Gut Healing Blogposts - The New School Kitchen · 1 The New School Kitchen Masterclass Series BLOGPOSTS & RECIPES Heal Your Gut Inside this little book are previously published, and

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The New School Kitchen Masterclass Series

BLOGPOSTS & RECIPES

Heal Your Gut

Inside this little book are previously published, and now no longer available blogposts from my

first website and business: Grub. These posts were mostly written by Liz Flint-Somerville, my

partner at the time, and are too chock full of love, food-for-thought, and inspiration not to pass

on. The recipes are simple and good, give them a try. My hope for you is that you use all of the

materials from this Gut Healing Masterclass to thoughtfully and lovingly move yourself towards

a place of deep healing. I have found, and I am sure you will too, that the work of healing

yourself physically is deeply transformative on an emotional and spiritual level, and has the

capacity to change more than just what you choose to eat for lunch. As much as possible, try to

find ways to enjoy the ride. It really helps! Love, Rye

www.thenewschoolkitchen.com | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 2017

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Heal Your Gut

Table Of Contents: Recipes

Page

1 Hot Buckwheat Cereal 5

2 Roasted Cauliflower & Mushroom Quiche 7

3 Whole Roasted Chicken 9

4 Fennel Cucumber Tonic 11

5 Stinging Nettle Infusion 12

6 Ginger Infusion 17

7 Red Clover Teas 19

8 Garlic Honey Tonic 21

9 Skillet Bok Choy 23

10 Perfect Soft Boiled Egg 25

11 Homemade Mayo 27

12 Cashew Creme 27

13 Fried Plantains 30

14 Fermented Vegetables 33

15 Chicken Bone Broth 37

16 Beef Bone Broth 38

www.thenewschoolkitchen.com | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2017

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Your body is amazing.

Yes, I’m talking to you.

Your body is amazing. You, with the chronic diarrhea, the missing bowels, Hashimoto’s, migraines, seasonal allergies, achy joints, too much weight, not enough weight, funny-shaped teeth, loud farts, big feet, etc. YOUR body is amazing.

Every second of every day your body is working to keep you alive and functioning, and that is amazing. As one of my teachers used to say: If you are alive, your body is a success.

I sense your skepticism, so here are 10 reasons to agree with me:

1. Circulation: It takes 1 minute for a red blood cell to travel around your entire body. 2. Cardio: Your heart is a muscle that is working constantly, even when you’re asleep. 3. SEX! When you are attracted to someone, chemicals in your body make you smell different,

which lets the other person know it’s time to put some Barry White on the ipod. 4. Brain power: Right now, your brain is monitoring the sensory input you’re getting from your

eyes, ears, nose, mouth and millions of nerve receptors covering your skin. Plus it’s reading! 5. Breath: Your diaphragm is a thick, strong muscle like a circus tent under your ribs; it

stretches down to make room for your lungs to fill. This is how you take a deep breath. 6. Guts: Your stomach makes hydrochloric acid to break down your food for digestion AND to kill

dangerous bacteria that may have gotten a free ride on that food. 7. FUN! Farts and burps work like pressure valves! 8. Skin: Sweat actually cools you off through the magic of evaporation. 9. Digestion: Your body knows what parts of your food it can use, and then compacts what it

can’t into a brown log that comes out as far away from where it went in as possible. 10. Biological Superpower: Your body takes in sunlight, and makes it into vitamin D!

I know, none of that is new to you, so what do you do when your body doesn’t feel amazing most of the time? Or when life is so crazy that you take all of your body’s functions for granted, and tune in to all that it ISN’T doing (or isn’t doing well)?

Well, my strategy to cultivate love and appreciation for this awesome skin machine of mine is to just fake it till I make it. I am treating my body as if I believe and know on a cellular level that it is an amazing, beautiful organism that is worthy of joy and celebration.

I am going to go to sleep to give it the rest it needs and deserves instead of being annoyed that I’m tired. I’m going to think about my body’s awesomeness when I’m deciding what to make for dinner. I’m going to think about ONE of those 10 reasons to appreciate my body at least once a day.

Does my body really feel totally awesome right now? No. But I think it might be like a kid: if I show it that I trust it, it’s going to live up to that trust. If I treat it like the amazing, efficient, well-working thing that I wish it was, I think it will start behaving as such.

I hope this series of blogposts and recipes helps you feel inspired to do the same.

Love, Rye

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We are creatures of habit. Sometimes it’s to keep us safe – if you’ve got serious GI issues, you stick to the few things you can eat without pain – but often it’s because we forget that life is abundant and we have choices. Opening up and trying new things is good for our sense of perspective and our minds, but it’s also imperative to gut health!

Diversity = A Healthy Gut

Why? For a few reasons. If you have a sensitive digestive tract, eating only a

handful of foods day in and day out can actually cause more intolerances. But more likely, eating the same foods all of the time will put you at a nutrient imbalance because a wide spectrum of foods gives you a wide spectrum of nutrients. Take plant foods, different colors and plant parts {roots, leaves, fruit, seeds, etc} give you different vitamins, nutrients and phytochemicals, plus they all work together in your body.

Diversity = Healthy Gut Bacteria

The good bacteria that live in your gut eat the parts of vegetables that you chew but can’t digest on your own. Different strains of bacteria eat different plants, so the more and varied plant foods you eat the broader the spectrum of good bacteria you’ll have, and the healthier they’ll be. And that, as you know, is how you boost your immunity, feel more energized, and experience less digestive discomfort.

Diversity = More Joy

Let’s not forget that eating the same 5 foods over and over is freaking boring. If you are on a temporary restricted diet I recommend experimenting with different preparations, but if you’re not, MIX IT UP! Experience new textures and flavors and smells – feel alive again! Or at least stop feeling bored or mindless at mealtimes because eating new foods will light up your brain: Do I like this? What is that flavor? This feels ______ on my tongue.

If you’re actively healing your gut, try small bits of new foods to see how your body reacts and help chart your course of healing. Going 100% grain free is hard some seasons. After doing some research and giving it some thought, I decided I am ok with incorporating some pseudo-grains into my diet as long as they are properly soaked to remove the problematic phytic acid.

My mouth is thrilled to enjoy a warm, delicious breakfast cereal again, and my gut agreed! Buckwheat cooks much quicker than steel cut oats but with a similar texture and comforting porridge feel.

Buckwheat is technically a seed but it acts like a grain when you cook it. This means it offers your body protein as well as carbohydrate nutrients. To make this hot cereal macronutrient balanced, just add some healthy fat! I eat mine with pasture butter, maple syrup and hemp hearts, but imagine it would be delicious with some heavy cream, bananas and walnuts .

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Soaked Hot Buckwheat Cereal

Ingredients 1 cup dried buckwheat groats Filtered water Milk of choice 1/2 tsp sea salt 1 tsp vanilla extract Sprinkle of cinnamon Toppings and natural sweetener of choice

Directions 1. Pour dry groats in bowl, and cover completely with filtered water. Soak overnight or at least 4 hours. 2. When you are ready to make your cereal, rinse buckwheat thoroughly under running water, and put wet groats in a small pot. Cover by about 1/2 an inch with your milk, and add salt, vanilla and cinnamon. 3. Bring to a boil and then reduce to simmer, cooking for about 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until milk is reduced and cereal begins to thicken. 4. Turn off heat and allow to sit and cool for a few minutes while you gather your toppings. The porridge will thicken the longer you let it sit. 5. Scoop into a bowl and top with your favorite dollops, sprinkles, natural sweeteners and bits of deliciousness!

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HELL NO!

There’s nothing like restriction to incite resistance. I don’t like being told what to do or, even worse, what not to do; it feels bad. But resistance – little acts of defiance – makes us feel alive! And when we’re restricting for healing, our natural inclination toward resistance can turn into a state of self-sabotage.

In most Gut Healing Protocols {and every diet ever invented}, the first step is to REMOVE a food or foods to see what effect they may be having on your body. This

is a great and helpful way to hear what your body is saying to you: sometimes symptoms ease immediately, sometimes you don’t feel much different until you put the questionable foods back in and the body calls out loud and clear.

