Substitute Olive Oil for Butter

You can substitute olive oil for butter, margarine or other oils in almost any recipe. The basic rule is to use an equal amount of olive oil if the recipe calls for vegetable oil.This chart shows the substitution amounts for butter or margarine in imperial and metric measurements. <

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Dieting with Olive Oil

The idea of dieting with olive oil has gained popularity because of all the media hype in recent years about the Mediterranean diet.

It's not the answer to losing weight, but it is a step in the right direction. Olive oil, like any other edible oil is fat. It has 120 calories per tablespoon just as other oils do.

Use virgin olive oil in place of lard, butter and other oils because it has superior flavour, is high in vitamin E, polyphenols, mono-unsaturated fat, and is unrefined.

Olive oil is a big part of it, but the Mediterranean diet consists of twice as much fresh fruit and vegetables, more legumes, nuts, unrefined cereals, and alcohol, but less saturated fat. Read more on the diet page at little-known-food-facts.

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About Me and My Journey to SBI and AOO

Hi, my name is Lynn. Here I am with my husband John and our daughters, Tara, Jacy and Leah. They are the passion behind Amazing Olive Oil.

This site is a work in progress. I am adding content on a continual basis. It is best viewed at a resolution of 1024 x 768.I find it difficult to read the small type on computer screens sometimes, but increasing the text size under the view tab in your browser helps. Thank you for taking the time to visit and please come back again.

I completed a college education and had a good paying government job with all the benefits before my girls came along. I even went back to it on a part time basis between each of them, but there came a time when I had to decide to either return to my position (Jacy was three months old) or give up my permanent employee status and stay home to raise the girls. I decided to stay home. That was 11 years ago.

I've known since then that I wanted to work at home. I wanted to be able to take our pet to school for show and tell, volunteer in their classrooms, chaperone field trips, and be here when they got home, but I just didn't know how or what?

I worked part time here and there, but money was the only motivation for those jobs, there was no passion. A couple years ago, I began to search for what I would do with the rest of my life. Pretty heavy stuff. I spent hours scouring the internet until I finally stumbled upon SiteSell. I have a tendency to over analyze and the $299.00 purchase price kept me from doing anything for several months. I kept returning to Site Build It though, and read everything I could find until I finally decided to go for it. I'm so glad I did. $299.00 may seem like a lot when you can get web hosting for under $10.00, but there is so much more to SBI than web hosting.

The action guide, (SBI manual) took me through the entire process of finding my niche, researching its market, and building a site. I started with my interests: photography, arts and crafts, camping, gardening, and natural food. Digging deeper into natural food, I found I had a real passion for raising awareness of the dangerous ingredients found in food and personal care products. I use olive oil for many things, but olive oil soap was what sparked my passion. I'm still working my way through the guide, it's divided into days 1 through 10 (not to be completed in just one day) and I've been working on day 6 (building content or writing all the pages) for three months now. I knew absolutely nothing about building a website or internet marketing, but I've learned so much.

SBI is transforming me from a web surfer to a Web Master.

I have watched my website ranking climb by the millions and then thousands every few days and I've really only just begun.
If you have dreamed of staying home with your children and financial independence, you owe it to yourself - check out SBI!

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Olive Oil Mister / Sprayer

Why use an olive oil mister? Several reasons actually...here are a few I've come up with.

Use less oil - If your fat intake is a concern, you can get far more coverage with much less oil when using a mister. It's great for spraying salad greens, bread, pasta, popcorn, cookie sheets, muffin tins, cast iron pans and more.

Less Mess - Sometimes I mix salad dressing in a dressing bottle with a cork. (An olive oil mister won't work if you add crushed garlic or fresh basil to the dressing.) It's almost inevitable that there will be drips down the side of the bottle and a ring of oil left on the table afterwards or an entire plate of dinner left floating in a a sea of dressing. (If you have children, you can probably relate to that one.) An olive oil mister can make applying salad dressing much easier, even kind of fun for kids. I find it works well with my basic everyday oil and vinegar dressing.

