Christian Movies

Who has time to watch movies these days?  We typically don't, but someone recommended these Christian movies:  Saving Sarah Cain and Faith Like Potatoes

I recommend this movie... beautiful.

If the link does not work, click here for the trailer.

  Faith Like Potatoes (Global Creative Studio)

Raw Food Recipes

We enjoyed our time savoring raw food dishes prepared by several friends. The food was absolutely delicious! Thank you everyone.

Below are most of the recipes from the potluck. Additional recipes are found on a previous blog entry.

Eggless Salad

Recipe by Matt Amsden from Rawvolution

Equipment: Blender

Wilted Kale Salad

Recipe by James Russell.

Equipment: Blender, however optional

Pasta Primavera

Recipe can be found on The Sunny Raw Kitchen.

Equipment: Mandoline Slicer (or the like) & Blender

Mango Avocado Salad

Recipe can be found on We Like It Raw.

Falafel

Recipe can be found on The Raw Chef Blog (James Russell).
Equipment: Dehydrator & Food Processor

Pictures for... Mexican Patties, Tropical Pie, and Strawberry Pie

Russell James' Curried Cabbage Pillows with Dipping Sauce

Equipment for Cabbage: Food processor and Sprout Jars for Germinating (optional)

Equipment for Wrap: Dehydrator

Equipment for Dipping Sauce: Blender

First cold pressed olive oil and Braggs can be used instead of cold pressed sesame oil and tamari.  Optionally, add one tablespoon germinated black sesame seeds.

Refrigerator Cucumbers

Prepared by Pat

Equipment: Mandolin slicer (or something that slices thinly)

Ingredients:

8 cups cucumbers
1 medium onion
1 medium red pepper
1/2 medium green pepper
1 cup fresh lemon juice
1 cup raw honey
1 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp celery seed
1/2 tsp ground pepper (optional)

Slice cucumbers very thinly. Chop onions and green peppers. Place cuccumbers, peppers and onions in a bowl. Sprinkle with celery seed and ground pepper, if used. Mix honey, lemon juice, and salt. Pour over cuccumbers and mix. The hyperosmotic solution of lemon juice, honey, and salt will pull the water out of the vegetables. (It's how pickles are made!!) Mix several times before putting in the refrigerator. Best made 24 to 48 hours before serving for the flavors to blend.

Strawberry Parfait

Recipe is posted on Any Phyo's website.

Equipment: Blender

We did not add agave to the strawberries, nor did we blend the strawberries.

Growing Your Own Fresh Air Indoors!

Researcher Kamal Meattle recommends these three plants for fresh air:

• Areca Palm - Converts CO2 to O2
• Mother-in-law's Tongue - Converts CO2 to O2 at night
• Money Plant - Removes formaldehyde and other volatile chemicals
  
  For more detailed information, watch this short video on WeLikeItRaw.com.
  It's worth the watch for cleaner indoor air!
  
  
  

Dehydrating Grapes to Make Raisins for Raw Baklava

Kurt made Cherie's raw Apple Baklava posted on Get Fresh magazine.  It tasted so good!  And, it tasted cooked!  For this special event, we made our own raw raisins.  Next time, we'll just use regular raisins, but we really wanted to make our own.  In a glass bowl, we squeezed some of the juice out of the raisins (but not too much), just enough to break each one open for better dehydration.  You can drink the delicious grape juice.  Place the raisins on parchment paper on a dehydrator sheet.  Dehydrate the raisins at 115F for 36 hours.

The raisins were used for the agave-raisin syrup in this recipe layered with apples, syrup, dehydrated-germinated walnuts, and raisins.  Additional raisins were sprinkled in between the layers

Kurt's artistic placement of the apples, which you couldn't see after we put the syrup and walnuts on top.  He did a very good job!

Applying the last syrup to be spread on top.  Beautiful!

This dessert was a delight.

Yellowstone or Northern VA?

With temperatures below freezing, the fountains in Landsdowne are quickly looking like geysers from Yellowstone NP. This is Young Faithful.

