Quiche Stuffing

Went to some friend's for post-Christmas fun and we made us quite the festive vegie spread - steamed broccoli, raw carrot slices, watercress and tomato salad, and then the blueberry granola cobbler for dessert. Our centerpiece entree was a fabulous quiche-like shepherd's pie, and four of us adults and 2 kids licked the pan clean! [OK, I admit making a pig of myself on that entree because I couldn't eat the carrots or cobbler - excuses, excuses, but it was good!] Unusual, filling, and herb tasty, much like the herby, bready flavor of Thanksgiving stuffing so we voted on calling it "Quiche Stuffing".

First, grease the pan and flour the bottom and sides with lentil (dahl) flour.

QUICHE STUFFING

"Bread" Crust
5 cups brown rice, cooked
2 1/2 - 3 cups lentil (dahl) flour
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup seasonings (mixed herbs - thyme, marjoram, basil)
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons crushed garlic
1/2 cup hot water (as needed)

Mix all of these ingredients to a ball, that is sticky but not gooey.

Vegie Filling
1 zucchini
3 cups chopped spinach
1 large onion sliced
1 cup dried tomatoes
1-2 cups mushrooms (for people without candida)

Layer vegies in crust and press down to compress.

Quiche Filling
6 small eggs
1 onion
2 teaspoons thyme or dill
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons crushed garlic

Blend these ingredients and immediately pour over the layered vegies.


Bake @ 180 Celsius or 320 Fahrenheit for 45 minutes. Bake at a little lower temperature than usual in order to cook the eggs so that they are still light and fluffy.

Black Bean (Carob) "Fudge"

The "natural" sweeteners are the coconut oil, cinnamon and of course any fruit and nuts. Because of fruit sugar though, the tasty and very suitable fruit is whole fresh or frozen cranberries. Walnuts complement this dessert well.

Black Bean "Fudge"

3 cups black beans, cooked
1 1/2 cups black bean broth
(beans and broth must be measured together)
1/2 cup coconut oil
1 rounded tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla (non-alcoholic)
1 1/2 teaspoon butter flavor (non-alcoholic)
2/3 cup whole fresh cranberries - garnish
2/3 cup walnut pieces (dust-free) - garnish

Blend all ingredients except fruit and nuts in a high-speed blender until creamy. Liquid may need adjusting, but while creamy "fudge" is good, pudding-like "fudge" doesn't hold its shape so careful on the extra liquids.



Finding flavorings without alcohol and corn-syrup is a little bit difficult, but Frontier and The Spicery Shoppe do have these options, just read the labels carefully for each flavoring to make sure. Supposedly using glycerin instead of corn syrup or other sweeteners is OK for people with candida; however, I seem to react a bit and since glycerin is yet another "processed" product, rarely using it and with discretion is what I recommend.


Here's another batch of my fudge but with carob - Black Bean Carob "Fudge". I used a huge heaping tablespoon of unsweetened (or raw) carob powder. Last time I got a little too much liquid in my "fudge" so this time I tamped the beans frequently in the blender to make them smooth and more solid. Less water and the carob made them more "fudgy" looking. Better flavor too, but although carob has a low glycemic count, it does add in unnecessary glycemic points, so stop after 3 or 4 pieces of "fudge"! Whoever heard of eating 3 or 4 pieces of regular fudge, so this is a great treat!




And here's the secret in making beautiful fudge. Line a pan with plastic wrap and throw a bunch of walnuts in the bottom, which will be the top when turned out of the pan. Spoon in some fudge, drop cranberries on top and a few walnuts as a layer and spoon in more fudge and press in cranberries and walnuts. When slicing the "fudge", the appearance will be FESTIVE!

Christmas Health Nectar

With Christmas approaching and thoughts of spiced drinks, I thought I could create something redolent of the holidays. Korea has a wealth of "health" tonics, herbs, twigs, and miscellany in their traditional medicines markets, and I even noticed a small package of spices in a local market. The package was intended for stuffing and cooking a chicken in Korea's fabulously popular dish 삼계탕 (samgyetang). The package had a handful of jujubes, a cinnamon stick, a root called hyanggi by the cashier (but which translates simply as perfume or scent) and then some other unidentifiable smaller twigs, seeds and roots. This looked doable for a Christmas drink, but I did add about 10 cloves, a few more jujubes, and a couple of anise stars.

Slow-cooked overnight in my crock pot, the next morning the house smelled of Christmas seasonal scents and the crockpot was full of a delightful Christmas drink. The flavors were wonderfully blended (but then how can a person go wrong with cinnamon?!) At a friend's I had made a cinnamon cake, and the drink and slice of cinnamon cake to start my morning was very much like a person enjoying a morning coffee with a donut ... except mine tasted so much better (not biased of course :)and was healthy to boot!



The Cinnamon Cake recipe was another attempt to try something "special" so I don't remember the measurements, but suffice it to say that the ingredients were: almond flour, coconut oil, eggs, heavy on the ground cinnamon, ground cloves, sea salt, and maybe that was it. I've got to work this recipe out because it deserves being repeated.



A few days later I was walking through a traditional medicines market and saw a huge bag of cinnamon sticks for ₩3,000 and imagined all the delightful spiced drinks I could have, especially since cinnamon is recognized as a top fighter against rampant bacteria. Yeah! I bought a bag and came home to make me another spiced drink to liven up a couple more cold winter nights. The ingredients were a bit different but I think I liked it a little better although it didn't have the same thick coffee-reminiscent texture. The ingredients: several cinnamon sticks, a couple handfuls of jujubes, a ginseng root, whole cloves, a star anise. Very smooth and soothing on the mucus membranes (although I question that feeling against the actual effect as cinnamon, while a fierce battler against candida, can be hard on the stomach lining).

Apricot Almond Muffins "Gluten-free"

Friends were talking about Dunkin' Donuts, sweets and eating healthy, and how healthy choices are few when eating out, and I was certainly agreeing that people certainly can't have healthy choices at such high-calorie, low food value dessert joints like Dunkin' Donuts. [I guess I should qualify this statement as everyone seems to have a different opinion about what is "healthy". "Healthy" is now a VERY relative term!] The talk at some point turned to getting some donuts or muffins for a 'treat' breakfast, but of course since I was going to be in the kitchen making breakfast for me anyway, why not also make some breakfast muffins for all of us?!

So the next morning I whipped together some oatmeal muffins for my friends and plunged half of a thawing apricot in the middle of each and baked them (pictured in the background). For me I had to get a bit creative, and so dumped some ingredients in a bowl and whipped them up. Because apricots are lower glycemic than other fruits and also high in fiber, I figured I could eat a total of a half of an apricot divided among my mini-muffins and not "feed" the candida bacteria/fungus in my body too much. The muffins turned out ultra cute and the apricots really gave them a delightful flavor. Wow, I wish I could remember the exact recipe but it's something like the following (and yes, since I was traveling, I broke down again and mixed eggs in - they were the leavening):

Apricot Almond Muffins

1 cup almond flour
1 cup lentil or garbanzo flour*
2 eggs
3 tablespoons coconut oil
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
water as needed

* I think garbanzo flour is lower on the glycemic count and would be the better alternative.

