TCRA Featured Recipes
Have a healthy recipe that you would like to share with others? Submit it to be published in our blog! Submit your recipe, and a picture of your dish, to admin@texasfertilityacupuncture.com.
This month we’re covering strategies for improving fertility and reproductive health. Check out the first article in our series on Bone Broth and why you should indulge this beautiful Fall Season.
Adapted from several different online recipes, and submitted by Lindsey Wilder Flatt, Practice Coordinator TCRA.
Photo taken from www.happyhealthymama.com/golden-milk-turmeric-tea-recipe.html
Submitted to TCRA by Ashley
From RealFoodWholeLife.com
Photo from www.realfoodwholelife.com/blog/5-ingredient-slow-cooker-fajita-salsa-chicken-recipe
Submitted to TCRA by Alissa
Adapted from CamilleStyles.com
Photo by Kim Jones, from Camille Styles' website
Submitted to TCRA by Lindsey Wilder Flatt, Practice Coordinator
Recipe from the Food Network
Photo by Antonis Achilleos
As the seasons change, it’s normal to feel the need for something a bit more substantial. The colder weather inviting us to bring out the crock pot and get cooking! This is a warming and nourishing variation on the breakfast congee that we recommend eating a few times a week.
Bone broth in Chinese medicine is a very important component of the diet. More than just a stock, bone broth is slowly simmered for 24-72 hours. Made with (organic) beef, pork, or chicken bones (pescatarians can also use fish bones), the process of slow cooking the broth leeches all of the important minerals and fats from the bones, marrow, and gelatin. Consuming bone broth helps reduce inflammation and helps heal the gut microvilli for improved digestion; the gut in Chinese medicine is the source of all blood formation, which makes it imperative in reproductive medicine. Healthy gut equals healthy body!
We love congee in our office. If you haven't heard of it, it's the slow-cooked rice porridge that we often recommend to patients because it's easily digestible nutrition that boosts metabolism to help build blood for the body to use.
Several weeks ago, my friend handed me a large tupperware container filled halfway with a strongly vinager-scented liquid and a floating jellyfish-like culture. It was my first kombucha mother or SCOBY, an acronym for Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast. Sounds tasty, right?
This particular SCOBY was one that I had tasted the product of before. During a holiday party, my friend handed a glass of the freshly harvested kombucha to me. I took a whiff of it, and, trying to keep a neutral face, said that I would happily share it with my boyfriend. He took a whiff of it, and poured it into the large mug of hot tea he was holding, hoping to make it palatable. Unfortunately, it mostly just increased the quantity that we had to drink and compliment.
I get a lot of interesting looks when I'm drinking my green smoothie. Some people seem weirded out, but most people seem curious as to what it is and why I'm drinking it. So here's my two cents on why green smoothies rock:
Congee is traditionally a rice porridge popular in Asian countries and goes back thousands of years to the first recorded congee (made of millet) eaten by Emperor Huang Di. It is more about the process of cooking rather than the grain that is used. Long cooking times break down the grain until it is literally mush. This renders it almost completely pre-digested so your body doesn’t have to work in order to absorb the nutrients from it. This is ideal for those with digestive problems who lack the ability to break down foods enough to get the nutrients they need from it.
Spring is here! For many of us it’s a time we think about renewal and growth. It’s a wonderful time for clearing out old stuff that’s accumulated; both emotional and material junk. Letting go of old grudges is just as important as clearing out the pantry and tossing expired medications. Small shifts can be very rewarding.
A little knowledge and a few basic items at home can help you be prepared to nip a cold or flu in the bud, and help speed it on its way out of your body. As soon as you start feeling something coming on, that’s the time to take quick action, and make some tea. Treating it early is key for the best results.
What kind of tea? That depends on whether the bug is giving you symptoms of “cold” or “heat.”