Tag Archive for: cleanse

Can’t be bothered to cook? No problem. 3 “assembly-only” recipes to the rescue.

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Where did the summer go? Is it just me or does summer fly by more quickly with each year that passes in this precious life? It’s a bit startling sometimes, to say the least.

I hope you made some unforgettable summer memories the last few months. Highlights for me included working in my native gardens (no surprise there for those of you who know me), some travels with family to Europe where I fed my loves of adventure and history, daily walks with my hubby that always evolve into spontaneous social hours with neighbors, promoting local foods through a big local foods celebration called Minnesota Cooks, and simple gatherings with family and friends on restaurant patios or in backyards that often make up the most nurturing and satisfying moments of life.

And I have a confession – this summer I basically couldn’t be bothered to cook much, which is pretty unusual for me. Typically I enjoy the planning, chopping, and creativity of cooking, but the last couple of months I just honestly wanted to spend my time on other things and felt satisfied with simple food. Turning on my stove felt utterly unappealing. So I “assembled” meals instead. Summer is a great season for “assembling” and throwing stuff together since in-season produce is so fresh and perfect and delicious as-is.

It’s been a cool summer here in Minnesota where I live. We’re still waiting for many of the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants – summer’s heat lovers – to make their big appearance; therefore, I figured it wasn’t too late to share a couple winner recipes that have been satisfying the palate while requiring little work. Enjoy!

Melon and Cucumber Salad Yield: 4-6 servings
A friend reminded me of this recipe a few weeks ago, and I’m so glad she did. Isn’t it funny how we can space out some of our favorites? This classic trio of herbs (relied upon by South American and Asian cooks) brightens salads and sautés. Here it cools the heat of the jalapeño. Serve this on dark greens or as a side to grilled chicken or pork, if you do feel like you have some bandwidth for cooking. :)

2 limes
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 large shallot, finely diced
1 cup cilantro leaves
1/2 cup basil leaves, cut into 1/8-inch strips
1/3 cup mint leaves, cut into 1/8-inch strips
1 jalapeno, seeded, deveined, and diced
1 pound melon, peeled, seeded, and cut into 2-inch chunks (cantaloupe or honey dew)
1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut into 2-inch chunks
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Grate the zest (the green rind, not the white pith) and juice the limes into a large bowl and whisk in the olive oil. Toss in shallot, cilantro, basil, mint and jalapeño. Allow to sit a few minutes, then toss in the melon and cucumber. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper. Refrigerate until cold before serving.

Golden Tomato Avocado Salad
4 Servings

2 cups chopped yellow and/or orange tomatoes
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1 large avocado, diced into ½ inch cubes
½ cup finely sliced scallions
1/3 to ½ cup fresh lime juice
¼ cup orange juice
2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 Tablespoons minced fresh basil
1 large garlic clove, minced or pressed
1 teaspoon minced fresh cilantro (optional)
Salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Combine all of the ingredients in a serving bowl, toss well, and serve or refrigerate.

**While the first 2 recipes focus more on ingredients local to the Midwest, this next recipe is much more Caribbean-inspired.**

Ginger Chia Pudding
Yield: 1 serving
This recipe comes directly from Gwyneth Paltrow’s newest cookbook “It’s All Easy,” which a client told me to get. She was right. Good ole Gwyneth’s done it again – there are some really excellent recipes in that book. I love chia puddings for breakfast, but some people eat them as a snack or dessert.

1/4 cup chia seeds
1/2 teaspoon very finely grated or minced fresh ginger
3/4 cup coconut water
6 Tablespoons canned coconut milk
2 teaspoons honey or coconut sugar
1/4 cup diced fresh peach or other favorite fruit

Combine the chia seeds, ginger, coconut water, coconut milk, and honey/coconut sugar in a bowl or mason jar. Stir well; allow to sit in the fridge for at least 10 minutes or up to 2 days. Serve topped with diced fresh peach or other fresh fruit (I’ve been using fresh raspberries).

There are many reasons why we might find ourselves resisting the task of cooking from time to time. If you’ve also found yourself in a standoff with your stove recently, I hope you found this newsletter helpful. For the record, I do feel home-cooking is immeasurably important to creating health, but I also know there are plenty of ways to skirt around it occasionally and still make healthful choices, especially in summer. Cheers to assembling!

