Homemade Peppermint Patties to Celebrate Spring

The peppermint is up in our garden, and I have been using it for a number of recipes. However, I'm afraid the poor plants don't have a lot of leaves to spare just yet. So, to still enjoy that fresh burst of flavor, but without stripping the peppermint plants of all their leaves... here's a recipe (or rather, more of a how-to) for making your own peppermint patties with peppermint oil, while still avoiding chocolate and sugar! It's easy too.

The idea was inspired by the recipe on Elana's Pantry.

Peppermint Patties

For the "chocolate" coating, use equal parts of:

• coconut oil (melted)
• lightly roasted carob 

I used about a Tbsp of each, just to make a small batch (I believe I made only 4 patties). Mix together and set aside.

For the filling:

• 1/4 cup (?) unsweetened coconut (processed in coffee grinder)
• 2 Tbsp (?) raw honey (It tends to be thicker than heated honey)
• a couple drops of peppermint oil (to taste)

Mix the filling ingredients together (I used my hands) until fully blended. The resulting paste should be thick enough to roll into small balls, and then flatten into patties. Put in freezer to make them firm. This also helps for making the coating cool on them right away. Then dip/coat in carob mixture and put in freezer on waxed paper-lined trays. They may need a second coat.

Enjoy!

New Niches for Familiar Foods: Collards & Cabbage

Isn't this a colorful January meal?

Ever get tired of plain old sandwiches? Try something new! Use collard greens or purple cabbage leaves as wraps! (or green cabbage, red cabbage, leaf lettuce, butter lettuce...etc!) It's a great way to get more green leafy vegetables in your diet without having a salad at every meal.

Collard greens work especially well for this, as they are really tough. Just cut whole collard greens along their stems, and use each half of the leaf as a wrap. Cabbage leaves can easily be cut to size with a kitchen shears. Fill with your favorite fillings, roll, tuck, and its's wrap!

Some filling ideas include:

• hummus
• other bean dips
• guacamole
• nut butter (mix with some Thai red curry paste and coconut oil!)
• lemon-tahini-garlic sauce
• raw vegetables
• sprouts
• raw goat cheese
• fresh herbs
• yesterday's leftovers! ;)
• If you eat eggs... try a leaf wrap instead of a tortilla for huevos rancheros
• Your usual taco ingredients

What else can you come up with?

Wholesome Wisdom from a 108-Year-Old Man

Yesterday, as I was researching some health-related topics... I happened across an interview by Paul Nison (a health enthusiast and author known for overcoming his ulcerative colitis & Crohn's disease with a raw-food diet) of a 108-year-old gentleman named Bernando Lapallo. Mr. Lapallo is active and healthy. He has his own blog, a facebook page, and even a book which he wrote in 2009, when he was 107. He's trying to make it to 120--- He says he'd like to give Abraham a run for his money!

Here's his biography, as given on his facebook fan page:

Bernando LaPallo was born in Victoria, Brazil on August 17, 1901 to Mattie Carr and Bernando LaPallo Sr. He moved to the United States and was raised by his father who was a doctor in Philadelphia. His first interest was in food and he went on to study the culinary arts at La Sorbonne in Paris, France graduating in 1928. After years of working as a chef on steam liners and resorts he retired in that profession to pursue an interest in the healing arts. He studied massage at The Swedish Institute in New York City. Later Bernando went on to study and become licensed as a reflexologist and podiatrist at NYU. He completed that course of study at the age of 73. He had a successful private massage practice in New York City for more than 20 years treating people from all walks of life. He currently resides in Arizona where he gives talks on the secrets of his youthful vitality and health. Age Less Live More is his first book. He is currently working on a second.

 In the interview, Mr. Lapallo gives some of his advice for living a long and healthy life. Most of his wisdom came to him from his father about 100 years ago, when he was growing up in Brazil. More advice is given in his book: Age Less Live More: Achieving Health and Vitality at 107 and Beyond. Here are some of the bits of wisdom he gives in the interview:

"The first priority in your life should be your health."

DIET

• Eat properly. He believes the best diet consists of fruits and vegetables (especially green vegetables), fish, and lots of fresh juices. Eat lots of raw fruits and vegetables, like Adam and Eve had in the Garden of Eden. Don't eat processed/fast-food.
• Eat organic.
• Eat animal protein sparingly: He eats fresh fish 3 times a week, perhaps some canned tuna or salmon, only 4-5oz. He eats meat once a year: lamb, because it was eaten at Passover. He'll eat cheese only on a rare occasion.
• Drink herbal teas. (He likes sassafras or cinnamon tea with breakfast). The worse thing you can eat for breakfast is a cup of coffee and a doughnut.
• Don't eat too much.
• Eat only during daylight hours. Eat dinner early, and don't eat after dinner. Eat dinner between 5 and 7pm, and don't eat after that. You could have water or green tea, but no food. It's too late to eat.
• Eat/Live for prevention of disease (He drinks cinnamon tea for prevention of diabetes, since he read that cinnamon was good for diabetics). "If you don't get it, you don't have to cure it."
• Supplement with whole food products: He uses a Superfood powder and Echinacea. These he blends with fruit or juice every day, to supplement his diet

LIFESTYLE:

• Walk every morning: Every day, rain or shine, he walks 1 1/2 to 2 miles before breakfast.
• "Stress will kill you." --His father told him.
• Rest is very important.
• Follow the Ten Commandments. He says his Christian faith is every bit as necessary as food, and remaining long without the nourishment of your soul can leave you just as hungry and depleted as going without food.
• Keep your feet clean and healthy: Wash your feet in soap (castille soap) & luke warm water every night, use a pumice stone to remove dead skin, dry, and then rub thoroughly and apply olive oil. Put socks on, and go to bed.
• Use olive oil as a moisturizer for your face. (Notice he hardly has wrinkles)
• Keep your colon clean, and all the other organs will be able to do their jobs properly.

