Immune MishMash in the kitchen

When a touch of the flu hits your home be prepared with some tools to boost the immune system:

1. Brothy soups (bone broths are nice)
2. Elderberry syrups or tinctures (Check out my elderberry article in the next Potsdam Food Co-op's newsletter, coming soon)
3. Flu tonics: (No Time For Getting Sick, everyone around me was sick and needing my care, I had to be the one to stay functioning!)
4. Herbal teas: nettle, yarrow, rosemary, peppermint (Instructions for making medicinal infusions, teas, click the herbal teas link 
5. Hot baths with plenty of water (or the above immune herbal teas) to drink  while bathing. Fevers need to be kept hydrated and allowed to do their work. A fever's purpose is to destroy the microbes causing the sickness with their heat. Fevers are part of your immune response for healing infections. If you reduce fevers with medications and cold baths, the heat of fever cannot work for you. Keep the feverish person very well hydrated to avoid the problems of fever that people fear.
6. Whole food green drink such as SuperFood Plus
7. Foods rich in:

• Vitamin C (lemon water?),
• selenium (brazil nuts anyone),
• zinc (pumpkin seeds?)

I was making a pot of soup, pictured above, to offer something brothy for my sick kid's bodies. The flu hit and one kid had a fever for 11 days. Mom care was required. As I am making the soup, "extended fever boy" is lying on the couch around the corner and says to me:

Jake:  "What are you making for dinner Mom?"

Mom: "Soup"

Jake:  "Your soup is scary to me. It always contains one or more of the following:

• animal carcasses (bone broths)
• rotting bean matter (miso)
• vegetables that most of the modern world have never heard of!

Mom: "Thanks for the vote of confidence."

Jake: "I don't appreciate finding scary things in my scary soup. The soups usually taste good but what is in it terrifies me. I observe it very carefully before I eat it."

Makes a Mom run to the kitchen to create healthy fare for her loved ones!

The Soup Recipe

1. Bring 3-4 cups of water to simmer, slowly, no need to boil. Keep pot covered and on lowest heat.
2. Saute' a medium onion chopped into fine slivers. Saute' in butter from pastured animals, animal fat, or coconut oil.
3. Grate or finely chop cabbage, about 1 cup.
4. Grate a small celeriac.
5. Add both to onion saute' and quick stir fry.
6. Add above veggie mix to the simmer water and keep heat as low as possible. Do not boil this soup.
7. Finely chop kale and saute', about 1 cup.
8. Grate a carrot and add to saute'.
9. Toss into saute' some frozen red pepper strips that you perhaps froze before growing season ended.
10. Stir fry all 3 together and add to veggie soup mix in pot.
11. Add a pinch or two of cayenne to soup.
12. Peel and press 1-2 cloves of garlic into soup.
13. I then added 3-4 tablespoons of South River Miso's Sweet White Miso. 
14. Last addition was the flu syrup sitting on the counter. It contained raw apple cider vinegar, raw honey, garlic, onion, ginger, and turmeric. There was 2/3 to 3/4 a cup left in the jar. I dumped it all into the soup and stirred it up.
15. Soup was finished and ready for serving to my terrified kid.

The only thing else I would have added, had I some bone broth on hand, would be bone broth instead of the water at the beginning. I recommend keeping bone broth made and frozen in wide mouth quart canning jars for flu emergencies. 

Happy immune boosting soup making. I hope you efforts are appreciated and not creating a reign of soup terror!

Making Bone Broth:    From my educational handout on bones and minerals

Bone broths are made with fish, chicken, turkey, beef, and lamb bones and a tablespoon of vinegar to liberate the minerals.  Put bones in a sauce pan, soup pot and cover with water, just enough to cover bones. I squish the bones down into the pot. Add the tablespoon of raw apple cider vinegar and cover the pot. I soak the bones in the vinegar water overnight and slow simmer for hours the next day. I gently bring to a simmer on the stove top. Then I place in a pre-heated 220 F oven and leave for 4-5 hours if chicken bones and longer if harder bones. Remove bones and use as a soup stock for veggie soup or eat the broth as is (add a bit of unrefined sea salt to taste). If making veggie soup, I saute' the veggies before adding to the hot broth to avoid simmering the broth anymore.