It's economical, earth friendly and natural - I've never purchased an aerosol cooking spray. I prefer not to pay more for added chemicals or contribute to the waste in our landfills. I had to laugh while reading about Pam's olive oil cooking spray on their website the other day, but it really isn't funny at all.

First, they compare the fat content of their spray with oil and butter, but they compare a one second spray with a tablespoon of oil or butter. That's hardly a fair comparison if you ask me. I know I could coat a 12 cup muffin tin with one tablespoon of olive oil, but there's no way I could do it with a one second shot from a spray can!

Then, they make the "fat free" claim. This is really good. You see, if a product contains less than a certain amount of fat it can make this claim. So say that amount is .5 grams per serving. The manufacturer simply defines a ridiculously small serving size in order to legally make a "fat free" claim. Such is the case here. It's oil, it can't be fat free. It contains fat along with grain alcohol, natural lecithin & propellant. This particular olive oil spray defines one serving as a one fifth of a second spray. Is it even humanly possible to spray for one fifth of a second?! Labels have become a word game, a puzzle that most of us don't have the time to decipher. It's deceptive, misleading and so frustrating, but that's a whole other story. I had better not even get started on that subject right now.

Why not try olive oil for frizzy hair instead of paying big bucks for drug store or salon treatments and conditioners?;">An olive oil mister or sprayer is a healthy, less expensive, and convenient alternative. A mister works by pumping air into the container to create pressure for an aerosol kind of misty spray. I had a pampered chef pump mister, that didn't work that well for me and won't pump at all any more, so I've been shopping for a new one. There are many to choose from and I've read a lot of mixed reviews while trying to decide which one to buy. Some of the more popular ones are made by Norpro, Cuisipro, Misto and Hoffritz. Based on the reviews I've read and the fact that it is stainless steel so it blocks out light, I'm going to order the Cuisipro Stainless-Steel Spray Pump Non-Aerosol Mister. Click here to see several different misters.

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Olive Oil Skin Care

There are many ways and reasons to use olive oil for skin care. Let's explore some of the more common applications and my top three reasons for using olive oil on my skin.

Each of these uses will become a link to more information as I work my way through them. Check back or subsribe to my blog to keep up to date.

Olive Oil for Dry Skin, body lotion, body wash, moisturizer, body butter, face cream, hand cream, skin cream, bath, beauty and lip balm

olive oil sun protection

olive oil and stretch marks, wrinkles

eczema olive oil

psoriasis olive oil

olive oil facial, facial cleanser,

olive oil spa

ozonized olive oil, ozonated olive oil

olive oil acne treatment

What you put on your body ends up in your body. That's why I use olive oil for skin care. I've been reading forums and websites to gain a better understanding of what people are looking for in their skin care products and I've made a surprising discovery. The focus is almost always on what is in the product while little attention is given to what isn't in the product.
In my opinion, what isn't on my skin is just as important as what is.

Would you continue using creams, lotions, massage oils, toners, cleansers, masks, etc knowing that some contain chemicals that are known carcinogens? Many contain chemicals that haven't even been tested and are not regulated.

#1 reason I use olive oil skin care is what's not in it. It starts with the extraction process. Olive oil differs from other oils because it is extracted from a fruit, not a grain or seed. That in itself may not seem like such a big deal, but it is. Virgin and extra virgin olive oils are made by mechanical extraction only. Some are filtered to eliminate little bits of olive left, but the best in my opinion, are not. That's it. Just fruit juice! If you would like to learn more about the different processes used to extract the oil, visit my extraction processes page

Seed and grain oils are more difficult to extract and require the use of heat and chemicals. The oil is then put through a filtering process and by the time it's bottled, well...there really isn't much left of the beneficial nutrients and compounds.

