Protective Diet Class #296 Notes:

Incorporating Dried Herbs for Flavor & Protection

This class covers drying, sourcing and cooking with herbs, which are being heavily studied for pharmaceutical possibilities in cancer treatment. Who needs a prescription medication when the same healing and prevention powers are available in your pantry?

Announcements

• Engage in our official support group, Protective Diet Living (PDL). Join Live Chats & Coaching Hour for personal assistance.
• Shop www.protectivediet.com/bulk, an independent source for low-cost, high-quality PD staples in bulk.

Vocabulary

Sulforaphane

Autophagy

Capsaicin

Plant Diversity

Action Steps for Flavorful Protection from Herbs and Spices

• Why Incorporate Herbs
• Flavor—Spices and herbs make Protective Diet recipes sing! From thyme in southern dishes to mint in beverage infusion and to the Capsaicin in spicy peppers—we use a lot of herbs and spices to recreate familiar flavor profiles without the inflammatory, disease-causing oils, fats, nuts and animal products. You will not miss the cheese.
• Protection—Herbs are being heavily tested for their protective ability to block the damaging effects on both healthy and unhealthy cells during chemotherapy and radiation cancer treatments with a goal of producing prescription medications.
• Anti-Aging Effects—Herbs promote autophagy, the cellular recycling that stops your cells from breaking down and getting old prematurely, keeping your cells new and young from the inside out. It’s about more than just the wrinkles.
• Plant Diversity–Prebiotics—all fruits and vegetables are loaded with prebiotic plant fiber. Healthy gut microbes eat/ferment plant fiber and produce probiotics. Meals high in plant diversity promote a diverse healthy gut microbe population, which gives you powerful immunity against a diversity of pathogens, viruses, bad bacteria, and inflammation.

• Dry at Home
• Rosemary, Mint, Thyme, Oregano, Bay Leaves, Parsley—perfect for home drying.
• Fresh Dried Parsley is “Green Gold”—there is nothing as green as this in a spice jar in your grocery store.
• Freshly dried herbs smell amazing compared to the lifeless offerings available at the grocery store.
• Herb Drying Rack—enclosed, mesh, vertical shelves for air drying. Easily hung/stored. Not ideal for windy locations.
• Lay out on a towel—works for smaller quantities.
• Food Dehydrator—might be necessary in humid areas.
• Avoid putting them in the oven
• Crumble/crush and add to your spice jar, or bag and add to your bulk stash.

• Buy in Bulk
• On a Protective Diet we rely on spices for flavor and protection—We need these ingredients to be fresh and shine!
• Save Money—buy spices in 1lb bulk bags and pay only ¼ of the grocery store cost for a fresher, organic product.
• Buy Bulk—Protective Diet recipes use the same herbs over and over making it simple to stock your pantry.
• Onion Powder—Organic Onion Powder in 5lb bags for superior flavor that changes everything in Protective Diet recipes.
• Chopped Dried Onion—adds a layer of flavor unlike what you get from a regular onion—Allium family is so protective

• Cook With Them
• Measure a teaspoon of a spice, such as rosemary, into your hand and crush it to release the oils before adding to a recipe.
• Experience an aroma therapy treatment while cooking in your workplace for wellness—take a deep breath, take it all in.
• Do not use dried parsley if fresh is called for. It’s not the right flavor for that dish. It will be notated if that is a good option.
• Protective Diet recipes will guide you in using spices for protection and flavor in creative ways. Try Fried Green Tomatoes.

Cooking Tips

• Stock up on Poultry Seasoning in anticipation of Thanksgiving and the holidays, or dry and mix your own from fresh herbs.
• Write the abbreviated version of five favorite fast PD recipes on a post-it note and put inside your cupboard door.
• Clean as you go with the goal of touching everything only once. Use it, wash it, or load it in the dishwasher.
• Ezekiel Bread is available in the freezer section of health food stores. You don’t have to bake your own bread, but you CAN.
• Probiotic Pepper Sauce–for red color (even without red fresno or jalapeno peppers), use red bell peppers and throw in a couple red thai chilies or red arbol chilies for the spicy capsaicin. Freeze spicy peppers instead of drying & powdering them.

Julie’s Freezer Pepper Stash = Red Fresno Peppers, Cayenne Peppers, Mini Red Sweet Peppers.

