Good Eating Monday: Greek Oregano

Today we're going to talk about Oregano.
It's that herb that makes spaghetti sauce and pizza taste so yummy!
Good news---oregano has excellent health benefits!

#1) Oregano is loaded with potassium and it's an anti-oxidant.
(Anti-oxidants help eliminate free radicals in the human body, which are molecules that can damage healthy cells.)

# 2) Oregano, in studies, has also proven itself able to kill E-coli and many of the bacteria that can cause food poisoning. Adding oregano to ground meat you're planning to cook is the equivilent of dropping a SEAL team into a terriorist camp. The enemy will be eliminated.
So, for this benefit, add 1 teaspoon of dried Oregano per pound of ground meat. For example: for 1 pound of hamburger, add 1 teaspoon.

#3) *Oregano is also known for it's anti-cancer properties. Noteable Italian research indicates a high intake of oregano, such as in the Mediterranean diet, is particularly good at reducing the occurance of colon cancer.

#4) *In Alzhemier research, 139 spices were tested for their ability to boost the brain chemical acetylcholine, the same action as drugs show. Only oregano extract proved as "potent" as drugs.

  (*Cited from Healing Spices, by Dr. Bharat B. Aggarwal.) 

Greek Oregano

Of course, extract is more concentrated then either dried oregano or fresh oregano, but the main point here is adding oregano liberally to whatever you're cooking can only be a plus!

So, for healthy eating---start adding Oregano to everything!Dried or fresh---doesn't matter.

Sprinkle it on your subs. Add it to your scrambled or fried eggs.
Add it to your tuna or egg salad.
Add oregano to soups (even canned ones you're heating up!)
Add it to stews.

Sprinkle it generously on any meat before you grill it. Or bake it.
In particular, add it to ground meat before you cook it!
Sprinkle it on your salads!
Of course use lots in your italian recipes!

Use it in your Mexican, too---I cooked up a batch of ground chicken for taco's this past Sunday and added oregano during the cooking, then added the taco seasoning packets and it didn't change the taste at all.

Hey, you can even make a medicinal tea with it---
see  http://www.ehow.com/how_2383492_benefit-from-oregano.html for how-to's.

Plus it's inexpensive, easy to find--and probably on your spice rack right now!

Or if you want to grow you own---oregano is among the more common and easily grown types of herbs. I recommend Greek Oregano. That's the type I most see available on the herb shelves at Lowe's or Walmart and the kind I grow myself.
Greek Oregano is a perennial. That means it comes back every year on it's own. Here in Florida, it stays green year round, though it goes into a reduced growth cycle during winter---still, I can harvest some for spaghetti in January.
It's compact and sprawls on the ground with a spread of about 24 inches. It's a fair "spiller" in a pot and drapes to a certain degree. (You'll need a med-large pot for it--but remember pots are more vulnerable to drying out in summer and freezing in winter. Use a plastic pot because Greek Oregano likes at least partial sun and ceramic pots get too hot.)

You just need one. It's easy to move rootings. I have 5 patches of it now and 1 in my large pot garden.

So, eat up me hearties, yo-ho!