Archive for December, 2010

Chinese Medicine proposes that the keys to health and graceful aging lie in the ease in which you adapt to the changes and challenges presented to you throughout your life.

Chinese Medicine is the ultimate “green” medicine. The basic philosophies and treatment principles are about sustainability, about watching, revering, and replicating the natural wisdom that surrounds us. As the seasons turn and the earth changes and adapts, so must we.

Five Element Theory is one of the backbones of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The Elements: Wood, Earth, Fire, Metal, and Water, generate and control each other. They are the basis of life as we know it. Disaster, or disease, results when one of the elements is out of balance. Five Element Theory describes and defines the connections throughout the human body and the natural world. It delves into the imbalances that we find ourselves in and the tools to bring ourselves back into a healthy state. For TCM practitioners balance is the key to all of life.

Each element has a season, organs systems, tastes, emotions, mental states, and spiritual qualities. When in balance all is right in the world and in your body. When overlooked, overstressed, or overfed illness, pain, and unhealthy aging result.

Each season I will be sharing more about the corresponding Element. The ‘Five Element Health’ section will focus on the current season and each week give tips, insight, and guidance to help you return to and stay in balance within that element.

Autumn is the season of Metal and the element of the lungs and large intestine. The direction is west, color-white, taste-pungent, and sound-weeping. Metal represents respect and acceptance.

The emotion of the lung is grief. I have met many patients with lung disease that have an unexpressed, unresolved grief. Healthy grieving is a necessary part of our existence.

The large intestine is about releasing old toxic stuff. It’s not just about releasing unhealthy food and drink or other chemicals that enter our body, the large intestine has the job of releasing all unhealthy thoughts, emotions, and energy that we take on or hold on to throughout our lives.

Metal is associated with father energy. Most people that have issues keeping the metal element in balance do not have a healthy picture of their relationship with their father. They have not come to accept the innate respect and love they deserve from their father, nor have they forgiven him his humanity and imperfection. Once acceptance and forgiveness are aptly applied to the father, the metal element can properly do its job in all other relationships and aspects of maintaining health.

The energy of the Metal element is about transforming loss and grief into appreciation and acceptance. In balance and healthy, the Metal element contains the ability to find what is unique, valuable, and worthwhile in oneself and life at all moments.

This recipe sounds like a lot of ingredients, but I normally have a lot of these items on hand in my kitchen. Trust me; it’s really, really worth it!

I absolutely LOVE everything about soup. From making the stock through prepping the veggies, I enjoy it all, but of course the end result with a thick piece of bread or salad makes it the perfect meal!  Few things are as comforting as a piping hot bowl of soup or stew to warm the soul on a chilly night or after a day of sledding!  I’ve been making this one for several years and have yet to tire of it.

Tuscan Minestrone

1 t. olive oil

1 c. chopped pancetta, bacon or ham (Note: vegetarians out there-you can certainly eliminate this step & it is still delicious!)

1 lg. red onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced (add more if you really like garlic like me!)

3 carrots, diced

2 stalks celery, diced

1 diced turnip

1 bunch kale, roughly chopped

1 each:  fresh rosemary & thyme sprig (or about a teaspoon of each dried)

2 cups cooked white cannellini beans (canned are fine, or if you can find dried to soak yourself)

2 cans (14oz) diced tomatoes in juice

8 c. chicken or vegetable stock

1 loaf Italian bread, very stale or toasted, cut in cubes

1 bunch broccoli rabe

1 c. chopped fresh basil

Grated Parmesan or Asiago

Using a large stock pot, heat oil over medium heat and brown the pancetta, if using.  Add the onion, garlic, carrots and celery and cook until tender, about 10-15 min.  Add the kale, turnip, rosemary and thyme and cook for 10 min.  Add beans tomatoes and stock. Lower the heat to low and cook partially covered for 1 hour.  Add the bread cubes to pot and push down until they are immersed.  Cover, cool partially or completely and refrigerate overnight.  Add the broccoli rabe and basil, gently cook until heated through.  Garnish with more basil and grated parmesan, if desired.

Notes:  I know it sounds weird adding bread to a soup; but it breaks down and “thickens” the soup.  It becomes very rich and hearty.

Although I make a lot of my stocks, there are many great ones on the market today.  Don’t feel like you have to make one homemade.  I just happen to cook a lot and have the ingredients.

At the tail-end of garden season I found myself with a late crop of beautiful red & green bell peppers.  Seeing as how I NEVER have any luck with peppers; I felt I needed to take advantage of this unexpected gift from Mother Nature!  Also, I absolutely HATE wasting food unless it’s unavoidable or unintended.  I created this recipe from “taco night” leftovers and my garden peppers.  I also made a fresh salsa verde with the plentitude of green tomatoes left in the garden which is much healthier than “fried green tomatoes!”

Tex-Mex Stuffed Peppers

*Large Bell Peppers (any color, but bigger, the better), tops cut off & seeded (save tops if you like them for presentation, or chop them up and add to mix))

*Taco Meat (whatever you use for your tacos: ground beef, shredded beef, chicken, meat substitute, etc…)

*Spanish Rice (according to box directions)

*Any garnish you want to throw in from leftover tacos (black olives, cilantro, tomatoes, corn, black beans, jalapenos, etc…)

*Cheese (sharp cheddar, jalapeno-jack, mozzarella or queso blanco)

*Tomatillo Sauce or Salsa Verde (recipe follows)

Mix the leftover taco meat, rice & leftover garnishes (except lettuce!).  Fill peppers almost full, but leave enough room for cheese.  (Tip:  you really want to fully stuff them, spoon in filling and pack down with spoon, repeat) Also, if you’re feeling very “cheesy”, add cheese halfway through stuffing and again on top.  Place in baking dish large enough to fit all the peppers you are using; you want them to be a little snug so they don’t fall over while cooking.  Top each pepper with cheese.  Spoon salsa verde or tomatillo sauce around and over peppers (this will create a sauce as well as flavor the peppers.  Top with a little more cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 min or so uncovered.  You want the cheese to brown a little; but if they start to brown too much, place a foil “tent” over baking dish and continue to bake until peppers are desired texture and mixture it completely heated through.

