macrobiotic

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Burdock

July 12, 2010 in Medicinal, Personal Health by bursty | 1 comment

burdock

The first time I’d ever heard of burdock was in the Hip Chick’s Guide to Macrobiotics - which introduced me to the root.  To be honest, I think since then we’ve only had burdock a few times in various dishes - but I do like it - it’s got a sweet flavor, kind of like a parsnip.  Well, I’ve since been getting more into natural healing, and have been learning the AMAZING benefits of this plant, which is found nearly ANYWHERE throughout Europe, Asia, and North America.  The WHOLE PLANT is medicinal, not just the root!

Burdock root itself is very high in chromium, iron, magnesium, silicon, thiamine, and inulin.  It’s also high in cobalt, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, tin, zinc, carotenes / vitamin A, protein, fiber and mucilage.  It also supplies calcium!  Medicinally, burdock root is good for clearing the skin (using applications of root oil or freshly grated roots) and pulling fluid from swollen joints (try baths and soaks of burdock root infusion). 

It’s also amazing for the digestive track — it nourishes the mucus surfaces of the intestines, absorbs chemical residues and metabolic break-down byprodcts (as well as metal contaminants) and binds them to escort them out of the large intestine!  So, try the infusion or tincture when fasting to maintain intestinal peristalis and prevent ketosis / acidic overload in the blood.  When you’re not fasting, use fresh burdock root as a cooked vegetable or as a fresh tincture.

Burdock root is also a good friend of your lymphatic system, energizing and organizing it - it works with your kidneys, liver and sweat glands to help clean the blood and strengthen the immunen system.  According to Susan Weed (author of Healing Wise), Native women in the Cherokee and Meskawaki nations used burdock root to strengthen their wombs before and after birth, to give stamina in birth, and to nourish their ability to be stable yet still flexible and available to birthing energy.  In addition, burdock can efficiently and effectively lower blood sugar levels in diabetics!

Beyond the root, the seeds are full of medicinal properties, especially for the kidneys and urinary system.  The leaves are also great for healing wounds!  I think sometime in the near future I’m going on a Weed Walk, as described by Ms. Weed in Healing Wise.  I’ll, of course, report my journey here!  Happy healing :)

Crown Chakra Food

June 29, 2010 in Reviews by bursty | No comments

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The crown chakra has waited a long time for its moment of glory here on AGAD (see last post in this series, from APRIL).  So, here it is.  The crown chakra is your spiritual communication center.  It’s a tough one as far as the foods go, because it’s a pretty ethereal chakra - not so much concerned with anything physical, but more with the spiritual aspect of life. 

The sanskrit name for the crown chakra is Sahasrara.  Sahasrara is a spiritual center, so filling your meals and other eating times with spirituality will nourish this chakra best.  This is the chakra that connects us to the divine.  It’s located just above the top of your head, and resonates at the highest frequency of the seven chakras.  It’s usually associated with the color white, or the combination of all colors.  I talked about nourishing community and conversation during meals with regard to the fifth and sixth chakras.  It’s a little more of a solitary deal with sahasrara - more internally focused.

One suggested meditation for meal time by the folks over at diva village (click the link for an article by Dr. Minich) is to imagine the journey that your food took to get to you.  Thinking of the seed that was planted, and the farmers that cultivated and cared for the seedling up until it was time to be picked, and then the process of getting the food to your plate - the travel, the many hands that cared for it, and then eventually the cooking process.  This line of thought in each item we consume makes eating locally all the more important and special - for example, when we eat veggies out of our garden i can remember planting the seeds in our basement while the snow was melting outside, and building our raised beds, filling them with nourishing rich soil, and then planting the seedlings in the soil outside when they were ready…

Detoxing is an excellent way to purify the crown chakra - you can do this through a fast, or through consuming detoxifying plants and fibers.  Also, say a prayer or short meditation prior to consuming your meal, to remind you and your family of the significance and miracle that is in each bite of food.  Meditation is the best yogic practice for nourshing sahasrara, and you can do this throughout your yoga practice while also nourishin your other chakras and your lymphatic system!

Next up - a salad to nourish ALL of your chakras!

earth balance, and peach pie

June 28, 2010 in Recipes, Reviews by bursty | 2 comments

earth_balance

Generally I’m not a big fan of the vegan substitutes for various products.  I typically just use applesauce and a little olive oil, for example, rather than a vegan-substitute-for-butter type of thing.  But lately I’ve been trying out the various earth balance products in my baking.  And, just for full disclosure - I haven’t received any earth balance products from them.  I’ve been buying them at the co-op in all of their rather-high-priced glory.

