Raw Culinary Wisdom

I know quite a eye catching headline but it is true! My one steadfast rule to eat by is ‘NOTHING IN A PACKAGE’

This innocent looking packet that promised to be an:” electrolyte replacement with amino acids, anti-oxidants, B-complex, AND complete multivitamin & mineral supplement all in a energy formula that is berry flavored was the culprit that had me in the emergency room thinking I was having a heart attack!!!

This all looks like great stuff from the front of the packet!  The little word “energy” was the culprit that should of tipped me off. The back of the packet lists all the ingredients and as you can see it needs a magnifying lens to read it. Even with my 20/20 vision I was challenged to decipher the fine print. I got this packet from a visit to my naturopathic doctor after discussing my annual blood test she said my electrolytes might be down from taking a far-infrared sauna nightly so she handed me this packet to try. She got it from a recent doctor’s conference as samples. Sounds innocent enough and after quickly scanning the packet I poured it into water and was drinking it as I was preparing and assembling materials for a raw foods class I was teaching. The first sip was strange and I choose to ignore the signal or intuition to not finish it. I was loading boxes into the car and came back in rationalizing that I would need the hydration for teaching so I finished it off.

I had a fabulous class and was feeling great but a little buzzy then I asked my friend to take my pulse as it seemed off and racy. She took it and told me to sit down immediately and to take deep breaths to calm down as I was waaaaay too rapid and needed to ground. I went home and the racy feeling continued and pressure started to build in my chest area where it had the sensation of an elephant was sitting on my chest and I could not get a full breath in. That’s when I remembered the same expression was used to describe a heart attack was severe pressure on your chest. HOW ABSURRED! I CAN’T BE HAVING A HEART ATTACK, but why can’t I breathe??? I went through and recounted what happened that day and thought about the little packet and got the magnifying glass and re-read the ingredients and discovered (Guarana Seed Extract 22% caffine) 50 mg. buried in the extra Herbal Blend section at the very bottom.  I wish I took the time to research this first then I would discover this warning from Livestrong.com

“The caffeine contained in guarana seed may cause an irregular heartbeat in susceptible people, reports the pharmaceutical information website Drugs.com. This side effect may be serious, especially if you have an underlying heart condition or an overactive thyroid gland.”

Wait ….22% caffeine!!!! I take O% caffeine.  So, I had the cause but what to do about my pressure on my chest that kept worsening to to point of not being able to have a conversation!  I really felt going to the hospital was the best option and still feel it was the smart and safest way to handle the sensations I was having.

Once admitted I was totally under the western medical protocol of having an EKG and Heart x-ray, blood test,  aspirin, nitroglycerin and was even offered morphine a few times. Needless to say I was out of my “green living world”  I took the nitro tablets and after the second one I felt MUCH better and was able to take a full breath without the pressure on my chest preventing me from full lung expansion. The blood test was to determine if a certain enzyme was being released into the blood system that would indicate cell damage to the heart muscle. This test needed to be repeated every six hours for three times to rule out a heart attack. So they could not allow me to leave until all three test were preformed even though the first test came back zero damage this is just standard hospital procedure. That meant I was spending the night, because if I was released and went home and had a heart attack then they could be held liable explained the doctor from India that does not have a practice but only works in hospitals to get more experience.

Some of the highlights of my stay was the nurse that checked me into my room said I make her night when she asked about my diet and I said raw vegan. She said she has never ever been able to check excellent in her whole career of nursing as most people end up in the hospital with some degree of diet issues. Then she started apologizing profusely about not being able to offer ANY suitable food as the meals were horrible. I told her not to worry that my husband would bring me a smoothie in the morning and I would be fine with lots of water till then as I really needed to hydrate after the nitro to prevent headaches.

The doctor that did the stress cardiac test the next day exclaimed “What are you doing here your heart is in excellent shape, go out and climb Kilimanjaro and enjoy yourself”  He also spoke about the 20 year old kids that he witnessed that die of heart attacks by taking the super caffeinated drinks like Red Bull and others.

I was instructed to stay away from Guarana Seed root and I assured him that this would not be a mistake I would make again!

I was released with a clean bill of health and went back that afternoon to bring some homemade raw “goodies” to the nursing staff for their care and kindness.

Lesson learned “obey my own rules” NOTHING IN A PACKAGE ….or suffer the consequences.

It can be an easy rule  to break  as miso, vitamin D, almond butter all come in packages. However 95% of my shopping  takes place in the PRODUCE AND BULK section of the store.  The intent behind the rule is to eat things that look like they do in nature. For instance there are no spaghetti trees in nature to produce dried stiff sticks that soften when placed in boiling water!  Even “sprouted” bread is not found in nature so I just weaned myself off the need for the stuff. That dosen’t mean I didn’t once LOVE the pleasure associated with eating it. But I let the knowledge of what it actually is to go deeper and deeper by continually researching about gluten and all the effects on the cells in our bodies to be stronger than the desire to eat it.

My supplements are getting more simple, such as digestive enzymes and Vitamin D and Vitamin B12 once a week.

I hope this helps you read more carefully what you are taking and question everything that goes into your mouth!

Now I am off to climb Kilimanjaro next week… Doctor’s orders of course!

When I found myself making faces and coughing after tasting olive oil at the local farmer’s market something triggered that this was an important moment. I had always experienced olive oil as mild, bland and more of a background taste. But this stuff was like tasting bitter grass and was vibrant green with a scratching feeling in the back of my throat!! I noticed all the medals and read the label as “Primo” so I got curious instead of walking away.  It seems the Primo brand was the most potent for polyphenols and as no big surprise it is an aquired taste. Others like the ‘Classico” or the “Mission” were milder but I could not let the memory of that sharp pungent taste out of my mind, so I took some home to get to know it better. It was pesto time and I found myself reaching for this bottle to put it on everything even though it was a pricey $20.00 a bottle. The other olive oils in my pantry were just so dead and almost toxic tasting next to this super green wonder and I found myself going back for 6 more bottles the next week. It had me hooked sort of like my first taste of wheat grass juice, not pleasant but I knew it had something powerful to tell me.

I spoke with the owners Roselind and Robert and asked if they ever gave private tastings so I could try it out on the other raw foodies and get their opinion and they said sure, even though they lived more than an hour away.

So we got a date and time and sent out the word that a new olive was coming to town and we could all come and check it out. Armed with just cut up veggies we began our evening of exploration.

We learned that official judges actually look forward to that itchy back of the throat cough as a sign of fabulous olives. It is sort of a inside joke of “did you taste that 4 cough oil over there” etc.

These olive trees were sort of a retirement project for the couple and after a few outstanding harvests and award collections they decided to  put their oils in a world wide competition including of course the best that Italy has to offer along with about 800 other competitors and this Sierra d Oro came in the top 15 with no other U.S. companies getting even close. So what were the judges looking for? We got to try several oils by sipping a tiny amount and inhaling sharply with your teeth together through your mouth to experience the full body and slowly let it trickle to the back of our throats. The milder oils were good just like you would expect from an expensive olive oil but the “Primo” grabbed your tonge and demanded you to pay attention and left you with a lingering slightly irritated scratchy throat that resulted in a spontanious cough or two.  I noticed what I can only describe as a very high vibration that seemed to come from the center of the earth. Yeah, that is a bit airy fairy for most people so I watched the others taste and see what they decided to buy. Yep, the Primo won as the one  others wanted more of as well.

"The Tasting Room"

In the mean time, I put the oil to a culinary test to see if it could stand up to a three ingredient salad. I went for the kale for it’s bitterness and nutient density, and added a yellow onion that I thinly sliced and then added two pears fresh from my tree. After a thin “chiffonade” of the kale and matchstick cut of the pears it was ready to be dressed. I chose the high octane “Primo” oil and had lots of fun exploring all the different balsamics to go with it.

