SOYBEANS

I know that some people don't think soy beans are good for you. That's okay. I believe that they are gold! Here are some pictures of my own soy beans growing in my garden. The first picture shows the plants about 9 days after I planted them. They grow easy and fast.
These are now starting to flower and produce the bean pods. I can't wait to eat my raw green soybeans. Dr. Jau-Fei Chen is an immunologist and I have attended her seminars for about 6 years. She studies every food, herb and the like under the microscope and determines what foods enhances our immune system so that our bodies can heal themself of all kinds of diseases. She claims that there is no one "magic" food - but that VARIETY is the key. In the book, "Nutritional Immunology" pages 161-166, Dr. Jau-Fei Chen, Ph.D. states that "through evidence...eating soybeans is a sure way to give your body many of the vitamins it needs to keep your body functioning optimally. If more people would incorporate soybeans (the whole food) into their diets as their main source of protein, there would be a substantial drop in the rate of deaths caused by heart disease and cancer. Soybeans may actually contain a substance which aids in the CURE of diseases. There is a great deal of evidence that supports that the soybean is a great source of protein and contains essential vitamins without the saturated fat and cholesterol found in meats and dairy products. The soybean may in fact be the answer to living a healthier, longer life."

I used to buy frozen green soybeans at Sprouts or Trader Joe's. We eat them everyday - even putting them into our green drinks. But now - I want to eat my very own that I grow.

One day.....I may even be brave enough to tell you what she says about eating ROSES! Whoa.....that might be too brave of me. We'll see.

Either you love them or you don't.....DURIANS!

I have been trying to find a DURIAN ever since February when I first learned about them.
I heard so much about them stinking to death but tasting like vanilla pudding. The boys are showing you how they look and what it looks like inside of one.

There are puffy pockets all around the DURIAN and Jacob is carefully slicing one of the pockets open.

After you make the slit - then you carefully pry open the pocket to find the treasured fruit inside.

The fruit is actually a little pillow of sweetness.

We are just showing how big the little pillow is. The fruit is very smooth and creamy and really does resemble vanilla pudding.

Well - one of the boys really liked it. The other one couldn't stand the smell and couldn't stand the taste. The last picture shows how Jacob didn't want any part of this fruit. Oh well - now we can say we have tried it. There were actually 6 different pockets of fruit in this durian and Joey and I ended up fighting over them. We thought they were wonderful!

POWER BALLS

My friend, Peggy, emailed me this recipe for Power Balls. They sounded so healthy that I went right in the kitchen and made them.
I didn't have dates so I used raisins and I didn't use honey but agave nectar instead. I also added sunflower seeds just because it sounded good to me. I also didn't measure. That's common in my world. The original recipe sounded like it made just a few and I wanted to make way more than a few! So I used more ingredients than listed but didn't bother to measure! Go figure. They were fabulous.

I made three plates full and they are all gone. This is something that I will definitely make again. I gave some to my sister, Jean, and Jim took some camping with him this weekend and the rest of them.....well Jacob and I ate.

POWER BALLS
1/2 cup oats - (in food processor until broken up)
add the following to the food processor until a mealy texture.
3/4 cup almond butter
1/4 cup ground flax seed
4 dates (I used raisins)
Remove from the processor to a bowl and add approx 2 T raw honey.
Stir together. Shape into small balls and roll the balls in HEMP SEED. 

Sprouted Grains and Seeds

This was a new adventure for me. I wanted to desperately make some fresh sprouted bread - like Ezekiel does - but I wanted it to be cooked in the dehydrator so it would really be raw. I soaked wheat, quinoa, lentils, sunflower seeds and buckwheat.



Here is a close up of them with their little tails!



I put a few together in the Champion Juicer to make a perfect dough. I added only a little sea salt. I then made very small rolls that were even kinda flat. I dehydrated them but they didn't work. Only the edges were cooked enough to eat and the inside stayed too doughy. If I would have dehydrated them any longer - I would have ended up with spoiled goo.

So I decided that before I ruined all the sprouted grains and seeds - I would dehydrate them into a quick and nutritious snack. I have to say that to pop these in your mouth was incredibly tasty. I didn't season them or even put salt on them but you could. Gina grounded some of it into flour to make "bread" too - but nope....we haven't mastered the technique yet. Just thought you could learn one of our lessons! 

BAKED LASAGNA

I am using the spiralizer and making my garden zucchini into flat, kinda wide "noodles". They look like long ribbons and I cut them so they would be shorter.

I used my favorite marinara sauce (already blogged) and mixed in some sun-dried tomatoes, apple cider vinegar, soaked raisins and some onion powder to make it even better. Then I just layered the sauce and with the ribbon "noodle" zucchini.

Almost ready to cover and "bake".

Here iswhat it looked like before I baked it.






Ah.....baked outside on my table... in Phoenix, Arizona! It was only 108 degrees outside today - so I guess my "lasagna" is still raw - right??

It certainly didn't feed my whole family. I had to make another batch! Burp.

Can't get more RAW than this!

My 5th daughter, Jodie, married Adrian Heiselt. They just had their first baby on May 27th! (Clark Issac - 6 lbs and 19 1/2 inches) I have been in Utah helping her and her new family.
I just couldn't resist sending a perfect recipe for raw milk for babies! Ha!

NURSE YOUR BABY if you possibly can!

I'll be back blogging pretty soon. Sorry I have been gone for so long! But I was doing more important work.....being Grandma Cookies!