Towers Family Chiropractor

Helping You to Better Health Naturally

Simple Celery Soup

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Not too many ingredients in this one but good just the same when you just want something warm, light, and nourishing without too much work!  If you have any broth on hand, use it instead of water.  The soup is still flavorful without the broth.  Also, if you eat dairy, cream would be good instead of the coconut milk.

2 servings

 

1 large yellow onion, chopped

1/4 cup ghee

4 cups chopped celery

1 cup classic coconut milk, or cream if you wish to use dairy

1 cup water

1 tsp. dried sweet basil

2 Tbsp. chickpea miso

salt to taste

 

Melt the ghee in a soup pot on medium heat.  Add the onions and saute for 5 minutes stirring occasionally.  Add celery and saute another 5 minutes.  Add the water, coconut milk and basil.  Bring to a simmer and reduce heat to keep it at a simmer.  Cover but crack the lid.  Simmer for 1 hour.  Remove from heat and add the miso.  Blend until smooth with an immersion blender.  Add salt to taste.  Serve hot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chicken Shiitake Soup

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If you haven’t tried cooking shiitake mushrooms, this is an easy introductory recipe.  Not too many ingredients and it is quick too.  We had this for dinner with some baked butternut squash and a salad.  A good roasted whole chicken and chicken broth recipe is posted here.  If you want to add some starch for a more substantial meal, simply add 1 cup cooked rice when you add the chicken meat.

Serves 2

2 cups homemade chicken broth

1/2 cup of finely chopped celery

1/2 cup chopped shiitake mushrooms

1/2 to 1 cup chopped cooked chicken meat (optional)

2 tsp. mellow white miso (MisoMaster brand is good)

salt to taste

black pepper (optional)  to taste

Heat broth in soup pot on medium heat until simmering.  Add celery and simmer for 10 minutes.  Add mushrooms and simmer another 10 minutes.  Add the chicken and heat for a few more minutes.  Take off heat.  Mix miso in a bowl with a few tablespoons of the hot broth from the soup until it dissolves and then add this mixture to the soup.  Stir well.  Add salt and black pepper to taste.  Best served immediately.

Green Beans and Rice with Pesto

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This is one of those dishes that is super quick when you have leftover rice and some basil pesto in the fridge.  If you haven’t tried this simple basil oil (pesto) recipe check it out here.

I am still getting green beans from the garden–it does make a difference when they are fresh.  If you don’t have garden green beans, try your local farmers market.

One other note:  the rice I used was cooked in chicken broth–recipe is here. Vary the amount of rice you use based on how much starch you are hungry for!

Serves 2

2 cups chopped green beans steamed until just tender

1 to 2 cups cooked brown jasmine or basmati rice

1/4 cup basil oil

sea salt to taste

Once green beans are cooked to your liking, drain any water in the pan and add the rice.  Warm over low heat.  Take off the heat and stir in the basil oil and salt if desired.  Serve immediately.

Nut Or Seed Butter

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Nut butters can be hard to digest and for people who have less of an ability to digest fats they may be off limits.  By preparing your nuts and/or seeds this way you may tolerate them better.  But keep in mind that eating nuts seems to cause some people who are eating a low-carb diet to gain weight–particularly belly fat.  This may be related to the high arginine to lysine amino acid content of nuts.  Be aware of this and limit your intake of nuts in general.

Follow the instructions  given in a previous post for preparing your nuts/seeds.

What about peanut butter?  Well, lots of folks don’t digest it well.  Afterall, peanuts are a legume (as in dried beans) and not a true nut.    Also, there is the possible contamination of aflatoxins–liver-harming toxins from mold that grows on peanuts even if they are organically grown because they are an underground crop.

If you are allergic to tree nuts, you can use 2 cups of pumpkin or sunflower seeds instead of using walnuts.

 

You will need a blender or food processor.

 

1 cup “prepared” walnuts

1 cup “prepared” pumpkin seeds

2 Tbsp. ghee, melted (you may substitute coconut oil)

2 tsp. honey, optional

salt to taste if your nuts were nut prepared with salt

 

Melt the ghee in a metal bowl on low heat.  Remove from heat and set aside.  Blend the pumpkin seeds first–blend until finely ground.  Add to the bowl of melted ghee and stir well.  Add the honey if you desire it and stir well again.  Blend the walnuts in the blender until finely ground and add to the mixture.  Stir well.  Taste and add salt if desired.  Keep in the refrigerator.  It will harden so that it is hard to spread but you can remove the amount you need and allow it to warm to room temperature for easier spreading.  Great on apple slices or celery sticks.

