Wellness, stepping on landmines

It’s time to start taking exquisite care of ourselves and of our one and precious life.With that in mind, right away I thought that we have to address the elephant in the room guys, and right away thismight alienate some people.But it has to be said.You cannot be well while stepping on landmines.Now there are landmines and there are landmines. Some kinds of landmines WILL blow up under your feet and rip you apart.These land mines are: cigarettes, drugs and alcohol.If you are smoking, fooling with recreational drugs or drinking habitually, you must stop it at once. I don’t have any experience or advice to give you, but I know there are agencies who are dedicated to helping. Reach out. Get help. Do whatever you must, whatever you can to stop.But there are also the landmines which will blow up after a time delay, ticking away slowly underneath your feet while you keep standing on them.These land mines are: processed foods, sugars and a sedentary lifestyle.The good news is that there are ways you can lift your feet off those landmines and walk away.It isn’t easy and it will take more of your willpower and precious time and energy than you might think is worth it, but believe me, it will take a whole lot less energy than the energy you will need to fight back from a cancer, diabetes, or other unwell and aging related diseases.How do we begin to turn things around?I do know a few ways but the truth is I don’t know everything.I suspect the best way is to not subtract. I really don’t think that the answer is to deprive, starve, or withdraw all at once. For me the answer is to add something healthy every day. To add something healthy so that there is less room for the unhealthy. To slowly begin replacing.Say you want a sandwich. Buy a fermented bread, like sourdough rather than a refined flour white bread or a commercial multigrain. If you like cheddar cheese, then buy a white cheddar which doesn’t contain orange colourants. If you like meat slices, go for roast chicken rather than cancer causing nitrate rich hams and salamis. And then, stick some veggies in that sandwich. (Even if it’s only a tomato slice and a leaf of lettuce...not iceberg) You get the idea.Tell me what you like and I’ll find you a healthier alternative.Consider that processed meats, artificial colours in foods, anything sugar, glucose, fructose...actually anything ending in _ose, artificial flavours, corn syrups, palm kernel oils, hydrolyzed anything, refined anything, enriched anything, white anything, is all unhealthy and potentially cancer causing.Go for a walk, join a walking club...start a walking club. Take up yoga, join a gym, do some gardening.Buy some spelt flour spaghetti noodles, a real hunk of Parmesan and make your own tomato sauce without sugars, corn syrups and artificial colours. You can do it!And now you might be saying, “but, but, I like white flour noodles and I like Kraft type shaky in the container Parmesan cheese, and I like the convenience of opening a jar.” All that may be true, but at what price do you want those things? Do you want white flour noodles which turn directly to sugar in your body making your insulin spike and bringing on weight gain and diabetes? Do you want Parmesan cheese which is actually 40% cellulose filler? Do you want tomato sauce which has been artificially coloured red and has corn syrup (which has the same effect as the white noodles) and preservatives to make it last on the supermarket shelves?Try making this tomato sauce; which you can freeze very easily for next time:Pick up some local (organic if you can) tomatoes at your market. These days so many communities have local markets which pop up on weekends.Right now tomatoes which are not perfect, are perhaps a little over-ripe, have some blemishes, are at their peak and are being sold off rather inexpensively. They're often called "canning tomatoes". Go get some! Get lots! Invest one day worth of work in your wellbeing.Get some garlic, shallots if you like, and a wide range of fresh herbs. I love rosemary, sage, thyme and parsley as well as basil.Pour a drizzle olive oil into a roasting tin (the body can only absorb lycopene from the tomatoes in the presence of some fat, so olive oil is ideal), slice up the tomatoes and put them in the pan. Tear up a bunch of herbs and put around the tomatoes, crush a few cloves of garlic and put those around too. Now sprinkle with a little salt and pepper and roast for about 40 minutes.Do you have time to can the tomatoes? If yes, then process for 40 minutes, if no then go ahead and divide the roasted tomatoes into containers for freezing.There you go. One day invested for many Thursday night healthy spaghetti meals. (I do Thursday night spaghetti.)So let's do this.Begin taking your feet on those landmines little by little, gently, softly, until you are well and truly standing as far away as possible. And don’t turn back.Next week, let’s talk about emotions, meditation and the mind-body linLearn more about diabetes prevention at https://www.culturalhealthsolutions.com/prevent-diabetes/.

