Food Focus: Herbal Immune Boosters

Ginger aids with digestion, Cayenne invigorates the immune system, Cinnamon increases circulation, and Turmeric is a potent immune booster and virus fighter. Garlic is a natural antibiotic which contains properties that help to boost the body’s levels of antioxidants, which work as a defense system against viruses.

Oil of Oregano is known to be a potent antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, and antiparasitic oil that can reduce pain and inflammation and effectively fight off infections. Some of the specific benefits of Oil of Oregano are:
* Destroying organisms that contribute to skin infections and digestive problems.
* Strengthening the immune system.
* Increasing joint and muscle flexibility.
* Improving respiratory health.

Also, be sure to get vitamins through vegetables and fruit. We can find Vitamin C in steamed broccoli, boiled brussels sprouts, papaya, boiled asparagus, steamed swiss chard/collard greens, or grapefruit. Get Zinc through crimini mushrooms, boiled spinach, broccoli, collards, chard, pumpkin seeds, and sesame seeds.
Herbal Ginger Tea
Grate some ginger and add to hot water. Have a ginger and cinnamon tea or try ginger, lemon and a pinch of cayenne. For sweetness, use honey (preferable raw honey).

Yogi Tea

Try this instead of a daily coffee:(You can adjust the amounts)

5 to 6 cups water
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
10 to 20 cardamom pods
2 Tbls to 1 cup fresh ginger
3 cinnamon sticks
1 teaspoon black or Assam tea

Put all ingredients except for the black tea in a pot and simmer (for as little as 20 minutes and up to a whole day). Add the tea during the last few minutes of simmering... strain and add honey and milk of any kind to taste!

Carrot Ginger Soup
6 carrots
1 medium onion
1 teaspoon sea salt
4 cups water
6-inch piece fresh ginger, finely grated
Fresh parsley to garnish

Wash, peel and cut carrots and onion into chunks.
Place vegetables and salt in a pot.
Add water and bring to boil. Cover with a lid.
Simmer on low heat for 25 minutes.
Transfer soup into blender, adding water if necessary to achieve desired consistency.
When blending is done, squeeze juice from grated ginger and add to soup.
Garnish with parsley.

Hearty Banana & Chocolate Chip Muffins

2 ripe bananas
1 3/4 cups of quick oats
1/2 cup of rye flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/6 cup of agave nectar
1 tsp of pure vanilla essence
1/3 cup grain sweetened chocolate chips
1/2 cup almond/ rice/ soy/ cow's milk

Preheat oven to 375.
Mash bananas.
Mix in with oats. Then add flour, baking powder and baking soda.
Mix in the rest of the ingredients except for the milk and then stir the milk in last.
Separate batter into four muffin baking cups and bake for 20 minutes.

Finding Certainty in Times of Challenge

With the US presidential elections next week, powerful change is upon us.

Over the past months, many of us spent a lot of our energy and focus following the presidential campaign, as well as the stock market. Mixed emotions of hope and fear have popped our dreams of freedom and abundance.

Weaving the dreams of our future into external circumstances causes us to direct the spotlight off of ourselves, and can leave us in a darkness of dependency.

Although we thankfully live in a democracy in which our voices can be heard, it is important to check in and notice if our involvement is leaving us with a feeling of empowerment or of discouragement. Are you focusing your energy on what you don’t want to see, or on the vision that you do want to create? Be sure you are tending the right garden. Whichever you attend to will be the one that grows.

“The external” is not the primary circumstance that determines your personal health or happiness. You are. Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

Stress can block the flow of positive change. Doubt can only block the manifestation of what you want in your life.

But how do we create peace at such difficult times, with the political and financial situation being as it is? Are you haunted by a future that may never happen?

Living in fear is never going to produce inner peace. These fears are excuses for us to not take control.

If you are feeling your finances are shaken, this is a message for you to reevaluate your expenses. What habits do you finance that don’t bring you any closer to your higher self? Are your daily spendings at the vending machine or at a take-out counter more important than expanding your awareness and education? Be sure not to give up the things that connect you with your inner peace. Your yoga class, dance class, gym membership, a massage, or the donations you make that open your heart to the gift of giving. These are the investments that will give you the greatest return in the long run. When we give to ourselves and to others from a place of love, we open ourselves to the possibility of trust rather than fear.