Leftover "Bibimbap"

Bibimbap [here's a link to a wide variety of bibimbap in Korea] is a mixed rice and vegies meal much loved by the Koreans ... and much loved by myself. However, since I'm ultra sensitive to the seasonings and sauces rich in sesame seed oil, fermented bean paste, hot pepper sauce and vinegar and of course sensitive to the many flavorings in the 영양분, literally translated "nutrition powder" but has all kinds of hidden secrets disguised, I absolutely can't eat Korean food ... or is it coincidence, almost no food that contains citric acid and/or MSG, and that pretty much includes everything (in both Korea and the US) processed on supermarket shelves and packaged in the freezers.

And btw, I've had many discussions with Koreans about what's in the 영양분 and say there must be citric acid and/or MSG in it because I hugely react to both and I hugely react to the seasoning salt. Koreans get so offended when I suggest that their "nutrition powder" - how could it be anything but good "nutrition"? - be non-healthful and that it might contain MSG, especially when there was a craze across Korea a few short years ago following a news broadcast on the dangers of MSG and then with everyone going hypo about it. Even for a time, restaurants to ease their clienteles' minds posted in their windows "No MSG served here". Even though I've tried to tell the Koreans in my discussions that I've located a list of no less than 25 alternative named additives that are simply put just monosodium glutamate with a disguised name, hidden by US marketing strategies, but, there's no reasoning when people have a cherished belief system and Koreans staunchly stick with theirs that "there is NO MSG in their 'nutrition powder'".

For an easy referencing list of disguised MSG additives, I've found a well-researched site on the known-to-be toxic additive. Debbie Angelsey has done intensive research on MSG as her 19-year-old son started having strange and violent reactions to foods. Here's her list link of alternative names for MSG, but her whole web site it dedicated to research on the toxin. Not surprisingly and according to her research (my research strongly points to the same conclusions) MSG is an excitatory neurotransmitter that can affect people with ADD/ADHD, migraine headaches, Parkinson's, fibromyalgia, autism, brain fog and many others. I would even dare to include the gamut of autoimmune diseases as being radically affected by the excitatory neurotransmitter.

Anyway, since I really like bibimbap and it's such an easy meal to eat and easy to put together - just add vegies to rice and dump a sauce on top - making a vegan, candida bibimbap is "easy as pie" ... or should I saw "easy as bibimbap"!


My ingredients are black rice (which I've found I don't digest well at all), chopped celery with leaves, leftover garbanzo bean "mashed potatoes" (hm, I'll have to post a recipe for that later. It's very tasty!) and whole frozen cranberries. Basically just about any vegie can be added to a base of rice and complementary sauce to make the stir-together dish sticky and well flavored.

Vegie Stew

There's nothing like a hearty stew on a cold winter day. Every day I try to walk outside for a while to improve the circulation and to keep my vitamin D up. [Vitamina D2 is through dairy foods which I don't eat so am very deficient in that aspect of vitamin D so I absolutely must keep my vitamin D3, from sunshine, as high as possible otherwise I'll have bone troubles again, be unable to utilize calcium and a whole host of other problems related to vitamin D deficiency. More precisely and doctors should inform ALL their patients this, autoimmune difficulties are directly linked to vitamin D deficiency and I'm battling those probs ... but now within the normal range of vitamin D and the symptoms are greatly reduced!] Anyway, after walking in the cold I really need a body warmer and something nutritious and easy to digest in the latter hours of the day. So, vegie stew with leftover brown rice.


The ingredients are pretty easy, no measuring because a soup can't go wrong as long as the vegies taste good together and the seasonings aren't too heavy or too light. So my hearty stew consists of lightly sauteed onions and garlic, then sliced zucchini, broccoli, and 1/3 of a carrot for color - I'm also experimenting with adding a little food higher on the glycemic count but also rich in vitamin A, which I'm still very deficient in as those foods are considered glycemically off limits. Add leftover brown rice at some point so the grains can get plumper and filled with the flavors of the vegies. After the harder vegies had cooked down quite a bit, I added in fresh spinach to just lightly cook. The seasonings were added about this time too - sea salt, thyme, parsley and basil.

Stir-fry Thanksgiving "Stuffing"

Ha! Found the stir-fry pictures of my Thanksgiving stuffing. Most of my friends enjoyed it but a couple were expecting something more "bready" and one of the kids absolutely hated the whole nearly raw cranberries and out-right said the taste was disgusting! Hahaha! The honesty of kids :0 ... but I have to say if I tried to feed this as "stuffing" to my more open-minded friends who didn't know why I'm eating the way I am, they probably would have been a little less tolerant to the lack of sweetness (wow, cranberries can be very tart!) and lack of breading. I think to stave off expectations, just calling it a cranberry vegie stir-fry would make it a much more popular dish. Anyway, I quite like the earthly flavors and don't miss the breadiness at all. Well, if something made you sick every time you tried it no matter that you loved the flavor, you would learn pretty quick to dislike it too ... if not, wow, I'd say an addiction would need to be addressed.

So, to make the "stuffing", slow saute a pile of onions and celery, some garlic too if you like. Then add in your chopped vegies like zucchini, asparagus or even broccoli and a few cauliflower florets. I've been on this ultra-strict candida diet for a year now, and wow do I feel better and am almost pain-free, so I thought I could add just a short couple of inches of a carrot for color. That would only be less than half an inch if the stir-fry was divided into 4 servings, maybe manageable I think at this point. Salt and seasoning was added at some point and of course a lot of garden herbs, although I can't remember which ones, parsley, basil and marjoram for sure though.

After the vegies slow-cooked down, I turned off the heat and threw on a bunch of washed frozen whole cranberries and a couple big handfuls of walnuts, the walnuts that I'd pre-washed and put through the dehydrator. I didn't want them to cook so didn't stir them in until the "stuffing" had cooled down a bit.


OK, so this isn't exactly bread stuffing, but with a lot of garden herbs added to the base of onions and celery, the taste of stuffing is definitely appreciable. Yum with Garbanzo Bean "Mashed Potatoes" and slices of leftover vegan "turkey"!

And here's a picture of a later batch made around New Year's (backposting 'cuz the pict turned out so well, with flavor to match).

Systemic Candida Thanksgiving "Turkey"

Somewhere I read that turkey was a food that should be meticulously avoided as it's loaded with more hormones than chicken and therefore is more inflammatory. Doesn't sound good to me, but all meats, due to how they are raised (unless arguably home raised), really should be avoided because of their bacteria content that climbs quickly once they are killed, and industrial processing with all it's sterilizing chemicals to reduce the bacteria load play horrendous havoc on the body. But having that turkey or chicken to carve during the holiday does give a special festive feel to the day.

And so, when diddling around on the internet I came across a turkey-less turkey and a hamless-ham! Bryanna, author of 9 vegan cookbooks, has an awesome website with some recipes and many pictures of foods she has prepared. I seriously drooooool on her website and it was here that I was introduced to the brand Field Roast Grain Meat. Field Roast makes 32 different vegan products, from vegan sausages to holiday hams, and for a quick video on how they make the products take a look here. Let me clear my throat here though, I am certainly not recommending the Field Roast products to people with candida or any auto-immune diseases because the products are made of heavy concentrations of wheat, and therefore are highly inflammatory. That said, I figured a person can fiddle around with the ingredients and attempt something with non-gluten grains. So I tried. The result was dry and lacking a definitive flavor especially when cold. However, my little vegan "turkey" held together - surprising since the ingredients were non-glutinous - and looked like a meat product, so now I just need to adjust the seasonings and finished moisture content ... am thinking on that.

