Kidney Chi

Blood-building juice

2009-07-09T07:10:00.000-07:00

My practitioner told me that things like blackberries, beets, and raspberries are good for Blood Qi deficiency, so I went home after my appointment and made this:

2 small beets, with greens attached (or one large beet)
1 granny smith apple
1/4 head of cabbage (got lots in my CSA bin that need used up)
1 small container of raspberries

Everything into the juicer; then add a little club soda. Best if the produce is let to chill in the fridge before juicing.

YUM!

Note to self

2009-05-27T18:36:00.001-07:00

Things to blog about once my camera battery situation is resolved:

-raw chia pudding (YUM)
-roasted radish & greens recipe
-how to make seitan
-sprouting (lentils, couscous, etc)
-raw kale chips recipe
-veggie garden update

Vegan mac n cheese

2009-05-13T04:39:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I tried this vegan mac & cheese recipe and was really pleased with the results. It's not going to fool anyone into thinking it's real cheese, but it's about the closest I've ever experienced. I did make a few substitutions/additions:

-subbed minced dried garlic for the garlic powder
-subbed chopped vidalia onion (added to macaroni before baking) for the onion powder
-subbed dijon mustard (all I had)
-added some cubed white bread to the top, with some slivers of earth balance
-subbed Braggs liquid aminos for the soy sauce

Enjoy!

Camera died!

2009-04-17T13:49:00.001-07:00

Sorry guys (both of you), I have all these great posts backing up and my digicam is dead!! I hope to have it repaired soon. Might have to do all-text entries until then, which I prefer not to do. Stay tuned!

Find a CSA

2009-03-26T06:04:00.000-07:00

Joining a CSA is a great way to get local, (sometimes) organic produce and support small farms. It's also a nice way to rotate more fresh fruits and vegetables into your diet! Keeping an open mind and a willingness to try new things will make the experience much more enjoyable :)

From the Local Harvest website:

Many farms offer produce subscriptions, where buyers receive a weekly or monthly basket of produce, flowers, fruits, eggs, milk, meats, or any sort of different farm products.

A CSA, (for Community Supported Agriculture) is a way for the food buying public to create a relationship with a farm and to receive a weekly basket of produce. By making a financial commitment to a farm, people become "members" (or "shareholders," or "subscribers") of the CSA. Most CSA farmers prefer that members pay for the season up-front, but some farmers will accept weekly or monthly payments. Some CSAs also require that members work a small number of hours on the farm during the growing season.

A CSA season typically runs from late spring through early fall. The number of CSAs in the United States was estimated at 50 in 1990, and has since grown to over 2200.

Raw energy!

2009-03-24T17:52:00.000-07:00

I totally love these energy bars by Raw Revolution. They are the perfect thing to keep my blood sugar even, satisfy a sweet craving, and provide a few hours of energy when needed. Super simple ingredients, sprouted nuts - good stuff! They are thick and dense and not too sweet.

Friendly cleaning

2009-03-24T17:33:00.000-07:00

This is one of my absolute favorite products. Dr Bronners makes several types of cleaning and personal care products - the only one I happen to use is the Magic Soap. They have lots of scents - baby mild (above) is the unscented. Read about it on their website - pretty cool!

There are T.O.N.S. of uses for this stuff - the website lists a bunch. I use it for hand and body wash, as well as a general cleaner. The best part is that you can dilute it waaay down - I do about 1 part DBr to 10 parts water! Same dilution for dishwashing liquid (not dishwasher) and general cleaning. Safe, cheap, and effective. Brilliant!

Cleaning

2009-03-19T11:30:00.000-07:00

Throw away all of your commercial cleaning products! Do it! Now!

Seriously! You'll save money, breathe cleaner air, and make your home safer for yourself, your kids, and your pets!

I sound like a commercial. But I'm not going to advocate purchasing "natural" or "green" home cleaning products - sure, you could, but you don't *have* to. My home (2 humans, 5 cats) is cleaned almost exclusively by white vinegar (WV) and hydrogen peroxide (HP).

