Working on Blog # 2

I've started working on a second blog that will focus exclusively on my real food journey. I realize that reading a blog about paganism may conflict with some peoples religious views, and I don't want to exclude any readers that may benefit from my experience with real food just for that reason. I also realize that many pagans don't have any interest in real food so they may become bored with this blog if I continue to go off topic to often. For those of you who are interested in both, I will post links here to each post on the new blog so that you don't have to worry about subscribing to both blogs unless you want to. I will continue to post on this blog about everything related to my spiritual journey.

My new blog will be a diary of my experience as I attempt convert myself and my family over to a nourishing real food diet.


A few topics you can expect to hear about are:

• My food related baby steps and updates on their progress
• My participation in Monday Mission at Kitchen Stewardship
• Recipes I try and how they turn out - My goal is to try at least one new recipe a week.
• Research that I do about Real Food Related Topics - I find that a lot of the information I read is a bit biased so I would like to look into it from a more scientific point of view.
• Information on the political aspects of real food - This will include both facts and opinions so I will be careful to make sure it is clear which is which.

I am sure that these are not the only topics that will come up. I am taking this conversion to real food slow so that I don't overwhelm myself or my family. This blog is as much for me as it is for you.


The goal is to have it up and running by Tuesday of next week. I'll let you know as soon as it is ready. I hope that you all enjoy it.


Blessed Be

Baby Step # 1 No More Soy

What: Eliminate Soy from our diet

Who: Myself and my children. I will also try to include my husband but he is an adult so he will make his own choices. I do most of the cooking so I will have control of at least one meal he eats a day.

Why :
Soy Depresses the thyroid and can cause thyroid disease. Thyroid disorders run in my family especially in the women. My mother had two miscarriages in her mid twenties that the doctors attributed to her thyroid. If you are trying to loose weight you should also note that a depressed thyroid will seriously slow down your metabolism. Not good for weight loss or energy. Just one glass of soy milk a day can cause your metabolism to slow down.

Soy is higher in Phytoestrogens than just about any other food source. Phytoestrogen is plant based estrogen. Now I'm sure a few people have heard studies that say that this is good for you, but these studies are funded by the soy industry. Independent studies show that high estrogen levels lead to many types of cancers including breast cancer.

Soy is high in Phytates. The best way I have heard Phytates explained is that they are anti-nutrients that prevent your body from absorbing the nutrients that it needs. They are present in all grains, seeds, nuts and legumes. In most cases you can neutralize them by fermenting or soaking, but in the case of soy the phytates are so high that it is virtually impossible.

Soy contains a large amount of trypsin inhibitors. Your body needs trypsin to properly digest food. Without it you can experience stomach problems such as cramps and diarrhea. Inmates in America are fed a mostly soy diet and this has lead to a very high number of inmates developing irritable bowl syndrome.

Another thing to note is that the American Heart Association has never recognized the FDA's claim that soy can reduce your chance of heart disease stating that the research was flawed. The FDA is now re-evaluating that claim.
How:

Reading Food Labels and finding substitutes for anything that has soy in any form in the ingredients.

I will let you know in a week how this baby step is working out.

Blessed Be

Magic and Science

“Any technology beyond our own would seem like magic to us.” - Arthur C. Clark

I believe many things that we call technology can actually be considered magic. I think that to most people the only difference is whether or not we understand it, but in my opinion understanding how something works does not make it any less magical.

Imagine yourself living in medieval times. You walk into your castle and in front of the entire court flip a device attached to the wall causing the entire room to fill with light. Imagine the reaction you would get. Fear, amazement, shock. You would be labeled a witch or a sorcerer for doing something that today is considered normal routine.

Consider all the medications that we use today that are derived from the herbs once used by Shamens. The ability for a person to fly was once laughed at the way magic is laughed at today, until the two brothers came along and showed us that it was possible.

Think of all of the technology that is being discovered now, like harnessing the energy of the sun. We find new ways to use the resources given to us by the divine every day.

We try to guess at what the future will look like in books and movies, but in my opinion the answer is simple. Just look at what we consider magic today. I see "scientist discovering" that rose quarts is related to love, the same way that they discovered that certain foods are aphrodisiacs. I think that they will learn how to contact the spirit world just like they learned how to use a telephone to have a conversation with someone across the country.

What do you think? Do you think that magic and science are related?

I found Green house giveaway to share with you.

There was a time when I would spend hours a day entering blog giveaways gathering up tons of prizes that collected dust in my closet. Since then I have scaled back to only entering a few giveaways a month on blogs that I read regularly, and prizes that I could really use.

I have found a few so far to share with you, and I wish you all luck. Today the giveaway is found is at a great blog called I Refuse to Recede. What better way to fight the recession than by saving money growing your own vegetables and herbs. Even better save your seeds from your freshly grown veggies so that next years are completely free! ( I know this is illegal for some seeds,but I don't recommend using them anyway because they are genetically modified. Yuck)

To help you reach this goal enter to win this greenhouse. It is perfect for me because as I have told you in the past I have no outdoor space for gardening. However I do have a nice flat overhang right outside of my kitchen window that gets great sunlight. This would be perfect!

