​(This post was featured on the wellness blog Wholesome101)

First, I must admit that I never considered myself a gardener. Growing up I can remember my mom taking me out to our backyard garden in an attempt to get me interested in growing food. Unfortunately, after all her efforts I still ended up firmly convinced that I indeed have a brown thumb (both literally and figuratively), and that the grocery store was designed specifically for brown-thumbed people just like me.

Only after I had children of my own did I begin taking an interest in good food and nutrition (and how to make it affordable). Gardening, then, became a real option. Although I am by no means an expert, I have found my past 3 years of experience in growing my own food to be fundamentally life-enhancing. So much so, that I would like to share with you some amazing benefits this lifestyle can have.

Here are the five main benefits I have gained through growing my own food:

1) COST
As a mother of a growing family, food costs are forever increasing (along with clothing sizes/prices. Seriously, is there a variety of denim jean tree I could grow?). Buying one bunch of organic kale for $2.50 (on sale) is definitely not a sustainable model as the kids get older.

This year during the summer I had about 10 really good kale plants that fed us about 3 grocery-store-sized bunches of leaves per week! The seeds for those kale plants came from less than one organic kale seed packet.

So for less than $2.50 up front, some maintenance, and a bit of creative effort in finding free fertilizer, I got a nearly-endless supply of fresh kale from May through September. If you do the math, that comes out to about 60 bunches of organic kale in 20 weeks all for $2.50. Compare that to $150.00  if I had bought all that kale at the store (on sale). No bad, right?
​
If you aren't into kale, then green beans, squashes, tomatoes, peppers, and lettuce are all very easy and rewarding to grow from seed. If given the right care, your plants will produce food for several months and save your family money and time at the grocery store.


2) LOCATION
There is nothing more satisfying than being able to simply go pick what you need from your garden when you are in the middle of cooking dinner and realize you need tomatoes. A garden saves you time, as well as money on gas, both of which can really add up over the course of a season.

On average, we make about 3 to 4 grocery runs (at different stores) during the week. This summer with our earnest gardening efforts, we managed to get it down to one trip per week. For us, that was a savings of at least a whole tank of gas!

Also, you never have to worry about grocery store hours since your backyard is open 24/7 for you and your family! Even better, you don't have to get dressed up to go “out-out.” You can “shop” in your PJ's (if you have that kind of yard)!

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4) SAFETY
Recalls are all the rage these days. It seems that every few months, food (even certified organic produce) is being recalled due to reports of people becoming extremely ill after “poor quality control” allowed listeria/salmonella/e.coli/the bubonic plague a free ride on their product.

This is inevitable, unfortunately, because supermarkets import their produce from all over the world. Even produce suppliers (in an attempt to keep up with the market for out-of-season produce) must import foods that are in-season in other parts of the world in an attempt to meet our demand. With internationally connected markets and food shipping, and the difference in standards and quality control between countries, it is to be expected that people will get sick at some point.

Opt-out! The only practical way to make sure your food is clean is to either get to know your local farmer (do it!) or grow your own food (do that too!).

When you grow your own food, you will have a complete picture of what your food was fertilized with, what pesticides were (or weren't) applied, and the hands that touched your food on the way. The chain from ground to table is short and transparent, and in fact, is how most of humanity has lived until the past century. Reconnect with your roots! (Pun fully intended!)


5) CONNECTION
Food connects by design. We need it to live, so we can't escape it. When you are in the garden, you can't help but connect. You will notice the Earth and the weather. You will appreciate the rain, and look for the sunrise and sunset. You will value the soil beneath your feet as the stuff of life itself.

You will connect with the efforts of people who produce food, the struggles and victories of stewarding vegetables and herbs. You will connect with your family, friends, neighbors, and people that love good food when you share the abundance of your garden.

Most importantly, you will connect with your Creator, who made us all from earth – the very thing you plant in. You will see the beautifully intricate web of interconnectedness that we share with all of creation as a beneficiary of food grown. And you will connect with yourself, at your core. You might just find more meaning, perspective and gratitude for your life.

