Jen Oh

Whole Mind. Whole Body. Whole Home.

The Benefits of Turmeric

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2457/3769698051_71438de2e3_n.jpg
Recently, I did a Facebook Live event for the Northern CA Lupus Foundation and one of the questions was on turmeric.

Turmeric is an amazing spice. Its benefits have been praised all over the internet, but if I was going to talk about it’s benefits – I really wanted to understand what it does in our bodies.

Dr JJ Bright, in his paper ‘Curcumin and autoimmune disease’ comments that curcumin ameliorates conditions like multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease etc. It does so by regulating the activity of inflammatory agents and pathways activated in immune cells.…

Saving Strawberries

IMG_0610

This week, we went organic strawberry pickings for the first time in 2 years. Though we ate strawberries from time to time, we never made all the yummy extras that we always had in the past. To understand why, read my post about not so organic strawberries. My kids are ecstatic that we’re strawberry picking again…and they picked 12lbs!

All the way home, they discussed all the yummy treats we’d make. Besides making jam, I needed a way to save strawberries to continue enjoying them, even when strawberry season is over. If you find yourself with extra strawberries, consider trying this as an easy ways to save and enjoy strawberries.

Print Recipe
Strawberry Chips
Dehydrating strawberries is easy, simple, and the taste is incredible! The strawberry flavor is intensified and it's like candy. Add them to granola, trail mix,

The Not So Organic Strawberry

iphone 049

For years, my family loved to go and pick organic strawberries each summer. We’d pick enough strawberries to make jam, fruit gummies, and fruit leather, plus have tons to eat. That all stopped in 2014 (when this picture was taken), after I learned that organic strawberries weren’t so organic. For the last 2 years, we haven’t eaten nearly as many strawberries as before and, every time we ate them, I wondered just how bad they really were.…

The Amazing Kale Chip

 

Kale

Kale is one of those amazing vegetables that is chock full of great vitamins and nutrients…but until last year, we didn’t really eat it much. I never grew up eating kale and I had no idea how to make any yummy kale dishes. I tried a kale salad, adding it to soups, but nothing really worked for us… until my husband made kale chips (and I finally did too). Wow! Nowadays, we can barely keep them from being devoured within hours of coming out of the oven.…

Elderberries – nature’s cold medicine

For years when people complain they have colds- I tell them about elderberries. It’s our go to cold remedy and immune booster. I give elderberries to family and friends and make them syrup too. It’s easy to make and it prevents us from getting sick. If we are sick, it helps us improve in half the time as it normally takes. Plus, making elderberry syrup is easy, cheap, and I know exactly what’s in it.…

Halloween Fun


Halloween is my FAVORITE holiday! It starts off the holiday season. You don’t have to worry about giving/getting presents, there’s usually no family stress, and you get to dress up and pretend to be someone/something you aren’t. I just love it.…

Are You Prepared?

emergency
For years, I’ve promised myself that I would start taking emergency preparedness seriously. I have experienced enough mishaps – days of no electricity, earthquakes, white outs and blizzards – to warrant having extra food on hand, flashlights, first aid kits, etc… but never have I really combined everything into an emergency kit. Sure, I could just buy a kit and it would work in a pinch. But if there really was a disaster, that kit wouldn’t be customized for me. It might not have what I need or want for my family.…

Dairy Delights


I have a secret…I don’t like milk. I rarely ever drink it. But I love dairy! I love cheese, I love yogurt, and I love cooking with all sorts of dairy products. I have promised a few people that I’d post on how to make yogurt, buttermilk, and sour cream. They are all super easy to make with very little effort… so easy that you could make buttermilk and sour cream before you even finish reading this!…

All about Beans

dried beans
Every well stocked pantry should have beans. They are versatile and yummy. They are high in protein, easy to add to a variety of meals, and kids tend to really like them – at least my kids do.…

CERT makes a difference

I’m proud to say I became an official CERT member. CERT, Community Emergency Response Team is a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) program. It focuses on teaching citizens on how to handle disaster/emergency situations and how they can help themselves, their families, and their communities in case of a disaster.

The reason I joined CERT was a selfish one. I have 2 kids and most of my family (mom, dad, brother, grandmothers, aunts/uncles, niece/nephews) all live within 20 minutes of me. If an emergency occurred, I wanted to be in a position to be able to make sure we all got any help we needed. But, what I learned goes so beyond that. …