Born To Run, a Mushroom Burger, and a Fruit-Nut Salad for a Calm Mind

Here's the title of the book: BORN TO RUN: A Hidden Tribe, Super Athletes, and the Greatest Race the World has never seen. I really appreciate that title, as my books have really long titles/subtitles. It's like: You want to get it all in.

The book is so interesting that when Baby, one of the dogs, woke me at 3 a.m., I got up to read some more. There's a See inside this book function with quite a lot of text (at amazon). (This is totally unsolicited. I found the book yesterday because I was overwhelmed with the desire to go out running again in the afternoon, and it was drenching rain, so I decided to look for something on running, to redirect all the energy to my mind, and I found this book.)

This wonderful group of people - the Raramuri [there's an accent aigu over the second a] use a lot of cactus juice, albeit in the form of tequila; although they have another drink that doesn't appear to be alcohol, with one of the two ingredients being cactus. ~*~

Extra blessings to Duke today.

Okay. On to food:

Carrot-Mushroom Burger

Carrots*
Mushrooms, Baby Bello
Garlic*
Bok Choy
Red Onions
Celery
Flaxseed Oil

Blend the carrots and garlic together, and then throw in the mushrooms. This could be dehydrated in the sun, only it was pouring rain yesterday. So just press into burger shape and top the greens with it, then top with onion sliced really thin. The onion may be marinated first in the refrigerator in the Flaxseed Oil.


Calming Fruit Salad

Rhubarb Chard*
Strawberries
Prickly Pear*
Papaya*
Walnuts*

I'm using the term 'calming' instead of anti-inflammatory as I think it gives a more healing feeling. Our bodies need calming just as our minds do; and a calm mind calms the body.

The book is: BORN TO RUN, Super Athletes, and the Greatest Race the World has never Seen (His title is as long as mine are. You just want to get all the germane facts right up there on the cover. The rest of the title of A RADIANT LIFE is Raw Food and the Presence of Love; and YOU ARE LOVED AND SAFE which is almost out has a title even longer than BORN TO RUN, a book that is so fascinating to me that when one of the dogs woke me at 3 a.m., I got up to read some more for about an hour.) One thing about this tribe of super athletes is that they drink a lot of cactus juice (albeit transmuted into tequila). However, they have another drink of it that doesn't seem to be alcohol.

Okay, now on to food:

Carrot Mushroom Burger and Calming Fruit Salad

I think calming is a more healing term than anti-inflammatory. Kind of like: "Peace, be still." -- to pain, and all suffering. I've not had that thought before, that

Running with the Deer

Wow! I feel so good. This is not unusual when fasting, however this Good is even better than the usual good. I've started running again. Haven't really run in a few years. Have even been running in the heavy rain we've had. And today, reading this book on amazon, (I'll put the name in later), I'm having this overwhelming desire to marathon run, to run with the deer (a story my stepson told me about 38 years ago, about a man who saw a herd of deer running, and began to run with them. He ran with the deer all day!

That's what made me originally want to run long distances and marathons. I'm not a good runner, hating track in elementary school. And I was a heavy smoker for 13 years. And suddenly, I just know I can be. Don't know if it's the cactus juice, the fasting, the constant connecting with God ... I just feel so good.

Trusting that the unseen Good is there/here. And, at what level are foods, colors, fragrances, healing our minds, while the body follows mind's lead?

The breakthrough hasn't evidenced again, and yet it has left me in an entirely different mindset, having seen again (and it's been a long time) that Sarah is right there where the imposter with autism appears. Not only right there, but able to be entirely differently. Not only did she do something she'd never done; she also woke the next morning, still in that space, telling me about a dream that was about something she's never dreamed before. I'm not really into dreams; it's just that this was so ordinary and so startling, and such a happy thing.

Life with autism is like walking a tightrope, and pretty extraordinary. ... And it has taught me incredible balance.

This imposter idea came up with Charis, (my God-granddaughter) when she was little and spent lots of time with us, as I took care of her. She'd get into a mood if she didn't get her way about something and would get mean. It came to me one day to say: "Little girl, do You know where Charis is?" She looked at me big-eyed, like I'd lost my marbles. I continued: "She looks a lot like You, but with a sweet expression on her face. She's even wearing clothes like yours! Can You help me find her?"

