From the Kitchen of Dr. Stamer

This sounds wild and it is! It is also very tasty, nutritious, and an interesting way to include more vegetables in your diet. 

The cashews in this recipe provide a creamy nut mylk that more closely resembles dairy than other nut mylks. This makes it delicious in coffee, tea, smoothies, or all by itself. While, the beautiful color makes it fun for everyone to try. 

Beets have many health benefits. They can reduce blood pressure, enhance a workout, improve blood flow to the brain, and have a detoxifying effect on your liver. 

Give this unique and bright drink a try! 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup soaked cashews
• 3 pitted dates
• 4 cups filtered water
• ½ small raw beet
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• Nut mylk bag

Instructions:

1. Blend all ingredients for 1 minute on high in blender
2. Strain through nut mylk bag and place in container
3. Store in fridge for up to 4 days

For a printable recipe, click here. 

From the kitchen of Dr. Stamer

What in the world is a shrub? A shrub is a delicious fruit and herb infused drinking vinegar. It is a great addition to mocktails, can be used before meals to stimulate digestion, or just sipped for a yummy seasonal drink! I like to make a couple with each season’s fruits and have them stored in my refrigerator for use all year long.
 
Ingredients

• 1 cup blueberries
• 1 tbsp grated ginger root
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar (my favorite is Bragg’s)
• 1/2 cup honey                          
• Sparkling water, to serve

Equipment

• Glass pint canning jar with plastic lid or metal lid & parchment paper

 
Instructions

1. Prepare your clean glass pint jar and it’s lid. You can boil both for 10 minutes, or use it straight from the dishwasher or after washing with soap and hot water. You can use a plastic or metal lid. The plastic lid is useful because the vinegar will erode a metal lid. If using a metal lid you will need parchment paper to place between the jar and the lid to prevent erosion.*
2. Place 1 cup of blueberries and 1 tbsp of freshly grated ginger into the jar.
3. Smash the blueberries with a clean metal spoon.
4. Add 1 cup of apple cider vinegar.
5. Wipe the top of the jar with a clean & damp cloth. Cover with plastic lid or metal lid. If using metal lid, place a square of parchment paper over the top of the jar, then twist the metal lid on. You don’t want the vinegar to touch the lid of the jar as it can cause erosion of the metal, and your shrub will taste like metal too!
6. Let it sit in a cool, dark place for 1-3 weeks. Shake a couple times per week.
7. Strain the fruit and ginger from the vinegar with a cheesecloth.
8. Add ½ cup honey to your vinegar mixture. Shake to dissolve the honey into the vinegar mixture right in your pint jar.
9. Store the shrub in your refrigerator.
10. To serve, mix 1 tbsp of your shrub syrup with 8 oz of sparkling water, mix into your favorite drink creation, or sip as is to stimulate digestion before a meal. Enjoy!

 
You can make this recipe with any fruit or herbs that you like! The ratio I commonly use is a 1:1:0.5 ratio for fruit to vinegar to sweetener, and you can play around with what amount of herb would compliment the taste of the fruit. I like to have my shrubs be on the more sour side, but you can add more sweetener to your liking!
 
*Because this isn’t done with a true canning process, there is a risk of bacteria growth. This is unlikely if you use proper cleanliness techniques and due to the high acid content of vinegar.

For a printable PDF, click here

From the kitchen of Jesse Haas, CNS, LN

Humans are always looking for reasons to justify and rationalize their cravings, which is one reason that chocolate continues to be looked at for its aide in balancing blood sugar, preventing heart disease, promoting weight loss and more.
 
I’m down with that! I am definitely a chocolate lover, so have no qualms with supporting my chocolate habits with scientific evidence.
 
Cacao – the unprocessed form of chocolate – is a nutrient-dense addition to your pantry staples. My favorite things about cacao include it’s magnesium content for combating stress, anxiety and sleeplessness, and the antioxidant flavonoids. Flavonoids are a class of compounds that help keep our cardiovascular system flexible. If you think of your arteries and veins as hoses and your blood as the water moving through the hose at high pressure, you can easily see how flexibility is key. We want our blood effortlessly circulating throughout our bodies! Use cacao in place of baking chocolate, which has undergone processing that damages many of the phytonutrients that makes cacao so powerful.
 
Adding a tablespoon of cacao powder to my smoothies has become a habit I feel very good about. Here’s one smoothie formula, that I’m really digging lately. Enjoy!
 
