Umami Beans Babay!

I am experimenting with beans and mushrooms. Why you may ask, well I am not much of a meat eater. I prefer not to label myself, in the past I have sampled labels like crab-a-tarian and bacon-a-tarion, but for the most part I prefer to stay open. I will try just about anything, as long as I know the food I am eating was not stressed out [prevent ingesting stressed out meat] or eating an unhealthy or  inappropriate diet. Umami is considered to be part of 5 basic tastes. It's crazy how you notice it quite clearly with meat. Meat has this savory element, and to a point its addictive in the moment. You want to just eat a ton of it! [AND we all suffer the consequences later....] Regardless, I have found a new appreciation for shiitake mushrooms and truffle salt. So enjoy these mushroomy beans filled with umami and health.

-1 can of Eden [BPA free] Organic Cannelleni beans.
-1 cup shiitakke mushrooms, chopped to your liking, if a texture freak, cut it up uber small.
-3 cloves garlic, chopped.
-2 cups kale, chopped up small, can use spinach if you want.
-1 cup cooked wild rice or quinoa whatever. noodles if you want to. [flavor the water with garlic and truffle salt too. it makes a big dif]
-1 T unsalted 'happy cow' butter.
-2 T extra virgin olive oil
-1 T optional balsamic vinegar
-Sprinkle Parmesan cheese
-Truffle salt [or plain sea salt the good stuff if you have it there are trace minerals in there!]
-Black pepper

First, brown garlic in butter and 1 T oil in saute pan on low heat. Add mushrooms and saute for a few, then add kale or spinach, and beans and sprinkle truffle salt [not too much like 1/2 a tsp] and pepper on it. cook cook cook, move around in the pan..... then add rice at the end. mix to heat. put on a plate and sprinkle balsamic vinegar and add cheese on top. serve as a side or a main.




"Long a symbol of longevity in Asia because of their health-promoting properties, shiitake mushrooms have been used medicinally by the Chinese for more than 6,000 years."

• immune system support.
• cardiovascular system support.
• good, non-animal food source of iron.
• considered one of the most sustainable foods.

Mushrooms - Shiitake 5.00 oz-wt, raw 141.75 grams 48.19 calories
Nutrient	Amount	DV (%)	Nutrient Density	World's Healthiest Foods Rating
vitamin B3	5.50 mg	27.5	10.3	excellent
vitamin B5	2.13 mg	21.3	8.0	excellent
vitamin B2	0.31 mg	18.2	6.8	very good
manganese	0.33 mg	16.5	6.2	very good
phosphorus	158.76 mg	15.9	5.9	very good
fiber	3.54 g	14.2	5.3	very good
potassium	430.91 mg	12.3	4.6	very good
selenium	8.08 mcg	11.5	4.3	very good
copper	0.20 mg	10.0	3.7	very good
zinc	1.46 mg	9.7	3.6	very good
vitamin D	28.35 IU	7.1	2.6	good
magnesium	28.35 mg	7.1	2.6	good
protein	3.18 g	6.4	2.4	good

World's Healthiest Foods Rating	Rule
excellent	DV>=75% OR Density>=7.6 AND DV>=10%
very good	DV>=50% OR Density>=3.4 AND DV>=5%
good	DV>=25% OR Density>=1.5 AND DV>=2.5%

Quick thoughts on food in America

I love TED videos, and this one is particularly inspiring, and an on-the-ground reality of how food can heal us, and if we are eating right, heals us everyday, protecting us, keeping us free of disease. Yet this ability that food has consistently appears, to me, to be undervalued in our society and in our food system.

"Dr. Terry Wahls learned how to properly fuel her body. Using the lessons she learned at the subcellular level, she used diet to cure her MS and get out of her wheelchair"


Who can you blame? the individual? to a point. The food system? ummmm yes, Lobbyists? uh huh, Politicians? yes, Media? I think so, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Wendy's? sure but who within those companies?

