Beet Green, kale and Blueberry Shake and Prioritizing for Health…

Hi everyone. I am still reeling from the Michael Pollan article in the NY Times this past weekend. If you have not read it, PLEASE do. In a nutshell, he discusses how we seem to love watching the food Network but that so few people are actually cooking from home. We seem to have a need to be around food and watch the process of cooking because cooking is vitally important in our evolution. Some theorists believe that cooking and the discovery of fire is what distinguishes us from the animals.

You see, when we ate leaves all day, we had to do so much chewing and foraging that it left little time for much else. When we were able to cook, we expedited the nutrition process and were able to have more time to actually create a culture (and our brains grew a lot from all the cooked protein). It is a fascinating article and I highly recommend that you take a moment to read it: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/magazine/index.html

As for our weekend, we went on a hike in PA this weekend in memory of our friend who passed away last year. We hiked to a place that is very special for his family. It was a beautiful day and we all had a lovely time chatting and walking for hours. There was a big group of us, including kids, who went up steep inclines which was not so easy holding a sleeping three year old. Some of us drove 9 hours in the same day to attend the hike. For some it was emotionally harder than others.

Sometimes we need to take the time and expend the physical and emotional energy that does not always seem possible or worthwhile to do what is right for our bodies our mind and our hearts. I’m so glad we did the hike, especially for the children so that they can know how important our friend was to everyone.

With our crazy busy lives, it is so easy to push important things aside like taking true care of ourselves because we have other things to do, things that may also seem important. When you really get down to it, though, what is more important than our emotional and physical health? What is more important than showing our kids how we take care of ourselves and others?

On that note, please remember to be there for your friends and family. In addition, try to cook and if you find that you are not cooking,try to set aside some time to think about what is in your way. You just might find that those obstacles are really not as important as your overall health.

Before I went on the hike, I made and drank a Green Shake. I will be demonstrating how to make these at our local Farmer’s Market on August 8th-come by and sample some…AND please save your Friday night, August 14th to see Julie and Julia with Take back the Kitchen in Montclair-we are EVERYWHERE!:

Green Shake:

1 big handful washed beet greens (not the beet part, just the greens)
2 big handfuls kale, curly kind or dinosaur kind
1 banana
1 cup blueberries
4 cups water
Blend in a strong blender or Vita Mix until fully processed. Add more fruit, especially banana, if it tastes too bitter. Don’t forget to stir each time you pour some more because it settles. Tasty!