Probiotics the Macroveg Way

Why should I take Probiotics?

If you are under stress, taking antibiotics, traveling or simply want to promote your health, taking Probiotics daily will maintain the health-promoting good bacteria in your intestinal tract. This is important because the intestines are the largest immune organ in the body and promoting their health strengthens your body's overall natural defenses. If the balance is disrupted, this can leave a comprised immune response. Fortunately, taking Probiotics supplements can help sustain the digestive tracks balance by re-introducing beneficial bacteria. To help restore normal dermal Probiotic balances natural Probiotic based skin products can assist the process.

People with flourishing intestinal colonies of probiotics are better equipped to fight the growth of disease-causing bacteria i.e. pathogenic organisms.

Probiotics also produce substances called bacteriocin, which act as natural antibiotics to kill undesirable microorganisms e.g. fungus and yeast, viruses, parasites and bacteria.

Where can we get our probiotics? 
Here are my top 3 vegan ways to get my probiotics.

In my previous post I talked about how pickled veggies/sauerkraut is a great way to get natural probiotics.  This is definitely the most macroveg way, but it's also the most inconvenient because you have to slice up the veggies, make sure you have brown rice vinegar and/or ume vinegar, and you have to pickle it for at least 1-2 days.

Buying sauerkraut is the second most macroveg way and so much more convenient.  I've really grown to love this organic raw kim-chi from Rejuvenative Foods.  Really turns your macro plate into a yummy
bi-bim-bop!

Then there's kombucha, which is sooooo good and addictive (literally!)  Just recently they've been selling it as a 21+ drink because it has 0.05% alcohol content in it which naturally occurs from the fermentation process.  So you can probably imagine that this is the least macroveg option but I feel perfectly fine drinking it a couple of times a week and I know it works magic with others who drink it at least once a day (jealous!).  I like the original but have really like the trilogy flavor too.  I resort to this when I'm unable to get something pickled with my meal to help with digestion.  So you'll find me drinking this when I have lunch at whole foods or when I'm traveling I go ahead and stock up for the hotel.  

Have fun trying these out ;)

Restaurant Review: M Cafe de Chaya

M Cafe Meal with Black Beans is the must go to dish.

M Cafe de Chaya is a modern day macrobiotic restaurant that serves both vegan food and fish.  It's hip and fast and very popular in the L.A. area.  You'll see celebrities walk in and order a juice to go and unfortunately sometimes you'll have to waif for an open seat.  But if you need simple macrobiotic fast food on the weekdays [they even have curbside pick-up] then this is the place to go.

Favorite dish to order is the M Cafe Meal with black beans.  It's a balanced macro plate with beans, brown rice, veggies, pickles and seaweed.  But what makes the plate good is the carrot ginger sauce that you pour over the veggies and brown rice.  It's so good.  However, don't expect this to be anything like the Inaka plate at Inaka Restaurant.  It takes literally 5-10mins for them to make it so go figure.  The taste is somewhat bland and on most occasions it comes out cold.  But it's satisfying and leaves you with the same balanced macro feel.  Be sure you get the sauce!

Probably the most popular thing at M Cafe is the Peanut Kale Deli Salad.  It is the best kale salad you'll ever eat.  It's healthy, rich, and tastes great with a side order of brown rice and miso soup if you want to make it a complete meal.  If I'm really craving it I'll order a side of it with my macro meal.

Another side to order that's really good is the Sweet Potato M Fries.  It's seasoned with chili, sea salt, and lime and comes with a spicy yuzu mayo which is amazing.  Order this with one of their sandwiches or burgers or of course with the macro meal if you feel like you need more of a root veggie to ground yourself.  

   



They have two locations: Melrose and Beverly Hills.  I personally like the Melrose location better because there's more seating, daily lunch and dinner specials, later open hours, and their service is better.  However big downside to this place is parking.  You may get lucky and find a parking right in front of their cafe but there's only 5-6 spots and it's a weird parking situation where you have to drive up onto the sidewalk and park [but you get the hang of it after a while].  If not then their parking in the back is only valet, which is 1 hour but I hate putting time restrictions when I eat.  The Beverly Hills location is much closer to where I live but it has less seating and seems to be a lot more crowded than Melrose.  Also the service is somewhat lacking [food comes out cold, noticed things missing in my dish like the sauce or the pickles] and parking in Beverly Hills is hard, especially during lunchtime [meter on the street, or parking structure around the block which is always full during lunch].  However, I've gone here for dinner on the weekdays and it's been pleasant and curbside is fast and easy.

Oh and one more advice, ask to buy their tote bag.  If you use it every time you order take out then you get $1.00 off!  I'm not sure how I got my tote bag, I feel like it was given to me free that one week I kept on ordering out from Melrose but I don't know how you go about purchasing one.  It's definitely worth the $1.00 off though.  

