Various Uses Of Potatoes

Potatoes are a hardy staple of numerous dishes across a whole range of cultures. You can eat them mashed, roasted, fried, baked, sautéed, or as part of a salad or soup and they are the fourth most consumed crop in the world, after rice, wheat, and corn. But as it turns out, potatoes have many other uses outside of your cooking pot. Some of them are remarkably useful, others are great fun to try, but all of them are bound to surprise you! Here are some ways you can use our potatoes outside of the dinner table.

1. Remove Stains 

Foods like turmeric, berries, and beets are fabulous additions to any meal, but they have a habit of leaving their traces all over your hands. It can take a lot of scrubbing with normal soap to remove these stains, and it's really hard to reach underneath your nails. Don't fear though, just keep half a potato back when preparing the dish and rub it over the affected area to magically remove the blemish! Make sure you get right under your nails too. This will work well on grass and ink stains as well.

2. Make a Hot or Cold Compress

This is one you might have read about in books, and it's been used for centuries. Potatoes retain their temperature for a surprisingly long time so if you are out and about on a cold night, keep a couple of hot potato slices in your gloves or pockets. Similarly, if you need to keep cool, use a frozen or chilled potato. If you want to ease aches and pains, then make a hot or cold compress using potato slices inside a sock.

3. Clean Your Windows

Potatoes make for a terrific non-toxic glass cleaner. Take a raw, uncooked potato and rub it over your windows, car windscreen, or even eyeglasses, before wiping away the juice with a clean cloth. You will be left with gleaming glass, without damaging your hands or leaving the smell of chemicals up your nostrils. This works well on clear plastic like swimming or ski goggles as well.

4. Use Potato Juice for Your Ailments 

Okay, so potato juice might not sound like the yummiest mixture in the world, but it has been used for centuries to fight various ailments. It is considered effective against ulcers, sprains, gout, sciatica, heartburn and bruising. The juice is rich in vitamins and it's dead easy to make. Just put a couple of potatoes in a blender, zap them for thirty seconds and you're done. Add carrot or cinnamon juice to improve the taste and you have your own homemade medicine.

5. Remove Warts

Warts are a rather unsightly annoyance, and if you get one, you will want to get rid of it. There's no need to go and have it lazered off though, just treat it with a raw potato. Carefully rub the cut end of the potato across the wart, and leave the juice on. Repeat the process every day until the wart is banished for good!

6. Remove a Broken Light Bulb from a Socket

This use of potatoes is trumpeted by numerous sources! At some point in your life, you've probably faced the annoyance of a light bulb breaking as you attempt to unscrew it. You might be wondering why companies can't design bulbs that don't do this, but in the meantime, you have a trusty potato to help you deal with the problem. Cut the potato in half, and gently press the flat side on to the remainder of the bulb. When the bulb is firmly inserted, you can simply screw it out.

7. Shine Your Silverware

If your cutlery is cloudy and your trinkets are tarnished, why not use a potato to restore their sparkle? You can rub a raw potato over the items if you like, but I find it best to soak them in potato water. This also means you don't have to use extra potatoes to perform the task, simply use the water from the batch you have boiled for your dinner. Add any peeled skins into the water for great results.

8. Feed Your Geraniums

The nutrients in potatoes will help your pot plants grown. You can either carve a small hole in the potato and plant the stem of the flower inside it, before putting the whole thing into the soil; or you can sprinkle some potato shavings into the soil around your already growing flowers to give them a fantastic, natural boost.

9. Sort Out Your Skin

Potatoes are great for your skin, so making yourself a potato face mask once a week can reap rewards. You only need to use mashed potato mixed with water and leave the resulting paste on your face for 30 minutes. A couple of slices of potato can also be used to reduce the appearance of puffy eyes and black circles, and are a great alternative to the more widely used cucumber. The ability of potatoes to clear up minor rashes and acne have been known for centuries!

10. Soothe a Headache

Potatoes have been used to help ease headaches for centuries, and you will only need a few slices. You can rub them into your temples, or for more sustained relief, fix them against your forehead using a headband or bandage.

11. Make Some Great Personalized Art

We all remember making potato stamps and dipping them in paint in art class at school. But don't for a second think that this practice is just the preserve of children. Just draw the shape you want on to the cut potato, carve out the shape and dip it in fabric paint before dabbing it over your canvas. Personalize bags, cushions, walls - whatever you like! It's a really fun and easy way to personalize your home and it's great for kids too.

