Heart Healthy Buckwheat Berry Bowl

For women over 40, heart health is important.

Heart disease is the number one cause of death for women in North America, but there is a misconception that this is a male problem.

As we pass through peri-menopause we experience a down grade in the amount of estrogen in the body. This is important because for all of our lives the hormone estrogen has been protective to our heart. We have an opportunity here to take heart protective foods seriously and upgrade the love we show our heart through the food we eat.

To keep your cardiovascular system healthy you need a diet rich in fibre, healthy fats and antioxidants and this breakfast bowl deliciously provides us with everything we need. If you want to read more about why breakfast is the most important meal of the day for the peri-menopausal midlife woman, click here to download my FREE Breakfast Essentials booklet.

Fibres can support us in lowering our cholesterol level, healthy fats help us to maintain a healthy lipid profile with high levels of healthy High density lipoproteins and low levels of the dangerous low density lipoproteins. Anti-oxidants scour our bloodstream for free radicals and help to prevent and repair damage to our cell walls that result in plaques being formed as the body pairs itself.

You can make this bowl with oats or buckwheat, but buckwheat is rich in the plant lignan, rutin, which supports the strength and elasticity in the walls of our veins and arteries. If you have varicose veins, then this food should be in your rotation.

I added the queen of fibres for the midlife women, ground flax, another fibre that is rich in lignan’s.
The lignans, which are a type of phytoestrogen in flaxseed, can change estrogen metabolism. In postmenopausal women, lignans can cause the body to produce less active forms of estrogen to balance hormones and protect against breast cancer. Ground flax is also rich in omega 3 fatty acids and should be stored in the refrigerator.

By adding raw cacao for a chocolaty rich flavour we are adding more antioxidants to our breakfast bowl coupled with a dose of Magnesium, our relaxation mineral that helps to reduce blood pressure. Magnesium is important in heart health as when we are deficient in this mineral in relation to calcium we are more at risk of calcium precipitating out of our bloodstream to form calcified plaques when there is damage to the cell wall of our veins and arteries. In this way a daily green smoothie is heart healthy also! I love a pinch of sea salt and a tablespoon of maple syrup every time to bring out the chocolate flavour.

I tablespoon of coconut oil gives a richness to this dish supports balanced blood sugar levels and helps to fire up our metabolism in the morning. Lady, coconut oil is going to give you the energy you need to get through your morning and supports your very best brain health.

Once we have the basics of our bowl, we can just play!

I added pumpkins seeds and walnuts as they are rich in vitamin E. Vitamin E impacts the cell wall of our red blood cells causing them to stay smooth and slippy so that blood slides more easily around our tubes. I also love Brazil nuts in this bowl as they are selenium rich, so supportive of my thyroid gland and again support my metabolism in the morning; the antidote to midlife weight gain!

Lastly, top your bowl with antioxidant rich berries and cherries. Packed with fibre, natural sugar and that beautiful dark red and purple colour that indicates that they are heart supportive and rich in antioxidants2
Berries are also loading the bowl with vitamin C

If you need a head start in the morning you can soak your grains overnight or better yet get all of the ingredients assembled and ready to go with your berries defrosted if they are out of season and everything to hand. Lady, food prep, even if it is just assembling what you will need the night before, is some of the best love you can show your heart!

Enjoy this chocolaty goodness!

1.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24013641

2.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26501271

Ingredients

1/4 cup Buckwheat porridge or grits

1 cup water brought to the boil in a small pan

1 tbsp ground flax

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 tbsp raw cacao

1 tbsp maple syrup

1 pinch sea salt

1/2 cup of mixed raw nuts and seeds of your choice. Walnuts, Brazil Nuts Pumpkins Seeds, Almonds, Hazelnuts, Pistachios

1 cup fresh or frozen berries and cherries.

Instructions

1. Add the buckwheat to the boiling water in a small pan and cook for 5-6 minutes

2. Remove from the heat and put into a bowl

3. Stir in the coconut oil, cacao, maple syrup and sea salt

4. Add the ground flax, nuts and seeds and berries

5. Enjoy!
   
   
   

Beet, Celery, Apple and Ginger Smoothie

I want to eat healthy and I want to feel good at 52. What does that look like for me?

1. I want to feel energized everyday and fully capable to power through the activities I plan for myself.

2. I want to feel joyful when I wake up in the morning and excited for my day - no matter what life throws at me.

3. I want to feel resilient and strong in my mind and body and comfortable in my own skin. I don’t need to be perfect but I want to love myself when I look in the mirror.

I want to build the health that I am planning on enjoying until I am 90 years plus.

As a Certified Holistic Nutrition Consultant, I believe that the food I eat has the power to make to manifest this fabulous health and that the habit of taking the very best care of me, using food and nutrition, is also the perfect way to help myself through my menopausal experience.

