The weather has suddenly turned a little cooler here, and I am immediately craving a cooked breakfast. Enter quinoa porridge. Nuttier than it’s oat based counterpart, quinoa comes with an impressive list of nutritional benefits, which I have talked about here and here. Packed with protein, loaded with minerals, easy on the digestion, awesome!
Couple this with chamomile, a herb well known for its digestive benefits. It is soothing and calming to the digestive tract, helps relieve cramps, spasm or bloating, has a gentle action towards improving digestive function, and is also calming and nourishing to the nervous system – bonus! In practice it is a herb that I use a lot, but it can be just as effective made as a strong infusion (tea). It is also completely edible, and I like to add chamomile ‘dust’ regularly to my breakfast. (NB. Chamomile ‘dust’ is my name for the powdery leftovers at the bottom of a bag of chamomile flowers. Most chamomile tea bags contain mainly ‘dust’, so feel free to rip one open and scatter away.)
Ordinarily you would use water to cook a savoury quinoa, or milk for a sweeter or breakfast quinoa, so why not infuse your quinoa with herbs!? In this case I have used chamomile, but the world is your oyster – I was close to doing a rosehip version. I have also used coconut milk and spices in the mix, and what you are left with is a delicious, slightly nutty breakfast ready to be topped with your favourite additions. For extra tummy love I have topped with a good dose of chia seeds, which along with their spectacular nutritional profile, are a fabulous form of soluble fibre, which helps you to feel fuller for longer, soothes the digestive mucosa and works to …
We are having the most insanely awesome fresh produce week! It is just so inspiring to have such deliciousness at your fingertips – the problem is deciding what to make! It all started with my veggie box delivery from 
So much excitement for one little naturopath! Heirloom tomatoes, mixed basil, multicoloured squash, apple cucumbers, other cute cucumbers, garlic, carrots, green rhubarb, rocquet (arugula), shallots, chillis, bok choy, and a jar of edible flowers – my favourite! Then, on visiting my gorgeous friend Jo out of town, we came away with this:
Green beans, chard, red and yellow tomatoes, giant spring onions (green onions), a cucumber, and some variety of Italian bitter green. Oh and let’s not forget a few bottles of natural spring water collected from the source – amazing! So lucky. As much as I adore shopping for my own ingredients, I also love eating this way as it forces you to use produce that you may not normally have on hand, and you will no doubt come up with some new favourites.
Dressing. Yep, this amazing, mouth-watering, tangy, golden liquid that has the power to transform ‘meh’ into ‘WOW’. I’m putting myself out there and telling you that you really must make this. It’s easy, you probably have most of the ingredients already, and it will change your life. Not in a ‘just won the lottery’ kind of way, in a ‘great I don’t have to think about what I’m going to eat ’cause I know this can transform the contents of my fridge into fabulous’ kind of way – that’s life changing, right? It saves you time, mental energy, and dare I say money as it is a great way to use up left-overs, or those straggly bits of whatever.
