March 28, 2006 13:23 - Seafood Pasta Recipes
Seafood pasta recipes are so simple to prepare.
If you're looking to incorporate more fish in your diet, this is one of the easiest ways I know.
Pasta is quick to cook - 12 minutes maximum I've found for dried pasta, most of them are cooked in 6 to 8 minutes - a lasagne will take about 40 minutes but the oven does the work there :-)
A little tip here - if you've got people coming in at different times, then you can easily cook all your pasta in one go and refresh it to serve - just boil some water and pour it over your cooked and cooled pasta - leave it for about 1 minute and it's perfectly hot and ready to serve.
This is also useful if you want to get your meal ready early - if you've got guests coming it means that you've only got to refresh your pasta, heat your sauce and serve.
A seafood and tomato based sauce with some freshly grated parmesan and crusty bread is great for an informal meal with friends - if you can get all the preparation done early, it means that you can get ready and then spend time having a drink and chat instead of juggling pots and pans in the kitchen.
If you check out my section 'Seafood'nPasta' on the navbar at the side here, you'll find numerous pasta dishes - most of them can be prepared in advance - a lasagne can be put together at any time, left in the fridge and cooked at the last minute - serve with crusty bread and butter and large amounts of beer and wine and you've got a great meal for friends.
Seafood for pasta is inexpensive - you don't need a lot and canned fish is ideal - add a few shrimps, mussels, scallops etc and you've got a lovely sauce to serve over pasta.
The mediterranean diet is reputed to be the healthiest - look at Sophia Loren - at well over 70 years old, she credited her fitness to a daily serving of pasta - bring it on!
March 29, 2006 16:54 - Fish Oils Improve Children's Behavior
When I was a child, I used to get a daily dose of cod liver oil - I hated it - it was greasy and smelly and even though my mum put it in orange juice, it still tasted awful.
My generation of parents didn't bother giving our children cod liver oil - the childhood memories of this daily torture were too painful - how wrong we were.
Time and again, it's been proven that fish oils do improve children's behaviour and aid concentration.
It can't be coincidence that ADD, Dyslexia, Hyperactivity are all getting more common these days - practically everybody you speak to has or knows somebody with a child who suffers from one of these problems.
They've all been linked to a deficiency in essential oils.
From my own personal experience - my son suffered with dyslexia - I gave him Efalex and his abilities improved within a month - he got calmer because he was less frustrated - his concentration levels increased - before that, he had the attention span of a gnat ;-)
So - again - we are what we eat - you can either give your kids supplements or increase the amount of oily fish the family eats on a regular basis - it's probably the better option due to adopting a healthier lifestyle - fish is a low calorie source of protein - it's tasty and there's a huge choice - mackerel, salmon, pilchards, sardines, herrings - all canned or fresh or fresh tuna.
There are fish oil supplements you can take - but they are quite expensive for the branded ones - you can find cheaper ones - I have some links on my Fish for Health pages - if you have a child who's posing a 'problem' then a boost won't hurt - try it for three months and see if there's a difference - there's a report on the latest findings on that page too.
March 30, 2006 15:33 - How Long can I Keep Fish
I had an email yesterday from Megan - she asked how long was it safe to keep fish?
She'd been to the supermarket - oh no - and there was a special offer on - buy one get one free for fresh salmon.
She intended stocking up and wanted to know how long she could keep it in the freezer.
Well - fish is best kept no longer than three months in the freezer but I prefer to keep it just one month.
I buy mine monthly and freeze it straight away - I have a roll of polybags that I put individual portions in - then pop each type into a separate carrier bag and then into the freezer.
I find it works really well - each month I buy four lots of smoked fish, four lots of salmon steaks or fillet, four lots of white fish steaks or fillet.
I have my fish delivered by Blades in Hull - link on my home page - it comes in a polystyrene box packed with frozen sheets of gel.
I find it really convenient because I can have clear work surfaces and deal with the fish (and my meat gets delivered) in one go - then I can clean up straight away - I don't get fish scales or smells on anything else.
If you live in the UK and you'd like to have your fish delivered - then when you contact David from Blades, tell him you've come from this site and I'll send you a free copy of my Fish and Seafood Soup Recipe eBook when you have your first order delivered.
David will also give you a free gift or a 10% first order discount if you mention this site.
March 31, 2006 13:11 - Difficult Teenagers
I firmly believe that difficult teenagers can be helped with a daily dose of fish oils - but how do you get them to co-operate.
Communication has broken down to a great extent between you - as long as you're talking, you could try explaining some of the research that's been conducted and how much happier the youngsters are - focus on the benefits for them - not you ;-)
You could chat about old times when they were younger and you used to have fun together - I'm not suggesting that you start taking them for kiddies' days out again - but just remind them how well you all used to get on as a family. Most kids don't want to be 'at outs' with people - they just can't help it - their brains are all scrambling due to adolescence.
Remind them that adult behaviour will earn adult privileges - they won't be expected to accompany you on every outing because they can't be trusted at home alone - they won't be dispatched to their rooms because of the bad atmosphere they create in the family rooms for instance.
You could try a bribe - if they take the fish oils every day, you'll put a pound or a dollar in a pot and at the end of the trial period, they can have the money to buy a computer game or clothes or whatever they want.
You could lie - tell them that the fish oils are to help stop them getting spots :-)
You know your teenager best - you know what buttons to push to get the right response - but the benefits for the whole family are immense.
Your younger children are easier - they tend to do as mum says - but you need to get the co-operation of teenagers - they're near adults - practising to be adults really and if you treat them as such, they will often respond in positive terms.
My teenage son responds in an adult manner to adult treatment and a childish manner to childish treatment - that's the nature of life I find - he's in his final year at school and is outgrowing it - looking forward to going up to college where he will be treated as an individual.
If you have difficult teenagers in your life, do give the fish oil supplements a try - it's never too late it seems from the research conducted.
One person has told me that there was a positive difference in just 10 days with his teenager - just over a week and your lives could be transformed - few rows, lots of smiles, happy happy families.