You can view the 3-part interview at http://paulnison.com/archives/date/2009/12/
His story was printed in Phoenix's East Valley Tribune when he turned 105: http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/71921

The salad pictured above is one I made last week: organic leaf lettuce, fennel, dried cherries, sunflower sprouts, lemon juice & olive oil, Herbs de provence (with a little extra lavender), and sea salt, with homemade sunflower-flax crackers crumbled on top as croutons. Enjoy!

New Niches for Familiar Foods: Daikon Radish

Well, maybe daikon radishes aren't that familiar. I ran across them for the first time at a farmer's market a couple of years ago. They caught my attention as they are so big! In fact, the word is Japanese, and means "large root." Daikon radishes look kind of like large white carrots. They are often used in Asian soups with miso. Think you need to eat a ton of oranges this winter to get your vitamin C? Try Daikon radishes! They have 1/3 of the recommended Vitamin C in a 3 oz serving, which is also only 18 calories worth. They are mild-flavored, so they are really quite versatile... and make a perfect substitute for pasta. Low-calorie, high vitamin C.... that's a lot more than you can say for plain old spaghetti!

I believe it was first through following the Specific Carbohydrate Diet a few years ago that first introduced me to the concept of using strips of zucchini as a substitute for traditional pasta. When I got started on the raw food vegan diet, I came across all kinds of recipes calling for "noodles" made from all kinds of different vegetables. You can have fun with...

• radish noodles
• zucchini noodles
• yellow squash noodles
• carrot noodles
• cucumber noodles
• beet noodles
• asparagus noodles
• even young coconut noodles

You can makes these using a spiralizer, a grater, and mandolin slicer, a vegetable peeler, or a knife. The sauces can be anything from marinara sauce to creamy mushroom sauce to pad thai sauce. The possibilities are endless! To soften the "noodles," just let them marinate in whatever sauce you use. No cooking required. "Easy Peasy," as they say.

This is great if you are trying to cut back on processed grain noodles, eat gluten free, eat more vegetables, or just have some more variety in the kitchen!

So, above, I created a sort of Mediterranean noodle dish. It is daikon noodles (made on a mandolin), marinated in a sauce of: sun-dried  tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, onion, basil, rosemary, thyme, with sunflower sprouts and asparagus. I warmed it in the dehydrator for half an hour before eating, and served it with a balsamic-dressed salad.

Not bad for eating raw food in a northern Minnesota winter!

If You Do One Healthy Thing Today...

...Try a new Fruit Salad!

This makes a great healthy, quick & easy breakfast. Besides that, having fruit for breakfast helps continue the cleansing process that your body was doing during the night while you slept. Besides that, it's delicious!

Try this instead of your morning cereal. You can even put some diluted coconut milk or banana "milk" (just blend some banana and water) over the top. It's naturally sweet! Or, if you like, drizzle some pure maple syrup or raw honey over everything.

My combination above is:

• red bartlett pear
• dehydrated banana chips, halved
• dried black mission figs
• goji berries
• frozen strawberries

A few raw nuts or seeds added make for an excellent muesli. What are some of your favorite fruit salad combinations?

18 Ways to Dramatically Improve Your Diet

Now that the decorations are put away, the cookies are eaten, and our lives are devoid of the hustle and bustle that took place just weeks ago, it seems like a good time to replenish our energies, restore our health, and look forward to the longer days and sunshine ahead. Of course, those of us who live within just a couple of hours' drive from Canada will have to wait just a little longer than the rest of you!

In the spirit of this rejuvenation, here's a list of what you can do now to contribute to your health and wellbeing as we begin 2010! :   (In no particular order...)

1. Decrease your consumption of animal protein, and eat more greens and raw fruits and vegetables.
2. Buy as much organic food as you can, especially for the dirty dozen.
3. Eat only organic/free-range/grass-fed meats and eggs.
4. Don't buy commercial milk. --Learn to make your own nut milks (It's easy!).
5. Have a green smoothie every morning for breakfast.
6. Learn to make your own salad dressings, using organic extra virgin olive oil.
7. READ LABELS. If you don't understand the ingredients, don't buy it.
8. Replace canola or "vegetable" oils with organic extra virgin olive oil (for dressings) and virgin coconut oil (for cooking).
9. Eliminate all genetically modified foods. These depress the immune system and cause a host of other problems, most of which have not even been recognized yet. (Look out for PLUs starting with 8). Avoid these common GMO ingredients: corn, canola, cottonseed, soy.
10. Eat only organic fermented soy: tamari, miso, tempeh, for example, and only on occasion. Don't eat soy substitutes, i.e. veggie burgers, soy milk, soy ice cream, etc. Soy messes with hormones and depresses the thyroid, among other things.
11. Eat a big salad of organic leafy greens every day. Add different fruit and vegetable combinations to keep it interesting.
12. Avoid SUGAR in all forms! White sugar (and brown sugar) is a drug. See William Dufty's book "Sugar Blues." Natural sweeteners are an improvement (maple syrup, honey), but are best eliminated for several months before added back in moderation. For your sweet tooth... try different kinds of fruit. Have you ever had a persimmon? a pomegranate? a dragon fruit? Have fun discovering new things!
13. Eliminate gluten (this means wheat, rye, barley, spelt, kamut, triticale, and oats unless labeled "gluten-free") from your diet. It is one of the most common allergens. Unfortunately, these are very prevalent in the standard American diet (SAD). Look out for pizza, pasta, crackers, breads, cereals, etc. There are gluten-free substitutes, but the healthiest way to consume any grain is in their "whole" form. Some gluten-free options include amaranth, buckwheat, millet, quinoa, brown rice, and corn.
14. Start weaning yourself from caffeine--especially coffee. Try Teeccino, Roma, or other natural coffee substitute. If you need that "lift" or mental focus try Yerba Mate tea, green tea, or Think O2 from Traditional Medicinals.
15. Avoid alcohol... at least for now. You can always add back some organic wine down the road for special occasions.
16. Avoid restaurant food. There's more in it than you'd ever want to know. It's easy to bring a salad for lunch, or pick up some organic fruit to grab on the go.
17. Instead of candy bars or even protein bars, try a Larabar. It's made of basic ingredients like dates and other dried fruit, nuts, and spices. You can even find a recipe to make your own! (just Google it)
18. When there's not much in season in the produce section, don't forget about frozen foods. You can get frozen asparagus, broccoli, peas... etc. Frozen is the next best thing after fresh. Avoid canned food!

