To get as much benefit from the whole foods you eat its important to buy fruits and vegetables grown locally and in season.  Here a some healthy and nutritious spring and summer picnic recipes you can make for your friends and family to enjoy in the park.  You can try them on Memorial weekend or Fourth of July.

Spring and Summer Recipe with Baby Artichokes with Garlic and Oranges

Ingredients:

• 16 baby artichokes (about 2 pounds)
• 4 – 5  tbsp olive oil
• 3 -4  garlic cloves, chopped
• ½ tbsp turmeric
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tbsp sour cream or yogurt
• 1 tbsp dill chopped
• 1 tbsp parsley chopped
• salt and black pepper to taste
• orange wedges

Directions:

Trim baby artichokes and cook in boiling water for 5 minutes. Sautee onion and cook in olive oil for 5-7 minutes, add garlic and cook for more 2 minutes or until garlic gets brown. Add artichokes, stir in salt, pepper, 1/2 cup water, 2 tbsp sour cream, ½ tbsp turmeric. Cook, covered, until artichokes are tender, about 5 minutes longer or until knife inserted in bottom of artichoke goes through easily. Serve, warm, garnish with orange wedges, dill and parsley.

Spring and Summer Asparagus with Turmeric Dressing and Almond Butter Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 cup onions chopped
• 1 bunch asparagus spears
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• Weight Loss Detox Turmeric Dressing
• 1 tsp almond butter
• 2 tbsp parsley or dill chopped
• salt to taste

Directions:

Steam asparagus spears (or cook in boiled water) for 5-8  minutes or until tender.  Sautee onions in olive oil for 10 minutes. Make Turmeric Dressing in a bowl, add almond butter and onions and mix thoroughly. Place the asparagus spears on the plate and coat with the new mix of turmeric dressing, almond butter and sautéed onions. Garnish with parsley or dill.

Summer and Spring Mushroom and Quinoa Salad

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp ghee or organic raw butter
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 8 mushrooms
• 2 tbsp sour cream
• 4 cups spring greens (lettuce, spinach, arugula)
• 1/2 cup spring green onions chopped
• 3 cloves garlic chopped
• 6-8 radishes, sliced
• 1 cup cooked quinoa (or barley or wheat berries) chilled
• 1/2 cup grated Goat cheese
• 2 tbsp dried cranberries
• 2 tbsp prunes
• 2 tbsp pine nuts
• 1tbsp parsley chopped
• 2 tbsp Apple cider vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Sautee mushrooms in olive oil for about 5 minutes, add garlic and cook for more 2 minutes; add sour cream, season with salt and pepper, stir thoroughly and set aside. Place all the remaining ingredients into a large salad bowl and sprinkle with Apple cider vinegar. Just before serving, pour the warm mushrooms in sour cream over the salad.

Bon Appetit!

Don’t forget to breathe, smile and be happy.

© Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health, Nutrition Counselor and Coach

NaturalCounselor.com

Super Healthy Recipes for Your Spring and Summer Picnic in the Park

Radishes are one of my favorite vegetables. Here are some great reasons to eat at least one radish a day.

Radishes can stimulate the liver and improve elimination.

Radishes are a fantastic weight loss detox and beauty remedies food.

Radishes can be used to clear your sinuses, for hoarseness, excessive phlegm and sore throats.

Radishes can help keep your thyroid hormones in balance.

Radishes can cleanse your kidneys and decrease water retention.

Radishes are also a beauty remedies food. They can rejuvenate your skin because of their high sulfur, silicon and vitamin C content. The sulfurous mustard oil in radishes stimulates the circulation system which can help make your skin look radiant.

You might need to eat more radishes if you suffer from:

• poor skin quality, brittle nails and hair, dental cavities, atherosclerosis, lung disorders, which can be caused by silicon deficiency.

• acne, arthritis, brittle hair and nails, immune dysfunction, memory loss, rashes, slow wound healing, which can be caused by sulfur deficiency.

Remember that sulfurous foods should be combined with fatty foods (avocado, nuts, some seeds, etc.) for proper digestion. If you suffer from excessive gas, eat sulfur-rich foods with salty vegetables, for example, seaweed.

Breathe, smile and be happy.

Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health Counselor and Coach

Glowing Skin, Weight Loss, Detox, and Other Great Reasons to Eat Radishes

To look fabulous in Summer, we need to eat more lycopene rich foods, such as cooked tomatoes, apricots, pink grapefruit, papaya, water melon in order to protect our skin from sun damage.

New studies show that lycopene in our diet can help our skin block UV rays and that there is a connection between lycopene and skin cancer.  Because our body doesn’t produce this antioxidant,  we should incorporate more lycopene rich foods in our diet, to protect ourselves from skin cancer.

Try these three healthy simple and easy summer recipes to keep your skin sun damage free.

1. Grapefruit and Walnuts Salad Easy Summer Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 medium grapefruits
• 1 avocado
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• juice of ½ lemon
• 1/2 cup Immunity Boosting Turmeric Dressing

Directions:

Peel grapefruits and section. Peel avocado and remove pit, cut into chunks. Place avocado and grapefruit into the bowl and gently toss. Drizzle lemon’s juice. Add nuts and drizzle with Turmeric dressing.

