From the Traditional Cooking 101 series…

Description: Good broth is more than just simmering bones and some veggie scraps. Participants will learn cooking principles to reap maximum nutrients. Recipes will be given; variations and herbal add-ins will be discussed. Following the presentation, we will share a meal.

Why broth? Nutritive bone stock is the foundation of low-budget, health-conscious meals and complex, gourmet cuisine alike. We will discuss the difference between throwing some bones and veg in a pot with some water and creating a truly healthful cooking base or sipping side. In particular, we will discuss how to draw the nutritive gelatin, collagen, calcium, magnesium, potassium and minerals out of the bones effectively and create a refined, delicious final product.

Why jook? Jook (or rice porridge, or congee) is an easy and adaptable recipe that can be eaten anytime. This Chinese breakfast staple can be adapted endlessly. The addition of herbs can make jook a medicinal meal. Made with or without homemade broth, savory or sweet, jook is a delicious way to boost the health.

Demonstration:

How to Make Broth: Kombu/Bone Broth

How to Make Jook: Nutritive Jook with Chinese Herbs

Menu:

Chestnut & Apricot Kernel Soup with Lotus and Cress

Seasoned Mushrooms and Greens over Nutritive Jook with Chinese Herbs

Fee: $30

Date: Sunday, December 4th, 11am-1:30pm

Location: Berkeley, CA

Space is limited. Please pre-register. Call 415.938.7421 to register or click below to pay and register online.

Pregnant mamas, please come to get ready!

Postpartum mamas, bring your babe and learn some tricks to make it a bit easier!

The postpartum period is so much easier with a few tips and tricks up your sleeve! Class will include herbs and food cures that are easy to have on hand to self-treat.

Natural approaches to common concerns will be given: managing baby blues, natural pain relief, balancing appetite, toning the abdominal muscles and pelvic floor, lactation issues, prevention and home treatment of mastitis, strategies to maximize rest and minimize stress.

For new moms and moms-to-be. Bring your partner.

$35, but partners attend for FREE.

When:  November 20, 2011 12:30-3:00pm

Where: Berkeley Yoga Center

call 415.938.7421 to register or click below to pay online.

A winter yoga practice is so delicious.

Now that we have been on Daylight Savings Time for a bit, I’ve gotten used to the fact that our regular Sunday afternoon yoga class at Yoga Mandala occurs during magic hour. While my favorite place to be at sunset is probably outside gazing at the amber horizon in quiet contemplation, I don’t make that happen very often. It’s usually a busy, but soft time at home when I’m feeding and bathing my boy and ushering him gently off to bed. That’s why I’m so pleased that my public class falls at this time. To be in the mandir practicing through the sundhi–the joining of the opposites of day and night, in this case–feels so rich.

At this wintery time of year, our yoga practice is focused on keeping the cold, rough vata down (especially since it can be so windy in the afternoons here in the Berkeley winter) without letting the gluggy kapha stagnation accumulate. To that end, we have been focusing on P I, II & III series plus some long, steady holds in standing postures to open the channels and really let the asanas marinate. This allows the core warmth to be gently circulated and distributed throughout the body. Since winter seems to naturally lend itself to introspection, I’ve been enjoying highlighting forward bending and hip opening in a gradual, but consistent way.

Our class is a Hatha I-III and I’m always pleased to see the regulars and the brand new folks alike. If you’ll be new to the studio, let me know. My hatha class is strongly flavored by my favorite practice–Adi-Yoga–as I am ongoingly studying that with my esteemed teacher, Dharmanidhi.

Location: Yoga Mandala
2807 Telegraph Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94705
Time: Sundays 4:30 p.m.
Contact: 510.486.1989

Traditional Cooking 101: Bone Broth and Jook

Nutritive bone broth is the foundation of cooking. It is the basis for simple, low-budget, health-conscious meals and complex, gourmet cuisine alike. In this workshop, we will discuss the benefits of bone broth and its uses.

Jook, or rice porridge, is an easy and adaptable recipe that can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner. The addition of herbs can make jook a medicinal meal. Made with or without homemade broth, jook is a delicious way to boost the health.

Participants will learn simple principles to ensure that the maximum nutrients are reaped from ingredients. Recipes will be given; variations and herbal additions will be discussed.

Lesson:
Why broth? Why jook? A brief lecture will give a basic description of the place of broths and jooks in traditional healing. The discussion will include information about ingredients and their properties.

Demonstration:
How to Make Broth: Kombu/Bone Broth
How to Make Jook: Nutritive Jook with Chinese Herbs

Menu:
Seasoned Autumn Mushrooms and Greens
served over Nutritive Jook with Chinese Herbs
with a side of Chestnut & Apricot Kernel Soup with Lotus and Cress

Cost: $25.00 (plus splitting the cost for ingredients which are minimal for this kind of menu)

Location: Napa, CA
Date: Monday, November 16th
Time: 6:30pm-8:30pm

This class is offered in association with Blossom Chiropractic Studio. Space is limited. Reserve your space by using the contact page.

