Beautiful, colorful, fresh, healthy and EASY!!  The best kind of recipe.  

The key to easy here is to start with a store-bought all natural, fresh, low sodium salsa.  Then just add fresh veggies and fruit for added color & texture & WOW! Enjoy! 

The following ingredients are a guideline.  Be playful and add any fresh ingredients you have on hand.  For this combination, I strolled through the garden to pick fresh cilantro, scallions and tomatoes.  Consider adding peach, fresh jalapeno & chopped carrots for a different variation.

Outrageous Salsa

2 cups prepared salsa
1 scallion, thinly sliced
1 small tomato, chopped
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1 ripe mango, chopped
1 ripe avocado, chopped
juice of 1 lime

Directions.  Mix prepared salsa with scallion, tomato, red onion, bell pepper and cilantro.  Mix well and place in a serving bowl. Top the salsa with fresh mango and avocado.  Spritz with the juice of 1 lime and DONE!

We picked many scupendines in my youth from the dripping scupendine vine in the back yard, just off the back porch.  We knew that fall was in the air when the grapes were firm and green and then fall arrived when they turned a brownish hue and started dropping from the vines.  

And what is a scupendine, you ask?  Well, it was just a few years ago that I discovered that there is no such grape as a scupendine.  There are muskadines and scuppernongs but somehow we always picked from the scupendine vine.  Funny, I still catch myself calling those sweet grapes by the wrong name.  

And fall does not officially arrive until we make the ceremonial drive to the mountains to harvest scuppernongs culminating in baking the traditional Southern scuppernong pie.

Many many steps but OH SO worth that incomparable first taste of fall.

Eating healthy for the holiday season can be as simple as changing traditional recipes to include superfood substitutions.   Our simple pureed cauliflower can pass for mashed potatoes loaded with cream and butter and the shiitake stuffing can become a new holiday tradition. 

The keys to healthy holiday eating are:

Enjoy sparingly the rich calorie-packed favorites
Take your own healthy dish to a holiday party
Load up on veggies and fresh foods.  

You can find my healthy food substitution handout with more healthy holiday eating and ALL these holiday recipes here.  And THANK YOU to Karen McKay for making the YUMMY black bean brownies and sharing the recipe.  

Happiest and Healthiest Holiday to you!!!!

This weekend, Wind River will host a 4-day retreat for cancer survivors with a special focus on "Food for Healing"  I'll be on the road to the beautiful mountains of Tryon NC to create colorful~immune building meals for 9 cancer survivors. The menu will include anti-inflammatory foods like kale, swiss chard, avocado, quinoa, fresh fruit and the mighty SHIITAKE!!  A HUGE thank you to our Shiitake sponsor, Dahl Farm of Easley SC.  David and Laura Dahl are huge supporters of "Food for Healing" and will make a healthy impact on our healing foods weekend.  

Mushrooms are a daily staple in a cancer-fighting kitchen!  Dahl Farm mushrooms are available through CAFE (Clemson Area Food Exchange), the swamp rabbit grocer, or by contacting the farm directly.

A Huge special thank you to Joseph Roberts, national VitaMix training instructor, for teaching me many new tips to share.  Here are just a couple of those tips to keep in mind:

1. For hot soup, preheat your water before adding it to the container.  This will save 5 minutes of blending.

2.  To keep clean up a snap, add honey and protein powders through the lid while you are blending to prevent them from sticking to the side of the container.

3. When making more than one recipe, prep and wash all the ingredients before blending.

Happy Blending!!!

Enjoy this recipe from this GREAT workshop

Tortilla Soup

3 Heirloom tomatoes
1 sweet banana pepper
1/2 squash
1 stalk celery
3 carrots
1 garlic clove
1 Rapunzel herb bouillon cube 
1 1/2 teaspoon taco seasoning
3 cups boiling water

add-in ingredients

1/2 cup corn kernels, thawed
1 cup tortilla chips, lightly broken
1 cup fresh spinach

1. place tomato, celery carrots, pepper, squash, bouillon, taco seasoning
and water into the VitaMix container in the order listed and secure lid.
2. select Variable 1
3. Turn machine on and slowly increase speed to Variable 10
4. Blend until ingredients are smooth
5. Reduce speed to Variable 3 and remove the lid plug opening
6. Add corn, tortilla chips and spinach through the lid plug opening.
Replace lid plug.
7. Blend for 10 seconds.  Serve Immediately

Partnerships!

From the very beginning Wind River has believed in the power of partnership with other Cancer Support Organizations. Over the years we've been proud to have partnered with Cancer Services in Winston-Salem, The North Carolina Dept. of Health and Human Services, North Carolina Cancer Survivorship Summit, Carolina Breast Friends, 24 Hours of Booty, Anderson, SC Survivorship Program and most recently the Colon Cancer Coalition of Charlotte, NC.    

