Lentil Croquettes

I wish I could say that I have been eating perfectly, but the truth is I am adapting to this way of eating a little at a time. I am really enjoying it though and already feel better. It's neat to come across a favorite recipe that is already in line with what the book is wanting me to do. One of those recipes is for Lentil Croquettes. I love this recipe and I thought I would share it here with all of you! I have these in my freezer at all times for a quick and healthy go-to meal. Here it is:

1 cup split red lentils, washed really well
1 green bell pepper, washed, seeded and chopped finely
1/2 red onion, chopped finely
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon cumin powder
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons peanuts, toasted without salt and coarsley chopped
2 1/2 cups water

1 egg, beaten
salt
pepper

3 tablespoons chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour
1 teaspoon turmeric
4 tablespoons olive oil

1. Place the first 10 ingredients in a large pan and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat and simmer slowly, about 30 minutes until all the liquid has been absorbed. (I put the heat down to about 3 and stirred about every 7 min. or so. If you turn the heat down lower and don't stir, this could cook for well over an hour.)
3. Note that the above steps can also be done in a pressure cooker if you have one-it's much faster.
4. Remove the mixture from heat and cool slightly.
5. Now beat in the egg and season to taste with salt and pepper.
6. Let the mixture cool completely. (I find that the mixture holds its shape better if it has been refrigerated for a couple of hours.)
7. Scoop out 1/4 cup of the mixture and place on parchment paper. At this point you may freeze the mixture and then once it's frozen you can place the croquettes in freezer bags for future use. Or, you can actually cook them on the parchment paper at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. Or, you can go ahead and pan fry them.
8. If pan frying now, combine the flour and turmeric in a small plate.
9. Place the croquettes in the flour mixture (they may be a little difficult to work with) and coat well.
10. Heat the oil in a skillet and cook the croquettes in batches, turned once until crisp and brown on both sides.
11. Serve immediately with chutney, rice and a crisp salad.
12. Note- It is very important for the liquid to be fully absorbed in the lentil mixture so that it can bind well with the help of the egg.
13. This recipe makes 10-12 croquettes using the 1/4 cup measuring cup.

NOTE: If you like things spicy add 1/2 teaspoon of chili powder to the lentil mixture before you cook it and then add 1 teaspoon chili powder to the flour mixture. If you like even more spice, try a tomato chutney along with the croquettes. It is so very good, but a little too spicy for me. If you don't care a whole lot about what flour you use then you may use all purpose flour in place of the chickpea flour. The chickpea flour is flour friendly for people that need to eat gluten free, but it also has more protein and is better for you than the all purpose flour. Play around with this recipe and the different chutney's out there and have fun. Most of all enjoy!! Lentils are so good for you!

Cooking with Cast Iron

I love cooking in cast iron. It distributes heat evenly, you get traces of iron in your food (which we all need) and if you are as nostalgic as I am it will take you back to yester-year. Plus, food just tastes better cooked in cast iron.

For YEARS I have tried to season my cast iron and it has never truly worked. I would still get a black film on my towel when I would wipe it, food would stick, it was impossible to clean, and it would get sticky... until now. I finally found a way that really works. It's so much better for you to cook with cast iron than the non-stick stuff that's out there, safer too.

So, here it is, here's a tried and true method for seasoning your cast iron. You might set aside a good part of a day to do this.

Caution! This method will create a lot of smelly acrid smoke. If you do it inside, be VERY SURE to have incredible ventilation. I opened both of my kitchen windows, turned the ceiling fan on in my kitchen and turned the vent fan on over the stove and I never had a problem with smoke in the house.

The first thing you want to do is get rid of the wax/mineral oil rust-prevention coating that came on your cast iron. Do that by using SOS/steel wool pads, lots of soap, lots of very hot water and lots of scrubbing. NOTE: This is the one and only time that you're cast iron should ever come in contact with soap. OR... I just put mine in the dishwasher and then moved on to the next step.