I am appalled by the way St. Luke’s Hospital’s charitable programming is being gutted. Not only that, but its *natural* medicine: a Touro osteopathic teaching clinic. That’s right, they are cutting effective, natural medicine offered for free to those in need in a clinical context in which medical students are trained. The patients lose; the students lose. Everybody loses.

Check out the letter I submitted to the Health Commission urging them to advise the SF Board of Supes to stop CPMC (Sutter) from this action. The address is there, if you feel compelled to weigh in on the issue. If you’re in the city today, the Health Commission hearing is today and there is another one coming June 16 at 2:00 pm. Speak up!

—————-

May 19, 2009

Department of Public Health
Health Commission
101 Grove Street, room 308
San Francisco, CA 94102

RE: Sutter/CPMC Charity Service Cancellations

To the Health Commission:

I am shocked and saddened to hear that charity service programs such as Touro University’s osteopathic clinic and student training are being canceled. There has been a justifiably angry outcry against this move from the doctors offering these services as well as from the students who have an unparalleled opportunity to learn in the hospital setting, not to mention patients benefiting from these free services.

It is for services like these that Sutter/CPMC has been granted non-profit status. As such, they have a responsibility to answer the real needs of the community. How can they hope to expand and create big, new hospitals such as that proposed for Cathedral Hill without protecting charity programs for facilities already in existence? If Sutter/CPMC wishes to function like a for-profit company, then they should be stripped of their non-profit status.

My child has been a patient of the osteopathic training program with Drs. Cislo and McCombs, DO, through Touro University at St. Luke’s, one of the Sutter/CPMC hospitals. My son’s health has improved dramatically from his care there over the past two years. He was successfully treated through natural, hands-on osteopathic methods from symptoms that his pediatrician claimed couldn’t be helped. At each visit, a room full of students got to share the joy of my boy’s improved health and comfort. Real learning happened and real confidence in natural osteopathic care was instilled in each of us. It is a beautiful program–not only for us, but for many other families who may not be able to find the same quality services due to financial constraints.

Ours was a simple story of good health turning great, but I know that for other patients participating in that program, it has been a story life or death. That is, I am told that some patients are literally kept alive through Touro’s free program. What happens to these patients if the care is stripped?

This is yet another insult in a long line of charity service cancellations. Guided by Sutter/CPMC, the “new” St. Luke’s has already cut many badly needed services in favor of more profitable programs. Consider the impact our community has suffered already: the loss of the entire psychiatric care unit, the loss of neo-natal intensive care, the loss of much-needed SNF beds, the loss of the heart of the maternity ward which was once famous for its commitment to women-centered, safe, demedicalized birth. Now, charity osteopathic medicine has had its final day.

Please listen to the opinions of the hospital doctors and nurses. Let people who took the Hippocratic Oath guide the hospital’s direction. They know what is best for their patients, not the money guys.  Please advise the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to keep Touro’s and other charity programs alive, otherwise they must revoke Sutter/CPMC’s non-profit status.

Sincerely,
Sri Lalita

Postpartum Health: Preparing for the Postpartum Period with Ayurveda at Yoga Mandala

During pregnancy, emphasis is given to being ready for the “big day” when a woman gives birth to her child. Books guide parents in creating birth plans, classes offer methods to cope with the labor and delivery process and doulas can be hired to lend a helping hand. But what happens next?

In this workshop, Sri Lalita will discuss the common features of this time and guide new parents through a list of essentials every mom will want to make the postpartum period an easier, healthy transition. Healing teas, recipes, herbs and sitz bath teas will be discussed. Strategies for promoting optimal recovery for the postpartum mom will be offered. In addition, information about teas and salves to support milk production will be covered.

New Moms, Moms-to-be, partners and birth professionals are encouraged to attend. Contact Yoga Mandala at 510. 486.1989 to pre-register.

Location: Yoga Mandala
2807 Telegraph Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94705
Date: Sunday, February 15, 2009
Time:  10:00 AM – 3:00 PM (with a break for lunch)
Contact: 510.486.1989

Caring for the Neck: A Daily Yoga Regimen

We know that building and maintaining strength and flexibility the spine is key to health, longevity and a sense of vitality. However, we sometimes forget that the neck is part of the spine! In many exercise and yoga regimens, the neck is often overlooked.

In this brief, 45 minute class, we will discuss the basics of neck care. We will learn basic yoga postures and easy strength training to gradually increase range of motion and strength in the neck, affording greater stability and circulation to the structures in the neck and helping to prevent injury and tension. This simple regimen can be practiced almost anywhere.

Location: ALIVE Chiropractic
4223 Piedmont Ave.
Oakland, CA
Date: January 14, 2009
Time: 6:30-7:15 p.m.
Contact: (510) 457-5874