Chinese Medicine considers preventative care as important as treating the disease itself. If we cultivate our health we can prevent illness and injury from occurring and minimize their consequences when 'disease evils' do attack us. Join Kath Bartlett, MS, LAc as she shares thoughts, news articles, recipes & tips derived from a wide variety of source material, as it relates to Chinese medicine and cultivating optimal health for the body, mind and spirit.


Monday, September 27, 2010

NY Times Reports: Only 23% of US Meals Contain Vegetables



Alarmingly, the NY Times reported Saturday that only 23% of American meals include a vegetable. In that statistic, fries don't count as a vegetable, but paradoxically a piece of lettuce on a hamburger does. The CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) reported that merely 26% of Americans are eating vegetables 2-3x/day.

Many reasons play apart: chiefly households with both adults working full time and the onslaught on convenience foods. Family dinner might be pizza or fried chicken picked up on the drive home at the end of the work day. Children complain and tired parents give in rather that fight for eating healthy meals. Junk food is so dominate in American diets, that a consortium of farmers put together an ad campaign using junk food packaging to sell baby carrots.

Another reason given that many wouldn't ordinary think about is Americans do not know how to cook vegetables properly. If you see yourself in this category, talk to a vegetarian friend, or look at some of the plant-based, healthy & yummy recipes I've included in this blog (check the recipes label on the left column).

Here's a few more suggestions on tasty and easy ways to enjoy veggies:


Roasted Root Vegetables


In the autumn & winter season, when the weather chills, yin dominates. Yin & yang are polar opposites. Yang is upward, warm, sun, male, activity, etc. Yin is female, dark, quiescence, deep, downward, cool. Spring and summer are yang seasons, and fall and winter are yin seasons. Root vegetables, which grow downward, deep in the cool earth nourish yin, so Chinese dietary advice recommends eating them in the fall & winter. Baking and roasting are recommended cooking techniques in the cool seasons as it warms cool yin.

Roasted root vegetables are easy, delicious and the perfect choice for autumn & winter. I like to do a medley of several different vegetables: beets, carrots, rutabagas (there's a vegetable most people won't eat), yams and winter squash. Whatever is available and you like will be fine. You can also roast singles: beets with rosemary, potatoes with oregano, or baked yams &
squash.

Peel the veggies & cut into 1 inch pieces: cube a round veg, like rutabagas, cut carrots into 2" segments, halve or quarter beets, depending on size. Put them into a Pyrex dish (9x12 or 9x9, or larger if you are making a big batch) and drizzle with olive oil. You could add a few above ground vegetables for flavor, such as garlic cloves and quartered onions. Cover with foil and roast @375 for about an hour, shorter cooking time in convection ovens. Bake until tender and fragrant.
I make a large batch as the veggies store well and can be reheated easily.

To include the valuable and often missed trace minerals - a rich source is found in sea veggies - toast a sheet of nori, crumble and sprinkle over the top. Nori is used for sushi rolls, and has little favor or fragrance.
Find nori in packages in the macrobiotic section of the natural food store.

Nori is high in vit A (a breath taking 11,000 iu's per 100g) is rich in Calcium (470mg) and phosphate (510mg). Many sea veggies, such a
s wakame, hijiki, arame & kombu are high in calcium (800-1300mg/100g). For comparison, spinach and cow's milk have 93 & 118mg/100g, respectively. The calcium in sea veggies are an easier form for the body to digest and do not cause stone formation. In fact, Chinese herbal medicine uses two sea veggies to dissolve cysts, masses and tumors: hai zao and kombu. Sea vegetables are an important dietary source of calcium for perimenopausal women. Also of note is the high level of potassium in many sea veggies, such as kombu (5800mg/100g), wakame (6800mg), dulse (8060mg), hijiki (get this: 14,700mg) & arame 3860mg). spinach: 470mg, cow's milk: 144mg.

Try floating a few crumbles of wakame in miso soup, with grated ginger, green onion slices, a tablespoon of cooked rice and some tofu cubes for a calcium rich lunch.

Most sea vegetables are black, which is the color of, and thus hones to, the Kidney. The Chinese Kidney system rules the yin, winter season, so this the optimal time to nourish the Kidney. The flavor of the Kidney is salty and its element is water. So black sea vegetables are an optimal choice for nourishing the Kidneys. The Kidney system holds our deep, reserve energy, called jing qi. The western go, go, go lifestyle depletes Kidney jing, so we must take advantage of every opportunity we have to supplement jing.


To bake winter squash, cut in half, scoop out the seeds and put a pat of butter in the cavity. put on a cookie sheet, cover with foil and bake 365 for about an hour until tender and fragrant. acorn, spaghetti & delicata and butternut bake well.