Without a word, she'd get up and go into another room, only to come bouncing back all smiles, saying happily: "Charis is back!"

She was about two years old the first time, and we did this scene many times over her early years. What a marvel it was, and so much fun, and she never failed to get off it. I had to take the est training to learn how to do that!

Charis' presence was very healing for Sarah, as her second regression (pesticide-caused) into autism came shortly after Charis was born. Sarah was quite wild, frequently. Charis and I would pray when this occurred. One day, during an episode, Charis, who spoke very little at the time, sweetly said: "Don't cwy Wawa, I wuv You." Sarah immediately got quiet and went back to exercising. I can still hear that little healing voice.

Love is certainly the healer.

Here are the ingredients:

Red Beets*
Golden Beets*
Red Onions*
Boy Choy
Spinach*
Lentil Sprouts*
Dandelion Flowers and Stalks
Curry Powder*
Kale Rabe [This name is my invention, as far as I know, for the seed stalks that come on kale and collard plants]
Light Sprouts [Sarah's name for the sprouts that look like alfalfa or clover, etc., as opposed to 'heavier' sprouts like mung beans, lentils, black beans, etc.]
Flaxseed Oil (and could be Hempseed Oil or Extra Virgin Olive Oil).


Avocado
Prickly Pear* (Citrus: orange, lemon, lime, tangerine, etc. can be used if prickly pear is unavailable.)
Rhubarb Chard*
Tomatoes
Dandelion Flowers


Rhubarb Chard*
Baby Lambsquarters* (wild green)
Red Onions
Lentil Sprouts*
Kale Rabe
Flaxseed or Hempseed Oil

A variation would be to add raw walnuts or pecans in place of the lentil sprouts. And some butternut squash would go well, and be visually pleasing too.


Romaine Lettuce
Red Onion
Baby Bello Mushrooms
Grape Tomatoes
Light Sprouts
Flaxseed Oil

Several years ago, I got this strong craving for the Baby Bella Mushrooms (has become Bello to distinguish from Portabella I guess). When we'd go to Whole Foods, I'd buy two boxes and have one and a half eaten before I got home. Sarah would sit in the car commenting that I was eating them like candy, and I was. I couldn't get enough of them. This went on for about eight months! I ate a small fortune in mushrooms, and then I'd had enough.

So maybe they are like the shitake, also anti-in.flammatory? And sometimes I wonder if there is more to certain foods being helpful for us. I'm not sure I have the words for this, and it feels like there's more to it than consumption and use. Suppose things that have taste and fragrance and beauty also have a song of healing music for us? Suppose these plant foods felt to be healing for our ailments, are actually healing on another level, not the body, but the mind?

Suppose the colors awaken something dormant in us, and their song soothes what we call our soul. Perhaps the lovely tastes encourage us? Is fresh food that is satisfying, satisfying needs we didn't even know we had, reminders of wonderful things long lost and forgotten?

Interesting ideas and inspiration abound when fasting.

Here's my current juice:

Tangerine Juice
Papaya, garlic and hot pepper juice added to the tangerine. And as a treat, some strawberry juice too.

The color is as pleasing as the taste.

Three Beautiful Meals and a big Breakthrough

Prickly Pear*
Papaya* [Note: I like using the papayas when the outside is mostly green, with a little yellow. If You're shopping at an Indian Store where they sell green papayas, they don't usually ripen, at least for me, and aren't sweet; they are, however, very high in enzymes, which is good. In A Radiant Life (our book)there's a 'pizza' crust recipe using the pulp from making green papaya juice. We kneaded it with tahini (before finding out that commercial tahini isn't really raw), and it actually looked like a white dough pizza. It was pretty funny. We topped it with sun-dried tomato sauce and I think sliced summer squash.]
Bok Choy
Dandelion greens
Dandelion flowers
Avocado or walnuts

Although I didn't notice Sarah reading what I wrote above, as she is doing cross-pattern exercise right now, she just asked me if it could be made with macadamia nuts ground to a butter, instead of tahini. I'm wondering how she read this from the angle she's at? She's right though.


