Food and Household Tips to Kick Off Fall

The start of a new season is a great time to change things up and prepare for what each season brings.  Fall is a time to transition to warmer foods, purge summer's heat and travels, as well as get yourself ready for the following season, winter, a time when many are hunkering in due to inclement weather.

Here are some of my favorite tips to help you transition to fall:

Preserve Fall Produce:

While most of us think of canning as the only means of preserving produce (and this is a great way to have access to fruit and vegetables outside of their natural growing season) making sauces, juices and butters are a great, easy way to preserve some of late summer and fall's fruits such as apples, pears, berries, pumpkins, and figs.

There are so many sites that can guide you on canning and other methods of preservation but I love Pick Your Own.org  as it's a one-stop site for all  things local produce.  I have used this site over the years to find the best places to go in the Tampa Bay area to pick strawberries and blueberries with my kids, as well as where to go pick apples and pumpkins when we are in the Philadelphia area in the fall.   They provide a nationwide (and international!) list of farms you can go to pick you own with links to each state.  It's also a great resource for all things pertaining to what to do with all that produce.  The All About Home Canning, Freezing and Making Jams and Jellies has it all- recipes, guides, and directions.  Just peruse through its extensive list and decide what interests you.

Here is my easy foolproof slow cooker version for no sugar applesauce.  It's one of my favorite uses for all those amazing apples showing up at your local farmer's markets and grocers.

Freeze Soups:

Yup.  Are you ramping up your soup consumption?  Many can be frozen to save for later use so refer to The National Center for Food Preservation's handy freezing guide (includes not only soups but all kind of foods!).  Soups can be canned too (who knew) and NCFP has a guide for canning soups.

The Whole Meal has an amazing array of soups to get your through the cooler season but Slow Cooker Italian Turkey Soup and Sunset Dal and Pumpkin Soup are two of my favorites that freeze well.



Declutter:

Spend some time decluttering your spaces.  It's on my list for sure!  While it may seem overwhelming I really like Planning with Kids' easy to follow declutter tips.  I am also reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Maria Condo.  Pretty life changing stuff (No pun intended)!

Fall Cleaning- Inside and Outside the House:

So if you can't get enough after you have decluttered or can't manage the decluttering but can tackle fall cleaning here is a great Fall Cleaning Check List by Organized House.  

As you can see Spring is not the only time to get your life in order.  All change of seasons offer natural cycles in which to reassess, reorganize, and regroup in many areas of our lives.  Happy Fall!

Fermented Foods and Why You Should Consume Some on a Daily Basis

I've been wanting to share the big deal about fermented foods with you for a while but it took Munich's Oktoberfest to kick me into gear as it's most popular attraction, beer, goes through a fermenting process.  Germany's love of sauerkraut, which goes so well with all those bratwurst, is one of my favorite fermented foods.

Fermented foods have been around for thousands of years.  According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), "Fermenting is one of the oldest forms of food preservation technologies in the world. Indigenous fermented foods such as bread, cheese and wine are strongly linked to culture and tradition, especially in rural households and village communities".

Why are fermented food so important in our modern lives?  Since the industrialization of food, especially in the United States, many popular fermented (and non fermented) foods became highly pasteurized.  The pasteurization process strips out the beneficial enzymes and good bacteria needed for proper digestion.  Digestive disorders are pretty common in this country (how can we ignore the popularity of all the Pepto Bismol and Prilosec drugs?) and 85% of our immunity resides in our gut. Balance the gut and you eliminate a slew of western disease.

So what is an enzyme- and good bacteria-deprived gut to do?  Throw away all your drugs and consume some fermented foods a couple times per day.  Almost all cultures from around the world have passed down this fermentation process so your taste buds should be able to find something that is appealing.  Here are the most popular ones: sauerkraut, pickles, yogurt, kefir, kombucha, wine, beer, kimchi, and miso.  Other lesser know fermented products that you usually consume regularly include coffee, some teas, chocolate, vinegar, salami, cultured butter, cheese.  Note, however, that I am referring to the unpasteurized versions of these foods.

