Cooking and Eating at Home IS the Life for ME!!

Try to sing that title to the tune of: "Farm Living is the Life for Me....!"

I confess, I do not like to eat out. The idea of eating out is fabulous: someone else doing the shopping, cooking, and washing the dishes AND I get someone to serve up the food to me!

Who can say no to that?

This writing idea came to me as I was driving my kids to school. It started off as 4 simple reasons to eat at home. And then... my mind wandered...

11 Reasons Why I Prefer to Cook and Eat at Home:

1.  I truly love to cook, to stretch my kitchen artist's muscles and create fun and tasty food with what I have on hand.

Ethiopian carrots and Brussels Sprouts: First cook up a pot of red lentils (keep them firm, not mushy), then saute' up some onions, carrot coins, and Brussels sprouts in butter.  Add in some mild curry powder to the veggies, mix in the cooked lentils, and toss with some cashews. Yummy, easy, seasonal dinner! Serve with a side of whole grain pita bread, warmed and slathered with butter, and a dish of local yogurt.

2.  I like knowing my body cells, and my kid's body cells, are being nourished with real food. I like knowing my food is being made with high quality ingredients.

3.  The vegetables and fruits I cook with... I know:

• who grew them: the Martins, the Kents, Dulli and her crew at Birdsfoot Farm, John Dewar (the local Doc gone veggie farmer)... and so many more chemical free, northern NY growers,
• where the farmer lives and grows food (no, I do not stalk my famers!) but I like to see the land, know the soil my food was grown in... that kind of picky stuff,
• how they grow the food (chemical free).

4.  The animal products I use I like to know:

• see the above farmer information and
• that the meat, eggs, milk, and dairy products came from animals that are pasture raised... out there eating grass and all the plant life that they like to eat and is their natural diet.

OK, so these goats ARE wandering in the snow... but, they are free wandering, pasture raised goats when the snow melts!

5.  Whole grains: when I cook at home I know the bread, pasta, noodles, pie crust, cake, cookies or any food made out of flour is 100% whole grains. Whole foods nourish our body cells for health and healing. Refined foods deplete our body cells and set our bodies up for chronic, degenerative diseases. I have yet to find a restaurant that serves 100% whole grain foods with pasta dishes, bread for sandwiches, buns for burgers and such, bread that is served at the beginning of a meal, etc.

6.  The minimal amount of sugar being used in my kitchen is not refined, white, cell destroying sugar. I cook with the highest quality of cell nourishing ingredients in all my food prep and cooking.

7. I know my food is not being nuked in a microwave. Microwave cooking is best avoided in a whole health lifestyle. To learn more about microwave's impact on your food and health, click here.

8.  I know my food is seasonal and local allowing my body to follow the natural rhythms of the seasons and nature. My food is living and growing in the same climate I live in and that is just good vibrational energy!

9.  I use oils that contribute to my vibrant health and avoid cheap vegetable oils such as soy and canola. I use high quality olive oil for making salad dressing. Most food establishments do not invest in high quality oils.

10. I do not have to go anywhere. Home is where the heart is and my heart is happy at home!

11.  I can dress up, or down, in any clothes I want. PJs at the dinner table? Sure, why not!  

Reminds me of an early morning breakfast when I was 20 at McDonald's in Canton. (Yes, I had a rocky start to independent, whole food eating lifestyle. My Mom did not bring me up on McDonald's food!)  A high school girl friend and I went to breakfast in our long, flannel night gowns. Made sense to us, it was breakfast and we were in our PJs. Apparently the manager was not on board with our logic!  We were asked to leave and not so politely either!

Love yourself and everyone you feed with real food!

Like my blog posts? Share with like minded family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, people you pass on the streets... The healthier and happier we are, the better world we will have!

My boys baking at home. We prefer home made, whole food birthday cakes over bakery made, refined food cakes!

PS The Radiantly YOU Telesummit has been a hit! Only 2 days left to listen, BUT...To purchase, and listen to these fabulous women healer's recorded words of wisdom,  over and over and forever, for only $9, click on the buy now button below!

Enjoy! You will be eternally grateful for these healing words of wisdom!

