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2021
Spring Blossoms
This week’s menu focuses on capturing the beauty, flavours and medicinal qualities of spring blossoms. Chives flower in spring; they are perennial plants and members of the Allium family, like onions, garlic and leeks; chives have anti-bacterial, antihistamine and anti-inflammatory properties as they are rich in antioxidants, quercetin, vitamins and minerals.
Chive flowers are beautiful and edible, simply pull them off the stem and garnish your dishes; discard the flower stem as it’s tough and woody. Create a vibrant coloured vinegar with a delicate flavour by infusing chive flowers; it’s a fun food as medicine approach to capturing the essence of spring so you can enjoy the blossoms all year round.
Pansies are another sweet little spring edible flower that makes a fun garnish for salads and sweets.
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Asparagus, Lilacs & Nettles
This week, make the most of the delicate spring bounty of asparagus, fresh nettles and lilacs. Asparagus in-season has such a lovely light green flavour and is a versatile vegetable that can be eaten raw, steamed, grilled, and roasted and pairs well with many fusion flavours; lilacs are edible flowers that bring beautiful fragrant notes to the table. Nettles, when fresh, make a delicate light tea that is a deeply nourishing mineral-rich tonic.
Lilac flower season is fleeting, so make the most of these edible fragrant blossoms by garnishing fruits, desserts and salads. You can capture the delicate essence of lilacs by making herbal medicinal and fun infusions like syrups, honey, wine and jams.
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Delicate Spring Edibles
Foraged and delicate spring edibles adorn our plates this week as we capture the subtle flavours of a fleeting moment in spring when the sweet violets are blooming, fiddleheads are foraged and asparagus and spinach are abundant.
This week’s menu has some great recipes that help us celebrate mother nature and what it means to mother within our own lives.
Bring delicate spring green flavours to the table with these simple, fun and creative recipes that are both beautiful and nourishing using sweet violet flowers, fiddleheads, asparagus and spinach.
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Mexican Vibes
This week’s menu has a Mexican food vibe to celebrate Cinco de Mayo using some in-season spring flavours and local ingredients.
I was recently introduced to Pollock when asked to create a fish taco recipe for Rosemont Market to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with Maine flavours ~ it’s an excellent fish to cook and great to eat, a local affordable + sustainable fish here in Maine and across New England and the Atlantic; it’s worth seeking out and asking about at your local fish market, you won’t be disappointed.
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Light & Lean
Green and herbaceous, earthy and anti-oxidant-rich, light and lean whole ingredients help support us as we reset with the energy of spring.
Light recipes with low sugar, low fat, and low to no oil and high in fibre, vitamins and minerals are featured this week so we can bring lighter mid-spring dishes to the table as the season shifts, and we move towards warmer weather.
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Super Good Bites
This week’s menu focuses on super good bites that are nutrient-dense, make fun snacks and tasty plates using in-season anti-inflammatory ingredients to support optimal health.
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Mineral-rich Spring Vibes
This week’s menu focuses on mineral-rich greens, herbs, spinach and asparagus in anti-inflammatory recipes that taste great so you feel your best stepping into spring.
Spring greens are naturally mineral-rich and a great way to use food as medicine in every day recipes. When looking towards eastern holistic healthcare and Traditional Chinese Medicine, spring is the time of year to focus on eating lots of cleansing greens and mineral-rich foods that help support the body’s natural detoxification.
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Easter + Passover Spring Menu
Easter and Passover traditions celebrate rebirth and new beginnings; our spring menu uses new-season pea shoots, rocket greens, herbs, carrots and asparagus in healthy, anti-inflammatory-focused recipes that taste great so you feel your best stepping towards the new spring season.
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Squash & Spinach
We are bridging the seasons with the last of the winter’s squash and new frost-sweetened spring spinach. Mixing in some frozen veg and a few pantry staples to make a simple, affordable every day food as medicine menu.
Whether you fancy a bright textured salad with tangy cheese or a warm, comforting bowl, perhaps you need some quick, easy dishes like a Spanish-style scram or creative bowls with beans and basic fare; we have you covered this week ~ happy cooking eat to thrive!
