It’s hot outside, so it’s time to turn my chocolate avocado mousse into some nice cold dairy-free fudge pops! This version uses dates instead of honey which adds more fiber and makes this a well-balanced, delicious, summertime snack!
It’s tomato season and the tomatoes are just beginning to ripen on the vine! Soon I’ll have a plethora of tomatoes, so it’s time to roast up some fresh tomato basil soup! I roast up a huge batch of this when my summer bounty of organic heirloom tomatoes ripen. I then jar it in pint size jars and freeze them, so I can enjoy the taste of fresh tomatoes all year round!
Toss tomatoes with olive oil and place cut side up on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and roast for 45 minutes.
Heat the ghee in a large pot over medium low heat. Add onions, carrots, and celery and cook for about 10 minutes until soft.
Add the garlic and cook for 1 minutes. Add the roasted tomatoes, tomato paste, thyme, basil, chicken stock, and one teaspoon of salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes.
Process soup through a food mill on the course setting. Alternatively, for a smoother texture process soup in a food processor or blender. Adjust seasoning. Garnish with scallions.
The slow cooker makes a tender and moist barbecue brisket. You can simply cook it with my Homemade BBQ Sauce, but marinating it in this smoky spice rub gives it a nice robust flavor!
Combine sugar, chipotle pepper, cumin, paprika, 1 teaspoon of salt and 2 teaspoons of pepper in a small bowl. Pierce the brisket all over with a fork and rub spice mixture all over brisket. Wrap tightly and refrigerate for at least 8 hours, and up to 24. Place in slow cooker.
Place onions on top and pour my Homemade BBQ sauce over the top. Cover and cook for about 9 to 11 hours on low.
Remove brisket and let rest for about 20 minutes. Remove fat from surface of braising liquid. Slice brisket against the grain. Pour sauce and onions over meat.
This makes a hearty breakfast. No need for dressing as the yolk from the egg coats the nutrient- dense quinoa. The tomatoes add bright flavor that goes great the savory kale and rosemary! You can add a dash of hot sauce in the end to give it a nice kick!
Heat ghee or oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add onions and sweet potatoes and cover. Cook stirring occasional until soft, 6-8 minutes. Add a splash of water if starting to stick to pan.
Uncover and add kale and rosemary. Cook for 2 minutes.
In a separate skillet, cook 2 eggs sunny-side up.
Add tomatoes to kale mixture and season with salt and pepper.
Place 1 cup of quinoa in bowl. Top with half of kale mixture and place one fried egg on top. Enjoy!
This is a great no-cook delicious summer meal! I just got my first zucchinis from the garden which I turned into zucchini noodles which make the perfect gluten-free pasta. Did you know zucchini is actually a fruit? Zucchini noodles are a healthy alternative to pasta as they are very anti-inflammatory and a great source of vitamin C and potassium.
There are a few ways to make zucchini noodles. You can simply slice them very thin. A julienne peeler also works well. I use a spiralizer. I have a simple hand-held one, but you can get a fancier crank or electric one if you find yourself noodling veggies all of the time! Here are some links:
Pulse the walnuts in a food processor until they are coarsely chopped. Place in a large bowl.
Put tomatoes, garlic, basil, and red pepper in food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Add the oil and nutritional yeast and pulse until just incorporated, 3-5 more. Transfer to the bowl with nuts and combine.
Using a julienne peeler or spiralizer, spiralize your zucchini into noodles.
Combine the noodles with the sauce and season to taste with salt and fresh black pepper. Serve with additional nutritional yeast if desired.
Recipe Notes
You can swap out the zoodles for gluten-free pasta.
This Bake-Ahead BBQ Chicken is great for a barbecue because you can have your moist juicy chicken already cooked, so no worrying about undercooking, or drying out the meat. This chicken is also great to pack for a picnic, or to take along with you on your boat, or to the beach! You can use my Homemade BBQ sauce recipe or a bottle of organic BBQ sauce from the store.
