The Anti-inflammatory Power of Smoky Sesame Seaweed Slaw
Relieve swelling, pain, and other symptoms of inflammation with nature’s best helpers. We’ve intuitively combined key anti-inflammatory foods that resonate to an alkaline frequency, helping the body to detox naturally and boost vitality. Cooking Alchemy’s Anti-inflammatory Super Salad is made with red and green cabbage, carrots, wakame, apple cider vinegar, wasabi, ginger, garlic, lime and black sesame seeds. Black sesame…
Kitchen Yoga
Citrus-beet salad with Roasted Fennel, Radicchio, Chives, & Pistachios Snow, ice, rain, hot tea, cocoa, all become one on snow days of no school and less travel. Being in a warm, aroma filled scent-filled kitchen can be better than being in bed. It’s the perfect space for kitchen yoga. Being in kitchen yoga mode is more than about stretching your…
Journey with Jicama
Ginger Jicima Salad with Mango, Avocado & Nappa I was led to her the way I am led to many others; the nourishing edibles, the ones only designed for adornment and admiration, the ones that speak to the soul about where they’ve been, want to go, why they’ve showed up, and how to harness their power. This is how I…
Foodcycling: Reinventing leftovers
Polenta Fries & Roasted Red Pepper Brussel Sprouts Most of us have done it a time or two, requested or served breakfast foods for dinner. It’s not only fun, it’s a great way to recycle and reinvent meals. I know most kids love the idea. A critical component to what we do at Earth’s Elements is “FOODCYCLING”, a low-waste, cost-effective…
Healing with Wasabi
Wasabi Brussel Sprout Slaw If you have an affinity towards spicy foods, then wasabi should be one to consider and even add to staple of spices. Wasabi is also known as Japanese Horseradish and not only has a tastefully poignant presence, it leaves us with a sweet hangover and has healing abilities unsurpassable to other rhizomes. Since wasabi belongs to…
Healing with Onions
Vidalia, Spanish, Pearl. Red, Green, Yellow, White. Raw, baked, caramelized, fermented, even fried. They release sulfur compounds that jerk our ducts and bring on tears. A bittersweet relationship and such a small price to pay. Any way you slice their lovely spirals, they are irresistibly appealing and of course, healing. With a few exceptions, such as with Ayurveda diet,…
HOW to Eat Now: Mindfully Affordable
Our search for the perfect food has preoccupied our thinking long enough. The truth is that we may never find the perfect food, not because it doesn’t exist, but because it was never lost. Even the best foods will not have the power to transform us. Not on their own, at least and not without us as a conduit. Not…
Healing with Shitake
Mysterious almost, in the way they appear overnight. In the way they nourish themselves from we might consider dead matter. In the way they extract nutrients from trees. Fungus. Fleshy, between the realm of animal and plant, offer strength and courage. Superstitiously unavoidable or denied, they are ancient and once associated with immortality by those fortunate enough to consume them….
Heal your Throat… Eat Soup
I am. I am a sucker for Soups & Stews especially during the colder months. Soups are such a great food because they represent all the elements working in harmony. They help us stay grounded and fluid, warm and cool all at the same time. They resonate nothing less than balance. Balance of earth and water, fire and air. And…
Healing with Pomegranates, Cranberries & Persimmons
With hurricane Sandy’s behind us, the Winter Solstice not too far behind, and predictions of a very cold winter, it’s a wise time to turn to healing foods to help boost the immune system and lessen the likelihood of colds, flu, and other viral ailments common during the coming months. Fruits like pomegranates, cranberries and persimmons offer ideal antioxidants amongst…
Behold the Dragon-Fruit!
