Atlanta Macrobiotics

Warren Kramer internationally-known Senior Macrobiotic Counselor will be in Atlanta July 15-20, 2009. Teacher for the Kushi Institute, Strengthening Health Institute, the Macrobiotic Cruise, and New England Macrobiotic Center, Warren brings a wealth of knowledge gained from the eleven years he served as Michio Kushi’s private assistant, as well as over 25 years counseling throughout the world.

In Atlanta Warren will be giving private consultations, macrobiotic cooking classes, and evening  lectures in the Dunwoody area. Attend all events & have a private consultation, and you will receive 15% savings on lectures and cookings classes Thursday through Sunday.

Please contact Marsha Rueff to reserve consultation time with Warren and your choice of venues  at marsharueff@mac.com .

Phone contact: 678 . 643 . 5662 or 770 . 396 . 9413.

For Warren’s bio please visit www.macrobioticsnewengland.com

Join us for our Opening Event: First, we’ll gather & enjoy a delicious vegan Buffet Dinner at the new Mellow Mushroom Restaurant, 6100 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs, at 6:00 PM. Featuring the hummus, amazing vegan pizzas overflowing with fresh veggies, tofu and tempeh hoagies and field green salads! And a most informative lecture,  Supporting a Healthy Heart. The charge for the entire event is specially priced at $20 for the dinner/lecture. Warren’s lecture from 7:30 – 9:00 PM is at the Rueff home in Dunwoody, where a macrobiotic dessert will be served, vegan of course! Warren will share such enlightening information regarding the heart, including visual diagnosis of heart health, healing foods, remedies and activities supporting the heart. He will also discuss how this amazing organ, known as the fire element of our body, increases in activity for the summer  – and what this means to each of us. Especially as we near late summer. And of course we’ll also learn how the heart is the rhythm keeper in our lives, affecting our love and joy.  Warren will answer your questions, and even more special, he always tells us the why and how of everything. That’s one of his specialties, and you’ll hear me introduce him as the Why Man of Macrobiotics!

How special an evening this will prove! And we thank Wendy Steinbaum, long-time macrobiotic supporter for recommending Mellow Mushroom, a favorite of her’s and Aubrey’s! We look forward to seeing you  July 15!

Bonus! Bring a friend New to Macrobiotics and YOU attend 2 lectures half-price Thursday  - Sunday.

Suggested Reading: The Macrobiotic Path to Total Health, Michio Kushi and Alex Jack.

Our hearts and prayers are with Japan, all eyes, news around the world keenly focused for the latest developments -praying & hoping for miracles. No more is the saying No man is an island more keen than right now, when the island of Japan has been so dramatically affected. We are all in this together.

Following the 1945 nuclear bombing in both Nagasaki and Hiroshima, one of  the famous doctors Tatsuichiro Akizuki of St. Francis Hospital cared for his staff and patients using traditional foods, namely miso soup, short grain brown rice, sea vegetables, hokkaido squash, azuki beans, sea salt, shoyu. They avoided the foods seen today on a conventional diet, especially sugars and sweets. All survived, free from horrifying illness while others in the city perished from radiation sickness. And when the nuclear crisis hit Chernobyl, miso soup was used by the Russian doctors there under the auspices of experts from Japan, preventing leukemia and cancers.

Our dear friend and  Senior Macrobiotic Counselor and Teacher, William Spear’s excellent article in The Huffington Post, at this link http://tinyurl.com/4wblqew clearly depicts Japan’s crisis now. With possible outreaching effects throughout the world, Bill comprehensively explains  foods to boost your health during this radiation crisis facing Japan.

What can we in Atlanta do about this? If you have dear ones in Japan, who have forgotten their traditional foods, you might want to share this information with them. And if you ‘ve been reading Alicia Silverstone’s The Kind Diet, whether you’re just opening the book, Flirting, Vegan or Super Hero, take a look at William Spear’s article! Right now is a perfect time to step into the Macrobiotic Diet and Lifestyle. A way to take responsibility for your own health so Bob Marley’s words, don’t worry ’bout a thing, every little thing’s going to be allright! can happen for you.