The problem with REMOVING foods is that it’s a restriction, a command to negate something {something you probably really like}, and that automatically puts you on the defensive. Whether removing triggers grief and bargaining {“Please god, no, don’t let cheese be a problem.”}, anger {“F*&$ this!”}, or freezing {“I can’t… I’ll just… um”} it rarely brings sustainable, healing changes.

Let’s get rebellious.

REDEFINE. First off, as Ani Difranco says, “All of this is just someone’s idea, it could just as well be mine.” I think “Remove” is an unhelpful step in healing. So I’m challenging you to to think of it as RE-EXAMINE: think about it, look at, hold it up to the light, and then draw your own conclusions.

But isn’t this just semantics? Yes, and they work. Re-examine puts your brain in the driver’s seat. Your next step might be to remove a food or two, but by re-examining first you give yourself space and power to get clear on what you want to know, how you want to feel, and how you want to move toward your best vision of yourself.

DEFY. When we do choose not to eat certain foods there’s a loud voice that says our food will be bland, boring, gross, hard to make ourselves, impossible to share with others, and make us problematic at restaurants. SCREW THAT!

Let re-examining be your permission slip to get creative, have fun, share, laugh at your mistakes, and feel good in your body.

Re-examining is exploration, not restriction.

Easy for me to say, sure, I love to cook and I’m good at it. So here’s this week’s recipe, an example of how playing with your food opens the door to healing and deliciousness. Follow the recipe, or mess around with it, either way take a good look at it, and let it help you decide what you want for you.

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Roasted Cauliflower, Garlic & Mushroom Quiche

Ingredients: Rye’s Everyday Pie Crust pre-baked, or your favorite crust 1/2 head of cauliflower 6 cremini mushrooms 5 – 8 cloves of garlic, halved {or quartered if huge} 2 Tb coconut oil for roasting {ghee or olive oil work well too} sea salt and pepper, to taste 4 eggs 1.5 cups of full-fat, canned coconut milk {or milk or cream*} 1 tsp sea salt 1 – 2 Tb nutritional yeast black pepper generous pinch of crushed red pepper Optional: 1/2-3/4 cup of cheese you like {feta, goat or shredded cheddar are good}** Optional: Fresh chopped parsley

Directions: 1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cut cauliflower and mushrooms into small bite sized pieces and place them and garlic cloves onto baking sheet. Coat generously with oil, salt, and pepper, and roast for 20-25 minutes, mixing halfway through until pieces are beginning to crisp up and brown, and the garlic is soft. 2. Just before vegetables are done cooking, in a large mixing bowl combine eggs, milk, nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper. Whisk vigorously, until mixture is frothy and well combined, then add optional herbs or cheese. 3. Remove vegetables from oven and decrease heat to 350. Taste vegetables for seasonings, and give them more if they need flavor. Place roasted vegetables and optional cheese in bottom of pie crust, spreading out evenly, and pour egg mixture over to cover. You may reserve some of the vegetables and cheese to place on top of egg mixture for a prettier quiche. 4. Bake quiche for 40-45 minutes, or until it puffs up and is no longer wet in the center, but a bit fluffy and jiggly when skillet is moved or top of quiche is touched. Allow to cool almost completely before slicing, and decorate with fresh herbs or green onions for more color and freshness. Notes * Thick, fatty milks work the best here: whole milk or cream if you eat dairy, canned coconut milk if not. Other plant-based milks work fine, but will water down the custard a bit and make a less tasty quiche. But don’t let that stop you! Use that homemade hemp milk, just also play around with extra seasonings or nutritional yeast! ** Many folks think cheese-less quiche is impossible. We’re here to say it’s totally possible AND delicious! But if cheese works in your body, it also works in this quiche.

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A flea market find that’s easily rehabbed into an amazing piece of furniture is the new holy grail.

There’s something about re-making an old and worn and overlooked thing that gets us excited, as evidenced in the crazy popularity of HGTV, remodeling magazines and home decor blogs.

What if you could approach your gut like a banged-up,

yard sale dresser?

This week we’re discussing the second R: Repair. And why can’t repairing your gut be as exciting as a home furniture project?

You get to immerse yourself in nourishing, possibly new foods, use a little elbow grease on your old habits, and see amazing results in the way of more energy, normalized poop, better sleep, less achiness, and a healthier weight.

Repair is just what it sounds like, carefully rehabbing your gut lining so it is less inflamed, causes less digestive symptoms and absorbs more nutrients. You can do this with some supplements, but most importantly you can do it with nourishing food.

This week we’re sharing Rye’s recipe for a whole roasted chicken. Not only is it a simple preparation with delicious results, but it will give you bones to make bone broth, plus she includes ideas for using the meat throughout the week. What I like most about her recipe is the blurb below, where she talks about repairing your relationship with animal foods.

Preparing a roast chicken heals any disconnect you may have from years of packaged and processed animal products that don’t feel like pieces of living beings; it will put you more in touch with your choices, and that is always healing.

Happy remodeling!

This tends to be an intimidating preparation for many people, they often feel nervous or grossed out about seeing/touching/cooking a whole chicken, likely because of the innards and bones, and the fact that it actually looks like a beheaded animal. People who are often grossed out by a whole chicken have been cooking boneless skinless breasts from packages for years, and in many ways might be detached from the fact that they are eating an animal. Facing a whole chicken is a great way to get closer to your food and swallow the fact that you are eating a creature that once lived {and finding gratitude for it!}. -Love, Rye

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Whole Roasted Chicken Most whole chickens are sold with the neck and the giblets in the cavity, they must be removed before roasting. Save the neck for using in your bone broth and, if you are so inclined, the liver for cooking up with onions. This is a perfect recipe to make weekly; I do it nearly every Sunday. It can be eaten roasted with vegetables and served with a green salad as dinner, then the remainder of the meat can be shredded and used throughout the week in skillet bowls, cubed in kids lunches, for burritos, etc. Alternatively, it can be made without the vegetables, just quickly stuffed with aromatics, seasoned, and roasted for a quick protein, then the bones may be used for making broth once the chicken is picked clean. Remember: This is a method, not a recipe. What you stuff in the cavity, what spices you season with, and what vegetables you roast with the chicken provide endless variations and a number of ways to use up those odds and ends in the refrigerator: that half of a shriveled lemon can go into the cavity, a leftover onion can be quartered and roasted with the veggies, and leftover herbs, even wilted, can be packed into the cavity. Ingredients: 1 Whole Organic Chicken {about 3 pounds} 1/2 – 1 piece of citrus {lemon, lime, orange, tangerine, etc.} quartered Small handful fresh herbs {thyme, rosemary, tarragon, parsley} 3 Tbsp melted butter or ghee {or palm or coconut oil if dairy-free}, melted Sea Salt and Pepper, to taste Spices of choosing {garlic powder, curry powder, jerk seasoning, cumin, Italian herbs} Optional: Vegetables for placing around the chicken if you want to make a meal of it: carrots, parsnips, onions, any kind of potatoes, whole garlic cloves, turnips, fennel, etc.

Directions: 1. Preheat the oven to 425F. 2. Remove the neck and giblets from the inside of the chicken cavity. 3. If you are making an entire meal of this, chop your veggies into large cubes, and toss with butter/ghee/oil; season generously with sea salt and pepper. Place veggies in the baking dish, and push to the sides to make room for the chicken in the middle. 4. Rinse the bird under cold running water and pat until very dry, wet chicken skin will not get crispy. Place the chicken, breast side up, in the center of your baking dish. Brush all of the skin with melted fat. Generously season the cavity of the bird with sea salt and pepper, and stuff the cavity with as many of your citrus quarters as you can fit, plus your herbs. 5. Roast the chicken on a middle rack for about 45-55 minutes, or until a meat thermometer in the thigh registers about 170 degrees and/or the juices run clear when the tip of a knife is inserted into the thigh joint. At about 30 minutes in, you may opt to remove the pan and tilt the chicken so the juices that have collected inside the cavity spill out into the pan and coat the vegetables, which makes for awesome flavor on the vegetables. Watch the chicken towards the end to make sure the skin does not burn, and tent with foil if it looks like it’s going in that direction. 6. Remove the chicken and allow it to rest for at least 10 minutes before cutting into it, even longer if possible. Pull the citrus from the cavity and squeeze juices from it onto the chicken and vegetables. 7. For a deeply flavorful meal, carve the chicken to the best of your ability {it still tastes great just hacked apart, however inexpertly!}, and combine chicken parts with vegetables, all of the juices from the roasting pan and a squeeze of citrus. Season everything with salt and pepper and toss it all together until coated with seasonings and flavors before serving. 8. Enjoy!

