night time settle down

Blend fresh pumpkin seeds, fresh or frozen blueberries with water and/or coconut milk.  Add ginger or cinnamon and honey (with the seeds to help expression and uptake of tryptophan) to taste.

Pumpkin seeds are full of tryptophan, with a natural slow release mechanism.  Good for calming your mind, assisting in sleep, and rebuilding serotonin.  

fish and soba

Soba noodles, portabella mushrooms, asparagus, celery, purple cabbage and cod with ginger and sea salt.  

BEETS !!!

Beets are wonderful things filled with nutrients, and roots are good for your root.  In traditional East Asian medicine this relates to your root health and energy system, helping you stay grounded and nourished with blood that keeps your tendons moist and your ability to deal with stress supple so you can bend but not break from the stresses of life.  Beets are said to nourish the blood and they contain vital minerals that are missing from many peoples diets.

So how do you cook them !?!
I like to bake my beets, I chop them into chunks and bake them next to my fish in my one pot dish, or on their own with olive and coconut oil with a spice or two, rosemary and ginger are nice.

You can steam or boil them too, but think about making soup with that lovely red broth, you can add the beet greens to it later too.

In college I would bake a whole beat in the toaster oven like a potato and eat it like an apple by hand, which can be a slight bit messy with all that red juice but works out if you have a sink and a towel near by.  

Fermented foods

We need a consistent supply of lactobacillious, a beneficial probiotic that needs to be replenished in our diet.  For thousands of years we have been eating fermented foods but in our modern society we forget that we are germs (literally we have 10 times more bacterial cells in us than human cells) and tend to sell only dead food.  Other probiotics may be needed at other times for other reasons as well as the bacterial balance in our gut is crucial to our health.

Here's some resources on how to make your own fermented foods, because diary is not beneficial and most fermented foods you find in the store no longer have live bacteria in them... so sad.

Coconut yogurt

Coconut Kefir

Lacto-fermented sauerkraut

How to video sauerkraut

Grains

Amaranth, Millet and quinoa all make excellent breakfasts especially mixed with coconut milk, berries or fruit and nuts.  Try cranberries too, they astringe your jing (in Chinese medicine this means that they help keep your vital life essence in).

Soak the grain over night (especially the amaranth) then cook like rice.  Amaranth is my favorite, it comes out with a unique almost gelatinous consistency that is surprisingly smooth and yummy.

Squash

Autumn and winter are the time to be eating squash, delicata, acorn, spaghetti and some of those big scary ugly ones that taste so great.  Squash is very simple to prepare and can be quite good on it's own or with a little ghee or coconut oil.  Buttercup squash is my favorite !  Just cut the squash in half and bake it until it's mushy.  I don't know what temperature but all the one's I have picked worked out just fine :D


Eat the mush for breakfast (squish it with your fork), or as a side for lunch or dinner. 


Chop it into chunks for a stir fry with coconut milk, curry, turmeric, green beans, beets (baked then chopped into chunks) and add to rice.  

Eggs and Veggies

Eggs (get local fresh eggs preferably from chickens fed a high omega 3 diet).
Scramble with veggies:  try a few of the following: green onions, kale, spinach, collard greens, bok choy, chard, garlic, thyme, sage, grated or chopped zucchini, squash, broccoli, onion (don't add first, add later don't over cook).