This is my own version of a recipe that I originally found at The Sunny Raw Kitchen. After a little bit of trial-and-error, some minor tweaks were made to that recipe, and I finally created what I believe is the PERFECT ranch dressing. Even better than the Hidden Valley Original Ranch, if you ask me, and I have been a ranch dressing connoisseur my whole life. I grew up loving Hidden Valley Original Ranch.
soak: 2 hrs
prep: 5 mins
chill: 1 hr (optional, but it does taste much better chilled)
ingredients:
1 1/2 cups cashew – soak for 2 hrs – drain
1 cup filtered water
3 Tbsp lemon juice (about 1/2 lemon)
1/3 cup of organic Apple Cider Vinegar (preferably raw and unfiltered, we use Bragg’s)
1/3 cup organic extra virgin olive oil (preferably raw and unfiltered, we use Bariani’s)
2 Tbsp maple syrup (or other natural sweetener like agave, raw honey, or dates)
2 large cloves of garlic (or 3 small cloves)
1 tsp garlic powder
3 tsp onion powder
1 tsp dill
1 Tbsp sea salt or Himalayan salt or other healthy salt
1/2 tsp basil
when finished add the last two ingredients:
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
1/2 tsp of additional dill (optional) (if you like it a bit more tangy than add this)
Blend, thoroughly, all but last two ingredients. The longer you blend the smoother the texture will be. Now, stir in with a spoon the last two ingredients. Pour in a storage container.
Makes about 3 cups of dressing.
Will keep for about 1 week in refrigerator.
Dressing will thicken in the refrigerator to more of a dip, add water to thin to desired dressing consistency if it thickens too much for your preference.
NOTE: I use dried herbs, except for the parsley. You can use fresh, but you may have to use less or more of them to get the right flavor, as often herbs that are dried can be either weaker or stronger flavored, respectively.
So, you are craving some chocolate, maybe even some chocolate cookies. But you want to keep it as healthy as possible! Here is my whole food/super food cookie recipe with different options and variations to really make this cookie your own!
¾ cup of coconut oil (I use Wilderness Family Naturals Organic Virgin Centrifuge Coconut Oil)
¼ cup of coconut milk (I prefer to make this homemade from a Thai young coconut, but you can use the So Delicious brand or canned coconut milk if that is what is available to you)
1 cup of Turbinado sugar (raw sugar, or other healthy sugar, the less refined the better)
1 t vanilla extract (I prefer Madagascar Vanilla Extract)
2 organic free-range eggs (you can use substitute or alternatives to make this recipe fully vegan)
Optional – ¼ – ½ of flax seeds (depends on how much you want) (raw sunflower seeds would be great with this cookie too, or you could use both)
Optional – 1 cup of nuts (walnuts or pecans go great with this cookie, you can use both nuts and seeds in this cookie if you desire)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Combine flour, baking powder, salt, cacao, and Amazing Grass SuperFood mix in a medium bowl.
Combine coconut oil, coconut milk, and sugar in mixer. Mix for 2 – 3 minutes. Add vanilla extract, and beat in eggs.
Gradually add dry mixture.
Stir in seeds and/or nuts.
Spoon dough on to a cookie sheet.
Bake for 12 – 15 minues.
Yields 2 dozen cookies.
NOTES: If you want chewier and moister cookies you can add more coconut oil and/or coconut milk, you can play with it if you want.
Gluten-free Version
Use one of these options below instead of the whole wheat flour:
2 ½ cups blanched almond flour (Bob’s Red Mill almond flour does not work well)
or
¼ cup of rice flour
or
You can try other wheat flour substitutes as well, I like spelt (low gluten not gluten-free) and coconut flour too, but have not used them yet in a cookie recipe, with whichever alternative you use just be sure to use in proportion to yield 2 dozen cookies.
Sprouted Version coming soon!
More Notes about this recipe:
This recipe is a great basic healthy whole food cookie dough recipe. Don’t want chocolate cookies don’t add the cacao powder or the Amazing Grass Chocolate SuperFood Mix.