If you’re reading Alicia book, or Bill’s article, wondering how in the world to prepare the sea veggies, brown rice & other special macro foods they mention, just scroll down this website for our Atlanta Macrobiotic Cooking Classes.

Because we know you may be concerned for yourselves and your loved ones, we are streamlining our April Cooking Classes to include these special information. Thus our next April cooking class will highlight soups  to eat during this radiation crisis, including miso, sea vegetables & other vital macrobiotic dishes. Come study in group class settings or privately. As Bill says, learn to add kombu with beans and root veggies, nori with your rice, and wakame with your miso soup!

Atlanta Macrobiotics Presents

Tuesdays with Marsha

Tuesday, April 12                 10 AM – 1 PM                   $45 per person
Macro Soup du Jour: Always A Delish & Nutritious Treat!

Soups welcome your guests and family, too
Home to your heart-warming table with you!

Please join our Soup Class next Tuesday morning!
Learn Yummy Soups, simmering and blending.

Each recipe boasts it’s own special style,
Learn these, & you’re the new Julia Childs!

RSVP: marsharueff@mac.com                      770 . 396 . 9413
Please register early as class size is limited

Menu

Miso Soup

My Secret Creamy Carrot Soup

The MacDaddy Strengthener, Kinpira Soup

Over-the-Moon Split Pea Soup

Spring Sassy Lotus Soup

Aveline’s Amazing Brown Rice Soup

By Special Request: Sweet Vegetable Drink, the Remedy
soup-ed in disguise!

and to assuage concerns about fallout,  sea veggies are included here
Like Fred sez, why fear, when macro’s here!

Want more information?
Check this out: Bill Spear’s article in the Huffington Post: http://tinyurl.com/4wblqew

‘n if you’re still concerned . . .

email your inquiries to marsharueff@mac.com, give me a call 770 . 396 . 9413

For starters, here are two wonderful and basic recipes for preparing Miso Soup and Arame!

Miso Soup

Serves 4-5
Benefits: Because miso contains enzymes that facilitate digestion, strengthening blood quality with it’s Vitamin B and other minerals, miso helps remove toxins and radiation from our body, preventing cancer & heart disease.

Soak overnight:
4-5 cups water 1/2 cup daikon sliced in thin half moons
1/2 t wakame, in teeny pieces
1-2 dried shiitake mushroom, including soaking water

1 medium onion, sliced in half-moons
1 small daikon, cut in thin matchsticks
1 carrot, cut in matchsticks or diced
1/4 cup kabocha or butternut squash diced

4 teaspoon Sakarazawa Miso, pureed*
1 cup daikon greens, kale or napa sliced

Garnish: 2 Tablespoons scallion, finely chopped

Soak overnight for enhanced flavor, or place wakame, shiitake and soaking water in enamel cast iron pot.
Cover and bring to boil.
Reduce flame to medium-low, simmering 10 minutes.

Add onion, cover and simmer 1 minute; then add remaining vegetables for 5-7 minutes.
Dilute miso with soup broth, add this to soup and simmer 3 minutes without boiling.
At the same time of adding miso, add the greens of your choice, to lighten the soup.

*Usually 1 teaspoon miso per 1 cup of liquid

Serve in soup bowls, garnishing each finely choppd scallions, important to activate the miso! Miso soup may be enjoyed with benefit to most people 4-5 times a week. Variety is important with your miso, which, so vary your vegetables from the macrobiotic regular use of vegetables, including both land and  sea vegetables each day. Please use aged miso to get the most benefit from your miso soup. If wishing to remain gluten-free you may select Hatcho miso rather than the Barley Miso.

Arame, the Awesome Sea Vegetable

Serves 4-5

Benefits: Arame presents a significant protection from the absorption of radioactive particles that may be released because of the naturally occurring iodine. It is excellent source high of plant-quality calcium, iron for bones & teeth. Benefits circulation system, & flexibility! Helps remove the effects on our body of dairy foods we’ve eaten in the past. Onion: cooked onions give a calm, peaceful energy, especially soothing nervous conditions, muscle aches and pains. When cooked with squash & carrots, are the perfect sweet dish for diabetic conditions. Carrot: this root veggie’s high betacarotene & mild downward energy are especially good for lungs, large intestine, as well as liver, kidneys and heart. Lotus root helps dissolve mucus and fat in the lungs, bronchi, throat, and sinuses, especially from dairy or eggs. Corn provides light, expansive energy and is especially strengthening for the heart and small intestine. Healing Foods, Michio Kushi and Alex Jack