The video link above also showed "stuffed ham" with the stuffing being butternut squash, apples and mushrooms, three things that people with systemic candida must avoid [the squash and apples are too glycemic and the mushrooms are another fungus, yikes!] Hmmm, but I think a stuffing would be nice with cranberries, a small amount of apple and tons of onions ... of course only after I figure out the main "meat" ingredients.


Anyway, my little "turkey" was made principally of mashed garbanzo beans, lentil flour and then onions, seasonings and what-not. I saw somewhere online an inventive person who used a crockpot to slow-cook the "turkey" or "ham" into the formed shape. The "meat" had been wrapped in a hemp cloth, tied with string and then submerged in water or a broth to slow-cook for several hours. I didn't have a hemp cloth so used a small hand towel, but because I didn't want the thick, gooey, shapeless mess to stick to the towel while cooking, I laid a pile of cabbage leaves on the towel and then spooned the goop onto the leaves and then wrapped and tied the unwieldly shape into the semblance of a blob-form ... messiness and trickiness together. My crock pot iss small so I ended up cramming the lumpy log, which had been tied with thread, into the crockpot and, not bad, when I pulled it out about 8 hours later, it had cooked into the crammed shape. Kind of turkey-ish-looking in my opinion!

At a friend's house I covered it with foil and baked it for an hour or so to brown the top, and it actually looked pretty even more turkey-like when I pulled it out of the oven. It even tasted pretty good with some of my vegan "breadless breading" made with zucchini squash [the only squash people with systemic candida should have - very low glycemic and starch counts], celery, asparagus, onions and garlic, lots of herbs, whole cranberries and walnuts. Hmm, am surprised I don't have a picture because it turned out beautiful and then was tasty on top of that!


My little vegan "turkey" was great the next morning when I prepared a big "normal" thanksgiving breakfast for my friends. I had "turkey hash", just broken up pieces of the vegan "turkey" with one of my dressings on top and scrambled eggs loaded with shredded sesame leaves and cubed tomatoes! I rarely eat eggs but when traveling, and since I don't seem to react, I sometimes break down and eat some for convenience. I do realize that eggs are not healthy and that according to Carolee Bateson-Koch, DC, ND, in her book Allergies, Disease in Disguise: How to Heal Your Allergic Condition Permanently and Naturally, 90% of the population [is this only American population where the research was conducted? not sure] is allergic to eggs but do not know it. Anyway, the meal was wonderful change from my more mundane vegie and bean [garbanzo, lentil and black bean only] fare.


The next day I even sliced some "turkey" up and had "turkey roast" on my noon salad. I was really impressed with the consistency and so there is certainly hope for more (and tastier) vegan "turkey" in my future menu.

Stuffed Squash

This is not a zucchini and it's certainly not a yellow squash, but it's something of a mix. While the person with candida can eat the zucchini but not the yellow, summer or winter squashes, I wondered if it is possible to eat this one. I'd say not because it caused some phlegm afterwards and was certainly sweeter tasting like the yellow squash, so must be higher on the glycemic chart. Anyway, this dish is suitable for the zucchini although perhaps not as colorfully green and the size is much longer. Ah well ... still would be good.


To keep the colors bright, in the fry pan I lightly sauteed onions and garlic and then added zucchini, the tiniest amount of the high glycemic carrot, grain of choice, and seasonings (basil, marjoram, thyme and salt). After turning off the heat whole frozen cranberries were stirred in.

While making the stuffing, I put the hollowed out "zucchini" in my toaster oven with a little coconut oil in it and a shake of salt. When it was getting tender, I stuffed the squash and for 8-10 more minutes baked it in the toaster oven. For the new year, I plan to get a real oven. The toaster oven cooks so slowly and is recommended to only be used for a maximum of 15 minutes before cooling it down. But not complaining, the dish turned out fine.

Chestnuts & Brown Rice

I don't know the glycemic load of chestnuts but I can imagine them being somewhat high. They turn sweet when cooked and that tells me the sweetness is from cooked starch. So that's a caution against indulgence. That said, I sometimes pass chestnuts sellers on the side of the road. There are 2 main kinds of chestnut stalls. The most common kind of chestnut sellers roast the nuts over flaming charcoal briquets while the infrequent seller lets the customer choose whether they want the nuts heated in the hot pebble vats or to buy them raw. Raw is the only option for me as the charcoal singes the starch and also flavors the nut with smoke, and both blackened starch and smoke need to avoided as they feed the bacteria. However, I read somewhere that eating chestnuts raw, even though they are rich in vitamin C and heating destroys that vitamin C, causes some kind of intestinal problems (sorry, can't remember the specifics). So I bought a bag of freshly shaved chestnuts from my favorite chestnut stall around the corner, and chopped them up to make a very tasty Thanksgiving-like rice. I certainly wouldn't do this very often but eaten this once and in moderation with lots of fresh vegies to counterbalance the heavier glycemic load is acceptable for me today, Thanksgiving! What a nice treat!


Wow, does rice ever taste good with chestnuts mixed in. I really liked wrapping spoonfuls of rice in lettuce and other leaves and just enjoying the natural sweet flavor complementing the nutty brown rice flavor. I'm very much inclined to think that chestnuts and brown rice together make a complete protein, so with a big plate of leaves on the side, I've just had my Thanksgiving feast. [I'll have the big vegan, low-glycemic feed this weekend with friends ... oh yum and fun!]

Creamy Cherry Yogurt Dip

Tonight I wanted something red in my meal ... I'm not sure why but red is a vibrant, appealing color to complement the huge amounts of green I eat, so tonight my eyes landed on the tart cherry concentrate (100% tart cherry) little used in my fridge and I figured I could add that to a cashew base and get a pink dressing. While blending it, I added a not-so-very-smart shake of coriander for a complementary flavor; however, the coriander powder muted the color. Oops! Hmm, so then I remembered some fresh frozen cranberries - even lower glycemic than tart cherries - so added a handful to the blender. Wow, the cranberries left flecks of candy cane color and did color the dressing a soft pink (the picture unfortunately doesn't pick up on that color ... or the flavor, but it was very smooth and subtly sweet, very much like a yogurt in both flavor and consistency!)

Creamy Cherry Yogurt Dip

2/3 cup cashews (soaked 1 hour, soak water tossed)
1 1/2 cups water
3-4 teaspoons tart cherry concentrate (100% cherry)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 shake coriander
1 handful frozen/fresh cranberries

When it was fresh, it was somewhat pourable but after several minutes it had begun to thicken and set. Ah, what a wonderful yogurty dressing. So for the main entree of black beans and adlay/Job's tears, I dolloped a big spoonful on the beans and grain, mixed salad in to, and had a wonderful warm meal. Very wholesome and VERY tasty!

