The Official Blog of The GEM.

SHINE BRIGHTER. Our goal is to live better and be better.

Tag Archives: eating well


This Fall Food will Give Your Insides a Warm, GEM~my Hug

Posted on by diamondsonyourinside and currently has 1 Comment on This Fall Food will Give Your Insides a Warm, GEM~my Hug

Our desire for warmer, more grounding, fall food starts to increase now that cooler weather is upon us. fall foodYour body craves the comfort of roasted veggies, rich stews and robust soups.

Inside The GEM, folks start to line up for our famous Lentil Soup, Sauteed Arugula and Mushroom Salad and Turmeric Lattes. SHAZAM! Those things are good and they give your insides a warm hug.

While you are ALWAYS welcome at our door for your daily dose of fall food goodness, we think you should branch out and try some new things at home. This Black Bean Chili was inspired by Pamela Salzman’s Turkey Chili recipe (also amazing). Look for her new cookbook coming next year!

In the meantime, try this on a lazy Sunday afternoon or at your next tailgate party. You won’t even miss the meat!

 

BLACK BEAN CHILI – A Fall Food Fav

 

INGREDIENTS

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 cups chopped red onion

2 cups chopped celery

2 cups chopped carrots

1 poblano pepper chopped

1 jalapeno, seeded and finely diced (optional)

2 cloves garlic, minced

¼ cup organic masa harina

2 tablespoon ground cumin

2 tablespoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon dried oregano

¼ teaspoon cayenne (optional)

2 teaspoons sea salt (or more to taste)

freshly ground black pepper to taste

6 cups veggie stock, divided — OR WATER, just adjust salt content!!

3 cups frozen organic sweet corn

3 15-ounce ounce cans cooked black beans (drained and rinsed)

 

DIRECTIONS

  1. Heat oil to a large pot. Add the onion, pepper, celery, carrots, peppers and garlic to the pot and sauté until tender, about 10 minutes.
  2. Add the masa harina, spices, salt and pepper to the pot and cook, stirring frequently for 5 minutes.
  3. Add 5 cups stock, 1 1/2 cup corn and the beans to the pot. Take the remaining 1½ cups of corn and puree with the remaining ½ cup stock/water in a Vitamix.
  4. Add the pureed corn to the pot. Mix well and bring to boil over medium-high heat. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook, partially covered for 30 minutes.
  5. Top with condiments like chopped onion, cilantro, avocado and Bearitos corn chips.

 

Enjoy! And, remember, you are welcome at our door for your daily dose of happy and healthy.


Spring Forward with The GEM Continuing Education Workshops

Posted on by diamondsonyourinside and currently has 3 Comments on Spring Forward with The GEM Continuing Education Workshops

Spring is the time for renewal, revitalization and detoxification … and The GEM Continuing Education Workshops. It’s time to think about a system re-boot of our bodies and achieving better balance in our lives and our health. Spring is the perfect time to re-group and re-prioritize, and even re-invent the life you are living, don’t you think??The GEM Continuing Education Workshops

We’ve got a few ideas to get you get started.

Over the last three months, we’ve been sharing information about achieving a vibrant lifestyle with SO many of you through our Day in the Life of a GEM Series. It’s been incredibly rewarding and fun. But, apparently it wasn’t enough! You want more.

So … we are introducing The GEM Continuing Education Workshops.

Whether you’ve completed our Day in the Life Series, or just want to start here, we have four new workshops that are sure to shine a light bright into your healthy future. Each Wednesday night in April, during The GEM Continuing Education Workshops, we dive a little deeper into topics such as:

April 6: Dump the Junk! We absorb up to 60 percent of what we put on our skin. Educate yourself so you can do your part to eliminate the toxins from your skin care and cleaning products. How toxic are they? Learn how to “clean up your act” and find better options for some of your favorite products.

April 13: Stressed out and Sugared UP. Stress is an unpleasant fact of life. We all experience it, and for some, we allow it to take over our minds and eventually our bodies. Surprisingly, sugar is one of the biggest causes of stress! Learn why sugar is a dangerous drug that is the root of so many ailments including obesity, acne, depression and cancer. It is a major roadblock to optimal health. Learn what both stress and sugar do to your body and ways to manage it. Squash it for good and don’t let it rule you!

