The Ripened Heart

homeopathic healing

Instant Pot Lentil Soup

It’s true, I’m a little bit in love with my instant pot. Ever since I got it a couple months ago, I’ve used it for everything from broth, to beans, to meat, to soup. When Em and I needed a quick lunch between meetings, I knew this was a time for the instant pot. This soup was created all with ingredients I had on hand and came together in 30 minutes. Also feel free to sub in your veggies or spices of choice. Just be sure to adjust the amount of liquid as needed, it should just cover the ingredients.

ingredients
  • 1 small yellow onion, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, diced
  • 2 small yellow potatoes, chopped
  • 3 carrots, thinly sliced
  • 3 celery stalks, thinly sliced
  • 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
  • 1 bunch kale, chopped
  • 1 tsp herbamare (or sea salt)
  • 1/2 tsp ground pepper
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • heavy dash red pepper flakes
  • 1 cup uncooked green or brown lentils, rinsed
  • 1/2 a lemon
  • parsley and yogurt to serve (optional)
to make
  • Turn your Instant Pot to the saute function and add oil of choice. Saute onion, garlic, carrots, and celery for about 5 minutes. Then add potato and let cook for another few minutes, stirring frequently to prevent garlic from burning.
  • Add salt, pepper, cumin, red pepper flakes, and turmeric and stir to coat veggies, adding more oil if needed. Cook for another two minutes.
  • Add broth, kale, and lentils to the pot. Put lid on Instant Pot and make sure you seal the vent.
  • Set the Instant Pot to Pressure (high) for 15 minutes. When the timer goes off, carefully release pressure valve using a damp towel.
  • Once pressure is released, open the pot and squeeze the juice of half a lemon into the soup. Stir and adjust seasonings as needed.
  • Serve with chopped parsley and a dollop of yogurt.

 

 

 

My Moon Time Essentials

Okay, lets just get right into it. I used to have the WORST cramps ever on the first day of my period. Not only that, but my periods were super heavy and just all around uncomfortable. Now, I definitely don’t have the “perfect” pain-free period now, but it’s so much better than it used to be. I owe it to these tools I’m about to share with you below along with being on a nutritional balancing program to address mineral deficiencies and imbalances (your body requires a ton of minerals to have a healthy period, or any period at all!) I call it my moon time because our periods are naturally synced with the 28-day waxing and waning of the moon. It shows just how connected to nature we are on all levels. Now onto the tips!

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Why Healing Isn’t Linear

For most of my life I have felt unwell. I remember as young as age 4 having chronic ear infections, intestinal gas, constipation, and muscle tension. By age 12 I was seeing psychiatrists for depression and gastroenterologists for my chronic acid reflux. Nobody ever found anything “wrong” with me. They just shoved anti-depressants, antacids, and prune juice at me and told me I was fine. But even from that early age, I had an inner knowing that something wasn’t right, regardless of what the specialists insisted.

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Coconut Horchata Smoothie

Sometimes you just need a really nourishing smoothie, even when it’s just pushing 50 degrees. I created this room-temperature smoothie with warming spices to fill the body with healthy fats, anti-inflammatory proteins, and bile thinning coconut meat. That’s right! Coconut meat is a liver decongestant. How cool is that?

Collagen is going to stand in as the anti-inflammatory protein here. These are so important to get into the diet if you consume a lot of animal protein that can cause inflammation if not balanced out by anti-inflammatory protein sources. Anti-inflammatory proteins include things like raw dairy, eggs, collagen, gelatin, bone broth, and fish. These proteins will also keep your liver nourished and happy and will help to balance metabolism. Now onto the recipe!

You’ll need
  • 1 whole coconut
  • 1/2 a frozen banana
  • 1 tsp mesquite powder
  • heavy dose of cinnamon
  • 2 scoops collagen peptides
  • 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
Process
  1. Get someone strong to open up your coconut (or maybe you’re strong! go for it!) Funnel the coconut water into your blender.
  2. Scrape out coconut meat, being sure to not get too much wood pulp and chuck that into your blender.
  3. Throw in remaining ingredients and blend on medium/high for 2 minutes or until silky smooth.
  4. Sip + enjoy!

