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Hot dogs and sausages are foods we are often told to avoid. The scraps of meat, organs, and fat of animals are ground, spiced, and formed into sausages and dogs.
But what if we looked at these meat options from a different perspective?
Traditionally, people used all of the animal:
muscle meat
organs (eaten whole or ground into sausage)
make bone broth for soup and then grind the bones into powder to fertilize the fields
use the hides for tanning leather, etc.
This is all about re-balancing your body, mind, and spirit to create a vibrantly healthy you... inside and out. So much more than the number on the "scales!"
If you have attended my workshops or been supported by me as a client: Remember the cellular health information from the Whole Food slide show? Feed your cells well! Need to experience this workshop? Join me and the Local Living Venture on Thursday, September 25th for the start of the Whole Health and Healing Academy!
A few more tips for balancing mind, body, and soul weight.
PS Just a reminder about the Whole Health & Healing Academy that starts Thursday, September 25th. Join us to create vibrant health in your life!
Now that butter is on the cover of Time Magazine... it must be true! Butter is a superfood!
Not that my butter eating habits are much of a secret anymore. I used to hide my butter habit to avoid the "you are going to clog your heart" advice and lectures. Not that I didn't pass out a few of the very same lectures in my days*, see below!
A couple of years ago I wrote an article: "Unwrapping Butter's Bad Rap" for the Potsdam Food Co-op's newsletter, it became a blog post on Whole Food Healer, and was later revised and included in my first book. Butter is a head liner!
I confess, I have always loved butter. I only refrained from butter when I was *eating a vegan diet (for a few years, back then, sometime in my past life!). That is over and butter was put back in my diet quite quickly. Mashed potatoes without butter? What is the point? I ate them, for years, at the Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner table. Not anymore, mashed potatoes with butter for me, please!
Butter is awesome, yummy, the best! Now a butter - nettle pesto, hmmm... I might be on to something here! Two of my favorite things fused together with love. Heading to the kitchen now...
30 minutes later after picking some nettle tops:
Ok, it did work! Butter, nettles, and garlic scapes. Chives would be fine as well. Have patience with the food processor as olive oil blends with the herbs more easily. Try making the pesto with a 1/2 butter and 1/2 olive oil mix for easy blending!
So back to butter. My favorite way to eat it is off a spoon, fork, or knife. Mom taught me this was not ok. I do it anyhow. Sorry Mom! : )
Local to me, NY State butter!
This is my new favorite butter, thanks to Jessica Prosper of Prosper's Farmstead Creamery. She turned me on to this butter because the cows graze on grass and the butter is made just about 3 1/2 hours from my home. Now, if I had a farmer close by making butter with grazing cows cream, that would be even better!
I buy in 2 pound tubs, a few tubs at a time. I do not like running out of butter. Makes me feel like an addict without my drug! Seriously, I am not that bad. But, humor is always good!
Butter recently has had a big popularity boost with the Bullet Proof Coffee craze. I tried it, why not? I will try anything once!
What I learned, butter is best eaten from the spoon, knife, or fork! Why ruin good butter or good coffee? Want fat in your coffee? Find a source of pasture-raised, whole cream or 1/2 and 1/2 and dose up your coffee in style. Coffe tastes better this way AND saves the mess in the kitchen making the bullet proof stuff. If you try bullet proof coffee and like it, go for it.
I prefer my coffee with butter like this:
on a piece of buckwheat toast. Organic buckwheat grown close to me, just over the border in Canada, and baked at Little Stream Bakery.
Now the amount of butter on this 2 inch by 3 1/2 inch piece of toast was triple, what you see above, by the time I finished eating it. Maybe 2 1/2 to 3 Tbsp. of butter. Butter is definitely better on toast than in my coffee!
Eat butter, it won't kill you! Paula
PS Maybe Gardenshare has an more local source of NY State butter from grass fed cows? Aviva, any thoughts?
I know Birdsfoot Farm has some very, deep-yellow cream from their grazing cow!
I want local butter that is that deep yellow!
Cheers!
You might remember my earlier blog post on healthy kid's b-day parties and WHY have healthy kid's b-day parties. So my latest dilemma... my soon to be 12 year old kid wanted an Oreo cookie birthday cake. First of all I asked: "Why Eli? I have never purchased Oreo cookies for you!"
Bottom line is he wanted what he wanted.
Truth of the matter is there is not one ingredient in an Oreo cookie that was ever meant to be:
Nature did not mean for our body cells to be poisoned by packaged food's synthetic ingredients. Ouch, Paula, really? My healing advice comes into question on occasion: "She is so strange, too harsh, very severe, too tough..." But really, the truth is the truth, our bodies were not meant to be poisoned.
I am all about moderation; moderation in foods that were meant to be part of our cellular metabolism. There is no way, in my mind, to be moderate about that which was never meant to be a part of our cellular being.
For just 2 weeks, try feeding your body with 100% whole food, every snack and meal. I guarantee you will feel like a whole new person: alive, vibrant, clear headed, sleep well, etc. Then, after 2 weeks of whole food eating, go back to your regular diet, 100%, for a day or two. You will be aghast at how lousy processed food leaves your body feeling.