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Creative Classics
Bring everyday food as medicine meals to the table with this classic creative menu. We use simple ingredients like sweet potato and sunflower seeds, fruits and herbs in innovative yet simple combinations that add depth of flavour, nutrient density and great textures to easy anti-inflammatory dishes.
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Celebrating Green & Welcoming Spring
We are celebrating all things green with St. Patricks Day and the Spring Equinox. A nod to tradition and honouring the past whilst inviting in the fresh and new energetic shift that Spring brings.
This week’s menu honours cabbage with a twist of interesting combinations, flavours and textures and some different blends of greens with a good mix of grounding botanicals that help us set the table for the shifting of the seasons.
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Simply Good
This week, simple meals with good and sensible ingredients are on the menu: grounding flavours, great textures and nutrient-dense recipes.
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Make Healthy Taste Great in March
Make healthy taste great for March; add a spring to your step with great flavours, whole ingredients and nutritious dishes to help you eat to thrive and feel your best every day.
Lots of natural sweetness, great textures and some salty, spicy, zesty and umami flavours on the plate for you this week; cosy bowls for when you feel like leaning into winter and some lighter, brighter dishes for a spring vibe.
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Healthy & Wholesome
Leaning into wholesome + vibrant ingredients and stepping into the kitchen is a great way to ensure you get the most “nutritional bang for your buck and bite”. There are so many benefits to eating whole anti-inflammatory foods, like keeping your brain sharp, your digestion moving, and your energy balanced and reducing your overall risk of chronic illness.
This week’s menu features simple, easy, healthy, and wholesome snacks and meals made with anti-inflammatory and in-season whole ingredients.
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Elevate the Ordinary
Cooking with everyday in-season fresh + frozen fruits and vegetables, you can elevate the ordinary by adding zesty, spicy, sweet, savoury, salty and umami flavours using staple pantry ingredients ~ nothing fancy!
The tasty magic happens when you step up to the chopping board and mix, stir and blend in some big fusion flavours.
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Cooking is LOVE
Cooking is LOVE. Cooking in self-care. Cooking is healthy-care.
Cooking empowers the healing journey.
Love and self-care plated this week with nourishing in-season ingredients and dark knight chocolate bites to sweep you off your feet.
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Sensible & Sustainable
If ever there was a time to step up to the chopping board, get back into the kitchen and try to make sense of it all with healthy, sensible and sustainable food choices, this is it.
Whether you are looking through the lens of a healthy economy, a sustainable food system, the health of our environment or our healthcare system, the state of dis-ease is palpable.
This week’s menu offers up some sensible and sustainable meal ideas full of grounding and nourishing simplicity to warm our bodies and soothe our souls using in-season ingredients.
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Remedies
The chocolate remedy is here for you this week, along with some other great food as medicine recipes and delightful bites to meet your moods and needs, guilt-free and sugar-free goodness!
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Antioxidant-Rich
Getting your daily dose of antioxidants by eating a whole-ingredient diet helps your body fight chronic diseases at a cellular level. Fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains and spices are rich sources of antioxidants.
This week’s menu & recipes highlight in-season vibrant fruits and vegetables, earthy grains and warming spices that will give you a real food antioxidant boost and help you cook with confidence and eat to THRIVE!
Antioxidants are molecules that help our cells fight free radicals. Free radicals are compounds that can harm our cells and weaken our immune response.
Free radicals are present in our systems from cellular function and external chemical and environmental toxins.
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Sustaining Staples
Leaning into the goodness of the basics this week with meals that focus on using sensible and affordable staple ingredients.
Keeping it simple, tasty and creative with ingredients and dishes that satisfy and sustain you + help support your digestive and immune systems.
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Botanical Bowls
We are starting the year with botanical bowls full of nourishing food.
This week’s recipes feature warming, grounding, anti-inflammatory and immune-supportive fruits, vegetables and spices, cleansing seeds and herbs and protein-rich legumes.
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Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to you! Our health truly is our wealth and the foundation of how we feel and show up each moment of each day, week and year. I wish you peace, joy, happiness and vibrant health for 2023 and the years ahead ~ eat to THRIVE.
This week’s recipes + menu focus on easy, affordable, healthy meals with our foundational functional nutrition focus to help you kick off the new year with your health goals in mind.