My choices were regular balsamic, Peach, Blueberry, Fig,  Cinnamon Pear, Pomegranate, Mandarine and Dark Chocolate.  Well I went with the most obvious and the one  recommended by Roselind the Cinnamon Pear balsamic and just sprinkled it  liberally with the Primo olive oil and tossed the kale, onion and pear mixture. I did use some sea salt to help massage the kale to breakdown the cell structure and make it easier to digest. The salad was passed and the bowl got  quickly emptied and the best part of the evening was two people in the room never tried kale and was totally taken in by it’s charms and decided to go buy some and make it again!! Yeah, I love kale convert stories.

Some other things we discovered was never fill your almost empty bottle with fresh oil as the oil that is exposed to the sides of the glass gets oxidized and will quickly spoil the rest of the fresh oil.

Also, it takes less than an hour in the sun for fabulous oil to go rancid, imagine what that means when you put it in a hot pan!!  The best solution is to saute with a small amount of water then finish with olive oil before serving. Best yet, and my favorite, is to just put the oil on raw veggies and have no heat at all.

The high polyphenols were studied and found to block the action of enzymes that cancer needs for growth  along with other abnormal cell growth. The more bitter and greener the higher the polyphenols!

If you put a raw garlic in olive oil WATCH OUT as that is a recipe for botulism due to water getting in the oil. You must use totally dehydrated garlic to have a garlic flavored oil.

The best place to store olive oil is in a dark colored bottle in a place that is room temperature. Not in the fridge, because of the condensation from taking it in and out and that water droplets spoiling the oil.

The stuff that is sold in clear bottles in the grocery store is already rancid due to the light exposure.

There is NO labeling laws in the U.S. to make sure that Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil is in fact that. Often other oils such as safflower or grape-seed oil is either mixed in or used entirely. There is an industry joke that safflower oil in tankard trucks leaves Turkey and turns into olive oil when it crosses the Italian border and becomes organic extra virgin olive oil by the time it reaches the United States.

The ranking of olive oil has the rancid stuff sold simply as olive oil and the next step up of nasty stuff sold as Virgin olive oil!!

The hazards of eating damaged oil is that it is a toxin and the liver has to work double to try and eliminate it from your system often causing thyroid challenges and other complications. We think we are eating the “Mediterranean” diet and being so healthy and alas, the fake olive oil is killing us just like you were eating fried foods!!

Never, ever buy olive oil that is stored in plastic containers as the oil pulls all the petroleum from the plastic and you end up eating the plastic!!

Even the best olive oil needs to be used within six months and bought fresh again. Throw out those sale bottles lingering in the back of your pantry!

If your olive oil tastes like “bacon” it is because it is full of flies, the olive fly is crushed along with the olives and taints the flavor.

Some companies use solvent to “clean” up the bad tasting olive oil, however, now you are eating the very toxic solvent with the oil.

If you want to clean your cruet or bottle out the best grease cutter is Dawn dish washing liquid and make sure it is air dried overnight before refilling.

Olives need to be crushed right away to make the best oil and some companies will let trucks sit overnight and let the bruised olives get oxidized. At Sierra d Oro they are able to get the olives crushed within two hours and use a special fancy crushing machine that keeps the olives in a vacuum so it is not oxidizing as it is being crushed.

The best method of picking is with buckets and climbing the tree to hand pick not beating and letting the olives fall and get bruised or worst yet with machinery.

If you want to know how to get some of this amazing good high vibrating oil check out the website www.sierradoro.com and tell them Eva says hi. I don’t make a dime from this oil, I just love the stuff!! It is a great holiday gift that everyone uses but now you can give them a bottle of “medicine” disguised as salad dressing!!

McGee Canyon in Mammoth,CA on a perfect Fall Day Calling to be Explored by Foot

O.K. so the setting could not be better, the trees are just beginning to turn color and the temperature is cool, sunny and just cloudy enough to be interesting. We started out around mid day and had no final destination. With curiosity in our step and a  backpack full of yummy food we set out. Choices for back pack food can be pretty grim if you head to the “health” food store to make your selection. Most of the commercial bars are packed with sugar and lots of old nuts and seeds.  Did you ever stop and think that if we need to keep our nuts and seeds in the freezer or fridge to preserve their nutrients when we buy them how can these same nuts and seeds be healthy sitting in a wrapper on a store shelf for months at a time!  The wrapper might declare NO GLUTEN, VEGAN, NO SUGAR, HEALTHY etc…etc….

When I took my Plant based Nutrition class from E-Cornell we had a guest lecturer that said first off, believe NOTHING on the front of a package and then turn it over to see what the list of ingredients are to make a decision.  By law you can claim anything on the front of a label because that is considered advertising. In our busy hurried lives we look for simplicity to have someone do our research for us so we want to believe that something is healthy when it is printed in bold letters right in front of out eyes. No Sugar could actually mean it is loaded with high fructose corn syrup because it does not contain cane sugar, it is correct that it has no sugar. Naturally sweetened could also mean that it is sweetened with HFCS and several other high glycemic sweeteners. Did you know they are now sneaking in HFCS in maple syrup because they found out consumers are actually reading labels and if it goes into the maple syrup before it goes into the rest of the ingredients then they can simply state the sweetness come from maple syrup!!!  Yikes, it truly is a nightmare when you live in a world that values success in terms of monetary accumulation rather than healthy bodies. We buy favorite brands and become loyal consumers based on a logo or some fantasy version of what we want a product to be. Take oatmeal for example how many  of you still associate pure and simple Quakers with their breakfast cereal just because of branding non-organic steamed rolled and dried oat seeds as Quaker Oats.  It takes a lot of time and  effort to buy something in a package that actually has YOUR interest at heart. Once you find one thing then you will buy anything they make without the same scrutiny.

I love to check out all the raw products on the shelves with unbelievable high prices and am consistently amazed how much agave nectar is packed into anything to get it to sell. Agave nectar used to be the money maker of the raw industry because it took an average sweet tooth and gave it a different name with the same taste. They grabbed the  sugar addicts and gave it a “healthier” more natural name. I remember the conversation with a health food employee declaring he had been off sugar for three days and he was feeling great. I asked how he did it and he said “I just got a big jar of honey and agave nectar and haven’t touched white sugar it was easy.” People feel like they don’t use sugar when they put tablespoons of honey in their tea!! Honey has a very high glycemic load and it is a very potent sweetener, one that keeps wild bees alive in freezing temperatures. Honey is a medicine to me and has great medicinal qualities to heal wounds and help with seasonal allergies, but for every day use, I say give it back to the bees that have worked so hard to make it. I was talking to a long time bee keeper on the east coast and I asked him what element do the humans bring to the bees to justify stealing their food. How did the bees do before we came along?  He stumbled a bit and said no one ever asked this question they usually just ask how much his honey cost. He has to put out sugar water for them in the winter for them to survive and one time he was in Florida when a really bad storm hit and the bees did not get fed and he lost a large percentage of them and he really felt sad about that because if they had their honey they would of made it through.

The only sweetener that I have found that does us the least harm is Stevia which you can grow in a flower pot on your deck. They do manufacture a liquid version that is processed and sometimes flavored that takes the bitterness out. I have slowly moved in the the direction of seeking substances that are naturally sweet such as Sweet Mesquite, Jerusalem Artichoke and Lucuma  as a chef and will continue to evolve to using less and less processed sweeteners.Many fruits have been so hybridized that they are actually more acid due to their high sugar content and being artificially ripened.  Take a wild blueberry,  it is very small and slightly tart and compare it to a domestic blueberry and it is several times sweeter and much more plump. The wilder version of course has about three thousand more antioxidants than the domestic version which is one of the main reasons to eat them other than they also happen to  taste great.

Fall is a great time to think about our sugar addiction since from here on we encounter the onslaught of  holidays revolving  around how to cram in more and more sugar than usual into our diet.

