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Vegetarian Chili may not be something you have ever tried before, but it is definitely a good night off from the meat. I use both pinto and kidney beans for this one, both which have a sweetish taste to me which I love mixed with the sweet carrots, pugnant cumin, cilantro and savory garlic. By the way, not that we are planning to have a natural disaster, but watching the daily updates of the drama unfolding back east is a great reminder that we should at least make some prepper moves in order to be somewhat ready just in case it might happen. That being said… I do a bit of prep by keeping my pantry well stocked with beans. Canned goods don’t last forever so you can’t go too far here, but I have more than I think I will need and simply put the new ones I buy behind the ones I already have on the shelf. So the beans I used for this dish were probably purchased months ago, and by the way, this is a good way to take advantage of stocking up when they are on sale!

Adobo Chicken has become a favorite for me because it is so easy in the crock pot and my family loves it. I always double this recipe and use the extras over rice or quinoa as lunches. Another trick I use to save time is that I also double the greens from Fish and Greens and serve them again with the chicken and rice because the rice, sweet and spicy adobo sauce, chicken and rich greens all compliment each other in taste . This doubling makes this nutritious dinner even less work to get on the table.

And then we have my old buddy Fish and Greens. I’ve gotten to the point where I make this at least once a month, even thought you won’t see it on the menu that often. Now that I have so much experience it goes really quickly, my family loves it, and I can just keep my eye on the fish counter and make it when something really good comes on sale. I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to watch your family consuming forkfuls of carefully cooked and seasoned, dark green leafy vegetables like collard greens and kale, so this menu makes me extra happy! Last week I used some delicious sockeye salmon which was wild caught here in the US (my two requirements for fish!) and on sale for $9.99 per pound. That may sound like a lot, but it is usually $19.99 per pound, and of course Vegetarian Chili is my bean balance to compensate anyways.

As for the extra recipes Jasmine Ginger Tea and Raw Apple Pie, they are both super nutritious and taste good together if you so choose. The tea is delightful after a blustery day outside, and the raw apple pie sweetened with dried dates and lots of cinnamon for the apples will take you by surprise . I served it last Christmas when my family was here and they asked for it again the next time I saw them…and they are not even subject to the “off the beaten path” type of food that all of my resident taste testers are now used to.

Take the time to print out the recipes, put the shopping list in your purse or pull it up on your iphone in the store, but do take advantage of all the planning that you see here. I literally can’t remember how I used to cook, but it is so wonderful to walk around the grocery store with a plan, knowing that everything I buy has a destiny for nutritious eating at my house.

Yesterday I was sitting in a group along with a little five year old boy who looked miserable..red rimmed eyes and a persistent cough. I encouraged him to drink lots of water because at the moment that was all I could do. I found myself later that night with a group of college aged kids and one of the boys and a very similar, miserable sounding cough that just wouldn’t quit. This time I was in my own house so I made him a hot cup of camomile tea sweetened with a big spoon of unpasteurized honey. While so many signs of the season are beautiful, like rainbow colored trees and decorated stores, this winter change of headaches, runny noses and painful coughing is much less welcome. There are as many home and professional remedies for colds and flu as the day is long, but what is the most natural way to fight the common cold or flu?

VITAMIN D FROM THE SUN
With the exception of small children like the little girl in front of me at a Pop Warner football game wearing a sleeveless cotton dress, most of us are covering up more now…like her parents and me who were wearing ski parkas and still shivering whenever the sun went behind the clouds. Most of us know that modern day dairy products are fortified with vitamin D, but “the body also manufactures vitamin D from cholesterol, through a process triggered by the action of sunlight on skin, hence its nickname, “the sunshine vitamin.” ” (1) Colder weather means more clothes, which means less sun on the skin and less protective vitamin D being manufactured within. Is there is a connection then between less vitamin D and more cold and flu?

