ORGANIC BROWN RICE

Always soak your brown rice the night before with a small piece of kombu seaweed.

Why eat brown rice instead of white?

Well for starters, brown rice has 3 ½ grams of fiber while white rice has less than one! Brown rice also contains nutrients like magnesium, manganese and zinc. White rice has reduced levels of these nutrients, but is often fortified with iron and some B vitamins.  Bringing B’s into our bodies’ aids our nervous system and can help relieve mental depression; filling our plates with food in its natural state is a sure way to regain our healthy selves! I love brown rice and now that I’ve gotten hooked on the full flavor plain old white rice tastes void of substance.  I make brown rice at least once a week. I always make enough of it to last a few days and use it to thicken sauces. This staple makes mealtime cake- I always have a strong base to build with!

POT-BOILED BROWN RICE

Whatcha’ Need:

1 cup brown rice (short or
long grain or brown basmati)

2 cups boiling water

1 pinch of sea salt

For larger batches, use less water: 3 cups rice with 5 ½ cups water

Wash the rice by swirling it in a bowl of cool water. Drain in a large, fine-mesh strainer. Pat with a paper towel to remove excess water. Then place the rice in a pot with a snug-fitting lid. Add water & salt, and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer – without stirring or lifting the lid – for 50-60 minutes. Relax… dinner is cooking itself.

PRESSURE-COOKED BROWN RICE

Whatcha’ Need:

2 cups short grain brown
rice

3 – 3 ½ cups water

1/8 tsp sea salt

Wash the rice and drain in a strainer (as in recipe above). Place in pressure cooker with water and salt, and start on  medium-low heat for 20 minutes. Then, turn the heat up to high briefly until pressure valve jiggles. Put a flame spreader under the pot to keep from burning rice on the bottom. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 40 minutes (1 hour total).

RICE-COOKER BROWN RICE

Whatcha’ Need:

Pour oil in cooker

1 cup brown rice (short or long grain or brown basmati)

2 cups boiling water

1 pinch of sea salt- last 10 minutes of cooking

This rice cooker has saved my life! When I don’t have enough time to stand over the stove, I sho’ do love this little machine.  When making brown rice, be sure to add enough water. If you didn’t and the rice isn’t soft enough, just add  more water and re – run the cycle.  I also add sesame or olive oil and a pinch of salt before starting the rice  cooker.  Since brown rice requires the most water, place a kitchen towel on top of the lid when making a full pot, so that the steam doesn’t spray everywhere.

*If you are in the midst of digestive distress be sure to cook your rice to almost porridge – the softer it  is, the easier it is to digest.  The first 3 months of my digestive distress, I ate my almost all of my grains this  way.

Getting rid of funky old pots and pans is the first way to makeover your kitchen and a great first approach to your own Noble Food Makeover. Teflon and other non-stick pots and pans are risky as far as I am concerned. I don’t want the chance that something harmful can leak into my pans. My grandmother has had the same set of stainless steel pots and pans for 64 years. Cast iron is another long time purchase – we use a skillet that belonged to Lee’s grandaddy – at least 100 years old. I also have some luxury items, cast enamel. You can hunt these down at some of the discount home goods stores or spend the big bucks at Le Crueset. Either way stocking our kitchen for the long run is the best bet!
My favorite pan I would just cry if I didn’t have is a stainless steel wok with a steamer. I cook my grains – quinoa, brown rice or millet in the bottom and then fill the steamer with whatever veggie I’m making. This is the best for tight kitchen space, small stove tops and quick kitchen clean up. I also use it for fish, grain burgers, croquettes and pancakes.

Click to hear Princess Know it All on Big Blend Radio!

I love to read about all the wonderful ways to build green houses and I’m way into tearing out old kitchens and redoing them… but for most of us, greening our kitchen can seem totally overwhelming!
The most important and easiest place to start is shifting what we use to cook and store our foods.  When I first began changing the road that I’d been walking on, I started with cleaning up my kitchen and ridding it of unhealthy pots, pans, containers, toxic cleaning products, disposable plates and cups and processed foods.

Below is my list of what to toss and what to add:

Teflon or ANY Non-Stick Pots & Pans
Teflon pans are covered with chemicals and no matter what we want to believe, when chemicals are heated they break down and seep into our foods.

Cast Iron, Cast Enamel or Stainless Steel
Think old school ancestral - what your granny cooked with.  Cast iron or stainless steel pots last a LIFE TIME and two they don’t leak nasty chemicals into your food.  In fact, Iron Skillets add iron!  It takes some elbow grease to clean them but, hey, getting your scrub on now is better than living with chronic DIS - EASE later.

Yard sales are a great place to find cast iron pots and pans as well as stainless steel. Also, discount stores like TJMAX & Marshalls always have a few cast enamel pots on the shelves.

Utensils

Cooking with plastic spatulas, large serving spoons or plastic ladles is the same thing as using Teflon covered pots. If you are stirring hot soups, flipping hot eggs, or frying foods, placing a plastic utensil into this heat causes the plastic (a chemical) to melt into your food.  Plastic is not a solid, it is a melting chemical, breaking down constantly regardless of heat or not. Also, plastic is petroleum byproduct and petroleum should never be added to a recipe.

