Acne Challenges

I bought a wellness book at a yard sale the other day and found to be full of great information! The title of the book is "The Doctors Book of Home Remedies" by the editors of Prevention Magazine Health books. I read about acne and pimples and learned that people who are susceptible to those challenges need to avoid certain foods and products such as fish oil, which can cause break outs. My husband can't take fish oil without having a break out problem. The fish oil is too oily for his body type. Watch your intake of fish and monitor what happens when you eat fish. 

According to the book, foods high in iodine can also cause breakouts. Some of these foods would be: iodized salts, kelp, seaweed, beef liver, turkey, asparagus,. The Kelp is the highest source, being over 1,000 ppm (parts per million) and the other foods are only in the hundreds ppm. Dr. Fulton, a contributor to the book, says that he doesn't currently know at what level the iodides could bring on an acne attack, but he warns "excessive long term ingestion can induce acne attacks." 

Also:

Most water has fluoride. According to my daughter's dermatologist, fluoride can cause an allergic reaction in many people. The fluoride alone could be causing break outs.

If you are experiencing pimples, it is a good possibility that the lanolin in your lotions and creams may be clogging the pores. Here is a lotion recipe that I created for some of my clients who are having break out problems. They tell me it helps their skin feel soft and nourished:

75% aloe vera gel (without dyes)

20% vegetable glycerin

5 % beauty water*

1 capsule Evening Primrose oil (optional)

6-7 drops of your favorite Young Living Therapeutic grade essential oil

*The beauty water is a setting from my Kangen water ionizer by Enagic. We use this machine for creating our healthy drinking water, giving us a good pH for our bodies, for cleaning - using the acid water, for our outer bodies - we use the beauty water. For more information on this product you may contact me at lainascorner@gmail.com. 

Dr. Paul at a Kangen water demo showing the difference

in pH balance with different fluids we ingest. Kangen water

far left, dark blue green, high pH!

Brown Rice Pancakes

I had some "one on one" time with my married son recently. We had a BLAST together. I went visiting his darling little family with their new addition, a beautiful little girl. She is adorable. As I was getting ready for the visit, I had the bright idea to take my electric pressure cooker. I bought it so that I could make my own soy milk, cook brown rice, and other grains, as well as make homemade hummus. I thought my son and I could have some fun cooking, and we did!

We made and delightfully ate the following:

Brown rice pancakes
First we cooked our brown rice in the pressure cooker, fast and easy!
1. Put 2 cups cooked brown rice in a blender
2. Add 1 to 1 1/2 cups unsweetened soy or almond milk over the rice
3. Add a pinch of salt
4. Add 1 tsp vanilla
5. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons aluminum free baking powder
6. Add enough sugar to taste, I use the C & H sugar stevia blend, or raw sugar. You can also add cinnamon, which is sweet and adds a nice spicy flavor.
7. Add 4 large whole eggs, or 6 egg whites
8. Blend until smooth. You may need to use less milk, or more. Blend to the consistency of pancake batter.

I cook  my pancakes on a lightly greased electric griddle set a 350 degrees. The pancakes will bubble and the color will change so that you know it's time to turn them. They are done when both sides are a golden brown color. Cooked brown rice pancakes are a little more moist in the middle than normal pancakes. They actually taste somewhat like rice pudding.

We topped ours with homemade grape jelly, or coconut oil and honey. Delicious!!

***

Home made Hummus
First we cooked our chick peas in the pressure cooker, only took 15 minutes from hard chick peas to garbanzo beans. I LOVE that!
1. 1/4 c Tahini (sesame seed butter)
2. 1/4 cup lemon juice
3. blend the above mixtures until smooth
4. 1/2 tsp salt
5. 1 tsp chopped garlic (we used the pre-minced bottled garlic)
6. 1/2 - 1 tsp ground cumin
7. 2 - 3 tablespoons olive oil
8. 2 tablespoons sun dried tomatoes
9. blend mixture until smooth
10. 2 cups of the cooked beans
11. 3 - 4 tablespoons water
12. Blend until smooth

We ate our hummus with brown rice crackers. Delicious!