• Broccoli Leaves—dry steam them. They have just as much protection and sulforaphane as mature broccoli florets.
• Kohlrabi—slice root and cover with lightly salted water for a crunchy snack. Chop and dry steam tender leaves.
• Eggplant—try it sliced and breaded. Revisit the Eggplant Parm-a-non recipe using the new Seasoned Wholegrain Bread Crumbs.

FAMILY STYLE MEAL IDEA:

Mix & Mac Casserole

– Mix sauce ingredients before you start cooking the pasta to allow the ingredients to sufficiently rehydrate.

– Prepare Mix & Mac and Dry Steamed Broccoli and Kale leaves. Combine and spread in a casserole dish.

– Top with Seasoned Wholegrain Bread Crumbs to add flavor, protection and plant diversity. Crisp under the broiler.

Tableside Toppings: Ruby Raw Kraut, Probiotic Pepper Sauce, Kosher Deli Pickles (with a cayenne pepper added in).

Dessert: Fresh Seasonal Fruit Platter—Julie’s fruit platter was a variety of melons: watermelon, casaba melon, Crenshaw melon

– Leave salt out of the bread crumbs if you are watching your sodium intake. Add a sprinkle of salt on top if desired.

– Skip the kale if you are just getting started, or add defrosted frozen peas (defrost in warm water while pasta is cooking).

– If plain fresh fruit doesn’t seem like dessert to you yet, you will get there. It takes populating your healthy microbes.

  Beneficial microbes direct you to eat healthy, simple foods. When microbes sense healthy, high fiber, protective, anti-oxidant rich fruit they

  send neurotransmitter signals to the brain to get you to eat it so they can continue populating and doing their job.

Student Q&A

Q: How long does it take herbs to dry in a hanging herb drying rack? (26:00)

Encouragement

• Emotional Eating—it’s not the delicious food that is causing me to eat past full and check-out of my life. I want to soothe myself. I want to eat something. I want to continue eating so I don’t have to go deal with all my spinning plates. Excitement, tragedy and being busy/trying to slow myself down can cause me to reach for food. I need to check-in with myself. Write down my feelings. Address my feelings. Experience and work through the feelings so I’m not covering them up with eating and becoming totally immobilized. We have to address this in order to make any diet work to our advantage.
• If you have used food your whole life to cope, and hide, and cover up, you will reach for it in the future. You are not a food addict because you have cut out addictive foods. If you are bingeing and it doesn’t feel good, address what is causing you to do that. It never makes the problem go away. It just makes two problems because now you are uncomfortable and emotional.
• I encourage you to find happiness. All that matters is your happiness. You have to find it and it’s within.
• I am human just like you. I work on things to bring myself happiness and get myself in a good place. We all have times in our life when we reach for something outside of ourselves to feel good. Look upward and inward to find your way and find your why.

“Spices are being heavily examined to create a pharmaceutical out of something

that was given to us in nature to use, enjoy and make our food sing.

Let’s use them as they are.”

Recommended Recipes

Mojos	Plant-Based Gumbo	Bread Maker Onion Loaf	Spices and Herb Vinaigrette
Plant-Based Etouffee	Kids Spaghetti	Whole Wheat Loaf Bread	Pozole Rojo
Ultimate Cheeze Sauce	Not Yo Cheeze Sauce	Mushroom Gravy	Zesty Italian Dressing
Cream of Chick’N Soup	French Onion Dip	Probiotic Pickled Onions	Flatbread Sub Sandwich

Recommended Classes

#243 Health Benefits of Spicy Food	#087 Pantry Par Stocking System	#163 Handicapping the Binge
#234 Know Your Fast Five	#096 Kitchen Set up For Efficiency	#288 Socializing & PD Living–Potluck

Class Description:

This class covers drying, sourcing and cooking with herbs, which are being heavily studied for pharmaceutical possibilities in cancer treatment. Who needs a prescription medication when the same healing and prevention powers are available in your pantry?

Tagged with: Autophagy • Capsaicin • Plant Diversity • Sulforaphane
Class URL: https://protectivediet.com/courses/food-focus-pd-staples/lessons/class-296-incorporating-dried-herbs-for-flavor-protection-incorporating-dried-herbs-for-flavor-and-protection-and-tips-to-resolve-binge-eating-cycles/