Recovery week

So this is me this week!As a matter of fact, in my Quo Vadis I wrote:POSITIVE THOUGHTSGOLDEN LIGHTDO NOTHINGRESTAnd I wrote it across all the pages of the week.I wrote that because last Friday I had some facial reconstruction surgery to repair some of the radiation damage.Yup, it was unpleasant. Yup, it hurts. Yes it was a risk with the real possibility of dying tissue, but everything seems to have gone well and I'm Okay. <3Today my little note to myself says: "What would someone who loves themselves do?"Rest. Rest and more rest.But today I also had to visit my plastic surgeon, so while I was up and about, I decided to bake myself a little treat.Last week when I drove through Keremeos and stopped at the fruit and veggie stand, I bought a little pundit of apricots. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I should have known better because apricots so out of season very rarely taste very yummy. Actually, that's my usual rule for all fruit and veg so no, I don't know what I was thinking. Anyway, here I had these not so nice apricots at home.My grandmother used to make a lovely fruity type coffee cake called a bublanina. Roughly translates to bubble cake. She made it every week and used all sorts of fruit in it. I decided to bake myself a bublanina as a treat (because right now I'm a poor baby so deserve fattening sugary treats...lol)I took out my grandmother's cookbook and found the bublanina recipe.Yes, a very well used page!I wish you guys could read Czech recipes. The language is so friendly. It's as though the directions include you instead of being directed at you. For example, a line of this recipe reads: "Our mixed sugar, eggs, lemon and vanilla, we cream them together for 30 minutes." This is how we do it. Oh yes, by hand...with a wooden spoon! Actually, truth be told, in the Kitchen Aid.So I mixed up a little buttery, sugary dough, topped it with those apricots and a little sprinkling of blueberries, and popped it into the oven for 35 minutes.That's incidentally the time it took for the lawn service to finish making a racket at my neighbour's next door.Then I had a lovely, warm slice of my bublanina, and now it's back to bed with me.Bubble cake adapted from my grandmother's recipe to bring it out of the middle ages.1/2 cup organic cane sugar1/4 cup softened butter2 large eggs1 cup plain flour1 tsp baking powder1 cup yogourt1 tbsp Grand Marnier (because, why not?)1/2 tsp vanilla extractthe tip of a knife worth of salt (seriously, that’s what it says)what have you of fruit. I used a dozen apricots and a handful of blueberries. My grandmother’s best bublanina was always with cherries.Pre-heat the oven to 350°F.- Mix the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.- Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well in between, add the Grand Marnier and vanilla.- Sift in the flour and baking powder, and the salt, then mix well.- Finally, add the yogourt to create a thick dough to support the fruit on top.- Pour the batter into a greased and lined baking tin of some kind. I used 9-inch springform tart tin.- Prepare the fruit: slice the apricots, stone the cherries, halve the strawberries, etc.- Scatter the fruit into the top of the batter and press lightly.- Bake for 35-40 minutes, grandmother’s book reads “until rosy”.

