Edammame hummus

* 1/2 pound frozen shelled edamame (green soy beans), about 1 1/2 cups
* 1/4 cup tahini
* 1/4 cup water
* 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
* 1 lemon (about 3 tablespoons), juiced
* 1 clove garlic, smashed
* 3/4 teaspooon kosher salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin (didn’t have it)
* 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander(didn’t have it)
* 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (didn’t have it)
* 1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (didn’t have it)
Suggested serving: Sliced cucumbers, celery, and olives
Directions

Boil the beans in salted water for 4 to 5 minutes, or microwave, covered, for 2 to 3 minutes.

In a food processor, puree the edamame, tahini, water, lemon zest and juice, garlic, salt, cumin, and coriander until smooth. With the motor running, slowly drizzle in 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and mix until absorbed.

Transfer to a small bowl, stir in the parsley and drizzle with remaining oil. Serve with the suggested vegetables, or refrigerate, covered, up to 1 day.

Indian Food Cooking Lesson #1: Mutia and Roti

Chhayal and I recently had the pleasure of an informal cooking lesson, taught by Chhayal’s mom. The intuitive chef taught us how to make and cook two Indian dishes: mutia & roti. Mrs. Parikh was, I think, delighted that we were interested. She demonstrated steps, then watched us emulate. I totally enjoyed this. Learning these recipes and techniques from a woman who does this with such ease and passion was an inspiring experience. The only difficulty? Like many seasoned chefs, she doesn’t use measurements. Uh, yeah. So Chhayal and I did our best to watch, measure, and note… because we need directions! The best part, of course, was enjoying the finished product together.

Mutia (pictured here) is scrumptious steamed dumplings made from either grated squash, zucchini or radish. You choose. I love these easy to make treats, especially with a chutney. Roti (oops, forgot pictures) looks like a tortilla but it is is most often from wheat flour cooked on a flat or slightly concave iron griddle called a tawa, then spread with ghee (clarified butter). This is so tasty and my first foray into making breads. Yum!

MUTIA
Ingredients:
3 medium sized squash, daikon radish or zucchini, grated
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons tumeric
2 Tablespoons cumin
2 Tablespoons coriander powder
sprinkle of cream of tartar
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

3 green chili
1 Tablespoon ginger
3 Tablespoons oil

3 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup chickpea flour

Directions:
1. Use a grinder or blender to finely chop ginger and chilli and blend with oil.
2. Add this to squash/zucchini/radish and spice mixture.
3. Mix in flours with hands until a soft dough is formed. Add water if needed.
4. Using well oiled hands, make logs of dough, approximately 2 inches long.
5. Place formed dough into a steamer basket in a pot of simmering water. Keep on medium heat for 20 minutes.

ROTI
Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 Tablespoon oil
warm water

Directions:
1. Place flour in a bowl, add oil.
2. With hands, mix in a little warm water until dough becomes soft.
3. Gently kneed dough into a large ball. Place back into bowl and leave covered for 30 minutes.
4. Using oiled hands, roll small bits of dough into balls, about 1 inch in diameter.
5. Using a floured surface, roll a dough ball into a flat disk.
6. Cook on iron surface until brown and dough bubbles. You can even place it directly over gas burner for a bit.
7. Spread with ghee.

Pina-avo-colada smoothie

Just made this one up..i wanted something creamy with banana, as a mid-day snack..but I didn’t have any bananas. (Banana is more of an occasional treat for me..don’t have it regularly due to glycemic index). Anyway, i did have ripe avocados. And pinnaple. The smoothie I concocted was strangely delicious and satisfying.

-few small chunks of ripe avocado

-2 or 3 tender pieces of fresh ripe pineapple

-1/3 cup fresh raw kefir

-water

-several raisins

-sprinkle or two of cinnamon and pinch clove

-1 tsp virgin coconut oil

Blend ingredients for 5 minutes. Add water to reach desired consistency.

It tasted kind of like a banana was somewhere in there. And it was good! Next time I may throw in a few raw (soaked) almonds. The cool thing is very little of the main ingredients are needed. Little kefir (dairy), little bit of avocado, and little bit o’ pineapple. I like that, moderation.

FAST SUPERFOOD! Sprouted Brown Rice

Thank you, Trader Joe’s, for creating this incredibly tasty, healthy, portable food… Sprouted Brown Rice, with sesame and seaweed in a ready to eat bowl! This is something you must try. Brown rice and sprouting foods are becoming increasingly popular because the health benefits are numerous – lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, boosting the immune system, improving sleep, and inhibition of cancer cells. Who wouldn’t want a delicious forkful of that?!

