Bone Broth and Lemon Tea

In the Fall when the nights start drawing in, it is common to feel your energy flagging and to slip more easily into overwhelm and exhaustion, as our modern busy schedules do not slow down to accommodate the change in daylight hours and our circadian rhythm becomes confused.

It is your thyroid and adrenal glands that bear the brunt of the stress resulting from e waking up in the dark each morning and going hard and fast in the day when are bodies are naturally wanting to slow down.

Chinese medicine identifies Fall as the season of Metal and of Letting Go, just like the leaves from the trees. Western medicine, does not entertain any attunement of our health to the world around us.

At this time of year foods that deeply nourish our adrenal and thyroid health are supportive to the body, so we can maintain our energy and our immunity stays strong into the Winter months. This means eating salty foods rich in minerals and boosting our vitamin C.

Bone broth is the quintessential mineral dense food and you can make your own using this recipe HERE or it can be bought in a pouch or as a powder.

This is a super simple recipe for a Bone Broth tea that can be drunk at all times of the day but is especially healing for your digestive health in the morning when you break your night time fast. If you have gas and bloat in perimenopause, drink in the A.M.

Savory and lemony, this tea is delicious and deeply supportive of your gut, skin, bone and joint health as it provides the nutrition your adrenal and thyroid glands crave and keeps you feeling energized daily and out of exhaustion and overwhelm as the dark nights creep in.

Ingredients

1. 1 mug of warmed bone broth, homemade, from a pouch or as a powder. (Organika have a great range of powdered bone broth)

2. Big pinch of mineral rich sea salt such as Maldon

3. Juice of 1/2 lemon

Instructions

1. Warm enough bone broth to fill your desired mug.

2. Add a big pinch of sea salt

3. Add the lemon juice and stir to combine

4. Sip each morning to support your thyroid and adrenal health as the nights draw in and especially your body feels the struggle as the hour changes

Homemade Chai Spice

Every year I feel traumatized by the number of women conditioned to feel excited about enjoying the 35g of sugar that comes in a Starbucks Pumpkin Spiced Latte in the form of a favoured high fructose corn syrup. Pumpkin Spiced is not a season…It’s more like a pumpkin spice cult!

If there is one sure fire way to tear down your health for the day, it is by kicking yourself into fight or flight using caffeine and doubling down on that assault to your body by severely spiking your blood sugar levels.

Whenever you increase the stress on your body you spike the level of cortisol, our stress hormone, in your body because stress causes your adrenal glands to default to building cortisol in preference to building the drip feed of estrogen and progesterone your body needs as a buffer in peri-menopause and to feel like your old self again in full menopause.

Stress turns off your natural hormonal supply and leaves you with weight gain around the middle and anxiety, low libido and a dry vagina. I said what I said!

But, even I get that the cozy spice vibes are delicious, so every year I lean into the flavour to create recipes that will support your midlife hormonal health and you can feel calm, confident and menopausal symptom free.

In fact warming spices are anti-inflammatory for our bodies helping to reduce your symptoms of menopause and support our thyroid health as they take the stress off this important gland to fire up our metabolism and warm us up from the inside out.

Here is my recipe for a Chai Spice that you can add to my recipe for a health promoting Pumpkin Spiced Latte and my Pumpkin Chai Overnight Oats. It also makes a great Chai tea.

Ingredients

2 tsp ground Cardamon
2 tsp ground Allspice
2 tsp ground Nutmeg
2 tsp ground Cloves
6 tsp ground Ginger
4 tsp ground Cinnamon
freshly ground Black Pepper to taste

Instructions

Mix all of the spices together in a jam jar and use liberally in tea and baking.

Hemp Milk

When the cost of living is increasing and you want to stay committed to putting nutritious food inside your body, it is worthwhile setting time aside to make some ingredients from scratch.

Yes, I know that we are all time pressed and busy, but this little homemade milk hack takes only 10 minutes, when you have a high speed blender. I also know that this 10 minutes will save you money and that this 10 minutes will build self-trust as you let your body know you are taking full responsibility for getting nutrient dense foods into your daily routine.

Many of the women I work with find that when they reduce the quantity of dairy products in their diet at midlife, they feel a reduction in uncomfortable symptoms of menopause and many more women come into my practice stating that they just can’t digest dairy anymore, as it leaves them feeling bloated and gassy.

Many of us have concerns about the dairy industry or bovine growth hormones and are choosing an alternative to cows milk.

Plant based milks have their own separate issues, from the almonds used in almond milk reducing precious water supple in California and the inclusion of inflammatory processed seed oils in oat milk.

Hemp seeds offer a fantastic alternative for a milk, hemp seeds being packed with anti-inflammatory omega 3 fatty acids and phytoestrogens to gently top-up depleting estrogen in the body and the fact that they are a rich source of protein, calcium and magnesium.

It is also good to know that hemp plants grow in drier soils, needing less water and have long, strong tap roots that help to replenish degraded prairie soils with nutrition and to prevent soil erosion. Hemp is an all round good guy!

This recipe is quick to make and very simple. It would make a perfect addition to a weekly meal-prep routine and will provide enough milk for a daily latte throughout the week.

When you make this recipe at home, you know exactly what you are putting in your body and can choose only the nutrient-dense, whole-foods that build real health and energy in your body.

I used this milk in my recipe for Tiramisu Chia Pudding which you can find here.

Ingredients

1/2 cup Hemp Seeds
2 dates Pitted
Pinch Sea Salt
3 - 4 Cups Filtered Water (I used 3 cups for a thicker creamier milk)

Instructions

Add all of the ingredients to a high-speed blender and whizz on high until they are smooth and have formed a milk.

Place in a glass jar and refrigerate to use through the week. Shake milk before use to redistribute ingredients.