Here is a good resource if you want to make your own products. I have this book somewhere and if I can locate it, I'll lend it out to anyone who would like to borrow it. Truth be known, I don't use it much. I use an eco-friendly cleaning service called Eco-Harmony (EH). They use their own "green" cleaning products - except in my house! Most commercial products contain essential oils for scent, and I am very cautious about anything damaging to pets (hello - five cats). Essential oils are VERY TOXIC to dogs and cats. Please don't use these in your home if you have pets!! Even respirating them can be harmful to furbabies.

I asked EH if they'd just use WV and HP to clean my home, and they were all about it. I'm not much of a scent gal anyway - I like the smell of fresh air, no scent. It's lovely to come home to.

So some basics for DIY:

- Clean windows using a solution of WV and water, 50/50.

- Make "Lysol" by filling two spray bottles, one with WV (full strength), one with HP (3% like you get at the grocery store). One spray of each on a surface will react and combine to kill MORE germs than Lysol! Brilliant! Also, it biodegrades into water and carbon dioxide. Since I feed my cats a raw diet (that's a separate post for another day), I go through LOTS of WV and HP, making sure to get all the germs off the floor and countertops.

- WV and baking soda are great for cleaning toilets

- Try WV in the rinse compartment of your dishwasher, and as a replacement for fabric softener in the washing machine! Fabric softener should be outlawed, I say. You can also use dryer balls or tennis balls instead of dryer sheets.

Oh, the only commercial product I allow EH to use (they had to spend some time convincing me) is Bon Ami, for scouring sinks and bathtubs.

The book I mentioned above has a ton of recipes for specific things like jewelry cleaner, etc, so check it out if you have specific needs.

Natural skin/hair care

2009-03-19T08:59:00.000-07:00

Here are some cheap & easy tips for natural skin and hair care. If you have questions, please ask - everyone's needs are different :)

Skin Care

I use the Oil Cleansing Method (OCM) for skin care. The idea here is that the best way to cleanse your skin is to use - yup - oil! That may sound counterintuitive since the beauty product world would like us to buy their products, but the facts are:

- Oil does not clog pores. DIRT, trapped in your face's natural oils, clogs pores and causes breakouts.
- Oil dissolves oil
- Stripping the natural oils from your face will result in an overproduction of oil

So if you massage oil into your skin, you loosen the dirt trapped in the oil already on your face, then use a warm washcloth to massage the oil off. You are left with clean, soft skin and you haven't stripped your face of it's natural protection!

You can use different types of oil with OCM. Here are some that I've tried:

Olive oil/castor oil - This is a starting point for OCM. My skin is very dry/sensitive, so this didn't work for me. If you start here, be sure you are using food-grade castor oil. Play with the proportions.

Grapeseed oil - Worked well, but a bit too astringent for my dry skin.

Sweet almond oil - Perfect! This is what I use daily, straight from the bottle.

One thing to note is that if you are switching from commercial cleansers to OCM, you may experience a detox period where you suffer some breakouts. That will PASS. You need to give any particular oil/combo up to a month to see if it's working for you.

Some people do not need to moisturize after OCM - I do. I use raw, unrefined coconut oil, and (raw, unrefined) shea butter.

That's the basics - see the link or use your google-fu for more detailed information :)

Hair Care

Similarly as with skincare, using shampoos that contain sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS) can strip the oils from your scalp and cause an overproduction of oil. If you use shampoo, go to a health food store to locate many products that are SLS free. I use J/A/S/O/N brand shampoo (no conditioner), personally.

If you really want to be rebellious, you could try no poo. No poo is the method of not using shampoo at all, and only washing your hair a few times per week. See the link for details - I don't do this personally. However, I have used an ACV rinse as a detangler. Simply purchase some apple cider vinegar (ACV) (the good kind, from a health food store, where you can actually see bits of apple pulp in there), put it in a squirt bottle, put the bottle in your shower, spritz onto wet hair and let set for a few minutes, then rinse away. Yes, it will smell like vinegar, but only while WET. After you rinse, the smell ought to be mostly dissipated. If not, it will be by the time your hair is dry.

