How to Make an Easy Red Clover Tea: Red Clover, Red Clover, Bring Good Health on Over
Red clover (Trifolium pratense) is a well-known “weed” introduced to North America by European colonists and is now commonly found in fields, roadsides, and in yards from May until September. This herbal perennial in the pea family (Fabaceae, also known as Leguminosae) roots itself with a long taproot and rises up with a slender, hollow,…
Dandelion Root Oxymel Recipe
Dandelion can do all sorts of dandy things. This winter has seemed to hang on for dear life, despite the fact that we are now officially in spring. Particularly long winters can leave us all feeling a bit heavy. Whether it’s heavy eyes, sluggish movement, or heavy feelings, now is the time to wring it all…
Stinging Nettle Recipes for Spring Eating
After a long, cold winter, most of us warmly welcome the arrival of milder weather and the return of the green. As the world seems to wake up, we also wake and stretch our limbs. Emerging from a season of storage and hibernation, our winter inactivity and heavy comfort food indulgences may become more apparent….
Bitter Integrations! Part 2: Making Bitters
In my previous article, Bitter Integrations! we saw how humans adapted to some bitter plants to not only attain precious plant vitamins and minerals, but also improve our digestion and lower organ performance of processing, elimination, and detoxification. Part 2 will discuss making bitters, the health benefits of bitters, and specifically how bitter herbs assist…
Valentine’s Day Treats & Words To Love By
Baby it’s cold outside, but it’s warming up in the kitchen. We’ve wrangled up our favorite posts to get you inspired to celebrate love, from romantic desserts for two to flowery Valentine’s Day treats to share with friends! Something homemade can go a long way. Instead of waiting for a table, in a busy restaurant, where…
Vintage Valentine DIY And Morning Latte
A snow day is a wonderful opportunity to relax and enjoy life’s simple pleasures. Delight in a morning latte while creating something handmade, like vintage valentine cards for your loved ones, as the snow whirls just outside your window. Vintage Valentine Cards Snow days are also a great time to tap into your creativity….
Healthy Raw Snacks You Will Love
Looking for a sweet, decadent treat that is healthy for you, too? These crunchy bites are gluten-free, raw, and fill of chocolate-y goodness and take only minutes to make, which is handy because you’ll be “testing” and craving them right away. These healthy raw treats are perfect as an after workout snack to replenish your energy…
Valentine’s Day Hot Chocolate
Holidays often include brewing something festive in the kitchen. February 14th, Valentine’s Day, celebrates lovers and all things love, including aphrodisiacs. Whether in boxes or candied roses, it all starts with melt-in-your-mouth chocolate. Our delicious Valentine’s Day Hot Chocolate can help spice things up!
Healthy Chocolate Pudding for Valentine’s Day
When was the last time you heard “decadent, chocolate, and healthy” all in the same sentence? Well, here we go—this vegan, healthy chocolate pudding is delicious without any dairy, flour, sugar, cornstarch, or cooking!
Roasted Cauliflower Recipe
When I was a kid I used to eat salad as a snack. No exaggeration. I would find a bowl, put some lettuce inside, add sliced carrot and cucumber, and then douse it with Italian dressing. Crunchy bliss. I still love salad and vegetables, so it wasn’t all that strange to find myself with a…
8 Supportive Herbs for Colds and Flu
Colds and flu are at its peak right now and it hits hard and fast. While prevention is the best defense, what do we do when symptoms hit? Some of us prepare for the cold and flu season in the fall by starting our fire cider and tinctures to stay healthy and support wellness at…
Hearty Lentil and Quinoa Stew
What better way to stay warm (and healthy) this new year than with a yummy, comforting bowl of vegan soup? This protein packed stew is perfect for chilly nights and easy to throw together. If your resolution for 2014 is to eat better and get in shape, then healthy, nutrient-packed soups are the way to…
Healthy Muffin Recipe With Bran And Buckwheat
Spicy, hearty muffins baking in the oven on a cold New England morning will warm your heart and your kitchen. In recent years, many of us have moved away from baking or even from eating baked goods. We know that we don’t need the sugar, fat, flour or extra calories. This is an enlightenment of…
Turmeric Health Benefits: The Golden Goddess
Most of us know turmeric (Curcuma longa) as the vibrant orange powder located in the spice section between thyme and vanilla beans. And many of us use turmeric root powder in our cooking, particularly if we have an affinity for preparing Indian-inspired dishes. Similar to the root-like component of its cousin ginger, turmeric has been a…
Jazzy Vegetarian Classics Cookbook Review
I have heard many refer to vegans as being alien-like, as if their choices are out of this world. However, it seems like our culture is beginning to finally slow down and notice the damage done in a fast paced lifestyle of convenience over consciousness. We have lost our way and have become disconnected from…
Sweet Potato Kale Sauté
In the first half of our vegan cooking series, we discussed different ways to eat kale, how to cook vegan fare on a budget and which meals have large amounts of protein. This yummy Sweet Potato Kale Sauté incorporates all of those aspects! It takes hardly any time to prepare, costs about $1 per serving…
Cacao Dusted Peanut Butter Cookies
Mmmm, the warm, cozy smell of peanut butter cookies baking in the oven. What other scent is more beloved? Don’t let these healthy, almost raw cookies fool you – they spent not a nanosecond in the oven. They are also gluten and wheat free, without flour, refined sugars, eggs, or butter. What?? Not exactly like…
Oats: Herbs We Love For Summer
Oats (Avena sativa) and their versatile components have been used for everything from stuffing mattresses, poultices, facial scrubs, cereal, teas, and baths. This small wonder, native to Northern Europe, packs a powerful nutritional punch with its protein, B-vitamins, calcium, and other minerals.
