Elements of Macrobiotics

Through my long journey with mainstream, Integrative and Functional Medicines, I've applied self-taught dietary precepts with input from the doctors.  Somewhere in my vegan years I learned a lot about Macrobiotics.  A fully macrobiotic diet wasn't accessible for me for many reasons, but the yin/yang energies of foods and the spiritual parallels with our bodies' meridians did resonate.  Also, since I was raised in the Wisdom of the Edgar Cayce Readings, much of the information on food combinations in macrobiotics rang true to me.

In macrobiotics, combining all parts of a plant is considered the best way to fully integrate the nutrients and energies of it into the body.  The upward growing leaves are the yin of the plant (aspiring, expanding, upper chakras) and the roots of the plant are the yang (dense, contracting, grounding, steadying, lower chakras).  My personality tends to live in the yin, which helps my outlook, but my sometimes air-headed nature is an obvious detriment, so I could use some grounding. 

When I found the loveliest bunch of beets the other day, the idea of combining all parts of the food immediately came to mind.  It was a huge bunch, and I didn't think I'd be able to eat it all at once, so I used a couple of the beets in a roasted vegetable melange for dinner last night, including sweet potatoes, garlic, shallots and dried apricots. 

This morning, I cleaned up the leaves and stems of the beets, and fried them in duck fat, along with the cold leftovers of the garnet-tinged root veggies.  Finally, realizing I'd probably never be able to eat the whole panful at one sitting, I topped it all off with a fried egg, figuring it would be enough to have leftover-leftovers (a third meal).  Well, I did eat the whole thing at one sitting -- mindfully, slowly, over the course of 45 minutes or so.  I will say that the yang-ish shift is palpable.  I'm feeling pretty steady now and able to think.  I'd better get to work before it wears off! 

Oh -- and this was really delicious!

Today's Healing Breakfast

Fully employing the Wahls' Protocol this morning, I palpably sensed the mitochondrial happy dance in my cells as I chowed on this luscious bowlful.  It all began with compliant bacon in duck fat at low heat, and then quickly crescendoed with a head of bok choy, half an orange bell pepper and two cloves of garlic, stir-fried quickly at high heat.  Finally, for the denouement, a few drops of ume plum vinegar added sparkle.  I just love the piquant vinegar against the rich fats here.  Bravo!

This Morning

After an amazing long weekend in New Orleans with friends from college, I'm rejoining real life gradually, i.e. at a lazier pace. 

Breakfast today was a revamp of last night's dinner.  We had my lovely organic chicken livers with onion, garlic, lemon and a balsamic glaze last night, along with broccoli and garlic seared in coconut oil and grass-fed butter.  I served myself the remnants of the broccoli cold from the fridge, then whipped the cold liver into a mousse with my ancient food processor.  It was fantastic atop a sprouted muffin.

Another Variation

Guys -- these breakfasts get better and better!  This one features the same bacon, bok choy and garlic, but I also added a few watermelon radishes and a hefty cup of fresh cilantro.  I finished it again with ume vinegar. 

I did go out on a limb here, working with so many strong flavors.  I knew it was a gamble, but it sure paid off!  I cannot say enough good things about the bacon/ume vinegar combo:  perfect foils.  If you do this, please only use two shakes of vinegar.  A little goes a long way.

Mmm -- I'm so sorry it's gone!

This Girl's Breakfast w/Spoonie Tips

Always striving for a better Wahls' Protocol effort, in the morning I sometimes falter.  Cognition is the last part of me that wakes up, so sometimes I stumble around for a while with coffee before I can pull together something to line the stomach so I can handle all the supplements and pills I take. When short on time, it's a piece of Ezekiel toast with NaturAlmond almond butter (the best in the world IMO.  But the Ezekiel is non-compliant! In short, I know I can do better, so I open up the crisper instead.

Properly prepped, a mitochondria-feeding panful like this comes together in a matter of minutes. I used a whole large head of baby bok choy (still 2 cups after cooking), two large garlic cloves and a third of a pack of organic, nitrate-free bacon. The piquant addition of umeboshi plum vinegar at the end was amazing.

Nobody else here eats bacon, so I cut the package into thirds and freeze the parts I'm not using.  I leave them in the original wrapping so they don't stick together inside the freezer bag.  That way I can only use one third at a time. They don't even need to be thawed when I need to cook them. I just put the bacon in the pan on a low heat and turn it often, separating the pieces with two forks as they soften. This is easily accomplished at the same time I'm chopping whatever else is going into the pan.

Remember that only two cloves of garlic count as one of your 9 cups of vegetables in the Wahls' Protocol.  I like to cut them into large pieces like this instead of mincing them.  That way they don't burn as easily and the flavor is so mellow and delicious.

First I fully cooked the bacon, then moved it to the side and piled the garlic and mushroom onto it so they could begin to warm while I seared the bok choy pieces in the bacon fat at a slightly higher heat.  Though it's tempting to peak, I tried not to so the first edge could get nicely cooked.  Pretty soon it was time to turn the bok choy and give the other side a sear.  Once the leaves started to wilt, everything got stirred together for a minute and it was done.  I added the vinegar at the end -- just a splash.  Mmmmm.  Three veggies accomplished and a sustaining start to the day!

Breakfast for Dinner

You may be thinking, "That doesn't look like breakfast,"

No, maybe not, but it is: "Nutrivore's Breakfast" from The Autoimmune Wellness Handbook, to be exact.

I'd been eating my liver, onions and mushrooms for several meals, and figured it was about time to reinvent the leftovers before they ran out.  Mickey Trescott's and Angie Alt's recipe calls for raw liver to be incorporated into the grass-fed ground beef and fresh herbs for the patties, but I decided to grind up my cooked liver, onions and mushrooms instead -- since that's what I had.

This was SO GOOD!  I can't say enough good things about this recipe.  I froze more raw patties to cook another day.

I'm also already craving again these sweet potatoes.  Before I got this book, I'd typically use kosher salt, if any, since the quantity is easy to control.  I did follow the recipe for the potatoes and found that the sea salt and solid fat really imparted a crispy/salty/sugary edge to these spuds.  I think the parchment I cooked them on was also a huge help -- they slid right off without sticking, and I got to eat the whole thing instead of losing the crunchy part that's usually stuck to the pan!  The potatoes were like lovely, healthy little bits of candy.  It'll be easy to make another batch tomorrow, so I'll also be having this for breakfast, after all. 

Chimichurri Eggs

Last night's condiment is elevated to a food-group status this morning.  If you're like me, memories of recent fabulous flavor combinations elicit cravings for more of the same, hence my love for leftovers.

Last night we enjoyed hosting dear friends who will soon be moving overseas. Grassfed flank steak with chimichurri was on the menu and enjoyed by all. This piquant, garlicky, oniony greenery excites the flavors of whatever it touches. This morning, it was the sunrise to my organic boiled eggs. Chimichurri's not just for dinner anymore.