Monica’s Kitchen Roanoke Chiropractor—spinal adjustments Page 2 Roanoke Chiropractor—spinal adjustments Towers Family Chiropractor

GF Strawberry Shortcake

May 11, 2020 by towers

Strawberries have come early this year so we had them for Mother’s Day. This gluten-free recipe is dairy-free also except for the ghee, but I make an exception for ghee as being very likely safe for those on a dairy-free diet. I think that the ghee could be substituted with coconut oil but I have not tried it. Instead of whipped cream, use the coconut cream recipe posted previously.

Remember to buy organic strawberries if you don’t have them in your garden. Berries are generally sprayed heavily and people have been known to react to the chemicals from eating a lot of in-season berries.

Also, be careful making substitutions for the sugar in this recipe as it could change the texture with undesirable results. The sugar prevents the arrowroot from making the shortcake gummy. You could use coconut sugar or sucanat but the cake will not be white–it will be brown. Honey or maple syrup will totally change the texture so I stick with a small amount of cane sugar on this one. I add more sweetness to the cake with the monk fruit powder. Taste your batter and decide if it is sweet enough and add more monk fruit powder in very small amounts until you achieve your desired result.

Serves 4

1/2 cup arrowroot flour

2/3 cup dry finely shredded coconut

3 Tbsp. organic sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. sea salt

2 Tbsp. melted ghee

1 egg

1/2 to 1 tsp. organic pure monk fruit powder (only ingredient should be monk fruit)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. lemon zest (optional)

2 cups sliced organic strawberries

1 cup coconut whipped cream

Mix the first 5 (dry) ingredients in a food processor. Add the egg, melted ghee, vanilla extract, lemon zest if desired, and process again until well mixed. Spread in a 8 inch x 8 inch baking pan. Bake at 325 degrees F for 12-15 minutes or until knife inserted in the middle comes out clean–do not over-bake or cake will be dry.

Let cool. Cut into 4 squares and serve each square with 1/2 cup strawberries and 1/4 cup of coconut cream .

Please follow and like us:

Sunchoke Soup

April 20, 2020 by towers

Yesterday I found a surprise in my garden–lots of sprouting sunchokes (aka Jerusalem artichokes) that were growing out of control. The tubers were large and in good condition. I normally slice them and serve them raw in salads but this was over a pound of tubers so I decided to make soup. This recipe is similar to the Celeriac soup recipe posted earlier. Sunchokes, like celeriac, are non-starchy making them low-glycemic.

For the gardeners out there, these potato-like tubers are easy to grow, prolific, and survive the winter so that they come back each year. But be careful where you plant them as they can be invasive—I thought I had harvested them all but apparently I missed some and they spread into my iris patch.

Produce departments usually have them in the Fall and Winter, but you may find them now as they are still available at our Co-op. Be sure to scrub them well with a vegetable brush as they are knobby. No need to peel after scrubbing but use a paring knife to remove spots that could be harboring dirt or sand.

Usually milk or cream is used in sunchoke soup, but I used yellow miso. If you don’t have miso and are dairy tolerant, use 1 cup of cream or half-and-half instead.

Serves 4-6

1 large yellow onion, chopped

4 Tbsp. ghee

1 pound of sunchokes, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces

1 celeriac root, peeled and cubed or 2 stalks of celery, chopped

4 cups of chicken or vegetable broth or water

1/4 cup of MisoMaster mellow miso or 1 cup of cream or half-and-half

Salt and black pepper to taste

In a soup pot melt the ghee over medium heat. Add the onions and saute 5 minutes stirring occasionally. Add the celeriac or celery and saute another few minutes. Add the sunchokes. Stir well. Add the broth or water and bring close to a boil. Reduce heat to low to keep the soup at a simmer–don’t boil. Cover with the lid cracked. Simmer until vegetables are tender and pierced easily with a fork. If you are using milk, add that now and heat for a few more minutes. Remove from heat. Use an immersion blender to puree. Add the miso if you are using miso and blend again. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.

Please follow and like us:

Dahl with Fresh Ginger

April 15, 2020 by towers

Dahl is a spicy lentil stew made with red or orange lentils. Unlike the green or brown larger-sized lentils which are purchased unprocessed and can be sprouted (see recipes), the red or orange lentils are available processed (dehulled, split, and polished) so they will not sprout. They can still be soaked overnight and rinsed well before cooking to reduce some of the anti-nutrients naturally occurring in legumes. They cook quickly because of the processing and soaking.