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Festive Bites
This week’s recipes + menu have healthy and fun bites that are great for sharing and bringing some in-season festive cheer to your table.
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Warming & Grounding
Recipes to keep you feeling warm, grounded and nourished amidst the busy business of the holiday season. If you feel inspired to give the gift of nourishment, the granola and pesto recipes are healthful, fun & festive; homemade gifts are the best!
Keeping our blood sugar balanced is a good step towards feeling more grounded. This week’s recipes focus on using natural sweetness, nuts, seeds, proteins, high-fibre vegetables & affordable whole ingredients to help you balance your blood sugar.
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Cosy Classics
Cosy and comforting dishes that taste good and are good for you! This week’s recipes and meal ideas are set to keep you feeling warm, grounded and satisfied with fun plates and full flavours made using affordable, anti-inflammatory whole food ingredients.
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Dynamic Fusion Flavours
This week’s recipes and meal ideas are about dynamic textures and fusion flavours inspired by Asian, Peruvian and Mediterranean cuisine.
These creative yet straightforward dishes are full of zesty, bright fusion flavours and different textures made using affordable in-season ingredients so you get the most nutritional bang for your bite and buck!
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Upcycle & Reinvent Veg
This week’s menu & recipes gives you ideas on upcycling roasted veg in rostis plus fun, festive dishes that help you reinvent veg and use up all those Thanksgiving in-season ingredients in creative and healthy ways.
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Thanksgiving
Our Thanksgiving menu is designed to help you bring fabulous and nourishing food to your table with grace and ease.
The menu features classic harvest season fruits, vegetables and herbs in simple recipes that deliver flavour, texture and variety whilst keeping the dishes healthy and nutrient-dense.
I am grateful for all our hard-working farmers, artisans and purveyors who grow and produce all the healthy, vibrant food we bring to our tables each week, for your support of Botanical Kitchen, for my community, friendships and tiny but mighty team ~ you all inspire me every day.
Wishing you peace, joy and vibrant health ~ eat to THRIVE.
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Oil-free + Sugar-free Holidays
The holiday season is upon us, full of festive fun, entertaining and eating. Traditional holiday dishes are typically full of sugar, fat, and oil-rich foods; whilst delicious and ok for some, these not-so-healthy foods can be problematic for people managing chronic inflammation, disease and recovery.
This menu highlights great dishes you can make and give as gifts that taste fabulous, are nourishing, seasonally festive and supportive of people with health challenges and therapeutic dietary restrictions.
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Apples, Broccoli & Squash
We are celebrating November, the season of abundant apples, broccoli, brussels, pumpkin and squash!
This week’s menu is created to give you some whole-food meal ideas with recipes that are simple, warming, grounding and nourishing.
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Halloween + Samhain + Día de Los Muertos
The end of October and the beginning of November is a time of year with deep food, agriculture and spiritual roots that have long been celebrated throughout the ages across many different practices that honour both the natural and spiritual worlds.
A time of year that marks the end of the harvest season feasts and celebrations, the shortening of days, the transition from light to darkness, the autumnal falling of leaves, letting go and looking inwards.
Halloween, Samhain and Día de Los Muertos are three significant celebrations that happen this time of year across the northern hemisphere with similar threads in their meanings and celebrations.
Samhain ( pronounced saa-wn) honours the closeness of the spirit world, the sun, the season of darkness, food and the seeds of future plans. Samhain is a Celtic pagan celebration marking the end of the summer & harvest season + the celestial midpoint between the autumn equinox and winter solstice.
Halloween ~ All Hallows Eve ~ Eve before the Christians celebrated All Saints Day. Halloween traditions originated from the Samhain festival.
Día de Los Muertos ~ the Day of the Dead, is the Mexican celebration to honour loved ones passed. A time when the veil between the two worlds is believed to be at its thinnest, and the spirit world communes with the living.
This week’s menu is crafted to help you celebrate with some healthy treats and harvest season meals for sharing that can be prepped in advance.
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Fruitful Simplicity
This week’s menu features easy oven dishes that are fruitful, healthy and simple to make, featuring late-season tomatoes, fresh and crispy apples,
radishes and greens.
