dessert

Food for Life – Lemon Pie

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“And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays.”
Lowell

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Romans 12:1, 2. We have no right to wantonly violate a single principle of the laws of health.” Counsels on Health, 50. Then, citing Daniel’s experience, Mrs. White continues: “He did not conform to the habits of the courtiers in eating and drinking, but purposed in his heart that he would not eat of the king’s meat nor drink of his wines. This was not a hastily formed, wavering purpose, but one that was intelligently formed and resolutely carried out. Daniel honored God; and the promise was fulfilled to him. ‘Them that honor Me I will honor.’ I Samuel 2:30. The Lord gave him ‘knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom,’ and he had ‘understanding in all visions and dreams’ (Daniel 1:17); so that he was wiser than all in the king’s courts, wiser than all the astrologers and magicians in the kingdom.

“Those who serve God in sincerity and truth will be a peculiar people, unlike the world, separate from the world. Their food will be prepared, not to encourage gluttony or gratify a perverted taste, but to secure to themselves the greatest physical strength, and consequently the best mental [and physical] conditions. . . .

“Excessive indulgence in eating and drinking is sin. Our heavenly Father has bestowed upon us the great blessing of health reform, that we may glorify Him by obeying the claims He has upon us. . . . Those who are looking for the soon appearing of their Saviour should be the last to manifest a lack of interest in this great work of reform. . . . An aimless life is a living death. The mind should dwell upon themes relating to our eternal interests. This will be conducive to health of body and mind. . . .

“The world should be no criterion for us. It is fashionable to indulge the appetite in luxurious food and unnatural stimulus, thus strengthening the animal propensities, and crippling the growth and development of the moral faculties. There is no encouragement given to any of the sons or daughters of Adam that they may become victorious overcomers in the Christian warfare unless they decide to practice temperance in all things. If they do this, they will not fight as one that beateth the air.” Ibid.

In this wonderful book, we are further counseled that, “It is a terrible sin to abuse the health that God has given us; for every abuse of health enfeebles us for life and makes us losers, even if we gain any amount of education.” Ibid., 186.

“In the preparation of a people for the Lord’s Second Coming, a great work is to be accomplished through the promulgation of health principles. The people are to be instructed in regard to the needs of the physical organism and the value of healthful living as taught in the Scriptures, that the bodies which God has created may be presented to Him a living sacrifice, fitted to render Him acceptable service. There is a great work to be done for suffering humanity in relieving their sufferings by the use of the natural agencies that God has provided, and in teaching them how to prevent sickness by the regulation of the appetites and passions. The people should be taught that transgression of the laws of nature is transgression of the laws of God.” Ibid., 206. [All Emphasis supplied.]

Recipe – Lemon Pie

1 cup pineapple juice
1 cup fresh orange juice
¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon fresh grated lemon rind
10 dates or ½ cup of packed, chopped dates
¼ cup water
1/3 cup cornstarch
¼ teaspoon sea salt

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend till smooth. Cook in saucepan on low heat, stirring constantly, till thick. Then pour into a backed cashew pie crust. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Food for Life – Tofu Cheese Cake and Peanut Butter Carob Pie

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“Plain, simple pie may serve as dessert, but when one eats two or three pieces merely to gratify an inordinate appetite, he unfits himself for the service of God.” Counsels on Diet and Foods, 333.

Recipe – Tofu Cheese Cake

2 Tablespoons unflavored Emes Kosher-Jel

½ cup pineapple juice

Blend together to dissolve gelatin.

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

¼ cup oil

½ cup honey

¾ teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons vanilla

½ teaspoon coriander

1 pound mashed tofu

Combine in blender and blend till smooth. Fill two crumb-crust pie shells and bake at 350 degrees about 30-40 minutes, until edges are lightly browned and middle is firm. Chill until ready to serve. Top with your favorite fruit topping.

Recipe – Peanut Butter Carob Pie

1 ½ cups water

2 cups carob chips

pinch of salt

½ cup soy milk powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

½-1 cup peanut butter

Blend all ingredients, except peanut butter, until smooth (about two minutes). Add peanut butter while still blending, until mixture thickens. May add more peanut butter if needed to reach desired consistency. Pour into prepared pie shell. Freeze until ready to serve.