 

Go Nuts

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Get the best taste out of your raw nuts while making them easier to digest by following these simple steps.  It’s worth the time to make a big batch and store them long-term in the refrigerator.  I try to always have one or more varieties available for snacking or baking or making nut butter–my favorites are walnuts but pecans come in second.  Pumpkin and sunflower seeds are good too.  I have made a nut butter with a walnut and pumpkin seed mix which is yummy–look for the recipe here.  I avoid cashews–they are never truly raw because they have to be heated to remove a poisonous compound.  They may still contain some of this poison ivy-like compound and I wonder if that is why I don’t feel good when I eat them.

So this is what you need to do:

Purchase raw (be sure they are not roasted or pasteurized) nuts.  If you can get organically grown that is best–I order nuts from here. They are expensive but I wait until they have a sale and get enough for free shipping–sign up for their emails for the sale notification.  Then store them in the freezer until you are ready to process them.  For pumpkin and sunflower seeds, I purchase from here.

Measure about 2 quarts of nuts/seeds and place into a large bowl.  Add enough water to totally cover the nuts. Allow to soak overnight or about 12 hours.  Drain and rinse very well until the rinse water is clear–the soak water will be very brown with walnuts and pecans.  The soaking rids the nuts of some harsh-tasting stuff so be sure to rinse very well.  I use a large colander for draining–allow to drain until no water is dripping from the bottom.

Pre-heat an oven to 140 degrees F.  or the lowest setting on your oven.  Spread the soaked nuts/seeds in large shallow baking pans–a thin layer will cut on the drying time needed to thoroughly dry.  Salt the nuts if desired–about a teaspoon of nuts per quart of nuts.  Stir well to distribute the salt–some of it remains on the pan so don’t think this is too much salt–and spread again in an even layer in the pan.  Place the pans in the oven until the nuts/seeds are thoroughly dry.  This may take 4-12 hours depending on your oven temperature and the thickness of the layer in the pan.  The first time you make them check them every 2 hours (stir them while you are at it for quicker drying) by biting into one to see if there is still moisture in the center.  If your oven has a drying option at 140 or lower, they will nut burn if left longer.  In fact, they can may taste better.  Once I left walnuts for 16 hours at 140 and they were very buttery and now I leave them past the point of drying.

Remove from the oven once thoroughly dry.  Allow to cool and then place in glass jars.  I use 1/2 gallon, wide-mouthed mason jars as pictured above.  Store in the refrigerator.  They will keep for weeks.

 

Daikon Saute

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Daikon radish, though often overlooked, is a nice mild-tasting  root vegetable addition to vegetable sautees.  It belongs to the cruciferous family of vegetables which is known for many health benefits when included as part of a diet.

Here I have made use of winter-grown vegetables from my greenhouse and cold frame, but these vegetables are all available in the produce section of most grocery stores and natural food co-ops.  If you have a cold frame, give daikon radish a try–they grow fast, are very cold hardy, and store well once harvested in the refrigerator.  Also, if your collards or kale goes to flower, pick the flower heads before they open–they are similar to broccolini.

This vegetable mix can be served over rice, millet, quinoa, or can be served as a side.

 

 

 

Serves 2

4 Tbsp. ghee

1 cup chopped yellow onion

1 cup chopped daikon radish (quarter lengthwise and then slice in 1/4 inch pieces)

1 cup chopped carrot

1 cup broccoli or broccolini florets (or your kale or collard  that are starting to flower–see the picture above.  Really look like broccoli!)

salt, black pepper to taste

 

Melt ghee over medium heat in a large skillet.  Add onions and saute with an occasional stir for a few minutes.  Add the carrots and daikon and stir well.  Cover with a lid and continue to cook over medium heat stirring occasionally until carrots are tender.  Add florets and stir.  Crack the lid and cook until the florets are just tender and bright green–do not overcook!   Remove from heat and add salt and black pepper (if desired) to taste.  Serve as a side or over rice, millet or quinoa that was previously prepared (see recipe link above).

April’s GF Cookies

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Here’s a gluten-free recipe from April for some very yummy cookies packed with superfood ingredients.
2.5 c raw walnuts,  ground (or finely shredded dry coconut if you have a nut allergy)
2/3 c oat flour or arrowroot (or all arrowroot if you don’t have GF oats)
1/2 c pure, organic maple syrup
1/2 c flaxseed meal (buy whole flax seed and grind in a blender as flax meal is perishable)
1 tsp sea salt or mineral salt (can leave out until the end and sprinkle tiny bit on each cookie before baking if preferred)
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 T chia seeds (optional)
2 T hemp Seeds (optional)
Optional topping:   either 1/2 c of chopped-up dark chocolate or raisins or craisins or dried cherries or a combo.
Mix all ingredients–easiest in a food processor.   Form into balls on pan (stoneware or baking sheet lightly coated with ghee)
Flatten with fork in crisscross pattern.  Top with toppings of your choice–press them in half-way.  Bake at 350° F for 12 to 15 min…the first time begin watching them 10 min in. Do not overcook unless you like crunchy cookies.
Let them cool.

