Instant Pot Black-Eyed Or Yellow-Eyed Peas With Corn And Greens

Easy One-Pot New Year's Day Recipe for Good Luck.

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Happy New Year
It wouldn't be New Year's without a lucky black-eyed pea recipe. This year's recipe is as simple as it gets and is made in an Instant Pot Electric Pressure Cooker. 

I have a confession to make. This year I'm taking a big risk and making yellow-eyed peas from Rancho Gordo but of course you can make this with traditional black-eyed peas.

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Black-Eyed (or Yellow-Eyed) Peas with Corn and Greens
Vegan, Gluten and Dairy Free
[makes 6 servings]

Requires an Instant Pot Electric Pressure Cooker
Allow soaking time - either overnight or 2 hours in hot water.

Ingredients
1 cup black or yellow-eyed peas
2 1/2 cups rich broth (or hot water and a Rapunzel vegan bouillon cube)
1 cup diced onions
1 cup diced celery
1 cup frozen corn
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3 cloves minced or pressed garlic
4 cups packed sliced kale or other greens
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
Salt to taste

Directions
Examine the peas for rocks or dirt and then rinse well. You can either soak them overnight or place them in the Instant Pot covered with water (2 inches over the peas) and bring to a boil using the saute button. Let the peas boil for a few minutes, then cover and let sit in the hot water for 2 hours.

After they are soaked properly, rinse with fresh water. Place the peas back in the Instant Pot with the broth or a Rapunzel bouillon cube dissolved in hot water. 

Add the onions, celery, corn, black pepper and garlic and stir. Place the greens on top and drizzle the oil over the entire mixture.

Secure the pressure cooker top making sure that the quick release switch is in the closed position. Push the manual button and set for 3 minutes at high pressure.

When it's done, hit the off button on the lower right and let the pressure come down naturally. When complete, open the cover and tilt so that the steam comes out the back and away from your face.

Add salt to taste and adjust the seasoning. If you used the bouillon cube, it will already have some salt so taste the broth first.

Serve over rice, quinoa, or pasta or just enjoy as is as a brothy stew.

Happy New Year and may 2016 bring you lots of luck, joy, and good health!
Joanne

10 Tips To Reduce Your Sugar Intake

Americans eat 76 times the sugar than their ancestors did!

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Make This Year the Healthiest Ever!
With the holidays are behind us, and like we do most Januaries, we want to get healthy, shed some pounds, feel better, and commit to doing something good for ourselves. Perhaps lowering our sugar intake would be an excellent start.

Lowering our Sugar Consumption is a Great Way to Start the New Year!
Today, the average American consumes an average of 152 pounds of sugar per year. That’s 6 cups of sugar a week or 14 tablespoons per day! At 48 calories per tablespoon, 14 tablespoons chews up 672 calories. These are calories that are displacing those that would contribute minerals, vitamins, and other important nutrients that would benefit, not detract, from your health. Or, they would be added calories that would lead to obesity, overall inflammation, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, and more. It would take you more than two hours of brisk walking to burn up 14 tablespoons of sugar. Not many of us have the time or commitment to do that.

To put this in prospective, two hundred years ago the average American only ate 2 pounds of sugar per year. When we wonder why diseases like cancer, heart attacks, Alzheimer’s, autism, various autoimmune conditions, and other degenerative disorders have skyrocketed over the past hundred or so years, it may very well be attributed, at least in part, to our drastic increase in sugar consumption. How did all that sugar end up in our diets and what can we do about it?  

Where is this Sugar Coming From?
Sugar finds its way into our food supply in many forms and with many names. It’s in jams and jellies, cakes, cookies, crackers, soft drinks, energy drinks, fruit drinks, specialty coffee drinks like lattes, specialty tea drinks, like chai, candy, breakfast cereals, ice cream, fruit yogurts, canned vegetables, prepared foods like canned soups, condiments, and more. 

It also has many names such as glucose, dextrose, fructose, maltose, sucrose, lactose, honey, sorghum syrup, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, brown rice syrup, fruit juice concentrate, brown sugar, corn sweetener, sorbitol, evaporated cane juice, sucanat, barley malt, agave nectar, beet sugar, date sugar, molasses and more. 