Gluten-free, Sugar-free Toaster Oven Flatbread

Making gluten-free, sugar-free, yeast/leavening-free flatbread is quite easy with a food processor. But expecting chappati-like or pita-bread-like flatbread is unreasonable with this recipe as it's a pourable batter, and not a roll-out dough. Hmmm, now I wonder if it's possible to pour out pancakes on greased and floured pizza sheets and bake them into tortilla breads ... must give this a try.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups (guessing) garbanzo bean flour
1/2 a long zucchini (chunked)
1 medium-to-large onion (chunked)
3-4 cloves garlic
2-3 handfuls of fresh spinach/leaks/turnip greens ...
1-2 tablespoons lemon
4-6 tablespoons mixed herbs (thyme, marjoram, basil, parsley)
1 teaspoon tarragon or savory (optional)
3 tablespoons olive oil and/or coconut oil
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1/2 - 1 teaspoon turmeric (optional)
1-2 teaspoons rosemary (sprinkling on top)
1-2 teaspoons thyme (sprinkling on top)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (sprinkling on top)

Step 1: In food processor, chunk up and blend to a liquid the zucchini, onion, garlic and fresh spinach greens. [Using celery, green onion, kale, leaks, broccoli, or other greens are options.] Add the lemon and oil(s), and this will be the liquid base for the bread. In fact, this wet mixture composes 50-55% of the ingredient.


Step 2: Add in the seasonings and be generous. Combine seasonings and vary the ones offered here. I've made spicy North African style flatbreads before, and apple-cranberry with sunflower seed breads seasoned with coriander (not my favorite but an interesting variety). Anyway, when ad libbing on the seasonings and spices, consider how the outcome will taste. Two favorites for mixing are rosemary and thyme.


Step 3: Eyeballing the amount of liquid in the food processor, add the equivalent or slightly less of garbanzo bean flour. Blend till smooth.
Step 4: With solid coconut oil lightly grease the pan and sides, and then completely dust the greased areas with bean flour. Tap off excess flour into the batter and whizz the flour to mix.


Step 5: Pour the batter into the pan and smooth it out evenly. On top of the batter dust with, liberally if you wish, rosemary, thyme and sea salt.


Step 6. Pop into the toaster oven and time bake for 13 minutes on 250F. Let the toaster oven cool 5 minutes or so and then bake at 250F on 13 minutes timed setting. Rotating the pan the last 5 minutes might be necessary for even baking.
Step 7: Serve hot or cool. As there is no yeast whatsoever in this bread, serving hot and not fearing yeast infection is a joyful plus.

Garbanzo Broth Stir-fry

Made a huge batch of garbanzo beans for the next two days. They are wonderfully versatile and transportable, and the next couple of days I'll be too busy to spend much time in the kitchen, so hurray for high energy, nutritious beans that are low on the glycemic count and can be easily prepared in large quantities.

As can be seen by the picture, I have whole beans left for throwing in tossed salads, a hummus (with a slight variation of flavor this is garbanzo bean "mashed potatoes") for spreading on brown rice crackers I get locally at a health food store, and some of the excess broth went into the making of this colorful stir-fry.

Garbanzo Broth Stir-fry

1 1/2 cups garbanzo bean broth
1 tablespoon olive or coconut oil
1/2 zucchini (sliced into half-moons)
1 medium onion (sliced)
1-2 cloves garlic (sliced or minced)
2/3 cups cherry tomatoes (quartered)
1 bunch greens (any of choice)
1 tablespoon lemon juice (optional)
sea salt

Step 1: In fry pan, add garbanzo bean broth, oil, zucchini, onions and garlic and cook until getting tender.
Step 2: Add the fresh greens and tomatoes and stir them in. Do not overcook.
Step 3: Remmove from heat and add lemon juice and salt to taste.

Lentils & Millet w/ Mint Sunflower-seed Dressing

Staple Grains & Globalization

Unfortunately, for a person with candida, the staple grains of North America (wheat, corn, oats, rye and even barley) cause reactions. They are glutinous (except corn) and stick to the GI track, and in so doing, feed the candida bacteria that have fastened themselves there, and so avoiding glutinous grains is a must for people with candida and autoimmune diseases. In Korea with rice as a staple, one would think that eating out would be easy and enjoying noodles wouldn't be a problem. However, white rice is served in restaurants but it is high starch, highly glycemic and therefore highly inflammatory on both counts. Although not served in restaurants, the expensive brown rice can easily be purchased in large supermarkets, but the nuttiness of the grain is well-worth the extra expense. As for noodles, whether they are rice or buckwheat noodles, the affects of western expansionism and globalization in apparent in the first ingredient on the package -- "wheat" -- and usually to the amount of 60-70%, and yet, they can still be labeled as 'rice noodles' and 'buckwheat noodles' because they were traditionally labeled so and people just go on expecting those ingredients to be central to the product. Ahhhh, the deceptions of marketing on the psyche of people ... and the expectations of people reinforcing that mis-marketing.

Cereal grains that I can get here in Korea and that are considered non-glutinous (although glycemic count does fluctuate quite a bit) are: brown rice, millet, buckwheat (in the Russian market), sorghum, and 율무 job's tears.

Tonight millet felt like the happy option. I don't eat millet much as it has a higher glycemic count than other grains, but in many parts of Asia and Africa it is an essential part of the meal. Even in the US among health circles it is "marketed" as a woman's grain, as it somehow is supposed to nurture the woman's fluctuating hormones or something like that.

Anyway, I made millet to be topped by a rich North African spiced lentil gravy with a huge tossed salad and a complementary sunflower-seed dressing with hints of mint. The dressing actually reminded me of sour cream once the dressing and lentil gravy started mixing with one another.

For making the lentil gravy, just substitute lentils for the millet in the October 26 posting on "North African Millet Stew". Also, the only vegies I added to the lentils were a large onion sliced long and 5-6 pieces of home-dried tomato slices for adding just a bit of extra flavor. I dropped the vegies in the last 10-15 minutes because I didn't want them to overcook and lose all their vitamins.

Mint Sunflower-seed Dressing

3/4 cup sunflower seeds (soaked 1 hour and soak water tossed)
1/2 cup cooked millet
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
1/4 cup olive oil
1 small onion
2-3 cloves garlic
1 lemon juiced (some zest would be good, I think)
1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons basil
1-2 teaspoons marjoram

Whizz all ingredients in the blender to make a thick but pourable sauce/dressing. This recipe works really well as a sour cream substitute. Serve with green onion rings.

Black Rice & Buckwheat Waffles

Eating freshly cooked, well-hydrated beans and rice with vegies is very supportive and rejuvenating to tired, overworked adrenals glands, but life with baked breads, fried breads, toasted breads, and other breads is sooo much easier for traveling ... but oh so hard on the compromised digestive tract not to mention the adrenals. Sigh. On weekends, I like to travel WITHOUT of course carrying heavy, somewhat messy lunch boxes, and especially ones that need refrigeration. So I thought I'd whip up something exotic for a little weekend getaway -- something bready and not requiring constant refrigeration, also something easy and light to travel with, but something still nutritious, filling and non-glutinous.



Again for this recipe I blend my own whole grains into flour just prior to making the waffles in order to have maximum health effects of whole food nutrition that's been "processed".

