brain food

How to Use Different Types of Flour While Cooking

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One of my favorite things to do is cook. I find that it helps me exercise my creative side and allows me to try new things. I like the fact that I reap all the benefits of what I sew and can also share if I feel like it. Since I’ve been on this journey for a while now, I have gotten much more adventurous in my efforts to provide something delicious and nourishing to eat.

In this blog, I am going to incorporate recipes that use varieties of flour that you may not have heard of. Since people who are allergic to gluten can’t eat wheat, alternative types of flour are necessary so they can still have the foods they enjoy.

Almond Flouralmond flour

The first flour I am going to introduce is almond flour. Since it’s highly nutritious, easy to use, and readily available, almond flour is a good alternative choice to all purpose… especially if you’re health conscious. Also, if you’re on a budget, avoid purchasing it in store and buy online instead. The brands I recommend are Honeyville, JK Gourmet, Lucy’s Kitchen Shop, and nuts.com. Note: Stay away from Bob’s Red Mill. This flour tends to leave food runny and messy.

Chocolate chip almond flour cookies

Ingredients:

¼ Cup brown sugar, light or dark

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

2 tbsp butter at room temperature

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg

2 cups almond flour

½ cup chocolate chips

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a baking sheet or line it with parchment
  2. Combine brown sugar, baking soda, salt, and butter and mix until smooth.
  3. Mix vanilla, egg, and almond flour, stirring to combine. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, then mix for 1 minute at max speed.
  4. Stir in chocolate chips
  5. Scoop the dough one level teaspoon at a time onto the prepared baking sheet. A tbsp. cookie scoop works well too.
  6. Gently flatten cookies to about ½ inch thick
  7. Bake cookies for 9-12 minutes until they are golden brown.
  8. Remove the cookies from the oven. Allow them to cool on the pan.

 

Pecan Flourpecan_flour

Another nut flour that’s good to use is pecan flour. Since pecans are less expensive than almonds, it’s a good competitor. I’m going to give 2 recipes that you may find interesting.

Pecan Crust

This first pecan flour recipe is a pecan crust recipe that you can use with pies. Blueberry, pumpkin, and cheesecake are delicious with this crust.

Ingredients

2 ½ C pecan flour

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

1/3 c white sugar

4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Directions

  1. Stir together ground nuts, cinnamon, and sugar. Mix in melted butter.
  2. Press the mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9 inch deep dish style pie pan. Chill the unbaked crust in the fridge for 30-45 minutes.
  3. Place crust on a cookie sheet and position on the middle rack of a preheated 350 degree oven. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned. Note: Watch carefully! Nut crusts burn easily; they don’t have to turn black to taste burnt. Cool completely before filling.

 

Carrot Cakecarrot cake

This recipe takes a spin on a good classic.

Ingredients

3 c pecan flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

5 large eggs

½ c honey or agave nectar

¼ c coconut oil, melted

3 c carrots, grated

1 c raisins

1 c walnuts

Cream cheese icing

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
  2. In separate bowl, mix together eggs, agave/honey, oil.
  3. Stir carrots, raisins and walnuts into wet ingredients.
  4. Stir wet ingredients into dry.
  5. Transfer batter to 2 well-greased 9 inch cake pans
  6. Bake at 325 degrees for 35 minutes.
  7. Cool cake for 3 hours then remove from pan.
  8. Ice with cream cheese icing and serve.

 

Vegetable flours are used in a variety of foods… for humans and our pets! The next recipe I am going to talk about is one that I absolutely love to make for Clark, my cat. He loves it too!

Dry cat foodcat

This recipe calls for pea flour. You can buy it online or make it yourself from dried peas. All you have to do is grind the dried peas in a food processor until it’s a soft, fine substance. That’s all!

Ingredients

1 c cornmeal

2 c pea flour

3 c whole wheat flour

1 c wheat germ

1 can salmon with no bones

5 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp cod liver oil

1 c fat free milk powder

½ C Brewers yeast

2 C water

Directions

In a medium sized bowl, take the fish, oil, and water and mash it all together. Then, in a large bowl, mix all the other ingredients together. Next, mix both bowls together evenly. Make the dough by mixing it by hand and roll it to a thickness of about ¼ inch diameter. Use a knife to cut small ¼ inch pieces. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and put the bits onto a greased baking sheet; put into oven. Bak for 20-25 minutes while tossing around the bits so they brown evenly from all sides. Let the bits cool completely before removing from the oven. Refrigerate the kibble by transferring them to an airtight container. It won’t spoil for a long period of time.

 

Coconut flourcoconut flour

Coconut flour is surely growing in popularity as more people are using it for it’s many health benefits. It’s delicious, gluten free, and a healthy alternative to other flours. Try using it in this next recipe I have typed for you below.

