Organic Living

Growing up in Michigan in a Polish, Catholic household I learned how to make meals from scratch. We had an amazing garden and I loved to pick ripe vegetables from it and bring them up the big hill in my basket. My mother always took us blueberry and strawberry picking in the summer and we made our own jams. We also put up a variety of pickles, dilly beans and stewed tomatoes for the winter. It was not until my freshmen year of college that I tried salad dressing out of a bottle or bought jam.It was a weird concept to me and it just did not taste good to me!

Looking back, I am so grateful for all of the time I spent with my mother in the kitchen. Helping her bake pumpkin pies from real pumpkins out of our garden and usually creating a huge mess for her to clean up! Now that I am a bit older I love cooking… mostly experimenting with whatever was available at the farmer’s market. Using only local , organic foods is inspirational and requires creativity. Fortunately mother nature produces foods that fit well together during each season. The universe intelligence shows us that foods that grow together in the same season should be cooked together, or consumed raw together. Purchasing food that has been shipped thousands of miles goes against the universe. These foods are depleted in nutrients and often riddled with toxic chemicals.

I am a huge proponent of buying local organic foods and eating as many of them raw as you can. Use them to make juice and green smoothies. Both have benefits and allow you to get high amounts of vegetables into your diet easily.  Experiment with different vegetables an easy way to start is by making vegetable soups, a high powered blender works really well for making soups.

Here are some things I have been making this winter:

1 Nut milk: I soak 1 -2 cups of nuts (almonds, walnuts, whatever it available at the farmer’s market) for at least 4 hours. I usually throw in a few crystals of Himalayan pink salt because it is a full spectrum salt containing 84 minerals. It helps restore electrolyte balance and tastes wonderful1 I then add 4 cups of water for every 1 cup of nuts and blend it in my Vitamix until smooth. I then put it through a hemp nut milk bag. Next I place the nut milk back in the blender with a pinch of organic vanilla bean powder, a few pitted dates and reblend it. Another lovely milk is chocolate walnut milk. I soak raw cacao nibs with the nuts and follow the same process above. You may use any type of nut or combination of nuts to make homemade nut milk. This process may be used to make rice milk. Unless you are buying organic, pastured, raw milk I recommend drinking nut milk instead of dairy.

2 Nut butter: Just like the nut milk you may use whatever nuts you can find at your local farmer’s market. Use at least 3 cups of nuts, with a couple of spoon full of organic coconut oil and a pinch of Himalayan pink salt. My measurements are never exact, I just go with whatever taste good! Use a high powered blender or food processor until you get the texture you desire. This is super simple and guarantees no hidden preservatives or unnecessary fake sugar has been added to your nut butter!  Slice open a date, remove the pit and spread some homemade almond butter inside, it is a tasty dessert!

3 Raw treats: Take a cup of raw organic cacao powder, a spoonful of organic vanilla bean powder, a spoonful of local organic raw honey, several pitted dates and a few organic coffee beans and blend them together. This is going to b super sticky! Roll the concoction into little balls and press a few crystals of Himalayan pink salt on top an place in the refrigerator. These little truffles take only minutes, are raw, and delightful!

4 Salad dressing: I never measure anything when I make dressing it is completely up to you and your taste buds to decide! Ingredients include: raw honey, real mustard, vinegar of your choice, organic cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, Himalayan pink salt crystals, pepper, garlic close and then something fun! The something fun can be berries, avocado, lemon, really whatever you want. Again this insures no added fake sugar and only takes minutes to blend together.

These are all simple ideas that promote healthy eating and the use of organic, local food. What do you like to make?

ADIO Love,

Dr. Elizabeth