Coconut Bok Choy with quinoa

Ingredients
1 Bok Choy
1 red onion
1 tomato
handful of spinach
handful of cabbage
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds (jira)
1 tsp cumin powser
1 tsp corriander powder
1 tsp cayenne pepper powder
sliver of fresh ginger
1 can of coconut milk
2 tsps coconut oil
sprinkle of Himalayan salt (to taste)
Fresh cilantro
 

Recipe

Chop all veggies. Saute onions in melted coconut oil and add freshly ground up cumin seeds and mustard seeds. Then add in the tomato and stir for a couple of minutes. Proceed to add the cabbage and bok choy stems and stir for a couple minutes. Add the cumin powder, corriander powder and cayenne powder. Add a little bit of water if it dries out. Then add the bok choy leaves and stir in. After it's all mixed in, pour in the coconut milk and mix well. Cover and simmer for a few minutes. Then add some fresh spinach leaved and keep them on top of the food without mixing in, and close lid so they can steam for just a couple minutes. When they appear to be a little wilted, turn the fire off and mix all together. Then add some fresh cilantro on the top, and it's ready to serve! Cook up some quinoa, and pour the sauce over it.

Mushrooms For Breast Cancer Prevention

by Michael Greger M.D.
Breast cancer can take decades to develop, so “early” detection via mammogram may be too late. The breast cancer you may feel one day as a lump in the shower, may have started 20 years ago.  We now suspect that all the epithelial cancers: breast, colon, lung, pancreas, prostate, ovarian—the ones that cause the vast majority of cancer deaths—take up to 20 years or more to manifest. By the time it’s picked up it may have already been growing, maturing, scheming for years, acquiring hundreds of new survival-of-the-fittest mutations to grow even quicker and better undermine our immune system. Early detection may in effect be really, really late detection.

People are considered “healthy” until they show symptoms, so if we’ve been harboring a malignancy for 20 years we may feel all right, but we haven’t been. Thus, many people who do the right thing and improve their diet in hopes of preventing cancer may, at that very moment, be treating it as well. In this way, cancer prevention and treatment may sometimes be the same thing.

What new developments are there are in the battle against breast cancer? Well, most breast tumors are estrogen receptor positive, meaning they respond to estrogen; estrogen makes them grow. The problem for tumors in postmenopausal women is that there isn’t much estrogen around—unless of course you take it in a drug like Premarin (so-named because it’s made from pregnant mare urine). Premarin appears to increase the risk of breast cancer (as well as strokes, heart attacks, and blood clots). Unfortunately, the plant-based bioidentical hormone replacement therapies don’t appear any safer (see my 4-min. video Plant-Based Bioidentical Hormones).

Thankfully millions of women stopped taking Premarin in 2002, and we saw a nice dip in breast cancer rates. Unfortunately, those rates have since stagnated. Hundreds of thousands of American women continue to get the dreaded diagnosis every year. So what next?

Well, with no estrogen around, many breast tumors devise a nefarious plan—they’ll just make their own! Seventy percent of breast cancer cells synthesize estrogen themselves using an enzyme called aromatase. In response, drug companies have produced a number of aromatase inhibitor drugs that are used as chemotherapy agents. Of course by the time you’re on chemo it can be too late, so researchers started screening hundreds of natural dietary components in hopes of finding something that targets this enzyme.

To do this you need a lot of human tissue. Where are you going to get it from? To study skin, for example, researchers use discarded human foreskins from circumcision. They’re just being thrown away–might as well use them! Where are you going to get discarded female tissue? Placentas. They got a bunch of women to donate their placentas after giving birth to further this critical line of research.

After years of searching, they found seven vegetables with significant anti-aromatase activity. You can see the graph in my video Vegetables Versus Breast Cancer. Bell peppers, broccoli, carrots, celery, green onions, and spinach dropped aromatase activity by about 20%, but mushrooms forced down the estrogen-producing enzyme more than 60%.

Which mushroom worked best? Woodear, crimini, oyster, Italian brown, enoki, button, stuffing, shiitake, chanterelle, or Portobello mushrooms? Don’t even try to guess—you won’t get it! Check out my 2-min video Breast Cancer Prevention: Which Mushroom Is Best? for the answer.
More on the magic of mushrooms in Making Our Arteries Less Sticky and Constructing a Cognitive Portfolio. Probably a good idea to cook them, though: Toxins in Raw Mushrooms.
I also have videos on breast cancer risk in relation to apples, broccoli, exercise, flax seeds, green tea, greens, meat, melatonin, saturated fat, soy, and trans fat.

Garden update 6/7/13

6/7/13 - Michihili Cabbage and Bok Choy Pak Choi

6/7/13 - bolted Bok Choy Pak Choi

 6/7/13 - bolted Michihili cabbage

 6/7/13 -Michihili cabbage close up

 6/7/13 -Champion Collards

 6/7/13 - Sugar Ann Snap peas

 6/7/13 -a variety of Lettuces

 6/7/13 - My favorite lettuce - Black Seeded Lettuce

 6/7/13 -Lettuce...I think Paris White Cos - one of the most nutritious lettuces

 6/7/13 -Lettuce and planted Spinach

 6/7/13 - variety of Spinach - Monstrueux De Viroflay Spinach, Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach, Merlo Nero Spinach

  6/7/13 - Blue Curled Scotch kale

  6/7/13 - Black Beauty Zucchini

  6/7/13 -Black Beauty Zucchini - I thought they all died!! I think 3 might make it through:)