Reaching Hearts Brazil

Following are video clips about Revelation. I encourage you to watch the sample video, at least. It is less than 4 minutes long with English/Spanish subtitles. God is at work... here is just a piece I'm sharing.

Reaching Hearts International is our home church. And, although I have never met Maiza Dias Ribeiro, the videos are well done... and I've been curious enough to watch them and figure out what she is saying (in Portuguese).

Reaching Hearts
Reaching Hearts Radio Ministry
www.alcancandocoracoes.org
A Verdade Presente

Sample - Apocalipse, Medo ou Esperança? Maiza Dias Ribeiro with English (or Spanish) subtitles:


Apocalipse, Medo ou Esperança? - Maiza Dias Ribeiro - Programa #1 Approximately 30 minutes long.

Apocalipse, Medo ou Esperança? - Maiza Dias Ribeiro - Programa #2 Approximately 30 minutes long.

Apocalipse, Medo ou Esperança? - Maiza Dias Ribeiro - Programa #3 Approximately 30 minutes long.

CNN says RAW is better - sorta

Here is the link, but please do not microwave as the article seems to suggest... I can post about that later, if you request:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/diet.fitness/07/02/cl.produce.preparation/index.html

Green Smoothies/Juicing Class and Organic Farming Talk

Saturday, during potluck, the Reaching Hearts health ministry team worked together to have a juicing and green smoothies class! The class was a success. Many people contributed, bringing fruits, vegetables, recipes, and equipment. I gave the class, but knowing more about smoothies than juicing, I did focus it on smoothies. We made spinach-mango, pineapple-banana-kale, pineapple-mango-raspberry, carrot-apple-grapes, carrot-cucumber, grapes-blueberries-banana. Most people were surprised at the green smoothies flavors. I feel the class accomplished its goals when they walked out of there feeling that they could "do this" - that is, green smoothies. Someone even said they walked over to the pot-luck dessert table and walked away without picking up a dessert! I was so happy to hear that. Maybe they were just full of the sweetness of the smoothie samples... well, whatever it takes to kick the sugar-habit, even for a day.

Green smoothies, the more you drink them, the more you find you crave them! ...as long as you vary your greens. They are rich in amino acids, minerals, and chlorophyll. Did someone say they alkalize the body?

Here is a GREAT READ on Greening Up your life: Ode to the Green Smoothie by Victoria Boutenko.

Ever wonder about the nutrients in your produce and how much you lose from the farm to your table? Here's an excellent read: From Farm To Table and How soon should I expect to experience the effects of dietary supplements? . These article-links were sent to me by Wellness Coach, Sharon Gluck. I first heard about glyconutrients, from my friend Kirsten Balatgek. They have worked for her mother and grandmother. Then, a friend from church, Sharon, mentioned them, too, and how Dr. Ben Carson used them, too. There must be something to them!

Talk on Organic Farming
Later that evening, we listened to a talk on organic farming and learned a lot. Wow! Gus, the farmer, used to be a physician's assistance and changed his career to be a farmer to be home with his family. He farms 5 acres and gave several tips on how to start your farm. We thoroughly enjoyed it. DID YOU KNOW? With gas prices going up, local organic foods are becoming more affordable. One, they are not farmed with petroleum-based fertilizers which means as gas prices go up, the price of petroleum goes up and the price of conventional produce goes up kur-ching. Two, they are local, requiring less gas for shipping, unlike conventional which travels a long way kur-ching.

More Benefits of Local Organic Food
Other non-gas-price-related benefits of organic produce are the nutrients they have. They have more nutrients (depending on their soil) and since they are freshly, locally picked, they have more nutrients! The older a fruit is since it has been picked, the less nutrients it has.

No to Hyrbrids. Yes to Heirlooms
Shockingly, seeds produced by hybrid plants should not be saved and planted the following year because they are crossed with other 'stuff' , which means if you planted a new squash hybrid seed this year... you grow squash the first year... but if you saved its seed and grow it next year, who knows what you may get... it may not be the same type of squash! Heirloom seeds are the real food here!