Coping with the Gloom of Grief & Heartache

Grief has shaken me many times in my life. From losing my brother as a teenager, to feeling shaken up by moving across the country and missing home, to losing grandparents and pets this past year, I am no stranger to the grieving process. All of this grief came in different forms but at the end of the day it all felt the same. Like a kick to the stomach. A rush of agony to the heart. A knot in the throat. The sensations of a body waiting for a safe moment to cry and cry and cry. All of this is really heavy, I know. But there are ways that you can love and support yourself to make this process a little easier.

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Build Me Up Vegetable Soup

I don’t know about you, but as soon as the temperature drops below 50 degrees all I want is soups, stews, and nourishing broths. In all honesty, while I love summer produce, I’m ALL about warming winter meals. This mineral rich vegetable soup has become my new go-to when I’m feeling stressed, run-down, or when I feel like I’m in need of some extra nourishment. This makes enough to sip on for a few days. Enjoy!

Ingredients
  • 5 cups chicken broth (preferably homemade)
  • 1 yellow onion, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 Japanese sweet potato, peeled & chopped
  • 2 carrots, chopped
  • 3 celery stalks, finely diced
  • 8 oz shiitake mushrooms
  • 1 baby bok choy, chopped
  • 1 inch ginger, grated
  • 1 inch turmeric, grated
  • 1 tsp sea salt (I like herbamare, adds extra flavor)
  • 2 tsp all-purpose seasoning
  • 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 bunch of parsley, chopped
  • 1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
  • Squeeze of lemon (optional)
To Make
  1. Add 2 tbsp of oil of choice (I like butter, avocado oil, or duck fat) to a large soup pot. Add onion and saute over medium heat until translucent, about 7 minutes.
  2. Next add garlic, ginger, and turmeric for a few minutes before adding sweet potato, celery, carrots, and mushrooms to the pot. Continue to saute for another 5 minutes.
  3. Now add seasonings and quickly stir to coat veggies so they don’t burn to the bottom of the pot. Deglaze pot with a little broth if necessary.
  4. Add broth and chopped parsley and cilantro and bring to a boil. Once boiling, cover and reduce to a simmer for 30 minutes.
  5. During the last 5 minutes, add in bok choy and a squeeze or two of lemon.
  6. Adjust seasonings as needed and serve warm. I like topping the soup with gomasio, additional cilantro, and a touch of hot sauce for heat.
  7. If you want to add protein to this soup, gelatin, leftover shredded chicken, and white beans would make great additions.

Throat Chakra Activation // Three Ways

I believe that we have come to earth at this time for a very specific reason, all with unique gifts to share that impact the greater whole. Whether our gift is to teach, to practice medicine, or to build infrastructure, our voice is central to our success. Without being connected to our throat chakra, we may not be utilizing the gift of our voice to its fullest capacity. This can look like being too shy to speak up, not speaking with confidence, not speaking clearly, or being dishonest. It can be tough to speak with openness and vulnerability in a world that seems to police our speech more and more by the day. But ultimately, we all have the gift of free-will, which means it is up to us to cultivate the confidence required to speak our truth in the face of opposition.

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Why Weight Loss Shouldn’t Be Your New Year’s Resolution

The clock strikes midnight and you’re already thinking of how you’re going to start the first morning of 2018 with a green smoothie and a matcha instead of a bagel and a large coffee. Dread begins to make its way in and you block it out of your mind, returning to the party to linger in holiday bliss for just a little while longer. It will be worth it, you tell yourself. I’ll finally lose the 20 lbs that I resolved to lose last year. And the year before that. I’ll finally fit into that dress stashed away in the back of my closet.

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Everything Dies & Everything Ends : A Lesson from the Forest Floor

As the smoke continues to come barreling into Portland, I gaze out the window at a hazy sky. The sun is on fire and the forests are burning. Ash rains from the sky and covers cars, vegetable gardens, people, animals, everything. It is relentless and unforgiving. It does not judge or discriminate. It simply falls.

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Late Spring Bounty Salad

My favorite part about late Spring is that it opens the floodgates to long awaited Farmer’s Market produce that rivals any big box store. Fresh, colorful, juicy, and sometimes straight up ugly produce lines the markets and I just want to buy ALL of it. For me, the uglier the produce the better! Usually the uglier produce has a more pronounced flavor to it which is why it attracts critters in the first place.

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