Cabbage Wraps!

Recipe for Cabbage Wraps!

fast - easy - vegan - almost raw

First up I have to mention that I am not a recipe user and writing down messurements when I cook is hard for me because I change my mind and add things as I go. (-;

So, don't take the amounts too seriously or exact and add as much of the different ingredients as you please.

You need:

Big Cabbage Leaves

1 Beet

1/2 small Onion

1 medium Carrot

Handfull of Raisins

Lemon

1-2 tablespoons Olive oil

How it's done:

Gently 'peel' off the big Cabbage leaves without tearing them apart. Steam them in a pot full of water until they get kind of translucent. Maybe about 5-10 minutes.

In a food processor add the peeled and chopped beet, onion and carrot and shred it.

Pour the mixture into a bowl add some lemon juice, olive oil and the raisins. 

Add other herbs and spices if you desire. Mix.

Gently add some salad mixture on a cabbage leave and roll it up, securing the package with toothpicks.

                                     

                                       

Eat right away or store in fridge for lunch the next day.

The possibilities of this dish are endless, you can wrap up pretty much anything into a cabbage leave and don't we like certain things just better when they are wrapped?

love, n.

A Saturday Morning In Winter...

... what's better than going to buy veggies on a farm in the middle of winter???

For a foodie like me, not much. haha.

We are very lucky to have the Berry Patch Farms in Brighton, Colorado. The owner managed to pull off unheated green houses and grows various vegetables also in winter.

This is what we came home with:

Cannelini Beans

Pop Corn Kernels

Kale

Spinach

Turnips

Carrots

5lbs of frozen tomatoes

1lbs frozen Raspberries

Leeks

Italian Heirloom Onions

Spaghetti squash

And the total was 47$ and some cents. It will last us at least a whole week. YUM!

Buying from your local organic farm is sustainable, you invest in a small business and it keeps your community going! Now check with your local farm if they have a few things they still sell even though it is winter! You might be surprised!

love, n.

No-fish Sushi Recipe

Hi there! 

Our family love, love, loves sushi! But the other night we didn't feel like going out and spending a ton of money in a restaurant, so we decided to make some at home.

We made no-fish sushi, I don't like handling raw fish... I don't like handeling anything raw that used to live, really.

What you need:
Nori leaves (Seeweed)
You get them at Asian Markets or even Whole Foods. Maybe even other grocery stores have them. 
Sushi rice
the bulk section at Whole Foods has organic sushi rice for like 1.50$ a pound
Rice Vinegar
Veggies of your choice
Sesame seeds (optional)

How I made them:
Per 1 cup rice use 1-1 1/2 cup water. Add a broth cube if you want and bring to a broil in a big pan. When it cooks stir once(!) with a wooden spatula, cover with lid and let simmer on low for about 20 minutes.
After the rice cooled down a little add a couple of tablespoons rice vinegar and stir it in.

Cut some veggies of your choice into thin slices. We used avocado, cucumbers and carrots.

The instructions on how to roll the sushi is on the back of the Nori leaves (YAY).

But I can explain it really fast:
We couldn't find our sushi matts, so we just used a towel then put a clearwrap on the towel, on top of that the Nori leave. Spread the rice thinnly all over the Nori leaving about an 3/4 inch free on the top. Drip a little bit of water on that part of the leave. (I used my fingers to wet it a little)
Add the thinnly sliced veggies in the lower third onto the rice and start rolling it up with some pressure.
At the end the slightly wet part of the leave will stick to the roll and keep the whole thing together. Slice it up and its ready to eat.
The first couple rolls may look a little funny but you will get the hang of it. (-:
It's really fun and actually really fast too. I will defenitely make these again soon and take them for lunch or a snack on the go!

In some of the rolls I added black and white sesame seeds onto the rice before rolling and some got decorated with the sesame seeds after I cut them.
The possibilities are endless. I think next time I wanna add Mango to them. My mouth is watering again already!

For the kiddos:

Some kids do not enjoy the seaweed on sushi, so I made them their own special 'sushi' in a bowl. 

(Picture on Holistic Family Nutrition facebook page) 

I put some sushi rice in a little bowl, cut carrots and cucumbers in thin sticks, avocado in little dices and added them all to the rice. Looks really apeeling and fun to them. 

I gave them some soy sauce (tamari sauce actually) in a little dish and they dipped the veggies and the rice in it.

For the Gluten Free sushi fan:

Regular Soy sauce has wheat in it, so it is NOT Gluten Free! 

Use Tamari sauce, they are also widely available and were not brewed with wheat. 

Anything else???

I would love to hear about your home made sushi adventures! 

love, n.

My New Toy

Remember the post about the Juicing? check it out here.

Well, after a lot of research and budget discussions with my husband (haha), I chose this one:

It is the OMEGA J8003 Nutrition Center Juicer

It is a great Juicer. 

It is pricier than the centrifugal juicers and the fruits and veggies have to be cut smaller.

But,

It is a what you call a Masticating Juicer, which means it kind of chews the produce to get the juice out. 

This also means it does not heat up the fruits and veggies at all, so nutritionally it is the best one, no vitamins and minerals get lost. The juice is 'stable' for a longer period and can stay in the fridge for a few hours as with the centrifugal ones the juice should be consumed right after juicing.