Your quality of life is not determined by your future savings as much as it is by your current enjoyment of life. When we allow worry to weigh on our shoulders and lower our head down to the ground, we are likely to miss the subtle opportunities that come our way. Look up! When you see something that helps your spirit thrive and makes you feel good, act upon it or buy it. It will increase your energy vibration and open your channels to inspiration. The higher your “vibe”, the brighter you shine, the more you will attract the abundance you desire.

When we are respectful to money and respectful to ourselves, we invest wisely. We all have an idea of what we are doing and not doing to support our higher self. Seek the support you need to create the change you want to see in yourself and your environment.

Winter Squash

Winter squash originated in the Andes of South America over 3000 years before Columbus. The word squash comes from the Narragansett Indian word askootasquash for "eaten raw." Indians baked winter squash in hot ashes and sweetened them with maple syrup or honey. Squash seeds were toasted or ground for pastes and hard shells used for containers.

Some winter squash is available year round but the season runs from August through March with the peak period from October to December.

Winter squash is a naturally sweet vegetable and can be seasoned in a similar way to sweet potatoes. To emphasize the sweetness; flavor with maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, clove and ginger. Try cooked garlic for a nutty mellowness or Chinese five-spice powder for an exotic note.

The exception is spaghetti squash. After baking a spaghetti squash (in a similar way to how the squash is baked in the recipe bellow), the flesh can be scooped with a fork like strands of spaghetti. Top it with a pasta sauce like tomato or pesto.

Toasted Winter Squash Seeds: Before cooking a squash, the seeds are removed. Rather than discarding them, rinse the seeds well in a colander and dry. Spread them on an oiled sheet pan and bake at 250 degrees for 1 hour, raising the temperature to 400 degrees during the last 5 minutes to brown lightly. Salt if desired and store in an airtight container.

Stuffed Winter Squash

2 large acorn or small butternut squash
Salt and pepper to taste
1 6-ounce package wild rice
4 cups vegetable stock or water
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 ounces mushrooms, any combination of domestic and wild, sliced
1 cup chopped onions
1 rib celery, finely chopped
1/2 cup toasted nuts, any combination of pine nuts, hazelnuts, walnuts or pecans, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 tablespoons fresh herbs such as thyme, chives or marjoram, chopped
1 egg

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut squash in half, lengthwise, scoop out the seeds and put it in a roasting pan, cut side down, with 1/2-inch of water. Bake about 40 minutes or until just tender. Remove, season with salt and pepper and lower oven to 350 degrees.

2) Meanwhile, rinse wild rice and cook in stock or water about 45 minutes or until tender. Drain and put in a mixing bowl. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms onions and celery. Cook until mushrooms wilt and onion softens, about 5 minutes. Add to wild rice along with nuts, parsley, herbs, salt and pepper. Add eggs and mix well.

3) Put stuffing into squash cavities, mounding slightly. Cover with foil and bake in a lightly greased baking dish 25 minutes or until heated through.
Serves 4.

Recipe courtesy of Sam Gugino of Sam Cooks.

Falling Into Reflection, Finding Balance With the Season

With the arrival of fall and winter coming around the corner, our body and mind, day by day, make gradual adjustments.

In nature, fall is a time when everything begins to slow down. The weather cools, day light shortens, and the trees and animals begin their preparations to conserve their energy for the winter season. While nature may be slowing down, our schedules often don’t allow us to do the same. Commonly this is the time of year where we fall out of sync with the natural cycle around us.

As the heat settles, so does the expansive and moving energy that it carries. Water is a perfect example of this; as it is heated it will expand into evaporation. Cold has a contractive affect, turning water molecules into solid ice. (Let us not forget that our bodies are more than 75% water.) Summer heat provides a high energy time of year and as the days cool, our energy begins to withdraw inwards and movement begins to slow down. We find ourselves in a more internal, reflective time of year.

Consciously preparing for the transition into winter can help make the darker and colder season a time of beauty and comfort instead of a time to dread. Fall provides us the time of transition into a new state of mind. Just as water does not go from boiling to ice with the change of only one degree, our bodies do not make the transition from summer to winter immediately. Fall provides us with the process of cooling and slowing down.

We must be extra careful to take care of ourselves and find time to restore. Choosing and preparing food according to the season is part of that process.

