Base for 7 soups:

Onions: sweet, white or yellow – 7 medium

Garlic: 2-3 heads

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Alternate base:

Bone broth, Vegetable stock. favorite tea bags: chai, ginger, etc

7 days of soup (Fresh Vegetables)

Lung/Large Intestine

• 1/2 head Cauliflower
• 1/2 head Green Cabbage

Stomach/Spleen

• one large Butternut Squash

Heart/Small Intestine

• bunch Asparagus
• 5 Turnips

Bladder/Kidney

• 1 cup Lentil
• 1 bunch Cilantro

Gallbladder/Liver

• 3-5 Parsnips 
• 3-5 Beets 

Triple burner/ Pericardium

• 1 large bunch Kale, Spinach or Chard

Lung/Large Intestine

• 5 Carrots
• 2 Leeks
• knob Ginger

Liver/Gallbladder 

• 3-5 Parsnips 
• 3-5 Beets 

Spices:

Sea Salt, pepper, chili, cardamon, rosemary, nutmeg, etc

Optional toppings: miso, almonds, ground flax seeds

Earth: Limit raw foods 

To bring balance and wellness to the organs ruled and expressed by the Earth Element, we focus on how to optimize digestion and personalize nutrition, regulate blood sugar and strengthen the muscles during Late Summer as well as the 18 days around each equinox & solstice.

I am a huge fan of fresh food.  I am more skilled at chopping than cooking. I love to chop, so food prep is super fun for me and therefore a strength. I am also aware that food is freshest at soon as I harvest it from the yard, bring it home from the market or buy it from the grocery store. Food prep is critical to those of us that have day after day commitments.  I highly encourage you to chop and blanch as soon as fresh food enters your kitchen.

But……the next step isn’t my gift: cooking. I have, however, for the sake of my digestive system and nutrition learned some short cuts that allow me to care for my precious body.  I hope these tips help you too!

1. Keep it simple
2. Create a fun atmosphere in my kitchen: play some tunes, diffuse essential oils
3. Keep glass storage containers & re-use canning jars for stackable storage
4. Invite the kids to help
5. Consider a mono meal – yup, only green beans for lunch (mono) or green beans with toasted sesame seeds (mono-ish)
6. Cook in bulk & freeze individual meals
   

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Cook or no?

Look in the mirror.  If your tongue is larger or thicker than average, has tooth imprints, and a thick white coat, you have dampness.  Raw foods will generate more dampness. Dampness weakens the body’s ability to digest. Raw foods add cold to the nature of the food. If however, you look in the mirror at your tongue and see a thin, red, dry tongue.  You have the digestive fire to cook raw foods in your digestive center. Enjoy! 

Blanch: key to time management. Try blanching an entire head of broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts for a couple of minutes (retain the bright color). Strain. Cool. Package. Ready to roast, bake or stir fry!

Steam: adds moisture to nature of the food. Check out this chart for steam times of many vegetables.  I also steam tofu, tempeh or reheat protein. 

Pressure Cook: fantastic quick method for grains and legumes. Add broth to increase protein & flavor. Soak overnight in the stainless instant pot vessel to optimize nutrition and denature those pesky lectins.

Stir fry: dries the nature of the food. Try cooking vegetables separately to retain the best flavor. Ginger and garlic are mainstay spices.

Spices: warming and aromatic herbs and spices help to balance the nature of foods – allowing us to personalize our nutrition. For example, ginger and cardamom reduce damp and cold. 

I leave you with two very easy ways to put these tips to work for you right away:

Autumn Bake: Rosemary Sweet Potatoes Recipe Here

Very Simple Soups: Soup Cleanse Recipes Here

Whole food is medicine.  Processed food steals your vitality. Ultra processed food creates chronic disease, offers pharmacy and invites slow death.

One of the top three outcomes of the lockdowns of 2020/2021, in my opinion, was the return to or beginning of cooking at home.  We can choose better quality products than most restaurants are able to provide on small margins.  We are, therefore, improving our economic health while improving our physical health.

Let food be thy medicine, let medicine be thy food.

~Hippocrates

The Basics: Where? When?  How?

Where? Where we acquire our food matters. Ideally, we hunt and gather or eat from a garden – our own garden or from our local farmer’s or brick and mortar vegetable markets.  When we shop at a conventional grocery store, shop the perimeter. 

In an ideal world, our foods are free from harmful chemicals, pesticides and pharmaceuticals (antibiotics, antifungals, growth hormone). Animal (and animal fats) are raised in their natural environments. Soils are replete with the broad spectrum of minerals and micro-organisms that render our foods nutritious.

When? Foods should be consumed or preserved in seasonal time. In a world which offers food from all corners of the county during all seasons – choose seasonal and buy local. The choices in your neighborhood may not be perfect, or we may not be able to allocate our resources to only organic and farm raised products. But we can educate & inform ourselves of the best options available today. Consume or process the foods for later consumption as soon after acquisition as possible.

How?  Make the best choices possible.  I hope this link will help you make the best choices available to you. This list from the Environmental Working Group is updated yearly: Dirty Dozen & Clean Fifteen

One of my favorite resource books is Healing with Whole Foods written by Paul Pitchford. Learn more here:

Earth time is gut time. Did you know that the estimated number of gut microbiota exceeds 10 x 14th power? This superorganism holds 100 times more information than our DNA code. Pretty Wild Wonderment! These bacteria, archaea and eukarya strengthen gut integrity, shape intestinal epithelium, harvest energy, protect against pathogens and regulate host immunity.

I invite you to feed your gut with ferments: miso, kimchee, tempeh, raw sauerkrauts and pickles, kavass, jun, etc!

I invite you to feed your soul. Find your wildest, most exquisitely free self. Roam the woods, sing to the plants, listen to the rocks, dance with the wind, talk with the birds, play with light and shadow, hug the trees.

For best practices to support your seasonal wellness journey, draw from or purchase an Eath/Transition Element Wisdom Card Deck. See link in bio for more information
#earth #equinox #dna #microbiota #elementwidsomcards #wild #ferments #southernwoods #healthcoach #naturopathicdoctor