MAY RECIPE: The Seasonal Casserole To Go
This is a great casserole to make ahead of your busy schedule. What I like most about it is that you can totally individualize the recipe; it can be made with any of your favorite veggies, with or without cheese or meat, and even without eggs! It takes about 2 hours to make, but it’s well worth the effort. The entire dish can be cooled and refrigerated for easy spatula servings into wax paper baggies for lunch on the go all week long. Yay!

PART 1
Soak 1 cup whole grain millet and 1cup whole grain amaranth overnight under 2 inches filtered water in the medium saucepan you plan to cook it in. Soaking whole grains does 3 things: 1) it makes the grain's vitamins & minerals more assimilatable, 2) it initiates the sprouting process and then many more amino acids develop for your body to make proteins from, and 3) it makes the complex carbs much easier to digest.
Okay, the next day, strain off the soak water and refill the pot with 3 cups filtered water. Bring to a boil, stir in 1/2 tsp whole sea salt, reduce to a low simmer, put the lid on the pot at an angle so the steam can escape, and simmer for 25 minutes.
This thick gruel is a nutrient-packed base for any meal. Use it for breakfast or dessert alongside raw nuts & seasonal fruit, OR with beans or stir-fry!

PART 2
Stir-steam a bunch of diced seasonal veggies (below), and then mix in a dozen beaten eggs along with the simmered millet & amaranth (high quality meat & cheese optional) and pour everything into a casserole dish to bake. 

INGREDIENTS
8 cups diced seasonal vegetables:
   in spring/summer use: yellow squash or zucchini, asparagus, broccoli & bok choy
   in fall use: carrot or parsnip, green beans & collard greens
   in winter use: yam, burdock root, yellow onion & kale
3Tbsp ghee or coconut oil
1Tbsp yellow curry powder
3-4Tbsp Ohsawa or Eden brand shoyu or tamari soy sauce (or 1Tbsp sea salt if you can’t do soy)
1Tbsp minced fresh rosemary and/or marjoram & dill
12 high quality eggs (the eggs can technically be left out because the amaranth holds the ingredients together pretty well after the dish cools)
Optional: 1/2 c. drained sun-dried tomatoes (kids usually don’t like these)
Optional: 1 cup grated organic cheese (I like goat cheddar!)
Optional: 1lb cooked & diced high quality, consciously raised meat like organic chicken or grass fed beef

HOW TO
Sauté most dense veggies (root vegetables & onion) in ghee or coconut oil in a large wok or deep pot with a fitting lid with curry powder and 1 cup water for 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds. Next add less-dense veggies (green beans, summer squash, broccoli, asparagus, etc.) and stir, then saute for another minute. Next add dark leafy greens like kale or collards, cover the skillet and let saute another minute. Uncover skillet and stir greens into bottom of pan until they’re all slightly wilted and wet looking. Turn off the heat & add shoyu or tamari soy sauce and herbs. Stir in sun-dried tomatoes (optional), a dozen beaten eggs, 4 cups simmered millet & amaranth, and optional cheese/meat. Pour into buttered 9 x 13” casserole dish (use two baking dishes if needed) and bake uncovered for 35 minutes at 350°. When a wooden skewer stick comes out dry, it’s done! Let cool for at least 20 minutes.
Lemon juice squeezed over each serving tastes fantastic! Refrigerate the rest for easy meals to go. I just put a 4” square of it into a wax paper bag and take an avocado along for a hearty lunch away from home. Having this dish ready in the fridge is a God-send on those rushy mornings!

I Had No Idea Our Adrenals Were Fatigued!

Don & I laughed harder than we had in weeks while we were driving recently. Don was commenting on how tired he’s been feeling lately. He said that when he wakes up in the morning, he feels about 80% as tired as when he laid down to go to sleep. I shook my head. We were stopped at a light behind a heavily bumper stickered car. Don said, “They should make a bumper sticker that says, ‘I wonder if Jesus was this tired too’.” And we laughed, hard, even though we realized something was seriously wrong.