With love and a big hug,
Claudine

5 Favorite Food Shortcuts I Embrace

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Today I’m branching out and trying something new:

 

Someone recently challenged me on the fact that I never really write about “shortcuts” or “health hacks” or draft blog posts with titles like “My Top 3 Easy Tips for Effortless Health.” She argued that these are the messages people are most attracted to as a result of our overly busy lifestyles and that basically I’m missing the boat by not obliging.

 

It’s true – I’ve never written about “health hacks,” mainly because a huge part of me resists this attitude/mentality toward health. (Also because it just feels a bit cheesy and market-y to me). In all honesty, I spend a lot of time wondering why we construct lives so busy that we don’t have time to cook for and take care of ourselves. Why is cooking now regarded as such a massive chore and considered secondary to other life obligations?

 

(But I digress. Clearly that’s another blog post altogether…)

 

At any rate, her suggestion prompted me to meet my resistance head-on and write about foodie shortcuts for once. After all, as a health practitioner I would identify myself as a moderate. I do believe it takes an edge of rebelliousness to resist and combat mainstream messages about nutrition, but I believe just as strongly it’s important to remain flexible and avoid becoming too rigid about food. My clients know I eat dark chocolate, drink wine (and not just red – white and rose, too), and I love my organic Whole Grain Milling corn chips. These delights bring me joy and so long as I tune in to and respect my body’s limits, I’m pretty sure I’m not doing any great harm by ingesting them. (I do want to acknowledge, however, that some people’s bodies do allow for more flexibility than others – it’s important for each of us to determine our own limits.)

 

In terms of food abundance and convenience, it’s a really great time to be alive! So, in the spirit of being flexible and easy-going,  let’s talk about 5 foodie shortcuts I embrace:

 

  1. Cauliflower rice from Trader Joe’s or Costco: Cauliflower rice is delicious and nutritious, but ain’t no doubt about it – it’s a pain-in-the-petudie to make, so this is a convenience food I adore. Every spring I let go of grains for a minimum of six weeks, which leaves me searching for a satisfying rice substitute. Cauliflower rice does the trick and makes me happy. It’s also a great way to get more veggies into your body. I don’t shop at Trader Joe’s or Costco a ton, but if I happen to be passing one I’ll swing in especially for this. Never had cauliflower rice? I just sauté it in a little olive oil, ghee, or butter, salt to taste, then serve it in place of rice. I love having it with a fried egg and kimchi for breakfast. A friend recently told me she mixes tomato sauce and southwestern spices like cumin and chili powder to her cauliflower rice then serves it with eggs for breakfast. Yum!
  2. Frozen vegetables, especially frozen butternut squash. I do believe fresh is best when it comes to veggies, but frozen is fine too. For half the year my husband and I belong to a CSA farm (community supported agriculture), so we actually have all we can do to eat all of the fresh produce delivered each week. But in the winter months I definitely keep frozen vegetables on deck. They’re crazy convenient, especially things like squash, which can take a while to peel and cube. Frozen stir-fry mixes make it possible to have a meal ready in minutes, and frozen greens like spinach and kale are easy, nutrient-packed additions to smoothies or quiches.
  3. Canned beans. Cooking dried beans from scratch isn’t difficult, but sometimes we forget to soak them ahead of time or feel put-off by the lengthy cooking time required. Just like with frozen vegetables, it’s possible to have a meal ready in minutes if you have some canned beans on standby. I often keep cans of garbanzos, black, and pinto beans on hand. One note: only buy beans in cans with BPA-free linings. We certainly don’t need hormone-disrupting chemicals leaching into our food.
  4. Sliced jicama. Jicama has a mild sweetness and a snappy, refreshing crunch that tides me over beautifully when an afternoon snack-attack hits. It’s also sort of a pain to cut, so I usually buy it pre-cut at the coop. Try it with guacamole. Awesome.
  5. Packages of pre-shredded slaws, including cabbage, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts. These babies are HANDY. I started using them last fall and got hooked. Just like the cauliflower rice, they’re an excellent way to get more veggies into your body effortlessly. I don’t know about you, but I’d never sit there and shred broccoli or Brussels sprouts, so I love that these nutrient-dense bags of cancer-fighters are available.

