Category Archives: Fall Recipes

Southwestern Stuffed Acorn Squash

The spleen/stomach diet consists of root vegetables and full sweet flavored foods (think sweet potatoes, squashes etc). The spleen/stomach is always active around times of transition and there is constant transition happening in our body every time we digest the food we eat. We’ve been talking about the fall diet (lung/large intestine) alot lately but you can consider the spleen/stomach diet the staple or foundation items.

If you are going through alot of changes, feeling “off”, under too much stress, or have a tendancy to “over think” add some more yellow to your diet especially now when everything is in season. If you are looking to feel grounded, ground yourself with whole foods that grow in the ground! Potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, beets are a great place to start. Squashes typically grow on the ground and sprawl out so if you are in a place where you are looking to grow spiritually, mentally look to squash as a metaphor to stay close to the ground as you spread out. 🙂

Here is a tasty dinner that is great for keeping  you grounded and is a little different if you are sick of the same old things. I have been cooking squash on Sunday nights to ground my family for the week ahead. I’ll have a few more tasty squash dishes coming up. 🙂

Southwestern Stuffed Acorn Squash

I originally found this recipe here. Below our my adaptions.

What you need:

small onion (lung/large intestine system)

2 garlic cloves (lung/large intestine system)

1 lb of ground beef or ground turkey

2 bell peppers (I like to use baby bell peppers for added colors) (spleen/stomach system)

15 oz black beans (kidney/urinary bladder system)

2 cups cherry tomatoes (or yellow pear tomatoes if they have over taken your garden!) (spleen/stomach system)

3 Acorn Squash (spleen/stomach system)

Cumin

Chili powder

salt

Oregano

Shredded Cheese (I used a blend)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F. Half squash and deseed. Place squash face down on baking sheet. I add a small amount of water to pan so the squash won’t stick. Cook 45 minutes or until tender.

While squash is cooking brown chopped onion and garlic in skillet. Add ground beef and cook for a few minutes. Add peppers and tomatoes while continuing to brown the meat. Sprinkle cumin, chili powder (we use Chili Coban from Guatemala it has a smokey flavor and isn’t as spicey), salt and oregano. Add beans at the end to warm and simmer for about 10-12 minutes.

When the squash is ready place meat and veggie mixture into the squash sprinkled with shredded cheese and cook at 325 or under cheese is melted.

Garnish with avocado, cilantro and plain Greek yogurt. This is a hardy meal alone or you can fill warmed tortillas with stuffed squash to make it go further. We usually eat the extra meat in tortillas as left overs but I would recommend eating the squash on the first day it doesn’t usually taste quite so tasty the next day. 🙂

Enjoy!

Healthy Fall Dessert: Caramel Apple Crisp with Nuts

I came across this recipe for caramel and knew it had to be used in some way. In Chinese Medicine as we move into the colder months it is recommended to eat fruits cooked because of fruit’s cooling nature when raw. This is a great way to do just that, especially if you’ve recently gone apple picking. 🙂 I’ve made this Apple Crisp as healthy as possible. 🙂

      

 

What you need: (apple crisp)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup flour (i used whole wheat)

1/2 cup almond meal (you could use 1 cup of almond meal or flour instead of the combo depending on your preferences/allergies etc)

1/2 cup melted coconut oil 3 cups apples (peeled, cored and chopped)

2 teaspoons cinnamon

     

(salted caramel)

1 cup soft Medjool dates, pitted (appx 11 dates)

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt, or more to taste

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup almond milk, plus extra for desired texture

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 Tablespoon coconut oil

optional: 1 cup soaked cashews or almonds ( i didn’t use the nuts this time)

     

 Directions:  

Preheat oven to 350F Lightly grease 8 inch square pan In large bowl, combine sugars, oats, flour, almond meal, and coconut oil. Mix until crumbly. Spread half into pan. Spread apples evening over crumb mixture. Sprinkle with cinnamon and a little extra sugar if you prefer. In blender, mix your caramel ingredients and blend until smooth to your desired consistency. I added extra almond milk to mine until it was creamy. When its to your liking spread over apples. Layer with remaining crumb mixture and bake until bubbly and brown. Appx 40 minutes.

