Strawberry Shortcake Pie that's vegan, gluten-free and sugar-free...need I say more?

Strawberry shortcake is a decadent dessert, but you can make it a healthier option with whipped cream from our beautiful friend, Ms. Mac Nut. The Macadamia Nut Whipped Cream recipe is for all the whipped cream lovers out there.

On a nutritional level, macadamia nuts are manganese powerhouses. Manganese has some beauty-causing reactions on a cellular level for our bodies. It helps initiate the production of our skin and joint loving friend, collagen. It also helps our mitochondria (powerhouse of the cells) work better - hello, metabolism.  

Ingredients

• 1 cup of Macadamia Nuts (chopped or halved)
• 1 cup of Coconut Milk (creamier the better)
• 3 tablespoons of Sweetener (your choice - honey, agave nectar or sugar)
• 1 tablespoon of Lemon Juice
• 1 tablespoon of Pure Vanilla Extract (or a scraping from the inside of a vanilla bean pod...divinity!)
• Pinch of salt

Directions

Combine all above in a high-speed blender until homogenized (fully incorporated ingredients). Add 1/2 cup of melted coconut oil. Blend again until smooth and dollop away!  

Please note: this is an extremely high-calorie food, so you can't eat the whole bowl, but at least you won't have a tummy ache if you are sensitive to dairy. 

Props to Carmella's Sunny Raw Kitchen (thesunnyrawkitchen.blogspot.com) for inspiring us to make our own modified version of her genius recipe and thank you, Linus Pauling Institute (www.lpioregonstate.edu) for the wealth of information on manganese.

The Uglier the Better

What I like about the lilikoi is the uglier they are on the outside, the sweeter they are on the inside!  What a great metaphor for us ladies as we embrace the aging process. They drop from their extensive vine system when the ripeness is just commencing. They ripen even more on the ground but you'd better snatch em up before a chicken starts pecking away at it and compromises their protective skin barrier. There is nothing that holds more promise culinarily speaking, than a giant basket filled with ripe, freshly harvested lilikoi.

Late Summer Feast

Lilikoi season is late summer thru mid fall here in the tropics. They are dropping constantly and have an extensive ability to take over (almost invasively so) choking out other plants as they wind their tendrils around unsuspecting hosts. Sounds ominous, but I can assure you, this lovely, exotic fruit bearer not only makes gorgeous sauces, lemonades, curds, pies and marinades, the flower is not so shabby as well!  Love yourself some Lilikoi today.  

Prepare Marinade Ingredients

• 1/4 C Soy Or Tamari/Nama Shoyu
• 1 Tbsp Minced Fresh Ginger
• 1 Tbsp Minced Fresh Garlic 
• 1 Tbsp Agave, Brown Sugar or White Sugar
• Juice of 2 Lilikoi (Seeds Included)
• 2 Green Onions (Cut into Small Ringlets)
• 1 Tbsp Vegetable Oil (Can Be Omitted)
• 1/2 Tsp Crushed Red Pepper or Sambal Olec (Garlic Chili Paste of Thai Origin) 

Directions

Combine all ingredients and whisk together. Reserve 3 tablespoons of the marinade for basting tofu blocks, chicken or even beef!  Let marinade overnight. Baste with remaining marinade during the cooking process.

Enough is Enough!

Do you know who Joey Chestnut is? If you love hot dogs, you need to know who Joey Chestnut is. Joey captured his 10th 'Mustard Belt' award from Nathan’s hot dogs because he ate 72 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes. Yup, it’s true. There is some mind-blowing accolades in the world of competitive overconsumption.

Here are just a few more —

• 25.25 ice cream sandwiches in 6 minutes.
• 22 oz. Slurpee in 9 seconds (hello ice cream headache!!)
• 47 Pizza slices from a 16-inch pizza in 10 minutes
• Joey Chestnut does it again! 4.375 3 pound apple pies in 8 minutes!

Source - http://www.majorleagueeating.com/records.php

It’s an impressive website if you want to feel grotesquely curious about the human condition…

It makes my tummy hurt. 

I hope his gastrointestinal tract was soothed by the $10,000 cash prize.  Where does our fascination for these types of events come from? I was theorizing that it was an American indulgent, bigger, better, faster mentality but while researching I discovered that the Japanese bring their 'A' game to the competitions and host many in their salubriously celebrated country.  BTW, Tokeru Kobayashi is the one to watch. At 128 pounds, Tokeru ate 110 bunless weiners in 10 minutes. He’s Joey’s major competition.