DESTROYS CELL WALL OF INFLUENZA VIRUS
Research has shown that vitamin D “increases the body’s production of a remarkable class of proteins, called antimicrobial peptides. The 200 known antimicrobial peptides directly and rapidly destroy the cell walls of bacteria, fungi, and viruses, including the influenza virus, and play a key role in keeping the lungs free of infection.” (3) The Harvard School of Public Health examined an interesting trial study which tested vitamin D’s affect on cold and flu viruses. For a period of four months, 340 children were given either a placebo or 1,200 IU of vitamin D each day. In the end, the children given Vitamin D were 40% more likely NOT to become infected with the flu virus type A (more severe like H1N1). (2)

SEE IT HAPPEN!
Viruses do not have their own DNA so they must invade a healthy cell in order to multiply. (You simply must take a few minutes to watch this animation of a virus invading a cell and multiplying. I was mesmerized!) In this graphic reproduction you can see for yourself how those vitamin D generated antimicrobial peptides wage their warfare within against viruses like the ones that cause cold and flu.

HOW MUCH?
Vitamin D has been getting a lot of press time these day for many things being discovered about it’s power to fight infection and disease, but today I just wanted to focus on its role in helping us to fight the winter flu. A completely naked body under the summer sun generates 20,000 IUs of vitamin D in 48 hours. The National Institute of Health recommends anywhere from 660-4,000 IUs of vitamin D for adults per day, and if gotten from the the sun only that would mean “5”“30 minutes of sun exposure between 10 AM and 3 PM at least twice a week to the face, arms, legs, or back without sunscreen…” (4)

WHERE?
The flesh of fatty fish and fortified food items like orange juice and milk provide the most vitamin D from the diet:

cod liver oil (1 Tbsp.) 1,360 IU
salmon (3 oz.) 447 IU
tuna (3 oz.) 154 IU
fortified orange juice-1 c. 137 IU
egg- 1 88 IU

So after you come in out of the winter sun, use salmon for the Fish and Green entree instead of the usual white fish for extra vitamin D.

I won’t personally be wearing any sleeveless cotton dresses to sports events for awhile, but I will be looking for those moments during the day when the sun is generating the most heat and make a point to show more skin while I eat more vitamin D rich fatty fish like salmon and tuna. I can’t think of a more natural way to fight infection than to pause a little longer in the sun…can you? Care to join me outside for a tuna fish sandwich?

(1) & (2) http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/vitamin-d/index.html
(3) http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/51913.php
(4) http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind

This information is solely for informational purposes. IT IS NOT INTENDED TO PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE. Neither Orange Tree Lane or any of its affiliates take responsibility for any possible consequences from any treatment, procedure, exercise, dietary modification, action or application of medication which results from reading or following the information contained in this information. The publication of this information does not constitute the practice of medicine, and this information does not replace the advice of your physician or other health care provider. Before undertaking any course of treatment, the reader must seek the advice of their physician or other health care provider.

I made it past the flowered mail box! I almost stopped just out of surprise when I kept going to the next driveway and could actually still take in oxygen. If you read my post from the Olympics about “Faster, Stronger, Higher”, then this is to let you know that saying that didn”™t really change anything, but not giving up did. I hope you are making some exercise goals and trying some new things to get yourself motivated if you need it. I used to think that running alone was no fun, but now that I have discovered my hill I get excited about getting such a great High Intensity Interval Training workout in about 30 minutes. See the link if you want to know more about that work out philosophy. I love it.

On to the leafy greens. “¦I”™ve been harping about kale and such for a really long time now. A good friend told me that she actually cooks with them now because of me and I feel like my life had new meaning. I am joking of course, but honestly very excited that it has made a difference to someone. I”™ve really been focusing on this one lately because one of the Orange Tree Lane taste testers fractured a bone and I am all about building healthy bones right now. Metabolizing protein requires calcium, so a high protein diets requires a good amount of calcium from natural sources, and that would be the dairy products and the DARK leafy greens.

