1. First, I gave her some homeopathic Apis Mellifica underneath her tongue. This is the same homeopathic remedy I suggested using when a friend was stung by a bee recently.  I recommended she take a dose immediately, then a second thirty minutes later, and if needed for discomfort, a third two hours after that. My daughter’s fierce mosquito or spider bites required one pastille of Apis that night and a second the next morning before breakfast.

2. For topical relief, I rubbed in some homopathic Florasone, a remedy helpful for skin irritations in general. If I could have located it in my house, I would have applied some homeopathic SssstingStop gel, but the Florasone worked quite well, as it usually does.

3. For bee stings and spider bites, it’s helpful to place a drying masque over the area to draw out the poison. Mud works great and is easily available, as does tooth paste (not gel). A clay facial masque will do the trick, too.

4. Finally, disolving about 2 cups of Epsom Salts into a warm bath for a soak will help reduce swelling and relieve itching.

©2010 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

The Clif C Bar is a different sort of portable food sporting a double layer of fruit and nuts and made from a handful of recognizable ingredients – basically fruit, nuts and sea salt. The bars are lightly baked and then sprinkled with nuts and a hint of sea salt to make the flavors dance.

Let me repeat my criteria for choosing a healthy granola/power/energy-type bar:

1. I want all ingredients to recognizably come from nature. The less processed these are, the better. I want to be able to pronounce and identify everything listed.

2. The fewer ingredients, the better. Don’t junk up my snack bars with a lot of extra stuff. Don’t add MSG or gluten fillers to my granola bars. Don’t add protein where it doesn’t occur naturally. And, please, don’t give me “artificial flavors,” because synthetic flavors are a huge turn-off to my taste buds.

These C-Bars are bursting with flavor– real flavors, not “natural or artificial flavors” concocted in a laboratory tube. They’re not so dense that they sit heavily in your stomach like so many other power bars.

Here’s an example of the ingredients in the apple Clif C-bar: Organic Dates, Almonds, Organic Apples, Macadamia Nuts, Organic Apple Juice Concentrate, Organic Lemon Juice Concentrate, Organic Cinnamon, Sea Salt (Real Salt®), Natural Vitamin E (Antioxidant).

Mmmmm… look at all of those yummy real foods!

Best of all, perhaps, is how friendly the C-Bars are to those with food allergies and/or food sensitivities. You won’t find any wheat, gluten, corn, eggs, dairy, etc., etc., etc. in these beauties.

My only problem with these bars is that they are soft and can get smooshed beyond recognition when tossed into a crowded purse during an outing. Then you basically have to lick the bar off of the wrapper to eat it, not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but it can get sticky.

Be sure to try all the flavors of Clif C-Bars: apple, blueberry, rasperry, cherry pomegranate (our favorite!). Thanks to Alex over at Clif Bars for the free samples he gave out at the MS Walks!

©2010 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

The characters you meet in this quick video are cartoons, but the plot is ripped straight from the headlines. It’s appalling to realize how the Toxic Chemicals Lobby twists and distorts information to keep their profits rolling in at the expense of our collective health.

©2010 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

Whole Foods Marketplace Inc. announced that it is raising the bar on organic skin care products, meaning that it will only carry items claiming to be organic that are actually organic and contain organic ingredients.

Back in January, I posted about so-called organic cheater brands and how deceptive labeling is allowed on skin care products because they are not regulated. Thanks to the watchdog group the Organic Consumers Association for bringing this to our attention.

According to the statement, starting next June, Whole Foods will require that its suppliers of personal-care products making organic claims meet the same U.S. Department of Agriculture standards as food does. That means products labeled as “organic” must be made with more than 95% organic ingredients. If the label says the product is made with organic ingredients, it actually must contain at least 70% organic ingredients.

While I wish that the USDA would require “organic” to mean 100% organic, I’m quite pleased that Whole Foods will make it easier for me to trust more of the products on its shelves. Right now, quite frankly, I’ve frequently questioned their personal care product selection after carefully reading the labels and wondered if I were in a Walgreens rather than a health food market.

