Medicinal mushrooms have long been used in Eastern medicine for their many healing properties.  They were often turned to as the first form of medicine because they have an uncanny ability to absorb and then safely eliminate toxins.  Eating them allows the same thing to happen in your very own body!  Shiitake mushrooms in particular, have a huge amount of natural antimicrobial and antiviral properties, meaning they’ll keep you healthy, and combat any first signs of cold or flu.

In addition to their many medicinal benefits, mushrooms are absolutely delicious! They provide a yummy, meaty texture and flavor to a huge variety of dishes.  Personally, I love hearing that not only is something good for me, but it’s just plain right delicious, I would eat them no matter what the benefits were!

In my Robyn’s Cooking Club I am often surprised to hear that many of my members are afraid of tackling mushrooms. They are unsure how to wash them and how to properly use them in recipes.

So, for the food of the month I’ll take you through the simple process of easily adding mushrooms to your diet:

Purchasing:

There’s a whole land of mushrooms out there beyond the most common white button mushrooms.  All mushrooms have their own unique texture and flavor. White button mushrooms are often the most commonly seen as they have a nice neutral flavor and are readily available.  I encourage you to try a mushroom you’ve never had before, Portobello mushrooms make for a great main dish, oyster mushrooms add a lively flavor to stir fries, maitakes stimulate your immune system, and shiitakes, my personal favorite, really have a unique and rich flavor in addition to their list of essential amino acids.

Storage:

You’ll often see a brown paper bag in the mushrooms section at popular health food stores like Whole Foods.  This is for a good reason, mushrooms need to breathe!  If you put them in plastic they will quickly go bad.  If the store doesn’t provide brown paper bags take them out as soon as you get home and keep them in an open container in the refrigerator.

Washing:

You have two methods of washing your mushrooms. Ideally, you don’t want to run them under water. This is because mushrooms are quite porous and will soak up most of the liquid (which will later end up in your food and take away some of their flavor). It’s best to take a paper towel, dampen in under running water and then gently rub away the dirt on top of the mushrooms.  If they seem extra dirty you can wash them under running water but often mushrooms are super clean and only need a gentle rub.

Preparing:

There really is no recipe needed when it comes to mushrooms.  Chop them up and sauté them in any kind of high quality fat such as coconut oil, olive oil, or butter. Once you have sautéed your mushrooms, you can add them to anything!  Mushrooms marry especially well with sautéed onions and I recently discovered how delicious onions and mushrooms where on top of my massage kale salad.

I hope next time you go to the market you’ll be encouraged to bring home a new mushroom with you.  Not only will you get to enjoy their unique and rich flavor, but you’ll feel like your very own medicine woman in your kitchen!

Robyn Youkilis is a featured Healthy Living contributor and a passionate “foodie” who thrives at matching pantry staples with fresh, seasonal ingredients. For more about her click here for her full bio and all of her articles!

Date: Monday, February 13

Time: 6:30 – 9:00 pm EST

Location: Make
195 Chrystie Street #402,
New York, NY 10002

Fee: $100 + $20 supply fee

Learn how to make yourself a panty with Laura Mehlinger, Designer of New York-based lingerie line Lola Haze. She will cover all the basics of lingerie-making: working with knits and lace, waistband elastics, linings, seam finishing (there will be a serger on–site for demo) and more. You will leave with all the knowledge you need to make a panty whenever you want, along with a fully finished pair! *Note – please be able to thread a machine and sew simple seams before signing up for this project–based class.

About Lola Haze TM Designer, Laura Mehlinger: Designer Laura Mehlinger has been studying, designing and making clothing since the time she could hold a needle & thread.  Laura received her BA from Harvard in English, where she was dubbed “Harvard’s Ace Student of Fashion” for creating and showing her own line of women’s wear in the only one-person fashion show there in memory.  After holding design positions at Gap, Inc, Laura decided to go out on her own.  She named her line after the famous temptress Dolores “Lolita” Haze from Nabokov’s Lolita, which she wrote her thesis about and which continues to intrigue and inspire her.  On a year-long solo trip around the world, Laura carefully collected exotic objects, fabrics and stories.  These inspiring visuals coupled with the ideas of difference, quirkiness and elements of surprise are driven into her designs:

“Design is molding juxtapositions: elegance and kitsch, innocence and seduction, playfulness and sophistication, and for Lola Haze™, public and private. I love lingerie because it dances between public and private domains. It can be a woman’s own secret that makes her feel special, or something beautiful for display. Lola Haze™ is for a playful, confident woman who loves the transformative power of clothing and dresses for no one but herself. She can wear Lola Haze™ as innerwear, loungewear, or outerwear.”– Laura Mehlinger

To register, please visit http://makeworkshop.com/classes/sewing/lingerie/panty-workshop/#1

Tweenage girls are a growing market for the cosmetic and skincare industry.

