Merry Christmas!

I hope you are all blessed this week, My family is sick but I am praying for all to be well before Christmas. I want to leave a quick note with a great recipe I just came across I haven't had it yet, but I plan on making it in a few week. I placed a nut order from the U.S. and when that comes in it will be my dinner for a few days.

I am have a few problems again, My smell sensitivity has come back, I am getting motion sickness, and I feel my vertigo acting up also. There is something that I am eating that is not agreeing with me. I am going to figure it out soon, I am not sure how though. But I am clever!

Have a Merry Christmas and God bless you!

Raw Pumpkin Pie

Crust

1 cup almonds, soaked overnight, drained, and dehydrated

[NOTE] Soaking Nuts: Nuts have high amounts of enzyme inhibitors. These enzymes are useful in seeds and nuts because it prevents them from sprouting prematurely. Soaking nuts will neutralize these enzyme inhibitors and make these nuts easier to digest and the nutrients easier to absorb. you should always soak your nuts then dehydrate them again for storage,

1 cup pecans, soaked overnight, drained, and dehydrated
1 cup date pieces (or pit whole date and chop up)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon Celtic sea salt
water to help press out pie crust
In a food processor, blend the nuts until evenly ground. Add the dates, vanilla, cinnamon, and sea salt and continue to blend until it begins to form a ball. Remove the dough and press into your pie plate. Use some water to help spread out if necessary. Dehydrate crust at 105 degrees for a few hours.

[NOTE] Pie crust thickness will depend on which size pie pan you use, that is, 8-inch to 10-inch.

Filling

4 cups raw pumpkin or sweet potato, peeled and shredded
1 cup macadamia nuts, soaked overnight and drained
1 avocado, peeled and seeded
1 cup raisins, soaked for 1 hour, just to soften
4 to 6 pitted dates, in 1 cup filtered water
1 cup Agave ( start with a half cup then more for desired sweetness)
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon Celtic sea salt
4 tablespoons ground psyllium, from the health food store. It helps to firm up the filling.

Place the pumpkin, macadamia nuts, avocado, raisins, dates and soaking water, Agave, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, and salt into a blender and blend until smooth. Add the psyllium and continue to blend well. Let the mixture sit in the blender for approximately 10 minutes to congeal a bit. Blend one more time. Pour into the pie crust. Dehydrate for another 1 to 2 hours. Serve warm or refrigerate for a few hours or over night.

Recipe by chef Cassandra Comerford. She had her classical culinary training from Kendall College in Chicago and specializes in vegetarian and vegan cooking, raw foods, sugar-, dairy-, wheat-, and gluten-free baking.

Day 45...

Hello all.

I am having a hard time again, its the evil potato thing. I have been craving potatoes so much lately. I asked Mike to go to the store and get me some potatoes. He said he would go in a while. Later he came into the room and said he felt that I was feeling weak at the moment, and he needed to be strong for me. "Lets go and make some raw food together" I jumped up with joy and said: " you want to make food with me?!?" We made a raw fennel and spinach soup, ( it was amazing soup! ). Later he juiced some green juice for me and the kids. When I am weak he is strong. The scriptures say the same thing about Jesus. When we are weak He is strong for us and gives us the strength! Almost everyday for the last 2 weeks Mike has gotten up early and made me enough green juice for the day and the kids also. He has been going to the store every time he is out to get us fresh vegetables and food. I don't know if I have ever been more inspired to take care of my health, than when mike began to walk through it with me! The best Christmas present is my husband!

My Fennel Soup

2 handful's Spinach
1 med fennel
1 garlic clove
1/2 avocado
1/2 red apple
2 celery stalks
1T. tamari or soy sauce or nama shoyu
1T. coconut oil
Agave to taste
Cumin to taste ( I like alot)
Gram Marsala
salt and pepper if needed

Blend all together and enjoy. If you like things hot but raw, put in a pan and heat on stove ( never in a microwave) until you can keep your finger in the soup for 4 seconds without being burned. This is a easy soup for me because I usually have most of the ingredient on hand except for the fennel. I hope you enjoy this it is one of my favorites!

May the Lord bless you, and keep you...

