2 bunches curly green kale

1 large carrots

1 small red beet

¾ c. cashews

½ c. raisins

2-3 T. olive oil

1 T. apple cider vinegar

Sea salt

Fresh ground pepper

Rinse and destem the kale. Chop it into smaller, bite-sized leaves, place it in a bowl, and thoroughly knead with fine sea salt. Using a vegetable peel, create shavings from the carrots and beets and throw into the bowl. Chop cashews and add them in with the raisins. Toss altogether with oil and vinegar, and top with fresh ground pepper. For best results, chill in fridge for a couple hours before serving. For more protein, you can roll up this salad in some slices of organic turkey.

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Like its cousin, ginger, the rhizome part of the plant is used in food and medicine. Rhizomes may look like roots but are actually stems that grow horizontally underground. The rhizome is dug up, cleaned, sun-dried, and most commonly ground into a fine powder although some grate and use the fresh stem.

In the kitchen, turmeric is an essential component of many curry blends but may, also, be found as a stand-alone spice. Its pungent smell and bitter, astringent taste lend a peculiar yet grounding quality to many dishes. Turmeric is also used as a natural coloring agent, turning sauces, vegetables, and meats into a warm color, inviting to the eye.

In Ayurvedic medicine, turmeric is favored for its antiseptic, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory properties. Frequently employed to treat disorders of the gut, turmeric enhances digestion, soothes gas and distention, and creates an environment hospitable to friendly intestinal flora. Turmeric is also commonly used to help regulate the female reproductive system and bolster fertility in men. In recent years, a special compound in turmeric called curcumin has been given much attention in the West. Scientists are currently studying curcumin for its incredible anti-inflammatory activities, including its potential to reverse many serious or degenerative health conditions such as Alzheimer’s and cancer.

Here’s a recipe for chicken tagine (inspired by this recipe for lamb tagine), a thick stew cooked throughout North Africa and the Middle East, which utilizes turmeric and other regional aromatic herbs and spices. Cook turmeric before consuming, and start in small quantities to give your belly–and your tastebuds–time to adjust. Always consult a knowledgeable practitioner before using herbs for medicinal purposes.

Ingredients:

Olive Oil

2 lbs chicken meat, boneless, cut into 1 1/2 inch squares

1/4 tsp ground turmeric

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground cardomom

3/4 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp salt

2 inches fresh ginger peeled and grated or finely chopped

8 garlic cloves finely chopped

5 carrots cut in half then julienned

1 tbsp lemon juice

16 oz vegetable broth

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp honey or maple syrup

The night or morning before cooking, place cut chicken in a glass dish and toss with 2 tbsp olive oil and the combined ground spices, salt, half of the chopped garlic, and half of the grated ginger. Mix until all the chicken is well coated. Let sit overnight or for at least 8 hours in the refrigerator.

When you’re ready to cook, heat 2-3 tbsp olive oil in a large, heavy pot over medium high heat. Add chicken one piece at a time until the bottom of pot is covered. Brown the chicken on all sides, remove to a plate, and repeat process until all the chicken is browned and adding olive oil as necessary.

After removing all the chicken from the pan, add the carrots and onions to the pot and cook until they just begin to caramelize. Add the remaining ginger and garlic and cook for 2 more minutes. Return the chicken to the pot and add broth, lemon juice, tomato paste, and honey. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook covered for 45 minutes.

Check pot every 15 minutes to ensure liquids haven’t been too reduced and add broth or water as necessary.

After 45 minutes, you should have a thick stew with tender, flavorful meat. Spoon over brown rice or quinoa for a tasty variation.

Listen here to find out:
The importance of how we eat.
The notion of being “good” or “bad” and how it influences our relationship with eating.
What does it mean to be naughty when it comes to food?

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Moving from Naughty to Nice… Be sure to check out episode “M” for Mind Your Manners.

Sharing meals with others outside your own home can be a challenge when on a GF diet, but as you will discover in this episode of the ABC’s of Gluten Free, it can be a blessing in disguise! In “Mind Your Manners” Tif and Megan share with you tips and guidelines to help you keep the fun in eating out at dinner parties and restaurants while being gluten free.

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This is not an exhaustive list, but these are the ones you’ll most commonly find. For a discussion of the pros and cons of various flour as well as ideas on how to use them, please visit my podcast series with Tiffany Pollard at: http://community.eatingforevolution.com/articles/?ac=dg4h6rib

If you’re having trouble with gluten, you can still enjoy:

• Almond flour
• Amaranth
• Arrowroot
• Baking soda (most)
• Baking powder (most)
• Bean flour
• Brown rice flour
• Buckwheat flour
• Chickpea flour
• Corn flour
• Corn starch
• Cornmeal
• Date flour
• Fava bean flour
• Flaxmeal
• Green pea flour
• Guar gum
• Hazelnut flour
• Harina
• Lecithin
• Mesquite
• Millet flour
• Polenta flour
• Potato flour
• Potato starch
• Quinoa flour
• Sorghum flour
• Sorghum gum
• Soy flour (can be irritating to a compromised bowel)
• Sweet rice flour
• Tapioca flour
• Teff (make sure it’s not blended with wheat flour)
• White rice flour
• Xantham gum

These are the flours you’ll want to avoid:

• All-purpose flour
• White flour
• Wheat flour
• Enriched flour
• Bleached flour
• Whole meal flour
• Barley flour
• Graham flour
• Oat flour
• High protein flour
• Durum flour
• Semolina flour
• Kamut flour
• Triticale flour
• Rye flour
• Soba flour
• Spelt flour
• Wheat gluten and “vital” wheat gluten
• Starch and “modified food starch
• Malt anything

Otherwise, here’s how I dressed it:

• Combined olive oil, basil herb, and red pepper flakes
• Shook it up and poured it over the top
• Added salt and pepper to taste.

