Since this is timely, I’m adding it today too, rather than waiting. Genetic Roulette (full length documentary) is also available to view online for free until Nov. 6th. Get informed.
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David vs. Monsanto
View the documentary FREE for a limited time, at mercola.com. I haven’t watched the documentary yet, but have seen the story in other resources.
Monsanto has long been trying to establish control over the seeds of the plants that produce food for the world. They have patented a number of genetically altered food crops, which can only be grown with proper license, and the seeds for which must be purchased anew each year.
Alas, genetically engineered (GE) crops cannot be contained. And rather than being found guilty of contaminating farmers’ property, Monsanto has successfully sued hundreds of unsuspecting farmers for patent infringement when unlicensed GE crops were found growing in their fields. Many farmers have subsequently, quite literally, lost their farms.
Percy Schmeiser of Saskatchewan, Canada, is but one of Monsanto’s victims, but contrary to so many others, he refused to quietly tolerate the injustice. In a classic case of David versus Goliath, Schmeiser fought back against one of the most powerful businesses in the world.”
by Dr. Mercola
Read the rest of the article here
Recipe Help
Yesterday I told you that I have a ton of recipes (no surprise, I’m sure) and that I decided I wanted “an app for that” and what I was looking for in an app. (This article will make more sense if you go back and read that one first.)
What’d I find?
After paying for the one that had no trial (Ouch!), that I like a lot of features on but it doesn’t have the customization I need, I went back to one that I really liked when I was using trial versions. But it doesn’t have ability to add new info on the iPhone and iPad versions–which are 2 different apps to pay for. Again, double Ouch! I hate paying for things double, triple–5 different apps! It was really hard to decide as various ones had various features, but no one app had all of them. So I had to work on trade-offs.
The app that had the most features for doing what I want on the computer is MacGourmet. So I went with it (as my second, make that third, paid recipe management app.) The Meal Planner, Nutritional Info, and a Cookbook Builder are “add-ons” to it; or come all together as MacGourmet Deluxe. (So glad I got a free gift card to the App Store.)
In MacGourmet, I LOVE the ease of adding recipes that are already on my computer or online. Just utilize “Services” to clip and add, making it very easy to put the right info in the right place in the template. I LOVE the ease of putting together Meal Plans–just drag ‘n drop.
Some of the added features, that I wasn’t looking for but are nice, are:
- I can add pictures, not only of the finished product, but also of each step of preparation, if I want. I’m REALLY glad it has this feature.
- I can mark equipment needed for preparing the recipe.
- I can divide out prep times as needed.
- I can add notes–including pics.
- I can divide out the recipe ingredients into groups, such as salad and dressing, or a sauce to be added, or layers, etc.
- I can rank recipes, and note if I’ve prepared them or not. (Good for having a category of “want to try”.)
- I can even export the recipes and import them to the other app I bought. 🙂 (But sadly, not vice versa.)
One of my FAVORITE features is Relationships Manager. I can add Relationships between recipes. Each recipe that has “Relationships”, such as is served with, or needs another recipe to complete this one, includes links to the other Related recipes. This is great for things like: Ranch Valley Dressing calls for homemade Mayonnaise (recipe linked). Or Chicken ‘n Noodles linked to the Noodle recipe. Or Salads linked to their best Dressing recipe. Or even “serve with”. I LOVE this unexpected feature!
I have loved quickly adding most of my own recipes that are on my computer or online. And quickly adding new recipes I find online that I’d like to try. I’ve also added several of our family favorites that from recipe cards. Adding all the recipes we prepare, that are in cookbooks or on cards, will take quite some time. But I’m thinking it’s a project for children and teens that need typing practice. 🙂
What don’t I like? If I only wanted a computer app, I don’t think I’d be unhappy about anything about MacGourmet. BUT… A key thing for me was having cross platform apps, so I could add recipes or make meal plans on my mobile devices when I wasn’t at my computer, and so I could take everything with me to the kitchen or the store.
The other app I bought does allow this, but doesn’t have the customizable features. So at this point there is not a good app group (computer and mobile) for just what I’m looking for. But I’m happy with the computer version of MacGourmet, and hoping the mobile versions have some updates in the future to allow more versatility.