I hope you enter, and don't forget, if you win send me some fresh veggies!

Blessed Be.

G is for Ginger

I have been wanting to learn more about herbology in magical and healing practice for some time now. I can't afford to take classes at the local metaphysical shop, so until I can I am doing a little bit of research on my own. I found that ginger is a very powerful healing tool in both medicine and magic. That is why I chose ginger as my ABC post today.

Ginger is one of the many plants that can be used for magic, medical or cooking purposes.

First healing. Here is a homemade elixir you can take at the first sign of a cold Remember I am not a doctor so be sure you speak to your own doctor before making this or any other remedy you find online.

1/2 tsp powdered ginger

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup scalded whole milk

1 tbsp honey

Combine ingredients and drink hot.

You can also add a little ginger to your tea to help with stomach aches or use it to flavor other homemade remedies.

Ginger is used often used in healing spells. Some traditions associate it with the moon and others associate it with Mars. Here is a recipe for a healing sachet. This sachet works particularly well with healing pain after surgery.

2 parts cinnamon

2 parts sandalwood

1 part rose petals

1 part cayenne

1 part ginger

1 part rue

Mix the herbs together and then tie into a blue or purple cloth. Anoint the sachet with Eucalyptus oil and wear it on your person or keep it under your pillow while you are resting during your recovery.

Ginger is also an ingredient in Wassail. It is a traditional pagan spiced ale made at Yule to invoke the energy of the sun and good health.

2 pints brown ale

1/2 pint dry sherry or dry white wine

3 ounces sugar (I use unrefined whole organic sugar)

3-4 apples

1/2 lemon

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Place peeled and cored apples into a glass baking dish with sugar and 4 tbsp of brown ale and bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes or until the apples are tender. Peel the bright yellow outer layer of the lemon rind. In a large pot combine the remaining ingredients including the lemon rind, but do not add the apples and the juices yet. Bring the mixture to a simmer and keep it there for 10-15 min. Then add apples and their juices and serve warm.

For More G Posts visit ABC Wednesday

Baby Steps

My mother is full of advice in the form of cliches. Kill two birds with one stone. Don't throw out the baby with the bath water. Anything worth doing is worth doing well. And one of her favorites is Baby Steps. Anytime you want to make a change in your life you need to take baby steps.

Cliche as they may be they do have value to them. So I think it is time for me to take my mothers advice. There are so many changes that I want to make but don't know how to start, so I will do as my mother suggests and take baby steps.


And yes I do realize that I am setting a goal to set goals, but hey, I got to start somewhere right.


Here are the areas that I want to change:


Eat Healthier - By healthier I mean more natural. My goal isn't weight loss at this point, just to develop a healthier relationship with food for both myself and my family. We do make an effort right now, here and there, but we have made no real lasting change. We tend to just grab a healthier option whenever it is convenient.


Earth Friendly - reducing my global footprint


Parenting


Spirituality


I am not sure if this will become a regular weekly post or if I will wright as it occurs to me. I don't want to get overwhelmed by taking to many baby steps at one time. My nutrition baby steps will probably take place on Friday so that I can take part in Food Renegades Fight Back Friday.


So stay tuned all of your support is welcomed.


I am also considering creating a Baby steps McLinky so that everyone can share the changes they are making in there lives as well. Let me know if there is any interest.

Thanks


Blessed Be

Oh Monday How I Do Loath Thee...

I drug myself out of bed at 5:30 this morning to hold back my daughters hair as she puked all over the floor about 3 feet from the toilet. It just wouldn't be a true Monday if she had made that extra 3 feet. It took 3 freshly washed towel to clean up.(hint:you should avoid washing all your towels at once just so you have some dirty ones for times like this).

Once that was taken care of I still had two healthy (or so I thought) children to get ready for school. So feeling extra gross I wake the other children up and lay out their clothes. Make breakfast, and then go wake them up again. This time dragging them out of bed. After breakfast and clothes comes the argument about brushing teeth and why they can't use bubblegum flavored toothpaste. I have, on past mornings explained to them about artificial sweeteners, but because it is Monday the answer is "because I said so" which leads to lots of foot stomping that I am sure the downstairs neighbor did not appreciate.

Out the door to the bus stop and then I get to sit, but not for long. After all DD just threw up her breakfast so of course she is hungry again. It is times like this that I am tempted to use sweetened boxed cereals, but no. My little one is sick and needs all the help her immune system can get. So I pull out a jar of left over chicken bone broth and start heating it, all with the little one watching me silently.

Once the broth is fully heated and in front of her I am told that her tummy doesn't hurt anymore and she wants oatmeal. Debating whether I should deal with an argument with a 5 year old or just make the oats I decide to just give her some quick (unsoaked because I had no time to prepare) oats. Sometimes you just have to choose your battles.

So now you think I get to sit down again. No. The phone rings DS is in the nurses office because he got sick in the boys bathroom at school. So DD finishes her breakfast and I get her in the car. We almost make it all the way to school before she throws up oatmeal all over the back seat. (good bye new car smell)

Run in the school. Pick up son, get home. Wash off daughter. Sit down leaving car a mess for now. My husband can deal with that. And if he even thinks about complaining...well he will regret it.