Thought I’d share my results thus far, and ask you what YOU usually use for baking in the vegan style…  I like the sticks of earth balance vegan butter for cookies.  I made a variation on this new york times chocolate chip cookie recipe, vegan style - using earth balance, and they were AMAZING.  I’ll post the recipe after it’s been perfected.  Because, you see - I tried them again using the earth balance shortening stick, and they were a total flop.  All puddles of cookie dough, scorching on my cookie sheet.  Plus they didn’t taste good.  Recipe needs some tweaking.  (This is what coming up with recipes is all about though, right!?  They can’t all turn out perfect). 

The earth balance shortening for PIE CRUSTS, however - is a whole different story.  Made a vegan peach pie last night that is TO-DIE-FOR, using earth balance shortening for the crust, and it’s fantastic.  Here’s the recipe (makes one crust, top and bottom, of one standard pie):

  • 1/2 cup earth balance vegan shortening
  • 1 1/4 cup spelt flour
  • 1/4 cup luke warm water
  • 1 t. salt

Cut the shortening into the flour, then add water and salt - mix it with your hands until it forms a good dough - then break it in half and roll into two pie-size circles…  Fill with your choice of fruit!  I used peaches (about 7 small peaches, sliced, mixed with about 1 T. of cornstarch and 1 T. of spelt flour, with honey to taste).  Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes, then turn the heat down to 350 degrees and bake for another 50 minutes or so.

Anyway — what do you, dear readers, like to use for baking, in place of butter or shortening (or lard, as my grandma uses)???

Calm in a Chaotic World

June 17, 2010 in News, Personal Health by bursty | 3 comments

tolstoy

Sometimes people write to us and ask for advice … They want to know how to get started with macrobiotics, how to incorporate more whole grains into their diets, how to cleanse, how to feel healthy.  I’m the first to admit that I don’t have all the answers — in fact I have very few.  I only have the things that have worked for me. 

One of the most important things that I can think of as far as “advice” goes for people wanting to live a healthier lifestyle is to keep it simple.  Or, simplify, as some would have it, or need it.  In leading a relatively calm and peaceful life (most of the time), I find a few things remarkably helpful in keeping anxiety and chaos in check:

1.  Cut out the caffeine.  It took me a while to realize that caffeine causes me to be mad anxious.  It sets my mind racing and my heart pounding!  I don’t know why it took me so long to figure out the connection, but once I did and cut out the caffeine in my life, it made a huge impact on my anxiety level and my ability to maintain peace of mind, for the most part.  And, kicking caffeine isn’t as difficult as Starbucks would have you believe.  For me this was MUCH easier than getting sugar out of my diet / lifestyle.

2.  Avoid commercials like the plague.  Seems to be a strange thing to say in avoiding stress, doesn’t it?  But this is another of those things where I’ve put together the pieces as my life goes on.  When I am inundated more with commercials (be they on television, on the internet, what-have-you), I’m more anxious, and I’m more consumer-driven to get to whichever-place and buy whichever-thing the media has me obsessed with.  It’s hard to admit that one is so imprintable by mass media … but it’s completely true, in my case.  We don’t have a television and I promise you that this saves our little family much more money than just the cable and electricity bills.  When I watch more TV, I want to shop shop shop — and I also waste lots of time lounging in front of the tube.  Without the TV, we do all sorts of things I wouldn’t have the motivation to do if I had the constant distraction of meaningless blather on television, such as:  sewing my own skirts and dresses, gardening to grow our own produce, throwing pottery, cleaning the house, taking the dog for walks, etc. etc. etc.

3.  Cut down the sugar (if you can’t quite cut it out).  Sugar, as we’ve talked about multiple multiple times here at AGAD, sends your body on a roller coaster of blood sugar ups and downs.  First you’re waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay up, and then you take that huge hill nosedive (WAHOOOO!) and you’re waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down, going through a tunnel sometimes!  Nobody needs these roller coasters, when it comes to something as fragile and intricate to human body health as blood sugar.  Really.  You don’t.  It affects your hormones, and your mood, and eventually, your general health.  So, at least cut back the sugar, significantly - if you can’t quite cut it all out (I struuuuuuggle with this.  I do.).