 

In summary, yes I believe fresh, scratch-cooking is optimal, but I also feel confident most of us are going to be just fine even if we don’t ferment our own vegetables, make our own cauliflower pizza crusts, or chop every last vegetable ourselves. It really comes down to making the best choices we can in a given moment while allowing ourselves some grace.

 

So what did you think? Was this helpful? And do you have some shortcuts of your own you’d be willing to share?

 

Much love,

Claudine

Plantain Chips Recipe – a favorite crunchy snack

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Most of us enjoy something salty and crunchy to snack on every once in a while, and if you’re anything like me, you can only handle so many nuts before the thought of another almond makes your belly hurt. My friend Suzy and I just finished facilitating a 10-day group detox during which we let go of grains and corn (along with many other inflammatory foods like sugar, dairy, alcohol, caffeine, soy, and certainly anything processed). This meant chips and crackers were off the table, which can make satisfying that craving for crunch a little tricky, especially when a carrot or celery stick is simply NOT going to do the trick. My answer to the salty-crunchy-craving are plantain chips, something I got turned on to through my travels to Jamaica.

 

Plantains are part of the banana family, but they are not as sweet. You would never eat a plantain raw as you would a banana. You usually bake or fry them. I always opt to fry them just because that’s how I was taught. If a plantain is ripe, it will look similar to a ripe banana – yellow with some brown spots on it – and when you saute it in coconut oil an amazing sweetness develops through the cooking process. I’m not exaggerating when I say that sauteed ripe plantains make a mouth-watering, deeply satisfying dessert.

 

Unripe plantains, on the other hand, will be pretty bright green on the outside (like the picture). These are the plantains you want for making plantain chips. I typically buy them at my nearby Fresh Thyme Market or Valley Natural Co-op, but it can be a bit of a scavenger hunt to find them sometimes.

 

One last tidbit about plantains: they are rich in something important called Resistant Starch, which is being talked about more frequently these days. Resistant Starch helps keep your blood sugar stable and is valuable food for the billions of bacteria that live in your gut. Remember, these are the bacteria that largely control the health of our immune system, so we want to keep this powerful ecosystem known as the “microbiome” fed and happy.

 

Happy snacking, everyone!

 

Plantain Chips

Yield: about 20 chips

 

1 unripe plantain

several tablespoons coconut oil (vegetable oil works fine, too, but I typically recommend avoiding vegetable oil if you can handle coconut oil)

sea salt

 

Peel the plantain. You will likely need a knife for this step, as plantains do not easily peel like a banana does, especially the unripe ones. I usually slice through the peel lengthwise in several places and then begin working the peel off from those cuts. Sometimes I need to use my knife to slice it off completely.

 

Thinly slice plantains into “chip-size” pieces. The thinner you slice them, the crunchier they will be, which is a big part of the appeal. I use a very sharp knife to slice them so they are only about a millimeter thick. Most chips end up being 1-1 1/2 inches long.

 

Lightly sprinkle sea salt onto both sides of the plantain pieces, using your fingers to gently push the salt into the plantain flesh.

 

Heat 1-2 tablespoons coconut oil over medium heat in a cast iron pan or heavy skillet. I love my cast iron pan for making these – they don’t stick and get super crunchy. When oil is ready, place salted plantain pieces into oil. Fry for several minutes, then turn over to fry the other side for a couple minutes until beginning to turn golden. Remove to a plate lined with paper towels. Work in batches, if necessary, adding more oil to the pan before starting another batch.

 

Enjoy! If you decide to give them a try, let me know how it goes. These are undoubtedly one of my favorite snacks and I’m so excited to share them with you.

 

Much love,

Claudine

Pushing the Spring Reset Button – it’s detox time!

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One of the weekend rituals my hubby and I treasure involves one of us reading aloud to the other a wacky “Seinfeld-like” column from our local Sunday paper. The columnist is James Lileks, and he is a nut. This guy has the most wacky, goofball way of seeing the world and examining the quirkiest of human behavior.

