What to do when you’re sick

One question I constantly get asked is, “What should I do when I get sick?” If you have an Acupuncturist or Chinese Herbalist, they should be your first stop. The sooner you get treatment, the shorter your illness. Herbs are far more effective than medications for eradicating viruses and getting you back on your feet.

But what about the rest of you who don’t have any help? There are some simple, natural things you can do to feel better quickly and shorten the duration of your illness.

Obviously I’m no video expert, or I’d know how to come up with a better thumbnail, but I keep doing these anyway in an attempt to help you learn more about your health! I hope you enjoy it!


Delicious, Dairy-free, Paleo, GAPS-legal Coconut Milkshake!

Ice cream is one of the most difficult foods for our patients to give up. Unfortunately many people have either dairy or sugar sensitivities (or both). This ice-cream replacement is pretty healthy and completely delicious. It has no refined sugar, and sugars are easier to process in their whole, unadulterated form.

However, this recipe is still not great for diabetics or those who are really trying to lose weight, as it is still quite high in natural sugars.

For those of us who have the ability to handle occasional sweets, though, it is absolutely fantastic! You won’t even miss ice cream!

 

You’ll need:

1 young, thai coconut

2-6 dates

2 big handfuls almonds

1 T vanilla extract

3 big pinches unrefined sea salt

Ice

Vitamix or other very high-powered blender

Cleaver or CocoJack or some other way of opening the coconut

 

Yeild: 2 large or 3 medium servings

Directions:

  1. Open the coconut and empty the water into the blender. Then scrape out all the meat and add to the blender. Be careful not to get any hard shell pieces in the blender.
  2. Add 2 handfuls almonds, 3 large pinches sea salt, 1 T vanilla extract, 2-6 dates (depending on desired sweetness).
  3. Put ice into blender on top of other ingredients at roughly a 1:1 ratio (ice should take up the same amount of space as total other ingredients).
  4. Blend on high until smooth—about 45-60 seconds in the Vitamix.
  5. Pour into glasses—makes 2 large servings or 3 medium servings.

Tip: If you have a regular blender and not a crazy-strong Vitamix, you may have to chop the almonds up in the blender first and then add other ingredients.

Full disclosure:

This is a recipe I modified over time that originally came from the Café Gratitude cookbook: I Am Grateful. It’s a great resource for raw, vegan meals and desserts.


Pecan Crusted Paleo Fried Pork Chops

Paleo, GAPS, Gluten free, Traditional Foods, Low Carb, Delicious!

Two unfortunate events combined to cause us to create the most delicious fried pork chops I’ve ever eaten in my life! These are far better than any traditional flour chops. If you just want the recipe and don’t’ want to read my story, scroll down to the bottom.

First, we were driving back to Pensacola from Tampa. If you’ve driven it, you know you drive North on I-75 and then change to I-10 West just above Lake City. Now, I generally do most of the driving, but I was tired and determined to get Niko to sub in more than 1 hour on the trip—so we changed drivers about 20 miles south of Lake City.

Once I got in the passenger seat, I decided to make use of my free time by returning some phone calls from potential patients and getting some snacks together. I busied myself with this for a little while. Then, once we’d had enough snacks and the phone calls were finished, I looked up to see where we were. I started thinking, “Seems like Niko’s been driving for a while and we should be on I-10 by now,” so I was just about to pull up my GPS to see how much farther when I saw: Valdosta Next 5 Exits. Uh-oh. For those who don’t know, that’s in Georgia—and definitely NOT on the way from Tampa to Pensacola, both of which cities are in Florida.

So to console ourselves, we stopped off at Big Rosie’s Pecan and fruit stand—where someone I’ll call Big Rosie informed us that the Pecan Meal/Flour they were selling could be used to fry fish, chicken or pork.

The second thing that happened is that we went to the Palafox Market in downtown Pensacola, as we do every Saturday morning. And as usual, we stop off to see what Roger has at the Green Cedars Farm stand. He has the best pork I’ve ever eaten. We bought our usual bone-in pork butt and decided to splurge on some chops.

Saturdays are often a long day out of the house for us, so we always bring multiple coolers to fill with our groceries. We packed the pork down into the ice and went on about our day. When we arrived home, all the meat had somehow frozen into the center of a giant iceburg—which I had to drop on the cement to break apart. When I got it all apart, I noticed that the pork chops had somehow managed to completely thaw while encased in ice. I’m sure someone who understands physics better than I can explain how you get a warm area in the center of a block of ice.

As a result of the chops thawing out, we decided we would have to cook them the very next day (today).

Since we just learned about frying in pecan flour, I decided to give it a shot. I couldn’t find any recipes, so I looked up several and came up with this one. These are honestly the absolute best pork chops I’ve ever eaten in my entire life! Juicy, flavorful with melt-in-your-mouth fat. The sweetness of the pecans plays perfectly off the porky, salty, pepperiness. Amazing! Enjoy.

You will need:

  • Meat thermometer
  • 2.5 lbs pork chops
  • ¾ c pecan meal
  • 1 egg, beaten or ¼ c raw milk
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • 2 T coconut oil
  • 2 T ghee
  • 2 T butter

 

  1. Pour beaten egg or milk on one plate and pecan meal on the other.
  2. Heat coconut oil, ghee and butter in a cast iron pan over med-high heat till bubbling.
  3. Dredge chops in egg/milk and pecan meal.
  4. Place in hot fat.
  5. Cover top of chop with a crust of salt and pepper—nice and thick!
  6. When the bottom is good and brown, flip chops and turn down heat to medium.
  7. Start checking the temperature of your chops pretty frequently. Once they reach 135o, remove chops and place on cutting board for 10 minutes. The temperature of the chops will continue to rise as they sit. Do not skip this step, as it allows the juices to soak back in! Note: chops may cook at different rates, so be sure to check the temperature of each
  8. Pop on a plate with a delicious side and eat up!