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Keeping your body and your gut healthy is hard work.

And guess what? You’re not even doing most of it, your friendly gut bacteria are!

Your good gut bacteria keep bad bacteria controlled, digest the food

you can’t, and give you extra nutrients!

By some counts, we have pounds of bacteria inside of us, and we’re meant to. In optimal health, we’re a balanced ecosystem:

• more good gut bacteria than bad means our immune systems are supported instead of overrun

• good gut bacteria munching on the fiber you eat means your digestion moves well • and one of the by-products of good gut bacteria’s fiber breakdown is butyric acid,

which is known to keep the lining of the large intestine healthy.

The problem is that few of us have a diverse and thriving gut bacteria ecosystem anymore. Things like Cesarean section birth, antibiotics, sugar consumption and stress deplete our colonies of good gut bacteria.

How can you build up your good gut bacteria? For one thing you can Reinoculate yourself, which is the 3rd R of Gut Healing. How? By eating properly fermented foods like sauerkraut, yogurt and kimchi, or drinking homemade kombucha or, our favorite, water kefir. You can also take high-grade probiotic supplements.

Just as important, though, are the prebiotics, these are the food sources that keep our good bacteria strong and active. Your best source of these is green leafy vegetables.

But if your good gut bacteria aren’t large and in-charge, you might find that a plate of Collard Ribbons or a big smoothie full of kale feels tough on your guts. So while you’re working up to healthy guts and that huge plate of greens, you can still get the vitamins and minerals of green veggies without the fiber when you juice them!

This week, Rye’s sharing her favorite green juice: Fennel Cucumber Tonic. It’s a green juice that is super mild tasting and not as intimidating as other green juices. It’s really refreshing and very drinkable {even if you’re a licorice hater or have convinced yourself you don’t like fennel you should give it a try juiced! It’s mild and incredibly refreshing}.

Of course, what you might love the most about it is that the fennel and ginger make it a digestive tonic, easing gut inflammation and encouraging nutrient absorption.

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Fennel Cucumber Tonic

Ingredients 1 large fennel bulb 1 cucumber 1/2 – 1 pear 1/2 lime 1″ piece of ginger

Directions Cut fruits and veggies to fit in your juicer and juice. Makes 1 pint of juice. Enjoy!

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Nettles might not make the famous food lists that are always circulating on the Internet, but Rye and I think they’re a superfood.

They’re a green plant {a green pest to many gardeners} that is packed with minerals and chlorophyll, and I drink them everyday.

Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) is a health-empowering plant that has been used as medicine for centuries:

• to relieve hayfever • to support the adrenal glands • to treat arthritis • for added energy • as a nutritive supplement, especially for menstruating and menopausal women • as a diuretic • as a galactagogue (a substance that encourages breast milk production, but if you’re pregnant

or nursing, please consult with your midwife or health care practitioner before adding any medicinal herbs to your diet)

• as a rinse to add shine and luster to hair and skin

Nettles soak up the nutrients & minerals in the soil, and pass them along to you.

They have been found to contain:

• calcium • magnesium • iron • silicon • zinc • potassium • boron • vitamins A, D, E and K • lots of chlorophyll

I buy them dried in bulk from our local co-op, and make a quart of infusion at a time.

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Stinging Nettles Infusion

An herbal infusion is a tea that steeps for hours instead of minutes.

Put a cup of dried herb into a quart-sized Mason jar, add boiled water, cap, and let sit for 6-8 hours, or overnight. Then strain the plant material from the infusion! {FYI: there is NO caffeine in Nettles}

Some folks like to drink a mug of Nettle Infusion with a bit of honey, but my favorite morning tea is:

1/2 a mug of Nettle Infusion juice of half of a lemon a pinch of cayenne boiling water to fill the mug {and warm the Nettles}

When I’m not in the mood for something hot to drink, I pour the infusion into ice cube trays, freeze them, and add a few cubes to sparkling water with a lemon wedge; it’s incredibly refreshing!

If you’re lucky enough to have fresh Nettles

Fresh nettles taste like strong-flavored spinach with a little something extra {I think it’s the abundance of chlorophyll, or GREEN, I can taste}, and once you cook or dry them, they no longer sting. Try Nettles:

• steamed, puréed and added to risotto or grain pilafs • braised in coconut oil with garlic • thrown into green smoothies • chopped and added to soup • dried and made into an infusion

To dry fresh herbs, hold their stems together like you’re carrying a bouquet, tie the bottom ends, and hang upside down in a dry place away from direct sunlight. If there’s too much moisture in the air, and the leaves aren’t getting brittle, you can place them in a dehydrator for an hour or two (or your oven at its lowest temperature).

When you’re eating Real Foods, there’s a lot of focus on local and sustainable, and getting to know plants like Stinging Nettle enables you to access the abundance of nutrition growing around you, even in your own backyard {if you’re lucky}!

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Sometimes that moving, growing spring energy doesn’t always burst forth in the most helpful ways. ie: my beloved husband and I cannot seem to stop bickering these days. One of us will be excited about something when the other is in a funky mood – and BAM, before I know it, we’re in the middle of a fight. And I find myself, shall I say, appreciating him a lot less.

It reminds me of dandelions.

For years, growing up, I watched my uncle Tom wage war against these little bright blots on his otherwise perfect lawn. Most of us see dandelions, and think, “CRAP, the lawn is ruined!”

The thing is, just like my husband, dandelions have a lot of love to give, and if you can change your perspective about the number one hated “weed”, you can transfer that mental shift to your partner {or kid or boss}, too.

So here’s why dandelions deserve, if not adoration, at least a little respect {besides their gorgeous color and honey scent}:

1. Parts of the leaves and roots have a diuretic effect on the body {they encourage the kidneys to release stored liquids}, while also providing minerals, especially potassium, that can get sparse when we take some diuretics.

2. Those same constituents encourage increased liver function, which can help us break down and digest fats, while also aiding in detoxification.

3. The taste of the leaves is bitter, and when our tongues taste bitter it signals our digestive juices to start flowing. This means that something as simple as nibbling on a dandelion leaf, or taking a dandelion tincture, before eating can help increase the efficiency of your digestion.

When those dandelion heads pop up to the surface, they’re not trying to ruin your weekend, just like your partner/kid/boss is {probably} not trying to make your life more difficult. Practicing the process of re-framing from anger to gratitude can give you a little bit of space when you’re in the middle of a moment of anxiety and frustration {and, dare I say, outright rage?}.

Here’s how it can work: you might not need to increase liver or kidney function, and your digestion might be in tip-top shape, but when you see those vibrant yellow lion heads you can use them as an opportunity to practice re-framing by thinking about how healing and nourishing a simple weed can be. Isn’t it amazing that plants can be so helpful to human bodies?!

The best part is you can give yourself a habit of appreciation. Some people use gratitude journals because when we choose to feel thankful it makes us feel happier, and when we’re happier we are more likely to make choices that are good for us {ie: driving past the fast food drive-thru}.

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The journaling approach doesn’t work for me, so I try to take time in my day to notice one thing that I feel grateful for. It takes 15 seconds; here, try it with me:

1. Look up and notice how you feel – gratitude can start right now: are you thankful that you just let out a great, big fart and now you feel better? Did your headache of the past 2 days go away? Did someone just make you laugh?

2. Next, notice what’s around you – are you not too cold, nor too hot? Is the sun shining? Is the rain watering your lawn & garden so you don’t have to? Are those dandelions you see out there?! Is the chair you’re sitting in really comfortable?

And that’s it. Gratitude starts to blossom like, well, dandelions.

For me, once I practiced with simpler things, like flowers and farts, I tried moving on to humans-I-love. When I’m really in the loving flow it looks like this: I take a breath and remind myself that he is not trying to make my life difficult, in fact, our history tells me that he is a thoughtful and loving man who is not meeting my needs right now. So I say:

“Thank you so much for working on that, let me just take a second to finish this phone call, send this email, and put on the kid’s shoes, and then I’ll be available to help.”