12. Relieve a Burn

If you burnt your fingers on a hot pan or clipped your arm against the stove while it was still on, reach for a potato. Just 1 slice of raw potato should do the trick - apply it to the burn and fix in place using whatever you have handy.

13. Absorbs Excess Salt from a Soup or Cooking Pot

If you have over-salted your pot of soup or pasta by mistake, then throw in some potato slices or cubes to restore the balance. Leave the potatoes in while the mixture simmers for ten minutes or so, and then scoop them back out.

14. Banish Rust from Metal 

Are your old tools or kitchen utensils starting to look like antiques? Restore them to their former glories by chopping a potato in half, adding a liberal amount of soap or salt to the cut end and rubbing it over the affected surface. Rinse and dry the object thoroughly afterward. This works great along the edge of large carving knives!

for crochet designs, my blog, those who like a particular design are free to mail me

those interested in cancer & health related topics are free to see my blog- 

https://cancersupportindia.blogspot.com/ 

https://gscrochet designs.blogspot.com  

For info. about knee replacement, be free to view my blog- 

https://knee replacement-stick club.blogspot.com 

How to Cook Rice to BURN More Fat and Absorb HALF the Calories

Coconut oil has such a wide usage, right from cooking to baking to making your deodorant ! Now, there is even another reason to love it. When used in a certain way, coconut oil can make a bowl of white rice into a much healthier meal. In fact, this unique cooking method means that your body will be able to absorb half of the calories in rice with the added benefit of decreasing body fat accumulation.


It’s true that white rice is a highly processed grain and has a high glycemic index. But, the effect food has on your blood sugar can be altered depending on what you eat it with.

Researchers from Sri Lanka might have uncovered a Holy Grail of rice cooking that could shake the way we view and prepare rice. They presented their preliminary findings at the National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

Research on Coconut Oil and White Rice

Authors of the research, tested 8 different recipes on 38 varieties of rice. The cooking method that proved to be the best at increasing the rice’s healthiness included adding coconut oil to boiling water, before stirring in raw rice. The rice was then cooled down in the refrigerator and consumed after 12 hours.

When the least healthy of all rice types was prepared in such way, its calories were reduced by 10 to 12 percent. The two scientists, conducting their research at the College of Chemical Sciences in Colombo, claim that further caloric reduction is possible. They predict that if the right variety of rice is prepared with coconut oil, the calories could be cut by about 50 to 60 percent.

Why does this Cooking Method Cut the Calories?

Intuitively, many cultures prepare food in a way to make it healthier. Some schools of nutrition, too, have believed all along that mixing certain fats with food rich in carbohydrates (such as rice) could lower the meal’s blood sugar raising effect.

The method of cooking rice with coconut oil and then chilling the rice cuts the calories by changing the rice’s chemical composition. Digestible starch turns into indigestible starch (or resistant starch), so the rice doesn’t get readily metabolized into glucose – if not used, glucose eventually converts into body fat and contributes to weight gain. So this cooking method could help to prevent body fat accumulation. In that respect, it’s worth noting that the researchers found that consumption of resistant starch “could decrease fat accumulation in the long-term.”

One cup of medium grain white rice usually contains about 246 calories. With this method, the calorie count goes down to as little as 147.

What’s more, resistant starch is considered a prebiotic and compliments the function of probiotic foods. It feeds the good bacteria in your gut and aids your immunity and digestive processes.

Recipe for Cooked Rice that Cuts the Calories in Half

1. Boil 2 cups of water and add a tablespoon of coconut oil (always opt for organic virgin coconut oil)
2. Stir in 1 cup of rice.
3. Cook for about 20 minutes, until the rice is cooked.
4. Put in the fridge for 12 hours.
5. Use cold or re-heat it – according to the Sri Lankan research, the rice maintains its newly acquired benefits even after heating it again.

The white rice might become healthier when the above method is applied. Still, you shouldn’t now eat it in unlimited amounts. Also, consider using brown rice instead. Brown rice doesn’t have the germ and bran removed, so it’s a better option as it retains the bulk of its vitamins, minerals, essential fats and fiber. You can also try consuming purple rice which has many health benefits and is cooked the same as brown rice.

Three Tips For a Juicy Burger

Who doesn't love food that is grilled? Primarily when it comes to burgers, or literally any meat. Grilled foods taste so incredible making us want to grill just about anything every day. Yet no matter how amazing you are at grilling, there are always a set of tips and tricks to take your grilling to the next level. Check out the tips below, ensuring that you take your grilled goodies from great to gourmet:

1. Better (and Safer) Grill Cleaning

Have you heard about the dangers of grill brushes? Those metal bristle brushes that you typically use to clean off your grill can sometimes fall off the brush and stay on the grill getting lodged into your food. It is, of course, unsafe to ingest one and for this reason, experts have come up with a new way of cleaning your grill, using aluminum foil. Simply crumple up a piece of aluminum foil and pick it up in between tongs, scrubbing down the hot grill with the foil. This will get the crud off.