Instead add the Amazing Grass Green SuperFood mix that is unflavored, http://www.amazinggrass.com/superfood-ingredients.html, and turn the cookie into a chewy sugar cookie or a divine chocolate chip cookie if you have chocolate chips you like. You can use raw cacao nibs for chocolate chips too, to keep it a raw vegan superfood style cookie, though the baking obviously makes this cookie not raw! But to start with great quality whole food unprocessed ingredients is wonderfully nutritious.
You can also make this a great fruity cookie with cranberries, blueberries, or raisins.
I hope you enjoy this recipe and be adventurous and play with it, make it your own!
In support and advocacy of Cesarean Awareness Month, an awareness campaign started by the International Cesarean Awareness Network, I am offering a free Post-cesarean Recovery & Healing Consultation and/or VBAC Preparation Consultation to post-cesarean mothers that are either recovering from their cesarean or are pregnant again and preparing for their next birth!
Please visit my Birth & Postpartum Wellness & Service site for more details on these services, at www.Soul-Birth.com.
This offer is good through the month of April so schedule your free consultation, asap!
For questions or to book your consultation please email me at LeighAnne@DuCheneNaturalHealth.com
This bill works to get anti-depressants, and who knows what other kinds of drugs, into the hands of new moms before they leave the hospital.
The package labels on antidepressants states that the risk of psychosis while taking antidepressants is 1/100.
Postpartum women typically have a risk of Postpartum Psychosis of 1/1000.
Thus, taking antidepressants increases a postpartum mother’s risk of developing postpartum psychosis 1000%.
That is astounding!
In the report, “The Drugging of Post Partum Depression” put out by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, it is stated that, “Many people think that psychiatric disorders, such as depression or post-partum [after birth] depression, are the same as medical diseases or illnesses. However, this is very misleading, especially to a mother who has experienced the trauma of just giving birth. To have her think the emotional roller coaster she may be experiencing is the result of a “chemical imbalance in the brain,” requiring mind-altering medication, is false and harmful.”
In this report, Ron Leifer says, “There’s no biological imbalance. When people come to me and they say, ‘I have a biochemical imbalance.’ I say, ‘Show me your lab tests.’ There are no lab tests. So what’s the biochemical imbalance?”
As you can see there is no test to definitively identify and diagnose a biochemical imbalance. Thus the claim of such a thing can be very harmful and misleading.
The report goes on to say, “This does not mean that serious emotional difficulties do not exist, that people’s hopes cannot be shattered or that their methods of coping with this cannot fail. But it does mean that psychiatrists, psychologists, and drug groups have used such difficulties to their advantage, promoting powerful drugs as a “solution” for vulnerable individuals.”
Not only powerful, but mind-altering drugs, known to have severe mental and emotional effects on individuals taking them, even harm to others and suicide.
This report sites Dr. Sydney Walker III’s work stating that, “psychiatric drugs ‘often create new and serious symptoms patients didn’t have before ‘treatment’’ and ‘upset the natural chemical environment of neurons (brain cells…).”
Also mentioned is the fact that, “Any medical doctor who takes the time to conduct a thorough physical examination of someone exhibiting signs of what psychiatrists say are “mental disorders”, including post partum depression, can find undiagnosed, untreated physical conditions.”
This means that there are other physical signs and symptoms that are associated with such “mental disorders” and can be addressed by correcting the problem causing both the physical and mental symptoms.
This is where proper nutrition, supplementation, emotional coping techniques, and exercise come into play for any individual, but especially for postpartum mothers.
Postpartum nutrition and supplementation are critical to allowing the body to rebalance and heal after the traumatic event of birth. Please understand, I am not saying that all birth is traumatic, just that it is hard on the body and elicits stress coping hormones, which are used in dealing with and recovering from traumatic events, on a very high level. Thus, it can be preserved on a biochemical level that birth is a traumatic event on the body, regardless if the actual event was truly a traumatic one for the mother.
Actually, when the birth is preserved as a traumatic experience the risk of emotional upset and turmoil is even greater; thus, the risk of postpartum depression is even higher.
