As usual, I prefer to cook and bake vegan and gluten free, i.e. without dairy, eggs or wheat. That way, it is easier to digest and will be as light and healthy as a banana bread could be. Plus, bananas being the main ingredient, it will offer a healthy serving of fruit.

I took a basic recipe and swapped out to wheat-free and dairy-free ingredients, to make it more healthy and delicious. I mashed the bananas, put all the ingredients together and it was in the oven in no time. The smell coming from the kitchen was divine, and it tasted even more heavenly.

My husband is my taste tester and my captive audience. I got rave reviews. That was a couple of weeks ago, I have made a few batches since then and I brought a batch to a friend’s dinner party also and got glowing feedback on this recipe.

So here is the recipe, you will love it! Get ready to be baking a lot of Chocolate Chip Banana Bread. And a shout out to Mom, thank you for continuing to inspire me. Enjoy!

Wet Ingredients:
- 8 Bananas
- 1 cup Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
- ¾ cup Maple Syrup
- ½ cup Coconut Oil
- ¼ cup Chia Seeds
- 1 tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Vanilla

Dry Ingredients:
- 1 cup Millet Flour
- 1 cup Buckwheat Flour
- 1 tablespoon Baking Powder
- 2 teaspoons Baking Soda
- 1 tablespoon Golden Flaxseed Meal
- 1 teaspoon Pink Himalayan Salt
- ½ teaspoon Nutmeg
- 2 cups Unsweetened Shredded Coconut
- 1 bag Large Dark Chocolate Chips (or 2 bags of regular size Dark Chocolate Chips)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325ºF. Line 2 medium pans with parchment paper.
2. Mash 6 Bananas in large bowl or mixer.
3. Mix Golden Flaxseed Meal with 3 tablespoons of water and set aside until thickened.
4. Mix Bananas and thickened Golden Flaxseed Meal together with all remaining wet ingredients, put aside.
5. Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl, except Chocolate Chips.
6. Mix dry ingredients with wet ingredients into one large bowl, mix well until combined.
7. Stir in Chocolate Chips into batter.
8. Pour combined batter into pans evenly.
9. Place sliced banana chunks on top of batter, using remaining bananas.
10. Bake for 45 minutes, test by poking center top with a fork or toothpick.
11. Allow to cool a few minutes before cutting.
12. Cover pans with plastic wrap and keep in refrigerator until finished.

Enjoy!

- by Judith Longo

Voila! Chocolate Chip Banana Bread, vegan and gluten free of course

- by Judi Longo

To get all the nutrition out of the veggies like beets, carrots and daikon, you can clean them and either steam them or sauté the tops. All you need for a delicious addition of greens to your meal is a little Shoyu or Tamari, the gluten free version of soy sauce.

Today’s macrobiotic, gluten free recipe features beautiful beet tops, salmon and baked jeweled yams, prepared simply, packing tons of healthy minerals, protein, antioxidants and fiber.

Ingredients:

- tops of 2 or 3 beets* (we saved the actual beets for another recipe)
- large jeweled yam*
- wild Atlantic Sockeye salmon
- chopped garlic*
- grapeseed oil
- sea salt
- onion*
- barbecue sauce

* All organic, in accordance to macrobiotics

Pre-heat oven to 425F.

Step 1:

Clean yams and get them in the oven for at least 45 minutes.

Step 2:

Prepare the beet tops. Separate the stems from the leaves. Chop up the stems and lightly sauté just the stems with chopped garlic and sea salt for about 4-5 minutes until tender.

Step 3:

While the beet stems are cooking, sauté your onions and fry up the salmon in a skillet, add barbecue sauce to taste.

Step 4:

When the baked yam comes out of the oven, add beet leaves on top of stems and sauté for another 2 minutes.

Put it all together and you have this delicious little feast!

Recipe by Judith Longo

To continue along with our macrobiotic recipes, this is an easy gluten free vegan pizza recipe if you are on the go and need a quick healthy meal. You can grab a tub of antipasta ingredients, a gluten free pizza crust and you are basically ready!

Ingredients:

– 1/2 cup green & black olives* (seedless)
– 1/4 cup roasted garlic*
– 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes*
– 1/2 cup artichoke hearts*
(all from the antipasta bar at Whole Foods, SO easy)
– 1/2 cup sliced shitake mushrooms* (a macrobiotic favorite)
– 3/4 cup yellow onions*, cut in half moons
– 1 gluten free pizza crust*
– Harisa sauce* (we used this great brand, Cava, you can also use tomato sauce)
– Olive oil*

*All organic, in accordance with macrobiotic principles.