***

Then my son made some zucchini stir-fry that was amazing! I don't know how he did it, but here he is chopping up the food. He is an amazing cook.

And here is his new little one. She is so lucky to have him for a daddy!

 

Positively Peachy!

My husband and I went peach picking today. He did anyway. I stood and watched as the June bugs swirled around him. A good friend of ours invited us to glean peaches from her abundant peach tree. We are very grateful. 

Peaches have been known as a food that is easy to assimilate and can be used to regulate the bowels. They have an alkalizing effect to the blood stream and help eliminate toxins from the body. I have read that the dried peach is more alkalizing than the fresh. I think I will be drying some soon!

It is best to pick the peaches ripe on the tree because they don't contain the necessary starches to assist with the sweetening process after picked. Sadly, as you can see in this picture, we picked a few green peaches.

Full of Goodness Meat Loaf

I love cooking with vegetables! This is a wonderful veggie meatloaf that I make using turkey burger, extra firm tofu, LOTS of celery and carrots, and any other vegetables I may have in my fridge. The following is a suggested base recipe for you to use in making this healthy and delicious dinner dish:

1. One pound ground turkey

2. One or two packages extra firm tofu, drained

3. One stalk of chopped celery

4. Four or five medium sized carrots. You can see that I have my carrots soaking in a water bath. I use my alkaline water to get any pesticides off my vegetables before I cook with them. I also soak them in a little of the more acid pH water to kill any germs.

5. One yellow onion, finely chopped.

6. Parsley, sea salt and onion powder for seasoning. 

I mix all the ingredients together and bake in a lightly oiled baking pan, cooking it in the over at 375 for about one hour and until the sides are crispy. Take it out and let it cool before cutting, if you can wait that long. 

Did you know that celery and onions are good alkaline foods? According to Bernard Jensen in "Foods That Heal", the Ancient Oriental people gathered wild celery and brewed it as a medicinal  herb for stomach troubles. Jensen also tells us that Alexander the Great gave onions to his troupes to promote valor. Try mixing some carrot tops into your recipes. They are a little bitter, but they are packed full of potassium.

Apricot Puree

My husband is a true gleaner! If he sees fruit trees in the neighborhood with ripe fruit not being used, he will go to that persons home and ask if he can pick the fruit. One year he brought home so many apricots that we filled our little deep freeze. I like sauces, apple sauce, peach sauce, and apricot sauce. This batch turned out to be more of a puree than a sauce, but it was delicious. According to Bernard Jensen, author of "Foods That Heal", apricots are high on the alkaline list, a good summer cleanser and laxative, and they contain cobalt which may assist with anemia challenges. The apricot is mostly grown it the Western United States with California growing 97% of the commercial crop.

After washing my apricots I cook them in a pot with a little water

and some raw sugar or honey. You can do stevia as well. 

I put the cooked apricots in my steamer and squish the pulp through

the tiny holes with a potato smasher so that it is the consistency of a sauce or puree. 

I like to add some of my essential oils, either lemon or orange.

I only use Young Living Therapeutic Grade oils. They add

a delicious flavor!

The finished product! Isn't it pretty?

Eating Veggies Really IS Good for You!

I have done a lot of experimenting with my own body's natural alkaline balance and have found out the following:

1. Good water is a must! I drink the Kangen water by Enagic. I love my machine so much that I have become an Independent distributor and sell them. The Kangen machine is a water ionizer. It takes the tap water that we have going through 3 filters under our sink, runs it over several medical grade titanium plates, ionizes the water so that when it comes out the spout it is alkaline. The word "Kangen" means back to origin. The water becomes alkaline the way it use to be before the earth was polluted. There are still places in the world, places which boast of healing waters, that have this alkaline based water. The first thing I put in my body in the morning is 32 ounces of 9.5 pH water.