We learned so much... so much to write about it here, but we would love to tell you about it! Maybe Gus will have another talk sometime soon.

Are you Guilty?

Today at bible study, I learned a couple things from a few people that made me think. I want to share a them with you.

If you were convicted of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

God does not give up on us. The devil does not give up on us. The only person giving up on God is you.

Sugar Blues

I will admit. I love sweets, especially cookies. I have used agave or honey as my sweeteners, but I eat the occasional donut at work and desserts at potlucks and buffets. However, by writing about this, I am hoping to give up sugar... or at least non-organic sugar.

Why? Genetically Engineered (GE) sugar has made its way to the U.S. starting this year - 2008.

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=12700

Additionally, this may apply to corn & soy.

"Meat" Akron, OH

We stopped by the vegan/raw cafe - The Web of Life - in Cleveland and were disappointed. The reviews we read are all true...well, only because the customer we talked to at The Web of Life said the place was not what it used to be. So we left... but not without a vegan soft serve cone. It was the best vegan soft serve we've ever had.

We headed straight for Vegiterranean vegan-kosher restaurant in Akron, OH which just opened 6 months ago. These pictures are from there. At $23 a dish, the food was delicious. And the tofu dessert was amazing. I had Gardien Chicken with tuscan bean mashed potatoes. Kurt had the Gardien Steak special. Kurt has never had steak before in his life... until today! Is your jaw dropped because you read "Kurt ate steak" or because you think nothing vegan can imitate steak?

We love to sample each other's dishes and being from a state where steak restaurants have their own zip code (okay, slight exaggeration), plus growing up in a meat-eating home, I took a bite of his steak and was certain it was the real thing. The first several chews were reminiscent of steak prepared over the charcoal grill on a July 4th weekend at my aunt and uncle's backyard cookout... until its texture changed, but only slightly. I tell Kurt, "If you haven't had steak before, you just did."

By the way, Gardien is a trademark for GARden grown protIEN.

Chicago's Raw Restaurants - Karyn's and Cousin's

We went to both Karyn’s and Cousin’s. If we had to recommend one, Karyn’s wins!
Karyn’s has everything I would ever want in a raw food store. The store sells many products, from to-go raw food to raw food ingredients to supplements. They even sell gallons of rejuvelac and ice cream! The food we had was all delicious. We had the buffet and tamales. All tasted great. I was impressed with the tamales and the cabbage with walnuts, raisins, and dressing. Plus, we had a mango ice cream. The downside, customer service is not that great… well, when compared to Cousin’s. We ate at the cafe and not the restaurant next door (it was still morning).
Cousin’s has a smaller store, but the restaurant is bigger. Customer service is great, but they were short-staffed (on a Monday) that they didn’t have everything on the menu. That’s okay, it seems to be quite common with several of the raw restaurants we visited. The food was good, but at Karyn’s every bite I took was amazing… not so, at Cousin’s. It was just okay… or good. We had the popular falafel and kebabs… plus their brownie and truffles were great. Oh yeah, and they served ionized water!
Here are pictures from Karyn's:

Here are pictures from Cousin's:

Quick stop in Macon, GA

On my way to Robins AFB for business, I got hungry so I stopped in Macon for lunch. I knew there was a vegan restaurant there and I wanted to try it out, especially since I probably wouldn't get to be vegan much of the rest of the week.

It's a nice little place. I opted for the buffet, so I could try several different dishes. I don't know if it was because I ate from the buffet or because I've been eating more raw recently, but everything seemed very soft to me, as in well-cooked, maybe over-cooked. If I can, I'll try their Warner Robins location this week which doesn' have a buffet and see if the texture is different.

Other than the "mushiness," I liked the food, especially the fake chicken. Nothing in the buffet was spicy, even though it looked like it. If I weren't trying to eat less spicy food, I would have been disappointed. The ginger beer was good, though. It's homemade and I was warned it was very strong. Maybe it's very strong for a typical american, but for someone like me who orders food hot at Asian and Indian restaurants, it was the flavor I was looking for! I thought it was just right.