I'd take that over the grocery store any day!

FOOD Allergies- just about everyone either has them or has a loved one that suffers from an abnormally violent reaction to food.

I can remember being in elementary school in the 90's and being given a Snickers bar as a treat without needing a “food allergen” card or parental consent.

Contrast that now with the school my own children attend which has been declared a “Peanut and Tree-Nut Free Zone”.

Why are our bodies at WAR with FOOD?

As the mother of children with food allergies that were definitely NOT inherited from me or my husband, this question has kept me up at night.

I mean, we kind of need to eat to live...so allergies don't seem like a particularly useful genetic adaptation to acquire, much less pass on to the next generation. I also know that our ancestors did NOT suffer from food allergies as we do today...
So what is REALLY going on?
I don't buy the “it's genetic” hypothesis either. How much can the collective human anatomy have changed in the past 70 years? 100 years, even?

On the other hand, our food and health systems have turned traditional knowledge of the natural world on its head...in just the past 75 years!

So, while we are on the topic of human anatomy let us have an extremely rudimentary crash course on immunology...

In high school biology, we learned that the body acquires immunity when the blood stream came in contact with a foreign (not-of-the-body) invader. Our cells send for reinforcements, copy themselves and create a kind of memory so that later on in life if that same (or similar) invader (“allergen”) makes it into your system, your body would launch a full blown search and destroy mission.

When we fall ill, this plays out as “I got really sick earlier this year when I caught that cold, but this time the cold I got didn't last as long and it wasn't as severe”.

(This way of thinking of acquiring immunity is the basis for the vaccination schedule.)


So by now you may be wondering “ok, but how does food get into my blood stream for me to develop an immunological response to it?”.
Great Question.
Let us look at our food, and in particular how modern scientific advances have influenced how we produce it.
After World War II, the United States found itself with tons of War Infrastructure, but with no war to use it. Chemical facilities were no longer needed to make weapons, so well-intentioned scientists with that good ol' American ingenuity decided to channel the once destructive forces of the chemical refining into a way to enhance agricultural practices to feed a nation.
The rationing, preserving and canning complexes that once churned out meals for deployed American forces overseas soon became the foundation for the modern convenience-food industry.


The chemical industries found that some of the same petroleum-based chemicals that were once refined and used to make explosives- Nitrogen, Potassium, Phosphorus- could be used to fertilize crops. (Also known as NPK for all you gardeners out there).


To solve the other bane of farmers -the pest/weed control issue- former chemical-weapon cocktails were sprayed on crops to kill and deter weeds and pests. So a new age of scientifically enlightened agriculture practices began...
...And we LITERALLY ate it all up.
Later, in the late 80's to early 90's, farmers and scientists alike were feeling the financial and health cost of constantly having to spray pesticides on America's crops. Pests and weeds were crowing resistant to the poisons and air and water pollution were becoming a PR nightmare.
Something had to be done.
Scientists began designing and marketing a new kind of corn that wouldn't need to be sprayed with pesticides; it was called BT-Corn. See, BT-Corn ITSELF was labeled as a pesticide USDA because it had been genetically engineered to kill the pests that tried to eat it.


BT-Corn works by tearing open the stomach and intestines of the pests that eat it, thus killing them so they can't come back for more. But the corn doesn't just sit in the fields looking pretty and pest-free...


We eat that up too.


Now if you are thinking “oh, well I don't eat much corn”, I would beg to differ. Corn and its bi-products are in anything and everything you can think of in some iteration: cereal, ketchup, lunch meats, bread, cookies, crackers, sodas, juices, peanut butters....everything. (high-fructose corn syrup)


So if we are eating food that has been genetically modified to tear open holes in the stomach of pests unfortunate enough to dine in a GM cornfield...


...it follows that tears (perhaps smaller) would develop in our bodies as well.


THUS, foods get into our blood streams, our bodies immunological response kicks in and we develop food allergies.


