Pestos--Healing Plus Flavor

Isn't pesto a great food flavor?  It's pretty much a happy detonation in your mouth. I'm all for that!

It used to be that when the word pesto came up, most of us thought of the traditional Italian pesto.   Its basic ingredients consist of basil, garlic, olive oil, parmesan and pine nuts.

But in recent years, all kinds of pestos have sprung to life.  From Mexican to Thai, there's a pesto for everyone.  The pesto "formula" has now become, a leafy green or herb, garlic, olive oil, a cheese and a nut.  Of course, chefs and good home cooks often make a few embellishes and tweaks along the way. Every possible permutation of this formula has been explored.  The world of pestos has opened up...and this is a good thing.

At Eat Thrive Heal, we're living an anti-inflammation lifestyle.  Since cow milk dairy products cause inflammation, cheese is something we mostly try to avoid.  So we like to skip the cheese in our pestos, unless it's goat or sheep's milk cheese (see here for information about the inflammatory properties of cow milk products, and some ideas for what kinds of dairy you might be able to eat on a healing diet and why).

So does leaving out dairy diminish the pesto?  Not at all.  Pesto is one of those foods where every ingredient contributes such yummy intense flavors that you really don't need the cheese.

Plus the herbs, super greens and garlic in pesto are powerful inflammation fighters.  Because of this, pesto is a great cooking tool for those of us who are trying to balance healing with creating delicious meals.

Here's a recipe for a fabulously tasty pesto that goes great with lamb.  It has no cheese, of course, and it's packed with anti-inflammatory healing.  This is a pesto you can relish!

Cilantro and Mint Pesto for Lamb

1/2 bunch cilantro
15-20 mint leaves
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup olive oil

Put the herbs, pine nuts and garlic into a food processor and blend.  Drizzle the olive oil through the feed tube with the motor running until all the olive oil has been absorbed into the pesto.  To serve, drizzle over lamb chops or serve on the side.

New Cranberry Super Green Smoothie

We've been gettin' our cranberry on with this new morning smoothie recipe.  Cranberries are powerful anti-oxidants and are anti-inflammatory to boot.  Since they are seasonal, and available fresh in the markets now, this is the moment for cranberry smoothies.

As always, we load our smoothies full of healthy super greens, veggies and a few fruits for good taste.

Here's our recipe...

Cranberry Super Green Smoothie

30 raw cranberries
1 apple cored and seeded
15 grapes
1 small lemon or 1/2 large lemon, much of the peel cut away, seeds removed
1 cup celery
1 great big handful of spinach and arugula
1 small head of romaine
3 1" chunks of cucumber
1 carrot cut into 4 piece
1/2 tangerine peel (optional, if you're healing eczema)
1 cup filtered water or more as needed

banana

Place all the ingredients except the banana in a food processor and process until everything has been fully broken down.  Add more water if needed.

Divide the contents into three containers.  Cover two tightly and place them in the fridge for the next two mornings.  Place the contents of the third container into a blender or bullet with 1/2 banana and process until smooth.   Each morning add 1/2 banana to the second or third smoothie and blend fresh (again, adding water if needed).

9 Healing Steps to Get Your Health Back on Track from the Holidays

It's January.  Time to rev up your health!!

Feeling puffy, bloated, brain-fogged and lacking in energy from the holidays?  Or maybe you simply want to clean up your diet and lose a few pounds after a month of over-doing.  Here are our essential tips for an anti-inflammation, super greens loading, energy-making, brain-clearing January.

We promise you, follow these tips and you will be operating in tip top condition in a matter of days.

1. Go Green-- Have a Super Green Smoothie for breakfast.  We love our breakfast smoothies and drink them year round.  They pack in the nutrients, are easy to digest and give you plenty of energy.  Just try them for 3 or 4 days and you'll never want to go back.

2.  Eat a big salad for lunch--  Go ahead, make it big.  Toss in lot's of greens, but make sure to add in at least one handful of super greens* for extra inflammation-fighting power.  Then add in your favorite fruits or veggies and some nuts if you like.  You can top it all off with a little chicken, tuna, salmon, hard boiled egg or leftover meat if you like to have the protein.  Skip the cheese--dairy is inflammation promoting.  Make your own salad dressing (store bought salad dressings usually have high fructose corn syrup and GMO soy oil).  And be sure to include a little flax oil in your dressing. Its high omega-3 count makes it a powerful inflammation fighting weapon. (Go here for more information on omega-3s and recipes for flax oil salad dressings.)

