Whole Food Pumpkin Pie!

I had a request for how I would make a lower sugar, lower carb pumpkin pie for the fall holiday table... maybe for Thanksgiving, Fall Equinox, a Harvest Fest... you decide when and whip up a tasty, whole food pie treat.

Here is how I make my yummy Autumn pumpkin pies. Enjoy!

Lower sugar, low carb Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients  Praline Crust:

• 1/4 cup melted butter*
• 1 1/4 cup finely chopped pecans (almonds or coconut are other fun variations)
• 2-4 tbsp. sucanat sugar (Potsdam Coop & Nature's Storehouse)
• 1/8 teaspoon unrefined sea salt
• 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Sugar Pie Pumpkins

Pie Filling:  You can also use a butternut or buttercup squash. 

• 1 (15-ounce) can no sugar added pumpkin filling, organic of course.  To cook your own pie pumpkin, see below.
• 1/3 to ½ cup sucanat sugar
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups heavy cream* (If you buy a pint of heavy cream, use 1 cup here and 1 cup for whipped topping, just add 1/4 full fat milk* to make up the difference.)
• 4 eggs*

Long Pie Pumpkins

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Make the crust:

• Mix all crust ingredients together in a small bowl.
• While mixture is still warm from the butter, press it evenly into the bottom of a deep-dish pie pan.
• Bake for about 5 minutes, or until browned.
• Remove pie crust from oven.

Make the filling:  Turn oven to 425 F

• Place all filling ingredients in a medium bowl and mix well with a wire whisk.
• Pour filling into your pre-baked pie crust.
• Bake for 15 minutes and then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F.
• Continue to bake for an additional 50 to 55 minutes.
• To test to see if cooked enough, stick a sharp knife in the center; if it comes out clean, the pie is done.
• Cool and then chill before serving.
• To serve, top each slice with a dollop of low carb whipped cream.

Lower Carb Fresh Whipped Cream:

• 1 cup heavy cream*
• 2 tbsp. to ¼ cup sucanat sugar
• 1-3 tsp. vanilla extract, I tend to go for the more is better, you do not miss the sugar when you add vanilla, maybe a dash of cinnamon too!

Cooking your own pie pumpkin:  I take the whole little pie pumpkin and put it in a pot with about 1 inch of water in the pot.  Cover, bring to a boil, and reduce heat to a very gentle simmer.  Check in 30 minutes, if a sharp knife slides into the flesh easily, it is done.  I carefully remove it from the pot and put it in a bowl or plate with upturned edges.  Cut into pieces and puree the whole pumpkin: seeds, skin, and all.  A blender works best.  Use what you need for the pie and make curry pumpkin soup with the rest! 

Curry Pumpkin Soup: This is as easy as putting the rest of your pie pumpkin in the blender with milk* (add enough milk to blend the pumpkin into a puree and then add what you need to get the thickness you are looking for in a creamy soup) and adding your favorite blended curry spice to your taste. Blend, heat, enjoy!

*I suggest using butter, eggs, and whipping cream be from animals raised naturally: grass fed cows and chickens foraging for their own natural foods.

Cook Book...

Cook Book...

To write or not to write,

That IS the ???

So I have hit the 100th person to ask me: Are you going to write a cook book?" or "When are you going to write a cook book?"  I am celebrating this milestone (like celebrating the 100th person to cross the threshold of a new store or business) by chatting about it here.

Cook book or not?

I have to say, "nah, not in my plans."  I thought about it for a bit and here are my issues... issues, we always have issues!

1.  I am a "just throw it in a bowl" kind of gal.  For example, foods like cakes, cupcakes, cookies, muffins, and pancakes all have the same basic ingredients. Some have more liquid, i.e. pancakes, while others have more flour, i.e. cookies. What I throw in the bowl depends on the consistency of the batter or dough I am trying to make.