Golden beets*
Lentil sprouts* homegrown always, easy and inexpensive
Avocado (nuts or sunflower seeds would work well too)
Curry powder*
Spring mix
Rejuvelac

Dandelion Flowers
Papaya*
Prickly pear*
Avocado
Cherry tomatoes
Rhubarb chard*
Spring mix (I think I mentioned this was on the sale table at Stop and Shop: Organic Spring Mix, 1 lb. boxes, for $1.99 I'm so grateful for bargains.

I find the more I check in with God, the more harmonious things become. (That isn't always obvious when dealing with an autism meltdowns! ... Wow. ... Something is working here. Sarah, who has been over the top difficult, suddenly stopped her exercise to hug and kiss me and repeat over and over "I love You"; that's a first. Sitting here stunned. The occasional hug and I love You, but kisses?? Wow.
,
Is it my fasting, the a-i food and juice, the supplements that the cactus juice biochemist suggested yesterday? (methyl B12 [in the past the shots made no difference], methyfolate, P5P pyridoxal 5 phosphate or active B6, and methionine.

We've had a giant breakthrough before while I was fasting and praying ... and we just took the supplements last night for the first time. Wow ... (I tend to say that over and over when I'm stunned by something really good.

One of Sarah's junior high teachers said years ago: "There are no false highs." So any glimpse of good can become a permanent fact.

Wow.

Beautiful Promises of Healing

Before more meal pictures and recipes, I want to share these two verses with anyone who might be having a hard day (as yesterday was here) and extra-specially for parents of people with autism. We are not alone, ever. Our help is ever-present. As parents most of us have certainly felt we needed help, where humanly there seemed to be none. And yet, look below. The Love of God is always present. If we're here, so is Love.

Just look at the rose above, resting gently on the hydrangea. You are more beautiful to Love than even that rose, and so cherished.

Isaiah 41:17 "The afflicted and needy are seeking water, but there is none, And their tongue is parched with thirst; I, the LORD, will answer them Myself, As the God of Israel I will not forsake them.

Isaiah 44:3 For I will pour out water on the thirsty land And streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring And My blessing on your descendants;

p.s. I inadvertently added myself as a follower, and can't seem to get it off, so if anyone has any suggestions, please email me or post here. I will get the hang of this!

Hempseed Curry and Dandelions and Aloe and Lambsquarters

HEMPSEED CURRY

First comment: hemp does not get You high! And it is just delicious. We make the seed into hemp butter, and it's this interesting green color.

Rhubarb chard*
Golden chard*
Cauliflower*
Rejuvelac*
Sprouts, light ones, alfalfa etc.
Hemp butter, homemade
Curry powder*, Frontier

DANDELIONS



This morning, bringing out the yard trimmings, I inspected the dandelions up close, and look at those magenta stems. Think they've got betalains? I do! Computer research time.

ALOE

And thank You to Stephanie, who is a fountain of useful information, on Jean Genet's autism list for pointing out that aloe is anti-inflammatory. Interestingly Sarah's been asking for it, so today I'm adding a shot of cactus juice and some aloe to her water.

LAMBSQUARTERS


Our favorite wild green any way. Look at all those beautiful baby plants!

Fed by prayer and fasting.

This fast has already brought forth some gifts, and I thought I would share one that just happened a few minutes ago. A new and dear friend just commented on the Bible passage "The King's Daughter is all glorious within." I love those words, and went to look up some other translations of them, and found the New King James which says: "The Royal Daughter is all glorious within the palace" the italics indicating that the words were not in the original language.

At first I went to dismiss them, and then Guidance said: "No. Listen. You are all glorious as long as You stay within the palace! And what is the palace but the Consciousness of God, the mind keeping itself constantly with its Divinity.

"This is when One is glorious; the passage is used superficially if You see it only in terms of health, clean within. It is where your thought is placed that heals, bringing forth the fact that You are, indeed, glorious. And not just You, but "All are glorious. This is what has healed Sarah in the past, and it is what will heal her now.

"Hold to what I said to You last night about My saying that "this kind comes forth only by prayer and fasting." You had assumed that the fasting intensified the efficacy of the prayer. No. As You fast, your consciousness is changed, and that new view is what heals.

"As usual, self-discipline of consciousness is the healer. Allow Me to "walk the rounds with You".* We will do this together. A mother (or father) is the most potent healer on the globe, if they will hold their thought "in the palace" with and for their child."