As soon as you've gotten rid of the last of the wax/mineral oil, rinse your cast iron thoroughly in very hot water, dry with a clean towel and place in a 250 degree oven to get bone dry. After about 20 minutes, take out of the oven (using hot pads / gloves) and rub in an extremely light coat of Crisco with a clean low-lint rag. Cover all surfaces, inside and out. (If your coat is too thick, it won't stick and will flake off with use.)Place your cast iron back into the oven, upside down so that no excess melted shortening can accumulate on the cooking surface. I placed a jelly roll pan lined with foil on the rack underneath the cast iron to catch any excess shortening that dropped. Crank the oven up to 400 - 450 and bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, venting as much of the nasty smoke as you can. Then, turn off the oven and allow everything to cool to room temp, without opening the oven.At this point, you should have a shiny black coat on all surfaces. (If you'd followed the usual advise and done it at 350 degrees for 1/2 hour, you'd have a sticky, brown coating, which is what I kept getting.)

Then, just because you want to be a bit obsessive, repeat the Crisco coating and baking process two more times. After the third pass through the oven, your cast iron will look (and cook) like treasured heirlooms from your grandmother. Please take the time to do this process a total of 3 times, it is really worth it!

Care Tips: Try to avoid stewing things, especially acidic things like tomato sauces, the first few times you use your cast iron. It's best to do a bit of frying with adequate fat at first. When you're done cooking, simply rinse out the cast iron with very hot water and a nylon "scrubbie." No soap, as it tends to remove your hard-won seasoning and can be tough to rinse out fully. If you have stuck on bits, don't fret. Simply put the cast iron on the stove and bring an inch or two of water to a boil, with a lid on. The heat will loosen whatever is stuck and you can then scrub and rinse with hot water. Dry the cast iron immediately and place back on some heat. Melt a touch of Crisco, spread around in a very thin layer and heat until smoking. Then allow to cool and put away. (This will not only add to your seasoning, it will sanitize the cast iron.)

Happy Cooking!!

Peanut Butter Candy

There aren't many recipes in the book, but on page 170 there is a recipe for "Peanut Butter Candy". I was skeptical as I am with most "sweets" in health food books, but thought I'd give it a try. I am really glad that I did. This is really good and filling. I had two of these little squares mid-morning and I had to force myself to eat some lunch around 1:00 and I didn't even eat it all, just wasn't hungry. This is a filling treat. (The plate above is a saucer for a coffee cup if that helps you with the size of the candy.)

1 cup natural peanut butter (I like Skippy's Natural creamy peanut butter, because it you don't have to stir it and it doesn't have to be refrigerated.)

1/2 cup honey (may use 1/4 cup)

1/2 cup nonfat dry milk

3 Tablespoons toasted wheat germ (For those that can not have gluten you may omit the wheat germ.)

Mix ingredients. Press into butter dish (I used an 8X8 pan.), chill and cut into cubes. This mixture can be rolled, chilled and sliced.

*I think this would be really good with crispy brown rice cereal.

Pomegranates

Deuteronomy 8:8 "A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey"

Pomegranates are mentioned many, many times in the Bible. I won't go into all the scriptures here, but I will say that the pomegranate is one of the best jewels that God has given us. About 3-4 years ago I started drinking pure Pomegranate juice. I loved it! I loved it more than my pocket book did, it is fairly expensive. This summer on Food Network Alton Brown had a special on Pomegranates. He showed how to seed them, make your own juice, how to cook with them, etc. I was so excited to go and see my first pomegranate and then realized they were not in season and wouldn't be until the Fall. I could not wait until they were in season again!

We were at the store and Nathan pointed them out and I was very excited. Never having bought a pomegranate before to seed (only because I didn't know how) I realized that I didn't even know which ones to look for. I picked a couple that seemed "ok" and home we went. Most people shy away from seeding pomegranates, because they are either afraid, don't want to make a mess or think it is way to much effort to get those seeds out. I followed Alton's method for getting the seeds out and it was super easy!

De-Seeding a Pomegranate
I took a few paper towels and placed the pomegranate on it and then cut it in half. You will have juice come out, but that's alright, just make sure you wipe it up so it won't stain. I then took a fairly large bowl and filled it with halfway with water. Then I took a wooden spoon and hit the back of the pomegranate while holding it over the water. Soon, seeds started falling into the water, the harder you hit the more seeds fall. Basically that is it. You do this until all of the seeds are out from both sides. My hands were never stained in the removal of the seeds. In the water the seeds and the membrane will automatically separate. Strain the seeds and place them in an airtight container. If you have never eaten the seeds when you first bite into one you will get a burst of sweet juice and then the center where the actual seed is will be a little crunchy. Eat this, don't spit it out! This is where all of the fiber is!