Wahoo! This is exciting and empowering stuff right here ladies!

I do not have time for extensive meal prep, expensive ‘superfood’ ingredients or bullshit unachievable health goals that put me in a competition with my sister to be skinnier or ‘younger’ looking. Those days are over.

This recipe right here is, for me, the epitome of how simple everyday ingredients can build our health.

Beets are supportive of our liver function and we need that support in peri-menopause when our liver is working hard to de-conjugate (break-down) excess hormone in our bodies and carry it out of the body.

Celery is anti-inflammatory and supports our digestive health and blood sugar balance.

Apples are rich in vitamin C and pectin, a fibre that binds with everyday toxins and supports their removal from the body (think of your hot flash, night sweat and excessive bleed promoting excess hormone again ladies)

Ginger is highly anti-inflammatory, may help to reduce muscle pain (including menstrual cramps) and can help with osteoarthritis. Ginger aids chronic indigestion and claims have been made that it can reduce blood sugar levels and cholesterol levels. Excitingly, studies in midlife women have shown that it can help to prevent Alzheimers disease. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3253463/

All of these everyday ingredients can be found easily in the store and only take 5 minutes to chop roughly and blend.
There is nothing magical, expensive or arduous here! Just a simple smoothie that delivers easily absorbed nutrition into your daily meal plan, adds valuable fibre to your diet and supports your precious microbiome in the process…and a healthy microbiome equates to better immunity; 80% of our immune response is housed in the gut ladies and an improvement in your everyday mood. 80% of the serotonin-our happy neurotransmitter- is made in the gut ladies.

Hold up; Are the health benefits compounding with the benefits they provide to our fibre starved microbiome? This is the power of vegetables people!

Let’s do this thing Ladies!

Let’s bring a smoothie into our daily routine and in this simple step take a stand for our own longterm health.

Ingredients

1 apple washed and quartered

1 large beet washed and roughly chopped

2 sticks celery washed and roughly chopped

Juice of 1 lemon

1 thumb sized chunk of fresh ginger chopped

1 12oz glass filtered water

Instructions

Place all of the roughly chopped ingredients into a blender and add the water

Blend until smooth

You should make enough for two glasses of smoothie. Place 1/2 in a glass in your refrigerator and drink tomorrow. Look at that! You are ahead for tomorrow!

P.S. If you enjoyed this nutrition packed smoothie, click here to try my recipe for a Daily Mineral Dense Green Smoothie

Daily Mineral Dense/Fibre Rich Green Smoothie

There are some things I do for my body every day and my green smoothie is one of them. I am not a juicer because I’m a greedy girl and I want ALL of that fibre! I want to poop on the daily to keep my colon clean and free of carcinogens, keep my skin clear and remove the excess peri-menopausal hormones that cause hot flashes and mood swings. I want to feed and nurture the beautiful ecosystem that is my microbiome with fibres I can’t digest for myself so that they, in turn, thank me by keeping my gut lining healthy and encourage the production of B vitamins and serotonin in the gut (my second brain) This makes me happy - literally and figuratively!

Leafy greens are rich in magnesium - the relaxation mineral. They are also dense with calcium, in a form that is a more absorbable than from dairy products - which means aging with strong bones and teeth. Dark leafy greens are rich in iron for healthy blood and a fully oxygenated body. Vitamin K helps with healthy blood clotting and wound healing. vitamin A is an anti-oxidant in the form of beta carotene creates healthy tissues and gums. Last but not least vitamin C for energy, healthy tissues, improved immunity, anti-cancerous and anti-oxidant properties. SOOO much goodness ladies!

I want to support my lovely liver in its job of breaking down the excess hormones that come with menopause, caffeine, alcohol and other toxins. I know this lovely lady needs the vitamin and mineral support of leafy greens and a daily dose of toxin cleansing fibre in order to do her job efficiently.

My daily Green Smoothie is an act of self care.
Don’t you deserve to treat yourself on the daily in the same way?

Daily Mineral Dense/Fibre Rich Green Smoothie

1 fresh pineapple skin removed and fruit sliced and diced
1 bunch fresh kale roughly chopped
1 lime juiced
1/4 English cucumber chunk chopped
1 thumb sized piece of fresh ginger
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 tablespoons hemp seeds
1/4 teaspoon spirulina powder if desired
3 cups filtered water or sufficient to provide your perfect consistency

Optional Add In’s

• 2 whole kiwi fruit peeled

• 1 small sharp apple

• Juice of a second lime

• 1 bunch parsley or cilantro

Blend all of the ingredients in a high performance blender until smooth. Pour into mason jars and seal. Store in the refrigerator for daily consumption.

Expect a little colon love-you-back on a daily basis!

If you love Kale you will enjoy my recipe for my Paprika Shrimp with Red Pepper and Kale for a taste of Southern cooking.