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Grounding Transitional Dishes
This week’s menu features warm and grounding transitional dishes using the last of the tomatoes, beans and peppers and welcoming pumpkins, squash and greens to the table.
A fall menu would not be complete without pumpkin bread!
The intention with this pumpkin bread recipe was to create a tea bread with some serious “nutritional bang for your bite” using fresh raw grated pumpkin instead of pureed, mashed or canned pumpkin, so it is simple + sensible to make. To create a nutrient-dense whole food plant-based bread that is oil-free, gluten-free, dairy-free and refined sugar-free with warming grounding spices that support us through this transitional season.
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Vibrant Colours & Flavours
This week’s menu and recipes help you bring the vibrant colours and flavours of fall to your table, along with a healthy dose of nourishing food as medicine.
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Farm to Table
Late September and early October, the time around the autumn equinox, is spectacular for Farm-to-Table goodness ~ the colours, flavours and varieties in the farms and markets are awe-inspiring right now!
We still have lots of sweet summer foods, flowers and herbs and all the freshly dug, picked and plucked early autumn and fall crops.
This week’s menu is set to help you incorporate, celebrate and enjoy all these gorgeous farm-to-table fresh foods.
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First Fall Flavours
The first fall days are upon us, and this week’s menu captures those late summer & early fall fresh, sweet and fading flavours as the season begins to change.
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Tasty Plates
Tasty plates of simply good and interesting food are what is calling to me right now as I feel the pace and rhythm of life change and the warmth of late summer begin to fade.
This week’s menu is set to keep your table full of tasty plates using the harvest season bounty.
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Harvest Moon Simplicity
September’s harvest moon shines bright in our skies this week as we hustle back into somewhat of a September routine.
This week’s menu is set to help you keep meal times really simple and nourishing with an interesting twist that lets the late summer fresh food flavours shine.
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Sharing the Bounty
This week’s dose of kitchen medicine features dishes that are great for sharing, feeding a crowd and enjoying the bounty and fabulous flavours of late summer fruits, vegetables and herbs.
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Healthy Summer Dishes
This week’s dose of kitchen medicine features dishes with the naturally sweet fruits, vegetables and herbs of summer. The recipes are plant-focussed and anti-inflammatory with no sugar added, high fibre whole food plates to help you support your good health and eat to THRIVE.
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Tomato, Zucchini & Beans
High summer tomatoes, zucchini and green beans are abundant right now, and this week’s recipes are set to help you capture all those great flavours in simple, healthy, anti-inflammatory dishes.
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Easy Summery Bites
This week’s recipes focus on fun food and easy summery bites that make the most of the beautiful bounty of tomatoes, herbs, berries, greens and beans in our gardens, farms and markets ~ perfect bites for sultry sunny days and warm summery nights.
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Cooling Foods for Leo Season
This week we have a new moon cycle in the fiery sign of Leo. A new moon cycle is always a great opportunity to rest our intention on our goals for the month ahead and refocus our energy on what matters most ~ our health!
This week’s recipes focus on gentle, cooling and strengthening foods that are great to support us in the heat of summer and simple to make.
Sugar-free, whole food, high fibre dishes with lots of fruits and vegetables are cooling and help to support detoxification + manage inflammation.
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Easy Summer Entertaining
This week’s recipes focus on easy anti-inflammatory dishes that do not contain any of the common ingredients associated with causing inflammation in the body, like sugar, dairy, gluten and chemical preservatives. Following an anti-inflammatory diet can help ease symptoms and reduce the risk of chronic disease.
These fresh, light and fun recipes are great for easy entertaining and focusing on using the bounty of summer produce in our gardens, farms and markets.
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Nourishing Mineral-rich Meals
Use food as medicine every day by incorporating lots of mineral-rich plants like parsley, herbs, greens and seaweed. This week’s recipes offer a simple, straightforward approach to eating meals that strengthen our immune system and deeply nourish our bodies.
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Summer Salad Days
Your dose of kitchen medicine is all about salads this week; minimal cooking dishes using lots of vegetables. Light and easy, simple meals you can enjoy for days with an array of in-season farm-fresh produce.
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What to cook this week?