This may seem overwhelming, so I recommend doing it a little at a time. Each week, pick one thing to work on. By summer you'll have made excellent progress and will likely reap benefits that come from eating healthy foods and eliminating the toxins so prevalent in our food supply. If that seems like too much to think about right now, start with this: Buy some buckwheat groats (they're gluten-free!) and make the buckwheat porridge pictured above. Here's the how to make it:

Buckwheat Porridge
(serves 1)

1/2 cup whole buckwheat groats
1/2 to 1 whole banana
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 to 1 tsp vanilla

Soak buckwheat groats in water overnight. Drain and rinse in the morning. Pour into blender. Add other ingredients and blend until smooth. Pour into a bowl to serve, and top with fresh (or thawed frozen) berries or fruit, perhaps sweetened with a bit of stevia. Enjoy!

Conscience-Friendly Christmas Delights: Part II

Merry Christmas!!!!

My gift to you... is the recipe for those chocolate cookies pictured above! They are quick, so you can still make them now for your gathering tonight or tomorrow!

Carob Coconut Truffles:

1 cup virgin coconut oil
1 cup roasted carob powder
1/2 cup Medjool dates (I used dried apricots and prunes)
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup water
1 cup almond meal (almonds ground in a coffee grinder)
1 1/2 cups unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup quinoa flakes
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt

Melt coconut oil. Combine with carob in a bowl and whisk until smooth. Set aside. In a high speed blender, blend dried fruit and water until it becomes a smooth syrup. Add dried fruit syrup to carob mixture. Stir in vanilla and salt. Add almond meal and remaining ingredients, mixing thoroughly. Using your hands or a small cookie scoop, make walnut-sized balls. Refridgerate for an hour before serving. (Or... if you can't wait... put them in the freezer. They don't freeze solid, so you can even keep them in the freezer to have them on hand).

Conscience-Friendly Christmas Delights: Part I

Christmas Eve is 10 days away! Now the crunch time is on... Christmas baking, Christmas shopping, Christmas programs, Christmas cards, Christmas letters... Christmas PARTIES. There are so many tempting cookies, candies, Christmas drinks, pastries...  And then there are those great Hallmark Christmas movies, where everyone seems to be making delicious sweets and goodies. Who can resist such a heavenly aroma? How can a person survive this time of year without the pounds of butter in those cookies adding pounds on the bathroom scale? After all, Christmas cookies and such are simply part of our Christmas tradition. I guess the January resolutions and weight-loss programs are also part of the tradition! (wink)

This time of the year, people gather for all kinds of parties and family get-togethers. There is generally so much food around, it's difficult to resist! And if you're the host, you'll have left-overs to tempt you for perhaps weeks ahead. We all know that the staples of Christmas baking (white flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar, butter, peanut butter, vegetable oil, etc) are not good for us. Is there a way to have some special foods this time of year without sabotaging our health at the same time? Definitely. Here are some simple ideas:

Appetizers:
Crudites! This is simply raw vegetables. Arrange sliced vegetables of a variety of colors on a beautiful platter. Broccoli, Cauliflower, Celery, and Red Bell Pepper make for a festive Christmas display. A delicious dip is the following:

Creamy Basil Brazil Nut Dip:

2 cups Brazil nuts, soaked overnight
1/8 cup lemon juice
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup water (or as needed to thin)

Add the brazil nuts (discard soaking water), lemon juice, garlic, basil, and salt to a high speed blender, adding water as needed, and blend until smooth. Adjust consistency as desired. (It will thicken once refrigerated). Serve with mixed raw vegetables.

Fresh and Dried Fruit & Nut Arrangement: This can be a beautiful tray. You may want to put the nuts and dried fruits or any especially juicing fresh fruits in smaller bowls on the tray to prevent anything from going soggy. Decorate with greenery, like fresh rosemary. Here are some ideas:

Dried fruits: cherries, white figs, medjool dates, mango, prunes

Fresh fruits: kiwi slices, apple slices (cut horizontally, so that you see the star in the middle) dipped in orange juice (to prevent browning), a small bowl of pomegranate seeds with a spoon, clementine oranges, pineapple chunks
Nuts: whole pecans walnuts, almonds, pistachios (not dyed), hazelnuts-- whatever you most enjoy.

Fruit Bowl: Pile it high with small apples, clementine oranges, baby bananas, and green pears. A centerpiece and healthy snacking all in one!

Pomegranate Punch: A beautiful ruby red festive Christmas beverage, garnished with orange and lemon sunbursts:

Pomegranate Punch
1 organic orange, unpeeled
1 organic lemon, unpeeled
1 bottle (2 liters) seltzer water, chilled
1 1/2 cups unsweetened 100% pomegranate juice
Sweetener (optional): raw honey or organic maple syrup to taste, some stevia, or a combination

Remove ends from orange and lemon and then cut four slices from each fruit. Combine seltzer, juice, and orange and lemon slices in a pretty pitcher or punch bowl.

What are those truffle-like cookies in the picture, you ask? Stay tuned... I'll tell you how to make them in an upcoming post!

10 Easy Ways to Stay Thinner and Healthier Through the Christmas Season

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Well, it's December, and we are only a couple of weeks away from Christmas!

What an exciting time of year! There's so much preparation that goes into these few weeks before Christmas, be it sending out Christmas cards, shopping for gifts, and oh, the food preparation! Cookies, fudge, candy, galore! It's kind of interesting how we spend lots of time shopping for special ingredients and making all kinds of delectable treats, and then eating with no thought to tomorrow or our long term health. Then, come January 1st, we make all kinds of new resolutions for solving the problem we created over Christmas: e.g. eating better, exercising more, etc. Is it possible to delight in some of the delicious food this season has to offer without having to make some major resolutions when we hit the new year?