It starts with the “thank you”, which tells the person you’re talking to, “I see you; I see that you’re loving me the best way you can right now.” And then you can lovingly communicate that they’re not being quite as sensitive as you’d like them to be in this moment.

A recent study showed that significant others who felt appreciated were more likely to listen to, and meet, the needs of their partners. So, while grateful re-framing makes you feel better and can lead to less bickering and more health, it also ends up giving you a little something extra in the form of a more sensitive, need-meeting mate.

3 WAYS TO GET MORE DANDELIONS INTO YOUR LIFE

1. The early spring leaves are tender, and can be used in salads or sautéed, just be sure to either buy organic dandelion greens, or harvest them from an area where you know that pesticides aren’t sprayed – due to their nutritive affects, they soak up everything they can from the soil.

2. Dandelion tinctures are available at most health food stores {and often dandelion is a main ingredient in digestive aid tincture blends}.

3. Some coffee substitutes, like the brand Dandiblend, are made from roasted and dried dandelion root {as well as chickory and other plants}. They’re good hot or cold, caffeine-free, and available in most health food stores.

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Ginger is pretty magical stuff. Especially if you have any kind of digestive distress. And really, who among us does not sometimes?

In days past, the remedy for any stomach issue was a glass of ginger ale. At least in my 1980’s and 90’s world it was. It’s the most popular drink ordered on airplane flights for a reason. It really does help with nausea! That fizzy sweet-but-sharp glass of Schwepps ginger ale (and I know some folks were hard-core about their Canada Dry) was the cure all for all of my stomach aches, gurgles, and dizzies that accompanied the first 29 years of my life.

Kicking the sugar habit did a lot for my digestion, but losing that ginger ale was just plain sad! Luckily, I discovered that the magic ingredient in ginger ale was affordable, accessible, and really easy to use.

There are properties in the ginger root that do everything from relax the intestinal tract to relieve vomiting and nausea.

Needless to say, it makes a fantastic remedy for morning sickness in pregnant women. I remember sucking pieces in my cheek throughout my first trimester, and being a tad amazed it worked so well.

Beyond digestion, the warming properties of ginger can boost immunity, effectively treating and preventing cold and flu. Ginger is also a powerful anti-inflammatory. Some ginger fans find that it can even work wonders topically, soaked into a compress for arthritic joints or placed directly on the head for a migraine. Besides helping calm the inflammation in the body, there is actually an extract in ginger that inhibits inflammatory genes from ever even forming!.

You might be walking right by it in the grocery store, it sits in the section with the other gnarly looking stuff. It’s super spicy, but not like hot-sauce. Like ginger. And most people tend to like it!

Many Asian recipes call for it to be used fresh; you can chop it or break it down using a fine grater like a microplane. It makes anything taste pretty awesome, and you don’t have to be making a stir-fry to use it. Try it in kale you are sauteeing or beef you are browning. Throw a small knob in a smoothie you are whizzing up, it gives such fantastic zip to the drink! It’s prefect added to a blender-made salad dressing, and of course, when cooked with carrots and pureed into a silky smooth soup.

These days, my favorite way to use it is as a digestive aid.

I honestly feel like it calms the stomach knots that happen when my body is uncertain about something I have eaten. My method of choice? An infusion of ginger. This preparation takes all of the healing properties of the ginger root and infuses them into water. It’s pretty amazing.

Infusions are simple to make, you just have to have a bit of foresight and allow it to sit. takes exactly 1 minute to prep and then it just sits. No excuses!

For me, I don’t miss the soda stuff. Feeling the benefits of ginger healing and helping my body is so much sweeter than a glass of Schwepps could ever be.

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GINGER INFUSION

Ingredients: Fresh ginger Clean boiling water Mason jar

Directions: Place slices of ginger in the bottom of the jar. Pour boiling water to fill jar. Cover immediately and allow to steep for 4-8 hours.

I like to make it in the evening, push it aside, and strain it in the morning to drink as a stomach-soothing tonic. That’s usually when my gut is at it’s most unsure. A small cup works wonders, and then you can store the remainder of the infusion in the refrigerator to use it all week long. Try a splash in smoothies and tea, or sip hot or cold whenever a stomach ache bout of nausea comes on.

Heated and mixed with raw honey and lemon it is a beautiful cure-all for tummy troubles or cold symptoms!

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It seems that daily there’s been a reason to go deeper, sit with discomfort, and/or learn something new.

It’s exciting! And totally scary and exhausting and awesome.

All of this introspection and subsequent movement is giving us ample opportunity to make broad, sweeping pronouncements about what is important in life, and two themes keep rising to the top:

Simplicity and Nourishment

They both promote ease and well-being, and we’re choosing them as much as possible these days.

Before we go completely off the esoteric deep end, we’ll give you a real life, Real Food example:

Red Clover {Trifolium pratense} is a common, purple flower {dare we say “weed”?}, a favorite of cows and those of us with memories of grassy fields dotting our childhoods. The flowers smell like honey and taste sweet.

It also happens to be one of our more nourishing and helpful herbal allies. Red Clover can:

• Alkalize the body and support detoxification by helping to purify the blood • Provide calcium & magnesium & other minerals • Promote sleep by soothing the nerves

Red Clover is a source of isoflavones, so it can support hormonal balance and glandular health in men and women, and is especially helpful in cases of low estrogen levels.

It may also help increase bile, which makes it useful for detoxifying, and may increase HDL cholesterol {the “good” one}, which can help lower LDL {the “bad” one}.

And Red Clover also contains a small amount of coumarins so some case studies show that it can reduce a risk of blood clots.

Last but not least, for gardeners, Red Clover is a nitrogen fixer, so it’s a popular cover crop during the off-season.

Here’s the really good news: Red Clover makes a great iced tea.

We’ve tried it a few ways, and wanted to share them with you because there’s no reason why your summer drinks can’t be simple, delicious AND provide you with nourishment! You must first make an infusion, then ice it and get creative!

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Red Clover Infusion

Ingredients: 1 cup dried Red Clover flowers 4 cups {1 quart} water, boiling Optional: Add ½ cup dried mint leaves.

Directions: Put the dried Red Clover {and mint, if using} into a quart-sized canning jar {wide mouth is easiest}, and pour boiling water over them.

Cover and let sit for about 4 hours.

Strain out plant parts, and enjoy, or use iced in the following recipes. Keep unused tea in a sealed jar in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Summer Field Spritzer

Ingredients: 8 oz Red Clover & Mint Infusion 4 oz sparkling water 1 wedge of lemon

In a glass with ice, combine ingredients.

Energizing Tea

Ingredients: 8 oz Red Clover or Red Clover & Mint Infusion 4 oz brewed and chilled green tea Drizzle of local raw honey 1 wedge of lemon

In a glass with ice, combine ingredients.

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I t’s the bane of vampiric existence, and can make for an embarrassing first date. My grandma, who is 84 and the daughter of Italian immigrants, still remembers being called a “stinking garlic eater” in her schoolhouse.

Garlic. It leaves an impression.

But it’s exactly the properties that make it stick to your fingers when you’re trying to mince it, and ooze from your pores the next day that make it your best friend in the quest to stay healthy.

Those sticky oils are full of sulfur compounds and flavonoids, which give garlic its anti-inflammatory and anti-coagulant properties.

Some studies also show that garlic can stop the liver from producing LDL {the “bad” cholesterol}, and help make the blood flow cleaner and smoother – hence its fame for blood pressure and heart disease help.

Garlic is a source of the mineral selenium, and may help our bodies absorb iron.

But the thing we love most about garlic is its antibacterial, anti-fungal & antiviral properties.

It stimulates the immune system to help detoxify the body and protect it against infection. And its antimicrobial properties mean it also aids in the treatment of colds and flu by creating an environment that the germscan’t live and thrive in. Which means you can eat it to keep yourself healthy AND use it to make yourself better when you are sick.

Garlic is an immune superhero! Plus, it makes food taste GOOD!

One of the reasons we think it sucks worse to be sick in the summer is that you don’t want to eat the stuff you know will help you feel better when it’s 95 degrees and humid outside. Just holding a mug of steaming broth while wearing shorts feels weird and wrong.

