Facelift: Leek Tart

Visiting old friends is always a wonderful experience. Not only it is the time to catch up, but sometimes it is also an occasion for celebration around the table. This time was no different. And it reminded me how much I love leek tart. It also triggered a zest for new explorations. I have to admit that lately I have not been adventurous in my kitchen. So, I buried myself in the kitchen and… came up with a new collection of recipes. I am so happy about that!

And today I will share with you one of those new recipes. Today I will tell you about how to make a very healthy version of a savory tart. And, as with my broccoli skillet, this recipe will always bring back great memories, because I will always think about my old friends and how much I love them.

The trick is to make a totally different crust that we are all used to making. This crust is made from buckwheat and millet, simply because I had them handy. But of course you can use either buckwheat, millet or for example quinoa, which is the healthiest version of a grain.

Making of a crust is not super complicated; actually it is easier than making the traditional crust. All you need is cooked grain (ideally, fermented first), eggs, cheese and herbs. Folding takes no time and there is no rolling involved. The most wonderful thing about this crust is that, after baking it is firm and does not fall apart. I think that, one of the reasons why I have not tried it before was, because I always thought that, it would fall apart and the dish would turn into a colorful mess. But the result exceeded all my expectations; my beloved leek tart was tastier than before, I simply loved the taste of my new crust in combination with what was inside.

If you are like me, and you like the leek tart, I encourage you to try this recipe. I really hope that you too will not be disappointed but what is more, you will fall in love with the new way of making savory tarts.

Ingredients 2 leeks 1 tbsp herbs (parsley, dill, Thyme) 100g spinach 6 egss 100g cheese 250ml sour cream 150g camembert cheese 50ml white wine Salt, pepper

Nutritional Value Vitamin E                 53% Vitamin A               355% Vitamin B1               77% Vitamin B2              257% Vitamin B3               54% Vitamin B5              116% Vitamin B6              120% Vitamin B12            163% Foliate                  192% Vitamin C                90% Calcium                 177% Magnesium             146% Iron                      130% Zinc                      126% Potassium                75% Dietary fiber             67% Protein                  280% Fats                      304%

Directions Ferment grain in acidic water overnight The next day wash grain and cook in salted water. It usually takes 2-3 minutes after the water starts to boil. Drain and set aside to cool down In a bowl, combine grain (buckwheat and millet), grated cheese, herbs and 3 eggs. Mix to combine. “The dough” will be relatively sticky. Cover the form with baking paper. I did that because I wanted to make sure that I will be able to remove the tart without any damage. Transfer the “grain dough” and try to form a crust going around the edges. Bake the dough for approx. 25 min. at 180 degrees. At this point you will notice that cheese start to nicely melt but the edges of the dough will not yet be firm. Turn off the oven BUT do not remove the crust. Let it sit for another 20-15 minutes. At this time the edges will nicely firm and brown. While the crust is baking fry leeks in butter until translucent. Add wine and deglaze for another 5 minutes. Prepare the filling. Into the sour cream add the remaining 3 eggs and beat everything into a smooth cream. Season with salt and pepper. Into a cooled-down crust add fresh spinach and cubes of camembert cheese (half of them). Pour the creamy filling and top everything with the remaining camembert. Bake at 180 degrees for another 30 minutes. Turn off the oven and let the tart sit for 5 minutes. Remove from the form and ENJOY!

Reflection on pH balance

Let's talk about balancing our pH. I think, that some of the information out there is confusing and some, as a result, leads to unnecessary fear. Although our bodies are designed to produce acid, we also have great mechanisms to combat the side effects of "life". We ingest food and liquids to nourish ourselves, but a number of different acids are formed and are released into our body fluids. We exercise to stay fit, but at the same time we produce acids, which need to be neutralized in order for us to take advantage of health-promoting benefits of physical exercise. We also need to produce energy within our cells, so our everyday metabolic activities produce a continous supply of acid and this is unavoidable. We are "designed" this way. And because we are this way, we also have mechanisms to maintain homeostatsis, to balance the acid by mechanism, which keep the acidity in check. There are three major mechanisms at work to prevent these forces from shifting the pH of our blood and maintain it at a narrow range of 7.35 and 7.45:

Buffer system (bicarbonate, protein and phosphate)

Exhalation of carbon dioxide

Elimination of hydrogen ions via kidneys

I believe, that most of us already learned about benefits of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). Some of us ingest it to make sure that, we have enough supply to keep our bodies alkaline. In part, this is true. We can ingest sodium bicarbonate and see the positive effects on our bodies. Some athletes drink water containing high levels of bicarbonate ions to fight high levels of lactic acid produced during exercise. Some will ingest sodium bicarbonate to counter balance the high protein diet and this also has been shown to work. But why does this work?

