Food

Food – Pumpkins Do Not Disappoint!

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The bright orange color of pumpkin is a dead giveaway that pumpkin is loaded with an important antioxidant, beta-carotene. Beta-carotene, converted to vitamin A in the body, promotes healthy eyes, skin and bones. Just one serving of 100 percent pure pumpkin provides 80 percent of the daily required vitamin A. In addition to adding fiber, potassium, and vitamin A, while cutting down on fat and sodium, pumpkin adds extra flavor.

A little pumpkin goes a long way to making your favorite dishes tastier and more nutritious. Probably best known for the favorite holiday dessert of pumpkin pie, have you tried or considered other uses of pumpkin? Below are simple ways a little pumpkin can make all the difference.

Pumpkin seeds can be roasted as a snack.

Pumpkin flowers are edible!

Pumpkin added to your favorite convenience tomato sauce reduces the sodium, although the only difference you may notice is a little extra body added to your pasta sauce. Simply stir 1 cup pure pumpkin into 3 cups (about 26 oz.) of your favorite pasta sauce.

Pumpkin added to mashed potatoes makes them become rich and golden in color, while helping to reduce the fat and calories. Stir 1/2 cup of pure pumpkin into each cup of mashed potatoes.

You may not notice the pumpkin in your chili, but you’ll be glad to know that this pumpkin addition will help to reduce the sodium in your bowl. Stir 1/2 cup pure pumpkin into 1 1/2 cups of your favorite chili.

Pumpkin adds a rich golden color and natural flavor to your everyday applesauce. Stir 3 tablespoons of pure pumpkin into 1/2 cup of applesauce for a naturally sweet snack.

Get the same great taste of traditional Mac & Cheese without all the fat when pumpkin is used in place of butter. Substitute 1/2 cup pure pumpkin for all the butter or margarine called for in the directions.

Pumpkin adds a touch of color and light earthiness to the flavor of hummus. Stir 1/4 cup pure pumpkin into 1 cup of hummus.

With pumpkin added to hearty brown rice, the result is deliciously creamy, risotto-like rice. Follow the package directions for regular or parboiled rice. For each cup of uncooked rice add 1/2 cup pure pumpkin to the cooking water or broth.

Pumpkin Toffee Cheesecake features a fabulous combination of cream cheese and pumpkin topped with crushed toffee candies. Serve it for dessert or for a special treat anytime.

Life and Health – Three Delicious Holiday Recipes

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“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.” Psalm 100:4. The holidays are approaching, how shall we observe them? “Will it be, as it has been in many instances, a thanksgiving to ourselves? Or will it be a thanksgiving to God?”

“We are to remember that it is more blessed to give than to receive. . . . Now a season is coming when we shall have our principles tested. Let us think what we can do for God’s needy ones. We can make them through ourselves the recipients of God’s blessings.

“But this does not embrace all of your duty. Make an offering to your best Friend; acknowledge His bounties; show your gratitude for His favors; bring a thank offering to God. . . . Brethren and sisters, eat a plain dinner on Thanksgiving and Christmas day, and with the money you would spend in extras with which to indulge the appetite, make a thank offering to God.

“We want this Thanksgiving to be all that it implies. Do not let it be perverted, mingled with dross; but let it be what its name implies—giving thanks. LET OUR VOICES ASCEND IN PRAISE!” Adventist Home, 474, 475.

What a beautiful picture of the Christian’s holiday. In order to fulfill God’s ideal in us, we must have His Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts and lives at all times. The delicate nerve endings of our brains must be in the proper condition each hour of the day to receive this Gift Jesus left for us upon His ascension. And let us remember, with great solemnity, that “The brain nerves which communicate with the entire system are the only medium through which heaven can communicate with man and affect his inmost life.” My Life Today, 148. Therefore, we find out a very important aspect of our Christian life in eradicating sin from our lives, that “When men take any course which needlessly expends their vitality or beclouds their intellect, they sin against God: they do not glorify Him in their body and spirit, which are His.” Counsels on Health, 20. What a sobering thought as we approach the Second Coming of Christ. With what fervor should we “work intelligently to put away from our life-practice every perverted appetite.” Testimonies, vol. 6, 373.

