Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Tomato Soup and Mango Salad Recipes

It's a beautiful summer day here in Arkansas. This morning I made some tomato soup in my Vitamix which I plan to have for dinner tonight. I will probably eat it cold, but if you prefer it warm you can warm it in the high speed blender.
Tomato Soup Recipe:
4 vine-ripened tomatoes
1/4 cup water
Juice of 1 lemon
4 stalks of celery
1 small sweet onion
4 little mini cucumbers
1 tsp chili powder
Blend in high speed blender until smooth.
Serve with chopped avocado mixed in.


Tomato Soup in the Vitamix ready to blend.

Tomato Soup after blending.

Tomato Soup ready to store in the refrigerator until dinner.

Food for the day. I started eating at 10:30. During the morning and at lunch I had watermelon and mango. Dinner was fresh orange juice and a salad made with iceberg lettuce, mango, cucumber, grape tomatoes, avocado, and paprika. Thanks to Louie Auslander for the salad inspiration. Also had dehydrated onion crackers. After dinner I had a fruit smoothie made with coconut water, bananas, dates, frozen mangoes and frozen mixed fruit.


Good post from Larry Simonis about emotional eating on his most excellent Facebook page:
EMOTIONAL EATING: Emotions trigger the old eating habits. The cravings kick in. When I overcame the cravings (via a 100% raw vegan diet and fasting) and got a handle on the emotions (via EFT/Tapping, "The Work" of Byron Katie, etc.), saw what was going on, and ALWAYS stayed 100% raw vegan no matter what, things started opening, the cravings (for the old crap; digestive flora calling for what it wants before they die out) eventually went away. Yes, I still eat emotionally at times, but if its fresh ripe juicy fruit, it really isn't a problem any more! And as time goes on, I do it less and less. I just sit with the feelings. The discomfort becomes not a problem. It shows the way. Om. 



To health and happiness.




Monday, June 26, 2017

How Much Fat is Low Fat

There is a debate about eating fats on a healthy diet. I have been on both sides of this discussion, but here's the thing.  I have done my best healing and weight control when I was eating controlled amounts of healthy fats with no refined fats.

2008-2009 was a time of tremendous healing for me. My diet included nuts and avocado; however, most of the diet was juice, smoothies, fruit, salad, homemade salsa, and a vegetable juice.

Not all avocados have the same fat content.  Avocados that are barely ripe have much less fat than avocados that are extremely ripe and soft.  Try to eat your avocados when they are just ripe enough to eat.

In 2011, I reached my lowest weight in decades while interning at the Clohesy River Health Farm. Our diet there included fats in the form of avocado, coconut, pecans, and sometimes a little nut butter.

At the farm our lunch was 4 or 5 servings of fresh fruit, 1/2 avocado, and 1/4 of a fresh coconut.  Our dinner was a salad made with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and celery, sauerkraut, 1/2 avocado, 3 dates, and about 16 pecan halves. Sometimes there would be a little lemon juice and olive oil for the salad.

I lost weight on that diet, but other contributing factors were that I  also worked on the farm about 3-1/2 hours a day and took a sunbath lying on a tarp on the ground on days when there was sun.

For me, I tend to wear any fats I eat in excess of the type and amount above. I just pack it on.  But when I eat the right carbs and the right fats, my body can use them and I have energy.  I feel good.

You really don't need more fat than that. When people ask you, "Where do you get your protein?", and they will, tell them you get all the protein and fats you need from plants.

A typical lunch at the Clohesy River Health Farm
Our goal is to learn to pack as much nutrition into every bite of food we consume as possible.  The ideal diet consists of everything you need and nothing you don't.  Even though you are not perfect yet, you can do better and better everyday.   If you only did what you already know to do, what a difference that would make.  Don't wait for the next research paper or the next best selling diet book. You can start today to live the simple, natural lifestyle according to hygienic principles. Adopting a more disciplined lifestyle is the best thing you can do to make the world a better place.

You don't need anyone to tell you how to live simply, nor do you need anyone's permission.  You can just go ahead and live that way without apology. Nothing is stopping you from practicing a healthier lifestyle right where you are.  This is the way of wisdom and ethics. Following natural law established by the Creator and nature gives you the best possible chance of living healthier and happier here on earth.

The current diet plan:
Lunch: Fresh coconut; 1/2 avocado; fresh fruit; green smoothie

Dinner: Veggie cocktail; sauerkraut; homemade dressing; rice crackers; 1/2 avocado (can use in the dressing); a few dates or pieces of dried fruit; a small bowl of nuts

If you want to include some cooked food...rolled oats with frozen wild blueberries and a little maple syrup; cooked beans; baked sweet potato or white potato; cooked greens; vegetable soup.  Occasionally a homemade veggie burger made from beans.

I still eat my popcorn.  I air pop it, spray it with Pam spray organic olive oil, and sprinkle it with nutritional yeast.

To health and happiness.


You can follow this blog on Facebook at Simple Raw and Natural

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

No More Excuses / Raw Corn Salsa

Travis bought these pretty Vinca's yesterday for our deck.  

 Hygienic principles are not such lofty principles that we must wait until some future time when the majority come to accept them and agree with them.  These principles are for us to use here and now.  You can't wait to change your own lifestyle until "everyone else" agrees.  It is not important what the masses of people believe and want to hear.  When you step up and began to embody the simple, natural lifestyle, it may well encourage someone else.

Even though your circumstances are not perfect, and misinformation abounds, you don't need to feel like you are a prisoner to culture.  I have used that as an excuse before, but no more excuses!! Take responsibility for your own health and lifestyle no matter what most people are doing. Raise the bar for everyone by showing a better way.  We already have access to enough knowledge, if we seek it out, to help us live happier and healthier than before.