 

His columns CRACKS US UP to the point that we’re usually wiping laughter tears from our cheeks and holding our sides as one of us struggles to finish reading the column out loud to the other.

 

Last week, James’ column was about spring in Minnesota. Here’s an excerpt: “April is irritable and moody; it has a reputation for being the start of the good warm times, and it really resents it. April’s attitude is more or less a sullen teen who just doesn’t feel like it, OK? Gah! Leave me alone (slammed door, loud music)! Then the month offers a sheepish apology: Here’s some 60s. We’re good?”

 

Mike and I went for a walk later that day in the rain and laughed repeatedly over the teenager analogy, occasionally bursting out with, “Gah!” as we felt ourselves pushed around by violent wind gusts and did our best to dodge the hundreds of sidewalk worms who had come up for air.

 

Yes. Spring is indeed a moody and irritable teenager.

 

Every year I write a newsletter about spring because it’s that magical time for resetting our health. It’s all too easy to ignore seasonal transitions in our modern world where we tend to live, work and drive in temperature controlled environments and only get outside if we’re super intentional about it. But spring asks us for some loving attention and intention around foods, behaviors, and activity level. Spring asks us to wake up again.

 

Spring is our time to shake off the heaviness of winter, both literally and figuratively. Most of us have put on a few pounds over the winter, which is normal, and spring is the time to let them go. Some of you get hit with congestion and spring allergies, which means it’s time to focus on clearing the congestion. Spring brings a renewed energy and enthusiasm for the months ahead – it asks us to move our arses again and act on the ideas that brewed forth out of winter’s darkness.

 

Here are my top 3 tips for a healthy spring this year:

  1. Get outside. Even if it’s raining. Strive to spend at least 30 minutes outside every day. Most of our homes are filled with all sorts of things that aren’t great for us – carpet, out-gassing furniture, paint, etc. In fact, multiple studies claim our home interiors hold more pollution than the busiest street corner in Manhattan. If our homes hold this much toxicity, we can only imagine what our offices are like. Get outside, inhale the fresh air, move your body, and connect with nature. Every day.
  2. Ease up on meat, dairy, and grains and ease into more beans, greens, and sprouts. Winter calls for heavier, heartier foods to keep us warm and protect us from the harsh elements. Spring is the exact opposite. It demands foods that are light, energizing, clearing, and “drying” – in other words, foods that won’t contribute to congestion in the body, which, when combined with spring rains, contribute to spring colds and allergies. Every spring I let go of grains and dairy completely for about six weeks and end up doubling my vegetable intake as a result. Broccoli or alfalfa sprouts become a staple on my grocery list. Basically, I look down into my grocery cart and see a sea of green for a couple of months.
  3. Consider a gentle liver detox, which sounds way more complicated than it is. Cleansing one’s liver can take shape in many different ways: Simply by adding in lots of leafy green vegetables (like kale, collards, and Swiss chard) and sprouts, you’d be giving your liver a boost. You could also take a break from alcohol for a few weeks or start sipping warm lemon water in the morning. Milk thistle is an herb that loves up the liver – it can be taken in the form of tea or supplements. One of my favorite spring supplements is called Hepatocleanse, which is a blend of milk thistle and other herbs that support liver health. Heck, even something as easy as an Epsom Salt bath helps reduce one’s toxic load. (Interested in doing a formal cleanse? Check out the details of our upcoming cleanse beginning April 30 here.
  4. Bonus tip for allergy sufferers: I know spring can be brutal for some of you. Load up on antioxidants like grapeseed extract and vitamin C, and for the love of all things sacred, get dairy and sugar out of your diet. You might also want to consider getting a neti pot, which you use to clean your nasal passages out with a saline solution. While running salt water through your nasal passages doesn’t exactly feel awesome, neither do allergies, and it’s a surprisingly effective remedy.

If you’re confused about detoxing, consider joining my friend Suzy and me for our annual Spring Reset Cleanse. Don’t be scared, we’re gentle and loving, and our cleanses are NEVER about perfection or deprivation. They are only about supporting one another to eat clean and take great, intentional care of ourselves for a couple of weeks.

 

What is the Reset Cleanse?

