Making Love in the Kitchen

Monday, February 21, 2011

Body Beautiful or Pharmaceutical

"In general, mankind, since the improvement in cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires. " Benjamin Franklin. With this proverb being especially true in Fresno, lets examine what Body Beautiful used to mean and what it means today. In Canada, I was bombarded by images of ultra skinny, tall blonde models. In India, marketing aimed to get people bulkier because that meant health and good nourishment. Growing up, I wished I looked like the models on t.v. and my relatives told me I looked weak.

Remember the outrage about all the super skinny models and the impact they were having on teenage girls? Recently, they did a study where they showed people diagrams of different body figures. Folks were asked to pick out what figure they thought they had and what their ideal figure would be. You might be surprised to know that most people that were overweight knew they were overweight and their ideal figure was the one they already had. So if Body Beautiful means being as heavy as you want, is there anything wrong with that?

No one has the right to impose their ideals of the perfect body on anyone but the Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Program states that The San Joaquin Valley faces alarming rates of obesity among all age groups, leading to equally alarming rates of childhood and adult diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and other obesity-related illnesses. A recent study by the Central Valley Health Policy Institute at California State University, Fresno, revealed that the percentage of overweight and obesity in the Valley is significantly higher than the statewide average: 65% of adults 18-64 versus 56.2% statewide, 63% versus 55.7% among seniors and 15.5% versus 14.2% among adolescents ages 12-17.

According to the U.S. Surgeon General’s office, obesity is now the fastest- growing cause of illness and death in America today.

Clearly, nobody wants a body pharmaceutical. Seriously, the food we eat could be the death of us. When I lived in San Diego I weighed 130 pounds at one point because I was taking Depo Provera. One side effect of this birth control is that your body thinks it's going into menopause so your metabolism slows down. I didn't slow down my eating and I gained weight. I used to weigh 96 pounds and when I was pregnant I would get up to around 128 pounds. At 130 pounds, with no pregnancy, I was considered obese for my small stature of 5 feet 1 inches.

I threw out my scale when I went on our living food diet five months ago, so I don't know how much I weigh but I think I'm body beautiful (of course we could always improve). My story is one of thousands where people change their eating habits and are rewarded with energy and vibrant health. I implore you to become an advocate of body beautiful by treating your body like the temple and the gift it is. Steve Elbert said "We think fast food is equivalent to pornography, nutritionally speaking." Join the slow food movement, eat healthy, pesticide free local food that revives your body so you can be your ideal body beautiful. That by the way is a weight that is healthy for your body stature.

See the full gallery on posterous

Yours in food and health,

Tara Hamilton

Learn to prepare healthy meals by watching Make Love in the Kitchen on March 1st at 7:00 p.m. on centralvalleytalk.com

tarahamilton@me.com http://www.wholefarmsonline.org/

Shop at our Organic Produce Market or let us feed you raw, living, vegan, gluten free, soy free, sugar free vegetarian food at 1807 N. Broadway St. near Iron Bird Lofts. If you want to be on our tv show about how to make healthy food "Making Love in the Kitchen"please email us your story or idea.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Body Beautiful or Pharmaceutical

According to the U.S. Surgeon General’s office, obesity is now the fastest- growing cause of illness and death in America today.

Yours in food and health,

Tara Hamilton

Learn to prepare healthy meals by watching Make Love in the Kitchen on March 1st at 7:00 p.m. on centralvalleytalk.com

tarahamilton@me.com http://www.wholefarmsonline.org/

Sunday, February 13, 2011

To Be or Not to Be, is it worth it?

As the first day of our living food challenge approaches (i.e. tommorrow morning) I've received mixed feed back. Some people are excited about trying to be healthy for 7 days while others think that its just not worth investing their time in. I had a customer come in the other day who has been raw for about a month now and he said that his grey hairs are going away. He was so interested to find out why, that he researched it and said it was the combination of the flax seed oil and the almonds he's been eating. His wife and I both agreed that we didn't find flaxseed appealing but the omega 3s and omega 6s in the avocado oil would do the trick for us in a tasteful way. So if you're debating whether to be or not to be healthy, I say be. Be all you can be without joining the army, without getting sick and facing death before you awaken. Be inspired and motivated because you're worth it. Start your morning off right with a smoothie, fresh pressed juice, coconut water or cold pressed organic coffee. Have fresh organic fruit if you can't think of anytthing else. A salad for lunch is great and how about organic rice and beans for dinner? If you know where we can buy pastured meat let us know so we'll be able to taste the real food difference. Remember I want to hear back about what recipes you want me to post or post some of your own to share. In the end we'd like to have you share your experience with the 7 day living food challenge on our show "Make Love in the KItchen". Some people view February 14 as a day for love, start off my loving your body and your families enough to prepare real food. If you're craving sweets come by and pick up your raw chocolate, raw cheesecake, rocky road and brownies which are all good for you. Your in food and health, Tara Hamilton tarahamilton@me.com, 559.497.5085, wholefarmsonline.org