Spinach is going in the morning fruit shakes and scrambled eggs with feta cheese, everything with ground beef like the One Dish Tamale Pie gets a whole bunch of finely sliced kale or collard greens, home made burritos are bursting with chopped romaine and watercress combined, salads come with a portion of cider vinegar softened kale strips, and greens simmered in broth with onions are a more regular side dish all on their own. Have you found some creative ways to eat your greens more regularly? I would love to hear your ideas or success stories. I just make it my goal to empty the crisper drawer of all the greens I bought, and it is happening. Yeah! BTW, all of this week’s menu entrees are DGLV friendly…kale in the Super Spaghetti w/ Beef and Carrots and Super Nachos, swiss chard in the Ultimate Healthy Baked Beans Dinner and salad greens with Buffalo Chicken Salad.

And finally, I have had some greater success with doubling entrees and freezing them in order to save myself time in the busy back to school life we now lead. I work in a school so there are those nights that if I want to exercise, then dinner will be at 8pm and that is pretty late. Tonight would have been one, except for the fact that I had more than doubled One Dish Tamale Pie, gave some to a sick friend, ate some for dinner, and froze the rest. How wonderful it was to get that great exercise when I would ordinarily have been standing in the kitchen! I made a fresh green salad to go with it and found a great combination of ingredients for a tasty dressing.

Salad: romaine sliced very fine, water cress, celery, cucumber, green apple and purple grapes and lots of feta cheese

Dressing: In a blender whip together approx. ¼ c. mayonnaise, 3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar, 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard, 1 clove garlic, 1 Tablespoon sugar, ¼ teaspoon salt, and enough olive oil to make it all move and taste right. I”™m saying this from memory so keep it in mind that you will have to adjust according to taste like a real chef.

Hope you enjoyed the update. Now how about you? I would love to hear about how your are doing with some of your new goals and inspirations, so send me a message at Molly@orangetreelane.com.

Take a look at the very GREEN 100th Orange Tree Lane Menu!

PS- We just got done eating Spontaneous Black Bean Burritos, the recipe that helps you use what you have on hand as leftovers! I put a whole chicken in the crock pot before church and shredded the meat when I got home. Got a baggie of refried beans I stored in the freezer from a very large can a few months ago, frozen olives, slices of sandwich cheese, salsa and large tortillas from my staples, and the extra salad I purposely made from last night’s dinner (mentioned above). Melted the cheese in the middle of the tortillas on the pancake griddle, then folded them in burrito fold while warm. To fill them, opened up and spread with the refried beans, then piled all the rest on top and did a nice burrito fold. Layered the lettuce last inside and added some of the dressing from last night too. I made a few extras for lunches tomorrow and covered them with saran wrap. Now we’re full!!

I went to Costco today to find engine oil and noticed they do have some really good looking food. I used to buy things there, but I really struggled to find something I wanted. Why? Because I am fighting the forever battle to get quality ingredients, not just calories. You may call me a food snob, and I guess I have become just that. But before you think that I live on seeds and nuts, let me assure you that chocolate is my most favorite food group followed by breadbutterandjelly. I eat grass fed red meat once a week and would eat cheese in great amounts daily if my stomach could take it. Since their prices are so good there I was really looking for quality meat, meaning grass fed beef, or wild caught fish.
I found ORGANIC ground beef for 4 something a pound, a decent price, but ORGANIC does not mean grass fed, just fed organic corn and soy. Farm raised fish are also fed corn and soy, and there was plenty there at great prices, but the wild caught, smoked salmon was more than $15 a pound.

Sometimes the quest to find quality, affordable ingredients seems like an uphill battle! If you are in this venture with me, do you think we should lose heart? Absolutely not. Find your stubborn streak and employ it! My mother used to call me rubber face because when I set my mind to something my botttom lip would jut out and there was no changing my mind. It’s not always the best way to be, but in this case I don’t think there is any other way to get natural and healthy food.

I’ve been talking about inflammation a lot this all month, and did I mention that it is reversible? Reversing internal inflammation is one of the reasons I don’t give up my search. Let take fats for instance; some cause inflammation while others prevent it.

HYDROGENATED OIL INFLAMES
Remember that your immune system is trying to protect you from invaders, so it starts the process of inflammation whenever something foreign is detected.
Hydrogenated oil is foreign to the body because it has been altered at the molecular level, and therefore it causes an inflammatory response. It is the fat used in commercially baked goods and almost all processed foods, and is therefore easy to find and avoid.

