Balancing Your Body

Eating healthy, exercising, and getting regular adjustments will help keep your body in good repair. There is substantial evidence linking the food that you eat to the state of your health. Some foods actually cause disease and other foods prevent disease. Preparing your own meals helps ensure that what you are eating is good for you. It is important to eat a diet containing a high amount of fruits and vegetables. Sourcing your food from local farmers markets or directly from the farms or even by growing it guarantees that you are getting food that is fresh and was allowed to grow to maturity so that it is packed full of nutrients. There are many great places to find local food in Kansas City, like the Westport Plaza Farmers' Market and the Bad Seed.

Freeling Chiropractic would like to offer a healthy recipe each week that is easy to fix at home that will nourish your body and your soul. Check out this site for regularly updated, new recipes!

Smoky Tomato Salsa

This recipe is for about 6 pints of salsa. This recipe is flexible. I usually just take every ripe tomato, onion and pepper that I have and use it and just keep filling jars until I run out. Usually about 3 tomatoes can fit in one pint. You can also do quarts if you prefer.

About 18-20 medium to large fresh homegrown tomatoes (just take out the core, leave tomato whole)

3 large onions (keep skins on but cut in half)

2 whole garlic bulbs (cut in half and sprinkle insides with salt and olive oil the wrap in foil)

4-8 Jalapenos or equally hot peppers depending on your desire for heat

2 T vinegar or lime juice

salt to taste

6 pint jars, 6 rings for jars, 6 flats for jars (all the same size mouth)

Place de-cored tomatoes on the grill. If you have a flat cooking sheet with holes you can first spread tomatoes out on the sheet then place the sheet on the grill. Place onions directly on the grill with the cut half facing down. Set the garlic on a cooler part of the grill along with the peppers.

Depending on how hot your grill is will determine your cooking time. You want the tomatoes to loosen up their skins and burn just a little on the bottom. Onions should be blackened on the bottom and jalapenos can be slightly blackened on all sides- they will need to be turned every so often. Garlic should be soft. It usually takes me about and hour to grill everything but I check it every 10 minutes or so and take off the veggies as they are done. Once done, set everything aside to cool.

Once it is cool enough to handle, you can take of the skins of the veggies. With most veggies the skins should just slip off. Place the rest of the veggie in a food processor. Keep similar veggies together when chopping to keep the integrity of the size of the chop. For instance the onions should be chopped down to 1 cm squares but the tomatoes should be pureed unless you want it to be more chunky. You will probably have to refill the food processor and dump it several times into a big pot to boil. Add vinegar.

Once all of the salsa is in the big pot, bring to a boil and then turn heat down to a low boil stirring every 5 minutes or so. You want to cook the veggies down for about 30 min. Add salt to taste.

Meanwhile you need to sterilize your jars. I have ran them through a dishwasher before and the heat sterilizes them pretty well. If you don't want to do this you can boil a pot of water and dip each jar into the pot of water and turn it in the water a few times. Then take it out, dumping all the water out of it and sit it upright on the counter. Repeat until you have all of your jars sterilized. Then put the flats in the water. The water sterilizes the flats and heats the rubber rim so that it will form to the jar better when you close it. Leave flats in water until jars are full of salsa.

Sterilize a cup or a ladle and a funnel to pour your salsa into the jar. Scoop up hot salsa from the pot and pour into the jars with the funnel sitting on top of the jars. Fill jars leaving a 1/2” gap at the top. Take flats out of hot water with tongs and immediately place on top of the jar and quickly screw the ring on the top. Once all of the jars are full and closed you are ready to process them.

There are great canning pots just for processing. I, however, do not own one of these so I just place a few extra rings into the bottom of the biggest pot I have to keep the jars off of the very bottom of the pot. I place the jars on top of the rings and then fill the pot with water so that the water come over the top of the jars about 1”. Bring to a boil and boil for 45 more minutes. Then take your boiling pot of water and jars to the sink dumping half of the water out so that you can easily grab you jars out the water. Use an oven mitt or tongs or both so as not to burn yourself. It is important to get the jars out as soon as you can from the heat and do not allow them to cool in the pot of water. Place jars on the counter to cool. They will immediately start to seal. You can hear the pop! Allow to cool. The next day I usually have to take a dry clean towel and wipe off the white resin that is on the outside of the jar. They should store for years but mine gets devoured within 6 months.

