Years ago in college my friend who had an off-campus apartment served me this quiche one day for dinner. It was so delicious I started making it myself. People love it and I am always asked for the recipe whenever I bring it to someone or serve it to my guests. Back in college it was an economical choice for dinner; originally it was made with cheddar cheese and frozen broccoli, now I take gourmet ingredients and mix it up to create wonderful variations if the earlier recipe. Of course you can always take a small amount of last nights leftover vegetable or meat and keep it simple.

It is easy to keep it vegetarian; as long as you eat eggs and cheese, or try my favorite combination, Fontina cheese, cooked cubed chicken breast and sun dried tomatoes. I also have made it gluten free using an easy gluten free baking mix I always have on hand for the crust. Give it a try either using your favorite pie crust recipe or the pie crust recipe below, either way I think you will be amazed at the results!

Filling:
1 extra-large egg
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon gluten free baking mix
1/2 cup milk (any kind)
1/2 cup green onions, chives or red onion chopped
2 cups shredded cheese (any variety)
8-10 ounces of any vegetable, meat, or seafood you like. Vegetables should be slightly wilted to get rid of moisture, and meats and seafood thoroughly cooked.

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl and pour onto the prepared pie shell.
Bake @ 350 degrees for 40 minutes until set.

Examples of combinations I have used:
Asparagus & Cheddar Cheese
Zucchini & Monterey Jack Cheese
Crab, Spinach & Gruyere Cheese
Chicken or Turkey, Broccoli & Cheddar Cheese
Ham & Swiss Cheese
Diced Smoked Salmon & Havarti with Dill Cheese

Crust:
1 1/4 cups gluten free all-purpose baking mix
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons sugar
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cubed
3 tablespoons Crisco Shortening
1/4 cup ice water
11/2 teaspoon white distilled vinegar

Place first 5 ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and pulse with a steel blade a few times to make pea size pieces of dough. Mix the water and vinegar, and slowly add to the mix drop by drop through the feed tube as you pulse the mix. Stop when the dough comes together into a ball.

Dump the dough into a pie plate and work it up all the sides in an even layer. Cool in the fridge for 30 minutes. Bake @350 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool and its ready to be filled. ENJOY!!!

The Chinese have long believed that diet was vital to good health. They also believe that diet can cure disease. Only recently has modern medicine proven what they have believed all along. If a happier, healthier and very likely longer life is your goal then adjusting your diet is not only recommended but truly necessary. So try the large variety of herbal soup recipes from around the world, starting with China where ancient physicians knew what modern researchers are just now proving.

Part of an overall healthy diet in China is that nothing is eliminated, so an expansion of the palate is necessary. Sweet, sour, bitter, savory, spicy, pungent and bland are all needed for total body health so expand your horizons and stop being picky if you want to be healthy. Forget what you have learned from western diet fads eliminating food groups in an effort to lose weight or improve health. These diets force the body to shed pounds by making it operate in manners it was not designed for stressing the whole body and the mind.

Herbal soup recipes and other healing foods are dependent on embracing everything in moderation. Controlling the body’s temperature is vital when consuming herbal soups. Do you tend to feel cold or is the weather outside or where you work cold? Then try soups containing warming components. Warming herb like ginger, turmeric, chili peppers, nutmeg, cinnamon, walnuts and green onions help raise the body’s temperature and return it to balance. If you typically feel hot, live or work in a hot environment, herbal soup recipes provide the solutions for you. Components of a cooling soup tend to be ingredients such as mint, tofu, citrus, tomato, celery, lettuce and cucumber.

With the body’s temperature in balance, the mind and body are free to heal themselves. Chinese herbal soup recipes include a lot of colors. Not those found in the prepackaged chemically laden aisles of the grocery store, but the colors found in nature. Spread your vegetables across the color spectrum to ensure total body maintenance and healing. White vegetables such as garlic and onions contain sulfides which are antibacterial, combat cancer and improve the immune system. Red fruits and vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers and watermelon contain lycopene which is linked to preventing cancer. Orange and yellow fruits and vegetables such as carrots squash and apricots contain beta carotene which may not only reduce the likelihood of cancer but also minimize heart disease.

