, uniquely, its pungency. This last item is one that is frequently overlooked, even by experienced cooks.

Just about everybody is aware that chili needs to be used carefully for obvious reasons. But for some reason they do not pay the same attention to turmeric,- which is quite delicate,- and, say, star anise which can strangle an incautious palate at a hundred paces.
Both give themselves away, however, if you simply take the lid off the jar and sniff them.

Mixing spice

Generally speaking, it is a rare thing to add more than a couple of spices to the same dish. The obvious exceptions to this are Asian and Indian dishes, where the carefully blended mix of flavors will be both traditional and subtle.

You have a choice with these. You either follow a recipe, or you use one of the many excellent pre-prepared pastes that are now available. I tend towards the latter choice, although I do still mix my own spices from time to time.

You should do the same. It’s fun and you learn a great deal about which spices mix well and which are best kept as an individual flavoring.

However you choose to cook with spice, treat it with respect and always add it a little at a time, tasting as you go.

Remember also, that the flavor will change with the length of cooking time. It may deepen, or it may lessen in its effect. Only experience will teach you what each individual spice does and how quickly it does it.

One excellent way to test the effect of adding spice, is to cook your rice with something like cardamom seeds. These come in little pods that needed to be cracked open and the seeds extracted.
Do this by placing them on a stable surface, place the flat of a cleaver blade over them and apply a bit of pressure. They will open easily. Use about two pods for one dish of rice.

You could also add some turmeric to the same rice dish. This will turn it yellow and also add a subtle flavor which complements the pungency of the cardamom. Call it saffron rice if you like, very few people will be able to tell the difference.

Rice is a good way to test any number of flavorings. Personally I find it a bit boring on its own, and I frequently add something to it to jazz it up a little. Experiment. You will be pleasantly surprised at what a difference a new flavor can make.

You will also be pleasantly surprised at your growing reputation.

About the Author

Michael Sheridan is a former head chef at the Pierre Victoire restaurant in London’s West End, specializing in French cuisine. An Australian, he is a published author on cooking matters, and runs a free membership club and cooking course for busy home cooks at http://thecoolcook.com

The Hummus is a wonderful food to eat on a regular basis. The stuff is just packed full of fiber and it even has a great deal of protein; both are perfect for improved health. It is a shame that such a small percentage of Americans eat Hummus on a regular basis because it is so good for you. It is not like some of these foods that are good for your health and taste like cardboard, Hummus tastes great.

It is a mixture of chickpeas and tahini by itself, and there are a multitude of other foods that can be added. Sitting there and eating it by itself is not the norm but can be done. It works best when combined vegetables, especially crunchy ones. It can be used as a topping on chicken or diced tomatoes. It can make scrambled eggs taste oh so much better. A neat recipe for this is adding pesto to the Hummus and also adding chopped tomatoes then mixing some whole wheat angel hair pasta, yum. When you are losing weight and eating foods that are good for your body, hummus is one food that should never be left out. It can be eaten every single day and in quantities that are above and beyond many other food choices. No matter how you prefer to eat it, whether by itself; as a dip, spread, or sauce, it makes food taste better.

The best recipe for Chili (or chilli) sauce is a matter of much debate among fans - some like it hot, some like it extra hot, and some like it hot enough to remove the enamel from your teeth! The bottom line is, most people need a chili sauce strong enough to accentuate the taste of whatever they are eating (typically meat cuts, kebabs and so on) but NOT so hot that it can be life-threatening.

This is why I am happy to share with you, my own favorite chili sauce recipe, which was generously donated to me by Andy, a Turkish chef of amazing abilities. Chili sauce recipes are usually guarded jealously till death, so once again, thanks Andy for sharing! This one may make you sweat a little, but will enhance the meaty flavor of whatever you eat, while doing no permanent damage!

Makes enough for 8 portions:

1 stick of celery
2 shallots
1 red onion
2 jalapeno Peppers for mild, 5 for hot (not recommended!)
1 clove garlic
4 tablespoons of tomato puree
4 tablespoons of tinned chopped tomatoes (skin off) drain the juices
flat leaf parsley - a small handful
1/2 fresh lemon
tabasco sauce
olive oil
salt and pepper

You need to put the celery, shallots, red onion and the Japapeno peppers in a food processor and blend until it becomes a fine paste. Put this mixture, tomato puree and chopped tomatoes in a saucepan and put on a low heat. A few minutes into cooking put 1/2 the fresh lemon juice, a few splashes of tabasco sauce and the crushed garlic clove. Leave on a low heat for 15 minutes, then add the chopped leaf parsley and a drizzle (3 tablespoons) of olive oil, few grinds of salt and pepper. Leave for at least 4 hours in a fridge before serving.

Chili sauce is best served chilled. Serve alongside grilled chicken, Lamb Koftee or Other Grilled meats. Pitta bread for a side and rice and salad (tomato, cucumber and lettuce) to accompany the meats.

Enjoy!

About the Author

Famous chef to the stars Helen Porter, cooks it up only for www.helensrecipes.com the free recipes site for cooks with limited time!