So, to make a chocolate cake I do something like this (and hope for the best!):

• 2-3 eggs whipped up and add 1/2 to 3/4 cup melted butter (these two ingredient amounts depend on whether I am making a one or two layer cake)
• 1/2 cup sugar, unrefined, of course (I may use 3/4 if making 2 layers and it is not for my kids, most people like sweeter cakes.)
• 1 tbsp. vanilla
• 1/2 to 1 cup milk, again depending on the layers
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 to 3 tbsp. baking powder depending on the flour (oat flour and I use less b. powder, if it is millet / quinoa / teff / amaranth flours I use more b. powder)
• 3-6 tbsp. cocoa powder depending on # of layers and how chocolate flavored I want the cake
• Enough flour to create a cake batter consistency, which is thicker than pancakes but more liquid than cookies

Set batter aside for 5 - 10 minutes to see how the flour soaks up the liquid.  After 10 minutes, if the consistency is cake like, good to go.  If it is too runny, I add flour a tiny bit at a time.  Too thick?  I thin with a bit of milk.

So, that is how I cook everything.  A little of this and a little of that.  Who wants a cook book written like this? I would get boo-ed and rotten tomatoes thrown at me! Most people want exact measurements.

2. Meal cooking is a process of looking at the local, seasonal produce on hand and having fun with it; playing with the ingredients, herbs, and spices.  When you play with food for long enough, cooking and creating in the kitchen becomes second nature.

I suggest picking up a couple of good vegetarian cook books* (cook books that show case seasonal produce) and then read them like novels.  Next, get cooking. After a bit of practice in the seasonal kitchen, I will say it again, cooking becomes second nature. It is an art work. Relax, breathe deeply, and let your creative nature just flow.

Add your favorite protein sources and whole grains to the yummy seasonal veggies and voila'... you have dinner (suggestion: make enough for lunch leftovers!).

If you have blood sugar control challenges (diabetes) eat whole grains in serious moderation, not at every meal, and up the intake of veggies instead.

3. I visited the SLU book store and checked out the cook book section.  It was scary!  There were 5 shelving sections of cook books with 7 shelves in each section.  35 shelves of cook books and only 2 of the cook books on the shelves had more than one copy.  One was the original MoosewoodCook Book the other was a smoothie "recipe book", I believe.  All of those 35 shelves were loaded with single copies of cook books on every topic and health promoting diet imaginable! That was a huge wow for me!

The 5 rows of cook books at the SLU Book Store:

3.  I am all about making food an art form.  The kitchen is your studio, food is your medium, and the kitchen utensils are your artist's tools!

Watch for my follow up post:  How to Cook Like an Artist

Be well, have fun in the kitchen!  Paula

*Cook Books you might find useful: 

• Home Gardener's Month By Month Cookbook, Marjorie Page Blanchard
• From Asparagus to Zucchini
• Recipes from the Root Cellar, Andrea Chesman (She also wrote Serving Up the Harvest)

If the cook book uses refined ingredients (refined, all-purpose flour, bleached or not)... use your whole food kitchen skills and swap out the refined ingredients and add in 100% whole food ingredients. Need help with this? Give me a shout, read that section in my book (Hands On Health: Take Your Vibrant, Whole Health Back Into Your Healing Hands), or zap me an email and I will send you my educational handout.

If you do not like the high fat ingredients in the Home Gardener's Cookbook, swap out for ingredients with fat contents you are comfortable with.  Myself, hey, bring on the butter!   (From Pasture Raised Cows, Please!)

Get cooking like the seasonal kitchen artist you can be!

PS  My second book, a book of inspirational words to help you put the action steps in my first book, well... into action, was picked up by a publisher yesterday!  Stay tuned as I keep you informed of the publishing process!  

I call this book of words my "yoga poses" for the body, mind, and spirit book. No, that is not the book's title... that secret will be released at a later date! 

Today, to celebrate, I am off to climb a high peak in those amazing ADK Mountains!

White Face from last summer's hiking ... today I am going up Dial!

Eat Several Small Meals A Day... or not?

Are you a grazer like this sweet "lil goat? Aradia is quite sweet as well!

I do not agree with this current health trend, health advice.  