Home again, and the mango bread recipe

I'm home from a fabulous few days away.On some crazy whim/inspiration I drove 1070 km from Saturday to Tuesday and loved every minute of it.I loved my visit to my cabin, loved my visit with my darling daughter Kerstin, Adam and our little girls, and loved the drive back including a visit with my sister-in-law Sheryl.I stopped er route back home at the end of Lake Okanagan in the little town of Penticton where Sheryl lives, and we walked to the beach to have tea and a little lunch. We chose a little table just outside Prague Cafe, and just as we sat down, a great big black truck parked in front of our view!!!Happily for us, the proprietor said it was just fine for us to take our lunch across the street to the beach. I had the most delicious roast beef sandwich, Sheryl had a beautiful fresh baked cake, and we had a lovely visit. I loved the little Prague Cafe and will stop there again next time. Sheryl was so sweet. She sent me off with a massive bag of fresh spring produce from her garden.Then on the road again and stopped in the little town of Keremeos where there are tons of fruit and veggie stalls and got myself some tomatoes and sweet potatoes and a red garlic.Finally home, and I took my goodies out of my treat bag from Sheryl and just look! Tons of herbs and fresh lettuce, kale and beautiful garlic scapes. Last night I baked an organic chicken with sage, thyme and fennel from Sheryl's garden stuffed into the cavity, and had a fresh salad with the lettuce, herbs and chive flowers. Oh supper was so good.I've had a few requests for the mango bread recipe Adam made so I texted him to please send it. He was happy to share.Here it is:Mango BreadIngredients1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour1 teaspoon baking soda1/4 teaspoon salt1 teaspoon ground cinnamon6 tablespoons granulated sugar6 tablespoons brown sugar1 large egg1 cup buttermilk1/3 cup olive oil2 tablespoons honey1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest1 cup frozen mango, thawed, and Adam pulsed the chunks in a blender for a few minutes to break them upInstructions1. Preheat oven to 350F/175C. Butter or spray with non-stick spray a 9×5-inch loaf pan.2. In a large bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add sugars and mix until combined.3. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg with the buttermilk, oil, honey, vanilla extract and lemon zest until combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Fold in the mango. Pour the batter into prepared loaf pan.4. Bake for 45-60 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the bread comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then remove the bread from the pan and move it to a wire rack to cool completely.Actually, never mind the cooling completely part. Just eat it as soon as you can bare to touch the hot loaf! That's what we did. It was a lovely treat. :D

Friday random

Friday always seems like the perfect random sort of day to me.Does it to you?I mean, the weekend is almost here, and anything can happen. I love the weekend! I bet you do too.Friday evening usually finds me right, here at home, on the front porch. Admiring the flowers.I'm not much of a party girl.Speaking of flowers...The very short, almost ephemeral, season of the flowering black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) is upon us. Don't blink. It only lasts a week or so.The thing is that the flowers are just so out of this world delicious as fritters!My favourite batter is as follows:1 cup flour2 Tbs sugarpinch of salt1 egg2/3 C milk1/4 tsp vanilla1/4 tsp fragrant rum (I use Czech rum)Olive oil for fryingDredge the flower clusters in the batter, or, strip the flowers from the stems and mix into the batter, then, spoon into the oil.Fry a few minutes till golden brown, drain a few minutes on paper towel, sprinkle with sugar/icing sugar, EAT!Oh my gosh, there's something about eating flowers that makes one feel like a Goddess. Like Venus and Athena on Mt Olympus! My friend Katie and I shared these fritters and we didn't even touch the brownies!Out of the world delicious!Don't confuse black locust with laburnum though. Laburnum is poisonous!I know, now it feels like a sort of Russian roulette, but laburnum blossoms are yellow and black locust are white...go figure.Tuesday I taught the therapy journal and, while my students were busy finding the perfect words to describe the day, I carved a couple of stamps. I love carving stamps and love stamping the resulting carving to see what I got! Such a thrill. Then, my students are welcome to use those stamps Win, win!Since last Sunday night and the fresh pizzas I'm so not over them. This one with beef pepperoni, mushrooms, red onions, tomatoes, parsley, mozza! OMG!And last random, roses! Roses and roses and roses!Bunches and bunches and armloads of roses!Ever since I read Martha Stewart's gardening book and that her husband gifted her with umpteen rose bushes for mother's day I thought, well then, all I have to do is move to the country and Robbie will be so happy to gift me umpteen rose bushes. But I'm here in the city, so I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful it is to have, (over these five years in my small city garden,) cultivated enough rose bushes to just be able to go out in the garden and clip as many of the blossoms as I like.I love roses.But I still want to move to the country to grow so many rose bushes that it borders on an obscene amount!Sharing with Nancy and the random bunch.

