Green Options

Going to a body and nutrition expert with my husband is one of the best things we’ve done for ourselves. What was the key take away? Warning! Turn Alkaline!

Turn Alkaline? Are we magicians? Well according to biochemists we are! You can change your body chemistry with what you eat!

Chemicals have seeped into foods, air, and water, which in turn lower our system’s ability to control the chemistry of our body fluids, increasing illness and chronic disease.

The sad fact is that most food consumption in the wealthiest nations has shifted from nutritious raw foods to low nutritional value processed foods and we need to shift it back. Now that our total biological terrain is at risk, we urgently need to do some clean up by shifting our body chemistry back to the raw, organic foods it was designed to function on as we’ve evolved.

Below I’ve listed out a quick list of the good foods (alkaline) to treat your body to often…

As the dog days of summer come to an end, a 3 course, no cooking required meal sounds pretty good to me. Turn that stove off, shut down the oven, choose to go meatless this Monday and cool off with this appetizer, main course and dessert.

Gardening with your children provides valuable lessons, family togetherness time and plenty of fresh veggies to dress your table.

I’m a big slacker this year.  My big, fat, Eco-Confession?  I didn’t plant a garden this year.  This means we have been relying on farmers markets and u-pick to survive!  Ugh.

But, wait… I have a pretty good excuse.  We moved this Spring.  Our Spring was consumed with painting, cleaning, packing and unpacking.  It was pretty crazy around here.  Then my beloved Mama passed away and I didn’t want to do much of anything for a good two months.  Now, I’m up and running… but my yard is far from it!  Since this is a new to us home, there was already a bunch of yard work to do.  Needless to say, we haven’t gotten around to much of it, which includes clearing the garden beds and replanting.

So, that’s the plan this weekend.  Get those beds cleared and start our transplants inside the house.   Good thing I have plenty of kids.

Take a tip from Annie Somerville, acclaimed chef at the Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, when you explore the upcoming first farmers’ market of the season, check out some of the more unusual, fresh fare that showcase spring flavor.

Chef Somerville knows her seasonal offerings.  For the past 28 years, she has helped lead the Greens Restaurant to become a national showplace for creative, fresh, local vegetarian cuisine that features the local abundance from sustainable and organic California growers.  Her signature dishes, like the Warm Cannelli Beans and Wilted Greens recipe below, draws inspiration from her regular forages at the Embarcadero Farmers’ Market and area farmers.

“At the market the last couple of weeks, you could really start seeing big indicators that the season is shifting and spring has officially arrived,” explains Chef Somerville, as she vividly and affectionately describes spring produce as if they were beloved old friends returning for a visit.  For an artistic chef like Somerville, the farmers’ market provides a culinary palette, a place where she can wander and draw cooking inspiration from the ingredients she sees.

Take a tip from Chef Somerville and explore some of the more unusual, uniquely flavorful fare that appears this time of year.  Here’s some ideas on using three of her favorites:  Nettle, chervil and kale.

Spring is here. In order to eat seasonally your food focus should be shifting to tender, leafy vegetables that represent the fresh new growth of this season. The color green is associated with spring, which is a time of renewal and refreshing, vital energy. The greening that occurs in springtime should be represented by greens on your plate, including items like swiss chard, spinach, kale, romaine lettuce, fresh parsley and basil.

Leafy greens are some of the easiest and most beneficial vegetables to incorporate into your daily routine. Kale, for example, has more nutritional content and few calories than almost anything else. Although it can be found throughout the year, it is in season from the middle of winter through the beginning of spring when it has a sweeter taste. Kale is part of the Brassica family, which is known for their health promoting benefits and cancer fighting properties. Kale boosts the body’s detoxification enzymes, thus helping to clear potentially carcinogenic substances more quickly. Research shows that diets high in cruciferous vegetables, such as kale, are associated with lower incidence of a variety of cancers, including lung, colon, breast and ovarian cancer. One cup of kale contains just 36.4 calories, but provides 192.4% of the daily value for vitamin A, 88.8% of the daily value for vitamin C, and 7.0% of the day’s needs for manganese which helps produce energy from protein and carbohydrate. Kale also contains calcium, fiber, vitamin E, iron and B vitamins. Here is an easy and delicious kale recipe to get you started on eating for Spring.

My kids and I are crazy about green smoothies. We make them a couple times daily usually. Never before has it been so easy to get my kids to eat plenty of those all important leafy greens! Just check out my daughter’s green smoothie moustache (left).