Pre-heat oven to 425F.

Step 1:
- Saute up the raw onions and mushrooms and throw in the other toppings once the onions are nice and caramelized.
- Put the pizza crust in the oven for 8-10 minutes with some oil to pre-heat it.

Step 2:
- Once the crust is pre-heated, put on a thin layer of Harisa and add the toppings, put in the oven at 425F.

Step 3:
- Prepare a nice salad on the side, pull out the pizza and slice it up. If you don’t have a pizza cutter, a 10″ chef’s knife works well.

Step 4:
enjoy!

by Judith Longo

The Cancer Prevention Diet: Michio Kushi’s Macrobiotic Blueprint for the Prevention and Relief of Disease is all about how to stay healthy with a simple, delicious macrobiotic diet—and the good news is that you don’t have to be a millionaire celebrity to eat this way.

Macrobiotics, first mentioned in 1797 in Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland’s book, The Art of Prolonging Human Life is known as the anti-cancer diet. It consists primarily of grains, fruits, vegetables, seaweed, fermented vegetables, and a little bit of fish. This diet rich in vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals provides the magic combination that is the quiet cure for cancer.

Michio Kushi began to introduce macrobiotics in the United States in the early 1950s and is known as the father of modern macrobiotics in the US today. He has trained some of the world’s leading macrobiotic chefs and continues to serve as a living example of powerful conscious living through his life as an educator about diet, health, and world peace.

Harvard Medical School, The Framingham Heart Study and Tulane University are just a few of the organizations that have published research showing the benefits of macrobiotics such as:

– relieve high blood pressure
– lower cholesterol
– prevent heart disease
– treat sensitivity to chemicals
– improve immune function
– lower weight
– regulate the female hormone system
– and prolonging the life span, among others

“Let food be thy medicine, and
thy medicine be food.”—Hippocrates

The basic breakdown of the macrobiotic diet is:
50%-60% whole grains
25%-30% vegetables
5%-10% soups
5%-10% beans and sea vegetables

The diet also includes other holistic practices to nurture your mental and physical health including things like chewing your food 25 times before you swallow it and walking outside for 1/2 hour a day.

If you are trying to stay away from the typical American diet of processed foods, GMOs, pesticides, growth hormones, antibiotics and sugar, this is a proven approach to excellent health. Most of us know someone close to us who have suffered from life threatening diseases, so you know how serious it is.

For more information, check out Michio Kushi’s book The Cancer Prevention Diet… and continue to check back with Meniscus Magazine for articles and recipes to try on your own. If you want to get started right away, start incorporating brown rice, steamed vegetables and fresh miso soup and you should start to feel it immediately.

- by Judith Longo

In addition to being a trained macrobiotic chef, Judith Longo is a New York City-based fashion designer, writer, Feng Shui consultant, artist, image consultant and yogi.

This week, a grass-fed lamb dish is featured, one of the few meat dishes coming out of the kitchen, but one that is both nutritious and delicious. Bon apetite!

Purple passion potatoes – Considered the food of the gods, purple potatoes are packed with phytonutrients and with four times the antioxidants power of normal potatoes.
Garlic known as a powerful health booster that can help to protect against cancer, protect the heart and is a natural antibiotic. For maximum benefits, its best to leave crushed garlic at room temperature for 15 minutes, allowing time for an enzyme reaction to boost the compounds before cooking.
Parsley, very cleansing for the kidneys and liver, aids in digestion

Book choi
Rated as number one cancer fighting food according to Dr. William Li, who recently was interviewed by Dr. Oz. He recommends 1/2 cup, three times a week of these cancer fighting nutrients.
Garlic

Ginger, also a natural antibiotic and anti-inflammatory used frequently in Chinese medicine.

New Zealand Grass fed lamb For people who’s blood type requires that they eat red meat, lamb is more easily processed by the system. The benefits of red meat, include strengthening of the blood.
w rice bran oil – known for its powerful antioxidant γ-oryzanol, and has been shown to improve blood cholesterol.
Dijon mustard,
garlic & herbs de Provence

Shoyu- A macrobiotic gluten-free soy sauce that supports the immune system, has strong anti-oxidant and anti-cancer properties and is rich in minerals. (And it is salty and delicious on our bok choi!)

by Judith Longo