I definitely don’t want to rag on hot dogs. They are delicious and hold their place in the all American BBQ. The purpose of this blog is to initiate a deeper conversation with our bodies and minds about eating. It’s a serious endeavor.  It’s especially serious when $10,000 cash prize and bragging rights are on the table…

Our 37.2 trillion cells are very interested in what is going in our mouths. Will they be able to heal and regenerate to give us the best day ever?  The body and mind connection around food is fascinating to me. I have had my own struggles with compulsive over eating so this could be the reason why these eating contests blow my mind. The one pound bag of chocolate chips wreaked havoc in my body but in the moment my mind was wonderfully pacified.

Steps to Mindful Eating

1. Ritualize your meals.  
   In other words, make eating a practice that requires your full attention.  Eating on the go means we are multi-tasking and not connecting to the wisdom of our bodies while we are eating.  Try to make time to truly enjoy the exchange that you have with your food.  It’s a multi-sensory experience so do your best to make time for this.  Start with setting the table.  We like to do a gratitude circle where we all hold hands and share one thing we are grateful for before we dig in.  Take in the colors, the aromas, the textures; it can be a multi-sensory experience or a feeding trough experience.  You decide! 
2. SLOOOOOOOWWWWW Down.  
   After raising my sweet little babes, I had to seriously change how I experienced dinner time.  Our young ones were fussy in their baby years, especially fussy at dinner time.  This meant mommy got to shuffle some food in her mouth while holding a nursing babe (my “pacifier”).  It was horrible and I distinctly remember feeling unsatisfied, bloated and malnourished after dinner.  After learning about Macrobiotic theory, I knew things had to change.  My children are older now so dinnertime means relaxing, enjoying and CHEWING my food at least 30 times.  The Macrobiotic way suggests 50 - 100 times.  Wow!  Try it.  It’s actually amazing.  Your digestive system will be forever grateful.  Easy peasy going down, absorbed and maximally utilized to heal, energize and cleanse your body just by chewing!  The enzymes that we release when we masticate amp up the power of our digestive system exponentially.  I shutter to think of all the half chewed pieces of broccoli, steak, etc., that I forced my poor system to break down.  No wonder my tummy hurt!   This is a big one - make soup in your mouth with your food before you send it down the hatch.  
3. Put your utensil down between bites.
   Simple..this one is easy and doable, right?  I appreciate it because it easily invites the first two steps into our meal time naturally.  50 - 100 bites takes at least 30 seconds…  Drop that utensil, sit back and savor the moment.  

Purslane is a very prolific "weed"  that is happy in almost any place!  This nutritional superstar is known as "'akulikuli kula" in Hawaiian and grows in forests in places where challenging growing conditions exists for most plants, but not for this one. It has a zingy lemony flavor. Add to your salads, smoothies or make a pesto with some.  

Purslane consumption cranks up our immune system with its high amount of Vitamin C and Zinc, boosts our brain power, regulates metabolism, loves our hearts and much more with Omega 3 Fatty Acids and some Vitamin E in all it's glory too (skin, eyes, immune health, etc.). Purslane contains more Omega 3 Fatty Acids than any other food, including salmon!  So, feel free to indulge and load up on nutrition! I'll take my medicine today in the form of a Purslane Peppy Pesto, please! 

Ingredients

• 1 Cup of Loosely Packed Purslane (Leaves and/or Stems)
• 2 Cloves of Fresh Garlic
• 2 tbs of Healthy Nuts (Walnuts, Pine Nuts, Marcona Almonds, Pecans, Pepitas - Experiment!)
• 1/4 tsp of Sea Salt
• 1 tbs Olive Oil

Directions

Gather a decent handful purslane. The leaves have a more lemony flavor, but if you enjoy the flavor of the stems, include them in the mix. Remember to rinse well! Purslane tends to get dirty living so close to the ground. Gritty pesto - no, thanks! Toss your purslane harvest into a food processor with the listed ingredients. Blend together until you have a decadent, zippy condiment to smear on fresh bread, add to pasta, or to enjoy any other way! Either way, you will up the nutrition of your plate and excite your taste buds!