I am a post unexpected emergency cesarean birth mother after experiencing a very emotionally traumatic labor and birth with my first child, just over 3 years ago. I did experience postpartum depression and the emotional turmoil is very real. It is, however, very much able to be worked with utilizing various emotional techniques like Bio Energetic Synchronization Technique (BEST), Neuro Emotional Technique (NET), and Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). I never once took medications. I, instead, utilized these emotional healing techniques; along with nutritional therapy, chiropractic care, breathwork, and meditation to help cope with and overcome my emotional distress after the birth of my first child, and with great success. So much so, that I am now a post traumatic birth and cesarean healing specialist, offering emotional support and guidance, and bodywork treatments, as a licensed massage therapist and a breathwork facilitator, to postpartum mothers dealing with these issues.
Instead of forcing unscientific, mind-altering medication on postpartum moms, why not just give them their placenta!! It is, after all, theirs!
Collective research supports the theory that placentophagia helps to restore hormone levels to normal in the postpartum mother, therefore, potentially preventing the baby blues, and possibly even postpartum depression. Research is currently under way with Placenta Benefits, Ltd. and UNLV to determine many different things regarding placentophagia; including if, and potentially how, the consumption of the placenta can help balance hormones for a postpartum mother. The results of this current ongoing research are eagerly anticipated to help support and further the advocacy of placentophagy.
There are many ways to consume the placenta, the most common, appealing, and best for preservation way is in capsule form, a process called placenta encapsulation. PBi (Placenta Benefits Ltd.) trains placenta encapsulation specialists in understanding the research supporting and benefits of placentophagy; as well as, how to safely and properly encapsulate the placenta using Traditional Chinese Methods for postpartum mothers to use as a dietary supplement.
By the time I was pregnant with my second child, 4 months old currently, I had learned about placenta encapsulation and had been trained through PBi as a Placenta Encapsulation Specialist. I consumed my placenta postpartum, and still do so current via my placenta capsules. I have not experienced one sign of baby blues or postpartum depression this time. My postpartum experience this time has been such a beautiful, loving, nurturing, and well connected experience with my son. I do wish I could have had this same experience with my first, but I have not let that effect my relationship with my oldest son either. I have found actually that I have been able to bond on a deeper and even more nurturing level with my oldest son after the birth of my second son. I truly believe that the use of my placenta postpartum as a dietary supplement has played the key role in allowing this entire experience to occur. I am so grateful to be able to provide this service to other postpartum mothers so that they may be able to experience a joyful babymoon too!
For more information on the research supporting and benefits of placentophagy visit Placenta Benefits.
Please, make your voice heard against The Mothers Act and Health Care Bill! This bill will effect more than just postpartum women, but many people; including children in public school via the Teen Screen.
In honor of National Nutrition Month I would like to offer a free nutritional consultation and coaching session for women trying-to-conceive; pregnant, postpartum, and nursing women; and children in the North Texas area.
This offer will expire on March 31, 2010!
To register for and schedule your free nutritional consultation and coaching session please email me at LeighAnne@DuCheneNaturalHealth.com with “National Nutrition Month Offer” in the subject line!
You only have to register for and schedule your free consultation and coaching session by March 31st! The actually session appointment can beyond March 31st.
Afternoon snack: Carrot/spinach/celery/parsley juice
Evening snack: carrot/beet/cucumber juice
Dinner: vegetable fajita lettuce wraps with homemade guacamole
Bedtime snack: 1 fuji apple
Day 3 – Tuesday, March 16th
Breakfast:
salt water
strawberry smoothie
supplements
morning snack: 2 bananas
Lunch: ground beef burrito with chili con queso, rice, refried beans, chips & salsa (too large of a meal in retrospect!! I was stuffed till bedtime, and barely felt hungry enough to juice before bed.)
Evening juice: carrot/beet/cucumber
While this was more than enough food and calories for the day, day 3 was a total flex day! I was out of the house, at our office for a teleconference, and hubby and I decided to have lunch as a family! The beauty is that this is totally fine, you just have to learn how to do it all in moderation and compensate by having more juice and smoothies the next day! This just ensures you are still feeding your body primarily optimal nutrition from fruits and veggies!