1 cup arame, rinse, soak 10 min. Lotus root, sliced thin
1 cup onion, thinly sliced 1/2 cup dried daikon, soaked 10 minutes
1 cup carrot,match-sticks Hiraide Sesame oil
Spring water 1/2 cup fresh  or frozen corn kernels
Tahini if allowed Shoyu to taste
2 Tablespoons Tan Sesame Seeds

Rinse arame, drain and soak 10 minutes.
Discard soaking water
Layer in the onion, carrot, lotus, dried daikon, arame in a stainless skillet, adding just enough water to cover veggies. Drizzle with Hiraide Sesame Oil and diluted tahini, and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Bring to boil on medium flame, let cook 10 minutes uncovered; cover & simmer 30 minutes.
Remove cover.
Add several drops shoyu, then corn kernels.
Cook to let excess water evaporate.
The secret tooth sweet. As the minerals in the arame crystalize, they become even sweeter!

Variation: add mashed tofu, broccoli, pumpkin seeds for other delicious arame!
Add sesame or olive oil instead of tahini.
Presaute onions in sesame oil before adding arame, for a more yang style cooking.

Breakfast of Champions! Gets You Up and Keeps You Going!

So, why attend a class about breakfast! What’s so special about this one meal to warrant a Macrobiotic Cooking Class called Breakfast of Champions. Numerous reasons! One of the first questions asked about Macrobiotic Diet is: what do you eat for breakfast?? do you really have miso soup in the morning? What’s wrong with dry cereal and skim milk for breakfast?

Want the skinny on breakfast? Ever notice Dunkin’ Donuts logo: we get you up and keep you going! Sure do! All that sugar and caffeine, and guess what happens to our blood stream at 11:00 AM & 3:00 PM? Hypoglycemic dip ~ we are falling on our face, and needing what??? Another coffee break: latte, donuts, breakfast bars to get us going ‘til lunch.

And now, folks, here’s the Macro take on breakfast: providing sustainability. How would soaring energy til 12:30 or 1:00 fit your bill! Perform all morning, and be the wiz at work, home, home-schooling, driving without dozing, exercise/yoga/walk strongly. In other words, enjoy peak performance throughout your day.

Easily achieved with a macro breakfast: composed of a grain and a vegetable. Our rice and other whole grain, warm nourishing dish would keep the 3 bears and Goldilocks happy forever! And you too. Delish and sweet without sugar, it’s so easily digested we can concentrate on tasks at-hand, rather than sluggishly, barely being able to navigate through the morning. Looking for the donut cart to peel around the corner. Vegetables for breakfast??? you ask. I know it seemed so different to me too, but just think about it. Veggies get the digestive tract moving, so what better time than first thing in the morning? And speaking about time, wanta know the best time for eating breakfast? Best before 8 AM. Between 5-7 AM, and we’ll explain more about this in the class. Really Creamy Porridge that’s Not Oatmeal – oatmeal is sooooo mucous forming we just save it for when we’re traveling and can’t get our other grains!

Here’s more about the selections & health benefits you will learn in this Macrobiotic Cooking Class: Breakfast of Champions

Join us!!   February 26, 2011           1:00 – 4:00 PM                  $45 per person

RSVP marsharueff@mac.com

770 . 396 . 9413                          cell: 678 . 643 . 5662

Your check holds your spot: please mail to 1130 Trailridge Lane, Dunwoody, Georgia 30338

Yummy Macro Creamy Porridge
Inspired by all the wonderful breakfasts we create day-to-day
Benefits: Containing a nearly perfect balance of nutrients & energy, brown rice restores brain cells,
intestines, spine digestion, & nerve endings. Healing Foods, by Michio Kushi and Alex Jack

Sauteed Greens & ‘Shrooms
Inspired by Wendy Esko, Eat Your Veggies
Benefits:  Turnip greens are loaded with calcium, iron, dietary fiber and vitamins A & C. They help strengthen blood,
tonify the liver & gallbladder and prevent bone loss. Daikon tops, are especially helpful as well as broccoli, collards,
kale – all especially high in vitamins A, C & calcium.  Mushrooms help remove harmful effects of old chicken.
Healing Foods, Michio Kushi & Alex Jack