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Men in the Kitchen - Fact or Fiction

I would like to talk about the role men play in the kitchen. It is generally believed that women do most of the cooking, but funny enough the chefs in India and here tend to be mostly men. But what about in the average family? Do men play an equal role in cooking? Generally, I have discovered that men either do the majority of the cooking in the family or very little. Raising my children, I held home economics classes for them where I taught them how to cook. My son is only two years older than the twins and enjoyed making most of the dishes when he was younger. He made the best cookies I've ever tasted. As he got older he stopped cooking and baking except on rare occasions and specialized in two dishes: shrimp pasta and nachos. I tried to teach him how to make a smoothie the other day and he said "I like it better when somebody makes it for me." In that one statement he summarized the findings of a study on instant cake mixes. They made instant cake mixes where you only had to add water--but they didn't sell very well. Research showed that it was because people associated baking with love. If all you had to do was add water, it wasn't an act of love to make it. They changed the mixes so you had to add eggs and milk and they produced a winner because the person was adding the love to the recipe. I think men sometimes choose not to cook for the same reason why many women choose not to learn how to repair a car -- because they feel cared for when someone else does it. I would like to encourage men to take a more active interest in the kitchen, I don't mean you have to cook all the time but pick something you think you'd enjoy. When my husband and I were dating, I told him "I don't bake". Indians generally don't bake and it wasn't a skill I'd learned or cared to learn. My husband on the other hand loved desserts more than than the meal. I said I'll cook and you can learn how to bake if it's that important to you. It was that important to him, although he could't cook at all, he decided to bake. He went to the library and learned how to bake delicious desserts. He made this a family activity by baking with the kids. They made a guitar cake and he baked our wedding cake. He planned and designed the cake on his computer, made a test model and then made the real thing, including every rose that cascaded down. He still makes profiteroles for us once a year and we devour them, burning the roof of our mouth because we don't wait for them to cool down. What's my point? Whether you're male or female, don't rely on someone else to do all your cooking. Get involved, making love in the kitchen is incredibly rewarding as you will experience when people devour your creations. Yours in food and health, Tara Hamilton tarahamilton@me.com http://www.wholefarmsonline.org/ Follow us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ReviveCafe, Shop at our Organic Produce Market or let us feed you raw, living, vegan, gluten free, soy free, sugar free vegetarian food at 1807 N. Broadway St. near Iron Bird Lofts. If you want to be on our tv show about how to make healthy food "Making Love in the Kitchen"please email us your story or idea.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Break your fast by giving your body real food not junk food.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day because you are breaking the fast your body has been in for the hours you have been sleeping. Your body craves nutrition but usually we give it junk in the form of sugary cereals, breads, muffins, bagels, donuts, pasteurized juices and fatty bacon. What is the alternative you ask as you think of your living food challenge breakfast, well here are some choices.

The simplest choice is what God gave Adam and Eve-- whole fruits. If I’m rushed or on the road, I always grab organic apples, organic bananas and a home made trail mix of our unsulfured pesticide free raisins, raw almonds and cacao nibs (for an iron boost). Naomi’s breakfast on the other hand would please the senses of the most critical artiste. Her fruit bowl is beautifully peeled and diced and right now consists of seasonal, organic fruit such as kiwi, pomegranate, orange, tangerine, pink and yellow grapefruit, apples. etc. She dresses the beautiful medley with soaked buckwheat groats and hemp seeds (hemp is a complete protein unlike animal proteins) etc.

I also prefer the indian breakfast of pinnees or “snow balls” You can watch the video at http://www.showmethecurry.tv/Tara+Hamilton+makes+Snowballs+on+Central+Valley. The recipe is very simple using half a pound of organic raw almonds, 1 pound of our unsulfured, moist, juicy raisins and the juice of one lemon. You roll these in coconut and they look like snow balls. You refridgerate them and they have a delicous firm texture. They stay good in the fridge all week and you don’t need to refridgerate them so they’re great for road trips too.

What to drink is the next question. The drink of champions is the water of a young coconut. We buy ours at the Asian market at First and Olive. We buy them by the case and ask them to take it out of the freezer at the back because the taste difference is night and day between those and the ones sitting out for who knows how long. This video shows you how to open this coconut http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfo5BYR9yE0. My favorite part is the meat afterwards.

Another good option is orange juice which you may be able to glean from a neigbors yard who doesn’t spray chemicals. We are also blessed to live very close to an organic raw milk dairy, Organic Pastures. My husband says that their dairy doesn’t stink of manure like the mud cows standing ankle deep in their own manure at most dairies, it smells like a regular farm just like his uncles farm many years ago in Canada. Even if you are lactose intolerant you can digest raw milk. My kids love this stuff and it keeps them healthy Lastly, if you crave your caffeine, make a cold press coffee. Simply coarse grind organic coffee beans in a food processor. Add them to a quart mason jar and fill with pure unchlorinated water. Cover and leave overnight. Next morning you have a strong espresso that you can add one or two ounces of to boiling water. This makes you an alkaline cup of coffee rather than an acidic one. The coffee can sit on the counter for weeks. By not refridgerating it, you don’t cool down your coffee too much when you add the espresso to your boiling water (don't microwave it, boil on the stove).