The Symptoms
A few months later, I was on the phone with a girlfriend, and she was telling me about her symptoms of adrenal fatigue. It was a bit scary when I realized that Don had been waking up feeling tired, I’d been getting tired around 1PM and needed either a nap or caffeine or sugar to make it through the rest of the day, and we both had been experiencing pounding hearts when lying down to nap or sleep. The other symptoms are; loss of head hair, feeling rundown or overwhelmed, craving salty and sweet snacks, feeling more awake and energetic after 6PM than you do all day, slow to start in the morning, gastric ulcers, afternoon headaches, feeling full or bloated, blurred vision, unstable behavior, becoming shaky or light-headed if meals are missed or delayed, cannot stay asleep or cannot fall asleep, and dizziness when moving from sitting to standing or lying to standing.

What Causes Adrenal Fatigue?
I started researching, and discovered that 66% of people in our modern world experience this disorder to one degree or another. This is no surprise to me, as I hardly know anyone who doesn’t over-use coffee (For 14 years, I always had a strong cup of green or black tea to get going in the morning, and usually another cup in the afternoon). Stress is the main issue, and it permeates our lives in many forms. Here’s what Diane Sanfilippo has to say about the many causes of adrenal fatigue and recommended supplements to overcome it. Her entire article is an excellent read, by the way.

“Contributors to the stress that leads to adrenal fatigue can be lifestyle stressors including but not limited to: lack of sleep, poor food choices, use of stimulants, pulling “all-nighters” or “pushing through” a day despite being tired, perfectionism, staying in no-win situations for too long, over training, lack of fun or stress-relieving practices. Those who are: students, medical professionals, single parents, unhappily married, unhappy or unsatisfied at work, are self-employed or starting a new business, abuse drugs or alcohol, have alternating shift schedules or who are the “all work and no play” types have lifestyles that lead to adrenal fatigue. Furthermore, life events that can lead to adrenal fatigue include: unrelieved pressure or stress at work, any crisis or severe emotional trauma, death of a loved one, major surgery, extended or chronic illness, sudden change in life situations such as loss of a job or moving without much friend or family support in a new location and repeated or extended chemical exposure. (Wilson, 17-18) The problem of stress might not be such an issue if we weren’t compounding many stressors over the course of days, weeks, months and years without much downtime for our systems. So, while the condition of adrenal fatigue can come on suddenly as triggered by a traumatic or severe life event, most commonly it is experienced after a gradual, cumulative effect of multiple stressors.”


How Do We Heal?
Nearly each of us are bombarded by multiple stressors in our modern world. So, how do we work to heal our adrenal glands?

• Wean yourself off more than one cup per day of coffee and other stimulants. Ideally, we shouldn’t need any stimulants to get going in the morning, or to keep going in the afternoon. A fresh green juice each morning is a wonderful way to get lots of oxygen-rich chlorophyll to the brain, which, I find energizes me nicely. Don & I make a green juice about 4 mornings a week with: 3 carrots, 6 stalks celery, 1 large cucumber, 1-2 inch piece of fresh ginger and/or fresh turmeric root, 1 clove of garlic, and 1/2 bunch either cilantro, parsley or dandelion greens (or all three). This combination is very cleansing and nourishing, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, and soothing to the digestive system. Recommended teas to substitute for coffee are: Tulsi (aka: Holy Basil), Ashwaganda, Ginseng, Ginger, Licorice Root, and Ginko Biloba. CAUTION: use only small amounts and light steeping of ginseng, ashwaganda, or any other stimulating herbs, as they work the adrenals  - just use enough to take the edge off your caffeine-withdrawl tiredness and headache, and within a couple of weeks you won’t need these herbs anymore either. You want to work toward waking up naturally with all the energy you’ll need for the day, as our bodies are designed to do. What’s normal and encouraged is to begin feeling tired and then lying down for a nap around 4 or 5PM.  
• Get more sleep. Getting to bed by 10PM at the latest is encouraged, before your second wind kicks in around 11PM. And, sleeping in until 9AM whenever possible is necessary for full recovery in severe cases of adrenal fatigue.
• Eat a well balanced, low glycemic, whole foods diet with lots of organic vegetables and fruit, plenty of good fats (especially Omega 3s), and the kind of protein that works best for your nutritional type. Here’s Joseph Mercola’s free nutritional typing test.
• Never skip breakfast, and make it a protein meal
•  Get enough re-mineralized water each day
• Don’t spike the blood sugar, even with with high glycemic complex carbs such as bread products, corn, white rice, potato, and super sugary fruits such as melon. The lower glycemic fruits are berries, green apple, lime, lemon, currants, cherries, apricot, guava, grapefruit, kiwi, papaya, orange, peach, and plum.
• Avoid trans-fats such as french fries, all other fried food from restaurants, and cooking at home with refined vegetable oils like canola, soy, and “vegetable” oil.
• Learn to establish healthy boundaries in unhealthy or draining relationships - practice saying ‘NO’ to demands of your time and attention so you can have time to take care of yourself.
• Whatever you aren’t enjoying in your life, take steps to change or leave the situation.
• Exercise in ways that are fun for you, and don’t over exercise or under exercise.
• Schedule time each day to play with people you love or your pets. Laugh several times a day.
• Journal about everything you’re grateful for.
• Take vitamin C, pantothenic acid, magnesium, and vitamin .
• Take pregnenolone and DHEA, as needed.
• Avoid becoming over-tired.