Food for Life – Bit-O-Honey

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Favorite Recipes from Staff and Friends of Steps to Life

“How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” Psalm 119:103.

God has given us His Word as a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Its teachings have a vital bearing on our prosperity in all the relations of life. Even in our temporal affairs it will be a wiser guide than any other counselor. . . .

The appreciation of the Bible grows with its study. Whichever way the student may turn he will find displayed the infinite wisdom and love of God. To him who is truly converted the Word of God is the joy and consolation of the life. The Spirit of God speaks to him, and his heart becomes like a watered garden.

There is nothing more calculated to strengthen the intellect than a study of the Bible. No other book is so potent to elevate the thoughts, to give vigor to the faculties, as the broad, ennobling truths of the Bible. If God’s Word were studied as it should be, men would have a breadth of mind, a nobility of character, that is rarely seen in these times.

No knowledge is so firm, so consistent, so far reaching, as that obtained from a study of the Word of God. If there were not another book in the wide world, the Word of God, lived out through the grace of Christ, would make man perfect in this world, with a character fitted for the future, immortal life. Those who study the Word, taking it in faith as the truth and receiving it into the character, will be complete in Him who is all in all. Thank God for the possibilities set before humanity. . . .

The time devoted to a study of God’s Word and to prayer will bring a hundredfold return. In Heavenly Places, 135.

Recipe – Bit-O-Honey

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup molasses

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup + 2 Tablespoons soy milk powder

Stir together first 4 ingredients, then add milk powder, mixing well. Flatten the mixture into an 8″ x 8″ dish. Sprinkle top with sesame seeds, pressing them lightly into the dough. Cut into squares. Freeze. Serve slightly thawed.

Submitted by Ann Meeker, a LandMarks reader, who lives near Rago, Kansas, with her husband, Craig.

Food for Life – No Dairy Carob Cake, Raspberry Sauce, and Tofu Whipped Cream

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Favorite Recipes from Staff and Friends of Steps to Life

[John the Baptist’s] diet, purely vegetable, of locusts [fruit of the carob tree] and wild honey, was a rebuke to the indulgence of appetite and the gluttony that everywhere prevailed.” Counsels on Health, 72.

Many healthful cooks avoid using baking soda, and they are wise to do so. Vegetarians get their B-vitamins primarily from whole grains and dried beans. Most of the B vitamins (Thiamin, Riboflavin, Pantothenic Acid, Biotin, Vitamins B6 and B12) are destroyed by an alkaline medium. Baking soda is alkaline. Not only does it destroy vitamins, but it tends to cause digestive disturbance in people with low production of stomach acids.

A baking soda substitute is available from Ener-G Foods (www.ener-g.com). Its only ingredient is calcium carbonate, a mineral often taken as a supplement.

Submitted by Paulette Miller

No Dairy Carob Cake

3 C all purpose flour

1 1/2 C Sucanat or raw sugar

1/2 C carob powder

2 t baking soda substitute

1 T vanilla

1 T salt

2/3 C oil or apple sauce

2 T lemon juice

2 C cold water

Using an electric mixer, mix all ingredients together. Bake in a 9” x 13” pan or a bundt pan, sprayed with a nonstick spray (or oiled and floured), 35 minutes at 350 degrees F. For a real treat, top slices of cake with Raspberry Sauce and Tofu Whipped Cream.

Raspberry Sauce

2 C fresh or frozen raspberries

2 C water

3/4 C honey

3 T cornstarch or arrowroot mixed in 1/4 cup water

Place raspberries, water and honey in a pan and bring to a boil. Slowly add cornstarch or arrowroot mixture, stirring constantly until thickened. May add more honey to taste.

Tofu Whipped Cream

1 C Mori-Nu Tofu, soft

4 T vegetable oil

2 T honey

1/2 t lemon juice

1/8 t salt

1 1/2 t vanilla (use white vanilla for a whiter cream)

Blend all ingredients in blender until smooth and creamy. Chill and serve.

LandMarks reader and friend of Steps to Life, Paulette Miller and her family live near Sedalia, Colorado. This dessert is a treat on special occasions.

Recipe – Wakey Cake

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The following recipe is one of the favorite desserts from the 2006 Steps to Life Camp Meeting.

