Light & Hearty salad

To follow up on my previous post and questions about exactly what goes into the light & hearty salad, here's how I make it!

Salad Ingredients:

Red leaf lettuce, sunflower greens, red vine tomato, black and/or kidney beans, mozzarella cheese (optional), walnuts, sesame seeds, hard boiled egg.

for the dressing: walnut oil, rice vinegar, squeeze of fresh lemon, pinch of fresh chopped garlic, salt & pepper.

Directions:

Start boiling your egg as you gather the other ingredients, boil for 9 minutes then remove from heat and cover for 2 minutes before running under cold water to cool. While the egg is boiling, combine the other ingredients in the proportions that you desire. In a separate dish, combine the dressing ingredients and mix vigorously. Add chopped egg to the top of the salad, add dressing, and enjoy with tea and toast!

Walnut oil and salad

For the longest time I've been using extra virgin olive oil in salads, and why not? It raises HDL (the good) cholesterol; it's loaded with polyphenols which reduce unwanted inflammation; it has cardiovascular and cancer-preventive benefits, and it tastes pretty darn good. But as I've developed a more refined palette over time I'm a little more sensitive to it's viscosity and pungency. While I think olive oil is the perfect oil for some food preparation purposes I've discovered a new oil that works better specifically in salads: walnut oil.

Walnuts in general are power-packed with nutrients like vitamin C, E, Omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants, minerals and phytonutrients, and of course fiber (by the way, 90% of the phenols are located in the skin so don't remove it when you eat them whole!). Walnut oil is second best to eating whole walnuts and it has a light gentle taste with a mild nutty aroma.

I am generally one who is a fan of big fancy locally organic salads, something that includes leafy greens, an array of colorful vegetables, seeds, a protein like beans or egg, and a little cheese sprinkled on top. I like my salad to be a meal! With all that flavor I feel like it's an injustice to cover that all up by slathering it up with salad dressings which tend to be overly tangy, full of miscellaneous ingredients, and usually loaded with unnecessary calories. My perfect salad dressing is very simple but deliciously complements the natural flavor of the vegetables while softening the texture and giving it a little YUM factor:

• walnut oil
• squeezed fresh lemon
• salt
• pepper 
• (a little fresh thyme and garlic added to that mix is just divine)
• (a splash of rice vinegar is optional)

Talking salads in general, you know you should be eating at least one every day, but I know you're very busy and sometimes just not in the mood for all that chopping. So on those days you can have a simple salad on the side of whatever you're having and all it really needs to have is a leafy green and walnut oil. Red leaf lettuce is perfect, arugula is also nice. Just wash it up, mix in a little walnut oil, salt & pepper, maybe a tomato if you've got it, and your tummy will be happy as can be :)

Cooling Yum!

Water is great, but let's be honest, sometimes it can be a little boring. If juice is too sweet for you and soda is too... liquid chemically, then this is the beverage for you.

Perfect for summer because of its' cooling effect, alkalizing for your ph balance to aid digestion, and full of immune boosting vitamin C and other nutrients, this is what I call functionally thirst-quenching (cucumbers also contain something called silica which is good for all the tissue in the body, it helps rejuvenate skin, reduce inflammation, and improve complexion). This simple and delicious drink will satisfy your thirst and your taste buds too!

Just combine water, sliced cucumber, lemon, and ginger, and add a few mint leaves if you have them in a pitcher. That's it. It's not too sweet but it's refreshing and just yum! The best part is that when you've finished about half of it, you can just add more water and then when you drink half of THAT you can add more water again, the flavor will get diluted but hey it's still got a leg up on regular ol' water and it'll last for days!

The Grain of My People

Buckwheat. Kasha. Sounds so... grandmotherly doesn't it? Being Russian I grew up with everyone in my family eating this grain but I always hated it, I don't recall why, probably because I was a picky eater as a kid. I basically forgot all about it until I recently switched to a gluten-free diet (why? thyroid issues, I'll save the details for a future post on that) and discovered that oy vey, it's delicious! If prepared correctly this grain has a wholesome and filling sweetness to it that goes well with all meats and veggies. And despite the fact that the word wheat is in its' name there is actually no relation. It's actually being used to make gluten-free beer too!

Her's the way to make it:

• Pour two cups of veggie stock (ok you can use water, but you want it to be good don't you? see below for a previous post on veggie stock instructions or just buy it), add a little shmear of butter and some salt, heat on high.
• While that is heating up, take 1 cup of kasha and pour it dry into another small pan, heat on medium and stir a little every minute or so for a few minutes until it begins to get toasty and release a fragrant aroma.
• Now lower the heat on the water when it boils and slowly pour the toasty kasha in, mix, turn heat to low, and cover tightly with a lid.

Nu vot! (russian for there you have it) what are you waiting for? eat it already, it's delicious!

I do generally recommend rinsing all grains to eliminate debris (there's a certain allowable amount of rodent and insect fur and poop that gets into grain storage containers before they're packaged) - but if you do that the kasha won't toast quite the same so experiment and see which tastes better (sorry, maybe you didn't know that about the fur and poo and you'll never eat grains again, but it's fine, get over it).

I made mine with veggies, but it's also great with a sweet glazed chicken.

It's no surprise that the russian people are the strong and enduring type and this grain is partly responsible for that because of it's low glycemic index and ability to sustain even blood sugar over time. It is also a good source of magnesium, which relaxes blood vessels and improves blood flow and the transportation of nutrients, as well as being a great source of fiber.

Last fun fact: buckwheat acts like a grain but it's actually a fruit seed related to rhubarb and sorrel.