Tips to Reduce our Sugar Consumption
Here are some easy and painless tips on how to reduce our sugar consumption:
#1: Read labels
Look for all the different names for sugar on the labels. New labels will now have “added sugars” in grams. Dietary guidelines suggest that no more than 10% of your daily calories come from added sugar. I personally think that’s too much as it’s still over 4 tablespoons of sugar per day given a 2,000 calorie diet.  
(Note: 1 tablespoon sugar = 12.5 grams = 48 calories.)

The new label has "added sugar"

#2: Eat PB&F instead of PB&J
Instead of smearing sugary jelly or jam on your peanut or almond butter sandwich, place slices of fresh fruit or berries on your sandwich. Sliced strawberries, apples, pears, persimmons, and bananas are some of my favorite additions to my nut butter sandwiches. One tablespoon of jelly contains 56 calories, almost no fiber, and 11 g of sugar (almost a tablespoon of sugar).  A third of a cup of sliced strawberries, on the other hand, would only have 18 calories, less than 3 grams of sugar, provide over a gram of dietary fiber, and important vitamins and minerals such as folate and manganese. 

Almond butter sandwich with fresh strawberries 

#3: Replace Soda
Instead of drinking soda, energy or other sugary drinks, have a cold glass of bubbly water with a splash of juice. My favorite is a glass of Pellegrino with a splash of unsweetened cranberry juice and a twist of lime. Or just add a slice of cucumber or strawberry to a cold glass of water. A 12-ounce cola beverage has 136 calories and contains 33 grams of sugar (over 2 ½ tablespoons of sugar), zero fiber and no significant nutrients. Just giving up one soda a day would be avoiding 60 cups of sugar per year and allow you to lose 14 pounds! Although drinking diet soda may avoid added sugar, the sugar substitute aspartame, used in most diet sodas, has been associated with a number of reported complaints such as headaches, dizziness, eye issues, mood changes, digestive issues, and more. 

#4: Reduce Sugar in Recipes
I find that I can easily reduce sugar in recipes without adversely affecting its taste. For example, in baking I replace a cup of sugar with ¼ to ½ cup of sugar plus some stevia to make up for the loss of sweetness. No one has ever noticed!

#5: Don’t buy Fruit Yogurt
Fruit yogurt sounds healthy but it’s loaded with sugar. For example, a container of Kite Hill Peach dairy-free yogurt has 180 calories and 15 grams of sugar, much of which comes from cane sugar. That same container of the plain, unsweetened yogurt has 140 calories with zero sugar. So it’s always best to find unsweetened yogurt and add your own chopped fresh fruit. 

Select unsweetened yogurt and add your own fresh fruit

#6: Ditch the Donuts
An Original Glazed Krispy Kreme donut has 190 calories and 10 grams of sugar. Or if you are opting for a Dunkin Frosted Sugar Cookie Donut, you are signing up for 420 calories and a whopping 30 grams of sugar. Although bagels contain far less sugar (zero to 6 grams), they can be high in calories, especially if they are covered with full fat cream cheese. In any case, swapping out one or two donuts with a single bagel, smeared with slices of avocado, would be a better choice.

Eat an avocado bagel with seeds instead of a donut

#7: Sugary Cereals, Oh My!
There is so much sugar in some breakfast cereals, that they should be carried in the candy isle. Kellogg’s Honey Smacks are 56% sugar, weighing in at 15 grams per serving. Kellogg’s Froot Loops, Marshmallow are 48% sugar and also contain 15 grams of sugar per serving. No need to go on – there are far too many examples of bad cereals that are heavily marketed to young children.  

Always read the labels on boxes of cereal

There are, however, some better choices, like Ezekiel 4:9 Almond Sprouted Whole Grain Cereal that has nutrient-rich ingredients and less than a single gram of sugar. 

A much better choice of cereal

But my favorite cereal alternative is homemade oatmeal sprinkled with omega-3 walnuts and a dollop of dairy-free, unsweetened yogurt.

