Taming the Inflammation Dragon

Taming the inflammation dragon can lead to feeling like you're here.

I wanted to extend an invitation to you, my food- and wellness-loving friend, to join me for an evening workshop on the impact of our food choices on our body's sense of well-being, focusing on inflammation. The idea is to arm you with the knowledge and tools so that YOU can make informed choices for your own health and vitality, ensuring that inflammation beast quiets down its roar for you.

At this presentation, we will explore what is inflammation and how it can be one of the ways your body is trying to send a smoke signal to let you know something is up. As you may know, chronic “silent” inflammation or low-grade inflammation has a big part to play in the majority of our chronic degenerative diseases from diabetes to cancer, mental health issues to heart disease; it's also in the picture for someone working through chronic pain issues, joint pain, skin eruptions, hormonal imbalances and fertility issues; from obesity to auto-immune conditions; it certainly contributes to the picture of gout and has also been linked to degenerative cognitive function like that found in Alzheimers' and Dementia patients.

I will touch on the power of our food choices, pinpointing the best nutrient-dense foods to best support your body do the work it needs and which foods are common contributors to the inflammation going on.

chicken meat stock

I will be demonstrating how to make your own meat stock in order to best support your body through lowering your body's inflammation, with different additional herbs you can add as bonus depending on whatever ailment you're working through. We will finish the workshop with some ideas on lifestyle choices that can best support lowering our overall inflammation, as stress happens to be public enemy number 1 when it comes to inflammation. Yep, we'll brainstorm ideas on what that can look like for you: does it mean you downsize your commitments? Make time for a cuppa with a friend? Make a date for a comedy show? Take a day off and run towards water with a little in tow?

The talk gets underway just after dinner on Tuesday December 1st, 7.15pm at Renewal Homeopathy & Wellness at #150, 4625 Varsity Drive NW just next to Planet Organic. Call in order to reserve your spot at 403.202.8507, tickets are $20 per participant.

Congratulations to the lovely Liane from Calgary who has won free tickets to attend Tuesday night's talk on TAMING THE INFLAMMATION DRAGON. Liane is a subscriber to my newsletter, and won the tickets offered to my subscribers. Want to get in on future giveaway action? Join my newsletter today by filling in the box marked 'subscribe'!

My biggest take-away for this workshop? We'll be talking JERF. Just. Eat. Real. Food. That's probably the biggest single change you can implement one meal at a time in order to best keep that inflammation beast tamed. Look forward to seeing you there!

BREAKFAST IDEAS

Ah, breakfast. In our house, some days there is glee at waking up, and other times the inner grump comes ROARING their ugly head right out of the gate. Regardless of the quantity and/or quality of sleep, breakfast can really be the tone-setter for the day ahead.

And for those with littles in their brood? Mmm. The power of good nutrition first thing can be their teacher's best friend, not to mention setting them up for success. By filling their bellies with nutrient-dense foods (I'm talking FATS and PROTEIN specifically!), these satiating bites can really carry them through the steady momentum of the morning routine, from getting ready to sitting at their desks, through to snack time. Having those foods that will keep their blood sugar balanced will go MILES in supporting them through the day's brain work. Teachers intentionally put the harder brain and concentration work first thing in the morning, as this tends to be the most productive time for young children in those first 8 years of school, up to grade six. If you provide that good fuel for morning work, your littles will best be able to concentrate and do the work at hand, without the blood sugar crashes that can induce a more frenetic energy in our children.

I'm posting breakfast ideas on today's blog, to help paint a picture of different ways to shake up that first meal. It's true, breakfast really can be the most important meal of the day in my books. But first, let's talk macronutrients, and why we need them.

FATS: these foods help slow down the absorption of food, which gives a sense of satiety or feeling 'full'. This means a little of some good fats can go a long way in supporting a child at keeping blood sugar on an even keel, and prevents the tummy grumblies from taking over. With a good fat in the meal, the body's intake of the other foods, specifically any carbs or sugars will come in a steady stream, providing that fuel for their brains. Oh yes, and fat is an important component of your brain; the cholesterol found in foods like eggs are important as 60% of your grey matter is made up of this type of fat! Ergo, eggs are a brilliant morning brain food.

Fats are also necessary for bone formation, building and regulating hormones, they assist in getting minerals into your body and are vital to your immune system too. If you're choosing fats with the all-important Omega 3s like olive oil or avocado, or that found in fish, nuts and seeds, you are helping keep inflammation down everywhere. Good fats also protect the liver and the heart, so reach for good sources of saturated fats here! Think nuts, butter, ghee, coconut oil, full fat dairy, eggs.