2. I eat my heaviest protein based meal at lunch. When I eat my meats or proteins earlier in the day and only eat vegetables or fruits in the evenings, I almost always wake up with a balanced pH. I check my first urination in the mornings to see where I am in my alkalinity. There are pH strips you can purchase to do this. Some people check their saliva. I use the liquid indicator that I purchase from Enagic. When I eat my vegetables and raw foods in the evenings, my morning pH is usually at 7.4. Perfect!

3. Too many acid foods such as beef, chicken, peanuts, refined sugars, and pasta's, even brown rice pasta's, make my body go more acid. A good rule of thumb for me is to eat at least 90% plant based foods and only 10% animal based foods. This is not always easy for me to do, I love meat, but I feel better when I do it!

4. Limit stress! Yep, limit your stress. How do I limit my stress? I schedule my time and allow private quiet time for myself. I am in charge of my life and what I do is usually of my choosing. If I feel that I don't have a say about all the "to do's" that come my way, things need to get done, I tell myself that I have a choice in how I feel about those things. I choose my path, I choose how I feel about my path. I can be mad, or glad. The other day I was shopping with my daughter and accidentally kicked over part of a display of aluminum drinking containers. They fell all over the floor and boy did they clatter when they fell! I remember thinking to myself, ugh, I am so embarrassed. And then I broke out laughing!!! Stressed? At first, for a spit second. Then the laughter replaced my stress with cheer, everyone in line laughed with me and someone said, "Don't worry, it has happened to a lot of people."

5. Eat fiber and keep your bowels functioning properly. I love the book by Bernard Jensen titled "Dr. Jensen's Guide to Better Bowel Care". Do you understand the function of your bowels? Most of us don't. I eat at least 20 grams of fiber each day from psyllium seed husk and the rest from whole grains such as brown rice, vegetables and fruits.

Here is a sample of one of our favorite evening meals. It's just a plate of raw vegetables and dip. I don't eat dairy so I make this tasty dip by taking some mayonnaise and unsweetened Almond milk, original flavor, equal portions, and add a touch of garlic salt and 1 to 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes. I whisk it until smooth and have a tasty dip I can eat. Even my husband likes it! In this photo I put a little mango sauce on the side. The crackers are brown rice with seaweed. Warning, an acquired taste is necessary for some to eat the crackers.  

Alkaline Food Cook Off!

A few months back I had the opportunity to teach a workshop for OLLI, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, at Yavapai College. The theme was Alkaline foods. After our first hour of discussion and my teaching the students about alkaline foods and how good they are for our bodies, we had a cook off. It was a blast! Each contestant had several choice alkaline vegetables, some delicious spices and herbs, and a task of making an appetizing and appealing dish for all of us to eat and enjoy. They all did a great job. These pictures show how focused the contestants were and how amazing their creations turned out. Thank you everyone for a great experience!

Green Omelet

On occasion I get a desire for an egg omelet, but eggs don't always agree with me, especially the yolks. I had recently watched a food show where the chef added spinach greens to the eggs in his omelet so I decided to try this mix and to keep this recipe more alkaline and less clogging,  just use the egg whites. This is how it turned out:

First I chopped and simmered some onions, bell peppers, celery, peas, carrots and mung beans in the fry pan. I don't use a lot of oil, just some Bragg liquid aminos for flavor plus a little water to soften the veggies. After the veggies turn transparent in color, I add my eggs and cover the pan with a lid. I think the key to a good omelet is to blend the eggs in a blender until a little foamy before you pour them onto the vegetable mix. In this egg mixture I added two handfuls of baby greens and then did the blending.

Doesn't it look appetizing? It had a wonderful aroma while cooking and a delicious burst of flavor. What a great idea for getting more of those alkaline vegetables into your diet. Remember using just the egg whites is also more alkalizing. Good to know, right?