By the way, a wrap with lots of super greens is another great choice.  Throw in your favorite raw veggies. These can be great with hummus and baba ganoush.  Go here for information about gluten-free wraps and how to make your own.

3.  For dinner choose a protein plus two veggies--  Make both your side dishes veggie-based.  One veggie can be a salad, if you like.  If you're feeling like you need a little something that will give you that "stick to the ribs" feeling, make the second vegetable a baked sweet potatoe or roasted winter squash--drizzle the pastured butter on heavily and top with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  If the butter is from pastured cows, it is high in omega-3 for inflammation fighting.

Organic Italian Sausage, Zucchini Noodles with Peas and Sweet Potato Fries.

4. Snacking--  If you feel hungry between meals...eat.  For snacks try coconut yogurt, almond yogurt, bone broth, cocoa made with almond milk and Coconut Secret, tangerines, apples with almond butter or chopped up with chopped walnuts.  Slice an avocado in half, drizzle it with lemon juice and add salt and pepper.  For more snack ideas, go here.

5.  Drink...all the water you want.  Other great drinks are fresh vegetable juices, coconut water, almond milk or coconut milk.  You can make your own lemonade with filtered water, fresh squeezed lemon juice and stevia.  For hot drinks, try green tea or herbal tea.  Make cocoa using almond milk, cocoa powder and Coconut Nectar.  Drink as much homemade bone broth as you like--it's unbelievably healing.  Make up a big pot and dip into it for a cup several times a day.  Here's our recipe for making broth.  

6.  Get off sugar.  Sugar is an inflammation creator.  Plus, eating sugar spikes your blood sugar, causing your pancrease to pump in extra insulin.  This causes your body to increase fat storage.  You don't want this.  

The One Day Sugar Cure.  It can be hard to get off of sugar if you're really addicted, which can easily happen over the holidays. Here's an unconventional idea, but it works and will get you off sugar in one day. Give yourself permission to eat anything you want for the day as long as it's not sugar or any sort of sugar substitute or sweetener, whatsoever.  Good news, you can eat potato chips and French fries today.  In fact, eat as many potato chips, French fries, hash browns and baked potatoes with butter as you want and, particularly, any time you crave sugar.  You'll find that one only wants so many potato chips and French fries, and then it's over.  Wake up on day 2 ready to face the world without sugar.

Once you're off sugar, use stevia and low glycemic Coconut Nectar as your sugar substitutes.  No, they don't taste just like sugar.  But you'll get used to them and after awhile you'll grow to enjoy them like you used to enjoy sugar.  You'll find that you don't miss sugar at all.

7.  Avoid dairy--  Get off the cow's milk products.  They cause inflammation.  Exceptions are pastured butter (taking the milk solids out seems to remove the inflammation source, plus pastured butter is high in inflammation busting omega-3s) yogurt and kefir made from raw milk and sheep and goat milk products.  (However, if you have dairy intolerances or allergies, you may not be able to have any dairy.  Read here for further information on what dairy you can have and why.)

By the way, eggs are not milk products and they are perfectly fine for you to eat, unless you have an egg allergy.  Just be sure you choose eggs from pasture-raised chickens.  These are high in beneficial omega-3 fatty acids which are anti-inflammatory.

8.  Avoid gluten--  Gluten is yet another source of body inflammation.   You don't need it this month. Besides, you have plenty of other delicious foods to eat.  You'll find you won't even miss it.

If you get desperate, and only on occasion, buy store-bought gluten-free breads, wraps and pastas. Avoid the gluten-free sweets entirely, they almost always have real sugar.  Also, get used to checking labels.  Many gluten-free manufactured products simply replace the wheat flour with high glycemic starches like white rice flour, tapioca flour, arrow flour, potato starch, corn starch.  These all have even higher glycemic loads than wheat flour, which means they spike your blood sugar and create inflammation.  Use them only rarely.

9.  Have an occasional treat--  We are regularly adding gluten-free and low gluten, sugar-free recipes to this blog.  There are currently quite a few bread, cookie, pie and cake recipes and more are going up on a regular basis. We'll also be publishing a cookbook shortly and it includes many great recipes for treats including pizza dough, pancakes, candy, muffins, etc.  In the meantime, remember that even these gluten-free foods are "treats" and don't over-do.