#8: Reduce Sugar in Coffee and Tea
Coffee and tea are healthy beverages. But somehow Starbucks has turned them into high calorie, high fat, and high sugar drinks. A grande Coffee Frappuccion has 240 calories and 50 grams (4 tablespoons) of sugar. And a grande Green Tea Crème Frappuccino has 430 calories with 65 grams (5 tablespoons) of sugar. So stick to your regular coffee or tea with a touch of stevia and enjoy the many benefits of these drinks. 

If you want to enjoy a fancy latte, get a frother and make a green tea latte with unsweetened non-dairy milk and a bit of stevia. 

Homemade latte with no sugar

#9: Afternoon Pick-Me-Up
When I was a CEO, I had a continual battle with the vending machine company trying to get them to offer healthy snacks to my employees. Other than a few offerings of nuts and trail mixes, the rest consisted of sugar-filled candy bars or salty chips. When you work in an office and start to get hungry around 4:00, your food choices may not be great. One Snickers bar has 30 grams of sugar, a bag of Skittles has 47 grams, a Hershey’s milk chocolate bar has 31 grams, a York Peppermint Pattie has 25 grams, and a Milky Way has 35 grams. So make sure you bring a piece of fruit to work or keep a little fruit bowl on your desk with tangerines, apples, and bananas. And take an ounce of raw nuts along with you too, like almonds, walnuts, pistachios, and pecans. 

Fresh fruit is a great pick-me-up

#10: Canned Vegetables
Canned vegetables often contain added sugar. You will find sugar listed in the ingredients of many popular brands of canned vegetables. Whether they do this for preservation or just to cater to the American palate, is a mystery. So if you are not able to buy fresh vegetables, always buy them frozen as they generally do not contain added sugar. 

Ingredients: Peas, Water, Sugar, Salt

Ingredients: Garden Peas

If you make these simple changes to reduce the sugar in your diet, you can significantly improve your health. You may miss sugar at first as our taste buds get attuned to too much fat, salt, and sugar - manufacturers count on this. But as we transition to a healthier lifestyle by reducing these ingredients in our diet, we lose our cravings for them and once again appreciate the natural delicious flavors of undoctored foods. 

Lucky Black-Eyed Pea Macro BowlStart The New Year Off RightHow To Construct A Macro Bowl

Eat Black Eyed Peas on New Year's Day for good luck!

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My Annual Black-Eyed Pea Recipe
I learned, when living in Texas, that eating black-eyed peas on New Year's day brings good luck. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't - but I don't dare start the year without them, just in case. To make sure I didn't mess with tradition, my daughter even sent me a pound of these lucky charms from Minneapolis for Christmas. 

I must admit, black-eyed peas aren't my favorite food so it's even more challenging to come up with a yummy recipe every year. But this year, I'm very excited about this macro bowl - especially because it's complemented with a tasty tahini sauce.

This recipe is a bit complicated as I use my Instant Pot for the kale and black-eyed peas, the oven to roast the potatoes, and my rice cooker to prepare the GABA rice. But it's all worth it in the end and, after all, it's New Year's day!

Constructing a Macro Bowl     
Macro bowls are very versatile and extremely healthy as they include a nice variety of foods. Here's how I construct mine:

#1 Protein  
For your protein, you can use any bean, tofu, tempeh, even shrimp or salmon.

#2 Greens
Steam kale, chard, spinach, mustard or other greens.

#3 Root Vegetables
Roast carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes, new potatoes, turnips, or any other root vegetable. Just dice, toss with a little oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and granulated garlic, and bake for 30 to 40 minutes until cooked and brown.

#4 Grain
Use white, black, brown, or GABA rice, millet, quinoa, farro (not gluten free), or any of your favorite grains. 

#5 Avocado
Avocados make everything taste better. 

#6 Seaweed or a Fermented Vegetable
I usually put some raw sauerkraut or seaweed salad on my macro bowls, whichever I happen to have in the house. It's always good to have a fermented food as part of your meal. Your microbiome will thank you.

#7 A Yummy Sauce
Top your macro bowl with your favorite sauce. Today I made a tahini sauce but any of your favorite sauces will do.

#8 Seeds
Sprinkle your macro bowl with hemp, black or white sesame, pumpkin, or sunflower seeds for added nutrients.

When plating your macro bowl, be aware of the colors of the ingredients and place them to optimize the contrast. 

