Garbanzo beans, also known as chick peas, are high in fiber and rich in B vitamins, especially folate. Folate is important for women to consume during their child bearing years because it prevents against neutral tube birth defects. Garbanzo beans are also high in iron, and eating foods rich in iron prevents against anemia. They are an excellent source of protein for vegetarians.

Hummus can also be made using tahini, a nutritious ground sesame seed paste that give it a creamier, more full bodied texture, but I don’t think it’s necessary to use.

Many of the store bought hummus’ have strange ingredients in them, like mayonnaise, and also have added preservatives, colors and flavors. Fresh hummus tastes so much brighter and better than the store bought, and is so simple to make using many ingredients that you probably already have in your kitchen pantry.

Heavenly Hummus Recipe:

• 1 can Wild Oats garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
• Juice of ½ organic lemon
• ½ teaspoon Wild Oats organic garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon Wild Oats organic cayenne
• ¼ cup Wild Oats organic extra-virgin olive oil
• Sea salt to taste

Serve with Wild Oats Honey Wheat Mini Pretzels, or fresh vegetables such as organic raw broccoli and cauliflower pieces, snap peas, bell pepper slices, and carrot and celery sticks

Mash all ingredients together using a mortar and pestle, or combine in a food processor. Drizzle extra olive oil on top if desired for a richer flavor and presentation.

“One cannot think, love, sleep well if one has not dined well.” –Virginia Woolf

 A delicious roast chicken is a fundamental dish and, frequently, a family favorite; there are even those who claim it’s a way to secure an engagement.  Whomever you are cooking for, I offer up one of my favorite tasty and nearly effortless recipes.

First encountered in It’s All Good, the 2013 Cookbook from Gwyneth Paltrow and Julia Turshen, this has quickly become one of my staple recipes for it’s glorious simplicity. It is also an excellent base to experiment from- if you love garlic, any spice in particular, want to swap coconut oil for olive oil, have at!

• 1 whole organic chicken, approximately 4 lbs
• Coarse sea salt, to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2-3 tbsps. Extra virgin olive oil
• ½ lemon (or lime, or blood orange if you’re feeling experimental)
• ½ yellow onion, peeled

Preheat oven to 425 °

A minor bit of prep I like to do when handling raw chicken: pour your salt and grind your pepper into a bowl together, and pour your olive oil into dish. This way you don’t have to wash your hands every few minutes between touching ingredients.

Now, to the bird itself. First, make sure you have removed the giblets from the bird. These can be saved to fry up with some lemon, olive oil and garlic for a delicious-on-toast breakfast, if you are so inclined. Next, rinse your bird. There is some back and forth on whether or not to rinse your chicken, but I tend towards rinsing and then a proper sink-cleaning afterwards. Dry your bird off, and then give it a nice olive-oil massage. Next, rub the salt & pepper into the skin and inside the cavity.

Place the chicken, breast side up, in a roasting dish, and insert the citrus of your choosing along with the onion in the cavity. Add any remaining salt and pepper to the top of the bird.

Roast the chicken for 1 ½ hours, basting every half hour. This is the crucial step for a crispy, juicy chicken- don’t forget to baste! Set a timer to remind yourself. It’s worth it. If you have a meat thermometer, check to ensure the internal temperature is in the 165°-180° range before declaring it cooked. Remove the chicken from the oven and let sit for ten minutes.

For an extra juicy dish, add about ½ cup of boiling water to the roasting dish, scraping up the goodness at the bottom for an easy serving sauce.

Carve, serve, and enjoy!

Trying to get healthier in 2015? Eating your fruits and veggies? Good for you! But if you really want to up your health-game this year, you’ll drink hot tea. Turns out that 1 cup of hot tea contains more antioxidants than a serving of any fruit or veggie.

According to Prevention, tea is infused with antioxidant compounds that are believed to fight off all types of cancer, heart disease and even diabetes. And hot tea makes better use of those wonderful antioxidants than tea served any other way.

Hot tea is generally agitated as it steeps (think swirling, dunking, circling and squeezing your tea bag to get ever delicious drop of flavor) and this agitation could be the reason that hot tea can give you an extra boost of antioxidants.