But GM foods are not the only way foods can get into our blood stream and stir up trouble.


Vaccines often contain trace amounts of proteins of foods used to suspend/preserve/incubate the virus. Peanut, soy, caesine(from milk), egg have all been found in trace amounts as additives in vaccine.


Interesting how milk, nuts, soy and egg are also common allergies...


So to answer the question “what is going on with all these allergies?”, clearly a lot of messing around with our food and how our bodies develop immunity.


By no means is this a comprehensive or definitive answer; how we eat and our ideas of health have changed more in the past 100 years than throughout all of human history.


But if you or any of your loved ones suffer from food allergies or intolerance, perhaps looking not only at your body but at what you PUT in it can gain you the insight you deserve.

It's FALL!  

The leaves are changing from green to beautiful yellows, reds and orange. The air is getting cool and try, and the wind carries the leaves from the trees to the ground ( this is important, because now I can shuffle in the leaves!)

Actually, everything is turning and changing...even our bodies. And a great way to not get let behind by Mother Nature this Fall is to eat of the bounty of the season...

Leafy Greens, ftw!

I loooove Collard Greens, because I am southern... but also because when you cook them they are deliciously sweet. They are also very filling and I consider them the meat of the edible leaf world. 

I have developed a southern-style Vegetarian Collard Greens  recipe that brings out the gorgeous flavors of the leaves (without getting out the pork!...bc we don't do that 'round here).

But let me tell you, my favorite part of Fall by far is the culinary delight that is WINTER SQUASHES. There is butternut squash, spaghetti squash, pumpkin, turban squash,  hubbard...butnear and dear to my heart  the sweet Acorn Squash.

I love Acorn Squash so much that as soon as it comes into season I find a way to put it into just about everything I cook.

My all time favorite recipe is the Acorn Squash Bowl. It is so easy, versatile and it saves a LOT of dishes. (hate washing dishes? use food as your edible platter!)

So without further ado......

Acorn Squash Bowls
​
Ingredients:
2 Acorn Squash (preferably Organic. My favorite brand is Organic Valley because they are so sweet!)
2 TBS Olive Oil
Salt to Taste

Method:

1. Preheat Oven to 375 degrees
2. Using a large Kitchen Knife (or meat cleaver), pop the stem of the Acorn Squash off. Cut the Acorn Squash down the middle vertically (from the top where the stem was).
3. Clean out the seeds of the acorn squash, and place in compost bin. (If you are feeling adventurous, try washing then baking them with some sea salt for 10 minutes at 375 degrees)
4. Get a large baking sheet or pizza pain. Drizzle olive oil in the squash halves. Rub oil all around the edges and inside the bowl.
5. Sprinkle Acorn Squash with Sea Salt of Himalayan Pink Salt.
6. Flip the squash over on its face and place pan in preheated oven.
7. Set timer for 35 minutes. When timer goes off, test the softness of the acorn squash by gentle pushing a fork through the skin. If it goes in without much resistance, the squash are done. If the squash are still a little hard, set the timer for another 10 minutes and keep them in the oven.
8. When Acorn Squash are finished cooking, remove pan from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
9. Flip your Acorn Squash half over and use as a bowl. Stuff with collards, beans, rice or anything else you like!

Preheat Oven to 375 degrees. Using a large Kitchen Knife (or meat cleaver), pop the stem of the Acorn Squash off. Cut the Acorn Squash down the middle vertically (from the top where the stem was).

Scoop out the seeds and discard in compost-bowl, or save to salt and roast later.

Drizzle olive oil inside squash, then rub until oil coats the inside of the squash.

Lightly sprinkle with salt. (My salt is pink and pretty! Himalayan Pink salt is great.)

Flip the squash halves onto their faces and place in preheated oven...

After about 35 minutes, check to see if the squash has softened by gently inserting a fork in through the skin. The Acorn Squash is done if the fork goes in smoothly. If the squash is still a bit hard, leave it in the oven for another 10 minutes and check again. Larger squashes may take a longer time. My squashes here are about medium size.

