Faith Like Potatoes...

Our family watched the movie, 

Faith Like Potatoes 

the other evening and I must say, 

I was deeply inspired and convicted 

on the matter of prayer. 

I pray but how much do I pray with 

my children? 

This is where I was convicted. 

I have only a few short years and

 then they will be off doing adult things 

in their journey with God.

This morning the Lord woke me early 

and as I moved about my kitchen preparing 

lunch for today, 

I listened to this bit of inspiration:

Inner Strength

by Angus Buchan

This is the real-life Angus Buchan about whom the movie

was filmed. I was deeply inspired and encouraged.

There are giants in my life. They are in all of our lives.

But I am walking by faith.

How about you?

For the praise of God and by His power...

Love and blessings,

Marcia

"Lazy" Sushi...and a Cookbook Announcement...

I'm excited to share that I have begun a project that, up until now, has been only in my dreams. Since I have discovered the joy and the benefits of eating plant-focused meals, I have dreamed of sharing my recipes with my people. My daughters keep asking me for recipes and, since I do not cook from recipes, this has been a 'back burner' (no pun intended!) project that, thanks to Dr. Scott Stoll and his lovely wife, Kristen (whom I had the privilege to meet in PA 2 weeks ago!), has become more of a reality than ever. They have asked me to help them to write a cook book that is plant-focused, specifically targeting PA Dutch flavors. Since I have had experience in that department, having had seven years of reworking heirloom recipes to bless my husband who likes his cultural flavors, I am excited to be getting to share the finished versions with the general public!

It's a daring adventure for me, tho. I confess that the Lord needs to continually flood my soul with peace about this because sometimes I face opposition. You see, we Dutch people (and I suspect every other culture as well!) don't want people messing with our comfort zones. We like what we like and we don't want someone coming in and changing it. But...after 7 years (so far) of trial and error, with a bit of success sprinkled in to keep me filled with the courage to move forward, I have come up with recipes that my family likes. I think our family's taste buds have adapted over the years to not eating much dairy, sugar, salt, oil and meat but even my staunchly Dutch friends who eat lots of those ingredients seem to enjoy sticking their feet under my table and eating the dishes I prepare for them. My family and friends have been (mostly) willing and gracious taste-testers.

Veggie Sushi Rice Balls

It is my hope that in doing this cookbook, I can show my friends and family and
people in my culture just how fun, filling and varied it can be to eat a plant-focused diet. I hope to share my story of what it has benefited me in health restored and in dollars and cents. I would like to share hope with my readers that most of our American diseases can reversed and prevented by eating plants as primary food and animal as secondary/flavor foods AND that you don't really need to give up every cultural taste to do it.

Dr Stoll and his wife prayed about many things with me before we parted ways, but one thing in particular stands out as I write: that I would have TIME to write. :-) That is a good thing to ask God for because it seems He always keeps my calendar full of serving opportunities. I'm looking forward to time this winter to write.

Today, I was inspired by this recipe and so I made my version of it because I love veggie sushi, but I don't like the work that goes into making it! I drizzled it with Sesame Garlic Sauce from my favorite local grocery store, Wegmans, instead of the sauce in the recipe.

I ate it as my breakfast, part of a 10 day 'veggies for breakfast' challenge I am participating in on Face book. I'm planning to eat some raw and some cooked veggies for my 10 days of breakfasts. Yesterday, on day 1, I had steamed broccoli topped with avocado and salsa, a similar version to what I threw together recently at a Chili's restaurant:

I would never have thought of pairing those things together, but 'desperate times call for desperate measures' and I needed a plate of good-for-me food that day. I am used to ordering from the sides these days, because I do not eat meat much in restaurants and little dairy at all, and most entrees on a menu include one and often both of these items. It was fairly easy, actually, to put this plate together and now I can recreate it at home!

Here's to thanking God for the joy of eating plants, and here's to hoping I have many more people joining me in discovering the blessing in this ancient way of eating. Feel free to join my 'veggies for breakfast' challenge. This is day 2 and we plan to go thru 10 mornings. If you do, I'd love if you could drop me a line in the comments, and even a picture of your creations, if you care to.

Of Dr. Stoll and Potato Soup...

On Saturday morning, as I leisurely went about my morning, 

the Lord 'dropped' a web link into my lap for a meeting 

that was going on in Lancaster County, PA, 

a meeting that was a call for revival. 

I scanned the program for the day, 

as I listened to the praise part of the service 

 live streaming from youtube, and out of curiousity, 

I decided to stay to hear what this preacher was going to say

 in the health message that was on the program.

I was in for a treat! 