Makes 1 serving
 
Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup cold press
• 1/4 cup Thai coconut milk
• 2 Tbsp almond butter
• 1-2 Tbsp cacao powder
• 1 frozen banana
• 1/2 cup frozen cauliflower

 
Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in a high-powered blender and blend until smooth.

For a printable PDF, click here

From the kitchen of Amber Hanson, LN

Smoothies can be a great on-the-go meal or snack option but so often they are loaded with lots of fruit and light on fat and protein which can lead to swings in blood sugar levels.  This version keeps everything in balance and manages to sneak in some vegetables too (I promise, you won’t even be able to tell!)
 
Makes 1
 
Ingredients

• ½ cup frozen mixed berries
• ½-1 cup frozen cauliflower rice
• ¼ cup full fat canned coconut milk
• 2 scoops protein powder
• Water or alternative milk to get desired consistency

 
 Directions

1. Place all ingredients in a blender; blend until smooth.

 
Tip: For extra fiber try blending in a tablespoon of chia, hemp or flax seeds!

For a printable PDF, click here

Beets may not be your #1 choice of root vegetables, but the benefits are top notch. Beetroot contains vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber. A few of the many benefits that come from beets are helping to lower blood pressure, aiding digestion, decreasing inflammation and lowering blood sugars. 

A lot of people are afraid of making their own juice at home because they don’t have a juicer. I don’t have a juicer either, but I still make this 2 times a week in my regular kitchen blender or my Nutribullet.

If you do have a juicer – brilliant! You can probably double or triple this recipe without the water to yield more juice. (Once you’ve juiced all the ingredients, you can add some water to dilute, if you'd like). 

Ingredients:

• 1 beetroot, peeled and sliced
• 1/2 (or more!) ginger root, peeled and sliced
• juice of 1 lemon
• juice of 1/2 lime
• 6-7 cups water
• for a little sweetness, you can add 1-2 teaspoons of raw, organic honey

Directions (for blender):

1. Place all the ingredients into your blender and blend for roughly 1 minute – the juice will start to foam at the top and the fibers will collect at the bottom. If you are using a smaller blender: don't overfill it. You'll need to split the ingredients and blend in batches. 
2. Strain your juice, if you'd like. Then, bottle it up, drink it up and start benefiting from the wonders of beetroot!

Directions (for juicer):

1. Peel the lemon and lime.
2. Juice the first 4 ingredients. 
3. Dilute with water and sweeten to your liking. 

References
Clifford, et. al (2015), The Potential Benefits of Red Beetroot Supplementation in Health and Disease: http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/7/4/2801/htm

We've touted the benefits of turmeric in the past. It's still true: this spice is the bomb! As a folk remedy turmeric was used to treat many, many maladies - everything from measles to gum disease, indigestion to the flu. Researchers have recently become quite interested in this yellow spice, so there is good evidence that at lease some of these folk remedies have clout. Here are a few highlights of how cooking with turmeric can improve your health:

• Turmeric prevents and kills cancer
• Soothes digestive problems, including gastric reflux
• Relieves headaches, joint and muscle pain and inflammation
• Improves circulation by stimulating blood flow
• Protects the liver and supports detoxification
• Helps type II diabetics become more sensitive to insulin and better at metabolizing sugar
• Used topically as a facial mask, turmeric can clear breakouts and acne

And the list goes on...

Here are some simple ways to get more turmeric in your life:

• Add it to everything you cook: soups, stews, beans, casseroles... A tablespoon in the pot will change the color but not the flavor.
• Eat curry! Pick up an Indian cookbook and plug a curry into your weekly menu. I love our local chef, Raghavan Iyer's cookbooks.
• Modify your bedtime cup of warm milk! Try this recipe for Golden Milk, a deliciously, anti-inflammatory beverage.

Golden Milk
Click here for a printable PDF
Ingredients:

• 8 oz milk of your choice (cow, goat, almond, non-GMO soy, coconut)
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon coconut oil (the fat increases absorption of turmeric's active compound curcumin)
• honey, to taste (optional)

Directions:

1. Heat milk and turmeric in a small saucepan over medium-low heat.
2. Sweeten with honey, if desired.
3. Drink immediately.

Bonus Options

• Add a pinch of cinnamon and/or black pepper. Cinnamon helps balance blood sugar and black pepper increases the absorption of both spices.

References:
Healing Spices by Bharat Aggarwal, PhD

If you don't already have turmeric in your spice cabinet, you can find it in many forms from our favorite provider of herbs and spices, Mountain Rose Herbs! (Just click HERE)

Special credit to our Holistic Diabetes Group for bringing this recipe to my attention!