Shepard's Pie (Vegetarian Option)

I signed up for a farm share through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program this summer and have been getting a bag of farm fresh produce every week throughout the summer. It's been a challenge keeping up with everything, so I've been trying to come up with ideas for how to use a lot of the veggies all at once. This Shepard's Pie helped me use up a lot of the farm produce and so, get a lot of vegetables into one meal!

I tend to think of Shepard's Pie as a fall or winter meal, because it is so hardy, but the fresh herbs and beans kept it light and fresh tasting. Enjoy!

Shepard's Pie
Top Layer: Mashed Potatoes
I've gotten pretty creative with my mashed potato recipes - starting with adding onions and garlic, I've gone all the way to adding basil and balsamic vinegar. For this dish, I used what was at hand and was pleased with the results, but make the mashed potatoes your favorite way!

4 red potatoes
1 leek, thoroughly cleaned and chopped
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
handful fresh basil
milk or soy milk - used to blend to preferred consistency

Chop and boil red potatoes, leaving skins on. Drain and set aside. Saute leek in olive oil for about 5 minutes. Mix potatoes, leeks and milk - use electric mixer and more milk for smooth consistency or hand-masher and less milk for a thicker texture. Mix in chopped basil and salt and pepper to taste.

Middle Layer: Veggie Medley
Any veggies will do for the middle layer - in the past, I've used a bag of frozen mixed veggies with corn, green beans and peas. For this summer version, I used fresh green beans, yellow wax beans, carrot and yellow summer squash. Wash and trim green beans, wax beans, carrot and squash. Slice carrot and squash into coin shapes and cut green and wax beans into 1 inch pieces. Steam together.

Bottom Layer: Meat Layer
1/2 pound ground Buffalo or organic grass fed beef
OR
1-2 cups of vegetarian grounds
OR
2 vegetarian burger patties (I used 2 Amy's original burger patties, warmed up and then broken into pieces)

2-4 Tbsp chopped or minced onion (optional)
2-4 Tbsp chopped peppers - use mildly spicy peppers for a great flavor (I used the small wrinkled Italian variety - they are mildly spicy, but very flavorful and it made the meat(less) layer a big hit!)
1 cup chopped cherry/grape tomatoes

Lightly saute onions and peppers, add meat or vegetarian crumbles/patties. Cook until done, add chopped tomatoes, turn off heat and put a lid on for 5 minutes or until ready to assemble. This will lightly cook the tomatoes and help blend the flavors.

Assembly: It couldn't get any easier than pouring each layer into a casserole dish in order. Individual ramekins would also be a great way to serve this dish. Everything is already cooked fully, so it doesn't really need to bake, but you can either keep it warm in a low oven or let it bake a little to crisp the top. We ate this one night as is (with a little salt and pepper to taste) and added a little cheddar cheese on top the next - both ways were delicious. Enjoy!

Thanks for Stopping By!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth at the Tualatin Crawfish Festival.

We had a great time and enjoyed meeting so many members of our community.

If you didn't have time to stop by and get your questions answered,

please send us a note or give us a call - we'd be happy to talk to you.

frontdesk@truehealthmedicine.com

503-691-0901

Tualatin Crawfish Festival

Top 10 Reasons to Attend the 2009 Tualatin Crawfish Festival

10. Hot Rod Show

9. Kayak rides in the lake

8. 5K Run/Walk

7. Skateboard Show/Competition

6. Dog fashion show, Atsa My Dawg Show, K-9 Demonstration

5. Photography contest

4. Dancing Impala and Indian Folk Dance Demonstrations

3. Crawfish, crawfish and more crawfish, including

a cook-off and eating contests

2. Come say "Howdy" to your favorite local naturopaths at the

True Health Medicine booth!

1. A great time in our community together!

There really is something for everyone at the Crawfish Festival. Bring the whole family for a great day at this Wild West Fest. For more information, click here.

Out and About

It's summer and we're out and about town. In addition to our booths at nearby community events, the doctors of True Health Medicine are continuing our speaking schedule. Tonight at 7pm at New Seasons Market Orenco Station, Dr. Jeff Clark is speaking on Healthy Weight Loss and Maintenance.