Whole food eating is not about what you are removing from your life, junk food, but what you are inviting into your life, vibrant health. Let me know how it goes.
So, back to that Oreo cookie cake. I started off with the basics. I do not measure ingredients, just throw in the bowl, so I am giving my eyeballed estimates. Thank my Mom, that is how she cooks. I learned through observation.
*gluten free flours will make a shorter, denser cake. If gluten is Ok in your diet, use whole spelt flour or whole wheat pastry flour. Whole food cakes, made with 100% whole grain flours, will be heavier, denser, and shorter cakes. When you get used to this denser, more flavorful, manner of creating in the kitchen... the "fluffy" refined food versions will be tasteless and boring.
The below Newman cookies are made with wheat flour and therefor contain gluten.
I caved (What else is a Mom to do? He is so damned cute.) and bought Newman's Own Organics Newman-O's Creme Filled Chocolate Cookies.
Original Ingredients:
Organic Unbleached Wheat Flour, Organic Powdered Sugar (Organic Sugar, Organic Corn Starch), Organic Sugar, Organic Palm Fruit Oil, Canola Oil (Expeller Pressed), Cocoa (Processed with Alkali), Unsweetened Chocolate, Salt, Natural Flavor, Sodium Bicarbonate (leavening), Soy Lecithin (an emulsifier)
I took one row of the cookies, scraped the creme filling out, crushed the wafers, and added the crushed mess to the batter.
The "Oreo" cake after baking:
Tomorrow I shall slice it in half to make 2 layers and fill the center with frosting. Then I will slather the whole thing with the rest of the frosting.
Frosting:
The final, third row, of Newman-O's will be cut into 1/2 rounds and placed on top of the cake.
Or, as my boys call me...
Teaching whole food eating, cooking, and baking classes: I volunteer teach cooking classes through the Sustainable Living Project, Local Living Venture. Sign up for their emails to be notified of upcoming classes. I also do small groups at my home, just ask. pyoumell@gmail.com
What? Healthy birthday parties? Is that not an oxymoron? (Remember, this is coming from the gal who eats birthday cake for brunch! http://wholefoodhealer.com/2013/07/31/no-body-is-perfect-birthday-cake-for-brunch/ I will remind you it was a cell nourishing, whole food birthday cake.)
Whole food chocolate cake made for Valentine's Day 2013
Yes, it is possible to throw a healthy kid's birthday party AND have the kids like the snacks and the celebratory cake AND have fun! Why would you want to do this? See below.*
1. Come and play, no gifts please. The kids are allowed to play and be kids, no adult organized games required. Go outside and play! Our parents and grandparents had wisdom with that "get outside and play" command.
2. Come back inside hungry? That is a good thing! Snacks that promote healthy cellular reproduction and growth in kids:
a. fruit slices with yogurt spiced dip
b. veggie sticks and yogurt herb dip
c. whole grain pita or tortilla pizza (works well on a whole grain English muffin)
d. tortilla chips (free of genetically altered corn, please) with 100% natural salsa and mozzarella cheese stix
3. Bake a homemade, from "scratch" cake, cupcakes, or cookies out of 100% whole foods. This eliminates refined, white flour and sugars, hydrogenated vegetable oils, corn syrups, and other non-food ingredients in bakery made cakes and pastries or the boxed cake mixes.
Whole food carrot cake for my sister's 50th, August 2013
Ask me for my handout defining what whole grain flours really are. It is not "unbleached" or "all purpose" flours. pyoumell@gmail.com
4. 100% all natural ice cream that does not have fillers, stabilizers, or gums.
1. Our bodies cellular health depends on whole foods. It was all we could put into our bodies in the days before factory made food products. When we put refined food products into our bodies we are seriously disturbing cellular health. Over a lifetime, this creates degenerative diseases. Why set a kid up for this when healthy, whole food alternatives are just as easy to offer?
2. Creating lifetime habits of good health, whole food eating, and positive lifestyle habits begins at conception (really, it begins even before that. That is another article on cellular regeneration vs. cellular degeneration over the generations of a family's history on this planet.)
3. Teaching your kids that in promoting health we are preventing disease. (This is the next book I am working on!) An ounce of prevention IS worth a pound of cure.
These are my top three reasons that I do not have this attitude: "oh, a little bit won't hurt them."
Food products were never meant to enter the human digestive tract having their profound impacts on cellular health. Yup, I am a tough, health gal! 
Jake's b-day cake, July 2013
I have raised my kids on whole foods. As they get older, it is harder to keep them away from refined packaged food products as these products are everywhere and everyone is eating them. Kids think they are invincible (my cells won't suffer the consequences...) AND they want to eat what others kids are eating.
Birthday parties have always been a nightmare for me as I know that I am taking my kids into a lair of packaged food products that are all laden with refined and unnatural ingredients. Yes, I think about their cellular health over the long term! If I don't, who will?