Eat well, cook well and take care of your health & wellness ~ times are crazy! There is not much united in these United States right now as we go into this July 4th long weekend.
You might not feel like we have much to celebrate or toasting the nation right now. What we do have is gardens and farmer’s markets full of gorgeous vibrant produce and beautiful warm weather to inspire us to get outside, eat great food and take care of our health and wellbeing.
Visit your local farmers and gardens for some goodness this weekend, cook something fabulous for yourself with love, take care of you ~ eat to thrive.
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Scapes n’ Spears & Berries
This week’s seasonal living patch-to-plate recipes embrace garlic scapes, the last of the asparagus spears and more strawberry love.
You can make the asparagus quinoa muffins using the asparagus quinoa risotto from last week, giving you 2 meals in 1 with very little extra time and effort in the kitchen—great for goodness-on the-go veggie & protein snacks & easy meals. Double your batch sizes depending on your crowd.
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What to cook this week… celebrating the Summer Solstice.
Our Summer Solstice recipes this week are set to help you celebrate all those great late spring-early summer fruits & vegetable flavours ~ patch-to-plate & farm-to-table style living. Tuesday is the summer solstice, the official first day of summer, the mid-point in our calendar and the longest day of the year.
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What to cook this week… Spring Fusion Flavours
Mixing it up a little this week and stirring in some fusion flavours making the most of our late spring asparagus, sun-ripe strawberries, rhubarb, garlic scapes, herbs and greens.
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Strawberry delights.
Sun sweetened strawberries are perfect for picking this month ~ it is the BEST time of year to enjoy these fabulous berries! Asparagus and chive flowers, radishes and lots of leafy greens are also an in-season full flavour highlight.
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Late May Bounty
What to cook this week to celebrate the bounty of late May, memorial day long weekend and the unofficial kick-off of outdoor summer fun and food.
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Essential Spring Flavours
What to cook this week with produce from your locals to capture plate fulls of essential spring flavours.
Asparagus, strawberries, arugula, hakurei turnips, spinach and chive blossoms are all in season and coming into our kitchens as we bring in the essential flavours of spring.
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Asparagus & Rhubarb
What to cook this week with in-season produce from your local farms, farmers’ markets, CSA and gardens.
This week, we are bringing asparagus spears and rhubarb stalks into our kitchens with some simple, clean recipes that let us taste these farm-fresh vegetables’ flavours.
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Our Mother Nature
Celebrating our mother nature; recipe ideas of what to cook this week with produce from your local farms, farmers’ markets, CSA and gardens.
We all have different mothers, and there are many different ways to mother and be mothered ~ mother nature is our shared great mother; she nourishes and nurtures us every day of our lives if we let her.
As we celebrate all those people in our lives that are mother figures to us let us not forget our great mother and all the gifts she grants us every day as we live our lives in the crazy and beautiful world.
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Eating Greens & Weeds
Spring has sprung, and I am delighted to see blossoms, buds and green plant babies popping up and stretching towards the sun’s warmth.
I am grateful to witness spring unfolding here in Maine; see the flush of blossoms and greenness after a long, white grey winter.
This week’s menu focuses on nourishment with gentle recipes, lots of greens and some weeds! Nettles – Urtica Dioica – stinging nettles are weeds, and they are a profoundly nourishing tonic food rich in minerals, vitamins, protein, an excellent tonic food and medicinal herb. When you dry, cook or plunge in hot water, the “sting” dissolves, leaving you with a nourishing and versatile herb with a mild flavour.
Nettles have been used as food and medicine for generations treating everything from seasonal allergies to joint and bone ailments, blood pressure, urinary system dis-ease and skin conditions. Nettles strengthen and tone the body, especially the kidneys, and are a great reproductive tonic, helpful for cooling the symptoms of menopause.
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Daily Supportive + Eco-Conscious
Get the most “nutritional bang for your bite” and use food as medicine first!
Learn how to be smart, savvy and more eco-conscious by making nut milk and seed blends at home that cost less, are healthier, plastic-free and help you add immune, digestive and hormone support to your daily diet.
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Easter & Passover
Easter and Passover are upon us ~ a time to celebrate rebirth and gather those near and dear around the table to share a meal, seasonal greens, some fun with eggs and lots of chocolate.