Cooking Like a Kitchen Artist

Back a couple of blog posts, Cook Book Or Not?, I mentioned I would write about cooking like a kitchen artist.  Now is the time for you to: read on, get out your local foods, and start creating with your kitchen artist's palette! 

A common challenge I hear from clients and health class students is:  “How do I make my cooking easy, what do I use for spices, what can I do that is different….?

First Thought:  Do what is easy and familiar, make your favorite foods!  The key is to turn them into whole food recipes with fresh, local, and seasonal foods. 

Check out this hidden page “How to Make Any Recipe a Whole Food Recipe” to get you into the ‘whole food’ recipe make-over swing of things.

Trying to get more vegetables into your life?  People get too overwhelmed by ALL the vegetables that are available in the supermarket.  Common questions I hear from clients are:  WHAT do I do with all of these, what goes with what, how do I cook them…..?”

Second Thought: Learn to eat in season.  If the veggies you are eating are only available at certain times of the year, it makes your choices narrower at that particular time of the year.  Being overwhelmed by the plethora of choices is common in today’s culture of being able to eat broccoli, strawberries, asparagus, and every other fruit or vegetable 12 months out of the year.  Create meals using vegetables that are available locally and in season.  This makes the choosing easier, because there is not so much variety available all the time.  It also allows you the opportunity to have a diet that is varied over the course of the calendar year.

Helpful hints around seasonal eating:

• I believe seasonal eating would help to cut down on food sensitivities as well. When your body is not being subjected to the same food, all the time, you are much less likely to develop food sensitivities and intolerances. Local, seasonal eating was nature's way of varying our diets.
• When you eat locally grown food you help cut down on the transporting of food all over the globe. This can have huge impacts on the environment when we are using less fossil fuels moving food around the earth.

Examples of seasonal foods for Northern NY State:

Spring:  spinach, asparagus, green onion, early lettuce, rhubarb, wild leeks, spring sorrel, peas

Summer:  leafy salad greens, summer squashes, seasonal berries from strawberries to late summer raspberries & blackberries, tomatoes, peas, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, gooseberries, currants, juneberries, cherries, garlic, carrots, new potatoes, fresh herbs, corn, onions, melons…

Fall: root veggies, winter storage squash, cabbage, apples, pears, peaches, fall raspberries

Winter: stored root veggies, kale & collards still in the garden, canned tomatoes and veggies, frozen veggies and berries

Many websites offer their version of a “what produce is in season” charts for the geographical region you live in.   www.gardenshare.org

http://www.simplesteps.org/eat-local

http://www.nrdc.org/search.asp?cof=FORID%3A11&ie=UTF-8&q=seasonal+eating&cx=001024953138106184952%3Alevppyfplwy&hq=-inurl%3Ahttps&t=iframe

When you eat seasonally, what you eat changes with each seasons.  Your meal planning and preparing takes on a rhythm of simplicity.  I cannot stress this enough: keep it simple.  Do not over think things.  Wing it in the kitchen.  If the meal was a winning combination, do it again.  If the meal is not the taste you were looking for, eat it with gratitude for the farmers who grew the food, the earth/water/sun, etc. that provided the growing environment, and the work you did in the kitchen.  Make a mental note (or keep a cooking journal, if that is easier for you) and do not repeat that particular cooking concoction. 

If you think about vegetable dishes, they are the same things just cooked a different way.  One fall or winter night you might roast potatoes, carrots, onion, and parsnips and another night you might throw those same types of veggies into a beef or chicken stew.  On another night you might stir fry them and add meat, fish, scrambled eggs, or beans.  Another night you might gently steam them, mash them up with grass fed butter and unrefined sea salt, and serve with a side dish of chicken, beans, or fish.  This is what I mean about simplicity and not over thinking.

To these above meals add a grated root veggie salad using different root veggies:  rutabaga, celeriac and beets with some finely chopped cabbage.  Toss with an herbed, homemade oil and vinegar dressing and voila, dinner!

Summer cooking will be more tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, yellow squash and zucchini, and other summer veggies enjoyed with green, leafy salads and raw carrots, baby beets, and cucumbers.