Here's a recipe for the kale salad.  To make it more macro simply replace the peanut butter with tahini and chopped peanuts for garnish with sesame seeds]  ENJOY! :D

Kale Salad

Ingredients
• 1 large bunch kale 
• ¼ cup peanuts, chopped for garnish [for more macro version use sesame seeds]
• ¼ red onion, halved and sliced for garnish 

Spicy Peanut Dressing*
• ½ cup peanut butter [for more macro version use tahini instead]
• 2 T low sodium soy sauce
• 2 T brown rice vinegar 
• ½ tsp. garlic, minced
• ½ tsp. ginger, minced 
• ¼ tsp. cayenne pepper 
• 1/8 tsp. salt 
• 1 ½ oz hot water

DIRECTIONS
1. Remove the kale from the stems. Add a pinch of Salt to a pot of boiling water, then blanch the Kale for 3 min. Remove the Kale from the boiling water and shock it in a container of ice water. Finally, squeeze the excess water out of the cooled Kale.
2. To make Spicy Peanut Dressing: Place all dressing ingredients into a blender. Blend until mixture turns into a smooth consistency.
3. Drizzle the dressing on top of the Kale and mix the kale and dressing together until kale is evenly coated. Garnish with sliced red onions and chopped peanuts [for more macro version use sesame seeds].

M Cafe de Chaya

Melrose Avenue Location
7119 Melrose Avenue
Hollywood, CA 90046

323-525-0588
Hours: M-Sa [9am-10pm]; Su [9am-9pm]

Beverly Hills Location
9433 Brighton Way
Beverly Hills, CA 90210

310-858-8459
Hours: M-Sa [9am-8pm]; Su [10am-7pm]

Autumn Jumpstart

Be sure to check out your local farmers market to get the dibs on some fresh autumn produce :)

Are you starting to feel a little off both mentally and physically?  Probably because your body is trying to adjust to the changing seasons.  It's starting to cool down as we welcome in the Fall, that means more warming and denser foods than summer ones.  We're still in the transitional phase so be sure to switch between this and summer cooking until the weather stabilizes.  Some common symptoms your may be experiencing are mood swings, skin breakouts, joint/muscle pains, increased fatigue, and digestion problems, but hopefully switching up your foods and cooking styles to more yang styles will help it stabilize.  Now if you're experiencing funky weather like here in LA (cold in the morning, warms up during the day, then drops back down at night) then it may be wise to eat both ying and yang right now depending on the temperature until it fully cools down throughout the day.  For instance, if you are still enjoying your light summer salads start eating it with a side of soup, miso soup cures all ;)  Here's a quick reference I made to help you adjust and jumpstart your macrobiotic autumn season.

Since it seems to be a lot cooler here in the morning, try this balanced macrobiotic breakfast menu for Autumn:

Bulgur Porridge with Scallions, Sauerkraut, and Grain Coffee
Boil 2 cups of water and add 1/4-1/2 cup of bulgur and pinch of sea salt.  Boil, cover, and reduce to medium-low to simmer for 30 mins until creamy.  Garnish with sliced scallions.  I like to top it with my sauerkraut but if it's too strong for you in the morning then pass.  Enjoy with grain coffee from my favorite Inka grain coffee.

Restaurant Review: Le Pain Quotidien (Claremont, CA) - Organic French Lentil Salad

Organic French Lentil Salad - french lentils, chickpeas, tomatoes, red radish, cucumbers, carrots, and avocado on top of arugula sprinkled with flaxseeds.  

Sticking to lighter salads for summertime, I visited Le Pain Quotidien in Claremont, CA and ordered their Organic French Lentil Salad.  This salad was amazing and a great summer treat.  I think it may be a summer special and is only served at some Le Pain Quotidiens so it may not be available near you.  However here's a recipe that you can try to replicate it at home.  I have yet to try it but sounds like it would come out pretty darn close to tasting like the one they serve.  I added some ingredients to it to make it a little more macro friendly ;)

Macro French Lentil Salad

Eden makes a great raw unpasteurized one.

1. Cook 1/4-1/2 cup of green lentils a sprig of thyme and some diced onions.  To make it more macro be sure to cook it with 1 inch piece of kombu.  Stir in some presoaked hijiki towards the end of cooking.  Be sure to not overcook the lentils, it should be easily separable not mushy.  If you like you can add 1/4 cup of cooked chickpeas to your salad as well.
2. Slice 1/4 cup each of carrots, radish, and cucumber.  Mix on top of a bed of arugula.  Scoop cooked on lentils and top with 1/2 sliced avocado.
3. For the vinaigrette, mix red wine vinegar, with lemon juice, dijon mustard, olive oil, minced shallots, pepper, chopped parsley, and pesto.  Add a dash of shoyu and ume vinegar for more macro dressing.  Pour on top of salad and enjoy :)

Fast Summer Salad

I love veg shish kabobs!  They're perfect for summer grilling and easy to make.    Cut and skewer them ahead of time and store in fridge so they're easy to grab and throw on the grill.  For my kabob I used green, orange, and red bell peppers, yellow squash, zucchini, and mushroom.