Usually served with basmati rice, dahl is also good with steamed vegetables and/or some kind of bread. The spices are warming and anti-inflammatory and the dish is very nourishing. I found organic orange lentils at our co-op and was excited to make a pot of dahl on a chilly, overcast Spring day. Make enough for leftovers as it is still very good re-heated.

Makes 6 servings

2 cups dry red or orange lentils, preferably organic, soaked in 2 quarts of water overnight, rinsed very well in a strainer, and drained

2 medium-sized onions, finely chopped

1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp ghee

4 Tbsp. grated, fresh ginger (peeled first)

3 cups chicken or vegetable broth and 3 cups of water, or 6 cups of water

6 cloves fresh garlic, peeled and crushed through garlic press

2 tsp. ground turmeric

2 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 to 1 tsp. ground cayenne (optional)

salt to taste

fresh cilantro, chopped, for garnishing (optional)

Melt 1/4 cup of the ghee in a 4-quart soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion and saute 5 minutes. Add the ginger, turmeric, and 3 cloves of the garlic (crushed) and stir over medium heat for another minute or two–don’t let the garlic brown. Carefully pour in the broth or water and add the lentils. Stir well and increase heat to bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and let simmer under a cracked lid stirring occasionally. Allow to simmer for an hour or until it reduces to the consistency you desire.

About fifteen minutes before serving, melt the remaining 1 Tbsp ghee in a small sauce pan. Add the cumin and cayenne if desired and saute over medium heat for a few minutes while stirring. Add the remaining 3 cloves of crushed garlic and stir for 1 minute. Remove from heat.

Use a potato masher to pulverize the lentil mixture to a creamy consistency (or use an immersion blender). Add the cumin/garlic mixture and stir well. Salt to taste and add more cayenne if desired. Spoon into bowls over brown basmati rice or steamed vegetables and garnish with cilantro if desired.

Please follow and like us:

Chicory Root Chaga Tea with coconut milk or oil

March 24, 2020 by towers

While you can make this tea with just chicory root, if you have chaga it is a nice combination. Chaga is a mushroom that grows on birch trees in northern latitudes. You may not find it locally–I order online (from Optimally Organic). It was used traditionally as a medicinal tea for general well-being/immune system support and longevity and is very high in anti-oxidants as measured by ORAC. It does not contain caffeine. Be sure to get wild-crafted Chaga that was harvested from birch trees growing in northern Canada. The best part is that Chaga tea tastes good and you could just have it alone!

Roasted chicory root has a long history of being used as a coffee substitute; it makes this tea stronger and blacker with a bitter component that is similar to coffee. Another bitter root to combine with chicory is burdock root which is one of my favorites as a coffee substitute–I use about 3/4 tsp. organic, dried and cut burdock root to 1 tsp. chicory root.

There are lots of options for what you may want to add for flavor and medicinal value–cinnamon, cardamom, licorice root, burdock root, anise seed, fennel seed, dried and ground organic orange rind, vanilla, cocoa powder. I usually also add a tablespoon of collagen powder (Great Lakes) and I like to add raw cocoa powder because it reminds me of hot chocolate. But these are optional ingredients. The coconut milk makes it rich and gives it body.

One other note, if you prefer to use coconut oil instead of milk, you can get this to emulsify in your tea by adding lecithin also and then blending with an immersion blender (it doesn’t froth up unless you blend it). Lecithin powder made from organic sunflower seeds is now available online and may be in your health food store; this is the best type of lecithin to use as I don’t like the ones made from soy. If you don’t use the lecithin, the oil will pool on the top of your tea.

1 tsp. dried Chaga granules

1/2 tsp. organic orange peel granules (optional)

1/2 tsp. dried burdock root (optional)

1 tsp. roasted chicory root granules

2 cups boiling water

stevia extract to taste

1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 cup classic coconut milk (from dry coconut milk powder or Native forest organic in a can) OR 1 Tbsp of coconut oil and 1 tsp. of lecithin

Optional: 2 Tbsp. Great Lakes Collagen powder and 1 tsp. cocoa powder

Place chaga (or other herb tea) and chicory in a quart-sized glass mason jar. Add the boiling water (be sure a spoon is in the jar so it doesn’t crack). Cap the jar and let sit for at least 15 minutes to extract. Now if you want your tea very warm strain it into a pan and add the coconut milk and warm it until it just simmer before pouring into a mug and adding the rest of the ingredients. Otherwise, strain the tea into a mug and add the rest of the ingredients.
If you use coconut oil and lecithin instead of coconut milk, add these two ingredients when the strained tea is in the pan. Add your other ingredients and use an immersion blender to froth this mixture up. Warm it up if desired by bringing just to a simmer. Drink warm.