Rose: Herbs We Love For Summer
Rose. The Queen of Flowers has origins in the Middle East, and has been cultivated and cherished the world over since antiquity. The oldest known rose bush is believed to be at least 1000 years old, growing on the walls of the Cathedral of Hildesheim, in Germany. Subject of many a sonnet and poem, lauded…
Chamomile: Herbs We Love For Summer
German chamomile (Matricaria recutita) is a delicate, apple-scented member of the Asteraceae or daisy family, and makes one of the most popular teas in the world. A cooling and calming herb, chamomile is beloved by herbalist and lay person alike! Chamomile is an antispasmodic, relaxing the smooth muscles throughout the body including the digestive track. When…
Asparagus Crepes Recipe
The recent cold snap (80 degrees instead of 100) gave me an opportunity to fire up the stove and experiment with a yummy looking recipe I’d been eyeing in The China Study Cookbook, by Leanne Campbell, PhD. The whole foods recipes are based on the research findings of Campbell’s father, T. Colin Campbell, who promotes a…
Hibiscus: Herbs We Love For Summer
Hibiscus, also known as Jamaica flower, is one of our very favorite herbs for summer because, like spearmint, its flavor is easily infused into cold water—heating up a tea pot is unnecessary! Hibiscus is a showy member of the Malvaceae (mallow) family native to subtropics and tropics around the world and appears in a variety…
Basil: Herbs We Love For Summer
Culinary herbs are so often overlooked as medicine. But great power lies in our humble spice jars and kitchen windowsill plants, including basil! Loaded with carotenoids as well as vitamins K and C, basil is also antibacterial. It’s used to ease nausea and cramping, and for irritability, depression, anxiety, and sleeping problems. Externally, basil repels…
Nourishing Weedy Tea
Herbalists have an eye for beauty and worth, seeing usefulness inside what others consider useless. Often reviled plants like nettles, dandelions, burdock, plantain, chickweed, lambs quarters, and red clover often grow nearby in favorite fields or woodland paths, or even on our lawns, and make delicious and nutritious teas as well as herbal vinegars, soups,…
Greens and Roots on a Bed of Warm Quinoa
There is nothing more delicious than vegetables right out of the garden. With this quinoa salad recipe you can use whatever you have on hand from your latest CSA pick up, your garden or the vegetable crisper. The satisfaction you feel from eating this salad comes from the texture, taste and temperature. This mixture of…
Outrageously Delicious Homemade Jam
Making a delicious jam is easier than you think! Here are three of our favorite recipes.
Berry Bok Choy Chia Smoothie
My go-to smoothie these days has a little secret: bok choy. Now, I love me some leafy greens, but since even I find it challenging to fit in the recommended servings all in one day, I fancy finding places for them wherever I can. Bok choy is in the cabbage family and is high in…
Fancy Oatmeal
Sometimes my favorite cereal grain can feel a bit bland. Oatmeal for breakfast again? It’s the equivalent of khaki pants. Yawn. What about raisins? No offense to raisins, but again…yawn. The other day I ladled some oatmeal into a bowl and looked at it, all pale and lumpy, crying out for a splash of color. …
Spring Tonics
Despite the snowy view from our windows, it’s the official first day of spring, the Equinox, so called because the earth’s tilt is balanced in such a way that day and night are about equal lengths. Yes, there is snow, but the robins and snowdrops I spotted last week promise us: Take heart, friends. Warmer…
Hawthorn Tea for the Winter Heart
The trees are bare, the leaves are raked, and the gardens are tucked in for a long winter’s nap. But the pink rose in my front yard, with its deceptively delicate looking petals, still gives its sweet fragrance to the chilled air. Around the corner in my urban neighborhood, there are other bright gems —…