Below are some pictures of the Macon Eden'z Vegetarian Restaurant.

Polonium Halos: Evidence of an Instantaneous Creation

We heard Robert Gentry speak at Reaching Hearts International and the University of Maryland last week. He is a world renowned nuclear physicist.

The most interesting part of his lecture was about polonium halos. They are present in granite rock from El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. The half life of polonium is so small... Like seconds (or maybe less) that a "slow cooling" rock like granite should not contain polonium halos. Well, Robert Gentry found the polonium halos in the granite... Which could be formed if the granite cooled instantly. So, the halos are evidence of an instant creation.

His website: http://www.halos.com

The Box - Raw Food Delivered to Your Door

We ordered THE BOX! Pictured here is all the food we had delivered from Brooklyn, NY. The Box contains a cooling bag with a re-usable cold pack to keep the raw food cool. Inside were plastic sealed bags for each food - two soups, four sides, four entrees, and two desserts. The packaged food is labeled and you even get a blip-and-save "coupon"! Save several of these and you can redeem them for a Box.

I found out about the box from Matt Amsden's Rawvolution book. The uncookbook has several great pictures that whet anyones appetite for raw food. I ordered The Box this week because the Big Matt w/ Cheese was on the menu, also pictured in his book. It's one recipe I wanted to try, but not make... so, this week was the week for The Box.

We opened four packages for supper today and tried to place them neatly on a dish. Today's supper is Scarborough Fair Soup, Egg-less Egg Salad, Broccoli Salad, and Coconut Haystacks. Our favorite is the egg-less egg salad. And, of course, the dessert. It was all absolutely delicious! Kurt is literally licking the plate!!!

This food is so simple and very much in its natural state... who would have guessed we would be enjoying it this much! ...maybe its because we know just how good whole, natural food is for our bodies. Our maybe our bodies have felt the difference... our minds know... and our taste buds have been 'trained'! Which reminds me... next Wednesday, Dave McNeill invited us to a lecture at Janelia Farms in Ashburn, VA. The lecture is “Common Sense about Taste - from the Tongue to the Brain: How We Transform Sensation into Perception” given by Charles S. Zuker, Ph.D. He discovered the receptors that... detect sweet, sour, bitter, and umami (which is probably spicy receptor). He is working on the "salt receptor". We plan on attending!

Back to the Box... some of the food looks pretty 'sad' in the plastic wrap, but just fix it on the plate with garnish and it's good. I didn't wait for that... so we ate our soup from a cup! Well, at least we used a spoon.

I don't think we'll be doing this often (given the price), but it sure was nice try the food. Click here to order your box.

Homemade Pickles (vinegar free)

"Careful when you open a jar of these; the only way to stop eating them is to finish the jar" - David McNeill

When our friend, David McNeill, served these pickles to us, I couldn't believe how good they were. So, today, we are making them. They will be ready in 24-48 hours. Yumm!

Click here for the recipe which was posted on Gone Raw.

Backpacking Assateague

Backpacking Assateague was like backpacking a dessert with cold wind coming from the direction of the Atlantic Ocean. Brrrrr. Even with this blazing fire we were still cold.

The wild horses in the park were quite tame. Here is one I could see from my tent. Park regulations don't allow us to pet them.

Overall, it was a fun trip with no biting mosquitos Assategue is known for, chemical toilets, good exercise, just enough warm clothing (day & night), huddling around a fire with Craig's leftover 2x4 & 2x6s, and a big tent to get us out of the cold temperature and in for a game of Rook.

Reaching Hearts International: Raw Food Class

We hope you enjoyed the raw food class. Here are links to most of the recipes...and then some. Please print the recipes out or put a bookmark to them (and not to our website), since this website changes constantly. Thank you. You can always email us if you have questions or need more resources.

Note: Some recipes (if not all) may not use all raw ingredients. But, they are certainly "high" in raw ingredients! Sample of non-raw ingredients are spices, almonds (see Almond Board of California about pasteurization), bulgar, agar, braggs, lecithin.