Coconut Flour Brownies

Ingredients

½ C plus 2 tbsp coconut oil

¼ C cocoa powder

3 large eggs

½ C plus 2 tbsp honey or agave nectar

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ C minus 1 tbsp coconut flour

½ tsp salt

1/3 C chopped walnuts (optional)

1/3 C mini chocolate chips (optional)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease an 8 x 8 inch glass baking pan.
  2. Melt coconut oil. In large bowl, combine cocoa powder, and melted coconut oil, and eggs with an electric mixer until combined. Add in honey (or agave) and vanilla extract. Mix again. Add in coconut flour and salt and mix again until batter is combined.
  3. Fold in nuts and chocolate chips. Spread evenly into prepared pan.
  4. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
  5. Cool and serve.

 

I hope this motivates you to get a little creative in the kitchen. We are not all made the same way, therefore we should try varieties of foods to find what we truly enjoy. Good luck!

Simple Recipes for Busy College Students

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Eating is something everyone has in common. We all need to do it, so why not make it as simple as possible for those who have busy schedules? Whether you’re strapped for cash, or have tons of homework to complete, you still deserve a good meal at the end of the day. We should enjoy eating. After all, food is said to be a great pleasure all around the world. Let’s bring some of that to your table.

This first recipe is something I created on my own. It’s great for a snack or maybe a side to a larger dish.

 

Bagel PizzasPizza_Bagel_kmrva6

1 Bagel

2 Tablespoons of Tomato Paste (get the kind with basil and oregano)

Salt and pepper to taste

½ cup of mozzarella cheese

8 slices of pepperoni

To make this easy dish, cut the bagel in half and lightly broil the tops (cut side up) in your oven. This will help prevent the bagel from getting soggy once you put the sauce on. After the bagel slices are lightly browned, take them out of the oven and spread the tomato paste on them. You can add salt and pepper to the paste to make it have more flavor. Once the bagels have sauce on them, sprinkle the cheese on top. Put 4 slices of pepperoni on each bagel slice, and put them in the oven on broil. Leave in the oven until the cheese is melted. Enjoy!

 

Crockpot Chicken Chilibuffalo-chicken-chili-1

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast

2 cans of white beans, drained and rinsed

14.5 oz can diced tomatoes

2 cups of chicken broth

1 medium onion, chopped

3 medium carrots, chopped

1 bay leaf

¼ tsp salt

Dash of pepper

1 ½ tbsp. crushed red pepper (optional)

Place the chicken breast in the crockpot. Pour remaining ingredients over chicken. Set the crockpot on low for 7 hours. Remove chicken breasts from crock pot and shred the chicken with 2 forks. The chicken will be tender. Return the chicken to the crockpot and cook for one more hour. Keep crock pot on warm until ready to eat.

 

Southern Lima Beans and Ricelima beans and rice

1 bag of baby lima beans, soaked overnight

1 can of chicken broth

1 can of beef broth

1 ham hock

2 cups of rice, extra long grain

4 cups of water

Salt and pepper to taste

Pour the cans of broth into a large pot and bring to a boil. Add the ham hock and let cook for 10 minutes. Add lima beans to the boiling broth and hock. Add enough water to completely cover the beans. Set temperature to low-medium (3 or so) and let cook for two hours or until beans are tender. Keep checking to make sure liquid is covering beans. If not, add more water. There should be about an inch of broth/water mixture covering the top of the beans.

To make rice:

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Add a pinch of salt for flavor. Once water is boiling, add 2 cups of white rice. Turn down heat to low and let cook for 15 minutes. Take rice off heat and serve.

 

Teriyaki Chicken Stirfrystirfry1

5-7 strips of boneless skinless chicken tenderloin pieces, cut into chunks

1 cup broccoli florets

1 cup chopped carrots

1 cup frozen green beans

½ chopped red bell pepper (you can use any color, I just like how the red looks in this dish)

¼ c teriyaki sauce

Salt and pepper to taste

Steam broccoli and carrots until tender. In a medium saucepan, cook chicken thoroughly. Add in green beans and bell peppers and also the teriyaki sauce. Once the bell pepper is cooked, add the carrots and broccoli. Toss so that everything is coated with teriyaki sauce. May serve over rice.

 

Spaghettispag

1 onion, chopped

2 cans tomato sauce

2 cans diced tomato

1 can tomato paste

1 container of fresh mushrooms, sliced (optional)

1 pound ground beef

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp dried or fresh oregano

1 package angel hair pasta

In a large pot, add ground bee. Cook on high heat until thoroughly browned. Drain fat. Add back to the pot and add all the other ingredients except for the pasta. Stir well and occasionally while on low-medium heat. Cook for 2 hours or longer. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook the pasta and serve together.

 

Soft chicken tacoschicken-taco

2 cups shredded, cooked chicken breast

¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

½ cup salsa

8 flour tortillas

1 cup chopped tomato

¼ cup preshredded cheddar cheese

¼ cup sour cream

Combine first three ingredients in a medium bowl, tossing well to combine. Spoon about 1/3 cupp chicken mixture onto each tortilla; microwave each taco for 30 seconds or until warm. Top each taco with 2 tbsp tomato, 1 tbsp cheese, and 1 ½ tbsp. sour cream. Fold in half.

