Doug-at-Large

26 May 2012

The easiest way to cook a potato

May 26, 2012 11:25pm

Believe it or not, until yesterday I never cooked a potato.

But potatoes are great for a heart-healthy diet. They aren't really high in calorie, have almost no fat and have a good amount of fiber. Yet they are very satisfying. They are great for a plant-based diet.

So I spent some time searching on the Internet, and found what has to be the most drop-dead (pardon the expression) easy way to cook a potato.

It really is this simple.

1. Scrub the potato (i.e. wash it really thoroughly), but don't peel it.

2. Poke it 4 or 5 times with the tines of a fork.

3. Put the wet potato on a plate and microwave on high for 5 minutes (don't cover it).

4. Turn it over and microwave for another 5 minutes.

Be careful, because it is VERY hot. But you have a perfectly cooked "baked potato" where the skin is firm, not soggy, but the inside is soft and moist, just like you like it. And you haven't boiled out valuable nutrients.

I couldn't believe it was that simple.

This is the potato I made yesterday. It was a good-sized medium potato weighing 200 gm, which is just 186 calories, almost no fat, and 4.4 grams of fiber.

I added some Japanese furikake to it for seasoning (that's really meant for rice, so it must look strange to my Japanese friends) but it was very tasty. Next time I think I'll top it with some salsa.

doug

26 May 2012

Mixed greens and beans salad with ume dressing

May 26, 2012 7:27pm

OK. I would hardly call this a "recipe" because it's too simple to make. But please understand that I am a 55 year old male and "survivalist cook" who can barely make anything. Yesterday I cooked a potato for the first time in my life, and had to look up how on the Internet.

Serves 1:

One individual sized package of cut lettuce with sliced bell pepper mix.
One cucumber (a small, thin cucumber - not a giant one like in the U.S.).
One medium tomato.
One can of mixed beans (120 gm).
4 T of non-oil ume (pickled plum) dressing.

Mix everything and eat. Extremely tasty and filling. The legumes give you that "protein satisfied" feeling. Only 219 calories and much less than 10% calories from fat. Be a little cautious in your dressing selection or you can end up with something relatively high in sodium.

I've attached a photo. Looks good, doesn't it?

doug

25 May 2012

My heart-healthy supermarket basket

May 25, 2012 7:39pm

16 May 2012

Cesium spikes in Tokyo Bay samples; Contamination linked to Fukushima plant; no immediate threat to health

May 16, 2012 9:43am

Sludge samples taken at the mouths of two major rivers emptying into Tokyo Bay showed radioactive cesium contamination linked to the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant crisis grew by 1.5 to 13 times since August, a researcher at Kinki University said Monday.

The contamination poses no immediate health risk since no seafood from Tokyo Bay has seen contamination levels exceed the government-set threshold. But close, long-term monitoring of the seabed mud is needed, said Hideo Yamazaki, professor at Kinki University's Research Institute for Science and Technology.

"Contamination is flowing into the bay from rivers, including the Edogawa River, where cities with high radiation levels like Kashiwa (in Chiba Prefecture) are located upstream," Yamazaki told The Japan Times.

"Contaminated sludge appears to be . . . accumulating on the bottom at the mouth of the rivers," he added.

Yamazaki, an expert on how radiation and chemical substances impact the environment, and his team took the samples at three locations at the mouths of the Arakawa and Edogawa rivers on April 2 following studies carried out in August.

Samples of mud pulled from 1 meter below the seabed at the sites turned up cesium contamination ranging from 7,305 to 27,213 becquerels per square meter. The August readings were between 578 and 18,242 becquerels per square meter.

Yamazaki noted a thirteenfold rise was detected in a spot where the August readings were relatively low. He said, however, the contamination does not pose a health threat, even if a child were to play in the water.

Although radioactive mud will continue to flow into the bay, the peak contamination concentrations should be within the next couple of years, considering that the half-life of cesium-134 is about two years, Yamazaki said.

"If the contamination were to spread to fish, it is possible that radioactive isotopes could accumulate when bigger fish feed on smaller ones," he said. "We're scheduled to continue our monitoring in the following years" to study such cases.

ref: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120515a4.html

13 May 2012

A bath in the hand…

May 13, 2012 11:57pm

11 May 2012

Not everything is black and white

May 11, 2012 7:36pm

10 May 2012

Hao went shopping but bought more than he could carry

May 10, 2012 10:13pm

10 May 2012

After the storm

May 10, 2012 10:13pm

(download)

8 May 2012

'Hot spots' detected at 20 schools

May 8, 2012 9:33am

Kyodo

FUKUSHIMA — More than 20 schools in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, have radiative "hot spots" on their premises, a civic group said Sunday.

The finding was based on city board of education documents obtained through an information disclosure request, it said.

The board instructed elementary and junior high schools as well as nursery schools in January to check air radiation levels in side ditches, hedges and drains on their premises. Schoolyards and classrooms were excluded as the levels there have been regularly examined.

Reports submitted by each school in April showed at least 14 elementary and seven junior high as well as five nursery schools have hot spots where the cumulative annual radiation dose could reach 20 millisieverts, or more than 3.8 microsieverts per hour.

At the start of the new academic year in April, the board of education lifted a restriction that had limited students to playing in schoolyards for less than three hours per day due to the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant disaster that started last year.

ref: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120508b2.html

5 May 2012

Tonight's super moon

May 5, 2012 9:45pm