Thursday, May 20, 2010

more raw creations:


Key lime and banana cream pie in a coconut date crust above.



some sumptuous salads.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Raw Vegan Pad Thai


Dinner tonight thanks to "Raw on $10 a Day"! They are here. This was delish-a-dish!!! Julienned carrots, zucchini, red bell pepper, home grown mung bean sprouts, green onions. and the amazing Pad Thai sauce! YUMMY!!!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Raw Vegan Tiramisu


To my great delight, Shane requested a raw cake for his birthday. I had lots of fun gathering the ingredients, and preparing this delicious Tiramisu. Everyone helped, and it was SO YUMMY!!! Made with homemade raw almond flour, raw almond milk, raw cacao, soaked cashews, coconut oil, dates, irish moss, and lots of other fun and unusual ingredients. The layers of cake, chocolate mousse, and coconut whipped cream were decadent, and the results were far beyond my expectations. :)

*We decorated it with raw cacao powder, cinnamon, raw sunflower seeds, goji berries, raw pumpkin seeds and chia seeds.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The tree branches...

My passion branches. There are so many things other than health that make my spirit soar. Like my children. My family. Homeschooling. So I considered starting another blog to focus on all these various passions, but alas, the simplicity of one journal wins out. So here I am! This page will now take on a different form. Less ranting, more passion. more hope. more joy! :)

These past several months have brought a lot of change to our household, and also to my heart. Last November, something clicked in me and I looked at my babies and saw that they are quickly changing into young men. My heart has been filled with joy to overflowing! My spirit has been awakened, and this fruit must be shared. When something overflows, you grab the nearest vessel to use as a catchment. My children are that vessel. They need me. And as long as they are in this nest, I will feed them. I realized how much I had turned away from them. Longing for my personal time. Waiting for them to walk out the door in the morning, heading for school. School was my great babysitter. I would take a deep breath and focus on me. What makes me feel great. But emptiness ensued. A few more quick years and, voila! they would be moved out. After all, it has only been a mere blink to get beyond this "halfway" point.

I NEVER thought I would home school my kids. I had my stereotypes, and my inadequacies. But one day, someone asked me if I would ever consider it. Suddenly it made sense for us. So much has happened since that day. So many things have fallen into place. So much wisdom has been shared and new friendships have formed. I feel more socially connected than I ever have. The home school community is alive and active and full of abundant resources that everyone I have met is more than willing to share.

Full speed ahead! I could write a hundred entries full of the exciting info that I have learned. Clayton (13), is already at home being "un-schooled", and starting this fall, I will have Elliot (9) at home as well. I have mentioned to some friends that it is as though a portal of learning has been opened to me. The furniture in my mind has been rearranged and I am actually seeing in a different way! The goal is to be intentional in every word, every action, every mistake, every day. The whole world is our classroom!!!

It is a challenge. A mountain to climb. And every day I get to a new lookout. A new perspective. The more I pour myself out, the more I am filled. And the more I am filled, the more I have to give. I look at our big table and think it's much too big for just the 4 of us. So God has us praying for those empty seats! (this is a blog entry for another day ;))

In all of this, my faith has been strengthened. God is so generous when we seek him out. He has endless storehouses of goods just waiting to share with those who are willing to ask Him and believe.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

The FDA makes me sick!

And it appears they are trying to make everyone sick. People, we need to wake up and smell the artificially enhanced everything!

It is disgusting to think of what is considered normal in our American Culture. It seems to have become some sort of joke.

It's an attitude of preferred oblivion. "Oh, I know it's bad for me, but everyone eats/drinks it... oh well haha!" Isn't this the type of peer pressure we learned to avoid in our youth?

With so many of our peers, most of our culture to be precise, climbing like sheep on board with what the FDA says is a-okay, we must look elsewhere for nutritional example and guidance. The importance of making informed decisions about these things is crucial.

Did you know that many countries in Europe have banned the use of artificial food coloring? The exact same ones we give our children everyday in so many forms? We must read the labels, because it is in the most unassuming foods.

Do you read ingredient labels? It is sort of like learning a foreign language with all of it's mystery. Shouldn't we know what these things are? I have been dutifully trying to avoid products with certain known harmful ingredients like monosodium glutamate (MSG) only to recently discover that it is also now known by several other names. Have a look here for a list.

Even many so called natural products (for example my former favorite, Lundbergs Rice Chips) contain torula yeast or yeast extract which are excitotoxins equivalent to MSG. No wonder I was addicted to these chips. Those favorite chips and crackers you buy at Costco... you better check the label. Anything you eat that has that wonderful savory flavor that is hard to stop eating, more than likely has MSG or MSG by another name. It is in many many many things.....

I could go on about the dangers of MSG/excitotoxins. Obesity, cancer, brain impairment... There is tons of info on the web.

Back to the whole point of today's entry... I got a little sidetracked. It has been discovered that there is mercury in corn syrup. This is nothing but pure evil. The FDA approves this. "Somethings rotten in Denmark" as my grandmother used to say...

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to STOP buying products with high fructose corn syrup. This would be a good place to start. Absolutely no one needs this stuff to survive. Indeed, quite the opposite is true. (more missions to follow... stay tuned!)

And, like Michael Pollan says, "If you are concerned about your health, you should probably avoid products that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a strong indication it's not really food, and food is what you want to eat."

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Well, after 2 hours with my mouth propped wide open and rubber dam in place, I am pleased as punch to say I have one quadrant of my mouth mercury free!!! I had originally thought I could handle having half of my mouth -upper and lower fillings evacuated at once, but I am so happy I decided to "bite off" a smaller chunk per visit.

It is an interesting procedure. They use some special vacuums to catch the toxic vapors as they drill the old fillings out.

I wish I had a before and after photo of the teeth. I am not doing this for cosmetic reasons, and hadn't even thought about the visual outcome, but they look so beautiful!!! You can't even see the new fillings. I am very impressed with Dr. Xu's work. (Dr. Xu is pronounced shoe,- it would be cool if it were pronounced chew!)

They gave me a blanket and some headphones and a remote to the t.v. suspended from the ceiling so I was able to watch the food network while they worked on my teeth. This made the time go much easier and faster.

Clayton just looked over my shoulder and said "who wants to know about that stuff?" haha! I suppose he has a point, but in case someone is interested, this is how it went! :D

Saturday, November 14, 2009

more on fragrances:

The link below, labeled "health risks from perfume", explains a bit on how different fragrances can affect the body. These fragrances are everywhere. As the previous post's video explains, they do not have to be individually labeled, but only the term "fragrance" placed on the list of ingredients. Candles don't have to be labeled at all. Make sure your holiday candles consist of natural essential oils. Fred Meyer's natural products department sells a nice brand called "Aroma Naturals" made with plant aromas and essential oils. Does anyone else know of any good ones?

link:
Health risks from perfume