Being healthy has always seemed to me like flossing your teeth…something you know you should do, try periodically sometimes half-heartedly, worry that you’re not doing good enough, doesn’t sound like fun but really you should or WHAT will people think! Last year a close family member was diagnosed with melanoma, add to that the deluge of friends and others who have cancer and it feels like we should be doing something. My personal path has taken me through books, to classes and on websites learning about healthy eating. From what I’ve learned, what we eat can have a huge impact on the natural cancer-fighting ability of our body. My family has volunteered (well, since I do the shopping and cooking, they didn’t have much choice!) to go down this path and be open to new foods to eat.

Turmeric has been linked to fighting infection, fighting cancer, reducing inflamation, treating digestive problems.
Experiment with adding it to vegetable dishes, eggs and anything else you can think of.Clean, trim and halve brussel sprouts.

Recipe:

Finely dice 1 large onion and fry in olive oil until the edges are brown.

Add:
1 teaspoon brown mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon cumin

Cook for a few minutes until fragrant. Add more oil if necessary.

Add brussel sprouts and 1/2 cup of water. Stir and cover. Steam 5 minutes or until crisp tender. Add salt to taste.

Cook 1 cup quinoa in 2 cups water or broth. Fluff with fork and cool to room temperature.

2 carrots, shredded
2 small zucchini, shredded
1 onion, shredded
Shred above ingredients and squeeze extra water out.

1/2 bunch parsley, finely chopped
1/2 c sunflower seeds
1/4 t cumin
1/2 t coriander
salt
pepper
combine above with shredded vegetables and quinoa. mix well.

add 3 eggs, 1/2 c breadcrumbs and 1/4 c flour.

combine all together and form into patties.

grease a baking sheet with 2T olive oil. bake 350° for 15 minutes, turn bake another 15 minutes.

Flipped is a great movie to take your daughter on a girls date! Take some time this holiday season to spend together and enjoy this sweet film about first love.

There are lots of reasons why we eat, but the primary should be for nutrition. With the incidence of cancer, diabetes and other chronic diseases ravaging our country, I’ve been reading a lot about what we can do to stay healthy. We’ve made few simple changes.

no breakfast cereal (oatmeal, raw oats with yogurt, fruit/veggie smoothies)
more yogurt, kefir
more raw and colorful vegetables
more raw and colorful fruit

An extraordinary book full of stories and suggestions is Anti Cancer A New Way of Life by David Servan-Schreiber.

This is a great book, very readable and filled with scientific information and easy to implement suggestions for improving your own health.

The animated Alpha and Omega movie is scheduled for release Friday and we got to see it today! Great entertainment for the kids. My 6 year old and 8 year old loved it. The plot is similar to Lady & the Tramp. We don’t go to movies too often (many movies are too intense for the kids) but this one was great, lighthearted fun! Wasn’t sure what to think as the title almost seemed to have religious tones, but then after coming home, looked up to see if there really is an omega wolf and there is, so no need to be put off by the title! The omega wolf is the bottom of the pack and of course the alpha is the leader.

Synopsis: This is a delightful film about a female alpha wolf being groomed for the lead position and her friendship with an omega wolf who’s always goofing off. They get moved from Canada to Idaho as part of the wolf relocation program (fortunately the politics of this practice were absent from the film!) but need to get back home to resolve a dispute between packs. On their way back home, they meet up with a couple of hilarious characters, survive a scary bear attack and fall in love. Arriving home just as two packs are ready to fight for their territory, the wolves end up resolving the showdown and everyone lives happily ever after.

Highlights:

• simple, uncomplicated plot
• no foul language or other bad stuff
• a few hilarious jokes about going veggie-tarian ( I especially likes as I AM vegetarian)
• overall fun time!

Lowlights:

• 3-d wasn’t spectacular — the first few scenes were great, but stuff didn’t really ‘pop’ after that
• music was a little blah — midnight howling was a bit weird
• bear attack was scary for my 6-year old
• one time “butt” was mentioned, but it wasn’t too inappropriate
• anthropomorphic theme (enough animals as people!)

