Herbal Preparations

Herbal Infusion (Tea)
Adapted from Rosemary Gladstar’s Family Herbal

1 Tablespoon – Dried Herb –
1 cup – water –

- Place the herbs in a quart sized mason jar. Bring the water to a boil and pour over the herbs.
- Allow herbs to steep for 30-60 minutes.
- For medicinal/health purposes, you should drink the tea in small doses throughout the day, warm or cold. Make 1 quart (4 cups) of the above recipe at a time and store in a jar in the refrigerator or bring it with you so you can drink it throughout the day.
- Let your taste buds and your senses guide you in choosing herbal combinations and steeping times.

Some Nice Herbal Combinations for Digestion and Stress:
Chamomile – Peppermint - Fennel
Fennel – Ginger – Licorice
Peppermint – Lavender – Orange Peel
Chamomile – Lemon Balm - Nettle

Herbal Infusion (Using Herbs in the Bath)
Adapted from The Living Awareness Institute handout (www.livingawareness.com)

The bath can be a relaxing stress reliever alone but coupled with some soothing herbs it can be extremely healing!

- Using the same ratio of herbs to water as the tea recipe, place the herb(s) and water together into a large pot, bring to a boil and let steep for 15-30 minutes.
- Pour everything in to the bath as you are drawing the water. You can choose to strain the herbs or keep them in your bath!
- You can also add fresh herbs directly to the bathtub!

Some Nice Bathing Herbs (use individually or make your own combinations):
calendula – chamomile – comfrey – elder flower – fennel – ginger – roses – lavender – rosemary – sage – lemon balm

Easy Recipes for Health and Digestion

Sauerkraut
Adapted from Nourishing Traditions
makes 1 quart


1 medium head – Red or Green Cabbage – cored and shredded -
1 Tablespoon – Sea Salt –
1 – Carrot – peeled and shredded –
1 Tablespoon – Caraway Seeds –

- In a large bowl, mix together all the ingredients and massage them with your hands until the cabbage begins to release some of its juices. Let the ingredients sit for about 15 minutes and mix again with your hands to release more juices from the cabbage.
- Transfer ingredients to a quart-sized, large mouth mason jar and press down firmly so that the juices rise above the top of the cabbage in the jar. (You can place a smaller jar inside your mason jar and use it as a weight)
- Cover the jar lightly with a clean cloth and let sit at room temperature for at least 3 days (check your sauerkraut every day to ensure that the liquid is still covering the cabbage) After 3 or more days, place a tight fitting lid on the jar and transfer to the refrigerator.
- Sauerkraut may be tasted at any point along the way; you will notice that the flavor will change as it ages!

Chard – Fast & Easy

1 bunch – Chard, any variety – washed well and cut into ribbons -
1 Lemon – zested and juiced –
1 ½ teaspoon –Lemon Juice –
1 teaspoon – Sea Salt –
1 Tablespoon – Olive Oil –
2 Tablespoons – Sunflower Seeds –

- Fill a large pot with about ½ inch of water and bring to a boil.
- While water is coming to a boil, wash and cut the chard into strips.
- Place the chard into the boiling water; turn the heat down to low and cover. Steam the chard for 5-7 minutes, until tender.
- Drain the chard and toss with the lemon zest, juice, sea salt, olive oil and sunflower seeds. Serve warm.

The Controversial Sweetener


Aspartame is an artificial sweetener used in many processed foods, particularly low calorie foods, such as diet sodas, gum, candies, cereals, baked goods etc. Since aspartame is 200 times sweeter than sugar (Murray 2005, 45) it is billed as a no calorie sweetener that is a perfect sugar substitute!

Let’s look at some reasons why this so called “perfect” sugar substitute may not be so perfect.

Although aspartame is currently the most used artificial sweetener in the US, it also receives the most complaints at the FDA than any other food substance (75% of all non-drug complaints to the FDA). (Murray 2005, 45) (Ross 1999, 268). Aspartame is made by chemically combining two naturally occurring amino acids (phenylalanine and aspartic acid) and methanol. Methanol, also known as wood alcohol, is a known poison. (Fallon 2001, 51) Our body breaks down methanol into formaldehyde, a deadly toxin. (Mercola, 2010)
Aspartame has been shown to actually increase appetite and the desire for sweets in particular. Take a look at some symptoms that have been reported to the FDA from people who have ingested aspartame in food and beverage products: (Ross 1999, 36)


seizures
migraine headaches
hives
menstrual changes
weight gain
headaches
severed depression
insomnia
anxiety attacks


Another thing to consider: no chemicals in our bodies are isolated. Compounds such as aspartame will interact with other ingredients in the foods, medicines and other toxins we ingest and these interactions have not yet been studied. (Freidlander in Bauman 2010, 127) There is still some controversy as to whether or not aspartame is actually absorbed by the body. Whether or not it has been proven that the body absorbs aspartame, the list of symptoms above should be enough to make us question the safety of this artificial ingredient

References:
http://www.mercola.com/article/aspartame/dangers.htm “Aspartame: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You” (Mercola)
Bauman, Edward;Freidlander, Jodi. (2010). “Aspartame Research: Questions Remain”. Bauman College NE Handbook, 127.
Fallon, Sally. Nourishing Traditions. Washington, DC.: New Trends Publishing Inc., 2001.
Murray, Michael. The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods. New York: Atria, 2005.
Ross, Julia. The Diet Cure. New York: Penguin, 1999.