We spoke with Kim Grustas, one-half of the Mompreneur team behind the affordable skin care line, Good For You Girls, about the importance of helping your tweens invest in their beauty education.

Kim’s journey began with a trip to the whole foods market unable to find a natural skin care line for her daughter. Here’s what’s she’s learned:

Age Appropriate: The skin care market generally serves babies then jumps to adults. There’s a gap for girls ages 8-15, a critical developmental age. Tweenage girls undergo puberty and start experimenting independently with skincare and cosmetics. The skin is the largest organ on our bodies and we are learning that a percentage of what we slather on is absorbed by the skin and can seep into the bloodstream. Artificial chemicals from skin care products can be harmful and can affect the body’s natural hormones by mimicking estrogen to trigger puberty. Puberty is a pinnacle time to keep potentially harmful chemicals clear of your body. (http://www.ewg.org/reports/teens)

Self Regulators: The FDA does not regulate personal or hair care products – lotions, cosmetics, toiletries, shampoos or fragrances – and there’s simply so much we don’t know about the short and long term effects of product use and more information is surfacing. Self-education and trusting your gut is key. (http://safecosmetics.org/section.php?id=75)

Talk Truth, Minimize Fear: Help your daughter do what’s good for them in a loving way. Life is scary enough and death by lipstick may seem extreme so help them make informed healthy decisions. It’s like explaining smoking, one cigarette may not hurt you now but after years of smoking it may have adverse effects. Speak to your girls in an intelligent manner and empower then to value their health. A possible side effect is they may hate you now, but they’ll love you later!

Purse Power: We hold the power. Mothers demanding healthy products will change the industry just like the response to removing BPA from baby bottles. Your girls vote with their purses and are being sold to by glossy advertisements and eco-friendly sounding lingo. We tend to trust manufactures and girls love anything in a cute bottle with their favorite celebrity or character on it. Teach her to see past the surface and purchase on substance. Learn how with Nicole Clark’s  “Seeing Through the Media Matrix” www.CoverGirlCulture.com.

Beyond the Gloss: Teach her to read the product’s ingredient list before purchasing. Make it a shared research project and track and discuss updates. Welcome ingredients that you can pronounce with anti-oxidants, essential fatty acids, vitamins, plant based botanicals that target bacteria naturally and essential oils. Watch for “natural” claims that still contain ingredients currently on Kim’s naughty list like parabens, dyes, petroleum, aluminum.

Know Where to Go: Drug stores are not your only option as holistic products are cropping up in places nationwide, including, Whole Foods and another product line is www.holecolife.com

Have Her Back: Be the cool mom who supports her daughter. Make finding the right product line a joint effort. It’s the little words of encouragement that plants a seed that you value and respect her so she should respect herself. They will be grateful that you are in this together.  If your girl needs more backup there’s plenty of NYC girl power, check out the Reveal Conference and spiritual guru Gabrielle Bernstein.

Creating Values: Developing healthy habits and taking a stance to be green with your body helps instill core values of self-care to last them a lifetime. This is something they have control over so empower them to take pride in themselves!

ABOUT Kim Grustas:
For more than 15 years, Kim has lived and breathed the natural products industry. She’s been instrumental in the growth of some of the country’s largest nutrition and supplement companies as a graphic designer, creative consultant and marketing adviser. Most recently, she’s owned and operated an advertising and design agency in Connecticut, working exclusively with companies which have made a commitment to natural products and services.

Kim possesses a unique and impressive body of knowledge on the inner workings and emerging trends of the natural products industry – from brand development and manufacturing, to packaging and distribution, to marketing and promotion. This extensive experience is core to the operation and continued growth of Good For You Girls, while her creative energy paints the company’s beautiful vision and evolving story.

Kim’s passion for Good For You Girls comes from her love for her two daughters. They remind her every day of the greater mission of Good For You Girls – inspiring moms to protect what’s most precious and teaching girls at a crucial age to respect their bodies and make safer choices for a beautiful, healthy future.