Antioxidants help protect the body from harmful free-radicals. But some antioxidants, like the vitamin C found in some fruits and vegetables, is water soluble. This means it doesn’t stay in the body for a very long time. Adding hot tea into your healthy routine can help you keep the concentration of antioxidants in your blood at a higher level, increasing the level of protection from these health warriors.

So, in your quest for better health, remember to take the chill out of a winter’s day with a delicious cup of hot tea. It’s a great recipe to warm you up and keep you healthy.

With the weather turning super-cold in many places and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calling it a humdinger of a flu season, you’re going to need to take matters into your own gloved hands if you want to stay flu-free this winter.

And even if you do come down with something, be it the flu or one of its many congested cousins, these natural remedies can still bring some relief.

So here are the essentials that you’ll need to make some time-tested and delicious hot drinks to help keep you up and running.

Raw honey: How it can help

First, make sure you’re using real raw honey, not something just called “honey.” Raw honey contains natural vitamins, enzymes and some amazing antioxidants making it both anti-viral and anti-bacterial. You won’t find those benefits in typical “supermarket” varieties.

Coconut – both the milk and oil: How it can help

Now don’t get me going on coconut! It’s one of my all-time favorite fruits (it can also be called a nut or even a seed). Despite the bad rap coconut and coconut oil got a number of years ago because of its fat content, trust me, that was wrong, wrong, wrong. Coconut is about as healthy a food as you can eat – in all forms! Coconut is high in lauric acid, which is anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal – making it a strong immunity booster. And while you can’t go wrong eating coconut, you can by purchasing the wrong kind. Your coconut oil should be organic, extra virgin and unrefined. Shredded or flaked coconut should be organic and unsweetened and coconut milk should be full-fat and organic as well.

Cinnamon, both ground and in stick form: How it can help

Cinnamon is another healing gift from Mother Nature. It’s also a natural anti-fungal and anti-bacterial agent, and can even help keep your blood sugar regulated. Cinnamon also is a very strong anti-inflammatory, a benefit that you’ll want to take advantage of during flu season and all year long.

Stay tuned for three more essential flu-fighters, and how you can combine them to stay healthy this winter!

Having been raised on blocks of good old salted butter, the first time I came across Ghee in a jar, I was more than a little skeptical. When I was told that it did not need to be refrigerated and could last for years on the shelf, I was suspicious that it must be the Indian equivalent of Crisco. No way I was going to use that stuff to cook with. – I could not have been more wrong.

This ancient food, which has its roots in ayurvedic practices, has much to offer our modern diet. Referred to as a “Food of the Gods.” It is believed to be sacred and a cornerstone for health and healing in traditional Indian culture. It is used not only in cooking, but as a topical for skin support and repair.

In Ghee the moisture, proteins and sugar are removed making it a highly stable fat. It is made by boiling butter slowly, until only the pure oil remains. As result it has a much higher smoke point and can be used in frying. It is recommended by ayurvedic and holistic practitioners for people of all ages, as an aid to digestion and in the promotion of all over good health. In one of the You Tube links below Dr Lina comments that it “Feeds your digestion fire.” It also brings lubrication to the entire body and is considered very sacred. It is recommended that Ghee should be “included in the every day life and diet of anyone who wants to live long and well.” The basis for these claims are proven out by what it contains. After being boiled and stirred into its clarified form, Ghee offers medium chain triglycerides, which boost the metabolism, with the added benefit that it can be easily digested even by those who are lactose intolerant. It also contains preformed vitamins A, K2 and conjugated linolaic acid, three nutrients the average person in the US does not get enough of. Actively, K2 supports arteries and bones conjugated linolaic acid improves your metabolism and can help with weight loss and in the prevention of diabetes. Vitamin A is a well known and powerful antioxidant.

Preferred Ghee should be made from unpasteurized and churned butter. It has years of shelf life, does not require refrigeration and reportedly gets better as it ages, though it is important that it is not contaminated with damp utensils that might cause bacteria to grow. If you are unsure about making your own, it is easily found in most grocery stores or online, and is not much more expensive than regular butter.

Sadly, the unavailability and risks of unpasteurized butter make it impractical for most people to acquire, but that is where the greatest health benefits reside.

A YouTube Video about Ghee

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15-amazing-benefits-of-ghee

http://www.ancientorganics.com/about-our-ghee/

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Butter Ghee

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