Summertime Fare
Keeping Your Body Healthy and Energetic
                   — by Cynthia Cechota

As I write this article in early June, the days are getting longer and longer. If you’re like me, you rise and shine with the sun between 5:30 and 6:00 a.m., and don’t stop until it sets late in the evening (add three hours if you have children to tend to). That’s a lot of time to keep your energy and concentration levels up. Since we get our energy from wholesome, nutrient-dense food (versus fast food joints or Duracell batteries), I’d like to share a few quick, highly nutritious recipes that will keep you running optimally throughout the day.

If you work out of the home you may find a few of the lunches don't lend themselves to making in the morning and taking to work as they can be cold and messy (grilled cheese and tortilla). Ideally you can return to your home for lunch and prepare your meal in the comfort of your own kitchen.

Please abstain from microwave use on any of these foods, since radiation changes the molecular structure of the food and destroys enzymes. Better yet, why don’t you toss that nuclear box out the door. Once free, you’ll realize that melting butter in a saucepan isn’t that hard.

When I’m creating in the kitchen, I don’t measure anything unless I’m baking a cake or making sauerkraut. While preparing the following recipes, use your best judgment as a guide to measuring. It feels good to let go and allow your instincts to take over!

Breakfast #1: Hard-boiled egg (Yogini Delight)

I recommended this to one of my clients who is a yoga instructor. She was feeling weak from not eating before teaching two consecutive classes. The “incredible edible egg” gave her the energy she needed, without overtaxing her digestion. The egg is incredible because it contains just about every vitamin plus minerals and great protein. You can hard-boil your egg ahead of time and eggs travel well if it isn’t too hot. Finally, be sure to use eggs produced by a free-range hen.

Breakfast #2: Smoothie (Middle Eastern Magic)

Ingredients include: whole milk; plain yogurt (never soy, see archives below) with live cultures; banana; melted; unrefined coconut oil; raw egg yolk; ground flax seeds; rosehip powder (contains absorbable vitamin C); nutritional yeast (contains all the B vitamins except B12); frozen or fresh fruit; raw cream or coconut milk.

Blend together the above ingredients (for best result use an electric blender).

In my opinion, everyone should eat a smoothie each day. The yogurt supplies wonderful good bacteria (lactobacilli cultures) that keep your digestive track healthy. These bacteria also kill yeast, which chronically plagues thirty-three percent of the population. If you can make your own raw yogurt from raw milk, it will contain loads of precious enzymes and will digest itself. The banana also contains enzymes plus potassium, which works to stabilize blood pressure. Unrefined coconut oil is antiviral, antiparasitical, antibacterial, and antifungal — a veritable “superfood” that helps the heart, increases strength and vitality, and provides the signature creamy texture to the smoothie. For all these reasons, coconut oil has been a favorite for people suffering from autoimmune diseases such as HIV/AIDS. Raw egg yolk is filled with vitamins A and D (only if the hen resides outdoors), and choline, which helps keep the arteries clean (contrary to popular myth). Ground flax seeds supply great fiber and omega-3 fatty acids. Kids love the taste of smoothies too, and they won’t suspect that great nutrition is lurking within!

Breakfast #3: Cynthia’s Special

Sauté 2 handfuls of spinach or kale with a few cloves of minced garlic in melted butter. In the same pan, fry one to two eggs. Place all on a piece of heavily buttered (using raw butter) sprouted-grains or sourdough toast. Very filling and satisfying, and you get your greens too.

Breakfast #4: Cooked brown rice* or Oatmeal* (No More Boxed Cereal):

Add a banana, coconut oil, unsweetened coconut, ground flax seeds, walnuts*, and rosehip powder. Add lots of quality, pasture-fed butter. Pour raw milk over this (if unavailable, use plain, whole milk yogurt with live cultures) and stir heartily. Yum.

Breakfast #5: Scrambled Fiesta

Melt butter in pan. Add a few cloves of minced garlic and spinach or broccoli, or a few stalks of asparagus. Crack 2 eggs into pan. Add 1 tablespoon of raw cream and some raw cheese. Let sit until whites start turning white, then scramble everything together. This method makes the scrambled eggs creamier.

Lunch #1: Enzyme Power Lunch

Start with 2-3 slices of raw cheese and add good helping of homemade, lactofermented sauerkraut.