Back to the wisdom of plants… Watching the leaves turn to gold reminds me how we are light beings that need to eat our greens to vibrate at the high frequency that gives us perfect health all the way into our golden years. We, like the

Green to Golden Light

trees need sunlight and what a better time than a  fall hike into the forest to get a face full of sunlight.  To be in nature without any electronic devices is a giant boost to our immune system as it gives us some time to be in the same rhythm as nature and some have proven that the more time in nature means less illnesses. We were never meant to live in boxes and drive around in boxes with wheels and eat out of boxes that we buy from big box stores while staring at boxes to entertain us!

The more time in nature the more time we can feel that we are a part of the whole cycle of nature to contribute to and nurture. Some have said 20 minutes of your bare feet on the earth is all it takes to become grounded and “reset” yourself into a different time zone after a flight. Why not, especially if you get to wiggle your toes into the sand or grass, how can that hurt?

Sometimes food that is in unexpected places can make it taste so much more delicious, such as a salad in the middle of the forest.

When it was time to sit and take in all the grandeur around us we had a delicious and quick and easy lunch ready to pull out of the back pack. We packed a small cold pack next to the dip but in cool weather it is not necessary.

First the dip was made with red peppers from the garden and if you have a few hot ones throw them in the blender along with the juice of a whole lemon and about a teaspoon of salt then add about a cup and a half of cashews (soaked overnight if your remembered) and blend till smooth and creamy. this is also great road food as any type of veggie can be dipped in such as carrots, celery, cauliflower, broccoli, radishes,as well as hard fruit like  apples, pears  etc.

The “MASON” salads were recently taught in our last un-cooking class as a way to keep your greens accessible and easy as a take along meal. The trick is to put the dressing on the bottom, in this case I had some Blueberry Balsamic from the Farmer’s Market and some Primo Organic  Extra Virgin Olive Oil also from the Farmer’s Market. I would of also added a pinch of sea salt and some fresh ground pepper but it was fine without them. Then the fun layers, I started with celery sliced thin, then added carrots that I used a peeler  to get long ribbons, shredded romaine lettuce packed well and then cucumbers, tomatoes and avocados to top it off.  You can certainly play with whatever is available and add cabbage, broccoli, sunflower seeds or hemp seeds and what ever is your favorite and colorful salad.

The soaked and dried almonds and silky sea palm snack are an excellent hiking or car trip staple as you get a satisfying and mineral rich crunchy slightly salty yummy taste that is totally guilt free! I normally travel with them in a glass jar but it would not fit into the back pack unless it went into a plastic bag.

The salads simply need to be turned upside down to marinate while you munch on the veggies and dip then dive in and enjoy with a easy clean up nutrient dense meal. These are so easy to make ahead of time and will keep for about three days in the fridge. My daughter was enjoying taking them on BART during her commute from Concord into Oakland and they lasted very well until lunch time when you start the marinate with the dressing by turning it upside down. Great make ahead and carry with you salad and if you pack it well you can get a LOT of veggies into that jar. The fun part is being creative and using what ever is in season, it helps keep the veggies flowing when the smoothies are getting old. Try it for your next road trip or yoga class or lunch meeting (my husband ate his in the lawyers office waiting room the other day !) They are clean and easy and just use a rubber band to hold your fork and you are ready to go. I am curious if the airlines will let this on, I might try it for my next flight and let you know.

Well, kick back enjoy the view and get outside and walk in nature and eat lots of greens, and reds, yellows, orange, and purples to keep you fit through winter!

A Perfect Meal Deserves A Perfect View!  The beaver that picked this spot as their home sure got an awesome piece of real estate! Maybe it was this view that helped the salad taste so fantastic. But you can always make up your favorite place in your minds eye and take deep breaths before and during eating to help digest and assimilate your greens!

[media-credit name="Enjoy your change of Seasons!" align="aligncenter" width="300"][/media-credit]

When I hear pesto I immediately think of the wonderful smell of basil. There are certainly a lot of different types of basil and one of them is purple so you may think this blog is about purple basil pesto.

However…

Last May at a local plant sale there was an adorable baby purple leaf plant called Shiso. I remember shiso being so important in Japan as they serve it regularly with sushi. As an herb it has some wonderful properties to help with parasites so you can see the importance of eating it with raw fish.

Well in America, we like fast food and sushi quickly became the new supermarket fast “Healthy” food and a fresh leaf just would not hold up to hours or days under fluorescent lights to stay fresh so they stuck a piece of green plastic in the container instead. You can probably guess by now I am going to tell you about the health pitfalls of sushi.  The main being the white rice that is cooked with sugar to make it really sticky, is a glycemic spike nightmare!! The fish is caught in our polluted oceans and filled with heavy metals mercury being only one of them.  A local excellent sushi chef can no longer eat fish due to the heavy metals toxic build up in his body.  Soy sauce has gluten in it and tons of salt and there is a host of issues with both of these. It is wrapped in Nori and we just know that is healthy, right?  Wild Nari in clean waters is healthy!  But, right now with the radiation levels so high I would not trust any sea vegetable around Japan. I saw lots of packaged seaweed in tons of plastic packaging at Costco and noticed how little seaweed you get for such a big bunch of plastic to deal with.  It is also covered in soy sauce or salt to make it more appalling.  Nori and Sea vegetables are great, just buy them in the least amount of packaging such as in bulk and you can eat them raw without being processed.

O.K. so I got on a rant about packaging, my new motto is “NOTHING IN A PACKAGE”  I know,” nothing”  is a little strict but you will be surprised how close you can come when you only buy produce, nuts  seeds in bulk. Bring jars or reuse your bags to buy bulk items.

Now onto the pesto ….What is Shiso and how did it choose my garden to proliferate?

Purple SHISO growing about 5 feet tall

I always pay attention to what is new and growing in my garden and these six SHISO plants certainly took up space and beauty in the garden this summer. This is what Wikipedia has to say about my new plant discovery.

O.K. so we all have our childhood favorite foods. You know the one that brings back an interior longing that you just don’t have full control of. The one that will make you forget anything bad ever happened.

Well I had a love affair with Black Raspberry Ice Cream that was made by a man we all called “old man Locke” even my Dad called him that, so he must of been ancient!  His recipe was a secret and he kept it in a safe and never even let the employees know the full recipe. His son was offered it if he agreed to go into the Ice Cream Business but he wanted to be a lawyer instead so the recipe was distroyed before Mr Locke died. True story, I just learned from my sister in New Hampshire when I was back for a visit.  We would get Ice Cream as a treat for weeding an entire field  of corn. So the thought of that divine cool burst of flavor kept us going on a hot summer day. It was not cheap and would rival the cost of any gourmet Ice Cream today but my Dad would gladly pay up the $20.00 a gallon (in the late 50′s)  in exchange for  a good crop of corn.

So I don’t have wild Black Raspberries here in California but I do have LOTS of  wild Blackberries and they will do just fine for my childhood  memory re-creation.  Now some of you will be bragging about the new and improved “Thornless” Blackberries and I did try them but although they are big and sweet, they took out some wild intense flavor with the thorns as often happens when we mess with mother nature. Plus you need the sweat and scratches to make the Ice Cream taste that much better!!

So my gift to you and all the Leos celebrating their birthdays in August is this newly released recipe. Everybody knows at least one Leo in their life as it is the most populated astrology sign. Just think that after summer comes cool weather and snuggling and nine months later their is another Leo baby. We had three Leo  babies in my family of 12 kids.

First start with

~ 3 cups of Wild Blackberry Puree.

Pick, wash, blend, and strain blackberries to get 3 cups.

On my hike I was able to get a handful and keep walking eating one at a time and just when I ran out another bush with another handful would be right there.On my way home I got so much abundance I had to use my hat to hold them all and it worked perfectly for a whole batch of Ice Cream.