SOLUTION:You can fight this battle easily by cooking and baking more things for yourself using natural, healthy oils and fats. Many health food grocery stores sell every kind of baked good you could want without hydrogenated oils, and I have even found some at the larger grocery stores by reading labels. I remember I had to get tortillas at Henry’s, but I did find some sandwich bread at Albertsons with non hydrogenated oil.

OMEGA-6 INFLAMES
Another oil that causes inflammation is omega-6 oil, which is found abundantly in vegetable oils; corn, soybean, sunflower, and safflower. Omega-6 is not bad in and of itself, but our bodies are designed to use an equal balance of the polyunsaturated oils omega-6 and omega-3. Unfortunately, our modern diet is rich in vegetable oil and poor in omega-3 rich oily fish like salmon, flax seeds and walnuts, and this has created a very unhealthy ratio of about 20:1 of the two oils in most of us. (1) This unhealthy balance also triggers inflammation.

SOLUTION: When baking pancakes, cookies, or something like banana bread at home, replace the vegetable oil with an equal amount of olive oil, or combine the olive oil with some apple sauce. Trial and error will teach you the right combinations, or the Orange Tree Lane baked goods are all made without vegetable oil and the right balances have already been found.

SOLUTION: Eat oily, wild caught fish like salmon or sardines more often, and to learn to include ground flax meal in baked goods and flax oil in dressings and sauces because these ingredients are rich in omega-3 oil. (Now you will understand why so many OTL recipes include fresh ground flax meal and walnuts whenever we get a chance!)

FISH OIL MOST POWERFUL
Fish oil is the greatest concentration of omega-3 oil that you can get, and a daily supplement will help get your balance right again, thereby reducing inflammation. But there is a concern about mercury contamination in our oceans, which in turn gets into the fish who live there. That is why fish oil supplements are such a valuable asset to our health. They come in pill or liquid form, and if you read the labels carefully, you can find brands which purify it from all toxins, chemicals, and metals which get into the fish meat.

Adding fish oil and eliminating vegetable oil from you diet may be the most powerful change you can make to restore balance between the oils, omega-6 and omega-3, to reduce inflammation. (2)

REVIEW

Say No to:
– hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil in processed or commercially baked foods
– concentrated vegetable oils like corn, soybean, sunflower or safflower

Say Yes to:
-grass fed beef which has 2-4 times more omega 3 fatty acids than grain fed http://www.eatwild.com/healthbenefits.htm
– non-hydrogenated foods you find by reading labels and shopping at a health food grocery store, or making your own
– a daily fish oil supplement
– flax meal and oil, and walnuts

I hope you will see your local health food grocery store for PURIFIED fish oil supplements and to discuss a typical dosage for you. Costco may have some, but I didn’t get all the way over to that corner. If you do, look for “purified” on the label!

OTHER INFLAMMATORY FOODS- sugar, dairy, alcohol, white flour, artificial sugar and additives, stress

PS- If you are trying to figure out why I posted the picture of a baby porcupine with this post about inflammation, the only thing I can say is he is too cute for words and I couldn’t help but share. He has nothing to do with inflammation unless you consider getting poked multiple times by porcupine quills…I guess that could do it!

(1) & (2) http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/review/review_winter_05/endoplasmic.html

Good Reading: http://www.cbn.com/health/naturalhealth/drsears_wellness.aspx

http://www.supplementquality.com/news/fatty_acid_structure.html

For those of us with kids at home, here we go again. I think the biggest challenge of the school year for me is keeping myself and everyone else disciplined and on schedule. When I was a kid, being home after 9 months of school made me feel like something important was probably happening somewhere else and I was missing it, at home. Now I relish waking up not sure what I will do that day. This summer in the midst of this hedonist relaxation, I started to notice that if my boys were home when lunch time came around they would open the refrigerator and pull out a carrot, or an apple to munch on, but making a meal never crossed their minds .