What constitutes a beclouding and benumbing of the brain? Here are a few that God has mentioned:

Meat (see Testimonies, vol. 2, 64);

Sugar (see Testimonies, vol. 2, 369; Manuscript 93);

Grease (see Testimonies, vol. 2, 63);

Cheese (see Ministry of Healing, 302);

Stimulants (see Testimonies, vol. 1, 549);

Gluttony (see Testimonies, vol. 2, 412, 413);

Lack of Exercise (see My Life Today, 130);

Impure air (see My Life Today, 137);

Improper rest (see My Life Today, 143);

Irregularity (see My Life Today, 146.)

Let us endeavor during the days that come to follow God’s ideal and original program for our lives that we may claim His promise to us, “God has pledged Himself to keep this human machinery in healthful action if [remember, there are always conditions with God’s promises] the human agent will obey His Laws and cooperate with God.” My Life Today, 127.

Holiday Dressing:

1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon Thyme

1 /2 cup onions (finely chopped)

1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning

1/2 cup celery (finely chopped)

1/2 teaspoon Garlic powder

1/2 cup mushrooms (sliced)

1/2 cup wheat germ

2 teaspoons Sea salt

1/2 cup Cashew milk

3 and ½ cups dry bread pieces (or Grapenuts are very tasty)

1 Tablespoon Vegex in 3 /4 cup hot water.

1-1/2 cup nut meats (walnuts, pecans, etc.) chopped

1 teaspoon Sweet Basil

1 small can of chestnuts (sliced)

Simmer onions, celery, mushrooms, and seasonings in the 1 /2 to 1 cup of water. Cook a few minutes till celery is tender but still crisp, stirring often. Mix the Vegex seasoning and Cashew milk together and add the bread pieces, crumbs, or Grapenuts and chopped nutmeats. Mix all ingredients lightly but well. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes or until slightly browned. For an added treat, you may use a loaf pan, arranging slices of Nut Meat alternately with the roast. Use with Cashew Gravy.

Cashew Gravy:

1-1/2 cups of cashew pieces

2 Tablespoons Vegex

1 Tablespoon onion powder

1 teaspoon Garlic powder

1 teaspoon sea salt

3-4 cups water

Place above ingredients in blender and blend thoroughly. Place in pan on medium heat and stir constantly until mixture thickens and comes to a boil. You may add I can of mushrooms if you like.

Pumpkin Pudding:

Place in Blender.

2 cups Cashew milk

1 /2 teaspoon sea salt

1 cup date pieces

1 Tablespoon Vanilla

1 Tablespoon Corriander powder

1 /2 cup cashew pieces

Blend thoroughly on high speed, and add to one 16-oz can of Libby’s Pumpkin. Mix thoroughly, and add 1/2 cup chopped Pecans or Walnuts. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

May God be with you and protect each of you during this season, and may we in unity say, “Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.”

Recipe – Mock Tuna Salad

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Who knew mashed up chickpeas could taste just like tuna?

15 oz chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2 tsp. nutritional yeast

2 whole celery stalks

1 Tbsp. Bragg Liquid Aminos

2 Tbsp. dill pickle relish

2 Tbsp. vegan mayonnaise

½ tsp. onion flakes

½ tsp. kelp

In a large mixing bowl, mash chickpeas with a fork until coarse and no whole beans are left. Alternatively, pulse beans in a food processor a few times—careful not to puree, and transfer to a mixing bowl. Shred celery with a cheese grater or pulse a few more times in a food processor. Transfer to the mixing bowl and add remaining ingredients, stirring to combine. Add more vegan mayonnaise and/or kelp as necessary or desired.