Now I will tell you, as always... figure out what works for you, in your life, so you feel your very best, vibrant self every day.

So back to the several small meals a day advice... that I do not agree with, my diet myth buster:

Why?

1.  If a person struggles with over eating, this only gives license to over eat more times in a day.

2.  If one eats well balanced meals:  fruits and veggies (fruit in am, veggies with lunch & dinner), quality protein, and quality fat... you will be well satiated for a good 4 to 5 hours.  No need to snack or eat several small meals in a day.

3.  Eating several small meals trains your blood sugar to want to be "up."  When we get used to meals that sustain us comfortably, without overeating, our bodies get used to feeling gently full and then feeling empty, gently empty.  Empty is good.  Revel in this feeling as you innately know you are not going to starve if you feel hungry for a while.  We live in a culture with ample food. Pick 100% whole foods to fill yourself at meals.

4.  Eating constantly will leave you feeling hungry all the time.  It is the blood sugar is "up" constantly issue.  Once your blood sugar goes down, even just a little, this triggers the "Oh my, I am hungry"  feeling again. Feeling empty is ok.

5.  If you constantly are giving your body fuel, calories, when will it have a chance to go into fat burning and use up your stored fat calories?

6.  Do you really want to spend all your time preparing food and doing dishes?

7.  The digestive tract needs rest.  If you eat every 2-3 hours, it never gets a rest. Your digestive tract will always be working to digest and eliminate food. Would you want to be working your skeletal muscles constantly, no rest, no sleep?

This is my thoughts, using common sense and wisdom gained from years around food and as an eater myself! Use this in any way that works for you and makes your life a better place to be!

Cheers & Blessings!  Paula

Change is Empowering

Change can be easy, change can be difficult.  It is all in the way you approach change.

New Year's resolutions are not something I recommend.  They are usually "plans" made in desperation or out of guilt.  Not exactly the energy needed to be behind real life empowering change.

Real change is powerful.  It has to come from the heart, mind, and soul.  

I can suggest everything you need to do to change your life, lose weight, lower blood pressure and cholesterol, and teach you habits that will invoke the self healing of your body. 

Change will happen only when you want it to happen and you make it happen.

Instead of making resolutions at the eve or dawn of a new year, well because, you know something has got to give... how about finding what fires your passion and allow yourself to metamorphosis into the healing being you already are.  

Make lifetime lifestyle resolutions.  Create the change you want to see happen in you.  Be the change, the healing energy, you innately are.

Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease. Hippocrates

Self Healing Lung Disease

I love this tree "lung" picture as it is so symbolic of life, health, vitality, healing, and breath! 

The human body is an amazing healing organism. Our RNA and DNA are constantly repairing. The immune system is a very busy system: searching out breaks and abnormalities in our RNA and DNA, scouting out unwanted micro-organisms in our bodies, repairing cells... the work of the immune system is amazing.

For me to say the word heal in regards to your lungs, I am only telling you what you innately know: Your body is capable of self healing any and every challenge it faces. Healing comes from within.

It is as simple as this.

Now, I will admit, sometimes the immune system is just plain exhausted. When this is the case, healing may have a hard time happening. Healing may not happen. This is the scenario when a person has seriously not taken whole health care of their bodies for years. The body, the immune system, is: worn down, malnourished, and exhausted. It just cannot rise to the occasion and do the healing work necessary.

Let's take a step back and focus on healing, focus on the fact that healing can and will happen!

What heals the lungs?

1. Removing all habits that are toxic to the lungs and the body as a whole.

2. Working on liver health is essential as the liver is your main organ of detoxification. The liver is involved in all healing and needs to be functioning at top notch health. Burdock is a good liver herb to learn about.

3. Add in 100% life giving, whole foods.

4. Add in Whole Health Lifestyle choices.

5. Add in herbs specific for healing the lungs. (More about this below.)

6. Make use of holistic healing modalities* that speak to you:

• Acupuncture or acupressure

• Reiki or any form of energy healing

• Yoga or any form of mind, body, spirit exercise

• Many, many more natural healing arts

Herbs to Heal the Lungs:  (These herbs have even more benefits than the few remarks I will make.)