#2 reason I use olive oil skin care because of what is in it. Olive oil is full of nutrients, vitamins, antioxidants, and natural compounds that benefit our bodies inside and out. Some that are especially good for our skin are:

Antioxidants - Olive oil is rich in antioxidants including vitamins A and E, polyphenols, phytosterols and avenasterol. They work to neutralize free radicals and repair cell membranes. A free radical is an unstable molecule created by exposure to things like cigarette smoke, pollution, alcohol and radiation.

Squalene - A natural organic compound used in cosmetics as a moisturizer. It is taken from the liver of sharks, but also found in olive oil - a more environmentally friendly source. Squalene helps to regulate sebum. Sebum is produced by the sebacious glands in our skin and is secreted through our pores. It forms a coating on the skin that acts as a barrier, inhibits the growth of micro-organisms and lubricates our skin and hair.

Chlorophyll - A photosynthetic pigment found in plants and algae. It is an anti-aging substance that promotes the healing of skin conditions and wounds.

Learn more about the nutrients in olive oil and their benefits on the
Olive Oil Nutrients page.

#3 reason I use olive oil skin care - It's cheap! I know, that doesn't sound right. Olive oil is not known as a cheap alternative to other oils for culinary uses, but it is when compared to other skin care products. I don't use gourmet, unfiltered special olive oils at $35.00 for 500 mls, but I do use a grocery store extra virgin. The amount of money people are willing to part with for beauty products is staggering. Age defying, wrinkle reducing, skin firming, acne fighting, blemish diminishing, along with re-hydrating, moisturizing, exfoliating, cleansing, and the list goes on and on. Most of which are packed full of synthetic chemicals, colours, artificial fragrances etc. etc. I've found that plain old extra virgin olive oil and a few other basic natural ingredients are all I need for my skin care.

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Selecting Olive Oil for Recipes

How do you know what to look for when selecting olive oil for recipes? Flavour, smoke point, nutrtitional value, grade, and variety are all deciding factors.

Flavour ? The wonderful flavours of olive oil are what set it apart from all other vegetable and seed oils, but will an unfiltered extra virgin olive oil be over powering in the dish, or will it compliment and bring out the flavours of the other ingredients? Are you going to be using it as a condiment and want that olive flavour, or would you prefer not to taste the oil at all?

Try to match the olive oil to the other ingredients when selecting an olive oil for recipes. Keep in mind that an extra virgin olive oil will have a stronger flavour and is best suited for use with other strong flavoured foods. You may want to choose a late harvest extra virgin that is made using ripe olives. The nutritional value is lower, but the flavour is mellow. Use it with fish and other delicately flavoured foods. If you are using the oil to dip bread into, dress a salad, or drizzle on vegetables and pasta, you will want a flavourful olive oil.

If you love butter as I do, try oil that has a buttery flavour characteristic. The Arbequina olive variety or a later harvest oil produces a buttery more mellow flavour. I found just such an olive oil made by Can Solivera and several others from Spain at La Tienda.com - a great site for Spanish food, ceramics, gifts, wine and more. Click here to visit their food page. You'll find a link to olive oil in the left margin.

Olive oil makes an excellent substitute for butter , margarine and other vegetable oils in baking. You will use less oil than butter, so there will be less fat in the final product and olive oil is high in monounsaturated fats, lower in saturated fats and loaded with antioxidants. Bread has been made using olive for centuries it can be used for muffins, cakes or any baking really. If you?re concerned about the strong olive flavour, again maybe a later harvest olive or arbequina variety would work well.

Smoke Point - Will you be heating the olive oil? Which method of cooking are you planning to use?

