Lemony Coconut Bread

A gal in my raw milk coop shared that she made the Lemon Coconut Quick Bread recipe from Farmgirl Fare. It sounded tempting to my taste buds and I set out to try and make it more NT friendly. For those of you new to my blog….I try to eat food according to the Weston A Price diet and most of those guidelines are found in Nourishing Traditons….hence, NT.

It’s touted as being tasty toasted! I tasted mine while still warm and just out of the pan and it is delish! I wanted to substitute Coconut Flour for regular unbleached flour and knowing that Coconut Flour causes the finished product to come out dense and dry, I added an extra egg and cut the baking time shorter. And because I didn’t want it to be a total flop, I used 1/2 regular unbleached flour. In the future I’d like to either try sprouting my own wheat and then grinding it or purchasing it from To Your Health. The other thing I might do differently is use honey, since honey causes your finished product to come out moist. I also only used 1/4 C fresh lemon juice because I only had one lemon. I’d increase the lemon juice definitely to 1/2 C! I can count on one hand how often I bake. Not because I don’t like to bake….well, truth be told, I hate baking….but because I like to eat!!!

Lemon Coconut Bread

1 1/2 C Coconut flour

1 C Unbleached Flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Mix dry ingredients in a med bowl. Set aside.

Beat together:

3 farm fresh eggs

1/4 C fresh squeezed lemon juice (I would increase it to 1/2 C)

3/4 C raw milk

1 C unsweetened shredded coconut

1 Tbsp fresh lemon zest

1 1/4 C unrefined sugar

Melt:

1/2 C butter

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix gently. Add melted butter and mix gently. Pat into greased loaf pan. Bake 60 minutes at 350*F. Cool on rack and pour out of pan gently after 15 minutes. Flip with plate to keep the loaf from breaking…..as mine did!

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I just wanted to let you know how I really feel about this bread a day after it has cooled.  It is absolutely delish!!!  If you like pound cake, you will love my Lemony Coconut Bread…maybe soon to be called Cake!  Mmmm!  I wouldn’t change a thing, except maybe use all coconut flour or some sprouted flour to make it more NT friendly.  So good.

Memory Leakage

I just had to stick this pic in again. It's my favorite. My photography majoring son told me how perfect it is...lots of triangles. Who would have thought...me and my point and shoot.

I tried to remember everything to tell you about my healing…but even though my mind has healed from Lyme Diseases ravenous destruction….well, now I have menopausal memory leakage!!! One important thing to remember and never lose is your sense of humor! I mean it. I’ve grown funnier by the day. Sometimes I make Honey laugh so hard when we’re trying to go to sleep he nearly falls out of the bed. So, even though you feel like crying….well go ahead and have a good one, but then you have to find something to laugh at. It creates endorphines!!! So laugh on!!!

Fats. I only use EV olive oil, EV coconut oil, and sesame oil. And they are organic. I also use raw butter and are you ready for this one….LARD! I haven’t gotten into using duck and goose fats….but if I come by them I will try them. I have a bunch of tallow in the freezer from our side of beef and I need to render it. I could tell you all the benefits of lard, but I think that you ought to look it up yourself…..I mean, that’s the whole thing about healing is using your brain. If you don’t use it you lose it!

Rest. You need and must rest. People use to ask me if I worked and I told them my job was to get well. What good was I to my Honey if I wasn’t around? Now, that I am well and rested I am a whole lot of good to him. You should see what I can get done in a days time, when I’m not blogging!!!!! Which by the way, I am avoiding running the vacuum and dusting! I keep telling myself I will after I do one more thing….drink my tea, write this, eat my chocolate! I never found housework to ever get up and walk out cause it didn’t like the way things looked. I wish it would but it doesn’t!