It’s a 10-day whole foods cleanse designed to jumpstart a healthy spring. The cleanse will run from Sunday, April 30 – Wednesday May 10.

We’ll meet 3 times over the course of 10 days: once for a cooking social and twice for cleanse discussions and gentle exercise sessions like yoga and foam rolling.

It’s not about perfection or about dying of starvation. It’s about eating plenty of “clean” food and getting daily support to make changes you’ve been wanting to make for your health and well-being.

The cost is $229.

Follow this link to read more and register. :)

 

As spring rains arrive and wash away winter, let’s do our best to make some conscious, subtle shifts to support our health. What will you try? I’d love it if you’d leave a comment below.

 

Much love,

Claudine

Fudgy Holiday Goodness

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Happy holidays, everyone! ‘Tis the season for all things festive and magical and cheery and sweet (interlaced with stress, fatigue, and nasty beefs with Old Man winter – but hey, we don’t have to talk about that right now).

I sure hope you’re finding ways to soak up the wonder and joy of the season and that you are spending time with the people in your life that light up your insides with holiday sparkle.

December is my slowest health coaching month out of the year. This may come as a shocker, but it turns out not many people are interested in talking about the warming, grounding properties of root veggies or how sugar sabotages your immune system or how to follow the Elimination/Provocation Diet in the last few weeks of the year. Hard to believe, right?

So rather than delude myself and pretend anyone is interested in what I’d have to say about health right now, I thought I’d add to the merriment by sharing a recipe for fudgy goodness that makes me salivate like a puppy.

A client passed this along a few years back, and it falls in line beautifully with one of the guidelines I use in my work: Upgrade your food whenever possible.

Food is a touchy subject. Nobody likes to have his or her food messed with, let alone taken away, so I do my best to help my clients find “upgrades” for the dishes, snacks, and sweet treats they can’t imagine living without. Usually by swapping out an ingredient here or there or buying a higher quality version of something they enjoy (dark chocolate vs. crappy chocolate), we can uncover a win-win for one’s taste buds AND one’s health.

I love when that happens.

This recipe is a great example of a fudge upgrade. (Confession: I’ve never actually made real fudge so I’m not 100% sure what goes into it, but given the way my mouth feels fuzzy and my taste buds go manic after I eat a piece, I think it’s a safe bet there’s enough sugar in it for a neighborhood.)

THIS recipe may not taste like traditional fudge, but it’s so satisfying. I’ve been making it pretty much every week in December, and as a result, it’s been easy to pass up traditional sugary sweets. Enjoy!

 

Fudgy Goodness

Yield: 15 small servings

1/2 cup almond butter

1/4 cup coconut butter (manna)

2 Tablespoons coconut oil

2 mashed Medjool dates

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

1-2 Tablespoons cocoa powder

2 Tablespoons hemp seeds

1/4-1/2 teaspoon sea salt

 

Combine ingredients in small pan and melt together over low heat. Stir together while heating, working to mash the dates more while stirring.

When mixture becomes liquid, pour into a small 5 x 7 glass dish or pan lined with parchment paper (you can also simply grease a pan if you don’t have parchment paper). Place in fridge and cool until it begins to harden – about 1/2 hour.

Cut into individual pieces and store in the fridge or freezer – they will melt if left out at room temperature. And you might be tempted to eat them all at once!

If you decide to make some fudgy goodness, please leave a comment and let me know what you think. Hearing from you makes my heart sing.

Love, Claudine

A Digestive Superhero

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This week I’m excited to introduce you to a digestive superhero I know and love, a veritable Wonder Woman of digestive health: psyllium husk.

Most of you know I love teaching people how to support their digestive health. Talking about poop is as normal to me as talking about the weather, and I feel confident this little seed could help you have such brag-worthy b.m.’s that you’ll start enjoying poop conversations as much as I do.

It’s one of those tools I like to keep in my back pocket, especially when I’m working with folks with constipation. It rarely lets me down.

Psyllium, or psyllium husk powder, comes from a shrub-like plant and is chock full of fiber, both soluble and insoluble. Think of psyllium less as food for you and more as food for the millions of bacteria that live in your gut. It’s vitally important we pay attention to and support these bacterial friends since they profoundly influence so many aspects of our health: immune function, mood, weight, digestive well-being, and much more.