So we started “Operation Independence”, meaning they had to stick around and help while I made things. Eventually I just suggested ingredients and they had the option of doing it themselves or going hungry. Believe it or not, there were times they just wouldn’t eat, or the oldest with a car would go “visit a friend” (and his refrigerator) rather than put something with more than 2 ingredients together. Ever feel that way yourself?

I know I do even though I thoroughly enjoy cooking. It just gets so much competition when leaving the house early and keeping to a regimented schedule in places other than home. But after this nice, long break I feel ready to tackle the challenge with renewed energy and enthusiasm. I would like to share a few things I do that transform me from a kitchen slug into a Well Oiled Cooking Machine which gets dinner made stress free and before 8:30pm:

1. WHEN YOU COOK, DOUBLE IT. This way you get to think and clean half as much! Buy plastic food storage bins big enough to the other half you won’t be eating and either freeze it or make it into dinner the next day. Some suggestions for the transformation into another meal are:

-Cut it smaller, add a few fresh veggies and dressing and put it over fresh greens.
-Spread jarred spaghetti sauce over some pizza dough and add cheese and leftovers to make pizza.
-Serve it over quinoa or whole grain rice.
-When it gets colder, add broth and other favorite frozen vegetables to any meat and vegetables entree leftovers to create a unique soup. Adding leftover spaghetti sauce, nutritional yeast or bean dips to the broth can add different flavors for variety.

In addition, many of the OTL recipes are either paired or will have suggestions for using leftovers to start another entree.

2. ALWAYS START AT THE BEGINNING OF THE DAY. For some reason this makes all the difference, even if it’s only 5 minutes to look over the recipe, take meat out of the freezer or simply visualize what you will be doing when you get home. Since half the battle with cooking is planning, use the Orange Tree Lane shopping list, recipes, and then along with this small bit of morning preparation you will be truly ready to tackle dinner preparation even if coming home from a long day.

3. DO PREP WORK EARLIER. Most Orange Tree Lane recipes have a section called “Prep Work” between the ingredients and directions. It will list the cutting and chopping needed for the recipe so that little pockets of time can be put to good use, or the jobs can be delegated to someone else who has a few minutes to spare. This saves an amazing amount of time for the cook and makes the whole job of cooking a meal go twice as fast!

Let’s apply these techniques to this week’s menu as an example of being a W.O.C.M.:

1) First of all, the chicken nugget recipe has directions at the end for putting leftovers on a dinner salad another night.
2) Double the this chicken recipe and use it for making the other chicken recipe “Feta Chicken Pasta“.
3) Extra protein from any recipe can be cleverly paired with other leftovers in your refrigerator to make Spontaneous Black Bean Burritos if you always keep a few staples on hand like cans of black beans and large tortillas in the freezer.
4) Make leftovers from the Beef, Bean and Kale entree into soup by adding broth, spices, and some other favorite vegetables. Any extra quinoa thrown in would be the same as adding rice or noodles.

Here you can see how one night of cooking can be used for multiple days. Using these three three techniques to create the most healthy meals with the least amount of time is how you too can become a Well Oiled Cooking Machine! Give it a try and let me know how I can help. molly@orangetreelane.com

I can”™t read the Olympic motto without picturing a coach shaking with passion and excitement as he inspires his athletes to push themselves to their physical limits, past their perceived end of physical strength or endurance. Kind of like me running up the hill I live on. OK, there might be some drama missing if you aren”™t me and don”™t know how hard it is to run up my hill, but never the less, I”™m going to spew out that motto with every ounce of breath I have left next time I get to the mailbox where I always stop. And then I”™m going to try to press on to the next driveway so that one day I will make it all the way to where it levels off, and then eventually all the way up to my house. In the mind movie of my life in which I star, this will be the Olympics.

The organizer of the first Olympic games collected a second motto for us to live by as well, “The most important thing is not to win but to take part!” In other words, there is virtue in the struggle, not just in the outcome. If I can”™t yet achieve champion status by getting to the top of my hill, should I even try at all? “Of course, how silly”, you might think. But what about your health”¦even if you think you could never be a champion, are you at least taking part?

