QUINOA STUFFING
(Adapted from Healthy Divas)

4 cups water
2 bay leaves
Sea salt to taste
2 cups quinoa (always rinse first)
4 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 butternut squash peeled and diced.
2 small zucchini, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 bunches green onions, diced
1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 cup fresh mint, chopped
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup pecans
1 16 oz. black beans rinsed and drained.

Boil 4 cups of water, season with bay leaves and salt.
Add quinoa and return to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 20 minutes until water is absorbed. Remove from heat, take out bay leaves and let cool.
Meanwhile, heat 3 tbs oil in frying pan. Saute squash and zucchini – season with salt and pepper until slightly browned. Combine veggies and quinoa. Drizzle with oil. Stir in onions, parsley, mint, cranberries, nuts and black beans. Grate in lemon peel and squeeze on lemon juice to taste. Season with salt and pepper.
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Pantry Makeover

How to do a successful pantry makeover:
Step 1: Go into your kitchen pantry and refrigerator, pull out all of your the food and place everything on a table. Have several boxes and or bags ready. Read all of the ingredient labels on your packaged and prepared foods.

Step 2: Look for added sweeteners like sugar (including cane crystals, evaporated cane juice, demarara, turbinado, brown sugar, cane syrup), high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, dextrose, glucose, sucrose, cyclamate, saccharin, sucralose or aspartame. , put those foods in the “I am ready to let go of these foods and make a change for my health” pile.


Step 3: Look for sodium, sodium nitrate, salt, MSG or lard, citric acid, put those items in the "I am ready to let go of these foods and make a change for my health” pile. Sodium nitrite is linked to causing cancer, it’s found in processed meats like hot dogs, bacon, sausage. Used to make meats appear red (a color fixer chemical).


Step 4: Look for hydrogenated or partially-hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, MSG, corn starch, enriched wheat and enriched flour. Hydrogenated oils (trans fat) are linked to causing heart disease, nutritional deficiencies, general deterioration of cellular health, and much more. Found in cookies, crackers, margarine and many "manufactured" foods. Trans fats are used to make oils stay in the food to extend shelf life. Sometimes also called "plastic fat."


Step 5: Look for excitotoxins -- aspartame, monosodium glutamate and others. These neurotoxic chemical additives directly harm nerve cells, over- exciting them to the point of cell death, according to Dr. Russell Blaylock. They're found in diet soda, canned soup, salad dressing, breakfast sausage and even many manufactured vegetarian foods. They're used to add flavor to over-processed foods,.
boring foods that have had the life cooked out of them.

Step 6: ALWAYS READ THE INGREDIENT LIST. If you need a chemistry degree to pronounce the list, it's not real food.
Most boxed food is "fast" food or "convenient "food. Mashed potatoes, chips, macaroni and cheese, pasta, instant rice, muffin and cake mix, stuffing, cereal, crackers and cookies.
This type of packaged food robs your body of real nutrients. Buy packaged foods that sound like you could make them yourself, with ingredients you could buy easily.

Step 7: What to do with the "I am ready to let go of these foods and make a change for my health" pile? You have 2 two choices, you can donate the “food” to a local food pantry or you can throwough it away.

Stuffed Roasted Acorn Squash

Stuffed Roasted Acorn Squash

This is amazing! I baked the acorn squash on Sunday night, kept them in the refrigerator, made the stuffing on Wednesday night, heated the stuffed squash up in the oven and then enjoyed a fabulously delicious meal. You are going to love it! I love hearing from you!

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 45 minutes
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:
2 acorn squash
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 tablespoons olive oil
sea salt and pepper

Stuffing
1 cup cooked whole grain (quinoa, brown rice, millet, barley)
1 onion, finely diced
1 zucchini, diced
1/4 cup golden raisins or currants
1/2 cup toasted pumpkin seeds, chopped
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
3 teaspoons curry
1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cut acorn squash in half and clean out seeds and fibers. Cut a very thin slice off the bottom, so that the
acorn squash halves can sit flat like soup bowls.
3. Brush with olive oil, and spread garlic evenly over the 4 bowls, sprinkle with salt and pepper, place on a
baking sheet and bake for 35 minutes.
4. While baking, in a skillet sauté onion, curry and raisins for 3 minutes. Add cooked grains and stir for 5
minutes.
5. Remove skillet from heat and mix in parsley and zucchini.
6. Fill each squash bowl with stuffing and top with chopped pumpkin seeds and bake in the oven for 15-20
minutes or until the squash is soft (when a butter knife sinks into the squash with ease). Serve warm.

Apples

I am beginning my 30 day Whole Body and Mind Cleansing group program with 22 courageous and beautiful people tonight. I am ecstatic and honored to be guiding them on their journey to healthy living!

I bought 18 pounds of organic local apples from the farmer's market last Saturday. Mother Nature is blessing us with her abundance of apples!

My neighborhood is an abundant fruit orchard. There are pear, apple, apricot, peach and cherry trees blooming all summer long. I find it very strange that the majority of these divine fruits are left rotting on manicured chemical laiden lawns and no one seems to care!

A few weekends ago, Johnn and I went for a walk and harvested an entire months worth of apples and peaches. We came home and I baked applesauce muffins, apple sauce and apple squash soup!

Here are some great benefits of eating apples: apples are very high in fiber and help cleanse the intestines of impurities. Apples and fresh live apple juice speed up the bowels and heal irritation while cleansing excessive mucus caused by eating a lot of bread, pasta and dairy. Mucus can stay in your body and can cause constipation, malabsorption, and irritation or bleeding to the intestinal wall. Apples are renowned for healing intestinal ailments such as diarrhea and intestinal bleeding.

Bon Appetit!

Health and happiness,
Amanda Moxley
Holistic Health Conselor
Holictic Nutrition and Life Balance Expert
www.eating4energy.com