Lebanese Layered Salad
Equipment: None
Click here for recipe. Makes for a beautiful display. Use first cold-pressed olive oil.


Date Nute Torte
Equipment: Food processor
Click here for recipe. Top with raspberries.


Mango Cheesecake by CheFlandria
Equipment: Food processor & high-speed blender like the VitaMix or BlendTec
Click here for recipe. Irish moss is hard to find. Instead, I used one tablespoon agar and 3/4 cup boiling water, later cooled before adding the rest of the ingredients. Top with raspberries. This recipe freezes quite well. To make almond milk:

Almond Milk for Cheesecake
1/3 cup almonds
1 1/2 cup water
Blend. Squeeze almond milk through a cheesecloth or nut milk bag. You will need about 1 to 1 1/2 cups almond milk for the cheesecake.

Famous Onion Bread by Matt Amsdem
Equipment: Food processor, dehydrator, & optional mandolin/spiral slicer
Click here for recipe. Try vidalia onion or sweet yellow onion for this recipe. If the mixture is not mixed thoroughly, the bread will turn out crumbly. Look for a subtle milky, white-ish color.

Spicy "Bean" Tacos by Sarma Melngailis & Matthew Kenney
Equipment: Dehydrator & food processor
Click here for recipe. In class, we had these with the sunflower sour cream recipe which follows:

Sunflower Sour Cream:
1 2/3 cups water
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1 1/3 cups raw sunflower seeds ( or cashews)
1/3 cups lemon juice

Blend all ingredients well until very smooth. Refrigerate. Good served as a salad dressing or as a dip for raw cauliflower and broccoli.

Vietnamese Zoodle Salad, inspired by a cooked dish
Equipment: Small blender & optional spiral slicer
Click here for recipe.


Cucumber Dressing by Jurea Dawson
Equipment: High-speed blender for creamy dressing
There is no link to Jurea's Cucumber Dressing recipe but here is one similar, just search for Creamy Cucumber Dressing. There are so many ways to make this recipe. You can use cashews for a fruit dip or sunflower seeds for a salad dressing. You can add more cucumber. You can add more lemons for 'taste'. You can use raw honey or agave. But, skip the garlic salt altogether. Play with it.

Coconut Macaroons
Equipment: Optional dehydrator
Based on a recipe by Sarma Melngailis & Matthew Kenney
This recipe is yummy, fast, easy-to-make dessert and does not use maple syrup like the original recipe.
Coconut Carob Macaroons
3.5-5 cups dried, shredded coconut flakes
1/2 cup carob powder
1 cup agave
1/2 teaspoon maple syrup extract (alcohol free)
2 Tbsp cup almond pulp (optional)
1 Tbsp vanilla extract (alcohol free)
1/2 tsp sea salt
Combine 3 cups coconut flakes and all the ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well. Add more coconut so the mixture is not too wet nor too dry. Form into small truffle-sized balls. Optional: Dehydrate at 115F for 12 hours.

Sprouting
Refer to SproutPeople.com for sprouting.
We buy our sprouts from Sprout Man and we have had a good experience with successfully sprouting their seeds.


Raw Food 'Essential' Ingredients
A list of ingredients you may want to add to your grocery list to make raw recipes!
* Greens, greens, greens! Vary your greens. Try kale, chard, collard greens. Yes, you can eat them raw! Try marinating or wilting.
* Fruits and vegetables.
* Agave
* Dates
* Coconut butter/oil
* Lemons/Limes
* Flaxseed
* Nuts/Seeds like sunflower seeds, almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds
* Cashews
* Sea salt or a wet salt like Celtic salt

Places to Shop for Raw Ingredients
You can buy special raw products online or locally. Here are a few:
* Natural Zing.com They are in Maryland and carry the Spirooli (spiral slicer). You'll find unpasteurized almonds here, as well as raw carob and raw shredded coconut!
* Roots Market in Olney and Clarksville, MD. An organic market that is also raw food friendly! They have raw crackers, cookies, bars.
* My Organic Market I found the one in Elkridge, MD that sells steam pasteurized almonds that will still sprout. In other words, raw & living.
* The Common Market in Frederick, MD. You can find raw agave, coconut oil/butter, nuts, grains, seeds, first cold-pressed olive oils, and more.
* Whole Foods You can find most ingredients here like raw nuts, seeds, and first cold-pressed oils.