Beauty. Surround yourself with beauty. Inner and outer!!! I always took a shower and put a little make-up on…no matter. I knew it would lift my spirits. Sometimes, I literally had to sit in the shower and rest just to get finished. And then I’d have to sit on the toilet to dry my hair. It seemed to take forever to get that chore done. But then when you look in the mirror you feel so much better. I also make sure the blinds and curtains are open so I can look at the beauty surrounding me. If I couldn’t go for a walk I’d sit outside and breath the fresh air. There were days when I wished I could have walked to the mailbox, but I couldn’t. But it didn’t stop me from sitting in the family room and looking at the mailbox. On my very worst days, God sent me a hummingbird to feed from my coral bells right outside the window that I’d become a prisoner behind. That’s another story completely that I must tell. It’s an amazing story of how God showed me His love and lifted me out of the miry clay pit.

Help. Don’t forget to ask for help.  It was an auto accident that brought that one home for me.  In 1993 I was hit almost head on and it changed our lives forever.  It was then that Honey began to really love me…don’t get me wrong here….he did love me, but when you almost lose someone, then it drives home the importance of it more.  I know you understand.  It’s how 9-11-2001 changed me.  After that day I just couldn’t ever not tell those I loved that I loved them….it could be the very last time.  I know you understand.  But…..the word help came full circle into our lives in 1993.  It was the last time I ever picked up my little 5 yr old son.  It was when I could no longer carry the laundry basket.  I had to ask for the kids to do more…. and they were only 5 and 9.  But they ran the vacuum for me and did their laundry and were real troopers.   “Help” became a real part of my vocabulary.  Before that, well, I had this image of what I was suppose to look like.  Some super mom thing.  Well, in the real world super mom’s don’t exist!!  Got that???  They don’t.  I’m way to old now to worry about that kind of stuff.  The other word you need to learn is….”NO!”  You can say it kindly, but “NO”.  No I can’t bake cookies for the class.  No I can’t volunteer for this or that.  No, no, no!  Go ahead and practice right now…NO, NO, NO!!!   Don’t feel guilty either.  Trust me, once your healing comes, there will be plenty of time to say “YES”!   My life is finally coming back to me.  And all the years of isolation are going away.  God is bringing people back into my life and it’s good.  But I still have to keep a balance.  Not too much.

I hope that helps….a little counseling session for free!  I hope you have a lovely day….I have to go run the vacuum and dust now….oh Yuck, but ya know, I am so very grateful for these times….I have been in the lowest pit and I am so very glad to be alive and run the vacuum!!!!!!!!!!!  See ya later.

BORING!

I saw my doc this AM and it was rather uneventful.  He looked at my blood work and said that it were “boring”.  In a doctors view, when there is nothing happening and everything is great, then it’s boring.  Doctors live to see and treat sickness.

But my doc is very happy for me and wishes all his patients could reach my level of wellness and healing.  It’s a choice.

We chatted about menopause and my hot flashes.  We talked about how flying impacts me negatively due to the elevation bringing out any Lyme bugs.  We talked about me being tired and what it could be contributed to.  We talked about my lack of sleep due to hot flashes (that could be why I’m tired or just that I’m working hard and I’m 50!). We talked about my newest medication…….chocolate and what time of the day to eat it.   We talked about what was next.  Basically he is so pleased that I have an upward momentum that if it needs tweaking then I tweak it.   That this thing called healing is a lifestyle.  It’s not a quick fix.  Nothing in life worth having is a quickie.

Basically, I know what to do and I keep doing it.  Many of you have written to me and asked me what it is I’m doing.  Am I doing the same thing now that I was 2 yrs ago?  Some of you ask for advice….which I really don’t give, cause this is my place to journal about my life and what I am doing….I’m not a doctor and although sometimes I pretend (just kidding FDA) (I have a little white coat and stethoscope) and I’ve been addressed as Dr. D, well, I’m not.  So, I thought I’d take the time to tell you in detailed everything I am doing now…..what I eat, what I drink, how I sleep, how I deal with pain, etc, etc.

So for those of you who will find this part boring….then I wish you a good day!  See you another time when I’m talking about my life’s passions; cows and chickens and gardens!

