seedy, nutty, rawnchy fun

RAWNCHY: raw and crunchy..

i have gone nuts for nuts and seeds! they were always a perfect and healthy "snack". i recall fondly my granola habit formed in my early teens but it reached epic proportions when i discovered ga's granola.. heavenly! sadly, i can no longer feast on it but sans the oatmeal and honey, nuts and seeds dominate the non vegetable part of my diet. they are my milk, bread, cracker, crust, meat, cheese, pate and snack. it is amazing what you can do with nuts! the raw food world has rediscovered these little edible marvels and made them into every conceivable delicacy, sweet and savory. the problem with nuts and seeds is that in nature, they develop enzyme inhibitors to protect them from foraging animals so that they can grow to maturity undisturbed. this revolutionary evolution also makes them rather indigestible for humans.

perhaps a brief nutrition provision is needed here. enzymes are the life force in all living foods (exogenous) and in your own body (endogenous). in raw food, they aid in digestion and deliver their life force/nutrition to the consumer. once food is cooked above 118 degrees, all enzymes begin to break down and your body is forced to activate enzymes from other areas like your organs to do the job. digestive enzymes made in the pancreas are utilized but the pancreas can become overtaxed if you eat mostly cooked food. unfortunately, we are all born with a finite amount of enzymes and they say by the time we are fifty, we are lucky if we have 30 percent left. if you can maximize this principle, you can maximize your health, reverse illness and lengthen your life. edward howell, the pioneer of enzyme research, says it all in his book,  www.amazon.com/enzyme-nutrition-dr-edward-howell/dp/0895292211 but i digress..

soaking nuts and seeds overnight will eliminate this problem. you now have a hydrated nut which can be made into the most delicious milk ( in a blender called the vita-mix www.vitamix.com) you will never go back to the dairy case or the boxed nut and seed milks. depending on the recipe, you will use the nut in it's soaked form or to restore the crunch, dehydrating will be necessary. www.excaliburdehydrator.com i know, i know, this is time consuming but so is being sick so i'll opt for time in my kitchen over the doctor's office any day! remember this is a "lifestyle" so beliefs and habits have to be gently redirected! here's a few simple recipes from hippocrates ( see links ) salt and sugar is always left out of their recipes. if needed, use only sea salt, raw honey or stevia. CAUTION: USING AGAVE IS TANTAMOUNT TO USING HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP... they have built quite a campaign and market by touting it's health benefits and low glycemic index..RUBBISH!

ALMOND MILK

1 cup soaked almonds
2 to 3 cups water

blend ingredients well in a vita mix. strain through a nut bag or fine mesh strainer. drink up or refrigerate ( will last only a few days ) you can add any other flavorings ie. vanilla, cinnamon, cardamom etc.

WALNUT TACOS

3 cups walnuts, soaked and dehydrated
2 garlic cloves
2 tbs chili powder ( buy fresh if you are unsure about how long it has been in you spice cabinet!)
1/4 tsp cayenne
2 tsp braggs liquid aminos

in a food processor, combine all ingredients. pulse until desired texture, season to taste. makes 2 cups..

FOR TACO

use a collard green leaf, add walnut meat and salsa or any desired toppings (avocado, shredded carrot, fennel etc ) fold or roll and serve

RED PEPPER CORN SALSA

2 cups diced red pepper
1/2 red onion, diced
1 cup fresh corn
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
cayenne to taste
1 1/2 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs olive oil

combine all ingredients in a bowl
season to taste
let stand 30 min before serving

this post is dedicated to ga for years of granola munching and for being my first follower, sigh...

