Chimichurri Salsa - Added Nutrition to Plop onto Everything

Peri-menopause can be overwhelming.

One minute you have all the plates spinning in a very busy life and the next, you’re experiencing brain fog, can’t sleep through the night and have energy crashes during the day. You just don’t feel like your ‘old self’ anymore.

The good news is… you can reclaim your energy and mojo, get back into sleeping like a baby and regain mental clarity and a memory for where you placed your car keys, using nutrition and lifestyle.

But Louise, I feel too overwhelmed with exhaustion and hot flashes to overhaul my whole diet and lifestyle! I don’t have the time to spend cooking every night and what you’re asking of me is too much in this chapter of my life!!!

Here is the good news! When you are changing your diet, habits and lifestyle, you are going to experience the most success when you only take teeny, tiny, baby steps.

We have all done those diets that cut out whole food groups, measure or weigh our foods and require us to cook separate meals from the rest of our families and we know it is not sustainable. This repeat fail on diets throughout our lifetimes erodes our self-trust and puts us into a battle with our bodies.

This is why my online downloadable nutrition course Menopause U suggests taking only three tiny baby steps in each of its 13 modules. Your baby steps will guarantee your success and keep you out of overwhelm while you shore up nutritional deficiencies, cut uncomfortable symptoms and feel your energy bouncing back!

Peri-menopause is the perfect time of life to unpack the baggage of ‘diet culture’ we have carried through life as girls of the low fat not fat generation! Now is the time to start to take small, manageable, steps towards the body and lifestyle you desire for yourself. Shame and guilt are not a part of this process…remember, we are ditching ‘diet and restriction’ to ‘deeply nourish and nurture’ our bodies through hormonal change, offering our body the support it is crying out for, in the only language it knows…symptoms.

Always look at your plate and think about where you can add MORE nutrition to your meal. Follow your pleasure! This recipe for a moth popping Chimichurri Salsa is designed to be fast, easy, and to tickle your taste buds when you add it to your meals.

Flavour packed and full of nutrition, this easy to prepare, make-once-and-eat-all-week recipe sits in your refrigerator so you can add dense nutrition to every meal you eat. (Add it to eggs with slices of avocado for a protein rich, flavourful breakfast!)

Put is on a chicken breast or piece of salmon. Dollop onto the macaroni and cheese you made for the family or into a lunchtime sandwich. Dip roasted potatoes in Chimichurri salsa and add it to mayonnaise for a nutritious, quick and spicy tuna melt.

The more you eat, the more nutrition your body receives from the vitamin C and mineral packed leafy greens. Heart healthy olive oil and garlic support your cardiovascular health and your blood sugar is balanced with lemon and vinegar. This salsa deepens the nutrition in your meal while helping your digestion to absorb maximum nutrition from your food.

If you want to start today, using nutrition as a tool to manage your menopause experience, follow the recipe instructions below and get Chimichurri Salsa on hand in your refrigerator or download my FREE recipe book and pick one recipe to try.

Ingredients

1/2 cup fresh cilantro roughly chopped

1/2 cup fresh parsley roughly chopped

1/2 cup fresh basil roughly hopped

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp red chilli flakes

1/2 tsp dried oregano

3 -4 garlic cloves sliced (How spicy do you like it?)

1/2 red onion diced

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 tsp coconut or other unrefined sugar

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar

Instructions

Place all of the ingredients into a blender or tall container for a hand blender.
Blend until you have a chunky salsa/ sauce
Add more olive oil if you need more liquid and adjust vinegar to taste.
Place the Chimichurri salsa in a glass jar or container in the refrigerator and use throughout the week to add dense nutrition and delicious mouth popping flavour to your meals.

Finnish Salmon Soup

Fresh or frozen wild salmon is a delicious source of protein packed with ant-inflammatory omega 3 fatty acids which protect our brain health and reduce inflammation.

When we are reducing inflammation in our bodies, we are reducing menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes and pain from aching joints and muscles.

I love salmon baked, grilled and poached but this was my first time making the Finnish salmon soup, Lohikeitto.

This soup is delicious and incredibly easy to make. I kept the skins on my potatoes for additional fibre and vitamin C.

The flavour profile is light and creamy with the dill giving the soup a lift and a taste of Spring. My soup contained the additional pretty pink of peeled local shrimp just because they are delicious and available to me at this time of year.