This gives you great protein, great fat, loads of vitamins A and D and enzymes from the cheese. The homemade kraut is loaded with vitamins and minerals, as well as enzymes, because it has never been heated. The lactofermentation process multiplies the vitamin and mineral content of the cabbage, and the enzymes help digest everything you eat with it.

Lunch #2: German Peasant

Slice of sourdough rye bread, 2 slices of raw cheese or half an avocado, with 2 slices of tomato, salt, and pepper with some homemade kraut.

Lunch #3: 1001 Ways to Eat a Tortilla

This is truly a 5-minute meal loaded with nutrients, and very tasty. A friend of mine remarked that this dish was the best thing she’d ever eaten. I might not go that far, but it is simultaneously very tasty and highly nutritious.

Place a sprouted tortilla in a cast iron skillet. Add some raw cheese and freshly-ground pepper. Turn the burner to medium. Add any type of leftover organic protein (meatloaf, Beeler’s ham, cooked ground beef, salmon, Beeler’s bacon or pork sausage, an egg, etc.). In the same pan at the same time, sauté some garlic and spinach, kale, broccoli, or whatever you have, for a few minutes (Note: kale takes longer). When the tortilla is sufficiently browned on the bottom (be careful not to burn), move it to a plate. Add the garlic and greens, some raw carrots, and your homemade kraut.

Be creative with this recipe as anything goes! Avocados make delicious added ingredients as well.

Lunch #4: The “World’s Best” Grilled Cheese

Butter your sprouted-grain or sourdough bread on both sides. Place both pieces in a cast iron skillet (don’t stack them yet). While grilling them on their first sides, thinly slice some onion and sauté it in olive oil in the same pan with some fresh or dry rosemary. When browned, flip over each piece of bread and add thin slices of raw cheese to both sides. When cheese is melted, place grilled onions, freshly sliced tomatoes, and some greens inside (arugula is my favorite), with some Celtic Sea Salt and pepper. Slap the two sides together. Double yum.

Eat with some German sauerkraut and your taste buds might recall your last Rueben sandwich.

Lunch #5: Educating Pita

Always have Weight Watchers pita pockets in the freezer. At lunch, take out half a pita and toast it (or put it in the oven with some cheese inside). Butter the inside when it’s hot to promote digestion. Add half an avocado, fresh tomatoes, red onions, black beans, raw cheese, greens, cilantro, or whatever you have. An ideal meal for travel to the office.

I’m confident that, by incorporating these simple recipes into your summertime eating regimen, you’ll be amazed by your boost in energy and improved vitality. If you’re worried about the fat content in any of these recipes, please go to the CR archives and read my previous article on cholesterol myths.

In the next issue of CR, I’ll be discussing the good fats (traditionals) that prolong life, and the bad fats that cause illness and poor health (those promoted by the food and medical industries). Until then, bon appetit!

* “How to Soak” Program

Most seeds, whether legumes, nuts, or grains, must be soaked prior to use because they contain enzyme-inhibitors, which prevent them from sprouting until the conditions are right. If you eat them without soaking them properly, five important minerals will be leached from your body: calcium, magnesium, copper, iron, and zinc. From a nutritional standpoint, nobody can afford such leaching.

Here’s how to properly soak legumes, nuts and grains:

• Rice or oats: Cover with purified water and add 1 T. fresh lemon juice. Soak overnight. Rinse the rice and proceed as normal. Don’t rinse the oats. Place in pan and cook for a very short time. You can make enough to last all week. If you cheat on anything, cheat on the rice. It doesn’t have as many enzyme inhibitors as the other grains.
  
• Nuts and seeds: Cover with purified water and add 1 T. Celtic Sea Salt or RealSalt. Let them sit overnight. Rinse and dehydrate for 24 hours in an oven or dehydrator. Do not heat over 150 degrees Fahrenheit. You can make these ahead of time. Walnuts must be stored in fridge since they contain Omega-3 fatty acids and could turn rancid.
  
• Beans (legumes): Cover with purified water and 1 T of lemon juice. Let them sit overnight. Rinse, and proceed as usual. You can freeze beans after cooking them so they are ready at a moment’s notice.

© 2004 Cynthia Cechota, M.S.

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