What to use instead? WOODEN or stainless steel – again, think old school!

Storage Containers
Storing leftovers in plastic containers is the same thing as cooking with plastic.  Once we’ve gone to all the work of cooking our healthy meals, why would we want to place them in a plastic container to absorb petroleum?  Instead, I buy glass containers with plastic tops (the food doesn’t touch the top).  For school lunches, I use BPA free plastic containers or stainless steel kids’ containers.  Plastic and petroleum have been linked to hormonal shifts in the body and found in the fatty tissue of young children.

When my youngest daughter was just 8 months, the skin on her vagina began to grow together.  Her pediatrician said I had two choices – remove the plastic bottles and containers from my house or use progesterone cream (commonly used for menopausal women). I went home and tossed out all the plastic and ordered glass baby bottles.  I even shed the giant water bottle because they have the highest level of BPA plastic.  I ordered Mountain Valley Spring water, which is delivered in large multi - gallon glass bottles.  Never again have we had a problem with hormones and vaginal skin.

* Note- you don’t have to buy the glass storage containers all at once, instead, pick them up a few at a time.  This is what Target is great for!

Dish Detergent & Cleaning Supplies

Here’s something to think about: we have become obsessed with killing germs but in this process we’ve replaced the germs with chemicals.  When washing the dishes, we use chemical-based detergents to break down the germs in environment. So, how are they going to break down in our bodies? Bits of detergent are left on our dishes and glasses that we drink out of, no matter how hard we try to clean off the soap.

The same thing goes for cleaning supplies: we spray all kinds of things all over our houses, killing the germs but leaving behind chemical traces.  The worst are air freshener sprays like Febreeze. Instead of opening a window or using an oil diffuser to freshen the space, we layer a chemical on top of the dirty rug or sofa. Our immune systems are completely inundated by chemicals so that by the time the trees bud in the spring and the grass pollen fills the air, we have had a winter of sealed-up houses that have been holding toxic chemicals inside. Our immune systems are weak and the natural pollens from outdoors are the final straw that breaks the immune system’s back – hello allergy sufferers!

Disposable Plates & Cups
I really try to avoid filling our already over full trash dumps with more waste, especially non-biodegradable.  If I have to use these things then I’m sure to order online or swing by Whole Foods to pick up biodegradable picnic goods.  Always reusing anything that I can.  Yes, they cost a bit more but isn’t our earth worth it?

Processed Foods
Not only are processed foods bad for our bodies but also big garbage makers.  If it comes in a box, can or container these items end up in our landfills.  By moving to an Ancestral diet the majority of food found in my house is in the refrigerator.  I also shop in bulk for grains & beans – storing them in large glass canisters or used jars.

Reading Labels

One thing people always want to know is if I EVER eat processed foods? Well, the truth is every once in a while I do eat tater tots – organic, granola, flash frozen fish (meaning it was frozen on the boat), gluten free baking mix and of course my freezer always has organic frozen broccoli, organic green beans and of course organic marinara sauce is good to have in the pantry – I’m NOT rigid with myself or my family – I just do my best to cook as often as possible simple foods in their original forms. With this said I’m always checking out what is available in the already made food sections and last night I was shopping with my friend Mary Alice at our local Trader Joes, when we discovered a new frozen Asian foods section, I of course had to pick up the Bento Box (typically found at Japanese restaurants). Quickly M.A. whipped out her iphone & gorilla style filming was on!

What amazed me was that most of the items in this frozen section were low in sugar & not packed with preservatives and additives and I could pronounce & identify the ingredients. What I really mean to do here at PKIA is to inspire folks to KNOW what they are eating and only a choice can be had if we take the time to read and ask WHAT’S IN IT….With this said fresh REAL food is the best.

This weekends theme was all about cutting the sugar and kickin’ it to d’curb!
Lola (my 4 year old) attends the only school that I know of in the city that has implemented a NO Fructose sugar policy as well as a fresh food campaign. Her lunches are filled with local whole foods! I love this, and I love the way that the kids are encouraged via family and community participation. An example of this was last Friday a group of folks came together with their instruments and had a full on jam session. One of the gifts of living in such a musical city is the abundance of fantastic musicians, lending fantastic musical programs in many of the cities schools. Lola and her friends rocked out to a great song entitled “Shaking down the sugar.”

Sunday I was a guest on Champagne Sundays, a weekly internet radio show, the theme was again cutting sugar! Check out my column with a sugar detox drink – it totally aids in the weaning process; I drank it for 6 months and it’s yummy!
http://qualityoflifemagazine.com/Me&MySugar.html

This is really yummy and is like drinking veggie soup broth…I promise you will like it!

Whatcha’ Need for the Sweet Vegetable Drink:

1/4 cup carrot

1/4 cup cabbage

1/4 cup pumpkin or squash

1/4 cup large onion

Preparation:

1. Grate or finely cut the vegetables.
2. Add four cups water and bring to the boil. Reduce fire and simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes.
3. Strain and drink only the liquid.

You can eat the veggies too, and store the broth in a covered container in the fridge so you have it for a couple days, be sure to drink a cup of broth at least once a day, but the more times the better!
Click on the link below for a listen to the radio interview: