WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: Why I Love Ground Flax Seeds

 "I could talk food all day. I love good food."

                                                                   --Tom Brady

The best chefs in the world will tell you the same thing:  Use the best ingredients you can afford to buy.  One of the best ingredients for good health also happens to be very inexpensive:  ground flax seeds. Even when you buy organic seeds, these gems are a true value for all the good health benefits they contain.  

I have long known about the health benefits of flax seeds.  A bag can always be found in my fridge. The issue was I was only eating them once in a while.  When I read How Not to Die by Dr. Michael Greger a few years ago, I re-embraced these beauties for their many health benefits and focused on including them daily in what I eat.  

Not only are flax seeds high in dietary fiber and omega-3 fatty acids, they help lower blood pressure and LDL cholesterol.  They help ensure regular bowel movements.  ONLY use ground or milled flax seeds, preferably organic, as whole seeds exit the body in the same state as they entered-whole and undigested.  One to two tablespoons a day, added to shakes, salads, cereal, and muffins, can be a game changer to help improve your health status. Their nutty taste adds flavor, too. Try them for 2 weeks and feel the difference! 

With love and kindness,

Nancy Heinrich, MPH

Founder and Wellness Architect

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: Kale & White Bean Soup

"I feel that good food should be a right, not a privilege, and it needs to be without pesticides and herbicides.  And everybody deserves this food.  And that's not elitist."

                                                                                             --Alice Waters

 

I recently checked out The Great Vegan Bean Book by Kathy Hester from the library. The author said Rancho Gordo (ranchogordo.com) her favorite online bean source. A couple of years ago, a good friend of mine gifted me a bag of beans from Rancho Gordo and I have been smitten, just like Kathy, ever since.  This summer, when stopping for artisanal bread from Blue Dog Bakery and Café in Louisville, Kentucky, I noticed they now stock bags of Rancho Gordo beans for all their customers lined up outside the bakery.  The health benefits of beans are HUGE. Eating beans daily is one of the key healthy habits noted by Dan Buettner in The Blue Zones, about regions of the world where people live the longest.

When doing research for another "Wellness Wednesdays" article, I reviewed my favorite recipe files and made a list of my favorite soup recipes.  One recipe stood out as a comfort food for this time of the year – kale and white bean soup.  Savory and hearty, my wish is that you and your family will enjoy this favorite fall recipe as much as me and mine. 

GROWING HEALTHY KIDS:  Our Recipe Collection

KALE AND WHITE BEAN SOUP

Ingredients:

• 6 cups vegetable broth
• 1 large Vidalia onion, chopped
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 medium sweet potato, diced into 1/2 –inch cubes
• 4 cups chopped fresh kale
• ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 2 bay leaves
• 1-1/2 cups cooked cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (or 1 15.5 ounce
• BPA-free can)
• 1 teaspoon white miso paste
• 2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon fresh marjoram or oregano (or ½ teaspoon dried)

Directions:

Heat 1 cup of the broth in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in sweet potato, kale, red pepper flakes, bay leaves and the remaining 5 cups of broth and bring to a boil over high heat.  Lower heat to medium, add bean and cook until vegetables are tender, 20-30 minutes.  Ladle about 1/3 cup of the broth into a small bowl.  Add miso and stir to blend.  Pour the miso mixture into the soup and stir in nutritional yeast, parsley, and marjoram.  Serve hot. 

With love and kindness,

Nancy Heinrich, MPH

Founder and Wellness Architect

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: Favorite Fall Soups

"Good manners: The noise you don't make when you're eating soup."

                                                                                                          --Bennett Cerf

With fall here, favorite soup recipes start living in my head.  Some feature one super star ingredient like lentils, others fall in the comfort food category like tomato soup, a few are just great combinations of rainbow vegetables like minestrone soup.  The fun thing about making soups is that you can always change up the recipe a little bit or a lot, depending on the ingredients on hand.  Last night, for example, I decided to make red lentil soup but I had just run out of tomato paste.  I did have some local heirloom tomatoes on the counter, so I switched up ingredients in the recipe and the soup was great!

My recommendation to parents?  Make different soups on the quest to find your family’s favorites. Then keep those soups in regular menu rotation and the ingredients on hand in your pantry and fridge.  Your kids will stay busy helping you prep veggies and getting all the ingredients on the counter (“mise en place”).   

Trips to the local farmers market often make the decision about what soup to make an easy one.  When local tomatoes are in season, you can bet we will be making classic tomato soup.  When summer kale is being harvested, kale and white bean soup is on the stove.  When butternut squash are at the markets, I make sure I have fresh curry powder and cans of full-fat coconut milk on hand.

Have fun making your favorite soups with your family!  When you make lentil soup, I’ll be over for dinner!

With love and kindness,

Nancy Heinrich, MPH

Founder and Wellness Architect