Yum, My favorite!!!

It's easy to make ridiculously delicious raw food recipes when you use bases of nuts and seeds, avocados, and salt, but that is not where the real healing is found. The body will heal much better and faster on low fat.

Today was our raw food potluck.  I love this group of people, and the food is delicious, BUT most everyone is bringing something that will appeal to everyone.  It is mostly highly seasoned and loaded in fats.  After the raw food potluck, I always want to go lie down and rest.  So while the raw food potluck is fun, it is not the way I want to eat everyday.  My goal for next month is to find some low fat raw food dishes to share.

Raw foods group.


Here is my favorite dish I served today, and it does qualify as low fat. I made this the night before, except for the tomatoes, and let it sit in the refrigerator.  I added the tomatoes this morning.

Raw Corn Salsa


RAW CORN SALSA
1 package of frozen whole kernel corn, thawed
Juice of 2 limes
1/2 tsp pepper
Diced red onion
1 pint of cherry tomatoes, quartered
A little dried cilantro (or you can use some fresh)
            - Mix all together and serve.


This is a good no fat salad dressing from Tannyraw that you can make in a high speed blender.

MANGO DRESSING
1 carrot
2 stalks celery
2 stalks green onion
1 mango, cut off the seed
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp. of lemon pepper or other spice (opt)
2 handfuls of cherry tomatoes.
       Add a little water if needed for the consistency you want.
       Blend and serve with your salad.

I have a Vitamix blender which I have had for several years. If you can't buy a $500 blender right now, use the blender or food processor you already have.  Start where you are.

***

You can follow this blog on my Facebook page Simple Raw and Natural.

To health and happiness.

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Autoimmune Healing

Let's talk about healing autoimmune disorders.  Low fat vegan is the best way to heal any disease.

If your experience is like mine, you grew up eating hot dogs, boxed cereal, grilled cheese sandwiches, and such. In my family, we got Shipley's donuts every Sunday and had Fizzies to drink with our meals.  I loved them, but I don't think they loved me back.   Fizzies Drink

I have detested milk since I was 8 months old, so I dodged that bullet. My mother loved to cook, so we had the pleasure of her wonderful cooking...always with white Wonder Bread as an accompaniment.

Even as a child, my body was reacting to this diet. When I was nine years old, I was in the hospital with something that some called pneumonia and some called consumption.  I was sick for a whole summer and was given massive doses of antibiotics.  My body would erupt with boils which we called risons, and once with a carbuncle on my lip.

During my teen years, I had other dietary issues as my mom struggled to feed us on a waitress salary in our small southern town. During this time, we survived on partly southern cooking, partly Cokes and peanuts, and partly doing without.

But it was as I got older that the accumulation of uneliminated toxins began to manifest as disease. The doctors never gave a name to my symptoms, but they were legion. I had lower back pain and a stiff neck for months.  I could not sleep. I had plantar fasciitis. At various times I would have symptoms of a heart attack, but when I would go to the emergency room my heart was okay. I had a sensation of not being able to swallow. A twitch developed in my eye. My kidney hurt. I had no energy.  I was taking drugs for the symptoms, and I was getting worse every day.

My story turned around in the emergency room one day as I lay there, unable to breathe or swallow.  The doctor was not any help at all.  My daughter had arrived and was sitting with me. I told her, "They don't know". I told the doctor I was better and perhaps the sensation of not being able to swallow was from a medication I was taking. I left the hospital that day and have not been back to the doctor since then for anything other than blood tests.  And that is when I began in earnest to look for alternatives.

One particular night when I felt like my kidney would rupture and I would die, I prayed for wisdom to know what to do.  The answer came in the form of a strong thought the next morning, "Get out your Fit for Life books.  I found both of my books, Fit For Life and Fit For Life II, and began to read. I bought a juicer and changed my diet. I also began looking for a Natural Hygiene practitioner via the internet which led me to Dr. John Fielder, who runs the Clohesy River Health Farm near Cairns, Australia.  I have now studied with Dr. Fielder for several years and have interned at his farm for five months.

I sincerely want to help people. If you have a disease, and you are eating a normal American diet, then going low fat vegan will help you improve.  If you don't get the results you want then you will need to increase the percentage of low fat raw vegan food.  80% raw is a good percentage to aim for, but if you still have problems you will have to raise that percentage even higher.

Some people make the mistake of going raw but fall into the trap of using too many fats. I have done that myself. You can make delicious, exotic raw food using bases made of nuts and seeds and coconuts and avocados.  But for optimal healing, the holy grail is low fat high carb raw vegan. If you want to heal from chronic diseases, including autoimmune disorders, this will give you the best chance of success.

It takes some time.  It took the disease many years to manifest with chronic symptoms, and it will take time to eliminate it. But the good news is that you will begin to improve immediately.

I will be sharing some menu plans and recipes with you, although, I do not like to make exotic, complicated raw dishes. For everyday, I usually eat about the same thing everyday, but for our raw food potlucks I like to make something special.  I will share those recipes, too.

Don't give up. There is a way to be better. Fruits and vegetables are everywhere. You can order a big salad at the restaurant and tell them specifically what you want on it.

Start where you are and don't worry about comparing yourself to where someone else is on their journey.  This is your journey to walk out for yourself.  You can change your diet and lifestyle and change your life. No question about it.  You have to change your thought patterns and your lifestyle or you won't change at all. All the talk about gradual change and transitional dieting is just a smoke screen for procrastination. You either change now or you don't change at all. The possibilities are here and now, not in the future.  So let's do it!

