Thanks for Visiting!

Hi!  Thanks for visiting!  In sharing with you on this blog, my hope and prayer is you will find helpful information and be encouraged in your own path of learning as I pass on what I have learned over the years creating recipes, gardening, and other things related to the outside.  (The local fauna and flora as it is called.  Fauna being the local animal life, flora the plant life.) 

A little history on why I have been experimenting with recipes the last 30 plus years.  The first ten years of life included some rather annoying digestion problems; the next ten years added chronic, severe constipation with serious allergies beginning at 18.  At around 21, two friends of mine over the course of a couple weeks  both suggested I should try a varied vegan diet, as it was working really well for them.  To say the least!  These guys were both very healthy looking and so muscular they would've been body builders.  Lets get something straight right now.  I don't believe in 'going on a diet'.  The connotation behind that is, it is something temporary and then you go back to eating the junk you used to eat.  Not a good plan.  Your diet is what you eat, which may be nutritious, body strengthening food, or it may be food that weakens the body.  Now changing ones diet to include healthier, nutrient dense food is a good thing.  Back to the story.  I didn't go straight to all vegan, but after three months of cutting out meat and reducing the amount of dairy products  and refined sugar, the intestinal problems improved considerably but no changes in the allergies.  When I told my mom (the dietitian) of my diet changes, she suggested I do some research to find a variety of foods  containing the nutrients one needs, and she gave me the book 'The New Laurel's Kitchen' which was a great resource for new recipes to try, charts on cooking beans and grains, and charts showing the amounts of vitamins and minerals in a lot of foods. Since then, it has been a gradual switch to all  vegan, including raw vegetable juices. This is an on going process.  I feel the best when I stick to all vegan, am juicing at least a couple times a week and practice proper food combining-(the intestinal and allergy problems virtually disappear).  In all honesty that doesn't happen 100% of the time. Some times I'll be out somewhere and I'll say to myself:  You can eat this and it may or may not still taste good  for the 5 minutes you eat it, but then you are going to feel crummy for the next 12-24 hours after.  Is it worth it?  Some days it is, some days it isn't.  The days it is have been less and less through the years.  That brings us back to the reason for creating recipes that are satisfying and tasty.  With delicious choices with food value, the why waste my time and resources on stuff loaded with refined sugar, refined salt, and refined flours?   Simply put:  Eat well, feel well!