When my CSA vegetable box arrives full of cabbage, I immediately start thinking of fermented food, but I can never decide on sour kraut or kimchi. Thus is born the kimchi styled sour kraut, I call spicy kraut.

I get really excited when I hear the topic of beneficial bacteria popping up in the media. Together we can overcome the harmful trend of  all things anti or against the life of our own beneficial bacteria.

Pickles are an amazing probiotic food, both delicious and full of beneficial bacteria. Best of all, they are so easy and inexpensive to make. Historically, fermentation was the farmers' answer to preserving bountiful produce.

I love to see parents and children alike sitting at the play dough table kneading their hands in meditation. Who doesn't like to play with dough? The real stuff simply puts the fake dough to shame.

Gluten must be the bad guy, right? If we omit gluten from our diet, we should still be able to eat a bunch of gluten free cookies, pies, bread and junk food, right? Sorry, it's not that black and white.

In the heat of the summer, who wants to crank up the oven and stand by a hot stove? Summer fruits and vegetables are so gorgeous raw, they rarely need more than a few complementary ingredients to create sexy simple summer salads.

Are there heart healthy fats?  In fact, fat is the preferred fuel of the heart. It is tragic however, that the national standards still consider margarines, shortenings, and vegetable oils, to be edible and heart healthy.

I have changed the name of the Wellness Muse Facebook page to Food Foundation Detox.

Water is the most common nutritional deficiency in the U.S.  We are simply not getting enough. Hunger is also very often confused with thirst and people overeat when they are really just thirsty.

My aunt Karen was a powerful inspiration for eating real food. One of the best recipes my aunt shared with me was how to make a simple salad dressing.  It is about balancing the four flavors:  sweet, bitter, sour, and spicy.