Nourishment: The Young Cook
One of things we have been doing for years is experimenting. We read books, we dreamt up dishes and we think we might have invented the gene for cooking. Everyone in this family cooks; anywhere, anytime the inspiration can strike.
A lot of the books that we consulted over the years, that have been based on various food regimes, macrobiotics, chinese food values, kinesiology, Edgar Cayce... and many others, some obscure, titles that do not readily spring to mind with the passing of time. Ideas have been trialled in our quest for tasty and healthy food, and we have ended up with our experiences and conclusions.
In the end, eating in a way that is both enjoyable and health giving is a result of experimentation to find out what works for each of us. In this section I shall point out various books that I feel might be useful to read. Often I have found that it is not the whole of one book that I end up using but small bits of insight from many. Also, I can also use a book which contains something I might know already but the rereading can be interesting especially when seen in another perspective.
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The Winter Solstice
The winter solstice occurs on the 21st June in the southern
hemisphere and is a good time to start a winter program in eating. During
this season, it is a good idea to strengthen liver and gallbladder by
taking dairy out of the diet.
The family of dairy foods include: Milk, cream, yoghurt and cheese.
If you are excercising and taking a protein supplement you might consider
using a soy based equivalent such as the VitaShake. However, you might
find that the supplement you are using is best—try and decide. It
is difficult to work out which is the best suited supplement if you are
working out.
It is easy to substitue rice milk in place of milk. Remember to get your calcium intake elsewhere. Stalks of lightly steamed broccoli with a hummus dip is high calcium content especially if you are using organic vegetables.
Soymilk is difficult to recommend as a substitute because it is a cold food (using values placed on food by Chinese nutritional meal planning) however, if you find your body tolerates it well, it can be another useful substitute.
Pumpkin is a super warming food as are nuts. If you are prone to getting hot and your body is sensitive to food temperatures, you will find yourself getting drymouthed or red in the face when you eat too many warming foods. Spicy food can also be quite warming but you will need to be careful to avoid spice when you have a cold or the flu, unless your unwellness is a cold condition.
You will know how to read your wellness and illness conditions and understand this in the context of food temperature if you have been seeing a naturopath, homeopath, kinesiologist or Chinese herbal practitioner. One of the things you can get from CHP is a kidney warmer, a band of heavy cotton to swaddle that part of the body in inclement weather.
A Three Week Winter Diet
Breakfast
Brown Rice Porridge
Buckwheat Pancakes
Miso Soup
Gluten-Free Muesli with Rice Milk
Lunch
Pumpkin soup, cashews, salad
Open Polenta Sandwich
Corn chips with chickpea curry and salad
Dinner
Any Vegie Curry Man curry (except Chilli Bean one) with
Rice and steamed greens
Rice Noodles stirfry with garlic, eggplant and green beans
Potato stirfry with garlic, beans and broccoli
Mysore curry with pappadums and steamed zucchini
Rice and steamed green vegetables with golden Tofu
Snacks
Roast Cashews
Corn chips or lightly steamed broccoli with Beetroot Hummus
Protein drink with rice or soymilk