Tomorrow is the day I present my Live Stream - Cooking 101 - Winter Detox Recipes That Don't Deprive zoom workshop. 

I am excited to present this as there are ways to "detox" without starving yourself through juice fasts, especially during the winter months when the body craves hearty food. 

This recipe and photography I actually captured back in the fall of 2019, but I failed to post it in a timely manner. And sometimes the timing in life works out as it's meant to. 

During that time I was integrating notions about heart-centered living while integrating foods that incorporate that energy. It is amazing the inner core of the pomegranate is shaped like a star while beets can mimic similar shapes to the heart. 

​This coordinated beautifully with the fall foliage, and this vintage winter-style dress that bursted pink as bright as pomegranate juice. 

The irony of posting this blog when the timing "was right," is that people are awakening to their hearts. There is growth and passion for changing the way we live. 

The awakening process is a journey, but much of it comes to the realization that you are the cross. In the center of where the arms meet the torso lays our heart center. 

Nutrition habits, lifestyle, mindset and spiritual soundness are all intermingled in our body's ecosystem. One helps the other, but when out of balance, the entire systems gets out of whack. 

One way to start living in harmony is through the consumption of whole and real foods. Natural foods provide us the nutrients we need to survive, but also to live more sound on a conscious level. For so long, we've become unconscious through mass consumption of artificial food.

It's time to get back to nature, especially for women who want to live a healthier life.  

Roasted Orange Beets with Pomegranate + Pumpkin Seeds
Prep Time: 5-10 minutes
Roast Time: 35 minutes 
Serves 2

Ingredients:
1 lb beets, skinned and cut into wedges
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 orange juiced
1/2 orange zested
2 tbsp pumpkin seeds
1/2 pomegranate deseeded, (approx 1/4 cup)
salt and pepper to taste
optional: balsamic vinegar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Skin and cut the beets into wedges. In a bowl, mix the beets together with the olive oil, orange juice and salt and pepper. 

Place on a baking sheet and place in the oven for 15 minutes. Next, flip the beets and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes. If you want roasted pumpkin seeds, add the seeds on top of the beets the last 5 minutes of cooking. 

Once done, remove from the oven and add the orange zest and pomegranate. If the mixture is dry, add additional orange juice or olive oil or add some balsamic vinegar (1-2 tsp). Mix and serve warm!

Let's Connect! Check out my other beet and similar recipes below!

There is a reason and a season for everything. After the holiday season, many people feel weighed down and bloated after a season of festive eating. Most people have intentions of detoxing or "kick-starting" their health in the New Year. 

During the winter season, it is difficult to do detoxes that are summer-based through juice and raw-food detoxes. Most people live in colder climates, and the body naturally craves warmer and heartier foods. 

One way to honor winter harvest, and our body's requests is through the making of homemade soups. Homemade broth extracts the flavor and nutrients from the vegetables into the water. Broth is healing for the gut and for overall health and wellbeing. 

Homemade broth also fills the body with so many nutrients that it can act as a natural detoxifying agent. 

This broth can be sipped as is, or used for various soups. I used the broth as a soup-base for a vegetable ramen noodle dish and it flavored everything wonderfully! 

Detoxifying the body during any season is possible. And homemade broth makes it possible during the winter and cold months. 

This recipe has been adapted from Bon Appetit, please see the link below in the recipe box. 

Homemade Slow Cooker Umami Broth
Cook Time: 6-7 Hours
Makes: Approximately 7-8 cups

Recipe Adapted from Bon Appetit 

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons white miso
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
6-7 dried shiitake mushrooms
4 pieces kombu approximately 6x4 inches
2 medium onions, unpeeled, halved through root, very thinly sliced
1 medium carrot, unpeeled, very thinly sliced
2 celery stalk, thinly sliced 
1 head of garlic, halved crosswise
8 sprigs parsley
​1 teaspoon black peppercorns

Directions:
Preheat oven to 300º. Whisk miso, oil, and 3 Tbsp. water in a small bowl. Crush mushrooms and kombu with your hands over a rimmed baking sheet. Slice/chop the onions, carrot and celery, and cut the garlic in half. Keep the skins for the onion and garlic. 

