The first time I began to connect what I ate with how I felt is when I was eighteen. All through high school I had low energy, acne, constipation, and 20 excess pounds on my body. When I moved away from home, I continued to live on a diet of canned chile con carni, white bread, instant ramen noodles, and dollar burgers at fast food restaurants. I had little physical motivation and no stamina. I felt as if I was weighed down from inside.

I remember telling a friend how I was feeling. He asked, "Are you eating anything green?" I had never known it was really that important! Then I began buying bunches of fresh spinach and having a spinach salad every evening. My energy level increased significantly! I began shopping for fresh vegetables at farmer’s markets each week and learned to make colorful stir-frys. I was feeling much better.

Over the course of the next 8 years, I began shopping at natural food stores and talking with the employees. They answered my questions as best they could and introduced me to many whole foods/nutrition workshops and informative books such as: Healing with Whole Foods, The Body Ecology Diet, Ayurvedic Cooking for Westerners, The Detox Solution, The Metabolic Typing Diet and The Self-Healing Cookbook.

In 2002 I took six weeks of Solar Nutrition classes in which I learned to prepare and eat foods according to their solar growth, how to eat specific combinations of foods to enhance digestion and vitamin/mineral/nutrient absorption, which oils to use for various cooking temperatures, and how to cleanse and strengthen every major organ with whole foods. I’ve worked directly with Craig Lane, master of Macrobiotic cooking, and learned how to customize a Macrobiotic diet to best serve individual needs. I’ve also learned Ayurvedic cooking techniques to promote healing and balance from Bob and Melanie Sachs, authors of several books on Ayurvedic health practices. Thanks to these books, courses and people, I now feel healthy and balanced, and have learned to prepare whole, organic meals with delicious flavors! I’ve greatly increased my energy level, and I have a clear, glowing complexion. Over time, with much practice and with tuning-in to my own body, I have learned how all my needs change with the seasons and rhythms of nature.

I used many recipes from my Solar Nutrition classes when I first began preparing my own whole foods meals, and now experiment freely with natural flavor combinations, herbs and spices. People frequently tell me my dishes are the best they’ve had! That they never knew whole foods meals could be so wonderfully flavorful and satisfying. It’s a deeply fulfilling path to serve people in this way, to be teaching them what I’ve learned for their own disease prevention and radiant vitality.

My business vehicle is a truck that runs on recycled restaurant vegetable oil. I’ve never felt better about a mode of transportation, and I get excited every time I use it to travel to a client’s home...

Chipolte Beans with Sea Veggies: Soak 2 -3 cups dry black beans overnight under 3-4 inches filtered water (they'll swell to twice their size). The next day, In a bowl on the side, combine 2 cups of water with 1/4 cup dried hijiki and 1/4 cup dried and chopped (into 1/8" pieces) kombu sea veggies and let soak for 30 minutes. Then, rinse off the old soak water from the beans and replace with fresh filtered water (enough so the beans are covered by at least 2 inches of water) in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil, skimming excess foam off the top for the first few minutes. Reduce to simmer, then after 20 minutes of simmering, drain the sea veggies and add them to the beans. Stir, put the lid on at an angle, and simmer another 40 minutes. When beans have simmered for 1 hour total, add 1 tsp each ground spices: chipolte, cumin, and mustard, and 1/2 tsp cayenne. Stir and simmer another 5 minutes. Turn off heat and stir in 1 tsp each dried sage and marjoram. Add 3 Tbsp ghee or butter, 3 - 4 Tbsp shoyu or tamari soy sauce, and 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar. Great over millet or brown rice with a nice salad. Enjoy!

CookWell’s services are designed to give each client information to learn from to attain better health; they are not diagnostic or prescriptive. I encourage each client to listen to their body and compliment the information given with the advice of qualified health professionals.