In a unique partnership Cheryl LeCroy of Creative Juices Consulting, Wind River and Sue Falco on behalf of theColon Cancer Coalition have been working with Vitamix behind the scenes for months to provide 40 refurbishedVitamix machines at reduced cost to local Colon Cancer Survivors.   The Colon Cancer Coalition provided a local grant to help with some of the remaining costs and Cheryl and Dave of Wind River (and volunteering alumni Kathy Gardner and Michelle Wood) provided an evening "Food for Healing" class to demonstrate healthy recipes like salsa, veggie tortilla soup, dark chocolate covered cherry smoothie and the famous Wind River Smoothie made with kale and avocado!

Monthly “Food for Healing” meetings are designed to help cancer survivors stay motivated to eat well and learn new healthy eating habits to last a lifetime.  Open to EVERYONE and FREE of charge.  Food for Healing is presented by Cheryl LeCroy of Creativejuicesconsulting.com in partnership with Wind River Cancer Wellness Retreats & Programs  
                                                             
During 24 Hours of Booty, I meet both cyclists and survivors.  And part of the fun at our Wind River booth is creating new smoothie recipes on the spot.  In years past, we have developed such drinks as, "Embrace the Booty" and "The Booty Shake"  Not only is this fun but it is also so important because each body has its own individual & nutritional needs...especially during intense exercise on  hot days.  This year, with temps soaring in the 90s, we focused on light, frothy, cool, refreshing drinks with lots of fruits and veggies...and as always, every drink began with fresh, organic and whole colorful foods.  We created several new recipes but my favorite; "Robert's Recovery Drink"  Robert sampled several of our drinks throughout the day and had such an interest in wholesome healing foods. After riding many laps, Robert stopped by our booth parched and requesting a drink for recovery.  As we discussed how he was feeling, we hand picked the ingredients for his smoothie....orange juice for the sugars, vitamin C,  potassium and vitamins..........banana for B6, potassium, fiber.....carrot for added vitamins and fiber......kale for antioxidants, vitamin K, low calorie fiber.... lemon, mint and ginger for vitamins and pure thirst quench....oats for sustaining fiber....whole soy for protein...coconut water for vitamins, sodium and fiber...and cinnamon because it just felt right!  Intuition is often an important part a body's nutritional decisions.  

And Voila, a new super charged recovery smoothie was born!  Thanks again Robert, and happy cycling! And Thank you 24 Hours of Booty for supporting the cancer community!
 

Robert’s Recovery Drink


10 ounces Orange Juice
1 banana
½ carrot
16 ounce bag frozen pineapple
1 handful organic kale
2 slices lemon, peeled
1 orange peeled, with pith
4 leaves mint
6 green grapes
¼ cup organic oats
1 inch candied ginger
1 scoop Whole Soy® Protein powder
5 ounces coconut water
1 dash cinnamon
ice

Place all ingredients in VitaMix® and blend until smooth.  Enjoy Robert’s RECOVERY after vigorous exercise.  This drink was developed at 24 Hours of Booty® after Robert had completed MANY Booty laps and helped me choose ingredients based on the Recovery his body needed….Thanks Robert! 

 

 

I'm not exactly a child of the 60's, being born in 1969, I just missed the parties at Woodstock and Haight Ashbury.   I have certainly heard tale of all the good times and have even been told that I might have fit in nicely!  But I'm pretty sure that none of those parties were as exciting as our 'Shroom Love In during the latest "Food for Healing" at Earth Fare. 

Shiitake 'Shrooms that is!  A wonderful healing anti-inflammatory food that is tasty and easy to prepare.  In fact they can be added to SO many recipes in order to get the daily quota.

We were joined by Wind River founder, Shannon Carney and Wind River Alumni Allison Peeler Schwartz for an extra special treat for all!  We had a great evening exploring Asia's most popular mushroom.  Not only did we explore the history of Shiitake and how they are harvested, we also explored the health benefits and how to prepare them. 
 
Our healthy tasting menu included: Shiitake Baba Ganoush, Shittake bruschetta, Shittake & olive tapenade and Shiitake pesto. To conclude our 'Shoom Love In,  everyone was sent home with a big bag of freshly harvested Asian yard long beans and a recipe for Shiitake green beans to try.   We were feeling the 'Shroom love for sure!!!

“Food for Healing” is a workshop designed to teach cancer survivors, caregivers and anyone interested in better nutrition about a rainbow of colorful healing foods.  The workshop is free of charge for all who attend and is sponsored by Wind River Cancer Wellness Retreats to promote whole body well being.  Currently, we meet on the second Tuesday of the month at The Kitchen Emporium in Anderson from 5 - 7pm and the third Tuesday of the month at Earth Fare in Greenville from 5 – 6:45pm.