I have sympathy for you, trust me. “I have no free time, I have so many responsibilities, I am so out of shape””¦the list goes on. These may all be true, but nothing changes the fact that your body will feel better, work better, and live longer when you make a concerted effort to at least do the things a champion would do.
And since we”™re talking mottos here, if you need even more inspiration then the London 2012 Olympic motto “Inspire a Generation” might be a good kick in the rear to get your own personal Olympic training going. People in your life will be affected in some way or another by how well you take care of yourself.

I love this story I read about the birth of the games. Following an ancient Greek victory over the Thermopylae, the conquering king Xerxes demanded to know why there had been so few men for him to fight. Someone explained that many of the men were gone competing for an olive-wreath crown of victory in the Olympic Games. A general named Tigranes is supposed to have then muttered, “Good heavens! Mardonius, what kind of men are these against whom you have brought us to fight? Men who do not compete for possessions, but for honour.” (1)

There are different aspects of honor for those of us who “compete” for it”¦ some for their 19th gold metal and some to go beyond the flowered mailbox. For the first there is the honor of worldwide acclaim, respect, and the wealth that comes with notoriety. There are few human beings in this group. For the rest of us I”™ll tell you what I see as the olive wreathe we are striving for”¦ the ability to serve others even in the smallest ways, to inspire the next generation to be thankful for the life they have been given and to protect it, nurture it, and treat is as the precious gift it is, to focus on the wins rather than complaints, to get up and live more and watch less, and to share that sparkle in your heart and eyes with those around you.

Parts of our life script are written for us and we have not been consulted, but I”™m talking about the part you can write yourself. Let”™s let the Olympic athletes inspire us to push ourselves a little FASTER when we walk, to raise the bar HIGHER on the quality of food we eat, to give our body a chance to be STRONGER so that we inspire the next generation. There is great honor in that.

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_symbols

What do a mechanic who drives a car spewing black smoke out the tailpipe, a psychologist whose personal relationships are in tatters, and an overweight, bleary- eyed doctor all have in common? If you really believe something is true, then you have to show it by how you live. Our mechanic should drive a car in good repair, a psychologist should have healthy relationships, and a doctor should know how to maintain a healthy body. Apparently the logic here is starting to register with the medical community, and I for one am really happy to hear about it.

Dr. Eisenberg, an associate professor from the Harvard Schools of Medicine and of Public Health created what he calls an “interfaith marriage” using chefs to teach doctors how to cook nutritious and good tasting food themselves. The goal is that they will first eat healthier themselves and then pass the inspiration on to their patients. Dr. John Principe of Palos Heights, Chicago attended the 3 day cooking seminar after getting seriously discouraged about his professional approach of “a pill for every ill”. Dr. Jim Fox from Michigan came to chop and mix saying, “I want to help my patients not need my services”¦ I”™d love to be put out of work.” (1)

We all need to pay attention. “By 2050, for example, as many as 1 in 3 adults will develop diabetes if current trends continue.” (2) Two-thirds of people with diabetes have high blood pressure. This causes stress on our heart and increases the risk of heart disease. It significantly harms the eyes even leading to blindness, weakens the kidney causing internal fluid build up, weakness and difficulty sleeping, or lethal kidney failure, and is known to specifically deteriorate nerves in the feet which leads to injury and amputation. (3) Diabetes can be avoided through eating and exercising lifestyle choices. We all need to pay attention to what we eat!

I was in the grocery store the other day waiting for the carts ahead of me to move through the line. I was shocked to see the tired dad in front of me with his two teen aged daughters buying a cart full of colorful boxes of sugary, salty processed food items, stacks of red meat, and not one single piece of fruit or any vegetables. I don”™t see this at the Sprouts where I usually shop so it made me pause and look around a bit more. I was horrified to see the same ingredients in every cart to my right and my left. It might have been just a coincidence, but I doubt it. When I unload groceries onto the conveyor belt it is an ocean of produce bags interspersed with something like a carton of eggs or a package of meat or chicken and various canned goods.