Here is the Acorn Squash Bowl...fill it with water you would like! We are going to fill ours with Collards...so let's get started on those....

​Vegetarian Collard Greens

Ingredients:
1 Medium Yellow Onion
1 Bunch Organic Collard Greens (they are way sweeter than the conventional, plus no pesticides were used on them)
3-5 Cloves of Garlic Finely Chopped
1 Medium Tomato, Chopped (or ¼ can of Chopped Canned Tomatoes)
Salt to Taste
Red Pepper Flakes (to taste...for milk about 1/8 tsp)
1 TBS of Apple Cider Vinegar OR 1 TSB of Vinegar Brine from Kalamata Olives
2 TBS Olive Oil
2 cups Water
Optional*** Kalamata Olives

Method:
1. Chop onion into medium sized pieces.

1. Place a 6 to 8 Quart Pot on Medium Heat. Drizzle in olive oil.
   
2. Fry onions in olive oil, gentley mixing them so they will not burn
   
3. Chop up Collards, including stems, and place them in the pot. Stir in with onions.
   
4. Sprinkle about ½ tsp of salt (more or less to taste), and 1/8th tsp of red pepper flakes.
   
5. Crush, peel and finely chop garlic. Stir into Collards in pot.
   
6. Cut up the tomato (seed if you prefer), and stir into collards.
   
7. Add 1 TBS of Vinegar (critical step! It brings out the sugars and nutrients in the Collards!)
   
8. Stir Collards until the strong smell of vinegar has faded. Then add 2 cups of water.
   
9. Cover and let simmer on Medium heat for 25 to 35 minutes (or until collard stems are soft tender).
   
10. ***Make sure you check the water level in the collards periodically, making sure that the collard are at least half covered in water. Add water as needed.***
    
11. OPTIONAL: When Collards are finished cooking, add about 3 TBS of Kalamata olives without the brine .
    
12. Serve hot, in Acorn Squash Bowl.
    

First, chop a medium-sized yellow onion into medium size chunks.

Set a heavy-bottomed pot on Medium heat. Add the olive oil.

Next, add the onions to the olive oil and lightly saute...

Add the collards to the pot with the onions and stir.

Get the red pepper flakes ready... (this was a bit on the warm side...use less if you prefer)...

Add garlic, red pepper flakes and salt to taste to the collards...

Next at 1 TBS of Vinegar... this is the key to having delicious collards, so do not omit this step! Any vinegar will do. The acidic vinegar breaks the cell walls of in the collard leaves and releases the nutrients and sugars, giving them a rich flavor! 

I will use the vinegar brine from Kalamata olives because I plan on using them at the end. Add the vinegar and allow the strong smell to cook out of it for a minute. Keep stirring!

Lastly, add 2 cups of water and then cover the collards and let them simmer on medium heat.

Serve your collards as a side dish, or stuff your Acorn Squash Bowls with some for a deliciously wholesome Fall Meal.

Say Bismillah and Enjoy!

​​
Summer Squash Lasagna with From Scratch Egg-Pasta

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
5 eggs
1- 32oz container of Ricotta Cheese
1- 16 oz block of Mozzarella Cheese
8 oz Grated Parmesan cheese
2 Jars of Marinara/ spaghetti sauce
2 Large Zucchini
2Large Yellow Squash
3 Tbs Dried Basil
2 tsp Dried Oregano
½ tsp Red Pepper Flakes
1 tsp garlic powder
Sea Salt
Black pepper
Olive Oil
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Put 2 cups of flour in a large bowl.

Grate the yellow squash and zucchini.

Now for the pasta.
Take your rested pasta dough and cut into 3 equal sections. Each section is one layer of your lasagna. Roll out each section and cut out strips of dough-- your lasagna noodles! (Be sure to dust with flour to prevent the noodles from sticking ​).

Cut, serve and enjoy. Bismillah!

​One of my favorite parts of summer is grilling! There is something viscerally refreshing about cooking meats and veggies over an open fire.