Then I placed it in the oven and baked at 275 for 10 to 15 minutes. (I peeked somewhere along that time frame to see how it was coming along.) Then, I checked it with a fork to see that it was mostly done (not raw looking but not too dark in color) and put it on broil for a few more minutes. The cooking time will vary based on the size of the piece of fish you have.

It turns out savory but with a bit of a kick.

I served it with a mixed green salad finished with artichokes hearts and green and black olives, and actually even topped it with the same dressing I used for the fish–with a little lemon added–since I didn’t have time to make another. Plus, the quick veggie soup I made last night while responding to emails made another delicious side dish.

Time management applies in the kitchen, too, and thankfully with a little forced spontaneity, I was able to eat well.

Here’s how I did it:

Last night I poured some white beans into a pot and added water to cover the beans by a couple inches.

When I woke up this morning, I drained off the old water, rinsed the beans, and set them to boil on the stove in vegetable broth. Then I dropped in a piece of kombu seaweed to feed the beans additional minerals. Aside from the nutritional benefit that soaking the beans overnight allows, they cook up much more quickly, 30 minutes in this case, and I used this time to get working on the rest of the soup and prepping the next dish.

I sliced open a large acorn squash (see Halving a Squash post for tips), placed it face down in a pan with a few millimeters of water, covered the pan with foil, and set the squash to bake at 375. Meanwhile, I chopped an enormous yellow onion and sautéed half of it in coconut oil and a ton of cumin with an entire bunch of green chard and a bit of sea salt. Setting this mixture aside, I returned to the remaining onion and chopped it finely, along with 7 or 8 shiitake mushrooms, fresh sage leaves, and some sea salt. (I advocate keeping fresh herbs on hand to spontaneously brighten up any dish). When this mushroom-onion mixture began to caramelize, I removed the acorn squash from the oven, divided it up into each half of the squash, and returned it to bake for another 10 minutes.

While the stuffed squash was serving its time in the oven, the beans finished cooking. I put a batch of them in the blender with more vegetable broth and a bit of the chard and onions, and whipped them up together. I continued this process in small batches until all the beans and chard had been blended together into a smooth, delicious puree. By then the stuffed squash was ready, so I placed one portion on a plate and enjoyed it later on with a bowl of the white bean blend.

Here are the ingredients: 1 large acorn squash, 7 or 8 shiitake mushrooms, 1 jumbo yellow onion, tons of ground cumin, unrefined coconut oil for sauteeing, 1 bunch chard, a couple cups of soaked white beans, some vegetable broth, and sea salt.

There you have it: white been chard puree with stuffed acorn squash, in 45 minutes flat.

(P.S. This meal is also gluten free, easy to digest, and enhances fertility… sha-zam!)

Our bodies and every thought, mood and emotion we experience are made up of what we consume – what we eat, what we drink, what we breathe — and it’s our gut which takes that information from the outside world and conveys it into something the inside can use. So what we can get from the GI tract literally makes up every cell of our body. 

In episode “G” of the ABC’s of Gluten Free podcast series, we cover gut health from a holistic perspective so you can learn to improve your digestion from the core.

In this episode we take you beyond just the food you ingest, and discuss how to enhance absorption of important vitamins and minerals, how to reduce uncomfortable symptoms of gas and bloating, and natural therapies which repair the digestive system, even if you have food sensitivities.

Want to know more?

Check out the podcast series with Tiffany Pollard, founder of Eating for Evolution, and we’ll help you out with every aspect of  living a healthy and exciting gluten free life. Here’s the link: http://community.eatingforevolution.com/articles/?ac=dg4h6rib

Oh, and if you haven’t already, sign up for my free report on the Top 10 Digestive Health Tips in the upper right hand corner of this page!

I love winter squash. But it’s a pain to slice open. Then there’s the terrifying image of the knife slipping against the tough exterior and into the flesh of my hand. In fact, some of my clients have told me how much they enjoy this food, but simply can’t bring themselves to make it for fear of halving a finger.

Kitchen Solution #1: Pre-baking

Preheat oven to 375. Throw whole squash in a pan with a couple millimeters of water for 15 minutes, then remove and let stand until cool enough to handle. By now the outer wall has softened, and a knife can more easily slip through it. Divide the squash in half, place face down on the pan, and continue cooking. Prebaking works especially well because there’s nothing else you’d do with completely hard uncooked squash, instead. You wouldn’t throw the giant thing in a steamer. You wouldn’t try to stir fry it. (You might use it as a Halloween decoration or play catch with it in the yard, but then you wouldn’t be seeking to cut it open first.) So if you’re planning on eating it, you’d probably start by baking it, so this is just entering it into the process sooner rather than later, and sparing your fingers along the way.

Makes 2-6 servings

1 medium red cabbage, shredded or finely chopped

1 small bulb fennel, finely sliced

½ cup pumpkin seeds

2 T. olive oil

½ t. Cajun spice*

Chop cabbage and fennel into shreds. Heat oil over medium-high heat, add pumpkin seeds and Cajun spice, then stir while letting them season for a few minutes. Then add the vegetables and saute until slightly tender. Remove from heat and serve. For more kick, increase amount of Cajun spice or add an extra pinch of cayenne.

*Note: buy this mix only in the bulk section of a natural foods store, as many of the pre-made Cajun spice blends use wheat gluten as a binding agent. Also, blackening seasonings often create more smoke, so make sure the cooking area is well-ventilated before you begin.