Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Fun Fair Fare

This is a fun menu designed for the Polycello Staff Appreciation Day with a Carnival theme in Belleville. The "Food on a Stick" lends itself well to the theme, but also to eating while mingling within the group. I think some of these items would work well for a Tapas style event.

Breakfast
    Chocolate Dipped Bananas
Rainbow Fruit Keebobs
Funnel Cakes w Berries
Sausage in Puff on a Stick
Bacon & Eggs on a Stick
French Toast on a Stick
Donut Hole Skewers
 
Dinner

Corn Cob Puppies (Homemade Pogos)
Pulled Pork on Soft Crusty Buns
Beef Sliders
Honey Chicken Skewers
Oven Fried Chicken on a Stick
 
Nachos w Con Queso
       Honey Pepper Parmesan Popcorn
Salad on a Stick
Corn on the Cob on a Stick
Cheese and Pickles on a Stick

Caramel and Candy Dipped Apple Slices
Rainbow Fruit Keebobs
Funnel Cakes



Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Gluten Free Products

Sauces and Soups

Chicken Gravy   1/2c Frozen Portions  - $2.50

Breads

Mini Herbed Brazilian Buns  6  -$4
GF French Bread  1/2 Loaf  - $3.75
GF Sandwich Bread  1/2 Loaf   -$3.75

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Love Your Liver



         The liver manufactures 13,000 different chemicals and maintains 2,000 internal enzyme systems. At the same time, it filters hundreds of litres of blood and produces almost a litre of bile every day. Usually, it’s crammed with alcohol, fat, caffeine, processed food and cigarette smoke that all damage it. Luckily, it is the only organ known to readily regenerate itself. However, abused to the point of damage, the resulting imbalance resonates throughout the whole body system, creating ever larger health problems if left unchecked.


          This is a comprehensive list of symptoms, indicators, and diseases that surround an unhealthy liver:

abnormal bleeding/ acne, skin rashes, eczema, psoriasis /auto-immune diseases/cancer/chronic depression/chronic fatigue syndrome/chronic food, chemical, or environmental allergies/chronic headaches/ indigestion, bloating, and gas/chronic insomnia/cirrhosis of the liver/constipation/Crohn’s disease or colitis/difficulty concentrating/fatty liver/fibromyalgia/gallstones or gallbladder removal/heart problems/heavy metal toxicity/hepatitis A, B, or C/high cholesterol/high triglycerides/jaundice/low blood sugar (hypoglycemia)/low energy/low sex drive/migraines/multiple chemical hypersensitivity/osteoarthritis/overweight in excess of 20 lbs (9 kg) or obesity/past surgery on intestines/recreational drug and alcohol use/senility/dementia/thyroid problems/type 1 and 2 diabetes/yeast overgrowth (candida)

         Proven to be damaged by stress and called the emotional house in Chinese medicine. It makes scientific sense that happy people heal faster and are generally healthier when we consider the liver’s health. Liver health is fundamental to all health. It’s name “liver” derived from Anglo-Saxon “lifer” or English “life”, it is inextricably key to living well. We undervalue this amazing part of our bodies and should really pay it some reverence.



Here’s a brief, superficial, summary about the functions that the liver performs for you every single day...


The Liver’s Role in Digestion
         Hepatocytes, a type of cell found in the liver, produce bile. Bile is released into the digestive tract in order for the body to absorb fats. We require certain fats, especially Essential Fatty Acids for many biological functions, including digestion itself and also for optimum brain function. The liver processes the digested food from the intestine and controls levels of fats, amino acids and glucose in the blood. Diabetes can result when this function is out of whack along with the foundations for a plethora of other digestive disorders.
         The liver also stores Iron, and Vitamins such as B12 & A, and various other non water soluble nutrients. Not only is the liver responsible for breaking down foods, it also stores and turns food into energy when it’s required.  Foreign toxins introduced to the stomach such as heavy metals, pollutants, pesticides and alcohol, and drugs, especially, acetaminophen, anti-biotics, and contraceptives are neutralized in the liver and processed to be assimilated by the body.


Your Liver Fights Infection
         Your liver plays a vital role in fighting infections, particularly infections arising in the bowel. It does this by mobilising part of your body’s defence mechanism called the macrophage system. The liver contains over half of the body’s supply of macrophages, known as Kuppfer cells, which literally destroy any bacteria that they come into contact with. Bile excreted by the liver also acts as an antibacterial in the small intestine.