Day 4 (we are in the midst, so I will post how today goes either this evening or tomorrow!)
Exercise on Day 2 was Qi Gong exercises!!! So fantastic for you and your health!! Day 3 I was not able to get exercise in that day, which is totally fine! The beauty of a flexible program!!!
I am just making sure that I DO get to exercise today!
For information about the DuChene Nutrition and Wellness Upgrade program, please contact me for a consultation!
The DuChene Nutrition and Wellness Upgrade takes you from your current dietary and wellness style and upgrades you to a more nutritious and healthful dietary and wellness style.
I have implemented my self-designed program with myself and am documenting my daily plan and activities with The DuChene Nutrition and Wellness Upgrade here on Nourishing Origins.
The beauty of the DuChene Nutrition and Wellness Upgrade is that it does not matter if you are pregnant, nursing, or otherwise, everyone can partake and benefit from this program.
Just for the record I am exclusively nursing my 3 1/2 month old at the time of implementation of this program.
Day 1: water with liquid chlorophyll is drank throughout the day, with at minimum 64 oz of water and up to 100 oz. It is most ideal to drink 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water per day! This has always been my goal every single day, and will always be!
What I did:
Breakfast:
Himalayan Salt Water
Grapefruit juice – freshly squeezed
Basic Smoothie with blueberries
Supplements
Lunch:
carrots and hummus
walnuts and dried cranberries
Dinner:
carrots and hummus
walnuts and dried cranberries
Basic Smoothie
The Plan was:
Breakfast:
Himalayan Salt Water
Grapefruit juice – freshly squeezed
Basic Smoothie with blueberries
Supplements
Midmorning juice: carrot/spinach juice
Lunch:
carrots/beet/cucumber juice
Basic Smoothie
Afternoon juice: carrot/celery/parsley/spinach
Early evening juice: carrot/fennel
Dinner:
Salad – any type as long as no animal products (including diary), no gluten (including wheat), no corn, no soy, and minimal sugar!
Carrot juice
Bedtime juice/drink: carrot juice and/or freshly squeezed lemon juice tea.
This pattern in the plan version of the daily menu, with many many variations of the juice combinations and smoothie combinations, is what each day for the next week will resemble.
Daily exercise is a part of this program, and can come in many forms. Today’s exercise was atypical, in that I was babywearing for 4 hours while helping to move art and sculptures for an art gallery that I am connected with. TypTically daily exercise will be in the forms of Qi Qong exercises, Burst Training sessions, yoga, and/or aerobic workouts. Walking is not exercise, it is essential for life! You should be walking daily period, with or without an exercise routine. If you are not currently walking, you should start! Walk outside for a relaxing and enriching experience to connect you with nature! If you cannot walk outside, indoor walking is acceptable, but not preferred.
My body crashed this evening, I think because I was not able to juice as much or eat as much as I intended to do and planned to do, as we were out of the house longer than expected. As well as, babywearing and moving art for an extended period of time. I got home and I crashed after nursing Jude, and slept for 4 hours. Afterward, I felt 150% better! More rested and rejuvenated than I have in a long while.
Tomorrow will be more of the typical day on my program. However, this is the beauty of the program, it is VERY flexible and customizable! It is whole food based nutrition medicine! You can improve your overall health with this program with simple and easily implemented dietary and lifestyle upgrade changes.
My goal with this program is not weight-loss, though highly attainable with the program. My goal is for permanent dietary and wellness lifestyle upgrade changes to improve overall health, energy, and wellness.
This program, while safe for all, is not intended to be used in place of medical treatment, especially if already under medical care, for health conditions. Nor is it intended to be used to self-treat or self-diagnosis. This program, as with any dietary and lifestyle changing program, should be done under the supervision of a health care professional; such as a nutritionist, chiropractor, naturopath, or other natural or holistic health care practitioner. If you are on medications your program facilitator should be working with your medical doctor to ensure a safe program for your health.