Dr. Stoll, whom I had never heard of before, 

spoke kindly but with conviction on the simplicity of God's plan 

for us to be well from a daily diet of primarily plants and secondarily animal foods. 

He spoke of our bodies being the temple of the Lord and 

how we are given a plan to bless that temple kindly.

 I was so excited. I have waited 7 years for a preacher to say these things

 to Anabaptist people! 

And the message came so kindly and so respectfully

 that I was just blown away by how 'easily' it was delivered.

If you care to, go to Dr. Stoll's website and find out more of what he teaches. 

He quoted some of my favorite doctors and shared what I've been 

learning and employing the past 7 years 

(falteringly so at times as I struggled with food addictions and the devil).

 I know this message to be true because I live it 

and appreciate the blessings that come from 

honoring the Lord in this way.

Everything about the way we live matters.

 Including our health. 

Let's face it, friends...

the Christian world is not very strong on turning away 

from gluttony. I can say this because 

I too need a pep talk on this. 

We live in a land that has become obsessed 

with food and we are now seeing an epidemic 

of the diseases of kings and queens. 

(read this wonderful article I came across last week. I was so blessed by it.) 

These diseases (heart disease, cancer, diabetes, autoimmune disorders, and others) 

can largely be prevented and they can often be reversed 

just by changing from the Standard American Diet to the simple diet plan 

that Daniel followed, and that God laid out in Genesis 

to Adam and Eve and to Noah.

I am happy to eat "peasant food" and I am happy with how 

deliciously peasant food can be cooked, 

especially when I am not captive to food addictions of 

salt, sugar, oil, and animal foods. 

I walk in freedom today,  thanks to God and to my sister 

who encouraged me in my struggle. 

And I realize that I can easily slip back into my old  

habits if I am not being vigilant.

I thought I'd close this blog post with a recipe for the soup

that I made yesterday. It was both delicious and filling, 

the perfect dish for a gray fall day.

Love and blessings,

Marcia

Aunt Cia's Potato Soup

(makes approximately 6 quarts)

Saute in water or a little olive oil:

2 large onions, diced

4 links Italian chicken sausage

(a Costco find)

6 smallish stalks celery, diced

When vegetables are crisp/tender,

stir in 4 or 6 cloves pressed garlic

and 6 med carrots, peeled and diced.

After sauteing the carrots for 5(ish) minutes,

add 6 large potatoes, peeled and diced,

1 quart vegetable or chicken broth/stock,

2 cups water, and 1 T sea salt.

While the soup is simmering,

cook and mash 2 large potatoes.

After the veggies are soft in the soup,

add mashed potatoes,

1 tsp black pepper

and 2 T dried parsley flakes.

Serve with fresh veggies,

garlic bread sticks (if you wish)

and seasonal fruit.

"...whatever you do,

whether you eat or drink,

do all to the glory of God."

(1 Cor. 10:31)

A young man quoted this Scripture 

during our Bible memory time

on Sunday morning. I thought it

was very fitting for what I had just

heard the day before.

From My Kitchen...

I love making meal type salads on warm, summer evenings when we just don't feel like eating hot meals. Tonite, this is gracing my table:

Cici's Tomato Cucumber Salad

6 medium sized ripe tomatoes, diced small

1/2 English cuke, shredded with a large hole grater

1 small red onion, finely diced

Stir together and chill. When ready to serve, add dressing, or 

serve dressing on the side. You can also add finely shredded red cabbage

to this recipe for extra veggie power if you like.

Dressing:

1 cup yogurt (I make my own soy yogurt so I can 'thin' down mayo dressings and use it for sour cream, baking, etc)

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 t salt

1/2 t lemon pepper

1 t Greek seasoning (I get mine from Penzy's spices)

1 T sugar or sweetener of choice

Whisk til smooth. Serve with cucumber salad dressing or any salad you wish, really.

With this meal, I served baked rice (done in the crockpot so I didn't heat up the house!):

3 cups brown rice

6 cups hot water

1 T olive oil

1 T salt

1 t black pepper

Bake on high in crockpot 3  hours or until soft. If baking in the oven, bake at 350* for 1 1/2 hours.

I also served baked chicken. Some of us had chicken shredded into our salad, and some had chicken on rice with a little cheese sprinkled on top, and one of us had rice, chicken and taco salad dressing (his all time favorite way to eat rice).

I hope you enjoy these simple recipes.

You can also take the salad recipe above, add cooked pasta of choice and some chicken and make it a real meal salad. I probably would also add black or kalamata olives, some green olives, and maybe even some artichokes if I was feeling extra 'greekish'.