I think so! Here are a few tips for participating in all the munching that goes on at Christmas parties and gatherings in the weeks ahead:

1. Drink... plenty of water! That will help to keep you from over-doing it when you get into the line for food.

2. Avoid/Limit... the SWEETS, especially made with white or brown sugar. Do what you can with less refined, more natural, sweeteners: dried fruits, honey, maple syrup, molasses, sucanat/rapadura (unrefined cane sugar). However, even these ought to be used sparingly. It's better to stick to whole foods.


3. Indulge... in lots of negative calorie foods. These are foods that require more energy (calories) to digest than they contain in themselves.

• Watch vegetable trays for: broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, cucumbers, radishes
• At a restaurant dinner, order a salad.
• For breakfast, have a grapefruit or a fruit salad of apples, mangoes, oranges, and pineapple
• Try frozen berries, especially in a green smoothie.

You'll notice all these things are high in fiber. So, whenever you can choose foods higher in fiber, you will help yourself to maintain (or help shrink) your waistline.

4. Enjoy... the natural whole food delights of the season: fresh pomegranates, oranges, apples, pears.

5. Be FESTIVE... with salads! Just another way to EAT those GREENS! Here's a recipe (more or less) for the festive salad pictured below, full of seasonal flavors:

Orange Spice Spinach Salad (all organic)
for One

Salad mix:
3 cups spinach
1 small apple, chopped
dried cherries and/or cranberries
unsulfured dried apricots, sliced
walnuts

Dressing:
1 Tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp orange zest
1/4 tsp nutmeg
salt to taste

Mix dressing ingredients together. Combine spinach and chopped apples, and toss with dressing. Arrange in bowl and top with dried fruit and nuts. *Tip: Another good addition would be clementine orange sections.

6. Create... eats and treats with coconut oil! Coconut oil helps to speed up the metabolism and aid in weight loss. You can learn all about the benefits of coconut oil at http://www.coconutresearchcenter.org/. Some of the ways I enjoy using it are the following:

• Fruit Smoothies with the addition of 1-2 Tbsp of melted coconut oil blended in.
• Coconut oil instead of olive oil on a salad.
• Steamed sweet potatoes with coconut oil (instead of butter) and sea salt, as a side dish.
• Steamed broccoli or cauliflower... "        "as a side dish.
• Organic poporn popped in coconut oil, with sea salt.
• "Mounds" candy bars from the Nourishing Gourmet or Coconut Bark-Almond Joy at Real Food Living

A good resource for recipes is Eat Fat, Lose Fat: Lose Weight and Feel Great With the Delicious, Science-based Coconut Diet, by Mary Enig and Sally Fallon.

7. Stop eating at 6:00... on most occasions.  This simple rule will help to keep you from packing on the pounds. To help conquer cravings... have some herbal tea. Licorice and Peppermint are especially nice this time of year. For something more substantial, try some rooibos tea, which is more full-bodied.

8. Spike your drink... (that is, your water) with apple cider vinegar. This can help curb cravings and also help to break down body fat. Add a couple teaspoons to your water bottle and sip throughout the day. It will help keep your blood sugar level.

9. Don't stress it... Stress messes with your hormones, which can contribute to weight gain. Remember what Christmas is really about

10. Play... that is, exercise! Go play in the snow! Make snow angels, meet friends for an afternoon of ice skating, go cross country skiing, build a snow man, go sledding, try snowshoeing, go for a hike in the woods! Join the kids for some old fashioned fun in the snow. Have FUN!!!

Fresh Food in the Off-Season

Well, Thanksgiving is over, and we are now beginning the seasons of Advent and Christmas... and for some of us, it's going to start getting COLD quickly. Hello, winter! So, during these long months of winter coming up, how does one continue to eat plenty of salads with health-promoting raw fruits and vegetables while the grocery store produce is not at its peak? Well, here are a few ideas:

• Greens are ALWAYS available, so don't think you're off the hook because the garden is buried under snow! ;)
• Try sun dried tomatoes! We dry our own in the dehydrator when we have a garden bounty, and then stick them in the freezer. As you can see, they keep their lovely red color too! If you buy some at the grocery store and they are super hard, try pouring some hot water over them and letting them soak until softened. They are an excellent topping for a salad.
• Frozen peas... Pour hot water over them and let them sit a couple of minutes until thawed. You don't even have to turn on the stove! Add to a salad, or serve on the side. Talk about FAST FOOD!
• Root vegetables are in season! Get some carrots or try beets! Try slicing them thinly or grating them to add to salads.
• Broccoli and Cauliflower: raw on your salad, or try lightly steaming them and then adding some coconut oil and a sprinkle of sea salt. It seriously tastes like butter, but dairy-free and with all the health benefits of coconut oil. An excellent side dish too.
• Grow your own sprouts: I like sprouted lentils and adzuki beans. Alfalfa sprouts and mung bean sprouts are easy to find ready to go at the grocery store. Just rinse them first to avoid the possibility of mold contamination.
• Seasonal fruits: Experiment with chopped apples or pears, pomegranate seeds, grapes, kiwis, or citrus fruits. Chopped dried fruits are a nice addition too. Ever tried dried peaches or pineapple?

How do you get raw food in your diet in the winter? What are your favorite salad toppings?

Deuteronomy 8 Thanksgiving Salad

Happy Thanksgiving! Okay, so it's a couple days late, but surely some of you out there are still eating leftover turkey and cranberries! ;) In the spirit of feasting... I thought I'd share a rather special salad with you, a salad with a story to tell about that for which I have the most to be thankful.

I actually came up with this salad combination a week or so ago, just because it seemed to be a good combination of flavors to complement the fresh pomegranate I had. But at our Thanksgiving service Wednesday evening, I was inspired by the meaning behind this combination...

You see, this is the Old Testament text that was read:

Deuteronomy 8:1-10 (NIV)

Do Not Forget the LORD

1 Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the LORD promised on oath to your forefathers. 2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.
6 Observe the commands of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and revering him. 7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; 8 a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; 9 a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.
10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.