You may be wondering what a green smoothie is exactly. Or maybe not, they seem to be getting really popular in healthier living circles everywhere lately. A green smoothie does not refer to being “green” in the eco sense of the word. Although they can be that too. The green in a green smoothie refers to what is in the smoothie and usually the color as well. Quite simply, green smoothies are blended beverages that combine fresh or frozen fruit and leafy greens like Kale, collard, spinach, or wild edibles. Veggies like carrots may make a cameo appearance in green smoothies as well. The genius of a green smoothie is that they are jam packed with nutritional goodness, usually in its raw life living form, and they taste absolutely fantastic! When was the last time your kids begged you for fresh spinach? Well, mine ask me daily for some.

Kale has more nutritional value for fewer calories than almost any other food.

This superfood can be found in most grocery stores all year round, but is truly in season from the middle of winter to the first part of spring.   During this time it tastes its best, and is most widely available.

Kale, (along with its relatives such as Brussels sprouts, collard greens, and cabbage) is full nutrients such as vitamins A, C, and E, fiber, calcium, manganese, and loaded with sulfur containing phytonutrients which have been shown to protect against many kinds of cancer including breast and ovarian.

Try adding kale to soups, casseroles, and salads… or whip up a batch of crunchy kale chips.  They make a great guilt free snack the whole family will enjoy!

Winter veggies usually get short shrift, but there are many reasons to savor them. They add loads of vitamins and nutrients to our diets, do wonders for our immunity, and are wonderfully versatile. Plus, eating seasonally is eating green: as it takes us back to the old days of eating only the freshest available products, it’s a more sustainable eating model and it’s better for reducing our carbon footprints.

Here’s my guide to making the most of these five fabulous winter veggies:

1. Play Squash

I actually look forward to winter just for its squash varieties. Acorn, banana, butternut, spaghetti, delicata, hubbard, sweet dumpling, buttercup, and turban squashes—not to mention pumpkin—add a colorful and sweet accent to your plate. Plus, they are among the healthiest types of complex carbohydrates (the best kind of carbs), with high fiber, vitamin A, and vitamin C content. Roast ‘em, mash ‘em, or slow cook ‘em into a heaping bowl of soupy goodness for the perfect warm winter meal.

What is your favorite summer kale recipe? 

Here’s one of mine . . .
Kale is not one of my favorite veggies, but somehow Green Diva Jen, (AKA Jenifer O’Neill) has been slowly converting me. She contributed this recipe as well as the actual dish for our wonderful staff picnic last year (photo was taken on my back deck!). She seems to find great ways to get more kale into the mix!

Ingredients

1/2 head kale (any variety)
1/2 head green cabbage
1/2 head red cabbage
4 large carrots
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar or umeboshi plum vinegar
1 cup your favorite mayonnaise
1 tablespoon honey
Freshly ground pepper
Splash of water

Instructions

Ok, so according to the calendar, it may not be summer quite yet, but in California, the avocados are just starting to ripen, which is how I mark the start of the season. And when the weather starts getting warmer, I start turning to lighter, fresh meals. This quinoa-based salad is easy to prepare, and contains so many of my favorite healthy ingredients.

I’m always surprised that quinoa hasn’t caught on mainstream, given how easy it is too cook, and its high nutritional content. Despite the fact that in cooking it’s treated like rice or barley, quinoa is actually a seed, not a grain. Known as the staple of the Incas (and also a staple of the vegans, as it’s a complete protein), this crop originated in the Andes Mountains. It’s used more often in Mexican dishes, but I really enjoy it in this Asian-inspired salad.

The kale is chock full of iron and the nori is rich in calcium and iodine. If you opt for a fat-free dressing, then the only fat comes from the avocado. (Which is, you know, a good fat… at least that’s what I tell myself when I’m scarfing down guacamole.) Here’s the full recipe:

I know. It doesn’t sound particularly appetizing, but trust me. This is delicious. We keep basil in the garden and pesto in the fridge during most of the summer season. By now (early Spring), we are ready, but the Basil is not.

When my friend, business partner, and the managing editor of our magazine, Relevant Times shared this recipe with me, I was skeptical too. I’ve learned to trust Green Diva Jen’s (AKA Jenifer O’Neill) recipes. She is not only a WiseWoman herbalist, she is an amazing natural foods and Macrobiotic chef.

Ingredients
2 cups raw kale
1 cup pine nuts
1 cup olive oil
1 cup Romano cheese, grated
4 cloves garlic peeled & chopped
salt & freshly group pepper to taste

Directions