Not your Grandma's chicken soup

The past couple weeks its been getting chilly in Wisconsin and so many of my patients are getting sick:(  Unfortunately this includes myself and my husband! The sinus infections and head colds that are flying around are keeping people miserable for days and even weeks at a time! I have had a lot of request to share my chicken soup recipe so here you go! I really hope none of you reading this are fighting off this cold, but if you are make and enjoy, I promise it will help :)

This recipe may seem a little odd to some of you. It's defiantly not your grandma's chicken soup! It's a combination of my own recipe with principles of herbal medicine for those under the weather fall days. Add a dash of Chinese Medicine to a traditional favorite and viola immune boosting magic! Until next time remember to keep your wind gates (neck) covered with your favorite scarves and stay healthy!! 

                                                      Goji Berry Chicken Soup

Ingredients:

2 chicken thighs and drumsticks (preferably organic)

Water to immerse the chicken pieces

1 large onion, peeled and sliced

medium shallot diced

8 garlic cloves minced

2 medium potatoes 

5 organic carrots 

2 inch ginger, peeled and shredded
8 shitake mushrooms, caps only
5 tbsp dried goji berries, soaked in water to re hydrate

2 cups diced kale 

1 bunch green onion diced

2 teaspoons butter 

Splash of vinegar

Directions:

1. Saute onion onion, shallot, garlic in melted butter until soft and aromatic

2. Prep chicken wit salt pepper and herbs du province 

3. Combine chicken with onion, garlic and shallot and add a splash of vinegar

4. Combine half water half organic chicken stock

5.  Boil until chicken starts to fall off bone 

4. Remove chicken and de bone 

5. Add all remaining veggies except green onion, ginger and goji 

6. Cook until carrots are tender 

7. Add chicken, green onion and ginger 

8. In separate pot boil goji berries and rinse 

9. Add goji berries 

10. Combine and serve

Seasons of Change

As soon as the air becomes crisps  my whole mood lifts and I can't help smiling. The smell of autumn fills the soul, the colors of the turning leaves paint the world in their full glory, pumpkins and haystacks don our houses and we all become a little more able to slow down and cuddle up with our loved ones. It's a time of chili, candy apples and trick or treat. It's a time where many of us escape our real lives for a day and bask in the fun of all hallows eve. Just the mention of the previous fills my heart and warms my body. Now reflecting back its no wonder that I fell in love with a man born on Halloween and married him this last September just as leaves started to turn.

For many the fall is a time of transition. Hmmm maybe that's where some of the scary stigma of Halloween comes from. In my own personal experience I have always felt an uncanny urge to hold on tight and prepare myself for change when the air turns cold.It seems that during this time some people tend to disappear from my life without a trace, while old friends resurface as if they had never been gone. Jobs that were all wrong  always ended in the fall over some totally unpredictable turn of fate. I remember periods in my life where I just "had" to move in the fall, weather it be from an apartment or entire state; and it seems every important phase of my life has begun in fall after months of planning. I changed careers in the fall many times, started acupuncture school in the fall, began a new business in the fall and as mentioned above married my soul mate in the fall.

Just like the fall harvest of the farms our life's work seems to be at its peak during these blistery months. Just as the leaves turn and fall so new ones can bloom in the following spring, the people, places and things in our life that whole us back will naturally fall if you let them during this time. Its a pretty cool phenomena and one that I never had an explanation for until I attend acupuncture school. The practice of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) is rooted in nature. The ancient physicians watched the turning of the seasons, the natural ebb and flow of all things and creatures and used these observations to develop the way they practiced medicine. Anyone who has spent time truly studying this form of medicine can attest to the facts that it is poetic and almost romantic in its delivery. Acupuncture and Oriental medicine are an art form that takes many years to grasp and is so simplistic that it quickly becomes the most complicated theory one has every contemplated. So imagine being a first year student! Ya... that was fun! I will tell you more about that later. But I will tell you this, most of us left utterly confused the first day. I remember walking out of class literally wondering what in the world I had gotten myself into. Then as soon as I walked outside the sun was setting and the sun was lit with vivid highlights of orange, pink and blue and some how I just knew it was right.

The following is an understanding of the emotional and spiritual  manifestations of fall season from a TCM perspective. It talks about the energy of the season and gives a few suggestions on how to embrace that energy. I am sharing this with you in hopes that it may resonate with you as it did with me and somehow make a little more sense of things previously unknown.  Enjoy and Happy Halloween!!

Every season is a phase of transition and has energy associated with it. If we follow the natural ebb and flow of the season we begin to move through phases in our life with ease. The fall is the time of letting go, returning to earth, introspection and symbolic or real death. In this season you may be feeling the urge to evaluate situations in your life that have been causing you distress. You might be feeling unresolved sadness from the past resurfacing. This is due to the lung meridian becoming more active. These things are natural and are resurfacing so that you have the ability to acknowledge them and to let them go. As we move deeper into the fall season take time to ask yourself a few questions. Am I holding on to sorrow and sadness that needs to leave? Am holding on to an unhealthy relationship? What do I no longer need to hold onto materially or emotionally? When you find the answers let these things die and return to earth so that in the spring they may be reborn into vital and healthy manifestations. It is through letting go and change that evolve.

The girl in the blog

The power of human touch and intention is an incredible force. It is with a deep sense of gratitude that I can truly say through my years of practice that I have witnessed this force impact many lives for the better. It has the power to comfort, protect, heal; bring peace and transform the weak to vital. My practice has taught me never to underestimate what one person who cares can do for an individual; and in return what that individual can do for them in the community. My journey in medicine began as a student sitting in a massage therapy classroom wondering how I could possibly use the art of touch to affect the health of another person. In that classroom I discovered my passion for the human form, my love of science and my innate desire to help the advancement of the healthcare system as we knew it.  I continued my education at the Midwest College of Oriental Medicine, where I earned a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition, Master of Science in Oriental Medicine and currently am completing a Doctorate of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine.  Today I practice as a licensed Acupuncturist, Herbalist and Massage Therapist. I also own and teach in a Massage Therapy school called Sana School For the Healing Arts.

Over the last 10 years of practice I have had the privilege of watching as our healthcare system has begun to evolve and to be on the ground level of using natural methods of medicine in preventive healthcare.

People today are becoming more aware of the environmental dangers we face in the air we breath and the foods we are eating. They are realizing that our over stressed lifestyles are taking their toll and wreaking havoc on the oxidative stress process that speeds up the aging process. Free radicals plaque our bodies and we are a nation that is now faced with more sickness and illness than ever before. While in general people are becoming aware of these issues most still have no idea where to start to combat these issues. The topics of nutrition and healthcare are filled with so much conflicting information that it can be overwhelming. It is now in these times that I have chosen to help educate my patients and provide them with the tools that they need to take charge of their own health and to make informed decisions about their health.