Amberlea

Day 38

I wanted to share with you a email that my sweet friend Jayne sent me in response to my question about why I felt so bad after I cheated. This is a great response and very encouraging to me I hope it is helpful to you also.. All is ok today, but I feel bogged down from the last few days. Other than that as Jayne said I am back on the raw horse..

Until tomorrow

Amberlea


Hi Amberlea...I Wanted to let you know I'm holding you in my thoughts and prayers. Also wanted to encourage you to "get back on the horse" (after reading your last blog entry). Because of all your physical issues and most are so serious....you really don't have the liberty to play around w/ the food you choose to eat....it's way too soon. I know you know that now. Really, until you are safely free of all your physical aliments (particularly the tumors and liver issues)...you MUST stick with the program.

Can you eat cooked? I would say give it 6 more months of all raw...than the only cooked should be your cooked...not restaurant cooked. You don't know what other ingredients are in the restaurant's food to make it "tasty" or to preserve the color or prolong it's cooked life. All kinds of chemicals/preservatives/colorings etc. Especially fast food... may tasted good...but your body is your best barometer.

Even I (without any of your health issues) can have problems eating restaurant food. My body tells me the next day...my eyes...my tummy. Every now and than I succumb to eating some dish from the co-op deli (scrutinizing the posted ingredients looking for problematic foods...like canola oil)....and even still...I pay for it the next day.

When someone starts eating more healthfully (whether it's raw or some other approach) and see big improvements in how they feel...they frequently take liberties prematurely. This is human nature. Food can be a big addiction...that's why any addiction leads to huge problems. It is constantly in the background beckoning our taste buds. Also there's a huge addictive emotional component to our past food cravings.

When you do really really need to eat something cooked....only you should prepare it so you know exactly what it consists of. Than (at least until you're better)...very simple cooking. Like a baked potato...or lightly steamed veggies. Watch your starches as they become sugar in your body...and until your cancer is gone you have to be oh so careful about this.

I hoped I've answered your question in your last blog entry...as why you reacted as you did. You took in food that was poison to your system. It looked innocent...it was not. All restaurant food has hidden ingredients that you cannot account for...not even to address that it was not organic.

I hope you've recovered from that outing...and are more resolved than ever to stay true to what you know is working for you. Don't be discouraged....you are getting stronger!

Love, Jayne

Day 37

Confession time!

Well you all know that a week or so ago I had some cooked vegan soup and it caused my liver to hurt. I don't know what I was thinking but I did it again. I went with a friend shopping and forgot my lunch. So I decided to have a bean burrito at Taco Bell with some nachos and cheese. I was really hungry and I thought it wouldn't matter. My body responded so badly I couldn't believe it. Within 5 minutes of the first bite I got a small headache. 10 minutes later (after I finished) My head hurt so bad I took some Iobophrofin. Later on the train I felt all my old aches and pains I haven't had in 3 weeks. I was so sick, my Vertigo kicked in, body aches, liver pain, skin hurt, spleen throbbed, heart hurt, my nerves tingled, and I couldn't breathe well. When I got home 2 hours later the scariest thing happened. My large 4-5 inch tumor in my left breast started to burn. Then the little pea size ones all lit up. Then I noticed about 6 pea size tumors in my right breast went on fire and the fire pain started to increase more and more until it was almost unbearable. I didn't know that I had tumors in my right side, but I know what it feels like and I am for sure I do now. My breasts still hurt, when I started the diet the pain went away in about 3 weeks. Will they take that long again to stop hurting?

Why did my body have such a reaction to cooked, processed foods? (please respond if you have a answer!) I also had some cooked potatoes another day but only had a headache after. Now I am sure that I have to do a 100% raw diet. I don't think my body will let me do anything else. But I was hoping to be able to do some cooked foods every once in a while, when I needed to, I am bummed. But at least I now know how my body will respond.

I learned several lessons through this: These verses spoke to me after this happened and I wanted to share them with you and how they affected me.

Exodus 34:6 says: And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed. "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty.


Exodus 23: 20-30 ( I will just write the parts that spoke to me in this passage -K-)

Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for my name is in Him. But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak:
(skip to verse 23)
For My Angel will go before you and bring you in...

