Green Tea & Chocolate: The Cancer Slayer Chronicles

Magic Mineral Broth Recipe

After posting this picture of this morning's Mineral Broth-makings on Facebook & Instagram, I got a few requests for the recipe. I can't take credit for it. It comes from Rebecca Katz's The Cancer Fighting Kitchen. Both the book and the broth are life-savers!

This is my Rosetta stone of soup, a broth that can be transformed to meet a myriad of nutritional needs, serving as everything from a delicious sipping tea to the powerful base for more hearty soups and stews. So no matter a person's appetite, it can provide a tremendous nutritional boost. Chemotherapy often saps your strength due to dehydration, which pulls vital nutrients out of your system. This rejuvenating liquid, chock-full of magnesium, potassium, and sodium, allows the body to refresh and restore itself. I think of it as a tonic, designed to keep you in top-top shape. ~ Rebecca Katz

Magic Mineral Broth, makes 6 quarts

Note: This broth gets better with simmer time. You can cut the recipe in half and make it in a slow cooker if you like.

6 unpeeled carrots, cut into thirds

2 unpeeled yellow onions, cut into chunks

1 leek, white and green parts, cut into thirds

1 bunch celery, including the heart, cut into thirds

4 unpeeled red potatoes, quartered

2 unpeeled Japanese or regular sweet potatoes, quartered

1 unpeeled garnet yam, quartered

5 unpeeled cloves garlic, halved

1/2 bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 8-inch strip of kombu

12 black peppercorns

4 whole allspice or juniper berries

2 bay leaves

8 quarts (32 cups) cold, filtered water

1 tsp salt

Rinse all the vegetables well, including the kombu. In a 12-quart or larger stockpot, combine all the ingredients. Fill the pot with the water, ensuring at least 2 inches space is left. Cover, bring to a boil.

Remove the lid, decrease the heat to low, and simmer, uncovered for at least 2 hours. If you have 4 hours, let it go that long. As the broth simmers, some of the water will evaporate; add more if the vegetables begin to peek out. Simmer until the full richness of the vegetables can be tasted.

Strain the broth through a large, course-mesh sieve, then add more salt to taste. Let cool to room temperature before refrigerating or freezing.

Storage: Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 5-7 days, or in the freezer for 4 months.

Rebecca's note on kombu (which is a seaweed): Kombu contains a full range of trace minerals, which are often deficient in people with compromised immune systems, and is high in potassium, iodine, calcium, and vitamins A and C. It is also rich in a type of polysaccharide known as fucoidans, which may inhibit cancer cells.

 

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Bit By The Green Smoothie Bug

One hundred and fifty days of green smoothies.

What does that mean exactly? That means I kept my first New Year's Resolution. Ever.

It started off as a 30-day challenge and then I was hooked. A "green smoothie," by the way, is a smoothie containing some sort of dark, leafy green (kale, spinach, chard, bok choy, etc.). The idea is to drink your veggies (though there is plenty of debate between the juice versus smoothie camps -- a debate I won't get into today).

Back to the challenge: One green smoothie for breakfast every day since the weekend following Christmas -- and sometimes one for dinner or a late afternoon pick-me-up. It has helped that Joe's on the bandwagon, too -- and that we splurged and spent the Christmas bonus check on a Vitamix (which is like having two horses on your counter ready to spring into some serious action at any moment).

The challenge, hosted by Simple Green Smoothies, provided great support, inspirational recipes, and tips (like, to avoid gross-out start with Beginner's Luck).

And then I started experimenting on my own, tossing this and that into my blender. But not totally at random. I learned from SGS that you almost always have smoothie success if you keep these "rules" in mind:

~ Winning ratio: 2 cups greens, 2 cups liquid, 3-4 cups fruit (makes 2 servings)

~ Make one of your cups of fruit a frozen fruit and you don't need ice

~ Blend the greens with the liquid first, then add the rest of the fruit to avoid leafy clumps

~ A banana can save a smoothie that needs a little something to improve it

~ Throw a couple of dates in to sweeten a smoothie

And this is just me, but I also add a couple tsps of matcha green tea powder and a sprinkle of chia seeds to my smoothies for cancer-fighting super powers!

Some of our family-invented favorites:

Lime-tastic!

2 cups baby kale (ribs removed)

1 cup coconut water

1/2 an English (seedless) cucumber

1/2 a lime (peel and all)

1 banana

1 cup frozen pineapple

 

Blueberry Ginger Cooler

2 cups baby spinach

2 cups coconut milk

1 banana

1 cup frozen blueberries

1 pear

1 inch chunk of fresh ginger

 

Lime Vitell (named by Nia, and given 3 stars by Nia!)

2 cups baby kale

2 cups coconut milk

1 handful cilantro

2 bananas

1 avocado

1/2 a lime (peel and all)

a few pinches of unsweetened coconut

 

Joe's Honeydew Smoothie

2 cups greens

2 cups coconut water

2 generous cups of fresh honeydew

1 cup frozen pineapple

1/4 of a lime (peel and all)

 

Blackberry Zing!

2 cups greens

1 cup coconut water

1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice

1 orange (peeled, seeded)

2 bananas

1 cup frozen blackberries

 

Cheers!

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