Community Superfoods News: Ultimate Becomes Ojio!

Wow! Community Superfoods is coming up on its eighth month in operation...and things are starting to get hopping. Store night is beginning to welcome more walk-in traffic, and having the chance to connect with my regular customers (you know who you are!) is surely one of the highlights of my week.

Community Superfoods is designed to provide my clients and community with the highest quality raw foods, superfoods and professional quality nutritional supplements I can find - at the best prices anywhere.

At the risk of tooting my own horn, I must admit that ten years in the nutritional supplement industry and a Master of Science degree in Human Nutrition have provided me with the knowledge needed to dig deep into labels, discard hype, examine the research and discern quality. My experience allows you to rest assured that if I carry something, it's going to be a premium product.


Of course, we all know that premium quality tends to go hand in hand with high prices. This is why I decided to create a store that offers top quality superfoods and supplements at reduced prices.

That's right: Communnity Superfoods offers ongoing discounts on everything. Most items are discounted by 15% or 20%, depending on their suggested retail price. I even offer "at cost" specials (no markup) on a few select items such as raw kelp noodles - a terrific pasta alternative.

Store night is Wednesday from 5 to 7 PM. I'm also open by appointment for those who are unable to make Wednesday evenings. Simply call or email me to set this up!

One of my favorite suppliers for organic raw foods and superfoods is Ultimate Superfoods. This California-based company offers excellent quality and competitive pricing, which I take down even further with my special discount structure.

I've just learned that Ultimate is transitioning into a new look and branding: Ojio. (Pronounced oh-gee-oh.) Their gorgeous new website provides fabulous product information - check it out here. Expect to see the new Ojio brand on my shelves in the next week or two. Here is a sneak peek of their raw cacao powder, with expanded nutrition information, and their clear agave nectar, now packaged in glass bottles:

Local readers, I hope to see you tomorrow night at Community Superfoods! First time visitors: find us next to the Book Mill at 432 Greenfield Road, Montague, MA - the location of my Montague Integrative Health nutritional counseling office.

Love and goji berries, Diana ♥

Open House! MIH One-Year Anniversary Celebration

Many of you may know that I've been in private practice as a Clinical Nutritionist since 2002, but it's only been a year since I joined forces with three other holistic healthcare practitioners to form Montague Integrative Health. ("Only" a year or "already" a year, depending on how you look at it. And what a year it's been.)

My fellow highly skilled and experienced MIH clinicians are (shown below in the following order) Dr. Emily Maiella, licensed naturopathic physician; Nancy Paglia, massage therapist and yoga teacher; and Dr. Ellen Mitnowsky, chiropractor. Together, we offer compassionate and comprehensive natural healthcare to the Pioneer Valley community - from Montague to Greenfield, Turners Falls, Northampton, Amherst, Leverett, Shutesbury and beyond!

Last weekend, the MIH team hosted an Anniversary Open House in honor of our one-year group practice venture. MIH is located right next to the lovely Book Mill complex where a Gallery Walk and Diminutive Art Sale was in full swing the same day, so in addition to our invited guests we had the pleasure of meeting many curious, art-loving walk-ins who saw the balloons and came over to investigate.

This is the office I share with Dr. Maiella, transformed into Party Central. Note my Raw Pumpkin Pie (made this year with butternut squash) in the back left corner of the desk/buffet table.
About a hundred members of our community visited our 432 Greenfield Road location. Local, raw and healthy refreshments, ginger tea, dance music, a free raffle and the most perfectly splendid sunny day made the event complete!

Here are Nancy and Ellen in the kitchen, preparing Ellen's famous salad as sunlight streams in the window.

This is a glamour shot of Nancy's addmittedly decadent Apple Chunk Cake with Caramel Glaze from the Leverett Elementary School Cookbook (True confession: I LOVE this cake!)
We also served an assortment of raw cheeses from local dairies, along with olive tapenade and freshly baked spelt and multigrain breads from the nearby El Jardin bakery in Deerfield.
This is the Free Raffle table, where prizes included a free one-and-a-half hour massage, free nutritional and naturopathic consulations and a free chiropractic adjustment!
It was wonderful to see our dear friends and meet so many new people. We hope that some first-time visitors to the event will become familiar faces before long.

The Anniversary Open House was so much fun that plans are in the works for another MIH Open House in the Spring...to celebrate...well, Spring! May we all enjoy a healthy winter until then.

Love always, Diana

P.S. A silly moment between Dr. Emily Maiella and yours truly. Everyone has to have a little fun sometimes, right?

Community Superfoods Open Tonight!