Maybe Whole Foods will become more like Vitamin Cottage, a smaller health food grocer chain that adheres to much stricter organic standards, and where I always feel much more comfortable when selecting new skin care products.

I count this as a win in the war to reclaim the guarantee that the products we eat and use on our bodies are safe.

©2010 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

One of my favorite summertime cooking solutions is to use a toaster oven!

Seriously, I have a large toaster oven that fits a 2-quart Dutch oven easily, holds my 3-quart round oven beautifully, and even squeezes  in my 3 1/2-quart oval-shaped Dutch oven without hitting any sides.

Europro Toaster Oven

On warm evenings when I would rather not heat up my house, I simply plug the toaster oven into the outdoor socket on my back deck and let the heat stay outside. On rainy days I move it to my covered front porch. 

Although I originally purchased this particular toaster oven so that I could prepare Glorious One-Pot Meals when I held cooking classes in locations other than a kitchen, I soon realized that a toaster oven has a number of advantages over a regular oven.

First, as I mentioned, you can pick it up and move it outside so that you don’t have to heat up your house in order to enjoy a meal. In the summer I use my outdoor toaster oven to bake pizzas, home fries, fish,… you name it. As well as Glorious One-Pot Meals, of course!

Second, it takes less energy to heat a smaller space like that inside a toaster oven than it does to heat and maintain the heat in the large space of a typical home oven. So I get to feel a little greener when I use it.

And, third, my toaster oven preheats much more quickly than my regular oven, probably for the same reason as #2 above.

When I picked out my toaster oven, I went to the largest selection of small kitchen appliances I knew of with my trusty 2-quart Dutch oven in hand. I proceeded to open each one and try to slide my pot inside. When I found the one that fit, I knew I had found a new tool for creating easy and delicious meals all year round.

Whenever I’m using the toaster oven to bake rather than toast, I always place an oven thermometer inside to validate the temperature just as I do with my gas oven inside. Just to be sure the temp is where I want it to be.

©2010 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

I selected a recipe from my current cookbook, Honey and Spice Pork, because the combination of cinnamon and honey is thought to reduce inflammation, a primary issue in multiple sclerosis and other auto-immune diseases.

However many health benefits this recipe may offer, this recipe is mostly just a crowd-pleasing meal that offers a multitude of variations (swap out the pork for chicken or salmon… mmmm! or make it vegetarian with seitan (a wheat gluten meat-substitute product found in the refrigerated section of a health food store, near the tofu).

Find the recipe for Honey and Spice Pork below.

Honey and Spice Pork
Serves 2

My kids love the sweet and spicy flavors of this meal. The pork together with the potatoes, carrots, and green beans offers a kid-friendly, well-rounded dinner loaded with nutrients and low in fat. Look for boneless center-cut pork loin, 1/2-inch thick. Or substitute a turkey tenderloin, a salmon fillet, or even chicken for the pork.

1/2 to 3/4 pound pork tenderloin
sea salt and ground black pepper
1/4 cup honey
3 tablespoons Dijon or Cajun/Creole-style mustard
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
6 to 8 small new potatoes, scrubbed
2 carrots, sliced in coins
15 to 20 green beans, trimmed, or 2 cups frozen

- Preheat the oven to 450° F.
-  Spray the inside of a cast iron Dutch oven and lid with canola oil.
- Put the pork in the pot and lightly season with salt and pepper.
-  In a small bowl, mix together the honey, mustard, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves and pour over the pork.
-  Slice the potatoes in half and add to the pot, then scatter the carrots and green beans over the potatoes.
-  Cover and bake for 45 minutes, or until 3 minutes after the aroma of a fully cooked meal escapes the oven. Serve immediately.

