Every once in awhile I tend to lean towards low iron, which I have lately but it was quite low, so much so that I felt drained, tired and walking up a flight of stairs took it out of me. Not how I like to feel, but I am thankful it was not something worse. Since I had been feeling so drained and tired most of the time, when I got my blood work back and found out I needed to increase my iron, I thought it might be a good idea to jump start it with something, so I got some ferrous sulphate from behind the pharmacy counter………it was suggested I eat more greens…….interesting I thought. It did help somewhat but it also started to upset my stomach and stained my teeth, I looked like I had been eating blackberries and hadn’t brushed my teeth in a good week……..nice…….NOT!!
Needless to say I have greatly upped my intake of foods and herbs to get as much iron as possible, nettle and pau d’arco tea has been simmering on my stove, lots of beets and beet juice, sea vegetables, dandelion greens and I just found out collard greens are very high in iron as well, so if you’re thinking you might be seeing recipes with a high iron theme you are right!!!
All of us women could be eating more high iron content any time but even more so if you are experiencing any fatigue or tiredness especially around that time of the month. Here is the first on several to come!!
Beet Salad
Depending on how you cut up, chop or grate the beets, you can have this cooked or not. Of course raw has more nutritional value, I have had it both ways and both are good. I recommend grating it or chopping it into smaller pieces if you are not cooking it, otherwise you can slice or chop them. I used a mandolin type gadget for this, this one is not for sale, but is part of Salad Master which is high end cookware.
– 2 Beets grated or sliced
– 2 Green Onions finely sliced up
– 1/4 cup Parsley finely chopped
– 2 tbsp Hemp hearts
– 4 oz cold pressed Olive Oil
– 1 oz Balsamic vinegar
– juice of 1/2 Lemon
– 1 – 2 Garlic cloves minced
– pinch celtic sea Salt
Mix all together and enjoy.
This makes 2 good servings, so I decided to have some for dinner too, but I changed it up a little. I added a bed of mix greens, and dandelion greens as well, some wakame mixed in with the beet salad and some chick peas for a little more protein. Adding just grated Beets to your salads often is a good idea and colorful too!!
