2nd CookWell Newsletter
3/11
Seasonal Tips, Recipes & New Classes We hope this newsletter finds you feeling excellent! The bulk info below is much shorter than last month’s four pager, so that alone should help you feel perky! I’m Courtney (
www.cookwell.org), and this month I want to give you the
March schedule for Thursday night classes & dinners Don & I will be hosting at our home in Los Osos. After that, I’ve composed some
ideas for maintaining personal balance throughout the seasons according to macrobiotics (the brilliant whole foods diet & lifestyle philosophy of the ancient Asian tradition) because sadly, climate change renders each of us subject to more and more frequently abrupt and extreme changes in our weather.
Next, I’ve included my personal experience with and the dates for some free local wellness presentations about
Juice Plus, an incredible whole food supplement (also very affordable - $41.75/mo) for those of us who find it difficult to get the recommended 9 -13 servings of different fruits & vegetables daily.
And at the end of this newsletter, you’ll find my updated
perfect brown rice recipe, along with a
savory recipe for black eyed pea, shitake mushroom & arame stew. Yum!
FYI, Don & I have been updating our
CookWell blog (LINK) with bulky amounts of whole foods wisdom. There you’ll find past newsletter content & recipes, new health information we’ve researched lately, links to info we like, and pictures of fantastic whole foods meals we’ve made together. Yesterday, Don posted some new info about oxalic acid vegetables (beets, spinach & chard), which debunked a bad notion I’d had about them for years.
Don’s website for life path counseling is:
www.gingerbuddha.com (click on "sustenance training" to see our collaborative course outline). So,
http://www.cookwell.org), whether you want to have
both Don & I, or just me, come to your kitchen for a private or small group CookWell session,
OR if you just want to show up to one of our specialty classes or community dinners, we look forward to meeting you and helping you incorporate the whole foods diet & lifestyle that works best for you.
March Thursday Night Dinners & Specialty Classes We hope you can make it to our home in Los Osos on any of the last three Thursdays of the month, to eat some healing food & learn lots of new information. Our CookWell specialty classes will include a discussion (bring notebook & pen if you’d like to take notes), a cooking demonstration, and then dinner around 7:15. Our goal is that you have a great time & that all of your questions around the slated topics are answered. We’re also hosting our foundational CookWell course (5 sessions total) the last Thursday of the month, starting March 31.
We look forward to getting to know you better, and you’re welcome to bring your own wine or beer to both classes and dinners.
Please RSVP for directions: 528-8837 or courtney@cookwell.org
CLASS: wheat, dairy and sugar - the unacknowledged burdens Thursday, Mar 17, 6-8PM cost for 1 hr class and dinner: $35 per person
We’ll discuss: why these foods are causing so many people ill health, our personal stories & strategies around getting these foods (one at a time) out of our diet, and the details of our increased vitality that followed.
serving: black bean chili stew w/seasonal veggies
steamed delecata winter squash
green salad with home-made italian dressing
gluten & sugar free nutmeg-almond loaf
DINNER: Thursday night Dinner at Courtney & Don’s Thursday night dinners are served around 6:30 and offer our community a warm, informal setting around great food & great conversation.
Thursday, Mar 24, 6-8PM cost: $30 per person ($20 vegetarian)
serving: curried lamb & bacon tacos (w/ grass-fed lamb, nitrate-free bacon, fennel & arugula)
Courtney’s amazing beans
perfect brown rice
green salad with home-made lemon-tahini dressing
apple-spice rice w/ raspberry drizzle dessert
CLASS: CookWell session #1 Thursday, Mar 31, 6-8PM cost for 2 hr class and dinner: $35 per person
We’ll discuss: your goals in incorporating wholefoods, the basics of macrobiotic theory, neutralizing phytic acid in grains, the nightshades, oxalic acid & sulfur veggies, food-based vitamin/mineral supplements, better digestibility of beans, the CookWell list of wholefoods preparation staples and the best cooking oils, and the importance of drinking enough re-mineralized water daily.
Then, together we’ll prepare: beautiful pot of black OR adzuki beans with cayenne, sage and rosemary
sprouted then simmered whole grain millet & amaranth to incorporate with the beans
ghee to use as a stable cooking oil
dark leafy greens & seasonal veggie stir-steam
sweet carrot salad
you’ll get 4 handouts for reference:
list of whole foods preparation staples
list of natural food stores in SLO county and recommended reading list
blood type basics
fantastic recipes #1
March Newsletter topics:
Climate change and your particular constitution
Maintaining personal balance throughout the year with diet & lifestyle can be challenging as our seasons become less and less predictable. According to macrobiotics, various types of foods and the way in which they are prepared has either a warming, neutral or cooling effect on the body. Also, each of us tends toward either being excess or deficient in our personal constitution, and may need certain foods for balance despite what’s recommended for the weather. Macrobiotics is an intricate system of using different foods and cooking techniques to also effect the body by moistening or drying, and by causing bodily energy to either ascend/descend or to move internally/externally. What follows references just the thermal effects of foods and cooking techniques.
The cooling, cleansing foods that naturally grow in the spring & summer are best if we’re feeling too hot due to weather or hormones. And vice versa, the warming, building foods naturally produced in the fall & winter are best when feeling cold, deficient or weak. These practices come in handy for me year round, but in no particular order, because of the more and more frequent abrupt, and extreme changes in our weather.
