Cooking with Mushrooms

Mushrooms have great antioxidants and minerals, but some people ask, how do I eat more mushrooms? I say you can add it to everything, from breakfast to dinner!
* veggie shroom egg scramble
* add it to your turkey chili or most soups
* add it into your veggie mix of a stirfry
* put it in sauces to help soak up your flavors and give you more chew to the sauce

May seasonal fruits

I'm excited to check out upcoming Farmer's Markets here in Los Angeles, the seasonal produce is changing and we'll get some of my favorite fruits that are not found other times of the year:
* apricots
* nectarines
* peaches
* figs
Vegetables like summer squash have been around earlier, and I really like this "What's in season" page for finding out what's around at the farmer's market. I'm a berry fan and often disappointed at what I see at the regular grocery stores, so I'm planning a trip to "pick your own berries" at this family farm.

If you're not able to get your berries everyday or if you're not a fan of berries, this ORAC supplement is a powerful delivery system of berries like cranberries and elderberry I don't get around to eating and can help support healthy vision. I have trouble with my night vision, and if I don't get my berries, I actually have cravings for berries! So I have a back-up of frozen berries in my freezer, and there is also my new favorite frozen Greek yogurt place that has terrific fruit toppings to help quench my cravings and cope with the hot weather. Seasonal fruits make for a quick healthy dessert or a great topping on salads. Hope you'll find or re-discover some favorites in the next few weeks!

Quick skin health for busy people

Our busy lifestyles sometimes leaves some self-care routines short-changed.  Since our skin is our largest organ and I care about my health, I need to take care of it just as much as eating healthy organic foods!

I have sensitive skin and used to have all kinds of eczema and breakouts as a teen, so I'm hesitant to use anything with too many ingredients. My days in college, people raved about witch hazel but it was too drying for my T-zone combination skin. Now, in Los Angeles with some of the desert weather, I need to be on top of cleaning and moisturizing my skin. And why not use a moisturizer with Vitamins C and E to protect my skin from cellular damage from the pollution and sun? I've been delighted to find this discounted kit (save 20%) that matches my healthy lifestyle that has aloe and other gentle natural ingredients for cleansing and toning plus my favorite vitamin anti-aging/antioxidant moisturizer! For busy people, it's a quick 3 steps of cleanse, tone, and moisturize.

A number of my fashionista friends talk about and take a supplement biotin for their skin health. However, with a little research, it's best taken in synergy with other vitamins and antioxidants for your best results for beauty from the inside out. I had an 70-year-old who had tried lots of different supplements for anti-aging, and she really loved this skin health formula! There's even a study about Pycnogenol that shows the impact for post-menopausal women -- which is exactly what my 70-year-old experienced, bringing down some of her puffy eye symptoms and more.

Mayo-free egg salad

Trying to eat fewer processed foods? Here's an egg salad I improvised that you can make without mayo (a processed food usually pumped with flavoring and other junk).

RECIPE
4 boiled eggs and peeled, still warm (free-range organic omega 3 preferred)
1 tsp fresh dill chopped
2 squeezes of fresh lemon (make a circle around the bowl 2x)
1 tsp of coconut oil (room-temp so it spreads easy)
1/4 tsp of smoked paprika
fresh ground pepper, salt
(yields approx 2 servings)

If you like more creamy, you can add more coconut oil or olive oil. If you want more herb flavor, please add more dill. Egg salad is great to have around as a snack or as a topping on gluten-free toast as a healthy breakfast option.

This won't taste like the egg salad you get from the store, but it is tasty and you can taste your food and fresh herbs with this recipe instead of something that is overburdened with sauce. And it uses less than 10 ingredients! When you eat cleaner food, your tastebuds will thank you! You'll taste more of the fresh herbs and you won't crave the junk food as much. Email me to find out more about detoxing and rehabbing your gut. You can still be a foodie while being healthy!

