Raw Honey

Raw honey is unheated, pure, unpasteurized, unprocessed honey and my favorite raw honey is Wee Bee Honey; I simply love the taste of it. Wee Bee Honey is also a family owned and operated apiary coming from generations of beekeepers, since 1892. I like to support family owned companies that make products with love and care.

Some of the benefits of raw honey (as per the Wee Bee Honey bottle) is that it helps with poor digestion, oral health, sore throat, cough, allergies, burns, wounds, scars and rashes.

One of the many home remedies I use when I have a cough, cold or a sore throat is chop some organic ginger into very fine pieces and mix it with some raw honey and eat it. It soothes the throat and tastes delicious!

The reason why I am writing this post is to encourage you to try a natural form of honey and see how delicious it tastes.

One of my favorite snacks that serves my sweet tooth is a nicely toasted sprouted grain bread spread with vegan butter and raw honey - it is the most delicious sweet snack in the world.

Vegan Butter

What is Vegan Butter? It is a buttery spread made of expeller-pressed oils that raise good cholestrol while lowering bad cholestrol and is easy for the body to break it down and assimilate. They are a lot less dense than regular butter and taste just like butter. The fat is derived from vegetables as opposed to animals, which makes the fat a good fat/unsaturated fat.

My favorite Vegan Butter is Earth Balance. I particularly love the taste of the Original spread which also comes as Organic whipped. Their other spreads include Olive Oil, Soy Oil and Soy-Free for those allergic to Soy. They are natural and do not contain any trans fatty acids.

Next time you think of bread and butter, I suggest you try a nicely toasted sprouted grain bread and spread it with some vegan butter....it is yummmmmmmy!!!!!

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

Community Supported Agriculture is way of purchasing local, seasonal food directly from the farmer. A farmer offers a certain number of shares to the public. Typically, each share contains seasonal vegetables and sometimes fruits but other farm products may also be included. Consumers sign up for a membership and receive a weekly or bi-weekly share from the farmers. If you would like to find a farmer who delivers to your neighborhood you could go to www.localharvest.org and search based on your zip code.

In order to become a member you have to belong to a local group to whom the farmer supplies the weekly or bi-weekly produce. I live in Hoboken and one of the farmers that deliver to Jersey City/Hoboken neighborhood is Purple Dragon. Their produce is organic and you can read more about them on www.purpledragon.com.

Today, I picked up my first share of freshly picked organic vegetables. Purple Dragon delivers to Jersey City where my group co-ordinator receives the delivery of vegetables and fruits and divides the share for the members. We are a total of 16 members in our group. The bi-weekly cost is 49 dollars for 15-30 pounds of organic fruits and vegetables. In my share of vegetables and fruits today, I got Multi-colored Kale, Lettuce, Green Beans, Broccoli, Carrots, Potatoes, Organic Dill, Tomatoes, Oranges, Apples, Pineapples, Bananas and a new herb that I have never heard of before called Chickweed. I am super excited to cook with these veggies and I will definitely share my experience with you but you have to taste it for yourself.

So, on Earth Day, be green and support your local farmer.

Sprouted grain bread

Today I want to share a product with you which I have been relishing for a few years now. It is healthy, tastes wholesome and it is very easy to digest. It is Sprouted Grain Bread!

Why Sprouted Grain Bread? Before I answer that question, I would have to answer another question: What is Sprouting?

According to Wikipidea, Sprouting is the practice of soaking, draining and then rinsing seeds at regular intervals until they germinate, or sprout.

But what are the health benefits to eating grains that are sprouted or germinated? When you sprout a grain, seed or a nut it unlocks the dormant enzymes in it making the grain a source of energy and very easily digestible. When we consume this food, it makes digestion easy which results in food giving us energy instead of food taking up energy from our body for digestion. When we have enzyme rich foods, our body is supplied with the required enzymes to digest food thus saving us a lot of energy. When the digestive enzymes in our bodies get depleted, the body reaches out to for metabolic enzymes as a source of enzymes for digestion. This is the reason why we can feel fatigued after eating foods that are difficult to digest.

Going back to Sprouted Grain Bread, the brand that I recommend is Food for Life, you can read all about it on their website www.foodforlife.com. I enjoy all kinds of breads made by them, the bread loaves come in different kinds like 7 grain, Cinnamon Raisin, Sesame, etc. You can also try their buns, English muffins, bagels or tortillas. They simply taste wholesome and feel so good in my stomach.