hot date, cold storage

grocery shopping has brought a new thrill to my life. it is an event that i look forward to. i dress nicely, i am discerning, it feels indulgent and way more interesting than any romantic possibilities . i swing between two lovers, one pedestrian, the other high falutin'. as a matter of fact, in life as in grocery shopping, i have always been drawn to both, maybe this is the reason why i remain so utterly single. mother earth, on one hand, conjures up an exotic, back to nature, organic vibe while robbing you blind ($8 for a bunch of asparagus and it's in season!) and adams is crowded, local, more family oriented and i am always pleased by the relative affordability of their produce. problem is it's mostly NOT organic especially in the winter/spring so i do both for goodness sake. stop and shop, hannaford and all other corporate mega stores leave me cold, ice cold.. there is literally nothing in their vast, overly air conditioned, flourescent lit, square footage that i can have anymore ( praise the lord).

once home, i have long forgotten about the cost of my food. my sherpa is awol but i am just so darn excited to have such an embarrassment of provisions, i hardly notice. i feel abundantly rich! i schlep my weekly haul up to my handsome, cherry clad, modern kitchen and then i am faced with where to store this veritable avalanche of living food.. my cabinets are now filled to the brim with nuts, seeds, beans, water.. bulk. my subzero used to be more than ample but now groans under the weight of nature's bounty. and that space hogging kale and cabbage, bags of stored wheatgrass and sprouts..

what's a neophyte vegan to do? then i am suddenly struck with an opportunity to redecorate, a favorite, frequently occurring pastime.. i have two bosch double ovens, a radioactive microwave ( what was i thinking? ) and a viking stove top that has suddenly presented a solution, more storage!! the toaster is in the microwave to make room for the dehydrator, my wheatgrass supplies are in one oven and my spiralizer in the other. the stove top can be covered with butcher block to accommodate my cuisinart, vitamix and juicer, brilliant! my wheatgrass trays are blocking the door to the summer deck but i think they'll look fabulous as floral arrangements around the house.

whew, problem solved, peace restored. maybe i could sell these expensive appliances to spend more time with my uptown lover..

public seeking

i've been encouraged to write but i don't want to be a part of the polluted literary landscape, that is writing and saying nothing or not saying it well. i am sure i am not alone in this paranoia but being fifty gives me license to face my fears and/or not care what you think so here goes.. my first chapter.. i am not one for the spotlight, and like lyme disease, public speaking makes my central nervous system short circuit but i think this format will avoid any snafu's and allow me to share topics that might be mildly interesting or mind blowing depending on who you are. i am going to write about life, art and health ( LAH ) i quite like the acronym ( better than HAL ) it's a rainy sunday in april, my taxes are paid, my house is clean and my dog is fed so i thought this is as good a time as any to begin and BTW, i don't use capitols except for emphasis so despite being well educated, i choose not to be grammatically correct 'cause i'm lazy around this..

as many of you know, i have been sick with lyme disease for awhile now. yes, i am sick and tired of being sick and tired and it doesn't stop there. to further degrade your life, you stop going out, you become a broken record, your friends stop calling and well, life stops being fun. pain is the order of every day and all decisions revolve around this right down to getting the mail.. too far to walk, it can wait, nothing is as important as MY PAIN!! my sad little pug, feng had to suffer right along with me, no one to play with or walk him around the block. so that's enough, you get the idea.. this is not what i want to talk about! anyone who even remotely relates to this, listen up because as i write this i no longer describe my life this way. my dog is happy again and it only took 15 years to spiral down and three weeks to turn it around. regardless of what your health issue is, the healing potential within your body is the news here and if it were not for a good friend who casually mentioned this health institute over dinner one night, i may still be crying the blues! ( thank you jane )



i was so ready for help, not the kind of help that hurts.. well meaning doctors who chase every illness with their panoply of pharmaceuticals. i am giving at least one of my doctors the benefit of the doubt here because i liked him so much. but honestly, i am not so sure they are not all card carrying members of the evil empire ( big pharma ) not really interested in our health but rather their h(w)ealth. i would not want to live in a world without doctors and hospitals. diagnostics, life saving surgeries and drug related interventions are critical but when it comes to curing an illness, you are knocking on the wrong doors my friends. we have all lost our common sense and forgotten healing traditions that served our ancestors long before the advent of modern medicine. the very idea that a synthetic substance ( a pill ) can return you to good health is absurd when that pill is nothing but chemical compounds manufactured in a lab. aka, a drug, ya know.. not unlike the illegal ones. mother nature made us and mother nature heals us, period. and just for a second opinion.. "FOOD is our medicine and medicine is our FOOD." hippocrates ( ca. 460 bc - ca. 370 bc )

