Updates from Leah Negrin

Well it's been a whirlwind of a week and yet again it's only Wednesday when this thought comes to mind 😂. I had been meaning to share some of my knowledge that I seem to think everyone just knows, but as I'm reminded by others, indeed everyone does not know what I know (really we all have unique knowledge even if we all had the same degrees or life experience!) Today's focus is drum 🥁 roll please......gut health!

I could write pages upon pages upon pages to discuss this with plenty of sources but we'll keep it simple for now🙂 (if you want more info feel free to DM me!) Here are a list of some foods that have been shown to help many with their gut microbiome (myself included!) It isn't just that our gut health can be helpful with digestion and bowel movements but our gut health impacts our mental health too! So let's keep both our brains happy and add in some of these yummy foods below!👇

Sauerkraut: It is rich in probiotics, potassium, vitamins C and K. Choose an unpasteurized sauerkraut as pasteurization destroys most of the beneficial bacteria. (when I'm having a legit gut health attack I eat this straight out of the jar, is it fun? NO lol but sometimes not fun=feeling better lol)

Kimchi: Fermented cabbage, has much of the same probiotics, vitamins, and antioxidants as sauerkraut. This food can be pretty spicy depending upon your choice of brand/recipe so I tend to opt for sauerkraut.

Kombucha: The booch. So many fun things about this probiotic tea can be said, but again we'll keep it simple. Basically this tea starts with a SCOBY starter, which if you have ever swallowed one of these you know they aren't the most fun, but don't worry, you can still consume this yummy beverage without having that happen🙂 One of my favorite brands is Kevita, it's lighter and has a slightly different fermentation process than some of the other booches on the market (although I love a lot of those too!)

Coconut yogurt: The GTS coconut yogurt (I opt for plain) is hands down one of the best products to help support gut health and those dealing with candida.

Tempeh: Fermented of the soybeans (or if you can find a chickpea version). Because of the fermentation process tempeh (no matter which type) has some probiotics to help pump up that gut health.

Miso: Miso paste can be turned into a wide variety things but for the sake of keeping it simple many people use it to make a miso soup or I have used it to make a 'cheesy' sauce to go on zoodles or my veggies. Miso has many antioxidants, B vitamins, and beneficial probiotic bacteria. In case you're making a soup, don't use hot water with the miso paste as it can kill the bacteria present, so use warm water🙂

Hope some of these tidbits help make your gut a bit happier this week🙂

Veggie soup to me is one of the easiest things to make in the kitchen. I generally throw in whatever veggies are in the fridge or freezer, some garlic, veggie broth and go! This recipe is a little more structured to give everyone an idea of how to make your own veggie magic ✨

Veggie Soup Recipe: 

Serves about 8

1 box of organic vegetable broth
4 organic potatoes cut into cubes
1 bunch of organic Bok choy ripped or cut into pieces (or organic spinach if bok choy isn't available!)

1-3 cups of organic broccoli (I end up using frozen a lot, depending upon season and travel plans)
2 chopped organic red bell peppers (this could be orange, green or yellow-whatever floats your boat!)
4 organic celery stalks
½ of an organic onion
4 whole organic carrots cut
2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast (I use this brand because there is no synthetic folate in it and it tastes delicious!)
2-3 bay leaves
2-3 organic garlic gloves
1 tbsp of olive oil (I'll use coconut oil at times as well!)
Salt and pepper to taste (I don't love pepper so I don't end up using this, but I know I'm the exception with this)

First put the bay leaves and the vegetable broth into large pot on low heat. Next chop up the onions and garlic gloves and sauté in separate pan (when I'm time crunched I simply sauté these in the soup pot before I add in the bay leaves and veggie broth). After those are cooking, cut up the potatoes and the carrots and put into the large pot with the vegetable broth. Once the potatoes and carrots are cooking cut up the rest of the vegetables and add them along with the nutritional yeast.

Let cook until the carrots and potatoes are your desired texture, whether more mushie or a little crunchy! 

When I have time to make breakfast I love to make a tofu scramble. For years I have tried to perfect my recipe and although it changes from time to time the below recipe is what I tend to start with. I took the recipe from one of my favorite bloggers the Minimalist Baker and changed it a bit. The tofu scramble is a great breakfast to start your day, protein, fiber and vegetables!

Serves about 2 or 1 person for two breakfasts!

6 oz extra firm organic tofu

1 tbsp coconut oil (about)

2-3 cups of organic spinach (frozen or fresh works!)

½ a purple onion (can sub with white onion)

½ red or yellow bell pepper

2 garlic cloves (or 7 whatever works for you 😜)

Salt and pepper to taste

¼ tsp turmeric

½ tsp mustard powder

1 tbsp of Nutritional Yeast (this is the one I LOVE because it doesn't have the synthetic folic acid)

-Take out tofu and dry by putting paper towel around it and putting something heavy on top in order to help liquid drain out (if you have time, let's be real, I don't always have time or patience to do this😉)

-While the tofu is drying out make a sauce by combining the mustard powder, turmeric, nutritional yeast and salt and pepper with a little bit of water or oil to make an almost pourable sauce

-After slicing the onion, mincing the garlic cloves and cubing the bell pepper add them to a pan with the coconut oil

-While this is going on cut the tofu and use a fork to crumble into small pieces.

-Take the tofu and mix it with the sauce created earlier and then put the tofu into the pan with the onion, garlic cloves and bell pepper.

-ENJOY

I changed trajectories. I loved the idea of my Monday Monster blogs, it was fun, authentic and seemed to be relatable. But the word monster was starting to get to me. I didn't always love the feeling that can go with that word. 

Sometimes it was the warm fuzzy feeling of those cute monsters from the Monsters Inc. movie and other times it was a raging red eyed hell dog chasing me. Either way, I started to not love the word.  

And so I ended up not writing for a few weeks, I blamed the holidays, work,  the crazy energy of December starting and many other things-but in reality it was me not loving that word but not really knowing how to change that. 

So here we are, I started this Monday better off than many of the last Mondays; listening to motivational videos from some of my favorite YouTube channels,  getting some work out of the way, getting to the gym early and feeling more peaceful than in some time.  Refocus.

Today, I'm going to focus on how it all can be done, change the mindset and feel for more. 

What's one positive about your Monday?

#Monday Mindset #plantsheal #eatyourveggiesuseyouroils #youngliving #essentialoils 

Monday. 

This Monday has been filled with so many joyous moments. Often holidays can bring up a lot of different emotions for many people but for me I'm blessed to have  mostly happy times. I have a wonderful group of friends and family members and was blessed to be able to spend some time with them while being back in NY for Thanksgiving time. 

 One of my favorite quotes that I just rediscovered is; "I could have. What does this phrase mean? At any given moment in our lives, there are certain things that could have happened but didn't. The magic moments go unrecognized, and then suddenly, the hand of destiny changes everything." 

It made me think twice, to think about the moments that we don't always realize are passing us by and if we had taken the time to pay attention our life might have taken a different turn.  You can't always sit around thinking about the 'coulda, woulda, shoulda' but every once in awhile it can be useful to take a moment and learn from some of the choices you made. 

What is one thing you did today to beat the Monday Monster?! 👻 ❤️‍❤️‍👻