Creamy Corn Grits
Taught by Fatim and Warren Kramer. Benefits: Corn benefits the heart, and is a lighter cracked grain.
Healing Foods, Michio Kushi and Alex Jack; lectures of Warren Kramer

Fried Polenta Squares
Benefits: Made from dried corn, grits is a source for niacine & lysine.
A light breakfast to get you up & out the door! Easy ‘n quick because you are already cooked those grits!
They’re just waitin’ for you!

Bancha Tea
Benefits: Soothing, beneficial effects on digestion, blood quality and the mind, without caffeine.
Healing Foods, by Michio Kushi and Alex Jack

*********

Now, what about when company comes for that special brunch, or out-of-town visitors for breakfast? Oh, we’ll be showing you great Macrobiotic Cooking Class answers for a fancy-schmancy company brunch/breakfast! And these dishes serve a great purpose too! Memory food, relaxing, and yet without sugar, eggs, dairy, and can even be gluten-free.

Blueberry Pancakes & Blueberry Sauce
Inspired by Cooking the Whole Foods Way, Christina Pirello
Benefits: Relaxes, lovely memory-food from childhood celebrations and gatherings
The Sauce actually has kanten flakes ~ a sea veggie ~ adding minerals to our sweeteners.
Great for a lazy weekend morning!

Blueberry Sauce
My parents discovered this in New Orleans ~ I was 8
Benefits: Just about the yummiest pancake topping on the planet! Blueberries are antioxidents, too

Mochi Pecan Waffles & You Won’t Believe It’s Not Maple Syrup
thanks to Yoko and Charlie Kendall for this wonderful Mochi, and great idea for Waffles!
Benefits: You can have a Belgian Waffle without eggs, flour, sugar & butter! Qwik, qwik, & no clean-up!

Tofu French Toast & A little Pan-Fried Dulse Bacon
from The Kind Diet, Alicia Silverstone & Cooking with Rachel, Rachel Alpert
Benefits: You get to wow your family with a much healthier version of everyone’s favorite breakfast dish!
Benefits: Dulse has minerals only found in sea veggies, and has the distinction of maybe reminding you of
the taste of bacon, without the harmful effects.

Macro Cappuccino
Inspired by Warren Kramer’s class
Benefits: Relaxes, satisfying drink, can also serve as a dessert

Welcome to Macrobiotics — a Macro Cooking Class

Our beginner’s cooking class welcomes Newcomers to Macro
Covering delicious easy recipes, and important basic info!

You’ll learn what Macrobiotics is really all about,
So you can cook with success and reap many benefits – without a doubt!

We’re excited to offer our Tuesday series just for you
To spice up your health and well-being through Macro food!

New Date: Tuesday, January 18                  10 AM – 1 PM                  $45 per person

Menu

The MacDaddy Miso Soup
Pressure-Cooking Brown Rice Really Isn’t Scary!
Azuki Beans-Kombu-Squash, the Magic Potion of Macrobiotics
Qwik-Qwik Blanched Greens with Pumpkin Seed Dressing
Homemade Gomashio
Poached Apple Surprises
The Secret to Bancha Tea

plus handouts what to buy & where to order it!

****

Nabe, the Perfect Winter Dish, Macro-Fondu, Easy and Quick!

Nabe Cooking?? What could this be?
Just come to class — and then you will see!

Why in Macro-land this is the dish we all do,
And almost no clean-up, once you are through!

A one-dish meal: noodles, veg & protein all served in one bowl,
Cooked at the table, easy for two or a party, just so you know.

This might remind you of Swiss Fondu — no need to beware,
Minus cheese and heavy oil, we enjoy this meal without a waistline care!

Winter’s the reason Nabe is my first cooking class.
‘Tis Relax-our-Kidneys-season, and Warren asked me to teach every lad and lass!

This clay Nabe pot’s perfect for Winter, a great way to go
Guaranteed to turn you into a Nabe fan after Saturday’s Nabe Demo!