Serve Up More Veggies to Your "Valentine" Kids

I am asked this question quite often:

"How do I get my kids to eat more vegetables and less junk?"  (This topic pertains to anyone in need of more veggies, not just kids!)

The easy answer is this: "Serve them vegetables and do not bring junk into the home. They can only eat what is available to eat."

So I know you Moms are chuckling and maybe thinking... easy for you to say Paula, you don't live with my kids. 

My kids ate every fruit or vegetable I gave them (Well, maybe not broccoli, but remember that cruciferous veggie taste is a strong one!) until a certain age. It was like veggie eating (not so much the fruits) almost stopped on a dime. It left me wondering what had happened to my happy to eat veggie kids. The funny phenomenon is this: when my oldest boy decided veggies did not tantalize his palate anymore, it was a license for my younger son to bag eating veggies too. "No way Mom, Jake doesn't touch them and I am not either."

What IS a Mom to do?

I say:  Sneak feed your kids more nasty (their word) vegetables!

Photo Courtesy Of Christina & Brycen Smith, Parishville.

1. Puree cooked beets in the blender with the milk, eggs, and butter for the pancake batter. Pour into mixing bowl and finish making your pancake batter.
2. Use cooked squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, etc. in the same manner. I do confess... broccoli in pancakes is not a winning combination with kids! Remember to add spices to these beautifully colored pancakes: cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, ginger, star anise... perhaps a dash or two of vanilla!
3. I used to add spinach to pancakes and called them "Shrek" pancakes. They loved it and gobbled them up. At the time, they loved the Shrek movies. When they finally figured out my scam... I was not popular in the kitchen for a bit of time. It did work for a couple of years so I was grateful for the added veggies.
4. Chocolate milk for my kids was this: raw goat's milk, cocoa powder, 1/2 ripe banana, vanilla extract, and cooked squash. Use enough squash to add sweetness but not so much that the end product is thick like a milk shake... unless, of course, you want to pass it off as a milk shake. For years my kids had no clue a milk shake actually contained ice cream!
5. Add cooked beet to a berry smoothie, not so much that it overwhelms the berry taste. Beets are very earthy in taste.
6. For more information on beet's blessing to your kid's and your body's health, click here and scroll down to read beet information: http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/blog/2013/01/26/the-beet-goes-on
7. Puree a bit of cooked squash into pasta sauce.
8. Chicken or other bone broth? Puree veggies into the broth. Use just enough veggies to add vegetables to the broth and your meal but not enough to turn the broth into stew. Bone broth video added below.

Fun shapes always amused my kids into eating veggie infused pancakes. 

Photo Courtesy Of Christina Smith, Parishville.

For more fun ideas of how to add veggies to your life, click here. 

Cheers and Happy Valentine's Day!

Healing Begins At Home

We are all healers. Healing energy is a natural part of every one of us. Cut your finger; it heals without intervention. Healing is biologically innate in living beings.

Some people are deeply in tune with this healing energy and can act to support others on their healing journey. 

When I say healing begins at home, this statement is something I mean from two perspectives. The perspective show cased above; that the body is a healing organism. Healing just happens in your body, your physical home. Also, healing begins in your home; the structure, building, your physical body dwells in. The space where your habits were born and continue to be nurtured in.

We are 100% capable of organizing our lives to create healing. The choices we make in our lives: what we eat and how we interact in the world all start at home. We learned our lifestyle habits from watching, interacting with, and repeating the lifestyle habits we observed family members engaging in . We can alter our lifestyle habits depending on the healing capacity of the way we live our daily lives. Is this habit best for my wellness?

Most people, when asked and given time to contemplate the question, can tell you exactly why they have the disease symptoms they have. Some people can get to the heart of the matter faster and more efficiently than others; they can tell you the emotional, spiritual, and the physical reasons they are wrestling with ill health and disease.

Bringing this question to people's awareness is the beginning of healing. When we can shine the light on why the disease symptoms are present in our physical health, we can start to address the underlying issues and set the healing energy back into action. 

Find a quiet spot. Sit. Ground yourself. Breathe deeply, focusing on the breath for several minutes. Ask yourself: "why do I have these ill-health symptoms." Continue to breathe deeply for several more minutes. Allow the answer to arise; maybe right now, maybe tomorrow or next week.

