Seasonal Thoughts
Spring Break
Mar 22nd
Spring break is around the corner and it is about time! This well earned time to get away from the slush is a welcome relief! Although I am not heading to the sunny south myself, I am still taking advantage of the opportunity to take a step back and do some fun things.
Gone are my days of hoping on the bus with other university students for a prepaid trip to stay at a cheesy motel in Florida for a week long diet of fried food and bad beer. Instead, this break offers up a family visit to a friend’s cottage and day trips in the area with the kids.
I am going to also take the time to plan out the summer to make sure I maximize what the season has sun has to offer. I also want to work on a few more recipes so say tuned for some new tasty treats.
Comment and send me your stories of your spring break plans.
Winter Blah’s
Feb 22nd
I don’t know about you but the colour white, which is usually identified with lightness and serenity, now seems like pure evil to me. It is the fact that every time I look out my kitchen window IT is there. Snow, snow and more snow. I have to admit that I am getting tired of winter and have officially entered the Winter BLAHS.
The cold, the slush, the wet and musty coats, mittens, scarves, and heavy boots are getting tiresome. Going anywhere with the kids seems like a mission worthy of a GI Joe. Warm up the car, then get ready first so the kids don’t overheat, dress the kids: snowpants first, boots next, then coat and finally the requisite accessories of hat, scarf then mittens….by the end of it I am usually in a full on sweat just in time to be greeted with the frosty air. Yes, March, don’t take it personally but you are not my favourite month.
Although the month of my birthday, I recall even as a child wishing that I was the lucky one who had a summer birthday party which included a sunny picnic after running through the birthday sprinkler. My birthday’s slushy outdoor events usually ended in super-soaked snow pants and snow balls that hurt due to their icy centers.
But there is hope on the wintery horizon…April is around the corner and I look forward to all it has to offer. Rain will wash away the white and offer up green new growth with the hope of summer sun to come. Soon the Blahs will turn to Ahhs as soft breezes sweep away the cold’s last remaining residue.
In the meantime, I am stocking up on my essential fatty acids to ensure that I don’t have the emotional dips that an EFA deficient diet can cause. Salba, Mum’s Hemp are helping me on this one.
Comment and let me know your tip on getting over the wintery blahs.
The Enterprise Bulletin - January 2010 Health Page Article, Good Health Mart
Jan 2nd
January Secrets for a Healthy Year
Oh January! Even though you are bitterly cold and only offer us long dark days we gratefully welcome you! With post-holiday pocket books being the only thing that is drastically lighter, January offers us respite from December’s harried schedule, rich foods and too much eggnog. Yes, the season of excess seems like a distant, foggy and fat-filled memory and first month of the New Year provides us with a time to regroup, reflect and reassess.
With the daze of the holidays now behind us, it is a great time to look for easy ways to get your body, mind and bank account balanced once more. One simple secret to my new year’s arsenal of wellbeing is the great tasting hempseed that is a powerhouse of health.
High in the “good fats” that our bodies desperately need, hempseed’s essential fatty acids naturally offer up a great balance of Omega 3 and Omega 6. Both kinds of fatty acids serve critical roles as Omega 3 assists in neurological development and helps to reduce excess inflammation, while Omega 6 aids in blood clotting and helps to battle infection. In addition, hempseeds include an EFA called stearidonic acid (SDA), which assists in converting the Omega 3¹s from short to long chain EFA¹s making hempseeds a whole food EFA balanced cocktail.
As a naturally and highly alkaline food, hempseeds can assist in promoting greater pH balance in your body. With the North American diet so dependant upon acid forming refined and processed foods that
are high in sugar and saturated fats, consuming highly alkaline foods like hempseeds can help you to restore harmony and reduce internal inflammation brought on by an acidic environment.
With 5 grams of vegetable protein (including all of the essential amino acids) in each tasty tablespoon, any meal that incorporates hempseeds offers up a cheap alternative to the more expensive meat
based meals. As an easily digestible source of protein, with a rich nutty taste, hempseeds offer a healthy and calorie reduced option to boost protein and keep off the pounds at every meal.
Hempseeds can be incorporated into breakfast (added to cereal, yogurt and smoothies), lunch (sprinkled on salads and in sandwiches) and dinner (used in soups, pasta sauces and stews).
So with winter¹s cold upon us, hempseeds are a great way to simply and easily rebalance your body and New Year¹s pocket book! Look for recipe at end of this article.
Visit Good Health Mart today to receive 1st quality products and allow our knowledgeable product consultants to provide you with your personalized New Year¹s support program.
Any health decisions should be made in consultation with your health care practitioner.
This article was supplied by Ann Barnes, Mum (Purveyor of Good Health), Author of the natural, wellness guide “Better Being” and founder of Stealth Health Foods Inc., for Good Health Mart, 145 Hurontario Street, Collingwood 705-446-3030 www.goodhealthmart.com.
Recipe:
MANGO CHOCO-CHILI (serves 4)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 cup diced white cooking onion (one medium one)
1/2 of each orange and red pepper diced (approx 1 2/3 cup total)
1 ripe mango peeled and diced (About 1 1/4 cup)
2 14 oz cans of unstrained diced tomato
(or 3 cups diced roma tomato)
1 19 oz can of rinsed black beans
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp maple syrup
2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
Pinch ground cayenne pepper
1 tbsp roasted Mum’s Original Organic hempseeds
1 tbsp Salba whole seed
Sauté onion on medium heat in olive oil until lightly browned.
Add peppers and mango.
Reduce heat and sauté until peppers sweat (approx 4 minutes).
Add tomato and beans and stir.
Add all other ingredients, reduce to low and let simmer about 10 minutes. Place into four bowls and enjoy!!!!.
Serve as a chili, or add additional 2 tbsp of nutrient rich Salba seed, mix and let sit for 2 hours and serve as a super healthy mango black bean choco-salsa.