PROTEIN: our littles are working on building tissue all day every day, as one of their main jobs is to grow grow grow. What do you need in a busy 'building' or 'growing' phase in life? Protein! Our immune system runs almost exclusively on protein; bones need it, DNA and RNA are made from it, we need protein for a myriad things in our body. Ensuring a good source of protein at breakfast works also similarly to fat, in that it helps slow down the absorption of foods, contributing to keeping our kids feeling 'full' for a little while longer and ensuring a steady stream of energy to their little bodies. In anthroposophical medicine, protein is the macronutrient that helps our bodies get grounded as well; I'd say here then that protein needs to be an integral part of a child's breakfast in order to be present in their class room and allow them a solid foundation.

BREAKFAST IDEAS:
(some of these have links to recipes and other blog posts; click on the selection that interests you to read more!)

EGGS

• We have eggs every morning here. My girlie has hers cooked over easy in butter with S&P, served on a slice of sprouted grain toast slathered in probiotic-rich full fat cream cheese from Vital Greens. (We call it eggs with yellow sauce here, as the yolk is still runny. Cooking it this way ensures more of the vitamins remain, as further cooking will denature some of those heat-sensitive micronutrients.)
• I too have eggs cooked over easy. But first, I toss in some onions in the pan along with some ghee and will add whatever other vegetables I have on hand. It's usually mushrooms and some type of greens, like the beet greens from this morning. Once these are nicely cooked, I push them to the side of the pan and cook two eggs in a bit more ghee. Stirfries aren't for dinner anymore!

• Make an easy scramble cooked in ghee. Add-ons: throw in some grated cheese from the freezer in the last few moments; buy a few bunches of chives, parsley or other herbs and chop them finely, storing in a freezer bag so you can pull a bit out every morning; same idea with some greens like chard, minced finely they won't even notice; toss in a few grape tomatoes or chopped peppers; or crack your egg in a mug and add cream before you toss it all in a pan with butter.
• Make some nutrient-dense grain-free Pumpkin Pancakes (eggs, nut butter, pumpkin); make a big batch and freeze in freezer bags; pull out what you need in the morning and pop in toaster to warm up.
• Busy, rushed mornings? Prepare some hard-boiled eggs and keep in the fridge for a nutrient-dense snack on the go. 
• Egg Muffins with Sausage, Spinach and Cheese; freeze and pull portions out to reheat. Endless variations, use your leftovers!
• Egg in a jar (looks delicious!) 

OTHER GOOD PROTEIN IDEAS

• Make a big batch of easy homemade sausage patties, freeze them raw on cookie sheets and pull out of bags and cook from frozen. (1 lb ground meat (pastured or grass-fed preferable), 1/2 onion minced, 2 garlic cloves, 2 tbsp chopped herbs (sage, thyme, parsley, oregano or chives), 1 egg, S&P)
• Make a big batch of these Strawberry Lemon Chia Protein Muffins, and slather on some butter or probiotic-rich cream cheese. (My caveats: use honey instead of agave, and please use full fat yogurt! And any milk you like here; bypass the protein powder and use some collagen powder instead (Vital Proteins I like)) 
• Halve a banana or slice an apple into medallions, slather on your favourite nut butter and sprinkle on some good toppings (coconut shreds, cacao nibs, raisins, mulberries, walnuts, seeds, etc)
• Any sweet breakfast would do well with more protein, by adding this yummy Chia Fruit Jam

OTHER GOOD FAT IDEAS

• Halve an avocado and drizzle with olive oil and a smidge of flavoured vinegar (this is my Chive Blossom vinegar from earlier this year); excellent as a side to any breakfast. Dress it up with minced cilantro and tomato and lime juice for a yummy Huevos Rancheros-like addition to some eggs!
• Drizzle additional olive oil on top of any savoury dish after cooking to increase the anti-inflammatory Omega 3 fats
• Add a handful of chopped nuts or seeds to your meal, or shredded coconut too
• Nut butters are a great addition to a meal too
• If you're cooking something, add a pat of butter or coconut oil
• If you're ok with dairy, add some grated or cubed cheese on the side or on top, depending

PREP THE NIGHT BEFORE

• Overnight oats are a popular thing; make sure you add a good fat here like a tbsp of coconut oil, and throw in some fruit, cinnamon, creme fraiche, yogurt, a pat of butter, a tbsp of a nut butter, something to slow down the carbohydrates into the blood stream.
• A grain-free alternative is to use spaghetti squash as your base. Prep the night before. Peach and Ginger Oatmeal, low in allergens. 
• Here's a chia seed version from Oh She Glows

DAIRY FRIENDLY EATS (both fat and protein here!)
*sub coconut yogurt if your family is DF

