beautify inside & out

Join me for a webinar to help you make a dazzling lasting impression on others. Are you ready to finish off the holiday season with more confidence to attract your deepest desires? Sign up here to receive the link to join this webinar. Replays will be sent to you, as well! https://app.flodesk.com/form/6744b903439da77f51753d06

xox,

Intentional Generosity and why it can be the best gift you offer during ...

I have a secret that I share with those who really want to know my recipe for vitality. My health and beauty routine includes herbs and supplementation to improve my nutrient intake. This is important to have good energy and to improve nourished blood in the body. This is critical for the nourishment of all the organs, which are key in our body’s wellness.

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If this is interesting to you, drop me a comment! I would love to share more with you about this routine that can help you beautify from the inside & out. If you like this kind of content, mosey over to www.beautifyfaceyoga.com and learn more about my holistic work! 

xox,  Angela

Sipping bone broth is a healthful addition of fluids to our diet. If you already do this. Perhaps you have found that this ritual can get dull and requires an enlivened palate to continue on with this nourishing wellness habit. Adding collagen to your diet with this fresh broth will plump up your skin and connective tissues. This is a great help to joint pain and arthritis. Drinking broth also adds minerals and improved vitality.

Begin with the carcass of a perfectly roasted chicken. The preparation for all of these ingredients should include gentle love throughout the process. 

Please find photos of one of my favorite preparations for a roasted chicken, including butterflying the bird for a shorter roasting time. For the most luscious tender breast meat, bake breast side down. Season in your favorite ways. The above preparation included a quick smearing of ghee, pink sea salt, fennel seeds, zatar, additional sumac, black pepper, and cinnamon sticks for a subtle perfume which ripples through the meat. Roast to 165 - 170 degrees to allow for coagulation of blood marrow in the bones. This will offer a clearer broth in the final product. 

Spring Chicken Bone Broth 

Bones from one roasted chicken (organic / free-range)

2-4 chicken feet 

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar or lemon juice (helps draw out marrow and minerals)

Pound chicken and feet with cleaver or meat mallot. Break open bones and allow for ease in release of minerals and marrow.

Into a stock pot, add vinegar or lemon juice and cover completely (about 7 - 10 cups) in filtered water and simmer for 2 hours. Continue to simmer for up to 12 hours to relinquish all possible minerals from bones. 

Add vegetables and flavorings. This ensures the vitality in flavor and added nutrition from these ingredients. This also enables spices to marry for a shorter steeping period and enables the best efficacy of the essential oils to flavor your tongue. Overcooking can create off flavors in vegetables and spices. 

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 celery stocks, chopped

1 fennel bulb, chopped

2 garlic cloves

1 inch ginger, peeled, and sliced

1 inch fresh turmeric, peeled and sliced

to taste: black pepper cloves, clove 

Bones from one chicken (organic/free-range)

6 peppercorns

2 fresh bay leaves

2 fresh sage leaves

1 cardamom pod

5 fresh thyme sprigs

Cook for 1 hour. The final product will be a liquidy broth suitable for drinking on its own or creating a soup for lunch. Strain and continue to reduce liquid if you are seeking a lushness with obvious presence of collagen. 

Cool and store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days or freeze after cooling. Use within 3 months to ensure freshness and vitality of broth.

How to drink:

Drink warm throughout the day to hydrate and enrich daily diet.

Heat and add fresh small chopped vegetables to create a nutritional meal with fiber and added benefits. Suggestions for chopped vegetables: Stinging nettles, mushrooms, fennel, ginger, turmeric, cilantro, holy basil, sweet basil, tarragon, dandelion greens, kale, bok choy, burdock root, scallions, carrots, jicama, and so many others. Get creative!

Adding grains like rice, quinoa, mung beans would offer some substance. 

Adding cut up chicken would round out the wholeness of this soup. 

Dreams of Summer Birthdays and Play ~ Hello Autumn!

Lush fullness envelopes my tummy as I ponder the last remnants of berries and tomatoes which fill my Eat Well Farm weekly vegetable delivery. We have taken in all of summer’s offerings and will never be ready to move on. An entire culture agrees with me, as I am able to purchase fresh berries and tomatoes throughout the seasons. 

