Monday, April 30, 2012

Veggie Mexican Bowl

Ok y'all - this is a really good recipe. Promise.

My hubby asked me to make this every week. It's super easy, even he could make it ;)

An added bonus - it's really healthy. Full of fiber, protein, vitamins and nutrients. Great if you are trying to lower cholesterol or lipids.
It's dairy free, gluten free, and vegan. Even though we aren't completely vegan, we try to eat lots of vegan food and mostly avoid dairy and animal products. Try making one of your meals vegetarian every week. I bet you'll end up eating more veggies!

I came up with this because I wanted to eat at Moe's, but I was already at the grocery store, and figured I'd try to make a burrito bowl (minus the tortilla).

Grocery List:

Brown Rice
1 Cucumber (Chopped in small pieces)
1 Avocado (Chopped in small pieces)
1 Bunch Cilantro (Chopped)
1 Can Olives (Chopped)
1 Can Black Beans (with or without sauce)
1 Jar Salsa

Cook the brown rice. (boil 2 1/4c. water, then add 1 c. brown rice for 30-45 minutes)
Add the brown rice to the bottom of the bowl.
Add your toppings (chopped cucumber, avocado, cilantro, olives, beans and salsa). I used extra, extra cilantro because I love it. Plus, it has some amazing properties - aids in digestion, anti-inflammatory agents, and even reduces mood swings and cramping associated with PMS. Check out more about the amazing power of Cilantro! Here's another article on cilantro and detoxing.

Easy enough?

Happy health!

I ate it with blue corn chips. YUM Hubby ate his in about 5 minutes.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Eating Seasonally and Gazpacho Recipe

Eating seasonally allows you to eat the freshest and tastiest foods, based on where you live. It also helps you sync up with your environment.
Historically, people grew and ate their own foods, and needed certain nutrients and foods depending on where they lived. Their gardens and farms provided what they needed. For example, someone living in Alaska may not do so well eating a raw food diet (cooling foods), whereas someone in Jamaica, may feel better eating more raw fruits and veggies.

Today, we can do that with local farmers markets and growing veggies in our garden. Though we can get just about any food we want from anywhere in the world, it's good to eat locally as much as possible.
Next time you're grocery shopping, notice where your produce comes from. Try to buy locally - or at least from the US. It will limit your options, but is an interesting experiment.

I love soup, but it's getting a little warm to be eating hot soup. Gazpacho is a great option - it's a cold soup and won't make you feel like an inferno when your eating it in the middle of summer.

Check out this super easy and delish Gazpacho soup recipe from Grow It First Blog. It's a great way to get in your veggies.

I could eat the whole pot.

http://growitfirst.blogspot.com/2012/03/grow-it-first-with-ck-worley-gazpacho.html

Gazpacho:

http://growitfirst.blogspot.com/2012/03/grow-it-first-with-ck-worley-gazpacho.html

One seeded tomato, cucumber and pepper chopped
Chopped celery, carrot, onion and bunch of parsley
2 chopped garlic cloves and a bunch of arugula chopped.
1/2 teaspoon of salt and pepper
Splash of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and worcestershire sauce.
Combine the ingredients together - cover and refrigerate
*You can use any color pepper you’d like
*You don’t have to seed the tomato if you don’t want to
*Use scallions, red onion or sweet onions
*Optional: Add some sweet corn.
*Use balsamic, red or white wine vinegar
*Refrigerate for a couple of hours or overnight
*If you don’t like an ingredient - don’t use it

My little Lilly Kate loves vegetable soup!! Kid approved recipe

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Dr. Mark Hyman Shares Information on Nutrition, Toxins and Vitamins

Very interesting interview with natural MD, Dr. Mark Hyman. Definitely worth reading.
Click here to read: Dr. Mark Hyman Shares Information on Nutrition, Toxins and Vitamins

Dr. Hyman heals thousands of people with integrative medicine, using nutrition as a major modality to do so. He recommends eating a 90% plant based diet.
He tells us that most are a vitamin deficient society - largely in magnesium, omega 3 and B vitamins.

*Reminder: Hemp seeds contain 48% of your daily intake of magnesium plus 3 grams of Omega 3's. Hemp is an easy way to get in two of these nutrients. Hemp also has 23% of your daily intake of zinc (crucial for male fertility) and 11 grams of protein. It's an amazing super food.

Order Hemp Seeds at Amazon.com here

For more info on Dr. Hyman visit his page at http://drhyman.com/

Happy health!

Here's the beginning of the article, but please click on the above link for its entirety.

_______________________

(NaturalNews) This interview is an excerpt from Kevin Gianni's The Healthiest Year of Your Life Program which can be found at (http://www.thehealthiestyearofyourlife.com) . In this excerpt, Dr. Mark Hyman, M.D. weighs in on nutrition, toxins and finding the right vitamins.

The Healthiest Year of Your Life Excerpt with Dr. Mark Hyman, M.D., a best-selling author, a respected medical consultant and a leader in the field of functional medicine.

Kevin:Let's talk a little bit about the raw food and vegan diet and how it fits into this type of functional medicine.

Mark:Sure. I think everybody is different and I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all diet. Some people thrive on a vegetarian diet. Other people are extraordinarily sick on a vegan or vegetarian diet. I've had many patients on raw foods and vegan diets who are extraordinarily malnourished. Then I've seen people who manage it quite well.

