Tag Archive for: help

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

Why fuss about digestive health?

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I love talking about poop. (Excuse me – bowel movements.)

I know it’s kind of a taboo thing to state so matter-of-factly where hundreds of you could potentially read that statement, and, believe me, people frequently tease me about my unusual fascination with the subject, but I guarantee you this: if you spent as much time as I do researching how much of our health hinges on digestive wellness, you’d love talking about poop, too.

Keep reading this blog post to learn:

  1. exactly why I have such a deep reverence for digestive wellness
  2. what your bm’s might be saying about your overall health

(Also keep reading to experience two very short, ridiculous poems about gut health brainstormed by my brother and sister-in-law on a quiet day of fishing last summer.)

When I first began my health coaching career in 2005, my sole goal was to help people feel better and learn how to take great care of themselves. I didn’t give a second thought to whether I was going to “specialize” in any particular niche. I worked with clients around weight loss, cancer, autoimmune diseases, depression, etc. You get the picture. Guess what I noticed: Digestive distress was a common theme with a startling number of my clients, even if it wasn’t the primary reason they sought out my services.

That’s when I became keenly interested in the shape, size, frequency, and color of one’s do-do.

It’s important to remember there are no walls in the body. We love treating health concerns as if we have separate internal compartments, but we don’t. Each system in the body impacts the other systems, and the influence of the digestive tract is vast. I often refer to the digestive tract as our “river of life.” If that river is clean and flowing freely, it will be a source of nourishment and health for everything around it. If it’s dirty and sludgy, it’ll be a source of toxicity.

Simply put – good health begins with good health in the gut.

Every one of us has heard the saying, “You are what you eat.” Well, over the past few years that saying has morphed into a much nerdier (and less catchy) phrase, “You are what you absorb,” which many of us in the integrative/functional/holistic world embrace. What does that statement mean? It means you can eat the best food in the world, but if there’s a breakdown in the digestive process leading to poor nutrient absorption, there will be consequences. You’ll have to deal with the downfall somehow, sometime, somewhere in the body.

Come. Revel with me. Here are just a few astounding facts about your gut:

  • The surface area of the GI tract is the size of a tennis court – about 300 square meters.
  • Your gut quite literally functions as your second brain; it is formed from the same cells as the brain during development. When we “feel something in our gut,” that’s real information we should pay attention to.
  • 70-80% of the immune system is located in and around the digestive system.
  • More neurotransmitters are made in the gut than in the brain; we make 80-90% of our serotonin – the “feel-good hormone” – in the gut.
  • The human microbiome project has shown there are ten times more bacteria in the body than cells. In fact, some people say we are really only 10% human given this data! The project found that protein-coding genes in the bacteria in our intestinal terrain are 360 times more abundant than human genes in the body. This means that the genetic makeup of the microbiome (a fancy name for the intestinal ecosystem) has a greater influence on an individual’s health than the intracellular genetics of the individual.
  • Intestinal permeability, or leaky gut, in which the gut lining becomes weak and loose, is now thought to be one of the primary underlying reasons for the onset of autoimmune diseases and mental illnesses.

Now for some reflection on your own digestion and do-do. Here’s what your poop might be saying about you:

If your poop looks like rabbit pellets, you’re constipated. You might be dehydrated, your intestinal lining might be dry and not slippery enough, or perhaps you aren’t eating enough fiber overall. You may also have an imbalance in the good bacteria and bad bacteria living in your gut. This is called gut dysbiosis. If you poop fewer than 3 times a week, you’re officially constipated, but most experts agree having 1-3 bm’s DAILY is optimal. Yes, daily.

If your poop looks like a sausage or a brown banana, congrats! You’ve got a winner. (P.S. I’m sorry if this changes how you think about sausages or bananas.)

If you experience diarrhea or frequently have loose stools, your food is moving through you too quickly and you’re not absorbing adequate nutrition from it. Very, very often this is because you are eating something you are sensitive to like dairy, gluten, corn, or nuts, although it can also be a sign of a serious bacterial imbalance or a pathogenic infection.

If you burp or pass gas frequently after meals, it likely means you have low stomach acid and aren’t breaking down your food properly. That or you simply didn’t take enough time to chew your food until it was liquid. Remember – 30 chews per bite of food makes digestion smooth! Same thing if you experience heartburn or see undigested food in your stool.

If you consistently bloat after meals, it’s time to start sleuthing around for the underlying reasons because it’s not normal to bloat after eating. Perhaps you are eating foods your body doesn’t like, or you’re lacking the enzymes and stomach acid needed to break your food down properly, or you have a bacterial imbalance again. The reasons for bloating can be numerous; it can take some detective work to figure it out.

Conclusion:

It may sound dramatic, but life becomes way more enjoyable when you and digestive system aren’t at war with one another. Helping clients improve their digestion has been more satisfying than I ever imagined. I’ve seen clients start traveling again or attending yoga classes because they restored trust in their bodies.

Remember, imbalances in the intestinal terrain may lead to other, more complicated health concerns down the road. Resolve to deal with them now rather than waiting. And on that note, I’ll leave you with two short promotional poems my brother and sister-in-law brainstormed for me last summer while fishing on Lake Kabetogama:

 

“When your guts are in a bind

and relief is hard to find,

call Claudine!”

 

“If your bowels are smelling foul,

and you need the scoop on poop,

call Claudine!”

(Yes, it probably goes without saying, it was a very slow day fishing.)

Love,

Claudine