Sausages

Oh how I remember the aroma of homemade sausage, homemade biscuits, grits and eggs for breakfast at my great-grandparents home. I also remember the first night I was exposed to the smell of the pig slaughtering. My great-grandfather and his neighbors got together and slaughtered the animals at the same time. It was horrific. They made their own sausages and other meat cuts. As bad as it was it was forgotten that breakfast morn.

Now I am not a meat eater and sausages along with hot links are just fond memories. I have found some meat substitute sausages to be satisfying but they are expensive and fattening. So how do I deal with this dilemma? Make my own of course. I discovered a book while searching for something else on Amazon. It is call The Art of Making Vegetarian Sausage by Stanley and Adam Marianski. The majority of the book explains the science of sausage making. This appeals to my chemistry lab mind. I am reading now to get an understanding of the ingredients. Then I can make educated substitutes for things like egg whites.

Stay tuned.

Just for Me

This last week I have begun preparations for my church family’s annual Daniel Fast. I already lead a plant-based dietary lifestyle. So, what to do? I decided to go back to raw vegan meals, especially a week of smoothies.

Along with thoughts about food, I looked at my life this year. What would I change? What would I add? My assessment continually asked “But what have you done just for you?” I heard all my children’s voices asking, Mom what did you do for you?

I realize I have a difficult time to do for me. So I’ve decided to do more just for me in 2020. I now have to figure out what that looks like.

Any thoughts?

Vegan Pot Pie

This was quite tasty, at least filling. I was concerned about it not being creamy enough but the cashew cream was perfect. Instead of the dry and fresh herbs required, I used Basil Vitality, Thyme Vitality and Rosemary Vitality. Yummy, yummy flavor.

The crust made from the Einkorn flour was too thick. The cook, me, didn’t roll the dough out thin enough. I’m sure that contributed to the moisture absorption. After it was cooked, over half of the moisture in the filling had been absorbed by all the crust. My husband said don’t make this again. Of course I will at least once to correct my mistakes.

I ran out of Einkorn flour so I used buckwheat flour to knead the dough and roll it out. That’s the dark you see on the out crust. I didn’t burn it. 😀

Mom’s Buttermilk Biscuits

Good biscuits are a necessity in southern kitchens. I was happy to find several recipe’s in the Young Living Cookbook using Einkorn flour. Naturally I had to try one. I chose Mom’s Buttermilk Biscuits to try first. I eat primarily a vegan dietary plan so I had to make substitutions. I used coconut oil instead of butter and cashew milk instead of buttermilk.

The results were as expected. It was much like using 100% whole wheat flour. They weren’t flaky but they were tender on the inside and a little crunchy on the outside. The taste was acceptable. If you are not accustomed to eating 100% whole wheat bread products, this taste will require some getting used to. Some of my biscuits are thinner than others because I rolled the dough too thin at first. I left some to compare to the thicker one’s. The thin one’s had a crunch like cookies and the thicker satisfied the “biscuit” criteria.😊 My husband said they were good enough to repeat. They passed the test.

Get the Young Living Cookbook and get cooking. Click on the Young Living link on the page. It will have my information already filled in. Just follow the prompts. Welcome to the YLEO family and YLEO cooking.

Einkorn Waffles and Pancake Mix

This mix is a blend of Einkorn flour, brown rice flour, Amaranth, Tapioca flour,Sorghum flour and Garbanzo(Chickpea) flour.

My first try was edible and that’s all I can really say about that. I left iut the syrup and the vanilla flavoring. You wouldn’t think that would matter but it did. The vanilla, not so much but the removal of the sweetener was a mistake. Because I’m vegan I used E-nerG egg substitute. I didn’t let it sit long enough before i used it.

On my next try, I used blue agave sweetener and I allowed the egg substitute to fully complete its transformation.

The batter was a little thicker than I like but the waffles were much better. I will try again using the egg replacement equivalent of 2 eggs and I may add a little more milk if needed. The Einkorn really absorbs the liquid. I will keep you posted.