Saturday, January 18                     1 PM – 4 PM                           $45 per person

Hope to see you! Early registration is greatly appreciated.
RSVP: marsharueff@mac.com phone: 770.396.9413    cell:678.643.5662

With limited seating, your check reserves your space:
Please send to Marsha Rueff, 1130 Trailridge Lane, Dunwoody, GA 30338

Cooler weather’s started, and we’re amidst Fall’s colorful leaf serenade! Warren Kramer, Macrobiotic Senior Counselor, once again on the Atlanta scene, lecturing, counseling and presenting his always informative, entertaining and delicious cooking classes for this very season, carrying us into winter!

Hurry to book your private consultation: 90 minutes for your first appointment, and 60 minutes for follow-up! And if you follow Alicia Silverstone’s website, The Kind Life, after reading her book, The Kind Diet, you’ll recognize Warren Kramer is her counselor!  Warren’s the one she recommends you to see if he’s coming to your city! We are sooooo lucky having this great counselor, Michio Kushi’s private assistant for about 12 years, travelin’ to Atlanta 4 times a year!

If you are newly practicing Macrobiotics, this is a wonderful place to start, like Julie Andrew sings, Let’s start from the very beginning! You will meet like-minded, lovely participants with wonderfully encouraging stories and helpful hints to share with you ~ and great confidence builders! As well as others pretty new to macro-land, and very willing to share the pointers that helped them start in the most recent months.

How Warren develops these amazing new topics just floors me. We are so much looking forward to Warren’s new topics. Check out the descriptions in the following brochure. Please just click on this link to visit the page with a link  to the PDF, named Warren Kramer November Web. Clicking on that text opens the flyer we’ve prepared for you with dates, prices, discounts & and location for the numerous events Warren will be presenting.

Have any questions? And to RSVP: please email marsharueff@mac.com or call Marsha Rueff at home: 770 . 396 . 9413 or cell: 678 . 643 . 5662. Your check reserves your appointment with Warren, and your place in the lecture and cooking classes. Events will be held in Dunwoody: 1130 Trailridge Lane, Dunwoody, Georgia 30338. Easy access to Georgia 400. Soon as you contact us, we’ll email you directions! Hope to see you soon!

Who would ever think you can get a workout cooking? Well, you just better believe it! Welcome to my kitchen, designed for cooking our macrobiotic diet! I could call it the macro gym! Just the iron skillet alone weighs about 5 – 6 pounds, so who needs weights when you’re pumping these babies in the morning? Expert that I am for frying tofu – a favorite for our take-out lunches, and I’m flexing those biceps pretty strongly!

Just this week I’ve been preparing carrot daikon drink, a special cleanser for the intestines after having a bit too much bread on the Cote ‘d’ Azure last week. Using this ceramic grater and doubling the ¹/4 cup carrot and ¹/2 cup daikon for my wife and I, got me thinking about this physical workout! I was sweatin’ like at the Club! Couldn’t believe it!

And what about lifting the Le Creuset cookware we  enjoy, or the Brazil on My Mind cookware like used in the Babylonian days? That sandstone is pretty hefty stuff, and we only the have the smallest size!

Ever made Gomashio? You’re stirring the surigochi around the suribachi! I mean, you’ve gotta enjoy a strong arm to crush everyone one of those sesame seeds like Aveline Kushi answered, when she was asked in a macrobiotic cooking class: How many seeds do I need to crush? I wish I could have seen the lady’s face when Aveline softly said, All of them my dear, just all of them.

Tonight I just prepared the Natto. Stirring that little container of fermented beans with a pair of cooking chopstix for 100 counts! I gotta tell you, I was ready to stop at 25. But no, I kept going and going! It’s the sticky part the stirring creates that benefits you when eating natto, and we were going to get our money’s worth! What a treat! Here’s the macrobiotic diet recipe for natto: just add mustard, chopped scallions and a bit of shoyu, and bingo, you’ve got some dish! And muscle tone to prove it.

Now Koi Koku is the kicker! You’ve gotta put on your favorite music and get ready for a stint in the kitchen to do this dish. We made it just about 2 months ago to correct a lack of B-12. It’s a strong dish, and we’ve made it before for our clients, because it takes lots of energy and strength to matchstick 3 1/2 or more pounds of burdock! You see, the amount of burdock is the same weight as the carp – and it’s almost impossible to find a carp less than 3 1/2 pounds. Ours was 5 pounds cut up, so you do the math. That cutting took 2 of us 1 1/2 hours. 

And what about washing these heave-ho pots! Our Le Creuset wok – for example – is one big hunk of steel and solid enamel – gotta be 8-9 pounds! Initially I used to call myself the Chief Macrobiotic Dishwasher, and I was feelin’ my muscles everytime Marsha called – Fred, please help me out here. Even though she tried to keep up with the dishes, & pots and pans, there would be a sink full. I have become very efficient in that department, and developed more arm strength in the doing. Now I’ve graduated to sous chef and can tell you there is plenty muscle activity in all  this specific chopping, dicing, slicing, matchsticking, and chunky cutting. And you know, even the shopping is a body builder! Lugging those bags! We buy the apple juice in these huge gallon containers and we always buy a few at a time.

So, just hope to have whetted your appetite for a great adventure in macrobiotic diet, and macro-muscle making in the process. I mean to say the food is the greatest we’ve ever enjoyed, and it certainly puts us in the direction of health as our macrobiotic counselor, Warren Kramer often says. Isn’t it great to think we can muscle tone at the same time we’re eating right! So let’s keep on kitchen pumpin’! 

You’ve sipped Green tea at the Chinese and Japanese restaurants, usually in the teeny cups they keep refilling over and over again. And this may or may not affect your sleep depending on your other intake of caffeine for that day. Yes, there is caffeine in this tea, although it’s less than coffee, but present. It’s from the leaf of the plant, and for those of you fortunate to have experienced Japanese Tea Serving you may have learned all about those special green leaves, and seen them crushed into the fine powders.

Well, on a Macrobiotic Diet there’s something even better than that! Bancha Twig Tea! And it has only miniscule caffeine – which means it’s there, but almost undetectable, especially the best Mitoku quality. And it’s helpful for so many conditions. I love covering all the benefits in my macrobiotic cooking classes. Here are a few for you to enjoy!

The loose twigs make a wonderful drink, and actually assists digestion. Just boil 5-7 minutes, to a light brown shade and enhanced aroma. Please enjoy in the morning, and I often take a thermos with me for the day when I’m away from home.

Need a more relaxing drink? Add a little apple juice, and voila, feel the tension melt away in your shoulder blades.

Feel the beginning of a headache coming? Add up to 6 drops shoyu (Macrobiotic Diet recommended soy sauce) to a drinking cup, and pour the tea over the shoyu. Now this is amazing. As the tea disperses the shoyu throughout the cup, guess what? When you drink this Sho Ban Tea, your blood is alkalined and the symptoms of the headache disperse and poof, vanishes! I keep a small bottle of shoyu at my desk, and have helped myself and other clients numerous times.

Do you sometimes get a sore throat or laryngitis? Gargle with salted bancha tea throughout the day, and you’ll nip it in the bud!

Travel with Bancha Twig Tea bags wherever you go! I had them at the beach years ago when I ran into a stingray, and guess what our Senior Macrobiotic Counselor Warren Kramer had me soak my foot in? Yep, Bancha Tea. It took the poison right out of my foot, so there I was the Marco Island Hilton hotel, foot in sink, soaking in bancha tea, while I sipped my Sho Ban for the trauma of the sting, and I was out dancing that very same night!

When dining out in restaurants here are guidelines to maintain a healthy macrobiotic diet. When you frequent restaurants you can fax this list ahead or call in advance, and simplify your ordering at the table. We cover this information more in depth in our macrobiotic cooking classes.

AVOID THESE FOODS

ENJOY THESE VEGETABLES

Seasonings: Olive oil, small amount garlic, sea salt

Note: ask for house rice in Japanese restaurants; the sushi rice has sugar in it. The sugar is in the vinegar already, and sometimes they add extra sugar. That’s the trick to get you to keep ordering sushi! So, what to do, in Japanese Restaurants just ask for House Rice! This has no sugar!

ENJOY THESE FISH STEAMED OR POACHED WITH VEGETABLES & LEMON

AVOID THESE FISH

ATLANTA RESTAURANTS