Let go of the idea that you have to work from a recipe and cook up this fabulous gourmet meal every night.  100 years ago, people ate what they had on hand, in season, with no regards for cook books and recipes.

In my herb garden I grow:  mint, basil, cilantro, parsley, oregano, thyme, rosemary, tarragon, sage, marjoram, certain edible flowers, etc.  It is so easy to step outside, cut a bunch of herb sprigs and brighten up a raw salad or add to cooked vegetable just before you serve them.  I do not recommend cooking the fresh herbs as you will save the fresh flavors for your eating enjoyment. 

I keep standard herbs and herb blends handy to spice things during the non-garden, no fresh herb months:

Italian spices:  rosemary, thyme, oregano, parsley, basil, marjoram

Curries: mild, medium, or hot to your liking

Chili type spices:  Chili powder, cumin, turmeric, and coriander

Pulled pork blend: (I also put this on chicken, in chili, and in stir fries if I am looking for this particular taste):   ground pepper, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, chili pepper, thyme, all spice, turmeric    Use 1 Tbsp. of each spice except  1 ½ tsp. thyme, allspice and turmeric

Chinese 5 spice for Asian stir fries

Cooking and eating is wonderful, tasty fun!  Relax and enjoy the process for good health in mind, body, and soul! 

PS

I was making chocolate chip cookies this AM, for my boy's school lunches, and I reminded myself of a wonderful Whole Food Recipe Conversion tip: 

• Never use 100% oat flour to make cookies. Why you may ask? Not because the flavor isn't yummy... it is because the cookies are very crumbly. Frankly, they can fall apart if handled roughly. Now eating cookie chunks and crumbs is an ok thing but a whole cookie that does not fall apart has a certain appeal!

OK, recipe... I know I will get emails asking where is the recipe?  See below.

The cookie recipe began in this Betty Crocker cookbook!

The below recipe is the chocolate chips cookies, the left side is the original recipe and the right side is the converted to whole foods recipe.

• Heat oven to 375 F.
• Mix butter, sugar, and egg.  Add vanilla here if using and I encourage vanilla!
• Stir in flour, b. soda, and salt. Add cinnamon here, if desired.
• Add in chocolate chips and nuts (if using nuts). 
• Dough will be stiff. Allow it to sit for 5-10 minutes as the whole grain flours continue to absorb the liquids. If dough is not stiff enough for cookie dough consistency, add 1 tbsp. of flour at a time to get it to the necessary stiffness of cookies.
• Bake one cookie for 8-10 minutes as a tester.
• If all looks good with that one cookie, bake those cookies up & enjoy!

The finished, yummy, oat flour chocolate chip cookies! They do not last long!

Comments, thoughts?  Write me a note in the comments below. Happy day to you!

Cook Book...

Cook Book...

To write or not to write,

That IS the ???

So I have hit the 100th person to ask me: Are you going to write a cook book?" or "When are you going to write a cook book?"  I am celebrating this milestone (like celebrating the 100th person to cross the threshold of a new store or business) by chatting about it here.

Cook book or not?

I have to say, "nah, not in my plans."  I thought about it for a bit and here are my issues... issues, we always have issues!

1.  I am a "just throw it in a bowl" kind of gal.  For example, foods like cakes, cupcakes, cookies, muffins, and pancakes all have the same basic ingredients. Some have more liquid, i.e. pancakes, while others have more flour, i.e. cookies. What I throw in the bowl depends on the consistency of the batter or dough I am trying to make.

So, to make a chocolate cake I do something like this (and hope for the best!):

• 2-3 eggs whipped up and add 1/2 to 3/4 cup melted butter (these two ingredient amounts depend on whether I am making a one or two layer cake)
• 1/2 cup sugar, unrefined, of course (I may use 3/4 if making 2 layers and it is not for my kids, most people like sweeter cakes.)
• 1 tbsp. vanilla
• 1/2 to 1 cup milk, again depending on the layers
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 to 3 tbsp. baking powder depending on the flour (oat flour and I use less b. powder, if it is millet / quinoa / teff / amaranth flours I use more b. powder)
• 3-6 tbsp. cocoa powder depending on # of layers and how chocolate flavored I want the cake
• Enough flour to create a cake batter consistency, which is thicker than pancakes but more liquid than cookies

Set batter aside for 5 - 10 minutes to see how the flour soaks up the liquid.  After 10 minutes, if the consistency is cake like, good to go.  If it is too runny, I add flour a tiny bit at a time.  Too thick?  I thin with a bit of milk.

