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Miso Soup

November 19, 2007

Miso soup is one of the easiest comfort foods I whip up. In my single life, I would use a dried packet of miso soup — just add hot water, how much easier could eating get?

Now I like to keep a tub of miso paste (find it at the health food store in the refrigerated section near the tofu), bring some water to a boil and stir in a few tablespoons full of miso paste along with a handful of dried Wakame (seaweed) shreds, some squeezed cubes of tofu, sliced scallions, a few sliced mushrooms and carrots and anything else I might have around. Still, super quick and easy to get on the table for dinner. Wakame

Seaweed is packed with everything from iron to calcium. It’s rich in minerals because it grows, you guessed it, in the mineral-rich waters of the ocean.

I made this batch of soup on the mild side so that my kids wouldn’t get turned off by a too strong miso flavor, which can sometimes be overwhelming. Control the flavor by how much miso paste you add.

Barbecued Tofu

November 16, 2007

We typically use our grill year-round for quick and easy dinners of grilled meats and vegetables. This summer, however, we barely used our grill at all. The reason? We had a guest.

A cat-f cat face spider aced spider decided that the hollowed-out handle to the lid of our grill would make a very safe home. She built an elaborate web that reached all the way to the kids’ picnic table and spanned about 4 feet. You can see the markings on her back that kinda look like a cat’s face; hence, the name.

It took us a while to identify her as cat-faced spiders are shy, non-aggressive and not poisonous. She liked to hang out in the dark underside of the handle and we only saw her actually on the web rarely, usually when she performed the exemplary civic duty of catching a pesky fly and was busy wrapping it up to carry back to her den.

Once we figured out what exactly she was (ever seen a cat-faced spider before? it was our first and they are huge with long hairy legs), we rather adopted her. As we trekked from the garage to the back door, the kids would detour over to the patio to check up on our spider and examine the web. I talked to her as I watered the garden a few steps away. We had a nice relationship, albeit at a distance since spiders freak me out.

When my in-laws came to visit in the fall, it was time to resurrect our “spider relocation program” and evict her from our grill. My husband carefully pushed her into a glass and helped her find the nooks and crevices in a corner where the fence meets the house in the hopes that it could be as safe a home as she left. Alas, we have not seen any evidence of a new web. Hopefully, she found a more suitable spot for herself and set up house.

So now we can grill again.

Once we had our grill back, I just had to make some barbecued tofu. So easy to do if you prep the tofu correctly. I removed the tofu from the packaging and drained it by wrapping it in several layers of paper towels and setting something heavy on top (I just happen to have a cast iron Dutch oven handy to use for this purpose) to squeeze out as must moisture as possible.

I sliced the block horizontally to make thick slabs and placed them in a baking dish with a lid. Then I coated them liberally with bbq sauce out of a jar (my favorite is Golden Toad Chipotle BBQ Finishing Sauce), and refrigerated them for an hour. At this point, I moved the dish into the freezer for at least a half hour, preferably an hour or more. Now on to the grill! They didn’t take very long to cook — keep a close eye on them and try to only flip once for nice grill hatch marks. Delicious!

For some reason I believe this is a Korean concept, to grill tofu, though I’m not sure why I think this and it could be completely off base.

I served these with some leftover zucchini and carrot latkes and fresh tomato quarters. This plate was all for me as everyone else wanted steak. They didn’t know what they were missing with the barbecued tofu!

My 3-year old told me the other day that we had two kitties. Two, I asked? We only have one cat.

Yes, she agreed, we have one cat and one cat-face spider!

Kick a Cold – Vitamins

November 9, 2007

To wrap up the Kick a Cold series, we must talk a little about vitamins.

We’re not going to spend a lot of time talking about vitamins, because for the most part I don’t believe in supplements (heresy, I know!) but would prefer to get my vitamins through the whole foods I eat.

One thing to keep in mind about taking vitamin supplements is to research the brand well. Most vitamin companies purchase the actual vitamin rather than performing the extraction themselves, and a surprisingly lot of companies purchase these pure vitamin powders from China.

Unless you’ve been hiding under the covers lately, it has been hard to ignore the consumer safety horror stories emerging about some products coming out of China. Toxic melamine in pet food. Poisons in toothpaste. Shredded cardboard in sticky buns being passed off as pork. Lead paint on children’s toys. In May of this year, China executed its Food and Drug Chief, Zheng Xiaoyu. Yes, I said EXECUTED! Killed for failing to provide enough oversight over this enormous developing economy. No “Great job, Brownie!” there! Nope. Scary things happen in this world.

Getting your vitamins from whole foods is unquestionably safer than ingesting potentially toxic substances being passed off as vitamins. For instance, it has long been known that Vitamin C can help boost the immune system and help stave off or recover from a viral infection. Great. You can take a vitamin C supplement, or you can load up on citrus fruits (grapefruits are just arriving in stores!), kiwis (contain more vitamin C than oranges!), and strawberries. This past summer a friend baked us a strawberry pie right when we were all fighting a summer head cold. I told her it was the best cold-fighting food I’d ever eaten! I’ll have to get the recipe and share it here.

I love the Odwalla C-Monster juice for a huge load of vitamin C — yummy!

Zinc has also been recently touted for it’s curative properties. I’m a bit wary of the zinc sprays as I’ve heard stories of permanent loss of smell from them (urban myth? I don’t know, but it’s enough to make me think twice about using them), but I love to give my kids the zinc lollypops to suck. Not only does a lollypop feel like a treat when you’re sick, but sucking slowly allows the candy to move down the throat and soothe a cough.