I took them to one birthday party, about 3 years ago (yes, this visual is forever emblazoned in my memory!), and I will describe the visual of food products laid out on the breakfast bar island:
1. Several bags of flavored Doritos, the worst, as flavored (sour cream & onion, etc.) means more synthetic ingredients
2. Two large bowls (4 quart size or bigger) FULL of gummy worms, bears, and various other gummy critters. And these were not the organic, fruit juice varieties one can purchase at the Potsdam Food Coop or Nature's Storehouse in Canton.
3. Several 1/2 gallon, plastic jugs of various soda flavors.
4. Bowls of potato chips, enough to supply several super bowl parties.
5. A pinata full of corn syrup sweetened, artificially flavored & colored type candies (sour skittles, etc.).
6. A large, commercial, sheet cake made of white flour, white sugar, corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, fillers, conditioners, and the standard Crisco decorating frosting.
7. Two 1-gallon tubs of inexpensive ice cream, cheaper option for feeding 12 to 15 kids but loaded with more artificial ingredients than I cared to know about.
So, I stood there thinking, "oh my God!" I do not want my kids eating this crap. I work hard to feed them whole, local, seasonal foods from very conscientious local farmers. Truthfully speaking (or writing, as this is what I am doing) from a health perspective, none of these "products" were ever meant to be in the human body. If nature did not create it, don't eat it, is a good motto to live by.
Back to the birthday party scene... this was a true nightmare visual for me. At the same time, the social interaction with other kids is so important. I leave them there at the party, hoping my kids remember the rules: one very small piece of cake, no ice cream, no soda, please show restraint with the mounds of candies and junk chips, and please let your manners shine!
So, fast forward 3 or so years later... hoping to help create a generation of healthy kids' parties is one of the reasons I teach the whole food baking classes for the Local Living Venture. This particular cooking class is called Learn How to Bake (& Convert Your Favorite Recipes!) to Whole Foods.
Sign up for the LLVs newsletter and you will get notices of the classes offered. Then join us for the next whole food baking class. Your cells will thank you.
1 cup refined flour = 3/4 cup whole grain flour
1 cup refined, white sugar = 1/2 cup honey or maple syrup
1 cup refined sugar = 1 cup sucanat or rapadura unrefined cane juice sugar
1 cup vegetable oil = 1 cup butter from grass fed, pasture raised animals
1 commercial, grocery store egg = 1 egg from free range, natural fed chickens
Free range means the chickens range freely out side, not just living "cage free" in a factory farm chicken barn. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/07/31/california-weighs-sweeping-laws-against-factory-farm-cruelty.aspx
Hint: If a recipe calls for 1 ½ cup sugar, I would immediately decrease the original recipe to ¾ cup sugar. Then I would use ¾ cups Rapadura or Sucanat sugar OR 1/3 to slightly less than ½ cups of local maple syrup or honey. Honey, I find works best in things I am not cooking, peanut butter balls, etc. It makes cookies, muffins, baked goods heavy and sort of sticky.
I find most treat recipes are way too sweet, masking the flavors of all the other yummy ingredients, such as the nuttiness of whole grain flours. Also, the more simple sugars we ingest, even honey & maple syrup, the more blood sugar / insulin issues we create in our bodies.
Add extra spices and vanilla to make up for the reduced sweetness. Your tongue will enjoy the extra flavor and not miss the excess “sweetness”!
Reducing sugar, sweeteners, in the recipe also reduces the impact on your body and the negative health consequences of constantly having high blood sugar and elevated insulin levels. (diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, feeding cancer cells, depressed immune system function, irritating your nervous system....)
Completely avoid hydrogenated oils & partially hydrogenated oils (shortenings and margarine). These are trans fats and are highly toxic to the human body. Their consumption is connected to many diseases.
Use eggs from naturally raised chickens, turkeys, ducks or geese.
Let your whole grain batter sit for 5-10 minutes as the flour absorbs moisture over time. Check to see if the consistency seems right for the type of treat you are making and adjust accordingly.
Making treats from whole foods creates home baked goods that have nutritional value. They are still treats to be enjoyed on special occasions, not daily, but you can feel good about the whole food value when you avoid the refined ingredients: white flour, white sugar, hydrogenated fats and all refined foods.
Remember, we were never meant to eat sweet treats on a daily basis. 200 years ago, were people eating cakes, pies, cookies, and donuts every day? Not a chance. Read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books if you have any doubts. They got one piece of candy for Christmas and made it last for weeks. If we treated “treats” with this respect, our body would thank us.
Take your time and work into this by doing a ½ and ½ mix, then ¾ whole grain & ¼ refined, then finally move to 100% whole grain flours. This eases you into the heavier texture of whole grain baking. (These whole food treats WILL be heavier, denser and this is a direct reflection of them being heavy and dense in nutrition!) In time, you will not notice and your body will be better nourished for it!
If you are an all or nothing person, like me, just make the switch to whole grains, cold turkey, and never look back!
Eat well & be healthy!! Paula
