Vegetables In Coconut Curry Sauce

Hope you enjoy this, it is one of my favorites:
 
Vegetables in Coconut Curry Sauce
Prep time; 20 minutes
Cooking time: 50 minutes
Serves; 6

Ingredients

• Vegetables
• 1 head of cauliflower florets (about 4 cups)
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into half rounds
• 2 zucchini, cut into found
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into half strip
• 1 cup frozen pea
• 1 medium onion, mince
• 2 tablespoons garlic, mince
• ¼ teaspoon dried crushed red chili pepper (more or less to taste)
• Spices
• 2 tablespoons ground coriande
• 1 teaspoon turmeri
• 1 teaspoon curry powde
• 1 teaspoon sal
• ½ teaspoon powdered cumi
• ½ teaspoon ground cardamo
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamo
• pinch ground clove
• Other
• 2 cups coconut milk (use 1 can of pure coconut milk, 14 fl. oz.
• ¼ cup canola oil or peanut oi
• 1 tablespoon mustard seeds
• 1 tablespoon honey (optional)

Steps:

1. Steam cauliflower, carrots, zucchini, bell pepper and frozen peas until al dente
2. Heat oil and mustard seeds in a medium sized pot
3. When seeds start to pop, add onion, garlic and red chili pepper and sauté until the onions are is translucent
4. Add spices and mix and cook for 3 minutes on low heat
5. Add 2 C coconut milk and simmer, but do not allow to boil
6. Fold in steamed vegetables
7. Add 1 T honey if desired
8. Serve with steamed rice

Humus

If you like good humus as much as I do then you might be a little dismayed by grocery store prices.  I have been making my own for a long time.  Its quick and easy, and pretty inexpensive. 

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 16 oz can of chickpeas or garbanzo beans, drained (reserve the liquid)
• 1/4 cup liquid from can of chickpeas
• 3-5 tablespoons lemon juice (depending on taste)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons tahini - OR- 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons olive oil

Preparation:

Drain chickpeas and set aside liquid from can. Combine all of the ingredients in blender or food processor.  As you blend slowly add the liquid from chickpeas until you get to the desired, creamy consistency. Blend for 3-5 minutes on low until thoroughly mixed and smooth.
Place in serving bowl, and create a shallow well in the center of the hummus.
Add a small amount (1-2 tablespoons) of olive oil in the well. Garnish with parsley (optional).
Serve immediately with fresh, warm or toasted pita bread, or cover and refrigerate.

For a little variety you might add one of the following as your are blending:

• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 C drained artichoke hearts
• red pepper flakes (these are hot so be carefull)
• 1/4 C drained and pitted black olives

Enjoy

Meditation and Your Brain

While at the gym this morning I listened to Episode 50 of The Secular Buddhist (http://www.editurl.com/qb0).  The discussion was about a recent study conducted at Boston General Hospital.  The study was designed as a pretest-posttest control-group design.  They started with a group of non-meditors and measured their brain structure.  Half the group then participated in Boston General Hospital's MBSR meditation program.  At the end of eight weeks the brain structures of the new meditators and the non-treatment-group were again measured.

The results were astounding.  They concluded that the results suggest that participation in MBSR is associated with changes in gray matter concentration in brain regions involved in learning and memory processes, emotion regulation, self-referential processing, and perspective taking.  Wow.  Meditation is good for your brain.

The article is a little technical but you can reference it at the above link.  The link will also give you access to a summary article about the reserach that was published at Science Daily.

The Power of Green Tea

Ever wonder why people in China and Japan have such relatively low rates of heart disease, cancer and other chronic aliments?  Might be because they drink so much green tea. 

Tea is widely recognized as a rich source of healthful antioxidants called catechins.  Tea is produced from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant.  The leaves are picked, rolled, dried and heated.  Back tea leaves are left to ferment and oxidize as well.  Green tea leaves are not.  This may explain why green tea leaves contain more antioxidants than do black tea leaves.  White tea, made from young tea leaves, has even more antioxidants but is harder to find and is more expensive.

Hundreds of studies have been conducted on the effect of green tea consumption.  Most of the studies indicate a strong link between drinking green tea and health benefits.  In one study, for example, of 18,000 Chinese men, the tea drinkers (who primarily drank green tea) were half as likely to develop stomach or esophageeal cancer as the men who drank little tea.   Other studies in Asia have shown a linkage  reduced risks for bladder, colon, prostate, breast, and pancreatic cancers and green tea consumption.  It appears that at least three cups of green tea is needed to achieve the healthful benefits of drinking green tea.

Want to learn more about the health benefits of drinking green tea?  Read Lester Mitscher, PhD's, book The Green Tea Book:  The Science-backed "Miracle Cure".

Your Brain on Statins

I just finished a very interesting book by Dr. Graveline, MD, titled Lipitor: Thief of Memory.

It appears, from his book, that Lipitor may cause transient global amnesia.  Here are a few of the other problems that he associates with Liptor (a statin) use:

•  Personality changes / mood disorders
• Muscle problems, polyneuropathy (nerve damage in the hands and feet), and rhabdomyolysis (a serious degenerative muscle tissue condition)
• Sexual dysfunction
• Immune suppression
• Pancreas or liver dysfunction, including a potential increase in liver enzymes
• Cataracts

And, according to Dr. Graveline, a form of Lou Gehrig's disease or ALS may also be a side effect.

If you want to know what to do about it then I highly recommend that you read the book, you can find it on Amazon.  You also might want to read up on CoQ10 and ubiquinol.