So what is it? Sprouted Brown rice is rice that has been germinated by soaking in water for 14-20 hours before cooking. What the soaking does, is it starts the growing/development period for seeds and grains. Nutrients become available by phytic acid neutralization, which binds the enzyme inhibitor within the rice. The grain will begin to sprout. Neutralizing the phytic acid, releases the grain’s protein, its rich vitamins and enzymes, allowing these important nutrients to be absorbed by you during digestion. Without this process, the nutrients can’t be completely absorbed and the intestines have a difficult time digesting. Traditionally, grains and seeds had been soaked, allowed to sprout or fermented before they were eaten. The Westin A. Price site has a wonderful article about this.

You can take the time to sprout your rice on your own (instructions below) or simply grab this pre-prepared bowl at Trader Joe’s. The great thing about this product is not only the time saving nutrients of the rice, but the smart concoction they include for you to sprinkle within the heated rice: a generous packet of dried seaweed and sesame seeds. You’ve seen me write about the benefits of seaweed before, and here it is in easy food! Sesame adds a really nice flavor to the already nutty brown rice. But of course it is also nutritionally a great bonus. Sesame seeds proved vitamin E, and contain sesamin and sesamolin, substances that is believed to prevent high blood pressure and protect the liver against damage. Powerful fast food, no?!

Instructions for Sprouting your own Brown Rice, if you are kitchen-curious, like me:

1. Rinse 1 1/2 cupsbrown rice – many times until water is clear.
2. Place rice in a bowl, cover generously with filtered water.
3. Let stand 14-20 hours, or overnight.
4. Pour rice into a strainer and rinse well.
5. Cover the strainer with a towel and sit it over a bowl, to drain.
6. Every 12 hours, rinse the rice well.
7. After about 48 hours, you’ll see small sprouts.
Refrigerate the rice until ready to use.
8. Cook with about 2 cups water, and normally as you would regular rice.

Enjoy!
Oh, and please be sure to share your experiments with me.

Creamy Spinach Saag

So, we all know I am not a great cook. I like things healthy, fast and easy. Here is a recipe for a creamy spinach saag. Kind of like you get in an Indian Restaurant. I have no idea how to make the cheese (paneer) but I can ask my mom if you really want to know. I eat this with kitchari, brown rice or bread. It’s delicious and takes about 20 minutes. In fact I convinced myself to make it tonight!

- 10 oz frozen chopped spinach or fresh (go with fresh!)

- 2 cloves, 2 cardamoms, 1 dried red chili

- 1 cinnamon stick, 1 bay leaf

- 1 tspn minced ginger, 1 tspn garlic, 1 tspn chili

- 1 finely chopped onion

- 1/2 tspn jeeru (cumin), 1/2 tspn mustard seeds

- 3/4 tspn dhana jeeru (coriander power), 1/3 tspn harder

- 1/2 pint whipping cream (could substitute Ricotta cheese maybe?)

Sauté cloves, cardamom, bay leaf, cinnamon, dry red pepper, cumin, jeeru & mustard seeds

- after mustard seeds pop, add ginger, garlic and chilies

- add onion till browned

Add all other spices left, cook 1 min

- add spinach and put on low

- when spinach is cooked add cream

Power smoothie

Prior to morning workouts (weights and cardio) I started making a whey protein shake using just whey protein and water.  As an alternative, I have moved to a shake that provides a good source of protein but also seems to give me a little more energy.  I mix in a blender:

1/2 cup frozen wild organic blue berries, 1/2 cup plain organic Kefir, 1/2 cup filtered water,  1tablespoon of coconut oil, 1 scoop of super greens (Body Ecology’s super greens is my favorite, but others are good and will work). Sprinkle in some cinnamon (an excellent anti-inflammatory that international nutrition expert Jon Barron –jonbarron.com– says to sprinkle on anything you can stand).

As a protein boost, add 1 yolk only (organic, free range chicken).  You won’t taste it.

Blend for 60 seconds.

Ahhh! Enjoy!!

Easy breakfast

As an alternative to my beloved eggs (from free range organic chickens, of course) or egg omlettes with any organic vegetable mixed in and some free range organically fed meat, try this:

Soak overnight: raw sunflower seeds, raw walnuts, raw cashews, and raisins.  Drain in the morning.  Steam a Bartlet pear until soft.  Mix everything liberally as desired.  Add cinnamon.