Dinner.  The green salad is baby lettuces from the farmer's market, cucumber, Bubbies dill pickle, green onions, tomatoes, and black pepper.  The dressing is wine vinegar, dijon mustard, and Worcestershire sauce
The soup on the side is the blended salad recipe I linked to in yesterday's blog.
Also, I had Edwards rice crackers and dried prunes for dessert.

Walking the dog.  Walking is good exercise which is crucial for healing.


To health and happiness.


Monday, June 19, 2017

Low Fat Raw Vegan Diet

Based on my experience, our best shot for optimum health in the climate and culture in which we are living is the high carb low fat raw vegan diet in conjunction with a simple, natural, biogenic lifestyle that harmonizes with natural law.

It is my desire to help people by sharing the diet and lifestyle that helped me lose 40 lbs. and to heal from an undiagnosed debilitating condition that left me making multiple trips to the emergency room and doctor's office. I was at the point of not being able to function and had almost given up hope of every being able to recover.  I was almost bed-ridden.

I have been eleven years on this quest for health via natural living, diet, and raw foods. My plan is to share even more lifestyle tips, exercise tips, and recipes.  I was 58 years old when I began this journey, and I am 69 years old now. It has not been a straight path, because I have stumbled many times, but, nevertheless, I am still here, still standing, and determined to carry on.  I want to encourage you that if you are ill and/or older in years, this manner of living will work for you and give you the best chance of a healthier life.

Common sense tells us that the concepts taught in Natural Hygiene regarding living the simple, natural lifestyle are true, but, even so, most people are not ready to receive them.

Change is difficult because we have been programmed to think a certain way. These habitual patterns are not easy to break, because they give us a sense of belonging, comfort, and security; however, they also shield us from new ideas and new ways of doing things. Most people resist change, because it interferes with their perception of "reality".

For several days I have been meditating for an hour first thing in the morning and then walking four miles.  Today I began to train for a 5K race using the 5K Runner app. After my training session, I continued with my walking in order to get in my 4 miles.  It will be fun if some of my friends or family would also like to train to run some 5K races.  My inspiration is coming partly from reading A Race for Life by Ruth E. Heidrich, PhD.

My food for this morning :  mangoes, watermelon; celery spears; lemonade; green smoothies.

LEMONADE:
In a quart jar squeeze the juice of one lemon.  Add 1 Tbsp. stevia or other sweetener and water.

GREEN SMOOTHIE:
1 can coconut water
2 scoops chia seeds
3 handfuls of kale
3 bananas
almost a pint of blueberries
frozen mixed fruit to fill up the blender
     -Blend until smooth and serve.

Lunch


This afternoon I plan to make some dehydrated crackers for our raw foods potluck on Wednesday.
Here is the recipe I plan to use, although I will probably double it.

CORN ONION CRACKERS
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
2 cups frozen whole kernel corn, thawed
1 large onion
3 Tbsp. lemon juice
     Blend all together in the Vitamix.  Add a little water if necessary in order to get it to blend.
     Pour onto Teflex sheets on your dehydrator trays and score to make the crackers easier to break apart.
     Dehydrate at 110-115 degrees until the crackers are firm enough to flip over.
     Flip over on a dehydrator without a Teflex sheet and continue dehydrating until they are crispy.

My plan for dinner is a big green salad, the blended salad recipe I have posted before, and some crackers.  Cooked foods will be leftover garbanzo beans and roasted potatoes in case anyone feels like they need something cooked.

Here is a link to a blog post with the blended salad recipe.
http://www.simplerawandnatural.com/search?q=blended+salad



To health and happiness.






Monday, May 22, 2017

Eliminating Stress and Raspberry Mango Ice Cream

Stress is a big factor in health and healing.  While communicating with a friend the other day and giving her a list of the principles to practice in order to regain her health, she said, "You said eliminate all stress".  Out of all the things on the list, this one stood out as being the most difficult to achieve.

It is possible to eliminate a great deal of the negative stress you experience.  When I was given this principle, I was addicted to the news and was worrying every day on how my "party" could take over and make the world better.  How was I to eliminate stress?  I looked around at my then five-year-old granddaughter and asked myself, "What is she worrying about?"   I decided to be like her, so I turned off the news, exited my attachment to either major political party, and put my focus on things within my control.  I honestly believe, that the other things will take care of themselves if we do the work on ourselves.  Change yourself...change the world.

Another way to eliminate stress is to let go of placing expectation on other people.  It is a great source of stress when you are trying to make other people do or be a certain way.  It is manipulative, and it is stress producing for you and them.  Place your expectations on yourself to make the world better by making yourself better...and healthier.

According to Dr. Keki Sidhwa, in his wonderful book, The Quintessence of Natural Living for Health and Happiness, we can take control of our lives by seeking variety and not letting ourselves get into a rut and by being interested in life.  It helps to be poised and cheerful.  We can learn to take what life brings, whether it be joy or sorrow, good or bad, with calmness.

It is important not to bottle up our emotions.  Exercise is a good release of the frustrations and anxiety that may show up. Regular exercise makes us stronger and, at the same time, releases emotional tension.

It is okay to be assertive and speak up against injustice and unfairness in a quiet and dignified way...at the right time, in the right way, to the right person.  We can let out steam without scorching the other. We are hoping to reach a stage of mental composure so that we can deal with our irritations in a dignified way.

Time management is important in eliminating stress. You can't be in two places at the same time, and you can't do two things at the same time...no matter what they say about multi-tasking. If you try it, you will wear yourself out.  We need to make the best use of the time we have and set our priorities to do the most important things....the things that have the most potential...first.

In Natural Hygiene, we talk about enervation playing a factor in illness. Excess stimulation produces stress and is enervating.  Entertainment that has loud or discordant noises, violence, crime and tragedy induces stress.

Regularly schedule 30 minutes or an hour of quiet time where you can pray, meditate, or walk. This is one of the practices for a healthy lifestyle.

