Date:   6/2/2004 4:15:41 PM ( 20 y ago)
Hits:   1,733
URL:   https://www.curezone.org/forums/fm.asp?i=311889

Hello, Shelleycat ...

"I'd be very interested to know which Dosha you are! For you to do soooo great on raw foods would mean possibly that you are a Kapha/Pitta combo, and that's a tough one to get right, so it'd be interesting to know. If you don't know, I have links to easy tests in the FAQ. :) And would you happen to know what blood type you are?"

I regret to say that I'm not very well versed in East Indian health practices and philosophies, but I did do a search on them just for you. The first test I took seemed to indicate that I was an equal amount of each of the three types, but other tests I looked at seemed different enough in the nature of their questions to suggest that, if I took another test, then I might get another result, so I'm not quite sure what to make of it all.

The blood-type question you asked, though, is easy enough to answer. It's Type O.

"Sprouts tend to give me the worst gas, so my body doesn't like them at ALL. :( OH well. I haven't tried spelt tho, that could be fun. :)"

I'm in great sympathy with you on the gas issue in regard to sprouts. I *love* soybean sprouts and green pea sprouts, but every time I try to eat them, I get gas, so I've decided to leave them alone until I find out what the problem is, if indeed I ever do. It just may be that our systems weren't designed to accommodate beans.

Between now and then, I shall just continue to eat alfalfa sprouts and spelt sprouts, both of which I can grow easily and digest perfectly.

Home-grown alfalfa sprouts are a delight to me because as long as I have them on hand, I feel I don't have to mess with lettuce and, in my situation, that is a real blessing. All the shopping and washing and wrapping you have to do in order to keep fresh lettuce on hand is just not practical for me. And if I were to insist on organically-grown lettuce on top of that, then you'd have to look for me in the loony bin!

But alfalfa sprouts are so easy to grow and so incredibly nutritious to eat that I just thank God every day for those little power-packed seeds He's given us. I really don't know what I'd do without them. When I'm building my "meals" (salads), the first thing I put on the plate or in the take-along dish is a bed of alfalfa sprouts.

In regard to the spelt sprouts, one way you could test them is to put an ounce of spelt berries in one of those little thermos things, pour some hot water over them, put the lid on, and let them soak overnight so as to be ready for breakfast the next morning.

Although any sprout gets progressively more nutritious with each passing day (up to a point, anyway), spelt covered with hot water (to soften the outer layer) and left to soak overnight is infinitely more valuable, nutritionally speaking, than boiled in a pot until dead or ground up fine into a flour that turns into glue in our systems.

Soaked (sprouted) spelt, when added to nuts and seeds and diced dried fruits is reminiscent of granola, except that it is so moist and lovely that you really don't need milk; but, if you think that you do, then a little almond milk poured on it will take it over the top and make your day.

What I especially love about soaked (sprouted) spelt, though, is its incredible flexibility as a vehicle for carrying other ingredients and enabling me to make things that "look" like food to my husband.

For example, you can make "snowballs" with it ... little miniature fruit/nut balls covered with freshly-shredded coconut. Or "seedcakes" like the hobbits love. Or "cookies" that are irresistible but that -- strangely -- you can really only eat two or three of at a time because they are so filling ... and so satisfying. My husband can eat half a sack of Oreos and be hungry again in just a couple of hours, but if he eats as many as three of my "cookies" or "seedcakes" or "snowballs", then I actually have to go hunt him up for the next meal because he won't get hungry again for hours and hours.

I don't make too much in the way of "specialty" items anymore because (a) it takes too much time and (b) it's so much simpler just to sprinkle some soaked (sprouted) spelt on top of my bed of alfalfa sprouts and (very) finely-shredded vegetables and then add some diced dried fruit and sliced almonds ... et voila! Absolutely the best meal you ever tasted in your life! And the most satisfying. It just lasts and lasts and lasts, if you know what I mean. You don't get hungry again for a long, long time.

When I say *very* finely-shredded vegetables, I do mean *very*. If your idea of "raw food" is a carrot stick or a Celery stick, then you probably won't be a proponent of live food for very long.

But if you build a salad with a couple of tablespoons *each* of finely-chopped/shredded spinach, cabbage, carrot, apple and avocado, let's say, and sprinkle on some soaked spelt berries and some diced dried pineapple and papaya and some (pre-soaked) sliced nuts and seeds, then you have a meal that's fit for a king and every forkful will be moist and delicious and just simply bursting with flavor. A cracker made of dehydrated ground sprouted spelt topped with sesame seeds is a nice addition to your salad, but it's really not necessary. I just keep them on hand because my husband thinks that when he's eating a cracker he's eating what he calls "normal".

"Actually, as long as you grind up those flax seeds in a grinder our digestions should be able to make good use of the oils and lignans. I hope to start grinding my own grains someday, ALL of them, not just seeds, but for now wtih a kitchen the size of a postcard and a family member in a wheelchair, it's tough to create more space for equipment!"

Well, I am very happy to hear that I ought to be able to get some good out of finely-ground flax seed. I'm wary of extracted oils because they can so easily become rancid, but I'm perfectly happy to work the freshly ground seed into my diet. It's my understanding that flax oil is the vegetable equivalent of fish oil, but without contaminants like mercury and so on, so that's fine.

Flax seed, like any seed or nut or grain, really should be soaked before it's ground for a whole lot of good and sufficient reasons, but you just wouldn't believe the mess I made the day I decided to sprout flax seeds between two damp paper towels. Because of it, I decided that maybe I could make an exception of flax seed and just simply grind it as is, since I don't use more than a couple of tablespoons of it a day, anyway.

I'm sympathetic with your lack of space for grinding equipment, but I can tell you from experience that the Krupps coffee grinder doesn't take up any more room on the counter than a drinking glass and doesn't cost any more money than a couple of cans of coffee, or about $20. On the other hand, flax seeds are about all it can handle, in addition to the coffee beans for which it was designed. However, when you consider the high cost of flax oil in bottles or capsules at the health food store, and the low cost of fresh flax seed in bulk, it's clear you'd reimburse yourself very quickly for the cost of the equipment and then go on to save yourself a whole lot of money thereafter.

I've researched that thing you see on TV called the "Magic Bullet" because it doesn't take up very much room, either (although it does cost a lot more money); and, according to the lady who was doing the demonstration when I happened to catch the infomercial, it pulverizes everything from soup to nuts in the blink of an eye. I wondered, as I watched, if it would do nut/seed butters, especially sesame seed butter. I would just love to be able to make some of that to spread on our spelt crackers or stuff into Celery sticks, but none of the equipment I presently have in my kitchen will do much of anything with sesame seeds other than just sort of push them around. If you know what sort of equipment it takes in order to make sesame seed butter -- also called "tahini", I heard -- then I would be very much obliged to you if you would tell me what it is.

"Also, please share your almond milk recipe. I've seen several and so far I just make a very simple version because none of the others have given me that "ah hah" feeling that says I must MAKE this. :)"

The first secret to excellent almond milk is a jelly strainer. You can get them at the hardware store for just a few dollars. The carton should contain a steel ring about 8" in diameter, three steel legs that screw into the ring to make the whole thing stand up, and a couple of net bags (you can buy more bags separately) with elasticized tops that you stretch over the ring in such a way that you can pour your milk into the bag and it strains itself out of the bag and into a big pyrex measuring bowl that you put underneath it. When it stops dripping, you can either discard the remaining pulp or squeeze it to get out every last drop of goodness, which is what I do. (The pulp, incidentally, is wonderful when added to ground soaked spelt for crackers.) If I were making jelly, then I wouldn't squeeze it because my grandmother told me years ago that this will make your jelly look cloudy instead of clear, but with almond milk that isn't an issue, so I squeeze it until I have exactly 2 cups in the measuring bowl beneath it. Then I pour this lovely milk into four little hexagonal jars with gold lids which hold four ounces each. My husband gets two, and I get two. And neither one of us ever lets a day go by without drinking both. You just don't have any idea how exquisite it is until you've tried it.

