Almond Biscuits

open faced and closed faced biscuit

Grain/Gluten-Free and Sugar-Free. And due to the season- Kosher for Passover!

2&3/4 cups almond meal*

3 Tbs flax meal

1/2 cup warm water

1 Tbs ghee (you could use butter, coconut oil or any other unrefined oil... I almost never choose a refined vegetable oil over a non-refined one) 

1 Tbs honey

1/2 tsp baking soda  

Preheat oven to 375.

Stir the flax meal in with the boiling water and set aside for 5 minutes. 

Mix all ingredients together.

Roll dough into a tube that is 7-8 inches long. Cut 8 wedges and place on a baking sheet (if you find this instruction confusing check out this posting on how to make scones.)

Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown. 

* You can find almond meal at Trader Joe's.

The Excitement of Being Toxic

Excitotoxins have an exciting effect on brain cells (sounds exciting!) … while causing a pathological process by which nerve cells are damaged and killed (not so fun.)

In today’s food industry, harmful amounts of excitotoxins are found in up to 80% of all processed food. MSG (one of many glutamates found in foods,) hydrolyzed proteins, and other similar substances are all too common ingredients.

When scientists want to make mice fat ASAP (for the purpose studying obesity,) they feed them MSG. Regardless, the food industry has engineered chemically created flavors such as this one that keep us coming back for more. Are we addicted? Just as tobacco companies knowingly added more nicotine to cigarettes to make them addictive, we’re now in an invisible food trap that has also imprisoned us.

With a chemical formula that makes us feel instantly fulfilled, we are actually  providing ourselves with little to no nutrients. Most of us, who may have been encouraged by our doctors to lose weight, are in truth starving to death on a cellular level.

We struggle with hunger and blame our bodies and ourselves for being weak. Meanwhile our body is doing its best to keep us healthy! It calls in search of the nutrients it needs to function correctly.
Advertisements tell us that if we eat these chemically altered foods; we will be slim and happy. However most of these foods cause weight gain and disease. Many of these chemicals both inhibit our metabolism as well as increase the production of fat (as part of the defense mechanism to isolate the chemicals).

Diet soda alone is suspected of  being a major contributor to the impairment of brain function, neurological function, vision, and increased chances of seizures (especially when regularly consumed instead of a meal.) While it advertises freedom, most independent studies show that it hooks us on even stronger sugar cravings (due to our taste buds’ reaction to the extreme sweetness.)

The FDA does not carry out independent studies to test a food before it is marketed. Instead it relies on studies funded by the same company producing the product. The heart association puts its stamp of approval on foods loaded with trans fats because the product meets the sodium requirements. Classy.

In our industrialized version of better living, we have created over 75,000 synthetic chemicals since 1940. These days over 200 chemicals can been found in some newborn’s umbilical cords. Most are either food-born, environmental, or beauty product derived (“your makeup looks killer!”)

It is time to relearn better living that is in harmony with the organic compounds of our bodies and our planet.  We need to recover. It’s no joke when our neurological system has been affected.

Spring is an excellent time for a reboot as the body is naturally designed to excel in its detoxification process. Eat dark leafy greens every day (kale, parsley and cilantro are highly recommended!) as well as gelatinous fibers (chia seeds rock!) Water and vegetables are your BFFs (consume more vegetables than fruits.)

In general, think more about what healthy stuff you can  add  to your diet rather than freaking out about what you need to eliminate. The more nutrients your body receives and assimilates, the more you’ll naturally begin to eliminate what no longer serves you.  Exercising and a clean diet need each other. Tomorrow is never better than today to do something proactive.

Chia Seed Pudding

The gelatinous quality of chia seeds aids in drawing toxins out of your system. Chia seeds are also a good source of protein and omega 3. Amongst the many vitamins and minerals they contain, they have large amounts of potassium, iron, and calcium.

Ingredients
1/3 cup chia seeds 

1 cups unsweetened almond milk (or any other non-dairy milk)
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 Tbs maple syrup

Optional Variation: for chocolate pudding, add 1 Tbs cocoa powder

Optional topping:  golden raisins, figs, apricots, dates, unsweetened coconut flakes, goji berries, chopped nuts, or fresh fruit.

Method
Mix chia seeds, almond milk and vanilla. Stir well. Refrigerate overnight. When ready to eat, garnish with preferred toppings.

Click here for your Home Made Almond Milk Recipe

The Calcium Paradox

The calcium paradox is that the US rates as one of the highest in both calcium intake and osteoporosis.

Clearly the problem is not that we are not getting enough calcium, but that it is not getting absorbed.