Have you heard about Community Superfoods? It's my new, full-service buying group and retail store, welcoming pre-orders and stocking a small inventory. Community Superfoods is only open once a week and tonight's the night!

Community Superfood's doors are open wide just once a week, on Wednesday nights from 4:30 to 7:00 PM, at Montague Integrative Health (432 Greenfield Road, next to the Book Mill). I hope you can stop by.

Store night is a fun opportunity to meet up with your friends and neighbors, taste product samples and enjoy yummy treats that I make like fresh herbal teas and raw goodies. Tonight I'll be serving some sweet, miniature Raw Chocolate Fudge Cookies made with freshly ground almond flour, maple syrup and a trio of raw superfoods: cacao, spirulina and hempseeds. DELICIOUS! (Stay tuned for recipe and pics.)

To learn more about Community Superfoods, click here.

Yours in the Joy & Balancing Light of Fall Equinox,
Diana

Red Light-Green Light

What happened to June? I look up and suddenly, it's gone. What makes time disappear? In this case, I'd say it's partly the weather – the cool wetness that's graced us almost continuously this solstice month – and partly it's me. Me and my shift into the new world of which I spoke in the last entry. The new world without my mother. It almost seems like I am existing in and out of suspended animation. One moment I am fine, humming along, and then I remember... and everything. just. stops, becomes strange and blurry and sad. Like that old game we used to play, Red Light-Green Light, running and freezing on command. Except in this version, no one's quite in charge of making me stop and go. It just happens.

They say that grief comes in waves, and I have found this to be true. Waves on an unchartered sea. I feel like I am navigating this strange sea, sailing my ship through foreign waters and a dense fog.
Sometimes the fog clears to show a beautiful sunny sky, sometimes a wild storm of unbridled turbulence. And sometimes, it's just foggy out. Either way, I've never seen this place before; I don't know where I am. I've never been this me, without the anchor of my mother in the world. And that's okay. I realize I am transforming, that transformation takes time. And gratefully, I have other anchors. Love, memories, family, friends, work, my body. It's going to be okay.

I did the New World Cleanse for one week and was happy to find myself grounded back into fresh food and a normal routine around meals. The bad news is I got a little ambitious in the herb garden. I spent four hours pulling out the heavy mounds of weeds that had grown rampant in the incessant rain of the month I was away, down in NY. This weeding frenzy led to my back starting to bother me. (Old issue; comes and goes.) Long story short, the idea of being tied to any kind of "program" for another week - even one I created myself! - while dealing with back pain, etc, felt too restrictive. Hence I decided not to "officially" do a second week on the NWC as originally planned. I say officially because I have kept up with the basic dietary principles – Green Chia Smoothies, raw lunches, plenty of fresh veg juicing - and that all feels so good! Another anchor. Life into life.

Today I am away from home, though, in my mother's chia-free kitchen. So I improvised on the smoothie, rummaging around in the fridge & freezer to come up with something quite tasty sans chia. I call it the Red Light-Green Light Smoothie featuring RED Strawberries, YELLOW Pineapple & Banana and GREEN Spinach. (Traffic light color theme reference intentional.) My inspiration struck after visiting a fun new website that is all about green smoothies - http://www.greensmoothieblog.com - which is an offshoot of another exciting raw site written by a group of healthy superwomen who call themselves The Raw Divas. These gals are sharing some great programs (+ lots of free recipes and articles) right here: www.therawdivas.com. Check 'em out!

Anyway, I can't post a picture of today's spectacular green drink since a) I'm not home and b) my digital camera broke. (Broke on the day of my sons' prom night. Great timing, right?) The sorta good news is that now, I get to buy a new, better camera. (Fellow bloggers: I'd love to hear your suggestions for the ideal little camera to take outstandingly sharp, color-true blogworthy photos - please share your secrets!) So instead of a green smoothie pic, a green moth will have to do. Specifically a Luna Moth, spotted on Friday outside the door of my office at Montague Integrative Health. (Shot taken with camera phone due to aforementioned broken camera situation.) Did you know Luna Moths fly only at night and are born without mouths? Most of their lives are spent in the caterpillar stage. After chrysalis stage, they emerge from their cocoons as this most dreamy-looking, beautiful lime green moth. A moth that only can live for up to seven days (due to the fact that eating - needed to sustain life, as we all know - is impossible without a mouth). These gorgeous creatures emerge, mate and perish. They are truly ephemeral; the Tibetan sand painting of the insect kingdom. Like sand, like my mother, like a butterfly, carried away on a breath of wind...