Black Rice & Buckwheat Waffles
1 1/2 cups black (or wild) rice
1 cup buckwheat
4-5 tablespoon flaxseed
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 cup almonds (soaked 6-12 hours, discard soak water)
3 tablespoons coconut oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla (alcohol free and w/o corn syrup)
1 teaspoon sea salt
water as needed

Step 1: In the BlendTec whizz the dry ingredients into a flour (black rice, buckwheat, flaxseed, cinnamon, cloves and sea salt).
Step 2: Add in the wet ingredients (water, drained almonds, coconut oil and vanilla) and whizz to a thick but pourable batter. You will need to adjust the water as this recipe (as always) is by eye-ball measurements.
Step 3: Pour the batter into a lightly oiled hot waffle griddle. In the picture above the small square dish in the lower right hand corner contains coconut oil and a paper towel for whisking the oil lightly onto the griddle - works excellently.
Step 4: Cook the waffles till done. I needed to flip the waffles over to cook the tops better as they are a heavier batter than light wheat waffles with leavening. Without the (chemical) leavening the waffles will be more substantial but also will take more time to cook, about 15 minutes per waffle. When in my mom's kitchen and cooking for four, I pull out three waffle griddles and keep them going! What a set-up but no such luxury in my rinky-dink kitchen.

Breakfast, Lunch and Supper

Why do waffles have to be culturally limited to breakfast? Since these waffles and some flatbread I make with garbanzo flour are my only "breads", I eat them indiscriminately and for any meal. As yet I'm not eating fruit (too high of a glycemic count), so eating the traditional breakfast waffle without fruit or syrup topping is just out of the question. Sometimes I mix up some nuts (always pre-soaked), hempseed, coconut oil, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and coriander mixed with a quarter of an apple and use that as the topping!

Lunch can be a sandwich between the waffle "breads". Here I've "buttered" my waffles with a little coconut oil and plopped in a large wad of sprouts, which need to be washed VERY well - bacteria and e.coli lurk in poorly washed sprouts! Top with a tomato slice or two, and a nut or seed dressing. After this picture was taken I remembered a sunflower seed and millet dressing I made yesterday. Wow, it brought out the fresh sprouts and complemented both in appearance and in taste the buckwheaty flavor.


For supper waffles can make scoops for hummus and cucumber salads and other Indian dishes. I eat vegies at about every meal so why can't waffles be a lunch or supper food too?

Parkinson's Disease and the Candida Diet

Last summer I went home for 5 weeks of R&R, and because of this candida problem, my mom can't cook for me so I kicked her out of the kitchen and told her to take a 5 week rest. She needs it because she's always trying to cook special for my younger brother who has major food allergies and we're convinced, candida too, and then of course juggle some of my dad's Parkison's disease needs.

Anyway, while I was home, I basically put everyone on my diet, of course cooking one or two dishes every meal I couldn't have because my foods must be extremely low on the glycemic count. However, almost everything I prepared was garden-fresh or whole foods, not processed foods. They ate lots of greens filled with toxin-removing chlorophyll, energy-rich beans, a wide variety of gluten-free grains and seeds, very little corn, almost no processed foods but a rare treat of gluten-free spaghetti was ok, and tons and tons of almonds and walnuts [pecans for my bro because of his allergies to walnuts].

The amazing happened! After 2 1/2 weeks I noticed that my dad's arms and shoulders weren't shaking as he was walking around the house! I commented to my mom and she said dad had been commenting to her on that for the past 3-4 days! My dad was even starting to smile again and the twinkle that had gotten wiped out of his eyes about 5+ years ago was coming back! He was cracking jokes, and reciting poems he learned in grade school [never did that before, but with what a clear memory!] Such an amazing change!

Wow, wow, wow, wow! I had read in books that people with Parkinson's should be dairy-free and gluten-free, and the results was amazing! Mom and dad were already dairy-free, but they ate gluten. They also ate out quite a bit, and my dad often commented that he didn't feel good when eating out, especially at Asian restaurants [vinegar? soy sauce? MSG? fermented things and of course MSG affect autoimmune patients].

Since I had started the cooking, clean nuts were always on the table and for snacking, and dad ate a lot of them - great, because people with Parkinson's need the protein and the natural oils. Also, dad was eating regularly. People with Parkinson's have an imbalance of serotonin and dopamine, and one of those hormones tells the person when to eat, but this doesn't function properly with Parkinson's so blood sugars are falling and the person feels badly but still doesn't recognize that he/she is hungry. Because of my candida and my food is so low caloria, I need to eat 3 times a day. So 3 times a day, I would call dad to come eat with me. He didn't want to but I like presentation and he liked being spoiled at the table, so he would come, and eat, and sometimes he would eat a lot! And afterwards, he would feel be smiling and seem much more relaxed.

Also, because Parkinson's people need protein to replace the energy being lost with their incessant tremors, nuts, spirulina, beans, hemp seed, are really recommended to boost their energy levels. We had beans almost every day - beans that I couldn't have because of their glycemic level but beans nevertheless are necessary for dad. Fava beans and asparagus, I've read somewhere, actually are very good for boosting dopamine naturally. We served a lot of them!

Obviously food is affecting people positively or negatively with Parkinson's. From my readings and from my 5 weeks of cooking for my family (and loving to cook for my dad), the basic candida diet with of course higher allowances for glycemic counts in food is a very good diet for people with Parkinson's.

So, my suggestions for Parkinsons' patients are:

(0) Be vegetarian
(1) Be dairy-free
(2) Be gluten-free
(3) Use little soy and corn (best to be soy and corn-free -- both are high GMO foods)
(4) Eat lots of greens for their chlorphyll effect
(5) Eat lots of protein-rich almonds [also high in calcium and low in carbs] and walnuts - these are the cleaner nuts, but the nuts need to be washed free of dust, mold and as many toxins as possible
(6) Eat 3 balanced meals a day
(7) Eliminate processed foods and sugars (honey, maple syrup and blackstrap molasses are OK in moderation; they do have some nutritional value; agave nectar is extremely high in fructose, higher even than corn syrup, and should be absolutely avoided)
(8) Skip the sugary or fermented condiments - use fresh squeezed lemon juice instead of vinegar; make seed dressings instead of mayonnaise or mustard; simplify your taste buds and appreciate the rich flavors of fresh fruits and vegies
(9) Avoid fried foods and "harmful" oils - better oils are olive, coconut, flax, and perhaps grapeseed
(10) Indulge in other vegetarian high-protein foods like hemp seeds (4 tablespoon for complete protein), spirulina (1 tablespoon for a complete protein), chlorella, and others.

Grose Mold in the Pots

Two days ago I said I was experiencing weird neuropathies again, well, I think I figured out why! Ugh! I went to make some garbanzo beans in my crock pot and noticed a beautiful, filigree mold growing from the bottom of the crock pot. I was HORRIFIED! After every use, I let it soak a few hours and scruuuub it, but the stains have accumulated over time. Well, it's terracotta so somewhat porous ... I just figured with all my scrubbing that it would be OK. Not! I grabbed that baby up, poured bleach into it and let it soak in bleach-water for 2 days, and what a beautiful pot emerged, one without any stains! I had linked my neuropathy to when I ate the previous batch of beans made 3 days before, but didn't link the pot to the problem. In the next few days, I'm going to soak ALL my plastic container lunch boxes, even the glass ones, all of my silverware and cooking ware ... allll of my cooking stuff in bleach water.