In other words, psyllium can help build a healthy and robust bacterial ecosystem, which is critical to overall health.

When the bacteria in our gut feast on all the great fiber in psyllium, they produce a short chain fatty acid called butyrate, which is shown to increase insulin sensitivity and have anti-inflammatory effects, in addition to improving digestion. Furthermore, as this little husk makes its way down the intestinal tract, it absorbs water and forms a spongy gel, which adds bulk to stool, scrubs the intestinal tract clean, and binds to toxins, ushering them out of the body through well-formed stool.

Think of it as an “intestinal soft scrub.”

And yes, while I especially love using psyllium to jumpstart a stalled digestive system, it can also be helpful for those folks on the other end of the digestive spectrum – those who struggle with diarrhea. Because psyllium absorbs water and bulks up, it can help slow down or stop diarrhea.

It can speed things up, slow things down, bulk things out – it’s a digestive superhero!

In addition to enjoying bulkier, more robust stools (yes, these are enjoyable), side benefits of psyllium husk can also include:

  • more stable blood sugar: in general, fiber helps slow down the absorption of sugars into one’s blood stream, which is pretty much always a good thing. Stable blood sugar is a key building block of health.
  • lowering LDL, or “bad,” cholesterol numbers by inhibiting its absorption in your intestines
  • feeling fuller longer, thereby curbing the urge to overeat
  • weight loss, which is inevitable when you start clearing out toxins and built-up stool
  • clearer skin: psyllium husk can help move yeast and fungus out of your body, helping to clear rashes or other skin issues that have been exacerbated by these conditions

So, are you going to give it a try? What do you have to lose? Probably just some old, impacted fecal matter if you ask me, and that will certainly put an extra bounce in your step.

Keep in Mind

For those ready to experiment with this digestive superhero right away, keep the following tips in mind:

  1. Psyllium should not be treated as a replacement for the beneficial fiber you get when eating fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. It’s a SUPPLEMENT. Make sure you’re consuming plenty of whole foods daily. (FYI: 10-12 servings is considered the gold standard these days.)
  2. Drink plenty of water when you take psyllium – at least a full 8-ounce glass. Because psyllium bulks up, it does have the potential to cause an obstruction if someone is chronically dehydrated. Obviously that’s the last thing we want! Staying hydrated is simply a foundational building block of health, so aim for 50-70 ounces of water daily.
  3. Gradually build up the amount you take, starting with just a 1/2 teaspoon a day and increasing to no more than 2 Tablespoons daily. If the intestinal tract has become lazy, it can take some time to get it moving again. Be gentle with your body.
  4. Finally, if you take medications or other vitamin/mineral supplements, consume psyllium either an hour before or two hours after you take your medications, vitamins, or minerals. It can interfere with absorption if taken to close together.

How to Get Your Psylly On

Like any new food or supplement, psyllium can feel a bit mysterious, but it’s actually pretty easy to get into your body.

Most of the time I simply add it to an 8-ounce glass of water and drink it down. That’s likely the easiest method, and it ensures you’re taking it with enough water, which I mentioned is very important.

Other options include adding it to yogurt or smoothies, but you’ll want to make sure to send it down the hatch quickly if you add it to a smoothie. It starts gelling up within minutes and will make your smoothie pretty darn thick. Some people don’t like that texture.

Are you somebody who likes to make protein bars or power balls? You can often sneak in a couple tablespoons of psyllium powder to your recipe, and chances are you won’t even notice it’s in there. Psyllium acts as a binder, too, so it can even help hold gluten-free products together, which is a bonus.

If you have other ideas, please share in the comments section! I always love ideas and feedback!

So what do you say? Are you ready to get your psylly on? If you do, make sure to let me know how it goes.

Love, Claudine

I’ve got the beet! (a recipe you’ll love)

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I’ve got the beet! Do you have the beet? If not, I’m sharing a to-die for recipe this week that is far too good to ignore – EVEN IF you haven’t been a beet fan in the past.

Food just doesn’t get any better than the rich, earthy, naturally sweet flavors of fall. This is hands-down my favorite season for playing in the kitchen, and beets top my list of delights.

