Elevate your homemade tortillas with nettle, the little stinging plant with a big personality! You may not want to get up close and personal with nettle on hikes, but here’s a nettle tortilla recipe that’ll change your mind. Nettle tortillas are easy to make and delicious.
And the best part? They can be stuffed with everyone’s favorite filling, from classic pulled meat and beans to taco-style tempeh with lettuce and even banana and peanut butter!
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Just looking at the beautiful deep yellow color of Turmeric and Ginger Tea makes me happy!
Here’s a simple adaptation of the Ayurvedic recipe for Golden Milk to nourish your body and soul with all the goodness of Turmeric and Ginger.
Make it, drink it, and feed your body pure liquid joy. No wonder Turmeric and ginger tea is called Liquid Gold!
Turmeric’s beautiful yellow color is found in many recipes: curries, my grandmother’s achars (fermented vegetables), and even the classic American hot-dog mustard (I think I only put it on food to enjoy its beautiful color!)
The turmeric we eat comes from the rhizome of the Curcuma longa plant. It is known as an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant. Turmeric also stimulates immunity. Its active ingredient, curcumin, is the subject of numerous laboratory studies that show its preventive effect on certain cancers or on Alzheimer’s disease.
The ginger rhizome (Zingiber officinale) is also anti-inflammatory and antioxidant. Ginger helps calm nausea, so reach for the ginger if you get car sick or having morning sickness. And Ginger is also known to be aphrodisiac!
It’s also a gorgeous tropical plant, with beautiful and colorful flowers and leaves.
What happens when these 2 rhizomes meet in your cup? Liquid Gold Fireworks! The perfect hot drink when the weather is wintery or when you’re coming down with a cold.
Turmeric-Ginger Tea : invite Liquid Gold and a ray of sun in your cup!
For 1 cup
– 250-300 ml of water (1 cup)
– 1/3 to ½ teaspoons of turmeric powder (if you’re not used to its taste, start with ¼ of a teaspoon)
– A tablespoon of fresh ginger -sliced or chopped- or ¼ to ½ teaspoon ginger powder
– A pinch of ground black pepper (black pepper aids the absorption of turmeric)
– A squeeze of lemon juice
– Your choice of sweetener: honey, agave syrup (my favorite, because it dilutes better), maple syrup, stevia, powdered sugar … Or no sweetener at all.
You can also use fresh turmeric! Use a heaped tablespoon of chopped or sliced fresh turmeric. Enjoy its beautiful yellow color, and just remember that it may stain your clothes!
– Add turmeric, pinch of black pepper, ginger and water to a small saucepan.
– Bring to a boil and simmer a few minutes.
– Turn off the heat.
– Cover and infuse about ten minutes.
– Pour into your cup (use a sieve if you used sliced ginger or turmeric).
– Add honey or syrup.
– Add a squeeze of lemon juice.
– Enjoy with all your senses!
The classic Ayurvedic recipe is made not with water, but with MILK, hence the name “Golden Milk”.
Try it too! Instead of water, use milk, and omit the lemon juice. According to Ayurveda, the best is to use cow’s milk only – and full fat please!
If you don’t mind bending this rule, you can play around and replace cow’s milk with your choice of plant-based drinks (soya, almond, rice, oat milk etc).
I’m a total tea and infusion gal. So for me it’s WATER and water.
I drink my Gold liquid, and I love it.
It’s Thanksgiving in the U.S.A. We celebrate Harvest Festival and saying “Thank You” to life for all we have. And it’s also CRANBERRY season! Yes, the fruit made famous by one of my favorite cocktails, the Cosmopolitan! Here’s a virgin (but no less tasty) way of consuming the cranberry super fruit : Home-made Cranberry Jam!
Here in Northern California, we are experiencing devastating forest fires. Our thoughts go out to all those in suffering. We are thankfully far from the fires, and have been living in smoke for over a week now. Our air quality index is pretty nasty, ranging from ‘Unhealthy’ to downright ‘Hazardous’.
We call the rain and the end of the fires!
At home, we have our HEPA air filters working 24/7, and ideas for keeping cooped-up kids (and parents) busy.