Seared Eggplant and Zucchini Gazpacho

A great summertime soup served at room temperature.

2 chopped Japanese eggplant ( slender and soft skin- If you use a large eggplant the peel it first.)
2 chopped medium Zucchini
1/4 cup olive oil for searing
5 chopped large or equal to 5 large chopped tomaatoes. (use a variety of different colored tomotoes)
1/3 cup olive oil for broth
1/4 cup red wine
4 garlic cloves
1/2 cup thinly chopped fresh basil
Salt and Pepper to taste (I like to salt while the food is cooking but you can wait until the end to salt)

Sear chopped eggplants by tossing them into 1/8 cup of hot olive oil in saute pan on high heat (if you don't like using

olive oil for cooking you can use coconut for the high temp cooking.) Do not stir! After about 2 minutes, check one
piece of eggplant to see if the side down in the oil is golden brown in spots. If eggplant drinks up the oil then ad more
oil. There should be a visible amount of oil on the bottom of the pan during searing. If one side of the piece is golden
then flip all pieces in saute pan to have another side face down. Repeat with all sides. Once all of the pieces are golden brown on all sides crush 2 cloves of garlic into the hot pan with the eggplant. stir for 15 seconds then scoop the
garlicky eggplant out of the oil and into the bowl that you will be serving Gazpacho.

Repeat procedure with the Zucchini and toss the seared Zucchini in with the eggplant once it is done.

Add the chopped tomatoes and stir.

In a cup or small bowl wisk with a fork the 1/3 cup oil and red wine until the mixure emulsifies a little bit. Stir
mixture into the bowl of tomatoes, zucchini, and eggplant. Add basil and stir it up again. Taste and then let it sit
not refrigerated for at least 30 minutes to an hour.

You can serve this in soup bowls topped with more basil, crubbly goat cheese, toasted almond slices, or cheesy croutons if you like. Yum!

A big Thank You to Fairshare Farm for the beautiful veggies.

Bun (Vietnamese noodle salad)

1 package of rice sticks or thin rice noodles (prepare as directed on package) drain and set aside in a the refrigerator. You can use any veggies that you think would be good in an Asian salad these are just suggestions that you can use or not. I check to see what is in season at my local market. Most raw veggies are great in this type of salad. Any leafy greens or roots can certainly be used.

2 shredded carrots

½ head of shredded purple cabbage

1 bunch of green onions sliced diagonally

1 cucumber deseeded and peeled sliced diagonally

½ head of shredded lettuce

A bunch of green beans

½ c. finely chopped peanuts

1 lb. peeled shrimp or cubed tofu (you want really firm tofu like Good Nature Family Farm or Central Soy Foods tofu which you can purchase at any local health food store or Hen House. Asian grocery stores also may have a really good firm tofu).

Saute shrimp or tofu in sesame oil on high heat until all sides are a golden brown set aside in serving bowl. Place all veggies in separate serving bowls.

Bun Dressing

1/4 c. tamari

1/8 c. toasted sesame oil

1/8 c. rice vinegar - can use other vinegar such as white or cidar

1/4 c. water

1 T asian garlic chili sauce or sirache sauce

1 T shredded ginger

1 T toasted sesame seeds

1 T thinly sliced green onion

Mix all dressing ingredients together.

This dish is a build your own salad. Place all ingredients on the table and let people get what they want. You will be happy to see that the kids will get plenty of veggies when building their own salad. Enjoy!