I think the most important aspect of this philosophy is that some of us inherently tend toward always being too warm or too cold. This is because of the varying amount of congenital chi (life force) that we inherit from our parents. Some people have strong, robust constitutions, with loud voices, reddish complexions, and a tendency toward having internal heat and excess body weight. Then on the other end of the spectrum, some of us have weak, deficient constitutions with quiet voices, pale complexions, and a tendency to have internal coldness and difficulty gaining weight. By the way, people who embody this deficient, cold end of the spectrum have to be careful with their diet & lifestyle early in life, as they don’t have a lot of extra energy to expend on being careless with their health. That’s why some people can eat processed & fast food, smoke, drink, and dance the hoochie coo til they’re 90, while some of us have to be careful from a very young age with what we eat, with what foods we combine in the same meal, and with lifestyle choices. According to macrobiotics, everyone’s constitution falls somewhere between the two extremes of excess/hot and deficient/cold, so each of us need different foods & lifestyle practices to maintain balance in mind, body and spirit. When we are in balance and feeling vital, eating what grows seasonally and regionally helps us maintain that balance. Below I’ve listed the breakdown of which foods and cooking methods have either a warming or cooling thermal effect on our bodies according to macrobiotics. You can use these guidelines to help you warm up or cool down - either to balance your constitution or to deal with the weather.
Next month, I’ll list the basic diet & lifestyle guidelines for the three constitutional types according to Ayurveda, the diet & lifestyle philosophy of India. I encourage you to experiment with different paths, one at a time, to discover which path or combination of paths works best to help your unique body type maintain balance and vitality.
Maintaining balance through the seasons according to macrobiotics spring and summer foods for a cooling & cleansing effect: - veggies/greens: bok choy, mustard greens, turnip and radish tops, green beans, lettuces, sprouts, summer squash & zucchini
- fruits: grapes, berries, melons, stone fruits & tropical fruits like banana, mango & pineapple
- grains: millet, corn, quinoa
- cooking methods which impart a cooling thermal nature into food: fruits & vegetables eaten raw, lightly sauted with some water, blanched or steamed in stainless steel
fall and winter foods for a warming & building effect:
-fall and winter veggies: root veggies, winter squash, sturdy winter greens like kale, collards, Brussel’s sprouts and cabbage
- grains: wheat, rye, kamut, amaranth
- more fats and animal products in the fall & winter
- winter fruits like apples, pears and kiwi
- cooking methods which impart a warming thermal nature into food: bake, pressure-cook, use cast iron
March Recipes:
Black eyed pea, shitake mushroom & arame stew and perfect brown rice
Black eyed pea, shitake mushroom & arame stew: This recipe is full of wonderful major minerals and trace minerals & so easy to re-heat for people with busy schedules. Soak 4 cups dry black eyed peas for 24hrs under 6 inches filtered water in a large (6 - 8 qt.) pot. The next day, rinse off the old soak water and replace with fresh filtered water (enough so the beans are covered by at least 3 inches of water). Bring to a boil, skimming excess foam off the top for the first few minutes. Reduce to simmer, then after 20 minutes of simmering put the lid on at an angle and simmer another 40 minutes. After beans are simmered for 1 hour, add 3 Tbsp ground cumin, ½ tsp cayenne, and 2 Tbsp each ground coriander and ginger. Stir and simmer another 5 minutes. Add 4 cups chopped carrots, 2 cups chopped shitake mushrooms, and a large handful dried arame sea vegetable. Simmer 3 more minutes, and add 4-5 cups (or as much as will fit in the pot) greens such as chopped kale, collards, savoy cabbage, bok choy or mustard greens. Turn off heat and stir in 1 Tbsp each dried dill, sage & tarragon. Add 5 Tbsp ghee or olive oil, and 3 - 5 Tbsp each shoyu or tamari soy sauce, stir and squeeze and lemon juice. Stir in some cooked grain (positively perfect brown rice goes great!) at the end if there’s room in the pot. A nice salad on the side makes this a perfect meal!
Updated perfect brown rice recipe: Since several clients have been confused about the amount of fresh water to cover the soaked brown rice with before simmering. The updated recipe follows...I welcome any questions anyone has about this. In fact, I welcome any questions anyone has about anything in the realm of whole foods diet & lifestyle as preventative medicine.
courtney@cookwell.org
Positively Perfect Brown Rice: The health benefits of organic brown rice are innumerable according to the book Healing With Whole Foods. Rinse 2 cups organic short grain brown rice and soak overnight under an inch of filtered water in the saucepan you plan to cook it in. The next day, pour off the soak water and refill the pot so that the fresh water level is about 3/4 of an inch above the level of the rice - measure it if you have to! (No ruler? It’s the length of your fore finger from the tip to the very first knuckle / joint just above your fingernail- not halfway up your finger). Soaked rice requires way less water to simmer than unsoaked rice. In fact, this 3/4 inch rule applies to every pot of soaked rice, no matter how big the pot, or how much rice you’ve soaked. Okay, after you’ve got that 3/4 inch of fresh water over the rice, bring it to a boil, reduce to simmer, and stir in1/2 tsp whole sea salt for roughly every 2 cups of rice. Put the lid on the pot at an angle so the steam can escape, and simmer for 40 minutes exactly. Comes out wonderfully fluffy every time.
