Fennel & Carrot Salad

 
 

We've gotten an abundance of fennel in our CSA from Helsing Junction lately! Luckily I love fennel. I love the fresh anise flavor, the crunch, and the versatility. Roasted fennel holds a special place in my heart. More on that another day, today we're talking about fresh fennel salad! I combined it with miso dressing for this recipe and voila! Fennel is also really great with a simple orange vinaigrette.

Health Benefits

Fennel, Foeniculum vulgare, has many health benefits. It's aromatic, sweet and spicy, and has a slightly warming effect. It's beneficial for digestion, gas and coughs. It's also a great source of fiber!

Recipe

Tools:

  • Food processor with slicer attachment.

Ingredients:

  • 3 fennel bulbs, with fresh tops
  • 2 medium carrots, I used purple carrots
  • Miso dressing to coat

Using the slicer attachment on your food processor, process the fennel bulbs. Switch to the shred attachment and process the carrots. Combine with miso dressing in a large bowl. Mix well. Enjoy! If there are left overs, store in the fridge for up to 7 days.

 
 

Time: 5 minutes

Serves: 8-10 servings

DIY Salad Dressing: vinaigrette basics and miso dressing!

 
 

I love a big salad on these hot summer days! And when it’s not the blazing summer, nothing pairs better with a rich main dish than a perfectly balanced side salad. I’m going to teach you all the basics so you can impress yourself, your family and your friends at your next meal!

The four basic elements of a dressing are salty, sweet, acidic, and fat. The oil to other liquid ratio should be about three to one, that’s three parts oil and one part vinegar or citrus juice.  You can add other spices and change out the oils and acid. For the acid you might use lemon juice or red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, apple cider vinegar, etc. For the oil you might use olive oil, safflower oil, flax oil, walnut oil, avocado oil. For the oil portion it’s really important to make sure your oil isn’t rancid, meaning gone bad. This happens when the oil oxidizes, and we don’t want to eat that. Rancid oil has a very specific smell and once you get that smell down you’ll never forget it. Ahh, if only we had smell over the computer!

Health Benefits

Lettuce is bitter, depending on the variety some are more bitter than others. Having bitters with a meal turns on our digestive fire. Bitter taste in our mouth stimulates our vagus nerve which turns on production of digestive juices and increases peristalsis (the movement of the GI). Why does this matter? Many Americans are constipated. Increasing peristalsis helps prevent that. It's a good habit to eat something bitter or take a bitter tonic with a meal.

Emulsion

Back to the dressing. Oil and water (which vinegar acts like) don’t mix well! This is the very cool thing about making dressing. You’re mixing these 2 things that really never go together naturally and turning them into a delicious combination. This is where the emulsifier comes in. Emulsifiers help to hold the fat and water-based molecules together. My three favorites are mustard, miso, and honey.

Basic Vinaigrette Dressing Recipe

Here’s our basic DIY salad dressing recipe!

  • 3 tablespoons oil of your choice
  • 1 tablespoon vinegar of your choice
  • 1 teaspoon mustard or honey, or both
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Additional things: minced shallot, garlic, or onion go nicely in a basic dressing

Miso Dressing

  • 3 tablespoons oil of your choice
  • 1 tablespoon lemon, lime or orange juice
  • 1 tablespoon miso (I like the mellow or white for this dressing, but use what you have)
  • Additional things: minced shallot, garlic, or onion go nicely in this dressing

For both recipes: Chop the shallot, garlic, or onion if using and place in a bowl large enough for you to really get into whiskin’ that dressing. Into that bowl add your emulsifier and whisk together. Now add the vinegar and whisk until well combined. Here comes the critical moment of alchemy!  Mixing oil and water! While whisking, slowly drizzle in the oil. You’ll notice the mixture getting thinner and then it reaches a critical mass when it begins to thicken up. Continue to add until the oil isn’t going in as well. Add salt and pepper to taste. Dress your greens of choice and store the rest in the fridge. Now you never have to buy store dressing again!!! You’re welcome.

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How I Lost 10 Pounds Effortlessly!

Let me start this by saying that I love my body. I love it when it’s got extra curves and when it’s more toned and slim. It carries me through this world and allows me to do the things that I want to do.

 

I am a supporter of the Health At Every Size model. The determinants of health are what governs our level of vitality and wellness, not the way our bodies look. By creating and practicing the determinants of health we can improve our health and correct illness. These include, but are not limited to, eating the right diet for you, correcting nutritional deficiencies, daily movement, adequate sleep, doing things that bring you joy, functional breathing, reducing stress, and reducing toxic exposure and removing toxic waste from the body.

 

Here’s what’s contributed to my toning up:

1.     I’ve gotten back to eating the diet that’s right for me and have reduced inflammation by doing that. AND I’ve cut out cane sugar (huge)! Because of those two things, and my awesome weekly CSA delivery, my vegetable intake has naturally gone up.

2.     I’m moving my body every day and have added running more regularly into the mix.

3.     I have let more joy into my life. I’m following my passions and my inner guide. I love the sun and have been swimming in the lakes around Seattle all summer. I have a wonderful partner who makes me laugh and brings out my child-like side, AND we’re getting married in 6 weeks!

4.     I’m getting more sleep.

5.     I’m breathing and taking a FEW minutes every day to meditate.

 

Those are the big things. And folks, I’m eating when I’m hungry; I’m not starving myself; and I’m not killing myself at the gym. You can do this too!