So I saw something interesting in the grocery store. The package read that it was a high protein, grain-free flour. It was called cricket flour, but I couldn’t believe it was actually made of crickets. I told my son about it, and he had seen it on Shark Tank. Two women were looking to produce a source of sustainable nutrition, packed with protein, healthy fats and micronutrients that would be a good choice for people choosing to eat grain-free. And yes, they use real crickets.
Well, he convinced me to buy it, and give it a try. I first made some brownies. I figured chocolate was my safest bet as you can hide just about anything in chocolate. My family dove into them, (secret ingredient unknown), and really enjoyed them. Of course, trouble-maker, older brother had to go downstairs and let the cat out of the bag, or do I mean “crickets”?
Needless to say, I heard a lot of screaming going on. It was just minutes before that they were happily scarfing down brownies. Well, I did it again with these delicious Protein-packed Double Chocolate Muffins. I don’t think they read this blog, so please keep my secret (hee, hee). If you’re not daring enough to try cricket flour, you can substitute an equal amount of almond flour for the crickets. Happy baking!
We had a perfect day to go strawberry picking. There is a local organic strawberry farm not too far from home that was getting ready for their annual strawberry festival that weekend. We hit it on Friday before the crowds and before the fields got picked over. There is nothing like the taste of a ripe red strawberry, warm from the sun and red all the way through. They were so sweet and delicious, it begs the question: Is organic better?
Flavor
One thing I have noticed personally with organic fruits and vegetables is the taste. There is no denying that there is more flavor in organic fruits and vegetables. If you find can local produce from your farmer’s market, or even better, grow it yourself, the taste difference is even more pronounced. Why do organic foods taste better? There is a reason.
The mineral content in the soil gives the vegetable or fruit its flavor. Through industrial farming, the mineral content of the soil has been deteriorating throughout the years. As it deteriorates, there are fewer microorganisms in the ground. It is the microorganisms that transfer nutrients from the soil to the plant. So the healthier the soil, the better the flavor.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science concluded that agriculture chemicals used on conventional farms kill off the microorganisms, leaving the soil devoid of nutrients. This is why the flavor is gone from most conventional produce. It is also why our fruits and vegetables are less nutritious.
According to Dr. August Dunning, chief science offer or Eco-Organics, “in order to receive the same amount of iron you used to get from one apple in 1950, by 1998 you had to eat 26 apples!” Since organic farms have to rely on natural methods of deterring pests, the plants must be stronger and the soil must be healthier. Organic soil contains more microorganism than conventional soil, thus more nutrients, and more flavor!
Antioxidants and Phenols
Organic produce has also been found to contain higher amounts of antioxidants. The British Journal of Medicine published a study in 2014 that found organic foods contained 18-69 percent more antioxidants. Antioxidants are vital to good health and anti-aging.
Many studies have proven there is a higher phenol content in organic food. Phenol compounds in food play a vital role in cancer prevention. Phenols are associated with the nutritional content of the food.
Pesticide Exposure
photo from https://www.flickr.com/photos/aquamech-utah/24443679794
Over 100 million tons of herbicides have been sprayed on crops in the past ten years. Children are the most susceptible to the harmful effects of pesticides. The chemicals being sprayed on our foods have been found to be hormone disruptors, carcinogens, neurotoxins, and reproductive toxins. Glyphosate is one of the most common herbicides used today. This has been connected to birth defects and infertility. It is also responsible for destroying the soil.
Harvard University has found that pesticides are affecting brain health in children. They linked ADHD and lower IQ with pesticides found in the mother’s urine during pregnancy. The also found through MRI’s, altered brain structure in children whose mothers were exposed to pesticides. The average American diet exposes people to high amounts of pesticides through our food.
BT Corn
The most disturbing thing happening in our food culture is Bt Corn. Bt Corn is a genetically modified corn crop that contains a gene in it that causes a pest’s stomach to explode when the bug eats it. This corn is used by food manufacturers to create all sorts of corn products that you can find in virtually every food that comes in a box in the grocery store. It is also being fed to feedlot animals, and you may be consuming the meat from these animals.