This week’s menu is for sharing; the recipes have fresh flavours and are grain-free (bar the muffins). There is a fabulous chocolate dessert you can make in 3 ways to suit all the diet styles and warming spiced carrot gluten-free muffins that are pantry adaptable to help you cook with ease to accommodate your guests.
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Blending Traditions
Writing this menu made me think about food and traditions and how cooking can blend traditions across oceans and times.
Food is a great communicator; it is welcoming and can show sentiment, compassion, love, gratitude and abundance without a single spoken word.
Next week is Passover & Easter ~ two different religious celebrations with solid food traditions and a central theme of rebirth.
I grew up knowing nothing about Passover; I have learned much over years of cooking Passover meals for an extraordinary family; it has become a tradition for me and a cherished event.
This week’s menu reflects recipes from the Passover meals I cater each year.
I always make brisket and my grandmother’s pavlova or meringues with berries and cream, a blending of traditions!
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Your No Fool
Your No Fool ~ cooking fabulous, flavourful and nourishing recipes each week to strengthen your body, mind & spirit!
Happy April and happy new moon in Aries, a time of new beginnings, the element of fire with energy that fuels creativity and makes stuff happen.
Spring traditionally is the season to focus on our liver, gall bladder and digestion in holistic healing practices like Ayurveda, Chinese Medicine, Eastern and Western Herbalism.
A time to eat lighter, cleansing foods in tune with growing seasonal greens.
A time to awaken and ready our bodies for the warmer expansive seasons, ignite our digestive fire with bitter and spicy flavours and let go of all that no longer serves us as we spring forward.
This week’s menu mixes it up, keeping dishes aligned with lighter early spring style foods and bright with punchy flavours.
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Spinach & Spice
Spinach and warming spices are featured this week to help us move gently towards the spring season and integrate lighter, greener, cleaner foods while supporting our digestion and immune system.
Shop your local farmer’s market; they’ve still got some great root vegetables and squashes and ALWAYS always have the best greens ~ nutrition begins in the soil, and small regenerative farmers grow the most nutrient-dense, vibrant and flavourful foods!
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Welcoming Spring 🌷 Vernal Equinox
This week we welcome spring with the vernal equinox, a time in the year when we celebrate fresh, new beginnings and experience the delicate balance of day and night, light and dark, bitter and sweet.
Early spring is mud season here in the north, nature’s great reminder to keep moving forward, change habits and movements, lighten our load so we don’t get stuck in the mud – physically, emotionally and metabolically.
Time for spring greens and lighter, cleaner eating!
This week’s menu and recipes help us shift gently towards spring’s lightness.
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Bountiful Bowls
Breakfast, lunch and dinner bowls brimming with lots of vibrant fruits and vegetables, you will be sure to get your daily dose of healthful whole foods with this menu.
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Vibrant & Flavourful
Big, bold flavours that are fresh, light and bright + vibrant colours from anti-oxidant rich fruits, vegetables and herbs make this menu both delicious and immune supportive.
Self-care and healthy eating habits are made easy here with anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant rich ingredients in recipes that are both swift and simple.
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Good Mood Food
Optimising our digestive health improves our overall well-being;
good mood food is all about that!
How do you feel ~ body, mind & spirit ~ digestion, energy, mood & emotions?
What we eat affects how we feel; there is a genuine and intricate connection between our gut and brain called the vagus nerve, responsible for crucial functions like mood and immune response, rest and digest, heart rate and metabolism.
This gut-brain connection is like a super-highway with bidirectional communication between our emotional and cognitive brain and our intestinal functions; good health begins with good digestion, and the gut affects the brain!
This week’s menu focuses on anti-inflammatory + high fibre + blood sugar balancing + living foods and restorative recipes to help improve our digestive function, gut microbiome, energy and mood.
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Local Maine Vibe ~ Apple Cider Vinegar @Ricker Hill
Cracked Oats @Maine Grains Miso @go-en fermented foods
Grounding and Strengthening
February can be that month when things feel a little “meh”, and we need to dig deep to get through it and move forward with intention.
Grounding spices, umami flavours, + strengthening foods with probiotics, plants and protein can really help us emotionally and energetically ground to gather the strength we need to stick with those goals we set!