The second secret is to start with the best-quality almonds you can find. Soak 4 oz of (picked over) almonds overnight in a mason jar and pour off the water the next morning.

This is *really* important. Nuts and seeds have an anti-sprouting enzyme in them which, if not soaked out, puts a terrific amount of stress on the pancreas. It's okay to dehydrate them again after you've soaked them, but it's not okay to eat them without soaking them first.

After you've drained off the soaking water and rinsed the almonds, spread them out on a towel and pick over them again in case there's any that look to you like they should be discarded. You can't always tell just by looking at a raw nut whether or not it's going to be a "dud" after you've soaked it and you certainly don't want any off-color flavor permeating your milk. The finished product, in other words, will only be as good as the ingredients that go into it.

Anyway, now you're ready to make your milk. Put 2 cups of pure water into a blender and add the soaked almonds. Also add 2 tablespoons (1/8 cup) of raw honey and 4 teaspoons of lecithin granules (one teaspoon for each four ounces of milk). Start blending on slow speed to give the almonds a chance to get broken down and then pick up the speed of the blender until you're going as fast as it will go for as long as it takes to thoroughly blend the nuts into the water. I do it for a total of 5 minutes, myself, because it seems to take that long to do a really good job, but this could be a little too much. I'd be interested in your opinion, when the time comes for you to make it.

You may find, after you've made your first batch, that you would prefer it to be just a little sweeter. In that case, you can step up the honey to 3 or 4 tablespoons. Raw honey acts as a preservative as well as a sweetener, so I think you should have at least half a tablespoon per four ounces of milk, but one tablespoon per four ounces may be more to your taste, especially if you have children. They will adore it!

Since it's only a matter of time before it will occur to you to incorporate some vanilla, let me just say that while that can be a nice touch, the alcohol in vanilla extract "does something" to the consistency of your milk. It doesn't curdle it, exactly, but it does do something to it that I'd rather it didn't, so I don't use it even though I like vanilla. From time to time I think about adding pulverized vanilla bean, but I haven't gotten around to it, yet. If you try it, then let me know how it turns out.

The four teaspoons of lecithin granules act to keep the milk from "separating" ... from having the "cream" in the milk rise to the top, as it were. It's no big deal if it does because all you have to do to disperse it again is shake it but you know how husbands and kids are. If they ever see it separated, they'll make a face and a funny noise and refuse to drink it. Word to the wise!

And that's it. That's all you do. Except for pouring it out of the blender and into the strainer, of course. I've gotten the process down to 15 minutes flat first thing in the morning. And I always keep one day ahead of myself. That is, we will drink tomorrow the milk I make today. It's loveliest when drunk immediately, of course, but we've come to depend on the nourishment it offers us, so I make it a day ahead just to be sure I've got it on hand in case I can't make it some morning for some reason.

For whatever it may or may not be worth to you, you can make mayonnaise with this almond milk just like you would with an egg. You can also whip it just like you would whip cream from a cow. Or blend it with a banana for an exquisitely-delicious milk shake. Or make any flavor of ice cream with it that you want.

You can also pour some into a small bowl, put the small bowl into a bigger bowl, pour boiling water around it and put the lid on for a few minutes to give it a chance to get good and warm and then pour it over some soaked spelt and raisins for a dessert that's not only "alive" but also easy on the digestive system.

Which reminds me: If you have a little soaked (sprouted) spelt every day, then you will never have to give another thought to "fiber" in your diet.

Also, if you routinely steam rice for your family's main meals, then try putting it to soak the night before. You will be pleasantly surprised at how this will cut the cooking time in half. FYI, half rice and half spelt makes a very attractive and nourishing combination.

Regards, Elizabeth ...

P.S. Now I'm going to go see about your "anti-nutrients" post.

:)
 

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