Nutritious Recipes: Pad Thai & More

When we look into eating healthier meals, we can start by cutting out cooking or frying with oil.  I steam or lightly boil vegetables and other foods, and then add a little olive oil or better yet flax seed oil, afterward.  Flax seed oil is delicious on cooked pasta and baked potatoes.  Some quick, nutritious tasty foods include: Amy’s quarter pound veggie burger(s), Gardenburger original veggie burger, Amy’s spinach pizza---add your own veggies including more spinach, mushrooms, onions, artichoke hearts, and some of Kashi pizzas.  Read labels on veggie burgers and pizzas as well. 

Quick and easy recipes:  Try spaghetti squash with or without Parmesan cheese (could use semi-hard goat cheese grated) with marinara sauce (low or no salt/sugar).  Try an eggplant “parmesan” with sliced wet (or dipped in rice or almond milk) eggplant coated lightly with unbleached or whole grain flour in frying pan (no oil but water to lightly steam briefly to soften or simply put straight in roasting pan at 350 degrees for 5 minutes each side), then in roasting pan cover eggplant with low/no salt & low/no sugar/no fake sugar marinara sauce, top final layer with a combination of shredded rice “cheese” or veggie “cheese”, sliced/shredded almond mozzarella-style “cheese”, and maybe some goat cheese.  Season it with spices like basil, oregano, and garlic; then bake approximately 25-35 minutes at 350 degrees, keeping an eye on the cheese.  For dinner or lunch, try boiling rice pasta, linguine or spaghetti, or veggie pasta, or a mix or both, add onion or onion family, mushrooms (boiled part of the time), sliced garlic cloves, and some other small cut up vegetables like bok choy or zucchini, if adding broccoli steam for 4-6 minutes, throw in 5-6 shrimp or cooked (not fried) 4 ounces white meat chicken or fish, add flax oil (maybe a little olive oil) and season with garlic or other spices.  Or try steamed vegetables with a baked or sweet potato or brown rice with 5-6 shrimp or 4 ounces of fish or white meat chicken later adding flax seed oil to potato instead of rich fixings.  Or you could add chives and soy or coconut yogurt or maybe rarely a little low-fat/fat-free organic plain yogurt. 

Try modifying a pad thai or Chinese meal but skip the oil and frying.  Try this variation on pad thai recipe on about.com with 8 oz. pad thai noodles or rice linguine, ½ cup soft tofu (add with last of sauce), 4 green onions separating white and green parts and slice, 4 cloves minced garlic fresh, 1 tsp. sliced/grated ginger, optional 1 fresh chili sliced, 3-4 small baby bok choy or Chinese cabbage chopped, 2-3 cups bean sprouts, optional 1/3 cup fresh coriander/cilantro, ½ cup chopped cashews.  For sauce ¾ -1 & ½ Tbsp. tamarind paste (Asian store), ¼ cup veggie stock or fake chicken (can use low salt veggie/fake chicken bouillon), 3 & ½ Tbsp. soy sauce or wheat free version, ½-3/4 tsp. cayenne pepper, either 2 Tbsp. Agave sweetener syrup or equivalent Stevia sweetener to taste, ½ tsp. ground white pepper, and other: 2-7 Tbsp. veggie or fake chicken stock or bouillon with water.  Preparation:

1.        Bring a pot of water to a boil and switch off heat. Soak noodles for 4-6 minutes until limp but too firm to eat. Drain and rinse with cold water. Noodles must be under-cooked in order to come out right as cook more later.

2.        Combine 'pad Thai sauce' ingredients in a cup, stirring well to dissolve the paste and sweetener (note that if your tamarind paste is thick, only add 1 Tbsp. If thin/runny, add 1.5 Tbsp.). Note that sauce should have a STRONG-tasting flavor that tastes sour-sweet first, followed by salty and spicy. Set aside.

3.        Warm a wok or large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add 1-2 Tbsp. water or bouillon/stock plus the white parts of the green onion (reserve the rest for serving), garlic, ginger, and optional chili. Stir-fry without oil 1 minute.

4.        Add the bok choy plus more stock. Stir-fry 2 minutes, or until bok choy is bright green and slightly softened.

5.        Put ingredients aside and add 1/2 Tbsp. more water or stock/bouillon to the center of the wok/pan. Add the tofu and “stir-fry/steam” briefly to scramble.