Chew chew chew chew

So we've all heard that you should chew every bite 100 times. But really? Thats ridiculous! 100 times? I don't have time for that. I only have 15 minutes to nourish before I have to get to my appointment/work/pedicure/meet a friend/homework/pick up the kids/yadda yadda yadda.

Well, I know we're all very busy, but sorry, it's true, chewing is very important, you should do it more. The process of digestion actually begins with the mechanical act of chewing as your teeth break down the food into smaller pieces. The longer the food is in your mouth the more lubricated it gets, helping it to move down the esophagus smoothly, and the longer enzymes in your saliva can also break down the food even further. The more of this process that's done in your mouth the easier it is on stomach and intestines.

When food isn't properly broken down the digestion process can't work efficiently to extract nutrients, plus this causes other problems like indigestion and flatulence. We don't want that do we?

Another reason to chew is that slowing down the process of eating will allow more time for you to smell, taste, and see your food, which will help send a signal to the digestive system to get properly into gear and digest at optimum efficiency. If you're trying to lose weight, slowing down the process of eating will also help you to feel full sooner, since it takes about 20 minutes for your brain to realize that your stomach is full (which, honestly is mind boggling, the brain is such a brilliant and complex machine, why is it so slow with this connection? I don't know, who am I to question my own divine intelligence?)

So, how much should you chew? Well, you really don't need to count. You just need to chew long enough that the food is definitely broken down into a pretty mushy consistency, you shouldn't be able to tell by the texture what you've just eaten by the time you actually swallow. It's not easy I know - this has been especially difficult for me since I've learned that the act of chewing stimulates mercury gas to be released from my dental fillings, which I then breathe in and pollute myself with, holistic dentist here I come!

Chew chew chew chew chew chew chew chew chew chew chew

More Peas Please!

Finally! My absolute most favorite natural food snack is in season: sugar snap peas! (and garden peas too, although those are a little less sweet, but they're larger, and equally as healthy and yummy). Here's the thing, peas have an unusually short growing season on the east coast, just a few weeks starting in early June. I saw the first batch this weekend and bought a whole pound even though I knew these peas are likely not fully ripe and would be very small. I just couldn't help myself! But the inside scoop is that the first couple of batches are too young, and the last couple of batches are starting to rot, so your window of delicious perfectly ripe peas is really just about 2-3 weeks. So run run run to your farmers market NEXT weekend and stock up.

Aside from the fact that they're delicious, here's why you should eat them:

• peas are loaded with phytonutrients that provide key antioxidants and anti-inflammatory benefits.
• Peas are in the category of 'nitrogen fixing' plants and therefore considered environmentally friendly due to their ability to enrich the soil (they also don't need as much fertilizer and have a lower risk of pest problems than other plants).
• They have Omega-3's in the form of alpha-linolenic acid which provides us with fat soluble nutrients like beta-carotene and vitamin E.
• They are loaded with vitamin K, manganese, vitamin C, as well as several B vitamins.
• Peas also have protein and fiber, which slows down digestion and thereby helps to regulate blood sugar.
• They are sweet and starchy so if you love candy and chocolate, peas will satisfy your cravings and spare you a few rounds to the bodega for your candy fix.
• They are so diverse you can do anything with them, cook them into soups or stews, stir-fry with other veggies, or just eat them right out of the pod like I do!

Is that enough reasons? They're also just so darn cute, aren't they? For me, peas offer a sense of nostalgia of a brief and happy time in my childhood when I spent the summer with my grandparents in Latvia at their dacha where we had a wonderful garden and planted delicious fruits and veggies, among them peas. I used to load up a giant bowl of it and just sit on the porch enjoying the opening of each individual pod and using my teeth to scrape the peas into my mouth. Oh sweet childhood contentment. Anyway, enjoy the peas while they last, get to the farmers market!!

Tidbits

Some helpful tips that I've come across about food and nutrition that you may not be aware of but will hopefully think 'oh, hmm, that's good to know' and give them a try.

• Taking a 5-10 minute walk after a meal stimulates digestion and helps to process food better.
• Drinking cold water vs. luke warm water makes your body exert extra energy to warm it up. It also tightens your stomach's blood vessels thereby lowering absorption, plus room temperature water helps your body to eliminate and distribute fats (which very cold water could solidify and store in your body instead).
• Daily consumption of lemon water in the morning will benefit your digestion by alkalizing stomach acidity. It is also a blood purifier, antiseptic, and a secret for rejuvenating your skin from within.
• If you like to buy dried beans and cook them yourself, which I highly recommend over canned beans due to the toxicity of the can lining, you can cook the beans with a little wakame (a dried seaweed) and that will cut down on your post-bean-eating flatulence.
• Lightly steaming your veggies (5 minutes or less) as compared to eating them raw actually increases the bioavailability of the enzymes and nutritional components and your body will be able to digest and absorb them even better than raw foods.
• Microwaving food pretty much kills any enzymes and severely depletes food of its' nutritional content - toaster ovens are a better choice because they do not emit radiation, but if you absolutely cannot NOT heat up yesterday's dinner for lunch today then salvage some nutrition by microwaving slightly for under a minute.
• The best time for eating probiotics like yogurt, kefir, or goodbelly is about an hour or so before bedtime. The benefit of probiotics is to replenish your intestinal flora, the good bacteria, so if you eat it as the last snack before your sleep fast that will really allow the probiotics to do their good work (and not get washed away by the digestion process if you were to eat it ahead of other meals).
• Making your own vegetable stock and using that instead of water will add additional nutrients to your meals, see instructions below.