Sprouted barley & Bugoni sweet Italian sausage minestrone soup

This week’s minestrone soup is a great way to support our local farmers as Montana-grown barley, shell peas, carrots, tomatoes, kale, and locally produced sausages were used in the creation of this soup.

Chances are, if you’ve lived in Missoula for a while you’ve seen Bugoni sausages in most every grocery store around town. Bugoni sausages are made fresh using pork shoulder meat—no scraps or trim. Raised free-range on Montana farms, the pork in Bugoni sausages is free from antibiotics, hormones, and is as natural as you can get without holding the organic standard. Bugoni sausages are made with crushed dried herbs, always natural and sometimes organic. They use only fresh garlic and locally sourced vegetables. What makes Bugoni sausages stand out is their rich and flavorful taste. Sausage meat is seasoned and mixed a day before stuffing, allowing the spices to fully saturate and blend with the meat. The flavorful sausage meat is then stuffed into natural pork casings, a size smaller than most stuffed sausages, and are ready to cook. Note: Because of their lower fat content, Bugoni sausages may take slightly longer to cook. Once you try Bugoni sausages you’ll be hooked! 

Potato leek soup with mint & chives

This week’s potato leek soup is a great way to support our local farmers as Montana-grown Yukon gold potatoes, mint, and chives were used in the creation of this soup.

Chives are high in vitamins A, C, and K, known in part for helping the body neutralize free radicals2. Organic cream provides the necessary fatty acids to absorb these important fat-soluble vitamins. Chives also contain antioxidants such as carotenes, zeaxanthin, and lutein which have been shown to have anti-inflammatory, antibiotic, antifungal, antiviral, and antimicrobial properties2. They are also a great source of plant-based calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, copper, and manganese2. The nutrition in chives is retained best when used raw, making this a perfect nutrient-dense garnish to add into your spring menu!

Nettle pesto and roasted red pepper quiche

Farm fresh eggs are truly one of nature’s superfoods. Eggs have long been recognized as a source of high-quality protein. The World Health Organization uses eggs as their reference standard for evaluating the protein quality in all other foods3. Eggs, especially those from pasture-raised birds, can be an incredible source of B-vitamins and contain impressive amounts of iodine, molybdenum, sulfur, and selenium4. They contain a modest amount of calcium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, and the fat-soluble vitamins A, E, D, and K24. Eggs are also a good source of cholesterol, needed by the body to utilize the sunlight to create vitamin D as well as for the production of our steroid hormones (cortisol, estrogen, testosterone, DHEA, progesterone, and pregnenolone) 5. Eggs are also good sources of antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin known to protect the eyes, which can be supportive to people that are susceptible to developing macular degeneration and eye cataracts6. Need a reason to ditch the egg white omelet? In order to obtain all of the fat-soluble vitamins and the majority of the other vitamins and minerals in eggs, you need to eat the yolks! 

 Love quiche? Buy an extra and put it in your freezer to treat yourself to an easy and delicious meal in the future. Cooked quiche can be frozen for up to 3 months. When reheating frozen quiche, it retains the best flavor and texture when using the oven. Just preheat your oven to 350 degrees and put the frozen quiche in until it is warmed through (between 20-30 minutes). You may want to cover it with aluminum foil to prevent the edges from catching and the quiche from drying out. Your future self will thank you J

If you want to learn about the nutrition in nettles, check out the menu post from April 13th!

Immune defense bone broth with adaptogenic mushroom blend

Did you know that 70-80% of our immune system resides behind a one-cell thick barrier in our gut? Maintaining this barrier is important to keeping our immune system strong. What are some things that can cause a breach in our gut lining? Stress, food intolerances, anti-nutrients in grains/nuts/seeds, undigested food, and pathogens. A tight gut lining is one of our first immune defenses. A body dealing with an assault on the immune system in the gut is unavailable to fight infections elsewhere. Bone broth is a good source of glycine and glutamine; amino acids that help to heal and seal your gut, aid in digestion, and keep your immune system in check and ready to mobilize. 

Now is a great time to stock up on bone broth. Don’t want to freeze it all in one container? Try freezing it in ice cube trays for easy thawing and single use needs. After cubes are frozen, pop them into a Ziplock or Tupperware to store them long term and use as needed.

Some ways to incorporate bone broth into your everyday cooking:

• Use it in place of or as part of the liquid required for cooking beans, grains, and soups.

• Bone broth lattes

• Heated up in a mug with fresh herbs and spices of your choice

• Steaming or sautéing vegetables

• Braising meat

• As a direct substitute in any recipe calling for “broth”

Adaptogens are naturally occurring, nontoxic substances that protect the body from stress by stabilizing and optimizing its physiological functions. They boost immunity, protect you from disease, and promote overall health and wellness. For a mushroom to qualify as an adaptogen, it must help the body in a nonspecific way. That is, rather than serving a specific purpose in the body, adaptogenic mushrooms will adapt their healing properties to whatever your body needs at a given time.

Rishi, cordyceps, mitake, Lion’s mane, chaga, shiitake, oyster, and turkey tail mushrooms are also immunomodulators. Immunomodulators work similar to adaptogens but relate only to your immune system. When your immune defenses are down, you become more susceptible to catching a cold or succumbing to a more serious illness or disease. In contrast, when your body begins to attack itself (immune system in overdrive), you can experience inflammation or even develop an autoimmune disorder. Immunomodulators play a critical role in keeping your immune system stable and consistent by evening out the hypoactive and hyperactive immune defense responses.

Please note: This information is intended for education and informational purposes only. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

References

1. Isokauppila, T. (2017). Healing Mushrooms: A Practical and Culinary Guide to Using Adaptogenic Mushrooms for Whole Body Health. Penguin Publishing Group. 

2. What Are Chives Good For? (October 12, 2016). Retrieved from https://foodfacts.mercola.com/chives.html.

3. Mateljan, G. (2015). The World’s Healthiest Foods: The force for change to optimal health with health-promoting foods and nutrient-rich cooking.Seattle, WA: George Mateljan Foundation.

4. Ballantyne, S. (2017). Paleo principles: The science behind the paleo template, step-by-step guides, meal plans, and 200 healthy & delicious recipes for real life. Las Vegas, NV: Victory Belt Publishing, Inc.

5. Nutritional Therapy Association. (n.d.). Endocrine. Nutritional Therapy Association Student Guide, 42.

6. Victor, George, S., Marco, Littlewood, M., Richard, Mulji, S., … Dan. (2019, July 31). Three Eggs a Day Keep the Doctor Away! Retrieved from https://chriskresser.com/three-eggs-a-day-keep-the-doctor-away/.