Storing pomegranates and seeds.
Since pomegranates are only available from Sept-Dec, or even Oct-Nov depending on where you live you will want to make sure you stock up and enjoy them as long as you can. You can store whole pomegranates in a cool, dark place for about a month. You can store a whole pomegranate in the refrigerator for up to 2 months. Once you have taken the seeds out the seeds will only keep in the refrigerator for 3 days, but they can be frozen for up to a year! Just make sure they are dried off before you freeze them. I have bought pomegranates at two different stores, Kroger and Earth Fare and each place had them for $2.50 each.

So, what is the craze about pomegranates?
Well, they taste great for one! Researchers have reported that they are extremely high in anti-oxidants that can keep bad LDL cholesterol from oxidizing. Pomegranate juice can also keep blood platelets from clumping together to form unwanted blood clots. The juice can improve the amount of oxygen that gets to the heart. There have been some studies that have shown that they can help reduce the risk of some cancers and shrink certain tumors. They are also considered to have anti-inflammatory benefits helping people with things like arthritis. I literally could go on and on about the health benefits associated with one of God's treasures that He gave us. Pomegranates are also high in potassium, high in fiber and they contain vitamin C and niacin.

There are also many recipes out there using the juice and/or seeds of the pomegranate. Happy searching!!

Butter Made Over

In Deuteronomy 32:14 it mentions God giving us "butter of kine" (cows).

As I stated in an earlier post, butter is much, much better for you than margarine! On page 129 in the book there are reports from studies that heart patients who ate margarine had twice as many heart attacks as those who ate butter. There is another report than when chickens were fed butter they had better bone formation and better insulin receptors than those that were fed vegetable oils. I can't find it at the moment, but there are also studies out there that show margarine has been linked to cancer and butter has actually been found to shrink cancer.

I am definitely not saying go out and start chewing on a stick of butter, not at all! I do, however, want to help you not be afraid of it after all of the bad media it has had over the years. Again, using it in moderation is fine. If you use lots of butter and/or margarine in your cooking try and switch to olive oil when you can, but I have another alternative for you. If you will take 1 stick (1/2 cup) of softened (not melted) butter and mix it with 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil you will have a very healthy alternative. It takes a lot of mixing with a whisk, fork or spoon, but the butter solids will eventually blend in with the oil making a great spread. Once mixed you can place in a covered container in the refrigerator and good news, it's spreadable! You will have the healthy principles from both the butter and the olive oil. Give it a shot!

Seasoned Salt Made Over

Is the item above, or one similar, a staple in your house? Is it sitting in your cupboard or on your kitchen table? If you like to cook and use recipes from our parent's generation there are many that call for seasoned salt. I actually love seasoned salt and what it does for different things in terms of flavor. Lots of restaurants use it on their steaks, potatoes, etc. Seasoned salt really is so bad for you because many brands use MSG, artificial ingredients to prevent caking in the jar, sugar and other ingredients that you may not realize that you are pouring onto your foods. I came across a recipe to make your own seasoned salt, a healthier version, but there are many make your own recipes out there so I encourage you to look around until you find something that fits your tastes.

Many, if not all, spices now come in Organic varieties, so try and look for those and sea salt is better than table salt. When I put mine together I did use organic ingredients and I used sea salt as the salt base. If you aren't sure about celery salt all that is is ground celery seed mixed with salt. Celery salt is yummy. I have a friend that puts it on her pizza after it finishes baking as well as many other things. As with normal salt, this is fine to cook with as long as it's done in moderation.

Here's the recipe:

1 1/2 Tablespoons of Sea Salt

1 Tablespoon Sweet Paprika

1 Teaspoon Celery Salt

1/4 Teaspoon each of freshly ground black pepper, turmeric, onion powder, garlic powder, and cornstarch.

Mix it all up and put it into an airtight container until ready to use.

The Cliff Notes Version

For those that may be reading this that really do not care to go deep into the book or into the scriptures of the Bible that give us instructions on what to eat, this post is for you. Keep in mind to go back to the Three Principles.

What we can and should eat:

All fruits and vegetables in their form closest to how God created them. (Without cooking them to death until all the nutrients are gone. Not eating vegetables fried in grease or lard. Fruits and veggies free from chemicals really are the way to go.)