Please follow and like us:

Celeriac Soup

March 2, 2020 by towers

If you can find celeriac or celery root in your grocery store, you should try this soup. It’s a low starch vegetable that has a wonderful celery-like flavor, but it’s meatier than celery so it lends a creamy texture to soups when they are pureed. Our Co-op here in Roanoke often has organic celeriac so I have been using them in soup regularly this winter. The cauliflower soup recipe I posted can be made with celeriac–just omit the carrot and if you want the potato and add 1 celeriac root.

This simple soup is more like celery soup but without dairy–except for the ghee which is well tolerated by many folks sensitive to dairy. The soup is blended once the vegetables are cooked so no need to finely chop them.

Serves 4

1 large celeriac root, peeled and cubed into 1 inch pieces

1 very large (about 4 inches in diameter) yellow onion, chopped

1/3 cup of ghee

3 stalks celery, chopped

1 small potato, chopped (optional)

4 cups of broth or water ( I used water)

1/4 cup fresh dill weed, chopped fine or 1 tsp. ground dill seed (optional)

salt to taste

black pepper, optional

In a soup pot, melt the ghee. Add the onion and saute over medium heat for about 5 minutes giving an occasional stir. Wash and chop the other veggies while the onion is sauteing. Add the other vegetables and continue to heat over medium heat giving an occasional stir for another few minutes. Add the broth or water. Bring to a boil and immediately reduce the heat to low to keep the soup cooking at a simmer for about an hour or until the vegetables are very tender and easily pierced. Remove from heat and carefully blend with an immersion blender until creamy. Add salt, and pepper if desired, to taste. Serve hot garnished with dill.

Please follow and like us:

Grain-free Hot Cereal

January 26, 2020 by towers

Many people think their diet will be inadequate (especially in fiber) without including grains. Yet many other people are perfectly happy and healthy without eating grains. Whether one is following a keto or low carb or low inflammatory diet, there can be plenty of fiber and nutrients in a grain-free diet. And it is not hard to replace some grain dishes, with ones containing hi-fiber, nutritious ingredients but no grain products. If you like hot cereal in the morning, give this a try. Some compare it to cream of wheat.

Serves 2

1/4 cup organic coconut flour

2 Tbsp. organic flax seed, ground to a powder in blender

1 cup water

1/2 cup coconut milk (optional, can be replaced by another 1/2 cup of water)

1/2 organic apple, chopped fine

1/4 cup blueberries, optional, fresh or frozen

2 Tbsp. chopped walnuts, optional

1-2 Tbsp. collagen powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 Tbsp. ghee or butter

1/4 tsp. monk fruit powder to sweeten, optional

Bring water to a boil and reduce heat to low. Add apple and cinnamon, cover, and simmer 5 minutes until tender. Add ground flax and coconut flour and stir well. If using, add coconut milk , collagen powder, walnuts and blueberries. Continue to stir over low heat until evenly heated. Add water if desired to consistency of your choice. Remove from heat. Add ghee and sweeten with monk fruit to taste if desired. Serve immediately.

Please follow and like us:

Healing Moisturizing Oil

January 13, 2020 by towers

This is a recipe too but one for topical use only! Castor oil is very healing (to learn more, read “The Oil That Heals” by Dr. William McGarey) and belongs in everyone’s medicine cabinet. Many people have used it as a castor oil pack as recommended by Edgar Cayce and McGarey’s book explains how to do this. It is best used topically as the book explains unless you know what you are doing and wish to use it internally as a laxative!

However, to use topically as a massage or moisturizing oil it is too thick and sticky to use alone. Diluting it with a highly-absorbed oil such as argan is the key for using this therapeutic oil as a healing massage oil. The essential oils make it a delight to the senses and add to its healing properties. If you get massages, bring it to your therpist and ask her/him to use this instead of standard massage oils.

In general, for massage oils, use up to 15 drops total of essential oil(s) per ounce of castor/argan oil mixture. Make it in small batches (2-4 ounces) for freshness.