The kids really enjoyed it and there was enough going on that us adults had a good time too. Lots of great humor, family-friendly plot and a enjoyable time!

educating myself on the various wild edible & medicinal plants in the woods around us. love going for hikes and know the basic plants — ferns, blackberry, huckleberry, salal and oregon grape. want to learn more and see if i can prepare and use some natural products to replace the chemical ones in my house. plan on collecting nettles this weekend and reading up on how to dry wild plants.

Here’s what I’ve found: cut plants as low to the ground as you can and bundle with a rubber band about 1-2 inches from the cut ends. if they are very dirty, gently rinse. find a dark, dry place to hang upside down until totally dried. after they are dry, remove the leaves/flowers and store in a glass jar in a cool, dark area. be sure to label with the name and date collected. paper bags can also be used to dry them if hanging upside down doesn’t seem to work.

to make a cold infusion tea: suspend herb in cloth bag in room temperature water overnight. remove herb.

to make standard infusion tea: steep herb in hot water for 1 hour, strain.

to make strong decoction: boil herb in water for 10 minutes. cool and strain.

pictures of our nettle collecting trip to post in the next few days.

Picked up our first CSA share at the farm yesterday. Mounds of fresh wonderful greens! Amazing to have such a harvest so early here in Oregon. Researched a bit how to keep everything since our little family can’t eat this much in 1 or even 2 days. Seems the best suggestions are to wash everything thoroughly, wrap or layer with paper towels and keep in the fridge. Instead of paper towels, I’m using kitchen towels and keeping in the vegetable drawer which has humidity control. Our bounty includes (from top left) spinach, garlic scapes, herb bundle, radishes & their greens, 2 heads of lettuce, arugula, mizuna greens, and (not pictured) broccoli raab.

Cooked the broccoli raab last night for dinner with some garlic scape. Sauteed some garlic, added garlic scape, then the broccoli raab. Added a bit of the no-salt organic seasoning from Costco. Topped with some shredded raw milk cheddar. It was gone before I could get a picture, so maybe next week!

This is an easy salad. In the picture, I made it with red quinoa, but the yellow works just as well. Delicious, healthy salad packed full of super foods!

1 head broccoli, steamed & cooled
1/2 cup feta cheese
1 cup quinoa cooked & cooled
juice from 1 or 2 lemons
olive oil
salt to taste
dried cranberries

combine all. add more lemon or salt to taste.

If you’re looking for great handmade jewelry, you should checkout the fabulous creations by Girl in the Pear. Whether you like classic, stylish or something more modern, she has it all. Great sense of style combined with wonderful colors and textures. Heather herself is the essence of style and that shows through in her handmade jewelry. She made this necklace for me using two charms with my daughter’s names on them that I had for years and was looking for the right necklace. She added the lovely pearl and crystals to make the perfect statement. Love the handmade earrings too.

Just finished reading Slow Death by Rubber Duck. What a fascinating book! A little scary about all the chemicals in plastics and as we know plastics are everywhere! Have been slowly switching to ceramic and glass in the kitchen, but as the research by these authors shows it’s impossible to get away from plastics. Some of the results of exposure to these toxic chemicals are pretty bad, so how can we protect our kids and still live a modern life? The book includes a few handy practical suggestions:

get rid of air fresheners
avoid bath products that have a lot of artificial fragrance/perfumes
throw away non-stick frying pans
don’t eat microwave popcorn (the bag is coated with chemicals)
choose hardwood floors instead of carpets
if you eat fish, choose small fish (like the flake tuna instead of larger cuts) as the smaller fish are younger and absorb less toxic chemicals
don’t use antibacterial products that include microban, triclosan, etc…
use vinegar and hydrogen peroxide to clean your kitchen (is just as effective as the harsh chemicals)
replace your lawn with native meadow/plants
don’t microwave in plastic
don’t drink bottled water