Hip and Trending Holistic Medicine

There is something amazingly comforting about a bowl full of cooked vegetables. It's like you're getting the best of something nourishing and something comforting. It's also easy to mix, match, and adapt these recipes, making them accessible for weeknight cooking. Below is a list of my favorite vegetarian bowls for winter. Get ready to curl up with the fire going and one of these delicious bowls. Grain Bowls I'm not sure what my cooking would look like without grains. They are about the easiest thing to throw into vegetarian bowls and have success. Use as a base for roasted vegetables, add some legumes, and finish with a sauce- it's an equation that you can use over and over again without eating the same thing twice. It's hard to choose just four recipes but these are the meals currently on heavy rotation in our house (with some grain swaps for time- like quinoa and millet). Berbere Chickpeas with Chard Green Curry with Potatoes and Chickpeas Turmeric R...

Can you believe that it’s already almost December?!!! I know this year has FLOWN by for me! As we head into the holidays, there are many things happening that might increase your stress this year, even more than normal. In fact, o ver 60% of us experience a certain level of increased stress during the holidays. Whether it’s financial concerns or family troubles, you may find yourself right there in that bunch! Breathe! And let me share with you these tried-and-true tactics to staying CALM and comfortable during this time. 1. Drink Chrysanthemum Tea – This mellow tea has been used for centuries to relieve stress. Add some honey and enjoy a warm cup of this sweet, calming tea. Likewise, any tea with Valerian Root will do! Additionally, Chrysanthemum tea is good for the skin, boosts the immune system, lowers blood pressure and improves vision! 2. Acupuncture- Of course, I had to put it on the list! Acupuncture is AMAZING at reducing the aches and pains caused by tense muscles associate...

[caption id="attachment_63728" align="alignnone" width="620"] Photo: Courtesy of the American Council on Exercise [/caption] On paper, the squat is as basic as it gets: You go down and then stand back up. But this booty-burning exercise is actually pretty complex. Squats require you to recruit more than just your glutes to get low, especially when you add weight. The functional movement pattern demands strong hamstrings, quads and core — not to mention good mobility in the ankles, knees and hips. With all those moving parts, you might be wondering: Does my squat form make the cut? Enter: the American Council on Exercise (ACE) bend and lift screen. Jacque Crockford , MS, CSCS, ACE-certified personal trainer, says, “The bend and lift screen not only reveals whether you have proper form, [it can help] exercise newbies address postural weaknesses to prevent injuries.” According to Crockford, proper squat mechanics include: trunk and shins parallel to eac...

As the seasons change, a new one has begun for us. As of this week, both Alex and I are full-time A Couple Cooks. For years, we’ve both been working full-time at a technical writing business here in Indianapolis. I was at the company for 13 years and Alex for 10 years. (If you’re wondering, I was his boss!) We’re incredibly grateful for our time in the business world working with corporate clients, which gave us a huge amount of experience and knowledge. Our work in food started as a hobby seven years ago. As of this week, Alex and I are officially both creative entrepreneurs working in the food industry…and officially co-parenting little Mr. Larson. It’s a new chapter! The focus of this new season is creating margin, space for exploration, and focusing on family. Our 20’s and early 30’s were full of work, work, and more work. Once Larson entered our life, we knew it was time to press the Reset button. Our passion for cooking, food writing, and photography has also grown to a place w...

[caption id="attachment_63747" align="alignnone" width="620"] Photo: Twenty20 [/caption] If you love heading to the gym and making your rounds on the exercise machines, you’re not alone. With peak gym season upon us, you might even find yourself lining up for fan favorites like the leg extension machine. But are those big hunks of metal worth the wait — or should you pave your own way with free weights ? RELATED: 5 Exercise Machine That Aren't Worth Your Time The Pros and Cons of Exercise Machines First off, machines do offer some great benefits. “Exercise machines are convenient and are generally designed to be user-friendly,” says Cris Dobrosielski, CSCS, owner of Monumental Results in San Diego and author of Going the Distance . They can also help build definition and endurance in muscles, Dobrosielski says. Going machine-heavy has some drawbacks, though. Depending on your body type (e.g. short or tall), the machine may not fit you correctly, ...

I have a not-so-secret love affair with pearl couscous. I find the texture to be absolutely delightful and since it's just pasta, it soaks up every bit of flavor around it. I love it in salads, as a base for roasted vegetables, and as a cheater risotto. The couscous works in a similar way to arborio rice in that the starch from the couscous creates a bit of creaminess. Add to that cheese and an easy broccoli pesto, this dish embodies comfort. Best of all, you can make an extra batch of the broccoli puree and have these melts for breakfast the next morning! Read more and see the recipe. The post Broccoli Pesto Couscous Risotto appeared first on Naturally Ella . from Naturally Ella http://ift.tt/2zBztQh Erin Alderson November 28, 2017 at 10:48PM

This is for everyone who ordered an Instant Pot on Cyber Monday, and also, somewhat selfishly, for myself. It's all the links, references, and resources I've collected in eager anticipation of the delivery of my new 9-in-1 rice cooker killer. Let me start by saying, my road to the Instant Pot hasn't exactly been straight. I like to think I shy away from of-the-moment appliances, and instead, have collected a good number of donabe, flameware, and other clay cooking vessels that I cherish and cook with regularly. But I've been increasingly intrigued by sweeping Instant Pot mania (couldn't be later to the party, I know). Some of my favorite cooks are making magic, or at least dinner, with them. One of them even released Dinner in an Instant: 75 Modern Recipes for Your Pressure Cooker, Multicooker, and Instant Pot. I buy every Melissa Clark book. Every one. So, it seemed like the time to pull the trigger here and have a little fun. Also, the newest Instant Pot has ...