Red Light-Green Light Smoothie

1 small frozen banana
1 cup frozen strawberries
1 cup fresh pineapple
2 cups baby spinach
2 medjool dates (optional)
big chunk of ginger root
very generous sprinkle of cayenne pepper
1 tsp xtra-virgin olive oil
water to blend - about a cup or maybe more

Notes: Anti-inflammatory cayenne and ginger give this smoothie some kick and a nice joint/back health benefit. Adding a little oil, à la Teri Kerr's Ultimate Detox Diet's famous Breakfast Drink, supports absorption of the fat-soluble lutein in spinach plus enhances texture & satiety factor. (Teri and I wrote The Ultimate Detox Diet, detailing her excellent program, in 2005. To order or learn more, visit www.terikerr.com)

In green light love, Diana ❀

Practice Update: Montague Integrative Health – Grand Opening!

Dear Friends,

I am excited to announce that I have moved my practice from Greenfield to the lovely, centrally located village of Montague Center, where I am joining three other holistic practitioners to form Montague Integrative Health. Together, we look forward to providing high quality, comprehensive natural healthcare to the greater Pioneer Valley community. You can learn more about our group by visiting the "about me" page on my website, www.eat2evolve.com.

All local readers are warmly invited to attend our Open House tomorrow, Sunday November 9th from 2 to 5 PM at the offices of Montague Integrative Health, 432 Greenfield Road, Montague (adjacent to the Book Mill). Of course, we will be serving yummy raw, local and organic treats including my famous Raw Pumpkin Pie with Coconut-Date Pecan Crust, mulled cider from New Salem Preserves, Pierce Brothers coffee, assorted raw cheeses, Spicy Sunflower Chia Chips, Emily's fresh Eggplant Caponata, Nancy's Olive Oil Cookies and more!

Here's the recipe for my Chia Chips, which I developed as a way to use the pulp left over from juicing carrots. You probably could make this with any kind of juice pulp, provided it isn't too stringy (i.e. zucchini or cucumber as opposed to celery or kale). Feel free to substitue ground flax for chia, and mix up the seasonings as the spirit moves you – curry, pesto, jalapeno, whatever! I make this in a 9-tray Excalibur dehydrator. My beautiful, cobalt blue Kitchen Aid mixer does a super job of turning all the ingredients into a uniform dough. A big batch like this usually lasts a couple of weeks (unless it is being served at a grand opening celebration!)... Bon appetit!


SPICY SUNFLOWER CHIA CHIPS

INGREDIENTS

½ cup whole flaxseeds
1 ½ cups ground chia seed

½ large onion, minced
4 lg cloves garlic, minced
4 dried red chili peppers, minced
2 Tbs chipotle chili powder
2 Tbs dried basil
2 Tbs dried oregano
1 Tbs dried thyme
1 Tbs kelp powder
1 tsp sea salt

1 cup sunflower seeds
4 cups carrot pulp
4 Tbs wheat free tamari or nama shoyu (contains gluten)
1 cup minced fresh cilantro leaf and stem

DIRECTIONS

Combine flax and chia seeds in a large bowl. Cover with water and stir until as smooth as possible – it will clump up. Add more water to reach consistency of very thick paste. (Add more water if you want thinner chips, as the wetter dough will be easier to spread thin.) Stir well and allow to soak at least 15 minutes while you prepare other ingredients.

Combine minced onions, garlic and hot peppers. Add chili powder, basil, oregano, thyme, kelp powder and sea salt. Stir this mixture into the flax/chia seed paste and combine thoroughly. Add sunflower seeds, carrot pulp, tamari and cilantro, and combine thoroughly again. You can use a mixer if you like to help fully blend ingredients into a thick dough. Feel free to taste and adjust seasonings, but remember that all flavors–especially saltiness–will intensify as the crackers lose moisture and dry.

Line seven dehydrator trays with Paraflexx sheets or waxed paper. Divide dough evenly between the seven trays. One by one, spread each clump of dough into a flat square about 10 X 10 inches. Dampen your palms with water to facilitate spreading if needed. Once flat, I hold a chopstick against the sides and spread dough into edge to make a straight line. If you like, pre-score dough into chip shapes by lightly pressing a knife straight down into the flattened dough – for instance, 9 squares or 18 rectangles.

Put trays in dehydrator and dry at 105 degrees for 10-12 hours. Remove trays from dehydrator and one by one, place a mesh-lined tray on top of dry side of chip, flip trays upside down together, then peel off Paraflexx sheet to expose wet side. Return trays to dehydrator for another 10-12 hours or until chips are dry. Break along scores and store in airtight container; will keep for several weeks.