This text really struck a chord with me. After all, It's been since 2006 that I've been dealing with these health issues... sort of wandering around in the wilderness of conventional treatments and natural health... unsure where to turn for healing. At times I was literally starving to death as my body rejected food. However, all along God has continued to take care of me, keeping me fed, clothed, and sheltered. At least for me it's only been about 4 years, rather than 40. Now I am on a raw vegan diet (eating lots of things like figs and pomegranates and grapes), and under the care of a doctor who is a descendent of Israelites. I think that's pretty neat. This diet seems to be the best to keep me healthy, and I'm so thankful to finally have some answers, and to be on the right road to health.

So anyway.... back to the salad. It occurred to me while listening to the OT reading, that I had pretty much made a salad out of the foods that were listed there-- at least the ones I can eat. Since I can't have wheat, barley, or honey due to food sensitivities, those were out. However, if you were to include the wheat and/or barley in the form of croutons, you would have a salad that tells quite a story. Here's the (more or less) recipe, and then I'll explain:

Deuteronomy 8 Thanksgiving Salad

Salad ingredients:

Mixed baby greens/spring herb mix

dried figs, sliced lengthwise

fresh pomegranate seeds from about 1/2 pomegranate

red grapes, sliced lengthwise

wheat/barley bread croutons

Dressing ingredients:

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp Herbes de Provence

honey to taste

sea salt to taste

First, mix the dressing ingredients and adjust to taste. Then, mix the salad ingredients (minus the croutons) together in a bowl other than the serving bowl, reserving a small amount of each to arrange on top of the finished salad. Toss the salad ingredients with the dressing to coat. Empty mixed salad into a pretty serving bowl. Arrange the reserved ingredients artistically on top, now including the croutons. Serve, and reflect on the following:

The FIGS remind us of the Garden of Eden: the beautiful world God created, and all his creatures. God created man in his own image, both male and female: Adam & Eve. Mankind fell into sin by disobeying God, and covered their nakedness with fig leaves.

The WHEAT reminds us of Bethlehem, the Hebrew "house of bread." There, God sent His Only Son into the world as a tiny baby to live a perfect life and suffer the consequences of man's sin by dying a terrible and cursed death on the Cross. We are also reminded that Christ is the Bread of Life, and that He gives His Body to us in the form of Bread in Holy Communion.

The BARLEY reminds us of the five barley loaves (John 6) given to feed the 5,000. It reminds us that God provides for our daily needs: "Give us this day our daily bread."

The OLIVE oil reminds us of the Garden of Gethsemene on the Mount of Olives, where Jesus was delivered into the hands of those who would nail Him to the Cross.

The POMEGRANATE has traditionally been a symbol of the resurrection. It reminds us not only that Christ rose from the dead, showing us that His death was indeed accepted by God the Father as the full payment for our sins, but also that we too shall rise, and live forever in heaven if our faith and trust are in Christ.

The HONEY reminds us of God's promises: He has given us His Holy Word, especially the Gospel, which is "sweeter than honey" (Psalm 19, 119; Ezekiel 3, Rev. 10) and has promised to ultimately bring us to "a land flowing with milk and honey" in Heaven.

The GRAPES (fruit of the vine) reminds us of the Feast in Heaven and the way in which Christ is now present with us in the Wine of Holy Communion.

The Story of Salvation. Now THAT's something to be Thankful for! Thanks be to God for sending Christ to pay our debt and invite us to the greatest Thanksgiving Feast of all in Heaven!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Conventional Wisdom on Organic Food

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Thanksgiving is almost upon us! Since food is a major focus of the week, I thought I'd share some thoughts on eating organically. There are many reasons to consume organically grown food. From what I've read, the main reasons can fit into these categories:

1. Better for your health

2. Better for the environment

3. Better flavor

4. Supportive of small family-owned businesses

Those are reason enough for me! If you'd like the details on those tenets, I commend to you the articles listed at the end of this post.

How do you make sure you are picking the right produce? The PLU# can be quite helpful:

• Conventionally grown produce has a four digit PLU, generally beginning with a 4.
• ORGANICALLY grown produce has a five digit PLU, beginning with a 9.
• Genetically modified produce (GMOs) has a five digit PLU, beginning with an 8.

So...

• First Choice = 9_ _ _ _
• Second Choice = 4_ _ _
• Don't eat 8_ _ _ _!!!

Is it necessary to buy organic 100% of the time? Well... it would be IDEAL. But---Sometimes it's just impossible to get certain items organic, and one must either forego the item or simply buy conventional. Sometimes one might also like to save a few $$$ on food items less likely to have a high pesticide residue. In these cases, it's nice to know which things in the produce department one can get by with buying conventional.

Fortunately, the Environmental Working Group has put together a list of fruits and vegetables they tested for pesticide residues and ranked 47 different foods according to the pesticide levels found. The "Dirty Dozen" --the ones to always buy organic-- are the following:

1. (worst) peaches
2. apples
3. sweet bell peppers
4. celery
5. nectarines
6. strawberries
7. cherries
8. kale
9. lettuce
10. grapes --imported
11. carrots
12. pears

The "Clean Fifteen," as they call them, are the following:

1. (best) onions
2. avocados
3. sweet corn
4. pineapple
5. mango
6. asparagus
7. sweet peas
8. kiwi
9. cabbage
10. eggplant
11. papaya
12. watermelon
13. broccoli
14. tomato
15. sweet potato

You can see the full list here, or download a free shopper's guide for your wallet or iphone. You can even donate to the EWG and receive a magnet reminder for your refrigerator.
HOWEVER... keep in mind the following:

• most corn is genetically modified to produce some of its own "natural" pesticide or herbicides, and you NEVER want to consume GMOs (genetically-modified organisms) if you can help it. We don't even know the long-term implications of such a practice. (Check the PLU). Corn is really not a highly recommended vegetable/grain anyway. And even the "clean" organic version is easily cross-contaminated by GMO varieties. I'd limit your corn intake to some occasional organic popcorn.
• Imported pineapple is one to look out for, as it can be heavily sprayed, and/or gassed to ripen.
• Papaya from Hawaii is usually genetically modified. (Check the PLU)
• Tomatoes can be GMOs (Check the PLU) and are often gassed to ripen them.

