Justine Stenger

Justine Stenger received her degree from the University of Alberta in Nutrition and Physical education. She proceeded to pursue a Holistic Nutrition/Therapeutic Chef certification from Bauman College. Justine has completed her Functional Medicine training through the Institute for Functional Medicine and is a Certified Functional Medicine Health Coach, certified through the Institute for Functional Medicine. Justine is a trained Bredesen (RECODE) practitioner and specializes in cell membrane medicine, and works primarily with patients who suffer with neurological conditions, mast cell activation syndrome, Lyme disease, and autoimmune disease. Justine has worked beside Dr. Bruce Hoffman for the past 10 years and has supported hundreds of Dr Hoffman’s chronic, complex illness patients nutritionally. Credentials: University Of Alberta - Nutrition & Physical Education , IFM – Functional Medicine Trained, IFM -Bredesen Practitioner, The dr.Com -Certified Gluten Practitioner, Bauman College - Holistic Nutrition & Certified Therapeutic Chef, Institute For Functional Medicine - Certified Health Coach

Essential Fatty Acid Goji Balls

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Essential Fatty Acid Goji Balls

Yield – 14 – 16 balls

Ingredients

  • 3 cups raw, organic pumpkin seeds, divided.
  • ½ cup chia seeds
  • 2 heaping Tbsp Bee powered honey (Beekeepeers Naturals)
  • 2 Tbsp of Gogi berry poweder (New Earth Organics)
  • Pinch sea salt
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla
  • 2 Tbsp filtered water
  • Mini parchment paper cups

Procedure

  1. Add 2 cups of pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, goji berry powder, and sea salt  to a food processor. Blend for 3-4 min or until your pumpkin seeds start to turn to pumpkin seed butter. Add honey, water, and vanilla and blend again. Add the additional cup of pumpkin seeds and pulse until combined.
  2. Roll dough into balls and set into mini parchment paper cups. Store in the fridge for 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Nutrition Tip

For over 2000 years, Goji berries have remained the most popular fruit in the world, being dubbed names such as “longevity fruit” and the “fruit of immortality”. A powerhouse of nutrition, Goji berries have had many uses including improving vision, enhancing longevity, increasing sexual power, increasing sexual fluids, fortifying against disease, and building blood. The delicious, sweet Goji berry contains 18 amino acids, an array of minerals including zinc, iron, cooper, germanium, selenium, phosphorus, vitamin C, B1, B2, Zeaxanthin, beta carotene, trace fatty acids, and a range of polysaccharides that support the immune system and promote balanced blood glucose levels. You can eat these essential fatty acid, cellular supportive superfood balls with pure joy knowing you are supporting the foundation of your health.

Phospholipid Rich Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding

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Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding

Serves – 1

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup full fat coconut milk
  • 1 scoop Earth Echo Raw Cacao Bliss
  • 1 Tbsp raw cacao powder
  • 2 1/2 Tbsp chia seeds
  • 1 Tbsp BodyBio PC
  • 1 tsp BodyBio E-Lyte
  • 1/2 tsp Ceylon cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp pure vanilla bean
  • 1 tsp Glycine
  • 1 Tbsp raw cacao nibs

Procedure

  1. Combine chia seeds, coconut milk, PC, vanilla, E-lyte, cinnamon, raw cacao bliss, raw cocoa powder and glycine in a blender or food processor. Blend until combined.
  2. Let sit for 15 – 20 min to allow chia seeds to congeal. Top with raw cacao nibs and enjoy.

Nutritional Tip:

BodyBio PC combines four forms of pure phospholipids for targeted cellular support and effective brain support. BodyBio PC works to give your cells the boost they need to work better, in turn supporting not only your brain but every system in your body to thrive.