As it is with our food system, finding who we should blame for our nations problem of a poor diet, chronic disease, and obesity is not easy. It is complex, there are many players and influences, there are many casualties, poisons, and costs. Thinking on this I began to wonder, why is it so common that in my culture, people don't know what to eat. They get overwhelmed with questions on how to prepare veggies in a way that they can imagine ingesting them. Is this because convenient foods have mastered combining fat, sugar, and salt in such a way that both makes us crave the flavor of convenience, as well as contributes to making us sick? that probably has something to do with it. In a society that values money over health, convenience over nutrition, and then spends that much more to achieve health once its gone wrong, how can we begin to change? We are not a preventative society, from what I know that approach, long-term thinking when it comes to health, is not in our nature. At least from a generalizing point of view.

So getting back to my point, its not easy to blame any one person when you really think about it and you measure up all of the players influencing our daily diet. Over time, due to many variables, I feel that American's do not have a cultural cuisine that promotes patterns of healthy eating, which we can reference on a daily basis. Today the culture of eating is that of convenience. This I think may be part of the problem.

What if everyday you knew what to cook, knowing without question it was healthy [or not caring, but you knew your ancestors in generations before lived long healthy lives eating the very diet you are], because  your parents and grandparents passed this cultural cuisine down to you, along with your neighbors and friends too? We do not have this kind of community support or relationships to reference in our society, at least from what I am familiar with. Our dietary influences mostly comes from the television or the grocery store, and less from each other. If we actually paid attention, our bodies tell us what we should and should not eat too. If you eat a hotdog, and then need to take a zantac that is your body letting you know that your are eating something toxic. 

I am unsure as to what the solution will be. But I do know one thing, that people living with widespread diet-related chronic disease is a newer phenomena, people whose diets are balanced and off the industrial food grid are healthier and have less prevalence of disease. I am not sure there is one. But its something to ponder. Maybe at some point you just adopt a fad diet like one of the better one's, in my opinion, the paleolithic diet, or Mediterranean diet. I wish we had a cultural cuisine that promotes long lives, is preventative with food as medicine, and is free of chronic disease, free of pills.

Maybe someday.

Thank you Campbell's no more BPA!

It's about time, now everyone follow!

"World's Largest Soup Maker to Remove BPA from Cans"

Washington, D.C. – Campbell’s Soup "says it will stop using the notorious chemical bisphenol-A, or BPA, in the linings of its cans."

YOU SHOULD KNOW....if you don't:
"Last September, the Breast Cancer Fund launched their Cans Not Cancer campaign which, with the help of Healthy Child Healthy World, generated more than 70,000 letters to the company urging it to find an alternative can lining that did not contain BPA, a synthetic estrogen that disrupts the hormone system.
“I applaud our friends and colleagues at the Breast Cancer Fund and Healthy Child Healthy World for helping to keep the pressure up, using the power of grassroots advocacy to change markets,” Houlihan said.
In March 2007, EWG published a ground-breaking study documenting that BPA had leached from epoxy can linings into more than half the canned foods, beverages and liquid infant formula randomly purchased at supermarkets around the country. The EWG study, the first of its kind, helped explain why the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had found detectable levels of BPA in the urine of 93 percent of Americans over the age of six. BPA is one of the most omnipresent chemicals in existence, used not only in food and beverage packaging but also in the production of hard plastic containers and store receipt paper. In July 2010, EWG commissioned lab tests of cash register receipts from major outlets across the country and found the presence of BPA on many of the samples. In December 2009, laboratory tests commissioned by EWG and Rachel's Network detected BPA for the first time in the umbilical cord blood of American newborns. The tests identified the plastics chemical in 9 of 10 cord blood samples from babies of African American, Asian and Hispanic descent."

http://www.ewg.org/release/worlds-largest-soup-maker-remove-bpa-cans?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ewg_alltopics+%28EWG%3A+All+Topics%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

Yummy Salmon Patties, my way!

When I am low on groceries, that's when my cooking skills are put to the test. I either come up with something super tasty and new, or completely flop and make something that's 'better for the worms'. Below is a recipe that's in the former category, and let me tell you it was delish!