At first, the EPA claimed this chemical was harmless to humans. However, in 2011 the Sherbrooke Hospital in Quebec found this claim to be false. The BT-toxin was found in 96% of pregnant women, 80% of umbilical blood in their babies, and 67% of non-pregnant women.
Another study found that the Bt toxin does indeed cause an immune system response in mammals. This is associated with infections and allergies, asthma, arthritis, food allergies, cancer, MS, and connective tissue disorders.
Here are names of foods containing this corn derivative to look out for: citric acid, confectioner’s sugar, corn flour, corn fructose, corn meal, corn oil, corn syrup, dextrin and dextrose, fructose, lactic acid, malt, mono- and diglycerides, monosodium glutamate, sorbitol, and starch. Many vitamins also contain this corn.
How to know if your food is organic?
The USDA does place strict rules for food to be labeled certified organic. This certification assures the farmers are not using chemical pesticides, sewage sludge, synthetics fertilizers, or genetically modified organisms. It also places strong restrictions on food companies processing and distributing organic food. Often your local farmer may be following organic methods, but may not have gone through the expense of government certifications. In this case, it is best just to ask the farmer. Certified organic food will be labeled with this seal:
is organic better?
So is organic better and worth the extra expense?
In my opinion, it is best to try to buy organic whenever you can, especially if you are pregnant and for your children. At least avoid conventional foods on the Dirty Dozen list which contain the highest amount of pesticides that cannot be washed off. Here is the list:
The Dirty Dozen
Strawberries Spinach Nectarines Apples Peaches Pears Cherries Grapes Celery Tomatoes Sweet bell peppers Potatoes
Sources
Barański, M., D. Srednicka-Tober, N. Volakakis, C. Seal, R. Sanderson, G. B. Stewart, C. Benbrook, B. Biavati, E. Markellou, C. Giotis, J. Gromadzka-Ostrowska, E. Rembiałkowska, K. Skwarło-Sońta, R. Tahvonen, D. Janovská, U. Niggli, P. Nicot, and C. Leifert. “Higher Antioxidant and Lower Cadmium Concentrations and Lower Incidence of Pesticide Residues in Organically Grown Crops: A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-analyses.” The British Journal of Nutrition. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 14 Sept. 2014. Web. 17 June 2017.
Feldscher, Karen. “Health Benefits of Organic Food, Farming Outlined in New Report.”News. Harvard, 21 Feb. 2017. Web. 17 June 2017.
Finamore, A., M. Roselli, S. Britti, G. Monastra, R. Ambra, A. Turrini, and E. Mengheri. “Intestinal and Peripheral Immune Response to MON810 Maize Ingestion in Weaning and Old Mice.” Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 10 Dec. 2008. Web. 17 June 2017.
Melt chocolate in a double boiler until smooth. Place all ingredients in a high-speed blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Chill before serving.
We’ve all been told to drink our milk, but is it advice we should follow? The truth is that milk is not healthy for us for a number of reasons. We are the only mammals on the planet to drink another animal’s milk. After we are weaned from our own mother’s breast milk, most humans no longer produce the enzyme lactase needed to digest lactose in milk, which is why so many of us get stomach aches from too much dairy. Commercial milk which is pasteurized and homogenized is highly allergenic as well as inflammatory.
According to Frank Oski, MD, Physician-in-chief in Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, “commercial milk is responsible for most of the gastrointestinal problems in infants and children and causes, among others, chronic low-level intestinal bleeding, leaky gut, tooth decay and tension fatigue syndrome, while increasing the risk for developing diseases such as multiple sclerosis.”[V]
Sign of milk sensitivity are:
diarrhea
gas
bloating/swelling in the abdomen
abdominal pain/cramping
nausea, vomiting
headaches or migraines
acne
seasonal allergies
breathing problems
skin rash, eczema
Pasteurization
It is required by law in most states that all milk sold to consumers must be pasteurized. The process of pasteurization heats up the milk, killing any possible harmful bacteria, but in turns kills all of the healthy bacteria as well as vitamins and minerals. You may now have noticed many dairy products labeled “ultra-pasteurized,” especially in organic milk. This milk has been heated to a very high temperature in order to extend the shelf life of the milk. Unfortunately, this milk is very difficult to digest and can lead to all sorts of health problems.
