This past week I bought a few things that I don’t know HOW I lived without for so long.
Purchase # 1

I’ve wanted one of those for a looooong time, and now we have it! Already used it several times…. this morning for French Toast.

Purchase #2

This one is amazing – at least how I lived without it before. I can’t tell you how many times I tried several smallish mixing bowls before finding a size that (almost) fit – Or how many times I mixed food in a large cooking pot.

Purchase #3

I enjoy using this much better than my stainless steel round colander. Using my new sink colander I can wash vegetables more effectively, and use it for multiple purposes. And I LOVE that the sides are expandable to fit all sorts of sinks.

Nice kitchen stuff makes life easier! All of my items were bought at Walmart

Share on Facebook

I’ve been having fun with Beet Root Powder the last few days. First I used it in my blueberry kefir smoothies – and it added some serious nutrients and color! Instead of looking like a homemade smoothie, it looked like something that belonged in a pretty photograph. A warning though – don’t mix spinach and beet powder in the same smoothie if you are wanting a fancy outcome (tastes good still). Then tonight I made couscous and added in fresh tomatoes, fresh broccoli, lemon juice, salt, feta cheese…. then last minute thought “Hmm… purple couscous would be cool too”. My 2 year old sous chef agreed…….So, in went 2-3 tablespoons of beet root powder. Here is a word about why you want to use this beautiful powder:

Beet roots are a healthy food and are a rich source of natural sugar along with containing sodium, potassium, phosphorus, chlorine, iodine, iron and various important vitamins. The high nutrient value of beet root makes it an invaluable food in terms of health benefits it provides and it is thus used for therapeutic purposes. The powder can be used to flavor carrot, celery, and other vegetable juices, and also to color a variety of foods.

Beet powder provides a wide range of nutrients, but its most significant phytochemical is betaine. Betaine helps the liver process fat. This prevents the accumulation of fatty tissues in the liver (steatosis), especially in heavy drinkers, and it also prevents excessive triglycerides and LDL cholesterol in the blood. According to the American Heart Association, beet juice can help lower blood pressure and due to the high content of iron in beets, it is good for anemia.

Beet root naturally cleans the kidneys and gall bladder. The potassium present in it helps in providing nourishment to the body for daily functions while chlorine organically cleans the liver and kidney. In addition, it has positive effects on one’s digestive system as it helps in the treatment of digestive disorders and problems like jaundice, nausea and vomiting due to dysentery or diarrhea. Beet root combined with carrot juice can prove extremely beneficial in building the red corpuscles thereby helping in treating low vitality and anemia. Being an excellent solvent for inorganic calcium deposits, beet juice helps in the treatment of hypertension and other cardiovascular disorders. It is also extremely beneficial for women as it aids in the regulation of menstruation. Along with having numerous health benefits, beet root is also beneficial for the skin.

The root contains about a tenth portion of pure sugar, which is one of the glucoses or fruit sugars and is very wholesome. Cane sugar has to be converted by the digestive juices into fruit sugar, before the body can absorb it, but the sugar present in the beet root is already in the more easily assimilated form, thus making the beet a valuable food. Its sugar is a force-giver and an energy creator, a source of vitality to the human body. Besides its tenth portion of pure sugar, beet root has as much as a third of its weight in starch and gum.

The red pigment in beets raises antioxidant enzyme levels in the liver and may promote detoxification in the intestines, blood and liver. Colon cancer research has also shown that consumption of beet fiber may increase colonic CD8 cells, which detect and remove abnormal cells.

Folate is considered an important aid in maintaining a healthy pregnancy. It is critical at times of rapid cell development as it is necessary for creating DNA and RNA. The high level of folate (up to 136 grams per cup) in beets makes them a valuable food for pregnancy. Spina bifida and anencephaly are two birth defects which may be prevented by the consumption of folate rich foods.

Magnesium is an important mineral in healthy bone production and maintenance. Without appropriate levels of magnesium, calcium cannot be utilized effectively. Beet root is high in magnesium, making it a good vegetable for women concerned with preventing osteoporosis.

Typical Preparations – One or two teaspoons added to water or juice, 2-4 times daily. One teaspoon of powder provides the nutrition in one beet.

The above is the description from More Than Alive (where you can also buy Cane Creek Coffee – which is what I use).
My personal stash of beet powder came from Bulk Herb Store, which is a good source too for herbs and such (AND where you can see me in the new video Making Herbs Simple Volume II). Okay, enough for promotions…. It doesn’t matter where you get your beet root powder – cause it’s a great source of nutrients, creative cooking, and fun!

Share on Facebook

This morning I found three Black Walnut Trees on my property!

Last night I was reading a friend’s blog and she made her Black Walnut almost exactly one year ago – which means the time is ripe NOW to make this tincture (which I just realized). Then, this morning a young girl stopped by wanting to pick some of my Walnut to make a tincture! haha Good timing, since I was literally heading out to door to pick. We found a tree at the end of the driveway that had already started dropping the green balls. Good thing I knew to pick the green ones (not black) and how to make them. It was so fun!

Here are the (copied) directions on how to make your own homemade Black Walnut Hull tincture (store bought it is very expensive):

Black Walnut

The medicine of the Black Walnut tree is found in it’s fruit — mainly the HULL of the fruit.  The walnut hull is a thick, hard, rough, green skin that surrounds the actual walnut (shell and all).   When it falls off the tree the hull begins to turn black.