so while many of you may already know this, i didn't until i checked in to the hippocrates health institute in sunny fla. on january 24th 2010 www.hippocrateshealthinst.org their program is called the life change program and it does exactly that! in three weeks, my health had improved dramatically and i received an education that opened my eyes to the tenets of real healing, the politics of health and medicine in this country and exposure to a community of really sick people that all began to heal regardless of what their disease was. i cannot unring this bell! since i have been back, i have quickly realized for whom the bell tolls.. the changes that i have made threatens the way others live their life and are not interested or ready to change theirs. i say fine to that but then where o where do i share this amazing information? hence, this blog. so in the privacy of your own home or office you can quietly tune out now or keep listening. spare me the ahems, the foot shifting and sudden trips to the bathroom, i get it. i don't want to make anyone uncomfortable, i seek only to enlighten. my ego is firmly in check, i am just the messenger here.. all of the information that i will share is disseminated from my hip(pocrates) education and armchair research and will include from time to time, very tasty recipes if anyone wants to take on a little "uncooking" in their spare time.

oh, did i mention that i eat mainly raw food? 80/20 (raw/cooked) for two years to have optimum cell turnover to cure my lyme and anything else that ails me. i have given up happily, meat and dairy. what a scam that is! why didn't i know? well now i do, the short answer is: meat causes cancer, dairy is liquid meat, never mind about the cruelty to animals and the filthy conditions they live in. there is so much protein in plants! if that is your reason for eating meat, it's not a good one. why do 99 percent of all animals on earth eat grass and vegetation? because they know something we have long forgotten. take a look at buffalo, bison, ox, elephants, giraffe, and horses just to name a few if you want to see muscle bound animals that weigh thousands of pounds thriving domestically and in the wild on plants. no more sugar either, my personal addiction. not even fruit. i will be hard pressed to pass on blueberries this summer and peaches this fall. maybe for an occasional treat?(she muses...) sugar feeds disease, all bacteria thrive on it so if you want more of what you got, keep eating sugar. in fact one of the tests for cancer is a pet scan that injects glucose into the body to find cancer. how? by letting the cancer find it. raw garlic has the opposite effect, the more you eat the more bacteria and parasites you kill. let me take this opportunity to ask your forgiveness for what may offend some of you if we should ever meet, garlic breath!! i do hope this is a small price to pay for having such a healthy friend! so i am literally waging a war inside my body against what i have learned is my enemy, bacteria! i will address the use of antibiotics in another post.. for now, just suffice it to say that this cure put me in the hospital twice so regardless of what i know now, back then, i knew this was not the answer! i have truly found my answer and am so grateful for it.

i love art, it has been my passion for a very long time but i am not making it much anymore because i use toxic chemicals in my process. i am sure i will always love art, i will speak of it often and maybe i will find a way to be creative safely but in the meantime, i give you health! some of you don't need it but it can't hurt to hear this in the event that god forbid, you lose your health like me or want to take a preventative approach. i could have saved alot of time and money if i was aware of just how brilliantly wise our bodies are given the right kind of medicine in the form of nourishment to stave off disease and bring optimum results. one has to look no further than their own vegetable garden, local farmer's market or health food store. it is so simple once you have the right information and ingredients. this is an attempt to bring that information to you. hey, if everybody does their part, we'll have a faster delivery system! simple in theory but somewhat more complicated in practice. while i set up my new kitchen, learn how to prepare my food, bring forth the discipline to go out to eat while staying within the boundaries of my diet, not alienate my friends, get well and still have fun, i hope you will keep me company along the way! ole!!