At my parents' home, we always put a couple of squirts of bleach in the dishwater to minimize on bacteria because my younger brother has had severe dietary sensitivites for about 17 years. For years no one has been able to understand any kind of diagnosis for him, and we have all been inclined to believe it's one of the multiple new kinds of autoimmune diseases popping up so fast that doctors can't make diagnosis.

Both my brother's and my symptoms have been oddly similar [soy sauces messed both of us from the beginning, then peppers - bell peppers for him causing near anaphalactic shock and hot peppers for me with the skin in the tooth ridges sloughing off after pepper contact] yet uniquely different [I've been much more sensitive to sugars and foods on the higher glycemic index]. I don't know much about his early months with the problem because, as I lived here in Korea, no one wanted me to worry, but I do know that we both experienced a steady increasing of foods that bothered us and that we have just had to subsequently eliminate from our diets in order to feel somewhat decent. I don't have the acute food allergies or anaphalactic shock that he has, but when I got sick I immediately hit the internet and went to doctors to find the problem so that I could address it in its early stages and prevent the acuteness of my brother's "disease". Last year about Thanksgiving time I finally knew I had systemic candida because I decided to eat what I wanted one weekend. Ohhh, I was sooo sick afterwards, but that just clenched it: it was directly food related and nothing else! And the ultra strict candida diet made the pain and symptoms go away!

From that weekend, I could identify my problem and so how to eat accordingly. Since then, it's been uphill. I went to my parents' place for an extended winter break and told my brother that I had finally figured out his problem, too. He didn't believe me because why could I figure it out when doctors couldn't? After two weeks of cooking for me and telling him he could eat that food I prepared (he is ULTRA careful because of anaphalactic shock), he started to believe me. He was afraid of cumin, turmeric, cardamom and fennel, but I checked them out on the internet - they are anti-inflammatories and are NOT in the pepper family. He's allergic to pumpkin too, the pumpkin family and perhaps a few squash. I introduced spaghetti squash, a very low-starch squash so I can eat it, and we confirmed it is not any cousin of the pumpkin family so he cautiously tried it. What a tasty and versatile squash! It has since become one of his favorites! Wow, so my getting systemic candida has helped him better deal with a very restrictive diet, and also, now if he has a question on a certain food, he can search out whether or not that food is acceptable for the candida diet, of course also considering his acute allergies to certain plants.

But once I figured out that I had systemic candida, I knew that that was what my brother had too. Everyone experiences some differences in their candida symptoms and, from my readings, over time if left unchecked the bacteria wrecks havoc on the body and somehow DNA gets rewritten so that cells start attacking the host body, thus, an autoimmune disease. This is why I'm so fanatical about following the strict candida diet. I don't want to be forever compromised in some way like my brother who has not entered a restaurant for dining for over 10 years [and that last experience ended in an anaphalactic shock episode cementing the reason for never eating out.]

A-n-y-w-a-y, I didn't want to use bleach in my dishwater like my parents and brother because bleach is harmful to the environment ... but what are my choices now, because mold is harmful to my body?

_____________________________________________________________________________

Written several days later:

I filled the terracotta pot with strong bleach soak water and let it sit for 2 days, then scrubbed it out and let it dry. 2 days later, I noticed mold spots like sporadic raindrops on the bottom surface of the pot. I immediately started the bleach soak process again, but mold that is so aggressive and which withstands so much bleach is scary! What has that done to the inside of my body, especially since I can't take bleach to get rid of the internal fungi?! Absolutely I'm tossing the pot, but first I'm going to keep experimenting on how many times I have to soak it before the mold stops growing. But no way am I going to eat out of that porous thing again!

And then God answers unspoken prayers. Yesterday at Costco I just felt the urge to look, something I rarely do. And wah-lah! Costco had a small sized crock pot that had a glazed insert pot. While glazes can also be harmful on the body, especially when used in heat and for extended periods, I figured it's a whole heap better than the porous terracotta that traps and stores bacteria ... so I bought a new crock pot. It's oval and slightly larger than the infected one, but I'm quite happy with it because Korea only has 2 crockpots - the terracotta one I bought and one that can cook a whole stuffed chicken along with a mess of vegie trimmings, so my find at Costco is gold :)

Barlean's Olive Leaf Complex

Ugh, again. I've been having some neuropathies lately in my left foot especially but also left hand again, and they are directly related to food. I just couldn't figure out why until I also started to have pain, like before, in the knotty groin veins that are rubbery hard and arteriosclerotic. When the pain went into the second day, I jumped onto the internet to look up the symptoms of arterioslerosis and how diet can be used to control it. While I do have the symptoms, the causes on several pages are unanimously from a high-fat diet, resulting in sticky blood cells. Well, my diet is very low fat so as not to feed the candida ... but then it occured to me that maybe I just wasn't getting enough fat, and that would also be why my vitamin A is low because to utilize vitamin A, fat is essential.

So, I jumped up and looked through my cupboards for something that would help the low fat problem but wouldn't compromise my strict candida diet. I found a bottle of Barlean's Olive Leaf Complex, which I'd been meaning to try for some time. One tablespoon is the recommended daily allowance so I drank one tablespoon. Almost instantly I felt better and the neuropathies died down a bit while the pain in the veins eased! The next day I took it again with the same results! I was so impressed that I wanted to share my good fortune with my cat, Aulait, who's had nutritional problems since I got her at 4 months of age.

I mixed up her barley green solution that I've been giving her quite regularly since she got sick shortly after I got sick; she was diagnosed with thrombocytopenia, and I had to take her into the vet every 4 months (3 times) because she would relapse. However, once I started the barley green solution, I've never had to take her back to the vet even though he said the problem would be for life! That said, the last couple of months, the muscles on her back have been getting more and more crawly (obviously a nutritional problem b/c it is certainly not thrombocytopenia) and it's pained me to see that and not know what to do. BTW, I've had to hide all plastic bags and vinyl in my house since I got her because she tries to eat them ... so maybe she's missing some natural oils too! So, I loaded up her barley green syringe with some Barlean's Olive Leaf Complex and slowly shot it into her mouth. She was not too impressed and clamped her mouth down at one point, but I got it in and then finished up with the better tasting plain barley green water. Amazingly, she seemed more relaxed afterwards! The next night I gave her another tiny bit (maybe 1/8 teaspoon) with barley green and she has been definitely better since! If only I would have known earlier!


2 1/2 years ago, both my cats and I got sick at about the same time. Whenever I drank the water in my apartment, my cheeks would tingle, among other strange things. I had been starting to get my energy and weight back from Grave's Disease (hyperthyroidism) and at first thought I was in the 40% who would relapse within two years of getting off the meds, but those symptoms were just plain WEIRD and didn't match my previous symptoms! Aulait developed very red eyes and seemed to get stiff - not good, since she was just a young 3-year-old at that time. Since I got her at 4 months, she has been a picky eater and has just refused to eat many cat foods even though she is hungry. While I've never figured out what dry ingredient(s) she's refusing, with wet cat food, she detests foods that have filler meats (her most hated is Fancy Feast, which looks like nothing but filler, so smart cat!) Cafe, on the other hand, had the cat-killer disease panleukopenia as a tiny kitty and I knew her system was compromised because she always had bad breath and extremely waxy ears growing up (I read later that both were signs of candida in cats and dogs ... if only I would have known to give Cafe barley green on her road to recovery to help heal her tortured GI track). Anyway, at just 2 years of age (the same time I was having problems with my apt water) Cafe started to have renal failure. I limped her along for 6 months even though I was getting sicker and sicker myself, but when she relapsed I had to be merciful and put her to sleep. Ah, if only I would have known about diet control for disease soooo many months ago ... as well as moved ... we would all have been better.