Chocolate lovers, go right ahead.  Have a little chocolate.  A small square of dark chocolate after meals is fine.  We especially like Lilly's stevia sweetened chocolate bars.  Also, use your cocoa powder. Stir it into almond yogurt along with a little Coconut Nectar in mid-afternoon, if you find you have a sweet tooth.  If it's cold outside, make a cup of cocoa.  

For more information on why it's important to avoid inflammation, see here.  

Finally, every recipe on this blog is an anti-inflammation recipe.  Feel free to cook and eat anything you find here as part of your healing, super health, energy rev-up January.  

*What's a super green?  Super greens have extra inflammation fighting power.  Super greens are the dark leafy greens such as spinach, chard, kale, arugula, amaranth, quinoa, bok choy.  We also like to think of some of the dark leafy lettuces as well as herbs such as basil, parsley and cilantro as super greens.

Roasted Broccoli with Carmelized Onions and Pine Nuts

Cruciferous vegetables are fabulously healing with their tremendous anti-inflammatory powers.

What are cruciferous? Think broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, bok choy, cabbage and kale.  A lot of these are grown in the winter time, so they are in season right now.  It's broccoli time, folks!

President Bush the 1st made war on broccoli with his famous statement that he was President of the United States and he didn't have to eat broccoli if he didn't want to.  Perhaps he was served one too many soggy broccoli side-dishes during the endless stream of dreary chicken dinners at all those political fundraisers.  That would be enough to make anyone throw up their hands in disgust for broccoli.

It's true that broccoli can have a very strong taste.  So why not go with it?  Here we've paired caramelized onions, Italian herbs and pine nuts with roasted broccoli for an intensely flavored delicious dish.  This is a dish that broccoli-haters could love.  Come 'on President Bush...give broccoli another chance.

Roasted Broccoli with Caramelized Onions and Pine Nuts 

Caramelize the onions:
3 T pastured butter
2 sweet onions halved and then sliced into crescent strips

In a large sauce pan over medium heat, melt the butter.  Add the onions and cook slowly, stirring occasionally.  Keep the pot covered when not stirring to keep the moisture in.  Cook for 20 minutes or so, checking regularly until onions begin to turn brown and caramelize.


Roast the broccoli and pine nuts:
2 clumps broccoli cut into florets
3 T olive oil
generous sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 t  dried Italian herb mix
1/4 c pine nuts

Set oven to 350 degrees.  In a mixing bowl, place the broccoli and drizzle with olive oil and add herbs.  Stir until broccoli is well coated.  Place broccoli on a cookie sheet with a silpat lining  Roast in the oven until broccoli is slightly golden and a little crispy on the tips.  Put the pine nuts in a baking dish and add them to the oven separately.  Roast the nuts for a few minutes, keeping a careful watch until they are golden.  Toss the broccoli, onions and pine nuts together and serve.

Seasonal Produce

I try to eat seasonal.  I don't know how easy it is for you to get local produce in winter.  For me, living high in the Sierra Nevada mountains, there's really not any "local" winter produce, Of course there's not really any "local" summer produce either, unless you count pine nuts.  However, we are only an hour and a half away from California's Central Valley, one of the world's most productive growing regions.

Fruit trees in California's Central Valley.  The valley yields 1/3 of the produce grown in the US.  

The hard part about winter for me is that our local Farmer's Market shuts down in October and doesn't resume until late May.  

So I can't always eat local, but I do try to eat somewhat seasonally when I can.  It just makes sense. And of course, if you love food and cooking, you can often see the difference.  Seasonal produce is usually the stuff that looks the most vibrant and enticing.

Tangerines have been in the markets for several months now.

Right now, it's time for cruciferous, asparagus, citrus, winter greens and avocados (see seasonal chart below).  January is the month with the shortest list of seasonal produce for the year, but you know what...it's doable.  

One of the delights of eating seasonally is the pleasure one gets when new seasonal foods become available.

It's asparagus season in California!

Right now I'm loving my citrus.  And the asparagus I've had in the last week or two has been amazing.  (see my recipe for Asparagus with Tangerine Hollandaise in yesterday's posting).