  6/7/13 - Black Beauty Zucchini

 6/7/13 - 2nd Black Beauty Zucchini

 6/7/13 - 3rd Black Beauty Zucchini

 6/7/13 - Black Beauty Zucchini planted in the spot where the 4th one died

 6/7/13 - Black Beauty Zucchini - I planted new seeds in all the spots just in case they did die off - this one is sprouting already

 6/7/13 - Lettuces sprouting...looks like I should have planted less seeds! 4 new kinds in 4 rows- Green Ice Lettuce Seed Green Leaf Lettuce, and Summertime Lettuce

  6/7/13 - Red Russian kale

  6/7/13 - Blue Curled Scotch kale

  6/7/13 - Swiss Chard...they didn't make it...but looks like 2-3 Just might...just in case I replanted new seeds in each spot

  6/7/13 -Spinach...they didn't make it because I didn't cover them at first...I think the rain washed away most, and/or they got eaten up

  6/7/13 - Chamomile from last year seeds that fell

 6/7/13 - Raspberry bushes

Plants update 6/7/13

 Curly Scotch kale...I'm glad I had some nice ones still growing indoors, after the transplanted ones didn't do so well

  Tomatoes are getting super high again with flowers...as seen below

...I wish it would hurry up and get warm! It's expected to in about a week...I'm not enjoying the 40 degrees here in June!

 I really need to start using my parsley it's definitely ready to be harvested!

 one of my cucumbers...they're really getting big!

 Another cucumber....

 Oops...the tendrils have latched on well!

 the calendula flowers are really getting big!

and only days after the cilantro looks like it hasn't even been harvested from!

10 lemon uses

By Stephanie Rogers

Lemons are so much more than a colorful garnish. These little yellow citrus fruits have hundreds of practical applications around the house, from polishing stainless steel appliances to brightening laundry. The citric acid in lemons gives them powerful natural cleaning abilities, and they're useful for natural health and beauty, too. These 10 uses for lemons will cut back on your house cleaning expenses, eliminate unnecessary chemical cleaners and give your home a fresh, invigorating scent.

 

Deodorize your home

From the refrigerator to the cat litter box, lemons can eliminate bad smells of all kinds throughout the house. Soak a sponge in lemon juice and place it inside the fridge to absorb odors. Simmer lemon peel in a pot of water for a fresh whole-house scent. Toss leftover lemon down your garbage disposal to banish bad smells from accumulated food gunk. Just a few slices of cut lemon placed near a litter box will help neutralize unpleasant odors.

 

Remove tarnish

Remove the tarnish that keeps brass, copper and stainless steel from sparkling by making a paste of lemon juice and salt and applying it to the affected surface. Let it sit for five minutes, then rinse with warm water and pat dry.

 

Polish metal surfaces

There's no need to purchase a special polish for stainless steel, aluminum and chrome. Just cut a lemon in half and rub it directly on the surface to remove fingerprints and grime. For extra cleaning power, mix lemon juice with either salt, baking soda or cream of tartar. The latter two options are gentle enough to polish metal surfaces without leaving any scratches behind.

 

Eliminate stains

Sweat, grass, wine, tomato and other stains can be lifted right out with a little lemon juice. Blot up as much of the offending substance as possible, and then saturate the stain with juice. Sprinkle with salt and then rub the salt in. Then, toss the garment into the wash.

 

Brighten laundry without bleach

You don't need bleach to brighten whites that have dulled or yellowed. Add a quarter-cup of lemon juice to the rinse cycle when washing white laundry, and then hang the items to dry on a clothesline in the sun. The combination of the lemons and sunlight will have your whites looking good as new.

 

Keep fruits and vegetables from turning brown

Apples, potatoes, avocados and other fruits and vegetable that tend to turn brown when sliced can be preserved with just a little bit of lemon juice. Add a teaspoon or so to the water when boiling potatoes, and sprinkle just a little bit on fruit salad or guacamole.

 

Relieve a sore throat

No matter how it's flavored, cough syrup never tastes good. The next time your throat is so sore you can barely breathe, try this trick instead: mix a tablespoon of lemon juice and a tablespoon of honey into a cup of water and either simmer on the stovetop or microwave until warm, but not too hot to drink. The lemon clears congestion, while the honey soothes inflamed tissue.

 

Clean greasy dishes

Lemon juice is extremely effective on grease. Squeeze it onto tough messes, including crusted, baked-on foods, and let it sit for a few minutes. Then, make a paste with some baking soda and a little more lemon juice and scrub away the gunk.

 

Repel insects without pesticides

Ants, fleas, moths, cockroaches and other insects are driven away by the strong scent and flavor of lemons. Hang a breathable cloth sachet of dried lemon peels in your closet instead of mothballs, and squeeze fresh lemon juice onto windowsills and doors where pests are likely to gain entrance to your home. You can also spray lemon juice into hard-to-reach areas, like the cracks between appliances and walls.

 

Whiten yellow fingernails

Give your nails a healthier, more youthful look with a lemon juice soak. Remove any nail polish, wash your hands and then soak your fingernails in full-strength lemon juice for a minute or two. Moisturize them afterward to prevent excessive dryness.

Rebuild your body

Plants update 6/2/13

 6/2/13 - Parsley all grown and ready to eat:)

6/2/13 - Parsley and my mystery plant, I'm sure it's lettuce

 6/2/13 - 2 of the cucumbers, growing nicely

6/2/13 - flowers ablooming...