We're crazy about this new breakfast: berry puree over bananas, with a touch of creamy almond milk, and some of our buckwheat granola. The berries are a welcome gift in the middle of winter, filled with mouth watering, sun-colored flavor.

We buy a frozen berry mix at our local market that's packed with raspberries, strawberries, marionberries, and blueberries. The flavor of the sauce is utterly delicious—it's almost like eating perfume. And the color is a deep, velvety, magenta. We can't seem to get enough of it! Berries have a low glycemic rating, are rich in antioxidants, phytochemicals, flavinoids, and Vitamin C. They feel primal and wild to us, a pure food source.

Ingredients:
Serves 2-4
2 cups mixed berries
1/2 cup water
2 bananas
Optional: sundried Kalamata figs, soaked to soften

Directions:
Defrost berries the night before, or run warm water over them to quickly thaw. Drain.
Put into blender with water and blend until velvety smooth.
Strain through sieve to remove seeds.
Peel bananas, and slice. Put into bowls.
Pour sauce over bananas.
Drizzle on a little almond milk.

An unwelcome visitor dropped by this week: food poisoning! The culprit? Mushrooms. Twice before I'd had problems with portobellos, and vowed to never eat them again. This last bout came from an innocent looking box of organic mushrooms that Rex brought home from the market, ones that my intuition told me not to eat.

Just a week prior, we'd feasted on mushrooms from the bulk section in the market, and dehydrated them for an hour with miso and mustard with tomatoes and zucchini, and had no problems. They were firm and fresh, and I felt hungry when I looked at them.

So in comes these new mushrooms. We ate a few that night, and there was a slight feeling that they didn't settle quite right. And the following night we made a yummy tomato sauce to go over zucchini "pasta". My mind told me mushrooms would probably be good with the dish, and that may have been true, but my body was saying, no. Intuition was saying, no. But I ate them anyway. Rex had a feeling he didn't want them at all, so he didn't have any, and he didn't get sick. So have white mushrooms become something I'm now allergic to, with symptoms of food poisoning? Or was it a random experience? I can't say for sure, but I'm not inclined to want to try again to find out!

Over the years we've developed some allergies, mostly from overeating certain foods: luscious desserts from raw cacao, causing me painful back spasms, and spicy garlic and hot peppers, causing Rex the inability to think clearly, and swelling in the hands and feet. I'm also highly sensitive to flax which triggers hormonal fluctuations, like PMS, so making flax crackers has been "out".

Perhaps you've wondered why these foods haven't shown up in The Healing Feast, and this is why. We've had to learn how to make substitutes for these foods: carob replaces chocolate or cacao, ginger or black pepper substitutes for hot peppers, and crunchy dehydrated buckwheat is used instead of flaxseed. But please use these foods to your heart's content if they agree with you!

Most people we know have some kind of food allergies. It's so important to find substitutes, and just move on and enjoy life, relishing what does work. This is the lesson I have learned yet again: The body knows, the delicate flower of intuition knows. Next time I'll listen better!