Charts of California's produce by season:

January February March April Asparagus Avocados Beets Broccoli Cabbage Carambola Cauliflower Celery Chard Cherimoyas Citrus:   Blood Orange,   Grapefruit,   Kumquats,   Lemons,   Navel Oranges,   Tangelos/Tangerines  Dates, Medjool Kale Kohlrabi Mushroom Mustard Onion, Green Passion Fruit Peas, Green Strawberries Asparagus Avocados Beets Broccoli Brussels Sprouts Cabbage Carrots Cauliflower Celery Chard Citrus:   Blood Orange,   Grapefruit,   Kumquats,   Lemons,   Navel Oranges,   Tangelos/Tangerines  Collards Dates, Medjool Kale Kohlrabi Lettuce Mushroom Mustard Onion, Green Passion Fruit Peas, Green Spinach Strawberries Turnips Asparagus Avocados Beets Broccoli Cabbage Carrots Cauliflower Celery Chard Citrus:   Blood Oranges,   Grapefruits,   Kumquats,   Lemons,   Navel Oranges,   Tangelos/Tangerines Collards Dates, Medjool Kale Kohlrabi Lettuce Mushroom Mustard Onion, Green Passion Fruit Peas, Green Spinach Strawberries Turnips Asparagus Avocados Basil Beans, Green Beets Broccoli Cabbage Carrots Cauliflower Celery Chard Cherries Citrus:   Grapefruits,   Kumquats,   Lemons,   Navel Oranges,   Tangelos/Tangerines  Collards Cucumber Dates, Medjool Kale Kohlrabi Lettuce Mushroom Mustard Nectarines Onion, Green Passion Fruit Peas, Green Raspberries Spinach Strawberries Tomatoes Turnips

May June July August Apricots Asparagus Avocados Basil Beans, Green Beets Broccoli Cabbage Carrots Cauliflower Celery Chard Cherries Citrus:   Grapefruits,   Kumquats,   Lemons,   Navel Oranges,   Valencia Oranges       Collards Corn Cucumber Dates, Medjool Eggplant Figs Kale Kohlrabi Lettuce Mushroom Mustard Nectarines, Okra Onion, dry Onion, Green Passion Fruit Peaches Pears, Asian Peas, Black-eyed Peas, Green Plums Potatoes Raspberries Spinach Squash, Summer Strawberries Tomatoes Turnips Apricots Avocados Cherries Asparagus Basil Beans, Green Beets Broccoli Cabbage Carrots Cauliflower Celery Chard Citrus:   Grapefruits,   Kumquats,   Lemons,   Navel Oranges,   Valencia Oranges   Collards Corn Cucumber Eggplant Figs Grapes Kale Kohlrabi Lettuce Melons Mushroom Mustard Nectarines Okra Onion, dry Onion, Green Passion Fruit Peaches Pears Pears, Asian Peas, Black-eyed Peppers Plums Potatoes Raspberries Spinach Squash, Summer Strawberries Tomatoes Turnips Apples Apricots Asparagus Avocados Basil Beans, Green Beets Broccoli Cabbage Carrots Cauliflower Celery Cherries Citrus:   Grapefruits,   Lemons,   Valencia Oranges       Collards Corn Cucumber Eggplant Figs Grapes Kale Kohlrabi Lettuce Melons Mushroom Mustard Nectarines Okra Onion, dry Onion, Green Passion Fruit Peaches Pears Pears, Asian Peas, Black-eyed Peppers Plums Potatoes Raspberries Sapote Spinach Squash, Summer Strawberries Tomatoes Turnips Apples Asparagus Avocados Basil Beans, Green Beets Broccoli Cabbage Carrots Cauliflower Celery Chili Pepper Citrus:   Grapefruits,   Lemons,   Valencia Oranges    Collards Corn Cucumber Eggplant Figs Grapes Kale Kohlrabi Lettuce Melons Mushroom Mustard Nectarines Okra Onion, dry Onion, Green Passion Fruit Peaches Pears Pears, Asian Peas, Black-eyed Peppers Persimmons Plums Potatoes Raspberries Sapote Spinach Squash, Summer Squash, Winter Strawberries Tomatillos Tomatoes Turnips

