Dr. Deb's Blog
Salad Magic
SEPTEMBER 22ND, 2011
I just created a new salad dressing that is absolutely heavenly – so I wanted to share it with you. It’s so easy! All you do is mix together equal parts of Coconut Aminos, Coconut Vinegar and Olive Oil.
Never heard of Coconut Aminos? Well, they are similar to Braggs Aminos – but even healthier and yummier. You’ll find them at health food stores or compounding pharmacies. Coconut Vinegar are usually on the same shelf or in the same section of the store.
Then, to make the salad absolutely magical, sprinkle some Eden Shake on it. Eden Shake is a blend of black sesame seeds, white sesame seeds, pickled re shiso leaf and nori seaweed. It is so good that my 13-year old son asks for seconds of salad! I told you it was magical! And it’s really good for you, too.
What are your favorite ways to make salad magical?
Would You Take This Dare?
MAY 11TH, 2011We are never too old to dare ourselves to try something new. This spring I decided to do something I’ve never done before… in fact I’ve been afraid to even try. Yes, the Daring Diva was afraid to dare! Was it ziplining from tops of 100-year-old Cypress trees? Nope. That was my Mother’s Day gift this year.
My dare was much more adventurous. Much riskier. It was starting a vegetable garden!
Why was I so afraid of this? Partly because my mom and sister are amazing gardeners and I never felt that I had their gift. But mostly because I was afraid nothing would grow or that I’d kill whatever did grow. Failure. That’s what I was afraid of. But my desire to live a more sustainable life and share this with my 13-year old son, Micah, was stronger than my fear, so we dug in. Literally.
To my delight, Micah really got into it… he was an instant pro with a hoe!
We prepared the beds and planted carrots, parsley, cilantro, bell peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, basil and beans.
We watered every day and weeded almost every day.
And we waited.
For days nothing seemed to be growing but weeds. Then we finally saw the green leaves of precious vegetables poking their heads out. It was SOOOO exciting!!!
Everything started growing except the beans. Only one bean plant out of 24 seeds grew.
I have to admit that I felt sad every time I went to water the beans and was starting to feel like a “bean failure.” But we didn’t give up. We kept watering and weeding (and talking to the seeds – which is only a little embarrassing when you don’t realize your neighbor is in her backyard and can hear you reciting poetry to your barren plot of dirt).
And guess what? One morning we woke up and 23 little bean sprouts had shot through the earth!!! I literally JUMPED and DANCED for JOY!!!!!
And within 2 days they were all growing into healthy bean plants!!
I’m so glad I dared myself to plant this garden. It has given my son and me a very beautiful project to share. It has taught me so much about weeds and rabbits. It will soon provide fresh produce for my family. And it has taught me once again to never give up and to trust in the wisdom of Mother Nature.
Wanna share your favorite gardening tip with me? I’m listening!!!!!
Can You Say Delicious?
MAY 4TH, 2011Last week I went to the Optimum Health Institute where I spent 7 days giving my body, mind and spirit a restful and healing detoxification. It was a luxury to unplug from technology and enjoy time for meditation, prayer, journaling, yoga, walking and sleep. In fact I took 3 naps every day!!
I also enjoyed a 3-day juice fast followed by a diet of raw food. One of the raw foods that was new to me was Kale Chips. Can you say delicious?!
At first I thought the kale chips were only delicious because I had been fasting for 3 days. But when I came home and made them, I realized they were delicious even when I was eating full meals. There were so good that I wanted to share the recipe with you so you could enjoy them, too.
Ingredients
- 4 bunches of kale (I made a lot because I knew they would get eaten quickly)
- 3 red bell peppers
- 3 tablespoons unpasteurized apple cider vinegar
- 3 cups sesame seeds
Directions
- Remove the kale leaves from the thick stems and tear them into bite- sized pieces and put into a huge bowl.
- Clean the bell peppers and remove the seeds.
- Put the bell peppers, apple cider vinegar and sesame seeds in a powerful blender or food processor.
- Blend until it becomes a sauce.
- Pour the sauce over the kale and mix in with your hands until all leaves are thoroughly covered.
- Spread the kale onto the sheets and dehydrate them in your dehydrator OR cookie sheets in a pre-heated oven at the lowest temperature it will go.
- My dehydrator took only 6 hours. The oven will take MUCH less. At 350 degrees it will take 10 minutes. I’m not sure how long it will take at lower temperatures, so you’ll need to experiment.
Here’s another recipe that is also delicious and super simple.
Ingredients
- 1 bunch kale
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon seasoned salt
Directions
- Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a non insulated cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- With a knife or kitchen shears carefully remove the leaves from the thick stems and tear into bite size pieces. Wash and thoroughly dry kale with a salad spinner. Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoning salt.
- Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, 10 to 15 minutes.
Have you got other yummilicious kale recipes to share? Or have you tried these? Let me know in the comments below. Thank you!
Bearthday 2011 blog
APRIL 27TH, 2011
Every April, in honor of Earth Day and Bar Ostrand’s birthday (Bar is the ‘goddess in charge’ of my Daring Diva Dance Class) I create a special “Bearthday” class. Each year I wonder how I will create a playlist as wonderful as the last year’s. And each year, like magic, the perfect music comes to my awareness just in the nick of time.
Since many of you don’t live close enough to come dance with us I wanted to share the fabulous music we danced to this week. The theme of this year’s Bearthday class was LOVE. LOVE for ourselves, LOVE for our planet and LOVE for each other. The combination of lyrics, voices, rhythms and melodies created the perfect fuel for us to dance our prayers of LOVE. I dare you not to be moved by this music! Better yet, I dare you to put these tunes on your iPod, blast it loud and dance like there’s nobody watching. When you do, let me know how it was!
Bearthday 2011 Playlist
From Will Blunderfield’s heart-opening new CD, “Hallelujah”
Long Time Sun
Hallelujah
Gayatri Mantra
Guest House
Pull Through
From Wah!’s new CD “Maa”
Jagatambe
Love Holding Love
Parashakti
Shanti
Pahimam
From Wade Imre Morisette’s CD “Maha Moha: The Great Delusion”
Prayer
Inside
From the Goddess Alchemy Project CD “Frequencies of the Motherland”
Kundalini Manifest
From Bliss’s CD “ Hundred Thousand Angels”
Come Into the Light
A Hundred Thousand Angels
Grace
Farewell to Music
The most fun you’ll ever have cleaning out your closet.
APRIL 14TH, 2011
Last weekend I had the most fun cleaning out my closet! It all started with an idea from my friend Marianne MacKenzie who wanted to create a “Clothes Swap” with a twist. The twist? Well, Marianne’s specialties are soul coaching and Feng Shui, so she wanted to teach women the deeper aspects of clearing their closets. She also wanted to bring in her pal and style expert Michelle Rodriguez to teach women how to adorn and appreciate their beautiful bodies at any size or shape. What a great idea! Of course, I wanted to add pleasurable movement and delicious food to the day so I created a play-list and invited my friend “The Spicy Heretic” (aka Tina Moody) to provide sumptuous gluten-free, low-glycemic fare.
The end result was more fun than words can express. Fifteen women arrived with bags of clothes, jewelry, belts, bags, shoes and scarves that they no longer desired. We laughed, learned, danced, “shopped”, ate and laughed some more. We tried things on that we would never have thought to try on – and loved how we looked! Everyone left with bags of goodies – for free. And we took twenty bags to 2 charities when it was all over.
Talk about a win-win-win situation! So what are you waiting for?
Connect with some experts in decluttering and style and create a fun clothing swap in your own community. Then send me some photos of the fun you had!