Anyway, I'm going to study more up on this Barlean's Olive Leaf Complex. So far my system is loving it and Aulait acts less anxious. It seems to be a nice treatment for both of our various symptoms, but I don't want just a quick-fix cure-all symptom-masker, I want to treat the underlying problem - broadly speaking, it's nutritional, specifically, candida and vitamin A deficiency for me, and for Aulait ... I'm not completely sure except that I do know her problem is dietary too. So, she sometimes gets mini-doses of what helps me.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Written several weeks later:

The olive leaf extract was helping Aulait and I so much that I decided to buy a bottle for my parents to try, specifically for my dad who has Parkinson's. Mom gives the extract to dad in a tiny med cup while she's fixing the afternoon meal and which gives time for the extract to interact in a relatively clean esophagus and empty stomach. Wow! As a Parkinson's victim, Dad frequently has bouts of choking and difficulty swallowing - not as bad as some people because Mom and Dad share some of their meals with my younger brother who has a multitude of food allergies so needs a very specific wheat-free and other allergen-free diet. Anyway, Dad doesn't analyze food as being a problem, but he's been commenting from Day #1 that the olive leaf extract has been soothing to his throat and calming down tightness, numbness, and other strange feelings he has. It's also eliminated a lot of the coughing he's had to do during a meal when food seems to stick in his throat. So, wow! Bet you can't guess what's gonna be in Dad's stocking this Christmas?

Pumpkin Seed-Garbanzo Dressing

Tonight on an inspiration for a thick dressing and not the lemony-squeeze I usually put over a salad, I started dumping items in the blender. And since on October 31, people like to incorporate pumpkin on their porches and in their meals, I used pumpkin seeds instead of the high glycemic pumpkin flesh ... ah, but my taste buds were delighted!!!

Pumpkin Seed - Garbanzo Dressing
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds (soaked 1 hour then soak water dumped)
1 cup cooked garbanzo beans
1 1/2 cups garbanzo bean liquid
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/3 teaspoon cumin powder

Whizz in the BlendTec. Should be thick but easily pourable. And now that I've made it, I think it might even be better with a little fresh lemon juice, onion and/or garlic. Any of those three would add more zest ... :) The fresh onions in my salad really came alive with the dressing combo.

North African Millet Stew w/ Fresh Greens

This is a fast meal. It takes about an hour, but I can do other things while the stew is simmering. And wheeeee, it's a one-pot dish!

North African Millet Stew
1 1/2+ quarts water
2/3 cup millet
1/2 zucchini, cubed or sliced
1/3 head of cauliflower, cut small
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 firm tomato, cubed
2 tablespoon coconut oil
1/2" bit of fresh ginger***
1/2 ~ 3/4 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon thyme (not N. African, but wow!)
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
a dash of cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
several sprigs of parsley
large handful of almonds (garnish)
a lot of chopped fresh greens of choice (garnish)

Step 1: In a 2-quart+ pot, add water and millet and bring millet to a simmer. Simmer for 35 minutes.
Step 2: Add the vegies - cauliflower, onion, garlic, zucchini (but not the tomato). Also add in the coconut oil, salt and other seasonings. Simmer another 15 minutes.
Step 3: Add the tomato and parsley. Simmer 5-10 minutes.
Step 4: Turn off the heat and serve immediately. Top the hot stew with piles of fresh greens (I used bok choy, an Asian green - ah, the irony for African stew :) and toss whole almonds on top. Stir and eat!


***Ginger is supposed to be anti-inflammatory, but several months ago I noticed that it was causing my mouth lining to swell (probably something related to vitamin A deficiency since that vitamin is important for the mucosa, among many other things). I stopped using ginger of course. As people with candida improve or get worse, their food sensitivities change. This is my personal sensitivity, and I rather doubt that all other people with systemic candida have the same reaction.

"Nutty" Spicy Muffins

The measurements are approximates as always. Also, if using oats or oatmeal, the recipe is not gluten-free, unless using a specific kind of oats or oatmeal that is labeled as gluten-free and which hasn't been cross-contaminated by wheat. However, not all celiacs or people with system candida can tolerate these gluten-free oats, so a word of caution here.


**HOW TO REVISE THE "OAT" INGREDIENT: Oats are lighter and somewhat glutinous so, keeping that in mind, substitute using one or a combination of the follow (I recommend a combination, but I also recommend not using pre-made flours but making one's own flour for increased nutrition and less likely exposure to molds and rancidity of grain oils. Having bad systemic candida, I really need to limit the "processed" grains - they irritate the GI track), but these are non-glutinous options: brown rice flour, buckwheat flour (strong flavor so go easy), amaranth flour (delicious flavor for muffins!), quinoa flour, tapioca flour (a good binder, flavorless, nutritionless).

Even though this is called "nutty", there are no nuts in the recipe. I prefer to eat most of my nuts raw or heated as little as possible in order to get the maximum benefits from them. The "nuttiness", however, comes from the crunchy whole millet grains. The yellow millet grains also give the muffins a very appealing look and a wonderful fuller flavor. By the way, this particular batch of muffins I made with red currants. In the experimental stage of developing this recipe, I diced up firm fresh papaya (only use fresh!) and folded them in, and oo-la-lah! What an amazing custard-like texture and with the cinnamon, the mouth was filled with sinless pleasure!

"Nutty" Spicy Muffins
1 1/2 cups gluten-free oats**
2/3 cup millet grain
3/4 cup cooked grain (millet, rice, quinoa)
6 tablespoons flaxmeal
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup olive or coconut oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
4+ tablespoons water
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)***
1 1/2 cups chopped fruit (green apple, slightly green papaya, red currants, black berries)

Step 1: In the BlendTec whizz the whole oats/oatmeal and less than 1/2 of the millet to a flour.
Step 2: Pour the flour into a mixing bowl and mix with all remaining dry ingredients.
Step 3: Mix in the wet ingredients.
Step 4: Dice the fruit and fold into the batter. The fruits mentioned are some of the lowest glycemic fruits. However, if the candida is bad, reducing the fruit by half or completely might be necessary.
Step 5: Pour into a sprayed or oiled muffin tin, filling the muffin cups slightly more than half-way (If more, they will not bake through.) It's not necessary to use muffin papers as these will just dump out of the properly oiled muffin tins.
Step 6: Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. The muffins will not really brown on the top but when pressed, they will be firm. Be aware that these muffins, without leavening (a fermented curse to the person with candida) will not be fluffy, but they will be a full-flavored.

***Nutmeg: I used to enjoy the rich flavor of nutmeg till I found out that it's hard on the liver. Oh sad, but people with candida (and cancer) have serious liver issues from the overload of toxins. Ugh. Great flavor ... but no good for me, so ... bye-bye nutmeg.