2. Perfect Kebabs

Kebabs are versatile and fun. But what we hate is how those wooden skewers tend to get burned or light on fire when they are cooling on the grill. To avoid this, bear in mind this simple trick: Simply soak the skewers in a bowl of water for 15 to 20 minutes before cooking to avoid any dangerous flames. It is also recommended that you use two skewers per kebab to ensure that they don't slip through the grates.

3. Iced Burgers

It may seem odd, and possibly disgusting and unnecessary to put ice cubes on your burgers. But, we promise you, it isn't. While burgers on the grill are amazing, what you want are juicy burgers on the grill. Achieving the perfect burger is hard, however, with this brilliant trick, you'll manage. When your raw patties are cooking on the grill simply put a pad of butter on top of them. Or, for a healthier option, use an ice cube. This will melt into the burger as it cooks making it your juiciest burger ever.

those interested in cancer & health related topics are free to see my blog-
http://cancersupportindia.blogspot.com/

for crochet designs, my blog, those who like a particular design are free to mail me
http://gscrochet designs.blogspot.com

For info. about knee replacement, be free to view my blog-
http://knee replacement-stick club.blogspot.com     

 

Alternatives Uses Of Potatoes

It is difficult to come across someone who doesn't like potatoes. It can be used to make so many different dishes, dry, gravies, in combo with any vegetable it goes well. It can be used in puddings, kheer and so on and on.

Now other uses of potatoes-

1. Remove Stains 

Foods like turmeric, berries, and beets are fabulous additions to any meal, but they have a habit of leaving their traces all over your hands. It can take a lot of scrubbing with normal soap to remove these stains, and it's really hard to reach underneath your nails. Don't fear though, just keep half a potato back when preparing the dish and rub it over the affected area to magically remove the blemish! Make sure you get right under your nails too. This will work well on grass and ink stains as well.

2. Shine Your Silverware

If your cutlery is cloudy and your trinkets are tarnished, why not use a potato to restore their sparkle? You can rub a raw potato over the items if you like, but I find it best to soak them in potato water. This also means you don't have to use extra potatoes to perform the task, simply use the water from the batch you have boiled for your dinner. Add any peeled skins into the water for great results.

3. Feed Your Geraniums

The nutrients in potatoes will help your pot plants grown. You can either carve a small hole in the potato and plant the stem of the flower inside it, before putting the whole thing into the soil; or you can sprinkle some potato shavings into the soil around your already growing flowers to give them a fantastic, natural boost.

4. Relieve a Burn

If you burnt your fingers on a hot pan or clipped your arm against the stove while it was still on, reach for a potato. Just 1 slice of raw potato should do the trick - apply it to the burn and fix in place using whatever you have handy.

5. Absorbs Excess Salt from a Soup or Cooking Pot

If you have over-salted your pot of soup or pasta by mistake, then throw in some potato slices or cubes to restore the balance. Leave the potatoes in while the mixture simmers for ten minutes or so, and then scoop them back out.

6. Banish Rust from Metal 

Are your old tools or kitchen utensils starting to look like antiques? Restore them to their former glories by chopping a potato in half, adding a liberal amount of soap or salt to the cut end and rubbing it over the affected surface. Rinse and dry the object thoroughly afterward. This works great along the edge of large carving knives!

7. Make Some Great Personalized Art

We all remember making potato stamps and dipping them in paint in art class at school. But don't for a second think that this practice is just the preserve of children. Just draw the shape you want on to the cut potato, carve out the shape and dip it in fabric paint before dabbing it over your canvas. Personalize bags, cushions, walls - whatever you like! It's a really fun and easy way to personalize your home and it's great for kids too.

 

Note- for other health benefits of potatoes, see my cancer supportindia.blogspot.com, the site mentioned first.

 For my other blogs, I'm giving the links below, feel free to view and comment too.

https://cancersupportindia.blogspot.com. for all cancer and health related topics
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement

 

 

 

25 Uses for Toothpaste You Never Knew About

This amazed me, to have such a versatile material and tool in my house and never know about it. Apparently there is much toothpaste can do, the least of which keep our teeth healthy. So next time you need one of these things to be done, go to your bathroom, the solution is right there...