Feel Good Guru

We’re on day 3 of the Autumn edition of Feel Good Fast and yes, we’re feelin’ good! This is a recipe we’ll be doing on day 5. We make enough so that on day 6 it turns into a whole new thing – Spicy Black Bean Soup. Yes, we’re busy Chuppies and leftovers up-cycled in five minutes is a kitchen concept we can get behind!

If you have a nice big lettuce leaf or chard leaf, you can actually roll your bean mixture and serve it burrito style. You won’t miss the wheat flour tortilla. Otherwise, it makes a nice “open face” burrito on beet greens or spinach leaves. (more…)

Yesterday, for the first time in a long time, I got my hands into some dough. I used to bake bread from scratch every single morning at my restaurant in Banff, and whether they realized it or not, it was one of the things that kept my regulars coming back day after day for lunch. Baking is not magic, but there’s magic in baking.

For a while, I used a large mixer to knead the dough to save time, but I found that not only did the machine alter the alchemy, never getting it quite right, I actually needed the exercise of kneading. I would lock myself in, tune out the world, tune into the process, and discover the secrets of the universe in 4 daily loaves. (more…)

Millet was considered a sacred crop by the ancient Chinese. It contains no gluten, so those with wheat allergies can use it as a nutritious substitute grain. Millet is healing on the stomach, it’s alkaline and retains that alkalinity when it’s cooked. It’s loaded with B vitamins, namely niacin and B6, calcium and other minerals, and mildly nutty in flavour. Eat millet and consider it sacred.

To prepare millet, about 2 to 1 water to grain will do it. Wash the millet first, then add water and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat to 1 and leave covered for about (more…)

Brown rice is the “staff of life” and has three times the fibre of white rice. It’s also loaded with vitamins, minerals and complex carbohydrates (the ones that digest slowly, giving you sustained energy). I like to eat brown rice and veggies with chopsticks because it forces me to slow down and enjoy each nourishing grain.

For the recipe, order “Feel Good Fast – 21 days the Feel Good Guru way.”

Quinoa (keen-wa) is a sweet and mildly nutty ancient grain from the Andes Mountains of South America. It’s quick and easy to prepare and very versatile because it can be substituted for any other grain in a recipe. Quinoa is very high in protein (higher than any other grain) and is considered a “perfect protein” for its balance of essential amino acids. It’s also a good source of fibre, vitamins and minerals and is very easy to digest.

Mung beans were originally cultivated in India and migrated to China thousands of (more…)

Mmmm. I made this one up last night when I felt like a mostly raw meal after bringing home fresh basil, stellar greens, garlic and avocados from the Santa Monica farmers’ market, but was also craving more substance than just a salad, pesto crackers or guacamole. I combined my market ingredients to make a pasta sauce that turned into a kind of hybrid pesto-guacamole and mmmmm was it ever good over whole wheat rigatoni!

I like to make my pasta sauces mostly raw, then just toss them with the al dente (more…)

This warm salad of fresh beets and spring asparagus with quinoa and market greens is refreshing as a light main course for lunch or dinner. You’ll feel full and satisfied; also light and clean. It’s a perfect alkaline cleanse kind of meal. And it’s easy.

Make it with cooked quinoa, still warm, lightly steamed asparagus, chopped to one or two inches in length, roasted or boiled beets, cubed, and spring greens, washed and tossed in to a bowl with the warm ingredients. Top with a sprinkle of hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds, and drizzle with a little fresh pressed olive oil and apple cider vinegar. Season to your taste with salt and pepper.

Happy Earth Day fellow Earthlings!

For lunch today we had this fabulous Mediterranean quinoa salad. In a bowl, mix 3 cups of cooked quinoa, half a can of organic chick peas, 5 sundried tomatoes, chopped, half a cup of hulled hemp seeds, half a cucumber, diced, 2 tablespoons of capers, 3 large spicy olives, chopped, and half a cup of toasted pine nuts. Drizzle with lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil, and add salt and pepper to taste.

I made Earth Burgers for dinner. Here’s the vid: (more…)

While I was stranded in BC, the weather was hot, so we made the food hotter and got into eating Indian for a few days in a row. Leah bought some fabulous organic spinach naan made by Indian Life in Burnaby and we made chana masala and palak paneer with tofu, a mango chutney and some fragrant basmati rice to accompany.

The chana masala was made with whatever I could find in the cupboards and fridge. A can of chick peas, a potato, some market tomatoes, a head of broccoli, garlic and spices. Leah made the palak paneer using chef Vah’s recipe. It turned out beautifully. (more…)