All foods and flavors have different effects in the body. Some foods are warming while others cool the body’s thermal temperature. Here in New England, the vegetables that grow in the summer cool our bodies during the hot and humid season while the fall vegetable harvest has a more warming, dense and stable balance. When we eat seasonal, local foods, we receive the energies that naturally balance out the seasonal shifts that occur within our bodies.

The way we prepare our food also plays a role in the effect they have on our body. Rather than keeping to the raw foods and grilling methods of summer cooking, which keep the cooling properties, fall and winter are about slower cooked meals that are cooked on a lower heat for a longer period of time. This releases the more warming qualities of our food and provides a settling affect on the expansive (and sometimes scattered) patterns of the warmer seasons.

Baked foods, sautéed foods, heartier foods, and root vegetables all contribute towards the thickening of the blood. If one lives in a cold climate, it is necessary that the blood get thicker as the weather grows colder.

Traditional Chinese Medicine suggests that we can use different flavors to synchronize the body’s energy with the seasons. During summer, pungent, spicy foods may have served a purpose as they provide an outwardly expansive energy; causing us to break into a sweat. Since fall is a process of contracting our energy inwards, we want to incorporate flavors that effect us in a similar way. Sour foods are a good example of a contracting food (think of the face you make when biting into a lemon!). Sour foods include sauerkraut, olives, pickles, vinegar, leeks, adzuki beans, yogurt, lemons, limes, sour apples and sourdough bread. Extremely sour foods should be used in very small amounts as they have a strong effect.(*1) Salty is another flavor that is helpful in balancing the body during the fall and winter. Wholesome salts are found in foods such as unrefined salt, seaweeds, barley, millet, soy sauce, miso, or pickles that are prepared in salt water.(*2)

In modern times it is easy to create a routine that lasts all year round. We can have the same temperature in our house, the same foods in the fridge and the same long working days even when it is dark outside. Internally our body is changing with the seasons and the more we can adapt to those changes, the more we can maintain our vitality and health.

(*1) Caution: Minimize sour foods when feeling a “heavy mind or body” or constipation.

(*2) Caution: Minimize salt in conditions of over weight, edema, lethargy, or high blood pressure.

Curried Lentil & Butternut Soup

1 Tbls, olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2-3 garlic cloves, minced

1 sweet potato, diced

1 butternut squash, peeled and diced

1 cup red lentils

1 Tbls. Curry

1 Tbls. Garam Masala (Indian spices). (If not available, add 1 more Tbls. Curry)

Salt and Pepper

4 cups of water or Vegetable broth

Heat oil in large pot and sautee garlic and onion until tender.

Add curry and masala spices and cook for 30 seconds.

Add sweet potato and squash and mix.

Add lentils, salt, pepper, and broth/water.

Bring to boil and then simmer for 40 minutes.

This soup is delicious when pureed.

Optional: add 1 Tbls. Lemon juice right after taking the soup off the stove.

Optional: add dried or fresh coconut while cooking.

The Natural Choice

When walking down the aisles of a supermarket it can be very confusing to figure out what we should eat in order to be maximally healthy. The shelves are stocked with edible food-like substances packaged in pretty boxes and decorated with endless amounts of “health claim” advertisements.

A box of cereal can have up to 15 health claims on its box while the unpackaged vegetable has none. Am I to understand from this that a processed cracker is by far the healthier choice?!

While the poor silent carrot sits in silence in the produce section, the sugary cereal is screaming in aisle four about its whole grain goodness. This might be good for business, but is it good for us?

If you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid most food products that make health claims. Such claims on a food product are a good indication that it’s not really food, it’s a scientific invention. Food is what you want to eat.

As a general rule of thumb: the more a food needs to be advertised, the less healthy it probably is for you.

To make things simpler, forget the advertised nutrients and look out for the hidden anti-nutrients. If nutrients help us live a healthy life, anti-nutrients are the substances that cause the opposite effect.

These anti-nutrients include:

Poor quality fats:Most packaged foods contain fats such as hydrogenated oil, partially hydrogenated oil, cottonseed oil and olestra. These are the fats that have given all fats an unjust reputation.

Poor quality sugar: Look out for ingredient names such as high fructose corn syrup, white sugar, glucose, Florida Crystals and ALL artificial sweeteners. Sugar is a cheap and addictive ingredient that some companies add to their products in order to boost sales.

