mushroom

Recipe – Mushroom Gravy

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Mushrooms

While enjoying a plant-based diet, some people are reluctant to place a fungus on the menu but let me encourage you to take a second look at the benefits of including this “ill repute.”

Although it is impossible to discuss every kind of mushroom that there is, after all, there are 10,000 varieties, but here we will consider the most common ones: Portabella (the oldest variety and has a hearty flavor), Cremini, Maitake (fan shaped), Button, Hedgehog, Morel, Shiitake, Porcini, Lobster, Enoki, Chanterelle and Clamshell.

Mushrooms are low in calories, fat and sodium, free from cholesterol, full of vitamins, protein, minerals and antioxidants. Each variety of mushroom is used in a different cultural cuisine, from Italian, Chinese, Thai, Russian, Haitian, Romanian, United Kingdom, Macedonian and many more.

Mushrooms are hearty and filling. Increasing your consumption of mushrooms, which are a low-energy-dense food, will keep the calorie count down, not to mention the load of nutrients that pack a punch:

  • Riboflavin, B-2: Aids in hormone production and proper nervous system function
  • Niacin, B-3: Helps maintain healthy red blood cells
  • Pantothenic Acid, B-5: Promotes healthy skin, digestive and nervous system function
  • Folate, B-9: Produces DNA and RNA: produces red and white blood cells in the bone marrow
  • Thiamin, B-1: Produces energy and the growth and development of cells
  • Selenium: Protects the body cells from damage
  • Copper: Produces red blood cells to carry oxygen throughout the body and keeps the bones and nerves healthy
  • Potassium: Maintains normal fluid and mineral balance, stabilizes blood pressure, maintains the proper function of muscles including the heart muscle.

The benefits are enormous.

Favorite Mushroom Gravy

Ingredients

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 dry pint shitake mushrooms – any mushroom will work

2 Tbsp. olive oil or avocado oil

2 Tbsp. unbleached flour

1 carton vegetable stock or broth

1 Tbsp. “chicken” seasoning, or more to taste

1 tsp. each – sage, basil, parsley

Process

Sauté the onion and garlic in a little oil until light brown, then set aside. Sauté the mushrooms until light brown and set aside. Place the flour and the rest of the oil in the pan to brown the flour. Add the broth or stock, seasoning and herbs on medium heat until the gravy starts to thicken. Then add the cooked onion, garlic and mushrooms; simmer for 30 minutes. Serve hot.

Enjoy!

Food for Life – Mushroom Burgers

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One reason why we do not enjoy more of the blessing of the Lord is, we do not heed the light which He has been pleased to give us in regard to the laws of life and health.

“God is as truly the author of physical laws as He is author of the moral law. His law is written with His own finger upon every nerve, every muscle, every faculty, which has been entrusted to man.

“The Creator of man has arranged the living machinery of our bodies. Every function is wonderfully and wisely made. And God pledged Himself to keep this human machinery in healthful action if the human agent will obey His laws and cooperate with God. Every law governing the human machinery is to be considered just as truly divine in origin, in character, and in importance as the word of God. Every careless, inattentive action, any abuse put upon the Lord’s wonderful mechanism, by disregarding His specified laws in the human habitation, is a violation of God’s law. We may behold and admire the work of God in the natural world, but the human habitation is the most wonderful.” Counsels on Diet and Foods, 16, 17.

Recipe – Mushroom Burgers

1 pound mushrooms, finely chopped

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1 1/2 cups finely ground oatmeal

1 cup cooked lentils

1/2 cup tomato-vegetable juice

1/2 cup celery, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 Tablespoon egg replacer

2 teaspoons Bragg Liquid Aminos

2 teaspoons carob powder

Salt to taste

Grind all ingredients in food processor; adding mushrooms last. Be careful not to puree. Let mixture rest for 20 minutes. Form patties and place on prepared cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, turning once.

Cathy Summers Timmons, a Steps to Life staff member and a member of LandMarks’ editorial staff, writes from her home in Wichita, Kansas. She may be contacted by e-mail at: cathytimmons@stepstolife.org.

Children’s Story – The Wormy Puffball

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We stayed in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota several times during a summer, a few years ago, while my parents were helping at a ministry there. Once while were there, a lady from the ministry picked a nice big puffball for us to eat (a puffball is a type of mushroom).

After waiting a day or two, we decided to cook it. We arrived at the cabin where we were staying, eager to find out what a puffball tasted like.

A little after we arrived, Dad called me up to the cabin door. He held the cut-apart puffball in his hand. Lo and behold, the whole inside seemed to be squirming! It was full of little worms!

I was thinking of how that puffball can represent us. From the outside it looked normal and appetizing. Just so, we can look pretty good on the outside—do things for people, go to Sabbath School and church every week, and act pretty nice—and yet we can still be pretty ugly on the inside—full of jealousy, anger, and pride. If we look pleasant on the outside but are nasty on the inside, we aren’t really Christians (Christians are like Jesus, you know); we are just pretending. That’s called living a lie.

A few days ago, on Sabbath, while we were walking in the hills near our house here in North Dakota, we found some more big puffballs. We broke them open and discovered something interesting—the top parts were good, while the lower parts had worms in them. The little worms evidently enter at the root end!

The devil begins to enter our minds at the deep roots. If you and I aren’t guarding our minds with Jesus’ help, we may not really even notice him until he really has control over us so that our words and actions start getting ugly, too.

Only God can help us keep the devil’s ugliness out of our minds. “Submit ourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7

Why not ask Jesus now to show you where the devil might be sneaking into your life and to help you overcome him? “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139: 23, 24

The End