• Mullein helps to strengthen the lungs

• Lungwort promotes lung and respiratory health and clears congestion

• Chaparral for lung detoxification and respiratory health support

• Elecampane clears mucous

• Eucalyptus soothes and promotes respiratory health

• Lobelia (one of my favorite herbs) opens the airways to promote ease of breath and harmonizes the other herbs in a formula to work better

  More research information on Lobelia: https://www.herballegacy.com/Lobelia_King.html

• Osha root increases circulation to the lungs

• Coltsfoot clears mucus and strengthens the lungs

• Licorice root soothes inflamed lung tissue so the immune system can get to work healing and licorice harmonizes the other herbs in a formula to work better

• Thyme is a powerful aid in congestion and a powerful anti-microbial

• Oregano is a decongestant and natural antimicrobial and contains nutrients / anti-oxidants that directly nourish lung cells

• Sage dispels lung congestion and soothes tissues

• Peppermint, and all mints, relax and soothe the respiratory tract making breathing easier

• Plantain soothes irritated mucus membranes, is an anti-microbial and anti-toxin herb

• Echinacea is an immune booster to help fight infection

• Horehound is an expectorant and lung healing herb

• Grindelia flowers are an expectorant and sedative, calming

• Pleurisy root is an expectorant and anti-spasmodic, good for coughs

• Passion flower calms and eases respiration and circulation

• Yerba Santa leaf relieves excess mucus and is used for asthma and all lung conditions

• Yerba Mansa root is a mucus membrane tonic, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, stimulates circulation and relief of lung congestion 

• Ginger root warms the body increasing circulation and loosening mucus

That's a lot of herbs to heal the lungs!

So my interest in lungs and healing? Well, I am interested in healing the body... the lungs are part of this glorious organism.

My youngest son, Eli, was born 3 months early. It was a long haul in the neo-natal intensive care unit before he could come home, in my arms, 3 months later. Because of his pre-maturity, his lungs did not fully develop. He had respiratory distress syndrome and came home with severe asthma.

The first few years were rough and tough. A cold or the flu was seriously hard on his lungs (and his Mom!) and made the viral illness hang in longer than it would in a non-asthmatic person.

I used 2 herbal formulas to heal his lungs. I chose to not use any of the prescription medications or respiratory treatments prescribed: steroids, asthma drugs, inhalers, or nebulizers breathing treatments.

The formulas:

The Lung tonic is taken daily to heal chronic lung conditions. Asthma is one of these. I keep it on hand, at my Hands On Health Healing business, for clients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Emphysema, Asthma, and other chronic lung conditions.

The Respiratonic is used in acute moments: "I cannot breathe right now!" It helps to open the airways and ease breathing. I kept this handy when Eli had a cold or the flu. I keep a supply, at my business, for clients with lung conditions.

I also used a lobelia tincture with Eli. Lobelia is also for acute, "I CAN NOT breathe NOW" moments when he turned blue or I was preventing him from turning blue. It works very quickly to open up the airways and ease the tightness of asthma and lung breathing conditions. I kept this next to my bed, in my purse, in the kitchen, and a bottle on my body most of his first 7-8 years of life. There were many times, when Eli was young, that he needed it now. When he was an infant, I carried it in the front pack or sling that I was carrying him in. I slept sitting on an incline, with Eli on my chest, for the first 4+ years of his life with a bottle in my hand as I slept. No, I kid you not.  This made so much more sense to me than the hospital prescribed apnea machine attached to my kid sleeping in a crib in the next room over... WTH?

MORE Lobelia information: https://www.herballegacy.com/Lobelia_King.html

One Lobelia products I used, Dr. Christopher's was another brand

By the time Eli was 5, the asthma was almost completely healed. By 7 years of age, it was essentially gone. I continue to give him the Lung Tonic, from time to time, just to add in healing nourishment for his lungs. I usually give him 2 daily over the hardest winter months. He is 15 now and his asthma is healed.