Practice seeing only the good in all around you and turn a blind eye to the bad. Stop judging. A positive attitude is essential for eliminating stress.It is a complete change in lifestyle that focuses on concern for the needs of others. Hate causes stress and love eliminates it. What if you really did love your neighbor as yourself?

One of the main qualities needed for coping with stress is gratitude. Always think of how you can be thankful. Give up trying to get revenge.

Exercise and meditation are two sides of the same coin. Kevin Black, from Unlabel Yourself, reminded us this morning that the body benefits from movement and the mind benefits from stillness. To be whole, we must take care of our body and our mind.

We are here to grow in love. That is our challenge, and to live the simple natural lifestyle is part of answering that challenge. It is a simple way of living powerfully.

So let's just do it!

Here is a simple recipe for you...two ingredients...a real treat:

RASPBERRY MANGO NICE CREAM
1 package frozen raspberries
2 packages frozen mango

Let the raspberries thaw, then blend until liquidy.  Put in a bowl and set aside.

Place the frozen mangos in your high speed blender or food processor.  Add just enough water to make it blend.  Blend until creamy.

Put some of the raspberry on the bottom of your serving bowl.  In a mixing bowl, mix  the rest of the raspberry in with the mango until it is marbelized.  Put the mango/raspberry mix in the bowl that has the  raspberry bottom.

Keep in the freezer until ready to serve.



To health and happiness.

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Planning a Trip

Herbs for the Green Smoothies!

I met my sister, Sheila, and my friend, Rebecca, at Barnes and Noble in Little Rock to have a little trip planning meeting.  Whenever I anticipate the trip, it makes me feel happy.  Our plan is to do three days in Paris seeing the sights, and then take the train to our beloved Chateauroux where we will join in with our friends and other local people to celebrate a week-long festival called American Week.  It will be a special time for all of us.  When we leave Chateauroux, our plan is to go to Eindhoven, Netherlands, for a week, and use that location for a base point to visit some battlefields and meet with the historians that are familiar with the history of the Lucky Seventh and the Battle of Overloon, where our uncle, George A. Meece, was killed.  We also plan to make some day trips to some surrounding cities.

The meeting went well.  We had originally decided to use Nijmegen as our base, but then switched to Eindhoven.  We also decided to fly home from Eindhoven instead of going back to Paris to fly home.


So....the food I had yesterday:
Morning: Freshly squeezed orange juice

Lunch at Barnes & Nobel: Coffee and a pretzel

Dinner:  Veggie Cocktail; Sauerkraut; Green Salad: Salad Dressing leftover from previously; Rice Crackers; Purple Hull Peas; Onion; Baked Sweet Potato Wedges.

Dessert: Kombucha, Lara Bar


To health and happiness.

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Raw Vs Local and Dealing with Stress

I have been having a mental debate over the benefits of eating local vs eating raw.  Since I live in Arkansas, in a temperate climate, rather than in a tropical region, I began toying with the idea that there may be more virtue in eating what grows locally.  It sort of made sense, as past generations of my family have survived on such foods as dried beans and canned goods that were stored up for the winter during the growing season. They also depended on killing animals in order to eat.  Now there is nothing wrong with survival, in fact, I recommend it, but we are looking for more than survival. We are looking for optimum health, vitality, and mental clarity, are we not?  I experimented a bit.  I made a pot of dried beans and a pan of cornbread using almond milk.  Honestly, I had less energy, and it set of a host of cravings for cooked, energy draining foods. It has taken me several days to get my bearings, again.  My conclusion is that it is better to eat mostly raw local foods when available and imported raw foods when necessary.

Raw Freedom is a book by Frederic Patenaude that offers insight on how to achieve the benefits of the raw food diet in a less restrictive way. There are two benefits we are looking for by eating raw: good energy and avoiding degenerative diseases. Most of us can achieve those benefits with a diet that is 75% raw....maybe even 50%. My personal goal is to be 75-80% raw by having juices, smoothies, fruit, and salads. 
If you intend to eat a combination of raw and cooked foods, then it is better to eat some cooked everyday rather than binging on cooked every now and then. Consistency is key for optimum digestion. We are looking for a balance to receive the benefits of raw while enjoying the celebration of life that takes place around food.
Here is a meal plan that meets the goal of 80% raw:

Mornings:  Lemongrass tea; fresh orange juice or fresh apple juice.  You can get a good centrifugal juicer for about $100.  You can get a good citrus juicer for less. I found my citrus juicer at an estate sale.

Lunch:  Get in your fruit and greens with a green tropical smoothie; other fruit you have available; 1/2 avocado; coconut; maybe an apple with some raw almond butter

Dinner:  Veggie cocktail made by juicing carrots, beets, celery, bell pepper and apple; sauerkraut; a big green salad; a healthy salad dressing; ; some rice crackers; a cooked food if desired...either beans, potatoes, sweet potato, steamed vegetable, or a simple soup...but eat the raw foods first or eat the cooked foods mixed in with the raw.  You can mix some baked potato in with your salad.

Dessert can either be a handful of nuts and dates or a couple of goody balls, or even a Lara Bar.

This week's grocery haul.  I spent $176.00.  Let's see how long we can make this last if we try not to waste any food.

Lesson from the Quintessence of Natural Living:
Still looking at handling stress.  There are practical things we can do to help us deal with stress.  Here are a few:
1. Be realistic. Don't magnify your problems.  Everyone has disappointments in life.  None of us succeed every time we try something.  Even though we face serious problems, the solutions must come through emotional maturity, counseling, and taking control of your own life. Don't complain. Focus on the reward. There are things we can do to make a difference.
2. Don't get into a rut.  One-sidedness is never the answer.
3. Be interested in life and your purpose.
4. Be happy...poised and cheerful.
5. Don't suppress your emotions.  It is better to bring negative emotions to the surface, acknowledge them and let them be defused in healthy ways.  Exercise has been proven to help release emotional tensions.  Assertiveness is a good thing.