2. Spaghetti Sauce Easy Summer Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 medium onions chopped
• 2 Portobello (or 1 cup shitake) mushrooms sliced
• 4 tomatoes chopped or 2 tbsp tomato paste (for paste you need 1/3 cup water)
• 2 clove garlic minced
• 2-3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp parsley, chopped
• salt and fresh grounded pepper to taste
• 8 ounces spaghetti or angel hair pasta

Directions:

Sautee onions in olive oil for 10 min., add mushrooms and cook for 5-7 minutes. Add tomatoes (if you use tomato paste, add some water), parsley, salt and pepper.

Drain pasta. Toss with tomato sauce and serve.

3. Papaya Fruit Salad Easy Summer Recipe

This recipe is from one of my favorite books Eating for Beauty by David Wolfe:

Eating this fruit salad is a great way to begin the morning. The cinnamon contains the mineral chromium, a great blood sugar balancer, this fruit salad is loaded with enzymes to help stimulate elimination in the morning.

Ingredients:

• 1papaya
• ½ avocado
• 6 fresh figs
• 2 nectarines
• ½ tbsp Cinnamon
• 1 lemon juice
• 1 tbsp raw honey

Directions:

Chop all ingredients, mix and serve.

Bon Appetit!

Breathe, smile and be happy.

© Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Coach and Counselor

Healthy and Easy Summer Recipes to Keep Your Skin Free of Sun Damage

Our mind and body can be affected in different ways, for example, according to what season it is.

In the fall you can rejuvenate your body to maintain or restore your balance with a natural weight loss detox that uses healthy whole foods that can help you detox your body and lose weight.

In the fall, to naturally cleanse or detox your body, include the basics: beans, grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds.

Why?

I would like to share with you passages from a favorite book of mine: The Self-Healing Book by Kristina Turner.

We have teeth built to grind mostly high-fiber food such as grains, seeds, leafy greens and roots. 20 out 0f 32 teeth are grinding molars.

Our ORGANS function very smoothly on a grain, bean, and vegetable diet. Complex carbohydrates regulate blood-sugar and provide steady energy.

On a diet rich in fat, protein, sugar, and salt, organs such as kidneys, liver, gall bladder, and heart often become weak and clogged, depleting our vitality and leading to illness.

Healthy BACTERIA thrive in our intestines on a grain-based diet. When they die off, they are replaced by unhealthy microorganisms when if eat too much fat, sugar, meat or chemicals. Fermented foods help to renew the healthy bacteria population.

BLOOD flows freely on a low-fat, low-sweet diet. High fat meals, by contrast, make blood thick and sludgy. Sugar weakens and thins the blood.

Let us be whole food smart, shall we?

Breathe, smile and be happy.

© Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health, Nutrition Coach and Relationship Expert

How to Rejuvenate Your Body in the Fall with Simple Detox

If you want to feel and look fabulous in Summer, by which I mean feel healthy, you should sun protect your skin from UV damage and skin cancer without using sunscreens and sun lotions that are full of harmful sunscreen ingredients and chemicals  (which I talked about it in How to Protect Our Skin from Sun Damage Part I), but also how to help your body to deal with the UV sun damage that has already occurred.

Unfortunately, many of us don’t realize that ultraviolet rays can do significant damage to our skin by forming free radicals in the skin cells; recent research indicates a strong link between free radicals and the risk of disease.

Fortunately, our bodies can produce antioxidant compounds on their own naturally to neutralize free radicals before they can harm our biological processes. We can help the process by eating foods rich in antioxidants, including vitamins A, C, E and D as well as selenium and omega-3, all of which can significantly reduce the inflammation and skin damage caused by over exposure to the sun.

Some basic steps you can use to sun protect your skin in summer with antioxidant organic whole foods:

1. Incorporate more healthy natural Super Foods in your diet = foods rich in antioxidants

  (dont forget to buy them organic to take advantage of their organic food benefits)

bright-colored fruits and vegetables, such as carrots, squash, broccoli, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, kale, collards, cantaloupe, peaches, apricots, watermelon, berries to get more Vitamin A;

oranges, lime, kiwi, green peppers, broccoli, green leafy vegetables, berries, tomatoes to get more vitamin C;

walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, green leafy vegetables, barley, millet to get more vitamin E;

incorporate more lycopene rich foods such as cooked tomatoes, watermelon, papaya, apricots to protect your skin from sun damage;

shellfish, oatmeal, barley, buckwheat, eggs, legumes, chicken and garlic to get more Selenium; and

wild salmon, walnuts, flax seed to get more Omega-3 fatty acids;

2. Be moderate and be selective with your exposure to the sun – the healthiest sun is before 10:00am and after 5:00pm.  This is the best time to minimize the most harmfull peak exposure you get when the sun is overhead, while still getting sufficient exposure to produce vitamin D, which is required for the absorption of calcium, necessary for protecting muscle weakness, important for preventing and treatment breast and colon cancer, and osteoporosis, necessary for normal function of thyroid and normal blood clotting.