More to come on the other apps I bought – and the mobile MacGourmet ones, if I decide to give them a try, even with their low reviews and the above drawback.
Recipes Recipes
I’m a true foodie. I love cookbooks. I love developing recipes. But today I’m not sharing a recipe. I’m sharing ABOUT recipes.
I’ve been cooking and collecting since I was a child. I’ve been writing and publishing recipe books since 1990. I have an entire bookcase of cookbooks and recipes–not counting the untold files on my computer that have never been printed out.
It’s time to find a more automated way of keeping track of them. I knew there had to be “an App for that”. I went looking. I tried all the free trials I could find. I downloaded the free iPhone/ iPad ones. I paid for one that didn’t have a trial–both for Mac and iPad version. Ouch!
My perfect app would be one that:
- is designed for very easily adding my own recipes. (I don’t need a ton more recipes that don’t fit the way I cook. But I do need a FAST way to get my recipes in.)
- allows me to add my own categories. (I don’t prepare food traditionally, so I don’t organize by traditional categories.)
- allows me to customize the look and layout. (at least to some degree. Visuals are very important to me.)
- allows me to very easily pull together meal plans, for all meals (and, ideally, for me to be able to customize those meals.)
- works cross platform, with corresponding iPhone/iPad app, so I can add recipes and meal plans to those and have them automatically all sync together, and so I can prep food from my iPad in the kitchen. (Reading the recipe to me would be nice, but not a deal breaker.)
- includes a grocery list maker. This is not a deal breaker for me, since I mainly “cook” from our pantry, since we shop monthly from a natural food delivery. But it would be a nice, and probably expected, feature.
- includes nutritional information? This is not a deal breaker for me at all, but again it could be a nice feature for writing my recipe books.
- links back to original recipe, if online? Again, not a deal breaker, but nice to be able to go back to the source, especially for sharing with others.
What’d I find?
Come back tomorrow and find out!
GMO Interviews
Again this year, Dr. Oz interviewed both sides on GMO’s.
Dr. Oz on GMOs. Must watch!
Before interviewing Jeffrey Smith and Dr. Robin Burnhoft about the health dangers of GMOs (part 1), Dr. Oz revealed that the pro-GMO scientists invited to his show were unwilling to share the stage with Jeffrey. They would only appear after Jeffrey and Dr. Burnhoft finished their interview and walked off. The reason for this demand became immediately obvious when Martina Newell-McGloughlin spoke to Dr. Oz. So much of she said was demonstrably false or misleading. Click to watch this episode. http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/genetically-modified-foods-are-they-safe-pt-1
Chemical Soup – and bread and …
October is GMO Awareness month! How aware are you of what is in what you put in your mouth and how it was grown and processed? I believe this issue goes far beyond just GMO’s (genetically modified organisms – or GE’s, genetically engineered “foods”). But GMO produced “food”-products are certainly the new danger of our age, as these un-natural Franken-foods came on the scene in 1996 and have continued to spread like wildfire since then.
When our “foods” are produced in a chemical lab by men in white coats and patented, there is something seriously wrong with the system, and a great threat is presented to our health. And yet much of our society goes on oblivious to the facts because it “tastes good” (has been laden with strong chemical flavorings to mask the true tastelessness), “we love it and want more; eat it all the time” (because it’s been laden with addictive chemicals), and it’s “cheap” or cheapER (because the government has taken money from the people on the front end to subsidize these “foods”. People, we are paying for these “foods”, a very high cost, whether we buy the finished “food”-products or not.)
What is food? It is not whatever can be put down the gullet with relative ease that tastes good and doesn’t cause an immediate death reaction.
Food is the “herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food.” These foods that God created and ordained good, the “grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind”, all yielded “seed after his kind”. Later the “moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things,” also was created “good” “after his kind”.
Food is:
Food (Webster’s 1828 Dictionary) = whatever is eaten for nourishment, something that sustains, nourishes
Nourishment (from 1828) = 1. That which serves to promote the growth of animals or plants, or to repair the waste of animal bodies; food; sustenance; nutriment. 2. Nutrition; support
Nutrition (from 1828) = 1. The act or process of promoting the growth or repairing the waste of animal bodies; 2. That which nourishes; nutriment.
Health (from 1828) = That state of an animal or living body, in which the parts are sound, well organized and disposed, and in which they all perform freely their natural functions.