So the secret to great Ice Cream often lies in the cream. Those that don’t think out side the box are stumped by what to use but conventional dairy cream which is acidic. But, the best fat and creams for our bodies come from plants!! The top three are Coconut, Avocado and Olive oil. So my pick for this use is coconut and to make it as fresh and wild as the berries I used, young Thai coconuts. “The best way to get comfortable opening a coconut is to open a case at a time” that’s what we heard in chef school as I was terrified to crack this dense intimidating structure. So after a few dozen cases it has become an easy task. the first thing to do is to get a cleaver that has a metal handle from a Asian store. They are usually about $15.00 not at all as expensive as you might think. DO NOT  get an expensive super sharp one from a knife store because you are going to hack it to pieces practicing.

~ Add the soft pulp of 3 young Thai Coconuts

Next shave down the pointed top until there is just hard shell remaining. Make a insertion into the shell between the  lines or rib on top. Holding the knife handle with one hand and  the coconut base with the other  gently drop both together and  let gravity  puncture the coconut shell with hardly any effort. It is really easy and totally safe. Once the                                                                   

coconut is punctured set it upright and keeping your hands behind the blade work open and twist off the top. This will require a few cases a coconut to get it right but will worth the practice as the inside makes fantastic coconut yogurt and kifer. I also blend and freeze the coconut in ice cube trays for smoothies and other desserts. So it is easy to use up the coconuts in your practice. Drain the water and set aside to make kifer later. (Simply put a very good pro biotic powder or vegan kifer grains into the strained liquid and keep in a warm place  till it looks cloudy usually one or two days) For yogurt mix some coconut water and pulp together with pro biotic and let set in a warm place for  the same one or two days and add fruit or vanilla and you will never go back to pasteurized store bought or any other kind of dairy again!!

Scrape the inside pulp and place in blender with the puree and other ingredients and blend till very smooth.

In the June 2006 issue of “Ceylon Medical Journal.” Penni Shelton, author of “Raw Food Cleanse,” says the fat in young coconut meat can help improve the body’s immune system and anti-inflammatory responses. Coconut has been used for many generations in a variety of medicinal ways. It kills germs, has anti-aging properties, increases metabolism and helps prevent cancer. Coconut meat contains several nutrients that support good health and prevent illnesses.Coconuts are the highest natural source of electrolytes, and they have the highest level of energy with the least amount of calories.

You can buy it on line or in Health food stores and looks like this when soaked for 4 or more hours:

Because it is in it’s natural state it needs to be rinsed repeatedly at least four times to get all the sand and bits of other matter that is not the sea vegetable. once you soak and rise it then you simply put it in the blender usually with no added water but occasionally it might need some help getting started so a bit is o.k. to use. Here it is all blended up. It should smell very mild and not at all like the smelly stuff you walk by on the beach.

Irish Moss is packed with awesome minerals and is the fail proof ingredients for raw pies and dessertsI keep a small amount in the fridge for a use in less than 10 days. The remainer of the batch gets frozen into cubes from ice cube trays and then placed in an airtight container in the freeer for use within 6 months. This is great for smoothies as a great way to enhance the gell and health factor.

~ Add  teaspoon of ground vanilla or even better to add the inside of a freshly scraped vanilla pod.

~ Add 1/2 cup of coconut nectar with a dropperful of vanilla stevia. It needs to be slightly sweeter due to the freezing making it taste less sweet.

~ A tiny pinch of Celtic sea salt and you are ready for blending and freezing!

I use the Cuisinart Ice Cream Freezer and it works great!

The freezer we used as a kid was a tall one that used chipped ice and rock salt. The latch was broken so it required someone usually the impatient youngest one to sit on top to hold it in place as an older sibling used the hand crank to get it to a soft serve consistency.

There you have it Quite Possibility The Best Ice Cream In The World…. ( I am still creating and tasting so it is not definite yet!)

Perhaps weeding an entire field of corn before consuming will improve the flavor slightly but I’ll take it as is!!!

I have returned from the east coast the land of my birth with my husband who did not know much about the New England area.  His big pull was to go an have a really fresh Maine lobster or two!

[

Lobster was the "bait" to get him up the mountain

Anyway we did indulge in a lobster dinner while there and we biked, paddled, hiked and even my husband got to co-pilot a plane over the coast on a truly spectacular day! We know how to detox heavy metals with our far infra red sauna  and Cilantro, Zeolite, Chlorella, Spirulina and by taking the supplement DMSA (Dimercaptosuccinic Acid). Also with a hugh amount of antioxidants! Ask your Homeopath to assist you in testing for heavy metals and a proper detox that is right for you. Especially if you are a regular lover of seafood such as salmon or sushi or even lots of lobster!  Even breathing air can overload your system with pollutants and contaminants. Did you know having too many heavy metals can block the absorption of minerals and can cause a deficit and a host of other problems as well?  I didn’t, until I spent time doing testing and chelation with a fantastic doctor that goes around the world doing educational seminars to other doctors. In fact it was chelation that saved my husband from chemotherapy from a radiologists!  The heavy metals were preventing  production of white blood cells and since removing heavy metals he is doing fantastic and now I am chasing him up higher and higher peaks!

Four hours of strenous climbing over some hefty boulders and we arrived!

This is what the term Functional Medicine is all about! First remove what is toxic then add what is nutritious and needed then let the body heal itself!

The body certainly is a wonder. When I was decending I lost footing on a slippery wet rock and felt a minor “tweek” in my ankle. I sat still and had a talk with my body and said that the fall did not hurt my ankle and that I was going to decend down the mountain without any difficulty. Sure enough I got up and started walking and did not need to stop to rest for the next 3 hours. Later when I got into a very hot bath my ankle reminded me of my words of “decend down the mountain” and it swelled up and complained loudly.  I had some St. John’s oil and applied it liberally every 20 minutes and kept it elevated and took no pain pills although I had some nearby, because it hurt that bad,  just in case. With a little ice and lots of relaxing it was completely back to normal by morning.  I knew from my herbalist teacher Kathi Kaville to not walk on it as the body still needed time to complete the healing even though the pain was gone. So I stayed off it as we drove back to my sister’s house and for the next day after. I have had no problems with it since. SO, be sure to include some St. John’s oil in your first aid kit for climbing or any activity that might involve a strain!!  Just pick some in mid June when the  sunny yellow flowers are in full bloom and let sit in olive oil for a few weeks until you get a nice red color. Most of us think of this as a “blues buster” herb now you know it can be a sprain healer as well.

A delightful oasis of pure nutrition in in North Conway New Hampshire

Talk about a great find for awesome nutrition, I found this little “Hole in the wall” smoothie bar. I had a great chat with this woman and she is loving her new learnings with David Wolfe and Gabriel Cousens and all the other plant loving educators . The other two owners are sisters that have overcome serious health issues with smoothies and juicing and lots of vegetables. They had just opened in the last couple of weeks and were still getting established and told me they would blend whatever  extra I wanted to supply. They told me where the organic produce was in town and that a delivery had just been made that day. So I loaded up with a bunch of kale, cilantro, spinach and fresh blueberries with some pineapple juice and hemp seeds. It was all blended up and we got one quart each for our hike up Mt. Washington and  we had tons of energy for the entire hike.

Back at my sister’s I got to spend time with my neice and nephew as well as one of their friends and we had a blast doing kitchen alchemy and made all kinds of fun and delicious snacks and desserts. It is not a surprise that kids love sweet things and it is always easier to start with dessert first when introducing a new way of eating. My sister has been vigoriously educating herself on the effects of blood sugar spikes and wanted some ways to get the whole family on board to accept new ideas. She got the right person to help her and we created some faboulous decadent desserts that would pass the glucose monitor test.  I always take my tiny monitor with me so I can be alert of any changes in my diet and what effect it has. If you don’t own a monitor you don’t know your numbers and you are simply guessing weather or not your sugar levels are spiking! After my great 6 month program with Dr. Rita Marie Loscalzo I am so much more educated about the harmful effects of a single sugar spike. I am so grateful to of had this education so I never will let myself get to the point of needing insulin which causes so many more health complications. A simple awareness and change of diet and no sugar problems at any age!!