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I continue to follow the teachings of Dr Weston A Price when it comes to my diet.  For yrs (I’ve lost count…10 maybe) I gave up grains, which included all of the grass family.  Then after learning about something called Phytic Acid, I began to experiment with sprouted grains and sourdough.  Now I do allow myself sprouted grains and sourdough breads.  Although after reaching this level of healing I’d be a liar if I told you I never ate anything unsprouted.  I do.  But not often and not much if ever….but when I was in Germany, I had no other choice and it didn’t kill me….but if I continued eating that way, then it would take it’s toll.  So, as always, everything in moderation after you reach healing.

I drink raw dairy including making my own kefir and yogurt.  Those are my probiotics, however, during my healing time, I have taken quality probiotics.  I eat raw cheese and something I found interesting was that my son (21) told me that he literally “feels good” when he eats the raw cheese.  He too has Lyme and co-infections and has found a level of healing trying to eat well.  It’s hard for a 21 year old, it’s hard for me…but we do it.

I eat grassfed beef.  During my healing time, I cooked it rare to get as many of the live enzymes as possible.  I also eat wild scallops, pastured eggs, chicken and pork.   I have eaten a lot of liver from time to time….I really have to be in the mood to eat liver.  But, during my bout with Hemolytic Anemia caused by a reinfection of Babesia, I juiced raw liver with carrots.

I eat veggies of all kinds.  Now with my spring garden growing, I eat lots of spinach, kale, beets and carrots.  In the summer it will be green beans, lima, and corn.  We also eat potatoes, onions, garlic and herbs.

I eat sprouted nuts, mostly almonds (which technically are not nuts!).

From time to time I eat soaked oatmeal in yogurt to breakdown the Phytic Acid.

Every morning on an empty stomach I take 1-2 Tbsp of Cod Liver Oil from Dr Ron’s.  I just swig it from the bottle.  During my healing time I also took 1-5 Tbsp of raw butter with the CLO.  Dr Ron’s office told me that if their patients do one thing that helps it’s the CLO with the raw butter!  So, I took their bit of advice and ran with it….I believe in it, it works!

I don’t eat anything per say out of a box.  Nothing prepared….except I buy my sprouted bread.  I eat real food.  If it grows I eat it…if it didn’t grow then I don’t eat it.

For over 1 yr I avoided ALL sugars, including raw honey.  After the first year I allowed myself small amounts of only raw honey.  Now I allow myself small amounts of raw sugar and raw honey.  A couple times a year, especially for holidays and special events, I will bake with raw sugar.  I NEVER eat refined sugar.  And I avoid refined flours.

The first couple yrs when I avoided sugar, I also avoided fruit due to the sugar content.  I now allow fruit, especially berries.

For 1-2 yrs I avoided ALL caffeine.  I now allow myself a cup or two of organic black tea daily.  Sometimes a cup of coffee, but I prefer tea with raw honey and milk.

All the food that I eat, including my chocolate is organic.  My doc approved and smiled at my eating chocolate.  I only eat a small square or two daily, depending on the amount of stress.  It is a powerful antioxidant and it increases serotonin!  So, it makes me feel good.  My doc suggested I eat it at lunch time to avoid the jolt it may be giving my adrenals, which will help with the night time hot flashes.

That covers it for my food….I think…if I think of something that I forgot, I’ll let you know…but for the most of it…that’s it.  REAL FOOD.  The foods in Nourishing Traditions worked for me for the most part…except for the sugars and grains, but emphasis on the fermented foods is vital.  Also I followed what Dr Ron suggested that he did for his healing.  If it worked for him I figured it would work for me….and it did. (click on the link to find the article)

As far as supp’s….well, let’s start somewhere else…let’s start with knowing YOUR OWN body!  No two of us are alike.  If we were one of us wouldn’t be necessary…..and from where I’m sitting that’s you, not me!  You must be able to listen to your own body.  You must begin to put two and two together.  Make connections with what you did or ate or whatever…the moon even.  So, begin with keeping a journal or diary or calendar.  I used a calendar.  I wrote on it each day, what I ate, what I did, what I took.  Everything.  Then you may begin to see a pattern.  I began to think like my doc.  What did I eat?  What can I do?  Why not try something else?  What can I do to help that?  Why not this or that?