Once again, garlic comes to the rescue.

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Here are 3 ways we incorporate garlic into our daily lives:

1. According to herbalist Richo Cech, its raw properties are most helpful in fighting bacterial infection, which makes it perfect to add a few chopped cloves to your next salad dressing. If you’re sensitive to raw garlic’s spiciness, try grating it with a microplane; this releases more oils, but also ensures that you won’t get a big chunk all at once. Garlic is also a great addition to marinades.

2. Try it minced and added to the skillet of your 3-Minute Collards {or any green you’ve got in the skillet} at the very end – it will warm up, and the spicy kick will chill out a teeny bit, but it won’t cook, which leaves you with a nice pungent bite.

3. In our house, swimmer’s ear, and the threat of ear infection, hang in the air like daily afternoon thunderheads. Whenever my husband or daughter feel funny in their ears, we put a bit of garlic oil on a Q-Tip and swab away. When there’s serious pain, we stick a garlic clove in the ear and lay it down on a hot water bottle {a heating pad on low will work too}.

To make garlic oil:

Coarsely chop a big clove of garlic and add it to a few Tablespoons of coconut or olive oil {we use coconut oil since it’s summer and it’s constantly in a melted state}. Let it sit for at least a few hours, but a few weeks will make it stronger, then strain out the garlic, and use.

You know we always say that eating healthy is delicious. But, thanks to garlic, staying healthy can be delicious too! Which is why we’re sharing herbalist Kathryn Waple’s recipe for Garlic Honey Tonic below; it makes a great salad topping, a splash of extra flavor to a stir-fry, or an easy way to gulp down some of garlic’s anti-bacterial properties.

Garlic Honey Tonic

Ingredients 3-5 heads organic garlic 3/4 cup raw honey 2 cups apple cider vinegar

Procedure 1. Combine honey and apple cider vinegar in a quart Mason jar. 2. Crush each clove of garlic, but leave the skin as this helps prevent clumping during the brewing process, and add the garlic to the vinegar honey mixture. 3. Leave about 1” between the top of the vinegar level and the top of the jar, and mix with a wooden spoon. 4. Cover with wax paper or plastic wrap, screw lid on, and let sit in a dark spot for 2- 6 weeks. 5. Using cheesecloth or a fine strainer, strain the heads of garlic from the honey vinegar mixture, put in a sealable bottle, and consume freely as is or as an addition to foods.

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Since vegetables constitute the most nutritious food group, I try to get at least two green ones on our dinner plates every night {plus some for lunch and even breakfast – green smoothies help with this}.

It’s the funniest thing, though, I know I need to eat my veggies but it feels like such a chore to cook them!

And when you try eating multiple vegetables it’s easy to fall into vegetable boredom.

How many nights a week can you sauté spinach?

However, what do you do with those produce impulse buys you don’t know so well? I’ve always been a sucker for the adorable Baby Bok Choy, and then I used to have a hard time making it delicious.

No longer! Today I’m sharing my favorite Bok Choy recipe.

Bok Choy is a delicious green vegetable that is sometimes tricky to cook: it’s got a thick body plus greens, all of which are edible but

don’t cook for the same amount of time.

After lots of tries, I can say that this recipe makes the best Bok Choy {and as an added bonus it’s exciting: I once set off the fire alarm in my hotel suite making it! Don’t be me, use the full amount of oil, and keep the heat at medium-high}.

This recipe gets the body of the Bok Choy soft with a little crunch, and sears the leaves so they get a different texture and taste from other skillet greens.

It’s easy, beautiful, and will contribute to your vegetable diversity since it takes so little time to whip up you can easily chop lettuce for a salad, steam some green beans, or roast some broccoli along with it!

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Skillet Bok Choy

Ingredients 2 medium-sized baby Bok Choy 1 Tb coconut oil ¼ tsp sea salt, or to taste 1 tsp balsamic vinegar OR squeeze of lemon juice + 1 tsp toasted sesame oil

Directions

1. Rinse Bok Choy, but don’t take them apart or trim the stems. Cut each Bok Choy into quarters, top to bottom.

2. Heat coconut oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Place Bok Choy quarters in hot skillet in a line: bulb end, then leaf end, then bulb, etc., and don’t be afraid to pack them in there {they’ll get smaller as they cook}.

3. Sprinkle salt over the Bok Choy while you let this first side of each piece sear, about 3 – 5 minutes. When it’s golden brown, use a fork to flip each Bok Choy piece over to a second side, and let this side get golden brown.

4. At this point, the Bok Choy will be smaller, and there should be a lot of moisture in the pan. Flip each piece to its third and final side, and cover the skillet. Let cook for 3 – 5 minutes, until the bulbs are tender and almost translucent.

5. Remove the cover, check for tenderness, and cook a few minutes more if needed. Turn off the heat, and drizzle balsamic vinegar over the skillet {or drizzle lemon juice and drip sesame oil}.

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Coffee enemas, fecal transplants, rigorous restrictive diets, Superfoods: these are all exciting {for some!} measures we take to heal ourselves. In some ways, the more extreme the measure, the more effective and better we think it is.

But if there’s one thing that my training with the Nutritional Therapy Association has taught me, it’s that focusing on Basics is key to our health, even though it’s a lot less exciting.

Digestion: A Basic Idea

Digestion is a “north-to-south” process, which means that what happens up top {in the mouth, stomach and the very beginning of the small intestine, called the duodenum} directly impacts what happens in the southern regions {the small intestine, large intestine and colon}.

This means that drinking a daily quart of gut-healing bone broth is not going to fix your Leaky Gut if the food being sent to your small intestine isn’t adequately digested in the stomach first {by being well-chewed in the mouth as you sit and eat slowly, and then being broken down by stomach acid}.

It also means that all the healthy fats in the world won’t be useful if your gallbladder isn’t producing and secreting bile {which happens to also be affected if your stomach isn’t acidic enough… see a pattern emerging?}.

Before you break the bank on the latest Superfood, supplement or fecal transplant, focus on:

3 Basic Steps to Healthier Digestion

1. Slow down and focus on eating.

2. Chew your food thoroughly {20 – 30 times per bite – I know! But it will definitely support you in Step #1}.

3. Make sure you have adequate stomach acid. It’s a fallacy that most people have TOO MUCH stomach acid, this is actually quite rare. In fact, experiencing acid reflux is more often a sign of NOT ENOUGH stomach acid.

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Without adequate stomach acid, the protein you eat isn’t going to be broken down into useable pieces for the small intestine to absorb, causing bloating, gas, discomfort, and too often leading to, or exacerbating, Leaky Gut syndrome.

If you think you might be low on stomach acid, you can promote its production by following Steps 1 & 2 above, and by drinking some apple cider vinegar before meals or supplementing with HCL {hydrochloric acid} capsules.

In honor of getting back to Basics, the recipe this week is for a perfect soft-boiled egg because the latest Superfood from South America is interesting and exciting, but sometimes all you really need is a basic, awesome food from your backyard {or your friend’s backyard, or the regular grocery store}. Plus, anyone who can handle a hot pan can make it – it doesn’t get much more basic than that!

Eggs are a perfect ratio of healthy protein and fat. They make great snacks, and you can easily build a meal around them for breakfast, lunch or dinner; I like to do this with some roasted sweet potato cubes and sautéed greens. And my absolute favorite breakfast is a green smoothie and 2 eggs.

If you don’t eat eggs, you can still focus on Basics by following the 3 Steps to Healthier Digestion above.

For the rest of us:

The Perfect Soft-Boiled Egg

Ingredients as many raw eggs as you need

Directions 1. Place eggs in saucepan, and cover with cool water. 2. Place pan on high heat, and bring to a boil. 3. As soon as water boils, start your timer for 3 minutes. 4. When the timer goes off, immediately drain boiling water. Cover eggs in cool tap water and drain. Cover them with cool tap water again, then immediately peel {they’re still hot inside the shell, so they’ll continue cooking a bit until they’re peeled}. 5. Combine with veggies {see above ideas} or eat on their own.

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For years we have been told to avoid fat, eating foods that are “low fat”, “no fat” and “lite” {which isn’t even a word!}, and we’re sicker and fatter than ever. This isn’t novel information.