Many vitamins cannot be absorbed without the presence of Vitamin D. What’s the best way to get vitamin D? Expose your skin to sunshine! Try to give un-sunscreened skin at least 10 minutes of sun exposure at least 3x per week to absorb vitamin D. Not only is it free and safe (most people won’t burn in 10 minutes), but raising your vitamin D levels will often help you feel happier and sleep better at night. And have stronger bones, too, as vitamin D is necessary for calcium absorption.

OK, I think we’ve covered this Kick a Cold series pretty extensively. Sorry about the lack of photos recently, but I’m blogging on a new computer and have yet to get everything set up perfectly to upload photos. Now, on to other topics. Stay healthy out there!

Kick a Cold – Teas

November 7, 2007

Winding down the Kick a Cold series, today I want to talk about teas other than the garlic tea I mentioned previously.

Teas and infusions have been used through the ages to administer everything from pain relief (willow bark tea) to digestive relief (peppermint tea) to pure comfort (tea time on the continent!). The powerful antioxident qualities of black and green teas have been widely touted in recent studies, and especially when you’re under the weather, there’s simply no substitute for the warming qualities of tea.

A cold with a sore throat and/or a cough begs for Throat Coat. I love the Traditional Medicinals brand of teas for their healing tea blends, but you must be sure to follow the directions for maximum benefit. Typically you’re instructed to steep the tea bag in a covered mug for about 15 minutes. Throat Coat is a thicker, viscous tea that coats and soothes the throat and can calm a cough and warm the chest.

Because Throat Coat is so thick, for my kids I might choose the old standby of Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime Herb Tea with some local honey or Honey Loquat syrup for cough suppression. This classic blend of herbs and spices still works to relax wound up bodies and encourage sleep.

Kick a Cold — Herbal remedies

October 27, 2007

To continue with my Kick a Cold series, I want to share some of the array of herbal remedies lined up on my counter as I battle my 3-year-old’s unpleasant cough. After visiting her classroom this week, there’s no question as to where she picked up this one.

As someone with an auto-immune disorder (multiple sclerosis), I have a vested interest in avoiding viral infections that may cause a flare-up, or exacerbation, of my disease by igniting a peculiar malfunction of my immune system. When I get a cold, it hits me hard. The best way to handle these times is to take to bed for a few days, but as a working mother of preschoolers, that is rarely an option anymore. So, while I’m not a medical doctor, I have spent a lot of time learning how to keep my body healthy and have a certification in a holistic medicine discipline (nutrition). Please keep this in mind whenever I share remedies with you.

A great way to avoid illness is to try to avoid sick people. As I told my massage therapist recently: If you’re sick, please put me first on your list to cancel, even at the eleventh hour. I’d rather miss an appointment than pick up a bug. But I don’t want to live in a bubble of isolation, either.

It’s harder to avoid germs when they come in with your kids. The first years in a classroom or daycare environment are the worst, as that’s when they pick up everything.

As for my daughter, she hasn’t had a fever, has been energetic though not very hungry, and doesn’t cough very frequently during the daytime, though the cough increases as the day continues and can be bad at night. It’s a wet cough with a stuffy/drippy nose. Cranberry Pomegranate juice

I kicked off the campaign with some garlic tea made more potent with Organic Pomegranate and Cranberry juice and a tablespoonful of Han’s Honey Loquat Syrup. The antiviral properties of the garlic tea combined with the sweet desirable flavor and anti-oxident properties of the juice to help her body fight the infection, and the cough suppressant throat lubrication of the syrup to help her stop coughing long enough to get some sleep.

I wasn’t sure how she would take to the Honey Loquat syrup as it has a sweet flavor up front followed by a slightly medicinal aftertaste and aroma. I shouldn’t have feared as she will now slurp it up directly from a spoon.

I prefer not to suppress a cough during the day if it is “productive”, as this is the body’s way of expelling some of the sickness. However, a body can’t heal if it can’t sleep deeply, so I will suppress a cough at night if it interferes with sleep.

A nasal rinse also helps clear a cough, particularly when it is caused by post-nasal drip. For my daughter, it was a couple squirts of Little Noses (see Kick a Cold – Kids sinus rinse post) followed a few minutes later by a spray of Euphorbium (see Kick a Cold – Homeopathics post) in each nostril.

I followed with a teaspoonful of Sambucol, a virologist-developed formula of black elderberry and echinacea that is an immune-system enhancer. I have found this syrup to be very effective for my kids, however I do not take it myself. As someone with a disfunctional immune system, I avoid echinacea and other immune-system boosters. I would rather not put my immune system in overdrive because, while I don’t know where it might land, it likely won’t be fun. I do think Sambucol is effective and helpful for people with normal immune systems, though. There is also a Sambucol For Kids version of the formula.

Finally, I am thrilled to have discovered Horehound, an herb which provides respiratory and lung support. I use a tincture of horehound and let me be the first to tell you: it’s a pretty nasty taste. Regardless, I love it for battling those wet, lower respiratory coughs because it is pretty powerful. Herbs For Kids brand makes a “Horehound Blend” of herbs that promote easy breathing in a dosage for kids. I sometimes mix it in a teaspoon with Sambucol to make it more palatable for picky eaters.

To finish off this series we’ll look at vitamins and teas. Stay tuned…

Miso Soup

Barbecued Tofu

Kick a Cold – Vitamins

Kick a Cold – Teas

Kick a Cold — Herbal remedies

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