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Black-Eyed Pea Macro Bowl
Vegan, Gluten and Dairy Free

Ingredients PER PERSON
1/2 cup cooked black-eyed peas
1 cup steamed kale
1/2 sweet potato, diced and roasted
1/3 - 1/2 cup cooked rice or other grain
1/4 avocado, sliced
Small serving of raw sauerkraut or seaweed salad
Teaspoon of black sesame seeds

For the sauce (4 servings, ~ 1/2 cup)
2 tablespoons raw tahini
1 tablespoon cold-pressed hemp oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon agave or honey
1 tablespoon fresh lime or lemon juice
1 large garlic clove, pressed
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and grated
Pinch cayenne
1 tablespoon water

Directions
Cook the black-eyed peas on the stovetop according to package directions. Or use canned black-eyed peas.
To cook in your Instant Pot, place unsoaked dry peas in the instant pot with a bay leaf, some onion and celery, and cover with at least two inches of water. Set Manual to 6 minutes. When done, let pressure come down naturally. Move them to a covered dish to keep warm. If using your Instant Pot to make the greens, rinse out the Instant Pot.

Black-eyed peas take 6 to 7 minutes in the Instant Pot. Cover with enough water as they will swell.

Clean kale, remove stems, and thinly slice. Steam kale on stovetop until tender. To cook in your Instant Pot, place in the pot with 1/4 cup of water, a touch of salt, and 1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil. Set Manual to 3 minutes. When done, release pressure and remove.

To roast the sweet potatoes, preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Place small diced potatoes in a shallow roasting pan (I like to line the pan with a silicon baking sheet). Drizzle with a tablespoon or two of olive oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and granulated garlic to taste and mix well. Roast for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring half way through.

Cook rice in your rice cooker, or on the stovetop, according to directions. I used GABA rice because my daughter gave me a beautiful GABA rice cooker a few years ago and it cooks any kind of rice to perfection, but any type of rice or grain will do.

Make the sauce: Place the tahini in a small bowl and slowly stir in the remaining ingredients until well combined. 

Use fresh limes or lemons

Build the bowl: Get a good size shallow bowl. Place the cooked greens in the bowl. Next, the rice, then the roasted sweet potatoes, then the seaweed salad, avocado, and black eyed peas. Sprinkle with black sesame seeds and serve with the tahini dressing.

If you use sauerkraut instead of the seaweed salad, place that near the peas.

Happy New Year!
May you enjoy outrageous health and happiness in 2018!

Eight Things To Do For A Healthier 2016

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For a good start to the new year,
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How Can We Improve Our Health?

At the start of every new year, I give a great deal of thought about things I can do to improve my health and yours. Each year I look at the latest research and my own personal experiences as I try to pick the highest priority items. Here are my top eight for 2016. 

#1 - Forget about Fad Diets and Load Up on Great Foods!

Weight loss is usually front and center, especially at this time of year when everyone is making New Year's resolutions. But it should be accomplished by eating lots of good foods, not by going on a fad diet or eating packaged weight-loss meals or shakes. I like to suggest diets that are for a lifetime, not just for the months it takes to get to your goal weight. In fact, a good diet should get you in the habit of eating well and making a life change.

Here are some past blog posts that can help you select the best foods. 

Fill your plates with the Top 20 Foods For Health and Longevity. 

Lose weight while keeping hunger at bay by Eating Lots of Fiber. 

And don't forget, you are eating for a billion as your body is genetically 99% microbes and they LOVE fiber so it's good for them too. Add more microbes to the party by eating a fermented food every day.

Beans are a great source of protein, fiber and
 other critical nutrients. Eat some every day!

#2 - Minimize Sugar in your Diet, Especially Fructose

While you are filling your plate with the most healthful foods, we must remember what foods to avoid. Perhaps the worst thing we can put in our bodies is sugar. If you want to get a good understanding why sugar overload is significantly contributing to serious diseases in this country, watch the documentary, That Sugar Film. 

Americans consume 126 grams or about 10 tablespoons of sugar per day. The American Heart Association recommends a limit of six teaspoons (25 grams) for women and nine teaspoons (38 grams) for men. Sounds like a lot? Well, you would be shocked to know how easy it is to rack up this amount and more. 

