The holiday season is a time of good cheer, conviviality and family gatherings. However, it is also a time for overeating and, quite often, bad food choices. Thus, January has become the traditional time of year for efforts at detoxification and digestive restoration as well as resolving to continue a healthful eating pattern.
So I thought that a good way to begin the new year would be to provide three easy-to-prepare, nutrition-rich and digestively balanced Natural Health Science System Power Cooking meal plans that can help to light the way to the path of healthful eating.
The recipes, food-combining and preparation techniques incorporated into my Natural Health Science System (NHSS) PowerCooking are products of a long-term, widely varied clinical practice specializing in the use of whole, natural foods and herbs both as sustenance and as medicine. Each recipe, composed of natural and unadulterated foods, furnishes an impressive array of fiber and food nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, protein, enzymes and other nutritional factors, required for the maintenance and repair of the body in a readily assimilable form.
Many years as a practitioner and teacher in the field of natural healing have brought me to the realization that, regardless of the obvious potential benefits derived from healthful eating, most people will not make the necessary revisions in their dietary pattern unless the process of change is made relatively simple and yields taste-gratification.
In my years of clinical practice, I was often called upon to structure dietary regimens for ill, weakened and allergy-prone individuals, thus, as a matter of course in my NHSS Powercooking recipes, highly problematic foods such as wheat, peanuts and dairy products are avoided while top priority is given to associating digestively complementary foods at each meal. As well as these scientific strategies, the sensory aspects of each recipe, including taste, color and aroma, are given important consideration. I think you’ll agree that these recipes are testimony to the fact that a palate-pleasing meal need not be a complex gastronomical terror to qualify as a gourmet’s delight.
NHSS Powercooking food preparation is characterized by simplicity of technique. In this way, the reader can readily gain proficiency in a simple, basic cooking methodology, which can be used as a springboard for broad-based creativity of food preparation that does not sacrifice essential nutrient viability or dynamics of inter-food balancing for optimal digestibility. Contrary to the popular misconception that creative cooking implies complexity, an extraordinary array of simple, yet artful, meals can be produced utilizing a small number of basic cooking techniques.
While the recipes are simplicity itself, they adhere to the most important tenets of healthful diet.Frying is not required due to the deleterious effects of heated oil. And only a small amount of water is used in the steaming process to avoid excessive nutrient loss. Seasonings are used to help accentuate natural flavors of the food rather than to overrule and obscure them. Most importantly, strict emphasis is placed on the use of whole, natural foods–preferably organic. Processed, partially denatured substitutes are not deemed acceptable.
The following meal-plans are structured in accordance with the most crucial rules of natural dietetics, including the laws of proper food combining, guidelines for preservation of nutrients during the cooking process and the interfacing of specific foods at a given meal.
Healthful cooking, if it is to become a permanent feature of one’s daily existence rather than a transient whimsy, must meet several basic criteria, but, first and foremost, the meals must be truly healthful. Oftentimes, so-called health food recipes are merely haphazard juxtapositions of natural foods which are nutritious in and of themselves but prove incompatible with the human body’s assimilation abilities when taken in combinations challenge digestive tolerance.
Foods within each of the following recipes are included for their nutritive and medicinal value as well as for their pleasing flavors. If all of our meals were constructed on this basis, we could contentedly abide by the dictum espoused by Hippocrates: “Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine thy food.”
If you like fresh, natural whole foods, you will enjoy and feel thoroughly nourished by the three meal plans that follow. Please share these recipes with any friend or relative who is interested in improving their eating habits and their level of well-being.
Heart-power Soup Italiano
1. BRING TO BOIL THE FOLLOWING, AND SIMMER TILL VEGETABLES ARE TENDER, YET FIRM:
purewater (to cover vegetables)
4 med. carrots, chopped
1 small beet, chopped
8″ wakame seaweed (break into pieces, and soak 5-min. in pure water (to cover)–then, add seaweed and its soaking water to cooking pot)
2. REMOVE POT FROM STOVE, ADD FOLLOWING TO POT, AND COVER:
2 stalks celery, chopped
4 large cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried basil
1/8 – 1/4 tsp. cayenne
3. ALLOW FLAVORS TO MARRY 15- TO 30-MINUTES
4. BLEND FOLLOWING IN BLENDER–THEN, ADD MIXTURE TO SOUP POT, STIR, SERVE:
1 cup of above soup
1/2 cup pure water
2 tsp. flaxseed oil
1 Tbsp.tamari soy sauce (wheat-free)
5. SALAD:
1 bunch spinach, chopped
1 cup arugula, chopped
4 Tbsp. radish, grated
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. fresh thyme, minced
6. SALAD DRESSING:
2 Tbsp. olive oil (extra virgin)
1/4 tsp. kelp powder
1-1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. lecithin granules
1 tsp. Brewer’s yeast
7. GARNISH:
sunflower seed sprouts
Yield: 2 servings
Great Nori Wraps (Pleasantly Spicy)
1. PRE-COOK MILLET (OPTIONAL: PAN-TOAST FIRST)–SET ASIDE:
millet (need 1-1/2 cups cooked)
2. PLACE INTO BOWL:
1 parsnip, chopped matchstick style
1 carrot,chopped matchstick
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
3. MIX FOLLOWING, THEN ADD TO BOWL, STIR WELL:
2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp. flaxseed oil
1 Tbsp. lecithin granules
1/8 to 1/4 tsp. cayenne
1/8 to 1/4 tsp. ginger root, ground
2 tsp. tamari soy sauce (wheat-free)
4. NOW, STIR INTO BOWL THE 1-1/2 CUPS COOKED MILLET
5. SPOON ONTO NORI SHEETS AND ROLL
6. SALAD:
1/2 bunch spinach, chopped
1 avocado, diced
1 medium tomato, chopped
1/2 cup leek, chopped
7. SALAD DRESSING:
1 Tbsp. sesame seed oil
2 tsp. lemon juice
8. GARNISH:
radish sprouts
Yield: 2 servings
Veggie-combo Tacos
1. STEAM TILL TENDER, YET FIRM:
1 large eggplant, chopped bite-size
3 cups pea pods, whole
1 cup shiitake mushrooms, chopped
1 cup green pepper, sliced in strips
1 cup leek (green part), chopped
2. ADD TO POT THE FOLOWING, DURING FINAL 1 to 2 MIN. OF COOKING:
1 cup mung bean sprouts
3. MIX FOLLOWING SAUCE:
1 Tbsp. tamari soy sauce (wheat-free)
1 Tbsp. olive oil (extra virgin)
1/8 to 1/4 tsp. cayenne
4. STIR SAUCE INTO COOKED VEGETABLES, SERVE TACO-STYLE ON:
corn tortillas (whole grain), warmed or toasted
5. GARNISH TACOS (USE AMOUNT OF FOLLOWING AS DESIRED):
raw spinach, shredded
green onion, chopped
sun-dried black olives, chopped
Yield: 2 servings