Serve with mashed potatoes, creamy polenta (more carbs!!), grilled potatoes, black bean salad, sliced ripe tomatoes, etc…

Salsa Verde

(This is one recipe which I usually make more of, or adjust to the amount of tomatoes I have)

6 green tomatoes, cored and chopped coarsely

1 lg jalapeno, seeded and diced (leave seeds if you like it hot!)

6 green onions, chopped

1 ½ Tbs olive oil

2 Tbs lime juice or red wine vinegar (or I like combo of both)

¼ c. white onion

Kosher salt & pepper to taste

Combine and leave at room temp. for a couple of hours, then refrigerate if not using right away.  Can be made ahead of time & also great w/tortilla chips!

So, I recently moved, packed everything up, put the for sale sign in the yard and got replacement teachers for all my yoga classes.  Things got crazy when the boxes rolled off the truck and filled my new apartment.  The excitement of the move flew out what I’m sure was a window (said window was blocked by said boxes) and reality smacked me in the face.  I had no job, no help and no idea where that freaking window was.  I sat down, closed my eyes, and took a deep breath.  The results were immediate.  Peace washed over me.  I felt connected…safe.   Nothing was in my control—nothing is ever in my control.   And most days I can accept that.  Big life changes and bad traffic push me.  With pranayama, the different breathing techniques we use in yoga, I have a tool to combat the loss of control.

Next time you’re blessed enough to watch a baby or a puppy sleep, check out their belly.  Note the rise of the belly with the inhalation, and the fall with the exhalation, listen to the fluidity of the natural cycle of breath.  As adults, we tend hold things back; our tongues, our tummies, even our feelings.  Most people are chest breathers, using only the top third of their lungs, never accessing the lower lobes.  Yoga teaches us to utilize our entire beings.  That means using your entire lung capacity to put as much oxygen as possible into the blood stream; giving you more energy, allowing your body to run at full capacity.  Smokers smoke to take deep breathes—yes, it’s laced with nicotine and tar and yuckiness, but the “smoke break” is just a deep-breath break.

Next time you’re blessed enough to have that big life challenge, or bad traffic moment, use it as an opportunity to pause, take a full belly breath, and allow your blood pressure to lower.  Yogic breathing allows us to be present in the moment, and to find that damn window.

With a 3 year old and a 1 year old to provide for, this coming holiday season is going to be an exciting one. As with most people, our budget is stretched as tight as a drum. I have been searching far and wide for short cuts, cheap cuts and any other cuts that will help my family save while saving the planet.

Enter the mommy blog!

Most moms have a go-to blog for the latest and greatest coupons, deals, and freebies. There are tons out there and I suggest you ask around to see what works for your friends. Like me, you might be looking to save money this season, check out one of my favorite sites crazycouponmommy.com. This website is jammed packed with trials, freebies, coupons and so much more!

You’ll be able to find just what you need at topmommyblogs.com, an amazing array of mommy penned websites! This site categorizes the blogs so you can easily find something to suit your needs. I especially like littleyellowtreehouse.com found under the eco-friendly category! I love this no pressure site that follows one family’s attempt at doing their best for themselves and the planet. I have snagged great recipes, how-to’s, and inspiration from this site.

Your holiday can be fun, frugal, easy and eco this year with a little online help. I’ll be bringing you many of my own findings, money saving eco-tips, product reviews and more in the coming year.  This holiday season, enjoy yourself and your family, be careful out there and good luck!

Being the mother of two young children, toys are an inescapable part of my life. Toys and batteries, that is. Those toxic little tubes of power create just as much mayhem as the toys they bring to life. I was truly hopeful when I came across the Ecotronic Eco Duck. Here was a toy that lit up and made music, but would not require batteries. Awesome! I cannot tell you the number of trips made to the library’s battery recycling center since our first Christmas with children.

The packaging for most toys is also an enormous waste of plastic, cardboard and paper, but not the Eco Duck. This toy comes in a biodegradable box wrapped with a one piece card stock label to keep it all together.

According to the label, Eco Duck proclaims, “I’m fun, I’m friendly. Wind me up and discover my lights and sound!” I just handed it over to the kids and away they went. Fun…debatable! Friendly, well, it kind of looks like it’s smiling, but my kids played with it for about 10 minutes and that was it. The music, which isn’t very loud, only plays when the crank for the internal battery is being turned and the lights are dim. It’s also a pull toy, but the string is too short for my 3 year old to comfortably use. Overall, this pricey toy did not hold the interest of my kids for very long and has become another item piled up in the corner of the playroom.

Toys occupy every nook and cranny of our home. This not necessarily a bad thing, though, because toys play a role in teaching children about creativity and imagination, motor skills and hand/eye coordination. Plus, sometimes you need to have your kids busy so you can rest! I have become an expert on what kind of toy will entertain my babies and for how long.

In the end, I think I’ll stick with my favorite eco toys…my own pots and pans! They’re noisy, but the kids and I have a blast with them!