Sunflower Granola

This granola requires only 3 main ingredients and is a delectable way to start the day.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of oats

3/4 cup of raw sunflower seeds

1/2 cup of dried cranberries

2 T agave syrup

2 T peanut oil

Preheat oven to 300˚F.

Mix dry ingredients together. Add agave syrup and peanut oil and mix thoroughly.

Place aluminum foil along the bottom of 1 to 2" deep pans and spread granola across creating a thin layer so that most of the pieces are exposed. Place into pre-heated oven and bake for 30 minutes or until lightly browned. Stir the granola every 7-10 minutes while baking.

Remove from the oven and allow the granola to cool completely before packaging it. Stirring occasionally while cooling will help it not to clump.

Note:

For the peanut oil, I used the top oil from my jar of peanut butter. I don't like the excess oil that sits at the top of natural brands of peanut butter so before using the jar, I drain the oil into a separate container to use for cooking.

Fresh Parsley Salad

I enjoy this salad without any dressing as the raw veggies carry so much flavor on their own. Also, just a heads up, this salad is a little spicy. It makes for a great filling / topping to omelets and baked / roasted potatoes.

Ingredients:

1 bunch of italian parsley

1 3/4 cups of kidney beans

3 celery stalks

1 small red onion

1 scallion

1 green jalapeño

If kidney beans are dried, soak them overnight in water. Once soaked, rinse the beans and place in a large pot with water. Bring them to a boil and simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Strain them from the water, set them aside and let them cool.

In a large serving bowl, combine coarsely chopped parsley, diced onion, scallions, jalapeños and chopped celery. Add the cooled kidney beans and gently mix ingredients. It's ready to serve!

Health Benefits:

Kidney Beans:

Great source of fiber, iron, protein, magnesium, folate and potassium. Iron being especially helpful for pregnant, lactating or menstruating women.

These beans are also rich in molybdenum, which is good to consume if you eat a lot of prepared foods high in preservatives such as sulfites. Molybdenum helps to detoxify sulfites.

Jalapeños:

Chilli peppers are amazing!!! These guys fight headaches, high blood pressure, inflammation, have more vitamin C than an orange, help protect your heart, relieve congestion and the list goes on.

Tahini Cookies

Yum! I love these cookies. When I first discovered them at Earth Fare, a grocery market in North Carolina, I fell in love. If you are a fan of sesame, you will most likely enjoy this cookie.

Yields 12 to 15 cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup roasted sunflower seeds

2 cups oats

1 cup honey

3/4 cup raw tahini

1 pinch of salt

Stir together dry ingredients. Add the honey and tahini and stir so that the ingredients are well mixed.

Spoon out patties of the mixture onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. My cookies were about 2" in diameter. Bake at 350˚ for about ten minutes. Rotate the cookie sheet about 6 minutes into baking. Remove from oven once the edges lightly brown. Allow the cookies to cool for several minutes before serving.

Plant verses Animal Protein

A couple years ago I heard great things about The China Study and bought it for my mother. Finally, I've come around to read it myself. In perusing the introduction, it seems like it will be quite a read!

Highlights from the intro:

The authors, T. Colin Campbell, PhD and Thomas M. Campbell II, mention a study conducted in India in which one group of rats was fed aflatoxin, a highly carcinogenic (cancer causing) toxin as well as a 20% protein diet (a similar level of protein in most American diets) and the other group was also fed aflatoxin but a 5% protein diet. The result was that all of the rats with the high protein diet had evidence of liver cancer and all of the rats with the lower protein diet were cancer free despite being exposed to one of the most potent carcinogens ever discovered.

The Campbells continue to argue that in their studies low protein diets inhibit the initiation of cancer by aflatoxin regardless of the amount of the toxin that is administered. Also, after cancer initiation, low protein diets inhibit subsequent cancer growth. Apparently, monitoring dietary protein seems so significant that one could turn on and off the cancer growth simply by shifting the level of protein consumed! That's crazy!

So what type of protein is bad? According to the Campbells the protein that promotes cancer is casein which makes up 87% of cow's milk protein and the types of proteins that do not promote cancer, even at high levels of intake, are plant proteins.

Wow! And that's just a snippet of the short introduction to the book.

Avocado & Grapefruit Salad

This is a delicious way to enjoy summer and very simple to prepare.

Ingredients:

1 avocado

1 pink grapefruit

1 5oz pkg of baby arugula

Dressing:

1 lemon

1 T white balsamic vinegar

1/2 T olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Slice avocado into a small mixing bowl. Slice and squeeze lemon over the avocado and make sure that the juice touches all of the pieces. Place washed and dried arugula into a serving bowl and add the avocado and lemon juice mixture. Then peel the grapefruit and divide the flesh into bitable chunks and add to the serving bowl. I preserve the white skin of the pulp, known as the albedo, as much as possible as it contains a significant amount of the fruit's nutritional benefits. Combine the remaining dressing ingredients in a small mixing bowl and add to the salad. Slowly stir the salad to coat each piece of the arugula lightly with the dressing and serve.

Health Benefits:

Grapefruit

Contains high amounts of vitamin C, calcium, folic acid, phosphorous and potassium. Also, nutritive phytonutrients present help fight cancer and various diseases. This yummy fruit has also been known to assist in treating insomnia, digestive disorders, fatigue, weight loss and the common cold.

Avocado

Avocados are a great source of vitamin E as well as glutathione which is known to help prevent aging, cancer and heart disease.

Garden Note:

After eating the avocado, keep the seed and plant it in a 4 to 5" pot of fertile soil and keep the soil with water. The top of the seed should barely peak above the surface of the soil. In about three weeks you should see the leaf buds growing.

Kimchi Jigae

A friend of mine shared his recipe for kimchi jigae with me recently. It's easy and quite tasty!

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 5oz can tuna

3/4 cup - 1 cup kimchi

1 conservative sized green onion

2-3 pinches of red pepper flakes and/or powder

1/2 T miso paste

1 clove diced garlic

drizzle sesame oil

The ingredients are approximate measurements and can be adjusted to taste.

Combine all ingredients in cooking pot and cook 20 minutes at a low simmer. Serve with banchan and rice.

Pumpkin Seeds

Raw pumpkin seeds are a delicious texture addition to salads or cereals. I also like to roast them and mix them into homemade trail mix or granola.

A few Benefits of Pumpkin Seeds:

Magnesium which is an important element to bone, heart and nervous system health

Zinc which is good for the prostate and immune system

And apparently, they are even effective against depression! (as they contain L-tryptophan) Who knew?!?!

K O M B U C H A

What is Kombucha?

Kombucha is known as the Manchurian mushroom. In fact, it isn't a mushroom at all but described as such for it's mushroom-like appearance and is consumable in the form of fermented tea. Its fermented form gives the body access to probiotics which offer some of the following:

Possible Benefits of Probiotics

1. Food digestion and alleviation of digestive disorders (such as IBS, Chrohn's disease, etc)
2. Synthesis of B vitamins and absorption of calcium
3. Reducing lactose intolerance / aiding in digestibility of milk products
4. Protection against vaginal infection and yeast infection
5. Increased immune system response
6. Anti-cancer activity in the body
7. Promoting skin health / anti-acne
8. Reducing cholesterol
9. Reducing negative effects of taking many antibiotics

A site for more info about probiotics:

http://www.lakewinds.com/store/Who-Needs-Probiotics-W4718C18760.aspx

Also, here's a link that describes how to make your own kombucha. I haven't yet, but am inspired after looking at this link and getting tired of paying so much every time I want a to sip on this delicious beverage.

http://www.seedsofhealth.co.uk/fermenting/kombucha_howto.shtml