What you will need and salmon patty directions:
1 can of wild caught salmon
1 lemon, zest of half
1 egg white from a local farm fresh egg
3 small slices whole wheat bread, 1 for bread crumbs
2 large cloves of garlic
Salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, turmeric powder.
2 T butter
Shredded Parmesan cheese

First, start to cook on low, crushed fresh garlic in butter, to cook. remove garlic and add to the salmon patty mixture when ready. Also start toasting 1 slice of bread in the toaster over, dry out completely because this is your bread crumbs.

In bowl prepare salmon, rinse under water and shred it up. Add some olive oil, lemon juice of whole lemon, spices, and zest, and finally your browned yummy garlic. Mix together. Crush up your toasted piece of bread into a light crunchy dust [as you can see I am not a professional chef!] and add to mix and stir. lastly add your egg white and mix. form into patties, coat in Parmesan cheese, and cook in pan with garlic butter which was left over from the garlic. Add some extra oil if you must.

Simple Eggs and Parsley

This is a super healthy breakfast, and its surprisingly tasty too! As always I support local and organic!

Herbs are an important addition to our diet, not only are they medicinal at times, but they have certain essential nutrients that we just don't get out of our typical American diet. So try this once per day, to add an herb to a stir fry, or a sandwich, or breakfast at that!

2 pieces of small whole wheat bread, toasted.
1 free range, happy, local chicken egg [studies show significant decrease in cholesterol, as well as higher nutrition in these babies!]
1/2 cup chopped parsley, I use curly leaf
1T olive oil
Some salt and pepper

In pan, saute parsley for under a minute, quickly, in salt and pepper and oil, just to steam it more than cook it. Crack an egg over the parsley, and let sit for a few, then flip and cook through, or to your liking. Throw a few thin slices of cheese [cheddar, feta, or goat] on top and make a sandwich. Enjoy!
__________________________________________________________________
Health Benefits: 2 types of unusual components that provide unique health benefits. The first type is volatile oil components—including myristicin, limonene, eugenol, and alpha-thujene. The second type is flavonoids—including apiin, apigenin, crisoeriol, and luteolin.

A Rich Source of Anti-Oxidant Nutrients thank you flavonoids!

Parsley for a Healthy Heart: it has folic acid, one of the most important B vitamins. While it plays numerous roles in the body, one of its most critical roles in relation to cardiovascular health

Parsley 2.00 tbs 7.60 grams 2.74 calories
Nutrient	Amount	DV (%)	Nutrient Density	World's Healthiest Foods Rating
vitamin K	124.64 mcg	155.8	1023.5	excellent
vitamin C	10.11 mg	16.9	110.7	excellent
vitamin A	640.22 IU	12.8	84.1	excellent
folate	11.55 mcg	2.9	19.0	good
iron	0.47 mg	2.6	17.2	good

World's Healthiest Foods Rating	Rule
excellent	DV>=75% OR Density>=7.6 AND DV>=10%
very good	DV>=50% OR Density>=3.4 AND DV>=5%
good	DV>=25% OR Density>=1.5 AND DV>=2.5%

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=100

Interesting NPR story: 'Why We Like What We Like'
"It turns out most people won't notice the difference between paté and dog food, so long as the latter is suitably presented with the right sort of garnish."

"Context matters, and so do our attitudes and expectations."


http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2012/02/10/146645622/why-we-like-what-we-like

Why Gardening Makes You Happy and Cures Depression By Robyn Francis

http://permaculture.com.au/online/articles/why-gardening-makes-you-happy-and-cures-depression

Read it below but also follow the link for more information:

"While mental health experts warn about depression as a global epidemic, other researchers are discovering ways we trigger our natural production of happy chemicals that keep depression at bay, with surprising results. All you need to do is get your fingers dirty and harvest your own food.
In recent years I’ve come across two completely independent bits of research that identified key environmental triggers for two important chemicals that boost our immune system and keep us happy - serotonin and dopamine. What fascinated me as a permaculturist and gardener were that the environmental triggers happen in the garden when you handle the soil and harvest your crops.