But I’ve noticed that, aside from snacking on nuts, most of us struggle with truly incorporating good fats into our meals. Think of how many times you look at a dinner plate and the only fat is from the cooking oil you’ve used.

Fat is essential to many of your body’s processes: brain function, hormones, heart health and energy, and even your cell walls are made up of fats.

6 ways to get fat into every meal

1. Mayo. The kind you make yourself, since its so fast and easy. When you make your own you can control the kind of oil you use, and leave out the preservatives. Homemade mayo, which can be flavored in infinite ways, is a condiment to plop on any and everything. We scoop it onto roasted root veggies, smear it on a hard boiled egg, and scoop it on anything that could use extra creaminess.

2. Cashew Crème. This is a mayo-like substance that can also be flavored in infinite ways, and is for those of you who can’t or don’t eat eggs. Cashews are high in fat, and blend up into a thick creaminess that can be sweet or savory, and used in all of the ways we mentioned above. See recipe below!

3. Coconut Milk. It’s not just for curry! Use a can of full-fat coconut milk {plus ½ a cup of water} with 1 cup of rice, and cook it like normal rice. And don’t forget you can add coconut milk to soups and stews to make them thicker, creamier and more macronutrient balanced.

4. Flavored Oils. Good restaurants love to garnish creamy soups with a little puddle of flavored oil. You can do this too! To make Garlic Oil, simply chop up a few cloves of garlic, put them in olive oil, and let it sit for a few days to a few weeks. Then strain the cloves . Flavored oils are an immediate taste upgrade! Use your flavored oil on salads, in a quick sauté, on a soup or Skillet Bowl garnish.

5. Nut butters. You know how wonderful peanut sauce is? It’s made with peanut butter! {Plus some garlic, soy sauce, usually fish sauce, and some spices.} You can take any nut or seed butter, thin it out with a little water, add cinnamon and honey for a sweet dip, or tamari, garlic and curry powder for a savory one. A nut butter sauce works as a dip or spread, or a plop on top of a finished dish.

6. Sprinkles: Hemp hearts | Pepitas | Chopped Nuts | Sesame seeds | Olives | Avocado Cubes. Sprinkles are delicious on yogurt {which is its own fatty garnish!}, salads, all manner of cooked vegetables, encrusted meats, or any plate or Skillet Bowl that needs a crunchy boost or creaminess. Their added bonus is that you don’t have to add a cooking step to make them, OR {as is the case with pepitas} you can make a bunch all at once, and sprinkle for a week.

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Homemade Mayo

Ingredients 1 organic egg 1 cup light tasting oil {a mix of olive and avocado oils works well} juice from ½ lemon generous pinch of sea salt optional ingredients: pepper, mustard, garlic, fresh herbs, red pepper, horseradish, wasabi, etc.

Directions

1. Crack egg into wide mouth pint-sized mason jar, and add the other ingredients. 2. With stick blender OFF, immerse into mason jar, rest at the bottom, and hold the jar with your

other hand. 3. Turn the immersion blender on, and keep it at the bottom of the glass for about 15 seconds,

the mixture will almost instantly start forming a cloud of mayo. As the emulsion moves towards the top, slowly raise your blender up through the mayo, turning it off when it is still immersed, and when the mayo has completely blended into creamy white deliciousness.

4. Taste, adjust seasonings if necessary, re-blend, and enjoy! It will keep, covered, in the fridge until the expiration date of the egg used.

Cashew Crème

Ingredients 1 cup cashews* up to ½ cup milk of your choice, or water ½ tsp sea salt 1 Tb apple cider vinegar 1 clove garlic, sliced thinly

Directions

1. Pour cashews and liquid into your blender, and blend until creamy and smooth. The full ½ cup will result in an almost-pourable, liquid-like crème, while less liquid will be more like a spread.

2. Add sea salt, vinegar and sliced garlic to blender. Blend until well-combined and smooth.

*If you soak the cashews in water for at least an hour before making the recipe, you will get a smoother result, and need to use less liquid in the blender. It’s not necessary, but sometimes nice. To soak: cover cashews in water, let sit for 1 – 4 hours. Drain, and follow the rest of the recipe.

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In this post-Atkins, neo-Paleo world, food has a new 4-letter word: CARB

Short for carbohydrate, carbs have become the number one loathed and avoided food among the healthy-eating set. And for good reason!

Over-consumption of carbs in the forms of bread, pasta, cake, muffins, chips, et al has set us up for obesity, heart disease, diabetes and other rampant diseases of our culture today. But nixing an entire Macronutrient category

is like throwing the baby out with the bath water, so we’d like to take this opportunity to remind you that:

All vegetables are carbohydrates

All veggies, from the starchy roots to the leafy greens, belong in the Macronutrient category: Carbohydrate. And our bodies need them for a lot of reasons:

• fiber • minerals • vitamins • pre-biotics {the food for the pro-biotics, the friendly bacteria in your gut}

Of course, when it comes to carbs, the ones that will give us the most “bang” for our nutritional “buck” are the green vegetables; they’ve got the most fiber and minerals, and are the best food for our friendly intestinal bacteria.

Instead of thinking about all of the carbs you shouldn’t be eating, focus on the carbs you get to eat!

Now you get to build a Skillet Full of Carbs You Love {and have on hand}! It doesn’t matter how much of each green carb you have because

All green vegetables taste good together!

So wash them, chop the ones that need chopping, and notice which are biggest and densest because these are going into the skillet first.

Anything goes here! Here’s how I sautéed up the green veggies pictured above.

1. Coconut oil melted in hot skillet. 2. Zucchini rounds added to hot oil. Sea salt sprinkle. Stir. 3. As zukes are beginning to soften, whole snow peas are added. Stir. 4. As snow peas are beginning to soften, ribboned collards are added. Stir. 5. Minced garlic + small splash of olive oil added. Stir. 6. Sea salt sprinkle. Stir. Heat turned off. 7. Half a lemon squeezed over the skillet. 8. Stir and eat.

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Have you ever noticed that “comfort food” seems to be synonymous with “bad-for-you food”? Mac ‘n cheese, French fries, ice cream, chocolate bars, chips, chocolate cake, and on and on.

Not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with all of those foods, depending on where you are on your healing journey, they can be nice, and probably rare, treats.

The problem is with their title: “Comfort Food.”

Those foods are a pretty cheap definition of a very real need for relief when things feel out-of-control, dark and hopeless.

A bag full of greasy hotness from a fast-food joint at the end of a really bad week doesn’t make you feel better; it’s like a bandaid on a broken bone, an empty promise of a cure that just ends up getting in the way. Plus, too often, it starts a downward cycle of misery and self-loathing: We feel bad, therefore we eat food to comfort us, but it makes us feel worse, therefore we eat more…

I thought a lot about this cycle and the cheap definition of comfort we use with food during my terrible week last week when somehow I couldn’t find any peace or joy, I was horribly lonely, and I wanted to climb out of my own skin to escape the sticky misery inside of me.

It was the kind of deep dark that seeps into everything, like instead of wearing rose-colored glasses, you put on your lenses

made of coal-ash.

I walked around thinking, “God, I just feel so freaking bad. WHY do I feel so freaking bad?!” Everything felt wrong, ill-fitting and useless.

It wasn’t depression, it was a heavy funk that settled in, and I didn’t know how to make it go away. Every idea I had seemed to make it worse: not only “comfort” foods, but isolating myself, telling myself how bad I felt, watching tear-jerking videos, eating more chocolate, watching trashy TV.

At one point, a few days into the misery, I found myself in the grocery store, wandering around as if I’d never been in there before. I had finished all the left-overs, and was now faced with the dreaded task of feeding myself dinner.

And that’s when I saw the plantains. Perfect and black and ruined-looking.

I love plantains, but for some reason, I rarely buy them. When I saw them there I immediately remembered the taste of them sliced and fried in coconut oil with a sprinkle of salt, and my mouth watered.

Comforting

Plantains

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And then I thought, “No, they’re too good, its just me eating.” Seriously, when I saw a food I loved, that also happens to be healthy, Real, and even organic, I thought that I wasn’t good enough for them; that it was only me eating, and something delicious shouldn’t be wasted.