Green Drinks with Mung Beans and Baby Greens

When I was growing up my mother would experiment with all the greens in the garden. She loved being a creative cook. She got the bright idea of mixing spinach greens, lettuce, peppermint, chives, and anything edible that was green into a blender with some pineapple or apple juice. She even liked using dandelion greens. Then she would chug a lug like it was a delicious concoction! And it was! She was doing green drinks before the rest of the world even had the thought of them. My mom was amazing.

I followed her example and began making my own green drinks. I remember when my three gorgeous daughters began having their boyfriends over to the house for visits. I discovered a great way to get rid of these boys fast when it was time for them to go home. I would make a green drink and insist on them drinking some. One boy in particular would run out the door, jump off the porch and scurry on home just to avoid the green colored liquid! Too funny. I am glad he never tried it because he would have never left.

Since I have cut way down on my sugars I have discovered that I can make some wonderful green drinks with unsweetened almond milk. I almost like this better than the juices! I fill my blender 3/4 full of milk then I add my greens. My favored greens this week are the baby greens you can get in the grocery section at the store and my own home grown mung bean sprouts. The sprouts add a nutty flavor. I add about 2 hand fulls of the greens and sprouts to the milk, then I add some peppermint  and yarrow from my garden. I also add a good probiotic and some powdered calcium. I use the MegaCal by Young Living. If I need extra fiber I add a few spoonfuls of psyllium seed husk. If you need a little sweetener add some stevia. I blend this until smooth and drink it up. Yum!

Not only is this low carb and non dairy, but it's full of nutritional value and delicious!

Thanks mom, you are my inspiration!!

Tofu Steaks

I love tofu! It entered my life during a time of struggle and confusion. I had always been taught that dairy was good for the body but my body said it was not so good. Every time I would eat dairy I would have this feeling that someone had their hands around my throat and were choking me! 

Finally, in desperation I prayed for the strength to give up dairy and asked that if it were possible a substitute would manifest. And so it did! About a week after my heartfelt prayer I received a coupon and recipe book for Mori Nu tofu. In that little recipe book I found milk substitutes, puddings recipes, and many other delightful options that were dairy free! This new discovery led me to learn about all the different types of tofu that were on the market. One of my favorite alkaline recipes are these tofu steaks. 

I drain my water pack firm tofu then carefully cut it into steak size pieces. Putting the steaks in a fry pan, I then add some Bragg liquid aminos, you could use soy sauce if you prefer. To that seasoning I add a little bit of onion powder, black pepper, sesame seeds, and a squirt of olive oil. Cook this on low until it turns a light crispy brown. It is also good served cold.  

Millet Pancakes

I just LOVE the versatile grain called Millet! This grain is low in saturated fat, sodium and cholesterol. It is known for its high manganese, an essential mineral and important nutrient.  As one of the top ten most important grains in the world, it is highly nutritious, non glutinous and more on the alkaline side of the diet so it is soothing and easier on the digestive system.

Millet has a nutty flavor and makes some amazing tasty pancakes. Here is my favorite millet pancake recipe. Instead of making the pancakes from the dry milled grain, I thought that making them from the cooked grain would make a moist and delightful texture. It did! For those of you who have a pressure cooker, I cook the millet in my pressure cooker for 4 minutes, 3 cups millet with 5 cups water, and it comes out fluffy, not too sticky.

2 Cups cooked millet
4-5 eggs (my husband loves eggs. I don't so much. Often I substitute egg whites and not all whole eggs)
1 1/2 Cups soy or almond milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp stevia/sugar mix (you can use straight stevia, or raw sugar)
1 tsp aluminum free baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil

I blend this up in my blender and add enough milk to make my desired texture. I like mine a bit runny so that the pancakes are like a mini Crepe.

We eat ours plain, with homemade maple syrup, or maple flavored balsamic vinegar! My daughter suggested cream cheese and blueberries rolled up inside. Yum!