Whether you feel you're at your ideal weight or you'd like to lose a few (or more) pounds, you'll likely learn something valuable from this course. We'll cover what ideal weight is and why it matters, how your weight is related to disease risk and lifespan, complicating factors that might make it hard to lose weight and how medically assisted weight loss can help.

RSVP 503.648.6968
Cost: Free

Address: New Seasons Market, Orenco Station
1453 NE 61st Avenue, Hillsboro, OR 97124

Wilsonville Fun in the Park

True Health Medicine is participating in Wilsonville's Fun in the Park event this Saturday from 10am to 5pm at the Wilsonville Town Center Park. Come see us at our booth to learn more about naturopathic medicine or acupuncture. Enter for a chance to win a massage, acupuncture treatment or non-surgical face lift and tone treatment. We hope to see you at the park!

Great Summer Salad Recipe

In these days of over 100 degree temperatures, turning on the oven or even the stove does not seem like a good idea. To keep cool, I've been eating fresh fruit for breakfast and packing simple salads for lunch. Just a little cutting and I'm ready to go. These are some of the simplest and most satisfying meals and are highly nutritious without being heavy. It's essential when it's too hot to eat much that what we put into our bodies provides us with the fuel and nutrients we need. Try this simple bean salad or make yourself a green salad with your other favorite vegetables to keep yourself cool.

Simple Bean Salad
1 can organic garbanzo beans
1 can organic dark red kidney beans
1-2 organic cucumbers
1 pint organic cherry or grape tomatoes
2-3 tbsp mild rice vinegar
1-2 tbsp your choice of fresh herbs, minced (optional) - I like mint, parsley, chives or cilantro for a fresh taste!
1-2 tbsp your choice of seeds (optional) - My favorite are small seeds like white or black sesame or hemp seeds.

Drain and rinse both types of beans. With the skin on, chop the cucumber into small pieces. In this salad, I don't find the skin to be problematic, but if you hate the skin, try peeling only 1/2 the cucumber and leaving the skin on 1/2 to keep some of the valuable nutrients in the skin. Cut tomatoes in halves. Add beans, tomatoes and cucumber to large mixing bowl. Add rice vinegar, optional herbs and seeds and mix. Enjoy!

A few other tips for dealing with heat:

• Drink plenty of water, but remember to drink some fluids with electrolytes as well. Small amounts of Emergen-C, Vitamin Water, Gatoraid or similar products can help keep your electrolytes balanced if you are sweating a lot in the heat.

• While keeping cool, remember not to over-air condition your home, car or office. Adapting from ambient temperatures in the 60's to the 100's can be difficult for your body to adjust to.

• Be cautious with air conditioning if you tend towards sinus infections. A/C can dry out your sinuses and cause an increase in symptoms.
  

• Additionally, try not have fans blowing on the back of your neck, especially while you are sleeping. Many acupuncture points on the back of your neck are known as "wind points" and intense wind exposure at these points can lead to symptoms of common cold.

Have you got Rhythm?

I found this interesting article on rhythms and it got me thinking about my own rhythms. I tend to be an early to bed-early to rise person with regular mealtimes, but without much "downtime" (or "build up time" as they call it in the article) or recreation. You see, for the past year, since True Health first acquired our current clinic location in Tualatin, I've been working 6-7 days per work. Part time at a side job and part time at the clinic. I've taken a few vacations to try to catch up on my rest, but usually returned feeling like I needed a vacation from my vacation.

My body gave me a good wake up call last month when I threw my back out and realized, oh yeah, my health is my number one priority and this is not healthy. So, I'm making a change.
Starting July 20th, I'll be taking patient appointments Monday through Thursday (hours by appointment). Though I'm expanding my hours at True Health, I'm decreasing the number of days and the total hours that I'm working overall by releasing my side job. That, along with my morning Tai ji practice and some dance classes, should be a great start to getting myself back in rhythm!

Discussion:

• What's the rhythm of your day like? Does it vary a lot? Is it in alignment with nature's rhythms?
• What's your number one priority? If health isn't number one for you right now, where does it fall in the list?
• What habits do you have that are in alignment with your priorities? What habits do you have that are out of alignment with your priorities?