6.        If pan is dry, push ingredients aside and add a little more stock, water or bouillon with water to the middle. Add the drained noodles and 1/3 of the sauce. Stir/steam-fry everything together 1-2 minutes using 2 utensils and a gently tossing motion (like tossing a salad). Keep heat between medium-high and high, reducing if noodles begin to stick or burn. Keep adding sauce and continue stir-frying in this way 3-6 more minutes, or until sauce is gone and noodles are soft but still chewy ('al dente') and a little sticky.

7.        Switch off heat and add the bean sprouts, folding them into the hot noodles. Taste-test, adding more soy sauce for more salt/flavor. If too salty or sweet, add a squeeze of lime juice. If too sour, sprinkle over a little more sweetener.

8.        Put noodles onto a large dish. Sprinkle with sliced green onion, coriander, and ground nuts. Serve.

Stay tuned for more ideas, recipes, education,….  If have any questions, feel free to contact 

Dr. Stephen B. Asquith of Chiropractic Works Fort Collins at 1-970-229-9993.

Nutrition in Today's World

What can we do to eat healthier?  We can start by getting rid of some of the junk food, fast food, french fries, fried foods, and donuts, cakes, cookies and other extreme sweets, especially the fried ones.  How about getting rid of bacon and pork; in addition, stop drinking sugary soft drinks as well as the sugar-free, artificially-sweetened sodas.  Now try adding some healthier foods and drinks, and not consuming empty calories that add weight.  Try apple juice,  grape juice (100% juice) or orange juice instead of soda, or a spritzer soft drink found in the health food stores or how about just good old plain water, bottled or by reverse osmosis.  At the very least, use a good water filter.

What should I eat for breakfast?  Either eat healthy cereal, for example, oatmeal (rolled oats have more fiber than quick) with rice or almond milk and cinnamon.  As an alter-native, cooked rice cereals like rice shine or puffed cereals are good, or how about just eating a fruit bowl.  

What should I eat for lunch?  Instead of the old favorite the “meat sandwich,” how about trying a salad with avocado, shredded carrots, shredded beets, alfalfa sprouts, broccoli and maybe add a small baked potato without all the fixings— add flax seed oil instead.  

What can I have for dinner?  Try rice pasta or vegetable pasta, with or without a handful of shrimp, and assorted vegetables like broccoli and bok choy with onions & mushrooms; or a 3-5 ounce portion of fish like salmon, or baked or broiled chicken with no skin, with assorted vegetables and greens like broccoli or bok choy with onions, mushrooms, and brown rice.  Try to stay away from consuming dairy products as these can later lead to many health issues.  For cheeses, as an alternative try almond cheese or rice cheese and even occasionally goat’s milk cheese.  For tastier drinks, try a couple of cups of Green tea per day, and some Chai tea.   If you absolutely need an occasional sweetener, try Stevia (read label to avoid glucose) or Agave Syrup.  Try baking with them too.  For those of you curious enough to lean toward a more vegetable-based diet, stay tuned for future blogs.  If you need nutritional info, feel free to email me at chiroworker@yahoo.com or call my office at 970-229-9993.  Check out my other blogs at: 

                 http://chiropracticworksfoco.blogspot.com/2012_03_01_archive.html

                                             Dr. Stephen B. Asquith, D.C.

Chiropractic for (Prevention and Treatment of) Sports Injuries

The Foundation for Chiropractic Progress, a non-profit organization whose goal is to educate and inform the public about “benefits associated with Chiropractic care” states that Professional Basketball athletes heavily rely on Chiropractic treatments for numerous conditions and injuries.   Professional athletes from the sports of golf, baseball, hockey, and football also turn to DCs (Doctors of Chiropractic) for care. 

According to the Foundation, The Professional Football Chiropractic Society noted that all 32 National Football League teams are offered Chiropractic physician care as part of their prevention and management treatment program.  Many DCs even travel with the teams, and NFL Hall of Famer inductee Jerry Rice believes so much in the benefits of Chiropractic that he is a spokesman for the Foundation.

Pro-Golfer Tiger Wood’s injury, a bulging spinal disc, which is becoming more common, can be successfully treated early through Chiropractic care and related therapies including ultrasound, electrical stimulation, and Acupuncture.   Often, non-invasive care can effectively “decrease the need for more invasive procedures such as… injections and surgery” according to http://www.yes2chiropractic.com .