4.  Meditate.  Spend some time in meditation, daily.  I know it sounds like something that takes oh-so-much time and well-how-exactly-do-I-do-that!?  But really.  Take a deep breath.  Close your eyes.  Spend about 5 minutes just relaxing all of the muscles in your body and thanking your body for the amazing things it does for you everyday (like keeping you alive despite your sugar binges throughout the day!).  There!  You’ve meditated!  Don’t you feel better!?  Studies show that meditation has PROFOUND effects on your body, your state of mind, and your ability to go through life with a positive attitude, which also has profound impacts on your physical health, long-term.  And it really doesn’t have to take that much time, if you don’t have it.  (But if you do have the time, why not spend a blissful hour here and there in a state of quiet calm, just with yourself, quiet and smiling inside?)

5.  Nourish patience.  This is something that my husband helps me with on a daily, no, hourly basis.  I’m not naturally a very patient person, you see.  I would much prefer that the thing that I want done now have been done yesterday, in most instances.  But that state of mind contributes to anxiety upon anxiety upon more anxiety.  Take life for what it is, in this moment, and be grateful.  Do the thing that you would have liked to have been done yetserday, now.  This way, when it is tomorrow and you’d have been wishing the thing was done, it will be.  This makes me feel calm.

But you guys are the wise ones:  What do you do (or avoid doing) to remain centered, and calm, in the midst of our very chaotic world???

Fruits of Labor

June 10, 2010 in Seasonal Eating by bursty | 2 comments

broccoliplate

Nothing compares to the ability to just trot outside in the evening and pick yourself a few handfuls of fresh romaine and butter leaf lettuce (we’ve been doing this a LOT)!  Or eating strawberries picked fresh out of the garden … OR the first meal with steamed broccoli from our VERY OWN garden right outside our window (See above)!  Yay!  It was delish, as expected.  More to come!

Macro Principal Six: Opposites Attract

May 27, 2010 in Macrobiotic Principles by bursty | 2 comments

The author puts it, Opposites Attract, Like repels Like.  In all honesty, I think the whole opposites / extremes point has been driven home sufficiently in principals 3, 4, and 5.  I’m struggling to come up with anything new to say on the subject. 

One fun way of thinking of and using this principal is in cooking macrobiotic meals.  Or in creating artistic work (one expression of which, I truly believe, is cooking).  Think contrasting colors, flavors … things that you wouldn’t necessarily think would go together actually do great things!  Last night - for our summer of smoothies smoothie flavor, I threw the following into the blender:  one peach (with the peel on), one kiwi (peeled), two bananas, 1/3 can of organic pineapple (and juice) left over from making pineapple fried rice, a cup of green kale, and a teaspoon of cinnamon!  Where’d I come up with that cinnamon?  Not sure - just sounded interesting.  And it added a great dimension of flavor to the smoothies! 

For me this principal is license to go with my intuition, try new things, and not be afraid to throw “opposites” in a blender together.  Fabulous.

Smooth

May 26, 2010 in Recipes, Seasonal Eating by bursty | 2 comments

buds2

So last night I came up with another great “humidity food” — and as we were sipping them, we realized just how much nutrition you can pack into one of these babies — SMOOTHIES!  We were blessed with a kickass blender as a wedding gift which makes ALL the difference.  Last night we went the banana / blueberry route, added a little Rice Dream, berry juice, and green kale.  It was so tasty!  And, with all of those goodies, it was packed with calcium, B-12, vitamin C, iron, folate, potassium, fiber, and antioxidants.  I promptly declared 2010 the “summer of smoothies”.  What are some of your favorite smoothie combinations!?

Humidity Food

May 24, 2010 in News, Seasonal Eating by bursty | No comments

hearts3

Minnesota’s got some major humidity going on the past few days.  The kind of humidity that makes you feel like you’re swimming through the air, makes you catch your breath when you step outside into it, and makes me just a touch cranky!  So - in honor of that, I thought I’d explore some ways to combat the humidity with food. 

One of the reasons humidity affects us so much is that it has a big impact on our body’s ability to maintain a regular body temperature.  The body is absolutely AMAZING in its ability to maintain body temperature normally through hormones, sweat, increased respiration, etc.  High humidity prevents sweat from cooling and evaporating on our skin, which alters the body’s ability to cool us off.  Further, the blood flow to the skin increases when humidity is high, which decreases blood flow to vital organs in the body.  So, we become more tired.