ABOUT Good For You Girls®! Good For You Girls is the leader in all natural and organic skin care specifically formulated for the special needs of young skin. Girls today are bombarded with beauty products that are loaded with chemicals and synthetic ingredients. These chemicals should not be on any ones skin, let alone girls who are going through delicate hormonal changes. At Good For You Girls we believe beautiful skin is achieved the way mother-nature intended, with formulas created from the finest blends of organic extracts and natural botanicals.

We don’t play dress up: The problem with many products aimed at this demographic is that companies think they can put anything in a cute little bottle and it will sell. Wrong! Moms today are way too educated and girls are far to savvy to fall for this. Good For You Girls products are real skincare, made without chemicals but even more importantly beautifully formulated and balanced with beneficial botanicals and organic extracts specially designed to nourish and feed young skin. Our products are created out of respect and set the bar to which all others will me measured.

Related Post: Top Pick: Woman To Watch Erika Katz Of Bonding Over Beauty (http://yourbellalife.com/featured/top-pick-woman-to-watch-erika-katz-of-bonding-over-beauty/ )

Cynthia Litman is a featured Healthy Living Contributor and is an entertainment lawyer, social entrepreneur, business adviser, working mom, creator, author & hostess of the blog & talk radio show Mommas Pearls. For more about her click here for her full bio and all of her articles!

As of February 3rd, the dreams of the last 14 years fall away and we are in the midst of a new cycle of visioning.  Neptune in Aquarius did bring us the “dream of the collective” and the promise/nightmare of technology with the Internet, social networking and cel phone technology bringing people closer while also challenging our privacy or sense of reality.  Neptune moving into Pisces will be a very different universal hope–that of connecting to God and our spritual source.  Art, esoterica, poetry and film will be the areas that will most benefit from Neptune’s move into the sign of the collective unconscious.  Those most affected will include anyone with a Pisces Sun, Moon or Ascendent and they will feel as if, for the first time in their lives, they are in their element.  Most zodiac signs have an experience of their ruling planet being in its best form, but for Pisces, whose ruler is Neptune and has a 156 year cycle, no one has experienced this transit in our lifetime.

Saturn, our task master, and yes, the party pooper extraordinaire is the opposite of Neptune and his role is to get us to understand the limits of our three-dimensional world and forces us to see the chinks in the armor of our lives and dreams.  While this might sound depressing, he is actually a wonderfully corrective energy in our lives because

he asks that we approach our work and relationships with a sense of mastery.  Anything worth having requires some effort and committment and int this regard, Saturn is our friend and constant guide.

Saturn in Libra has been the “cause” of many relationship breakups as he has shown us that unequal situations are no longer tenable.  If you are approaching a Saturn fork in the road in your relationship (i.e. you have been together for almost 7, 14 or 21 years) this might be the time to move on if the relationship is not a positive force in your life.  This is the natural exit point or opportunity to redefine and restructure the arrangement.  This includes our connection to our professions, families, jobs, homes and future goals.

For those still on the fence, an event may occur on or around Feb 8th that will clearly show you what is untenable and what is required to disentangle you from the situation.  Whatever comes up will be resolved in the summer and you will be free of Saturn in Libra,  and the lesson of equality in relationships–for the next 28 years.

Later in the month, Venus, the planet of love and ruler of Libra, will move into the sign of Aries and we will definitely want to be free.  The victimhood of Pisces, where Venus has been since Jan 15th,  will now give way to a strong need for independence and excitement when it comes to relationships.  Aries is an initiatory energy so we will find ourselves more motivated to go after what we want, declare our love and find ways to express a more dominant side of our nature.

And even if we are finding that we want to take action, always an Aries vibration, we can still speak in a soothing and mellifluous tone as Mercury and the Sun will be settling into Pisces on the 15th and 20th respectively.  In this regard, there will still be a slight tug back into the past and into inertia, but take note of what your Venus now wants and by the time the sun moves into Aries in March, you will be full speed ahead in defining a new set of values (and attracting a new paramour.)

ARIES

Last month you may have finalized a chapter around your dreams and your relationship and given it a fond kiss farewell.  It is now time to merge more deeply with the collective and your own highly intuitive powers of perception.  For the next 14 years, if you dream it, you can create it because that inspiration is coming directly from Source.  You may still be stuck in rewind concerning your template for a partner, so even if you sneak back to an ex, you will most likely realize that come June, your instincts concerning this situation were right on all along.  You start to get some spit and fire in your step mid-month and from then on, you won’t need or want to cling to anyone who holds you back.  The inner murmurings that you hear in your new found spaciousness will seed the next decade of your life.