I don’t know too many who don’t love the hydrating, harmonizing and sweet benefits of fruit. As we recently welcomed the equinox and bid farewell to local summer foods, there is one fruit that I had the pleasure of meeting late summer at the Asian market. It’s appearance alone was intriguing enough to want to touch it and merge with…
Go FIG-ure… Healing with Ancient Figs
One of my favorite fruits of all time. Figs are one of the most ancient, sweetest fruits known to man, dating back to Ancient Egypt (Kemet). Ancients resourcefully used figs as a main sweetener and some still do in places like Asia. My love for figs may even be embedded in my genes. My grandparents and those before, cultivated figs…
LOCAL & FREESTYLE: CULMINATING CULINARY CREATION WITH KIDS @ GLEC
Can anyone say ZUCCHINI?!?! For this weeks’ Culinary Nutrition Workshop at GLEC and final celebration, a chocolate, whole grain, zucchini bread was most fitting, given the abundance of zucchini this season. Our mini-lesson was centered around the antioxidant power of cocoa , the fiber and digestive benefits of whole grains and the many creative ways to prepare ZUCCHINI. The best…
Healing Sesame Sacred Seed Salad
For the Miquon Spring Fair, a request for a grain salad was made to compliment kebobs and other tasty foods and Earth’s Elements delivered. During the final preparation phase, I was convinced by my in-house taste testers, my kids, to make an additional batch for dinner and I couldn’t resist. Although quinoa is actually a high protein seed, it is…
Expanding the Heart with Green Foods
Once we have incorporated root vegetables for grounding, oils and fats for flowing, and carbohydrates for transformation, we spiral up to reach the center of our energy system, our heart chakra. This is where the highest vibration can be found. This is where love emanates through our hand chakras to prepare food with contemplation, to heal and touch the world…
What do lentils and zucchini have in common?
If you’re looking for a low-fat, low-calorie and high fiber iron and protein meal, then lentils and zucchini have come to the rescue! Lentils are great for preventing and reducing risk of heart disease and provide high levels of folate for protection. The high water content in Zucchini or summer squash is also great for weight loss and the effects…
Mung Beans… For Balancing the Solar Plexus and Healing the Body
One of the most digestible, high protein, non-starchy, low-fat, and nutritious beans you can eat are mung beans. Not to mention that they are also gluten-free. Mung beans are helpful in detoxifying the body, treating throat pain, relieving constipation, and promoting the circulation of body fluids. Mung beans are also a great source of a high-energy carbohydrate that fuels our…
So what does carrot cake and hazelnut tofu have to do with your Sacral Chakra?
In our natural quest for balance, on our plates and within our bodies, it becomes clear that our food choices and craving are at times unconscious and oftentimes reflects our state of mind and emotions. All of which is governed by our sacral chakra. A few blogs ago, I talked about root vegetables and the root or base chakra. As…
The Lost Ritual of Eating
Eating, along with cooking, is a sacred ritual worthy of the highest priority on our list of to do’s. The energy surrounding the food and infused into the food, takes precedence to the actual food itself. Moving past the notion that food is only a means to satisfy an immediate physical need, we can admit that we, at some point,…
How Knowing Our Roots Keeps Us Grounded…
Aside of being a part of the same family, our roots share genetic qualities that make them similar, yet distinctive, hard, yet soft, dark, yet light. I have to say I love the way mother nature reflects balance in her bounty. One of the most important attributes of most cruciferous vegetables, whether tubers, rhizomes, bulbs, or corms, are their grounding…
Gourmet Spice Rubs…
Herbal Nutri-Spice What it is…A special blend of high quality herbs, spices and seeds and yeast that provide an additional protein boost to any meal. *Hemp seeds, which I also talked about in previous blog, is known as the king of protein, supplies the body with a balance of omega 3 and 6, essential fatty acids that must be obtained by…
Vegan Gado-Gado
Going Back to Bali… Earth’s Elements Vegan Version of Gado-Gado Salad When I ate this salad for the first time, I was at an in between junction, in limbo, learning and trying to decide which way to go in the hustle and bustle of a busy Manhattan restaurant and making healthier food choices, even when eating out. It’s been so…
Comeback Cabbage & The Sacred Seed
Comeback Cabbage & The Sacred Seed The side dish that can accompany any meal… Cabbage leaves… laid in submission and filled with fluffy quinoa and garden vegetables then rolled into perfection and baked in Earth’s Elements own Elderberry Vinagrette with herbs & spices. Cabbage, while not your most exotic vegetable, has been harboring a secret and our new age, new…