Food – Eat Right, Live Longer

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Have you wondered if health care is worth it? Concensus of most modern medical men is that you should exercise, keep your weight down, avoid smoking cigarettes.

An increasing number of physicians are recommending against alcohol, high-cholesterol meats and white-flour bread.

These recommendations are based on “the latest medical knowledge” though I can show you the same prescription for health in a book that’s a hundred years old.

Ellen White authored that book. To this day Seventh-day Adventists accept her criteria. Since she has been proved right about so many things, perhaps we should examine what else she said.

The benefits of Ellen White’s teachings are now measurable.

There are 57,000 Adventists living in California. Recently the “dead ones” were “interviewed.”

The State of California, the United States Public Health Service, and the Adventist Church, Pacific Union Conference, analyzed available death certificates of all Adventists who had died over a five-year period.

98.8 percent of all such certificates were traceable. Judging from these records, Seventh-day Adventists have a life expectancy five to six years greater than other Californians.

70 percent fewer Adventists die from all types of cancer, 68 percent fewer from respiratory diseases, 88 percent fewer from TB and 85 percent fewer from pulmonary emphysema.

Among all Adventists there had been only nine cases of cancer of the lung and, further research revealed, each of these had at some time been a smoker.

Adventists have 46 percent less strokes, 60 percent less heart disease.

About 50 percent of Adventists are vegetarians. A new study has been launched by Drs. Richard Walden and Raymond West, of Loma Linda University, to compile comparative health figures for meat-eaters.

Perhaps a by-product of Adventist abstinence from alcohol is the finding that they have only about one-third (35 percent) as many accidents.

It has tended to reaffirm the faith of the faithful to discover that the most advanced scientific findings support what was written and taught by this amazing little lady, Ellen White, more than a hundred years ago.

If future scientific findings continue to support hers, let’s see what tomorrow’s doctors will be prescribing:

Ellen White advised against overeating, also against crash dieting. “I advocate no extremes.”

Whole-wheat bread, not white. Minimal sweets. “Sugar is not good for the stomach.”

She recommends grains, vegetables, fruits—especially apples. “Apples are superior to any fruit.”

She recommends against meat, coffee and tea.

And sorry, “no hot biscuits.”

If some of her recommendations sound extreme, imagine how they all must have sounded in 1863. Yet modern science continues more and more to say, “She was right!”

Paul Harvey News, March 1969.

Life and Health – Three Delicious Recipes for Health and Stregnth

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In the last few years we have heard a great deal about Candida Albicans (yeast infection), due to a defective immune system. These defense mechanisms are broken down when you take antibiotics, specifically, penicillin, preparing the way for Candida. This can indeed become serious and if left to invade the system, one may have it for life. Diet is of utmost importance, and one of the items that must be eliminated is yeast. Bread, being the “staff of life”, is a very important item in millions of households. So, it seems essential that we substitute unleavened bread in a variety of ways to take care of this need.

 

“When hot, or new, raised bread of any kind is difficult of digestion. It should never appear on the table. This rule does not, however, apply to unleavened bread. Fresh rolls made of wheaten meal, without yeast or leaven, and baked in a well-heated oven, are both wholesome and palatable.” “Counsels on Diets and Foods, 316, 317. Also beneficial is the thorough mastication process required which is a considerable drawback in eating porridges and soups.

 

How many of us really realize what we owe to our Heavenly Father, who has created us and redeemed us by His precious blood on Calvary, for the perfect “blueprint”, enabling us to have health and strength to work for Him, using our varied talents in His service.

 

“The transgression of physical law is the transgression of God’s law. Our creator is Jesus Christ. He is the author of our being. He has created the human structure. He is the author of physical laws, as He is the author of the moral law. And the human being, who is careless and reckless of the habits and practices that concern his physical life and health, sins against God. Many who profess to love Jesus Christ do not show proper reverence and respect for Him who gave His life to save them from eternal death. He is not reverenced, or respected, or recognized. This is shown by the injury done to their bodies in violation of the laws of their being.” Manuscript 49, 1897.