Add onions, carrot, celery, garlic, and parsley and toss to combine. Drizzle miso mixture over vegetable mixture and toss to coat, (or do this in a bowl).  Bake, tossing halfway through, until vegetables are slightly shriveled and mixture is fragrant, 60–75 minutes.

Once complete, add mixture to a crockpot with 9 cups of water. If your crockpot is bigger and can handle more water, add additional water. The original recipe uses 16 cups of water and after simmering reduces to 8 cups. 

​Add the one teaspoon of black peppercorns and place on the high setting for 4-6 hours. The broth was flavorful at 4 hours but deepened in flavor around 6. Drain broth through a sieve and eat immediately or store in an air tight container in the fridge. Compost the solids.

Sprinkle the broth with some salt to bring out the flavor. Enjoy!

Let's Connect! Enjoy my other soup based recipes! 

​Image source:  https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/9-powerful-reminders-from-the-miracle-at-the-red-sea.html

As stated in former blogs, life on planet earth is an incarnation of polarity. We cannot have the north pole without the south pole, and we cannot have positive energy without negative energy. 

Everything on this planet from the minerals to the animals to human beings are consciousness. From a spiritual perspective, everything is sending and receiving vibration, frequency and the most evolved energy, love. 

Animals are biologically programmed to perform a function, which is not always kind. Luckily, humans are equipped with a consciousness that can depict the difference between moral and immoral. However we are losing that channel or intelligence. 

Because of continuous programming of the mind, people have become so disconnected from basic understanding of human physiology. They'll believe in marketing commercials and lies sold to them from billionaire corporations, but refuse to listen to people who've spent their careers analyzing and studying various forms of science. 

In terms of understanding how this applies to this topic, the more we fuel the ego, the more we set off our sympathetic nervous system. The adrenaline pumping through our body ignites the fight or flight response.

When grounded, calm, cool and collected, one taps into the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the rest and digest phase of the nervous system (opposite of fight or flight). 

We have the choice everyday to fuel the ego and the polarity, or switch or consciousness to focus on the light and trust the path that the truth will be exposed one day. 

In other blog's I've also stated that the truth lies somewhere in the middle. In today's collective environment,  much lower frequency consciousness is being sent and received to the masses. The media is rarely uplifting, constantly promoting the sludge of the earth. 

In today's current situation, we are losing the path of our divine nature and the true consciousness of love. As planet earth is polar, we are witnessing the rise of polar opposite energies that have two fundamental different beliefs. 

​Like Moses parting the sea, the waves on each side is getting bigger and bigger. This is scary, but this also provides a path to walk in divine nature. It is important to be aware but not get lost in the sludge or lower consciousness. It's a place ofego and lower brain frequency that destroys other people for their opinion or belief.

When two waves collide it creates a form of chaos. Think of a medieval war. Two opponents from opposite sides run and collide into one another and create destruction. 

In physics, when two or more waves meet, they interact with one another. Wave interference happens when two waves that are traveling in opposite directions meet. When the two waves meet, they create an amplitude, which is affected by the interference. There is a constructive or destructive interference. 

The constructive interference is when two waves meet, the crest or highest point of one wave overlaps another to produce a greater, or larger amplitude. 

When thinking about war, the energies collide, scatter and eventually one side becomes the winner. 

It is important because we need to ground ourselves and realize the severity of rising polarities. 

One side cannot rise in energy without the same polarity rising on the other side. That is in part of the lessons or "nature" of life on planet earth. 

If we cannot ground ourselves, come in the middle and meet with reason and diplomacy, the unpredictability from two tidal waves crashing into one another will ignite a sense of chaos. Particles will spurt in the air, going in every which way and direction. 

​Water symbolizes emotion, and the emotional mess and chaos will lead to a clash like we've read in the history books. 

Yoga, meditation, prayer, nature walks and journaling are simple tools to ground ourselves in difficult times. These tools also allow us to maintain awareness without getting lost in the sludge and the lower mind. 

From my experience over the last several months, the energy is dense, chaotic and negative.

The lower mind fuels the tidal wave. The higher mind grounds ourself in spirit and walk in accordance to our higher self. 

What is interesting about the tidal wave image, is that in the far far distance one sees the light. As the wave curves, it almost creates a heart formation. 

If anything changes, I hope it is in the direction of the world adopting a heart-centered culture. 