Eggplant Parmasean (Baked not Fried)

2 medium eggplants sliced

olive oil

1/2 c. parmasean or any Italian style cheese

3 medium tomatoes

a handfull of fresh basil leaves

Sear (cook in hot oil until it is a little blackened) both sides of sliced eggplant in cast iron skillet with enough olive oil that the eggplant doesn't absorb all of it. You can salt and pepper both sides if you would like. Lay the eggplant flat on a baking sheet. Slice tomatoes and lay one slice on each eggplant. Sprinkle each slice with shredded parmasean and bake for 10 minutes at 350. Sprinkle baked eggplant with chopped fresh basil or just lay a basil leaf on each piece.

Homemade Pasta or Soup Noodles

Making your own pasta and noodles increases the amount of protein in your food. Use the highest quality ingredients you can to ensure better nutrition. Local free-range eggs have more pigments in their yolks and contain more nutrients because their diet is better and they are fresher. I use a flour made of organic wheat that was grown nearby. In Kansas City you can buy local flour at the Bad Seed Market on Friday evenings. You can use semolina flour, whole wheat, or non-bleached white flour.

Homemade Noodles for 4 people

2 eggs, whipped
4 Tbs. cream (Shatto or Green Hills Farm)
2 c. flour, plus extra for rolling out dough
1 tsp sea salt
	

Mix eggs and cream. Stir flour and salt into egg mixture until evenly mixed. Place dough on a floured counter top and pat down flat with your floured hands (about ½ inch) and flip over to flour the other side. Roll out with rolling pin to as thin as you want your pasta (it may puff up a tad when cooked). I rolled this pasta out to ¼ inch. Flour well and roll pasta up into a jelly roll like roll. Then take your big slicing knife and dip it in the flour and then slice thin slices all the way down the roll. Then with your hands unravel each noodle and space out all the noodles on the floured surface.

Now that you have fresh noodles, you can use them to make pasta or you can add the to soup. My kids will eat any soup if I put noodles in it. For soup, boil your broth and drop noodles in one at a time and stir. Boil until they all float. Turn off heat and serve.

For pasta, you can drop the pasta in boiling water, one at a time. When the pasta starts to float you can drain it and toss with sauteed veggies.

I hope you enjoy this great recipe, my family certainly has!

SPRING ROLLS WITH PEANUT SAUCE

Spring roll rice paper ~ 12 Sheets
2 c. shredded purple cabbage
2 c. shredded carrots
2 c. chopped cilantro
2 c. soaked rice noodles or cold cooked rice
 Peanut Sauce (see recipe below)
	

Fill a dinner plate with water then add one sheet of rice paper and let it soak for about a minute, until soft. Take the rice paper out of the water and spread out on a second plate that is dry and replace another rice paper in the plate of water. Pinch about 2 Tbsp. of each ingredient (but not the peanut sauce) in the center of the wet rice paper. Then roll up like a tight burrito with the ends tucked in as you roll it. Place on platter. The next rice paper should be ready to stuff by then. Repeat until all the ingredients are use up.

Peanut Sauce

 ½ c. peanut butter
1 can unsweetened coconut milk
1/8 c. honey
1 clove garlic
1 Tbsp. curry powder
1 Tbsp. chili powder
3 Tbsp. tamari
Juice from 2 limes
			

4 C Organic Whole Wheat Pastry Flour from Heartland Mill
1 ½  C Butter from Shatto Dairy
1 t Sea Salt
1 Egg from Freeling's
½ C Water
			

1 Head Broccoli from Eastwind Gardens, chopped
1 Medium Kohlrabi from Eastwind Gardens, chopped
4 Red Carrots from Eastwind Gardens, chopped
2 C New Potatoes from Eastwind Gardens, chopped
1 C Sweet White Onions from Eastwind Gardens, chopped
5-10 Nasturtium Flowers from Eastwind Gardens, finely chopped
3 T Butter from Shatto Dairy
1 C Cream from Shatto Dairy
1 C Rosemary Goat Cheese from Green Dirt Farm
Garlic from Freeling's, finely chopped
Basil from Freeling's, finely chopped
Rosemary from Freeling's , finely chopped
Chives from Freeling's, finely chopped