 

“If we close our eyes to the light for fear we shall see our wrongs, which we are unwilling to forsake, our sins are not lessened, but increased. If light is turned from in one case, it will be disregarded in another. It is just as much sin to violate the laws of our being as to break one of the Ten Commandments, for we cannot do either without breaking God’s Law. We cannot love the Lord with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength while we are loving our appetites, our tastes, a great deal better than we love the Lord. We are daily lessening our strength to glorify God, when he requires all our strength, all our mind. By our wrong habits we are lessening our hold on life, and yet professing to be Christ’s followers, preparing for the finishing touch of immortality.” Testimonies, vol. 2, 70, 71.

 

May God help us to keep the channels open, the delicate nerve endings of the brain, by not beclouding or benumbing them, that the Holy Spirit may do its work in our lives and prepare us for the soon coming of our Saviour!

 

Cornbread

 

1-3/4 cups cornmeal

 

1/4 cup date sugar

 

1 cup Quick Oats

 

1 tsp. Sea Salt

 

1 cup chopped cashews

 

2 cups Soy or Nut Milk

 

Mix all ingredients well. Place in a shallow baking dish or silverstone cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes.

 

Oat Crackers

 

4 cups Quick Oats (ground in blender)

 

4 Tablespoons date sugar or granulated Fruit Source

 

1 tsp. Sea Salt

 

1 cup finely ground walnuts

 

Mix all ingredients well. Measure out half of the mixture, and add enough Soy or Nut milk to form a dough, and roll out between wax paper and cut out crackers. Place on non-stick cookie sheet and bake at 300 degrees until done, about 20-30 minutes.

 

These unleavened recipes have tremendous food value. If Soymilk is used you have the 8 essential amino acids.

 

Oatmeal Pecan Crisps

 

2 cups oat flour

 

3 /4 tsp. Sea Salt

1 cup millet flour

 

1/2 cup fruit source (dates)

 

1 cup chopped pecans (walnuts)

 

2 cups Soy or Nut Milk

 

Add milk to proper consistency, thick but spreadable, on a non-stick cookie sheet, about one inch thick. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

 

Recipe – Black-eyed Pea Spread

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1 15-ounce can black-eyed peas, rinsed, or 1 ½ cups cooked black-eyed peas

½ tsp. dried tarragon

¼ cup tightly packed fresh parsley leaves

1 ½ tsp. chopped garlic, (1 large clove)

Salt to taste

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

Reserve a few black-eyed peas for garnish and place the remaining peas in a food processor, along with parsley, lemon juice, oil, garlic, and tarragon. Process until smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings, adding salt if desired. Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with the reserved peas. Cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days. Serve this delectable, garlicky black-eyed pea spread with toasted slices of baguette as an appetizer or snack.

Food – How to Get Protein

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If you’re worried about getting enough protein on a vegetarian diet, you may be in for a surprise. The truth is, most Americans get way too much protein, and vegetarians can easily get more than enough protein in their diet as well. Many people still believe that protein is only available from meat and animal sources and we will all fall over dead without animal protein! Here are the best sources of protein for vegetarians.

Beans are one of the most common protein-rich foods for vegetarians. All beans, lentils, and peas are an excellent vegetarian and vegan source of protein, so eat whichever one you like! Black beans, kidney beans, split pea soup and chickpea hummus—pick one and watch the protein grams add up. You can find beans in the grocery store or on the menu just about everywhere you may be.

