‘Tis the season…

Stuffy noses, coughs, and sneezes, oh my! I am very aware of cold season because the snot factor in my classroom increases exponentially. Sorry for that visual. So, I am being proactive this year! Yogi tea, healing soup, and neti-potting have already started at my house and I’m very hopeful that this year I won’t catch the kindergarten crud. Here are a few recipes to help warm your soul.

Step 1… 

Yogi tea. This homemade tea straight from Yogi Bhajan himself will help boost your immune system and fight the winter crud. (Original recipe found on the Birmingham Yoga website.)

Ingredients… 

• 1 gallon of water
• 30 cloves
• 30 black peppercorns
• 30 cardamom pods
• 5 cinnamon sticks
• 1 inch of ginger (or more) thinly sliced
• 1 tea bag of black tea (leave out if you are sensitive to caffeine or planning to drink at night)
• *Milk/almond milk or honey to add taste — Milk helps to ease the shock of the spices on the stomach and intestines so drink with milk if you’re sensitive.

Directions… 

1. Bring water to a boil
2. Add all spices except the black tea bag. Boil 30-45 minutes. If you want a stronger brew boil longer and add more water as needed.
3. At the end, add black tea bag and boil another 5 minutes. **The black tea is added last because it amalgamates the spices and seals them. Also the tannins help assimilate the spices into the body.
4. Add milk and sweetener to an individual cup as you desire. This will allow you to store the raw tea in the fridge and prepare with milk and sweeteners as you like.
5. If you go cup by cup, you can leave the raw tea on the stove on the lowest flame to enjoy all day.

Step 2… 

Jala neti. Jala Neti is a nasal cleansing technique that rinses the sinuses with warm saline with the aid of a teapot-like vessel called a neti pot. It helps to lubricate and cleanse your nasal passages.

Ingredients…

• Distilled or previously boiled water
• non-iodized salt or over the counter mixtures (I use Neil-Med)
• Neti pot

Directions… 

1. Pour a cup of warm water (sterilized by boiling the water or purchasing distilled water)into a neti pot.
2. Add 1/4 teaspoon of non-iodized salt (kosher or sea salt or I use over-the-counter mixtures that can be found in the pharmacy section of your grocery store), stirring until it dissolves.
3. Insert the spout into your left nostril, lean over the sink, and tilt your head slightly to the right so the water flows through the sinus passages and out of the right nostril.
4. Gently blow your nose and repeat on the other side.

Step 3… 

Healing soup. Adapted from The Clean Eating Mama.

Ingredients… 

• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 3 stalks of celery, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 2 cups sweet potato or russet potato (about 1 large potato)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 cups water or vegetable broth
• handfuls of herbs on hand: basil, parsley, thyme (if using fresh, chop and add towards the end). I added dried herbs at the beginning and tasted throughout.
• any fresh vegetables on hand – I used the last little harvest of tomatoes and okra from our garden. What’s more healing than veggies grown in your own back yard?!

Directions… 

1. In a large heavy bottom pot (or dutch oven), heat on medium and add oil. Let the oil heat for a few minutes. Add copped onion, garlic, and a pinch of salt. Let cook down for a few minutes until onion is soft. Add remaining vegetables, dried herbs, salt and pepper and let cook down for about 10 minutes or so.
2. Add liquid of choice (water or vegetable stock) and turn the heat up to high. Bring to a boil. Once it is boiling, reduce heat to medium/low and cover with lid. Stir occasionally. Let cook for an hour or so. You can always add more water if it becomes too thick. For this vegetable soup you want it to be rather brothy because this is where the where the healing magic is!

Happy Fall y’all!

Winter health tips…

I have a problem with my sinuses every Fall/Winter and this year it hit me and it hit me fast. I’m going to be honest with you… I believe in a mixture of western medications and holistic remedies. I’m not going to tell you that all I do for my health is take Wellness Formula, use my neti pot twice daily, and sleep with a humidifier. When my head feels like it’s about to explode I take over the counter congestion relief and it works amazingly well. But here’s my deal… I pair it with holistic and Ayurvedic remedies and try not to take the medication for more than a few days. If I need a round of antibiotics to fight off a bad sickness I do it because it works. And when I’m done I pump myself full of Kombucha and healthy fats to get my digestive balance back. Just because you claim to be a natural healthy person doesn’t mean you have to swear off western meds all together (just my little soap box).

So I wanted to share with you a few of my favorite holistic remedies to help you feel well and balanced all through the colder months… (recipes curtsy of Birmingham Yoga)

Winter Kitchadi – Moong Beans and Rice… Kitchadi (Kitcheree) is known in Ayurveda as the food that many turn to when illness calls and we need something warm, light, and restorative. Using a range of herbs and spices, Ayurveda devises kitchadi can heal various diseases. This recipe is used as an Ayurvedic cleansing therapy because of its ease of digestion and assimilation. Kitchadi is especially helpful in the winter to bring balance to our bodies as the season changes from warm to cold.