Great Breakfast Ideas!    

SO MANY PEOPLE ask me what I eat for breakfast. Yes, I too have experienced that breakfast is a huge key to whether or not I feel great and have vital energy throughout the day.
For me, it basically breaks down to what I feel like eating that particular morning. Having the same thing every day would get old fast, and wouldn’t serve my body’s need for diversity of nutrients and flavors. Usually, I want a couple of over-easy eggs with some steamed fennel bulb, carrot, and dark leafy greens drizzled with lemon juice and olive oil. But often, I feel like having a complex carbohydrate-based breakfast on the sweet side...sweet, but still low-glycemic.

EGGS & GREENS   
Whenever I want a protein and greens breakfast, I wash, cut and steam my veggies and greens (recipe below), turn them out onto a plate, drizzle high-quality olive oil and lemon juice, and set them aside. Then, I fry a couple of high-quality eggs over easy in my favorite cast iron pan, in either a teaspoon of butter or ghee. I usually set my eggs right on top of all the luscious veggies & greens, so that when I break into them with my fork, the rich yolk drips down onto the veggies. YUM! Eggs from pastured chickens are rich in omega 3 fatty acids, which are only bio-available when the yolk is left runny....how ‘bout that!

RECIPE: Steamed Veggies & Dark Leafy Greens to alkalize the body
In a deep, medium sized stainless steel saucepan, place a fitting steamer basket and about 2 cups of water in the bottom. Wash and slice 1/3 of a fennel bulb, and a small carrot into 1/4 inch pieces. Burdock root (blood cleanser and overall body strengthener - pictured in photo above) is great here too, when it’s in season. Place all the root veggies in the bottom of the steamer basket, and steam for about 3 minutes until almost tender. Next, stuff two big handfuls of washed & chopped kale, collards, and/or broccoli on top of the root veggies, cover again and steam for another minute. Uncover to make sure all greens are slightly wilted and wet-looking. Steam another 30 seconds if not. Remove lid immediately, and carefully (so you don’t burn your hands with the steam) turn all the veggies and greens out onto a plate. Drizzle lemon juice and a high-quality virgin olive oil on top. After you eat this, you’ll feel invincible all day long!


BROWN RICE-BASED BREAKFASTS (these also double as desserts!)
Whenever I feel like having that sweet, carby yet low-glycemic meal (not just at breakfast, but often for dessert!), I’ll break into the leftover brown rice I always have in my fridge. I’ll put a cup or so of rice into a bowl, chop whatever seasonal fruit I have on hand, and mix the fruit into the rice. Lastly, I’ll sprinkle some fresh, raw nuts on top. With a bit of fruit and nuts in each bite of brown rice, I’m in heaven! Who knew such deliciousness could happen from three simple ingredients!

Whenever you’re feeling a bit more extravagant and you want more flavor, you can warm your leftover rice in a saucepan with several other ingredients of choice. Below is one of my favorite recipes I call Apple Pie Rice. Use this recipe structure to flavor your brown rice-based breakfasts or desserts in whatever way you please! Just choose a fat (coconut oil, butter, or ghee), a spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, cocoa, carob, etc.), a salt (Himilayan pink, etc), a liquid sweetener (Nu Naturals vanilla stevia, Sweet Leaf english toffee stevia, or one teaspoon of raw honey or grade B maple syrup for a medium glycemic treat), and whatever seasonal fruit and raw nuts you like (or dried coconut!). Voila! You’ve got a delightfully flavorful, whole food breakfast or dessert!