However, anyone who eats with a soul and a brain understands the specialness of the perfectly ripened fruits of summer. It lingers like a favorite song or an encounter with an old friend. The current divinity of true and lasting love like that of variations of greens available during most seasons in California brings satisfaction in knowing these are always fresh and close to home. We are so lucky to have fresh foods plucked from the Earth so readily available. 

In our house, we have summer birthdays to celebrate and we do so with great bouts of baking sessions. In San Francisco, this is a dream, as it warms up the house on those chilly foggy summer days. Getting out of the city to discover warmer parts of the Bay Area consumes other parts of our weeks at home. It’s hard to say goodbye to activity-filled days with kids and house guests.

Hello Autumn! A slower time of seasonal rhythm presents an autumn birthday and the opportunity to create a rich chocolate masterpiece for my wonderful husband. Chocolate is a perfect enlivener for slow autumnal weekends of football watching and enjoying the children’s activities. 

Slow Food = Still Life Holiday 2016 Reflections

We still have our Christmas tree. However, we are mostly de-cluttered from holiday activities. This year was different for me. I took the time to enjoy my immediate family. I invested in our time together as the best gifts for my children. I sent tokens of love to our extended family. However, this year, my focus was truly on togetherness.

We did some cooking and indulging, but I am finding that in the Slow Foods nature of dining and enjoying meals together, I applied this to devoting undivided attention to my children. It meant that I did not accomplish my goal of making meringue mushrooms and a buche de noel. I never made that hand-crafted gingerbread house I promised. However, we did share time making hot cocoa, roasting chestnuts, cocktails, and hand-plucked clean pomegranite seeds. 

We also shared stories and time with friends from near and far. We didn’t get to spend time with everyone we wanted. Letting go of these “if only” ideas and embracing the moments we do spend with our loved ones was a great gift to myself. 

I find that in all of the doing and making of food, gatherings, and events -- time connecting can be misplaced. Working together does not always lend itself to quality time with our co-workers (children, husband, colleague), but it can boost morale! Rather, allocating time for wakeful stillness with our family and friends fosters an elevation in our relationships. 

This new awareness has me seeking cozy gatherings requiring little pre-preparation and a loose sensibility. Organic spontaneity and surprise blossom from the manufactured structure of stillness with others. These are the bits of life that happen when we ARE paying attention. 

Autumnal Ingredient Confusion or SAD?

Many people discuss the experiences of Seasonal Affective Disorder, known as SAD. However, it goes without much discussion the Autumnal Confusion I experience living in the San Francisco Bay Area during the Fall Season. I grew up in the South, and I haven’t lived there for over 20 years.

However, habituation is not strong enough re-set the internal seasonal calendar. Becoming confused when the Fall run of raspberries are aplenty next to the Fall squashes like kabocha, delicata, and butternut. Each representing different seasons of Summer and Autumn, I am not sure if I need to make a jam or roast squash.

This certainly isn’t a difficult problem to manage. Abundance is a precious and valuable luxury to enjoy! 

During the month of October, I made a shaggy chocolate birthday cake for my adoring husband. It was a busy month, including a bit of work on a fundraiser for my kids’ school, Dianne Feinstein Elementary. The annual Walkathon served up roasted vegetable sandwiches, and we are so grateful for Bi-Rite Market &  Eat Well Farm’s donations of Fall squash and greens to create a seasonal offering for our attendees. 

As my kitchen was warm and cozy from baking cakes and roasting vegetables I discovered a warm October morning to offer a wonderful moment to enjoy a bowl of fresh raspberries and refresh a bit.

I find roasting squash to be a pleasure to do en masse. Roast several in one go and then store in the fridge for the rest of the week. Add to salads, stir fry, pasta, sandwiches, and top off to your oatmeal. Bring these nurturing vegetables to every meal and enjoy the benefits of added Vitamin A, antioxidants, and fiber into your diet.

Enjoy the sensory experience of tasting Autumnal ingredients like roasted squash into your diet.

How to roast the perfect sliced squash:

Scrub the outside of squash very well, until completely clean.

Halve squash and remove seeds and fiberous insides. Extract seeds and roast until toasty in another pan.

Slice squash into equal pieces. 

Drizzle with oil (olive, coconut, grapeseed, your choice).

Sprinkle with sea salt & grated nutmeg.

Evenly distribute on baking pan.

Bake in preheated oven at 375 for 15 - 20 minutes (may need longer).

