Ginger’s flesh comes in yellow, orange, and white varieties. In my opinion, it tastes best when fresh, and does not need to be peeled before shredding, grating, mincing and pureeing. It is easier to cut when slicing in the direction of the fiber, rather than against it. Pickled ginger can be enjoyed with more than just sushi as a palate cleanser – try pairing it with soups, sandwiches, salads and grains. Have you ever tried ginger ice cream? Mmmm, scrumptious! Teas are another wonderful way to help your palate adjust to ginger’s powerful kick and increase your consumption. Ginger is nicely combined in spicy chai blends, green teas, and other herbal blends. My favorite ginger tea is an herbal made by Yogi Teas – called “Ginger Tea”.

Some people find ginger is too strong and therefore avoid it. In my experience, it’s an acquired taste. I became accustomed to it mostly through drinking it in teas and eating an occasional Indian or Thai dish. Sometimes, I chop up a little candied ginger and cook it into my oatmeal. While preparing this article, I learned that fresh ginger should be stored at room temperature. Oops! I’ve always stored it in the refrigerator. Dried ginger is about five-six times stronger than fresh, so use five-six times more when substituting fresh for dried in a recipe. If ginger is too strong in your opinion, using it fresh may help you to tone it down in any dish. Another yummy ginger food is chocolate-covered ginger. Who can argue with that? =-)

Have another suggestion for ginger, or a recipe to share? Please put it in the comments below. I love your contribution! Thanks for reading.

With love,

Frances

Today’s post is to share with you a screamingly delicious spice blend that has grown into my household’s staple. I love spices because they flavor foods without threatening to leave its mark on your waste and hips. Any calories these spices add to your foods are negligible. What’s more? These spices each offer a dose of preventive medicine. So spice it up!

Use an empty spice container of any size. In equal parts, combine each of the following *ground* spices. Play with the proportions until you make it just right for you.:

Cinnamon

Cardamom

Clove

Ginger

Fennel

Nutmeg

Allspice

Shake until combined. I label mine “Francie’s magic blend”. We use it on hot cereal nearly every morning.  Add chopped dates and figs and a splash of real vanilla to your morning cereal. You’ll probably find you can reduce (or even omit) the amount of additional sweetener you use.  This spice blend is also lovely shaken into yogurt, apple or pear sauce, hot milk or sprinkled on buttered toast.

On a personal note, I hope you’ll forgive me for my recent blogging hiatus. I was juggling enough activity for 2-1/2 people to manage, and living out the sore impact that comes with taking on way too much. I’m mostly recovered from the “OMG, I’m Overwhelmed!” hangover. We all know how the story can play out, right? In fact, I’ve just sent off some of the Christmas presents Mike and I never got around to buying (thanks for understanding, Dad, Britt, and all of Mikey’s family).

In the next posts, I promise to tell you about the wonderful health benefits of each of these spices. Each of them deserves some special attention!

Today’s post is to share with you a screamingly delicious spice blend that has grown into my household’s staple. I love spices because they flavor foods without threatening to leave its mark on your waste and hips. Any calories these spices add to your foods are negligible. What’s more? These spices each offer a dose of preventive medicine. So spice it up!

Use an empty spice container of any size. In equal parts, combine each of the following *ground* spices. Play with the proportions until you make it just right for you.:

Cinnamon

Cardamom

Clove

Ginger

Fennel

Nutmeg

Allspice

Shake until combined. I label mine “Francie’s magic blend”. We use it on hot cereal nearly every morning. It’s also lovely in hot milk or sprinkled on buttered toast. Add chopped dates and figs and a splash of real vanilla to your morning cereal. You’ll probably find you can reduce (or even omit) the amount of additional sweetener you use.

On a personal note, I hope you’ll forgive me for my recent blogging hiatus. I was juggling enough activity for 2-1/2 people to manage, and living out the sore impact that comes with taking on way too much. I’m mostly recovered from the “OMG, I’m Overwhelmed!” hangover. We all know how the story can play out, right? In fact, I’ve just sent off some of the Christmas presents Mike and I never got around to buying (thanks for understanding, Dad, Britt, and all of Mikey’s family).

In the next posts, I promise to tell you about the wonderful health benefits of each of these spices. Each of them deserves some special attention!

Mikey shrugged and replied, “Probably. I don’t remember.”

I rolled down the window. And then soon rolled it back up when I thought the air cleared. But the stench lingered.

“Mikey, are you okay? Is your stomach upset?”

“No.”

“Oh man, that’s a rank smell. It must be that your car is getting old! It smells foul.”

Every minute that passed, the smell intensified. My family has always teased me about having an unusually sensitive sniffer, but in this case, I was slightly relieved that I wasn’t the only one suffering through this foul-a-riffic moment.

“Mikey, it smells like a baby diaper blowout in here.” I’ve learned from my sister about baby blow-outs. “I’m rethinking our conversation about having kids right now.This is a great form of birth control.”