These robust little buggers make my taste buds do happy gymnastics and make me bust out in song with the Go-Go’s hit, “We’ve Got the Beat!” (MUCH to my husband’s disdain, I must add. Poor guy, but too bad for him; when this girl cooks, she SINGS.)

Some of you know I’m working on a cookbook for the Aslan Institute, the integrative clinic where I have my office. It’s going to be a collection of recipes from all of the amazing practitioners there. Well, this beet recipe is definitely going in that cookbook. It’s tasty and so, so beautiful – it looks like little pieces of crimson stained glass.

One note: while beets taste super sweet to me, every once in a while I run across someone who says beets taste just like dirt. If that’s you, try adding more orange slices and upping the ginger in the recipe. You can even add a teaspoon of allspice to help mask the earthiness and highlight more sweetness.

Beets with Orange Raspberry Vinaigrette

Yield: 6-8 servings

While this dish tastes delicious right away, it actually improves the longer it sits. Don’t hesitate to make this 2-3 days before you plan to serve it, allowing time for the beets to really soak up the orange, raspberry, and ginger flavors.

9-10 medium beets (about the size of golf balls)

2 Tbsp raspberry vinegar

4 Tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice

1 tsp maple syrup

2 Tbsp freshly grated ginger (or more if you want more zing)

1 1/2 tsp sea salt, or to taste

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper, or to taste

1/3 cup red onion, diced small (about 1/2 onion)

zest of 2 large navel oranges

segments of 2 large navel oranges

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. If using fresh beets with tops still attached, trim off beet greens and reserve for another dish.

Give beets a quick, gentle scrub to remove any remaining dirt, taking care not to break the skins, then wrap beets in a big bundle of aluminum foil. If you need to do a couple bundles, that’s okay. Place bundle/s in a baking dish and roast in the oven for about 60 minutes.

A quick note: in my experience, roasting beets is a super forgiving process. You can roast them alongside other dishes in the oven at temperatures varying from 325-425 and not really have to worry about them. Small beets may roast in as little as 30 minutes; very large beets may need 75 minutes.

Remove beets from oven when tender. Open aluminum foil and allow to cool for 5 minutes, or until you can easily handle them. Cut a small slice off the very top and bottom of each beet, then slip beet skins off by rubbing them with your fingers. You’ll be amazed at how quickly they come off!

Dice beets into 1/2-inch cubes and place in a mixing bowl. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Serve cold or at room temperature.

A note about making your orange segments: I’m fussy about oranges and really dislike having any of the white membrane when I’m using orange segments in salads or desserts. It ruins the texture for me and adds a bitterness I don’t care for. So rather than spending tons of time pulling the white membrane off, there’s a really easy technique you can employ that’s clearly explained in this You Tube video. You just need a really sharp knife to do it. Make sure you do this over a mixing bowl, as it will release a lot of wonderful juice you want to capture.

The benefits of beets are too numerous to disregard these jeweled beauties. Seriously. Beets are known as workhorse detoxifiers, they lower blood pressure, reduce inflammation, and fight against cancer. They also have a ton of fiber, helping us poop regularly. Enjoy!

Love, Claudine

Do you ever want a do-over?

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Ah, sweet September. It’s hard to believe school buses are back in action, Labor Day has passed, and summer is a memory already.

Can I ask, did you rock your summer as hard as I did? You did? Awesome.

And now are you as wiped-out and off-kilter as I am? You are? I’m glad I’m not alone. Perhaps we can find our way back to our best selves together.

As many of you know, I’m a proud Minnesotan – born and raised in this beautiful state – and if there’s one thing Minnesotans know how to do it’s how to play hard and soak up every minute of our precious summers. June, July, and August were spent enjoying some seriously awesome trips to the cabin, concerts that left me hoarse, the gluttonous Minnesota State Fair (twice!), vineyard/winery visits, long hours lost in my gardens, patio dinners with friends, mushroom foraging in the deep woods, kayaking, and on and on and on.

And of course much of this fun was accompanied by JUNK FOOD, alcohol, late nights, short nights, and little sense of routine many weeks. There was no holding back for this girl. Confession: BOTH of my state fair outings included cheese curds. After those babies I had a beer (or maybe two). Talk about walking on the wild side.