Got lung health and healing concerns? Looking for a more natural approach? Give me a shout, I would love to support you on your healing journey.

Sending healing love, Paula

Treating whooping cough from an MD 

* Please feel free to contact me, I would be happy to help you find practitioners in the area who work with Plant Spirit Medicine, Massage, Shamanism, Acupressure, Yoga, Tae Kwon Do, and many more healing arts, to help you on your healing path.

Stocking Up the Natural Medicine Cabinet

Making Herbal Medicine 101 Class, June 30th, '14

Learning natural healing, the time honored methods of supporting the body's innate ability to heal itself, is a sure fire method of invoking true healing in your body.

Think of this: every time you cut yourself the cut heals.  That is how your whole body will function, will heal, if you give it what it needs and remove those things that "get in the way" of healing.

Your immune system is your system that works to repair and heal your body.  It works synergistically, in symphony, with every system in your body.  That is the beauty of the whole: holistic healing.

Healing comes from inside you.

A "healer" is a guide who steers you back to your own path, your space of healing. A healer knows the natural ways to invoke the immune system's ability to repair and heal mind, body, and spirit. 

You are your own best healer. 

What to do to create health and healing:

1. *Remove the lifestyle habits that created the “ill” health symptoms.
2. Learn what whole foods are and eat a whole food diet, your cellular health will thank you!  If we have not had this whole food conversation…it is time to say, “Hey Paula, what the heck, tell me the cellular health secrets!”  Move in the direction of more food from plants, balancing out with a comfortable amount of animal based food to keep your body healthy. Listen to your body's needs, not someone else's food rules.
3. Add in herbs and/or other whole food supplements to re-fortify your cellular health, get your nutritional savings account over flowing with life enhancing nutrition!
4. Move your body:  sedentary living kills, movement heals.
5. Fresh air and sunshine…"love" two birds with one action, get outside AND move! (This sounds better than the kill two birds line...)
6. Sleep.
7. Stress: get rid of it or change your attitude about that which you can’t get rid of. (Might I suggest yoga and meditation?)  Which leads me to…
8. Healthy attitude toward yourself, all others on this planet and life in general.  Practice a kindness attitude towards all, starting with you.  Self-care, and its ripple effects for your health and how you perceive and interact with the world, cannot be  emphasized enough.
9. Ask me for my “lifestyle” suggestions handout.  It contains more thoughts on healthy lifestyle choices for you to contemplate and add to your own bag of healthy living and healing tricks!

*Remove the lifestyle habits that created the “ill” health symptoms, some examples:

• Can't sleep?  Remove caffeine and stress for starters.  This may mean finding new ways of perceiving stress and learning to let go of stress.  (see yoga and meditation suggestion above!)
• Breathing problems?  Smoker? Quitting is one obvious solution in your healing quest.
• Allergies? 100% whole foods, raw honey from local bees, remove allergens from your life and living space...
• Constipation?  Stress clamps down the colon; see can't sleep above.  Refined foods clog up the body, your colon... see whole foods above.
• Headaches?  Stress, refined foods, sugar, artificial sweeteners, prescription medications, birth control pills, chemical household cleaners, chemical body care products.... all, and many more synthetics, can contribute to your body imbalance that triggers headaches.

Here's a peek inside my herbal healing cabinets:  the formulas I have used over the years (and trust) and the dried herbs I keep on hand to make my own healing blends.

The Healing Medicine cabinet in my downstairs bathroom.

Dried herbs and raw, local honey...ready to make tinctures and infusions (medicinal strength teas).

The upstairs bathroom healing cabinet.

Peeking down into my herbal first aid kit.

Teaching the art of using herbs, as part of a whole health lifestyle, is a passion for me!  

On Monday, June 30th I taught a fun class at my home:  Making Herbal Medicines 101.

Interested in learning, give me a yell!  This Fall will be a great time for another Herbal Medicine Class!

Blessings and HUGS, Paula