culinary medicine muse

[whatdoyoueatforthat]

From some of my favorite volcanoes

[whatdoyoueatforthat]

Can diet help MS?  This neurologist thinks so...

[whatdoyoueatforthat]

The Secret Landscape of Food

[whatdoyoueatforthat]

Blooming in the Mt. St. Helens blast zone

[sun--basque]

I have to believe that caring for myself is not self indulgent. Caring for myself is an act of survival.

Audre Lorde (via romanceplanet)

[whatdoyoueatforthat]

Half a bunch Lunch...I sometimes hate cooking because I hate getting out measuring cups and spoons...and I hate sometimes having a recipe tell me what to do...so instead I read through some online recipes with some of the ingredients I have on hand try out an improv version of my own...I call it improv scratch cooking. Here is my lunch time attempt: Contributions from my audience/fridge/pantry 1/2 a bunch of bok choi 1/2 an onion 1/2 stalk of green garlic 1/2 a box of tempeh 1/2 a box of sliced shittake mushrooms 1/2 a short branch of ginger root Mirin Tamari Red pepper flakes Process: Sauté sliced half moons of onion in oil. When the onions soften, add sliced mushrooms and tempeh and the minced ginger and garlic to the pan. Sauté some more. Then add flavorful liquid...3 tsp tamari, 1 tsp mirin, 1 tsp water along with the chopped up bok choi. Watch for greens to brighten. Put in dish and eat. Pretty good and only dirtied one measuring spoon and of course my pan.

[whatdoyoueatforthat]

Muesli plus "the 3 sisters"....my new favorite breakfast and post biking snack. Yesterday I decide to try boiling these quick cook farro, bulgur, and barley in the same pot...turned out great. Mixed the tri-blend of grains with my muesli in a 1:1 ratio added fresh blueberries and almond milk....outstanding and refreshing on a warm and sunny Portland morning!

[freshphotons]

Cover by Threestory Studio.

[mucholderthen]

SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATION The New Generation  [a continuing series]

Motor neuron drawn with icing on a chocolate cookie

Neuron Cookie  by ~bayatfilm

FILE UNDER:   neurocookie  /  neurocuisine  /  science dessert

[whatdoyoueatforthat]

Too keep your neurons happy make sure you get enough vitamin B12 and not too much Vitamin B6.

Good Food sources of B12 include: nutritional yeast, clams, oysters, crab, salmon, sardines

Good Food sources of B6 include: chickpeas, chestnuts, buckwheat flour, rice, yellowfin tuna

Getting too much of a vitamin from food is usually difficult to do, but if you take multiple vitamins and supplements be sure to read the label....some of them include way too much of many good things.

[tinytruant]

Great people do things before they’re ready. They do things before they know they can do it. And by doing it, they’re proven right. Because, I think there’s something inside of you—and inside of all of us—when we see something and we think, “I think I can do it, I think I can do it. But I’m afraid to.” Bridging that gap, doing what you’re afraid of, getting out of your comfort zone, taking risks like that—THAT is what life is. And I think you might be really good. You might find out something about yourself that’s special. And if you’re not good, who cares? You tried something. Now you know something about yourself. Now you know. A mystery is solved. So, I think you should just give it a try. Just inch yourself out of that back line. Step into life. Courage. Risks. Yes. Go. Now.

Amy Poehler (via punkrockmermaid)

[kendyllhillegas]

[whatdoyoueatforthat]

Sriracha--what a great addition to the Joi Choi Yakisoba I made from our CSA last night!  It is inspired by a recipe I found on the Sauvie Island Organic Blog.

Here's the recipe as I made it with needed ingredients in bold:

1. Prepare yakisoba noodles according to package instructions and set aside.

2. Saute 1 onion cut into half moon strips along with 5 cloves of minced green garlic until the onions become translucent/soft. Then add about 6 sliced up shittake mushrooms and 1 carrot cut in matchsticks to the saute.  Keep sauteing until shittakes start to soften/wilt.

3. Add 4 cups of water, 1/4 cup tamari, 1 T fresh ground ginger (or 1/4 tsp of dried ground ginger) along with 1 pack of sliced up tempeh to the pot. Bring this to a soft boil, reduce heat to simmer, cover with lid.  Cook for 8 minutes.

4. Add 3 cups of roughly chopped bok choi (joi choi variety) and 1 cup of rough chopped radish greens to the pot.  Stir. Cover. Cook for 2 minutes or until the greens brighten.

5. Add noodles to bowls and ladle soup over the top of the noodles.  Add SRIRACHA according to taste and garnish with matchstick radishes.