©2010 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

Aloha Elizabeth, When the recipe says, 1/2 lb chicken breast, can I cut it up or
do I have to use it whole? I’ve made your delicious: Yucatan Fish, Flageolets and Sausage,
Pasta Tricolore, Southwestern Quinoa, and Springtime Paella.
Tonight it will be the Savory Port-Mushroom Chicken.
- Mahalo, Rudy P., Melbourne, FL

Hi Rudy!

Glad to hear you’ve enjoyed so many yummy GOPMs!

You can use any form of chicken you’d like. Boneless skinless breasts, bone-in skin-on thighs, sliced fajita strips… any way you prefer will work just fine. You can even put boneless chicken in frozen, as long as it is frozen in pieces rather than a huge mass, and it won’t change your cooking time.

Enjoy the Savory Port-Mushroom Chicken recipe — I just had a family of a single dad and two teen boys rave about how Glorious One-Pot Meals has turned their dad into a great cook. They told me it was their favorite recipe in the book!

Happy cooking!
Elizabeth

©2010 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

Banana Amaranth mini muffins

If you’ve followed my blog you know that while I’m not the greatest of bakers it’s mostly because I have a hard time following a recipe “as written”. With baking, not following the directions to the letter can often end with inedible results.

But not today. Today I translated a regular recipe for banana bread into something that is gluten-free, wheat-free, tapioca-free, rice-free, dairy-free, and lower in fat than the original to boot.

And it’s a delicious recipe. I think my kids each ate 9 of them already.

So then I made another version that is wheat-free but not entirely gluten-free (it uses spelt flour), that is perhaps even a tad bit better, though the jury is still out. Since my son is sensitive to wheat but tolerant of spelt, it’s one of my favorite alternative flours to use.

I needed to make a lot of banana bread because Door-to-Door Organics produce delivery service was kind enough to sponsor my presence at the Land of Nutrition at the Denver and Boulder Walk MS events this month with beautiful crates of organic apples, strawberries, and bananas to distribute to hungry walkers. Most were eaten at the event, but a week later I was still looking at more than a dozen organic bananas getting browner by the day. To me, that says “banana bread.”

Or rather, mini-muffins this time. So much fun to eat!

Ever since we discovered my son was sensitive to wheat through the MRT test, we have gone wheat-free in our household. It’s really wonderful that there are so many wheat-free products on the market these days that cater to those with problems digesting gluten (Celiac’s disease). It makes it easier than ever to find wheat-free alternatives to many packaged foods.

Banana Spelt mini muffins with chocolate chips or cashews

Unfortunately for us, my son is also sensitive to the most common substitutions for wheat in baked goods, namely tapioca flour, corn flour, and potato starch, which puts a lot of those products off limits to us and makes successful baking that much more challenging.

Spelt has some gluten since it is related to wheat, but in much smaller doses. Because it does have some gluten, it is one of the easiest non-wheat flours to bake with. I often add a little xanthan gum and arrowroot starch to my non-wheat flours when baking to give the dough that stickiness that gives baked goods structure.

While my son used to be sensitive to eggs, we eliminated them for a while and have been able to add them back in for baked goods. To make this recipe egg-free, see my egg-free egg-substitute post.

Gluten-free, Dairy-free Banana Bread or Mini Muffins
makes 1 loaf or about 48 mini muffins

1/4 cup apple sauce
1/4 cup safflower oil (or other oil)
1 cup sugar (or other sweetener)
2 eggs (or egg substitutes)
1/4 cup coconut milk (or other dairy or dairy alternative)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (not “flavoring”)
3 bananas
1 cup amaranth flour or spelt flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour (name notwithstanding, buckwheat is not related to wheat)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon arrowroot starch
1/2 teaspoon xantham gum powder
Optional add ins: 1/2 cup nuts, chocolate chips, coconut flakes

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Cream applesauce, oil, sugar, and eggs together.

Add milk, vanilla, and mashed bananas and blend.

Mix remaining dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, then add to bananas and mix well.

