Turkey Herb Breakfast Patties

When our hormones start to fluctuate at midlife, there are long term health implications for us as women, outside of our midlife experience of menopause and it’s sometimes uncomfortable symptoms.

Hormonal change is not a cause, but a risk factor for poor cardiovascular health, dementia and Alzheimers disease.

Estrogen holds a protective effect over both our metabolic health and the neurons of our brain. As estrogen depletes we are pushed, incrementally, towards insulin resistance; which has implications for our brain and cardiovascular health and experience a pruning of our neurons; which has implications for our brain health and would explain our brain futzes and short temper at midlife.

This can feel horrifying to learn and can cause us to feel overwhelmed and helpless. Many women DREAD menopause and our perception of the process of hormonal change impacts our symptoms with negativity resulting in stronger and more uncomfortable symptoms.

It’s good to take a deep breathe, step out of fear and get some perspective as, in reality, the gold standard for protecting both our brain health and our cardiovascular health as we age is still nutrition, reducing stress and exercise.

Regardless of being women and experiencing hormonal change at midlife, we have all the tools we need to protect ourselves from future health complications.

One of the most impactful ways we can support our health for the future is to take great care with our diet to balance our blood sugar levels on a daily basis. No more sugar roller-coaster with its energy buzzes and crashes, mood swings and exhaustion. Just calm, consistent energy throughout the day.

Believe it or not, this can be challenging.

1. We live in a terrain that is OVERLOADED with sugar in every product we buy. It takes effort and stepping outside of the Standard American Diet to break-up with sugar.

2. If we are addicted to cortisol, our stress hormone, we REALLY enjoy the sugar roller-coaster and it is hard to let it go. Scan your life for clues and notice where you are drawing stress in…overeating for a sugar-high, an argument for no reason or a coffee to get amped up.

3. Our microbiome can become unhealthily overgrown with yeasts due to years of excess sugar in our diet (hello those with a sweet tooth!) and when we suddenly cut back on sugar, we experience nasty flu-like symptoms and off-the-chain sugar cravings as Candida yeasts demand sugar from our brain.

One of the ways we can release the grip of sugar from our bodies is by eating a healthy, sugar-free breakfast, packed with protein, healthy fats and fibre on a daily basis. These make-ahead Turkey and Herb Patties will help you to follow through on your health goals at breakfast.

The protein found in turkey is rich in the amino acid, tryptophan. Tryptophan is a building block for both serotonin and melatonin in the body. When we eat turkey we are helping ourselves to keep our mood balanced and our sleep consistent.

By adding herbs and garlic to this recipe, not only do we pack in deliciousness and flavour, but we are supporting a healthy microbiome and a reduction in our sugar cravings. Garlic and sage are toxic to Candida, the unhealthy yeast that can take hold of our microbiome. As Candida dies off, you may feel headachy and low in energy but, balance is being created in your microbiome for healthy microbes, that help you to metabolize excess estrogen from the body and will bring a reduction in menopausal symptoms.

By eating these patties with eggs and vegetables in the morning, you are increasing the amount of protein you ingest at the beginning of the day. Breakfast is the most important meal for balancing blood sugar levels and climbing off that roller-coaster.

When you ditch the unhealthy, but well advertised, box cereal breakfast, the muffins and the doughnuts, you give your brain and your body the steady energy it needs to get through your morning

Additional protein with your meals at midlife is also supportive of tissue health and with exercise, such as lifting weights, prevents muscle wasting as we age. When we maintain muscle in our glutes, thighs and hips, we are protecting our mobility and also our continence!

Make and cook these patties ahead and store them in a sealed container in the refrigerator for a week to make protein at breakfast a breeze!

Ingredients

1lb ground organic turkey thigh
2 tbsp chopped fresh sage or 1 tbsp dried sage (use fresh sage if you can, it’s delicious!)
3 green onions finely chopped
1 bunch parsley finely chopped
1 clove garlic minced
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper

Instructions

Put all of the ingredients in a large bowl and combine using your hands
Go lightly and try not to overwork
Preheat the oven to 350F 175C
Line a large baking tray with parchment
Take a table spoon of the mix at a time and form a patty in your hands
Place the patties on the baking tray and bake for 30 minutes until cooked through
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator to reheat at breakfast
Patties will keep for a week in the refrigerator and can be frozen for up to 3 months

Tiramisu Chia Pudding

This recipe is dedicated to those midlife women who are in a committed relationship with coffee!

I work with many women who come into my practice swearing that they cannot give up the daily caffeine hit that is keeping them going.

I get it! I used to be a caffeine addict myself and at one point in my burn-out, I felt like my daily trip to Starbucks was the only thing keeping me going!

It is tough when we get the energy crutch kicked out from underneath us, when we learn how caffeine triggers the fight-or-flight response in our brains, causing our adrenal glands to flood the bloodstream with cortisol and glucose. Cortisol is our stress hormone and is detrimental to our cardiovascular and brain health. It makes us feel jittery in the day and steals our sleep at night. We feel that caffeine buzz and are all prepared to fight a bear or run from a lion, but in reality we are probably sat in traffic, sat at our desk or driving the kids to a swim meet!

Remember: It is the role of our adrenal glands to drip feed our midlife bodies with estrogen once our ovaries have reached their well deserved rest. When we are strung out on caffeine and spiking our bloodstream with cortisol and glucose daily, our adrenal glands do not have the capacity to take on this additional task. They are over-extended and burnt-out. Sounds familiar right?!?

What this looks like in your body, is going off a cliff into menopausal symptoms in peri-menopause with no back-up or relief from your adrenal glands. Think crashed libido, exhaustion, uncontrollable hot flashes and weight gain around the middle.