RECIPE: Apple Pie Rice
This is a low-glycemic treat - better for you than apple pie, and tastes twice as good! In a small saucepan over low heat add 1/2 cup water and 2 cups freshly simmered (or leftover) brown rice, 2 Tbsp butter or coconut oil, ½ tsp whole sea salt, 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice and ½ tsp allspice. Simmer & stir for 3 minutes or so, adding more water if it’s too thick for you). Turn off heat & add 12 drops Sweet Leaf brand English Toffee stevia (1 tsp grade B maple syrup or raw honey if not using stevia). Stir until mixed well & add 1 medium diced fresh apple. Enjoy warm, and top individual servings with pecans, walnuts or almonds and possibly....raspberry drizzle! Here’s how to whip it up: in a small bowl mix the juice of 1 ripe lemon (Meyer lemon is best), 8 drops Nu Naturals vanilla stevia & 1 cup mashed raspberries from fresh or frozen. Wow! That tastes like apple pie with a raspberry drizzle!

Comfort Food, Human Connection, and Quantum Physics
                                        March 2013

    Ever find yourself magnetically drawn to the shelves of chocolate at the CoOp or New Frontiers? Ever think, “awe, to hell with my food-allergy restrictions today...I need that croissant!” Pleasure foods sometimes give us a very necessary, temporary comfort which can ground us in feelings of safety, help us move on with a stressful day, or simply help us access joy and gratitude. Let’s face it. The world can be way too fast-paced, hectic, and even frightening. When the pressure builds, letting ourselves enjoy our favorite foods, gives us that short retreat we may need to remember that everything will be okay.

    I’ve recently realized that eating pleasure foods can be key to cultivating joy in life. For some people, it’s one of the few pleasures we have left. I’ve also seen that eating with others is many people’s most common venue for sociability. I’ve come to understand this, only after 18 years on my path of discovering which foods make me feel best, day to day, situation to situation, emotion to changing emotion.

    For most people, it’s nearly impossible to eat a 100% whole foods diet, and ultimately, I don’t believe that should be the goal. Coming from being overly disciplined with my diet for many years, in finally allowing myself (with awareness) to indulge once in a while, I can now experience the wonderful blessing of tasting delectable foods! Also, I get tons of needed human connection in going out to eat about once a week with my husband Don, or when meeting a friend for lunch downtown, or when gathering with people at a potluck. Granted, I choose wisely based on my food-knowledge, but I don’t obsess about each ingredient anymore. I’m now uplifted emotionally by spending quality time with the people I love over delicious food. 

    I think it’s also sometimes important to experience these feelings of joy, contentment and gratitude with delicious food when we’re alone...whenever we need an emotionally-soothing deviation from our usual diet. Of utmost importance to having a healthy relationship with food, is the awareness of why we’re making certain choices. Are we being emotionally driven? When we’re aware of this, we can then either choose to indulge, or choose to re-write our patterns of eating for comfort. When we’re unaware, indulgence tends to happen so often that it leads to imbalance and illness.

    This food-wisdom has been bestowed upon me by my wonderful husband, who believes that the emotions we experience when we eat, are as important (and sometimes more important) than what we eat! To be always worried about whether the food we eat will cause or cure cancer, that we never allow ourselves to enjoy our favorite comfort food, or food shared with friends and family at the holidays, limits our experience of life’s pleasures, and can cause stress and social isolation, which can lead to illness.

    Science has lately proven that having good emotions while eating, aids digestion and nutrient assimilation, and tells our bodies that we’re safe and happy. According to quantum physics, whatever food we eat can be transformed into building blocks for a happy, peaceful human being with our thoughts, beliefs, and intentions. Now, that being said, since none of us are disciplined spiritual masters, I would not recommend eating mostly processed or fast food, thinking that a prayer will change it each time into beneficial nourishment. But I do LOVE my friend Karyn’s prayer. She says this to herself whenever she eats food that is less than ideal: “My mind is strong. My mind keeps my body healthy. Everything I eat turns to health and beauty.” She believes it, and voila! To a mysterious degree, it is so! Karyn is an extremely healthy, vital, glowing woman who’s approaching 70 years old, who can still squat easily while working in her garden or playing with her neighbor’s children. This food-prayer she’s offered us, is a wonderful tool, which each of us can use in today’s world full of refined and genetically modified foods.