BodyBio PC contains concentrated levels of:

  • Phosphatidylcholine (PC) – ensures cell membrane integrity and function
  • Phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) – vital to mitochondrial function
  • Phosphatidylinositol (PI) – supportive to the brain and neurotransmission
  • Phosphatidylserine (PS) – essential for memory

Coconut Crusted Chicken Legs

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Coconut Chicken

Serves – 4

Ingredients

  • 4 pastured chicken legs
  • 1 1/4 cup shredded coconut
  • 1.5 tsp garlic powder
  • 1.5 tsp onion powder
  • 2 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 1/2 tsp sea salt
  • 4 pastured egg yolks (sub 1/4 cup coconut oil for AIP)

Procedure

  1. Preheat oven to 300F
  2. Gather a baking tray and line with parchment paper.
  3. Gather a mixing bowl and add coconut shreds, onion powder, garlic powder, sea salt, and oregano.
  4. Gather a second bowl and add egg yolks.
  5. Remove the skin from your chicken legs and drench in egg yolk. Once covered roll in coconut shred mixture until coated. Repeat until done.
  6. Place chicken on baking tray and bake for 1 hour 15 min or until done. I like to keep the temperature really low for this recipe to prevent your coconut from burning.
  7. Serve with your favourite salad or steamed vegetables.

Nutrition Tip

Did you know that 20 percent of your body is made up of protein? Proteins are the construction crew in your body – they transport substances, build others, and convert energy to help your body’s mechanical processes. Pastured chicken is an excellent source of protein for your body. One pastured chicken leg can provide you with 52 percent of your total daily protein needs, Protein is the building block of life and is absolutely crucial to the health of our bodies. Adequate protein from the diet allows us to have sufficient amino acids to build healthy bodies we all strive for! I hope you enjoy this recipe knowing you are supporting the health of your body!

Grain Free Sweet Potato Roti

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Grain Free Sweet Potato Roti’s

Ingredients

  • 1 large orange fleshed sweet potato or white sweet potato (white sweet potatoes are better if you want to use this recipe in a savoury application)
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 cup cassava flour plus additional flour for dusting
  • 1/4 cup ghee
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • optional – 1/2 tsp onion salt & 1/2 tsp of garlic salt

Procedure

  1. Preheat oven to 400F
  2. Poke sweet potato with a fork and place on a parchment lined baking tray. Bake for 50-60 min or until soft.
  3. Remove skin from sweet potato and mash with ghee. Add water, cassava flour and salt.  (and onion and garlic salt if using)
  4. Add flour to your counter top and roll out dough until it’s one inch thick. Use a small plate and cut around the plate to form uniform circles.
  5. Heat a cast iron skillet on low/medium and add additional flour to ensure the roti’s don’t stick. Cook for 10-12 per side or until golden brown. Fill with your favourite toppings.

Nutrition Tip

Orange fleshed sweet potatoes not only taste like dessert, they are also one of natures unsurpassed sources of beta carotene. Along with beta carotene, they contain a wealth of other orange hued carotenoid pigments. There are studies that show that sweet potatoes contain more bioavailable carotenoids than leafy green vegetables! When consumed regularly they have been shown to significantly raise blood levels of vitamin A. The fat that is included in this recipe will help get the full benefits of the beta carotene that is found in this delicious vegetable. This recipe can easily be used to satiate sweet or savoury cravings. I enjoy these roti with fresh berries and whipped coconut cream or with my favourite Indian beef with green peas. I hope you enjoy these as much as I do!

AIP Italian Pulled Pork Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

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AIP Italian Pulled Pork Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Serves – 6

Ingredients

  • 4 lbs pork shoulder roast, cut into large cubes
  • 2 Tbsp ghee, divided
  • 1/4 cup chicken stock
  • 1 large garlic bulb,  cloves removed and minced
  • 3 tsp sea salt, divided 
  • 2 Tbsp dried oregano
  • 3 Tbsp fresh oregano, chopped
  • 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
  • 6 garnet sweet potatoes, roasted
  • Sliced avocado for serving (optional)
  • Fresh lime juice for serving (optional)

Procedure

  1. Preheat oven to 375F
  2. Gather a large dutch oven and add 1 Tbsp of ghee. Once ghee is hot, add pork and season with 1 tsp sea salt, garlic, and dried oregano. Once pork has browned, using tongs flip each piece over and season again with 1 tsp sea salt, garlic and dried oregano. Add chicken stock to deglaze. Cover and simmer on low for 2 hours.
  3. While pork is cooking, prepare and cook your sweet potatoes. Rub 1Tbsp of ghee on the skin of each sweet potato. Stabb each potato with a knife on all sides. Season with sea salt and bake for 45-50 min or until soft.
  4. Shred pork and transfer to a serving platter. Stir in fresh oregano and fresh cilantro.
  5. Slice sweet potatoes down the middle and stuff with pulled pork. Top with avocado and a drizzle of lime and serve!

