fruit

Re-Purposing Kitchen Tools

by ladypbwiggins

In 2015 we had what I thought then was a major dietary change because of my husband’s heart challenges. We had already decided to eat only turkey and seafood. The individual cuts of meat were getting expensive.  I thought why buy ground turkey and other turkey parts. Why not buy a whole turkey and break it down. I bought a meat cleaver, a boning knife, meat grinding attachment for my Kitchenaid, a cast iron skillet and a cast iron stove top grill. I almost broke my arm congratulating myself.  I bought an organically fed turkey and got to work. Just as I thought I had the cuts I wanted and freshly ground turkey. Then things changed…..again.  

We are no longer eating meat. What do I do with all these cooking tools?

I thought about all the fruit that could be difficult. Where would I lose the most fruit trying to slice the skin off? What would be the hardest to cut?  The pineapple.

Is cutting the outside of a pineapple a challenge for anyone else? It seems I lose so much pineapple using my chef’s knife.  I decided to put my theory to the test. I the end off the pineapple and then half with the meat cleaver. I used the boning knife to cut the pineapple around the edges to separate it from the outer skin. It went around the curves so close and so smoothly. As you can see in the last picture it cut very close losing almost no meat of the pineapple. Fast, easy and profitable. Need I say more.

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I later tried the boning knife on a watermelon and it was butter. I lost virtually no meat of the watermelon. I am confident it will work on other melons. y next experiment is the meat cleaver versus the coconut.

What tools are in your kitchen that can be re-purpose? Share them with us.

 

The Medicine Matrix

by ladypbwiggins

If our western diet is so healthy why are we so sick? Diabetes is rising, Obesity is epidemic, heart disease is #1 and we are a developed nation. In the last year I have become more aware of how our medical system works. We treat symptoms not illnesses. Think about it. You have a pain. You are given a pill to get rid of the pain. But what about, what caused the pain in the first place? I have some personal experiences that speak to this.

A few years ago, I went in for a physical. The doctor said I had high blood pressure. I didn’t agree but I took the medication anyway. Big mistake. I took a couple of doses. I felt worst after taking them than I did before. They dropped my blood pressure so low I could not function. I stopped taking them but continued to take the diuretic. I later discovered that the diuretic lowered blood pressure also. I stopped taking them. I increased my vegetable intake and reduced the sodas and fried foods. Every check up for a year showed I did not have high blood pressure. The symptom- high blood pressure, the cause- bad eating habits. Recently, I went through the same thing with a different doctor. I said no pills. I started eating fast food again. Not all the time but just enough to have an affect. I stopped. Pressure decreased. Had I not taken charge and convinced them to try regulating my pressure with a change in my eating habits, I would be stuck taking pills that are hard to get off of. Their pills would not have fixed the problem.

I had another doctor tell me recently that she was delighted that I didn’t want pills. She said it was rare to find patients who didn’t want pills but wanted to find the problem and solve it. Most people wanted what they thought was a quick fix. the pill. It is just a band-aide.

Don’t get me wrong, doctors have their place and so do pills. But a healthy body is not provided by pills. Getting to the source of the dis-ease and treating it does. Most of our dis-ease is caused by eating this western diet that is meat, fast food convenient, low vegetable and low fruit, high sugar based.

I am also convinced had we continued more diligently to eat a high plant, low meat diet my husband would not have had this last heart attack.  We have not been eating as well as before but we are returning to our whole vegetable and fruit juices, no soda and minimal fast food. I am continuing my laboratory (kitchen) visits. Real minimal. I can’t say none because sometimes life will get in the way of good plans.

I am returning to Hippocrates’ declaration.

Let medicine be your food and food your medicine.

This is my focus and intent. Modern medicine is the emergency plan.

Breaking out of the Food and Medicine Matrix as much as possible. My education continues.

Questionable Fruit Trees

by ladypbwiggins

We say what we are feeling. I hear you saying, “No, I don’t say what I am feeling because that would stir up a whole lot of trouble.” I beg to disagree. Your mouth may not say it but your face, your eyes, the twist of your mouth, and even the way you sit or stand says so much more. Have you ever listened to someone say all the right words but you didn’t believe anything they said. Sometimes it is because of your attitude but most times it is because you got the message that their body was sending.

While Yshua (Jesus) was teaching about our words condemning or justifying us, he made this statement.

“Either make the tree good, and the fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; the tree will be know by its fruit”

Usually we focus on the fruit but today the tree sat up and screamed, I am what’s important. If the tree is unhealthy, anything it produces is not profitable to anyone. You and I are the trees. If our insides are sick, filled with mean, unforgiving thoughts; if the growth and depth of our roots have been hindered by grudges and anger then no matter how nice we try to say it, the fruit we produce will be lacking in nourishment for ourselves or anyone around us. The messages we send verbally or bodily are the fruit our trees produce. A bad tree can produce something that looks like good fruit but when you bite into it you realize it is not good. That is much like the right sounding words we say but underneath them or embedded in them is all the rottenness housed inside us.

Let us let go of the anger, grudges, meanness, unforgiving evil thoughts.

Let the plant food of the Spirit and Word of God not be hindered in reaching the roots of our mind.

Let the leaves of your tree be green and full of life.

Let the shade your tree provides signal rest, refreshing, and peace.

Let the fruit from your tree bring nourishment: encouragement, compassion, truth, fairness and real love.

Let it be known that you are a good tree with good fruit.

Just in case you think I am excluding myself from these admonitions, know that they hit me first. I had to face myself in the mirror of these words.