From My Garden...

My children in the garden a few years ago.

I like to garden. I really do, but as time passes, and my responsibilities are greater, I find that my desire to garden has diminished. It is alot of hard work to raise your own food, and to keep the weeds down. The past few summers, our veggie garden has been sadly neglected, as sickness and busy schedules did not allow much time to devote to gardening. But I MISS it.

At least 10 years ago, I heard about 'no till' gardening from a book I picked up at the local library. I read it with interest and it has 'soaked and simmered' all these years as I've gardened. A few years ago, a friend recommended that I should watch the Back to Eden film, and I put that thought on the back burner but after the third and fourth mention of it over the years by others, I decided this spring I would watch it, especially after I watched this short clip and learned of Ruth Stout's gardening methods:

Ruth Stout's Garden

I was very intrigued. This makes alot of sense to me.

So from Ruth Stout's Garden, I went on to watch 

the Back to Eden film, twice! Once by myself,

and once with the whole family, 

and we are all inspired!

We decided to give it a try.

We are preparing part of our big

vegetable garden for next summer,

and planted just a little plot for some

fall vegetables for our table.

It's been alot of fun so far.

My dad gave us a huge stack of newspapers

that were in his office,

and we've been having fun 

'dumpster diving'

at a local Mennonite bulk food store

for cardboard boxes to lay down

as a weed barrier.

Building the soil through no till gardening

really makes alot of sense to me.

We decided to use what resources we have,

and since we live on a farm,

hay and straw are readily available,

that will be our main cover.

Perhaps we will use ground leaves 

when they are available in the fall.

 

I like to grow my

own food.

 I enjoy preserving

the harvest,

and serving

that food to 

my family

in the winter

months.

I like to know

where my

food comes 

from and

how it was grown.

Being sick, and extra busy for a few summers has helped me to reinforce

the knowledge that it is not a must to do this,

and it is not even possible at times

(hello! we do not live in Bible times or Victorian days

where servants were plentiful!)

But I do like it,

and I enjoy the thought

of maybe having a way

to build the soil and have less

work in the garden simultaneously.

I bought Ruth Stout's book, and hope to 

devour it soon, too.

Here is another video I came across on mulch gardening:

Deep Mulch Gardening

Happy Gardening,

and happy summer to all,

whether you garden or not!

Love and blessings,

Marcia

 

From My Kitchen...

I thought I'd add some homemaking touches to this blog, including recipes, gardening tips, etc from time to time, especially as I'm not doing much 'teaching writing' at this time.

A number of years ago as I faced multiple health issues that left me unable to take care of my home and family as well as I needed to, I went looking for answers. I know I've written about it on here before, but for the sake of a brief reason for why I cook the way I do, I summarize here again. I was first introduced to Hallelujah Acres, then to Dr Joel Fuhrman, then to his colleagues (Dr. John McDougall, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, T. Colin Campbell, and others) who share many similar recommendations for healing and for preventing many of the diseases Americans struggle with (did you know that heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc are all preventable?). I became fascinated with how quickly I felt better when I started eating more plants and less animal/oil/sugar. I am not a vegan and probably won't be one as long as I live with my husband and children (; but I do realize that Americans are very overdosed in these foods. VERY. So we have adjusted our diet to eat more plants (for thousands of years plants have been the staple of the diets in many countries) and use home grown animals for flavoring many of our dishes, with the exception of the occasional grilled burger, or meatloaf meal. And we are happy with it.

That's a brief summary of why my recipes reflect this style of eating, and you can always adjust them to suit your style better, if you wish.

I have heard the hype on soy, and have tossed it around this way and that way untie, I have come to a conclusion for my own kitchen. I believe that non-gmo, organic whole soy is not only safe, since Asians have eaten it for generations with very little disease but it is also high in protein and very nutritious as well. I do not eat soy that has been isolated (some tofu has a small amount of this, but we do not eat fake meats, protein powders, etc made with soy proteins), because any food that you strip and eat mega portions of an isolated ingredient of it is not good for you in the long run. Foods have been created to be eaten whole so that your body can use the different parts of it together. So we do eat some soy and the following recipe reflects that.

Aunt Cia's Cream

1 box (12ish oz) extra firm silken tofu

1 cup almond or soy milk

1/4 c sugar 

(or experiment with sugar/stevia combo)

1 T vanilla extract

8 oz soy cream cheese

2 T lemon juice

Blend in a Ninja or Vitamix type blender until smooth.

Use with fresh fruit, or for the filling for fruit pizza,

or as a side 'frosting' for zucchini or carrot cake.