 

Back to Health At Every Size, let’s stop body shaming. Too many times I’ve heard from patients that other practitioners have told them they need to lose weight, even though they exercise, eat a diet that’s right for them, don’t have any chronic illnesses, have stellar blood pressure, and their cholesterol and blood sugar numbers are excellent. When people, in my office as well as friends and family, lose weight I RARELY comment on that aspect, rather I like to focus on things like they look stronger, or they are looking really healthy, etc. with my comments to them.

 

Do keep in mind that there can be medical reasons why a person can’t lose weight, or is gaining weight. And then there is another group who is overweight, or thin, and unhealthy. A qualified practitioner should address that, and my recommendation is to see a naturopathic doctor.

 

Join my 30 days to Vibrant Health Challenge starting next week! Check back for more details. I'll challenge you to cut out sugar, eat whole foods, and work in movement every day!!

 

In health,

Dr. Jessica Bernardy, ND

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Hydration Station

It's heating up out there! Here are some tasty recipes to keep you well hydrated.

Staying hydrated is so important for our health and can keep you looking and feeling your best. Our bodies are two thirds water, that's a lot! We need water for just about every chemical reaction in our bodies. It keeps our skin, joints and eyes lubricated, and helps us flush out waste and toxins from our bodies through our sweat, urine and stool. If you're dehydrated you might have a headache, feel dizzy, have brain fog, feel sleepy, have a dry mouth, produce only a small amount of urine (less than 6 voids a day), constipation, and muscle cramps. What I'm talking about here is mild acute or chronic dehydration, which is easily reversed, not severe dehydration which is life threatening and needs medical attention right away.

 
 

Recipes

Watermelon Juice

This recipe is great when you have extra watermelon laying around like I did this week, or you just want to make a healthy, delicious and beautiful drink.

  • 1 small watermelon, cut and rind removed
  • 1 cup water
  • optional additions: mint, lime juice

Put all ingredients into blender and blend until smooth. Store in fridge and enjoy within 5 days.

 

Cucumber Basil Water

Cucumber itself has cooling properties, be sure to eat the cucumbers at the bottom of your glass! You can add just about any herb to this and it will come out delicious. I also like mint, lavender, rose, thyme, and rosemary.

  • 1 quart mason jar
  • 1/2 small cucumber sliced thin
  • 2 sprigs basil, lightly pat between hands to release essential oils

Combine all ingredients into jar, put on lid and shake to distribute flavors throughout water. Store in fridge and enjoy within 2 days.

 

Vital Water

The water we drink is meant to have minerals in it from sitting in the earth in natural springs and wells. Today we filter and process our water, it's less vital. One way you can increase the vitality and mineral content of your water is to add minerals back in through salts. Choose high quality sea salts and Himalayan salts.

  • 1 glass water
  • 1 pinch of salt

Add enough salt so your water tastes sweet and not too salty. If it tastes overly salty then dilute with more water.

A Terroir-ist’s Manifesto for Eating in Place

“Know where your food has come from
through knowing those who produced it for you,
from farmer to forager, rancher or fisher
to earthworms building a deeper, richer soil,
to the heirloom vegetable, the nitrogen-fixing legume,
the pollinator, the heritage breed of livestock,
& the sourdough culture rising in your flour.

Know where your food has come from
by the very way it tastes:
its freshness telling you
how far it may have traveled,
the hint of mint in the cheese
suggesting what the goat has eaten,
the terroir of the wine
reminding you of the lime
in the stone you stand upon,
so that you can stand up for the land
that has offered it to you.

Know where your food has come from
by ascertaining the health & wealth
of those who picked & processed it,
by the fertility of the soil that is left
in the patch where it once grew,
by the traces of pesticides
found in the birds & the bees there.
Know whether the bays & shoals
where your shrimp & fish once swam
were left richer or poorer than before
you & your kin ate from them.

Know where your food comes from
by the richness of stories told around the table
recalling all that was harvested nearby
during the years that came before you,
when your predecessors & ancestors,
roamed the same woods & neighborhoods
where you & yours now roam.
Know them by the songs sung to praise them,
by the handmade tools kept to harvest them,
by the rites & feasts held to celebrate them,
by the laughter let loose to show them our affection.

Know where your foods come from
by the patience displayed while putting them up ,
while peeling, skinning, coring or gutting them,
while pit-roasting, poaching or fermenting them,
while canning, salting or smoking them,
while arranging them on a plate for our eyes to behold.
Know where your food comes from
by the slow savoring of each and every morsel,
by letting their fragrances lodge in your memory
reminding you of just exactly where you were the very day
that you became blessed by each of their distinctive flavors.

When you know where your food comes from
you can give something back to those lands & waters,
that rural culture, that migrant harvester,
curer, smoker, poacher, roaster or vinyer.
You can give something back to that soil,
something fecund & fleeting like compost
or something lasting & legal like protection.
We, as humans, have not been given
roots as obvious as those of plants.
The surest way we have to lodge ourselves
within this blessed earth is by knowing
where our food comes from.”
— Gary Paul Nabhan

Work Song, Part 2: A Vision

“If we will have the wisdom to survive,

to stand like slow growing trees

on a ruined place, renewing, enriching it...
then a long time after we are dead
the lives our lives prepare will live
here, their houses strongly placed
upon the valley sides...
The river will run
clear, as we will never know it...
On the steeps where greed and ignorance cut down
the old forest, an old forest will stand,
its rich leaf-fall drifting on its roots.
The veins of forgotten springs will have opened.
Families will be singing in the fields...
Memory,
native to this valley, will spread over it
like a grove, and memory will grow
into legend, legend into song, song
into sacrament. The abundance of this place,
the songs of its people and its birds,
will be health and wisdom and indwelling
light. This is no paradisal dream.
Its hardship is its reality.
”
— Wendell Berry