These Franken-food products do not nourish, do not sustain health, do not promote growth and repair and the health of our bodies. But they “look good to our eyes, taste good (to our tricked brains), and we want them. In our pride, we think we “surely will not die”.
Man, in his attempt to be god has perverted the good food God has given us. By his patents (and unethical lawsuits) he attempts to control not only nature, but also all of mankind (through what he eats). Brethern, this ought not be so. Our society is the frog in the kettle, the drugged mass following the pied piper. We must wake up and return to the real food created by the Creator of our bodies to nourish and sustain them.
To learn more about genetically engineered foods and their effects, see other posts in this category (past and future), and check out the Institute for Responsible Technology and other science sites concerned about GMO’s. IRT has an article on 10 Reasons to Avoid GMO’s here.
31 Times More of This Chemical Found in Agent Orange?
It’s GMO Awareness month – or is that NON GMO Month! Watch for more articles this week.
A late-breaking study shows that genetically engineered (GE) crops have led to a 404 million pound increase in overall pesticide use from the time they were introduced in 1996 through 2011. This equates to an increase of about seven percent over the last 16 years.
The report, published in the journal Environmental Sciences Europe,1effectively undermines the declared value of crops genetically engineered to be protected against herbicides and insects. The whole premise for GE crops was to make it easier to kill weeds and diminish crop loss to harmful pests.
But instead, these modified crops have led to resistance, both in weeds and pests, leaving farmers to struggle with an increasingly difficult situation. More than two dozen weed species are now resistant to glyphosate, the primary ingredient in Monsanto’s broad-spectrum herbicide Roundup.
Dr. Mercola
read the rest of the article here
This Food May Expose You to 31 Times More of This Chemical Found in Agent Orange
Decadent 3 Layer “Raw” Brownies
I just made the yummiest “death by chocolate” type, 3 Layer brownies. The base layer is brownie. The middle layer is a cream (almost mousse like) with peppermint. The top is ganache. I adapted a recipe I found online. Oh, and it’s a “raw food” recipe – no baking – and Good for You-Naturally!™
It’s close enough to Friday to make this a Friday Food post, especially since so many have asked for the recipe. So here goes….
Decadent 3 Layer “Raw” Brownies
Brownie Layer
- 3/4+ cup raw almond flour* (see below)
- 1/2 cup raw cacao powder
- pinch nutmeg
- very small pinch unrefined salt
Mix together. Add:
- 1/4 pure maple syrup
- 1/4 tsp. pure vanilla extract (mine’s homemade)
- approx. 2 Tbl. pure water
In food processor, add maple syrup and extract to dry ingredients, process. Gradually add water to get just wet enough to be all mixed and hold together – brownie consistency. Press into small pyrex rectangle pan.
(This is a bit different than my regular bRAWnie recipe, which would also work as a base – but the maple syrup in these is yum.)
Cream Layer
(This makes twice as much as needed for this small pan. But my food processor wouldn’t do the half-size recipe. I left half of this cashew cream without the cacao in it for another use.)
- 1/4 cup fresh coconut milk (blend coconut meat with coconut water)
- 2 Tbl coconut butter (Artisana brand is what I have)
- 1 cup raw cashews, soaked
- approx. 20-25 drops Sweet Leaf stevia drops (plain or peppermint) and
- 4-6 drops doTerra Peppermint Essential Oil (whatever to get the right sweetness and as pepperminty as you like – since this was my first time making this, I used a combination of these trying to get just the right mix. Next time I’ll get more precise.)
- 2 Tbl. raw cacao powder
Process until smooth and creamy. Spread about 1/2 on top of brownies and refrigerate to set.
Ganache Topping
-
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/2 cup + 1-2 Tbl. raw cacao powder (told you this was death by chocolate!) 🙂
- 2-3 Tbl. raw extra virgin coconut oil
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 Tbl coconut butter
(Again I had to do a bit of adjusting, by adding a bit more cacao and the coconut butter to get a thicker consistency. You want a soft creamy spreadable texture. Not as stiff as frosting, but not runny.)
Process till soft and creamy. Spread on top and return to refrigerator.