Pizza/Pie Crust

**Again, I'm using oats which are not gluten-free, so for alternative grains to use, please refer to blog on October 19.

Pizza/Pie Crust (for rolling)
1 cup millet
2 cups rolled oats (gluten-free)**
1 cup tapioca flour
1/3 ~ 1/2 cup flaxseed
1 heaping teaspoon sea salt
1 1/2 cups water
5-6 tablespoon olive oil

Step 1: In the BlendTec, whizz the millet, oats and flaxseed to a flour, and pour into a mixing bowl.
Step 2: Add remaining ingredients and mix to a dough.
Step 3: Roll dough out between tapioca-flour dusted wax paper or heavy seran wrap. (Some people have found that rolling out gluten-free dough is easier if it has been chilled.)
Step 4: Peel off one side of the wax paper and flip over a pizza pan or pie dish. Peel off the other wax paper.
Step 5: Flatten on pizza pan or press into pie dish. Do not pre-bake, or this dough will become tough.
Step 6: Top the pizza dough or fill the pie crust. Bake for 40 minutes (pizza) or 50+ minutes (pie) at 350 degrees.

This particular dough has really great flavor but it can be a bit tough. The toughness depends on too much needing, too much water and/or too much flaxmeal. You will notice that the pie crust is not flaky but it does hold its shape, and it turned out really good for a Moroccan-like quinoa pie stuffed with vegies, almonds, middle-eastern spices like coriander and cardamom, and with a hint of tartness with the red currants (as people with candida wouldn't dare touch pomegranates as they're as glycemic as raisins!)


Comparing this pizza crust with the previous pizza crust I made with zucchini, this crust is better for thin-crust pizza, as it holds it shape much better. I experimented with this dough in making chapattis. Ugh! The chapattis turned out as stiff and brittle as I-don't-know-what. I think with some tweaking though, this recipe could be as versatile as the other pizza crust recipe, especially as its better at holding its shape, which is amazing for a gluten-free dough!

Pizza Crust with Zucchini

In the previous blog, I commented on oats as being glutinous (unless using the specialty non-glutinous oats) and offered alternatives when adjusting recipes. The following crust recipes were made before I became intollerant to oats, which became apparent only last month. For the record, in September after returning to Korea, whenever I made a bowl of oatmeal slow-cooked overnight in my crock pot, I would experience tons of ear pressure which would last for several hours. I'm a teacher and need to listen to my students, and it was really embarrassing to ask students to repeat themselves. In class I was constantly equalizing the pressure in my ears, but instantly there would be pressure mounting again. It was a very distancing feeling and interfered with interaction. I quit using the oats, a very rough-cut, fibrous oat sold at the local health food store. I didn't have problems before with them, and maybe it was the batch, but because I'm going for the candida cure and I know that oats are a no-no glutinous grain, I nixxed them from my diet.

Anyway, the following recipe is one that I developed when at home this summer before I was reacting to oats ... so the oat-ingredient needs tweaking, but since I haven't experimented with other grains and measurements yet, I'll just post the recipes I formerly used. By the way, many people have commented on the flavor and texture of this recipe :)

Pizza Crust (for rolling)
1+ cup quinoa
1+ cup rolled oats (or alternative grains)
2+ cups zucchini whizzed to a liquid
1 rounded teaspoon sea salt
2+ teaspoons rosemary
2+ teaspoons thyme
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
water as needed

Step 1: In the BlendTec, whizz the quinoa and oats to a flour.
Step 2: In the food process, whizz about 1/2 a zucchini to a liquid. Should make about 2 or so cups.
Step 3: In a mixing bowl mix the flours and zucchini liquid, and add remaining ingredients.
Step 4: Form the dough into a ball (adding more flour or water/oil as needed) and with oiled hands spread out the dough onto a greased pizza pan.
Step 5: Top the dough with pizza toppings. Pictured here the toppings were a home-made pesto-sauce (tomatoes are very acidic, and store-bought tomato sauces have citric acid!), thinly sliced zucchini, onion slices, a heap of spinach leaves over an inch thick and topped with more onion slices and tomatoe slices (I added tomatoes to my diet this summer - oh yum!). Very lightly drizzle olive oil and liberally sprinkled with fresh or dry basil, parsley, oregano, sea salt and garlic powder (early on, I had trouble with garlic and onion powders ... I wonder about their chemical processes used in making them ... research needed).


By the way, these final particular pizza toppings aren't for the candida person. People with systemic candida cannot have mushrooms (fungus!), olives (fermented plus acidic with vinegar!), sprinkled with nutritional yeast (created from a fermentation process!) instead of using cheese (a dairy derivative and loaded with aged bacteria!).
Step 6: Bake the pizza for about 40 minutes at 350 degrees.

This crust has many uses. I've used it for making crusts for vegie pies and quiches, for making hand-held stuffed pies and calzones (add a couple tablespoons of flaxmeal for thickener or the dough with break), and also for quick wrappers for vegetarian "pigs-in-the-blanket". I've never tried it for tortilla-like salad shells but I supposed it could work quite well. For a sweeter crust, use coconut oil and eliminate the herbs, possibly adding cinnamon and cloves.

Cashew Waffles, gluten-free

Of course when making food for people with candida, gluten and all sugar must be stricken from the menu. But for the strict candida diet, eliminating eggs, all dairy, yeast, baking soda and baking powder, vanilla with alcohol and/or corn syrup is also important. Even tiny amounts feed millions, if not billion, of bad bacteria; they love those tasty "goodies", so steady strictness will eventually starve those little buggers.

Tonight I was hungry for waffles, which I have had probably two times in the past year because they are made with processed flours. Well, mine weren't. Tonight I rationalized again that if I ground my own grains, maybe they wouldn't be like the typical processed flours that sit around in storage and get moldy or go rancid from the quick aging of their oils. So I started pouring stuff in the blender, and came up with this recipe. However, be informed that these measurements are only approximates.

By the way, I use a high-speed blender, a BlendTec. I used to have its competitor, VitaMix (a 5200 VitaMix), but the BlendTec only needs one canister to make smoothies, soups, dips, sauces AS WELL AS grind grains! An amazing little machine and much lighter and easier to wash than my VitaMix, and so I bought one on the spot! [This is not an advertisement although I wouldn't mind working for BlendTec, traveling around and giving demonstrations!!!]

Cashew Waffle Recipe

1/3 ~ 1/2 cup soaked cashews (soaked 1-2 hours)
2 cups water
1 teaspoon vanilla (non-alcoholic, w/o corn syrup)
1 tablespoon coconut oil
3 - 4 tablespoons flaxseed
1 1/3 cups brown rice
1 cup millet
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
1/2 teaspoon cloves (optional)

Step 1: In the BlendTec, whizz the brown rice, millet and flaxseed to a flour.
Step 2: Add the remaining ingredients, and whizz to a somewhat thick batter.
Step 3: Lightly oil the waffle griddles with a paper towel dipped in coconut oil, and then pour the batter into the waffle maker. The waffles will be a bit heavier than traditional waffles made with glutinous grains and leavening; they will also take a bit longer to cook. However, they come out tanned golden and taste marvelous!