Poor quality white flour: Most mass-produced breads, cookies, muffins, bagels, crackers, pastries, donuts and breakfast cereals are made from this highly processed flour. Similar to processed sugar, this food-like substance provides no nutrients. When we eat, we use some of our stored nutrient resources to digest our food. When eating white sugar and flour we get no nutrient resources in return. This leaves us more depleted of energy than we were before we ate.

Poor quality dairy:The meat and dairy industry in our country has reached a point where the animals are treated so inhumanly that they must be pumped with antibiotics and hormones in order to keep them alive. These added hormones, combined with the animals’ high level of natural stress hormones, are found in each of these products. Thankfully, due to customer demand, most supermarkets are now offering affordable organic milk, yogurt and cheese. You can also look to leafy greens, nuts and seeds for excellent sources of calcium.

Poor quality meat:This is the meat found in fast-food, processed meats (such as packaged cold cuts) and commercially produced hot dogs. Similar to the dairy industry, any meat that is not raised without the use of antibiotics and hormones is of low quality. Would you like a side of fries with your antibiotics?

The quality of your food defines the quality of your life. The food that you eat is broken down in your body and is used to build your cells and tissues. If you want to feel energized and alive you must build your body from foods that contain energy and life.

Foods that are alive have life force. They are often raw and will spoil if left out. Let’s put it this way; if microorganisms cannot thrive on it, what makes me think I can?

Foods that don’t go bad are usually already dead. They have had all life processed out of them and are packed with preservatives to keep them from decaying. Processing foods removes the natural elements of fiber, vitamins and minerals. Our cells need these nutritional elements to communicate with each other. When they are processed out of our foods, our systems are unable to function at their best. We start to fall apart both physically and emotionally. Our cells don’t just build our muscles and bones; what we consume feeds our brain cells, our nervous system and hormonal system. If your cells are regenerating from processed foods alone, how healthy do you think you will feel?

If you want your body and your every thought to vibrate with life force, you must feed it life, not science.

Natural Sweeteners

Who among us doesn’t love sweets? The sweet flavor releases serotonin in our brains, the chemical responsible for our sense of well-being and contentment. But when it comes to sweeteners, not all are created equal. There are side effects and health risks from refined sweeteners like white table sugar and high fructose corn syrup, and from artificial sweeteners like NutraSweet, saccharin and Splenda. Because they have been stripped of vitamins, minerals and fiber, refined sweeteners can spike blood sugar. This can often lead to cravings and mood and energy fluctuations. Instead, if we use naturally and minimally processed sweeteners, we can reduce cravings for sugary things, level blood sugar ups and downs, stabilize moods and have a dramatically positive effect on long-term health.

Here are a few natural sweeteners to substitute in food, drinks and baking. Since they are all approximately 1.5 times sweeter than refined sugar, you can use less. These sweeteners can be found in most supermarkets or natural food stores. When replacing sugar with liquid sweeteners in a recipe, reduce the amounts of other liquids.

Raw Honey:Honey is one of the oldest natural sweeteners on the market. Depending on the plant source, honey provides a variety of flavors for you to choose from. Whenever possible, choose raw honey as a sweetener. Raw honey is unrefined and contains small amounts of enzymes, minerals, and vitamins.

Agave Nectar: Agave is made through the extraction and purification of the juice of the agave cactus. It does not stimulate insulin secretion as other sugars do, so it does not create a "sugar rush" and spares you from the “sugar crash.” It has a delightfully light and mild flavor.

Maple Syrup: Maple syrup is the concentrated extract of the sap of maple trees. It adds a rich, deep flavor to foods and drinks. Make sure to look for 100% pure maple syrup, not maple-flavored corn syrup. As with all sweeteners, organic varieties of maple syrup are best.

Maple Fruit Compote with Honey-Ginger Toasted Nuts

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Serves: 4

2-3 apples

2-3 peaches or pears

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1/2 cup raisins

juice of 1 lemon

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup walnuts, or nuts of your choice

1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced

2 tablespoons honey

1. Wash, core and chop fruit into slices or chunks.

2. Place in a large saucepan with 1/3 cup of water. Add the maple syrup and raisins.

3. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes.

4. Add lemon juice and cinnamon. Cook for another 10 minutes, until soft.

5. While fruit is cooking, place chopped nuts in a skillet over medium heat and toast, stirring often for 5 minutes.

6. Drizzle honey over the nuts and add ginger, but keep stirring since the honey can easily burn.

7. Top warm fruit with toasted nuts and enjoy.