Nutrition Tip

Oregano is an herb that should definitely be added to your medicine cabinet. Oregano is not only delicious, it is also a powerful healing agent. There are over 40 varieties of oregano, but Origanum vulgare is the one most linked to health benefits. Fresh oregano is rich in phytonutrients like thymol and carvacrol, and is loaded with antioxidants that help prevent cell damage. Oregano is also a powerful antibacterial! Oregano is an excellent source of fiber, vitamin K, manganese, iron, vitamin E, tryptophan and calcium.  Those tiny, zero-calorie leaves pack so much nutrition! Enjoy all the healing benefits of Oregano in this delicious recipe!

Banana Almond Bread

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Almond Banana Bread

Yield- 1 large loaf

Ingredients

  • 8 ripe bananas
  • 6 medjool dates, pitted
  • 1 cup almond butter
  • 6 organic eggs
  • 1 cup chopped almonds (optional)
  • 1 tbsp pure vanilla
  • 1 Tbsp Ceylon cinnamon
  • Pinch sea salt
  • 1 1/2 cups Ottos Cassava flour ( this brand is not fermented)

Procedure

  1. Preheat oven to 325F
  2. Peel bananas and add to your food processor along with your dates, almond butter, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, and sea salt. Puree until completely smooth. Add cassava flour and chopped almonds if using. Pulse until flour and almonds are combined.
  3. Line a bread pan with parchment paper and pour batter into your pan, filling 3/4 full.
  4. Bake for 50-60 min or until done. Let bread cool before slicing.

Nutrition Tip

Dates are a delicious indulgence that have enormous health benefits. Dates are an excellent source of minerals like calcium, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, and manganese. Even though dates are incredibly sweet and decadent, they are rich in fibre and are considered a low glycemic index food, making them an ideal sweetener of choice for anyone who struggles with balancing blood sugar levels.

Root Vegetable Medley (Paleo, AIP, and Low Histamine)

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Root Vegetable Medley

Ingredients

  • 2 Tbsp ghee or coconut oil
  • 1 Tbsp dried thyme
  • 1 Tbsp dried sage
  • 1 Tbsp dried rosemary
  • 2 tsp sea salt
  • 1 celeriac root peeled and small diced
  • 1 white sweet potato, small diced
  • 1 garnet yam, small diced
  • 1 parsnip, small diced
  • 2 carrots, small diced
  • 1 red onion, small diced
  • 1 bunch parsley, chopped
  • 1 cup broccoli sprouts (optional)

Procedure

  1. Preheat oven to 375F
  2. Gather a large mixing bowl and combine all your vegetables. Drizzle with ghee, thyme, sage, and rosemary.
  3. Line two baking trays with parchment paper and scatter vegetables evenly on your trays. Sprinkle with sea salt and bake for 30 min or until done. Remove from oven and transfer to a serving bowl. Add chopped parsley and fold to combine. Top with broccoli sprouts and serve immediately.

Nutrition tip

Celeriac is a low carb alternative to potatoes and can be used to replace potatoes in almost any recipe. Celeriac root is a nutrition power packed root vegetable that is super charged with vitamins to support beauty, weight loss, and heart health. A single serving of celeriac root provides 80 percent of the RDA of vitamin K – a vitamin needed for strong bones, strong teeth, healthy blood clotting, and has been shown to protect against certain types of cancers. Celeriac root is also abundant in potassium which supports heart health, and  rich in vitamin C to support our immune health, skin health, and protect our cells from free radical damage.

