"Graduation" and Goat Cheese! (Great holiday appetizer as well)

I'm not sure if you know what I do so I am going to tell you! I teach classes and give presentations on the magic of food as well as discussing all the other things that affect our well-being. I went to the Institute for Integrative Nutrition where I was taught about the Integrative approach to nutrition. You may think that all we discussed was food - and you would be primarily correct.

We broke food into 2 components - Primary Food and Secondary Food. Both Primary Food and Secondary Food were defined as things that nourish our body. Believe it or not, the food we put into our mouth and swallow is known as Secondary Food. So, what is Primary Food?? Primary Food is all the other things humans need to feel truly nourished and thrive. This includes relationships, careers, exercise and spirituality.

I cover all these areas in my classes and I introduce the concept of listening to your body to tell you what you need to be doing to truly nourish yourself. Our bodies are amazing. They talk to us all the time. We just haven't been taught to listen to the language our body speaks. Once we do that, magic happens! I love that word, "magic!" I haven't figured out a better way to describe what happens when we begin to eat foods our body craves and allow the body to works its magic!

So, I needed a recipe to bring to a class I was teaching. This was our last scheduled class. We had spent the last 6 months together meeting about every other week. I always bring food to my classes for people to try. It takes the fear out of trying new foods. Our last class or "graduation" is sort of like a celebration and I wanted something that not only tasted good, was made from whole foods but was also somewhat seasonal and local in nature.

I found this recipe on the internet. It came from a website for Delicious Living. It seems that the recipe was developed as part of a contest using almonds. As usual, I changed the recipe to fit the ingredients I had on hand. So here is my version for:

Baked Goat Cheese with Apple and Cranberries

1/2 cup chopped apple (I used a local Jonathan and chopped it in a small dice.)

1/4 cup dried cranberries (I also chopped these up a little)

1/4 cup nuts (I used almonds and pecans - you could also use walnuts - cut up in small pieces)

1 tablespoon honey

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons butter, melted

8 ounces goat cheese (I used the mild goat cheese that comes in a log)

Crackers or warmed baguette

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine the chopped apple, dried cranberries, nuts, honey, cinnamon and butter.

Slice the cheese crosswise into four even wheels. Place 2 of the wheels in a small baking dish. Spoon half of the apple/cranberry mixture over the cheese. Place the remaining cheese pieces on top and cover with the remaining apple mixture. Bake until the cheese starts to melt - it took about 10 minutes in my oven.

Serve warm with crackers or warmed baguette.

Heartwarming Soup!

We had a wonderful weekend - both from a getting things done perspective and from an eating perspective. Saturday started out cold and cloudy so I decided to cook chicken noodle soup for supper. It was delicious, but the really cool thing about it was that I bought a whole organic chicken, cooked it all afternoon in a pot of water along with a cut up carrot, onion, celery, some parsley and a little white vinegar. The vinegar leaches the minerals out of the bones, adding a nutritious richness to the broth. When it was cooked, I was able to freeze 4 pints of broth and make the soup! I made the soup out of strained broth, carrots, celery, onion, basil, a bay leaf, some salt and freshly cracked pepper along and some whole grain spelt noodles. I only used 1/2 of the chicken for the soup.

Then yesterday I made a big chicken pot pie out of the other half of the chicken. Now I have wonderful leftovers that I can use for the rest of the week or I can freeze some of it and use it in a few weeks so I don't get tired of the leftovers! By taking a little time and planning, I maximized the use of the food I bought and minimized my preparation time!

As fall progresses and winter approaches, I resort more and more to soups and stews. This is because they are warming and dense in nature, providing me with nutrition I need to keep my immune system strong. I have found that I can't eat a lot of light or raw foods in cold weather - it makes me too cold and weakens my immune system and I find them difficult to digest. You can test this out on yourself - it is actually called seasonal eating - so go ahead and delight in the heavy winter foods!

The recipe I really want to share with you is one of my favorite soup recipes. It is truly heartwarming and tastes amazingly good. It satisfies a sweet tooth and is beneficial to your heart health and helps your body deal with the dryness of fall and winter. The recipe calls for red lentils and dried apricots (I know - sounds weird but is delicious).

According to Paul Pitchford (he is one of my gurus - he taught a class at the school I attended and I attended a week long intensive class of his at the Heartwood Institute in northern California) in his book "Healing with Whole Foods," lentils have the following properties: "Neutral thermal nature; mild flavor; diuretic; beneficial to the heart and circulation; stimulates the adrenal system; increases the vitality of the kidneys." Apricot properties include: "neutral thermal nature; sweet-and-sour flavor; moistens the lungs and increases the yin fluids; used for dry throat, thirst, asthma, and other lung conditions when there is fluid deficiency. Because of its high copper and cobalt content, it is commonly used to treat anemia. Apricots originated in China, where they are considered weakening of consumed abundantly. They must be used cautiously during pregnancy, and avoided in cases of diarrhea."

Paul's comments illustrate some of the concepts I have learned over the last several years. First, food is medicine - food used to be used as medicine and some medicines are actually created from food. Second, it is important to eat a wide variety of foods. Eating apricots illustrates this concept - while eating a few here and there can be beneficial, too many can cause problems in the body.