Einkorn Pancake and Waffle Mix

Join my journey through the Young Living nutrition products. The recipe for the waffles are on the bag. Click on the Young Living link on this page and purchase the book.

Gary’s True Grit Einkorn Flour

What the heck is Einkorn flour? According to The Young Living Cookbook, “Einkorn is the original “staff of life” grain, dating back to the beginning of agriculture. This grain is unhybridized and has a low gluten level. It is higher in protein, phosphorous, potassium and vitamin B6, twice as much vitamin A, 4 times more beta carotene and lutein and 5 times more riboflavin than our modern wheat grain.

That all sounds good but what does it taste like? Many of us had trouble going from white flour to 100% whole wheat. Is this going to be difficult? Like any other product you have know their properties and might have to make some cooking, taste and mouth-feel adjustments. In the next few posts I will share my experiences with this ancient grain.

The Young Living Cookbook

When I decided to re-activate my account I knew the nutrition area would be my dominant focus. How do you use YLEO in food preparation? It has been made easy to know which oils are ingestible. They are labeled Vitality. To avoid wasting my time and product I purchased the Young Living Cookbook. These recipes have been submitted and tested by YL cooks. I knew that some adjustments would be made because we follow a vegetarian/ vegan dietary lifestyle. Sometimes eating out or at other people’s homes you have only vegetarian options. Otherwise I will follow the recipes 😉.

So let’s do this.

Purchase the cookbook and join me on the journey. Click on the YLEO link to purchase.

My SHE-RO

I had all these plans to submit posts a minimum of twice a week. I had planned what I was going to cover. I was super organized. And then…

My grandson brought home a gift that he shared with everyone except his mother. It was the flu. His dad, sister, grandma (me) and grandpa fell like dominoes. The first to get better was the gift giver of course. My granddaughter had a really rough time. Her fever would break and spike to 102+ within a couple of hours. Finally she was taken to the doctor and that’s when we discovered we had the flu strand A. Didn’t really know what that meant except we were plenty sick. My husband and I took care of each other as best we could between our daughter’s visits. The worst was finally over but it has taken the adults several weeks to get completely over it. I am beginning to have energy last more than a minute.

My daughter had the task of taking care of all of us while teaching her classes, leading workshops and editing her libretto. She is my SHE-RO.

Thank you Baby Girl. ❤❤❤

Dangerous Ground

The President of the United States is refusing to honor a constitutionally legal subpoena as I understand it. I wonder has he thought about the repercussions of his refusal to honor the supoena?

His example is giving everyone who is ever subpoenaed the precedent to disregard it and there would be nothing the prosecution, defense attorney or judge could do about it. Thus rendering subpoenas powerless.

Now for those who think I am anti-Trump because you have assumed I am a progressive Democrat because I am black consider this scenario.

Imagine you were on trial and the person that could prove you were innocent refused to testify. A subpoena is issued. They refuse to honor it. The President didn’t so why should I? Off to jail or prison you go.

His behavior doesn’t only affect his life but all of ours. Has he considered that. Or maybe this is part of his plan. For sure, this is dangerous ground.

Congress and SC judges if you stand by and allow this to happen, you have just lost your jobs. If the executive branch is above the law or any branch is above the law, there is no need for the law or lawmakers or adjudicators. Dangerous Ground.

This is not a political issue. This is a living in this democratic republic we call the United State of America issue. Both sides of the isle need to unite to do what is right.

Right now we are standing on dangerous ground.

Fractured US

Last night I watched a news report on the proven influence Russia had on the 2016 Houston elections. The method was to post divisive, inflammatory information that were known hot buttons here. None of what was posted was true but it was the catalysts for angry protesters to hit the streets. My elders would say these instigators would throw the rock and hide their hands. Then just sit back and watch.

What caused them to have been so successful? US! We are fractured. That makes us prime prey for preditors.

When I was a kid I had the perception that even with all our internal problems, we would stand together against external forces. Now it seems we can’t run fast enough toward them if it promotes our hate-filled cause.

US, this is Us.

We are fractured and we need to get it together. Healing can happen if we stop believing the worst about everyone before we have gotten to know them.

US, let’s begin the healing process.