TAURUS

You’ve completed your professional apprenticeship and now it is time for the full-on committment.  There may still be a few tiny details that need to be attended to, but come the fall, you will be making your debut on the career stage.  You will be thinking bigger and brighter as the year progresses and in order for your work to fulfill you, you must connect your dreams to a greater humanitarian cause.  A part of you is still feeling a bit shy, but Venus in your 12th house of the unconscious is stirring up your inner warrior and he/she will make her debut come the Spring solstice next month.  Use that hidden fierceness to connect to others who share your dreams of a more beautiful and transcendent world.

GEMINI

You have finally gotten your head and your heart onto the same page after possiblly a lifetime of separating the two.  But the heart has wisdom and the mind has compassion and these now combined will bring forth a change in career and public role over the next 14 years.  You may still need to review the rules of relationship engagement and integrate the desire for partnership with the need for excitement.  Believe it or not, you CAN have both provided you stick around long enough to receive the benefits of committed love.  If you want to wander, do so in your creative life and social ideals and in this arena, you can be Joan of Arc and  William the Conquerer.  You can now speak words that inspire and attract and set the foundation for a new professional identity.

CANCER

How to find intimacy in a settting that does not necessarily include family members (those in your clan)?  That has been your task over the last few years and you have created that with friends or a loved one.  Now it is time to move on and bring this unity and compassion into the international and transpersonal realm.  Sure, right now you may feel a little bereft because you’ve had to say goodbye to someone who has felt like family but since you’ve grown up, you need to be able to stand on your own for a bit. You’ve got dragons to slay and battles to win in the professional arena so you need to sharpen your sword and cut lose of any regressive ties.  If you want the beautiful energy of merging, use it in the realm of poetry and writing or a far-away romance.   This is a new way to nourish your soul without the dependency on others.

LEO

You realize, after much struggle, that communication is the most important ingredient in a relationship.  Several years of not knowing what was going on with a partner forced you to speak in clear and certain terms.  If they were lost, you needed to let them go and along with that, perhaps a fantasy of romantic love.  Fear not, a new dream and one that is more likely to occur now lands in your lap and that is one that involves collaboration on a deep level.  Yes, for some in can mean a transcendent love affair, for others the creative partner of your dreams.  Keep your sights on far shores as that is where your audience is most likely to be and your adventures manifest most dramatically.  Save some time, however, for some very private musing with the one who feels like home.

VIRGO

As with Taurus, you have spent several years finetuning your professional skills and talents.  This has left little time for relationships.  In many ways, even if coupling was a desire of yours, your partner may have been missing in action.  You may have even had a fantasy lover rather than the real thing.  One critical (pun intended) thing about Virgo is learning deservedness.  Do you feel worthy to ask for what you want?  You do receive one last test around the 8th and when you get the probable “no”, you realize that when you settle for less, you get less then you settle for.  Someone is in your sphere who sees your inner fire and by listening to your intuition and letting go, you may begin an entirely new chapter around the mirror of love and self-love.

LIBRA

Creative vision and the means of accomplishing that have been the lessons of the last few years.  You are never at a loss for ideas, but what is the ratio of imaginary to real?  It is true that you have been dealing with loss of a real or metaphorical sense since 2008 and you will be able to integrate how these events made you more resilient.  While the new life doesn’t totally start until the fall, you can begin to taste how adventurous your life can be if you let go and allow others to direct the show.  Some of these imaginings can turn to reality in a way that will defy your expectations, particularly in the romantic arena.

SCORPIO

As with Libra, loss and working through old fears of abandonment and betrayal have been the challenge for quite some time.  You are now about to enter an entirely new cycle of transcendent love and creativity that can knock your socks off.  One more test of faith and doubt may occur around the 8th, but this is the last bulletpoint to a propensity toward allowing others to color your reality.  It is clear that a feisty man or woman has been circulating as of late.  She or he is showing you the way to the future.  You can begin by exchanging thoughts and words of a most romantic and sensitive kind as you allow yourself to be swallowed up by the waters of a sexual divine love.

SAGITTARIUS

You have developed strong communication skills these last few years and changed the company you keep.  Those still stuck in the past you have had to let go off as well as those individuals who fail to recognize the strength and power of the new you.  You have allowed your Self more free reign and let go of small-mindedness in favor of a bigger piece of the sky. Time to consolidate those professional relationships that have proved worthy or supportive of your endeavors and release once and for all those associations that are dragging you down.  You need to open up space for love and adventure so listen for the whisperings of one who would exalt you in your rightful home.

