Cooking Class: Ready, Set, RENEW!

Date: January 10, 2010
Time: 4:00 pm	to	6:30 pm

For many, holiday indulgence often leads to weight gain and digestive problems, among other ailments. This class is intended to help and inspire you to get back on a path to health after the holidays.

You’ll learn:

• Foods to avoid so that you can detox
• Foods to add to help digestion and build natural immunity
• Ideas for healthy snacks
• Mindfulness techniques during meal time
• How to start becoming a more conscious consumer

Leslie’s recipe demonstration will include:

• Tempeh Collard Wraps
• Tahini Sauce
• Vegetarian Pho
• Pears with Blueberry Sauce

You taste the food and take home the recipes.

Leslie’s classes are very interactive, friendly, and informative.

For payment and location, please see my website.

Stagnation

If you have been feeling stagnated in your life, take a look around your home and also, in particular, in your refrigerator.

HOME:
Do you have stacks of things that haven't moved for eons, that you never use, and that you are hanging onto "just because"? Clean them out!! Make room for new fresh things in 2010.

REFRIGERATOR:
Are you vegetables fresh as can be? If they are wilted, old, and turning yellow, PLEASE, do yourself a favor and throw them out. Vegetables are best when fresh. Do you really want to save money and use the excess up if that means you also feel wilted and old after eating them? Everything has energy - please be mindful and conscious of the energy you're choosing around you. Maybe it's time to shop one extra time per week and also perhaps buy less when you do go shopping so you don't waste.

Pantry Must-Haves for Macrobiotic Cooking

For healthful and varied macrobiotic cooking, I recommend these following items. Don't know what they are or what to do with them? Try a Google recipe search and see what pops up! This can be a great way to build your repertoire of recipes. Stocking these in your pantry helps make cooking easier so you can just pull out something from your cupboard to prepare for delicious and tasty meals.

1. Brown Rice Syrup
2. Miso (I have white, barley, & brown rice)
3. Umeboshi and Brown Rice Vinegar
4. Unprocessed & Unrefined Sea Salt
5. Sea Vegetables (nori, wakame, arame, hijiki, kombu, dulse)
6. Dried Shiitake Mushrooms
7. Whole Grains (brown rice, barley, quinoa are a few great ones)
8. Dried Beans (azuki, lentil, black turtle, garbanzo/chickpea, pinto are some good staples)
9. Cooking oils (olive oil, toasted & untoasted sesame)
10. Shoyu (soy sauce) and/or Tamari (make sure this does not have msg, food coloring, or any other addditives or preservatives)
11. Kuzu root starch for desserts and sauces

Beyond Potatoes, Tomatoes, and Spinach

Hearty greens and savory roots add pizazz to your meals. However, potatoes, tomatoes, spinach and chard are ubiquitous in cooking, especially vegetarian and vegan. Perhaps you have not given much thought to some of the wonderful variety that is available (many which are grown locally and organically here on Oahu)?

For greens, try some of the hearty winter varieties that are high in minerals like calcium and iron. You can steam, blanch, saute, have raw in salad, and put in soups, stews, and casseroles:

• Collards
• Kale
• Mustard Greens
• Watercress
• Broccoli Raab
• Tatsoi
• Daikon and radish tops
  

For root vegetables,

• Hakurei turnips
• Carrots
• Parsnips
• Burdock/Gobo
• Lotus/Hasu/Renkon
• Sweet Potatoes/Yams
• Rutabagas
• Daikon