So as far as supp’s, you have to go by what your body needs.  My list 2 or 5 yrs ago, is nothing like it is today.  I hardly take anything now.  My nutrients come from my food and due to my level of healing I don’t need to get them from a supp because my needs are fulfilled with food.  But, for those who want to know… I take, 800 IU of Vit E from Dr Ron’s.  Why 800?  Well, that’s for my hot flashes….see we aren’t the same.  I take anywhere from 1,000 mg to 10,000 mg of Vit C from Dr Ron’s depending on whether I’m trying to avoid a cold, but on most days it’s 1,000 mg.  I take Dr Zhang’s herbs still but am weaning myself off of them after 1 1/2 yrs.  I now take the HH, Cirulation P, and Artemisea and Milk Thistle.  I’ll continue the milk thistle even after I stop the other herbs because it’s good for my liver.  I did stop the herbs while I was in Germany, but due to the elevation of flying and something being stirred up, I was fighting extreme headaches when I got back and started the herbs again.  The headaches went away and I ordered another months supply so I’ll finish those and see how I’m feeling.

My blood work came back great!!  My CD 57 is 98!  Which is up from the first CD 57 I had done in September when I was nearly ready for a blood transfusion due to Hemolytic Anemia.  And there is absolutely no sign of Hemolytic Anemia which was caused by a tick bite in June and a re-infection of Babesia!!!  A Double Whahoo!!   My thyroid was good and NO signs of inflammation!!!  Another Double Whahoo!!!  Disease causes inflammation.  So no inflammation is a very good sign.  The only thing low was potassium.  But that’s easy to fix…eat a banana.

Lifestyle.  I continue to avoid ALL chemicals.  There are none in our home.  No bleach, no ammonia, no petro’s of any kind.  We use most products from Trader Joe’s where you can find, laundry soap, dish soap, dishwasher soap, etc. all without petro!

I don’t use the Rife machine anymore.  I used it for 2 yrs straight.  I don’t use the sauna anymore or dry skin brush.  I occasionally do a coffee enema if I feel toxic. I use Traumeel on my feet morning and night which has alleviated ALL the pain.  If I have pain elsewhere from working hard, I use it there as well.  I bought orthodontics which took away all my foot pain.  I bought a new bed which took away my back pain.  I use Melatonin for a good nights sleep and adjust it as necessary for ME. I still try to go to sleep by 10 PM and I’m up at the crack of dawn!  Rested and at peace.  I drink herbal infusions for my menopausal symptoms.  I make an infusion with Red Clover, Stinging Nettle and Oatstraw and drink 1-2 C daily.  I use and take herbs as needed for medicine and food.

I continue to press into the Lord for strength.  I read and meditate upon Scripture from the Bible daily.  I realize that none of this is within my own power but from the power of the Holy Spirit living inside me.  As scripture says, “the same power that resurrected Christ from the dead!”  Wow, that to me is an amazing strength.

I live a life that is as stressless as possible.  I know it’s hard in our world today.  But, I try.  I give it up, because really I can’t change a thing in my own strength.

I love to garden, farm, sew, knit, read, cook and live!  I do what I love!  You can’t go about life worrying about what if.  You just can’t.  One lady asked me what if I got bit again while in the garden….well, I don’t have to imagine that.  It’s happened twice now.  So, I deal with it.  But, if you keep your body in a state of wellness than if I do get bit again, it won’t take me down.  I was able to accomplish something that totally amazed my doc when I was hit with the Hemolytic Anemia…and I did it in 7 wks with food and herbs!!!!!!!  He still is amazed at that.   Like Dr Ron, I’m not sure if these diseases will ever really be gone (at least not while on this earth!), but if I treat my body with real food and keep it strong then it doesn’t matter if it’s lyme disease or swine flu!  A strong immune system is what’s needed and I do that with food.

So, that about covers it.  I know, it’s pretty boring.  Just what my doc said.