It's peach season! Yellow peaches, white peaches, and nectarines are all in abundance right now. What better way to use them than in a galette? Galettes are rustic, free-form single-crust pastries with either a sweet or savory filling. They are much easier to make than pies, which require a bit more precision. This gluten-free and grain-free galette uses a slightly sweetened version of my wildly popular flakey grain-free pie crust recipe and is filled with fresh peaches that have been tossed in a small amount of maple sugar and ground nutmeg.

Looking for an easy, nutrient-dense meal you can make at the end of a long day? This simple sheet pan meal uses garden vegetables and wild salmon, and it can be prepped and cooked in under 30 minutes! Salmon is a rich source of a carotenoid called astaxanthin. This potent compound is also found in crab, shrimp, lobster, krill, and salmon eggs (roe), however, wild salmon contains the highest concentration of this potent anti-inflammatory compound.

Nettles are one of the first wild foods to emerge in the spring, and, undoubtedly, one of the most nutrient-dense wild plants! They thrive in rich, moist soil, and in sunny locations. You may find them blanketing a deciduous forest floor in early spring before the tree canopy emerges, or in an open, mowed field. The fallen leaves from autumn create a fertile environment for nettles to emerge from in early spring. After the dense, cold winter months, nettles arrive and remind us to lighten our loads, to cleanse, and to restore.

Matcha, or powdered green tea, is one of the most powerful antioxidant superfoods you can consume. Matcha is a concentrated source of a specific group of polyphenols called catechins. You may have heard of EGCG, or epigallocatechin gallate. EGCG is a catechin found in concentrated amounts in matcha—much higher than regular green tea! EGCG has been widely studied for years for its beneficial effects on weight loss, inflammation reduction, cardiovascular health, cancer prevention, and gut microbe balancing.

One of the most powerful things you can do on a daily basis for your long-term health and well-being is to cook most of your meals at home with whole food-based ingredients. The second step in taking control of your health and using food as medicine, is to remove the foods or food groups that are irritating your immune system.

Today I am writing a post to share an incredible recipe with you (one of the most flavorful salad recipes I believe I have created thus far), and open up about some transformations in my life. Some of you have been part of this newsletter since I started it in 2004 and have watched as I have shared photos as our family grew and children went from babies to teenagers! In fact, my oldest daughter is now 21!

Elevated cortisol levels can greatly affect the ability fall asleep and stay asleep. Cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands. It's a messenger that tells the body how to function. Cortisol is naturally highest beginning early in the morning, from around 6am to 8am.

Flaxseeds are a powerhouse of nutrients and fiber that help feed your beneficial gut microbes, reduce inflammation, regulate your digestive system, improve cardiovascular health, and help normalize blood sugar levels. This healthy muffin recipe uses 1 ½ cups of flaxseed meal, in addition to a small amount of oat flour and a cup of wild blueberries to pack in the nutrients! The soluble fiber found in plant-based foods is essential for increasing gut health and longevity. Serve muffins for breakfast with a cup of tea and hard boiled eggs, or pack a muffin in your child's lunchbox. 

We all need very easy recipes to stay on track with dietary changes. I have found that the number one thing necessary to maintaining any healing diet is to be able to easily throw together nutrient-dense meals in minutes. Having easy recipes that contain a balance of vegetables, protein, and fat will help you maintain your diet and heal. It's easy to grab what's convenient when you are hungry, and that's why I recommend stocking your fridge with a snack to help curb those cravings, as well as a few soups or stews that you can reheat for lunch, and keep recipes like this one on hand that can be prepped and cooked in less than 30 minutes.

Happy Winter Solstice! Today is the darkest day and the longest night of the year in the Northern hemisphere. It is a time of pause and reflection; a time to clear space for a new year. What do you want to release? What do you want to create for yourself in the coming year? I recently had a conversation with a friend that reminded me of something so simple, yet so foundational to the work I do. With every bite of food, we are choosing how we want to create ourselves.