But sometimes you want the taste of the grill, but don't want to actually USE a grill.

Our favorite seasonal summer salad is a Moroccan Grilled Pepper Salad. By charring the Bell Pepper over a stove range, the salad gains flavor as though it was prepared over an open fire.

What I love about this salad is that as a gardener (and grocery store averse mother), all the ingredients are available in my home in the summertime. During a Summer Ramadan this salad can be a hydrating, nutritious part to Iftaar (break-fast).


Moroccan Grilled Pepper Salad

​
Ingredients:

1 Large Green Bell Pepper (you can use other color bell peppers too)
2 Medium tomatoes
½ a Purple onion
1 Large Cucumber

Dressing:

1 Tbs Apple Cider Vinegar (or lemon juice)
½ tsp Sea Salt
¼ tsp Ground Black Pepper (preferably fresh)
2 Tbs Olive Oil

Then the salt....

 Black Pepper ....

 Olive Oil.

Mix it all up.

And serve!

Bismillah!

​Right now, we are in the Islamic lunar month of Rajab, and that means Ramadan is just around the corner!

Ramadan is during the long, hot days of summer this year, and here in the Southern United States, that means fasting 16 to 17 hours days in heat and humidity.


For obvious reasons, fasting during the summer is concerning even with the knowledge of the blessings and ease that Allah SWT (God) bestows during this Holy Month. Fortunately, Allah SWT has also given us another blessing that can make the physical act of fasting a lot easier: seasonal nutrition.


Eating fruits and vegetables that are produced during the summer season gives you an edge over the dehydration and fatigue that can set in while fasting in the heat.


Many Muslim focus on hydrating themselves by drinking a lot of water and juices for Suhoor (pre-dawn meal) and Iftaar (break-fast meal). The problem becomes that after fasting all day long, our stomach shrinks and cannot handle the volume of liquid AND process the food you eat before the next day of fasting.


We need a more efficient way to nourish ourselves, because drinking our hydration alone is not going to be sufficient.


First we need to understand that hydration is not just water-in, water-out. In order to get water into our body's cells, we need minerals to transport and regulate the water.Magnesium, Potassium, Sodium and Calcium are the key minerals that regulate your body's water management.

What is wonderful is that Allah SWT has already packaged water with the necessary ratio of minerals to facilitate its absorption. These beautiful little ready-to-eat packages are called fruit!


​

Notice how watery and flavorful summertime fruit is: watermelon, peaches, plums, blueberries, zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, cucumbers. These delicious foods are perfect hydrating packages that we should make use of at every opportunity while they are in season...especially when we are fasting.

However, there is another side. Many well-meaning Muslims will eat fruits and veggies during Ramadan, but they will also nearly negate the benefits of doing so by eat foods that leech water and minerals OUT of their body:

1. Caffeinated beverages like tea, coffee and sodas. These are diuretics (they make you urinate water and precious minerals)
2. Excessive grains and breads. Grains and breads are relatively dry, and for your body to digest them, they need to use up water.
3. Red Meat. Red meat is a heating food and requires a lot of water to break it down in digestion.
4. Table salt. Sodium is required for hydrating cells properly, but chemically constructed Table salt has nothing to offer nutritionally, and actually leeches minerals out of your body.* use mineral-laden salts like Himalayan Pink Rock Salt, or Sea Salt instead*
5. REFINED SUGAR- this has to be one of the worst. Refined sugar is sugar that has been removed from its nutritional context (from sugar beets or sugar cane), so to digest it your body has to remove minerals from itself and flush is out with water. Sugar is notorious for creating acidity in your body, which causes your body to “put out the fire” with calcium. (where does the calcium come from? Your bones! Hello, tooth decay.)

Don't get me wrong! I am definitely NOT telling you to stop eating grains, breads and meat. Just know that when you eat these foods, it is effecting the balance of water and minerals in your body, and so choose food pairings to balance out the effects.