What are your thoughts? Other readings you may find significant during this time. 

Winter harvest is a time to enjoy warm comfort-food, but often in a heavy, buttery way. I recently found The Sunset cookbook: Food with a Gourmet Touch. Published in originally in 1960, this book features a variety of vegetarian and meat-based cuisines. 

I love retro recipes, and modernizing them into dairy-free versions for everyone to enjoy. 

These two recipes are in The Sunset Cookbook and followed to accordingly with the exceptions of using vegan butter instead of regular butter. For the squash recipe, the original recipe notes for each half to receive one tablespoon of butter and sugar. 

In the 1960's eating that way was probably okay, but with today's modern-health issues, I reduce those ingredients since the standard American diet contains too much salt, sugar and dairy-based ingredients. 

Packed wth winter harvest and winter flavors, this combination ignites the best of fruit and vegetables together. 

The winter-time is challenging health-wise, and it's easy to stew in hibernation mode and eat junk to comfort boredom and emotions. 

The orange itself, and the orange colored squashes provide nutrients that keep our immunity healthy and operating with function. 

Acorn squash is packed with the following: vitamin C, provitamin A, B vitamins, potassium, magnesium, iron, and manganese, all of which are critical for health. It also contains high contents of soluble and insoluble fiber that promotes digestive health and relieves constipation. 

Both types of fiber aide the friendly bacteria that lives in your gut known as probiotics. 

The Sunset Cookbook Acorn Squash with Blueberries + Side of Orange Rice
Cook Time: 1 hour
Serves 4

Acorn Squash with Blueberries 
2 Acorn Squash, cut in half longwise
1 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 apple, diced (used Opal)
2 tbsp vegan butter
1 tbsp sugar

Orange Rice 
3 tbsp vegan butter
1 celery stalk, diced
1/4 onion, diced
1.5 cups water
1 cup orange juice, (juiced from 3 cara cara oranges)
1 orange grated (2 tbsp) for zest 
1 cup uncooked brown rice
1 1/4 tsp salt

Acorn Squash
Preheat oven to 375-degrees. Cut squash in half, lengthwise, and remove the seeds. In a bowl mix together the blueberries and apple and add it to the center of the four squash. I used 1 tbsp of sugar and evenly sprinkled it on top of the four squash.

(The original recipe calls for 1 tbsp of sugar and one tbsp of butter per squash). Add 1/2 tbsp of butter on top of each squash. Add water in the bottom of pan, enough to cover the pan. Cover the pan in foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 15 minutes. 

While baking, begin cooking the rice. 

Rice
Melt butter in a heavy saucepan with a cover. Add celery and onion and cook until tender and light brown. Stir in water, orange zest, juice and salt, and bring it to a boil. Add the rice, cover and reduce to a simmer, and cook until rice is tender (depending on the brand can take 20-30 minutes). If the rice dries and is still hard, add more water and cook until tender. 

Let's Connect! Check out my other similar recipes posted below! 

Ukrainian (Orthodox) Christmas is here and in part of the remembrance of celebrating this day with my great grandmother, I decided to make a traditional Ukrainian treat in honor of this special day. 

Kysil is a type of sweet dessert or beverage that uses seasonal fruits. Depending on how much corn starch one adds in, it can have the consistency and flavor of a pie filling. It's perfect to eat on it's own, or even on top of something like angel food cake. 

I found this vintage designer pear blouse that was made in the Ukraine, and so along with the holiday, the inspiration struck to make food that is traditional for the holiday but also seasonal. Uzar is the most traditional Ukrainian dessert served on the holiday, but I find Kysil to be easier to find ingredients especially during COVID 19. 

​Complete with a shaft of wheat on the table, this holiday is complete with savory food and historic stories. 

The following has more history and information on Ukrainian Christmas. This information comes directly from brama.com.

​"Christianity was introduced into Ukraine in 988 A.D. The flourishing pagan religion and traditions associated with it were too deeply rooted in the people to allow the Church to eradicate them completely. Therefore, the Church adopted a policy of tolerance toward most of the ancient customs and accepted many as part of the Christian holidays. In this way, the ancient pagan Feasts of Winter Solstice, Feasts of Fertility became part of Christian Christmas customs. This is perhaps why Ukrainian Christmas customs are quite unique and deeply symbolic.