*From a poem and hymn by Whittier: "The Healer from Gennessaret will walk the rounds with You. "You are not doing this alone. I am always with You."

AVO-GOBI RAW CURRY (memory of our former favorite Indian food: alu gobi, potatoes and cauliflower)(east directions for growing lentil sprouts below)




Zucchini, medium, shredded
Spring Mix
Cauliflower*
Lentil sprouts*
Curry Powder*, Frontier
Ginger*, Shredded
Garlic*, thinly sliced, paper thin
Super light sprouts, from the Sproutman
Avocado
Rejuvelac

LENTIL SPROUTS

I use ball canning jars

Fill a quart jar about 1/4 full with dried lentils
(You may use the brown, which are called green, or the little French green lentils, which are really green. The latter are less starchy.)

Add filtered or distilled or spring water about twice as much as the lentils. Let sit several hours till they look larger and fatter. Drain off water using an old clean stocking, cheesecloth, a screen, or your clean hand, letting the water drip through your fingers. Let the jar sit in a warm place and the sprouts will grow. You can cover, using cheesecloth, stocking, clear paper towel, and a rubber band to hold it on, and lay jar on its side, rolling it every so often, as the top one sprout faster.

You can water a little and drain well, or just drain off the little water that always stays in the jar. They shouldn't be wet. That's it. Eat when You see them sprouting. Mungs are sprouted the same way.

Dandelions are blooming beautifully, matching the kerria japonica and the last of the yellow daffodils.

I don't know if I mentioned that I've been fasting since April 10th for Sarah specifically, our country, and for all of us all over our world. I'm having so much fun making these lovely meals that I don't mind not eating. I will put up some juice recipes too.

Here's the dandelion dinner. And by the way, don't eat daffodils! They are poisonous. A daffodil seller told me the gladiators used to have them in their pockets in case the lions got the best of them.

Bok Choy
Rhubarb chard*
Dandelion greens
Broccoli
Papaya*
Dandelion flowers
Clementine sections*
Flaxseed oil (we use Barlean's)

[Since we use organic citrus, Sarah likes some of the sweeter peels found in tangelos and clementines. I wash them, even though they're organic. Citrus peel are a great source of the rest of the c-complex.]

Golden Dinner and where to get the best dates and macadamias

Without and with Rejuvelac

For the most wonderful dates: Bautista Family Organic Date Ranch 760 396-2337 and leave your name and number for Alicia. Really nice people. If you don't mind, please tell Alicia I sent You, so she knows how much I appreciate them.

For wonderful unsprayed macadamias: South Kona Macadamias http://www.southkonamacs.com/ 808-323-3696 (Between the hours of 12:00 pm and 12:00 am CST) They're in Hawaii, and ship priority, and I swear the nuts were here the next day the first time.

Golden Girl dinner

This has not been the best autism day, although we did get to church and to rollerblade on the town dock, for which I am grateful.

This is an especially beautiful dinner, to which I'd planned to add walnuts. Sarah's wanting avocado again, and either would work well.

Golden beets*, shredded
Red onions, sliced thin
Broccoli, chopped
Celery, chopped
Papaya*, Maridol

I'd planned the walnuts, since the papain in papaya is great for digesting nuts, and probably is the anti-inflammatory agent.

Papaya reminds me of one of our oldest favorite recipes, originated in California before we were vegan, and where they actually sold raw cream. The cream has been replaced by the much kinder and more delicious macadamia cream or yoghurt (recipes coming soon along with where we get the dates and nuts).

Papaya*
Fresh dates
Macadamia Cream, although sunflower seed cream would do well and is much less expensive.

Saturday Night Salad

Saturday Salad/lunchtime complete meal and Babci

Those wild-looking mushrooms almost covering the salad are shitake. They are both delicious and anti-inflammatory, as are most of the ingredients in this meal. All the ingredients are supportive of feeling great!

For those unfamiliar with raw vegan eating, if You'll try it, You may be amazed at how wonderful You can feel. I grew up on a lot of meat and potatoes and milk, and I feel so much better now, as a grandmother!, than I did as a kid, a teenager, in high school, and until about 30 when becoming a vegan and trying everything raw.