Most vegetables can be fermented and Dr.Mercola gives a great primer in his article "Tips for Fermenting at Home".

Try your hand at making some other fermented foods such as yogurt, cheese, juices, sourdough bread and even ketchup with Organic Authority's 10 Foods You Can Easily Make at Home.

Bringing Mindfulness Into Your Everyday Life

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. - Henry David Thoreau

I am on Day 2 of KindSpring's 21-Day Mindfulness Challenge; it's KindSpring's way of helping us to purposefully focus on the present, a vital skill for our hyper busy lives.

Mindfulness is not just meditating if that is what comes to mind for most of you.  Rather mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment.  It also helps us learn how to accept our lives, in the present moment, without judgement.

Not an easy feat you are thinking?  I must admit it does take practice, a lot of it, especially for those of us that are programmed to multi task and are driven more by achievement rather than the journey.  But I am here to tell you letting go and being fully present can be done, feels really good, and shifts you to prioritize your life for what really matters (family, friends, purpose, abundance, happiness to name a few).

And it seems that thousands of scientific and psychological studies agree with me.  Although mindfulness has its roots in Buddhism, a secular practice of mindfulness has entered the American mainstream in recent years, in part through the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn and his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, which he launched at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1979.

Here are just a few of the benefits practicing mindfulness, even for a few weeks, can produce:

1. It's good for our bodies: practicing mindfulness meditation boosts our immune system’s ability to fight off illness.

2. It's good for our minds: mindfulness increases positive emotions while reducing negative emotions and stress.  Research has found that it increases density of gray matter in brain regions linked to learning, memory, emotion regulation, and empathy.

3. It's good for our spirit: Mindfulness fosters compassion and altruism.  Mindfulness training makes us more likely to help someone in need and increases activity in neural networks involved in understanding the suffering of others and regulating emotions.

On the same day that I started my 21-Day Mindfulness Challenge, this video by Daily Good, a sister site to KindSpring, popped into my inbox: 6th Graders on Mindfulness.  My youngest just hit 6th grade so of course I was going to open it.  It's only 2 minutes so give it a listen, if only to give you hope that the future generations will have an awareness of and, more importantly, the skills to do  what it will take to change the world the way it needs to change.  As the Dali Lama says, "Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive."  Hint, hint..go back and read #3 benefit of practicing mindfulness.  This video was the topic of conversation between my 6th grader and myself yesterday in the car.  We discussed ways for her to practice mindfulness and I asked her to think of one of her teachers that might be encouraged to take on this task in her middle school.  

How can you cultivate mindfulness?  

Jon Kabat-Zinn emphasizes that although mindfulness can be cultivated through formal meditation, that’s not the only way. He goes on to say,  “It’s not really about sitting in the full lotus, like pretending you’re a statue in a British museum.  It’s about living your life as if it really mattered, moment by moment by moment by moment.” 

Here are a few key components of practicing mindfulness that Kabat-Zinn and others identify:

1. Pay close attention to your breathing, especially when you’re feeling intense emotions.

2. Notice—really notice—what you’re sensing in a given moment, the sights, sounds, and smells that ordinarily slip by without reaching your conscious awareness.

3. Recognize that your thoughts and emotions are fleeting and do not define you, an insight that can free you from negative thought patterns.

4. Tune into your body’s physical sensations, from the water hitting your skin in the shower to the way your body rests in your office chair.

Here are some more exercises from Pocket Mindfulness to incorporate mindfulness into your daily life: 6 Mindfulness Exercises You Can Try Today.  

If you are ready to start a meditation practice, here is a good place to start: Meditation for People Who Don't Meditate (A 12-Step Guide).  As you can tell from the title, the author, Daniel Scott, a yoga teacher, keeps it light and funny but he nails the basics.  

Join me in the 21-Day Mindfulness Challenge!  Start on the day you sign up or go back to Day 1.  Either way, we could all use a little bit of mindfulness to better our already great lives and a challenge to jump start the process, well, you gotta love that!