We used dates to start and made brownies but noted that they were really sweet however they did contain a lot of minerals and fiber to off set the sweetness some. We started to experiment

Out of the pool and eating home made brownies in less than 20 minutes!!

with other sweetners such as coconut sugar, yacon syrup and of course stevia we used the lemon and vanilla flavor to reduce the bitter after taste. We moved onto making dairy free Ice Creams and shakes using hemp seeds and cashews and then onto  fresh mint and blueberry  tarts as well as an incredible raspberry chocolate torte. We moved slowly into smoothies with a handful of greens. They decided to call them slushies because it is like a 7-eleven drink.  The drink that has ice with lots of flavors (mostly sugar water).

Since I left they now take turns making slushies and add fruits and greens with lots of ice. A high speed blender was purchased, the Blentec model, and away they are headed. It is not easy for any yankee to change direction as any of you from the area will attest but small gradual baby steps and anything is possible! I hope this new quick easy way of making a drink will help throughout their high school years and they will understand that making your own desserts is fun, quick and incrediblly tasty. Eventually the need for sweets will dissapate and more and more alkaline foods will take over so the body actually craves greens!! Yes it can happen, and has happened to me. I really need my green fix to keep myself balanced. But a little bit of processed foods and the cycle will grab you and it can be a struggle to let  it go again. So I like to do green juices when I return from a trip to kick start the alkaline back on top.

With this time of gardens in full production it is a great time to grab a cucumber, carrot, tomato as your fast food fix. Just keep them washed and ready to grab!

Now that I am home it is time to gleen my own garden and start the fall seedlings for great spinach, kale, and bok choy to get me through the winter.

Once you have a base cracker layer anything goes for the toppings.....

Summer is here,  the garden is in and I am ready for some exploring and adventures. How about you? I hear a lot of people say they love road trips because they get to eat all the junk food that they normally would not touch!  Really?.. that sounds so crazy. When you  change your environment it is important to take along your healthy new habits with you so you continue to feel great. “Nothing like a” junk food coma” to ruin a trip for you and your companions!”

I have just gotten back from a five day journey into the dessert with my husband and his new/used red truck.  We went to Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California and drove the back way and  we encountered a snow blizzard and temperatures in the high 20′s. Then once we arrived the temperatures were in the high 80′s!  Good lesson to be prepared for anything and keep flexible. I made a veggie soup that could be eaten warm or cold and the snow was a good reason to heat it up, but it was just as delicious when the weather got hot to eat it cool like gazpacho.

Days before we left the dehydrator was humming merrily along with great yummies and I will share some of them with you now.

The first is the basic layer of the cracker to build on.  This version was a favorite  great seller at the Farmer’s Market last summer. I call  it the “Four Seeds Cracker”

To make it start soaking about two cups of each: Raw Pumpkin Seeds, Raw Sunflower Seeds, Raw Brown Sesame Seeds. Soak them separately for about 4 hours and rinse and drain till the water runs clear and place in strainers.  Also mix about a cup of chia seeds with a gallon jug of water and place the lid on and shake it till the seeds are separate and shake it again once in a while to make sure it dose not clump. Let the chia soak for a couple of hours, the chia will absorb and swell and look like clear tapioca. This is not  hard science in the soaking so don’t panic about a few extra hours or even overnight. The chia will swell up and fill the gallon jar, this can be kept in the fridge for other snack makings and to add to smoothies and puddings.   Now place the three drained seeds into a large bowl and squeeze the juice of two lemons on them. This brightens flavors and allows you to use less salt.

Now for the fun stuff of picking the spices you want… I like the taste of Caraway and put a handful of Whole Caraway as well as a  tablespoon of freshly Crushed Caraway into the seeds. Add some salt and chia as directed below.

The other favorite is Oregano, Marjoram, Rosemary,and a bit of Thyme  and this is also a good time to add powered sun dried tomatoes and a bit of onion powder. to make a “Pizza” Cracker.

My friend loves a hint of Lavender so you can add Herbs De Provence and go with that  French theme.

Feel free to divide the batch up after mixing in the lemon juice and make some of each. Make up your own version and try some sea vegetables such as ground Dulse or sea palm.  You need to add a lot of spices to get them to flavor. Once you are happy with the spices by tasting the mixture then add some sea salt a little at a time tasting as you go. Remember to play  with flavors and know they will get eaten with amazing goodies on top like avocado and Macadamia nut cheese and tomato so don’t fret and enjoy the process. Next add about 2 cups of chia gell and mix well with a very large wooden spoon.  Taste again and see if anything needs adjustment like a bit more salt or more spices.

If you wanted to go for a sweeter cracker you can add some finely shredded coconut to the mixture and maybe take it in a more Asian direction with curry and cumin. I however, like the basic Mediterranean style and let the toppings be the star.

Add enough chia gel to hold the whole mixture together about a cup or two. Remember chia is an excellent source of omega 3 and high in protein so having too much is not a problem and it dehydrates into a firmer cracker with more chia.

Now scoop out about 3 cups of mixture and spread onto a teflex sheet on top of the mesh sheet so that the mixture is an even 1/4 inch thick and “score” them into cracker sizes of your choice.

I like to have  all the  seeds whole  ( less oxidation) it can be tricky to score  the whole pumpkin seeds but it does work out. For a more refined cracker you can lightly pulse some of the mixture in a food processor and mix with the whole seeds.

Dehydrate overnight at 105 degrees then flip over using another  mesh sheet and dehydrate until nice and crisp sometimes another 4 hours or more depending on the moisture in the air and the thickness of the cracker. I store them in a airtight glass container to take along to prevent breakage and to preserve the fragile oils in the seeds. In the cooler or fridge is best but  keeping them cool with shade is also o.k. for a short while.

For the Macadamia Nut Cheese soak about a cup of Mac nuts for a couple of hours or overnight in the fridge. You can use Brazil nuts when Mac nuts are not available or use half Mac nuts and half  Brazil nuts. Make sure they are raw!! A source to consider if you don’t have any  raw organic local options  is www.nutsonline.com

Soaking is not critical but will result in creamer cheese. Drain, add the juice of a lemon and place them in a high speed blender. Next add  about a teaspoon and a half of chickpea miso (I mostly avoid soy products) along with a teaspoon of salt. Add water a couple of tablespoons at a time to get it to mix till thick and creamy like cream cheese. Pack in a glass airtight container such as a pint size mason jar and keep very cool. A dollop of this on the veggie soup was nothing less than sensuous!!

You can add in some chives but I kept them separate and added them fresh so I could have more variety on what to use for topping the cracker base. Of course, avocado is always a favorite and very satisfying. I love the taste of dulse on top as well. I used sauerkraut with the cheese and tomato one time and it was also fantastic, So experiment and make some tomato sauce, guacamole, or pesto and just decorate and get creative.  One of my found memories of my visit to Norway was their version of  brunch with lots of little bowls of creative  toppings. You start with a cracker and add whatever you want, sort of like a cracker picnic! Lots of fun and everyone gets exactly what they want plus you can eat it with a big napkin, I like to bring cloth ones, and use the cracker as your plate! No dishes to clean, fast clean up and very easy to have again and again, just using different toppings.