I didn't even mention buying organically raised, grass-fed meats, raw (unpasteurized, unhomogenized) grass-fed dairy, and eggs from free-range chickens. That is a GIVEN if you eat animal foods. Since I'm on a raw vegan diet, and have begun to see the advantages of eating this way, I have focused on fruits and vegetables. Whole grains, mushrooms, nuts & seeds, etc. would follow the same rules. Always buy organic whenever possible to minimize your intake of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, etc., and ALWAYS buy whole foods; NEVER processed devitalized foods. The closer to the way God gave us these foods in nature, the better.

SO... Why Buy Organic??? Here are some resources for you:
Top Six Reasons to Eat Only Organic Fruits and Vegetables
Organic Foods Provide More than Health Benefits
Buying Organic is Well Worth the Cost even When Times are Tough

I'll include one more in the next post...

It's Easy... Eating Greens

"Ewwwwwww! GREEN stuff!" Why do people (okay, mostly children) tend to respond this way to God's most nutritious gastronomic gifts? I mean, it's not like you have to sit down to a plate of plain, dry spinach, and eat it a leaf at a time. And although a good parent will insist on children eating their green vegetables, I can't say that I see a lot of adults craving collard greens over coffee break or slurping a spinach green smoothie as a Saturday afternoon snack. Let's face it: we all need some encouragement and inspiration to get our daily dish of greens.

Getting your daily ration of green leafy vegetables does not necessarily mean subsisting on "rabbit food," munching on plain salads three meals a day, although I am a big fan of salads. There are all kinds of options-- delicious too!

• Green Smoothies: A great start for the day! Green Smoothies are an excellent and satisfying breakfast. See an earlier post devoted entirely to the subject of Green Smoothies: how to make them, and their health benefits.
• Salads: Think they're boring? The possibilities are endless!!!! ~Time to get CREATIVE!!!

Here are some ideas for adding variety to your salads:

1. A Variety of Greens: mixed baby greens, romaine lettuce, green leaf lettuce, red leaf lettuce, arugula, swiss chard, bok choy, mache, endive, escarole, collard greens, curly kale, dinosaur kale, purple kale, spinach, foraged greens... whatever you can get your hands on! Really try to buy organic greens. They are lower in, if not devoid of, pesticides and other toxins, and higher in nutrients. You get more "bang for your buck."
2. Vegetables of all Kinds: carrots (shredded, coins, matchsticks, etc), beets, broccoli, cauliflower, radish, zucchini or yellow summer squash (use a vegetable peeler or even a large-holed cheese grater to make noodles!), onions (white, red, yellow, scallions, chives, shallots, leeks), garlic, asparagus, celery, green peas, roasted butternut squash... whatever is available and delicious!
3. Vegetable-like Fruits: tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, avocados.
4. Fresh Fruits: apples, pears, plums, peaches, berries, kiwis, oranges, pomegranate seeds, star fruit, persimmons... whatever is ripe and in season!
5. Dried Fruits: dried pineapple, dates, dried figs, dried apricots, craisins,
   raisins, dried peaches, prunes, dried mango, dessicated coconut... whatever you can find that isn't sweetened with sugar or fructose, and that is unsulfured.
6. Mushrooms of all Kinds: lightly sauteed in olive oil or marinaded.
7. Sprouts of all Kinds: Try bean sprouts (lentil sprouts, chickpea sprouts,
   adzuki bean sprouts, mung bean sprouts), seed sprouts (sunflower
   seeds, clover, broccoli seed, radish seed), or grain-like seed sprouts (buckwheat, quinoa). That's only a small sampling of what's available. Learn more, including how to grow your own sprouts, at http://www.sproutpeople.com/.
8. Herbs: "parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme"... or cilantro, basil, oregano
9. Nuts and Seeds: especially soaked and sprouted and then dried in the dehydrator to make them nice and crispy. See the "how-to" here: Crispy Nuts. Try almonds, walnuts, cashews, pecans, macadamia nuts, brazil nuts, hazelnuts, pistachios, pine nuts, sunflower seeds, or ground flax seed.
10. Dressings: try different combinations of oils (olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil), vinegars (balsamic, red wine, white wine, apple cider, raspberry, herb), citrus juices (lemon, orange, grapefruit), blended avocado, soaked and blended nuts, tahini, and other additions such as herbs, chopped shallots, and citrus zest. (Celtic sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste).
11. Other Interesting Additions: Dehydrated sweet potato or beet "chips," a dollop of guacamole, hummus, pesto, or fresh salsa.

• Green Leaf Wraps: Use cabbage (green or red) leaves, collard leaves, or butter lettuce leaves for excellent "low-carb," gluten-free, grain-free wraps! Fill as you would any wrap, maybe some tomato, avocado, sprouts, yellow peppers, cucumbers, and fresh basil!
• Steamed Greens: Kale, collard greens, chard, bok choy, spinach, cabbage, beet greens, turnip greens, mustard greens... even broccoli and their greens. Add a drizzle of olive oil or coconut oil, plus salt and pepper to taste.
• Egg Dishes: If you eat eggs, try adding greens to scrambled eggs, quiches, or omelets. Spinach, chard, mache, broccoli, parsley, basil, and rosemary are excellent additions. Sauteed greens alongside poached eggs are an elegant pairing.

SEE??? It's Easy... Eating your Greens!

It's November!

Photo Credit

Let the feasting begin!

 ...And look out for all those rich foods and junk foods coming your way!

It seems as though the trick-or-treat candy of Halloween marks the beginning of a season full of candies, rich foods, and baked goods. The fresh produce of summer and harvest time seems to fade into oblivion while rich meats and sugary treats take center stage. And it takes a toll on our health and well-being too. I do rather wonder if there's any connection between the increase in colds and flu as winter approaches and the increase in these less than ideal culinary indulgences...?

Here are a few ideas for HEALTHY SWAPS this upcoming holiday season:

Instead of: heavy, fattening stuffing or dressing...

Why not try: a lovely wild rice pilaf? (onions, pecans, parsley, dried apricots?) You can even add the additions after cooking the wild rice on its own. OR... you can sprout the wild rice and create an all raw dish!

