Biscuits - Cookies for the "No Grains" Diet

I have suffered for many many years from a systemic Candida infection. It all started as a teenager when a ship's doctor "threw the book" of antibiotics at me and unwittingly killed off all the good bugs in my system as well as all the bad ones.

It took me 26 years of trying to get a diagnosis and being told repeatedly that it was all in my head before a more savvy than usual doctor diagnosed me as having candida rampant in my gut. He also found I was allergic to 35 different foods - a lot of them plain ordinary fare like milk (cows' and goats'), grains, some veggies, and of course the expected food additives, cigarette smoke, petroleum and suchlike.

A course of nystatin (Nilstat) helped, but did not fix the problem and after avoiding a lot of foods for awhile I went back to eating fairly normally, but without sugar, and battled on.

I'm now at the point where I realise I just have to nail this thing before it nails me - about which, more in another post. But because living gluten-free or grain-free can be extremely hard at times, I thought I'd share my crazy biscuit / cookie recipe born out of sheer desperation. Before you turn your nose up at it totally, remember as well as grains I am also unable to eat sugar or other natural sweeteners, and I'll say right now that artificial sweeteners are only fit for the rubbish bin. If you doubt me, go to http://mercola.com/ and search the term.

So here it is - and because of all the other stuff I do it's called

"The Extremely Busy Solo Woman's Biscuit / Cookie Recipe"

Ingredients:
2 cups sunflower seeds, ground (coffee grinder)
2 cups sesame seeds, ground (ditto)
1 tsp sea salt
hot water to mix : 1.5 - 2 cups

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 deg C or 350 deg F.

In a bowl thoroughly mix together the seeds and salt. Add the water a little at a time and mix as you go. You don't want to get the mix wet because you can't just chuck in some flour to fix it. Gradually add and mix enough water to let you fold and knead the stuff, then shape it into a round mass. It shouldn't be too sloppy - surprisingly, if you get it right, it will just about hold together.

Let it sit while you grease a big flat baking tray. I use olive oil - I refuse to use the usual polyunsaturated garbage. Put your mix onto the tray and with damp hands gradually flatten it out. Mine is usually 4-5mm thick.

Place in the preheated oven and cook for 20 mins. Keep an eye on it the first time you cook this recipe - ovens vary and your time might be different. I have a fan-heated oven, so it burns less than some ovens.

Take it out of the oven and before it cools release it from the tray - I have a very long knife I use for this. Once cooled, break it into pieces by hand and store in a tin or lunchbox. It's a lot quicker this way than messing around with cookie cutters - which would not work with this mix. Or you can score it into squares with a sharp knife before you bake it.

Get creative. There are some great things you can add for variation, depending on your own tastes - herbs like oregano, cumin or cinnamon, coconut cream (yum!) or garlic paste. Go wild and experiment with 'sweet' and 'savory' - just keep off the grains and sugars!  The great thing is that sunflower and sesame seeds are exceptionally good for you - and I'll explain that in later posts.

Because this is a bit more messy to handle than a flour mix, I have an old kitchen tool I use for the whole process from mixing the seeds to adding the water. I love using things for purposes other than the intended - it does a great job, too!  Haha!!

Enjoy.

See also : 
Sunflower Seeds Turn You On - (Helianthus annuus)
Sesame Seeds - Food of the Gods 1 - (Sesamum indicum)

Patricia

"My people suffer from lack of knowledge."

Do you think I'm exaggerating? Here's just one tiny example from history:

My mother, who before her marriage was in charge of the central accounting of a substantial bakery company in the UK, told me many times how the bosses came home from a conference announcing a "new development" in the British (and no doubt worldwide) baking industry. The flour milling companies were going to produce a new wonder-product - white flour.

Why? "Because the housewife likes the clean white look," they said. Hmmm - one wonders. Sounds like justification to me.

The result was one of the most denatured foodstuffs on the planet, stripped of its bran and wheatgerm (including virtually all the nutrients in the grain, plus essential dietary roughage), and treated with a slew of cheap, toxic chemicals. The result? An epidemic of constipation and degenerative diseases - and no-one knew why.