Grain Free Nut Free Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies

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Grain Free Nut Free Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 cup Ottos cassava flour
  • 1 cup organic Tigernut flour
  • 1 cup organic gf/df chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup organic coconut shreds
  • 1 1/2 cups coconut sugar (for sugar free you can sub with 100 percent monk fruit with no fillers)
  • 2 pastured eggs
  • 1/3 – 1/2 cup ghee, melted
  • 1 Tbsp pure vanilla (alcohol free)
  • Pinch sea salt

Procedure

  1. Preheat oven to 325F
  2. Gather a large mixing bowl and combine all the dry ingredients.
  3. Add the wet ingredients and using your hands, knead dough until all ingredients have been combined. (you want a dry batter to prevent cookies from spreading while cooking)
  4. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and form dough into small balls. Spread out evenly on your baking tray and press down with a wet fork.
  5. Bake for 10 min or until golden. Let cool before transferring to a glass storage container. These cookies can be frozen for up to 2 months.

Nutrition Tip

Ottos cassava flour is a godsend if you are someone following a low histamine, MCAS friendly diet. Ottos cassava flour is the only cassava flour that I have found that is NOT fermented. Crazy huh? Who would have thought that a root vegetable flour would need to be fermented! Cassava is an excellent source of carbohydrates, fibre, vitamin C, thiamine, riboflavin, and niacin. This delicious root vegetable also contains 25 percent protein! No wonder this satiating food is a staple in so many parts of the world.

If you are looking for a sweet treat while following a therapeutic diet, look no further than these nutrient dense, flavourful cookies!

Yam Breakfast Custard

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Yam Custard

Serves – 2

Nutrition Tip

The smell of Cardamom reminds most of us of the Christmas season but when you find out about all the benefits of this power packed spice, you will be using this little seed to season your food all year long!

Cardamom contains an abundance of antioxidants that have been proven to lower inflammation, help fight cancer, assist in lowering blood pressure, aid in digestive problems, treat bad breath, and also help prevent cavities! The power of food as medicine never ceases to amaze me and that is why I am so excited to present to you this delicious recipe that is not only going to dazzle your taste buds, it is going to boost your health!

Ingredients

  • 1 large garnet yam, peeled and sliced
  • 1/4 cup coconut butter
  • 1/8 tsp cardamom
  • 1/8 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 tsp Ceylon cinnamon
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • Pinch sea salt
  • 1 cup full fat coconut milk, divided
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 1 cup blueberries
  • 1/4 cup coconut ribbons, toasted
  • 1/4 cup hemp seeds

Procedure

  1. Preheat oven to 375
  2. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and scatter sweet potatoes evenly on your tray. Bake for 30 min or until soft.
  3. Once sweet potatoes are done, transfer to a food processor and add coconut butter, egg yolks, vanilla, sea salt, cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon, and 1/2 cup of coconut milk. Process until smooth. Using a spatula, remove batter and spread evenly in a baking dish.
  4. Bake for 20 min or until slightly golden.
  5. Remove from oven and scoop into bowls. Top with additional coconut milk, blueberries, coconut ribbons, and hemp seeds.

Moroccan Brussels Sprouts

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Moroccan Brussels Sprouts

Nutrition Tip

It’s not just for taste alone that cumin has made it into the stellar ranks of Indian, Middle Eastern and Mexican cooking. Although cumin seeds look rather unassuming, this delicious spice packs an antioxidant punch and has anti carcinogenic compounds that have been shown to protect against stomach and liver cancer. Cumin seeds have traditionally been used to heal the digestive system, and scientific research is beginning to confirm cumin’s traditional reputation. Research has shown that cumin may stimulate the secretion of pancreatic enzymes, compounds necessary for proper digestion and nutrient assimilation.

If you are struggling with digestive problems or want to ward off cancer, try incorporating more cumin seeds into your life. They will no only benefit your health, but also make your food taste delicious!

Ingredients

  • 1 pound organic Brussels sprouts, washed and sliced
  • 2 Tbsp ghee or duck fat, melted
  • 1 Tbsp cumin
  • 1 Tbsp finely chopped ginger
  • 1 tsp sea salt ( I like Redmond Real Salt)
  • 1/2 cup fresh mint, chopped
  • 1/2 lime, juiced

Procedure

  1. Preheat oven to 400F.
  2. Gather a large mixing bowl and cover Brussels sprouts with ghee or duck fat, ginger, cumin, and sea salt.
  3. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and scatter Brussels sprouts evenly on your tray.
  4. Roast for 30 min or until golden brown.
  5. Remove from oven and top with fresh mint and a drizzle of lime juice.
  6. Serve with your favourite protein and enjoy!