My 2015 healing wish for you: Discovery of personal blocks to healing and putting healing action to work in your life.

Namaste.

Creating Inner SunShine!

Sunshine is a body, mind, and soul soothing ray of warmth. We smile more and laugh more when the sun shines. The warm sun on our skin just feels good. The bright light entering our eyes triggers good feelings.

The sun's rays create physiological responses in our bodies. One does not need the scientific reasons behind this. Common sense tells us the sun is just good. Plants starved of sunlight wither and die. Animals locked away from the sun wither and die. The logical conclusion is that sun is good for hum-animal!

Sun on your skin is what produces vitamin D (remember that Vit D is a hormone not a vitamin). Sun light to your eyes regulates many hormonal processes in the human body: serotonin, melatonin, endorphins of all sorts, regulate the cycles of night and day (this is apparent in the cycling of a female's reproductive functions), and so many other hormonal functions necessary for life on this Earth. Worshipping the sun is a fine thing to do. Without the sun life would not exist.

Here I sit in Northern NY State. I have to say it has been a gloomy late fall and early winter. I can count the sunny days in the last month on about 1 hand (with fingers left over!). Clouds, I have seen many clouds these past 4 weeks. 

Now today was sunny.  Wow, what a gift to body, mind, and soul. I hope everyone took advantage and soaked up and soaked in a bit of sunshine; even 10 minutes outside in the deliciously cold and yummy sunshine.

What is a person to do when we have days and days, weeks and weeks of very little sunshine? My first answer would be the obvious: get out of here.  Head south, friend, head south!  For most of us that is not a possibility. The trick is to learn how to create inner sunshine; how to raise our feel good hormones despite the lack of obvious sunshine in our days and life.

When my youngest son was 8 years old, his wise 'lil self said these words to me:  

"When you lift the corner of the clouds, the sun is always shining."  Eli 

I was taken aback by his wisdom. He was speaking more of human sadness but the words hold true here...

1. Get outside and get as much natural light as you can, every single day in every season. Even if it is cloudy, the sun is still there working magic with your hormones and health. Think about it... a solar panel still makes electricity on a cloudy day and a sun flower still follows the sun on a cloudy day. Get out there and create your own electricity (life force energy) with the sun's rays... even when they are behind a cloud. Be a sun flower and follow the sun's rays. Lift the corner of that cloud in your little world, metaphorically speaking, and get some natural light.
2. You will get fresh air too. Again, this is life force enhancing. Get outside; you will be glad you did. Ditch the stationary bikes and XC Ski machines in the winter. Put on some Yak Traks, or similar boot sole (soul) enhancement, and go say hello to Old Man Winter. 
3. 100% Whole food diet. Seriously, do I need to say more about this?
4. Pets: Having a pet to love and care for (and love you right back) is a huge creator of inner sunshine. Don't believe me? Try it. But only if you genuinely want to pour some love into a friend and have it come back to you 10 fold.
5. Plants: Yes, get a plant and talk to it. Water it. Having a green plant growing in your home is something that you can love and care for. Grow an indoor herb garden that you can take little bites of to improve your mood: peppermint, rosemary, parsley, sage, lavender, oregano, basil... just have a window handy that gets plenty of light (even if the sun is not shining).
6. Whole Health Lifestyle Choices. Another area I rant on about... Is anyone listening to me?
7. Yoga... Yes, I love Yoga and all it has invited into my life: body, mind, & spirit healing.
8. Acupuncture: I have extolled the virtues of acupuncture many, many, many times and I will again, over and over. Want a happy sunshine lift? Go get acupuncture.
9. Massage: Massage is a great way to increase your endorphins.  It is sunshine rubbing your muscles, energy transfer from another human being who is a storehouse of solar energy. Think about it: all of the food we eat is stored solar energy. A human is stored solar energy. 
10. Reiki or any other kind of healing energy work that speaks to you and your personal needs. Just do it; you will feel lighter, brighter, sunnier, and happier. Learn to do self-Reiki. 
11. Have FUN.  Laughter and fun ups the feel good hormones.
12. Volunteer and make someone else's day, or life, better - brighter - sunnier.