When we draw down our ‘stress-load’, that is, ALL of the foods and lifestyle choices that trigger us into a stressful state, we are going to have an easier experience of menopause because our adrenal glands will be available to support us through this transition.

All of this being said, wouldn’t it be nice to have a little taste of coffee now and again.

This recipe is designed to give you that caffeine hug you love, but with other deeply nutritious ingredients that help you body manage stress and cope with the cortisol and glucose hit that caffeine brings.

If adding goodness and nutrition to your coffee fix appeals to you, you might like my recipe for Pumpkin Spiced Latte!

I used my Homemade Hemp milk to make this recipe and you can find the recipe here.

By making a 1/2 cup of coffee using an adaptogenic coffee mix from Four Sigmatic containing the adaptogen Ashwagandha, you are able to support your adrenal health as you enjoy caffeine.

Adaptogens are safe plants and mushrooms with thousands of years of use in Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine. They help the body to manage stress and bring the body back to homeostasis or balance. They support and boost the bodies natural processes for handling stress and they aid in recovery from exercise and mental stress. There are thousands of years of use and a comprehensive body of research carried out on adaptogens, much recent research in the field of elite athletics. As this research has been carried out overseas, in countries such as Russia, India and China, it has not been recognized by organizations such as the FDA, but the solid clinical trials are extensive.

Chia seeds are packed with our relaxation mineral, magnesium which is depleted when we drink coffee, and also provides anti-inflammatory nutrition for our brain in the form of omega 3 fatty acids, which help to reduce anxiety. The fibre in chia seeds also helps us to manage the excess hormone spikes of peri-menopause, by clearing excess estrogen from the body, which in turn reduces the severity of our symptoms. I cannot stress how important it is for women in hormonal change to keep our basic daily detox pathway open (I’m talking a daily poop here ladies!) because it is so effective in reducing our symptoms of menopause. Chia seeds will help you to poop everyday.

Raw cacao has been shown in clinical trials to boost serotonin, our happy neurotransmitter, in the brain. This helps to combat the anxious, jittery buzz of caffeine with a boost to our happiness. Cacao is also packed with our relaxation mineral, magnesium, as well as energizing iron and the B group of vitamins which protect our nervous system.

I used dates as a natural sugar for this pudding as they too, provide the body with iron and the B group of vitamins.

My goal with this recipe was to create an indulgent breakfast recipe that gives you the coffee flavour you love in the morning coupled with all of the nutrition the body needs to feel supported through the fight or flight response that gets triggered by this molecule.

A have your pudding and eat it situation!

Ingredients

1 sachet of Four Sigmatic Ashwagandha Coffee mix in 1/2 cup boiling filtered water
1/2 cup raw cacao
4 dates pitted
1/3 cup chia seeds
3 cups Homemade Hemp Milk or other plant based milk
A pinch of salt to taste if you desire

Instructions

Take the coffee mix and make into a coffee shot with 1/2 cup boiling filtered water.
Add to a blender with the raw cacao, hemp milk, dates and a pinch of salt if desired.
Blend to form a rich and sweet mocha milk
Add to the chia seeds in a bowl and stir
Put into a glass container, seal and leave overnight in the refrigerator to set
By morning the mix should be a solid pudding and ready to serve.
Add nuts and seeds for more protein and healthy fats and frozen fruit for anti-oxidants and more fibre.


N.B. If you would like a smooth pudding texture, add the seeds to the blender with the other ingredients and allow to set in the refrigerator overnight as above.

Hemp Milk

When the cost of living is increasing and you want to stay committed to putting nutritious food inside your body, it is worthwhile setting time aside to make some ingredients from scratch.

Yes, I know that we are all time pressed and busy, but this little homemade milk hack takes only 10 minutes, when you have a high speed blender. I also know that this 10 minutes will save you money and that this 10 minutes will build self-trust as you let your body know you are taking full responsibility for getting nutrient dense foods into your daily routine.

Many of the women I work with find that when they reduce the quantity of dairy products in their diet at midlife, they feel a reduction in uncomfortable symptoms of menopause and many more women come into my practice stating that they just can’t digest dairy anymore, as it leaves them feeling bloated and gassy.

Many of us have concerns about the dairy industry or bovine growth hormones and are choosing an alternative to cows milk.

Plant based milks have their own separate issues, from the almonds used in almond milk reducing precious water supple in California and the inclusion of inflammatory processed seed oils in oat milk.

Hemp seeds offer a fantastic alternative for a milk, hemp seeds being packed with anti-inflammatory omega 3 fatty acids and phytoestrogens to gently top-up depleting estrogen in the body and the fact that they are a rich source of protein, calcium and magnesium.

It is also good to know that hemp plants grow in drier soils, needing less water and have long, strong tap roots that help to replenish degraded prairie soils with nutrition and to prevent soil erosion. Hemp is an all round good guy!

This recipe is quick to make and very simple. It would make a perfect addition to a weekly meal-prep routine and will provide enough milk for a daily latte throughout the week.

When you make this recipe at home, you know exactly what you are putting in your body and can choose only the nutrient-dense, whole-foods that build real health and energy in your body.

I used this milk in my recipe for Tiramisu Chia Pudding which you can find here.

Ingredients

1/2 cup Hemp Seeds
2 dates Pitted
Pinch Sea Salt
3 - 4 Cups Filtered Water (I used 3 cups for a thicker creamier milk)

Instructions

Add all of the ingredients to a high-speed blender and whizz on high until they are smooth and have formed a milk.

Place in a glass jar and refrigerate to use through the week. Shake milk before use to redistribute ingredients.