This works, because bicarbonate buffer is the primary buffering system, that combats acidity in our bodies naturally. We produce it in various places and we have 20 times more bicarbonate than carbonic acid in our blood. As a result, we make sure, that we are capable of buffering the changes, that would make our blood acidic. I do not know if you know, but the stomach, pancreas and kidneys produce bicarbonate and there is some evidence, that liver can also produce it.

In the stomach, bicarbonate is secreted to aid digestion. At least half a gram of bicarbonate is secreted daily in our stomach. This production will be low in alkaline conditions and will rise in response to acidity. In healthy individuals, this adaptive mechanism will control the pH perfectly. People on high protein diet have tendency to have acidic urine, because the amounts of bicarbonate in our bodies often times cannot negate the high levels of digested proteins.

Pancreas is the next organ in our bodies, that produces bicarbonate. It produces bicarbonate to neutralize acids coming from the stomach, to provide the right environment for the pancreatic enzymes to be effective. Allergies generally start with the body's inability to produce a certain enzyme or to produce enough enzymes for the digestive process to work effectively. In conjuction with this is an inability to produce enough bicarbonate, essential for the pancreatic enzymes to function properly. When this happens, undigested proteins penetrate the bloodstream, contributing to the process, which is not health promoting.

A high acidic pH level puts the pancreas, liver and all the body's organs at risk. Because liver plays an important role in removing acid waste from the body as well as toxins, liver function is also particularly at risk, when acids accumulate. This means that, when the body is bicarbonate sufficient, it is more capable of resisting the toxicity of chemical insults. This also means that, if we are bicarbonate sufficient, we can protect ourselves from constant assault of noxious chemicals and radiation exposure, we are subjected to everyday in our water, food and air.

However, if our lifestyle promotes generation a lot of acid, which needs to be removed, neutralized, we need to spend a lot of bicarbonate. Although our kidneys can do that for us, because they can re-absorb bicarbonate, hence keep enough storage and they can also generate fresh bicarbonate to offset lossses, this mechanism starts to malfunction, when we over-indulge and start to put too much acid in our bodies.

I think that the lesson to  be learned from this is that, high protein diet can potentially harm the stomach, pancreas, liver and kidneys, because it can affect the levels of bicarbonate ions in our bodies. Of course, we can generate them ourselves, however, if we need to spend more than we can produce, then the problems start. Put it simply, our bodies cannot handle the acid over-load for too long. This also means, that ingestion of sodium bicarbonate alleviates some of the problems, but it also means, that sticking to a diet containing alkaline food, like fruit and vegetables is health promoting. If we include fruit and vegetables in our food, we naturally reduce the acidity; hence, we ensure that bicarbonate produced by us will always be in an enough quantity, to combat our daily production of acid. There are scientific reports, which show that there is NO reasonable scientific basis in literature to support protein consumption above the current recommendation (0.8g protein/kg body weight/day). Unfortunately, our tendencies are not aligned with those guidelines.

But the most amazing mechanism we have to combat acidity is one, which is the simplest and the one which is ABSOLUTELY FREE! We can stay healthy and maintain the alkaline pH of our blood by simply breathing. This is true, because removal of carbon dioxide means, that we remove acids and increase levels of bicarbonate in our blood. Hence, proper breathing improves circulation and digestion, relives stress and helps cleanse our body of toxins. It improves digestion, because it maintains proper levels of bicarbonate in our intestines; it helps cleanse our body of toxins, because high levels of bicarbonate support our liver to work as efficiently as possible.

What has already been shown is that, breathing too rapidly can cause imbalanced pH condition by stimulating the nervous system to release too many stress hormones. On the other hand, shallow breaths cause an imbalnce by leaving the body oxygen-deprived and leaving excessive amounts of carbon dioxide in the blood, leading to an overly acidic state. Therefore, deep diaphragmatic breathing is the medicine to a healthy pH balance. The trick to start this type of breathing is to completely remove carbon dioxide from the lungs. This in turn will activate diaphragm to take the full breath next time. Shallow breathing is always a symptom, that our pH levels are out of balance. For example, if a person is low on dietary high quality glucose, they do not need high amounts of oxygen for their energy production. Each time, when we deprive ourselves of oxygen by breathing in a shallow manner, we do not produce enough energy and we acidify our blood by not removing carbon dioxide from the lungs. In contrast, deeper breathing means more oxygen, less carbon dioxide, alkaline blood and more aerobic dissimilation.

