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S: Bright Food

FC: Bright Food

1: Bright Food for a Bright Life | An invitation to rejuvenate your passion for cooking and eating well | This book is based on a the belief that Real Food is Love. Love comes from the essence of the natural world. It can not be formulated in a laboratory, processed with low quality ingredients or manufactured using heavy equipment. Love is an exchange of energy in both the traditional sense as defined in chemical science and in the spiritual sense which sometimes eludes conventional wisdom yet is continually explored in art, poetry and philosophy...and is deeply recognized by the human

2: Bright | 1. Giving out or reflecting a lot of light; shining, full of light 2. Having a vivid color; bold 3. Clear sound, vibrant 4. Intelligent and quick witted 5. Cheerful, successful, happy | We are not separate from our food. We enter into a very complex chemical relationship with what we eat. | Food Choice | Through digestion and assimilate food is not only used as fuel but it is converted to cells, tissues and organs. Every bite creates who we are in the most literal sense.

3: Bright | Environment | Food is not separate from our environment, it is our environment. Cherish, celebrate, and care for it. "Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle will teach your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our mother. What befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. This we know. The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth." | Chief Seattle, 1855

6: Vegetables The Centerpiece of Every Meal | Quick Blanched Salads are Delicious and make the minerals in vegetables more digestible. A Blanched Salad everyday keeps us Sparkling and Fresh. The combinations are endless! Kale, Carrots and Red Cabbage Watercress, Red onion and Snowpeas Nappa Cabbage, Turnip and Yellow Squash Collard Greens, Rutabaga and Cauliflower Green Cabbage, Red Radish and Bok Choy Red Cabbage, Green Cabbage and Carrots Arugula, Daikon and Snap Peas Brocolli, Green Beans and Carrots | Spritz Salad with Fresh Lemon or Orange Juice, Drizzle on Brown Rice or other mild Vinegar, or make a light mustard or tahini vinegrette | Best Blanching Technique - Bring a pot of water to a boil and add a pinch of sea salt. The sea salt reacts with the minerals in vegetables and draws them to the surface making them easier to assimilate. To keep the flavor of each vegetable unique and distinct use a separate plate for each one. Add one vegetable at a time to boiling water and cook until color brightens; 30 seconds to 3-4 minutes depending on type of vegetable and size it is cut. Cook sweetest vegetables first as each vegetable will flavor the water, remove from water with a strainer or slotted spoon. Keep each choice on a separate plate until they drain and cool to room temperature. Mix, serve and enjoy the light crisp/crunch of Blanched Vegetables.

7: As a single dish As a group | Seasoned in cooking with sea salt, shoyu, miso, ume vinegar | Spritzed with lemon, brown rice vinegar, or dressing | Stand Alone - plain and simple

8: Greens At Every Meal Score the perfect 10, touchdown, A+, Gold Medal, Platinum Album - you just can't beat that Green is the color of Greens- fresh food | Glorious Greens, Groovy Greens, Gracious Greens Lots of Greens = Super Power

9: Blanch Steam Saute Raw In Soup Pressed Nishime | As a single dish As a group | Seasoned in cooking with sea salt, shoyu, miso, ume vinegar | Spritzed with lemon, brown rice vinegar, or dressing | Stand Alone - plain and simple | So what is the deal with variety? If you were painting your life how would you choose to represent it. Colorful? Monochromatic? Bold Lines? Delicate Details? Clear, Abstract, Landscapes, Portraits? Your choices would probably change frequently, wouldn't it be fun to have a wide variety brushes and colors to choose from? Cooking with variety, both ingredients and cooking styles stocks your artist kit with

10: Master Menu Planning Step #1 Choose your menu in advance. That means plan tomorrow's menu today. Write down the dishes for all three meals, and snacks. Take an inventory of any leftovers you would like to make over into new dishes and check your pantry and refrigerator to make sure all recipe ingredients are on hand. Soak grains or beans. Think about what you would like to eat and what would be good for your body. Take into consideration recent meals choices and build a menu with variety of ingredients and cooking styles. Always include dishes that you look forward to eating. I always like to have a "highlight" with every meal. I rotate these frequently for lots of variety and only add small amounts per serving. Some of my favorites are; a sprinkling of toasted seeds or nuts, a savory sauce, fresh herbs, mild spices, a savory vegetable dip, dried or fresh fruit, maple syrup, anything deep fried, avocado, nori, limes, tahini. These highlights make me excited about my meals. Food is supposed to be enjoyable! | Wish list for Monday 2/11 Barley raw salad miso soup green beans sunflower seeds lo -left over baked carrots and celery root

11: Breakfast -Rice Porridge with l.o. carrots and celery root toasted Sunflow Seeds sprinkled on top -Water Sauted Bok Choy | Lunch Steamed Broccoli Lemon Barley Pilaf w/ fried tofu carrots, red onion and zuchinni Miso Soup w/wakame, daikon, watercress | Dinner B SBlanched Kalletrengthening Vegetable Grain Dish Bean Dish

12: Dressings Olive oil and balsamic vinegar Dressing 2 TBS olive oil 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar 1 teaspoon brown rice vinegar teaspoon salt | Dressing 2 TBS olive oil 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar 1 teaspoon brown rice vinegar teaspoon salt

14: Think about what tomorrow's schedule is like and plan out your prepping, cook and clean up time. Allow enough time so you can enjoy the cooking experience. As you gain more experience your prep time will decrease, you will become more efficient at cleaning while you cook. But homestyle cooking and taking time to sit down and chew your food at meal times takes a block of designated time. Take a few minutes and visualize the process for creating breakfast, lunch and dinner. Plan it out like you would any activity in your life. If you where taking a dance class at the gym that lasted for 1 hour you would allow time to drive to the gym, change into athletic clothes

16: Steaming Vegetables makes them more fiber rich and less sweet. The energy of steaming is downward and calming. Steamed vegetables are helpful for discharging excess. Often our most calm moments develop in solitude. Steaming one vegetable supports this effect. | Raw Vegetables keep us light and clean. They are very high in fiber. | Sauteing Vegetables creates a sweeter dish than Blanched, Raw or Steamed. Saute means "to jump" in French. It is a preparation that brings out more carbohydrates and protein, supporting activity and and an active lifestyle. | Pickled Vegetablesl

17: Special Combinations | Nishime - "Waterless Cooking" Ligthly Stewed Vegetables Kombu Broth with Noodles Nabe Kinpira - "Suate to Steam" | Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food -Hippocrates | In our conventional approach to healing we diagnosis a symptom and heal it with a remedy, most often a chemical drug. Some people would interpret Hippocrates statement as a method for using food or a food based remedy in place of a chemical drug. Understanding that we create our health or compromise it very gradually, over time with the food we choose for each meal, and the lifestyle and mindset we maintain on a daily basis give us a valuable perspective on how to create our best health.

18: Master Menu Plan