Collards with Smoked Ham Hock and Lima Beans

We made this Gaps friendly recipe last month with pasture-raised ham hocks we picked up from the Palafox Farmer’s Market from Roger Elliott of Green Cedars Farm (a charming fellow, if you have yet to meet him). He runs what he calls an ‘environmentally friendly, sustainable, community-oriented agri-tourism farm business’ and with one bite of his product you can taste that those claims are true. [Then go to his website and check out his photos to see some seriously happy pigs! We dare you not to smile.]  Honestly, this recipe is so good that we have made it every week since then – we just can’t get enough! So of course, we had to share it. ☺

Ingredients

4 Tbs coconut oil or bacon fat (or a combination of the two)
3 onions, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 really big bunch of collard greens, stems removed, cut into ribbons and then roughly chopped
1 cup homemade broth or water
2 lbs Green Cedar Farms smoked ham hocks
2 cups fresh or frozen lima beans (omit for Paleo)
sea salt and fresh ground pepper

Supplies

Stockpot with lid
Big stirring spoon
Cutting board
Sharp kitchen knife

Steps

Melt coconut oil/bacon fat in a stockpot on the stove over medium heat.
Add the onions and garlic and sauté until the onions are soft and tender (about 10 mins). If the onions start to brown turn the heat down.
Add the collards and sauté until wilted (a couple of mins)
Add the broth/water and the ham hock, cover and simmer on low for about 40 mins or until the collards are no longer bitter.
Add the lima beans and simmer until cooked through.
Remove pot from heat, take the hocks out, cut the meat from the bone, discard the bones, dice the meat and return it to the pot.
Serve with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.
Enjoy!


Help Fix the Farm Bill!

 

Happy Pastured Cows

Happy Pastured Cows

The Farm Bill currently up for a vote before the Senate and discussion in the House will cripple our local food system, unless we pass some very important amendments.

For the full story go here: Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund

What can you do to help?

Call or email your US Senators and say the following:

 

Senator ____________________,

My name is ______________, and I live in _____________________________. As a constituent of yours and a consumer of locally grown foods, I urge you to protect my access to the healthy foods that I want to eat.

Please consider voting for the following ammnendments to the Farm Bill to help protect my freedom to choose the foods I want to eat.

YES: on King’s Amendment 1033
YES: on Boxer’s Amendment: 1027
YES: on Grassley’s Amendment: 969
YES: Wyden’s Amendment: 952
NO: Johann’s Amendment to eliminate Country of Origin Labeling (COOL)

Thank you so much for your time and support. We need you to defend our rights to choose the food we eat.

Sincerely,
Your name

If you live in California, you can email
Senator Boxer
Senator Feinstein

If you’re outside California, find your Senators

As of today (6/20/13) the House is considering their version of the Farm Bill. There are several important amendments there as well.

Send an online fax OR

Write your reprensentative and use the subject line: Support Amendments 115, 136, 176, 214

Say something like:

Representative  ____________________,

My name is ______________, and I live in _____________________________. As a constituent of yours and a consumer of locally grown foods, I urge you to protect my access to the healthy foods that I want to eat.

Please consider voting for the following ammnendments to the Farm Bill to help protect my freedom to choose the foods I want to eat.

YES on Amendments 115, 136, 176 and 214.

Thank you so much for your time and support. We need you to defend our rights to choose the food we eat.

Sincerely,

Your name

Not convinced our farmers need your help? Watch Farmageddon the movie. It will change your mind. If we want to continue to access quality foods, we need to act now to preserve our rights!

It is vital that we protect our access to foods grown in a non-industrialized setting, and if we allow continued erosion of our food choices, we may end up buying our beets on the black market. No joke!

Please take 2 minutes of your time RIGHT NOW to follow the links and cut and paste the message. Our democracy can only work through participation. Imagine how you’ll feel if your farmer’s market closes down and you didn’t do anything. Act NOW!

 


Dr. Oz agrees, Cholesterol is NOT a killer!

Wow! I didn’t think I’d see this in the mainstream media so soon!

My clinic has been following the science about cholesterol for years, and we’ve been counseling patients to think more about their overall health and less about their cholesterol numbers. But many people think we’re crazy!

Well, it doesn’t get much more mainstream than Dr. Oz! And he’s here to tell you that the MD’s are catching up to us. Check out this awesome video to find out more.

Thanks so much to Food Renegade for bringing this to our attention. They are a great resource for nutrition-related information!


12 Minute Oyster Soup

12 Minute Oyster Soup

serves 2

 

4 cups homemade fish stock

2 cups Backyard CSA seafood stock (or more fish stock if you don’t have Tiffani’s delicious seafood stock on hand)

1/3 lb shitake mushrooms, sliced

1 dozen oysters, in the shell, scrubbed clean

1/3 cup chopped chives

butter and sea salt to taste

 

Bring stock to a boil. Add mushrooms and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook for about 7 mins (just enough time for the mushrooms to cook a little). Add oysters and simmer for 5 or so mins, until most of the oysters are cracked open. Add the chives in the last minute or two. Serve in large bowls with salt and butter to taste. Yum!