    Of course, comfort foods are definitely not beneficial for people with illness. Someone with a progressed disease such as diabetes, kidney disease, or cancer will benefit greatly by preparing 100% of their meals with whole, organic foods and probably by also drinking green juices until they’re well again. Only when a person is well and healthy and in balance, do I suggest deviating form one’s healing, nourishing, whole food diet. The key in cases of illness would be creating a pleasure food which is emotionally satisfying from whole ingredients, like one of those amazing raw desserts sweetened with Nu Naturals vanilla stevia!

    So why aren’t each of us able to eat only the refined, packaged and fast foods, and willfully transcend all of the ill-effects? I don’t believe the answer is simple. Each person is dealing with a variety of factors other than what they eat and drink regularly, including stress, quality of sleep, regular exercise, regular connection with others, mental and emotional habits, exposure to toxins, etc...all of which add up to whether we are healthy or sick or any shade of grey between. And, lets certainly not forget the biggest factor: The Great Mystery of this life, with it’s physical challenges and lessons which cause us to learn and grow spiritually. Life is so humbling, and I am grateful every minute for my healthy body.

    In reverence of The Great Mystery of life, I have also seen lots of evidence that we can take a powerful role in our health by feeding our body whole foods regularly. In doing so, we are building the physical, structural foundation for a healthy body, which effects our minds, emotions and habits. Everything is connected. What’s most inspiring to me, is the fact that our bodies are designed to be self-regulating and self-renewing, and that cellularly, we are totally new every seven years down to our teeth and bones! Our bodies naturally balance and heal themselves when given the tools of whole foods. I’m also inspired by people who are able to consistently eat whole foods and maintain quality connections with others. I love the photos of tribal people with elders squatting around the fire at 90 years old, laughing and cooking with the rest of the tribe.

    In teaching people to CookWell, I hope to help them learn to use the natural flavors of whole salts, whole fats, herbs and spices, lemon juice, and the freshest ingredients, to create amazingly tasty whole food snacks and meals which also comfort them emotionally. As people begin to eat more and more whole foods, the extreme flavors of packaged foods become less appealing. Our taste buds eventually adjust to enjoy natural flavors. For me, my usual lunch or dinner of black beans, brown rice, seasonal veggie stir-steam, and avocado is deeply gratifying and comforting. I hope to re-define the words, “comfort food”, to mean food which is BOTH emotionally comforting and physically nourishing...food which is grown, harvested, and prepared with love, food which is totally nourishing and vitalizing, and food which is so delicious that it soothes our hearts and minds. I’d like to help make this experience possible for everyone in the world, for a healthier, happier humanity. I know it’s possible at the level of the individual, because I’ve done it for myself. I believe it’s possible for you too, in your journey of learning to cook with whole foods.

JANUARY ARTICLE

Praise To Water Kefir - How To Make The Easiest And Best Probiotic Drink Ever!

I can’t imagine what I would do without my favorite, new, cultured drink. I surely wouldn’t feel as well as I do right now! My new love is called water kefir, and it’s an amazing probiotic drink that has 30 different strains of beneficials. I’ve been culturing and drinking it regularly for about 3 months now, since my awesome friend Lauren Bell gave me a some kefir “grains” so I could start my own batch.

Water kefir is the easiest to make, and the most potent homemade probiotic drink I’ve experienced yet, and I highly recommend it to everyone, young and old. Kefir is traditionally made using raw milk, but a slightly different strain of kefir grains (called water kefir) can be cultured using water as a medium with organic sugar and molasses (or raisins) to feed the grains. Kefir has beneficial bacteria AND beneficial yeasts, while kombucha has just beneficial bacteria. I feel so good from having water kefir as a regular part of my diet, that as my kefir “grains” multiply, I’ve been giving them away to friends to start their own batches. Water kefir has kept my inner ecosystem in better balance than any probiotic I’ve tried so far. Also, it’s way less expensive to culture than buying pricey probiotic supplements. Hallelujah!!!