Fruit yogurt has 19 grams, a granola bar can have 12 or more grams, some "energy" drinks have over 80 grams! And beware of juice. A cup of unsweetened apple juice has 24 grams of sugar. If you are wondering why the kids are bouncing off the walls after drinking their juice box, well, wonder no more!

The worse sweetener is fructose. You may think that giving up high fructose corn syrup helped get rid of this poison in your diet, but even regular table sugar, or sucrose, is composed of a molecule of glucose (which the body uses as fuel) bonded to a molecule of fructose, which the body can turn into triglycerides that can lead to heart disease. Agave, popular among vegans who avoid honey, is 85% fructose. Honey is also high in fructose.

In general, excess sugar can eventually make cells resistant to insulin, a hormone that allows glucose to enter the cells. If the cells become resistant to insulin, the sugar remains in the blood which is associated with type 2 diabetes. 

In short, this country is becoming sicker and sicker because of the abundance of sugar in our food. Much of it is hidden in drinks, packaged goods, baked items, canned foods, so-called "health foods", and more. It has significantly contributed to obesity, heart disease, hyperactivity, type 2 diabetes, and other chronic disorders. So read the labels and make a big effort to limit your sugar intake to an occasional treat.

Read labels to detect hidden sugars.

#3 - Get Off The Couch

Sitting is the new smoking. Prolonged sitting increases the risk of having heart disease, various types of cancer, and type 2 diabetes. So if you sit at your job all day, drive to and from work sitting in your car, by no means should you go home and sit in front of the TV. 

In 2013 I gave you the One Million Step Challenge. It's easy and it's a good first step to get moving. Of course any type of movement is great - zumba, bicycling, running, rock climbing or whatever gets you excited. The more you like it, the more you will do it. And I'm always pleasantly surprised how much energy it gives me to exercise.

Put on your Fitbit and start walking!

#4 - Journal, Journal, Journal

I have been journaling for 45 years but I starting journaling on MyFitnessPal in 2015. It's a remarkable program for tracking your food and exercise. It's not perfect but it beats writing things down in a little notebook and having to look up calories, etc. Journaling can double your weight loss! Even if you don't need to lose weight, you will be able to look at what nutrients you are consuming and if you are getting enough exercise. I highly encourage you to use whatever program or App you are comfortable with but get started today.

#5 - Connect with Friends and Family

When reading Dan Buettner's book, Blue Zones, I noticed that people who live to 100 or older, had one thing in common - they all had a network of friends or family and a sense of community which gave them a life purpose. In today's world, many of us live apart from our families and move from city to city for our careers. So it's important to create a network of friends and assimilate into your community as best you can. Meet like-minded people and work at creating relationships. You can't sit at home and wait for your new best friend to come knocking at your door. And despite the miles apart, stay in touch with family and visit as often as you can.

What's better than a hug?

#6- Disconnect

OK, I know I just told you to connect but now I want you to disconnect (right after you read my blog, of course.) 

Today, most of us are continually connected to our iPhones, computers, 24/7 news, and more. People drive, sit in restaurants, and walk down the street looking at their phones. They have their phones sitting on their bed stands so they don't won't miss a text message. It's downright unhealthy. And I'm not talking about how cellphone emissions may be damaging our brains, or how men who use cellphones have a lower sperm count, or any of the other controversial side effects that may or may not be true. I'm just talking about how we have stopped smelling the roses and are continually exposed to upsetting worldwide news and annoying Facebook posts (especially during an election year). I spent 36 years in high tech so I'm addicted as much as anyone when it come to being connected. But I'm going to work on this one. 

Leave your phone in another room at night. Don't spend all day on Facebook. Check it once a day but not every ten minutes. Leave your phone in the trunk of your car when you are driving. Take a long walk without any devices and notice your surroundings. Meditate. Take a bubble bath. And please, if you have kids, limit their screen time. 

#7 - Learn Something New

Is there something you want to know more about? Is their a hobby you want to take up? Do you want to learn a new language or how to play an instrument? Learning something new relieves stress, can give you an opportunity to meet like-minded people, and can add excitement and fun to your life. 

I just signed up for two classes at the California School of Herbal Studies. One is on Herbal Medicine Making and the other is Living in Harmony with the Seasons. I love learning new things - it makes me feel like "hey, I may be 67 but I'm not dead yet." 