Carrot seeds - Purple Sun - Very rare.  I hope they will come up.
I am focusing on getting in my steps....10,000 per day.  I got in 13,000 steps on Monday, and 11,786 steps yesterday!  Yay!

I am planning a trip to Europe in September, so while getting in my steps I am trying to learn French on Duolingo.  Duolingo says I am 40% fluent in French, but there is no way that is correct. I am also, on a less intense scale, trying to learn some Dutch words.  Also, while walking I am listening to an audio book.  Just started A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas.

Food for the day:

Breakfast: Lemongrass tea; fresh apple juice; organic oatmeal, fresh strawberries

Lunch: Green smoothies for 2 (herbs from the garden, coconut water, 2 bananas, 2 kiwi, 1/4 pineapple, 16 strawberries); 1/2 avocado; 1 mango; 1/8 watermelon

Sunbath!!!

Dinner: Veggie cocktails for 2 ( 1/2 beet; 1/2 small bag of carrots; 1 bunch of celery hearts; 2 small tri-color bell peppers; 1 small apple); sauerkraut; green salad) romaine, salad cucumber, green onions, tomato); salad dressing (juice of a lime, apple cider vinegar, water, olive oil, salt, pepper); organic corn chips; purple hull peas, fried onions.

For dessert I had kombucha and a Lara Bar.

Notes on the food:  I feel better without the oatmeal in the mornings, the organic corn chips are too high in salt and fat which makes them quite addictive, and the fried onions are too high in fat.  I should have "fried" them in water instead of coconut oil.


To health and happiness.


Tuesday, April 18, 2017

The Right Amount of Tension Produces Music!

I bought groceries at Walmart and spent $128.59.  There are a few items that I personally will not eat, but this is for the household.  This total also included two packages of chicken strips to dehydrate for Lucy.  So far she is liking the dehydrated chicken...since she would not eat the vegetarian dog food I made we are trying the raw chicken approach.  She is eating it pretty good.  I marinated it in Yacon syrup, lemon juice, and Italian seasoning and then dehydrated it overnight.

Tomorrow the Hot Springs Village Raw Food Group meets for our monthly potluck at our house.  I watched some Fully Raw Kristina videos to get some recipe ideas and decided to make Raw Vegan Tabbouleh, Vegan Ranch Dressing, Carrot Bacon, Raspberry Coconut Lemonade, and Creamy Lemon Garlic Pasta Alfredo.  Everyone is welcome to our potlucks.  Message me if you want to come.  Each person attending must bring a raw food dish to share or pay $5.00.  We may have someone talking to us about crystal mining tomorrow....it's not definite.  Either way, it will be a wonderful time of sharing.

After I decided on my recipes, Travis had to go to Food Wise and buy a few more grocery items.  He got cut flowers, lemons, parsley, and green onions.  Add to the grocery haul total - $14.38.

We finally got to try out our new coconut tool.  I cracked a coconut we bought last week at Food Wise, and then Travis used the tool to remove the coconut meat.  Travis said it worked better than anything he had ever tried before.  Here is the link to the one I bought:
Coconut Tool


Enjoying the early morning air.
Lesson from The Quintessence of Natural Living:
According to Keki Sidhwa, while the amount of stress to which we are exposed is increasing, our ability to handle stress is decreasing. Our modern lifestyle is causing our physical vitality and our mental and emotional strength to go down.  When we eat right and have better nutrition, we can withstand stress with more tranquility and poise.

Modern foods that are high in sugar rob us of B Vitamins which increases the likelihood of a nervous breakdown.  Overcooked foods that are deficient in minerals are another factor.  Sedentary habits and lack of exercise in the fresh air and sunshine rob our strength to face stress.  Drugs, including tobacco, alcohol. medicines, tea, coffee, and chocolate contribute to the problem.  Another culprit is getting caught up in the rat race and placing importance on false values.

The number one way to cope with the pressures of life is to relax and learn from our mistakes. Recreation is an essential part of a balanced life. It's important to have a change in activity.  If you work outside using physical labor, then you need poetry, music, and art to balance your life. If you work inside at a desk or doing creative work, then you need exercise and activity to find the balance.

The way to combat stress involves changing your mind and reorganizing your priorities.  Stress will always be part of life, because it is necessary in order to bring out your best.  Just like with the strings on the violin, though, there has to be the right degree of tension in order for the music to be produced.  You need enough stress to make your life interesting, but not enough to break you down.

Coming home.
Food prep for the day:
Lemongrass tea
Veggie cocktails for 2 ( 1 small package of carrots, 1 beet, 1 bunch of celery hearts, 1 apple)
Blended Salad ( 1 bunch of celery hearts, 1 tomato, 3 mini tricolor bell peppers, 1 small head of romaine lettuce, juice of 1 lemon, 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast, 3 Tbsp of sauerkraut)

MORNING: Lemongrass tea

LUNCH: green smoothie leftover from day before; watermelon; 1/2 avocado; walnuts

DINNER: veggie cocktail, blended salad; leftover fennel bean burger patty served on romaine leaves with sliced tomato, onion, and Bubbies dill pickles and a little mustard; leftover steamed potato, Kombucha, and a Lara Bar.

To health and happiness.

Monday, April 17, 2017

Avoid All Negative Stress


I made juices on Sunday morning.  Looks like Easter.