A Bounty of Colorful "Chips"

Package chips, no matter how “healthy” the front of the  package boast, has rancid oil that was heated well above 300 degrees and causes all kind of issues with the liver to detox that nasty stuff  from your system. Even a baked chip, if you can find them, has been processed to the point it is no longer real food for your cells and organs. It was a difficult surprise for me to learn that Organic Corn chips are NOT health food. Just remember  your new slogan “NOTHING IN A PACKAGE” and your life will be easier than trying to believe a label to justify an addiction.

Somehow, we crave crunchy things when we are driving and this delightful bowl of fresh crunchy veggies is a great alternative to salt laden process foods. Now these may not be very exciting to some people  who don’t normally eat veggies so I pulled out the gourmet twist and created the perfect sauce to go with these that will get even the pickiest eater to dive into their veggies. I just got my last CSA box  of the winter season the day before we left so I washed and prepped as much as I could for ready made finger food.

"Cheddar Cheese" Dip

Now for the “Secret” Sauce…..

This is so simple you will laugh and make it just to fool your friends. First wash and cut a large red bell pepper and cut into large chunks and put it into your high speed blender. Then  take a cup of raw cashews add the juice of a lemon, or two if they are small, and about a 1/2 teaspoon of salt and press the button! Usually you need no added water as the pepper is mostly water. There you go, now taste it and be amazed. For  more cheesy flavor add a teaspoon of chickpea miso. For an added kick add some cayenne or chipotle chili powder to taste. This will keep for a week or more if kept really cold in the cooler. You can also use this as a mayo for your crackers or lettuce or collard wraps! This cheese is a winner at any pot luck and usually disappears quickly. The cashews blend smoother if soaked for a couple of hours but finding chunks of cashews is not a problem either! The color is all from the red pepper. Experiment with Orange and yellow peppers and add a pinch of turmeric for a more yellow sauce with added antioxidants from the turmeric. This is a fast and easy  summer staple  to keep in the fridge to munch down lots of different garden goodies on the run.

Oh, please don’t buy the small pre washed carrots as I read an article about them washing them in bleach to make them last longer… Yuck, I know…, just don’t trust any package!

How about some calcium to keep you hiking up tall and wonderous terrain? One of the best sources of calcium is in a tiny  seed. Yep, the tiny sesame seed is loaded with calcium and now we just have to make it portable. When I am home I like to make sesame milk by soaking brown sesame seeds overnight and after a rinse and drain then add 3 cups water to one cup seeds and blend on high till smooth. Now these are pretty bitter so adding dates is fine with this as well as a bit of vanilla powder and a pinch of salt. I strain it through a fine mesh strainer and can feel my bones soaking up the mineral rich nectar. Good to do every couple of weeks or more if you are not absorbing calcium through your greens and you need extra.

The greens that came  from the  Farmer’s CSA box was bok choy  and kale this week, I made  some of them into smoothies, with blueberries, lemon juice and cinnamon and some hemp seeds. Use some vanilla stevia for extra sweetness. I put  the mixture into  mason jars and froze it overnight leaving about a third of the top empty for expansion. This made a smart addition to the cooler to keep things cool and by the time it was defrosted we had nice cool smoothies waiting after a  long hot hike! Another easy breakfast idea was Coconut Chia Pudding that I learned to make from Dr. Rita Marie Loscalzo’s course on lowering blood sugar.  Simple recipe of : A cup or two of blueberries (frozen and  thawed is fine) a squeeze of lemon, a tablespoon of cinnamon, with a pinch of each cardamon and ginger add some vanilla stevia and a 1/4 cup of chia seeds with a half cup of coconut flakes. Blend till smooth and add toppings of  whole blueberries, nuts and extra coconut. This also freezes well and can be eaten after one or two days on the road. Tastes like blueberry pie!! Since it is blueberry season I need to use up my supply from last summer and they are excellent for so many health reasons it will take another blog to brag about them!

Blueberry Pie Pudding!

For this journey I decided to not bring anything electrical and left my hand blender behind so I created this colorful calcium rich, ginger packed, mineral dense sweet trail bar.

Sesame, Ginger, Gogi, Sea Palm, Crunchies

When you are soaking sesame seed for your crackers above you can soak extra sesame seeds and make these at the same time like I did. Next juice a giant claw of ginger to get about a half cup of juice and add to the soaked, rinsed and drained seeds. I use both brown and black sesame seeds for color and added nutrients, then crunch up a handful of sea palm and add that to the mixture. Add about a handful of gogi berries and for added sweetness add some currents or cut up raisins. I use coconut palm nectar to help sweeten the bitter seeds and add a 1/2 cup to the whole mixture. Now comes the binding agent,  use the extra chia gell  from your gallon mixture from above. About a cup or 1  1/2 cup  should  hold the sesames together to form a “glob” . Spread onto a teflex sheet, score into the size you want and add to the dehydrator with the crackers. Dehydrate overnight at 110 degrees and then flip over till crisp.  Keep these airtight in a glass jar and take a few with you on the trail or have them when you return. They keep well in the fridge or freezer for 6 weeks.

For more snacks to make from your seeds… here are another couple of ideas as long as you are soaking and dehydrating go for it and  fill up all nine racks of your  Excalibur Dehydrator.

Sea-Veg "Jerky" and Sweet and Salty Pumpkin Seed Snack

To the left is an easy chewy “jerky” texture that is packed with nutrition and taste. Take extra soaked sunflower seeds that have been soaked and rinsed for the crackers above and use about a cup and a half or what ever you have left over. put into a food processor and add one whole bunch of cilantro that has been washed and loosely chopped with a lemon juiced and a teaspoon of gluten free Tamari and process until a paste is formed. You can add a bit more water if needed and again according to your taste you can add ginger or cayenne to make it how ever you like it. Spread the mixture about 1/8 inch thick onto a nori sheet and top with another nori sheet and smooth out. Dehydrate overnight and then cut into strips or squares and dehydrate some more to get the texture you want.

Pumpkin Munchin:

The pumpkin seeds were divided in half and add a tablespoon of Tamari to one half and a tablespoon of Yacon syrup to the other half and spread out onto the mesh sheet and dehydrate till crunchy. Add some golden berries or cranberries and there you go, another  healthy fun sensation for your taste buds!

Just when you can’t imagine anything more… then there is dessert!

Easy Breezy Brownies

Five ingredient in 15 minutes with no stove and you are done!!  These freeze well and I have them in 3 inch baking cups but you could use a paper liner in cupcake pans.

Simple add soaked and dehydrated walnuts pecans or both whatever you have on hand. One cup is fine then add 1/2 cup of soften (place in dehydrator for 10 minutes)  pitted dates and 1/2 cup cacao powder or carob or half of each. and a teaspoon of powdered vanilla and a pinch of salt and process until it resembles a batter like consistency. Press into molds  till about 1 1/2 inch thick, dust with cacao and add nuts to decorate. They keep well in the cooler and are a great  ”pick me up” snack when the long drive back is getting too long!!

Hope you enjoy your summer in full throttle and keep your  adventurous spirit alive in your healthy lifestyle as well.

Here are a few more EASY treats

such as  green apple slices with almond butter,

and a fresh squeezed lemon into a quart of water with a few drops of “Lemon Drop Stevia” add a tablespoon of chia and you have an refreshing Chia Freska that is great at keeping you hydrated.

I like to munch sea palm right from the package with a few soaked and dried almonds to round out the flavor (this is great for hikes!).

Chilled grapefruit are awesome on a hot trip just peel and eat like an orange, be sure to get the fantastic bioflavonoids in the white part too!

How about  pre-washed cool organic romaine lettuce leaves, they are full of water and vitamins and taste great alone!

When we did stop at a restaurant at the end of the trip  for breakfast I brought my own tea bag and almond milk and just ordered a bowl of plain oatmeal and hot water. No fuss no problem and they were more than accommodating when I explained I did not eat dairy or sugar. Salads are easy and you can bring your own dressing, rice and veggies are also fairly common  place when in a bind.

By all means: PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD!