I must admit, I found it impressive how quickly Mike accepted responsibility for the offending smell, even though it clearly wasn’t him.

We finally wised up to the culprit: the Brussels sprouts we were bringing to the Seattle Tilth party. Dangit, do not fool yourself into believing that you can take these to a potluck! As much as you will want to share this delicious dish with your friends, you must resist the urge. If you care at all about keeping a good relationship with foods from the cabbage family (such as broccoli, collard, cabbage & kale), they are best tolerated in the kitchen.

Brussels on the Stalk

After taking the Brussels sprouts out of our car, they were an instant hit. Despite our earlier disgust, Mikey and I conveniently forgot about the cabbage odors from earlier as we enjoyed every succulent sprout. In fact, I bought another stalk of sprouts to re-make the same recipe. And then another. We couldn’t get enough. In fact, within about a week of this experience, I forgot about my own advice for not transporting Brussels sprouts, and sent Mikey to a work potluck with another batch of them, prepared as described below. He proudly reported that some of his co-workers exclaimed something to the effect of, “I never knew I liked these before!” Victory. As a dietitian and lover of natural, whole foods, this feedback is puts the pitter-patter into my heart.

This recipe is darn tasty, as the Brussels are seasoned with lemon zest, caraway seed, and ghee (recipe below). Brussels sprouts are in season, so this is a good time to enjoy good prices on Brussels, too. Part of the trick to Brussels sprouts and any Brassica (such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage) is to have it properly cooked. If you want to help Brussels sprouts win over a crowd (like your kids, spouse, or yourself), this recipe is the one to try. My only regret is that I was so eager to eat these scrumptious babies, I forgot to take photos of the final dish for you!

Tell me how you like it!

Great served with wild rice or risotto and seasoned, baked tofu.

BS = Brussels Sprouts

1 pound or 1 stalk of BS, each sprout removed from the stalk and rinsed thoroughly
Zest of one lemon

1 tsp caraway seed (can substitute with cumin seed)

1-1/2 Tbsp ghee (you may substitute with coconut oil or olive oil)

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Peel any loose or discolored outer leaves from each sprout. Remove any brown discoloration around the base of sprout. Poke a slit into each sprout so they cook faster.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add BS and cook until tender when pierced (8-10 min). Drain. Return to hot pot.
3. Add oil, lemon zest, and caraway. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. If you are on a low salt diet, season with Mrs. Dash. Stir until well distributed and the oil is melted.
4. Bless the farmers and farm land before eating.

Recipe from “Eating Local – The Cookbook Inspired by America’s Farmers”, by Janet Fletcher

Fiona Murphy, PhD

Following a suggestion that Frances made to her yoga students, I’ve been keeping a “gratitude journal” for several months–every night writing down ten things for which I am grateful (and trying to repeat myself as seldom as possible).  It’s a low-key behavioral technique to cultivate an attitude of gratefulness, and an openness to the beauty of the world and the gifts of this life.

The number ten is arbitrary, but it forces me to get creative and not always name the same stuff.

For instance, I’m grateful to have a job in this economy, but unless I push myself to think about gratitude, I rarely remember to be grateful for having enough food to eat.  If I’m casting around for things to put on my nightly list, I’ll remember small things, like how much I enjoyed the smell of the river that day.  And things that are so big that they never even cross my mind, like how grateful I am not to be in fear for my physical safety.  The exercise also serves to make me recall things in the past for which I was profoundly grateful at the time, but my mind has since moved on and I’ve allowed myself to forget (isn’t that always the way it goes?).

I can talk to someone who is having, say, liver problems, and I’ll now remember to be grateful that my liver works so well that I never even think about it at all.  Things like that. I might be enjoying the feeling of slipping into fresh sheets, and I’ll remember to be grateful that I’m so privileged as to be able to keep my body and my things clean. Or maybe it can be smaller than that–just being grateful for the feeling of fresh sheets. That’s something nice in itself, no?

When I’m feeling overwhelmed by the negative, like how damaging my family of origin was, I make myself remember to be grateful that I escaped from that nightmare with a greater degree of spiritual and psychological health than my other family members, and thereby try and find a way to have gratitude even regarding a dark circumstance.

I described the journal above as a simple behavioral technique, and I do find it to be a form of cognitive therapy in that it fosters in me a greater sense of gratitude throughout the day, not just when performing this one action nightly.  For example, now, in yoga class or at the gym, I tend to appreciate more what my body can do rather than feeling disappointed or frustrated about what it can’t.  (Thank you, Frances, for always emphasizing this!)

That’s about it.  It takes about 5 minutes daily, and whether my items are as big as feeling grateful for the sun that makes things grow or as small as appreciating a wave from a mellow driver on the road, it’s all just grist for the mill.

Peace,

Fiona Murphy