Soy is a bean as well. It and its derivatives are a popular source of protein for vegetarians. Soy is such a flavor chameleon that you’ll never get bored! You may have tried tofu and soy milk before, but what about edamame, soy ice cream, soy yogurt, soy nuts or soy cheese? TVP and tempeh are also protein-rich soy foods. As an added bonus, many brands of tofu and soymilk are fortified with other nutrients that vegetarians and vegans need, such as calcium, iron and vitamin B12. You can add a bit of tofu to just about anything you cook, including stir-fries, pasta sauces, soups and salads.

Nuts, including peanuts, cashews, almonds and walnuts all contain protein, as do seeds such as sesame seeds and sunflower seeds. Because most nuts and seeds are high in fat, you don’t want to make them your primary source of protein. But they’re great as a post-workout or occasional snack. Nut butters are delicious as well. Try soy nut butter or cashew nut butter for a little variety from peanut butter with about 8 grams of protein per serve (2 tablespoons).

Read the label of store-bought meat substitute products and veggie burgers and you’ll find they are quite high in protein! Most commercial meat substitutes are made from either soy protein, wheat protein (wheat gluten) or a combination of the two. Homemade seitan is quite high in protein as well.

Tempeh is similar to a very firm veggie burger, and, like tofu and seitan, it’s quite high in protein and can be prepared in a myriad of ways, making it perfect for vegetarians, vegans, or those just wishing to reduce meat consumption while exploring alternative protein sources.

Life and Health – Raisin Pecan Whole Wheat Bread

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Bread is a universal language! Bread has played a vital role in history for thousands of years, and each country has its various types. In the Middle East we find the Pita Bread which has become so popular here. From Mexico we have the Tortilla, likewise popular. We find the Hunzas and Indians with Chapati; the Chinese with Pao Ping, and the Arabic with Balady and Tannouri. In the United States alone over 40 million loaves are produced by the bakers every 24 hours! interestingly we find that about a fourth of the world likes its bread baked without leavening—India, Iran, Armenia, and parts of Scandanavia.

With this interesting history we turn to our own beloved Spirit of Prophecy and read: “There is more religion in a good loaf of bread than many think.” CDF pg. 316. “It is a religious duty for every Christian girl and woman to learn at once to make good, sweet, light bread from unbolted wheat flour.” ST pg. 684. “Bread should be thoroughly baked, inside and out. The health of the stomach demands that it be light and dry.” MS 34 (1899) Does it seem possible in this day and age of modern invention and so much apparently “good” bread on the market, that this instruction could be a little antiquated? Do we really KNOW what is in the bread that we buy? One thing that is of vital importance to our health, is to begin at once to READ the labels of EVERYTHING we purchase and be knowledgeable concerning their contents. It might be quite shocking to you to know that in some “high fiber” bread the high fiber turned out to be cellulose derived from wood! Equally distressing to a vegetarian comes the knowledge that Mono and Diglycerides which add the incredible softness to your breads and baked goods are derived from animal sources, including the pig, unless otherwise stated.

A few years ago there appeared an article in one of the popular magazines labeled, “Expert Calls Bread Not Fit For Rats.” Another, “Bread Buyers, Beware!” Surely we cannot improve on God’s instructions to the Remnant! The good news is that bread is a necessity, from Bible times it has been the “staff of Life” and the Lord has told us what ingredients are the most healthful. Did you know that ONE piece of whole wheat bread contains as much fiber as FIVE heads of lettuce. And we are all aware of the necessity of fiber in our diet and the latest medical findings about low fiber diets and cancer. “White flour is not the best, its use is neither healthful nor economical. Fine-flour bread is lacking in nutritive elements to be found in bread made from the whole wheat.” MR pg. 300 “All wheat flour is not best for a continuous diet. A mixture of wheat, oatmeal, and rye would be more nutritious.” Letter 91, 1898 “Zwieback, or twice-baked bread, is one of the most easily digested and most palatable of foods. Let ordinary raised bread be cut in slices and dried in a warm oven till the last trace of moisture disappears. In a dry place this bread can be kept much longer than ordinary bread, and if reheated before using, it will be as fresh as when new.” MH pg. 300-302.