Wacky Cake

3 cups flour

1-1/2 cups sugar

1/3 cup carob powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons Featherweight Baking Powder

2 cups water

1/2 cup oil

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

2 to 3 cups chopped walnuts

Mix all dry ingredients together, except sugar. Mix liquids and sugar together. Combine wet and dry ingredients. Beat for 1 to 2 minutes with an electric mixer. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes in a treated 9-inch x 13-inch pan. Continue baking until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Coconut Pecan Frosting

3/4 cup double strength soy milk or creamer

1/4 cup soy margarine

1 Tablespoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup honey, Sucanat, or Turbinado sugar

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup coconut

Combine milk, margarine, cornstarch, and sweetener in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened. Stir in remaining ingredients and spread on the top of the cake.

Note: Sweet desserts should be eaten only in small amounts and in moderation.

Recipe – Lemon Dessert

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Lemon Dessert

1 package Mori-Nu Extra Firm Tofu

2 – 3.4-ounce boxes Instant JELL-O Lemon Pudding

1/3 cup lemonade concentrate

1 cup soy milk

Mix together in food processor or blender until smooth. Pour into a baked graham cracker crust. Chill for a few hours or overnight before serving.

Gelatin Dessert

12 ounces kosher gelatin (your choice of flavor)

1 1/2 cups boiling water

20-ounce can crushed pineapple, undrained

1 cup mashed bananas

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Mix gelatin with the boiling water until dissolved. Add remaining ingredients; chill until solid. Top with non-dairy whipped topping. Note: Pecan halves may be put on top of the dessert instead of mixing in walnuts, and then add the whipped topping.

Recipe – Granola Crumb Crust

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3 cups ground Granola

2 tsp. Cinnamon Substitute

2 Tbsp. Oil

4 Tbsp. Water

2 Tbsp. Honey

Blend 2 cups of Granola on high until fine. Repeat until there are 3 cups ground. Put granola in a bowl and add remaining ingredients. Mix well. Add honey if unsweetened granola is used. Shape into a 9-inch pie dish or the bottom of a 9 x 13” glass baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Food for Life – Donna’s Peppermint Slice

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“We don’t make the health reform an iron bedstead, cutting people off or stretching them out to fit it. One person cannot be a standard for everybody else. What we want is a little sprinkling of good common sense. Don’t be extremists. If you err, it would be better to err on the side of the people than on the side where you cannot reach them. Do not be peculiar for the sake of being peculiar.” Sermons and Talks, vol. 1, 12.

“We have always used . . . some sugar. This we have never denounced, either in our writings or in our preaching. . . . The time has not yet come for sugar . . . to be wholly abolished from our tables.” Counsels on Diet and Foods, 330.

“Do just as Jenny would have you, my own dear boy. Here is a peppermint, Willie.—Letter 9, 1859. (To ‘Dear Little Willie,’ September 26, 1859.)” Manuscript Releases, vol. 3, 121.

“In the last box we sent to Battle Creek were some little trinkets for you and a little box of candy. You must eat it only when Jenny thinks it is best. Eat a very little at a time. . . . Letter 10, 1859. (To ‘Dear Little Willie,’ 1859.)” Ibid.

Donna’s Peppermint Slice

Base

2 1/2 cups crushed Weetbix, Weetabix or other whole grain flake cereal

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4-1 cup oil

2 Tablespoons honey

1 1/2 cups coconut

3 Tablespoons carob powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup raisins or sultanas

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Warm honey and oil together. Add to rest of ingredients. Press into tray. Bake at 350 degrees for 10–15 minutes. Put in refrigerator to cool.

Peppermint Layer

3 cups cashews

8 drops peppermint oil

1/2 can coconut cream

1 cup honey

Blend all ingredients together until smooth. Pour onto base and chill.

Carob Topping

1 1/2 cups carob chips

1/2 can coconut cream

Warm in a double boiler until carob is melted. Spread on top of other layers. Refrigerate to set carob.

When set, cut into slices and freeze. A real treat to eat straight from the freezer!

Judith Higgs and her retired husband live on a small property near Tamworth, N.S.W., Australia, where they enjoy the benefits of country living. They are involved in a Bible Correspondence School, sending lessons all over the South Pacific. Judith also volunteers many hours of time transcribing tapes for Steps to Life.