I really saw the power of diet when taking care of my dear mother-in-law years ago. Actually, she wasn't so dear at first. Every time we visited her, she'd put out a wedding picture of my husband's first marriage! However, after a massive heart attack and then a stroke that left her left side partially paralyzed, Guidance suggested I offer to take care of her when she left the hospital.

This turned out to be a beautiful experience for both of us, although at first, it didn't look like it would. I put her on a raw vegan diet, and although she missed her pirogi and coffee and sugar, and said about wheatgrass juice: "Get that cow juice away from me!" -- she loved sweets and so I made things sweet for her.

We made real contact after a few days when it was only the two of us home and she slid out of the hospital bed (which was low to the floor)on to the floor. Since I was toward the end of a forty-day fast at the time, she must have outweighed me by 50 pounds or more! We just sat on the floor and looked at each other. Then together we asked God for help, and somehow she was back on the bed. It was a very sweet moment.

The first day, her pee was almost black and strong-smelling. Within the week, she was peeing like a baby, clear and fresh, and all the lines on her face began to lessen. One day, when getting her up to walk, my step-daughter Jackie said: "Babci, You have ankles!" We all looked, and she did! Before this, she'd always had piano legs (no visible ankles).

Although I feel we are what we think (and of course what we think affects everything we do), so many times since I have seen how what we're eating makes the difference.

Perhaps because what we eat, the choices we're making, affect our thinking.

Saturday Salad

The local Whole Foods continues to have a sale on chard, including the Rhubarb and Raibow (yellow, pink, and white stalks and veins). And Stop and Shop had one pound boxes of organic spring mix on sale inexpensively. Since I bought so much (the price is really good!) this has necessitated cleaning out the refrigerator.

So the salad is already partially made. Ingredients so far are:

Rainbow chard*
Rhubarb chard*
Cauliflower, florets, greens, and core*
Rejuvelac, purple*
Tomatoes, grape shape
Butternut squash*

To be added are some spring mix, shitake mushrooms*, and avocado or flaxseed oil*.

All the beautiful colors are in the picture.

And here's today's clean-out-the-fridge drink:

Carrot*, beet*, celery, ginger* juice blended with Rhubarb chard leaves.

Rejuvelac Recipe

Again, this is with thanks to and esteem for Ann Wigmore.

We used purple cabbage, even before learning about betalains, as the color is so beautiful. When first making this, the rejuvelac is dark purple. When it is ready to use, it becomes magenta. I have not yet found out whether it has betalains, and it has something that makes it so beautiful!

You can either make this with a Vitamix or strong blender or with a juicer (or a crock and a baseball bat. I'm only giving instructions for the first two now.

The juicer is fast if You have one with a large hopper. Just cut and juice the cabbage, and then mix the cabbage with the pulp. Make sure to use the outer leaves, as that white stuff on them (that I always wiped off!) is actually the natural probiotic source. To make it quickly, add a powdered probiotic. (One that has been kept refrigerated where it was bought.) Shake the glass jar You've put it in, after covering.

Put in a warm place to ferment till the color changes. This can be done in several hours when the place is warm and a lot of probiotic is used.

With the blender/Vitamix, cut the cabbage in chunks and add to the blender which should have filtered water about 2/3's up when the cabbage chunks are in. While the Vitamix can take good sized chunks of cabbage, the less powerful blender will need You to cut the vegetables smaller, and especially if adding beets (as I am about to suggest) cut small and add while blending.

The rest of the directions are as above for making with juice and pulp.

The addition of beets adds betalains. Other additions are carrots, cauliflower, kale, broccoli. I tried a recipe for a Mom with a son with autism allergic to cabbage. It was made using cauliflower and kale, and it was fine. All the brassica family ferments well: cabbage, kale, collard, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, etc.

This is very healthy sauerkraut/sauerkraut juice. It may be made with the vegetables meantioned just above chopped, like a kimchee or actual sauerkraut, so that is another recipe.

For a salty taste, seaweed or sea salt may be added. It's quite good without it though. And it is a good and economical way to make an expensive jar of probiotics last a long time.