Finally, if you want the full benefits of modifying your diet and adding a massive variety of herbal soup recipes to your diet you must learn moderation. Western societies are accustomed to eating to their full or worst, flat-out stuffed, this is considered excessively stressful on the whole body but specifically the digestive organs. Eating until your only 70 or 80 percent full minimizes stress on the digestive system and helps with portion control, which will help achieve and maintain a happy and healthy body weight in a natural and healthy way.

People often ask me why so many Thais remain thin despite our very obvious passion for food. In fact, this used to puzzle me, too, until I started researching and writing my books on Thai cooking. The answer is now clear: it’s the ingredients, it’s the preparation, it’s the way we cook, and it’s the way we eat. Let me explain!

First, I must warn you that my remarks are all about traditional Thai cooking, with just a few minor variations to accommodate Western taste. I am not referring to any of the current fads that you’ll currently find in Bangkok, where thin teenagers are turning into plump adults on a diet of hamburgers, Cola and Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Yes, obesity is becoming more prevalent in Thailand, but it’s mainly because the lifestyle has become more westernised. Fortunately, the majority retain their figures by eating traditional foods.

It’s the ingredients: In Thailand we’re fortunate to have a huge variety of fruit and vegetables. This means we can buy them fresh, rather than eating, say, peaches or pears preserved in syrup. We also like to choose ingredients carefully – and this often means walking around the street markets to find the best mangoes, durian, or coconuts. If you walk a mile to buy fruit, that will help to keep you slim!

The main energy source, the staple of the Thai diet is rice, which “bulks up” during cooking and so tends to be less dense, and less fattening than potatoes. Thai diners are more likely to fill up with leafy vegetables and other side dishes, rather than eating vast quantities of rice.

We make everything palatable by adding fresh herbs, including coriander, basil, lemongrass and chillies.

Most important of all, we love seafood. Fish should be part of everyone’s diet, at least once a week, but do make sure you choose a sustainable species. Oily fish is the best source of Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids which all experts say are vital for normal metabolism.

In my various books I’ve listed the health benefits of just about all typical Thai ingredients. Here are three examples:

* Ginger, one of the most popular Thai ingredients, is well-known as a digestive aid.
* Water chestnuts contain no fat whatsoever and very few calories.
* The white meat of chicken is lower in calories, lower in fat and higher in protein than dark meat.

So how about using all the above ingredients to make Chicken with Water Chestnuts and Ginger? You can find this recipe, which also includes dried black fungus, in my e-book Ginger & Galangal Secrets (from ThaiFoodSecrets.com).

It’s the preparation: Because we like to chop and slice most of the ingredients, Thai food takes quite a lot of preparation. But this, too, has health benefits. Instead of serving half-chickens or large steaks of beef we serve finely-sliced meat in bite-sized pieces which can be savoured individually. Only fish are frequently served whole, often as a communal dish from which each diner takes small helpings.

It’s the way we cook: Long on preparation, but quick to cook: that’s the traditional way of food in Thailand. In all my books I emphasize the importance of pan-frying rather than deep-frying, whenever possible. In stir-frying, using a wok, the key to success is knowing how long to cook each ingredient. Be careful not to overcook vegetables. Add light vegetables at the end: for example, beansprouts take only about 3 minutes when cooked with other ingredients.

It’s the way we eat: Buddhist tradition teaches us to savour our food rather than to wolf it down quickly. Does this have a health benefit? I think it does. If you take your time to enjoy the food that you (or someone else) has prepared and cooked, you won’t be in danger of overeating because the body starts to signal “satisfaction” before the end of the meal. We call it “im” (full). If you hear Thai diners protesting “im!” it means they really can’t eat much more.