April 20: Eat for Immunity. Let Food Be Thy Medicine. Hippocrates was right! Learn what nutrient-dense foods are best, how certain supplements can help, and what other environmental factors can contribute to a super-powered immune system.

April 27: GEM Cooking Class. Learn how to prepare SIMPLE, GO-TO whole food, plant-based meal options and some valuable tips to make dinnertime shine. Who knew being a fabulous healthy chef could be so easy and so good? Includes shopping list and recipes.

Day in the Life of a GEM Continuing Ed Workshops 

Wednesday nights @ 7:30 p.m. (one hour). Light meal included. 

$60 per session 

$200 for entire workshop 

For those who’d like to start from the beginning, the original Day in the Life Series also starts Wednesday, April 6 at 6 p.m., four Wednesdays in a row, $200 for the series, light meal included.

Email us, call us or reserve your spot online and spring forward with us into vibrant health!


Organic Food & Juice – Are the Benefits Worth It?

Posted on by diamondsonyourinside and currently has 1 Comment on Organic Food & Juice – Are the Benefits Worth It?

organic food and organic juice Are organic foods really worth the hype and the extra money? These are questions that are raised every day.

In the GEM life, it’s pretty black and white, and ORGANIC WINS EVERY TIME.

The benefits of organic food:

1. No harmful pesticides. Many of these pesticides cannot be washed off of the produce–as they penetrate the entire vegetable. They are also cumulative. These toxins get stored away in your fat cells and continue to build.  The idea of “it’s just a little bit” is as absurd as saying I’ll just have a little bit of arsenic on my apple. You cannot wash enough of the toxins off. Period.

2. No GMOs. That is genetically modified organisms. If you aren’t clear on what those are, don’t feel bad. Even the scientists who created them can’t predict what will happen to humans when they are consumed. Monsanto created the “Round Up Ready” soybean and corn. This means that the powerful pesticide will kill everything around it except the bean itself. Great, you think. Not really. These crops have been modified so that if an insect eats it, the insect’s insides are destroyed. But it’s OK for humans to eat it? I’m no rocket scientist, but … hell no. Did you know that all of Europe, Australia, Canada, Russia and many other countries DO NOT allow these ingredients in their food supply because of the health dangers? We must vote with our wallets.

3. Organic produce contains the same veggie DNA as our grandparents consumed. Sounds a lot more comforting. An heirloom tomato is heaven. Conventional ones aren’t even worth the sea salt and pepper you sprinkle on them.

4. The meats you consume are not over treated with powerful antibiotics and fattened with GMO, nutrient deficient corn. They are also humanely treated–not crammed into slaughter houses and mired knee deep in waste. Happy animals produce happy food. Eat grass-fed, free range, pasture raised. THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT, MEAT-EATING PEOPLE.

5. And I have to continue to implore you to never eat artificial food colorings and artificial sweeteners. These cause ADHD and allergies in children, brain tumors and neurological disorders in adults, among other toxic side effects.

The government standards for “organic” include a national list of approved synthetic and prohibited non-synthetic substances for organic production which means that organically produced foods also must be produced without the use of:

  • antibiotics
  • artificial growth hormones
  • high fructose corn syrup
  • artificial dyes (made from coal tar and petrochemicals)
  • artificial sweeteners derived from chemicals
  • synthetically created chemical pesticide and fertilizers
  • genetically engineered proteins and ingredients
  • sewage sludge
  • irradiation

So … conventional, non-organic food may contain these ingredients? Did you know this? I am certain not many of us do, since sewage sludge and artificial growth hormones aren’t on the label. Sewage sludge alone is enough to shift my attention to organic!

Take a look at this experiment. It left me speechless. If this doesn’t confirm the data, nothing will. Way to go Elise!

Love yourself, love your family. Buy organic.

It just might be the best weapon in your arsenal against disease. Organic too expensive you say? Have you priced cancer lately? Pick the Dirty Dozen and go from there.

You owe it to yourself and your family. OH, and drink your organic, nutrient dense juice everyday. It is super power that helps combat and flush out the environmental toxins we can’t help but consume.

See you at The GEM, where honestly organic is how we roll.