Science has named these factors as the main causes of calcium excretion:

• Smoking
• Air pollution (city living)
• Excess alcohol (one glass of wine can raise the amount of calcium excreted in the urine from the average 5mg up to 25mg)
• Excess sugar and refined carbohydrates
• Excess protein in the diet (mostly from excess meat)
• Excess caffeine (mostly in the form of coffee, soft drinks and caffeine pills. One cup of coffee can raise the excretion of calcium up to 75mg through urine)
• Phosphoric acid (comes mostly from soda) will cause the bones to leach out calcium.
• Stress will cause calcium excretion. In a relaxed state we generally release 5-10mg of calcium in our urine. A momentary stressful moment can cause for up to 75mg to be released.

What does this mean?

This is NOT about never having a glass of wine or never experiencing stress. However if we tend to have a couple of glasses of wine, a couple of coffees, a sugary snack, and we’re a little high-strung, these things add up on a daily basis.

Dairy Products:

For over 35 years research has shown that calcium from dairy products is more poorly absorbed than calcium from leafy greens, nuts, and seeds. While dairy might have other benefits, it is not optimal for calcium absorption. Unfortunately due to the dairy lobbyists, this is not what the general public is taught.

(To read more about calcium and dairy, read the article Truth or Dairy.)

Calcium Supplements:

Most calcium supplements are made form calcium carbonate. This is the calcium found in limestone, chalk, and rocks. It is the same calcium that is mixed in the plaster on our walls. The body can only absorb up to 10% of it.

The Relaxation Response:

Bone density has been proven to increase with mental relaxation.  Most of us function on a low level of stress throughout our entire day.  This low-grade stress is the most commonly linked source of dis-ease.

Healing always begins with relaxing.

Related Article:
Food For Healing Broken Bones

Halva (Sesame Sweet Treats)

Halva is made from Tahini, Sesame paste, a high source of calcium.

2 1/4 cups almond meal* 

3/4 cup tahini

1/4 cup honey

1 Tbs vanilla essence

1 Tbs cocoa powder

Mix everything together except cocoa powder. Divide into 2 equal parts and mix one half with cocoa powder. shape the plain half into a square and press the cocoa half as a second layer over the plain base. Together, the mold should be about 3/4 inch thick. 

Refrigerate for a few hours before serving. 

Note: Instead of using almond meal, grind 1.5 cups of almonds in the food processor.

* Almond meal is available at a lowest cost at Trader Joe's.

Related Recipes:
Tahini Recipes
Tahini Sauce

Food Focus: Tahini, a calcium rich food

Tahini, tahine, tehina, or sesame paste is a paste of ground sesame seeds.

When used in Middle Eastern cooking, tahini is made of hulled, lightly roasted seeds. East Asian sesame paste is made of unhulled seeds.

Tahini paste is used in a variety of dishes. It is a popular condiment for meat and vegetables in Middle Eastern cuisine. It is also a main ingredient in soups, sauces, and as a spread. Most commonly we know Tahini as a key ingredient in Hummus dips and spreads.

Hummus

1 15oz can of chick peas
3 tbls. Tahini paste

2-3 tbls. lemon juice
1 garlic clove (optional)
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
1/8 tsp. cumin (optional)

Water as needed- use the water from the chick pea can (little less than 1/3 of a cup)
Blend all ingredients and serve.

Can be served garnished with olive oil and paprika and chopped parsley.


Tahini Dip, Sauce or Salad Dressing

With kale- another calcium rich food

This recipe can be thinned down to a salad dressing by adding more water or left thick as a spread or a dip:

¾ cup sesame tahini
5 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
1 small garlic clove, minced
3/4 – 1½ cups of water (depending on desired thickness)
½ - 1 tsp. salt (will vary with amount of water used)
A handful of finely minced parsley

Place tahini, lemon juice and garlic in a food processor with a steel blade, or in a blender. (This recipe can also be made in a bowl, stirring the ingredients in with a spoon).
While the motor is running, slowly drizzle in the water, checking every now and then for the desired consistency. Stir in salt.
Transfer to a small bowl a top with fresh Parsley.

Optional: If using a food processor you can add in half to a whole bunch of parsley, blending it into a yummy extra calcium tahini!

Store in the refrigerator in a tightly sealed container. Keeps for up to 5 days.

Honey-Tahini Sweet Potatoes

Cut sweet potatoes, toss in a drizzle of olive oil and bake at 400 for 45 minutes.
To prepare the sauce- mix tahini (ground sesame seeds) and honey (preferably raw honey), using about half the amount of honey than the amount of tahini. Mix in water a bit at a time until you reach a consistency you like. Poor over the baked sweet potatoes.

Sweet!

Spreading a layer of the raw paste (right out of the jar) on some bread and top it with honey.
Another favorite is drizzling some of the raw paste over some sliced banana and chopped dates.

There Is No Path To Peace. Peace Is The Path

(Mahatma Gandhi)

January 2012 marked my 10-year yoga anniversary.