#8 - Unclutter

Does clutter stress you out? It does me. I look in my closet and think, "I really need to go through there and give some of that stuff away." Or I'll find a garment that forgot I had and wonder how many other jewels are lurking in there. And how does every drawer turn into a "junk drawer?"

How does every drawer turn into a junk drawer?

I know there are books and even professional organizers available to help you unclutter your closets and your life, but I'm just going to do it one drawer at a time. I have a plan to attack one closet a month until I get through the entire house. I recently organized my makeup drawer and I can't tell you how happy I feel every time I open it. 

After you've uncluttered your life and ridded yourself of things that no longer give you pleasure, make sure you enjoy the things that do. Remember, life's short so break out the china!

Well, these are my health intentions for 2016. I hope I've given you some ideas for yours. Most of all, have a happy, healthy, loving, and joyful 2016!

2015 Had Many Challenges But I End The Year With Joy And Gratitude

Me with two of my grand boys at Christmas.

Boy, What a Year

Ah, the last day of the year. A month ago I would have said, “hooray, let’s get this one over with.” But I end the year with joy and gratitude. Let me explain.

I started the year learning the tango in Buenos Aires and cooking in Rio de Janeiro. What a wonderful beginning to the year. I then returned in February to do several medical procedures that were going to improve my life.

No matter how many vitamins we take, no matter how much we exercise, no matter how good a diet we have – shit happens. In my case, I had a surgery to fix a Morton’s neuroma in my foot so that I could run again. It didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped, to put it mildly (but that’s an entire blog post in itself). Then I had 2 cataract surgeries that gave me excellent vision until one of my retina’s tore which required a fun laser procedure to tack it back up. Finally, several mysterious freckles showed up which required skin biopsies.

By now I’m thinking that 2015 is not a banner year. How embarrassing for someone who writes a health blog. How did this happen to me? I eat well, work out regularly, take healthful tinctures and critical supplements every day. I was feeling pretty down - thinking that perhaps at 67 you are just supposed to fall apart no matter what. But something interesting happened to me.

While I was waiting for my biopsy results, I had this very long discussion with the universe. At the end, I made a promise that if the results were negative, I would stop sweating the small stuff. I would be more positive about life and not let things upset me. I would spend more of my time doing things that fed my soul. In short, I made the decision to be happier and more joyful.

Now you have to understand a little about me to know what a big deal this was. My mother, bless her soul, was extremely accomplished and I have the utmost respect for her. But she was not often joyful. She worried about and anticipated a negative outcome for just about everything. Were she alive today, she would be worried that ISIS would invade New Rochelle. A lifetime of these negative tapes are hard to erase and many of them rubbed off on me. Not that I was a grumpy bear, but I was quick to dwell a bit on the negative. But after getting the negative biopsy report I was hoping for, I decided to erase those tapes, as best I could. 

I made the decision to choose joy and to embrace gratitude. Yes, it turns out, it’s a decision. I’m not saying that it always works but it works a lot more when you’ve made the decision. Try it!

I am Filled with Joy and Gratitude

So as I sit here today, the last day of the year, soaking my New Year’s black-eyed peas, reflecting back on 2015, I am filled with joy and gratitude. 

I am grateful that I survived my health issues and I end the year healthy and fit.

I am grateful that I will continue my journey to discover how food, herbs, and lifestyle can lead to a healthier life and that I get to share what I learn with you.

I am grateful that I have a wonderful husband, family and good friends.

I am grateful that I live in California (I need not explain.)

I am grateful that I got to spend the holidays with my kids, grandkids, and got to watch Star Wars in 3D at an IMAX theatre. 

I’m grateful that I could fly in and out of Minneapolis at Christmas without having my flights cancelled or delayed due to snow.

I am grateful for you and your interest in my work. This provides me the inspiration to continue.

My Best Wishes to You

As you reflect the past year, I hope you celebrate the good things that have happened in your life. And I hope the challenging things you may have experienced have made you stronger. Most of all, I hope you have many interesting and joyful things to look forward to in 2016 and people you love to share them with. 

Happy New Year and I’ll see you next year!

Joanne