So, that is how I cook everything.  A little of this and a little of that.  Who wants a cook book written like this? I would get boo-ed and rotten tomatoes thrown at me! Most people want exact measurements.

2. Meal cooking is a process of looking at the local, seasonal produce on hand and having fun with it; playing with the ingredients, herbs, and spices.  When you play with food for long enough, cooking and creating in the kitchen becomes second nature.

I suggest picking up a couple of good vegetarian cook books* (cook books that show case seasonal produce) and then read them like novels.  Next, get cooking. After a bit of practice in the seasonal kitchen, I will say it again, cooking becomes second nature. It is an art work. Relax, breathe deeply, and let your creative nature just flow.

Add your favorite protein sources and whole grains to the yummy seasonal veggies and voila'... you have dinner (suggestion: make enough for lunch leftovers!).

If you have blood sugar control challenges (diabetes) eat whole grains in serious moderation, not at every meal, and up the intake of veggies instead.

3. I visited the SLU book store and checked out the cook book section.  It was scary!  There were 5 shelving sections of cook books with 7 shelves in each section.  35 shelves of cook books and only 2 of the cook books on the shelves had more than one copy.  One was the original MoosewoodCook Book the other was a smoothie "recipe book", I believe.  All of those 35 shelves were loaded with single copies of cook books on every topic and health promoting diet imaginable! That was a huge wow for me!

The 5 rows of cook books at the SLU Book Store:

3.  I am all about making food an art form.  The kitchen is your studio, food is your medium, and the kitchen utensils are your artist's tools!

Watch for my follow up post:  How to Cook Like an Artist

Be well, have fun in the kitchen!  Paula

*Cook Books you might find useful: 

• Home Gardener's Month By Month Cookbook, Marjorie Page Blanchard
• From Asparagus to Zucchini
• Recipes from the Root Cellar, Andrea Chesman (She also wrote Serving Up the Harvest)

If the cook book uses refined ingredients (refined, all-purpose flour, bleached or not)... use your whole food kitchen skills and swap out the refined ingredients and add in 100% whole food ingredients. Need help with this? Give me a shout, read that section in my book (Hands On Health: Take Your Vibrant, Whole Health Back Into Your Healing Hands), or zap me an email and I will send you my educational handout.

If you do not like the high fat ingredients in the Home Gardener's Cookbook, swap out for ingredients with fat contents you are comfortable with.  Myself, hey, bring on the butter!   (From Pasture Raised Cows, Please!)

Get cooking like the seasonal kitchen artist you can be!

PS  My second book, a book of inspirational words to help you put the action steps in my first book, well... into action, was picked up by a publisher yesterday!  Stay tuned as I keep you informed of the publishing process!  

I call this book of words my "yoga poses" for the body, mind, and spirit book. No, that is not the book's title... that secret will be released at a later date! 

Today, to celebrate, I am off to climb a high peak in those amazing ADK Mountains!

White Face from last summer's hiking ... today I am going up Dial!

Time to Harvest the Corn

Photo from Sustainable Seed Company.  Click to go to their website, check out the wisdom around growing and eating heritage seed corn.

It is corn season!  Happy memories surround the late summer corn harvest: Mom coming home from the William's Family farm stand in Winthrop with an arm load of corn. We would put a ton of butter on a slice of bread and roll the hot corn cob over the bread, passing the bread around the table for everyone to use. After 5 people buttered their corn, the bread was warm with melted butter. The dilemma... who gets the amazing slice of butter bread?!

The Nutritional Benefits of Corn:

1. Loaded with nutrients, anti-oxidants, and phyto-nutrients. Each variety of corn has its own amazing profile of nutrients.
2. High fiber: good for digestion and elimination.
3. High fiber and nutrient content creates a slow release of carbohydrates into the blood stream. This prevents blood sugar highs and lows.