I sure hope you played as hard as me this summer, and if you did it’s probably safe to assume you’re just a bit more BLOATED, heavy, and TIRED than your best self right about now, just like me. If so, you may want to check out the cleanse I’m co-facilitating with my friend Suzy from Defining You Pilates and Fitness in October. Click on this link to explore the 30-Day Fall Cleanse: The Whole Life 360 Experience.)

I love summer, but its brevity often pushes us to go gangbusters and overdo it. If your overdo has left you needing a “do-over,” read on. Autumn is ripe with possibilities for renewal, reflection, and fresh starts, so let’s kickstart some self-love again and get back to the disciplines that help us be our best.

My Top 3 Tips for a Fresh Start

  1. Decide on a single small step missing from your routine and begin with that single small step.

Identify ONE thing you’ve let go of in your life/routine that makes you feel strong and robust, and bring it back. I’m the biggest believer ever that small tweaks are the ticket to long-lasting positive change. I sincerely wish I had a dollar for every time someone tried explaining to me in all earnestness, “But Claudine! I’m an all-or-nothing person! I can’t just change one thing!”

Yes, I know. We all want to wave a magic wand and have four dozen changes stick at once. Who doesn’t? But life, and your mind, and others around you don’t work that way.

Pick. One. Thing.

Do you need to get back to the gym and start moving your body again? Back-to-school means back-to-the-gym for a lot of us.

Are you eating a protein-rich breakfast within an hour of waking up? Routines tend to slip away in summer. It can be surprising to realize that something that was once automatic has vanished.

Are you going to bed later than your body likes? We might be able to scrape by on fewer hours of sleep and rely on solar power during the long days of summer, but it will catch up with us. Allow your body to rest.

So what is the fresh start your body/mind/spirit needs/misses right now? Trust your gut’s answer. No step is too small. Tiny changes will build confidence and energy and will yield surprising results if done consistently.

2. Change something in your environment. It sounds bizarre, but studies show that changes in one’s environment can promote fresh starts or new habits by up to 36%. Isn’t that astonishing?

I believe changing our environment is effective because it’s a pattern interrupt. It helps knock us out of auto-pilot and into a mind-space of being more intentional. Whether you decide to clean out the pantry, rearrange your office, declutter a closet, or display a new piece of art that lights you up, changing our environment clears out old energy and opens our eyes to possibility again.

I have a great story of how this worked for me.

For over a year I had the simple goal of meditating for 10 minutes each morning, which doesn’t seem like it should be that hard, but I just could not get into a rhythm with it. I was finally successful when I cleared a corner of the bedroom and designated that particular space for my sitting meditation. It sounds so simple it’s almost embarrassing to share, but I know I’m not alone. Simple solutions are often staring us in the face.

3. Remember Now is Now.

Humans are a complex breed. We love to believe past experiences and patterns or old beliefs of ourselves are the truth, when the truth is really that we are changing in every moment – as is everything around us.

It can be tempting to fall back into nasty old beliefs that we are perpetual failures and nothing is ever going to change for us every time we eat some sugar or skip the gym. We also like to think we can predict our future based on the chocolate croissant and two cups of coffee we just had. Heck, we could defeat ourselves by 7am each day if we’re not careful.

Every moment is a new moment. Now is now, and you are recreating yourself all the time. Become aware of the stories and beliefs that surface that tell you who you are or aren’t. Acknowledge these stories and beliefs, but don’t give them any power. Just say hello to them, then let them pass through you, like a cool breeze on its way to the next town. They are likely very old voices that got stuck and don’t know a doggone thing about what you are up to these days.

Learning to recognize these voices, like an old friend who’s not actually a very good friend anymore, will be an important step in building new habits. Now is now. Not the past. Not the future.

Let me end by saying that – without a doubt – filling our lives with things that bring us joy may quite possibly be the best thing we can do for our health – cheese curds, beer, short nights, and all – but there usually comes a time when we’ve overdone it and we need to turn over a new leaf. Autumn is that time. Keep me posted on how you find your way back home.

Love, Claudine