(This Ganache would make a scrumptious fudge topping for ice cream, or frosting for cupcakes, or just eat it with a spoon.) 🙂
You could also double the brownie recipe, and omit the cream layer for a plain “frosted” brownie.
Mm-mm good.
* Almond flour – Get 2 for the price of one. I make almond flour from the pulp leftover from making almond milk. (Almond milk instructions in Good for You Naturally!™ Weekly Menu & Recipes – Level 1.) Dehydrate almond pulp till dry, then blend/process into flour.
Simply Clean
Don’t miss this .99 Sale from my friend Lisa Barthuly! I will get my own review of this book up soon, but for now just saying, get it while it’s 99 cents because it is a GREAT one!
Simplify. Save Money.
Two things that seem pretty elusive these days, huh? Not so!
Would you like to rid your home of commercial, toxic products but don’t want to pay the price for the ‘all natural’, ‘organic’ products that line the shelf? Learn to make your own! Create everything from your own laundry soap, to homemade dryer sheets, antibacterial spray cleaners, potpourri blends, fabric softeners, calendula salve, homemade ‘Vaseline,’ handcrafted Eucalyptus Chest Rub . . . even tips for the outside of the homestead and much more!
A must have for those looking not only to simplify, but to cut that grocery bill down, create a healthier environment for our families, and revive the art of making our own!
A Simply Homemade Clean eBook is available now through August 31st for just 99 cents!!
FROM THE BOOK
If we knew how to make our own cleaning products to replace the toxic, commercial ones . . . would we? Would we put forth the effort required?
The desire to make my own products stemmed from the frugal, self reliant side of me. I wanted simple; homemade; natural. Remember the definition of simple is NOT ‘easier.’ Living “simply” in our times, means making a deliberate choice to differ from the mainstream of today’s societal norm. My desire changed over to sheer determination, when one of my children was diagnosed with a myriad of allergies, chemical sensitivities, and asthma. After much study and research, we were determined that we could not have those products in our home, they are useless (when God has provided all we need to make our own) and harmful to everyone in our home. Join me, as I show you how to easily make your own natural, homemade, handcrafted products that are not only less expensive but truly better for our families, our home and God’s Creation.
Pick up your copy of A Simply Homemade Clean–for just 99 cents!! CLICK HERE!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lisa Barthuly lives in the mountains of the American Redoubt with her family. She is a follower of Yeshua, Torah lover, Helpmeet, and Mama! She enjoys a simple, home-centered life, built on God’s foundations; studying Scripture, homeschooling, scratch baking and cooking, canning, candle making, gardening organically, raising dairy goats and chickens, she’s the family herbalist, enjoys goat milk mochas, reading, and loves a round of competitive target practice!
Visit her at her ‘homestead on the web’.
Full Time Parenting
Full Time Parenting by Israel Wayne. My first thoughts when reading this book were it should be called Full Time Family. It covers so many areas of family life beyond just strictly parenting. So many parenting books right now are nothing more than legalistic steps, mixed with pop psychology, of what to do to have good kids. (Yes, even the ones decrying “legalism” are usually just cloaked in a different form of it.) This book was refreshingly different, sharing life and lessons learned for building a strong family, focusing on following God and His Word. It was like true discipleship, not a checklist for “producing some kind of predictable Pavlovian or Skinnerian behavior.”
The first chapter truly lays the foundation for parenting, Be the Parent. “Because they don’t belong to you, but to Him, you need to find out what He expects of you and how He wants you to raise His children. You can’t just do any old thing you like. … You need to find out what God’s desire is for these children. … The good thing is that He is not silent. He has given us a wealth of knowledge and direction in His Word about parenting, education and child training.”
Although the book is in no way a do-this, don’t-do-that checklist, it does provide practical help, beginning with common sense foundations that don’t seem to be common sense anymore. “You are the parent, they are the children.” “Children need boundries.” “Value your Words.” “Train their hearts, not just their behavior.” “Have a goal.” And most important of all, “Throw your self on the mercy of God.”
From there Israel covers everything from helping the hyperactive child (from personal experience) to techno-parenting to purity, hospitality, the one-income family, and keeping your marriage strong to family business and home education to passing the baton. There’s even a chapter by Israel’s mom, Skeet Savage, on single parenting.
I think you’ll enjoy reading this book and find it a refreshing change from most parenting books available today. Order here.