Get some vegan butter (more about it next time) and spread it on that Sprouted Grain Bread and enjoy!!

Cooking Oils

Cooking Oils fall under the category of fats and the word fat has scarred me since a very young age. While I am breaking through the barriers of my mind, and that is an ongoing process, I simply want to classify fats as a category of food and not deny that fats are delicious and make your meals yummy.

We have heard of the terms good fats and bad fats, here is a brief refresh to what they are.

• Good fats are unsaturated fats derived from plants and nuts, that the body finds it easier to break down and they lower bad cholestrol.


• Bad fats, on the other hand, are saturated fats derived from animal sources, dairy etc. and they have a tendency to increase bad cholestrol.

Having said that I am not going the black or white way, I think that if we eat anything that we want within our caloric range and within the body's ability to break it down, then we are good to go. Having a small dab of butter on your food once a while is really not going to kill you.

Going back to my original topic of Cooking Oils, there are several plant based oils of which the popular ones are Canola, Saffflower, Sunflower, Olive, Grapeseed etc etc. But my winners are two not so popular oils *drumroll*.........Coconut Oil and Avocado Oil. Both these oils are delicious and they have a low melting point very close to our body temperature and they are also best broken down and assimilated by our bodies.

I am a feeling person and I go with my intuition. I compared Avocado and Coconut Oil with other oils by simply feeling it on my fingers. These are light oils, that feel less dense and simply smooth away into my skin. Avocado Oil has a buttery taste and I sometimes rub it on my skin on one of those really cold wintery days. Coconut oil is sweet smelling and food cooked in Coconut Oil feels like there was no Oil added at all.

I encourage you to try these oils that are not only healthy but great tasting.

More recipes to come using Avocado and Coconut Oil, I buy my oils from Whole Foods, I buy the 365 Whole Foods brand, they are inexpensive and of good quality.

Garam Masala

Garam Masala literally means Hot Spices. It is nothing but a blend of different spices, roasted and ground. It adds great flavor to foods, especially vegetables in my case and it is indeed the secret to my healthy cooking. Most people think that healthy foods taste like crap, especially when people think of vegetables they think of bland, steamed veggies with salt and pepper. I am so fond of veggies I could eat them as is, steamed with salt and pepper but I do think that life is about enjoying and most of us love food. So, why not spice up our health foods.

Below is a quick recipe of a simple not so hot Garam Masala which can add lots of flavor to any foods.

1/4 cup Coriander Seeds
1 tablespoon Cumin Seeds
1/2 tablespoon Peppercorns
1 small stick of Cinnamon

* Dry roast these on low fire in a skillet. An iron skillet enhances the flavors.
* When you start smelling a nice warm toasty aroma of the spices, turn off the stove.
* Use a coffee grinder to make it into a fine powder.
* Transfer it into a small jar. The spices have a very long shelf life. You could use them for up to 6 months depending on your usage.

Simple Broccoli Recipe

I packet of frozen broccoli (Organic is preferred but not mandatory)

OR

1 head of fresh broccoli cut into small florets.

1 tspn Olive Oil

* In a small pot, on a medium flame add 1 tspn Olive Oil, after the oil warms up, add 1 tspn of Garam Masala.
* Add the Broccoli Florets and cover the pot allowing the vegetable to steam. Check after 5-7 minutes if Broccoli is cooked.
* Add salt to taste, about 1/2 tspn should work.
* Mix the veggies thoroughly so that the Broccoli soaks in Garam Masala and Salt.

You can also add Garlic and Hot Green Peppers as a variation to this recipe. If you don't like Broccoli, you can use Spinach/Cauliflower, these will taste good too.

I Love VEGGIES!!

New Beginnings

I love Spring, the newness of the season inspires me to start something new.

My name is Simmi Vaswani, I am 34 years old, a Pisces, born on March 4th and I am half Indian - half Iranian by heritage.

This is my venture in sharing my passion for health and food. I will be sharing everything I know about healthy vegetarian foods, their health benefits, my experiments, introducing not so popular veggies and sometimes I might just share a food I love, not necessarily healthy :)

I cannot write a blog about food and not mention my Mom and my Husband. My mother is the best chef I have known, she has profound knowledge of Indian spices and a natural flare for understanding food chemistry. My husband on the other hand just loves food and is open to trying new food preparations which inspires me to come up with new ideas. He is the reason why I am writing this blog.

That said, I hope I can engage you all in my passion for sharing what I know about health and food.