• Make some creme fraiche and pour that over some raspberries, add a splash of maple syrup.
• Melt butter in a pan, throw in some fruit (apples, pears, peaches, asian pears) and cinnamon, cook until soft; top with creme fraiche. 
• Use your hand blender to blitz together 1/2 cup creme fraiche, 1/2 a roasted acorn squash (or other squash), a few tablespoons of honey and a tbsp of vanilla. Pudding is served.
• Have some cottage cheese and adorn it at will with fruit and flavours you like
• Make a smoothie bowl: blend some yogurt with berries and some coconut oil, sprinkle on some coconut shreds and blitzed pumpkin seeds. Bonus: add 1/4 tsp spirulina powder to your yogurt/berry mix for added vegan protein. Other add-ons: some leftover cooked sprouted quinoa from last night's dinner; goji berries; cacao nibs; more berries.
• Make some popsicles and pull them out on Fridays for breakfast: blitz some yogurt with fruit together, add some melted honey and coconut oil and combine, toss into popsicle moulds.
• Make a Fruity Breakfast Parfait (please use full fat yogurt, always!)

How do you ensure a good start to your day? I'd love to hear your ideas and make this a community effort! Drop word below by clicking on 'Comment', and please hit 'Share' with other busy and overwhelmed parents in your midst. We're all in this together!

BEET KVASS

I recently had the pleasure of hanging out in Malcolm-from-The-Light-Cellar's kitchen as we cracked jokes about the bloodiness of beets with All Hallows Eve lurking around the corner, and talked of the purported legendary status of beet kvass in the world of aphrodisiacs. What is beet kvass, you ask? If you are asking me, I will rattle off the nutritional content and point out all of the benefits of consuming a fermented beverage for improved overall health. But if you put those sciency things aside, I will tell you that it is one of my favourite beverages, tasting of the salty earth, a drink I have every day and never tire. 

Beet kvass is meant to be consumed as a tonic, so a little goes a long way. It's also ridiculously easy to make. I invite you to check out this video I am attaching here to the blog, to find out how easy it is to make your own batch at home! It is a part of The Light Cellar's series called Easy Upgrades. Take a gander, and let me know how your batch turns out (and what you put in it!):

Why I love it: it's quick and easy and really inexpensive to make. You don't need any special equipment. It's a liver-loving and kidney-supporting beverage that will help protect your sweet self from free radical damage, good for cleaning up and building blood, protein digestion, a purveyor of the mineral boron which is needed for building bones and our sex hormones (hence, the aphrodisiac reputation from ancient Roman times!), also pumps out the betacyanin which is shown to be a potent anti-carcinogen. It's good for someone who owns a liver, a kidney or two, a heart, a gallbladder, a stomach or intestines.

Oh, and beet kvass has been shown to help flush out uric acid, so talk about busting the gout! Now if you are one that is typically wary of oxalates, you are saying to yourself right now "Luka, this beet love you have going on is dangerously high in oxalates." From the DID YOU KNOW files: fermenting a veggie high in oxalates has been shown to drastically reduce the oxalates in question. BOOM.

Go make a batch. And let me know how you flavoured it. 

BEET KVASS
The players (per litre of filtered water):
1-2 good sized beets
2-3 tsp sea salt
a knob of ginger, sliced
a knob of fresh turmeric, sliced
1 garlic cloves
1 L filtered water (or enough water to fill a 1L jug once the rest of the ingredients are in the jug)

My favourite flavour additions:

• you can take out the ginger, turmeric and garlic in the recipe above and add in the extras listed below, or keep them in the mix. Up to you! Highly recommend always adding in some seaweed.
• adding in some green onions and fresh rosemary sprigs in summer for Liver Lovin
• adding in dried hot peppers + handful of goji berries + 2tsp burdock root for Heart Health
• tossing in the inside of cabbage 'hearts' with 2 strips of astragalus for blood sugar balancing
• 2 tsp fennel seeds + 2 tsp fenugreek seeds + 1 tbsp rosehips for extra Gut loving
• adding in a slice or three of reishi medicinal mushrooms + few strands of kelp + 1 tbsp nettle for added Adrenal support
• want to go Old World? Toss in a few bay leaves + 1 tbsp caraway seeds.
• Love dill pickles? Toss in your garlic and add in big handful of fresh dill and some peppercorns.
• Play with the flavours and what you have in your pantry. And comment below with combos that really hit it out of the park!

Giveaway ends soon!

What she said. Head to this blog post and leave a comment, after the recipe for a most delicious salad dressing made with top shelf quality olive oil and zingy white balsamic vinegar from the good folks at Blue Door Oil & Vinegar.  You have until this Friday at midnight to enter in the contest! Hit 'Share' below to send this along to someone you think may love to add some yummy flavours to their kitchen toolkit. Thanks, friends!