How this blog got started, part 1

The inception of this blog came about yesterday in a conversation with Kare Possick about her discovery of a wonderful, anti-inflammatory cactus fruit juice that rescued her husband, Charles, from a life sentence of pain and inflammation. (For more information and to try a free bottle, You may find Kares Cactus Juice using google.) And then, since she's reading our book, A Radiant Life, the conversation went to raw vegan eating and autism, and developing an anti-inflammatory diet to take the blessing of the cactus juice to a new level, and to make it especially germane to the brain and gut inflammation that is often so difficult to manage in autism.

Our family's experience of healing with better food spans forty years. Since it's such a long and interesting story, I'll give it to You in short installments, so as not to detract from the point of the blog, which is to find an excellent and anti-inflammatory diet. We are going to be sharing our anti-inflammatory, raw vegan diet search with You.

Sarah is my daughter, (that's she above, roller-blading). She originally regressed into autism after a very early smallpox vaccination. When she was a young child, our family worked diligently with Sarah using Doman and Delacato's patterning work from the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, and with the help of many, many wonderful volunteers from our community, and the shifting to a vegan diet, Sarah got well.

Despite tremendous family problems, trauma, and loss, Sarah graduated from our local high school in almost all regular classes. Shortly after graduation, we had a pesticide exposure, and she regressed back into autism. We've been walking again out of autism (albeit more slowly). Experiencing the miracle of autism being healed once, we know healing is always a present possibility.

Enough story and time for a recipe!

There will be explanations of the whys of the food selected as we go along, as well as suggestions for kitchen tools, stores, and miscellany. The majority of the food used is suggested to be organic. We do use regular avocados and prickly pears. And if anyone knows where to get organic prickly pears, please let me know.

Here's today's offering:

BETALAINE DRINK

Tangerine* or orange* juice, fresh squeezed, enough to balance the beet taste
Beet*, 1 small to medium (beets have a strong taste, so use accordingly)
Rhubarb Chard*, 2 leaves.

[Note: Rhubarb chard is the swiss chard with the beautiful magenta stalk. It is not regular rhubarb. It just looks like it! Please don't use rhubarb as I have read that the plain rhubarb leaves contain way too much oxalic acid, and so are not good to eat. The stalks are used, however.]

Blend. We have a Vitamix which can blend just about anything. A less strong blender will need the beets chopped finely. In both cases, add as blending, slowly, with regard for the blender.

Drink. If You already have Kares Cactus Juice, You can add a shot (an ounce) to any smoothie or juice. I think google doesn't like website names used on blogs, so please do search for it. The Possick's story is wonderful.

ANTI-INFLAMMATORY SALAD 1 (hereafter referred to as A-I Salad)

When we talk about salad, we're talking full meal! The quantities are up to You. I will star * the ingredients that have betalaines or beta-carotene, or are otherwise considered anti-inflammatory. Some ingredients not starred may be, depending on the research we're doing. All the ingredients are raw, unless otherwise specified.

Rhubarb Swiss Chard*
Celery
Cauliflower* (I use the florets, the leaves, and the core grated)
Garlic*, minced very finely, to taste
Butternut squash (baked at about 250 degrees.See note below)
Avocado or flaxseed oil* or fresh ground flaxseed*
Rejuvelac, purple cabbage rejuvelac, with thanks to Ann Wigmore
Or (until I put up the rejuvelac recipe) use fresh chopped tangerine,
orange, lemon, or lime, or if You really love grapefruit it should
work too)(That's for Kare who loves grapefruit.)

Toss all ingredients together, adding some curry powder* (the turmeric is anti-inflammatory, and plain turmeric can be used if You don't like curry) and eat.

[Note: I have read that food baked at that temperature retain enzyme activity. In fact one source goes up to 300 degrees. I personally find this hard to believe, although I've planted some of the squash seeds and they have sprouted. The plus to this is that butternut squash is so hard to cut or peel raw, and so much easier after even a short baking.

I am sharing what I've learned in over 40 years of researching food. Please feel free to add to it whatever You know. I would appreciate it. As well, I will be sharing the places I've found to be good sources of foods, and I would also appreciate additions from everyone.]

[Note 2: If You like salt, I suggest Celtic Sea Salt, Sea Salt, or powdered seaweeds, or seaweed pieces. Maine Coast Sea Vegetables has organic seaweed, and Eden Foods has wonderful, clean wakame.]