Many college and high school athletes have intensive training schedules as well as competitions with the risk of injuries per sport summarized in a chart at: http://dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/ dc/article.php?id=38548 which emphasized early treatment to avoid protracted problems.  A well-trained Chiropractor with years of experience has many modalities to prevent and treat sports-induced injuries, and inflammations.  For basic information on the history of Chiropractic, and for care in the Fort Collins area, check out my blog at: http://chiropracticworksfoco.blogspot.com/2012/03/why-is-chiropractic-so-effective.html , and my websites on Facebook under Chiropractic Works Fort Collins and www.chiroworker.com.  With over 25 years of experience, I offer multiple modalities to treat sports-related and other injuries.  I have effectively treated football, baseball, basketball, soccer, golf, volleyball, jogging, and skiing injuries.  Colorado State University  and other students, athletes, and professionals have been successfully treated by our office.

Besides pain, What Medical conditions does Acupuncture treat?

     Acupuncture is a quite effective alternative to pharmaceutical therapy for all pain and many medical problems, and it has been used in China for 5000 to 6000 years.  What is acupuncture?  It applies micro-needles, pressure, mild stimulation, and sometimes heat to certain places in the skin to cause a change in the physiological functions of the body.  Acupuncture is part of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) based on the belief that many of the major organs are affected by qi/chi (vital energy) and must be balanced to be healthy, and stimulating some acupoints and meridians treat numerous pain syndromes and illnesses.       .
   
     Acupuncture has been around for thousands of years and is recognized by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and World Health Organization (WHO) to be effective in the treatment of a wide variety of medical problems.  It is effective in treating Addictions---drugs, alcohol, smoking, Anxiety, Asthma, Bronchitis, Carpel tunnel syndrome, Chronic fatigue, Common cold, Constipation, Dental Pain, Depression, Diarrhea, Digestive trouble, Dizziness, Dysentery, Emotional problems, Eye problems, Facial palsy tics, Fatigue, Fertility issues, Gingivitis, Headache, Insomnia, Hiccough, Incontinence, Irritable bowel syndrome, Low back pain, Menopause, Reproductive problems, Menstrual irregularities, Migraine, Morning sickness, Nausea, Osteoarthritis, Pain, PMS, Pneumonia, Rhinitis, Shoulder pain, Sleep disturbances, Smoking cessation, Seasonal affective disorder (SAD), Sore throat, Stress, Tennis elbow, Tonsillitis, Tooth pain, Trigeminal neuralgia, Urinary tract infection, Vomiting, and Wrist pain.

     Acupuncture may cause responses in nerves, the pituitary gland, and parts of the brain, which in turn can cause the body to release hormones, brain chemicals and proteins that control a number of bodily functions.  It also affects blood pressure, the immune system, and body temperature.  Acupuncture can also triggers the release of endorphins (natural painkillers) and enkephalins.  Follow Dr. Stephen B. Asquith of Chiropractic (and Acupuncture) Works, Fort Collins, CO to learn more about Chiropractic, Acupuncture, Nutrition, Ultrasound, and related therapies.  I can be reached through my Facebook page or website at www.chiroworker.com.  To access my blog on Chiropractic, see http://chiropracticworksfoco .blogspot.com/2012/03/why-is-chiropractic-so-effective.html

   

   

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Why is Chiropractic So Effective?

Ancient Chiropractic care goes back to the days of old, but modern day Chiropractic started in the 1890s by D.D. Palmer.  One of his first patients was William Harvey Lillard in 1895 to whom he successfully restored his hearing by neck manipulation.  Today, Chiropractic can effectively fully restore normal nerve function to your para-vertebral muscles as well as the rest of the musculature in the body and the organ systems as well.  Chiropractic can be used successfully for all pain states including either lumbar or low back pain, sciatic pain,  thoracic or mid-back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, and knee, elbow, ankle and leg pain.  In addition, Chiropractic can be used to treat problems such as fatigue, MS, Fibromylagia, arthritis, digestive disorders, and others.  Some of the more serious conditions can be more effectively treated with both Chiropractic and Acupuncture treatments.

The above picture of the Autonomic Nervous System reflects the innervations to the body organ systems as well as the musculature of the body.  This chart shows proof why Chiropractic is effective when you are in highly trained and expert hands.  With injuries and stress to the neuromuscular system, subluxations (misplaced vertebra) create nerve impingement along the spine which can cause pain, tingling, or other health issues as well, and Chiropractic can typically effectively treat these.  For more information about treatment in the Fort Collins, Colorado area, sign up on the right for emails of my blogs, click follow me, and contact me at chiroworker@yahoo.com, or chiropracticworker@gmail.com, and my website at: www.chiroworker.com.