Today is Cranberry Jam Day.
Luscious red cranberries, ready for jam!
These plump bright red berries are of the same species as blueberries. Indigenous Americans and First Nations were already consuming cranberries as medicine long before European settlers arrived. Today too we are all about cranberries’ super hero properties. They are bursting with anti-oxidants, vitamins, fiber. Cranberries also help prevent urinary tract infections.
Of course, raw and least processed cranberries are the most nutritious. But let’s face it, munching on these sour berries is not the yummiest thing. Enter : Cranberry Jam, with the least amount of sugar you can manage, and cooked over low heat!
Its cranberry season here in North America, and buying fresh cranberries is easy. It’s also Thanksgiving this week in the USA. And if you’re not American, it doesn’t matter, it’s always the right time to say “Thank You” for all we have!
Instead of the traditional cranberry sauce that comes with turkey and mashed potatoes, we’re making cranberry jam!
We’re more toast and cracker people you see. And here is the recipe!
For a big jar:
– 350g fresh cranberries (12oz)
– 200 – 250g sugar (about a cup)
– 1 Apple
Yummy apple-cranberry jam!
Cranberry Jam Recipe:
– Peel (or leave unpeeled), seed and cut the apple into pieces.
– Place cranberries, sugar and apple pieces in a pot.
– Bring to a gentle boil over medium heat, with a bit of water to keep the fruit from sticking.
– After 25 minutes, let it cool a little, and blend with a blender.
– Strain to remove skins and seeds.
– Return everything to the pot, and bring to gentle bubble again for 20 minutes.
– Pour into a sterilized jar, leave to cool.
– The next day, spread your deliciously beautiful and tart cranberry jam on toast or spoon into yogurt.
Yum! Happy Thanksgiving! If you don’t celebrate, you can still say Yeah to the Attitude of Gratitude and “thank you” to life, with these posts on the Gratitude Journal and Say Thank You and Be Happy (posts coming).
Know your ABC’s? As in “ABC juice”?
Drink up to your health is as easy as ABC with Apple-Beetroot-Carrot juice!
For the longest time, I stayed away from this suspicious juice. Drink beetroot? Say my ABCs?
But then I finally relented, stalked by Singapore’s incessant heat. And it was grace at first taste!
How not to fall in love with its beautiful red-purple color and sweet tangy taste? Not only that, ABC juice is packed with vitamins A, C and K, antioxidants, beta-carotenes … Beetroot lowers blood pressure (sip slowly if you have a naturally low blood pressure!), and helps detox the liver (thanks to its purple pigment, betalain).
Beautiful and healthy! What more can a girl want?
Well, the ABC juice recipe of course!
For a tall glass:
A- One Apple (I like green apples’ tangy and tart taste. Use the apples you love!)
B- One small Beetroot
C- One big Carrot (or 2 small)
+ 50 to 100ml water or apple juice, as needed
Method:
– Peel, seed and cut the fruit and vegetables into cubes.
– Put in a blender (a word of caution: not all blenders can puree RAW vegetables. Make sure yours can!). Or use a juicer (lucky you if you have one!)
– Add 50 to 70 ml of water or juice (unfiltered apple juice is yummy)
– Mix, add more water or juice if necessary.
– Filter the pulp with a fine strainer if necessary.
– Put in the fridge or add ice cubes if you want to drink cold juice ASAP.
– Enjoy!
Spice up your ABC juice with a small piece of fresh ginger (peel it, and add to the blender).
For more tang (and Vitamin C), add a few spoonfuls of lemon juice.
For more fiber, one of my friends adds chia seeds before bending. (Filtering the pulp means smoother juice, but also does remove some fiber. So Yes to Chia –and to my friend!).
I’ve never done this, but have watched in awed silence my former roommate use the strength of his own hands to extract ABC juice. Yep, you heard me right, HIS OWN TWO HANDS.
So, if your blender cannot blend raw vegetables, grate the carrots and beetroot, put all the grated veg in a (clean) cloth and … squeeze!!!
What trickles out is the tasty fruit of your hard work. AND YES, you deserve that juice!
To your good health! ABC!