This is a brief overview. There is so much information on the web about corn, its benefits, organic vs. conventionally grown, the GMO-ing of corn seed. Read up, interesting stuff what we humans do to the food supply....

Key to Buying Healthy Corn:

1. Buy organic and avoid the pesticide laden corns grown by agri-business. Corn is not on the dirty dozen list but if corn is not organic, it is most likely GMO: meaning the pesticides have been genetically modified right into your corn for you. Ain't that just sweet!?
2. So buy non-GMO corn as well.
3. Know your farmers, ask them questions: what do you use for corn seed, is it GMO, what do you use for pesticides, etc. Ask questions because your health depends on it!

This recipe was whipped up by my older 'Sis. She brings it to family events and it gets devoured! Try it, it IS corn season!

Bean & Corn Salsa

1 can of each, drained and rinsed:   Organic Black Eyed Peas & Black beans

2 ears of organically-grown, non-GMO, sweet corn (gently steamed before cutting off kernels)

1 medium, organic, bell pepper, finely diced – any colors, red, green, orange, yellow – if using 2 colors, use ½ pepper of each color. Be brave, use multiple colors!

½ large, organic, red onion, finely diced or 1 medium and use the whole thing!

SAUCE

2/3 cup organic, extra virgin, olive oil.  (Can't I use my butter here?  : )  Please!)

1 cup organic, RAW, apple cider vinegar

½ cup organic, sucanat (Sucanat is unrefined sugar, or you can use 1/4 cup local maple syrup or 1/4 cup local. raw honey. I would probably use less of any of these sweeteners.)

3 Tbsp. favorite organic hot sauce – increase hot sauce for more kick

Optional: 

·        add a Tbsp., or 2, of Dinosaur Spice Rub (Cajun Foreplay)

·        mix it up, use more & different types of beans – try adding Kidney, Navy, Pinto, Aduki, and/ or Garbanzo

·        adjust/increase the amount of sauce when adding more beans and making a bigger batch

Combine sauce ingredients and mix well.  Add all beans and veggies and mix gently.  Marinate at room temp, at least overnight.  Do not refrigerate to marinate, as the olive oil will solidify in the cold temperature.

To keep salsa longer in refrigerator (if there’s any leftover), store salsa covered and drain most of sauce.  This helps to keep the salsa longer and reduces calories from the oil.

Serve salsa with organic, non-GMO corn tortilla chips, or try on top of an organic, fresh green salad, or in a sandwich wrap (use a 100% whole grain wrap, Food For Life has an amazing sprouted grain wrap that I highly recommend!).

Eat and enjoy people!  Enjoy the health benefits of real corn, real food!

Divine Weight Loss Tip #7, #8, #9, #10

Wait, what?!  Tips #7 through #10 in one fell swoop? 

My answer is yes. These are basic lifestyle habits that make your body soar with feel good energy, happiness, and balance your body weight.  When you feel good... you want to feel better. Health begets health; wellness begets wellness. It is an addictive thing!

Now that I have brought up the issue of addictions... Have you labeled yourself as an addictive personality type? "I can't give up sugar (or soda, or chips, or whatever), I am so addicted."

Why do addictions always seem to be for "bad" things, unhealthy choices? If we can get addicted, why not get addicted to:

• healthy choices,

• fitness,

• fruits and veggies,

• choosing to be happy despite what is going on around you,

• real food grown by real farmers,

• yoga,

• walking in the woods,

• gratitude,

• taking your health into your own hands?

Go ahead; ponder over what being addicted to healthy things could be like in your life. Sit. Be quiet. Breathe. Visualize healthy living coming from your core being. What does that look like? Feel Like? How can you put it into action, reality, in your life?

Eli, my youngest son, doing what he does when frustrated, angry, or overwhelmed with energy: quiet, breathe, visualize being calm.

Seeing 2 of Eli? Can you guess why? Leave a comment with your guess.

OK, now for Tip #7 through Tip #10

#7  Get plenty of sleep!  Skimping on sleep to “get things done” is not a whole health habit!  Getting to sleep before 10 PM maximizes production of melatonin and works with the earth's circadian rhythms for great sleep and health.  