 

Lemon baked chickenlemon-chicken-thigh-vert_niz7gu

1 package chicken drumsticks

1/3 cup olive oil

2 tbsp melted butter

1 lemon

Salt and pepper

Pre heat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare chicken by mixing juice of one lemon, olive oil, and melted butter in a small bowl. Lay raw chicken in a casserole dish.  Spoon lemon juice/olive oil mixture onto chicken pieces. Put into the oven. Every 15 minutes, take the dish out of the oven, gather all of the juice from the bottom and spoon it over the chicken again. Bake for 1 hour.

 

I hope these recipes catch your eye and you feel like making them sometime soon. I know they are really good for being able to pretty much cook themselves. What’s good about most of these is that you can get them ready and put into the oven, or on low heat, and then forget about them for an hour or two while you’re studying or taking a shower after a ball game or something. Get creative, but mostly stick to the recipe. And always cook the meat thoroughly.

Have a good Spring Break!

Parasites and How to Get Rid of Them!

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ParasitesWhether you know it or not, it is common to be living with pesky parasites within your body. This may seem like some third world myth, but just because we live in America doesn’t mean this is false. The ways of contracting a parasite vary; you could accidentally eat contaminated meat, swim in a pond of lake with these critters, or even smell a flower crawling with microscopic worms.

I’m sure your skin is crawling from this piece of information, but no worries! I am here to help by giving you valuable knowledge on how to kill these parasites so you can be healthy and happy.tummy ache

Before I delve into the good stuff, I’d like to name some symptoms so you can decide if the treatments are right for you. These symptoms are a little embarrassing to admit, but it’s important to be in tune with your body to know if it needs attention.

Symptoms of having a parasite:

  • Lowered immune system and constant illness
  • Rectal itching, especially at night
  • Constant tiredness
  • Difficulty sleeping and waking up
  • Bloating and gas
  • Sensitivity to food and chemicals
  • Sweet and/or starchy food cravings
  • Intestinal cramps
  • Endometriosis
  • Brain fog
  • Anxiety/depression
  • Floaters of spots in your eyes
  • Muscle or joint aches
  • Constipation or diarrhea
  • Vitamin deficiencies
  • Bad breath

Now I am going to introduce you to a parasite cleanse that I’ve found to be extremely helpful. It’s by Dr. Hulda Clark and it’s very thorough.

What you’ll need:

  • Green Hull Black Walnut tincture
  • Wormwood capsules (200-300 mg)
  • Clove capsules (500 mg)

Green hull black walnut tincture:

First off, make sure its GREEN HULL. This kind is the only kind that will work. Dr. Clark has some but she has named it Black Walnut Extra Strength. Put the recommended dosage into a half cup of water and sip slowly while on a full stomach. Avoid using sweeteners. You may also put it into an empty capsule if you have trouble with the taste. Do this once a day for eighteen days.black walnut

Wormwood:

This one is a little tricky. The first day take one, second day take one. Third day take two, fourth day take two. Fifth and sixth day, take three. Seventh and eighth day, take four. Ninth and tenth day, take five. Eleventh and twelfth day take six. And then for the next four days take seven. Then you will continue to take seven  once a week for as long as you wish to stay parasite free. Take on an empty stomach.

Clove:

Take three times a day at mealtime. First day, take one capsule three times a day. Second day, take two capsules three times a day. Third day, and forward until day 12, take three capsules three times a day. After the 12th day, switch to three a day. Do this for as long as you wish to stay parasite free.clove

These three remedies must be used together but as separate ingredients. Only if you use them together will you rid yourself of parasites. If you kill only the adults, the tiny stages and eggs will grow into adults. If you kill only eggs, the adults and larvae will make more.

 

While you are doing your cleanse, it is important to eat according to your plan. There are plenty of foods that help to get rid of parasites. Here are some:

Garlic – Natural antiparasitic and antibiotic. Supports bowel movements and detoxification.

Vegetables – Green leafy veggies with high nutrient content help the body get rid of toxins. Veggies rich in anti-oxidants like cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, and blueberries help feed the bodies organs and glands that are infected with parasites.

Apple Cider Vinegar – it will keep your stomach free from any parasites and eliminate larvae you accidentally eat.

Papaya – great and powerful remedy for getting rid of tapeworms and most intestinal worms

Pineapple – contains an antiparasitic enzyme called bromelain.

Pumpkin seeds – used for eliminating tapeworms and roundworms.

Foods to avoid:

Sugar – Sugar feeds parasites. Its best to avoid these kinds of foods to starve parasites off their energy and fuel.

Refined Carbs – these are cakes, breads, cookies, cereal and pasta. These burden an already strained system that’s infected with parasites.

 

I hope this information will help you guys prioritize your overall health. It’s important to be as healthy as possible throughout our lives. We are only here for a short while.