Did you know that a little chocolate mixed with love can help you beat the seasonal blues and help you feel fabulous. 

“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” ~Charles M. Schulz

As we know, all chocolate is made from Cacao Beans (also known as Cocoa Beans). So basically, Cacao is chocolate! All the antioxidant value, mineral benefits, neurotransmitter rejuvenating properties, and overall health-giving qualities of chocolate are found in Cacao (Chocolate) Powder made from cacao beans.

Studies show that Cacao (Chocolate) may lower blood pressure, increase circulation, increase blood flow to the brain, and decrease chronic inflammation in the body, heart and cardio-vascular system. Dark chocolate can also boost serotonin level to help fight moodiness.

I would like to share with you 2 tasty and healthy chocolate recipes you can make for Valentines or any other time of the year to to make you or special Valentine feel fabulous.

Tasty Instant Chocolate Pudding Recipe for your Valentine Sweetie

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cup (about 12 ounces) firm silken tofu, crumbled
• ¼ to ½ cup dark brown sugar, or pure maple syrup
• 1/3 cup Cacao (Chocolate) Powder or Carob Powder
  
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch of salt (optional)

Directions:

Place all the ingredients in food processor and blend several minutes until smooth and creamy. Chill I the refrigerator until serving time. Adopted from Breaking the Food Seduction by Neal Bernard.

Chocolate Frosting Valentine Recipe for a Healthy Mind

Ingredients:

• 11/2 extra firm silken tofu
• 1 cup Cacao
• 1/3 cup agave nectar or  Yacon Syrup
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Blend the tofu, Cacao , agave nectar and vanilla in a food processor until smooth and creamy. Set aside. Stir the chocolate chips in a large metal bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water until the chocolate melts. Carefully add the melted chocolate to the food processor, then blend until thoroughly combined. Transfer the frosting to a bowl, cover, and refrigerate for 2 hours or until just firm enough to spread. From The Real Food Daily Cookbook by Ann Gentry.

Bon Appetit!

”

Breathe, smile and be happy.

© Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health  Counselor and Coach

In February we celebrate National Wear Red Day to help promote prevention of heart disease in women.

Let us make healthier choices to beat heart disease. It can be prevented with the right lifestyle – the food you eat, the exercise you do, and the lifestyle you lead.

Let us celebrate Go Red for Women Day every day by adding red healthy heart-healing foods to our meals.

• Try to incorporate more beets into your diet to strengthen the heart, improve circulation, purify/detox the blood, lower blood pressure. Beet Salad Recipes
  
• Try to eat more pomegranates and water melons, and drink more tomato juice to lower your blood pressure. Watermelon and Strawberry ice Cream Recipe
  
• Try to eat half a red grapefruit before every meal, or at least in the morning, before breakfast to lower your cholesterol. Studies show that it helps to loose weight too. Grapefruit and Walnut Salad
  
• Try to add raw red onions (cook with white onions) to all your salads, spreads, side dishes, etc. to cut bad cholesterol. Roasted Vegetables Recipe
  
• Try to eat more red legumes, such as adzuki beans, red lentils and kidney beans rich in both tryptophan (to reduce stress and fight seasonal depression) and heart-healing fiber to reduce your blood pressure, detox your colon and give you more energy. Lentil Recipes
  
• Try to eat red (purple) cabbage to get rid of constipation, which ultimately canlower your blood pressure.
  
• Try to eat more red salmon and red apples (any color) -foods rich in Magnesium to reduce stress.
  

Let us be heart smart, shall we?

Breathe, smile and be happy.

© Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health and Nutrition Coach and Relationship Expert

Even if the weather doesn’t feel  like it, we are still in the middle of winter.  If you have the winter blues, some mood and energy boosters you can try are fresh fruits, vegetables, spices, and whole grains.  They are rich in fiber, which can help detox your body from fatigue causing toxins, leading to a better mood and higher level of energy.

So let us have more energy and get in a better mood with these healthy vegetable soups with recipes I adopted from www. womansday.com

Energy Boosting Curried Cauliflower Vegetable Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 medium carrots, sliced 1⁄4 in. thick
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cans (14.5 oz each) chicken broth, or 31⁄2 cups broth or bouillon
• 21⁄2 cups water
• 2 medium potatoes (8 oz), cut in 1⁄2-in. pieces
• 3 cups frozen cauliflower florets
• 1 can (15.5 oz) chickpeas, rinsed
• 1⁄2 cup frozen cut-leaf spinach
• Serve with: plain yogurt or sour cream

Directions:

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions and carrots; cook 4 minutes or until onions are golden and just tender.

Stir in curry powder and garlic; cook 30 seconds or until fragrant. Stir in remaining ingredients; cook, covered, 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Mood Boosting Split Pea Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 lb dried green split peas
• 2 cups diced onions
• 1 1⁄2 cups diced carrots
• 1 cup diced celery
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 1⁄2 tsp pepper
• 3 chicken bouillon cubes
• 11⁄4 lb ham hock(s)

Directions:

Put all ingredients and 7 cups water in a 51⁄2-qt or larger slow-cooker. Cover and cook on high 6 hours or low 12 hours until peas are very soft and fall apart. Remove ham. When cool enough to handle, cut meat off the bone, dice and return to soups. Serve with cornbread, or cut cornbread in cubes, toast in oven and serve as croutons.