I added zuchinni and sweet potato to my kitchadi. Yum.

• 2 Tbs – Ghee (clarified butter) or Coconut Oil
• 1 Onion chopped
• 1  Inch – Ginger Sliced
• 3/5 Cloves – Garlic Chopped
• Mustard Seeds 10-20
• 1/2 tsp – Turmeric
• 1 tsp – Coriander
• 1/2 tsp – Cumin
• 1/4 tsp  – Masala (optional) and or chili’s or hot sauce (optional) *Adds a lot of flavor*
• 2 – Bay Leaves
• 1 Cup – Green Mung Daal (soaked overnight) *Use sprouted mung beans for quicker prep (no pre-soaking)*
• 1 Cup or 2 Cups (if you have gas)- Rice (I recommend brown basmati)
• 2 Cups or 4 Cups – Water
• Veggies(carrots,beets and beet greens, zucchini,celery, kale sweet potato whatever you like)
• Pepper
• Rock salt or Sea Salt/Braggs Amino Acids add as you like.

There are a few ways to cook this recipe…

1. In dutch oven or large pot cover pre-soaked beans with water and salt, bring to a boil, cover, lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes.  While the beans are cooking you can begin to heat your spices.  Take a saute pan heat ghee or coconut oil, add onions & ginger saute until onions are clear. Add garlic, mustard seeds and wait until seeds pop then add next five ingredients, saute for a couple of minutes and set aside.  When the beans are soft you can add onion mixture, uncooked rice (for every cup of rice add double the amount of water) water and bring back to a boil, cover and lower heat and cook for another 20 minutes until rice is done. Add chopped vegetables to your liking and cook until vegetable are Al Dente about 5-10 minutes add pepper, salt or Braggs and chili’s/hot sauce.
2. You could do the above recipe in the same manner except cook the rice separately while the beans are simmering.
3. You could cook in a pressure cooker.   Take pressure cooker and heat ghee or coconut oil, add onions & ginger saute until onions until clear. Add garlic, mustard seeds and wait until seeds pop then add next five ingredients, saute for a couple of minutes then add water, beans, rice and veggies.  Pressure cooker takes about 20-25 minutes.

If you want to make it a little more hearty you could also add cheese, cottage cheese or yogurt and a few tortillas.  Along with a nice salad.

I personally like to top my Kitchadi with nutritional yeast, a splash of sesame oil, and a little clarified butter (ghee).

Tea! I love tea. This was my first time to make this amazing recipe of Yogi Tea from my teacher, Akasha Ellis at Birmingham Yoga. Since I made it at night for the first time at night I didn’t add the black tea and it was very tasty! I don’t know if it was because of the tea, but I had the best night of sleep. For the past few days I have had this tea twice daily; in the morning with the black tea for a little pick-me-up and without the black tea at night. I hope you enjoy this yummy tea!

Homemade Yogi Tea!

“When Yogi Bhajan was a military commander in India there was an epidemic among the troops. He ordered all of his men to fill their canteens with yogi tea and drink nothing else, not even water. His Battalion was the only unit that didn’t get sick! Yogi tea purifies the blood, lungs and circulatory system. It cleans the liver and has many more unseen benefits. It’s good to drink this tea every day.” ~ Birmingham Yoga website

• 1 Gallon Water
• 30 Cloves
• 30 whole Green Cardamon pods
• 30 whole Black Peppercorns
• 1 inch or more of fresh Ginger, thinly sliced
• 5 sticks Cinnamon
• 1 teabag, Black Tea (leave out if sensitive to caffeine or planning to drink at night)
• *Milk and Honey/Maple syrup to taste or Almond Milk.

1. Bring water to boil.
2. Add all spices except black tea bag. Boil 30 -45 min. If you want to make it stronger boil longer and add more water as needed.
3. At the end add black tea bag and boil another 5 min.
   **The black tea is added last because it amalgamates the spices and sort of seals them. Also the tannins help assimilate the spices into the body.
4. Add milk & sweetener to an individual cup as you require.  This will allow you to store the raw tea in the fridge and prepare with milk and sweeteners as you like.
5. If you go cup by cup, you can leave the raw tea on the stove on the lowest flame to enjoy all day.

**Milk helps to ease the shock of the spices on the stomach and intestines so drink with milk if you’re sensitive.

**Note: for a stronger tea you can let the spices sit and sink to the bottom.

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Last year’s post on winter wellness: When this yogi gets sick… 

Happy Fall y’all,