If you want an easy mid-week supper, this soup ticks all the boxes and would be delicious served alongside bagels or toast spread with cream cheese if you have hungry kids to feed.

Ingredients

3 tbsps butter melted in a large pan
2 leeks washed and chopped
1lb wild salmon
1lb potatoes chopped
1 medium carrot chopped
5 cups fish stock or Dashi
1 cup heavy cream
1 bunch dill finely chopped
1 packet of peeled local shrimp
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Melt the butter in a large pan and as the chopped leeks

2. Put the lid on the pan and cook on medium until the leeks are soften

3. Add the potatoes and carrot to the leeks and pour in the fish stock or Dashi

4. Cook on medium heat for 10 minutes until the potatoes are just cooked through

5. Add the salmon pieces and cook for 3 minutes until the salmon is cooked through

6. Remove the cooked salmon to a board and flake into bite sized pieces removing the skin

7. Add the flaked salmon back to the potato and leek broth with the cup of heavy cream and the finely chopped dill (I added a packet of peeled local shrimp with the dill just because they are available and delicious.)

8. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately

9. Warm any leftovers gently to prevent the cream in the soup from curdling.

How to Make Dashi

If you do not have fish stock on hand, you can make a quick Dashi, a Japanese stock used in soups and stews.

Dashi is made with dried seaweed and dried anchovies which can be bought at your local Asian market and will keep in the store cupboard indefinitely. The seaweed and anchovies provide minerals and iodine to support your thyroid health and boost your energy.

1. Add a large piece of dried kelp or kombu to a pan with 5-6 cups of filtered water. Add 5- 10 dried anchovies and 4-5 curls of lemon peel. I added the leek tops to provide more of the sweet leek flavour.

2. Simmer for 20 minutes. Drain to remove the solid ingredients and leave a clean stock.

Why We Need to Calm the Fluff Down in Perimenopause

Last week I took off, out of season, to the wet and wild West Coast of Vancouver Island.

My mission: to deeply take care of my nervous system after the bustle of the holidays and new year celebrations.

Here are my quick seven steps to busting stress based on the action steps I took in the week.

1. I gave my phone a wake-up time and bedtime so I had my mornings and evenings phone free.

2. I put myself to bed at 8:30pm and woke with time to journal and meditate with my free Insight Timer app.

3. I took long walks on the beach, deeply immersing myself in nature and stopping to notice the small things.

4. I took with me deeply nourishing foods like bone broth, Thai Chicken and Vegetable Coconut curry and my protein rich Morning Glory muffins.

5. I drank no coffee to give my body a break from the cortisol and glucose spiking buzz.

6. I sat with a pot of cleansing and calming herbal tea to watch the rain while I let my mind dream and wander

7. I booked the most gorgeous massage.

I found a 'new' normal.

Down-regulation of your nervous system is a commitment. It takes boundaries and intention but comes with big rewards. Paying attention to creating a stress free environment or time can boost your energy, save your adrenal health, protect your brain health, inspire creativity and help you to reframe your life.

In our highly stressed and over-busy world, if your are feeling overwhelmed and if your are a woman in peri-menopause, consideration of your nervous system is a necessary life-skill.

In the natural process of menopause, the ovaries pass the baton to our adrenal glands so they can drip feed us low levels of estrogen, progesterone and testosterone to maintain our libido and protect our bone, brain and heart health.

Our experience of menopause is directly ties to our stress levels and adrenal health. Cortisol, our stress hormone will steal the building blocks for our juicy hormones which leaves us to Crash into peri-menopause with amplified symptoms of hot flashes, lost sleep and aches and pains in our joints and muscles.

Stress has stolen our adrenal health, the buffer to our menopausal symptoms.

Does this describe you…

Are you a woman who wakes feeling DREAD around your overpacked schedule each morning (or worse at 3am in the night)?
Do you run through your day with not one minute to yourself and rely on caffeine for energy and wine to relax at night?
Are you a perfectionist and currently not feeling happy with the state of your house, your lawn, your body, your fitness regime, your kids lives, kids grades or kids behaviour?

If this is you…

you need to take action now to reduce your daily stress and down regulate your nervous system for the sake of your hormonal health!

What boundaries can you create or what action can you take this week that will create a less stressful environment for your body?

Let me know in the comments below