I think you have to look at what's right for each person. So I don't think that any general recommendations are helpful. I also think it depends on where you live. If you're living in Manitoba, a raw food diet is probably not the best thing. If you're living on the island in Fiji, you probably could thrive on a raw food diet. It's also "think locally, eat locally". I think it's a very important thing. What's local? What's native to your area? What's going on with your own biology and genetics and body. I think you have to be careful if you're doing a raw food, or vegan diet. It's easy to become malnourished and you have to supplement, I believe, with nutrients and really be smart about it.

Kevin:Anything specific?

Mark:What I would say is that probably 90% of your diet should be a plant-based diet. Whether it's cooked or uncooked, I think Michael Pollan said, "Eat food, meaning real food." Not too much and mostly plants. Plant foods have all the phytochemicals and nutrients and things that your body needs to thrive and without them you don't. The phytochemicals that are from colorful fruits and vegetables in plant foods that are essential for life.

Kevin:What are some of the most potent toxins that you encounter?

Mark:I would say probably without a doubt, the most serious threat to our health in terms of toxins is mercury. It's something I see and treat every day that affects, I would say, the majority of my patients in one way or another. It's important to identify. It's mostly ignored and it's relatively easy and safe to treat.

Learn more:http://www.naturalnews.com/023392_food_diet_health.html#ixzz1t43zJgPn

Monday, April 23, 2012

"Dirty Dozen & Clean 15" - a guide to savvy shopping

According to EWG.org, below is the list of "Dirty Dozen" and "Clean 15". The dirty dozen are the fruits and veggies with the most pesticide residue. Their website has a lot of great other tips and information.

Tip: Eating fruits and veggies is more important than not eating them - so if all you have access to is conventionally grown (non-organic) - eat them anyway. This is just a guide to help you in your shopping. Buy organic when possible and affordable. More often than not, I can't bring myself to pay the $6 price tag for organic strawberries (though their price does decrease a little at the peak of their season).

Do what you can. Do not obsess.

Note: Corn is a highly genetically modified food (GMO). I recommend buying organic corn whenever possible.

EWG's Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce

Dirty Dozen

Buy these organic

Apples

Celery

Strawberries

Peaches

Spinach

Nectarines
– imported

Grapes – imported

Sweet bell peppers

Potatoes

Blueberries
– domestic

Lettuce

Kale/collard greens

Clean 15

Lowest in Pesticide

Onions

Sweet Corn

Pineapples

Avocado

Asparagus

Sweet peas

Mangoes

Eggplant

Cantaloupe
- domestic

Kiwi

Cabbage

Watermelon

Sweet potatoes

Grapefruit

Mushrooms

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

The 10% Rule - Self Care is Crucial

When it comes to finances, most of us understand that we should be saving at least 10% of our income when we receive our paychecks. Others suggest saving even more. Bottom line, if we don't save, or pay ourselves, we won't have any money in the future. We will be financially depleted. Most of us will agree that this is not an ideal situation.

My husband recently related this to self care. One day when I was feeling overwhelmed and tired, he asked me what I have done for myself lately. With work, parenthood, school and other responsibilities, it's easy to forget the importance of taking time to mindfully relax and practice self care.

Self care is defined as just that - taking care of yourself. It is not selfish to take time for yourself, to exercise, to breath, to mediate, to pray. It is absolutely essential. If you do not apply the same financial 10% rule to yourself, you will, like your finances, become depleted.

What is the 10% rule?

My husband described it as giving 10% of your day to yourself. If you work 8 hours a day (480 minutes) - take 10% of that - 48 minutes.

48 minutes to yourself. Sound difficult? Break it up. Spend 30 minutes on a walk or exercise class, 10 minutes in prayer or silence, 8 minutes mindfully eating (no cell phones or tv!)

If you give and give of yourself to others, and do not pour anything into your emotional savings account - you too, will become depleted. Whether that depletion manifests in illness, fatigue or anxiety and depression, it will manifest. We want to grow old and have an abundant "savings account". We need to preserve our health, our relationships, our strength. If you are constantly giving of yourself, without refueling, you will be left with nothing - an unhappy martyr.

Self care can also be seen as an investment. Investing is a smart move, financially or emotionally. When you invest in an exercise or nutrition plan, you are not only taking care of yourself, but you are investing in your future. Self care allows you to invest in your relationships. When you are a happier mother, father, wife, husband, employee, boss, friend, you will have fuller, more satisfying relationships. Self care is crucial.

Think about healthy people in your own life, even religious figures - they all probably take some alone time, to recharge.

If 10% seems too drastic of a step at first, take baby steps. Start with 5 minutes. Add a few minutes weekly and see how you feel.

Implementing the 10% rule is my goal for 2012. Join me in my journey towards greater self care!

Thank you for reading. For more information about implementing the 10% rule in your life or mindful eating, email me at theplantbasedhealthcoach@gmail.com

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Green Smoothie Time

Banana, Peach & Spinach Smoothie

Here's another green smoothie - it's creamy and really good!

As you eat more leafy green vegetables, you will experience great mental clarity, increased energy and better overall health. Smoothies are a really good and easy way to get in your veggies. Kale can sometimes be a difficult one for people to get used to in a smoothie, so try spinach. It has a milder flavor and is easier to disguise for those who aren't thrilled about drinking their greens.

Ingredients:

1 banana
3/4 can of peaches (or more, or less) - can use fresh when they come in season again
3 tbsp. Hemp seeds
Ice
1/2-1c. coconut milk
big handful of spinach or baby spring mix -
Note: I love Organic Girl - it's always fresh. I have also used their 50/50, which is 50% spring mix, 50% spinach
water as needed
Blend

Baby approved!