Through the practice I have discovered Life. While my body is always present, my mind is often elsewhere, caught in projects, worries and analysis. Yoga and meditation have given me the tools necessary to keep my mind in the Now. Life is only available in the present moment. The past is already gone; the future has not yet arrived.

When we establish ourselves in the present moment we are able to get in touch with the healing and nourishing elements that are always within us and around us.

One month into a new year, as we progress on a renewed path, we often have ideals we think we should be living up to. We put expectations on ourselves to improve in some way.

Difficulty is inevitable in human life, but what causes misery is not the difficulty but our assumption that we are meant to have everlasting happiness. When life becomes difficult or painful, we feel that something has gone wrong.

We pressure ourselves with the idea that if we could only do the right thing we would have everlasting happiness. All this brings is stress and anguish against a self-perceived imperfection.

Science explains how the stress hormones produced by our mental state can affect our weight as much as the amount of calories we consume. I am willing to bet that we all know someone who has either gained weight or not lost weight while restricting calories on a diet.

We are souls with a body, though often we treat ourselves as a body with a soul.

Yoga has taught me that a pose can’t heal me as much as the degree of love I feel while in it. If I can’t feel free with who I am right now, I will be nothing more but a skilled practitioner of breath and alignment. I may learn to reduce my stress but overly focusing on the body will never satisfy the soul.

The path informs the destination. We will never be satisfied with achieving our goals if we don’t learn to be satisfied right now.

A disease is no longer dis-ease if we find ease with it.

Each yoga practice ends with the pose Savasana, in which we are asked to let go completely and allow everything to be as it is.

Can we find a hint of savasana in every pose no matter how challenging? Can we do the same when we are no longer on the yoga mat?

Coconut Maple Scones

Whole-Grain and Naturally Sweetened

Sex: A Symptom Reliever For The Common Cold

Put down the nasal spray and listen up! Here’s what your parents never told you about the birds and the bees:
Sex is helpful in clearing nasal and sinus congestion!

In our bodies we have erectile tissue, a spongy tissue that expands and becomes hard when filled with blood. Needed for the proper function of sexual stimulation, it is only present in the genitals, the breasts, and the nose.

The nose?!

The swelling and shrinking of this tissue within the nose is always fluctuating. When one nostril subtly expands, the other one shrinks. For this reason the passage of air becomes stronger on a certain side at different times.

If there is no interference with the rhythm, the breath will alternate dominant nostrils every hour and a half to two hours. The switch is a gradual transition.  Irregular schedules of activities, meals, or sleep can interfere with this rhythm. Pollutants and congestion are also a factor. While we still experience the shift from one dominant nostril to the other, the rhythm has been skewed. According to Ancient Indian Medicine this lack of rhythm can bring the onset of disease.

Each nostril governs different functions in our body. The right nostril is associated with the more active and extraverted aspects of the personality. It also has to do with the more heated functions within the body such as digestion.
The left side governs the quieter more passive psychological state, and is associated with the more restorative functions within the body.

Ayurveda recommends resting on the left side after meals. By laying on the left, one compresses the left lung, enhancing the flow of air through the right nostril, which stimulates the digestive tract. When going to bed it is recommended to lie on the left side for 10 minutes to increase body heat for cleansing (we cleanse the blood when we sleep,) and then roll onto the right for a more restful slumber.

However the title of this post suggests using our bedroom for more than just sleeping.
So here it is friends: an insight into my own bedroom adventures:

Last night, with the onset of a cold, I was feeling congested and lousy and was ready for an early night. Engaging in my nightly ritual, I brushed my teeth and filled my neti pot for a nasal rinse. I spent a good few minutes trying to run the water through my nose but it was completely blocked. No use, I headed to bed.

Fast forward to the end of the sex (Sorry, That’s all the details you get,) I noticed my nose is completely open!

Excited by this revelation, I tried the neti pot again and voila! The water ran right through.

Erectile tissue. Who knew?!

Making Your Own Sourdough Breads

Sourdough vs. Yeast Based Breads

The Egyptians first leavened bread around 2300 BC. Mixing flour and water, they left it to ferment uncovered for several days. This mixture was then added to additional flour and water and baked into bread. This kind of natural leavening remained the basis of Western bread baking until the 20th century. In the 1950s commercial yeast was introduced, enabling bread to be made in less than 3 hours. These days some commercial bread can be made in less than an hour.

The importance of unleavened sourdough breads is that the proofing (the slow rising process) is needed in order to break down the complex carbohydrates and proteins and make them compatible for human digestion. The fermentation process serves as a digestive aid to all complex carbohydrate foods including other grains, beans, and vegetables.

The slow rising of a sourdough allows the bran in the flour to break down, releasing minerals that we are unable to digest in yeasted breads. It is when wheat gluten is properly fermented that it is the healthiest for human consumption.