[christiancreates]

millions of peaches

[whatdoyoueatforthat]

Getting excited for peach season!

[whatdoyoueatforthat]

[nocturnallyyours]

[gregschmick]

I had dinner last night with my brother-in-law and his wife.  We were talking about food as medicine and got on the subject of cataracts and what do you eat for that he asked.  So I looked it up—and no surprise, research from the nurses healthy study and  the health professionals follow-up study along with a few other studies show that people who eat foods containing specific types of carotenoids reduce their risk of developing cataracts and also their need for surgery to reduce cataracts. 

What are carotenoids and which ones reduce the risk of cataracts?  There are many types of carotenoids—700 that we know about. These fabulous molecules give color to the many vibrant plants we eat and some we don’t eat, too.  Because of their colorful properties, they are often called pigments.  Another interesting thing is that carotenoids are fat soluble.

There are 2 carotenoids found in the lens of the eye: lutein and zeaxanthin.  Both of these molecules are also found in dark leafy green vegetables. So the people in the studies who incorporated green leafy vegetables into their meals are the people who had a reduced risk of cataracts and cataract surgery.  Arugula is an especially good source of both lutein and zeaxanthin.  So I called my brother-in-law and simply said…add some arugula to your salads and for better absorption of the helpful, cataract-risk-reducing molecules, go ahead and add a little full fat salad dressing or some nuts to that salad!

[whatdoyoueatforthat]

Oops! Reblogged it on the wrong blog!

[mucholderthen]

BIOMEDICAL ILLUSTRATION Type I Diabetes Mellitus

By ~ctcsherry  [Canadian]

Received “Instructional Color - Certificate of Merit” award from Association of Medical Illustrators

[whatdoyoueatforthat]

A picture of what the wrong food can do to the body....

[whatdoyoueatforthat]

Used my cast iron skillet tonight to make Baked Kale, Tomato and Egg.  Wish I had taken a picture of it--the black of the pan made a nice backdrop for the greens, reds, yellows and whites of the dish.  The recipe comes from Sauvie Island Organics Blog and was written by Katherine Deumling of Cook with What You Have.  Easy to make, outstanding smokey flavor, and allowed us to eat a our CSA Kale in a way that was new, imaginative, and healthy!  Plus I got to use my cast iron skillet which I love!

Basic Recipe:

1. Cut kale into half inch strips and put in bowl.

2. Make vinaigrette: Olive Oil to Balsamic Vinegar 3 to 1 ratio, then add salt, pepper, and some mined green garlic.  Pour onto kale and toss with hands.

3. In the skillet: pour in 14 oz can of fire roasted tomatoes, add 1/2 tsp of spanish paprika (picante), add 1/2 cup of broth/water. Stir then add the kale to this and stir a little more.

4. Bake in oven for 20 minutes at 375 degrees. Remove from the oven. Use wooden spoon make 3-6 holes.  Crack 3-6 eggs--one egg into each hole.  Put back in oven for 5-7 minutes depending on how well done you like your eggs.

5. Eat with a sense of pleasure and mastery knowing that you prepared a wonderful and savory meal...and not just any meal, a meal that was good for you!  Not only is the cruciferous kale a good source of vitamins C, A, K, but if you use the iron skillet, the vitamin C will make the iron in the kale and a little iron from the pan easier for your body to absorb. Kale is also a great anti-inflammatory food because it contains omega-3 fatty acids, and finally, but not least, because of the sulfur and fiber in kale, it helps your liver participate in important detoxification reactions.

[whatdoyoueatforthat]

Community Supported Agriculture starts today at 4:30 pm Pacific Day Light Time.  Here is this weeks fare from Sauvie Island Organics! What I love about this week's selection are all the different cruciferous vegetables in there.  In my culinary medicine elective, I learned that cruciferous vegetables are ones that produce a four-petal flower arranged in the shape of a cross...hence the word cruciferous! Each day this week I will try to write a post about about one of the cruciferous vegetables from our CSA basket.

Arugula: a cruciferous vegetable that is low in oxalate (whose presence inhibits mineral absorption) is a good source of iron and calcium.  It also contains vitamins C, A, and K.  A great food for keeping brains and bones healthy, arugula is also high in antioxidants and fights free radicals and cancer too!  Arugula gets its great green color in part from fat soluble pigments/molecules called carotenoids especially the xanthophylls lutein and zeaxanthin which are stored in the retina of the eye making arugula a good food for the prevention of macular degeneration. 

Other cruciferous vegetables pictured: radishes, bok choi, and kale.

Cruciferous Vs not pictured today: broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, cabbage, collard greens, horseradish, turnips, rutabega, watercress, and wasabi.