That thought finally woke me up a little bit. Because no matter how crappy I felt, my brain knows that THAT isn’t the way I want to live my life: denying myself pleasure and nourishment.

So I bought the damn plantains, 2 of them because I’m stubborn and rebellious, even against myself.

And those plantains did NOT save my life {mostly because it wasn’t in danger of being lost, this was a deep unhappiness, not a crippling disease}, but they tasted awesome, and that made me feel a little bit happy, and that was a comforting feeling to have.

The plantains were a first step because they gave me pleasure and helped me feel a glimmer of good about myself.

Those plantains told me I’d made a choice that was in line with who I truly am: the me who strives to love and nourish herself.

All the work you do trying to be healthy and eating Real Foods has a larger purpose besides weight-loss, or better digestion, or a healthier planet, or even decreased disease symptoms.

Eating well for your body is building a strong foundation that can support you when those jesters, your emotions and your thoughts, aren’t doing it.

Those plantains gave me a quiet moment to make the choice for my own worthiness, my own pleasure, and, yes, my own health.

And that glimmer of relief was just enough to break my spinning cycle of misery. Those plantains were truly comfort food – they helped me find a space to breathe through my unhappiness so that I could see a next step back to the light.

Pan-Fried Plantains

Ingredients Very ripe plantains {plantains with black skins} 2 -4 Tb coconut oil sea salt to taste Plain, full-fat yogurt, or mashed avocado, for dipping {optional}

Directions 1. Peel plantains, and chop into 1/4 – 1/2″ thick coins. 2. Heat coconut oil in a skillet over med-high heat {more oil is better, as the plantains will soak it up} 3. When oil is hot, lay the plantains in the skillet in 1 layer, and let sizzle and cook until browned. Then flip to brown the other side. 4. Sprinkle with sea salt, and enjoy plain or dipped in something creamy like yogurt or mashed avocado. They’re best hot off the skillet!

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Your body is an ecosystem, just like a garden where the health of the soil depends on the mineral content, quality of water, and microbe colonies contained in it, and the health of the soil is paramount to the healthiness of the vegetables that are grown.

Our client, Shannon, worked hard to get the processed food out of her life, and had slowly introduced fresh veggies and fruits, whole grains, and clean animal products into her kitchen. She immediately started to feel better in her body.

But after about a year, when she was in the flow of a Real Food lifestyle, she started to notice some things that were off, like her digestion felt sluggish {she wasn’t pooping as often or as easy as she’d gotten

used to} and her acne was popping up again.

This isn’t just a story about Shannon, it’s happened to all of us at one time or another. We’re fertilizing our body-garden with nourishing foods and giving it lots of clean water, but what’s going on when we still don’t feel our best?

Colonies of Bacteria

Just like the soil, your gut is home to millions of microbes: bacteria and yeasts that are in a symbiotic relationship with each other and you. These are our probiotics, and they help us digest and keep the microbe colonies in balance {so we don’t get an overgrowth of yeast or harmful bacteria}. When these good bacteria are flourishing and balanced, we experience less strain on our immune system, smooth digestion, and an overall sense of balance and wellness.

If you’ve been on multiple rounds of antibiotics in your life, eat refined sugar, or experience stress, chances are good that your microbe balance is out of whack. Keep giving your body that Real Food, but it might also be time to fine-tune your health with added probiotics to re-colonize your gut.

How to Add More Good Guys

My favorite way to give our bodies probiotics is with lacto-fermented foods and drink: water kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut, kimchi, pickled foods, yogurt, etc.

And of those, our favorite is Water Kefir. Shannon started with Water Kefir, and in just a week she noticed her digestion was back in pace. Water Kefir is an easy and delicious way to add probiotics to your body.

We both drink Water Kefir, but we also drink kombucha and eat yogurt and fermented veggies. Why? Because all of these lacto-fermented foods deliver different strains of those necessary bacteria to our guts, and we like to cover all our bases. But if it feels like you could use some fine tuning, start adding one source of microbes to your life, and see what starts to happen!

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Guest post by Kathryn Waple.

Here are two seemingly unrelated problems:

Problem 1: You want to support your body with the immune boosting, gut-flora-balancing power of probiotics, but they are very expensive.

Problem 2: It’s winter time, and you want to nourish yourself with healthy local veggies, but you are running out of creative

ways to prepare cabbage, kale, radishes, carrots, turnips and any number of starchy root veggies. You even learned how to make GRUB’s delicious veggie hash, but now it’s time for something new.

The answer to both problems?

Wild Fermentation!

Fermenting veggies at home is a fun, inexpensive way to nourish your body with the amazing power of probiotics, preserve fall veggies without canning, and add some tangy, zesty, even spicy flavors to your table. It’s so easy, even kids can help!

A healthy human digestive system is populated with countless organisms that help break down food and waste, keep the balance between “good” and “bad” bacteria and yeasts, and support the immune system! Unfortunately, our modern lifestyle and diet are not conducive to supporting healthy numbers of the good bacteria or pro (good) biotics (organisms).

Before refrigeration, pasteurization and toxic chemical preservatives, many foods were preserved through the process of fermentation. Grains were fermented into sourdoughs; beans into tempeh, tofu and miso; and vegetables into sauerkrauts, kimchis and pickles. These are just a few of the more well known ferments, almost every culture had their own variety of fermenting foods to preserve the bounty past the harvest season.

Fermenting foods yourself is easy, cost effective & the variations are countless!

Foods fermented at home are teeming with probiotics and beneficial enzymes. They are safe for everyone in the whole family. My favorite is to start with a basic sauerkraut fermentation. Sauerkraut is, in my opinion, the easiest ferment. It is the first ferment I ever made and I have never had a batch go bad. I add all sorts of seasonal vegetables that I have too much bounty of to eat fresh. I would start with a basic cabbage sauerkraut and then once you know what a good batch smells, looks and tastes like, start adding more variety.

Below is sauerkraut made with cabbage, kale and garlic on the right and pickled turnips, radishes, and jalapenos, all local and all organic! They are both great as sides, used as ingredients, or eaten as is!

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Basic Fermented Vegetables

{adapted from Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz, Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and The Body Ecology Diet by Donna Gates}

Timeframe: 1-4 Weeks

Equipment: 2-3 widemouth mason jars; rolling pin or beer bottle, stainless steel wide mixing bowl

Ingredients: 1 head of cabbage, red or green (1-2 pounds) Spring or filtered water Coarse grind sea salt – 1 tablespoon per quart of chopped sauerkraut. (about 2 per pound) Optional veggies: Garlic, carrots, carroway seeds, kale, radishes, beets. (Or any others that appeal to you!)

Method: 1. Rough chop the cabbage and place in the stainless steel mixing bowl. 2. Sprinkle with sea salt. 3. Pound with the blunt end of the rolling bin or the bottom of the beer bottle until the cabbage is limp and “soupy” (that’s the brine!). 4. Pack into the mason jars, again using the pounding object to force air out and keep the cabbage under the level of the brine. Fill the jar leaving about 2 inches of head room. 5. If you don’t have enough brine to cover the top of the veggies, add spring or filtered water until all the veggies are covered. 6. Cap tightly and store in a warm dark location for 3-7 days. Check everyday to make sure the jars are not overflowing and that the veggies are covered. 7. The longer it sits, the stronger the flavor. I generally let mine “brew” for about 3 days then put them in the fridge and enjoy. I have enjoyed a jar of sauerkraut that was more than a year old. As long as no mold forms on the top you are good to go! 8. Always follow the “looks good, smells good, tastes good” rule.

Kathryn Sisler Waple, of Gray Cat Botanicals, is a Wilmington-based herbalist who practices in the Wise Woman Tradition. Her herbal medicine focuses on women’s health and reproductive health. She is also studying to be a Fertility Awareness Coach. Follow her on FaceBook, or shop her herbal remedies on Etsy.

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Your body needs water. A lot of it. So recently when a client came to see me with flagging energy, achy joints and an all-around “blah” feeling, I wasn’t surprised when his Food Evaluation showed that he was drinking less than 2 glasses of water a day. Dehydration makes for an uncomfortable body!