SUPER CHARGED HOT CHOCOLATE BECAUSE... snow. and pumpkins.

Not sure what it's like where you are today, but the snow showed up this morning here in our part of the world. At school drop off this morning, had a chance for a quick visit and chat with a few parents and we got to talking hot chocolate. And coffee. And tea. And all things warming. And I thought well it's high time we figure out a way to make some yummy hot chocolate that can impart some superpowers in the process. (*not documented nor measured superpowers yet. The lab results haven't come in yet...) Enter: THE SUPER CHARGED HOT CHOCOLATE.

This is a variation on a super delicious Pumpkin Chaga Latte dreamed up by one of the loveliest of the lovelies, Angela Bewick whose face you may recognize if you are a frequent Amaranther. (Make sure to click on that recipe and try it out, it's most delicious!) So thank you Angela for having inoculated me into the world of medicinal mushrooms and started me on this journey of super charging foods. 

If at the sight of the word 'mushrooms' you are contemplating veering away from the blog, I say don't! There is no taste of mushrooms to these kinds of bevies, I assure you. The mushrooms impart minimal flavour to the concoction, but what they do share are these superpowers, helping support your immune system, your adrenals, providing a fabulous amount of antioxidants assisting your body and liver in keeping good working order and reducing free radical damage. One of my favourite things about these medicinal mushrooms is the research that is showing how supportive they can be for someone undergoing radiation or any kind of cancer treatment. For a full write up on the benefits of the mushrooms in today's recipe, you may want to check this page for Chaga mushrooms, and this page for the benefits of consuming Reishi mushroom tea. Know that there is no caffeine in these mushrooms, so this is a good kid-friendly tea.

THE PRELIMINARY: (I did these yesterday)

• Roast your leftover jack-o-lanterns at 375F for an hour and 10 minutes or until soft, set aside to cool. Scoop out the pulp away from the skin, and blitz in a food processor or with an immersion wand.
• Put up 6 cups of filtered water with 5 slices of Reishi mushrooms and 1 tbsp of Chaga mushrooms, bring to a simmer and put a lid on, let it simmer on low for a minimum of 6 hours. 

Where to find the mushrooms:  your favourite local health food store; if you're in Calgary, you can also find some at The Light Cellar in Bowness.

VARIATIONS: you can use canned pumpkin instead of roasting your own. If you do end up roasting your pumpkins, store the leftovers in ice cube trays, and tuck them in ice cube sized portions in freezer bags for easy retrieval when you will make this super charged hot chocolate in the coming winter months. (A super-full ice cube equals roughly 2 tbsp of puree). I tuck them in freezer bags to use in sauces, soups and to thicken things or to add fibre, nutrients and a hint of sweet to a dish like a good greens curry. 

I make a reishi/chaga infusion every Sunday for the week ahead. It takes all of 3 minutes to put it on, and I dip into it every day or two for a good tea. VARIATIONS: you can simmer the mushrooms with some fresh ginger slices, or a cinnamon stick and maybe a few cardamom pods to add a chai flavour. I just bring it back to a boil before using it for teas and store it on the stovetop for those 4-5 days it will take me to get through a batch. You can also make a big batch and keep it in a glass jar in the fridge if you like, or prepare this in your slow cooker and let it simmer on low all week as you dip into it for sauces or additional nutrients to your meals when you need to thin something or steam the broccoli a little further.

The players: cinnamon, cardamom, vanilla powder, chaga and reishi mushrooms, roasted pumpkin, cocoa powder. Super Charged Hot Chocolate.

SUPER CHARGED HOT CHOCOLATE
THE PLAYERS:
2 cups of chaga reishi tea
5-6 heaping tbsp roasted pumpkin puree
1/4 tsp vanilla powder or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp cocoa powder or raw carob powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp ginger powder
2-3 cardamom pods, cracked open (put shell and seeds in your pot)
1 tbsp coconut oil
2-3 tbsp maple syrup or honey

Put all of these ingredients in a pot big enough to hold it all. Bring it to a simmer, and let simmer for 15 minutes.

Next, fish out the cardamom shells. In your blender or in a bowl that will accommodate your immersion blender, put 1/2 cup to 1 cup of either creme fraiche or coconut milk or any milk of your choosing (making sure to pick one with a higher fat content) along with roughly 1 cup of your super charged hot chocolate, and blend until smooth. Add the remainder of your super charged hot chocolate to the mix, again blending until smooth. Voila! 

There are so many benefits to this Super Charged Hot Chocolate, but I won't bore you with it. Sometimes it's good to just make some food that tastes good and feels good. Now that's nourishing.

A barista I will never be. A cuppa Super Charged Hot Chocolate. For you, sweet one.