I am SO excited about this program and am eager to share my own personal results, as well as, client results with The DuChene Nutrition and Wellness Upgrade!
I did this interview with Dallas Ch. 11 CBS news on December 18, 2009.
Around 80% of postpartum women experience what is known as the baby blues which starts within the first few days to a week after birth and lasts a couple of weeks postpartum. The baby blues can cause women to have mood swings, and feel fatigued, weepy, unable to sleep, irritable, anxious, and emotionally stressed. While the baby blues is considered a form of depression it usually does not last longer than a few weeks postpartum. If these signs and symptoms continue for longer then a few weeks postpartum the woman is often believed to be suffering from postpartum depression. About 20% of postpartum women will actually experience postpartum depression (PPD), which can last for months after the birth of the baby and may arise at any time within the first year postpartum. Signs and symptoms of baby blues are very similar to those of PPD, with PPD being more severe and lasting for a longer period of time.
Symptoms of PPD are:
* Lack of interest in your baby – Not desiring to hold, care for (diaper changes, feedings, etc.), or, often times, to even be near your baby. Doing these things may elicit feelings of frustration, guilt, loneliness, desperation, and sometimes even anger in the mother.
* The inability to sleep – Insomnia
* Sadness
* Weepiness – Unexplainable and often unpredictable
* Physical aches and pains
* Lack of interest in things that once were enjoyable and made you happy
* Loss or Increase in Appetite
* General anxiety and worrying
* Difficulty concentrating
* Moody or Irritable
* Withdrawal from activities, family, and friends
* Feelings of guilt – Can be general or specific, or even unidentifiable and unexplainable
* Feeling overwhelmed
* Panic Attacks – pounding heart, dizziness, confusion, feelings of impending doom, things often seem chaotic around you when they actually are not
* Negative or Scary Thoughts – Unexplainable and unpredictable
* Suicidal Thoughts – Immediately contact someone for support or help if experiencing this!
Diagnosis of PPD must be done by a health care professional.
Often times moms who experience PPD will have feelings of inadequacy as a mother, wife, and in other areas of her life. These feelings of inadequacy, lack of interest in baby, and negative or scary thoughts can have a major negative impact on mother-infant bonding. If you experience these things find support and help.
Visit the Postpartum Care Class page for a list of postpartum support resources and contacts.
There are many thoughts as to why the baby blues and PPD occur, and there are many things that can impact the postpartum mother. The experience and outcomes of the pregnancy, labor, birth, and health of the baby will all have huge implications on the mother emotionally. If a mother experienced a very traumatic birth her hormones are drastically influenced by the emotions she felt during the experience and continues to feel regarding the experience. Hormones directly affect how we feel emotionally and physically. So, it is easy to see that fatigue, moodiness, irritability, and all the other symptoms can easily manifest in the early days postpartum if a mother experiences a traumatic birth. Hormones also have an impact on the ability of the mother to lactate sufficiently or at all. If breastfeeding was desired and negatively impacted by to the hormonal imbalance that the emotions experienced during and after the traumatic birth, this will perpetuate the issues by leading to stress, feelings of guilt, inadequacy, failure, and more.
Even for women who experience their “perfect” birth, or a birth that went well and did not have a negative emotional impact on them , still experience a hormonal imbalance postpartum, all women do. George Chrousos, an endocrinologist, led a study done at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that discovered that new mothers have lower than normal levels of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) which helps the body fight off depression, regulate blood-sugar levels, and maintain normal blood pressure when experiencing stress. We all know that adjusting to life with a newborn, regardless if it is your first or fifth child, is stressful to some degree on the new mother.
So, how do we combat or, even better, strive to prevent the baby blues and PPD from starting?
This question has a multifaceted answer, as it is a combination of things that can lead to the onset, it is also a combination of things that can work to combat or prevent it.