Bon Appetit!

P.S.  for more mood boosting tips and ideas you may like to listen to:

• How to Attract Health and Happiness with Maria Lesetz. listen
• Practicing Gratitude to Deal with Stress and Seasonal Depression with Sue Urda.listen
• Healthy and Clean Meal Planning with Wendy Battles. listen

Breathe, smile and be happy

© Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health Coach, Counselor and Realtionship Coach

Naturalcounselorblog.com

It’s winter, it’s cold and dark outside.  Are You SAD? Many of you may be affected this time of year by the winter blues or by seasonal depression (Seasonal Affective Disorder – SAD). Studies show that people who are affected by SAD don’t have enough vitamin D and have lower level of tryptophan. For some reason more women than men suffer from this disorder.

These 2 healthy baked salmon and avocado recipes for the winter blues may help with seasonal depression since salmon, avocado, and sesame seeds are great sources of the vitamin D and tryptophan you may be lacking:

Healthy Baked Salmon Recipe with Mushrooms

Ingredients:

• 2 medium onions, sliced
• 4-6 pieces of salmon
  
• 4 Portobello mushrooms, sliced
• 1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh dill
  
• one lemon
• salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put a layer of onions (half) on the bottom of a casserole, then put fish, then put mushrooms and the rest of onions on the top. Put parsley on top, and squeeze the lemon juice over all. Cover and bake for 30 minutes, or until the fish is ready in the middle (test with a knife or fork.). Serve with lemon wedges.

Healthy Avocado Salad Recipe

Ingredients:

• 3 avocados, diced
• ½ cup carrots, chopped
• ½ cup purple cabbage, diced small
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp parsley, minced
• 1 tbsp dill chopped
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 pinch of Cayenne pepper
• black pepper and salt to taste

Directions:

Mix all ingredients in a bowl thoroughly. Enjoy with crackers, peppers, tomatoes.

P.S. You may also want to try an Ayurvedic Immunity Boosting Spice Recipe

Bon Appetit and let us be SAD smart.

Breathe, smile and be happy.

© Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health, Nutrition Coach and Counselor

NaturalCounselorBlog.com

Because we are what we eat, during the winter it is important to eat more winter super foods. 

Fantastic Winter Super Foods to Stay Healthy and Feel Fabulous

I. Whole foods rich in anti-stress vitamins and minerals can fight stress illness and you should try to incorporate them in your diet to have less stress.

Magnesium
It has been found that people who exhibit stress illness have low magnesium levels. A deficiency of magnesium interferes with transmission of nerve and muscle impulses, causing irritability and nervousness.

For more magnesium, eat more apples, dried apricots, avocados, brown rice, garlic, grapefruit, lemons, leafy vegetables, millet, nuts, sesame seeds, salmon (wild caught).

Calcium

Our body needs a proper balance between magnesium and calcium to have a healthy stress response. Healthy foods rich in calcium are almonds, asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, figs, kale, kelp, mustard greens, oats, prunes, sesame seeds, salmon, seafood, sesame seeds, tofu, plain yogurt / kefir.

B6.
Studies show that people who are depressed have low levels of B6 and serotonin. Eat more avocados, bananas, fish, spinach, walnuts to get more Vitamin B6.

B12.
As we know, B12 deficiency can contribute too many anxiety disorders caused by stress, such as hormonal imbalances, blood sugar fluctuations, chronic fatigue, depression, irritability, moodiness, nervousness. To eat more salmon, seafood, sea vegetables (if we don’t eat meat) will help.  A detailed plan with suggestions for reducing stress overload you can find in my eBook “ DeStress-101-Survival Kit for Busy Women”

II. The second step in helping us feel better and be healthier during Winter is to boost our immune system with winter holistic detox.

For a quick detox drink, drink more water (filtered of course!) – it helps us eliminate more toxins. You can also drink teas with Dandelion, Nettles, Ginger, Burdock Root.

Also, try sifting from the most congesting foods (sweets, diary products, bread, fats, fried foods, refined flours, meats, hydrogenated fats, drugs) to the least (fruits and vegetables, grains, nuts and legumes), which can help with holistic weight loss detox cleansing of your body to bring it into balance.

And we don’t need an excuse to wait for spring to a herbal cleanse of our bodies, because we can use healthy detox super foods, such as apples, beets, celery, squashes, garlic, carrots, onions, green leafy vegetables, lemons, oranges, parsley, seaweed, beans as well as detoxifying spices like turmeric, coriander, fennel, cumin right now.

We need to include these fantastic detox whole foods in our routine and use one or two every day. Why? Because these detox foods can purify our blood, purify and protect our liver, and cleanse our intestines. More on Super Simple Detox – in the detox eBook “Detox – 101“

Never forget that it is also very important to avoid certain foods if you want to stay healthy and not to get colds. My article “Super Unhealthy Foods to Avoid...” has a list of foods to stay away from.

It is Winter, so slow down, relax and enjoy.

Meanwhile, breathe, smile and be happy,

© Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health, Nutrition and Relationship Expert