To help with their cause, I offered up a favorite recipe from my now-out-of-print, award-winning first cookbook: Three Sisters Navajo Harvest.
Quick, easy and scrumptious, my friend and coach, The Reluctant Vegan Rachelle Lee, was just telling me how this was one of her favorite recipes from my Glorious One-Pot Meals cookbook, and I had to agree. It offers a taste of the best of a harvest, with a home-y Southwestern flavor. It brings out the roasted chile lover in me, that’s for sure!
Be sure to visit the Beet Street blog to check out this delicious recipe that great for both vegetarians and meat-lovers.
(PS: Apologies to those of you who subscribe by email and probably didn’t get the links in this post, or maybe received it twice. I’m still getting used to a new WordPress interface and I didn’t mean to post this when it posted. Technology, sheesh.)
I feel so relieved that the results from my recent breast biopsy were negative, but I have been looking into what to do had the test results come back saying something different.
One thing I’ve learned about cancer cells is that they are anaerobic; they thrive in an oxygen-poor environment. To make your body more inhospitable for cancer growth, it’s helpful to oxygenate your cells.
How do you oxygenate your cells?
Obviously, aerobic exercise brings lots of oxygen into your cells, but by itself exercise is not enough to fight a tumor already growing. Help your cells absorb oxygen by drinking lots fresh fruit and vegetable juices, and consider bathing in a solution of food-grade (30% or so) hydrogen peroxide. This is not the 3% solution you find at your local drug store, but a much more potent chemical that you’ll have to find from a chemical distributor. If you order it over the net you’ll have to pay an additional hazardous materials shipping fee, so check locally first.
Be super, super careful with this stuff as it will burn you if it comes into direct contact with your skin! Should I give a disclaimer right here? Handle at your own risk! I take no responsibility or liability for your actions after reading this. I have never done this myself, but learned it from a trusted naturopathic mentor.
Start with 1/4 cup mixed into a full bathtub of water and work your way up to 1 cup over a week. You should see and feel your skin bubble a little bit as you soak. Start off slowly!
You can also take the food-grade hydrogen peroxide internally, mixing 1/2 tsp. into 16 oz. of liquid once a day to start.
Among many other things, we’ve been eliminating eggs from my son’s diet as we work to cure his chronic constipation. We’ve seen amazing results since beginning this in May, so I’m thinking this is a valid track.
Unfortunately, it does not seem to be easy to get great results in baked goods without eggs, and I haven’t had a lot of good results so far. Luckily, I’m getting some good advice on egg-free baking from readers of my own and other blogs.
Lisa commented on my post with her own egg substitute recipe:
“We’re always egg free in our household since both my husband and my daughter are severely allergic to them.
I’ve found that 1T of Arrowroot or Tapioca starch mixed in with 1T Rice Oil (or the oil of your choice) and water to make 1/4 cup = a great egg replacer for baking. It doesn’t add a leavening, but fulfills the “binder” function of the egg while not weighing things down.”
Thanks for the great tip, Lisa! I’m going to try it with arrowroot, since tapioca is on our elimination list, too.
I also learned that while using ground flax seeds works as a substitute for eggs, particularly in baked goods, I haven’t been adding them correctly.
I had already discovered that using 1 tablespoon of ground flax seeds along with 3 tablespoons of water would work as an egg substitute, particularly in baked goods, but what I didn’t know was there is a technique to making this work.
“For each egg to be replaced, blend in a blender/food processor 1 tablespoon flax seed with 3 tablespoons water until the mixture is thick and creamy. I haven’t actually tried it that way, but I have heated that ratio in a saucepan until gooey (about 2 minutes on low, stirring constantly) with fantastic results in many recipes.”
Huh. Who’d have thought you had to combine the flax seeds together with the water before adding to the recipe. Not me, though it does seem logical now. I mean, I thought it was weird to just toss in the ground flax seeds and then pour some water into the mix and leave it like that. No wonder I couldn’t see just how it would come together and act like an egg. And then it really didn’t anyway.
So now I know why, thanks to Jess.
I love how the internet enables this whole exchange of ideas to occur. It’s a pretty cool world we live in.
After all the anxiety I’ve endured since getting my first mammogram in July, seeing the spots, getting a second opinion, and then having them removed with a stereotactic biopsy last Thursday, hearing the news that all were benign (!!) has put me in a happy place. 🙂 Not only were all the spots benign, but they’re all gone now anyway, and the recovery has been smooth and easy, thanks to my homeopathic remedies and pharmaceuticals.
You may recall some of my baking triumphs, like my potluck-fave chocolate zucchini bread, and some of my more notable failures, like these savory morning muffins that were best used as hockey pucks.
My problem isn’t necessarily that I live a mile high (though I should probably give that more credence when baking than I do), but it’s that I have a hard time following directions to the T. It’s my rebellious nature: don’t tell me what I can or can’t do!
I like to substitute, enhance, embellish, create, and while that works fabulously in Glorious One-Pot Meals, straying from the recipe doesn’t always work out well when baking.
Of course, that doesn’t stop me from doing it.
Amazingly, I had everything called for in the gluten-free cupcake recipe already in the house, except for the eggs. Yep, we’ve been an egg-free house this summer, too. Instead of the 3 eggs I substituted a smashed banana, 2 Tablespoons of ground flax seeds, and 6 Tablespoons of water.
I also didn’t have Dagoba chocolate powder – wish I did, LOVE Dagoba! – so I ground up some Nestle’s baking chocolate bars in a food processor instead.
I followed the rest of the instructions (doubled, of course, because if I’m going to go through the effort of baking I want to end up with a good haul!), except they needed to bake maybe ten more minutes than expected. And we were already late, so they got pulled out a wee bit early. No harm, I figured, since there aren’t any raw animal products in there that could make us sick, did it really matter?