Here are some suggestions:

-Eat red meat with salad and plenty of water laden produce like summer squash, zucchini.
-Eat more chicken and fish; these sources of animal proteins are more cooling to the body than red meat. (animals are seasonal, too!)
-Eat grains with plenty of watery produce as well.
-Avoid pairing grains or breads with meat in excess.
-Avoid drinking sugary beverages, ESPECIALLY if they also contain caffeine. Smoothies and fresh juices are a more delicious and wholesome way to get that sweet-drink fix!
-Try drinking green tea during taraweeh instead of black tea or coffee. It has some caffeine, but not nearly as much as black tea or coffee. In my experience, it is less of a diuretic, and it aids digestion and even freshens your breath.
-Use honey in place of sugar.


And most importantly, eat with moderation! Your body is managing a lot of different things in Ramadan, so be patient with it and give it time to digest! Absorbing all of a little bit of nutritious food is better than not digesting a lot of food.


InshaAllah (God-willing), using your knowledge of hydration and nutrition, you can minimize fatigue and dehydration, benefit from wholesome energy and take advantage of this Ramadan!


InshaAllah, I will be posting a Summer Ramadan Recipe series. In it I will share my family's favorite summer salads, smoothies and meal recipes to inspire you to eat seasonally and feel the benefits this coming Ramadan.


To your holistic health!

Welcome!

My name is Jalila Krichi and I am a Holistic Health Coach (HHC). If you are wondering what a Health Coach is, in short,  " A Health Coach is a wellness authority and supportive mentor who motivates individuals to cultivate positive health choices. Health Coaches educate and support clients to achieve their health goals through lifestyle and behavior adjustments. ."

As a Holistic Health coach, I focus on helping people identify not only the food and exercise changes that  need to be made in improving their health, but also what lifestyle patterns are affecting their health and how to address them for sustainable, long-term improvement.

I became a health coach as an extension of my individual journey to improve my own health and that of my family. Both of my children had both food and environmental allergies when they were little: my son had horrible eczema as well as nut and grain allergies , while my daughter had eczema all over her body, terrible reflux with projectile vomiting until she was  two years old and recurring staph infections from the breaks in her eczema-plagued skin. She also had milk, egg, soy and nut allergies that made it nearly impossible to wean her.

Regarding my own health,  after the birth of each of my children I developed chronic anxiety and panic attacks.

Alhamdulilah (thanks be to God), we were guided to a new way of conscious living and eating that has liberated my family from the slavery of elimination dieting and food avoidance. My children are now completely free of eczema. My daughter can now eat eggs and drink milk with no problems and my son is no longer intolerant of grains. My anxiety and panic attacks are all a thing of the past.

All of my experiences with my own health and that of my family has instilled in me a deep desire to assist other mothers and their children who are struggling.

In this blog, I intend to write about what I have discovered about the reality of allergies and eczema, the origins of chronic anxiety as well as the lifestyle changes I have embraced for more holistic health. As a Muslim, I have found my health to be a means through which I have become more connected with the Creator of Health, so many of my insights into health and wellness have a spiritual component.

The following hadith (narration) from the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him has been the ray of hope in my personal search for a remedy for my health concerns:

Abu Hurairah narrated that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said:
“There is no disease that Allah created except that He also has created its cure” (Sahih Al-Bukhari 7.582)

You know what that means? It means the cure is out there, we just have to pursue it with open minds and open hearts. Oh yeah...and pray a lot to the Owner of Cure (Ash-Shafi').

My sincere hope is that this blog will inspire hope and a starting point for anyone seeking to improve their health, but especially for mothers who are experiencing health problems in themselves and their children.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, and I do not claim to be one. Any opinions expressed in this blog are simply that: my opinions. Please refer to your doctor before adopting any lifestyle changes that may influence your health, ESPECIALLY if you have any chronic health issues. Use your Divinely granted common sense before making any changes to your health regimen.


Please  LIKE us on Facebook or Contact Us if you have an questions or would like book a FREE Health History Consultation with Jalila.


Wishing you and yours Wellness!
-Jalila Krichi