Grease loaf pan or mini muffin tins well and bake for approximately 20 – 50 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

©2010 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

It looks like “natural fragrances” may mean as much as “natural flavors” do on a label in terms of the chemical load they bring to your body.

The study found 38 unlisted chemicals in the testing. The average fragrance tested contained 14 secret chemicals. Among them are chemicals associated with hormone disruption and allergic reactions, and many substances that have not been assessed for safety in personal care products by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the industry’s own safety panel.

How many secret chemicals do such popular fragrances like Chanel Coco and Old Spice contain? Check out the full report on chemicals in fragrances and you’ll see that Coco has 18 distressing chemicals and Old Spice has 16 ingredients not reported on the label.

In 1973 Congress passed the federal Fair Packaging and Labeling Act. The law, which requires companies to list cosmetics ingredients on the product labels, specifically exempts fragrances. Since then, the vague word “fragrance” is all you’ll find on the label. If there’s anything to be grateful for in this, it’s that “fragrance” is a recognizable word that is easily avoided by label readers.

Personally, I avoid all synthetic “fragrances” whenever possible, including in laundry detergents, shampoos, body products, and non-organic-based candles. I believe most air fresheners are some of the worst toxins that you can add to your environment — and they’re designed to encourage you to smell deeply and carry all those chemicals deep into your lungs.

I think dryer sheets are bad, too, and I encourage you to stop using them as they infuse your clothes with these synthetic fragrances so that you can be continually exposed to these dangerous chemicals each and every day.

The FDA has not assessed the vast majority of these secret fragrance chemicals for safety when used in spray-on personal care products such as fragrances. Most have not even been evaluated by the safety review panel of the International Fragrance Association (IFRA) or any other publicly accountable institution.

Of the chemicals that have been tested, there isn’t a lot of good news. The vague term “fragrance” covers chemicals that can be linked to reproductive damage, hormone disruption, and can trigger allergic reactions.

Fragrances may be designed to make us smell better and feel good about ourselves, but as the EWG points out, “we don’t know how you can feel good when you don’t know what you are putting on your body.”

So what’s a girl to do when she wants to float in a sweet smelling cloud without taxing her body’s tolerance levels?

Chemical perfumes add to the air pollution we breathe in every day. Take steps to minimize your exposure when possible.

Be sure to check out my upcoming post on custom-blended pure aroma perfumes, look for soy or beeswax candles scented with natural tinctures, and consider practicing aromatherapy using only quality uncontaminated oils and tinctures.

©2010 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.

The contaminated children may have eaten food treated with pesticides, breathed it in the air, or swallowed it in their drinking water. The study didn’t determine how they were exposed. While all children had some quantity of pesticides in their bodies, the ones with ADHD had the highest levels.

It is well known that many commonly used pesticides contain immuno-modulators, endocrine disruptors, and carcinogenic compounds. We live in a world full of these kinds of man-made dangers to our health. It’s good to see that science is finally examining the effects of these toxins on our bodies in a meaningful way.

It all has to do with an individual’s tolerance levels. How much pesticide can this particular child’s body tolerate before the physical effects begin to show up as ADHD? Another child may not be able to tolerate nearly as much as the norm, while still another can tolerate much more without effect. Isn’t this yet another example of how food and chemical sensitivities can manifest differently in different people?

You can lower yours and your child’s pesticide consumption by nearly four-fifths by avoiding the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables and instead eating the least contaminated produce, according to the Environmental Working Group’s calculations.

When you eat the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables, you’ll be exposed to an average of 10 pesticides a day. When you choose fresh produce from the 15 least contaminated fruits and vegetables, you’ll consume fewer than 2 pesticides per day.

The Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides ranks pesticide contamination for 50 popular fruits and vegetables based on an analysis of 96,000 tests for pesticides on these foods, conducted from 2000 to 2008 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the federal Food and Drug Administration.

©2010 Effortless Eating. All Rights Reserved.