Here's a great fast salad that you can throw together for summer, especially when that lazy summer slug is creeping into your daily routine and you really don't feel like putting much effort into cooking :P  This is a very yin dish so make sure you monitor how you feel after.  If you start to feel a little lightheaded have the salad with some warm miso soup to help balance it off.

Summer Salad

1. Veg shish kabob - Skewer summer squashes and peppers on a skewer, sprinkle with umeboshi vinegar  and place on grill.  Turning until both sides are slightly charred.
2. Mixed Greens - Try a mix of mixed greens for the salad but try to steer clear of spinach.  Top with shredded carrots, sliced beets, and half an avocado.  Squeeze fresh lemon.
3. Tofu - I just diced up fresh tofu but you can go ahead and grill your tofu or skewer it onto your kabob as well.  Replacing this with a tofu dipp is a great option.  Just mash up the tofu in a suribachi with some green onion, tahini, miso, shoyu, and a dash of brown rice vinegar.
4. Buckwheat salad - Cook 1/4 cup buckwheat and toss with shredded cabbage, cooked chickpeas, dash of cumin, sea salt, olive oil, and baby tomatoes.

Macro beauty: Cleansing with Castor Oil

I'm all about using natural beauty products especially facial cleansers, but you have to admit that buying those organic raw cleansers all the time can get pretty pricey.  So I decided to try out the castor oil facial cleansing method.  Some people freak out when they hear about using oils as facial cleansers because they think that oil for the skin is bad and that it clogs up your pores.  However castor oil is non-clogging, in fact it does the opposite by penetrating the skin and lubricating our pores to help push out blackheads and other congestions in the skin.  It also moisturizers your skin which is great.  If our skin gets too dry it produces its own pore-clogging oil which causes even more congestion.  Each time we strip our face of moisture it overcompensates by producing even more oil.  

The basic concept with this method involves two things:  (1) massaging the oil into your skin dissolves and lubricates the oil that's hardened in your pores, and (2) using steam will help open your pores allowing the oil to easily unclog them.  Keep in mind that this is a deep cleansing routine so it's best done in the evening right before you go to bed.  I do it daily when I find that I'm having a very stressful week and my skin is not its best.  When it gets back into normal routine I do it every other day or three times a week.  Here's what you do:

I invested in a face steamer which was only $20. 

1. Massage 1/4 tsp castor oil into skin.
2. Apply another 1/4 tsp of the oil onto face and massage in circular motions.  You'll find that this time around it will mostly sit on top of the skin instead of absorbing.
3. Boil water in a big pot (big enough to cover whole face), remove from stove carefully and place on a pot coaster on table.  
4. Sit with face above the pot so steam is encompassing your face and place towel over head over the pot so it captures the steam inside.
5. Steam face for 10-15 mins. then wipe clean with damp cloth.  Wash face.

I really love cleansing my skin with castor oil.  It really helped and I hope you guys love it too!  This is also great to help ease muscles and joints when massaged or applied to the affected area with castor pads. So many possibilities with castor oil ;)

This is the brand that I use.   It was a good price and can be found at Whole Foods and other natural markets.

Update! Summer Breakfast: Papaya & Berries

Eating more fruit over the summer will help your body cool down.  I've also noticed that I'm digesting fruit in the morning better now than brown rice porridge!  Must be the change in season.  I like this simple and quick way to enjoy a nice fruity breakfast.  I got the papaya from Trader Joe's (Caribbean Red Papaya) and organic berries from whole foods.  Enjoy this with a nice hot cup of kukicha tea :)

Benefits of Papayas


Digestion
Besides the great amount of antioxidants in papayas like Vitamin C, E, and betacarotenes, the proteolytic enzymes found in papayas are very important to digest food.  The main enzyme papain helps to break down protein and helps treats bloating and chronic indigestion.  You can even find the papaya enzymes in tablet form but it's always better to eat it naturally straight from the fruit.

Cleanser
A natural cleanser for your colon is drinking a quarter pint of papaya juice, cucumber juice, and green bean juice intermittently for 12 hours.  Papaya is also very rich in fiber binding itself to cancer-causing toxins and flushing itself from the colon.

Inflammation
As previously mentioned, papain breaks down protein which also breaks down protein in the skin.  Therefore ingestion can help move dead skin and treat skin injuries, psoriasis, warts, ringworms, and cold sores.  This in combination with its high levels of antioxidants makes papayas great for your skin.