Local Raw Food Restaurant
The nearest all-raw-food restaurant is Loving Life Cafe, opening Summer 2008 in Hanover, PA. I think they are not re-opening the one in New Oxford. They have the best ice cream and cheesecake! We took a raw class there, but it was a very basic course. It was fun, but the class I teach you has so much more information in it! However, I do encourage you to learn more about raw foods, health, and nutrition... then, share what you've learned!

[UPDATE, 04/24/09]  We have since found these local restaurants which offer raw food dishes on their menu!   Java Green Cafe , Senbeb Cafe, and Great Sage.  Great Sage recently offers a night of raw dinner with guest speakers.  They just started in April 2009.

Loving Life Cafe is no longer in business.

Some Common Raw Kitchen Appliances/Tools
Food processor, sprout jars, nut milk bags, dehydrator, juicer, high-speed blender, spiral slicer, mandolin slicer, salad spinner, salad crisper, coffee grinder (for small seeds and spices), and a good knife to break open coconuts.

Germinate
Remember, all ingredients use germinated nuts, grains, and seeds. ...except for a few like flax, cashews, almonds. Flaxseed is simply ground and added to recipes... probably because soaking them would end-up in a goopy texture. Sometimes cashews are soaked in water, but only for a short time. Almost all almonds are pasteurized now, so if you cannot find unpasteurized almonds, there is no need to germinate/soak them for recipes. See Almond Board of California about pasteurization.

Less Green Smoothies

The green smoothies we were drinking daily stopped about Day 55. It seemed that digestion had slowed... I later found out that all the fiber in the green smoothies was slowing our digestion. We weren't drinking enough water! I know I wasn't drinking my 64 oz. of water a day. Lesson learned. I think we'll alternate between green smoothies and no green smoothies... but since we stopped, we haven't drank one yet! *funny* how that is. But, we did notice we craved greens. All I wanted was a salad or a salad burrito. And, I could just gobble up the cilantro all by itself, and I didn't want the other non-green ingredients. This is a *strange* affect considering I have such a sweet tooth.

The Voice in the Wilderness Mission

In April, I had a cleanse done at The Voice in the Wilderness Mission. Many of you have already heard me talk about it. I did journal while I was there, so if you're curious about it... send me an email. The mission just updated their website, and it is much nicer and has more information than before. I went for a 10-day cleanse (nothing invasive), and it was the most intense cleanse I ever had. The cost was under $2,500 (which is very reasonable) and the results were amazing. Some of the people I met that were doing the cleanse were their for weight loss. I did hear stories about a woman with cancer who did the cleanse twice a year and got 6 more years to her life; the doctors told her she had months to live. Then, there was a story of a women who had the cleanse so that she could get pregnant; two months after the cleanse, she was pregnant!

After a cleanse, there is still maintenance to do at home (on your own), like eating less sweets, no snacking, food combining, etc... but, in the meantime you feel so great! And 6 months later, it catches up to you. Which is why the mission recommends to return after 6 months for a mini-cleanse. I have not returned because I can do a similar mini-cleanse at home and it has been beneficial. Talking about this is reminding me I need another mini-cleanse. But, I would rather change my diet than do a mini-cleanse. If that doesn't work (because I'm not eating the right foods and exercising), then I'll do a mini-cleanse.

So why cleanse? You want the waste out so toxins do not build-up in the body. Essentially, that's what the cleanse at the mission was, along with some 'building up'. We don't realize how important it is to digest our food properly and for the waste to make its way out at a reasonable time. The waste must come out! And diet helps that, as well as exercise and water. Click here to see their website. If you do contact them, please be patient since they are busy people and can be hard to get a hold of over the phone.