September October November December Apples Asparagus Avocados Basil Beans, Green Beets Brussels Sprout Cabbage Carrots Celery Chili Pepper Citrus:   Grapefruits,   Lemons,   Valencia Oranges      Oranges Collards Corn Cucumber Eggplant Grapes Guava, Pineapple Kale Kohlrabi Lettuce Mushroom Mustard Nectarines Okra Onion, dry Onion, Green Passion Fruit Peaches Pears Pears, Asian Peas, Black-eyed Peppers Persimmons Plums Potatoes Raspberries Sapote Spinach Squash, Summer Squash, Winter Strawberries Tomatillos Tomatoes Turnips Apples Asparagus Avocados Basil Beans, Green Beets Broccoli Brussels Sprout Cabbage Carambola Carrots Cauliflower Celery Chard Cherimoyas Chili Pepper Citrus:   Grapefruits,   Lemons,   Tangelos/Tangerines,   Valencia Oranges Collards Corn Cucumber Eggplant Grapes Guava, Pineapple Kale Kiwi Kohlrabi Lettuce Mushroom Mustard Okra Onion, dry Onion, Green Passion Fruit Peaches Pears, Asian Peas, Black-eyed Peppers Persimmons Pomegranates Potatoes Raspberries Sapote Spinach Squash, Summer Squash, Winter Strawberries Tomatillos Tomatoes Turnips Yams Apples Artichokes Asparagus Basil Beans, Green Beets Broccoli Brussels Sprout Cabbage Carambola Carrots Cauliflower Celery Chard Cherimoyas Chili Pepper Citrus:   Grapefruits,   Lemons,   Tangelos/Tangerines,   Valencia Oranges Collards Corn Cucumber Eggplant Grapes Guava, Pineapple Kale Kiwi Kohlrabi Lettuce Mushroom Mustard Okra Onion, dry Onion, Green Passion Fruit Peaches Peas, Black-eyed Peppers Persimmons Pomegranates Potatoes Raspberries Sapote Spinach Squash, Summer Squash, Winter Tomatillos Tomatoes Turnips Yams Artichokes Basil Beans, Green Beets Brussels Sprout Cabbage Carrots Cauliflower Celery Chard Chili Pepper Citrus:   Lemons,   Valencia Oranges        Collards Corn Cucumber Eggplant Grapes Guava, Pineapple Kale Kiwi Kohlrabi Lettuce Mushroom Mustard Okra Onion, dry Onion, Green Peppers Pomegranates Potatoes Spinach Squash, Summer Squash, Winter Tomatillos Tomatoes Turnips Yams

Source:  Southland Farmer's Market Association (California-based)

Winter greens, tangerines and avocados!  Even January can be a delicious month!!

For the perfect seasonal salad, see here.  

Is it possible to improve on hollandaise sauce?

It's the beginning of asparagus season in California.  If you have an active winter farmer's market and live in Southern California...congratulations.  Run and get some fresh local asparagus.

This week I've had it twice.  Welcome back asparagus, it's been a long wait, but you're here now and I'm loving you!

As you may know, at NutriGuide, we are currently working on putting together a report on healing eczema with food.  We are researching all over the world for scientific studies that document foods, supplements and herbs that heal eczema.  We also have a Chinese Traditional Medicine doctor on board and she has given us a lot of information about healing eczema.  She has an extensive list of foods and herbs for healing eczema, but one thing on her list is tangerine peel.  (By the way, once we're done with eczema we'll be tackling all the major diseases!)

Of course, it's winter and we're in the midst of tangerine season right now so it's a good time to be eating tangerines anyway.  But I'm also developing recipes for our eczema diet, so whenever I can add tangerine peel to a recipe, I like to do so.

This week, I made Asparagus with Tangerine Hollandaise sauce and it was absolutely scrumptious. Honestly, I had to stop myself from licking the plate, it was so good.  Of course, hollandaise is a ridiculously delicious food anyway.  But who knew hollandaise sauce would be so much better with tangerine than lemon??!!

Yes, hollandaise sauce is one of those foods we all avoided or rationed during the "low fat" years, but now that we know that eating butter and eggs does not raise cholesterol, it's back on the menu.  In fact, eating butter from pastured cows and eggs from pastured chickens provides important omega-3 fats your body needs to keep disease-causing inflammation at bay.   Be sure you eat pastured butter and eggs if you want to get the healing omega-3s.  

Anyway, I loved this and I hope you do, too.