Food is FUN

A healthy, low glycemic, gluten free, soy free, dairy free, animal free diet is full of COLOR, FLAVOR, CREATIVITY  and EASE!!

Good gut bacteria actually talk to your body’s immune cells. A large mass of lymphoid tissue sits just beneath the intestinal tract. Gut bacteria can reduce inflammation. This is why including cultured foods in your daily diet is often helpful in alleviating inflammatory conditions associated with food sensitivities and a permeable intestinal lining. Sometimes inflammation beginning in the gut manifests in seemingly unrelated places, such as in the skin.

Many people have found that a diet rich in friendly bacteria improves chronic skin conditions like acne, eczema and psoriasis.

And research supports anecdotal findings. (1) (2) A great deal of scientific interest has been generated around the bacteria found on the interior and exterior of our bodies. It turns out that bacteria can be either symbiotic to our systems or pathogenic.

For example, a diet that consists largely of processed foods and excessive sugar creates an environment that supports pathogenic microorganisms. Likewise, the more cultured foods, green leafy vegetables, seaweeds, and fermented microalgae that you ingest, the more likely it is that your body is home to beneficial microflora that enhance immune activity, the proper functioning of your digestive system, mental clarity, and physical energy.

A great deal of energy and money is spent on over-the-counter and pharmaceutical preparations to help heal red, inflamed skin conditions like acne and eczema.

Oftentimes, medical health care professionals prescribe antibiotics, corticosteroid creams, or other topical applications that use hormones to provide immediate relief to the skin. None of these treatments are effective long-term, and their benefits are short-lived. In fact, steroid creams can deeply affect the adrenal stress response. Estrogen enhanced skin creams can cause a toxic build-up of estrogen in the body, which can impair thyroid function.

Yes, you can finally have healthy skin free from inflammatory conditions like acne, eczema, and psoriasis! By using a homemade facial made with fermented coconut meat, you can restore health to your skin with a boost of good bacteria.

Repopulating the gut with good bacteria is the first step toward healing inflammatory skin conditions.

This means eating fermented foods. Fermented foods are teeming with good bacteria and include traditional favorites like kimchee, sauerkraut, yogurt, and kefir. At Body Ecology, we suggest fermenting coconut water, rather than milk, as it is least associated with inflammatory food sensitivities.

Keep Your Greens Fresh and Alive By Purchasing Often!

There is lots of buzz this time of year on who is doing what cleanse and for how long. What is the big deal about cleansing and why should you even consider one?  One of the BIG factors in considering a cleanse is taking a “vacation” from what you normally do.  If your routine is three solid meals a day with the same foods then by all means take a break so your body can reset from digesting the same nutrients. Coming out of Winter we get a lot of starchy root vegetables such as turnips, beets, parsnips, potatoes, rutabaga, sweet potatoes etc. While these are wonderful vegetables and each have their own star status they are dense calories and most are cooked and served with some type of oil, they are filling, warm and satisfying  during the cooler days. Eating starchy foods turns them to sugar and gives us energy and if we are not constant “gym rats” to expel this energy then we get a  a nice layer of fat to store the excess. Another winter favorite meal involves grains which are also high in sugar once converted by digestion.  You all know the implications of eating animal fats and how it takes two days in the intestines to digest and without fiber to get them moving along. Our bodies absorb a lot of toxins (petrified flesh) while it is doing it’s job of re-absorbing whatever is in the large intestines. Since it is cooler most of us don’t drink half our body weight ( in ounces) of  water a day so constipation is more common, especially when you might get your liquids from hot teas and other dehydrating alcoholic  festive beverages.  Oh yes, the holidays of cookies, cakes, fudge  and treat nibbles everywhere you go. Sugar is the number one immunosuppressant, A research report was done that indicated that the day after Halloween more kids got the flu and it continued to stay up until well after Easter. We do “celebrate”  with sugar every chance we get.  I always laugh as the sweets are being handed out with the justification that it is a “special” occasion after all.  What would happen if we had non-stop   EXTRAORDINARY  days that we just could not fit one  ”special occasion”  that required us to eat toxins!

We live in a strange culture that labels dead pulverized powder as food and we pass it out to our love ones as treats and rewards. I read a great article that explained it is not our fault as sugar is more addictive than heroine!  Sugar makes fat cells then fat cells make inflammation then more fat cells and the cycle continues.   So if you are considering a cleanse that eliminates what you have been eating it is probably a great idea.  Just choose greens in any form for a week and see what happens. There is plenty of protein and nutrients in greens alone that you will not be lacking anything.

Smoothies are great because a beginner can enjoy the greens with fruit to make them taste yummy and fill them up. If a week seems impossible then start with whatever the amount of days you are comfortable with. You can make any kind of smoothie you want as long as the color is GREEN before you drink it.

My first green juice feast was amazing as the one I followed said that you needed to consume a full half gallon of green juice a day!  That’s a lot of fruit and veggies! I was never hungry and instead was wondering how to get all that liquid in me by evening. The results were so fantastic that I decided to extend it for another 3 days and never felt lack of anything. Just pick our some of your favorite fruits and veggies that can be juiced and enjoy the creative combinations of putting them together. It is easy to go online to find a recipe version of almost any cleanse. Just make sure you are not getting high sugar fruits without the greens. Celery and cucumber are not very expensive and give a lot of juice. I like to include ginger and lemon as well and add leafy greens from there. In fact I have been enjoying a quart or more green juice a day even when I am not on a cleanse, just for the clarity and energy it gives me.

Here Is A Favorite Juice Recipe:

One whole head of Celery, chopped into small pieces so the juicer dosen’t get clogged up with the strings.

One large Cucumber with dark skins left on.

One Meyer Lemon with just the very thin outer layer peeled off keeping some of the rind but all of the white part.

A thumb-size knob of Ginger.

One whole bunch Cilantro.

One green Apple.

Fennel stalks if you have them.

Choose from any of the following: 3 big handfuls of Spinach, One bunch of Kale with stems, 1/8 head of cabbage, Handful of large Swiss Chard leaves with stems, 3-4 small fresh Farmer’s Market carrots, 3-4 large collard greens, 1/4  bunch of dandelion,  1/2 bunch parsley, A thumb size piece of Diakon Radish or Burdock Root.

If it is still not sweet enough you can add more beet or even an orange.

Most of my recipe was determined by what came in my CSA box so I was using the freshest ingredients possible. My rule is “If  it is not appealling enough to want to pop it in your mouth DON’T juice it.” I would rather feed the compost bin then eat even slightly slimy veggies any day!!   If you are juicing for more that yourself consider buying in bulk and get to know the produce manager at the local organic store. You can buy a case of cukes and split it with friends so you don’t get them too old by the time you use them. Celery and cukes make a lot of juice and the rest of the ingredients are simply adding variety to keep things interesting and of course special nutrients for keeping your organs humming a happy tune.  If at anytime something dosen’t agree with you simply leave it out and try something else. On cooler days I add more ginger for a warm kick. When it was really cool I would follow with a warm homemade Chai and if I was still cool I would jump on my rebounder for 20-30 minutes to dance music to warm up! Another tip is to juice and take it with you for later in a sealed quart mason container with the cool “Pump N Seal” gaget that you can find online by googling the name. One of my favorite breakfast juices was simply grapefruit with Ormus Super green powder in it when I was in a hurry to get out the door fast.

But what if you have been eating lots of greens and sticking with a plantbased healthy diet. Do you have to cleanse then?