Every part of you, including the most basic & integral pieces like your cells, blood & lymph {the fluid of your immune system} are all partly made of water, and your body loses water when you sweat, bleed, cry, pee, breathe, and even just through the process of digestion. So to keep your body functioning well {aka: stay alive}, you need to drink water.

Luckily, there’s a handy equation to help you figure out just how much you need:

DRINK HALF YOUR BODY WEIGHT IN OUNCES OF WATER EVERY DAY

So, if you weigh 160lbs, your daily water-drinking goal is 80 ounces. For some perspective, a pint glass is 16 ounces. A quart Ball jar is 32 ounces. A half-gallon is 64 ounces.

And that’s just a baseline. If you’re menstruating, exercising, breastfeeding, cleansing or just hanging out in the heat, you need more. If you’re drinking diuretics {substances that encourage the flow of water out} – like coffee, tea, alcohol & detoxifying herbs – you need to drink even more.

Sipping throughout the day is more beneficial to your body {and will lead to less bathroom breaks} than throwing back a few pints at once, but find a rhythm that works for you and own it.

Drinking enough water each day is largely an issue of making it a habit.

I keep a glass by the sink, and fill it up every time I walk by. I also keep a glass at my desk, and make myself get up to re-fill it {which also saves me from too many hours hunched over the computer}. My client has taken to keeping a water bottle in the car so he can sip while out!

Don’t get bogged down with the whys and which kind of water you should drink. Find water that doesn’t taste or smell gross {that means filtered if it’s from the tap in most municipalities}, and drink the heck out of it. Your entire body and all of its constituents will thank you profusely.

And if you’re one of those water haters {I know! I can hear you whining already!}, here are a few ideas to try to make it taste less like, well, water.

Try Adding: A pinch of sea salt | A squeeze of citrus | Mashed-up strawberries | Bruised mint leaves | A stick of cinnamon + a pinch of sea salt {I just let it float in my glass all day and keep refilling!

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Besides being warm and tasty, bone broth is considered a traditional remedy food. The kind of food you could ask your grandmother about, and she’d tell you not just how to make it, but all about the 101 things it cures.

In fact, there’s a South American Proverb which says ” A good

broth will resurrect the dead.”

Bone broth {including oxtail soup} is the stock that results in the long, slow simmer of animal bones and water. Lest you feel disgusted by such a strange idea, let me assure you that it’s the procedure behind that “Beef Stock” you

bought in the cardboard carton last week {though many commercial “broths” are actually made from water and artificial flavors and seasonings, so they are not included in the following praise chorus of homemade bone broth}.

Combine traditional knowledge and modern science, and it turns out there’s a reason chicken soup is called Jewish penicillin, afterall.

Possibly the greatest aspect of bone broth is gelatin, which comes from the animal’s collagen, an important part of connective tissue. You can see your broth’s gelatin when you see a thick, gooey wiggle in your refrigerated broth. In a poultry based broth, using chicken feet yields a particularly collagen-rich broth. Don’t worry, you strain them out before drinking!

Some research suggests that gelatin assists in digestion by attracting digestive secretions to itself, which encourages the breakdown of food. This can also prevent gastrointestinal germs from attaching to the wall of the gut, helping prevent, or heal, the gut from intestinal flus and sicknesses.

For folks with Celiac, ulcerative colitis, or any number of the many GI issues common in our culture, gelatin helps to rebuild damaged tissues in the digestive tract, and is usually accepted by the body as a non-irritant food. Meaning it can get past your super-vigilant immune system without being attacked, and then help support and nurture that same system, especially because of its anti-inflammatory properties.

Beyond the gelatin, two key amino acids that are responsible for healing and sealing the tissues in our body, glycine and proline, are abundant in bone broth, making it a truly magical healing food to the “leaky gut” syndrome plaguing anyone with allergies and auto-immunity.

When the leaky junctions of the small intestines begin to heal, so to do the reactions of the immune system, making bone broth one of the most

powerful foods you can eat to literally heal yourself from the inside out.

The breakdown of bone also releases calcium into the broth in a form that is easy for your body to absorb and use; through the same process, other minerals and micro-nutrients are also made

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available to your system. These minerals are key in building and rebuilding bones and teeth. Yup, bone broths can even heal cavities!

Beef and chicken tend to be the most popular, so we are sharing our recipes for both.

The best bones for making broth include the cartilage, so get ones with knuckles and connective tissue, as well as any other bones of an animal. Talk to your butcher and ask at your local Co-op and Health Food store to get beef bones and ox tail, and roast up a whole chicken each week and make a batch of chicken wings for a great pot of chicken broth.

Bone broths are a culinary dream. They taste awesome and rich, and bring that same depth and umami flavor to everything you cook them with.

You can use your bone broth as the base for soups, risotto, or sauces, and work perfectly as a liquid to deglaze the pan while cooking up greens or veggies.

It’s a fantastic hot, one mug pick-me-up during a cold or flu. For those healing from any autoimmune or digestive disease, a daily

cup of broth is a critical part of a healing regimen!

Rye drinks broth it in the morning, sometimes calling it her “meat coffee” and her husband and son drink it at night before dinner, heated in a mug with an extra pinch of sea salt and sometimes a splash of Apple Cider Vinegar.

It freezes well in mason jars (leave room for expansion!) and after making it a few times, easily becomes part of the kitchen routine.

Label one container in your freezer “bones” and one “scrap veggies” and toss those things you would normally toss away in the bags. After a few weeks, you probably have the fixings for broth. Cheap and easy! And no waste, just the way we like it.

Bone broths are in for good reason! Return to your senses and nourish your system with this powerful traditional food.

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Chicken Bone Broth

Ingredients:

2 pounds of (pastured, organic) chicken/turkey bones (I save my bones from a whole chicken I roast every week!)

2 chicken feet (optional, but very good!)

1 onion

2-4 carrots

2 celery sticks

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar or lemon juice

a small sprinkle of back peppercorns

1-2 bay leaves

cold filtered water

fresh parsley (optional)

Directions:

Add all ingredients to a large stock pot or crock pot and fill with cold water. Allow to sit for at least 20 minutes, and up to an hour. This is an important step for drawing out the minerals from the bones!

Bring the water to a boil, and then turn immediately down to an active simmer. Allow the broth to cook for at least 12 hours, and up to 24.

You may add fresh parsley in the last hour of cooking.

The bones should crumble when you are done – that is a good thing! It means all of the minerals have been extracted.

Allow the broth to cool and strain through a sieve.

Pour into mason jars and refrigerate up to one week (hint: if you want it to last longer, take it out ever 4-5 days and re-boil it!) And freeze some for later use. Drink daily as a healing tonic, and incorporate into your favorite dishes.

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Beef Bone Broth

Ingredients:

2 pounds beef marrow bones and a knuckle bone, preferably grassfed

2 pounds beef meaty bones (oxtail is great!), preferably grassfed

2-4 whole carrots, unpeeled and whole

2 stalks celery, whole

1 onion, unpeeled, cut in half or whole

2 heads of garlic, unpeeled

2 bay leaves

1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

cold filtered water

fresh parsley (optional)

Directions:

Place the bones and meat in a large roasting pan and roast at 375 degree for 15 minutes or until browned on top, then flip the bones and brown for another 15 minutes.

Place the browned bones in the pot with vegetables and seasonings and fill with cold water. Pour in the vinegar. Allow the bones to sit in the cold water and vinegar for at least 20 minutes, and up to an hour. This is an important step for drawing out the minerals in the bones!

If you are using the stove top, bring to a rolling boil then lower to a simmer. If using a crockpot, start it on high until simmering, then cook it on whatever temperature will allow it to actively simmer. For both methods, remove any scum off the top when it appears during cooking, usually in the first few hours.

For the last hour of cooking, place the (optional) bunch of parsley into the broth. Bone broth may be cooked from 24 – 72 hours! Remove the broth from the heat and allow to cool. Pour the broth through a sieve into a pot to cool. When the broth is cooled fill mason jars, cover and refrigerate. It can stay for 1 week in the refrigerator as long as there is a layer of fat on top to protect and seal it. Freeze some in smaller containers for use in soups and stews and to drink daily as a healing tonic. Use it to cook your grains, deglaze your cooking pans, and make delicious gravies and sauces.