Quality Eggs

Quality eggs are not obvious with all the different labels. Here's a great article from Organic Consumers Association on what words to look for: “Free Range” is better than “Cage Free,” but “Pasture Raised” is best. Avoiding cheap factory farm eggs is not only the right thing to do for your vote on agricultural practices but also for your health. Eggs got a bad rap in the 1980s about their nutrition, but when you get what I call "happy eggs," you'll get Omega-3 good fats and other important vitamins and minerals. Eggs are an inexpensive protein packed full of nutrients if you get the right ones. Egg-xcellent!

Barley: star-quality rice-substitute

I was drawn to this article about rice substitutes, and wanted to share that I think barley is the most accessible for most people to try as a healthier alternative for rice or pasta. We want more nutrient-dense and low-glycemic load meals so that we can maintain healthy weight and feel great. Quinoa (keen-wah) was listed at the top and can be very tasty, but some people don't like the taste of quinoa or have issues digesting it. Barley is somewhat "old school" and works well as a pilaf and has a nutty chewy texture that is more widely accepted especially for beginners not confident about cooking healthy.

My favorite way to eat barley is to mix in mushrooms, peas, veggies, onions and parsley to cooked barley so that I'm getting a rainbow of nutrition and a lot of flavor. And some like to make it creamy like risotto, if you cook it with broth. A warning about barley in soup: If you're packing leftovers, be sure to separate the barley from the soup or your leftovers will no longer be soup but actually become barley mush. Barley loves to soak up the liquids!! Here are some ideas for barley recipes.

The nutrition graphic here shows a terrific mineral profile for barley. Many of us hear about how we need to improve our selenium intake in our foods to boost our optimal health, an important anti-inflammatory mineral that is no longer rich in our agricultural soil. It's found to be helpful for lowering risks of cancer, cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, and thyroid disease. International standards are higher than in the US and selenium can improve your immune health as well as vision health. Other sources of selenium can be found in Brazil nuts, some seafood, animal protein, eggs, beans. The NIH page  or WHFoods page offers suggestions of foods that you can incorporate. If you don't eat foods like Brazil nuts or barley daily (who does?), I like to take this high-quality multi-mineral as my backup so that I get enough of my minerals daily, as my insurance for optimal health.

Boost your energy in less than 5 minutes

Easy ways to boost your energy in less than 5 minutes!

Some strategies only take 30 seconds of tuning in.

Are you one of those people who go non-stop? Or maybe feel rushed? Try some (or all) of these strategies and see how you get a boost of energy!

* Stop rushing and Tune in: Take breaks from the computer screen or whatever you're focused on. Close your eyes, sit tall and calm, and breath deep belly breaths for 30 seconds. You can do this on your bathroom break--sitting break, or while you're washing your hands.
* If you have a place to lie down quietly in a comfortable place, we call this "active rest," it might even be better than a nap. Our spine is working hard to be in vertical so it is such a relief to allow your spine to rest horizontal! Keep your knees bent to give your low back some support. Breathe deep belly breaths and let your back relax/melt into the mat or floor.
* Sometimes it's just that your body needs more support all around. Did you get enough healthy energizing food or snacks throughout the day? Take these Activated B vitamins that have super absorption (feel the boost within 5 minutes!). Time it either in the morning or in the afternoon to avoid the post-lunch lull. B-vitamins helps support your nervous system as you deal with daily stressors and it's good for your heart! And it's great to take it before a workout. Some athletes have reported that the lift stronger weights or have other performance boosts with this vitamin B. And it's safe! Most of us are low on B-vitamins and because it's water soluble, it's safe to take several caps a day bc any extra will simply be disposed of in your urine.
* If you've had long-term stress, whether from a family/life incident or chronic long work hours, you might need some support to bring down your cortisol levels (a stress hormone) and support your adrenals. This supplement helps you improve your health of your stress hormones to a better balance-- why it's called ACTS (adrenals, cortisol, thyroid, and stress).
* Depending on your mood, listen to some happy or relaxing music on your way out of the office to your exercise class or home workout so you have the energy! My favorite diva power songs come from Pink or old school Gloria Gaynor. What are your favorite power songs?

* Have fresh plants at your desk or home. Nature helps change the energy in the area and might even make you smile! I bought these potted tulips before the flowers were in bloom, and apparently they were bursting with so much energy that each stem produced twin flowers! Now, that's extra energy from the flowers for you!