Homogenization
The homogenization process became a practice in the milk industry because it extends the shelf-life of the milk. However, this process breaks down the fat molecules in milk and changes the proteins and fat. Thus instead of slowly absorbing the nutrients in milk, it quickly goes into our system, causing inflammation.
What about Calcium?
It is also a myth that we can obtain calcium from drinking milk. The problem is that pasteurized milk is very acidic. So to maintain a Ph that is alkaline, our bodies will pull the calcium out of our bones to keep that balance. This explains why the populations in the world that are the highest consumers of dairy have the highest rates of osteoporosis and bone fractures. What’s even more disturbing is that studies have found that consumers of commercial milk also have higher mortality rates, particularly in women. [IV]
Antibiotics and rBHG
One glass of milk contains the residue of over 100 antibiotics. Because most of our milk comes from sick cows in confined animal feed lots, antibiotics are used to treat the animals. It is the use of these antibiotics in the food we are consuming that is leading to “super bugs” which are bacterial infections that have become resistant to antibiotic treatment.
A genetically engineered artificial hormone known as rBHG is injected into cows to make them unnaturally produce more milk. This hormone has been linked to several cancers.[I]
Is organic better?
While organic is better in the sense that these cows are fed organic food, this milk still comes from cows in feed lots who are eating grains, and their milk is still pasteurized and homogenized, therefore killing all of the beneficial enzymes needed to digest the milk.
Low fat
In no way should any human ever consume any dairy product labeled low fat, or non-fat. In fact, no one should consume any food labeled low-fat. Consumers must realize that when you take the fat out of dairy, which is the main component, you must replace it with something. That thing is almost always sugar. On top of that, the process of defatting dairy products, so denatures the food, that it will do more harm to your body than help. You will often find people who consume diets of low-fat foods are overweight because fat does not make you fat. Sugar makes you fat.
Raw Milk?
Raw milk is milk that has not been pasteurized or homogenized. 100% grass-fed raw milk has been shown to have some medicinal properties. A-2 raw milk is easier to digest and can be beneficial for some health conditions. It can be purchased directly from farmers in some states.
Fermented dairy
There are some forms of dairy that can be beneficial to humans, and those are fermented foods. These include kefir, plain yogurt, sour cream, and aged cheese. These foods should still be made from raw milk as the pasteurization process again kills the beneficial bacteria in the milk. All flavored yogurt contains high amounts of sugar and is not a health food.
[I]Epstein, S. S. “Unlabeled Milk from Cows Treated with Biosynthetic Growth Hormones: A Case of Regulatory Abdication.” International Journal of Health Services: Planning, Administration, Evaluation. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1996. Web. 31 May 2017.
[III]Laugesen, M., and R. Elliott. “Ischaemic Heart Disease, Type 1 Diabetes, and Cow Milk A1 Beta-casein.” The New Zealand Medical Journal. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 24 Jan. 2003. Web. 31 May 2017.
[IV]Michaëlsson K, Wolk A, Langenskiöld S, Basu S, Warensjö Lemming E, Melhus H, Byberg L. “Milk intake and risk of mortality and fractures in women and men: cohort studies.” BMJ. 2014 Oct 28;349:g6015. doi: 10.1136/bmj.g6015.
[V]Roumeliotou, Eleni. “In Defense of (Raw) Milk.” GreenMedInfo. N.p., 02 July 2015. Web. 31 May 2017.
[VI]Virtanen, S. M., T. Saukkonen, E. Savilahti, K. Ylönen, L. Räsänen, A. Aro, M. Knip, J. Tuomilehto, and H. K. Akerblom. “Diet, Cow’s Milk Protein Antibodies and the Risk of IDDM in Finnish Children. Childhood Diabetes in Finland Study Group.” Diabetologia.U.S. National Library of Medicine, Apr. 1994. Web. 31 May 2017.