Squash is done, with a fork easily pierces flesh.

Cool & enjoy.

Professional tips

Store in airtight container in fridge for up to 5 days.

Nutmeg brings out the umami flavor in squash. A natural enhancer to autumn squash.

Slow Soul Food - Coconut Flour Baking

Exploring coconut flour baking has been an adventure. Inspired by my family, I want to serve them healthy and nutritious foods. We all love dessert and bread. I don’t think we’ll ever give up wheat! Giving up sugar completely is just a sad idea. However, I do prefer having a wholesome snack and breakfast bread in the kitchen at all times. A protein packed snacking breakfast bread is ideal for sustained energy. A little “dessert” in the kids’ lunch boxes keeps them interested and ready to settle in for lunch.

I’ve been seeking to conquer this challenge to suit my palette and create a product that my family will actually eat. Through many trials and working with several blogs about coconut flour cakes, I have been unsatisfied. Cooking with coconut flour is a proving ground that not only is this a shift in the mindset about the traditional process of baking, but also it is a bit expensive. Requiring many eggs more than a simple leavened wheat flour cake, I don’t want to bake a cake that is going to flop. I don’t have the money or time to waste. 

Anything that I serve my family or others simply needs to taste good. I can’t serve up something on the notion of pure healthfulness. It isn’t going to fly with my group, and whatever I personally consume needs to satisfy my soul and provide an opportunity to slow down and reflect on being connected to my kitchen, my world. 

There are many folks whose kitchen worlds must include their gluten intolerance. There are many reasons to explore this and the other hip diets like these: Paleo, Gaps, Veganism. Some reasons are directly related to individual medical or political concerns. As an enthusiastic do-gooder cook, I have been greeted with home baked goodies like this by some excitedly political-minded folks who have just discovered the brilliance of these alternative food plans. I admire the willingness to commit to austerity on any level, as I do not possess such discipline.

As an epicurean, I find it necessary to be open to trying all foods. It is a commitment that I have to dining and culture. Learning about others through food lies at the seat of my soul. Therefore, for the fostering of good relationships with friends and developing forwardly modern approach to baking, I offer up this lovely coffee cake recipe to you. With special notes on how to make this a Paleo cake -- I find the additional use of buttermilk, while not Paleo, make this coconut cake deliciously moist. Buttermilk, in general, often makes magic happen in cooking. 

Whether I am running around and need to fit in a Slow Food moment of taking a break to nourish my body with wholesome food, or if I have the time to sit with my kids and enjoy a treat and a laugh together, I simply love this cake and look forward to eating it. I don’t feel like I’ve given up sweets or grains. I don’t even feel like it is healthy -- it is just GOOD! 

Taking the time to make food that you love from scratch and thoughtfully nourishing your body with good protein makes you strong. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Coconut Snack Cake

Cake Ingredients

112 grams coconut flour (1 cup)

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp baking soda

145 grams coconut sugar (1 cup)

250 grams eggs (8 each)

50 grams buttermilk (1/2 cup) *for Paleo/Vegan diet, substitute coconut milk)

71 grams butter or coconut oil, cubed (5 Tbs)

1 Tbs vanilla extract

Topping Ingredient

12 oz nuts (I used a mix or unsweetened raw coconut flake & almonds)

2 tsp cinnamon

85 grams honey (4 Tbs)

57 grams butter or coconut oil, cubed (4 Tbs)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Prepare 8″ X 8″ square cake pan with oil and parchment lining.

Into a food processor, add all dry cake ingredients. Pulse to blend.

Add remaining ingredients, blend until smooth. 

Pour into prepared pan. Scrape out of food processor bowl.

Into the same food processor bowl, gently pulse all topping ingredients to create a crumble. 

Top cake batter with crumble topping. Press gently into cake to ensure topping adheres to cake when you slice and eat it.

Bake for 30 - 40 minutes. Cake is done when just set and golden brown in appearance. Allow to cool for 20 minutes prior to cutting.

Special Notes:

Cake is delicious the day it is prepared, but holds well for a few days in an airtight container. 

Cake does not freeze well. The coconut cake tends to become very crumbly if frozen.

If substituting coconut milk and coconut oils into the batter, your cake may be a bit drier than if you use suggested dairy products. 

Inspiration for this cake is found from these amazing bloggers:

Deliciously Organic

Gluten Free Girl