Grains, Nuts, Seeds, Beans (legumes). (Again, as close to its original design as possible. For example, brown rice instead of white rice. Nut butters are ok as long as the ingredients are only the nut and salt. Skippy makes a peanut butter that is natural and really good. Dried beans are in their original design, but canned are ok to save time. Just be sure to rinse off the excess salt, etc.)

Fats (Olive oil, butter, cheese, yogurt, kefir, coconut and palm oil. Butter, coconut and palm oils have short-chain fatty acids that are used by the body for energy. Because these fats are efficiently utilized, they are healthful unless they are over consumed. from page 122 in "What The Bible Says About Healthy Living")

Meat - In the book he breaks down what the Bible says about clean and unclean meats and why God made certain animals unclean. Later, in future blogs, I will go into this in more detail, but for now I will just list the clean and then the unclean meats.

Clean
MEAT=Calf, deer, goat, ox, sheep.
BIRDS=Goose, chicken, coot, duck, pigeon, quail, swan, turkey.
FISH=black bass, black drum, bluefish, carp, channel bass, chub, cod, croaker, flounder, flying fish, goldfish, haddock, hake, halibut, herring, kingfish, mullet, pike, pompano, porgy, rainbow trout, rock bass, salmon, sea bass, shad, smelt, Spanish mackerel, spot, sturgeon, tuna (bluefin), white perch, Carolina whiting, yellow perch.
INSECTS (If you feel so inclined.)= cricket, grasshopper, locusts.

UNCLEAN
MEAT=Black bear, camel, cat, coney (guinea pig), dog, fox (silver), grizzly bear, ground hog, hamster, horse, opossum, rabbit, rat, rhinoceros, squirrel, swine (yes, that means any pork, including bacon, lol).
BIRDS=Bat, cormorant, crow, eagle, falcon, hawk, heron, ibis, kite, nighthawk, osprey, ostrich, owl, pelican, raven, red-tail hawk, sparrow hawk, seagull, stork, vulture.
FISH=Catfish, clams, crabs, eel, lobster, octopus, oysters, porcupine fish, puffer, sand skate, scallops, shark (dogfish), shrimp, squid, stingray, toadfish.
INSECTS= All others that are not listed above in the "clean" section.

Eggs are fine to eat, but the more nutritious choice would be to eat eggs from free-range chickens and not from commercially fed chickens. page 156

SWEETS
Honey is by far the best sweetener around, especially in the raw, organic form. There are a lot of scriptures that mention honey. Other sweeteners that are ok are natural maple syrup, natural fruit juices, barley sweetener, black strap molasses. Moderation is still key, even in a good thing.

SPICES
Yes, God has given us many herbs and spices to cook with. In reading this book there was one verse in the Bible that made me chuckle out loud. In Job 6:6-7 it reads, "Is tasteless food eaten without salt, or is there flavor in the white of an egg? I refuse to touch it; such food makes me ill." I thought that was great. Again, moderation is key, especially when using salt.

BEVERAGES
Of course, water is the number one thing to consume, but what about everything else? Freshly squeezed fruit juice is ok. In Chapter 12 of the book it goes into great detail about milk. To summarize what he said in the book if you are cooking with milk commercial skim milk is ok. Principles II and III cause him to avoid homogenized and pasteurized milk products. Again, he goes into the "whys" in the book. There are certain farms that produce a raw milk product and he personally would go with that over a commercially altered product. As far as alcohol, he recommends only low alcoholic wines are what God intended for us, particularly for health. page 216

A note from me...
This is my own personal search to really understand God's design for the foods we eat and to rid myself of the things that may be causing me illness. These food laws were Old Testament laws that He gave His people. No, we are not under the Law anymore (Thank you, Jesus!!!), so we do have free choice over what we eat or drink. We aren't going to be punished for eating a bacon, cheeseburger with chemical/hormone ladened meat and having a glass of wine or a beer with it, but over time what we put into our bodies really does affect our health physically and mentally. I'll be posting more about the statistics of how Americans eat and what we are dying of in comparison to other countries around the world. I don't think that the statistics will surprise you much, because we all know that the American diet is horrible, but what will it take for us to each really take a good look at how we are treating our bodies and make some changes?