Sunchokes

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If you are a  gardener, you are likely planning what to plant for the 2022 growing season right about now.  I wanted to put in a plug for sunchoke tubers for lots of reasons:

  1. the tubers are versatile and make delicious soups, roasted or stir-fried vegetables, “pickles”, and raw salad garnish.
  2. they are low-glycemic or low starch even  though they resemble potatoes–the carbohydrate in them is called inulin and is a good gut microbe prebiotic.  See this recipe for how to roast them–I recently mixed 2 small potatoes, 4 large sunchokes and 1/2 sweet red pepper with the seasonings in the recipe.
  3. they are easy to grow and prolific–meaning 1 plant makes A LOT of tubers (see the picture which shows 1 plant being dug up).
  4. the tubers remaining in the ground will make a new crop the following year.
  5. they store very well in the ground over winter (as long as you mulch them heavily with straw or leaves) so you can dig them up as you need them.
  6. the beautiful sunflower-like yellow flower is enjoyed by pollinators and makes a nice cut flower (Money thought so)  if you can reach it! (plants can reach 8 ft. tall).
  7. they spread which is good as long as they are harvested so keep them in a restricted area of the garden.  Give them a try!

Meyer Lemon Tree–The Best House Plant!

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Meyer lemons are prized as gourmet lemons.  Amazingly enough, they are easy to grow as  house plants.  I have had the same one for over 15 years now and it has consistently produced lemons except for a few years when I wasn’t paying enough attention to it–this year it made 40 lemons despite a trunk diameter of no more than 1.5  inches!  This picture has a tangerine tree in front of the lemon but you can see the lemons.  The pots are on plastic trays with wheels that make it easy to move around.

From November to March  it’s inside in front of a sunny window and we enjoy its fragrant blossoms in late winter.  On warm early Spring days we move it outside for the day so the honeybees can pollinate the flowers.  Tiny green lemons form and grow all summer long and can be harvested in late Fall once fully yellow.   During the warm months  of the year we have it outside in full sun on the deck.    From a permaculture point of view this is an ideal house plant–it serves many desirable functions.  We are so enamored with this tree that we eat the lemon rinds too by drying and grinding for seasoning/tea or candying them in just maple or coconut syrup (1 Tbsp. with chopped rind of 1 lemon simmered with an occasional stir in a shallow pain until rind is soft and has absorbed all the liquid-keep in refigerator).   If you decide to try your green thumb with a Meyer lemon, in can help maintain it to foliar feed it once a week with an organic liquid fertilizer (such asSpray’n grow) or to use Espoma organic citrus fertilizer 4 times a year.  Give it a try!

Chick Peas and Delicata Squash with Rice

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Good winter meal–warming and filling.  This type of squash compliments the chick peas very nicely so do your best to find a delicata.  Our local Earthfare store carries them.

Just serve with a salad for an easy meal.

 

Serves 2-4

Rice:

1 cup brown basmati rice, rinsed well and drained

1 and 1/2 cups water,

1/2 tsp. sea salt

 

Vegetables:

4 Tbsp. ghee

1 cup chopped yellow onion2 tsp. ground cumin

1 and 1/2 cups finely chopped delicata squash (do not peel the squash–just wash well, cut in half and remove the seeds and then cut each half lengthwise again and cut crosswise in 1/4 inch pieces)

2 cups COOKED chick peas

2 Tbsp. organic tamari

2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast flakes

1 cup water

sea salt and pepper to taste

cayenne to taste, optional

 

Start the rice first.  Place rinsed and drained rice in a sauce pan and add water and salt.  Bring to a boil and immediately reduce heat so the mixture just simmers.  Cover with a lid.  Do not remove the lid until 30 minutes of simmering and if all the water is absorbed, remove from heat. If some water remains, cover again and simmer another 5-10 minutes until all the water is absorbed. Keep covered but set aside until vegetables are ready.

Melt the ghee in a large skillet.  Add the onions and stir over medium heat for a few minutes.  Add the cumin and stir again.  Add the squash and stir well and cook for a few minutes more before adding water and tamari.  Once the mixture starts to simmer reduce to low heat and cover with a lid for 10 minutes.  Once squash is cooked through add chick peas and nutritional yeast and stir well.  Bring to a simmer again and remove from heat.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Serve in bowls over rice immediately.

 

 

 

Good Nutrition

Simple Celery Soup

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Towers Family Chiropractic

2302 Colonial Ave, SW, Roanoke, VA 24015
(540) 343-6636

Our hours are:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday 10:00am – 6:00pm
Tuesday, Thursday 7:30am – 11:00am