Asparagus with Tangerine Hollandaise Sauce

1 bunch fresh asparagus with root ends snapped off
2 egg yolks
3 T freshly squeezed tangerine juice
6 T organic butter from pastured cows
sea salt and white pepper to taste
grated tangerine peel from 2 tangerines

Put the asparagus in a little boiling water to cook.  While it is cooking, in a double boiler over high heat (or heavy duty enameled sauce pan over medium heat (see below), add egg yolks and tangerine juice and whisk constantly as eggs thicken.  Add in 6 T of butter, 1 T at a time, continuing to whisk continuously until all butter is combined and sauce is thick.  Remove from heat immediately as hollandaise is ready and add in the salt and pepper.  Be sure to pull the asparagus off the heat and drain it as soon as it is just done.  Serve the asparagus topped with hollandaise and sprinkle tangerine peel on top.

Cooking Tip:  I hate setting up a double-boiler.  It's just one more added step... and I'm always for shortcuts.  I like to make hollandaise in a heavy-duty enameled sauce pan like this one from Chantal. I have several of these and they've lasted me for many years.  They are fantastic for delicate sauces.  The heavy bottoms keeps the heat even and you can whisk up a sauce quickly without it curdling.  I simply keep the heat on medium and stand by the pot with my whisk active at all times.  It makes Hollandaise in a minute or two.  Be sure to remove the sauce from the burner the moment it is completed.  Quick and Easy.  And after all, when it's quick and easy, you're more likely to take the extra step and make the delicious sauce!

Cooking Tip #2:  Cooking easily and pleasurably is partly about having the right tools.  A microplane is the quickest way to grate citrus.  It easily makes perfect grated rind that does not need further mincing.  If you don't have one, make a plan to get one soon.  They are not expensive--the one shown above is available for $15 at Crate and Barrel.  This is one of those little tools that will make a huge difference in your kitchen.  By the way, they're great for grating fresh Parmesan cheese, too.

How to Make Zucchini Spaghetti with a Mandolin

Here at Eat Thrive Heal, we're all about healing with food.  Since most diseases are associated with inflammation in the body, we're eating to reduce inflammation, which means that we eat the foods that are anti-inflammatory and we avoid the foods that are inflammatory.  (See the green box below for a list of many of the diseases caused by inflammation.)

As it turns out, an anti-inflammation diet means gluten-free.  So, as much as we love it, wheat pasta is out.

What options do we have to replace it?  There are some acceptable gluten-free pastas available, of course, particularly those made from quinoa (available at most health food stores or Whole Foods).  We also like using spaghetti squash--just roast it up and scrape out the spaghetti shaped strands (see here for recipe).  One other really great choice is to use noodles cut from vegetables.

Zucchini is the perfect vegetable to make "noodles" from.

Special "noodle" cutting tools for vegetables.  Mandolin on the left, Veggetti above on the right, and a protective chainmail safety glove in the forefront.  

Zucchini "noodles" cut on a mandolin.  

In the following video, our very own, Chef Hallie, demonstrates how easy it is to make zucchini "noodles" on a mandolin.

You can find a mandolin in most cooking supply stores or order one online.  They run between $20 and $40.  Importantly, be sure to get yourself a chainmail safety glove.  These run from about $15 to over $100 if you buy a steel glove, which is really not necessary. Having a glove, however, is essential to using a mandolin quickly and easily.  If you have one, you'll feel like using the mandolin often, if you don't, you won't.

There is also an easy to use affordable new tool called the Veggetti.  In the video below, Chef Hallie demonstrates easy curly noodle making with the Veggetti. 

Cook the zucchini "noodles" in a little butter or olive oil in a saute pan.  

Important--  Once you have your noodles, do not cook them in boiling water like regular pasta or you'll end up with limp, soggy, water-logged noodles.  Instead, heat a little grass-fed butter or olive oil in a saute pan and put the noodles in to cook for just two or three minutes until the veggies are tender.  

Veggie pastas taste great with traditional tomato-based sauces, pestos or butter and just about any other sauce usually used on pasta.  They toss up beautifully with other veggies, olives, chicken, salmon and most other traditional pasta ingredients.  In fact, you can pretty much just substitute them in almost any of your favorite pasta recipes.

Zucchini pasta sauteed in pastured butter with peas, minced fresh shallot and kalamata olives.  Season with Italian herb mix, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.