Oh, how I look forward to that glorious day when we shall eat the bread from Heaven, when Jesus Himself will take us to that table of pure silver, and we hear Him say, “Come, my people, you have come out of great tribulation, and done My will; suffered for me; come in to supper, for I will gird Myself, and serve you. And we shall see the Manna on that exquisite table, and eat of Angel’s Food. May God help each of us to be willing to give up all in this life that would hinder us from obtaining that immortal prize!

RAISIN-PECAN WHOLE WHEAT BREAD

Mix Together:

3 Cups Whole Wheat Flour 3 Tablespoons Do-Pep

1 Cup Oat flour ¼ Teaspoon Vitamin C Powder

1 ½ Teaspoons Sea Salt

Blend IN PAN OVER STOVE:

2-3 Tablespoons Fruit Source Syrup or Honey with enough distilled water to equal 2 Cups. Warm this liquid to proper temperature for yeast to work.

Add this to the dry ingredients, stir well, and knead for 10 minutes.

Add 1 Cup Raisins, and l Cup Pecans, or Walnuts,

and knead thoroughly to distribute nuts and raisins evenly.

Allow to rise until double in bulk, push down and let rise the second time.

Then place in pans to bake and let rise double in bulk, and bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes.

If you have an automatic Bread Maker, this is an ideal recipe.

Follow the instructions on last month’s recipe page.

Enjoy with us this delicious, healthful Bread!

Happy baking,
Marjorie Coulson

Recipe – Juicing – Peas and Carrots; Blue Cherry

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Peas and Carrots

1 cup fresh or frozen peas

¼ onion

1 parsnip

¼ fresh fennel bulb

2 carrots

Using a juicer, process all ingredients. Whisk and pour in glass. Drink and enjoy immediately.

Blue Cherry

½ cup soymilk or nut milk

¼ cup cranberry juice

½ cup fresh or frozen pitted cherries

1 banana

½ cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Using a blender, process all ingredients together. Pour into glass and drink immediately.

 

Food – Joys of Juicing

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“Grains, fruits, nuts, and vegetables constitute the diet chosen for us by our Creator. These foods, prepared in as simple and natural a manner as possible, are the most healthful and nourishing. They impart a strength, a power of endurance, and a vigor of intellect, that are not afforded by a more complex and stimulating diet.” Counsels on Diet and Foods, 363.

With juice bars and “elixir cafés” springing up in cities throughout North America, it might be tempting to think that juicing is a new trend. But it’s really just the latest manifestation of a centuries old health practice. And in this age of genetically modified, over-refined, chemical-laden non-food, this rediscovery of juicing has never been more appropriate.

Research consistently shows that people who eat the greatest quantity of fruits and vegetables are about half as likely to develop cancer as those who eat little or no fresh fruits and vegetables. So it’s not surprising that the United States Cancer Institute recommends eating 5 servings of fresh vegetables and 3 servings of fresh fruit each day.

Still, even the most disciplined person can find it difficult to eat all those fruits and vegetables every day. So why not drink them? Raw fresh juices, blended drinks and homemade frozen treats are an easy and a tasty way to ensure that adults and children get their “daily 8.”

Taken as part of a healthy diet—and in amounts that are reasonable—juices round out our daily requirement for fresh fruits and vegetables. More importantly they are the very best way to obtain the nutrients and phytochemicals those foods contribute to our health and well-being.

Smoothies are thick, creamy fruit dishes that are delicious anytime. They are simple combinations of 1/2 to 1 cup fresh fruit juice and 1 cup fresh fruit. Bananas are usually included because they thicken the drink. Small amounts of other ingredients such as nuts, seeds, spices and herbs are optional. Nut milks may be used in place of soymilk or some fruit juices. Pat Crocker, The Juicing Bible, Robert Rose Inc., Toronto, Quebec, Canada, 2008.