White flour of course is now "enriched", which means it has a very few, miserly nutrients added back into it because the authorities finally discovered how sick-making it really was in its original form.

White flour is still with us, it is still a travesty - and we still have an epidemic of degenerative disease. Think hard how much of it people consume in a day, from bagels and croissants to toast, sandwiches, pies, pastries, cakes, cookies, noodles, sauces, pasta and pizza - and that's only the obvious. It is the staple of the western fast-food industry, and a staple in most western home kitchens.

I'm not selling anything. I'm not saying you need to buy anything. I'm suggesting you get some information about how to look after yourself and your family. Take on some responsibility and find out how to live healthier and cheaper in these troubled times.

Stay with me - more to come ...

Patricia

http://patriciahowitt.com/
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Corporate Responsibility

I didn't write this to cheer or comfort you - I wrote it to set you thinking. Over the last 100 years, our farming practices and chemical fertilizers have drastically impoverished the soils we rely on to put essential nutrients into our bodies.

This isn't pie-in-the-sky. It was proved and is on record in the minutes and the associated soil testing results of two International Soil Science Symposiums. Have you noticed how all those 'wonder juices' come from untouched-by-man environments where the soils are still nutrient-rich? It's ironic that some countries are busy right now chopping those ecosystems down to turn them into 'production'.

Our food processing is no longer a family activity - it's now in corporate hands. And corporate bosses need to maximize profits so they get their coveted bonuses. Result? Food denatured even more in the production process. Food laced with toxic chemicals to keep it from spoiling on the shelf. Food processed in ways that make it a source of cancer and poisons.

We have a case very much in point right now here in New Zealand. Our dairy industry giant Fonterra, which has taken over control of our dairy production and which appears to have shaped itself along typical "corporate" lines, is now embroiled in a scandal about milk produced by Sanlu, its JV partner in China. Fonterra owns a 43% stake in the Chinese company, which produced and distributed milk containing melamine - a toxic chemical that has the effect of increasing protein content in the milk.

Six babies died and more than 290,000 were seriously harmed by drinking this contaminated milk.

The scandal has been breaking for about 6 months now, with many questions being asked about who actually advised whom, and what advice was given. Questions are also being asked about the slowness of recall by Chinese authorities of the tainted product. As the media sources below point out, Fonterra appears to have been "naive" in its dealings with the overseas company.

The prospect of substantial profits probably played a large part in that naivety.

If this information is new to you - here are one or two media resources:
Fonterra's milk spill runs deep
Fonterra milk scandal claims second Chinese baby
Screw turns on Fonterra to come clean

Patricia
http://patriciahowitt.com/

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Personal Responsibility

We are causing our governments, our planet, and ultimately ourselves untold expense simply because we will not take personal responsibility for our greatest asset - our bodies.

Think about this:

• Healthcare is a huge drain on a nation's finances - and who pays? The taxpayer. Well, now western governments are opting out of providing health service dollars, and so the lower income taxpayer suffers again. You and I. Surely it's in our interests to know WHY people get sick?
  
  
• Health Insurance companies are growing fat because thousands of people look to them, not just for help in an emergency, but to pay up when the chickens of bad lifestyle choices come home to roost in the form of heart problems, diabetes, cancer and the rest. We regard these diseases as an inescapable part of "getting old". What rot! They are an inescapable result of wrong food, drink and lifestyle choices, for the most part, and relying on insurance to pick up the tab for that is costing us dearly.
  
  
• It's not by chance the highest incidence of degenerative disease is in western countries with their technology and fast-food mentality. Just watch the effects as we pass the "benefits" of our culture on to countries where poorer people are still living a simple lifestyle. It's happening already.
  
  
• Lastly, the western world's reliance on artificial chemicals burdens the planet with unnatural pollutants - not only the obvious factory waste, petroleum products and superphos run-off but also human and animal waste as we - and our pets and livestock - excrete such chemicals as pain-killers, blood-thinners, artificial oestrogens, growth hormones and endectocides into the environment.

So we grapple with greenhouse gases, costly mop-ups, marine and freshwater pollution, and carbon credits. And who pays? You and I.

Patricia

http://patriciahowitt.com
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