I watched a John Kohler video yesterday about how he saves $1000 a month on his fresh produce.  Every month he drives four hours to the Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Terminal where he fills up his vehicle with boxes of fresh produce.  While that is not an option for me, there were some good ideas that make sense for getting the most out of my food dollar.

My best option will be to shop at my Walmart and Food Wise, maybe start checking out Sam's club, and shopping the farmer's market.  My favorite takeaway points from the video were:
 - Go through the berries or other produce when you get home and remove any that are bad or starting to go bad
- Check the fruit and veggies every day
- Whatever is about to go bad is what you eat that day
- If more of the produce is about to go bad than you can eat today then either freeze it, juice it, or dehydrate it.

The subject of biophotons is one that I want to explore.  John Rose said the only law we need in order to have a better life and a better world is to require everyone to have a minimum biophoton level.  The way we raise our biophoton level is to eat fresh, ripe, raw fruits and vegetable.  Eat the light.

No negative stress on this rainy day.

Lesson from The Quintessence of Living:
Stress is part of life.  It is the degree of stress that determines whether it affects your wellbeing. Too much stress can make you sick with high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes, migraines, and a host of other ailments. It can also cause emotional sickness  such as depression, insomnia, and tiredness.

Stress can keep us from being able to cope with our problems, and it can lead to drug and alcohol abuse.  It can lead to health problems and family problems.

We need to know how to deal with stress rather than just suppressing our anger, or worrying about how to make ends meet, or running crazily on the hamster wheel of success.

Stress does not have to be a negative thing.  We can control how we react to stressful situations by controlling our minds and emotions. We will have stress as long as we are alive.  Positive stress is stress that pushes us to perform at our very best, or that protects us in dangerous situations.  But it becomes debilitating is we feel this pressure so frequently that the body becomes enervated.

One of the principles of healing is to avoid stress.  What can you do to avoid unnecessary stress?

Getting low on produce.  Time to go grocery shopping.

Food prep for the day:
Made juices:
celery juice; apple juice; veggie cocktails (broccoli stems, pear, beet, carrots, celery); orange juice.

Made green smoothies: herbs from garden, 3 bananas, 1/4 papaya, can of coconut water, frozen tropical fruit, blueberries

We drove to Magazine for church with the family.  I had lemongrass tea and celery juice before we left and an orange juice on the way.

LUNCH:  I didn't eat at church.  On the way home I had apple juice, a green smoothie, and some tropical trail mix.

DINNER:  Veggie cocktail, blended salad left from the day before, chia seed crackers, and some garbanzo beans I cooked the day before.

To health and happiness.


Sunday, April 16, 2017

Natural Hygiene For Success


This coming week is going to be busy.  We have our raw foods group at our house on Wednesday, and Wednesday afternoon I will be driving towards Houston, Texas to see my grandson, Caleb,  compete at the world robotics championship.  My son, Harris, is one of the mentor's for the team.  They will be competing for three days, but I can only be there for Thursday.

It takes planning to travel and stay on point with your healthy lifestyle, but it can be done.  The point is to arrive at your destination with enough energy to enjoy yourself.  I plant to take some snacks with me, stop when I need to stretch, and to enjoy the journey as well as the destination.

I will probably take some leftovers from the raw foods potluck, maybe some juices and a smoothie.  I may take some blueberries, a package of some romaine, a grapefruit, and some sunflower seeds.  My plan is to listen to an audio book, have my snacks, and think some good thoughts.

This is the patio set we bought at the estate sale.

Lesson from The Quintessence of Natural Living:
Whenever we notice that we are in a bad mood, worried, low in self-confidence, or worried about the future, we can think about where we may have gone wrong in our way of living and make sure if we may be the cause of our problem.  If we discover that we are the cause...either in our thoughts or our actions...we can let our intuition guide us to the solution. First though, we have to be ready and willing to look for the cause of emotional issues within ourselves...in our thoughts and actions just as we look for the cause of our physical diseases in the mistakes we have made with our diet, lack of fresh air, enervation, etc.

Once we are ready to accept the blame ourselves, the solution to our problem will inevitably reveal itself. When we think about our mistakes and resolve to accept the blame without blaming others or circumstances, we will be putting ourselves into true relation with natural law.

The body is capable of recovering its health once you can see the true causes and have removed the obstructions, and it will work the same way with mental and emotional problems, too.  The same law works through all, and the way of success is to cooperate with that law.  Nature always works in the same way, and the same principles operate on every plane of life.  We must resolve to work in cooperation with Nature in whatever we are doing.  That is the only way to succeed.

The problem with alternative medicine or holistic medicine is that too much emphasis is placed on therapeutics and very little on education. Natural Hygiene, on the other hand, is all about education of the patient.  It tells us to stop harming ourselves and others and our environment and learn to do good.  The alternative medicine approach confuses people who are looking for a way out of the medical modality.  They get sidetracked into trying homeopathic remedies, reflexology, acupuncture, vitamins, minerals, hypnosis, macrobiotics, transcendental meditation, Silva mind control, and on and on so that the patient runs from one technique to another.

Most modern naturopaths have no knowledge of Natural Hygiene principles and practices.  They often do not know of Dr. H. M. Shelton, James C. Thomason, Stanley Lief, and the other knowledgeable pioneers of true Nature Cure.  My own teacher is Dr. John Fielder.

Travis' avocado tree he is growing in a pot.

Another view of the avocado tree...grown from a seed.

Food prep for the day:

Made Teechino - an herbal coffee substitute.

We had a family dinner at Ken and Molly's house yesterday.  We were celebrating Easter and Ken and Braeden's birthday.  They were grilling hamburgers and hotdogs and veggie burgers.  I made some veggie burger patties and carried them to the party.



