Happy Holidays! Happy New Year 2020!

I have shared many recipes over the years in this format and others, but truth be told, I often wing it in the kitchen. I get inspired by ingredients. Looking at my countertop baskets of veggies or fruit, peering into the open fridge or meandering booths at our local farmer's market, I fall on some food that triggers some idea that guides me in the kitchen. I keep it simple and return often to family favorites.

It's a little like being a composer, seeing the parts and imagining how they will work together. Allowing some selections to stand on their own. Creating something original or working within a known format. Arranging flavors, bringing out one taste, quieting down another. What flavors might work best together? What sounds good to eat today?

At the cusp of the new year I think, life is a little like that, too. What ingredients am I taking into the new year? What things am I trying to draw out? What might I choose to tend and cultivate? What will I leave in the cupboard? How am I composing a life?

Even when we don't have all the answers, it's still good to contemplate, don't you think?

Wishing you the joy of choosing, of composing your healthy, vibrant, meaningful 2020, with hopes your year is filled with good music, good food, and time to share with those you love.

Love & light,

AMY (& PAUL)

Naturopathic Health Care:

Northampton, MA & Enfield, CT!

Our Naturopathic Health Care in downtown Northampton, MA is humming along at 369 Pleasant Street. Patients are always welcome to continue working with us at our Enfield, CT office where we’ve been since 1986!

With the issuing of our ND licenses in Massachusetts, we are thrilled to be offering natural, integrative medicine to patients in the Pioneer Valley.

Sleep is a magical activity. It looks like not much is happening, but in fact, your body is tidying up inside, laying down new brain pathways, adjusting immune function, overseeing hormonal balance, getting rid of wayward cells, and more!

Sleep is essential for good physical, cognitive, and emotional health. When you have adequate sleep, your problem-solving skills improve, you learn more efficiently, you make better decisions, and you are more creative. Suboptimal sleep, both in quantity and quality, is a risk factor for many chronic ailments, from cardiovascular disease to diabetes to cancer, as well as for acute illnesses. Not only that, but without adequate sleep, you’re more accident-prone. Yet, more than 40% of Americans are not logging in enough hours of sleep, either by choice or because of insomnia.

When 44-year-old Raisa first came to see me, this middle school art teacher was at her wit’s end. She hadn’t been sleeping well for years, but recently things had gotten even worse. She was a 20-year veteran of the teaching profession who prided herself on being organized, punctual, creative, and fun. But her chronic lack of sleep was affecting her ability to do her job.

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Sometimes I like to serve a bunch of smaller side dishes that add up to a meal. I look for a balance of color and fiber and protein. I look to bump up my veggie count. I like a variety of textures. This is a meal pictured here I made on a day off when I have more time to linger in the kitchen, music playing, humming to myself, taking a break with a cup of tea while things are roasting in the oven and musing about love and life, work and family.

We live in a fertile valley in Western Massachusetts and belong to a CSA where we take part in a winter share. That's where I find the butternut squash that goes into this silky soup. That dollop of whiteness is a goat cheese medallion that melts away, mellowing the color to creamsicle orange. This soup is melancholy to me, I cannot tell you why, so I eat it slowly, often staring out the window.

I scoop out the slippery seeds from the squash and make crunchy baked seeds with a spot of tamari and a sprinkle of brewer's yeast. I gently twist off the little cabbage babies from their stalk to slow roast in a mix of olive oil and ghee. The tofu I bake over an hour with more olive oil, grated garlic, ginger, turmeric, and a fig infused balsamic vinegar. Lots of gentle encouragement with a flat spatula bring the tofu to a golden brown. Chop-chop salad, a cinchy, quick salad with whatever you have on hand. The operative words here are chop-chop. Little pieces, sprinkle with some pickle juice, olive oil and a dash of pepper and meal's ON!

Slow cooking on cold winter days, having time to prepare healthy food, I know these are things that feed my soul not just my body. I don't do it as much as I might, but 2020 may find me in the kitchen a little more!

Alphabreaths, The ABCs of Mindful Breathing, by Christopher Willard & Daniel Rechtschaffen. Delightfully illustrated by Holly Clifton-Brown.

Here's a book to consider gifting to all the little ones in your life. Heck, to the big people, too!

It's a terrific and practical guide to deep breathing and a kind of mindfulness for the younger set. Of course we all need to remember to breathe, to take delight in small things and to make time for being just a little bit silly sometimes.

Enjoy!

Over the last number of years, we’ve been focusing on healthy aging and best practices with regard to treatment and preventive care. Lithia Basic™ is a nutritional bioavailable supplement designed to support healthy aging, mood, behavior, and memory, and resist the effects of stress by combining extremely low doses of bioavailable Lithium orotate with low doses of Zinc picolinate, Water hyssop ( Bacopa monnieri ), and Lemon Balm ( Melissa officinale ). The formulation is designed to take advantage of the response elicited by these compounds and plants at ultra low doses.

We have been using this formulation with patients over the last years and feel confident about its efficacy. Historically, since these doses are not easily found, we would have patients buy four separate bottles and divide each capsule into the low doses. After enough urging from patients for more affordability and convenience, we created this supplement.

To read more about this formulation please visit to LithiaWorks.com  

In an effort to make quality supplements more widely available, we maintain a virtual dispensary through our Naturopathic Health Care clinic featuring products distributed by Emerson Ecologics. Wellevate is Emerson's online patient dispensary.

We trust Emerson as a supplier for high quality supplements, botanical medicine, and natural health/ beauty products. Products we recommend and use in our clinic are listed, and you also have access to the full inventory of products sold.

 

Please click here for details and to access our online formulary to receive your on going 15% discount .