     

2 last thoughts on Garlic

I came across these articles and wanted to share them with you as we close out our week on garlic. The first article is titled How Garlic Can Save Your Life from greenmedinfo blog. Here is the opening paragraph.

Research on garlic indicates that it may provide an ideal low-cost and safe alternative to drugs and vaccines in reducing the three most common causes of death in the world.

In a world mesmerized by the false promises of pharmaceutical industry marketing copy, as well as inundated with aggressively marketed dietary supplements, many of which are manufactured by the same companies making a killing off patented chemicals (Bayer owns One A Day, Pfizer owns Centrum), it is reassuring to know that the kitchen pantry will never fail us…

The second article from whydontyoutrythis.com is on a delicious sounding soup made with 52 cloves of garlic! I haven’t made it yet but if you get to it before I do please let me know how it is! Here is the opening paragraph…

Forget the flu shot. A soup based on more than 50 cloves of garlic, onions, thyme and lemon will destroy almost any virus that enters its path including colds, flu and even norovirus.

As we sneeze and cough our way through these dark months of contagious nasties, garlic is being hailed for its powers to halt viruses in their tracks. It has gained its reputation as a virus buster thanks to one of its chemical constituents, allicin.

A recent and significant finding from Washington State University shows that garlic is 100 times more effective than two popular antibiotics at fighting disease causing bacteria commonly responsible for foodborne illness. Read More on…

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
TERMS OF USE:
Medical & Health Information

Any information on this website is not meant to diagnose, prescribe, cure, or treat any illness or disease: it has not been evaluated by the FDA. Neither are the products mentioned on this website meant to do the same: they have been evaluated by the FDA. Information here is strictly for informational and educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Please seek a qualified health professional of your choice when making health choices for yourself or any member of your family – pets included. By proceeding to read articles / posts, look at pictures, watch videos, contact Sarah Canga, and listen to audios you agree and accept these terms.

Minestrone Soup Recipe

I had lots of garden goodness to process so I made a big batch of soup. Its the perfect day for soup today isn’t it? Do you make your own broth? Its super easy to do. I was scared of it until I started reading all the benefits of “bone soup”. Last year we joined our first CSA for meat and eggs and it really opened my eyes on how we eat. Before then we almost never had any bones in our meat. I learned how super simple it is to get several meals out of one piece of meat when you use everything. (as a side note we all lost some weight and feel better 🙂

For this recipe I had recently cooked a whole chicken in the crock pot (I used the chicken for a coconut stir fry with lots of veggies and enchiladas verdes with homemade tomatillo sauce straight from the garden). I took the bones and the juices and kept them in the crock pot and added whatever I had on hand: garlic, celery, carrots, scraps of veggies etc and 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar (that helps extract the marrow out of the bones into the soup where all the good stuff is) and let it slow cook for 12 hours or so then strained everything out.

All veggies for this soup are a mix of my garden and the store. We started with leeks, garlic, eggplant, carrots, celery, peppers, zucchini, tomatoes, brocoli, and mushrooms.

leeks, garlic, mushrooms, white beans (lung/large intestine)

carrots, yellow and orange peppers, yellow tomatoes (spleen/stomach)

zucchini, celery, and brocoli (liver/gall bladder)

home-made broth (kidney/urinary bladder)

 

Start with a few pieces of nitrate free bacon. We got ours from farmer Nick. Cook that up with some leeks and garlic until brown then add the rest of your veggies. We like a hardy soup so I usually fill up 2 or 3 cereal bowls of cut veggies. Cook the veggies for a few minutes then add some tomato paste or homemade canned/stewed tomatoes and 6 cups or so of chicken broth. Add whatever seasoning you like or have on hand; I used thyme, oregano, parsley and some garlic salt. We also added in a cup of white kidney beans and a cup of dry brown rice pasta to make it a meal. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 30 minutes.  Enjoy!

 

Perfect Breakfast Recipe for Fall: Oatmeal Waffles

I had a hankering for waffles this morning. It got me thinking, how could I make some waffles that won’t A. make me feel sick afterwards B. are healthy(ish) C. taste good!