Start shopping for your breakfast of champions! (Buyer beware, the raw almonds at Whole Foods are still pasteurized, USDA allows pasteurized almonds to be labelled raw”.

Your in food and health,
Tara Hamilton

T: 559-497-5085 E-mail: tarahamilton@me.com Website: Whole Farms Online
Follow us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ReviveCafe, Shop at our Organic Produce Market or let us feed you raw, living, vegan, gluten free, soy free food
at 1807 N. Broadway St. near Iron Bird Lofts. If you want to be on our tv show about how to make healthy food "Making Love in the Kitchen"please email us your story or idea.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

The 7 day living food challenge!

Oprah had a vegan challenge on her show but I thought that might be extreme for Fresno. In preparation for our Internet tv show that will be starting in March I want to start everyone thinking on a healthier line now so you can share your story on our show. I challenge everyone to take a 7 day living food challenge! What does that include? It includes any whole, real food that is in it's natural, living, unaltered state. That means you can meat if it's been raised humanely, pastured and you know who raised it and how it was raised. Organic meat bought at grocery stores doesn't fall into this category. Milk, juice, beer etc. Are all acceptable if they haven't been altered i.e. Pasteurized or had chemicals added to it (time to start brewing your own). Real fruits and vegetables are ones that are grown sustainably without the use of pesticides. Locally grown are always best because they have the most nutrients. In fruit, sugars turn into starches in a one week journey from picking to destination. You don't have to start the challenge tomorrow but how about Monday February 14 as our start date? That gives us 13 days to post recipes that are made from locally grown real foods. It gives you time to source local suppliers of real food. Time to cleanse your kitchen of all processed food, time to schedule when you plan on making love in the kitchen. The format of the show is going to be that we interview a person or a family about their health concerns. They can talk about any dietary changes they've been required to make. They can tell us about what foods they miss the most and then tell us if they've found a recipe that satisfies their craving or we can take up the challenge and try to create a substitute. During the show we can highlight where the ingredients were purchased, I.e. Local farmers, businesses etc. If you have successfully conquered a health problem with dietary changes, we'd love to hear about it. If you've created a recipe or prepared a recipe that is gluten free or sugar free or dairy free or soy free that you think is noteworthy, please tell us about it so we can feature you and your recipe in the show. Whether you're motivated to start a living food challenge now or have been eating living foods for some time, lets rally together because in unity there is strength. In unity there is community. Healthy communities lead to healthy people and who doesn't want that? Let's revive by eating foods that are alive. Yours in food and health, Tara Hamilton Tarahamilton@me.com, wholefarmsonline.com, 559-497-5085

I am Splendid, Not an Afterthought

I grew up eating my salad last. After I was satisfied with my dinner, I would munch on raw veggies until I was full. I thought people on a raw diet ate salads all day and since I'd never got full on a salad, I was sure they were always starving. My son who is a carnivore and who rarely ate salad said to me today, "this is the best salad in the world. I never thought the day would come where I craved salad, but I crave this stuff."

Our salad is called Whole Days Worth because you get your full 5 servings in every portion but I affectionately call it "I am Splendid." Let's discover how you can transform the salad afterthought into a nourishing entree that leaves you satiated.

The most important thing about Salad is you don't want it to wilt immediately after you make it, rendering it useless for the next day. Also in order to satisfy you, all your ingredients must be organic or pesticide free. Naomi taught us that if you start with hearty greens like Kale, Collards or Chard, your salad stays fresh in the fridge for 3 days or more! I start by stripping the green from the stem. You want just the leafy part and not the hard stem. I ribbon the greens vertically and then horizontally so they're bite size pieces. You then squeeze a lemon over the greens and add pink himalayan sea salt. Massage these with both hands until they turn a deep green, as though you had lightly steamed them.

Then I grate or food process all the veggies I have on hand. I peel and grate carrots, turnips, daikon radish, beets, rutabaga, parsnips, cauliflower, broccolli etc. The rainbow of colors that unfold before your eyes, is almost breathtaking. Don't use potatoes or winter squash or onions. After you mix all the shredded veggies into the salad, add salt, black pepper, turmeric and olive oil. Also add sacha inchi oil, flax seed oil or avocado oil so you have your omega 3. Massage all this together and inhale. Your whole body will start to relax as you anticipate the nourishment before you. Put it in a bowl and top with hemp seed for your protein.

You may start off thinking, there is no way I'm going to get full on this. But I have yet to meet someone who isn't completely satiated both in mind and body after they have eaten the salad. Trust me you'll hear your salad whispering, I am splendid, move over steak and potatoes, here I come!

Yours in food and health,
Tara Hamilton
559.497-5085, tarahamilton@me.com wholefarmsonline.org