Do you have a favorite vegan recipe you are willing to share with LandMarks’ readers? Send it to us with a photo of you, if available, and a two or three line bio. We will consider all submissions. Send to the address below or by e-mail at: landmarks@stepstolife.org.

LandMarks Recipes

Steps to Life Ministry

P.O. Box 782828

Wichita, KS 67278

Recipe – Brownies

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¼ cup canola oil (or soy butter)

1/3 cup honey

1/3 cup raw sugar or date sugar

1 egg (or substitute)

3 Tbsp. milk (soy or nut)

½ tsp. sea salt

1 ½ tsp. pure vanilla

1 tsp. ground coriander, optional

½ cup carob powder

1 ½ tsp. Rumford baking powder (or 1 Tbsp. EnerG®)

2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Cream first three ingredients until smooth. Add next six ingredients. Beat well. Sift baking powder and flour; stir flour and nuts into mixture. Spread batter in 9″ x 9″ pan coated with non-stick spray. Bake 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees F.

Adapted from: A Good Cook … by Rosalie Hurd, B.S. and Frank J. Hurd, D.C., M.D., College Press, Collegedale, Tennessee, 2008, 624.

Food – Veganized Desserts

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Like any other diet, a vegan diet can be complete and balanced or incomplete and unbalanced. Unfortunately, vegan eating is not a guarantee of good health. We still need to pay attention to our choices, watch our portion sizes, limit junk and processed foods, and ensure adequate intake of a few nutrients not easily available from vegan foods. How might desserts fit in a complete and balanced vegan diet?

It wasn’t so long ago that vegan desserts were viewed at best as an amusing oxymoron and at worst as some sort of gastronomic punishment. Perhaps you have not felt well after eating sweet, sugary desserts and even suffered from stomachaches or became moody and exhausted. It makes so much sense that food and your health would be related. Without dairy, eggs, and processed sugar in your diet, you can feel really good. By giving all the desserts you have loved a plant-based makeover, you can veganize desserts!

Perhaps you remember the dark days, when vegan sweets were dry and brown and tasteless. A few years ago, I would have recoiled at the thought of a vegan dessert—no butter, milk, or eggs? But sometime in the last few years, that began to change. The reasons include everything from a growing awareness of organic, healthy eating to the rising number of people diagnosed with food allergies every year (the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network estimates that some 12 million Americans have food allergies) to advances in vegan baking techniques and aesthetics.

Now everyone with a real sweet tooth, including those who are lactose or gluten intolerant, reducing cholesterol, or simply prefer healthy, natural ingredients without sacrificing taste, truly can have their cake and eat it, too. One thing remains constant—if you want to sell someone on vegan dessert, it has to be delicious.

Not only do vegan desserts taste good and, yes, sometimes even better than their dairy-filled counterparts, but you probably won’t even know that what you’re eating is vegan unless someone tells you. You simply need to create the vegan desserts by translating conventional, non-vegan recipes and shun popular dairy-free substitutes like egg replacers in favor of ingredients like bananas and sweet potatoes (both of which replicate the thick moisture of eggs).

Baking Without Eggs

Applesauce: Add 1/4 cup in place of one egg. Holds things together and adds moisture. But to help things rise, might need to add more baking powder (about 1/2 teaspoon).

Banana: Use 1/2 banana, mashed, for one egg in sweet baked goods. Also add about 1/2 teaspoon extra baking soda.

Tofu: Use about 1/4 cup mashed silken tofu for one egg. Also add 1/4–1/2 teaspoon extra baking powder.

Prune Puree: Puree your own, purchase pureed prunes, or even use baby food prunes. Use 1/4 cup prunes plus 1/2 teaspoon extra baking powder for one egg.

Baking Powder: Add an extra 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and 2 Tablespoons extra liquid to replace one egg.

Flaxseed: Grind 3 Tablespoons flaxseed to a very fine powder. Add 1/2 cup water and blend until mixture becomes thick. Use to replace two or three eggs.

Powdered Egg Replacer: A boxed powder mix available in natural foods stores. Just blend with water to replace eggs in a recipe.