Taking all of this into account - what are some foods you like to eat during humid times!?  I love a good lentil salad on a hot humid day — not only is it cool and refreshing, but it’s also packed with nutrients and protein to help sustain you when you’re likely to get tired.  I’m also thinking of nice, crisp salad greens from the garden with roasted and cooled beets, as well as some thinly sliced green apple.  Macrobiotics is SO much easier for me during the summer months, because my body naturally wants to eat light healthy food, and tends to reject heavy sludgey stuff.  Hooray for summer!

The Art of Menu Planning

May 20, 2010 in Macro Home, News by bursty | 2 comments

lilacs2

We’ve been having discussions at casa AGAD about being more efficient with our trips to the co-op.  Right now, this is how it typically goes:  Sometime during the day, we talk on the phone and banter about what we might like to have for dinner.  I’m usually thoroughly unhelpful during this conversation, and Jacob comes up with something ingenious and tasty to eat.  I get home around 5:30 or so, and Jacob has either been to the co-op, or envisions walking down there together for ingredients.  And, we do this nearly everyday.  Go to the co-op.  While we’re at the co-op (particularly if I am with on this journey), I find all kinds of little things that I think I need (or do actually need), including essential oils, a little dark chocolate for dessert, a fancy beverage like Kombucha, etc. etc.  Suffice it to say, this all adds up, and it gets expensive.

Which brings us over budget for the month in food-spending.  When we’re more intentional about this, and we go to the co-op just once (or at most, twice) per week, we see some measurable savings!  The problem is that this takes planning and some measure of organization.  Both things the two of us have little interest in, most of the time.  But we’re striving to be better.  Our new plan is menu planning.  On one set day per week, we’re going to attempt to plan out what we will eat for the next five days or so, and then we’ll go to the co-op to pick up the things we’ll need to make that plan a reality.

I think this will work relatively well for a few reasons.  (1) We typically eat the same thing for breakfast everyday (usually barley flakes, 7-grain cereal, oatmeal, or brown rice), (2) lunch is usually something leftover from the night before, or something simple (rice and beans are a popular one), and (3) that really just leaves dinners to plan!  The advantage of menu planning will be that we can organize the use of the same ingredient multiple times throughout the week, so we won’t be buying all kinds of crazy ingredients. 

We’ll let you know how the planning goes.  As usual, perhaps we’ll use AGAD to hold us accountable to maintain the strategy for a period of time, and then reassess.  Does anyone else have great ideas in the menu planning department, or have a similar experience to ours in going to the co-op too often!??

Five: All Polarities are Complementary, yet Antagonistic

May 19, 2010 in Macrobiotic Principles by bursty | No comments

rainydaylovelies

These principals are full of BIG concepts.  Some of them are hard for me to wrap my mind around without some rather intense investigation and thought.  This one is one that, when I first read it, caught me by surprise.  Maybe it’s the big words, or perhaps the words are just a little overwhelming in concept.  I’m not sure.  But initially, I kind of don’t want to write about it - I’d rather just let it go, and not think about it.  Probably not a great sign!  I’m going to pursue it, though, because I think that in the end, thinking about these principals will deepen my understanding of macrobiotics, as well as my practice.

If it weren’t for extreme opposites, there would not be balance.  Although going to extremes is generally not part of practicing macrobiotics, one must maintain an awareness of the extremes in order to understand the point of equilibrium.  It’s also interesting that these principals really play off the previous ones.  In four, I talked about how everything in the extreme changes to its opposite.  This one is similar, in that it emphasizes extremes, but it goes a little further and describes those extremes. 

When we end up more near to the polarity than to the balance, we’ve got to take a step back and see what is going to bring us back into balance.  Use your intuition!  The longer you practice macrobiotics, the easier it will be for you to identify what your body needs to bring you back into balance.  Perhaps, like the author of the principals article I’ve been referring to describes, you need something that won’t pull you to the other extreme like one of those hooks on silent television!  Instead, maybe something that is balanced (like umeboshi tea with a bit of ginger in it) itself will be more effective to bring you back to balance.

We’re still out of town and living in a hotel room — learning how much we truly value macrobiotics, when we really have no opportunity to practice eating and living the way we usually do, and the way we prefer to.  Getting back into the swing of things at home this coming weekend, I’m SO looking forward to getting back to balance!  It’s amazing how we take for granted the ability to cook our own food on a daily basis … and how much we crave those simple, wholesome dishes when we’re away.

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