Well It occured to me as I was midway into my colon cleanse that eating greens pulls out more toxins on a regular basis and that would mean that toxins that were once tucked away in fat cells, and organs like the brain are now being pulled into the colon to be released.  Even if you had consistant daily bowel movements 2-4 times a day it is still putting a lot of toxic debris into the very thin cell walls of the colon. The body is reabsorbing that waste even  if you have a squeaky clean colon. But, if your colon has plaque debris it can cling on and have a longer period to be reabsorbed. How do you know if your colon is clean?  Well you flush it and see how it looks.  With a professional colonic you sit back and relax and let the warm water do all the work. There is no emema bags to refill and the session last about 45 minutes with soothing music and there is a clear waste pipe to watch everything float by that you never imagined was in you!!  An enema at home is good but you just can’t get the non stop amount of water that you can get from a professional colonic. This was a HUGH step for me to accept the need for colonics! But after listening to matt Monarch expose over and over again about how all the hospitals beds used to have colonics to give to every patient and all the health benefits of a clean colon, I took the plunge {sic} so to speak. Here is a link to a video of Matt explaining the need for colonics being a little nutty but passionate just the same. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPiUXg7Ort0&feature=share

I recently did a 5 day colon cleanse from Blessed Herbs that consisted of apple juice with Psyllium seed husk {great fiber} and Bentonite clay {absorbs toxins 40x it’s weight} Ginger root {digestive to relieve discomfort from bloating} and apple pectin {binds fatty acids and triglycerides and blocks absorption from the gut}. The first time I did this a few years ago it was quite an interesting experience as I was at a week long workshop and away from my own kitchen and enviroment so I would not be tempted by having any other food. The purpose of this type of cleanse was to remove the plaque build up on the lining of the colon. Since I never heard of this before I did some research and decided it was not at all harmful to try. Go to their website and find out more for yourself at www.blessedherbs.com  Smart folks with extremely detailed instructions.  They have all different levels you can follow if you can’t give up a solid meal to just drinking the apple juice and toxin absorber packet every three hours.  Very effective and yet still does not repalce a colonic. I followed this immediately with a liver/gallbladder flush and decided that I was super clean but went to my colonic appointment anyway. Yep still more releasing and I just could not believe it was possible!

The other  really important aspect of cleansing is the emotional releases that accompany the letting go of deep past events that you might not even be aware you are still carrying!  I heard it said that the colon and the liver is where the  body stores  anger.  Physical, Mental, Spirtual it is all insepparable.  When I heard myself saying I’ll do anthing BUT a colonic I knew I was resisting something that might serve me to let go of. So I bought a series of six right off the bat so I knew I could not back out. I got my daughters to try them and even my husband now will book his own without being prodded.  It quite simply feels so good to be clean from the inside out that you will never go back to your original resistance.  So what are you hanging onto? Do you really want that stuff? How would it feel to release all of your  old  sh*t!!    What have you got to lose?

Have you ever bought sprouts from the grocery store and stuck them in the refrigerator thinking they would be good for you and it is probably good to have them around in case you might want to use them in a sandwich sometime? Then you reach for them and find out they smell kinda funky and rinse them but it still is not quite right and decide you don’t like sprouts after all. It is easy to happen and you just spent $2.50 and now have a plastic container to get rid of along with the smelly sprouts.  DON’T BLAME THE SPROUTS! It is not their fault. They have gone through a lot before getting into your fridge.

Here is a better plan….  Look for a thin cotton bag, could be a hemp bag but they are a little more expensive. You if you sew, then get some cloth that is called “flour sack” cloth because that is what the old time flour sacks were made of. Unbleached is best but don’t fret too much about this step. Search for organic material that can be soaked and hold onto water. Polyester will probably work but try for the natural vibe. Stitch a hem at the top for a cord or string to be slipped thru by attaching the cord to a large safety pin and pushing thru. In a desperate situation you can probably get used pillowcases at the thrift store and sew them up to become four sacks with cords. A nice loose bag gives the sprouts enough give to germinate and spread out. Having a few bags on hand gives you a continuous supply of sprouts. A fine mesh bag might work as well just give it a go but, make sure you don’t lose any seeds through the mesh.

Now for the seeds: There are a few web sites that specialize in sprouting seeds and I have ordered from them.  One of them called www.sproutpeople.org have a great resource of information all about the variety of seeds and their health benefits.  I enjoy the creativity of putting all different kinds of seeds together for certain “Blends”.  They also have all kinds of sprouting devices and machines.  My sprouts are well trained from the beginning to fit into my lifestyle and kitchen by keeping it simple! It is an absolute must to get organic sprouts of high quality or don’t bother going any further. No, really ” DO PANIC IF IT IS NOT ORGANIC”.  You are eating sprouts to improve your health not trying to ingest more toxins to have your body labor to get rid of. If you have any questions on why I am so firm about this, then get a copy of the movie “SEEDS OF DECEPTION” and you will join my views. Just google the title and there is even an e-book to explain about GMO seeds.

I purchased some seeds from a great company that I get my organic spices from and have been very pleased  as well with both the quality and the price. Order on line at www.mountainroseherb.com click on products at the top and sprouting seeds are in the first box on the left under bulk organic herbs and spices. They only have a few kinds but the most important is the broccoli and alfalfa but mix them up with some radish and others for a fun garden variety salad. They even have wheat grass seed but that is explained in a prior posting on how to grow that without water. As always the more you buy the more you save. Buying a pound of alfalfa sprouts makes them only  51 – 65 cents for a  very full  bag of sprouts, compared to the $2.50  from the store that don’t taste quite right anyway. I saw  that Mountain Rose Herbs  are now carrying cotton bags but I have not ordered one yet to comment on it.

So you got your bag and seeds and are ready to go! Two tablespoons of seeds  seems to be plenty for a bag that you are hanging because sprouts like lots of air circulation and packing them in won’t give them that. Plus you want to eat them up when they are fresh. Give the bag and seeds a good soak even overnight is fine. Hang from any knob with a bowl under it to let them “hang out” and comtemplate bursting forth.

I like to talk to my “babies” when I rinse them and tell them how adorable they are and encourage them to grow, grow grow! I now have my husband trained using this simple technique to check the sprout bag and make sure it is kept moist the whole time. Usually 3-4 times when ever I walk by them throughout the day. They might get a little dry overnight but it recovers fast with a good drench in the morning. The nice long bag, you see here, allows for lots of water to drip down onto the sprouts and gives them plenty of room to stretch their little root tails. You can feel them expanding and it might take about 6 days to get any green to show depending on how warm it is in your kitchen. Let them go until they are about the size of the sprouts in the store. Then they are ready to be “culled” and have the seed hulls removed.

It is really easy to remove the seeds outer shells by simply placing the sprouts in a bowl and fill it with pure water. The hulls float to the surface and you simply scoop them out! Very quick and easy. If you don’t get every last hull don’t worry they are only fiber anyway.

Then the final rinse and drain and start munching! Although they will keep chilled for quite some time, the taste of fresh sprouts is SO IRRESTIBLE they rarely last very long. They  taste  nothing like the store ones in plastic containers under constant artificial light.

I hope these pictures take some of the mystery out of sprouting and you include these nutrient superstars into your diet as well as your kitchen.

I have done the mason jar technique with the screened lids and the angled drain board to keep them from being too soggy but I found the counter space to be too valuable to keep enough sprout jars going. Being on a knob it is quick and easy to move them to wherever I am not working. But you know your kitchen best and what would work for you. Just find some way ANY way to get these gems of pure potential into your body!

I can add to this by saying that I met a woman in chef school who was at Dr. Gabriel Cousen’s Tree Of Life in Arizona and said she cured her M.S. with sprouts. I looked at her in disbelief and said didn’t anyone ever tell you that is an incurrable disease? She said she is in full recovery and back to being a dancer and she came to chef schoolt to learn how to add more variety to her diet full of greens. But she remembers eatting large platters ( the size of  platter  to serve a big family turkey! ) full of sprouts to get her system in an alkaline state and onto the path of self healing. Wow, that left an impression on me and how I look at sprouts a bit different than a small amount on top of my salad.

SPROUT ON TO YOUR HEALTH!