The smoke point is another consideration when selecting olive oil for recipes that involve heating the oil. The International Olive Oil Council states that the ideal temperature for frying is 180?C (356? F) and olive oil has a smoke point of 210?C (410?F). Refined olive oil (pure, light or extra light) has a higher smoke point. It would be an expensive waste to use a premium extra virgin for deep-frying since the heat causes it to lose flavour and nutritional value. It may still be more expensive than other vegetable oils, but the vitamin E and antioxidants offer more stability and it can be re-used up to four or five times. Olive oil can be used for deep-frying, grilling, broiling, saut?ing, stir frying, and baking. If flavour isn't a factor and you prefer not to use olive oil at higher temperatures, try coconut oil. I read about it at eat-it-healthy.com - great informative site, here's the link: Healthy Oils

Nutritional Value ? The number one reason I use olive oil is for its health benefits. It is a rare occasion when I deep-fry, so most of my family?s olive oil consumption is in dips, dressings, mixed with butter as a table spread or on popcorn. The very best olive oil you can choose is organic raw (unfiltered) extra virgin olive oil bottled in coloured glass and purchased within a year of harvest. I have read on some websites that heating olive oil does not affect its nutritional value. Sorry, I don?t believe that and the sources I have found to be most credible don?t agree either. I?ve also read that refined olive oil contains the same health benefits as extra virgin. Wrong again! For one thing, extra virgin contains between 50 and 80 parts per million polyphenols, where as refined oils only have about 5 ppm. And that?s just the polyphenols! There are a lot more vitamins and antioxidant compounds that are surely lost in the refining process as well.

I recommend choosing extra virgin or virgin olive oil when selecting olive oil for recipes. There are plenty to choose from, try different varieties within these two olive oil grades. They say olive oil is like wine in that quality makes all the difference and once you?ve tasted the good stuff, you won?t want to go back.

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Olive Oil Benefits

1. It's Natural! - the best of olive oil benefits. Extra virgin olive oil is nothing but fruit juice extracted mechanically from olive fruit. There is no heat or chemicals used in the extraction process. My favourite and the most beneficial is a fresh organic unfiltered extra virgin olive oil. Follow this link for more information about olive oil grades.

2. Flavour - It just tastes good. I guess I would have to say it is an acquired taste and some people just don't like the bitter characteristic of some oils. There are olive varieties known for their mild flavour and olive oil pressed from ripe olives is smooth, mellow and buttery.
substitute olive oil for butter

3. Nutritional Value - vitamins E, K, and A as well as polyphenols, squalene, oleocanthol, triterpenes and hundreds more micronutrients make olive oil a healthy choice. Read more about olive oil nutrients.

4. Oleic Acid - oleic acid (omega 9) makes up 55 - 85 percent of the fatty acids in olive oil. Don't confuse this with the amount of free oleic acid which is the main factor used to determine the grade of the olive oil and the lower the better. It's great for your skin - read about common oils used in soaps and how they can do so much more than just clean your skin at romancing-the-soap.com Oleic acid aids in keeping our arteries supple and helps prevent cancer.

5. Hydrogenated Oils - olive oil is not hydrogenated oil. Hydrogenation creates dangerous trans-fats found in margarine and many other packaged foods. Please read this page for more information about hydrogenated oil and trans-fats.

6. Heart Health and Cholesterol - extra virgin olive oil is high in polyphenols (a powerful antioxidant) and monounsaturated fat which contributes to lowering bad cholesterol. Read more about this health benefit here.

7. Cancer - researchers at the University of Oxford believe that olive oil may be just as effective in the prevention of colon cancer as fresh fruits and veggies. A diet rich in olive oil has been shown to reduce the incidence of colon., breast and skin cancers.

8. Blood Pressure - Studies now indicate that extra virgin olive oil may help to lower blood pressure. Patients were able to reduce or eliminate the need for medications when olive oil was consumed on a regular basis.

9. Alzheimers - this disease is associated with the clogging of arteries caused by cholesterol and saturated fat. Replacing other fats with olive oil will reduce the risk.

10. Gallstones - Olive oil promotes the secretion of bile and pancreatic hormones naturally and lowers the incidence of gallstones.

There are more olive oil benefits. It's great for skin and hair care , used in natural remedies, and is a more versatile cooking oil than you may think.

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For information on all kinds of health issues, visit Yahoo Health

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