Vitamin D3: The Key to Unlocking our Inner Life Force

Our ability to produce and use active form of Vitamin D3 gives us our inner life force and makes us feel good. If you do not have sufficient levels of Vitamin D3, you cannot access your DNA library for needed biological processes. This is why we crave sunshine. So how to we activate our inner light when there is no sun?

To learn more about the benefits of Vitamin D3, please see my previous article "Activate Your Inner Sunshine with Vitamin D"

 Campaign for Positive Change

I am delighted to have been asked to take part in a special blog event happening place today across the US and Canada for FARM Animal Right's Great American Meatout, a campaign with a goal to expose  20,000 new people to plant-based foods. They are almost at 18,500!

Inspiration for New Whole Plant Enthusiasts for FARM

A few weeks ago, I received a message from Oddin Helgason, who attended one of my classes with his girlfriend Erin approximately a year ago. When they walked in, they asked me what type of fish we would be making. When I found out Odinn is a well experienced hobby chef that loved to cook with meat and cheese, I was not sure if they would enjoy my whole plant approach. To my surprise, they were more than enthusiastic and even went out half way through the class to bring back some wine.

Above: A picture of one of Odinn's favourite plant-based recipes, Mock Tuna Salad. Recipe below.

Susanne is an inspiration! When she first started taking my classes she assured me she was too busy (full time job+ entrepreneur) & hopeless in the kitchen to prep any of her own food. She emailed me today to say she now "A True Believer!". See her picture left "Tuscan Bean Dip a la Susanne" with FRESH rosemary.

A Flavour Review: Raw Organic Chocolate

The Secret of #3 for Easy of Everyday Healthy is to learn more than one use for a flavour or a whole food ingredient. Why? When you know several uses for a whole food, inspirations for using the ingredient in your everyday cuisine come easily, especially if you learn Secret # 4 for deliciousness (aka flavour combining).

Left: Julie's Very Potent Love Potion: Raw Chocolate Mayan Drink

The Sunshine Vitamin: A Key to Life

Vitamin D is is more than just vitamin. This vitamin created by our skin when exposed to sunshine is also a pleiotripic (=multiple effects), repair & maintenance steroid based hormone. Traditionally, vitamin D has been known to help your body absorb and calcium and allows this mineral to build up in your bones. Recent studies are now finding that the sunshine vitamin does much much more: vitamin D regulates and activates over 2,000 genes in your body!!

Food for the Gods

Thank you to my friend Alexia Harris for writing this blog post and sharing her very secret raw chocolate recipe. Alexia is in my class at the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition and works at Organic Lives in Vancouver. She has a passion for nutrition, health and a love for raw chocolate. I asked her to share some of her secrets and she agreed! I love this recipe because it is versatile and is a good base for many other creations and is convenient because it uses ingredients from the Everyday Pantry Shopping List.

Ingredients for Healthy Affordable Delicious-ness

I needed to pick up a couple of ingredients at Whole Foods on Cambie Street in Vancouver today. The first thing I did, like I normally do, is scan the produce section for sales. Mandarin oranges are now on sale for $1.49/lb. This is a good deal! Usually organic produce costs $2.00/ lb and above (except bananas:-). I decided to take advantage of the sale and combined them into a salad with finely chopped kale, tomatoes, organic red pepper (also now on sale at Whole Foods on Cambie.) and of course affordable pumpkin seeds :-)
Note: Red peppers are one of the more expensive produce items usually costing $5.99/lb so if you want to save $ on organic produce avoid using them as much as possible.

Above: Ingredients for quick and delicious salad a la affordable. I accidentally erased the picture of my salad...I hope the oranges, kale, tamari and seeds still inspires you :-)

The Art of More Affordable Organic Grocery Shopping

When I encourage people to buy more organic food, I often hear valid concerns about the high cost or organic produce. While organic foods are more expensive, you can keep your grocery bill lower by focusing on more affordable whole food ingredients. And including lots of delicious legumes into your diet :-)Left is a picture I took of some groceries I bought this week that includes many of my favourite more affordable organic items. I love finding ways to use them creatively throughout the week! This is Secret #2 for Easy of Everyday Healthy.