A Major Factor in Circulatory Health
         The liver is a major site of thromobopoietin production. Thrombopoietin is a hormone that regulates the production of platelets by the bone marrow. Platelets are found in the blood and are responsible for proper blood clotting and triggering the healing process of wounds. Platelets also play a significant role in the repair and regeneration of connective tissue and potentially modulate inflammatory processes by interacting with white blood cells.
         The liver produces albumin a major component of blood serum. Albumin is essential for maintaining the osmotic pressure needed for proper distribution of body fluids in intravascular compartments and body tissues, playing a role in water retention. It also acts as a carrier for hydrophobic steroid hormones like testosterone and hydrophobic vitamins such as A, E and K. It also acts as a carrier protein for iron containing hemin and fatty acids.


         And so, ... you ask, ...what is one to do to help out this hugely overburdened organ, the liver? We should, ideally be starting with an all juice/raw vegetable and fruit fast for a few days, 3-5. Organic fruits and veggies are best, the pesticides found on non-organic produce are a poison to you and tax your liver, immensely. After your fast you should continue to avoid animal protein, especially fish, all fats, processed sugars, caffeine and for personal reasons I recommend omitting wheat products. You should reintroduce slowly, paying close attention to your body’s reaction to the foods. Simple food is best. Don’t eat anything that has a paragraph of chemical ingredients.
         Be sure to include the following in your diet:
bananas, kelp, alfalfa sprouts and green leafy vegetables,
soybeans, chickpeas, beans (black beans are one of the best) also include almonds,
and other nuts, brewer’s yeast, grains and seeds,
goat’s milk and products made from goat’s milk,
 black strap molasses, brown or long grain rice
          Known, especially, for their benefit to the liver are beets, carrots, apples, artichokes and lemons (I do the juice of a full lemon in a glass of distilled water first thing in the morning).


         Herbals have been proven to improve liver function. It has long been known by European cultures that “bitters” help to stimulate the digestion. These “bitters are, in fact, choleretics, that help to stimulate bile production. Dandelion root, chicory, and vervain are all choleretics. Silymarin found in Milk Thistle is best liver protector, known to also stimulate re-growth of the liver.
         The following is a list of herbs that are known for their benefits to the liver…
Milk Thistle/ Dandelion/Burdock/Barberry/
Yellow Dock/Celandine/Golden Seal/Wild Oregon Grape/
Red Clover/Shizandra/Black Radish
        Taurine, an amino acid, is beneficial in supplement form throughout the liver healing process as well as raw liver extract and Lecithin.
        Aloe Vera Juice (2oz/day) is the first step to healing any digestive disorder followed by regular periodic use to maintain it’s benefits.
        I also recommend a month of liver support herbals, either in a prepared “Liver Cleanse” formula, ready to go, from your local drug store or another option, especially, if you find the whole ordeal confusing, but are impressed by the importance of liver health is to contact me, Rebecca Belanger for a play by play e-mail supported regimen, with an herbal formula designed especially for you, taking into consideration your specific state of health, blood type, and lifestyle…


                                                                                         Yours, BB






Composting in the City



          Composting fights against soil erosion and provides a superior alternative to chemical fertilizers for the lawn, flower beds, and the vegetable garden. Chemical fertilizer alternatives wash away quickly and do nothing to permanently repair soil deficiency. Compost builds good soil structure and texture by creating aggregate particles in the soil. These aggregates or “clumps” promote aeration, water drainage and nutrient retention. Adding compost to a poor soil can repair nearly any deficiencies.

         So, to put it all together for you; compost provides and releases plant nutrients, protects against drought, controls pH, supports essential bacteria, feeds helpful earthworms, stops nutrient leaching, acts as a buffer against toxins in the soil, controls weeds, and conserves a nonrenewable energy resource.
      
         Why aren’t you composting? Are you afraid of offending your neighbours with the smells of putrefaction?
    
     There are many ways to compost on a small or large scale and there’s an appropriate method to suit to any situation, even an apartment balconygarden!

     The 3 keys to a “working” outdoor compost pile are simple…

i) moisture level; compost should be as damp as a moist sponge, but not sopping or dripping.

ii) aeration; Anaerobic (no air)conditions create the worst smells… aeration speeds the decomposition process integrally, the more you turn your pile to aerate it the faster the compost will digest. Turning your pile twice a year is alright, you can have finished compost within a year or two, but turning a pile every three days, for instance can yeild finished compost in as little as a month. A good happy medium is twice a month. Some hardware stores supply rolling barrel composters that turn with a crank. How easy is that?!
        Be sure to mix the kitchen waste with an equal amount of yard waste i.e. grass clippings or leaves, then sprinkle with a layer of soil and a little more yard waste to keep down smells. That means keeping a separate pile of grass clippings and leaves and for heaven sake , don’t throw them out with your trash!

iii) nitrogen ; Nitrogen is considered an activator for a compost pile. Nitrogen is required by the bacteria and fungi doing all the hard work in the compost. It is also required as a nutrient by plants that will later feed off of the compost. An easy, effective, source of usable nitrogen is bloodmeal (you can by it in the gardening section of the hardware store), approximately 1:15 weight ratio to yard waste and food scraps. Another easy source of nitrogen is human urine, yup, you heard me, encourage the boys to pee on your compost pile rather than against the side of the garage. They’ll be happy to oblige you, I’m sure!