CAPRICORN

Your career may be at an all-time high or coming to a halt.  This is all based on whether or not you feel you have chosen the right profession that allows you to reveal your true mastery.  It has been hard to know what you are good at, despite an obvious professionalism, but this month you will awaken as if from a dream and know what is your rightful calling . And certainly, despite your aura of conservatism, you are anything but and so allow the new people who are shaking up your life and home free reign.  The truth is you are a dreamer and you manifest your abundance not through limitation, but through being in alignment with all that is.

AQUARIUS

It has been hard to get a handle on anything for so long, such as who am I and what do I believe?  Neptune’s 14 year transit through your sign has separated you permanently from any constructed self that was not true.  You were meant to drift and explore and not know the outcome.  This month you will begin to understand the purpose of your life and the thought process and spiritual grounding that will make it so.  It’s time to start writing about and sharing your experience and even if you don’t like to write, enlist the skills of women or friends who are buzzing about your story.  Believe it or not, this walk through the garden of gethsemane will be the one thing that will give you value and credibility and eventually pad your bank account.

PISCES

Similar to Aquarius, you have been on a journey of letting go and just allowing the universe to move you along.  You were required to unleash old wounds and learn to create proper boundaries in relationships.  In many cases, it was clear that your romantic and financial situations were inbalanced and you paid the price.  As the sign connected to universal consciousness, you needed to understand all the aspects of yourself, even through the mirror of others.  You are in a new cycle around self-worth and money as well as burgeoning new relationships.  Just be your delightful and soulful self.  This is the time to call in the one because you are ready and he has been waiting for a very long time.

Have you noticed the following dilemma:

You will be out on a date, first or even second, with a guy and something in you knows you are not attracted to this man and all signs are pointing towards, he is simply not the “one”. However by the end of the date you have the guy begging to ask you out again.

OR

You will be out with a guy that is totally hot, and charming, and something in you shifts, and all signs in your body are pointing towards, he could be the “one”. However, at the end of the date he is not even asking for seconds, but is distant and ready to go.

What is up with that, why is it that when you want something it seems to move further away from you, but when you don’t it is right there for the taking?

Well there is a reaction that occurs inside your brain and body that energetically gets picked up by a man.

When we want something, like a man, something in our brains translates it as something impossible to have, because the very state of wanting is not having.

When you have something you don’t want it’s because you have it, and once you have it you’re bored.  Like a dress that has been worn. At one point you really wanted it, but once you wore it you were bored with it…right?

Therefore, the brain sends signals to the rest of your body saying I wish I could be with this person, and have this person in my life. Your subconscious begins to ask is he is out of my league, is he too good for me, or why would he ever like me? This energetically sends signals to the man of slight desperation or inauthenticity.

It isn’t that the guy thinks you’re not attractive, too intelligent for him, too old, or not his type. It is this non-spoken energetic exchange (aka vibes) that occurs making him not so interested.

A man wants a woman that can inspire him in every way, a woman that knows what she wants. So, when a slight hint of desperation is picked up he starts distancing himself from her.

You probably know exactly what I mean because it happens for women to, when he is a little too available it is not as inspiring for us women, and the interest levels go down.

So, the next question is how do you prevent your brain from going to a place of sending desperation signals, when you like someone?

The #1 way to have the man you want is:

Know that what you are ultimately looking for in someone is INSPIRATION. Think about a moment you were inspired and why? Write it down. Then, see if he fits the bill in terms of that kind of inspiration.

I know for me, what is inspiring is when someone in my presence is authentically themselves, no games, and no façade. It gives me goose bumps.

So, judge him by your inspiration meter. He may be hot and charming, and gets your libido going, but does he do it for you mentally? He may do it for you mentally but does he do it for you in terms of chemistry? Being in evaluation around how high your inspiration meter peaks will help you stay cool and calm, instead of your subconscious slipping into thoughts of “he is too good for me,” before you even know him.

Keep yourself  in a state of choosing him, instead of wondering if he will choose you and you will stay cool and calm, with a hint of butterflies, it will allow you to be authentic, which will attract him to you!

Kavita Jhaveri-Patel is a featured Love in Life contributor and relationship expert, who helps women at a breaking point in their relationships. For more about her click here for her full bio and all of her articles!