The medicinal properties of the Black Walnut hull are mainly anti-fungal and anthelmitic (kill parasites), and these properties are not mild, if I do say so, myself.  …Yowza!

A tincture is a great way to draw out and preserve the properties of Black Walnut hull.  Don’t bother trying to make this into a syrup or otherwise improve the taste.  It refuses to be improved without LOTS of sweetener, and if you’re going to be using this to help kill off something like Candida albicans (yeast), lots of sweetener is just what you don’t need.  So when you  take some of this tincture, just dump it down the hatch and follow up with ginger kombucha (what?  what is kombucha?  …that news will break later)  or some other equally good goodness.

Below I’ve spelled out a recipe (from Hulda Clark) for making a Black Walnut hull tincture.  When you are collecting the walnuts for this recipe, it’s important that the hulls be at least 50% green in order to get the most out of them.  Don’t peel the hulls off of the walnuts.  This tincture is made with the whole “walnut ball” intact — hull and kernel.

Happy tincturing, and may your parasites shake in their boots.

Black Walnut Hull Tincture Extra Strength

Your largest enamel or ceramic (not stainless steel, not aluminum) cooking pot,

Preferably at least 10 quarts Black Walnuts, in the hull, each one still at least 50% green, enough to fill the pot to the top

Grain alcohol, about 50% strength, enough to cover the walnuts

1/2 tsp. vitamin C

Plastic wrap or cellophane

Glass jars or bottles

The black walnut tree produces large green balls in the fall. The walnut is inside, but we will use the whole ball, uncracked, since the active ingredient is in the green outer hull.

Rinse the walnuts carefully, put them in the pot, and cover them with alcohol. Sprinkle on half the vitamin C. Seal with plastic wrap and cover. Let sit for three days. Pour into glass jars or bottles, discarding walnuts, and divide the remaining vitamin C amongst the jars. If the glass jar has a metal lid, first put plastic wrap over the top before screwing on the lid. Potency is strong for several years if unopened, even if it darkens.

(taken from page 543 The Cure For All Diseases by Hulda Clark)

Take 2 tsp., all together in 1/4 cup water. Sip it, don’t gulp it. Get it down within 15 minutes. (If you are over 150 pounds, take 2 1/2  tsp. Do not take more than 3 tsp. because no additional value has been observed.)

**************

A couple extras:

– Instead of ceramic/enamel pot, I used a glass gallon jar for the tincturing process.

– The vitamin C is to preserve the green color of the tincture.  If you don’t care what it looks like, you can make it without.

– The less oxygen in the tincture, the better.  The jars in which the tincture is stored should be filled almost to the brim, leaving very little air-room.

– The storage jars, if possible, should be amber glass.  Store in a dark, cool place — refrigeration not necessary.

– If you don’t want to ingest 2 tsp. vodka every day, put the tincture in some warm (110 degree)  water to get rid of some of the alcohol.  Make sure the water isn’t too hot or it could damage the parasite/yeast killing properties.

– Black walnuts are a great source of iodine, so there’s lots of iodine in this tincture.

–  Black walnuts stain like crazy.  Be warned.

Share on Facebook

I’ve found that if you get into the habit, bed times can be pretty rough….. Laced with “I need more water!”, “Please read another book”, “Please sing ____ song”, “I need this light on, this light off”, “I’m not tired”, “Why didn’t we get to do this today?” wah wah wah

We recently went through a period of that, and what bothered me the most was my girls going to bed not thinking good and thankful thoughts – but rather negative and ungrateful thoughts. So, I decided to implement a new bed time habit, and it’s been working great! Read the rest of this entry »

Share on Facebook

Recently, my husband and I went to Walmart and bought some drinks for a party we were attending. We decided on Gatorade because it was SOOO hot and figured people would like that. We were shocked to see the label read “No HFCS”, which means “No High Fructose Corn Syrup”. I realize I may be on the late end of noticing that fact – but it’s a trend we’ve seen everywhere….. people are talking about  HFCS and its health implications.

If you don’t know much about HFCS, read this description from Wikipedia. The first paragraph tells you  most of what you need to know:

In the US, HFCS is among the sweeteners that have partially replaced sucrose (table sugar), due to governmental subsidies of U.S. corn and an import tariff on foreign sugar, raising the price of sucrose to levels above those of the rest of the world, making HFCS cost-efficient for many sweetener applications. Critics of the extensive use of HFCS in food sweetening argue that the highly processed substance is more harmful to humans than regular sugar, contributing to weight gain by affecting normal appetite functions, and that in some foods HFCS may be a source of mercury, a known neurotoxin. The Corn Refiners Association disputes these claims and maintain that HFCS is comparable to table sugar. Studies by The American Medical Association suggest “it appears unlikely that HFCS contributes more to obesity or other conditions than sucrose” but calls for further independent research on the subject. HFCS was classified as generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1976. Over 85% of the corn syrup produced in the United States is a genetically modified product.

So, according to a standard source….. HFCS:
1. Is extremely refined
2. Causes more weight gain in humans than standard table sugar
3. Contains mercury (a neurotoxin)
4. Is over 85% genetically modified. Here (Science Fiction Horror Story) is a simple read about genetic modification

I’ve also noticed videos online talking about how fructose feeds cancers and causes WAY more growth (of that cancer) than glucose by itself. Video from CNN

AND I’ve seen commercials telling people that HFCS is just the same as table sugar.
Watch this commercial spoof, it contains more information!

So, uh…. do you try to avoid HFCS?

Share on Facebook