There you have it! Give it a shot. It’s easy and forgiving and the reward is great…


Rich, loamy, dark humus for a beautiful garden;The good gardener’s secret weapon, and an intitiative to contribute back to the earth…         






BB

Friday, March 12, 2010

The Importance of Cleansing

Incorporate a few more high fiber choices into your diet, try an herbal tea helper or tailored herbal capsule, and give your digestive system a break from harder to digest foods once a week, to get a great “house cleaning” routine going…


A Spring Cleaning for one’s home is an important thing to do. Washing down the walls, the windows, and cleaning out the cobwebs, unuseful debris and rubbish is integral to making one’s self feel good about one’s environment.

It makes just as much sense, if not more, to clean out our temple, our body, sweeping out toxins and fat deposits. It’s the best way to start a diet and it just happens spring is the best time of the year for renewal and refreshment. A Spring Cleanse revitalizes the digestive system and can flush the liver, and sweep the intestines, brushing away unmentionables that are clinging to the walls. It is a fact that at any given time there can be up to 2 and a half kilos of refuse clinging to your intestinal walls. Gross, eh?

If you are up to it, a cleanse can also eliminate parasites of various types, the deeper reach creates a more intense reaction; headaches, flu like symptoms, at times, even a skin eruption of pimples or blisters, but it can be worth the trouble when one faces genetic predisposition to cancers, diabetes, heart disease, or other chronic conditions that prey upon general lack of health.

Cleansing can also have beneficial effects for women during menopause and premenstrual cycles, lessening the difficult symptoms associated with them such as hot flashes, cramps, and bloating.

All in all, a cleanse has so many benefits that you would be silly not to employ it in your battle for health, weight management, and longevity.

There are many types of cleanses that can be used, yearly, quarterly (my preference) monthly, or even weekly. I advocate a multifaceted gentle cleansing, to broaden the impact without the intensity of a deep tissue cleanse; something that is easy to incorporate into your routine.

Herbals are an amazing tool in cleansing. I employ several different herbs for a wholistic effect. The Blue Butterfly offers a comprehensive blend in an easy & tasty tea, consisting of dandelion root, red clover, burdock, nettle, rose hips, licorice root, and either a pinch of cayenne or ginger, depending on blood type. The effect of the tea is a full body cleanse with a focus on the hepatic and digestive systems, where many chronic problems begin. Drinking two cups of this tea, daily, over a period of ten days is a highly effective way of invigorating your liver, pancreas, stomach, blood, kidneys, and small intestine.

If you aren’t a fan of teas, capsules filled with an army of herbal cleansers can be easily employed, as well. With capsules, taste is not a factor, and a heavier arsenal can be used; among them black walnut, and garlic, two of my favorite heavy weights for expelling polluting toxins. The Blue Butterfly prepares tailored herbal capsules at very reasonable rates. A two week supply of cleansing capsules costs only $20. Compare that to the trendy, highly overpriced Herbal Magic plan or other trendy cleansers that are giving you a lot of cheap fillers for comparative prices.(these fillers are typically fiber that can actually cause serious damage if taken incorrectly)

Drinking a cleansing specific tea or taking a comprehensively prepared herbal capsule, regularly, is a very good start to keeping things fresh. Eliminating meat!! One must always be aware of replacing meat proteins with plant proteins, in order to keep your body at it’s optimum. Eat beans with long grain or brown rice and corn to get a full protein spectrum. We crave when we don’t get what we need, sometimes leading to over compensation with excessive eating and the beginning of a vicious cycle that is hard to break.

A cleanse would not be complete without the intestinal sweep with fiber. It is proven that the largest single change to the diet that delivers the highest impact on health is the addition of adequate amounts of fiber. I used to advise my friends to use psyllium for a good two week period to get a good fiber sweep, but have since been illuminate to the fact that many people are unaware that they must take their fiber with adequate amounts of water or they will suffer horribly with constipation, the side effects of which can be quite painful. Now I advise a more natural way of getting in fiber, through conscious food choices.