Water kefir grains usually look like tiny, jell-like, cauliflower heads, but sometimes they take the shape of cubes. I know. It’s weird, but water kefir has recently saved me from experiencing candida yeast overgrowth symptoms, even throughout the holidays!

Kefir grains need clean, filtered water (not tap water), as they are very sensitive to chemicals like chlorine. And, they don’t like metal, so always use a wooden spoon when working with them. They need fairly refined, organic sugar to multiply. Don’t worry about the sugar; the grains metabolize the sugar, and when the drink is ready after 1-2 days, there’s little to no sugar left in it (details below).

The ratio of kefir grains to sugar & molasses to water is:
1 cup of water kefir grains
1/3 cup organic cane sugar (sugar that’s almost white - not brown like rapidura sugar or sucanat)
4/5 quart of filtered water (or, as much water as will fill the jar with the grains in it)
1tsp unsulphured molasses to supply the grains with minerals (instead of molasses, you can use 1/3 cup organic unsulphured raisins, but it’s a bit tedious to fish them out & throw them away each time you drink the liquid and feed the grains again).

To dissolve the sugar and molasses into the 4/5 quart of water, either shake it up in a separate quart jar, or slightly warm the water in a saucepan and stir the sugar in until dissolved (be sure water is not hot to the touch when adding it to the kefir grains). Once you’ve provided the kefir grains with sugar water and molasses or raisins, it’ll take 1-2 days to culture. In warm temperatures (70-85 degrees), 1 day of culturing is sufficient for the sweet taste of the sugar to diminish significantly. If it’s colder, (55-70 degrees), it takes up to 2 days for the sugar to fully metabolize. I like it when it’s way less sweet (don’t get me started about eating low glycemic as preventative medicine!). Generally, after 24 hrs of culturing, water kefir has about 20% of the sugar you initially fed the grains, and after 48 hrs, it has only 5% of the sugar left. After the sugars are metabolized, it will develop about 1% alcohol content, and it’ll become higher in alcohol the longer you let it ferment (much like kombucha). I don’t let it go for too long into alcohol-land because the beneficial probiotic bacteria can’t survive for long in an alcoholic environment. But, like Lauren says about a slightly alcoholic kefir brew, it’s like having a beer that yields vitality instead of depletion!

To culture water kefir, place the jar on the kitchen counter or in a cupboard out of direct light (indirect light helps the grains multiply) with a loose-fitting lid so the fizzy gasses it produces can escape. When you estimate that it’s ready based on the temperature of your home, pour a bit of the liquid into a cup to taste. If it’s fizzy and no longer super sweet tasting, just discard the raisins if you used them (most of them will have floated to the top), and strain the liquid into a glass for drinking. Drink the liquid within a few hours or store it in the fridge for up to 3 days. An easy way to strain the liquid is by holding your clean hand against the lip of the jar to hold back the grains as you pour the liquid into a glass for drinking. Or, you can strain the liquid using a hand-held strainer basket - just hold the basket over another jar or drinking glass and pour.

About every 2 weeks, you’ll want to transfer your kefir grains into a clean jar because there will be a film that has accumulated at the waterline at the top of the original jar. If you go away from home, just feed your grains fresh sugar water, and store them in the fridge for up to a week. The grains will even bounce back to life after being frozen, which is amazing to me!

Kefir grains often multiply quickly, so after about a month or so, you can give excess grains away to friends (one cup at a time) as Lauren did for me, along with the instructions. Lauren also taught me that excess kefir grains can also be given to pets as probiotic support, or tossed into your compost to add beneficial bacteria and yeasts to your future soil! Lauren Bell is an amazing woman, by the way, and I absolutely must share with you her local consultation & support business for helping make your home (or any building) energy efficient, water efficient, and toxin-free: www.globellgreen.com

I like to get 2 quarts of water kefir culturing 24 hrs apart, so that I can enjoy an entire quart of my amazing, fizzy kefir drink daily. Lauren has a family of four, so she has 4-5 quarts culturing at a time, each batch with its own post-it noting the estimated drinking time. Lately, I’ve been most enjoying the flavor and fizziness of a 48 hour brew because our kitchen has been cooler than usual in this wintery weather. Have fun finding your favorite water kefir culturing time throughout the various seasons. And big cheers to your abounding health this new year, and on forevermore into our budding golden age!