– it seems to work after an intensive course… About a year ago I was surprised to see a sham controlled RCT of electroacupuncture (EA) published in Annals of Internal Medicine.[1] I was surprised for several reasons: I review for Annals, and I had not seen the paper for review; it was on chronic severe functional constipation – a subject with few previous RCTs of acupuncture; it was positive; it was the biggest 2 arm RCT in the acupuncture literature to date. The treatment was relatively straightforward – EA to the rectus abdominis muscle bilaterally (ST25—SP14) and manual stimulation of a point in tibialis anterior bilaterally (ST37). The sham control involved shallow needling of points close by, but not on the meridians, avoidance of typical needling sensation ( de qi ) and sham EA (ie no electrical stimulus, but the power indicator and sound as if it were real EA). The frequency used varied from 10 to 50Hz and the intensity was between 0.1 and 1mA. The frequency covers the best ra...

[caption id="attachment_47390" align="alignnone" width="620"] Photo by Marla Rutherford[/caption] Let’s get one thing straight: The elliptical has gotten a bad rap over the years. “Too many times this machine is overlooked because people see others plodding along while they catch up on the latest issue of Us Weekly , so they think it doesn’t really do much when you want an intense workout,” says Annette Comerchero, founder of Elliptifit , an elliptical-only group fitness studio in Los Angeles. But it doesn’t have to be that way. “With the right workout program, you can hit your calorie-burning goals, tone your upper and lower body and blast fat .”   RELATED: 3 Fat-Blasting HIIT Workouts to Try Now But just like any exercise, good form comes first. It’s OK if you pitch forward slightly, but don’t lean your weight on the bars or let your chest collapse inwards, explains Comerchero. You should have an upright posture, with shoulders rolled down and back....

We've talked potatoes and pumpkin pie to death so let's move on to solving dinner problems for all other days of the year. I would take one of these lasagna squashes over a majorly brown thanksgiving plate any day. Sorry, bah humbug. Last year, I had dinner with some of my dearest college girlfriends at Malibu Farms (have you seen their cookbook ? It's beautiful and casual and colorful) and I still think of this spaghetti squash dish we shared. It was creamy, but not overly so, could be ordered vegetarian or not, tasted like comfort food but didn't sit in your gut as such. I know in the season of cooking and romantically long prep time with your glass of wine and holiday tunes, this recipe may come off as old news, but a simple dinner is what I am more interested in in the long term. I made four, and my kids mostly poked at it. They saves well and can handle a reheat the following day or perhaps you have another couple over to share. I made a few notes in the headnote ...

[caption id="attachment_63649" align="alignnone" width="620"] Photo: Twenty20 [/caption] It’s time to embrace the negative. And we’re not talking about some downer news or harsh criticism from haters. Instead, we’re focusing on the negative movement of exercise . “The best way to describe eccentric exercises is ‘negatives,’” says Mike Donavanik, CSCS, celebrity trainer and creator of mikedfitness.com . The opposite of concentric (the upward motion that shortens muscle fibers ), “eccentric training involves lengthening the muscle fibers back out and lowering the weight down. During eccentric exercises, strength moves are generally performed in a pattern of one- to two-seconds for the lifting portion and three- to five-seconds for the lowering, or negative, portion.” RELATED: Is It Still a Good Workout if I’m Not Sore? The Benefits of Eccentric Exercise Research generally supports this working-against-gravity strategy. “It causes more micro-tears in t...

This post was created in partnership with  Roxbury Mountain Maple . All opinions are our own.  We’ve got a giveaway! See entry rules below. Have you ever wished that you could visit your past self? What would you tell that person as “Future Me”? Recently I stumbled across a blog post I wrote almost 2 years ago. It was for a recipe with maple syrup, but the words were about what was on my mind at that moment. Reading these lines today makes me feel a tingle, like looking into a window in the past (a quote from this post ): “Alex and I are in a long season of squirm-inducing uncertainty, waiting to be matched with a baby who will be our forever child. There’s no roadmap; we could get the call at literally any time. And it’s the weirdest thing, to be waiting for a baby to fall out of the sky… We wait with a boxed crib in an empty room, and try to distract ourselves from wondering, who this little one will be? Is it true, that a little human will someday inhabit ...

This soup is built on a monster white pepper broth. White pepper with jolts of ginger, and stabs of garlic. I like it just shy of scalding, racing down my throat, sweeping through my sinuses in one boisterous, fragrant swoop. This is a soup I make often, particularly when I need a boost. And, while I float other ingredients in the broth, mostly to make a meal of things, that part of the equation is usually an after thought. For me, this soup is all about the clear strong broth, the invigorating way it makes me feel, and the way it lights up my insides. This is a soup for the coldest days, the runniest noses, and the shortest days of winter. A couple words of wisdom here. Serve hot. As hot as you can stand without betraying your tongue. It's an experience that's just not the same when the soup is served lukewarm. On occasion, I'll whisk in a bit of brown or red miso for a fuller-bodied, creamier broth experience - also the beneficial miso nutrients. But, try it straight a...