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Cooking is L💕VE
This Valentines give a nourishing gift you made to the ones you love.
Cooking nourishing food is one of the greatest acts of LOVE & practising self-love & self-care.
This weeks menu is curated to help you celebrate with nourishing seasonal foods and adaptable recipes to suit different diet styles and health goals.
Not everyone loves chocolate and can eat all the things ~ we honour that here at Botanical Kitchen & LOVE to help you eat to thrive!
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To show your LOVE for healthy food & a vibrant community
💕shop at your local farms & markets.
Heart Healthy ❤️ Low Cholesterol
February is heart health awareness month here in the USA. I have just read some terrifying statistics of what we have going on nationally and internationally; 10’s millions of people have heart disease and are losing their lives to the disease each year.
“The reality is the lifetime risk of developing heart disease is 1 in 5 people,” says the world heart foundation…that is crazy and scary. Clearly, as a society, we need to up our cooking ingredient game and start making some significant dietary and lifestyle changes to help ourselves and those we love!
The American Heart Association notes over 100 million people have high cholesterol. Gosh, that is some serious food for thought numbers right there! Needless to say, this week’s recipes are heart-healthy, high fibre and low cholesterol.
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Fab Fun Food
For the love of fabulous and fun food! This week’s recipes help bring full flavours and bowls full of nourishment and joy to the table using simple + seasonal ingredients.
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Veg Out Menu
Veggie recipes for vegging out; easy nourishing meals that are simple to prepare.
Sometimes you just need to veg out and gift yourself time-out.
~ in the words of one of my fav yogi’s ~ ” be sure to take time to be a human being, not a human doing”.
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Warming & Nourishing Dishes
This week is all about warming and nourishing meals to help support the body, mind and soul. January and new beginnings can feel somewhat bleak and overwhelming; self-care and eating nutritious meals helps us feel grounded.
Our featured menu ingredients are oats, apples and winter vegetables.
Their plant benefits include; soothing our nervous system, helping us stay grounded, supporting our immunity with essential vitamins, minerals and lots of fibre for our gut health and digestion.
The first full moon of 2022 is rising this weekend. I’m sending you warm wishes and nourishing dishes that I hope will be garnished with grace and a little full moon magic for you.
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Light + Simple Fusion Flavours
This week’s recipes are light, simple and full of seasonal vegetables, herbs and bright fusion flavours.
Our featured menu ingredient is mung bean sprouts, a beloved Ayurvedic legume for its sweet qualities, calming, Sattvic effect on mind and body.
Mung bean sprouts are easy to digest and a good source of plant protein.
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New year wishes of abundant health & joy!
Ringing in a new year full of new beginnings and possibilities; wishing you vibrant health, abundant joy and happiness throughout the coming year.
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Nourishing Gifts
Nourishing food is one of the greatest gifts you can give and receive.
Give gifts of healthy treats you have made with love!
These recipes are all gluten-free, refined-sugar-free with dairy-free substitutes. Each recipe offers swaps and substitutes so you can work with what you have – see our shopping list at a glance link below.
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Simple + Savvy + Sustainable
This week’s recipes are simple & savvy, with lots of seasonal root vegetables, greens & ingredients to help make eating healthily sustainable.
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Total Eclipse | Bittersweet Balancing Recipes
Sun and moon | light and dark | bitter and sweet ~ a total eclipse across our sky this week with a new moon rising.
Be gentle with your energy, eat well, cook, enjoy the flavours of our food & honour the bittersweet balance of our journey through the natural world.
Bitter flavours help “fire up” our digestive system ~ eating bitter foods aids digestion. Naturally sweet foods are nourishing and soothing.
This week’s recipes use natural ingredients to give you a flavourful bitter & sweet balance without added refined sugars or starches.
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Anti-Inflammatory Holiday Menu
Our Holiday Menu + Recipe focus is all about eating to THRIVE and helping you take care of yourself while enjoying the seasonal festivities.
The holidays are a fun, joyous time for some but can be challenging and confronting for many of us. I have designed this menu to make eating holiday meals easier for all of us who love to eat festive food but need to take extra care with our food choices and energy around what we eat.