Don't get sick!

2009-03-18T18:23:00.000-07:00

With the bugs going around this week, I have been using Emergen-C to ward them off. I like the ingredients better than those in Airborne (the vitamin levels are generally the same - it's everything else). Compare for yourself, here (click on the product) and here.

Breakfast

2009-03-14T13:48:00.000-07:00

This is totally my secret weapon. I'm not really a breakfast person, so this is just enough to keep me from getting hungry too early. It also feels AWESOME to eat something so healthy everyday. By 8am, I've already got tons of vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids distributing themselves properly to give me energy and focus!

Oh, it's important for something like this to use organic ingredients. Since you're eating raw, it makes a huge difference in both taste and safety.

OK, start with whichever fruits and veggies suit your fancy. Today it was a cucumber, navel orange, quarter of a pink grapefruit, some going-mushy strawberries, and the stalks leftover from a bunch of spinach. Wash/peel/etc everything as appropriate. You don't have to remove ends or leaves or anything like that - it all goes in, baby.

This is the juicer I use. It's fabulous for under $100. Centrifugal, so you want to consume whatever it is that you juice within 15 mins (so Kristin tells me).

So I juice everything, and to that I add:

Udo's oil is a FAB.U.LOUS way to get essential fatty acids. A tablespoon of this in a glass of juice is virtually tasteless. My picture is blurry, but the oil is still amazing. Also, this helps to not feel hungry for several hours. Juice alone is hungry-city by 9am.

Just do it, trust me.

And since I know you are wondering how much of a PITA cleaning a juicer might be...
Get one that comes apart so you can clean it easily! I rinse mine right afterward in hot water, maybe a squirt of Dr Bronner's, and I'm good to go.

Guilty pleasure

2009-03-08T19:36:00.000-07:00

I am not a soda drinker....BUT. This stuff is like a dark secret:

If you like ginger ale, the kind you get at the supermarket in the green 2liter bottle, go to your refrigerator immediately and throw it away. This stuff will blow your mind! If ginger really does help an upset stomach, a few sips of this should put you straight.

Food post - natch

2009-03-08T19:15:00.000-07:00

Figures my first real post would be food-related.

This is tonight's dinner - tempeh and portobello red curry. Really, you can substitute anything you want as far as protein and vegetables - the curry is the point. And a delicious point it is.

In the picture above you can see that my tempeh is crumbled up - don't ask me why. Matt likes it that way, and that's how he left it in the fridge. I prefer to leave it in slices but it tastes the same either way.

Dessert is a total experiment, one which served its function nicely. Super easy and no-bake, too. Enjoy!

Red Curry with Tempeh and Portobello

2T vegetable oil
1-2T red curry paste
2 cans coconut milk (I use lite)
1 block tempeh
2 portobello mushrooms
1/2c frozen peas
1/4c brown sugar
1T soy sauce

Separate cream from coconut milk, set each aside. Add oil to hot skillet. When heated, add curry paste, and fry for a few seconds until fragrant. Add some of the cream, mix and let boil. Continue adding cream in small amounts and stirring until combined and boiling. When all cream has been added, add tempeh, mushrooms, and peas to skillet. Stir to coat. Stir in half of remaining coconut milk (thin part). Store the rest for later use. Add sugar and soy sauce, stir and heat through. Serve with basmati rice.

Emergency No-Bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars

1c peanut butter
1c graham cracker crumbs
1/2c sugar
1/4c melted butter (I use Earth Balance)
1c chocolate chips

Combine peanut butter, graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter. Spread into a pie plate. Melt chocolate chips in microwave; spread over top. Refrigerate 1hr or until firm.

Firstly

2009-03-02T14:56:00.000-08:00

I really don't know what I'm doing, and I'm embracing it fully. I'm inspired by some of the blogs I follow to share helpful/useless habits and practices going on in my life. Webpage and photography skills entirely lacking, I'll do my best to make this blog matter to you, dear cyberspace.