Like the good doctors learning to cook healthy food you would actually look forward to eating, I also believe that making homemade meals is a must for healthy eating. Here are a few things that will help busy cooks overcome the obstacle of limited time and experience in the kitchen.

1- Print out the weekly menu of recipes and the shopping list that goes with it each week here at Orange Tree Lane.
2- Do one big shopping trip a week using your list and have all of the ingredients ready and waiting for you when it is time to cook.
3- Decide what you will make IN THE MORNING so that meat can be taken from the freezer, or so that you can delegate or chop some of the fresh produce ahead of time yourself as listed in the “Prep Work” section of the recipe.
4- Save lots of time by making double batches and eating leftovers for dinner or lunch the next day, or freeze them for another busy night.

Like any great endeavor, planning is absolutely essential to execution. The health professionals are realizing that home cooking is synonymous with healthy eating and worth the extra effort. I couldn’t agree more, and I hope you will use the planning you find right here at Orange Tree Lane to help you make the job that much easier!

(1) (2) http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/11/dining/doctors-learn-to-cook-healthy-crave-able-foods.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3
(3) http://www.livestrong.com/article/73464-health-ris

AWWW! Peace turns to sudden movement and panic, repressed cries, screen door falling off the track and confusion. Someone has gotten a splinter. Trust me, I felt foolish entering “splinter” on the form at urgent care under the section “reason for visit”, but this wasn”™t just any splinter. Two hours of soaking in hot water, mini surgery at the kitchen table with flashlight, nail scissors, safety pin, tweezers and a very sharp pocket knife. By this time the little finger is puffy, red, swollen and tender to the touch from the lumber invasion and subsequent torture to remove it.

Inflammation is the body”™s natural response to invaders. Dangerous parasites, bacteria, and chunks of wood deeply inserted into appendages trigger the immune system to send in the warrior white blood cells, among others. The swelling tends to immobilize the injured area as an immediate form of first aid. And it usually goes away with the pain. But there is a swelling you and I never feel until it lingers long enough to cause damage rather than heal, and that is internal inflammation.

This particular splinter required the strong arm pull of a gentleman with 8 years of medical training, but he did exclaim over its size while the patient tried not to throw up. Problem solved in the finger, but how do we recognize and heal inflammation that we cannot see or feel?

It can go on unchanged for weeks, months and years without a stopping point, and this chronic condition of inflammation wears out the strength of the immune system, paving the way for many of the heart breaking maladies we endure”¦cancer, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer”™s, Parkinson”™s, MS, rheumatoid arthritis, and many others. (1) For instance, low grade, internal inflammation causes otherwise benign fatty deposits (in the arteries) to rupture, and that rupture is what causes blockage and stroke. “Stroke is a leading cause of long-term disability and remains the third cause of death in developed countries”. (2)

There are things you can actively do to minimize internal inflammation. In previous weekly specials I have discussed the extreme benefits of:

*omega 3 oil purified fish oil supplements
* the need to avoid environmental toxins which stimulate an immune response
*a diet rich in fruits and vegetable phytonutrients as an important part of the fight against inflammation.

This week I want to focus on spinach is a fantastic supplier of a newly discovered phytonutrient called glycoglycerolipid which is believed to reduce inflammation of the digestive system in particular. (3)

First spinach for the the bones, and now the stomach too! So go get some fresh, organic spinach and make the super easy D-licious Spinach Sausage Lasagna, drink it for breakfast in a Cranberry Breakfast Soup Shake, or add it to the Spicy Chicken Mango instead of kale like I did.

Tonight I’m thankful for doctors and spinach. How about you?

(1) http://www.jigsawhealth.com/resources/inflammation

(2) http://www.cardiovascular-medicine.ch/pdf/2009/2009-05/2009-05-077.PDF

(3) http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/health/nutrition/25recipehealth.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=spinach+glycoglycerolipids&st=nyt

This information is solely for informational purposes. IT IS NOT INTENDED TO PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE. Neither Orange Tree Lane or any of its affiliates take responsibility for any possible consequences from any treatment, procedure, exercise, dietary modification, action or application of medication which results from reading or following the information contained in this information. The publication of this information does not constitute the practice of medicine, and this information does not replace the advice of your physician or other health care provider. Before undertaking any course of treatment, the reader must seek the advice of their physician or other health care provider.