A day in the garden and a bone broth recipe for good health

"Come on guys!" I said to Morgan and Milo. "Come let's do a bit of gardening."Milo looked at me with his death stare and said, "You can't mean me, I had the night shift!" Then he yawned, turned around, and burrowed under the quilt.Morgan completely ignored me.Oh well, so much for help. Out to the garden I went because, if we're to have any fresh veggie this year, someone has to do the work.I must say that the garden has looked worse...lol...but not much worse.First the clean up. I pulled up one of the old gates I use as plant supports and put it to the side. A couple of seasons of growing peas up the gate has depleted that soil and it was time to rotate the crops.I pulled out all the weeds, pulled up last winter's kale and leeks, and picked out the volunteer garlic seedlings.Then I used my garden fork and turned all the soil over.Then I grabbed a couple leeks and a handful of kale and headed inside to make some lunch.Sometimes I think my life is boring and routine, but mostly I like it, and, especially when I have a bone broth made from Sunday night's organic roast chicken. (recipe follows) Bone broth is one of those magical nutritional elixirs which gives our body the most bio-available protein and healthy minerals. I usually make the bone broth Sunday to Monday overnight in the slow cooker, and then just use it as stock for dishes or as a base for soups.Today I chopped up a couple leeks, some kale, and some cauliflower, and, within 15 minutes, I had a delicious and nutritious soup.I ate it outside while sorting out my veggie and flower seeds, reading the Bella Grace magazine I still haven't read, and writing a postcard to Chloe in Japan.Every year I swear I'll buy less seeds and by spring there's masses of them again!So, after lunch it's back to the garden I go. I wanted to rake the whole veggie bed flat, but needed to protect some wayward stargazer lilies with this old Mexican cloche before I forget they're there and break the shoots. Yep, I've done that before.Then I stood the old gate in place on a different spot, and planted some snow peas around it, sweet peas around the second gate, gigantic sunflowers at the garden edge, radishes as a quick crop on top of the sunflowers, and some lettuce in a couple rows. One of the best ways I have found to get inspired to make my garden look better, is by checking out other gardening blog and seeing how creatively others have designed and maintained their garden. All the little volunteer garlic seedlings needed to be replanted, but the volunteer potatoes were composted. I'm not planting potatoes this year.Morgan woke up by the afternoon and decided to come see what I was doing. As you can see she wasn't much help.I had a bit of energy left, so I tied all the raspberry canes to their supports.And that was that for this day. Whew, I'm glad I got so much work done.Bone broth my way:The carcass from last night's baked organic chicken. Please, if you're making this for your health, please make sure it's an organic, pasture raised chicken. There's no point trying to be your healthiest and best self and eating meat which has been raised with growth stimulating hormones, steroids and antibiotics, packaged in natural hog casings from DCW Casing.Did you roast any veggies with the chicken? I usually do. Throw those in as well. Mine are usually sweet potatoes, leeks, onions, garlic, red pepper, Brussels sprouts, celery etc. (Yes really, I roast them all together along with the chicken.)Clean out the fridge and see if you have any other veggies in there. How about some cauliflower, a hand full of kale, carrots and peas? Throw them in too.Now out to the garden for a generous sprig of rosemary and thyme. Do you like any other herbs? Sage maybe? throw some in. Fresh herbs are great antioxidants.Now add loads of water to cover or even more. I usually fill up the slow cooker. Add some salt, pepper, turmeric and a couple tablespoons of cider vinegar.Let everything boil away all night. If you're not using a slow cooker, let it boil away for at least 4 hours.Then strain everything through a fine sieve and discard the solids.You have loads of choices now. Put the bone broth into the fridge, or divide it and freeze it. Some people drink it like tea. I can't see that happening here, but I do love to use it as a base for soups.Here's to your health:Inspire Health bone brothDr Andrew Weil's thoughts on bone brothPS: You've probably figured out that it's just soup! But it's an easily digestible and nutritionally rich soup with more mineral content. It doesn't come from a can so has no dangerous chemicals, white sugary noodles, rice or other starches or corn syrups to spike your insulin, it has no wonky cell inducing preservatives or colourants. It's filling, and cheap as chips to make. And as a benefit, it might just fight off the cold and flu. Soup's good for you. Ask your mom. Ask your grandma. You know they're right. :DContact Manhattan Tree Removal if you require their services with removing trees and weed or any kind of plant decay.