For me, all this is good news, because it means that we can protect ourselves naturally from harmful effects of acid, we produce each day. It is especially good news, because personally I do not tolerate the taste of baking soda in my mouth. However, the popular spring water, Perrier, contains high levels of bicarbonate ions and it tastes great. So, we can opt for Perrier, if it happens, that we want to balance acid over-load, we created, whether from strenous exercise or protein-rich diet. In general, I think, that if we consiously include vegetables and fruit in our diet and try not to over-do on the proteins, our bodies will know instinctively how to keep us safe and healthy. 

Green edamame, pea and bean salad

I have been seeing things through the green colored glasses lately. It must be spring, the season of growth and new beginnings. For the first time I appreciate the wisdom of eating the seasonal food. For some reason I have become drawn to food that reminds me of spring. I see green color everywhere and I love it. This preoccupation with green color became an inspiration for today’s recipe. This is green lunch of edamame, green beans, peas and artichokes. I love it with rustic bread or bruschetta. I think that, the taste is more vibrant, when eaten warm, but definitely, it is also great cold. Another good thing about this dish is that, you can do it very fast. Most ingredients can be found in your freezer. You olny need to remember to have marinated artichokes and orange at home. This time I also added shredded zucchini, but I imagine we can modify this basic recipe by adding anything else which is green. For example we can add asparagus or baby spinach. While for this recipe I used fresh orange juice, because my goal was to keep with the greene color theme, I also think that, we can add orange pieces, instead of the juice. So there you go, there are many variations to this recipe and I hope that, I got you inspired and you will join me with celebrating this wonderful season of the year. ENJOY.

By the way, today I decided to change the presentation of my recipe and included nutritional value along with it (Ingredients are for 1 serving and nutritional value does not include bread). I hope that you find it very helpful.

Ingredients      · 1/2 cup edamame · 1/2 cup peas · 1/2 cup green beans · 7 artichoke hearts · Juice from 1/2 orange · 1/2 zucchini · 1 garlic clove · Olive oil · Salt, pepper

Nutritional value       Vitamin E              32% Vitamin A              53% Vitamin B1            34% Vitamin B2            32% Vitamin B3            20% Vitamin B5            10% Vitamin B6            27% Vitamin B12            0% Folate                     92% Vitamin C            100% Calcium                 12% Magnesium            32% Iron                        23% Zinc                       15% Potassium              31% Dietary fiber          75% Protein                   31% Fats                        60%

Directions Cook edamame and green beans in boiling water for 10 minutes  Two minutes before the end add frozen peas and continue boiling.  Drain and set aside. Grate zucchini. In a pan, fry minced garlic clove in olive oil for 1 minute. Add zucchini and beans, stir to combine. Continue frying for another minute. Set aside. Add chopped marinated artichokes and juice from 1/2 orange. Serve with bread or bruschetta. I made brischetta with garlic-basil butter and some parmesan cheese. ENJOY

Zucchini Fritters with Hummus

Zucchini fritters are one of my favorites dishes. Until recently I have been eating them with yogurt, but lately I tried them with hummus and I simply love it. I think that the best way is to eat them with hummus made from green peas. They give such a vibrant green color to the dish that you cannot stop yourself from eating the whole thing. They are the perfect dish for the summer days, but addition of nutritious hummus makes it perfect for late winter, early spring, the time when our bodies need nutrition the most. Today's recipe represents a beautiful composition, because of the refreshing taste of mandarins in the spinach salad. It is an amazing composition for the vegetarian meal and all vegetarians should fall in love with it. What is important is that, it takes almost no time to prepare it. I never drain zucchini, because I love my fritters moist and making hummus is super fast and super easy. We all tend to have frozen peas in our freezer, so every time when you feel like preparing the dish, you simply take them out of the freezer and thaw them in the bowl by pouring boiling water over them. I strongly recommend that all vegetarians try it. Like many of you, I also have problems coming up with ideas for nutritious meal and have to admit that sometimes my meals are not well balanced. So there you go, I hope that you will ENJOY this dish as much as I do!