And the cleanup is super fast, the parts are small and rinse off super easy. 

For us, this was the best choice and I have used it daily since I got it.

Tips:

If you juice a lot of greens (greens are best!) add some lemons and an apple, takes the 'earthy' taste out a little bit.

And it is no secret that consuming a lot of greens supports your Immune System!

  (by the way, so much safer and more effective than any flu shot) 

 for a science article about the greens click here. 

smiles and stay healthy, n.

The Flu

Please note that everything I write in this blog is my personal opinion.

With that said, here we go: 

I believe that getting the flu shot does not make any sense and wrecks your Immune System rather than helps it. 

The flu shot commercials on tv drive me up the wall and I think it is ruthless of King Soopers for giving flu shot customers 10% of their grocery purchase the day they get vaccinated in their pharmacies. You know that behind all this are the pharma companies who are NOT looking out for our best interests at all but for profit only!

(they belong to the 1%)

Also, who are we to think that it is not allowed anymore to get sick? It is good for your Immune System to fight something every now and then, and it is ok to let your body rest if you have a cold. 

Specially in the fall/winter months Vitamin C and green vegetables go a long way!

So, before you run and get a shot consider reading this article. Make an informed decision and don't believe everything only because they show it on tv or because your family physician is talking you into it.

Dr. Christine Anderson, Chiropractor in Los Angeles, wrote this article about the
7 Pillars of Natural Health Strategies for Cold-Flu Season

http://www.expertclick.com/Newsreleasewire/37935

                          

quote from the article:

'There are 4 issues in particular to the influenza vaccine. 1) The flu vaccine does not protect us from every flu; in order for the vaccine to be manufactured, they have to take an educated guess as to which strains will go into it well in advance. 2) One of the major downfalls of the flu vaccine is that the immune system become compromised right after the vaccine, leaving you susceptible to – you guessed it – getting the flu! 3) The flu vaccine is still manufactured using mercury based thimerosol; there is a mercury free version, but you have to ask for it and it may not be readily available. 4) The flu vaccine is cultivated in chick embryos; if you have an egg allergy or sensitivity you will want to avoid this vaccine and those who are concerned with animal welfare may object to this practice as well.'

stay healthy, n.

Zucchini Recipe

My friend gave me this Zucchini squash she got from a friend's garden, and needless to say I was in HEAVEN.

This thing was still big even after my first Zucchini dish:

Here is the recipe for those 'kind-of-breaded-zucchini wheels'

what you need:

Zucchini squash (as much as you want)

1 egg

handful of oats

handful of whole grain flour (which ever one you have or like)

herbs (the ones you use to flavor up your veggies)

how you do it:

cut zucchini wheels to your desired thickness (mine were about 1cm)

crack egg into a plate, whisk it up

mix oats, flour and herbs on a plate

soak zucchini wheels in egg

'roll' the 'in-egg-dipped' zucchini wheels in flour-oat-herb mix so they are nicely covered

cook them with olive oil (medium heat) in a frying pan, about 5minutes on both sides

ENJOY!

The next day I made stuffed Zucchini. 

Unfortunately they were eaten before I could take a picture.

Basically I just cut thicker wheels, about 2 inches, cut out the middle part so they look like a tunnel with very thick walls. I laid them out in an oven safe dish and filled them with cooked ground beef, chopped up cauliflower and yellow peppers. Sprinkled some fake cheese on top and baked them in the oven until the Zucchini got soft.

It is one of my husbands favorite dish and a meal we both grew up with. Bummer he wasn't here to enjoy it.

 And of course the ground beef was from the happy cows found here.

love, n.

Fat, Sick and nearly Dead

I am always trying to figure out a way to get to people, to get people to understand what they put in to their bodies affects their health, their brain, their behaviour. I haven't found the right way yet.

But, today I watched a movie by Joe Cross, an Australian who was in his late 30ies; sick, fat and nearly dead!

He started juicing vegetables and took a challenge to only 'eat' juices with fruits and vegetables for 60 days.

The Movie is on Netflix, watch it, it is very inspiring.

http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/

http://jointhereboot.com/

for the Trailer click here

Joe goes on a road trip/journey through the states and meets a typical American truck driver (no offence please, but he was the stereotype, and like Joe; fat, sick and nearly dead)

The guy starts seeing his problem, starts tackling it, lives on juices for 60 days, continues to live healthier, loses 200plus pounds and inspires a lot of people.

What I like about him the most is how you can see that he got so much happier, how he could see the world and what was happening so much clearer, to say it really simple: he became smarter and smarter. And its all because his body was finally so relieved from not having to fight so many chemicals, fats, hormones and whatnot from fast food.

I will definitely buy a juicer now and do a juice fast every month or so. Honestly, for me it seems the easy way out from cooking! Haha, seriously, I am a total nutrition crazy person, but I still do not like to cook and come up with meal plans for the family. I probably shouldn't have admitted that but hey, I am just human. and a mom. (-: 

And as long as I still feed my family fresh and healthy food, I feel just find admitting that. (-;

Also, if you already have a juicer and love it (or not) tell me about it, I would like to figure out which one to get.