I started with this recipe from Mavis. (she feeds a family of 4 on $100 a month! and she has some pretty tasty recipes too) I’ve made this recipe before and its tasty, here is my adaptations to help nourish the lung/large intestine system for fall.

What you need:

2 cups quick oats (lungs/large intestine system)

3 tablespoons ground flax seed

1/4 cup flour

1 beaten egg (lung/large intestine system)

1 tablespoon local honey (lung/large intestine system)

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 tablespoon coconut oil

1/2 cup water

1 cup almond milk  (lung/large intestine system) I used store bought but almond milk is super easy to make yourself

Directions

In a large bowl, soak oats in milk or water for 10 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and mix until there are no lumps. Then follow your usual waffle making instructions.

We like to add raw almond butter (almonds are great for the lungs) on top of our waffles with a little honey or homemade blueberry lemon syrup.

This is a great base recipe. Next time I will add some cinnamon, apples and walnuts. Cooked fruit is the best way to get fruit in your diet as the weather becomes colder.

Enjoy!

p.s. if you are nursing this is a great recipe for supporting a healthy supply (oatmeal and flax seed are galactogogues)

p.s.s. We eat on small plates so visually it looks like we are eating a lot of food. It helps us feel full on less food. sneaky sneaky 🙂

p.s.s.s this recipes has lots of fiber so you might enjoy an extra trip to the bathroom!

Yellow Tomato Salsa

I’m overrun with tomatoes in the garden and wanted to share how I cook because a lot of you ask. I started with the thought that a yellow tomato salsa with be a great spleen/stomach dish due to its yellow color and sweet flavor. I googled a yellow tomato salsa recipe and then adapted it based on what I had on hand. As I was cooking and grabbing new ingredients I realized I had a balanced dish full of great things to keep my family healthy this fall. We plan on enjoying this salsa with our morning eggs, enjoy!

What you need: 

A bowl of yellow tomatoes (spleen/stomach)

A handful of tomatillos (liver/gall bladder)

A small red onion (heart/small intestine and lung/large intestine)

8 cloves of garlic (lung large/intestine)

2 jalapenos (de-seeded)  (liver/gall baldder)

A handful of fresh, hand picked basil (liver/gall bladder)

olive oil and apple cider vinegar to drizzle (liver/gall bladder)

salt and pepper (kidney/urinary bladder)

Prep:

Preheat oven to 375. Wash your goodies. For this batch I didn’t cut the tomatoes but I think next time I might halve them. I cut the tomatillos in quarters. I roughly chopped the onion, garlic, jalapenos, and basil.

I put foil on 2 cookie sheets and layed the tomatoes down first then sprinkled the rest of the ingredients on top ending with olive oil and apple cider vinegar and salt and pepper.  Cook until roasted apprx 45 minutes. Fill jars and enjoy!

Cauliflower Pizza Crust Recipe

As we move into the fall season its time to focus on the lung/large intestine system. The color of the season is white and the taste is pungent so now is the time to incorporate white foods as well as pungent tastes into your diet to strengthen the lung/large intestine system.

Cauliflower Pizza Crust Recipe with roasted garlic yellow tomato sauce

If your garden is overflowing with tomatoes like mine is here is a simple sauce. Grab some garlic and tomatoes (I used yellow pear) and roast in the oven or grill. Then cook on a low heat until tomatoes become soft. You can puree if garlic cloves are still hard. Garlic is both white and pungent: a perfect fall food!

 yellow tomatoes

Cauliflower Pizza crust:

head of cauliflower

1 egg

1 cup of shredded cheese

fresh Basil

  rice cauliflower

 

Rice cauliflower in blender. Mix ingredients together until well blended. Lay parchment paper down on pizza pan. (parchment paper is key to success of your crust!) Gently pat cauliflower mixture into pan.

crust

Bake at 425 for 10- 15 minutes until edges brown

Take pizza out of oven and put toppings of your choice. We like yellow tomato sauce, black olives, artichokes, spinach, mushrooms and a little sprinkle of cheese.  pizzatoppings 

Put back in oven until cheese is melted another 10-15 minutes. Enjoy!

 yum

​