Knowledge is Healing

Over the years, people have come up with some very interesting cake recipes. For instance, there is chocolate and zucchini cake, Coca Cola cake, and Kaluha cake, all delicious but not necessarily healthy. As you will discover in this article, you have another option in the form of a recipe for green tea cake. With this, you have both flavor and a healthy snack.

Although we have provided you with our favorite recipe for green tea cake, keep in mind that you will find many variations. In addition, you might take the recipe we have and modify it using your own creativity. Regardless, a green tea cake makes a wonderful dessert when entertaining guests or snack for the kids after school. Green tea cakes are light, moist, and offer just the right amount of sweet.

You will even find that with this recipe for green cake tea fills the room with a wonderful, green tea fragrance. This type of cake can be made as a sheet cake, layer cake, or for different types of molds. As far as icing, you could choose whatever you like but we do suggest you consider a cream cheese based icing, which adds just the right touch of flavor to complement the cake’s ingredients. If you want to give this recipe for green tea cake a slight green color, you can add an additional amount of Matcha, which is green tea powder.

RECIPE FOR GREEN TEA CAKE
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 to 5 teaspoons powdered green tea
1 ¼ cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup plain or vanilla yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 eggs

RECIPE FOR ICING
1 ¼ cups powdered sugar
2 ½ teaspoons powdered green tea
2 tablespoons butter or margerine, soft
3 ounces cream cheese, soft
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ teaspoons milk

Start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9×13-inch or two, 9-inch cake pans. In a bowl, sift the all-purpose flour with cake flour, baking soda, salt, and green tea powder, mix well and set aside. In another bowl, beat the white sugar, oil, and eggs until smooth. Stir in vanilla extract. Gradually beat in the flour mixture, alternating with the yogurt. Mix well and pour the batter into the prepared baking pans. Bake the cake for 30 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a cake rack for 30 minutes before icing.

For the icing, sift the powdered sugar with the green tea powder in a bowl. In a second bowl, mix the sugar/tea mixture with butter, cream cheese, vanilla, and milk. Beat until smooth with an electric mixer. Spread the icing on the cooled cakes, distributing evenly. To enhance the appearance for this recipe of green tea cake, you could sprinkle a small amount of the green tea powder on top.

Julie Health writes about health benefits of green tea and has provided you with more recipes using green tea.

You may reprint the article above in its entirety provided the resource box and its links remain.

Whether nonprofits Independence Blue Cross and Highmark Inc. are allowed to combine could come down to which perspective regulators believe is more germane: the distinct local markets each Blues plan works in now, or the regional and national markets in which the combined plan wishes to compete.

The merger would create one of the largest health plans in the country, with 7 million lives covered and an estimated $22 billion in annual operating revenue. It would be the third-largest health plan in the country, measured by premiums collected.

By some estimates, the combined company would hold more than 70% of the commercial health insurance market in Pennsylvania by combining Highmark's market share in western Pennsylvania with Independence's share in the eastern part of the state.

The Pennsylvania Medical Society and the American Medical Association are among those arguing that a combined company would hold far too much market dominance in the state. But the health plans say they currently don't overlap in Pennsylvania, so the market share effectively does not change. The companies also argue that they need to get bigger to compete for national business against the nation's largest for-profit plans, as more health insurers try to sell themselves as being able to handle a corporation's health coverage everywhere it is located.

Companies that promise patients the chance to see a physician through video linkups are pushing into the mainstream. One is making it possible for anyone in the state of Hawaii to talk to a doctor of his or her choice via a webcam -- in a visit that could be reimbursed by the patient's health plan.

Meanwhile, in an effort to cut costs, a chain of retail clinics in Houston has replaced in-person visits to a nurse practitioner with online, webcam-enabled visits with doctors across town.

Telemedicine started as a way to remove access barriers. But it is now driven by people who value the convenience it offers, said Joseph Kvedar, MD, director of the Center for Connected Health, a Boston-based nonprofit group, affiliated with Partners HealthCare, whose stated mission is to expand the availability of medical care outside traditional settings.

The improved quality of the technology, the scale of adoption and the idea of health plans reimbursing for those visits have the potential to be game-changing, experts say. Proponents of telemedicine don't believe it will ever replace traditional practice-based care, but they do see it as a way to ease the load for busy physicians and overcrowded emergency departments, Dr. Kvedar said.

Take, for example, Richard Schoor, MD, a Smithtown, N.Y., urologist. He drives a 1999 Honda Accord on his daily commute, mostly because it uses less gas than, say, an SUV. The fact that it's also better for the environment is a bonus.

When Dr. Schoor saw his practice's energy bills triple in one year, he began taking small steps to cut energy consumption and met daily with his staff to ensure they were, too.

"I began cutting costs by turning off the lights when patients were out of the office and putting the computers on power-saving mode. You need to try and save every penny you can these days," Dr. Schoor said. "I don't keep the temperature ice cold in the summer or too hot in the winter, and when at all possible, I open the windows for fresh air. I'm on the second floor so there is no issue with people looking in."

While he has not seen a dramatic drop in his energy bills, he said they have remained steady, while energy costs for his colleagues have continued to climb.

Dr. Schoor is feeling good about how saving energy helps the environment and has taken other steps to reduce waste. His office has gone paperless, even though it would cost less to use paper than computers. And he says the practice has been vigilant about ensuring only medical waste goes into the medical waste bags, which also saves on disposal costs.

Wiki is the term used for an open-source Web site where users can collaborate and contribute to the content. The new site, called Medpedia, will be modeled after the online wiki encyclopedia Wikipedia.com, but will differ in that it won't accept content from just anybody.

Its contributing writers and editors will be vetted to ensure they are working health care professionals.

Robert Lash, MD, an endocrinologist at the University of Michigan Medical School, said the involvement of Internet entrepreneur James Currier added credibility to the project and contributed to the school's decision to get involved. Harvard Medical School; Stanford University School of Medicine; and the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health; also are involved with the launch of the project.

Currier, who runs the San Francisco-based technology incubator Ooga Labs, founded the company Tickle in 1999. Originally called Emode, Tickle allowed users to complete psychological and personality tests. Its annual revenues reached $35 million before the employment site Monster bought Tickle in 2004 for about $100 million.

— Next Page »