Reflection on Emotions

We are here to experience a spectrum of emotions. We have so many of them. Some of them are relatively simple and some are more complex. Let’s take for example positive emotions. There are joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, pleasure, inspiration, awe and of course love. While scientists have already deciphered some of them, some still are elusive, because they are complex and many chemicals are most likely responsible for the feeling. How do we interpret what it means to have hope? Or what is the experience of awe, this often positive feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends our understanding of the world? Scientists know, that pleasure is dominated by presence of dopamine. Serotonin is responsible for pride, but also is a component of other feelings. We know, that oxytocin is the love molecule and GABA is what allows us to experience serenity. Joy, which is related to the flow, is more complex, because partly it is dependent on pleasure, but also on motivation, serenity, interest, and other factors.

Why then it is important to experience a spectrum of emotions? 

 

The modern era of emotion research started, when it became obvious, that emotions are NOT just feelings, or mental states, but are accompanied by physiological and behavioral changes, that are an integral part of them. This has led to today’s view of emotions being experienced or expressed at three different levels: the mental or psychological level, the physiological level and the behavioral level. According to James-Lange theory of emotions, stimuli reaching the cerebral cortex induce visceral changes, which are then perceived as emotion. Perception, or feelings, of the physiological changes, as they occur ARE the emotions. 

 

Personally, I think that such view makes sense. Given many chemicals have been associated with particular emotions, most of which act on our nervous system, it is reasonable to conclude, that they are essential to our health. They not only represent specific emotion, but their workings determine, if we maintain the balance inside our bodies or not. The very fact that, we have two types of emotions, positive and negative, suggests that, there is a feedback loop inside our bodies to maintain the balance. Negative emotions reduce chemicals, that make us feel good and vice versa. In addition, as has been shown with addiction, for which dopamine is mostly responsible, having just one, predominant emotion, even the positive one, can be bad for us. This means that, experiencing pleasure for the extended period of time can be bad for us, probably because we activate only a certain type of chemicals and ignore others. Everything is connected and interdependent.

As for negative emotions, the list is extremely long. It appears that we are in touch more with negative feelings, than positive ones. On the list of negative emotions we will find for example, aggression, greed, control, anger, hatred, grieve, ignorance, anxiety, delusion, arrogance, impatience, shame, depression, impulsiveness, bitterness, indifference, boredom, insecurity, coldness, detachment, isolation, domination, jealousy, complaining, egotism, laziness, fear, confusion, frustration, unhappiness, sadness, vanity, righteousness, of course stress and many others. I believe that, one of the reasons why we have so many shades of negative emotions is, because they represent variations of basic negative emotions in absence of a particular positive one. For example, if we are egotistical, we are probably cold and we overuse motivation and pride at the expense of gratitude, or love. 

 

Prolonged stress, on the other hand, has been associated with feelings of anger, aggression, anxiety, isolation, domination, frustration, unhappiness as well as others. When we under prolonged stress we literally obliterate pathways, which make us feel good. We do it consciously or unconsciously. We activate chemicals responsible for feelings of stress, which remove chemicals of good feelings from our bodies, and after a while, we find ourselves in the world where there is no room for good feelings. We wake up suddenly believing that, there is a justification for us feeling bad. We find proofs everywhere. But what actually happens is that, our internal reality changed, we live in the world of stress chemicals, which run wild inside us. There is nothing to stop them, because we stopped feeling of pleasure, or love. We are no longer calm, proud or have motivation and perseverance. 

 

This teaches us how important it is to have a spectrum of emotions in our lives. It also suggests that, once we change the pattern of our thoughts, from negative to positive, we can change the pattern of chemicals in our bodies. By simply reducing stress, or cortisol, in our bodies we remove the constrains put on expression of feel good molecules. The same probably is true for negative emotions. If we acknowledge them as signals that we need to be alert, focused and vigilant, we will be able to solve problems. However what happened to us is that, we became addicts of negativity and we bathe in it, because we enjoy it. We nourish it and do not alternate between different states of feelings. Negative signals are there to remind us to act and not overuse them. Life is so miraculous, that we should take advantage and experience it to the fullest; we are here to do things, but also enjoy life. Coincidentally, this attitude will lead us towards a healthy life, with few illnesses and disappointments.

I have always thought having kids is a blessing. And now science has thought me how true this is. Those who have kids received a precious gift from life, because they can naturally experience a wide range of emotions. They are stressed, tired, exhausted, but at the same time, they persevere, have patience and feel connected. Each day they should be grateful to life for giving them opportunity to live to the fullest, because they can experience firsthand the complexity and beauty of life. A spectrum of emotions connect us to others and shows us what a miracle life is.