Getting down and dirty is the best ‘upper’ – Serotonin

Getting your hands dirty in the garden can increase your serotonin levels – contact with soil and a specific soil bacteria, Mycobacterium vaccae, triggers the release of serotonin in our brain according to research. Serotonin is a happy chemical, a natural anti-depressant and strengthens the immune system. Lack of serotonin in the brain causes depression.
Ironically, in the face of our hyper-hygienic, germicidal, protective clothing, obsessive health-and-safety society, there's been a lot of interesting research emerging in recent years regarding how good dirt is for us, and dirt-deficiency in childhood is implicated in contributing to quite a spectrum of illnesses including allergies, asthma and mental disorders.
At least now I have a new insight into why I compulsively garden without gloves and have always loved the feeling of getting my bare hands into the dirt and compost heap.

Harvest 'High' - Dopamine

Another interesting bit of research relates to the release of dopamine in the brain when we harvest products from the garden. The researchers hypothesise that this response evolved over nearly 200,000 years of hunter gathering, that when food was found (gathered or hunted) a flush of dopamine released in the reward centre of brain triggered a state of bliss or mild euphoria. The dopamine release can be triggered by sight (seeing a fruit or berry) and smell as well as by the action of actually plucking the fruit.
The contemporary transference of this brain function and dopamine high has now been recognised as the biological process at play in consumers addiction or compulsive shopping disorder. Of course the big retail corporations are using the findings to increase sales by provoking dopamine triggers in their environments and advertising.
I have often remarked on the great joy I feel when I forage in the garden, especially when I discover and harvest the ‘first of the season’, the first luscious strawberry to ripen or emergence of the first tender asparagus shoot. (and yes, the photo is my hand plucking a deliciously sweet strawberry in my garden) I have also often wondered why I had a degree of inherent immunity to the retail-therapy urges that afflict some of my friends and acquaintances. Maybe as a long-term gardener I’ve been getting a constant base-load dopamine high which has reduced the need to seek other ways to appease this primal instinct. Though, I must admit with the benefit of hindsight, I now have another perspective on my occasional ‘shopping sprees’ at local markets buying plants for the garden.
Of course dopamine responses are triggered by many other things and is linked with addictive and impulsive behaviour. I suppose the trick is to rewire our brains to crave the dopamine hit from the garden and other more sustainable pursuits and activities. As a comment on PlanetDrum stated, “all addiction pathways are the same no matter what the chemical. As long as you feel rewarded you reinforce the behavior to get the reward.”
So in other words it all comes down to the fact that we can’t change our craving nature but we CAN change the nature of what we crave.

Strengthening the Case for Organic

Glyphosate residues deplete your Serotonin and Dopamine levels

Of course, for all of the above to work effectively and maintain those happy levels of serotonin and dopamine, there’s another prerequisite according to another interesting bit of research I found.  It appears it will all work much better with organic soil and crops that haven’t been contaminated with Roundup or Glyphosate-based herbicides. This proviso also extends to what you eat, so ideally you’ll avoid consuming non-organic foods that have been grown in farmland using glyphosates.
A recent study in 2008 discovered that glyphosate, the active ingredient of Roundup, depletes serotonin and dopamine levels in mammals.  Contrary to Monsanto claims, glyphosate and other Roundup ingredients do perpetuate in the environment, in soil, water, plants and in the cells and organs of animals.  One study found glyphosate residues in cotton fabric made from Roundup-ready GM cotton can absorb into the skin and into our nervous and circulatory systems.
No wonder there’s so much depression around, and stress, and all the addictions and compulsive disorders in the pursuit of feeling good. I think back on when I moved to Sydney in 1984 for a few years and was contacting community centres in the inner west to see if there was interest in permaculture or gardening classes. A very terse social worker snapped at me “listen dear, we don’t need gardening classes, we need stress therapy classes”, and promptly hung up on me with a resounding “Huh!” when I replied that gardening was the best stress therapy I knew.
So enjoy the garden, fresh organic food and make sure you have fun playing in the dirt on a regular basis."

Robyn Francis 2010
Robyn Francis is an international permaculture designer, educator, writer and pioneer based at Djanbung Gardens, Nimbin Northern NSW. She is principal of Permaculture College Australia.