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| Raw vegan cafe and community builder! |
On the 5th day of Christmas my true love gave to me... a great evening at Catch a Healthy Habit Cafe in Fairfield, CT with a delicious meal and a great talk on herbal tonics by George J. Lamoureux, CEO of Jing Herbs.
My mom and dad, always up for a culinary adventure and for learning something new (I love that about them!), accompanied me, and they truly enjoyed their meals. Did they love them enough to start delving into raw food preparation? Only time will tell! Mom had olive ravioli, which is an approach to making rawvioli that I have never seen before. Impressive! Glen, the owner of the cafe, shared the trick with me to making rawvioli skins out of olives. If you'd like to know, post a comment and I will share!
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| Olive puttanesca rawvioli |
I had the veggie and nut burger on onion bread with avo, cashew cheese, shiitake bacon, mustard and ketchup. When eating out, that is, when someone else is preparing my raw food, I tend to order the meal which has the most parts requiring preparation as I am least likely to have all those components ready for assembly at one time. Dad had the zucchini spaghetti with marinara sauce and raw meatballs, because he wanted to compare it to the version I made this past week. I liked that he was able to see the variety of tastes and textures that raw food offers depending on how the food is prepared--dehydrated or not, noodle thickness etc.
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| Seed and nut shiitake bacon cheezeburger |
For dessert mom and I had chocolate chia pudding and dad had raspberry chocolate pie, they were both delicious. Just check out their amazing spread of raw desserts!
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| Rawlicious desserts |
Herbal tonics
My first introduction to superherbs was by David Wolfe in Paris last autumn. So I was excited to have the opportunity to advance my learning tonight by listening to George Lamoureux, one of the country's leading herbalists. He opened with an explanation of the 3 Treasures: jing, qi, and shen. I like to remember the 3 Treasures via the analogy of a candle: the jing is the wax, or the body's genetic state that we inherit from our ancestors; the qi is the flame that the jing supports, which is aided by our air and food intake; and the shen is the glow or aura that the candle emits. I may get this wrong--word of warning, I am not a herbalist!--but my understanding is that the herbal tonics address your jing, qi, and/or shen. Another component to consider is whether the herb promotes yin, which is moist, nutritive, cooling, and targets the body substratum (such as organs), or promotes yang, which tonify activity and functions by creating fire.
When getting started on integrating superherbs into your diet, remember that they are digested like food, meaning they can be taken at any time and for extended periods of time. All herbal tonics do no harm, and they all take your health up a notch to the next level.
To provide my personal story on introducing superherbs to my diet... I struggled my first winter on a high raw diet as I was often cold and damp and craved warm cooked food. Last winter I added astragalus, reishi and D3 drops to my diet and I grew much stronger. I had no problems staying raw through the cold winter months, and my circulation was great with no cold fingers or toes. So what's next for this winter-- the winter of 2012? George told me that they (Jing herbs) are looking to help us truly transform our health and our lives. It is time to transcend and transform! So I will upgrade my daily addition to my smoothies from 1/4 tsp to 1 tsp, and I will begin to brew tonics of multiple herbs and make delicious elixir drinks. Tonight we had a warm elixir of reishi, chaga, cacao powder, almond milk, stevia, and a bone building tea of nettles and horsetail. This tonic kept us up until well past midnight awake, alert, and feeling creative!
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| George Lamoureux, CEO of Jing Herbs |
If you would like to get started using superherbs, I recommend you check out the Jing Herbs website, and then call them. They have trained herbalists on hand to talk you through which superherbs can benefit you. As George said: they want to take us to the next level! Here's to your SUPER health in 2012!
- Do you have a personal story about how superherbs have impacted your health or your spirit? Please share with us in the comments section.
- Which superherbs do you plan to take this winter?