Some theories state that yeasted breads are the main contributor to what has made wheat and gluten one of the highest allergenic foods we eat. It is not uncommon for people to have sensitivity to commercially yeasted breads but not experience the same sensitivities to naturally leavened whole grain sourdough bread.

It is similar to the controversy with soy which also can only be considered a health food if it is fermented long enough. Correctly fermented wheat provides us with 18 amino acids (proteins), complex carbohydrates (a super efficient source of energy), B vitamins, iron, zinc, selenium and magnesium, and maltase.

Sourdough bread rates a 68 on the glycemic index as opposed to the rating of 100 by other breads. Foods that have low ratings on the glycemic index are prominent in societies that tend to have lower rates of diseases such as diabetes.

How To Make a Sourdough Starter

There are various ways for making a sourdough starter; many include adding ingredients like grapes or potatoes, which provide extra sugar for the yeast to feed on and grow. I prefer the method of using only flour and water. There are a variety of yeasts and we want to be sure to be cultivating a kind that thrives best on flour. Besides, this method cuts out more of the sugars.

1 cup of warm (not hot!) water
1 cup of organic white whole wheat flour (you can use regular whole wheat too. The white wheat berry is lighter, producing a bread that is not as dense as bread made from regular whole wheat flour, which is made from the red wheat berry.)

Mix the flour and water with a wooden spoon in a jar. Cover with cheesecloth, and keep in a warm place (aim for about 80 degrees, but no warmer than 85.) The natural yeast from the air will be drawn to the flour and settle into the mixture. Keep the yeast covered with the cheesecloth for three days, mixing it once or twice a day with a wooden spoon. As soon as it's foamy and full of bubbles, your starter is ready to use!

While your first sourdough starter will take a couple of days to progress, after this first 2-3 day period it will be ready for immediate use at all times, provided you continue to feed it.

Once you've made a starter, take good care of it: sourdough starters impart more and more flavor the longer they live. Store your starter in a jar in the fridge, and be sure to feed it weekly, whether or not you're baking with it. Sourdough is a living culture, if you don’t feed it, it will die. Add equal amounts of flour and water.

Fresh Milled Bread (basic recipe)

2 cups white whole wheat flour (or other)
1 cup rolled oats, ground into a powder (a coffee grinder works great for this!)
4 Tbs of any of the following seeds ground (in coffee grinder:) sesame seeds, flax seed, sunflower seed, pumpkin seed. (I use 1 Tbs of each)
¼ cup sourdough
1¼ cup water

If you have a food processor with a plastic dough blade, add all ingredients except the water into the processor. While the machine is on, add the water gradually until the dough is all rolled into a ball. This should happen within seconds.

If you do not have a food processor, mix all ingredients in a bowl, adding the water last, until the dough is formed.

The dough should be on the damper side.

Shape into a ball or loaf and let it rise on a non-aluminum tray for 2 hours.

Knead the dough again, pressing out any air. Reshape into loaf. Let is rise on a non-aluminum tray for another 4-6 hours.

Fill an ovenproof dish with water and place it on the bottom rack of a cold oven. Place the loaf on the middle rack. With the bread in the oven, heat to 425 °F (in most ovens, this takes 10-15 minutes) and bake at that temperature for an additional 15 minutes. Turn the heat down to 350°F and bake for an additional 45 minutes.

Remove the bread from the oven and let it cool on a rack.


Walnut Cranberry Bread


The lighter bread in the picture is the recipe above. The darker bread contains walnuts and cranberries, butternut squash for moisture and a drop of maple syrup.


2.5 cups white whole wheat flour
1.5 cups rolled oats, ground into a powder (a coffee grinder works great for this!)
4 Tbs flax
¼ cup starter
1 Tbs maple syrup
½ cup butternut squash puree or sweet potato puree (can use canned)
1.5 cups of water
1/3 cup walnuts, chopped
1/3 cup dried cranberries, chopped

If you have a food processor with a plastic dough blade, add all ingredients except the water, walnuts and cranberries will go into the processor. While the machine is on, add one cup of water. Turn the machine off and add the cranberries and walnuts. Turning the processor back on, proceed to gradually add the remaining half cup of water. The dough will unify into a ball as it spins around in the processor. 

If you do not have a food processor, mix all ingredients in a bowl, adding the water last, until the dough is formed.

The dough should be on the damper side.

Shape into a ball or loaf and let it rise on a non-aluminum tray for 2 hours.

Knead the dough again, pressing out any air. Reshape into loaf. Let is rise on a non-aluminum tray for another 4-6 hours.

Fill an ovenproof dish with water and place it on the bottom rack of a cold oven. Place the loaf on the middle rack. With the bread in the oven, heat to 425 °F (in most ovens, this takes 10-15 minutes) and bake at that temperature for an additional 15 minutes. Turn the heat down to 350°F and bake for an additional 45 minutes.

Remove the bread from the oven and let it cool on a rack.