Going to sleep, before 10 PM, reduces cortisol levels. Cortisol is a stress hormone that helps the body put on and keep on abdominal weight. Sleep peacefully to reduce your cortisol levels.

Stay away from bright lights and screens (computers, etc.) for 3 hours before sleep.  Bright lights make your body think it is daytime and impair the sleep cycles.  Get all lights out of the sleep area; even LED lights disturb good sleep hormone production. 

The moon and stars are fine!

#8 Daily physical activity. Start now and continue for life.  Your body is a beautiful creation meant for movement, poetry in motion. Your bones, muscles, and joints are singing out to be put into this motion. Listen; hear your body begging to be moved!

Hint: Get outside and move.  Fresh air and natural light are imperative to good health, endorphin, hormone, and neurotransmitter production. See below.

#9 Daily exposure to natural sun light and fresh air.  Exercise, work, play, read, and relax outside! And for an extra bonus... get to sleep (before 10 PM) outside! Seriously, sleeping outside is a health enhancing habit!

The natural light exposure, again, enhances the body's circadian rhythms. Fresh air and the sounds of nature calm and soothe body, mind, and spirit.

When our bodies function, with the rhythms of the earth, we are so much more balanced as human beings. This inner balance makes it easier to choose healthy lifestyle habits.

#10 Increase your intake of water; clean, pure water!  Water is crucial to healthy cell function. Just as your body cells need to be nourished with whole foods, so too they need water to carry on the processes of metabolism. Keep your cells happy, feed them water.

Use clean, pure water to make herbal teas. Herbal teas are high in minerals and nutrients that add to body cell nourishment.

Your gorgeous body cell. You want all of them to be healthy! There are trillions. One thing I find amazing about this is that every thing we eat has an impact on trillions of life forms (all a part of you!).

If your water supply is chlorinated, filter it.  Use a chlorine shower filter so you are not absorbing and breathing in chlorine as you shower.

Divine Weight Loss Tips 1-6 & final Tip:

1. https://www.paulayoumellrn.com/blog/2014/8/2/divine-weight-loss-tip-1

2. https://www.paulayoumellrn.com/blog/1370

3. https://www.paulayoumellrn.com/blog/2014/8/4/divine-weight-loss-tip-3

4. https://www.paulayoumellrn.com/blog/2014/8/5/divine-weight-loss-tip-4

5. https://www.paulayoumellrn.com/blog/2014/8/6/divine-weight-loss-tip-5

6. https://www.paulayoumellrn.com/blog/2014/8/7/divine-weight-loss-tip-6

7. https://www.paulayoumellrn.com/blog/2014/8/11/divine-weight-loss-final-tip-11

Read Ingredients!

Some quick advice for the day (and truly, the rest of your life):

Read Ingredients on every food product you buy:

• human 
• pet
• etc.

Many people, when reading food labels, stop at the front of the product.  Words and wording such as these entice the person to buy without further investigation into the products real ingredients:

• All Natural
• Natural
• Holistic
• Organic
• 100% Natural
• Cholesterol Free
• Fat Free
• Whole Grain
• Whole Wheat

Blah, Blah, Blah... These words can mean absolutely nothing.  For Example: Whole wheat just means there might be a dusting of whole wheat in the product AND the rest of the ingredients could be pure garbage: fillers, sugars, dough conditioners, artificial this and that...

Here is an example of a "Whole Wheat" bread label:

I can honestly say I would not eat this bread even if I was really hungry.  This is even putting the gluten issue aside.  Seriously, what are all those chemicals and why are they in bread for God's sake?  Food should be pure, natural ingredients meant for nourishing each and every body cell. If this is not what is in the "product," opt to stand up for your health and place the item back on the shelf.

Use this thought process and label investigative work with every food item you do not make:

• at home
• from scratch
• with local, well-raised ingredients

Eat well, your health and very life depends on it!  Hugs, Paula

PS  Use this label investigative technique with all body care products, cosmetics, household cleaners, everything you buy. Your health and the earth's health depend on truly natural choices in living.