If you would like more information on all of this now, then I highly recommend you purchasing "What The Bible Says About Healthy Living" as well as the cookbook "What The Bible Says About Healthy Living Cookbook". I love this cookbook! I really do. It's very practical and doable. This isn't a diet, so if you are looking for a diet you'll be disappointed. Rather this is a way that you can learn how to fill your body with whole foods and why you should fill your body with whole foods. This will also let you into the amazing Creation that God has given us and that He really does love us and want us to lead full, active lives and not just sit on the sidelines with illness, disease, depression, etc. He's given us an instruction booklet on life and what better way to honor Him than by starting with what we put into our mouth!

The Three Principles

"What The Bible Says About Healthy Living" is based on three principles. I am going to list those principles here and go into further explanation in future blogs.

Principle 1:

Eat only substances God created for food.

Avoid What is not designed for food.

Principle 2:

As much as possible, eat foods as they were created-before

they are changed or converted into something humans

think might be better.

Principle 3:

Avoid food addictions. Don't let

any food or drink become your god.

Why it all began.

I am a 35 year old female on a journey to find a way, a true way, to lose weight, be healthy and live better. I have been on the fence for a few years about becoming a vegetarian. I rarely actually enjoy meat, but there are a few things that I really like occasionally; chicken parmesan, a good bacon cheeseburger, spaghetti w/meat sauce, sesame chicken... I think you get the idea.

These things I know for sure, I have bad reactions to MSG, aspartame, processed foods in boxes, paprika, chili powder, milk, at times sugar and the list seems to keep growing. I have been diagnosed with PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) and I.R. (Insulin Resistance). I have had a history of migraines since I was 6 years old. I have had hormone problems since I was very young and have never been able to sustain a pregnancy. I have been to many doctors and chiropractors over the years. The Chiropractor's did help with some of my headaches and backpain and the MD's just wanted to throw drugs my way to make me "feel" better, but I needed to do more. I felt that it was way past time for a food change.

More and more stories are coming out about certain foods (or lack of certain foods) helping people with diabetes, endemetriosis, PCOS, heart conditions, ADD, ADHD, depression and the list goes on and on and on. We really are killing ourselves with what we put in our mouths and the chemicals and additives added to those foods. God did not create our bodies to ingest and digest all of those chemicals, additives and man made things that we have all made part of our daily diets. It's no secret the the American diet is filled with unhealthy food and given to us in larger than life portions. We have been told carbs are bad, carbs are good, fat is bad, no you need some fat, sugar free, fat free and it goes on and on. So many people are very confused on what is considered "healthy". I know that when I went to Weight Watchers for a while they encouraged and sold foods that had many ingredients in them that I had already cut out of my diet. They say do not eat butter, rather eat these margarine types filled with chemicals because it saves you a few calories. I want to eat real food and I want to be able to pronounce the ingredients that are in the foods that I eat. Yes, I did lose some weight with Weight Watchers, but I was still having my headaches that would develop within 30 minutes of eating some of the "healthy" foods that were recommended. I just didn't feel good.

Eight years ago my husband came across a book called, "What The Bible Says About Healthy Living". He was in the military and deployed to another country at the time that he took the information in the book and applied it to his lifestyle. He lost about 30 pounds during that time and felt great. After that time he moved back to the states and adapted back to the American diet and you guessed it, the weight came back on. One of his hobbies became eating and one of my true loves is cooking, so we became a perfect pair. Over the years we had loaned our book out to a friend and it never made its way back home. I just purchased this book again and was happy to discover that there is now a cookbook applying the same principles.

Please keep in mind that these things that are mentioned in the Bible were written under the old Law that God had in place and because of Jesus we are no longer under this Law. However, it is clear that God knew what He was doing when He created our food supply and He had reasons for allowing us to eat certain things and having us avoid other things. Even when Keith did this before he didn't give up his coffee (which the books suggests) and he allowed himself a sugary dessert once a week (filled with stuff I'm positive that isn't good for us). You do not have to follow these principles, but I do believe that the more you apply to your diet and life the better you will feel and have more energy. Hence, being a cleaner vessel for Him to use.

Instead of doing this cold turkey I am phasing out some of the unhealthy ways that I have grown accustomed to. I would love to document and share my journey with you here. I have searched high and low for a blog devoted to this way of eating and I haven't found one, so here I am. I'm learning lots about what the Bible has to say and why. I hope you enjoy this as much as I am!