 Instead of: adding butter and brown sugar to steamed squash...

Why not try: coconut oil (which aids in weight loss) and raw honey or organic maple syrup, plus some spices like cinnamon (stablizes blood sugar) and nutmeg?

Instead of: a creamed vegetable side dish...

Why not try: a crisp salad of romaine lettuce, fresh pears and/or apples, raw nuts, and dried cranberries, with a homemade vinaigrette?

Instead of: coffee with cream and sugar...

Why not try: caffeine-free rooibos (red) tea with coconut milk and organic maple syrup?

 Instead of: gooey sugary caramels...

Why not try: naturally sweet and chewy Medjool dates?

Instead of: the traditional baked apple pie...

Why not try: a raw version with nuts and fresh fruit?

What kind of healthy food options do you have in mind for these upcoming weeks as we approach Thanksgiving?

Pear, Walnut, and Sprout Green Salad

I had this delicious salad the other day, and just thought I'd share it with you. This salad features collard greens, which I think are not commonly thought of as a raw salad green. Collard leaves look like large flat fans. Their leaves have a bit of a waxy feel to them. The best way to make them into a raw salad is to cut out their stems, stack them up, roll them up, and use a chef's knife to cut across the roll, making 1/2-inch (or so) long ribbons! Then, put into a medium bowl with sea salt and an oil and vinegar dressing, and massage with your hands. That helps to break down the fibers to give the collards more of the feel of cooked greens. Arrange artistically in a salad bowl or plate. Then, top with remaining ingredients.

Here's the recipe (serves one hungry person for a main dish):

4 collard leaves

1/2 red bartlett pear

1/2 cup of lentil sprouts (or other sprouts)

1/4 cup of apple juice-sweetened dried cranberries

1/4 cup of raw walnuts

sea salt to taste

Dressing: I used a recipe from The Body Ecology diet. Basically, you could make one of apple cider vinegar, olive oil, and mustard. Follow directions as given above.

This is an excellent salad for fall... featuring many fall crops: pears, cranberries, walnuts. The lentil sprouts are another story-- perhaps another post. Sprouts are a great way to make it through the winter without the wide variety of produce. The are super-high in Vitamin C, B-vitamins, and.... well, I'll save that for another post. :)

Here's the salad 3/4 of the way through. Plan a good amount of time to eat... there's a lot of chewing involved! Bon Appetit!

Autumn Apple GREEN Smoothie

Photo Credit

So, I'm on this salad and green smoothie diet for another six weeks or so: Green smoothie for breakfast, salad for lunch, green smoothie for dinner. So far, I've been doing this for about a month and have therefore consumed 66 GREEN SMOOTHIES!!! If I'm going to pull this off for another 6 weeks, it's definitely time to get creative!

Today was a rather blustery, chilly, fall day here in northern Minnesota. On a day such as this, one craves something like spiced apple cider. But-- green smoothies are the thing right now. Besides, green smoothies are cleansing, revitalizing, and promote excellent health and energy. ~A wonderful way to get more GREENS in one's diet.

Here's a delicious way to get more GREENS in YOUR diet!

Spiced Apple Green Smoothie

8 oz (or so) of apple juice
1/2 a frozen pear (fresh works too)
a big handful of red leaf lettuce or mixed baby greens
1 tsp vanilla
Cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg to taste

If you're using a pear out of the freezer, let it sit in the blender with the apple juice to thaw it a bit. Add the greens and spices and blend. Add the spices to taste and blend until smoothie. Pour into a glass, sprinkle some nutmeg on top, and enjoy!

A Delicious Early Fall Snack: FIGS!

Ever tried a fresh fig? I hadn't until just a couple months ago. Wow... what a great experience! Go find some while it's still FIG SEASON! :) It's almost over!

Figs have been part of the culinary scene for a very long time. We can be sure they were a frequent treat in the Garden of Eden, as the noted presence of their leaves (Genesis 3:7) makes quite likely. They can be used in all kinds of different ways... in salads, as a sauce, on a pizza, in ice cream... I like them best like this:


Doesn't it look delicious?! YUM.

There are a few different kinds of figs that are usually available in our grocery stores (if you, like me, do not live in "fig country"). The kind pictured is called a Brown Turkey fig. Other common varieties are the dark-colored Black Mission, and greenish hued Kadota, Calimyrna, and Adriatic. Each has its own unique flavor, some sweeter, others less so.

According to the World's Healthiest Foods website, figs are a good source of:

• Antioxidants
• Dietary fiber
• Calcium
• Potassium
• Manganese
• Their leaves have also been used to treat diabetes, cancer, and conditions of high triglycerides.

Their season is June through early October... so get some while you can! (If you do miss out though, dried figs are also delicious).
Here are some ways to use fresh and dried figs:

• Fresh Fig and Rose Smoothie: http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2008/07/fresh_fig_and_rose_smoothie.php (Add some red lettuce to make it more nutritious, without spoiling the color with greens)
• Fruit Salad of fresh figs, grapes, and kiwi
• A HUGE salad of leafy greens (mixed spring greens or fresh herb salad) + grapefruit sections + dried figs (cut in halves or quarters) + pecans + dressing of olive oil, grapefruit juice, honey, sea salt
• Add dried figs to your favorite homemade granola recipe
• Stir dried figs into your breakfast porridge
• Eat a fresh fig like an apple and savor the flavor...
• Take a dried fig in one hand and some good organic dark chocolate in the other. Nibble some fig, then chocolate, then fig, then chocolate. Get more figs and chocolate. Continue. ;)

How about you? Have you had fresh or dried figs? How do you most enjoy them? Any ideas or recipes to share?