I brought them with us to a dinner party and whipped up Elana’s vegan chocolate frosting there. They were a big hit, though a little gooey. Not that there’s anything bad about a gooey chocolate dessert in my book! Don’t for a minute think I would turn my back on anything chocolate, even if it calls for a spoon. In fact, better if it calls for a spoon, sometimes. Though maybe not so much when you’re calling them cupcakes. Theses ones reminded more of these amazing “lava” cakes that my friend’s chocolatier husband once made for us… Spoonfuls of heaven.
But next time I make these cupcakes – and I will certainly make them again! – I think I’ll skip the banana and stick to the ratio of one egg equals 1 Tablespoon flax seed and 3 Tablespoons of water. I think that would make them more cake-like. My friend Alyson assures me that if I go all flax seed and no banana I’ll actually get light and fluffy egg-free pastries. It feels counter-intuitive, but I’m going to give it a try.
It might also be helpful if there weren’t kids running through the kitchen like a herd of elephants during the entire duration of baking. Sigh. Details.
Here are the recipes right off of Elana’s blog, not including my egg-free substitutions. 🙂
Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes
¼ cup coconut flour
¼ cup dagoba cocoa powder
¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
3 eggs
¼ cup grapeseed oil
½ cup agave nectar
1. In a medium bowl, combine coconut flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda
2. In a large bowl, blend together eggs, oil and agave
3. Blend dry ingredients into wet thoroughly
4. Line a cupcake tin with paper liners and scoop a scant 1/4 cup into each
5. Bake at 375° for 20-22 minutes
6. Cool and cover with vegan “buttercream” chocolate frosting
7. Serve
Vegan Chocolate Frosting
1 cup dark chocolate 73%
½ cup grapeseed oil
2 tablespoons agave nectar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
pinch celtic sea salt
1. In a small saucepan over very low heat, melt chocolate and grapeseed oil
2. Stir in agave, vanilla and salt
3. Place frosting in freezer for 15 minutes to chill and thicken
4. Remove from freezer and whip frosting with a hand blender until it is thick and fluffy
5. Frost over cake, cupcakes or between cookies
Smaller breasts have more densely packed nerve endings and hence are more sensitive. I never knew that.
I learned this as the radiology tech pulled and stretched my breast – and eventually my shoulder, too – through the hole in the lead-lined table and into a position where she could clamp it tightly between paddles. Focused radiation beams transmitted digital images onto the computer screen a few feet away.
The invasive radiologist came in and opened a window in one of the paddles — everything happened though that window, I’m told. I was frozen in place for the duration and could only see the computer screen. The last image showed several dark holes around a u-shaped titanium chip.
“I got them all,” the doc told me with a warm smile and a squeeze on the arm, reminding me how glad I was that I didn’t get this done by the cold, clinical male doctor who was all business, the one who had read my original films and recommended this procedure. After talking with him I sat in my car in the parking lot and cried.
The breast surgeon had told me that her patients said good things about Dr. Kelly McAleese, and they were right. Dr. McAleese kept up a steady stream of conversation to distract me from the things that were happening. I felt like she was a caring person, and I like that in someone who has the power to save or damage my breast. She had good energy.
The best thing I did was take the valium to calm my anxiety. Instead of the uncontrollable steady stream of tears punctuated by sobs which have been the hallmark of so many other scary and uncomfortable medical procedures in my life, I was able to face the whole thing calmly. Because my body wasn’t tensed up and then depleted from the internal anxieties, the healing already seems easier. There were still moments of pain, but the anxiety was muted and the rest of my body wasn’t clenched the whole time.
Afterward, meeting me in the waiting room, my mother commented on how brave I was being – she’s been to many of these procedures with me over a lifetime – but it wasn’t me, it was my friend valium (or rather the generic equivalent, diazapan). 8 mg didn’t make me loopy, it just took the edge off. And it didn’t make me work to get the peace of mind, like I would’ve had to if I had chosen to use self-hypnosis techniques instead. As I joked with the doctor, it’s times like these that call for valium. Ok, maybe I was a bit loopy. But she agreed.
Because of my allergy to adhesive, the surgical tech used gauze and direct pressure to stop the bleeding, and then mummified my chest in an ace bandage and sent me home with my mom. I took some homeopathic hypericum in the car, then some bellis parennis and arnica remedies once we got home. (More about these homeopathic remedies here.)
Just because we may choose to adopt many natural paths to health doesn’t mean we have to omit other treatments. We can safely use homeopathic remedies, for example, at the same time we’re using antibiotics or sedetives or blood pressure medications, etc. One does not preclude the other. Most natural remedies can work safely alongside western medications, and often are used to help wean off of medications.
My kids were farmed out for the night, hubby away on a business trip, and I got to do nothing but sit in bed and gab on the phone to girlfriends all evening. What a treat!
This morning I unwrapped and removed the gauze, put a dab of Neosporin on the hole and covered it with a little spot band aid. I’ll have to change the bandage frequently to avoid hives, but so far so good. Rewrapped tightly with the ace bandage and supported further with a sports bra, it’s a little achey. I don’t want to move that shoulder much, especially since I don’t want to expand the hole that is only held together by a blood clot.
For “mild discomfort,” the post procedure instructions say, “take Tylenol.” But I haven’t needed to crack open the sample packet they handed me at the end. I rarely take painkillers anyway.
It has been incredible to receive such an outpouring of positive energy as I’ve been going through this anxious time. Thank you all for your kind thoughts and wishes. I will likely hear the results by Wednesday next week – I’ll keep you posted.