Ukrainian Christmas festivities begin on Christmas Eve ([G]Dec.24; [J]Jan.6.) and end on the Feast of the Epiphany. The Christmas Eve Supper or Sviata Vecheria (Holy Supper) brings the family together to partake in special foods and begin the holiday with many customs and traditions, which reach back to antiquity. The rituals of the Christmas Eve are dedicated to God, to the welfare of the family, and to the remembrance of the ancestors.

With the appearance of the first star which is believed to be the Star of Bethlehem, the family gathers to begin supper.

The table is covered with two tablecloths, one for the ancestors of the family, the second for the living members. In pagan times ancestors were considered to be benevolent spirits, who, when properly respected, brought good fortune to the living family members. Under the table, as well as under the tablecloths some hay is spread to remember that Christ was born in a manger. The table always has one extra place-setting for the deceased family members, whose souls, according to belief, come on Christmas Eve and partake of the food. 

A kolach (Christmas bread) is placed in the center of the table. This bread is braided into a ring, and three such rings are placed one on top of the other, with a candle in the center of the top one. The three rings symbolize the Trinity and the circular form represents Eternity.

A didukh (meaning grandfather) is a sheaf of wheat stalks or made of mixed grain stalks. It is placed under the icons in the house. In Ukraine, this is a very important Christmas tradition, because the stalks of grain symbolize all the ancestors of the family, and it is believed that their spirits reside in it during the holidays.

After the didukh is positioned in the place of honor, the father or head of the household places a bowl of  kutia (boiled wheat mixed with poppy seeds and honey) next to it. Kutia is the most important food of the entire Christmas Eve Supper, and is also called God’s Food. A jug of  uzvar (stewed fruits, which should contain twelve different fruits) and is called God’s Drink, is also served.

After all the preparations have been completed, the father offers each member of the family a piece of bread dipped in honey, which had been previously blessed in church. He then leads the family in prayer. After the prayer the father extends his best wishes to everyone with the greeting  Khrystos Razhdaietsia(Christ is born), and the family sits down to a twelve-course meatless Christmas Eve Supper. 
There are twelve courses in the Supper, because according to the Christian tradition each course is dedicated to one of Christ's Apostles. According to the ancient pagan belief, each course stood was for every full moon during the course of the year. The courses are meatless because there is a period of fasting required by the Church until Christmas Day. However, for the pagans the meatless dishes were a form of bloodless sacrifice to the gods.

The first course is always kutia. It is the main dish of the whole supper. Then comes  borshch (beet soup) with vushka (boiled dumplings filled with chopped mushrooms and onions). This is followed by a variety of fish - baked, broiled, fried, cold in aspic, fish balls, marinated herring and so on. Then come varenyky (boiled dumplings filled with cabbage, potatoes, buckwheat grains, or prunes. There are also  holubtsi (stuffed cabbage), and the supper ends with  uzvar."

So from me to you, and if you celebrate Orthodox Christmas, have a very Merry Christmas. 

Ukrainian Pear Kysil
Cook Time: 20-3 minutes
Serves 4-6

Ingredients:
4 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 large lemon, juiced
4 smalls pears, peeled
3 tbsp corn starch
1 cinnamon stick
3 cloves

Directions: 
​Wash and peel the pears. Core the pears and slice the pears. In a pot, bring the water with the  pear peels to a boil. 

Meanwhile, In a bowl, mix together the pear fruit fresh and the lemon juice until well-coated. Once the mixture is boiling, reduce to a low simmer and add in the sugar, spices and pears covered in lemon juice. This will need to cook for nearly 20. minutes or until the pear slices are cuttable with a knife. 

Near the end of cooking, dissolve the cornstarch in some water. Whisk until thin, and do not let it sit as the corn starch clumps at the bottom. Pour the dissolved corn starch into the pot and cook for 1-2 minutes. Stir constantly and then remove from heat.

COOKING NOTE:The mixture will thicken upon standing. This recipe is for more of a dessert-style recipe. If you want it thicker, add one more tablespoon of cornstarch. For a drink version only add 1-2 tbsp. 

Recipe adapted from Ukrainian Recipes 

Let's Connect! Enjoy my other Ukrainian / winter-based recipes below!