Reflection on Contradiction - Parallel Universes

Sandra Silberzweig: House of love and diversity

I wanted to share with you my thoughts, which have been with me for a while now. We are in a special place now, due to transition into a New Year, which is also a time for reflection and re-evaluation. A lot of us have already heard about parallel universes. But have you considered an idea, that parallel universes make up our existence? What about thought power, which is capable of creating individual reality? We hear, that everything we perceive in the physical world has its origins in the invisible, inner world of our thoughts and beliefs. Do you agree? If yes, then it is rational to conclude, that physical world of over 7 billion people, that currently live on our planet, is nothing else, but a multitude of individual realities, that constitute the world, that we know or in other words, there are multitude of individual universes spanning our collective reality.

We are born to assume, that the world we see can be seen the same way by everyone. By assuming, that there is an objective world, we, in a way, collapse all beautiful possibilities into one and reject plentiful, infinite and unlimited. Once we realize, that there are many realities, each represented by every individual on this planet, and that each of those realities is valid and desirable, then we will be able to embrace bountiful, extravagant, overflowing, lavish, infinite as well as liberal. I have not always thought that way. I think, it came with the realization, that life is immensely beautiful, unique and so short, and that we are all blessed to experience it. Since then everything changed...

I believe, that one of the requirements for the multitude of realities to flourish, is that we learn to be accepting. We have already intuitively done it by creating moral and ethical codes of conduct. They help us navigate through this mosaic without the need to consciously acknowledge, that complexity is simply the result of "parallel universes" spanning our reality. We do not need to delve deeply into the root cause of intricate geometry of human relations, instead we can blindly follow the rules and avoid clashing with other perceptions and manifestations of individual realities. Well, this is the theory, but we all know, that even though we follow the rules, we still sometimes cannot avoid turmoil, confusion, agitation, annoyance, fear, anxiety and many other feelings and emotions.

Once we realize, that every person on this planet has created their own reality based on learned thoughts and beliefs, and if we add to this cocktail the fact, that memories are very intimate and rarely are based on facts, then the intricate network of individual universes will become visible. It also explains, that standardized concepts and beliefs do not always work. To believe, that we can change others is one of the greatest delusions. People who tried it know, that it is fruitless. And even if we managed to succeed, then what would that mean? Wouldn't that mean, that we wanted a uniform world? Is this what we really want, is this the experience we are seeking?

Advocates of personal growth recommend, that in order to become the master of our destiny, we must learn to control the nature of our dominant, habitual thoughts. By doing so, we will be able to attract into our life, that which we intend to have and experience. This approach, however, is not helpful. The main issue is that we seem to be at a loss for words and we lack a code of conduct, when faced with cognitive dissonance. And no personal awareness can help us, if we forget, that the only glue of our reality is energy we call love. Love seems to be accepting, inclusive tolerant and fearless. Love means saying goodbye to expectations, includes letting go, does not blame others and most of all makes us feel good and accepted. Love is the bridge between parallel universes and our own.

For most of us family is the place, where our own universe becomes accepted and loved. It does not matter, that it differs and is not the same, as other universes. This is probably the only valuable lesson we will ever learn through our lives. If we learn to be accepting and liberal, we will preserve plentiful, infinite and unlimited and also learn to have hope, trust and be patient. But most importantly, if we learn to approach ourselves with love we will also become fearless, bountiful, and in good health. If we reject love, we will start feeling anxious, stressed, filled with many ailments and ills. The parallel universes will start to bother and annoy us and we will try to reduce them to singular experience...

On sites devoted to healthy living we read, that we should exercise, eat healthy, unprocessed food, and avoid toxins. Although those tips are valid and make sense, they do not complete the picture. Another important element of healthy life is that we fill it with feelings of love. Love makes us fearless and resistant to stress, anxiety or simple unease, hence it must be pro-health. Living in the parallel universe of our shared reality means, that we have real responsibility to devote our lives to personal growth and embrace love. And if we do that, we will also realize, that other parallel realities are also valid, even those, which we do not understand. Living in such reality is unique and exclusive, because we are allowed to draw pleasure from being surrounded by plenty and expansiveness. It also means, that we live in the surroundings, where all is allowed and achievable. Life is so beautiful and every day I am in awe, that I can experience it one more time... Happy New Year 2017!