Three Steps for your Kitchen Makeover

Are you struggling with finding ideas for what to prepare for dinner? Is breakfast a grab and go thing? Does your family not appreciate your sweat-filled efforts in the kitchen? Are you getting tired of the endless sandwiches, lunchboxes, salads, and soups you’re consuming?

If these scenarios ring several bells, and if you are willing to step into your kitchen to unleash your creativity in a new way, I have outlined 3 steps you could take in this direction.

Step 1. Get support in your kitchen

We spent many hours in the kitchen, planning, preparing, storing, cleaning, shopping, and then, well it repeats every day. Why not start getting support by carefully maneuvering and probing some little helpers, or even adults in our households to step in and make your kitchen life more powerful.

Step 2. Set up your kitchen with recording devices

Recording devices will allow you to retrieve your successful creations, and powerful and tasty efforts more easily.

A large mirror over your countertop can provide visitors and family members views from all angles. Laptops with seasonal recipe files help you create records of your new creations. A camera ready to manifest your beautiful dishes, as well as family dinners will bring another level of excitement into your kitchen routine.

Step 3. Step outside your kitchen

If you refer to the ebb and flow of your ideas you can find solace in what the season has to offer. When you have the chance to go to a farmers market and enjoy the produce the local farmers have brought that day, your outlook on your kitchen will drastically change. Your energy will be uplifted and each vegetable will offer a new dish, and another powerful creative idea for your kitchen. Bring your camera and capture a few images your eye likes to linger over or crabs your attention. File these images away with your recipes.

These 3 steps will drastically change your perception in your kitchen. Try it out and send me your new creations.

Best to you Gabriele Kushi

www.kushiskitchen.com

How to retrieve your Memory

© By Gabriele Kushi with www.kushiskitchen.com

I spent most of the 2010 winter in Africa, traveling through Kenya and Uganda to teach in the bush about the macrobiotic teachings on how and why to best avoid white sugar and refined white foods, and what the best way for retrieving their ancestors food. In 2011, I decided to stay put in snowy Minnesota to write.

Still, I visited an event with my favorite African nonprofit organization Give Us Wings, and I had a great conversation with the author Pat Samples, who works with elders and the arts.

By telling her my story of how I retrieve events, I gave her ideas for her elders’ circle to help them make more of their memory available. So how can you make more memory available?

You’ve had the experience of forgetting a word, a name, or the exact order of an event, or where you put your keys, or what it was you wanted to do when you go into a room. Those are all memory losses we naturally experience at some point in time. For some of us these losses can be more so when we get older.  Our genetic inheritance and the food we have eaten during our lives will have an effect on the strength of our minds, as well as how we have exercised our minds.

Because I was born in Germany and my native language is German, but I live in an English-speaking country, I have to know a lot of non-native vocabulary to be able to speak fluently. Sometimes I can’t find the word for a certain item–let’s say burdock root. I might remember it in German, Klettenwurzel, or I might remember only how it looks and grows or what it is good for. 

So I have realized that when I start to describe the item—how it looks, what it feels like, or whatever information comes into my mind—at some point in my creative description the word itself will pop into my mind and completes the story I created for myself and my audience.

Try this exercise yourself with any word you might forget or an event that is not clear in your mind, and let me know how much fun you are having with your story and how much more memory you gain from it.

When we are unfolding a story, instead of closing it off by saying “I don’t remember,” we will open our minds to the story, to the creative force that can engage us in the world at any age.

 Blessings for your life,

Gabriele Kushi
www.kushiskitchen.com

MIDLIFE ISSUE - HEART DISEASE

 © 2010 Gabriele Kushi - Excerpt form the book “Embracing Menopause Naturally”

Heart disease is the number one cause of death among postmenopausal women in the US. This probably has little correlation to menopause and is more a result of the aging process. However, there are a number of things that women can do to decrease the likelihood of developing heart disease. The most important ones are regular physical activity, a heart-healthy diet, and not smoking.

To choose a diet that promotes heart health, one should emphasize.....continue reading here:

http://www.kushiskitchen.com/MIDLIFEISSUE-HEARTDISEASE.html   

For the recipe continue reading here: http://www.kushiskitchen.com/recipe-FlaxandPumpkinSeedMixture.html

Gomasio - Sesame Salt

GOMASIO - Sesame Salt Condiment

This condiment is helpful in neutralizing acidities in the blood and relieving tiredness.  Gomasio is traditionally known to strengthen the nervous system.

Black sesame seeds are preferable to brown, but brown seeds may be used if black are unavailable.

Please follow your personal recommendations for ratio of sea salt and sesame seeds.
The standard ratio is 1 part salt to 18 parts sesame seeds.

Wash the sesame seeds in a fine mesh strainer and allow them to dry.

Dry-roast the sea salt in a stainless steel frying pan over a medium-high flame until the sea salt becomes shiny.

Place the salt in a Suribachi and grind into a fine powder

Roast the seeds on medium heat.  While roasting, push seeds back and forth gently with a wooden paddle or wooden spoon to avoid burning.  The seeds are done when they crush easily between the thumb and index finger, in about five to ten minutes.  The sees will being to pop when done and give off a nutty fragrance.  Lower the flame toward the end, and do not overcook or the seeds will have a bitter taste.

While they are still ht, add the sesame seeds to the ground salt in the suribachi.  Slowly and gently grind the seeds in an even circular motion with the suribachi pestle, making sure to use the grooved sides of the suribachi to grind against instead of the bottom of the bowl.  Grind until each seed is crushed and thoroughly covered with salt.

Allow the Gomasio to cool, and then transfer it to an airtight glass container to store.

Use sparingly over grain or vegetables.



Suribachi