"Go Green"... with Green Smoothies

Photo Credit

Just about everyone knows they *should* include more green leafy vegetables in their diet. However, those are just the foods at which children tend to turn up their little noses. It took Popeye the Sailor Man half a century ago, to encourage the eating of spinach. After all, he knew it would help build strong muscles and give him lots of energy. It's true! (Although canned spinach hardly compares to fresh, raw greens). Green leafy vegetables, including spinach, chard, kale, collard greens, mustard greens and the like are full of important nutrients:

• Vitamin C
• Vitamins A, D, E, and K
• Fiber
• Cancer-fighting compounds
• Vitamin K, Calcium, and Magnesium, which help strengthen bones
• Heart-protective nutrients
• Anti-inflammatory agents
• Protective nutrients for eyesight
• Vitamins to improve cognitive function
• Iron for energy
• B Vitamins for energy and the ability to deal with stress
• Manganese to help balance blood sugar, activate enzymes, and improve thyroid function
• Trace minerals, which most Americans seem to be deficient in these days

These a truly "super-foods!" With all those benefits available to us, why should we skimp on our greens?!

Okay. So, not everyone likes to eat salads three times a day. Especially not for breakfast. And those green leafies are a lot of fiber and can take FOREVER to eat properly (chewing *at least* 30 times per mouthful until you have created a watery "bolus," but that's another discussion). So, how can we make sure to get our greens--reducing them to a pulverized state so our bodies can digest them well-- without taking an hour or two for each meal?

Ann Wigmore (1909-1994) was co-founder of the Hippocrates Health Institute and the author of several books on "living foods." She was both a holistic health practitioner and a nutritionist, and a strong advocate of a diet that consists of only whole, raw, "living" foods. To include more greens in a form that is easier on the digestive system, she pioneered the blending of greens into raw "soups," which were then served at the Hippocrates Institute to those who were working to overcome serious illness.

Green Smoothies were made popular by a woman named Victoria Boutenko, a Russian woman who came to America with her husband and two children in the 1990s. She was invited to teach about Russia at community college in Denver. When she and her family first arrived, they were thrilled with the new variety of "foods" sold in American grocery stores... things that were convenient and didn't take much time or effort to make, i.e. our great variety of processed foods. After consuming American processed foods from grocery stores and fast food restaurants nearly exclusively, all four of the Boutenkos became very ill. The father had rhumatoid arthritis, the mother was obese, the son had juvenile diabetes, the daughter had athesma. After a lot of research and networking, they stumbled onto the raw food vegan way of eating. Gradually, their health problems went away, and they regained vibrant health. As a part of this new way of eating, Victoria struggled to get more greens into her family's diet, in a way that was palatable and more exciting than simply eating salads all the time. The answer? Green Smoothies! She even wrote a book about the benefits of including daily green smoothies as a part of a healthy diet: Green For Life.

Green smoothies, as mentioned in a previous post, are simply delicious fruit smoothies with a handful or two of leafy green goodness blended right in! Some basic guidelines follow:

• Fruit or berry base (frozen berries, fresh or frozen bananas, other fruit or combinations: pears, oranges, pineapple, coconut flesh, apple, etc)
• liquid to thicken (water, coconut water, coconut milk, juice, low-or non-caffeinated tea)
• sweetener (soaked dried fruit like dates, raw honey, stevia)
• greens (spinach, kale, collards, arugula, chard, mustard greens, dandelion greens, foraged greens, parsley, cilantro)
• optional additional herbs/spices/flavorings: mint, basil, coconut oil, vanilla, almond extract, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, etc)

Challenge for the week:

Using the guidelines above, experiment on your own. If you come up with a particularly delicious recipe you'd like to share, post it below!

For more information:

http://www.rawfamily.com/

http://www.greenforlife.com/

http://www.whfoods.com/

The Truth About Your Food

While I'm on the topic of the Ecopolitan, I should mention there are some excellent resources on the website that you can access to learn more about health and nutrition.

#1. Dr. T in 3 videos. These are videos on various topics related to health and nutrition covered by Dr. Tel-Oren in 3 minutes. They are a great intro-- especially if you have little time to spare.

http://www.ecopolitan.com/dr-t-3

#2. "Should We Cook Our Food?" lecture. Self explanatory.

http://www.ecopolitan.com/healthyfood/the-restaurant/125-should-we-cook-our-food

#3. "The Truth About Your Food " lecture series. Six 2-hour lectures on these topics: Processed Food, Protein, Fat, Sugar, The Foods You Should Eat, and Supplements. These are EXCELLENT. They definitely warrant listening to a second, third, or fourth time. Some of the information given may surprise, shaken, or shock you!

http://www.ecopolitan.com/truth-about-your-food-lectures or

http://www.thetruthaboutyourfood.com/

Happy learning!

The Ecopolitan + Green Smoothie Recipe

Hi everyone! Just thought I'd let you know what's occupying my time lately. Since I got back from foraging, I have been staying at the Ecopolitan restaurant in the Twin Cities, where I am receiving treatment from the doctor who owns it, Dr. Adiel Tel-Oren. He is an M.D., a retired chiropractor, a nutritionist, and a professor at the University of Natural Medicine in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with a number of other degrees and certifications. If you're wondering about his name... it is Israeli. He also has clinics in Israel, Italy, and California-- He gets around!

So, while I have been here, I have been receiving various therapies and eating 3 meals a day at the Ecopolitan organic, vegan, raw food restaurant. You can read more about it here: http://www.ecopolitan.com/healthyfood/the-restaurant/129-healthy-restaurant-gold-standards Since I'm in the recovery process, my choices are limited to green smoothies and salads, but they are incredibly good! Since I also have discovered I have a number of food sensitivities (46, in fact), I can't really order straight off the menu. So, I get to do the "Custom Salad" and "Custom Smoothie." My smoothies are always Green Smoothies.

What is a Green Smoothie, you ask? Well, basicly, it's just a fruit smoothie with a handful or two of leafy greens. Options include kale, arugula, spinach, lettuce, parsley, cilantro, mustard greens... really whatever you have. Freshly foraged greens are even better! Frozen fruit helps make the smoothie cool and refreshing-- a good reason for picking berries in the summer and freezing them for fresh tasting smoothies through the winter months ahead. Here's an especially delicious smoothie I had the other day:

Frosty Kiwi-Pear-Cilantro Green Smoothie:

2 frozen pears

2 fresh kiwis

1 handful (or 2 if you're brave!) fresh cilantro

Blend, add water to thin if necessary, and enjoy!