The recipe comes from diamondorganics.com, a website where you can purchase organic foods and have them delivered to your door. The website is worth checking out as it contains a lot of information about organic foods and also has a host of recipes. Their quality is great, however their products are quite pricey. The recipe is really quick and easy to fix.

Apricot Lentil Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion chopped

2 cloves garlic minced

1/3 cup dried apricots chopped

1 ½ cup red lentils, rinsed

5 cups vegetable stock

3 plum tomatoes (peeled, seeded and chopped)

½ teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon dried thyme, salt and ground black pepper

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Saute onion, garlic and apricots in olive oil. Add lentils and stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes.

Add tomatoes, cumin, thyme, and salt and pepper to taste, and simmer 10 minutes more.

Add lemon juice. Puree ½ of the soup in a blender, then return to the pot.

Serves 6.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do.

Well, welcome to my blog! This comment is as much for me as it is for any readers that venture in here. I have resisted writing for ages and I finally decided it was time so I took the plunge. I have so much to share and this seems the most appropriate avenue to share it with anyone who takes the time to read it!

Enough of that! For those of you that don't know my story, I have degrees in nursing and engineering. Both sciences failed me when my daughter got sick 12 years ago and the doctors couldn't provide us with any answers. That started me on a journey to discover the healing powers of food - and as a side benefit, led me to discover how much fun food is and the magic contained in real food. Wow - it took me 2 degrees and then traveling back and forth to the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City to earn a certificate in Health Counseling to find out that the answer to so many of my questions and life challenges were wrapped up in the magic of food.

As a side note, my daughter is now 25, healthy and wonderful!

Now I love teaching people about that magic. I have classes and do individual, group, couple and family counseling. It is so much fun! I teach people what food really is and how to tap into their body to help determine what foods make their body's feel great. I bring samples of cooked foods with me as well as leaving food behind for them to play with so they too can discover the magic!

I decided I wanted to reach a larger audience, hence - this blog!

I am going to post recipes and helpful hints and share with you my success stories and my failures so hopefully you can learn how easy it can be to feel great and in charge of your life.

I have been asked by several people for the following recipe. I just tried it Monday and it was so fabulous I had to share it. It comes from the recently published book "Clean Food" by Terry Walters. Terry is a fellow graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. The book is wonderful and I highly recommend it. It has ingredients listed that some of you may not be familiar with. I use many of these on a daily basis so if you have questions, holler at me! I added my comments in parentheses.

Silky Sweet Potato Pie

Crust:

1-1/2 cups pecans

1/4 cup chickpea flour (also called garbanzo bean flour - located in many grocery stores in the gluten free section)

2 tablespoons canola oil (I use whatever oil I have on hand - sunflower, safflower, green tea, almond, etc.)

2 tablespoons maple syrup (please use REAL maple syrup - not imitation or maple flavored. Real maple syrup is much more gentle on the body than the imitation flavored syrup)

Filling:

3 medium sweet potatoes

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup rice milk (I believe you could use any milk you like - I used real milk - my milk came straight from the cow about 1-1/2 weeks ago - it was still warm when I picked it up from the farmer!)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 tablespoon arrowroot (look for this in the health food section or in the gluten free section - it is a starch - according to "The Joy of Cooking Cookbook" 1-1/2 teaspoons of arrowroot is the equivalent of 1 tablespoon flour OR 2 teaspoons of arrowroot is the equivalent of 1 tablespoon cornstarch - also remember that 1 tablespoon = 3 teaspoons so you can substitute flour or cornstarch. I like arrowroot better than either flour or cornstarch)

1 teaspoon agar powder (I used agar flakes - you can find this in asian markets or health food stores. Agar is a sea vegetable and quite healthy for you. It also is used as a thickener. I don't have a good equivalent for this because it is easy to use and it has many healthy properties to it. You may be able to skip it, but I wouldn't)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Wash sweet potatoes, place on cookie sheet and bake until soft (time will vary according to the size of potatoes). Remove from oven and set aside.

Preparing Crust:

Meanwhile, chop pecans in a food processor until they resemble fine meal. Add chickpea flour and process briefly to combine. Add oil, syrup and salt and process to form dough. Lightly grease 9-inch pie plate with canola oil, add dough and press to form even crust (about 1/4-inch thick). Pierce several times with a fork and bake 12 minutes. Remove from oven and set on wire rack to cool.

Preparing Filling:

When sweet potatoes are cool enough to handle, remove skins and cut into large pieces. Place in cleaned food processor bowl and add maple syrup, rice milk, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, arrowroot and agar powder. Process until smooth.

Finishing:

Pour filling into cooled pie crust, cover pie edges with foil and bake 50 minutes to 1 hour until lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool completely on wire rack. Serve at room temperature or cold.

Serves 6-8

I am too lazy to wrap my crust with foil so I simply used a sharp knife and cut off all excess crust so the crust was level with the sweet potatoes and this worked great. The crust didn't burn. The cooked crust tasted like a cookie!

The author also mentions that she serves this as a side dish. I did that one night and both my husband and I decided it was so yummy we ate it for dessert with a little real whipped cream on top! What a great way to get satifying sweets without the guilt!!

Love to all!

Sarah