Cleaning Cilantro

Most of the cilantro you buy is pretty dirty so it needs to be washed thoroughly. Just rinsing the bunch of cilantro under running water does not always wash away the little pieces of grit that can be nasty and uncomfortable when they end up in your mouth. There is an easy way to clean cilantro. Keep your cilantro in a bunch and fill up a medium size bowl with water. Dunk the bunch of cilantro in the bowl of water and, using your hand, swish it around really well, dump out the water and refill the bowl. Repeat the swishing of the cilantro bunch and then leave it to sit in the water for about five minutes. The dirt particles will sink to the bottom of the bowl by this time. Gently lift out the bunch of cilantro and at this point spin dry in a salad spinner(my preferred method) or dry out on paper towels. You can then pick off the leaves, keep them whole or chop them. Unlike other herbs such as parsley, basil or thyme, the stems of this herb are edible and taste pleasant, not too stemmy. So if you like, use them up along with the leaves in rice paper rolls, soups, pestos, tacos etc. instead of throwing them away!

In the past five or so years I have modified my diet once again to include animal proteins. I was a vegetarian for about 10 years and slowly moved back into the circle of meat eaters (of course they welcomed me back with wide open arms). I experimented with fish, then chicken and finally could officially no longer be called anything close to vegetarian, I was (and am) once again a meat eater. I ventured back into animal protein territory because of physical issues in my health that needed to be addressed. I will say that the re-inclusion of fish, chicken and red meat have all been quite beneficial to my physical being.

That all being said...this post is more about recipe discovery and tips for anyone who cooks or wants to than it is about my ethical and nutritional values and needs.

I recently tried Carne Asada for the first time this past year and had it once again just the other night in an SF restaurant. I have always loved tacos and eating this type of taco was so so enjoyable, flavorful and nourishing. I thought I might experiment with making it myself...here is the recipe I came up with based upon some internet findings. Look out for some basic tips that will help anyone cook up some healthy fresh food to follow!

Carne Asada Tacos
1/2 pound Flank steak or Skirt steak
1/3 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup soy sauce
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 limes, juiced
1/2 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika

Vegetables for Tacos
1 Red Bell Pepper - sliced into strips
1/2 bunch Green Onions - Trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1/4 - 1/2 Jalapeno Pepper - minced
1 Yellow or White Onion - Diced
1/4 bunch cilantro - leaves chopped rough
1 Tb. olive oil
6-8 small corn tortillas

Whisk all the ingredients (except the steak) together in a glass pyrex dish (the one you will use to marinade the meat in). Place the flank steak in the dish and coat with the marinade. Cover and marinate for at least 1 hour, and up to 8 hours, in the fridge.

While waiting for the meat to marinade, cut all your veggies up and get them ready for cooking!
Heat up the 1 Tb. of olive oil in a skillet and saute up the Red Bell Pepper until it starts to turn a bit charred and soft, add the green onions and saute until soft. Place cooked bell pepper and green onion on a plate to the side.

Heat up that same pan until it is very hot, pull the flank steak from the marinade and sear on each side. Remove the steak and place on a cutting board and add the diced onion and jalapeno to the skillet and saute until the onion is translucent. Cut the flank steak into strips and add it back to the pan with the onion and jalapeno until cooked all the way through.

Place some steak and vegetables in each tortilla and top with cilantro and any other fixings you choose!


This marinade would also be excellent on chicken, tofu or tempeh! This dish is fast (excluding the marinade time), fresh, healthy and really delicious!

Other ideas for this recipe:

- Place all warm ingredients in a larger tortilla and top with cheese, sour cream and salsa to make a large burrito.
- Make extra meat and vegetables and us them the next day cold in a spinach tortilla or lavash with a bunch of greens such as spinach or mixed greens to make a lunch wrap.
- Take the leftovers and place on top of a bed of fresh greens with a nice vinaigrette to make a salad.

Check out some of the knife skills described below demonstrated on CBS 5 "Eye on the Bay"

http://cbs5.com/video/?id=57034@kpix.dayport.com

Let me know what you think and what other knife skills you would love to learn!

More Tips and Tricks

The dreaded onion!
I honestly don’t know of anyone that loves to cut onions, or even particularly likes it. Unfortunately the onion is a staple of almost all cuisines, so it makes it almost impossible to avoid cutting into its raw and most potent state. In professional kitchens everyone has to be the onion cutter at one time or another and no one is allowed to cry about it! A guy I used to work with said that he held a job where his morning consisted of cutting cases and cases of onions before he could move on to the rest of his prep work for the day. (Whole cases ended up being 50 pounds of onions each. Yikes!) I never complained about having to cut an onion or two after that.
Usually people take an onion, lop off the ends, peel and chop as fast as they can to try and avoid watery burning eyes. It may seem like this is the fastest way, but when we keep exposing and breaking the cell walls of the onion we give those burning vapors more and more opportunity to seep out and into our eyes.

It is important to remember that the more a vegetable rolls around on the board the harder and more dangerous it will be to cut with a sharp knife. In order to create stability cut one side of the vegetable to make it flat…here is how you go about cutting an onion safely and with out too much crying:

Cut off the top end and keep the root end in tact

Place the onion on the flat side we just cut off (by continuing to place the onion on its exposed flat surface we also keep the vapors reaching our eyes)
Cut the onion in half right through the root.
Place one half of the onion to the side and lay the other half down on its flat exposed side.
Peel back the skin of the onion, all the layers that you do not want to eat.

Now you have only three easy cuts to make!


One- place your palm on the top of the onion, and hold your fingers up so that they will be out of the way of the knife….cut about three horizontal cuts to the root end but not through the root.
Two- turn the onion so the root end points away from you…place the point of your knife in the onion right next to the root end and again not through the root…make about 4-5 slices like these.
Three- turn the onion so it is again parallel to you and slice through, from the top down to the root.

The root is what holds the onion together, limiting the exposure of the inside of the onion and making it easier to cut. Now you have diced half of your onion, you can save the rest for later, and quickly sweep your dice into a bowl, set aside covered for when you are ready to use it!