We also can find vitamin D in: fish liver, dairy products, dandelion greens, oatmeal, salmon, sardines, sweet potatoes, tuna and vegetable oils.

3. As I mentioned in How to Protect Skin from Sun Damage – Part I, avoid eating carrots, celery, parsley, parsnips and limes before going to the beach - they may make – your skin very sensitive to the sun;

As for me, I always try to obtain antioxidants from whole foods instead of supplements and try to get a healthy suntan by exposing myself to the direct sun only very early in the morning instead of using sunscreens full of harful sunscreen ingredients and chemicals.  At other times, I use sunblock clothing and sun protection hats to reduce sun wrinkles and sun damage on face.

A healthy life style and a healthy diet are the keys to a younger and healthier skin as well as to a younger and healthier You. Let us be Sun Smart, shall we?

Breathe, smile and be happy.

© Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health, Nutrition and Relationship Counselor and Coach

Sun Protect Your Skin with Antioxidant Organic Whole Foods – Part II

Summer is here; are you ready to go to the beach and get a suntan to feel and look fabulous?  Before you do, don’t forget that there is no such thing as a safe tan, and before you think there is a totally safe sunscreen for sun protection from sunburn, consider that numerous studies show that there is as well no such thing as a best sunscreen lotion.

You might think that sunscreens prevent skin cancer. Well, they can protect against sunburn and reduce sun damage to skin, but as for protection against sun induced cancer … the connection between sunscreen and cancer may not be what you would expect.

 Everything we eat goes to our bloodstream, everything we apply to our skin is also absorbed into our bloodstream. Have you noticed how many chemicals are included in the list of sunscreen ingredients? Studies show that the longer sunscreen lotion and creams are left on the skin, the more they will be absorbed into the body. A super simple detox may help, but why not try some healthy tips and natural sunburn remedies to protect your skin from sun damage.

Natural Beauty Remedies to Protect Your Skin From Sun Damage

1. When looking for sunscreen products, look for better and healthier uv natural sunscreen alternatives. Two nontoxic solutions are the sun blocking minerals zinc oxide (studies show that only sunblock clothing and zinc oxide sunblock totally block UVB and UVA rays) and titanium dioxide; they are supposed to ingredients in sunscreeen that are safer to use. Also investigate UVA sunscreen products with micronized zinc oxide as the only active ingredient as sunscreen protection to reduce sun damage of face and skin.

Check the Cosmetic Safety Database on my References Page

2. Don’t use skin-care products that contain citrus essential oils, especially bergamot (Citrus bergamia). They might increase the skin’s sensitivity to light and cause skin discoloration or rashes.

3. We can use our kitchen oils such as Sesame Oil, Coconut Oil, Olive and Peanut oils as well as rich in cinnamic acid, Walnut Oil, Raspberry Oil, Avocado Oil, Pomegranate Oil, Jojoba Oil, Pumpkin Seed Oil, Aloe Vera Oil, Coffee Butter, Shea Butter. They all provide uv natural sunscreen protection from the sun. You can find many uva sunscreen products that incorporate many of these oils and butters.

4. Don’t eat carrots, celery, parsley, parsnips and limes before you go to the beach. Studies show that these vegetables contain psoralens, chemicals that may make you unusually sensitive to the sun.

5. Incorporate more lycopene rich foods, such as cooked tomatoes, apricots, papaya, pink grapefruit, watermelon into your diet to block UV damaging rays.

6. Apply a thin coat of yogurt, sour cream, kefir or aloe-vera gel to reddened areas to help reduce inflammation and cool and moisturize your skin if you get sunburned.

7. Don’t take your babies to the beach! Your child or baby sun protection motto should be “no sun.”  Why take the risk!

Studies show that even if you use a sunscreen and don’t get burned, there is may still be enough ultraviolet light that does get through to suppress your immune system.

Choose the right sunscreen product by using common sense and exploring your options – the one that offers least harm is the best.

As for me, I don’t use sunscreens because I try to stay out of sun from 11:00 am till 4:00 pm and I wear sun protection hats and try to be in the shade as much as possible. And don’t forget that baby sun sunscreeen protection is also important to think about. When my son was old enough, we would go to the beach only in the early morning so not to be in the direct summer sun.  Also, people don’t realize that even if they use sunscreen at the beach, they still need to worry about  over-exposure to the sun in other situations - everything in moderation is the best policy.

So let us be sun smart this summer, shall we?

P.S. Don’t forget to listen to my radio show for women “Feel and Look Fabulous with Irina“ for more healthy tips and ideas on how to feel and look fabulous this summer.

Breathe, smile and be happy.

© Irina Wardas, HHC

Women’s Holistic Health, Nutrition and Relationship Counselor and Coach

Seven Beauty Tips To Protect Your Face and Skin from Sun Damage – Part I