Food to me is a constant source of fascination, and putting it together in meaningful ways is a never ending source of creative necessity, the kind of challenge I love! I could go paint pictures or write a story, but then what would we all eat? So for now it is my creative outlet. Beautiful food is not one of my strengths, but good tasting food…well I”ve been getting some very nice compliments from the taste testers. Cooking reminds me of the complexities presented in the game of Scrabble where letter tiles have to make sense together, fit with other letters already on the board, and have the most points for the highest score. (I love that game!) For me cooking makes four demands on my creativity at the same time… to find recipes that:

1) taste good
2) deliver EXCELLENT nutrition
3) are affordable
4) won’t keep me in the kitchen too long

To win at Scrabble I could make a fantastic high point word from my tiles, but if they can’t be played anywhere on the board then I lose. Likewise with cooking, I could make something that doesn’t keep me in the kitchen long and fits my budget, but if it isn’t nutritionally nourishing, then we all lose.

This week I had a lot of fun making some great tasting, very nutritious sweet bread that can be eaten on the run, which is something I seem to need at least once a day. Simultaneous to these requirements I was looking for a way to use the fiberous leftovers from juicing so that they would not be wasted to the garbage. Eureka! And the best part is that it had to be made chocolate in order to mask the green color of the vegetable pulp. If you don’t juice vegetables yet, I hope you will check this out for some inspiration, and then read ahead to see how healthy cooking requires creativity and effort. Let me tell you how the bread happened.

First I googled “baking with juicing pulp”, and then I started making some really yucky recipes. I waited a month or so for the pain to subside before starting over this week. This time I stuck to one thing, sweet bread, because I’m tired of buying expensive and sugary protein bars for meals on the run and I figured that a chunk of dense bread could do the same things for me, only better.

I juiced carrots, green apples, celery and kale, used the orangish pulp and told the kids it was “carrot bread”. They really liked it, especially since I threw in a handful of chocolate chips. The next day I juiced a bunch of those enourmous collard green leaves, some kale, a few green apples, celery, and just a few carrots. This pulp was GREEN, and you know that mixing other ingredients in would make something rather gray…yuck. So it had to be chocolate. In went 1/2 c. of cocoa and that took care of the color problem. It actually came out an exceptionally dark, almost black looking chocolate color! I changed the shortening both times to olive oil, and half of the applesauce I replaced with a super ripe banana to get more potassium in the mix.

What I liked most about this recipe was that it used 3 whole cups of pulp, which is simply moist vegetable fiber. To get more protein using seeds and nuts, I replaced the 1 1/2 cups of flour with ground raw almonds, sunflower seeds and flax seeds instead. As always I used less sweetener than called for, and in this case it was 1/4. cup less honey. Throw in some healthy cinnamon and allspice, the required handful of chocolate chips, and out came a very dense, super filling, dark, rich, and not too sweet loaf of chocolate bread that I have eaten for a light breakfast the past few days before going to work out. See how fun cooking super healthy can be? It did take three or four tries, but hey, I already went through all that so you can just use the recipe. (smile)

Honestly I hope my narrative will also inspire you to make healthy foods and connect with your inner creative side as I do in the kitchen. I need to make it again to get a good picture so you’ll have to tune in next week for the recipe, but you can start stretching yourself creatively with another changeover I made to some breakfast crepes. (See pretty picture above.) Berries of all kinds are extremely high in antioxidants so this was a great way to get the family eating them in great proportions at breakfast rather than a lot of syrup.

I would love to hear about something interesting you made this week, or something you changed to make healthier, and of course, I like to hear all of your experiences with cooking great food! Keep the messages coming either to me at Molly@orangetreelane.com or in the comments section at the side, and happy cooking this week!