This is amazingly simple and keeps my hunger pangs away for a minimum of 3 hours.  Try and enjoy!

ph level of magnetized water

Here’s an excerpt from aquatomic.com on the ph level of magnetized water:

Normal water has a pH level of around 7, while magnetized water can reach 9.2 after exposure to a 7000 gauss strength magnet. This has been shown to be enough to destroy cancer cells as demonstrated in the research of Nobel Prize winner Otto Warburg, M. Von Arene, Dr. K Brewster, Dr. H. Satori, and others.

Dr. Keijiro Kuwabara of Japan states…

“When you drink alkaline water, you are drinking water with excess oxygen, not in the form of O2, but in the form of OH – which is very stable because it is mated with positively ionized alkaline minerals. Two of these hydroxyl ions can form a water molecule (H2O) and give out one oxygen atom. The alkaline mineral is used to detoxify poisonous acid compounds. When that happens, the hydroxyl ion is freed to supply excess oxygen to the cells to prevent the development of cancer. It is indeed the case of killing two birds with one stone.” Dr. Kuwabara has been clinically treating diabetes quite successfully with alkaline water. Source: Excerpts from “Reverse Aging” by Sang Whang.

Tomato debates: rotten or replenishing?

beefsteak
grape
cherry
ugly
green
on-the-vine
hothouse
plum
roma

Yesterday, I was told not to eat any of them. Wha?! Or eggplant, or peppers, or potatoes, or winter squashes, or vinegar, or… I don’t remember what else, but tomato? Why? And I was just about to post my recipe for grilled veggies which is DELISH and includes tomatoes, eggplant and pepper. Oh dear. And what about my infamous guacamole?! And the sweet tomato plants I planted in my ‘lil garden? This advice came from Dr. Beech, who has been practicing Ayurveda for over 20 years.

His reasoning? It is a nightshade, meaning they supposedly grow at night. Nightshade vegetables contain a substance called glycoalkaloids. And these glycoalkaloids can be toxic and also disrupt important calcium metabolism in the body. “This disruption can increase inflammation and pain of all kinds, limiting flow of prana.” Prana is your life force. “Really?” I asked only 8 times, “I should stop eating them altogether, or just eat them in moderation?” To which he responded, “Well, that depends – do you want to be healthy or just kinda moderately healthy?” We all know that answer. So he challenged me to try to avoid these for 3 weeks, then one day eat all of them (I could pack most of them into a juicy eggplant parm, I’m thinking). Then see how I feel. I’m considering it… Your thoughts?

What I am learning in my nutrition explorations is the HUGE difference between the science of nutrition (what chemicals make up a food which gives us energy to fuel the body) vs. the holistic view of food. Scientifically, there is no doubt that nightshade vegetables are very good for you – yes, they all contain a wide variety of vitamins and minerals. I’d suggest eating a tomato instead of gummy bears any day. But the investigation of the chemical reactions in the body and how it relates to overall system functioning & well-being is what holistic nutrition is looking at. Energy comes from more sources than just food. And food has the power to heal or harm. If you think about it, the body is a perfectly functioning ecosystem. When you eat something, you are introducing new molecules into the whole body, things that the body has to use or deal with. How can it not affect your mind, only provide calories, or have only a specific influence on just one body part? So I’m buying the holistic view.

SIDE NOTE: Interesting history about tomatoes taken from trustedhands.com:
Tomatoes were first brought to Europe from Mexico by Cortez and were first cultivated for food in Naples. The English regarded them as poisonous until the 1700s. They were introduced in America as an ornamental garden plant in 1808, but were not eaten as they were believed to cause stomach cancer and appendicitis. The botanical name for tomatoes ‘Lycopersicon’ means ‘wolf peach’ and refers to the association between werewolves, witchcraft and nightshades. Then, in 1820, Colonel Robert Johnson defied the advice of his physicians (“You will foam and froth at the mouth and double over”) and ate tomatoes on the steps of Salem Courthouse, New Jersey, in front of a crowd of 2000 witnesses, the local sheriff waiting to arrest him for suicide. He survived and people began slowly to accept tomatoes as food. In the US and Northern Europe they really took off as food with the introduction of canning and canned soups and then rose again with the expansion of consumption of pizza and pasta in the past 30 years.

Magnetized Water

Magnetized Water

Working out with psychos keeps you in shape, for sure, but the sweat of it all requires serious rehydration. Many of us understand our basic need to drink clean, healthy water. But why do we need it? How much do we need? What actually is healthy water? How do we get it?

We are 70% water. All our biological functions including circulation, digestion, absorption, and cleansing depend on water. Water is required for blood and to assist in maintaining healthy skin and muscles, properly functioning kidneys, bowels, and circulation — all of which are at risk when we approach dehydration.Dehydration makes us feel tired, cranky, and stiff-jointed. It can also bring on headaches, aches, cramps, and other, more serious physical ailments. Severe dehydration actually causes toxic acidic build-up, causing the body’s organs, at some point, to prematurely fail. Untreated severe dehydration may result in seizures, permanent brain damage, or death.