1 part castor oil ( be sure to buy organic, cold-pressed, solvent-free)

1 part argan oil (organic, cold-pressed)

frankincense essential oil

lavender essential

Pour equal parts castor oil and argan oil into a glass bottle. Cap and shake well. ( I use a 4 ounce brown glass spray bottle that the argan oil comes in.) Add the essential oils one drop at a time so you can count them. Shake again. Massage into sprain/strains, sore or inflammed areas, tight muscles, feet, hands. Also can be used on the face by bathing the face first with a warm wash cloth, putting a couple drops of the blend on the wash cloth, and brushing over the face–very light and feels great!

Please follow and like us:

Shiitake Mushroom Soup

December 9, 2019 by towers

This is an unusual recipe for me to post but it was so good and so easy I wanted to share it. If you like a creamy mushroom soup, try it!

So, you need some leftover cauliflower soup to make this. Since I make the cauliflower soup frequently and often have leftover to last a day or two, this recipe is easy for me. I had some shiitake mushroom to use up so it all fell into place.

Serves 2

1 quart of cauliflower soup

1/4 cup ghee

1 cup chopped shiitake mushrooms

Melt the ghee in a soup pot and allow it to get hot over medium heat for a minute or two . Add the shiitake mushrooms. Stir to coat the mushrooms–they will absorb the ghee so keep stirring for 3-4 minutes. Add the cauliflower soup and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Let it simmer for 10 minutes. Add salt if desired. Serve hot.

Please follow and like us:

Golden Milk made with Coconut Milk

November 25, 2019 by towers

A cup of this before a meal will warm you up, stimulate digestion, and act as an anti-inflammatory. All of that and it is pretty tasty. A serving is about 1/2 to 1 cup so this should serve 2-4.

1 tsp. ghee

1 tsp. turmeric powder

1/2 tsp. cinnamon powder

1/4 tsp. cardamom powder

1/2 tsp. ginger powder

pinch of ground black pepper

1/2 cup coconut milk

2 cups water or black tea of your choice

monk fruit powder

Melt ghee in sauce pan. Over medium-low heat, add spices and stir well until it browns lightly–just a minute or so. Pour in coconut milk and stir well. Continue to heat and add water or tea. Add monk fruit powder to taste. Serve hot.

Please follow and like us:

GF Brownies

November 25, 2019 by towers

Dense but not too sweet, these brownies will please most chocolate lovers. They do contain sugar–but a reduced amount–so best to make them for special occasions. The monk fruit powder is a good sweetener when you want to reduce the sugar in a recipe. Be careful when you buy it though because many monk fruit products also contain erythritol. I try to avoid the sugar alcohols as they can cause digestive disturbances. If you don’t have palm oil, you could use coconut oil instead though I prefer the taste of the palm oil.

1/4 cup ghee

1/4 cup red palm oil

1/3 cup organic cacao powder

Organic baking chocolate (a piece about 1/2 inch wide by 4 inches long), Dakoba is a good brand

3 eggs, room temperature

1/2 cup organic coconut sugar or cane sugar

1/2 tsp. monkfruit powder, more to taste to increase sweetness

1/2 tsp. sea salt

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/3 cup coconut flour

1/3 cup tapioca flour

1/3 cup coconut milk

3/4 cups chopped walnuts

In a double boiler, melt oils and baking chocolate. Remove from heat and add cacao powder. Set aside.

In a bowl, mix all dry ingredients and add beaten eggs and coconut milk. Mix well. Add cacao mixture and beat with an electric beater until smooth. Fold in chopped nuts.

Spoon into a baking pan and bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes. Insert clean knife in center and bake until knife comes out clean. Let cool. If desired, frost with a mixture of 4 Tbsp cacao powder, 2 Tbsp. honey, and 1-2 Tbsp. coconut milk (enough to form the desired consistency) with a dash of vanilla extract. Serve warm or cold.

Please follow and like us:

« Previous Page

GF Strawberry Shortcake

Sunchoke Soup

Dahl with Fresh Ginger

Chicory Root Chaga Tea with coconut milk or oil

Celeriac Soup

Grain-free Hot Cereal

Healing Moisturizing Oil

Shiitake Mushroom Soup

Golden Milk made with Coconut Milk

GF Brownies

Good Nutrition

Late Summer Soup

Children’s Adjustments

Children with back pain

Towers Family Chiropractic