Final word: British, European or American people will never eat exclusively Thai, except perhaps on a trip to Thailand, but maybe they can apply some of the principles of traditional Thai cooking to their own cuisine. The keys are: greater variety of ingredients, smaller cuts of meat, more fish, avoidance of overcooking, and taking time to enjoy the result.

Happy eating!

Do you have aquarium fish? How much money do you have invested in them and their well being? Water testing for your freshwater fish aquarium is vital to the survival of your fish. Aquarium water testing is the best way to find out if there are harmful substances in your aquarium. Substances such as toxins and other things like nitrates and ammonia can be kept under control by keeping a close eye on your water. Aquarium water testing kits can be helpful for checking the levels of ammonia in your tank. The gills of the fish and their waste releases ammonia into the water and as these levels increase, the water environment can become toxic to your fish. Choosing to test your water will ensure that your water gets changed before ammonia levels become harmful to your fish.

Nitrites by definition are described as a result of ammonia being transformed by bacteria; while it is not quite as toxic as ammonia, nitrate levels can still be dangerous in high amounts. These same bacteria will convert nitrates to a less toxic component in the water however you can just change the water and the filter regularly to control the toxins. Testing your aquarium for pH levels is important. Changing pH levels can be highly stressful and the most common reason aquarium fish die. It will be helpful to compare the pH levels from the fish store to your aquarium at home in order to ensure the fish doesn’t go into shock because of the drastic change in water quality. There are many variables that can affect the pH levels so aquarium water testing on a regular basis is the best way to keep your fish happy and swimming.

Finally, testing your water for phosphates is important for inhibiting the growth of algae because phosphates are the primary nutrients for algae. If the testing of your water shows that you have a problem with phosphates you could be using too much food. There are filters on the market that are able to help keep your water levels correct when it comes to phosphate but you should still monitor it. While there are some fish stores who will offer free water testing the first time, free water testing may not give you all of the information and exact bacteria levels you are looking for and you will need to test often in order to keep your aquarium environment safe for your fish. It is always a good idea to invest in good water testing kits to ensure the safety and overall health of your fish. Testing the water can be critical for knowing when to change the water.

The majority of cities do have a standard of quality that will ensure your safety when drinking from it, but you still see people using water filters on the kitchen faucets in their homes, special filtering bottles for their water when they are on the move and other measures to make sure they are drinking clean water. Now, this is only just city water being discussed where some testing is being done. What if you are out further then where city water is run and are on well water? It seems at that point, the question may arise asking, “Who is keeping that water from being polluted? Is it being tested?” With both questions in mind, there are safety measures that you should be thinking about on your own. First, you definitely want to protect yourself and the others who use and drink your water now and in the future from pollutants. You must consider all the unknowns in your environment that can pollute your water, and if you have not had a water quality test done by now, then you should make it a priority to make sure that everyone is drinking safe water out of your well by getting one done soon.

Pollution is becoming a bigger problem everyday and the quality of water is too. While usually if you live in a big city you may not give testing the quality of your water much thought. The reality is that even though we can trust that they are doing their best to bring us quality water there are still times when a water quality test would be a wise choice in local water supplies as well.

If you live in an old home or get water from a private well then you should definitely have someone perform a water quality test. An old home may affect a water supply due to the material the pipes are made from and many private well owners do not have the materials and supplies that are necessary for such testing to do on their own. Numerous people find themselves thinking about their drinking water only after hearing about a nearby town, neighbor, business or entire neighborhood that has dealt with contaminated water.

As far as what private well owners typically do these days to ensure the quality of their drinking water is safe, they get some type of water testing kit. There are the kind that people use right at home and then there is the type that the well owner collects the sample and gets it tested. The at-home water testing kit has strips or a dropper. Both can help with the identifying the pH levels in your water and also give you an idea of additional pollutants; keep in mind that they are not the most accurate at truly uncovering all of the pollutants that are in the water.