Verse 25) So you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away form the mist of you.

Verse 29: I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you, (30) Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land.

For me this means to me that the beasts are my illnesses, and the land is my physical body will be healed slowly and steadily until I am fully healed.


This passage in Exodus the Lord spoke to me several times lately... You can read the whole passage, but these highlights are what touched my heart about my current circumstances.

Galatians 5: 22-25 " But the fruit of the Spirit is Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

What am I doing the Lord gave me specific instructions to heed His voice and I will be healed. I once again have been trying to do this on my own strength. He is the one who gives me strength and I have learned this lesson so many times. I have to practice self-control in this area. God is the only one who heals and I understand that, but he uses so many things in our lives to teach us lessons, grows our faith, and makes us more like Him. I want to be healed, but I want to be more like Jesus most of all, to know Him more. I think he put me on this path of raw foods for several reason; one of the most important ones for me is self-control. When someone has practiced self-control in one area of their life, It plays out in so many other areas too!

I have to remember why I am doing this, I am doing this for Jesus first and He is the one I want to honor and glorify! I know He forgives me and I know I will make mistakes so, I forgive myself. I want to live a long life, be there for my family, raise my kids and serve the Lord!

Until tomorrow

Amberlea

Day 36

Hi, sorry for the electrical difficulties. We are back online, what a week. We prayed for God to provided us with a new computer and he did. Within 24 hours people sent us the exact amount needed to replace our computer only 7 dollars shy. With email's letting us know it was for a computer. So thank you Lord. Well I have a confession to make. A few days ago I cheated a little with a high price to pay. I thought I could sometimes do a 80/20 diet, 80% raw and 20% cooked. Well I was so wrong and how I felt after was a huge lesson on self control. I will write tomorrow all about it, but for now thanks for praying for me and walking with me through my journey.

Until tomorrow

Amberlea

Day 30

I have to say, no...I have to shout it!! 30 DAYS ALREADY!!! What a month, in the beginning of November I was not in a good place. Scared, nervous, and not knowing what I would find on my new journey. When I went to get on the train to see Dani I almost cried. Dani, who I never met before, wasn't going to put up with my whining, my aversion to vegetables. My husband said that is why God was sending me to a place where my pride wouldn't let me play games. He was right!

Dani gave up 12 days, 288 hours of her time, to teach, encourage, and watch me heal. What kind of person does that these days?? I ate her food ( which she paid for ), slept in her spare bed, used her gas, took time away from her normal life...and she taught me some stretching exercises to help my muscles, ( I can't believe the difference my body feels with stretching). She is a massage therapist and I was able to received some massages. I haven't had a massage in 6 years because it hurt too bad! After 3 days on the diet, I was able to be touch lightly and loosen up my muscles a bit. She made most of my meals for me and Juiced green juices everyday. Juicing is no small task by the way. She taught me so many things about UN-cooking and how to prepare my meals fast, and most importantly, she taught me the science behind Raw food! She truly gave of her self, and in essence was used to SAVE MY LIFE... I left with a true friend and am forever grateful for the love she showed!!!

I have a difficult week, detoxing is good for me but I hate it. My computer ( and printer! ) have given up the ghost, So I am without my 'mac-book' (liquid damage is not covered under warranty,) the kids 2 portable DVD player broke and Mikes computer is now crashing every two hours. I am having trouble backing up files, no Skype phone, no music, radio. AARRRGHH!!! Does anyone want to sponsor a missionary in Germany... HOUSTON, WE ARE EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES!! OK...I feel better for venting... Thank you for listening.

So on a lighter note, I needed a new dressing for my salad. My friend Sara told me of a raw ranch dressing in one of my books. It was fantastic, so here it is

Raw Ranch

1/2 C. fresh lemon juice
1 T. Celtic sea salt
1 T dried Chives, rosemary, oregano, and Sage
1 C. Whole, raw macadamia nuts
1/3 C. cold pressed olive oil (optional) but recommended
Water to blend easily, and to desired consistency

Blend in a high speed blender and enjoy..... If you don't have a vita-mix you can gring the nuts in a coffee grinder and then blend all in a blender.

Written in the valley of the shadow of electronic mayhem...

by your Amberlea