It is recommended that we ingest 30-40g of fiber a day. Beans and legumes are our best choices for fiber, also supplying amino acids that help fill the meatless protein requirements for our “veggie days”. Women should reach for the edemame, specifically, as a source of phytoestrogens, and other estrogen stabilizing phytonutrients. Ground flax sprinkled on top of a bowl of fresh fruit and yoghurt in the morning is another fantastic habit to form, delivering a fantastic insoluble fiber that gives us a good sweep. An apple a day is my favorite recommendation to make to my friends with a solid 5g of fiber it is a very easy way to get both soluble and insoluble fiber. I recommend eating apples before a large meal, especially if you are dieting or have Type 2 Diabetes for it’s netting effect on simple sugars, keeping them from passing through the stomach lumen and later being stored as fats.

A few little parting thoughts regarding the cleansing process; cardiovascular workouts are the best way to push out toxins, toxins are typically stored within fat tissue, eliminating fat helps to eliminate these deep tissue toxins, and last of all…



… changes that are made permanently, if even only small, have much larger effects than an extreme measure taken for a week.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

The Perfect Day for Fat Melting

         So, you’ve started your day perfectly…
(See the post Morning Fat Melting) Woke up, downed a glass of OJ with your whole herb supplement, reaching deeply into your otherwise empty blood. You did your 20 minute cardio rev up before hoping into the shower. After your shower you ate a high protein diet with some good EFAS(oils) and fresh fruit.
         You weren’t hungry all morning long. You’ve made it to lunch time, feeling great. Now, keep it going!


Lunchtime
         Lunchtime for me is a good time for a generous quantity of mixed vegetables. You could try a salad topped with a boiled egg, pulled chicken or some nuts. A homemade oil vinaigrette will help deliver your needed EFAs. Or have a bowl of soup, being sure that it’s low sodium and avoid cream or pastas in them. Soups are a great way to jam in some great nutrients in a warm, all in one, ready to go serving! Try to avoid the side of bread or crackers or choose amaranth instead of wheat, if you must. Choose a rice paper or lettuce wrap for a convenient hand held lunch. Always be sure to include a generous serving of protein which will sustain you longer than sugars and mix it up between plant and animal proteins. Low fat cheese as a side…or Hummus (which contains partial proteins) with raw vegetables is fantastic lunchtime fare. Or try beans combined with rice in a wrap for a full vegetable protein alternative to meat.


Cut out the Wheat & Simple Sugars too!
         Newly discovered evidence has bent my perspective slightly into cutting out wheat products as much as possible. With more scientific research I believe that I will only reinforce the thought that we have created a bane to our own health by genetically modifying wheat products to contain more gluten.


         What wheat does that may concern those trying to shed unwanted toxin containing fat tissue is trip the insulin production response in they same way that simple sugars do, telling the body to store all available fats and sugars as fat tissue. Some foods that are high in simple sugars to avoid are potatoes, corn, and carrots.  Breads, cakes, pop, and fruit juices, as well, of course.


          You want your body to burn up the food fuel not store it!

 
Dinnertime
         It’s dinner, you’ve been so good all day long… no bread, no simple sugars, no pop… You’ve almost clinched a perfect nutritional day! The key to maintaining any nutritional plan is planning, really. It doesn’t have to be that much effort, either. It can be a simple as preparing your grocery list, according to the meals that you plan on having for the week and having a rough schedule in your mind. Don’t allow the kids to sway you into McD’s. It’s better for them too… as a parent you are responsible for instilling proper nutrition in them too.


         Keep to your rules… no breads, no simple sugars, no pop… Serve a good amount of lean protein in your meals,(fish, chicken, tenderloin), lots of high density nutrient vegetables, like broccoli, kale, napa cabbage, beets, sweet potatoes, gren beans, or edmame. Go fresh whenever possible, keeping in mind that frozen is better than canned for sodium content and conserving nutrient integrity. Balance your meal off with some high fiber grains or high fiber vegetables and some good ol’ EFAs… using canola oil in your cooking can help you to get your intake of EFAs. Salmon is another fantastic source. Reach for the rice as your carbohydrate, preferably long grain or better still brown. Over processed Uncle Ben’s or Sidekicks have way too much sodium and act much like gluten and simple sugars in your body… not good. (Storing everything as fat, remember?)


         In this fast paced society that we find ourselves packaged processed meals are becoming a favorite choice. Many are chemically laden and most are hugely over processed. Blue Butterfly offers a new choice to Quinte West for prepared meals that are made with all fresh and largely locally grown vegetables and fruits with an option for Organic.

E-mail us for more info on ordering and delivery. bluebutterflycatering@gmail.ca


Check out “Healthiest Meals to Date” on the Blog spot http://bluebutterflycatering.blogspot.com/ for some fantastic options!

Stay posted for the next article:


Exercise, Snacks, and other Tips for Fat Melting



Friday, February 5, 2010

Valentine's Day



Discreet Deliveries on Wednesday, February 10th and Friday, February 12th.
Pending requests there is a possibility of hot meal delivery on Sunday the 14th.