Inflammation and our bodies response to eating certain foods is a real thing! Some of us are more sensitive than others to certain foods, and none of us wants to “pay-for-it” by spending time and energy feeling “not-so-great because of what we ate”.
Take care of yourself this holiday season; we have delicious, in-season recipes that are refined-sugar-free, dairy-free, refined flours & gluten-free + plant-focussed.
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Fall Flavoured Sugar-free Recipes
Seasonal festive fall flavours and warming foods; lots of spice and all things nice and sugar-free!!
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Pumpkin Spice & a Scorpio New Moon
Recipes for healthy + festive spiced snacks & meals that are great for sharing with in-season ingredients and a simple, sustainable food-as-medicine focus!
A new moon in Scorpio is a good time to focus and reset on our inner-wellbeing and what we need to support our health.
The holiday season is at our heels; it is that time of year when all our good-food intentions and goals can slip away… we find ourselves eating lots of sugar and feeling “not so great”!
These recipes will help you keep on track with good, fun festive food.
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Foods to celebrate Samhain + Halloween + Día de Los Muertos.
Every year between Oct 31st – Nov 3rd we celebrate the Spirit Word with food, costumes, rituals, and festivals ~ a tradition rooted in ancient cultures.
Some traditional foods used during these celebrations include; apples, corn, pumpkins, nuts, seeds, cider, tamales, mole, spices, cinnamon, sage, rosemary, chocolate, sugary-sweet-treats, hot chocolate, cookies, bread, puffed amaranth and honey.
Samhain is a pagan celebration marking the end of the summer & harvest season + the celestial midpoint between autumn equinox and winter solstice. Samhain honours the closeness of the spirit world, the sun, the season of darkness, food and the seeds of future plans.
Halloween ~ All Hallows Eve ~ Eve before the Christian celebrated All Saints Day. Halloween traditions originated from the Samhain festivals.
Día de Los Muertos ~ the Day of the dead is the Mexican celebration to honour loved ones passed when the veil between the two worlds is believed to be at its thinnest.
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Healthy autumn dishes with warming spices & crisp fresh flavours cook in-season food from local farms ~ eat to THRIVE!
It is true what they say ~ an apple a day is great for your health, and fall apples plucked straight from the tree are as good as it gets!!
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Recipes that are heart-healthy, blood-sugar balancing, low carb, low-fat and nutrient-dense with lots of food as medicine qualities.
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East & West fusion recipes + meal ideas using lots of in-season vegetables and the same ingredients twice to help you save time and get the most “nutritional bang for your bite” every day!
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Early autumn colours full of immune-supportive antioxidants infuse our plates, gardens and fields with vibrant fruits, vegetables and herbs.
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This week’s recipes honour September’s Harvest Moon, the first days of fall, the abundant varieties in our farms and gardens right now.
If you have not had a chance to get out and enjoy your local farm’s and markets, Harvest time is spectacular in New England there are so many deep and fresh flavours to choose from!
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Dishes, meal ideas and recipes using the best of our late-summer bounty to capture the essence of fading summer flavours.
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This week brings us a new moon in Virgo + the Jewish New Year + back to school ~ all symbols of new beginnings, setting intentions, goals and wishes for a sweet and fruitful future.
My intention & goal is to create recipes to help you eat to thrive using in-season produce to support our local farmers and strength our urban food communities.
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Late summer is that fruitful time of year where the vines, farmers markets, gardens and kitchen benches are ladened with gorgeous rich & plump tomatoes – so many tomatoes, so many great recipes….it is such a wonderfully bountiful time of year!
While I’m sad that summer is drawing to a close, I love this most flavourful, abundant and delish time of the year.
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Recipes infused with summer freshness & fabulous herbal flavours that bring botanical benefits to your table.
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Cool summer veg vibes ~ sweet & savoury | classic & curious | herbal & medicinal ~ food as medicine.
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Recipes for summery salads using in-season produce with fusion flavours, balancing textures and lots of lovely herbs.
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Recipes to celebrate our August farms and gardens abundance and the fruits of summer.
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Healthy, simple plant-focused recipes using in-season ingredients.
patch to PLATE ~ fridge to FORK ready to EAT in under 30 minutes.
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