Tag Archives: #healthyeating

Cholla Berries

January 9, 2025Complementary Therapies, Let Food be Your Medicine#healthyeating, #recipe, NLMSF, nutritionHeidi

Many years ago I read that there were thousands of edible foods that we never eat in our regular day-to-day diets. Part of the reason is that they are regional foods. However, I was interested in the micronutrients supplied by foods I would normally not either have access to or ordinarily eat.
In 2019 I went to Tucson, Arizona, for the book launch of LOSS, SURVIVE, THRIVE: Bereaved Parents Share Their Stories of Healing and Hope (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019, I had contributed the chapter “Waking Up is Hard to Do.” While there I discovered a local co-op store and inside found a jar of dried cholla cactus buds. These are loaded with calcium and help regulate blood sugar levels.
I excitedly brought them home, only to learn they needed to be boiled for an hour. So they sat in their jar until this week. With nearly a foot of snow on the ground, I decided it was time to cook them. Afterward, I pulled one out of the pot and gave it a try. Hmmm. It was like lemony asparagus. Most online recipes call for cooking them with other vegetables. However, cholla buds are fruit, and according to ancient Indian Ayurvedic wisdom, fruit should be consumed with other fruit, nuts, and seeds, but not vegetables.
I put half the boiled buds into a food processor and whirled. I poured that into a bowl and added a tablespoon of dried wild sea buckthorn berries, which are sour. Annie Achee with the National Leiomyosarcoma Foundation had told me she was ordering them online, so I had a packet on hand.
Then I added poppy seeds, sprouted chia seeds, and monk fruit. Breakfast!

It’s Sprouting Season

December 5, 2024Complementary Therapies, Let Food be Your Medicine#cancersurvivor, #CancerThriver, #healthyeating, #MungBeans, #RadicalRemission, #recipe, #Salad, #Sauerkraut, #Sprouting, #ThriverSoup, #uterinecancer, #uterinesarcoma, nutrition, sarcomaHeidi

When fresh local produce is hard to find, my kitchen has fresh sprouts.

My sprout salads now consist of:

Mung bean sprouts for proteolytic enzymes (for more info, see Thriver Soup, pgs 121-122, 141-143)

Sprouting mix for dense nutrition (for more info, see Thriver Soup, pgs 132-133, 136-138)

Homemade sauerkraut for digestive enzymes (for more info, see Thriver Soup, pgs 141-143)

2 artichoke hearts for bone-building Vitamin K

Hemp seeds for protein

Organic extra-virgin olive oil (look for the certification to make sure you’re getting the real deal, not fake olive oil) (for more info, see Thriver Soup, pgs 139-140)

Fresh onion, just a few bits

This nutritional powerhouse is part of my daily routine now.

Sprouting beans during winter

February 15, 2018Let Food be Your Medicine#healthyeating, #sprout, green smoothie, healthy eating, nutritionHeidi

The life-giving potential continues increasing, and the earth is always covered with yellow sprouts, the world blooms with Golden Flowers.

Liu Yiming, The Taoist I Ching, Hexagram 16 Joy

The life-giving potential of spring lives all winter in my kitchen. Glass bowls provide nests for tender bean and lentil shoots. My lentil volume increases dramatically when the seeds are sprouted.

See in the photos a bag of beans like the one I started with and the initial eight quarts of sprouted lentils it created; I cooked one of those quarts of lentils, and let the other quart continue growing until I had an additional quart of fresh sprouts.

Sprouting is a key element of my diet. While summer months bring massive piles of local, organic, living greens onto my countertops, winter generally means veggies shipped in from far lands. What could be more nutritious during hibernation season than baby beans? They offer their vibrant riches to whomever accesses them.

Sprouting is easy to do, if you plan ahead and can find organic beans still capable of sprouting. Local health food stores usually have a supply. Just soak one part beans in four parts filtered water for about 12 hours. Rinse, drain, and repeat the rinsing and draining two or three times each day. After a couple of days, depending on the temperature in your home, you will see little white legs growing on these babies. Your nutritional powerhouses are ready for preparation and consumption.

Cook the sprouts as you would any dried bean. My preferred method to reduce intestinal gas formation is to bring the beans to a boil, rinse and drain, then bring to a boil again with a fresh pot of water and cook until tender.

Mung bean sprouts can be eaten raw and are extremely nutritious. I put them in my high-speed blender along with a liquid tonic, such as green tea and homemade kombucha tea. I usually add blanched kale and various other nutritious foods. It’s not exactly a gourmet-tasting slushy, yet I sure like the end results. I’d say the sprouts and greens have something to do with my hair looking so healthy. I’m 56 now and sidestepped the grey hair typical of chemo veterans.

I thank my sprouts and green smoothies.

While the world outside slows down, ices over, and darkens, my digestive system gets a sunny delight every day to keep my cells humming happily.

Thriver Soup Ingredient:

Here are links for sprouting beans and other ideas:

http://www.sproutingsprouts.com/how-to-sprout-beans/how-to-sprout-beans-including-adzuki-garbanzo-lentil-peas-and-mung-beans (how to sprout beans)

http://www.choosy-beggars.com/index.php/2009/10/16/spinach-and-white-bean-dip/ (bean dip recipe)

http://www.livestrong.com/article/473284-how-to-blanch-kale/ (how to blanch kale)