FENNEL BEAN BURGERS
1 can salt free black beans, rinsed
1 can salt free garbanzo beans, rinsed
1 cup oats
1/4 cup water
2 cloves garlic
1/2 Tbsp fennel
1/2 Tbsp paprika
1 bell pepper, chopped
1/2 white onion, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine all ingredients in your food processor and blend until well combined. If mixture is too wet, add more oats.

Form into patties. This makes 8 large burgers. Place on non stick sheet and put in the oven for 20 minutes. Flip and cook another 15 minutes. 

LUNCH: green smoothie; apple with almond butter; grapefruit

DINNER: fennel bean burger pattie served on romaine lettuce leaves with mustard, tomato, onion, and bubbies dill pickles; organic tortilla chips

Note:  This meal had too much salt due to the chips.  Don't like the results I got from eating them.

To health and happiness.

Braeden's nectarine tree is loaded with nectarines.


Saturday, April 15, 2017

Knowledge is Power

One of the principles of living your best life is to make your surroundings as beautiful as you can. We made an offer on a nice wrought iron patio set yesterday at an estate sale  We have had some cheap green plastic Adirondack chairs and a green plastic table on our lower deck for a couple of years, and they were nice and looked pretty, but every time the wind would blow they would end up out in the woods.  The last storm demolished them to the point we have one chair left.  The umbrella ended up in a tree!  The estate sale people called yesterday evening and informed us that we won the bid, so we will be going to pick up our new patio set this morning.  Our lower deck will once again be a nice place to sit and enjoy the beauty of our surroundings.

A tip for a snack while traveling.  You can buy chia seeds at Walmart or your grocery store in small packs or in larger packages.  You can also buy pomegranate juice.  Put your water in a large cup, add some pomegranate juice, maybe even some super green powder that you can carry with you, and pour in the chia seeds.  After it sets up for a few minutes, you can either eat it with a spoon or drink it down.

John Rose explained that we all have a base of knowledge, but we don't have all knowledge.  Think about what you know as being represented by a circle that is within all the knowledge there is.  Outside your circle is everything you don't know that you don't know.  The line that defines your circle represents everything you know you don't know.  The bigger your circle of knowledge, the line also gets bigger and there will be more that you know you don't know.  That is what motivates us to apply the knowledge we have and to learn and grow.  We need to know more and more about how to live, and how to satisfy our needs, and how to learn the consequences of right and wrong actions.  We know we don't have all knowledge, because we still have problems.  When we have the knowledge and we are willing to apply it, we will have fewer problems.

A view from our deck.
Lesson from the Quintessence of Natural Living:
Natural Hygiene is not a system of cures to replace the medical modality.  It is an alternative to medicine, not alternative medicine. Natural Hygiene teaches fasting, diet, rest, sunshine, fresh air, etc., but these are not for the cure of disease.  It is deeper than that, because it is a complete way of living.  The more we learn to cooperate with natural law the better life we will have. It is not just a way to cure whatever sickness your are experiencing.

It is true that cooperating with Nature can "cure" your disease, but it will also be beneficial in every facet of your being. Natural Hygiene is in fact a philosophy of life that is to be followed every day whether you are sick or not.

Disease does not just happen by accident; there is always a cause.  When the cause is eradicated, the disease can be removed.  Fasting, rest, good diet, fresh air, exercise all help the body to repair, regenerate and heal, and it also helps the illness of mind and spirit.

It is empowering to finally be able to admit that our sufferings are due to our mistakes in living, because then we can accept the responsibility to try and correct them.
We bought this beautiful arrangement at our local Walmart.
Food prep for the day:
Green smoothies for 2 - herbs from the garden, 2 bananas, some spring mix, 3/8 papaya, 3/8 pineapple, 1 can coconut water, 2 scoops chia seeds.

Salad for Travis - spring mix, onion, cucumber, tomato.  He added a can of tuna.

Blended salad for me - tomato, cucumber, lemon juice, 3 mini tricolor peppers, 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast, 1 bunch celery hearts, 1 small head of romaine, 2 Tbsp sauerkraut

Heated up a can of no salt added black beans.

LUNCH: green smoothie; 2 mangos; 1 pink lady apple with almond butter; 1/2 avocado with grated coconut; 1/2 grapefruit

DINNER; blended salad; kombucha; chia seed crackers; steamed potatoes left over from yesterday; black beans; onion

To health and happiness.

Friday, April 14, 2017

Rewiring the Brain

Here's to a good Friday on this lovely Good Friday.  I believe we can stay on our healthy life plan and celebrate the holiday with our friends and family.  Holidays can be one of the triggers to keep us stuck in our old way of thinking and being.

It takes time...and willpower and intelligence...to undo programmed thinking.  I heard Joe Dispenza speak at a conference last year where he taught on neuroscience and about how you can rewire your brain. You literally have to rewire your brain to create different results in your life.  I read his book, Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, which tells you how to eliminate bad habits by reprogramming your thinking.  Once the brain is rewired, you develop a whole new set of references and the triggers that jerk your chain come undone.  Some habits take a long time to undo, but cooked foods may be the hardest.  There are triggers of smell and culture that have a very strong pull.  Most of us were fed cooked food from birth.  But the good news is that the more you use your intelligence and will power to eat a proper diet, the more the old program will become irrelevant until it no longer exists.

A view of our backyard garden.

Another view of our backyard garden.
Lessons from The Quintessence of Living.
Simple Raw and Natural refers to your way of living as a philosophy.  We are not trying to sound intellectual, because we are not talking about philosophical theories that are taught at university.  We are talking about a philosophy of living that is needed to help you get along in the world and to make your life have value.

A philosophy of living is not mysterious or something remote from your everyday life.  Everyone must have a reason for living...a philosophy of living...if they want to live the best possible life.  Your philosophy helps you set your boundaries and plan how you are to navigate through life.  Without it, you will tossed to and fro with every competing idea that presents itself. 

