Secrets to a Healthy Winter

Every Fall, when the kids head back to school, they start taking this invaluable immunity tonic. Last year they had perfect attendance at school. Of course, they did catch a few colds and had one puking virus, but overall they had a great winter! For the first time in their short lives, they had a normal response to these incidences. There were no trips to the ER for IVs nor constant antibiotics and calls to the doctor.

As you look forward to the coming months, one of the best things you can do, is cut back on sugar, preservatives and artificial ingredients. These ingredients create acidity in the body which translates into the perfect environment for dis-ease to thrive. The combination of cutting back on junk and taking the tonic is how we managed last winter. It's our 'secret' family recipe.

Immune Tonic Recipe
4oz. organic grape juice (Lakewood Organic brand)
1 tsp. fish oil (Nordic Naturals or Carlson brands)
1 tsp. elderberry syrup (Sambucol brand)
1 probiotic capsule (Jarrow brand) 

Directions:
Take 5 mornings a week with 2 days off. Cut the quantities in half for kids 4 and under except for the probiotic. Lately, we've added 2 drops of oregeno oil to the mixture.

The better we all feel, the stronger our immunity and the less we even think about dis-ease. Look for more tips and information in the coming weeks! 

Dent Relief

I've had a dent in the back of my car for the past 7 years. Nothing serious. It just defined who I was.

After receiving the news about my father's sudden death at my in-laws house in Ohio, my father-in-law found the first flight back home so I could be with my mom.  My husband, on the other hand, drove from Ohio to Connecticut with two little boys. At the time they were four and two. It took him 2 days and plenty of Heavenly guidance, but he made it. He pulled into the driveway at my mother's house and my mom took the kids into the house immediately. My husband was still sitting in the car. When he finally got out, he just hugged me and cried. Yes, my father had died, but his friend had died as well. A man he looked up to, respected and who understood him even better than his own family did.  He was gone. Or so we thought...

After composing himself, my husband went into the house and I was left to unpack the car. To make it easier, I decided to back it into the driveway and unload into the garage. As I backed up, I hit something. We were all out of our minds as it was and here I was backing into something in the black of the night in the middle of winter.  It was my father's stump grinder. If you don't know by now, he was a lumberjack. All of his equipment was still in the driveway and the garage. Still fresh with hydraulic oil and wood chips. Brand new car, brand new dead dad and brand new dent... life has a way of happening and we get to make sense of it. It can be fantastically ironic sometimes.

That dent was a gift from my father. It was a reminder to me how quickly life can change - How things, people come and go, but feelings last forever. It marked me like a scar after a cut. And, this cut was deep. In good conscious, I could not get it fixed. Sure, I got plenty of quotes and talked about it, but did nothing until now. It was a scar I wore with pride for 7 years. Everyone needed to see it. I needed to see it. It screamed, "This happened in my life and I survived." It said, "This is who I am."

It was time. I don't have any logical reason for why, I just knew it was time to fix it.  I kept looking at the dent and how I defined myself, not wanting to let go of that moment in time. It was as if I had a piece of my Dad with me in that dent. Just like bumper stickers on the back of cars that convey how the driver feels about life, abortion, teams or schools ... I used the dent in the same way. But now, that sticker, that dent is inside me. It is part of my cellular structure. I've meditated upon it for the past 7 years without realizing it. That meditation has become a part of who I am.

How odd it is to define ourselves and unconsciously label or limit who we are. How odd it is to have to keep something like a dent for so long and then one day wake up and it's gone. What dents are you wearing? Is it time to smooth them out? The Buddha teaches that "Nothing ever goes away, until it has taught us what we need to know." The struggle of dark and light, good and bad has disappeared. What is left? Love.

My husband hammered it out this week. It's a smooth back-end again and I feel good about it. To the human eye, the dent is gone. That's OK, because it is forever engraved in my heart.

Power Breakfast: Gluten Free Pancakes

The challenge: Make a great tasting, whole grain, gluten-free pancake.
Why?: Because.

Cornstarch. That's the real reason. It lacks any real nutritional value, is a high glycemic food, has no fiber, no protein, and is highly inflammatory. It is also one of the main ingredients in most gluten-free foods.

Many of you know spelt is my go-to grain for most everything. And, although it is a low-gluten food, it still has gluten. I wanted to make a true, whole grain pancake without gluten, but also without cornstarch - something that had more nutritional value. Thankfully, my kids are pancake connoisseurs and I can experiment with them. Sometimes the feedback is good, sometimes not - but they still eat it.

As is true to form with my shopping habits during the summer, we had run out of our standard spelt flour for the usual pancake breakfast. Keeping up with feeding the kids during the summer months is a challenge in itself.  I swear they make up for the other nine months of the year when they are in school by eating constantly all summer. So, that morning, after surveying the pantry, I found some brown rice flour, corn meal and xanthan gum. Xanthan gum is a natural food product that thickens food. It acts like a glue when gluten based flour is not available. It's also used widely in gluten-free foods, but not the main ingredient. Usually 1/2 to 1 tsp. is all that is needed.

School is fast approaching, and you can amp up these pancake to make a complete meal. We added more fiber and protein by using flax seed and raw, organic, vegan brown rice protein powder. You'll also see oatmeal in the recipe below. Oatmeal is gluten free, however, it is not always processed in a facility that uses gluten specific machinery. Therefore, it can be considered a 'contaminated' food. If you have true celiac disease, make sure you purchase oatmeal processed in a gluten free facility.

Now we can have our cake and eat it too - gluten free!

Gluten Free Pantry Pancakes:
1 cup goat milk (can substitute almond or rice milk)
1 cage free egg
1/2 tsp. organic sea salt
1/2 tsp. aluminum free baking soda
1/2 tsp. free-trade vanilla
2 tbsp. whole cane sugar
1 tbsp. cold-processed, unrefined, sesame oil
1 & 1/4 cup organic brown rice flour
1/2 cup organic corn meal
1/2 cup organic oatmeal
1 tsp. xanthan gum
Optional: 2 tbsp flax seed meal and/or 1 scoop of Garden of Life Raw Protein.

Mix ingredients together and spoon onto a hot pan. Add a few chocolate chips or blueberries. Flip over and cook both sides.

To top them off, try Grade B Maple Syrup, almond butter & jelly or raw honey. The door is wide open to try all kinds of whole grain, gluten free flours - coconut, almond, quinoa, and millet.  Why don't you experiment a little? Let me know how your pancakes turn out.

By the way, I have been known to run out of sandwich bread and send pancake or waffle sandwiches to school. Just food for thought as you start planning those school lunches...

Mix it up and have some fun!