In addition to the 8 tips that Jodi lays out in this article there is a precious gift that God has given postpartum moms to aid in their hormonal balance and physical recovery postpartum, the placenta. The study done at NIH led by Chrousos showed that the placenta produced large amounts of CRH during the end of the pregnancy and once the placenta is birthed those levels begin to drastically drop in the mother. Another study showed that placenta can alter hormones. So, that leads us to using the placenta for postpartum healing and recovery. Using the placenta for healing can be done a variety of ways; consuming it raw, cooking it in a meal, blending it in a smoothie, or freezing it in bite size pieces to be eaten or put in a smoothie; but you do NOT have to do any of these methods mentioned in order to obtain the healing benefits of the placenta. The most appealing method is to have the placenta encapsulated into pills so that you can take it just like any other supplement, along with your prenatal vitamins, which should be continued during the postpartum period as well, especially if nursing. Mothers who have taken their own placenta pills have reported mood stability, increased energy, ability to focus, and an overall general happiness. Placenta has even been shown to help aid in lactation.
With such amazing evidence to the benefits of maternal placenta consumption for postpartum healing and recovery, I believe that every mother should have the availability to keep her placenta after birth and have it made into pills if she so chooses.
I know I, personally, had amazing result from taking my placenta pills and will certainly be doing it after all my subsequent births.
Baby led feeding is an approach to solid food introduction that allows baby to explore and discover whole food on their own with parental supervision.
With baby-led feeding you give baby whole foods or foods cut into hand size spears or slices so that baby learns what is a comfortable and manageable bit size for them. This helps develop baby’s taste and texture sensations to natural food, and helps create their independence at the dinner table as well. Read More…
I, Leigh Anne DuChene, have researched, taught, and coached on holistic or natural baby-led weaning or baby-led feeding for 3 years now; through classes, online support, and one-on-one coaching.
I now offer my services through DuChene Natural Health Center’s Nourishing Origins. Our January Baby-Led Feeding classes are now scheduled, with more to come. Special offer when you register early, see below for details!
Nourishing Origins’ Baby-Led Feeding class covers all the basics and philosophy of a natural baby feeding approach. Class is held at DuChene Natural Health Center in Dallas, TX. Directions are provided via the link.
Seating is limited to 10 participants so please register early.
**SPECIAL OFFER**
**Register by February 8, 2010 and receive a complimentary workbook on baby-led feeding.**
Nourishing Origins’ Baby-Led Feeding class covers all the basics and philosophy of a natural baby feeding approach. Class is held at DuChene Natural Health Center in Dallas, TX. Directions are provided via the link.
Seating is limited to 10 participants so please register early.
**SPECIAL OFFER**
**Register by February 15, 2010 and receive a complimentary workbook on baby-led feeding.**
Baby led feeding is an approach to solid food introduction that allows baby to explore and discover whole food on their own with parental supervision.
With baby-led feeding you give baby whole foods or foods cut into hand size spears or slices so that baby learns what is a comfortable and manageable bit size for them. This helps develop baby’s taste and texture sensations to natural food, and helps create their independence at the dinner table as well. Read More…
I, Leigh Anne DuChene, have researched, taught, and coached on holistic or natural baby-led weaning or baby-led feeding for 3 years now; through classes, online support, and one-on-one coaching.
I now offer my services through DuChene Natural Health Center’s Nourishing Origins. Our January Baby-Led Feeding classes are now scheduled, with more to come. Special offer when you register early, see below for details!
Nourishing Origins’ Baby-Led Feeding class covers all the basics and philosophy of a natural baby feeding approach. Class is held at DuChene Natural Health Center in Dallas, TX. Directions are provided via the link.
Seating is limited to 10 participants so please register early.
**SPECIAL OFFER**
**Register by February 8, 2010 and receive a complimentary workbook on baby-led feeding.**
Nourishing Origins’ Baby-Led Feeding class covers all the basics and philosophy of a natural baby feeding approach. Class is held at DuChene Natural Health Center in Dallas, TX. Directions are provided via the link.
Seating is limited to 10 participants so please register early.
**SPECIAL OFFER**
**Register by February 15, 2010 and receive a complimentary workbook on baby-led feeding.**