Last night "Food for Healing" featured unusual and exotic veggies because the more veggies we eat, the more protective phytochemicals we take in.  Let's face it, eating green beans, broccoli and corn can get old and there are SO many wonderful, tasty and weird veggies to try.  As I was shopping for Jicama to take to class, I mistakenly picked up rutabaga and almost put it back because I didn't know what to do with it. Since I had planned to issue a weird veggie challenge for everyone to step out of their comfort zone and try something unusual,  I decided to follow my own challenge; I would take rutabaga to class so we could all sample it.   I searched my cookbooks and googled several recipes to become acquainted with this softball sized, jicama-looking thing and discovered a lot of combinations that paired rutabaga with potato or smothered it in butter or covered it with gravy.  I didn't want to disguise the flavor so instead, I simply boiled it, smashed it with a tablespoon of organic butter and seasoned with salt and pepper....and WOW!!! Everyone LOVED it!    

During class, we also learned how to design "The Healthy Plate" and had a cooking demonstration on roasting red peppers and preparing fresh basil pesto.  To complete our class, we enjoyed a colorful dinner of Pesto & Roasted Red Pepper Pasta, Panzanella and a Strawberry smoothie.  Pure Healthy YUM!

 “Food for Healing” is a FREE workshop designed to teach cancer survivors, caregivers, health care providers and anyone interested in better nutrition about a rainbow of colorful healing foods.  "Food For Healing" is sponsored by Wind River Cancer Services to promote whole body well being.  We meet on the second Tuesday of the month at The Kitchen Emporium in Anderson from 5 - 7 pm and the third Tuesday of the month at Earth Fare in Greenville from 5 – 6:45 pm.

I'm going to be on the lookout for weird veggies this month and beyond
~Want to join me?

One of my very favorite things to do is visit a farmer's market.  The explosion of color and flavor and variety is not easily repeated at the local grocery store.  In most cases, the produce you find at the farmer's market is local, organic and OH SO fresh.  In fact, farmers usually pick produce early on a farmer's market morning. And what a perfect way to get your RAINBOW of color every day.  Other jewels you can likely discover at the market are local honey, home-made jams, whole food baked goodies, farm raised organic meats, goat cheese and crafts by local artisans.   What a TREAT!  This summer I have had the opportunity to visit The Ferry Building Farmer's Market in San Francisco, The San Mateo Farmer's Market and The Sarasota Farmer's Market in Florida. And of course, I make a weekly visit to the local markets in my Upstate South Carolina.  I even had the privilege to teach a smoothie-licious "Food For Healing" workshop at The Anderson Area Food & Farm Association Farmer's Market this month using produce right from the market.  If you find yourself travelling with a little extra time on Saturday morning, check out area Farmer's Markets as part of your vacation plans to truly get a local flavor of the area in a BIG way .  

 “Food for Healing” is a FREE workshop designed to teach cancer survivors, caregivers, health care providers and anyone interested in better nutrition about a rainbow of colorful healing foods.  "Food For Healing" is sponsored by Wind River Cancer Services to promote whole body well being.  We meet on the second Tuesday of the month at The Kitchen Emporium in Anderson and the third Tuesday of the month at Earth Fare in Greenville from 5 – 6:45 pm.

information compiled by Tricounty Transition 

Anderson (409 N. Main St.):
Saturdays (10-2)
Tu, Th, & Sat (8-1) June - November
Sharon Nicometo (864-231-1924)

Anderson Area Food & Farm Assoc.
Tuesdays (5-8pm)
402 North Murray Ave., Anderson
Each week special events, music and featured restaurant

Clemson (578 Issaqueena Trail, Patrick Square)
Fridays (3:30-6:30), starts May 16
Kathi Dimmock (864-654-3918)

Clemson Area Food Exchange (CAFE):  pick up on Tuesdays in Liberty, Clemson and Seneca
www.clemsonareafoodexchange.com
Elian Evans (elian@clemsonareafoodexchange.com)

Easley (205 N. 1st St.):  Saturdays (8-noon), Tuesdays (5-8)
Lisa Garrett (864-855-7900)

Pendleton (on the village green):  Saturdays (9-1), starts June 7
Amber Barnes (864-646-9409)

Seneca (Main St. at Norton Thompson Park):  T, Th, & S ( 6-noon)
Ed Halbig (864-885-2726)

Six Mile (old Fire Station):  Thursdays (4-7)
James Atkinson (jatkinsonfs@hotmail.com)

Walhalla (next to Bountyland Quickstop Exxon):  Saturdays 6am-noon, Thurs. 4-7pm
https://www.facebook.com/walhallafarmersmarket

Westminster (Depot grounds), Tuesdays 4-7pm
Sandra Powell, wcoc@nuvox.net

Westminster (178 Wayfield Road):  Saturdays (8-noon)
Foothills Heritage Market (across from Blue Ridge Electric Co-Op)
Gail McPhail (864-972-3192)

Westminister (online market)
Maranatha Blackwell
carolinafoothills.localllygrown.net/welcome

Visit  http://www.tricountytransition.org/ for more information