A philosophy of living is a set of principles which will help you journey through life.  The results you get will be determined by what those principles are and how you apply them.  Natural Hygiene has established and proven principles of living that are worthy of your consideration. They can help you make your life more worthwhile while addressing the question of the cause of your diseases and the recovery from those diseases.

Lively Kombucha from The Superior Bath House Brewery in Hot Springs.

Food Prep for the Day:
I made chia crackers for the dehydrator.

Chia Crackers
2 cups chia seeds
9 cups water
Rosemary to taste
1 lemon, juiced
Chopped chives
Put all together into a mixing bowl.  Stir or whisk together and then let sit for ten minutes or more until the chia seeds absorb much of the water. 
Pour onto Teflex sheets and dehydrate at 110 degrees for at least two hours.  
Flip the crackers onto a tray without a Teflex sheet and dehydrate a few more hours until crispy.
I dehydrated mine overnight.

Green Smoothie for 1: Herbs from the garden including purslaine and dandelion, 1 banana, 1/8 papaya, 1/8 pineapple, 1/2 cup frozen wild blueberries, 1/2 cup frozen mixed fruit, water)

Salad for dinner: spring mix, cucumber, tomato, onion, olives, Bubbies pickle

Steamed some Irish potatoes and heated up a can of organic garbanzo beans.

Lunch: Green smoothie; 1 grapefruit; 1 Pink Lady apple with raw almond butter; almonds

Dinner: Salad; raw vegan sauce I made the day before; sauerkraut; kombucha; dehydrated crackers left from raw foods last month; potatoes; garbanzo beans


My new coconut tool.  As soon as I get to the store to get fresh coconut, I will be trying this out.


To health and happiness.

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Happy in the Garden

Yesterday I worked in the garden instead of walking around the neighborhood.  It is a different feeling. It's true that I only got in about 6500 steps by the end of the day instead of over 10,000, but it was a different feeling.  Travis planted some tomatoes and peppers, I cleaned the lower deck and pulled some weeds.  Lucy dug in the dirt and felt so happy.  I felt the same way.
Working in the garden makes you feel happy and productive.
I was puzzled by a plant growing in the herb garden as a weed.  I started pulling them out but decided to check if they are edible.  Edible weeds, such as dandelion,  can be used in our smoothies.  I put a picture on Facebook to ask for help identifying the weed, and the consensus is that it is plantain.  Some say edible and some say not, but I am inclined to think that it is edible.  My brother, Max, lives up in the mountains, and his neighbor says it is edible and the smallest leaves are best with a buttery taste.  He says you can also eat the seeds.  The plant is considered to be medicinal and can be used to stop bleeding.
Plaintain
Lesson from The Quintessence of Natural Living.
If we are to survive and thrive, we must get back to nature. We live in stressful times, and it has been found that people who eat a high raw diet can better deal with stress.  People who eat raw foods recover faster from jet lag, so it is a good idea to only eat fresh fruit before traveling and on the day of travel.  Raw food balances your body chemistry which helps keep you calm and healthy.

If you are always tired, with not enough pep and vigor, then switch to a natural hygiene diet of 75-80% raw fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, and sprouts and see how much better you feel in a few weeks. Raw foods have a high potassium and magnesium content.

I would like to inspire you to stick to a hygienic lifestyle and diet.  Let your main meal be fresh fruit or a vegetable salad.  Keep the cooked food to only 20% of your total diet.  Eat most of your food raw, and you will need less food.  One third of what you eat keeps you alive, the other two thirds keep the doctors alive.  Grow as much food as you can and shop at the local farmer's markets in your town.  Ask the growers if they spray with chemicals.

Cook your food as quickly as possible and in as little water as possible.  Steaming is a good way to cook.  Don't eat more than one cooked meal per day.  Say no to the things that are killing you.
Juices for the day.  Celery, apple, orange, veggie cocktail.

Food prep for the day:
Lemongrass tea.

Made juices:
Celery Juice for 2 - Used 2 bunches of organic celery hearts
Veggie Cocktails for 2 - (1 bunch celery, 1 beet, 4 carrots, 1 apple)
Apple Juice for 2 - Used 6 apples
Orange Juice for 2 - Used 6 oranges

I made a sauce for dinner.  I am creating a collection of recipes that will be suitable for the Simple Raw and Natural philosophy of healthy eating and living.  Here is a recipe for you that you can use as a salad dressing, or as a dip for raw veggie dippers, or as a sauce over zoodles (noodles made from raw zucchini).

RAW VEGAN SAUCE
Blend in high speed blender until smooth:
1/2 cup soaked and drained sun-dried tomatoes
Juice of 1 lemon
1-1/2 Tbsp raw almond butter
1 medium red bell pepper
2 or more stalks of celery
1 cup of diced up zucchini or other squash
1/2-3/4 cup water to desired thickness

Green Smoothies for 2 - (herbs from the garden, 1/4 papaya, 1/4 pineapple, 2 bananas, 2 scoops chia seeds, 1 can coconut water, 1 cup frozen wild blueberries.

Green Salad for 1 - (spring mix, zoodles from 1 zucchini, 1 salad cucumber, 1 tomato, 1/4 onion, 1/2 of a Bubbies dill pickle)

The meals:
Morning: lemongrass tea, celery juice

Lunch: green smoothie, 1/2 avocado with shredded coconut, 1/4 mini watermelon, orange juice

Dinner: veggie cocktail, green salad, raw vegan sauce, dehydrated crackers left from last month's raw foods potluck, sauerkraut, 2 goodie balls left from a couple of months ago

To health and happiness.