Most experts advise drinking 8 or more glasses of water a day. New research, however, questions this age old maxim and points out the dangers of drinking too much water. New research studies suggest that the rule for drinking 8 glasses a day is a misinterpretation of research which concludes that the body requires 8 glasses of water per day from all sources including fruit, vegetables, and other foods, not just from our beverages. Coffee, alcohol, carbonated beverages, and some say even tea, don’t count toward hydration since they actually dehydrate us.

So where do we get our water from? Whole Foods? It has electrolytes. Deer Park? They deliver. Evian? Reportedly the highest alkaline content of all the spring waters? Perrier? Nice fizz. Pellegrino? Is it the water or pasta that’s fattening?

Tap water? The chlorine, chemicals, and, at least in D.C., traces of prescription medications added free of charge. The answer for safe, healthy water may be magnetized water.

Magnetized water does not mean that the water has acquired a magnetic charge. It means that the water has been subjected to a strong magnetic field, which has changed certain properties of that water.

Promoting magnets to improve the quality and health benefits of water has a long history. Researchers found that when a permanent magnet is kept in contact with water, the water gets magnetically charged and acquires magnetic properties. Such magnetically treated water affects the human body when taken internally and regularly for a considerable period of time.

Jon Barron, internationally renowned health expert, reports: “Although all water consists of the same basic H20 molecules, water nevertheless varies according to how these molecules bond together to form “water molecule groups.” To put it simply, it is in the size of these groupings that water differs.

“The smaller the groupings, the more bio-available the water is — the more easily it is able to pass through cell walls, to transport nutrients and remove waste, to facilitate all of the communications systems in your body, and to pass through your body as a whole. The larger the groupings, the more inefficient water is at performing these same functions.

“What holds water molecules together in clusters is surface tension. This is what you see when you wash your car and the water beads up in droplets on the hood. When washing your car, you use detergent to break that surface tension — which breaks apart the large molecular clusters, making the water wetter and better able to clean. Obviously, you can’t use detergent to “improve” the bioavailability of your drinking water. But you can use magnetics.

“Magnetizing your drinking water breaks its surface tension, making it wetter and more useable by every cell in your body. In addition, there’s a strong secondary benefit. Applying a magnetic field to water can not only make it wetter, but it can also raise its pH (up to a full point, depending on the water).

“The ratio of small cluster water to large cluster water changes over time in your body. When you are born, there is a high percentage of small cluster water present. As you age, however, that percentage steadily drops — eventually becoming almost nonexistent.

“One of the problems is that small cluster water is not stable. The electric charges inherent in water continually cause the small clusters to bind together into larger and larger clusters. And to make matters worse, the process is accelerated when water is exposed to air and light.” Jon Barron Baseline of Health Newsletter, June 2002. Less is now more…. By magnetizing water we can now hydrate faster and more completely while drinking less.

I’m sold on magnetized water. I figure magnetized spring or filtered water can’t hurt. I do find it easier to drink– maybe because it’s more alkaline than non-magnetized water. With anti-inflammatory foods and spices added to my diet, my muscles and joints after exercising aren’t as stiff as they used to be and I rarely bolt out of bed at 3 a.m. with muscle cramps.

My magnets of choice can be viewed at aquatonic.com. They’re made by Aquaspace, Inc.

Oh, I almost forgot. Dr. Michael Tierra L.A., O.M.D explains that the proclaimed healing powers of various naturally occurring baths at places such as Lourdes France, Sedona Arizona and Jesus Chahin’s well in Tlacote Mexico, occurs in these areas because there is reportedly higher naturally occurring magnetic energy.

One way to naturally magnetize water is to run it through 30 feet of sand where it will emerge negatively poled because of the effect of minute quartz sand crystals. This water emerges saturated with oxygen that is able to kill germs, build bodily strength and support the immune system. Water so treated will show a change of temperature, surface tension, viscosity and electrical conductivity. Just as chemicals change weight after being subjected to magnetic fields, so does water. More hydroxyl (OH-) ions are generated to form calcium bicarbonate and other alkaline particles. Normal water has a pH level of around 7, while magnetized water can reach 9.2 after exposure to a 7000 gauss strength magnet. This has been shown to be enough to destroy cancer cells as demonstrated in the research of Nobel Prize winner Otto Warburg, M. Von Arene, Dr. K Brewster, Dr. H. Satori, and others.

WOW.