Yams can be baked whole or make yam fries: peel & slice vertically into 1/2 - 3/4" x 3" strips. Put strips in a glass dish, drizzle with olive oil, lightly salt & cover with foil. Bake at 375 for about an hour until tender. yummy.

Apple/yam puree for breakfast & dessert

Quarter & core the apples and cut yams into 3" segments. Add cinnamon stick, 1/4 - 1/2 a whole nutmeg, a few cloves (don't overdo them: they have a strong flavor) and whole anise. Either pressure cook on high for 8 min (add enough water to fill the pot to 1/3 of the fruit level) or put in a glass dish, cover with foil and bake at 365 for about an hour until tender and fragrant. Then puree in the food processor (yes, a chance to use it). No sweetener is necessary: this dish is plenty sweet on its own. Toast broken pecans and sprinkle over the top. I make a fairly large batch and reheat for breakfast & a guiltless dessert.


Vegetable soups are easy and warming in the winter. I enjoy a bowl with a piece of fresh baked bread
for lunch. (slow bread recipe from Mark Bittman: NY Times food writer.) Butternut and rutabaga work well in pureed soups, as do zucchini & broccoli. I'll include soup recipes in future posts this fall and winter.

Use vegetable stock in place in water when cooking grains: it adds lots of flavor.
I save my vegetable & fruit scraps and cooked spices and herbs in a bag in a freezer. I keep a bag of onion skins and garlic peels on the kitchen counter. When the veggie bag is full I put them in a pressure cooker with some fresh carrots, onion, garlic, celery and herbs, salt & pepper & the onion/garlic peels. Cover with water bring to pressure and cook for 12min or so to make vegetable stock. I then store it in the freezer in 1 1/2 - 2C containers to use for cooking grains, beans, or as a base for soups and sauces. Any vegetable or fruit peels, seeds and scraps can be used for this purpose, such as the seeds and pulp from squash, yam peels, apple and pear cores, parsley stems etc.

Using the stock in your cooking will get in a few more veggie servings each day.
KB


Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Poached Pears for Autumn Health



Poached Pears are a autumn/winter favorite of mine. Chinese dietary therapy says pears nourish the Lung system. So those with allergies, sinusitis and frequent colds & flu's, and skin problems should eat them. Each of the organ systems relate to a time of year, when that system is most venerable to disease/disorder. Autumn is time of the Lung, so eating pears now will help protect the Lung against the dryness of the autumn season.

In medieval times, pears were a delicacy (A Partridge in a Pear Tree - lots of pear trees depicted in medieval art). Enjoy Poached Pears for breakfast or a healthy dessert. You could serve them with a chocolate sauce for guests, but i don't think it's necessary: they stand up well on their own sweet flavor.

You may want to add Gouji berries (gou qi zi) to the cooking water. gouji berries tonify the Lung, Liver and Kidney organ systems in Chinese herbal medicine. The dry autumn air injures the Lung Qi and Yin (moistens tissues). Gouqizi moistens Lung, especially useful for a dry cough (though not often used for this purpose by Chinese herbalists). "In folk medicine, 10g of this herbs are steamed and taken 2-3 times a day for" diabetes. (1)


Poached Pears

Whole pears, or halves
nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves
gouji berries, optional

Put pears in a pot with whole nutmeg, cinnamon stick, a few whole cloves. Sprinkle in the gouji berries & add some spring water (1/2"). Cover, bring to boil, then reduce to a simmer for approx. 10 min, until fragrant and tender. remove pears. reduce cooking water to a glaze and drizzled over pears in serving dish. If using whole pears stand them up in the pot. place halves cut side down.

Enjoy! KB

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1. Chinese Herbal Medicine Materia Medica Revised Edition, Bensky & Gamble. Eastland Press, Inc. 1993: p. 234.


Saturday, September 11, 2010

Eat Your Veggies: Roasted Cauliflower, Yum



It's a well-known fact that Americans do not eat enough fruits & vegetables. In fact many often go through the day without eating any. Here's an easy & delicious recipe for Roasted Cauliflower. Cauliflower is probably not one of most peoples favorite veggies, but cooked well it is surprisingly tasty. My mother used to bake it in a cheese sauce, which I loved. I find baking it will a little oil is much more satisfying than the usual steamed. Look for purple and yellow cauliflower in a natural food store with an adventurous produce section. It's colorful and more flavorful that the plain standby, white. KB


Roasted Cauliflower

1 head cauliflower
olive oil
salt & pepper

Rinse and cut the cauliflower into 1 1/2" fleurettes. place in a 9x9 Pyrex dish. Sprinkle with oil, salt and pepper. Cover with foil and roast until fragrant and tender (30 min +/-). Serve.