Whole Food Carrot Cake Recipe

Because so many of you asked 

for this... here it is!

Whole Food Carrot Cake

3 eggs 

3/4 cup buttermilk (I used raw goats milk soured with 1 tbsp. raw apple cider vinegar)

3/4 cup butter from grass fed cows

3/4 cup sucanat sugar

3 tsp. vanilla

3 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. unrefined sea salt

2 cups whole grain flour (oat, spelt... whatever you please)

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

2 cups shredded carrots

1 cup shredded coconut

1 cup finely chopped walnuts

1 cup raisins

1 - 8 oz can pineapple with natural juice, no added sugar (I used the organic canned pineapple from the Coop, it is  a 14 oz can.  I will use the whole can the next time I make this yummy cake)

(All ingredients organic and naturally raised)

Preheat oven to 350 F.

1.   Soak the cup of raisins in the pineapple juice.

2.   Beat eggs, then beat in buttermilk and butter.  I gently heat the butter to melt it.

3.   Blend in sugar, vanilla and cinnamon.

4.   Mix in flour, b. soda, b. powder, and salt.

5.   Shred carrots on a cheese grater and blend into batter.

6.   Add coconut and walnuts.

7.   Chop pineapple pieces in blender to a puree and mix into batter.

8.   Add raisins and the pineapple juice and mix in well.

9.   Butter two 8" round cake pans, divide batter evenly between two pans

10. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until cakes is pulling from edge of pans and knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Allow to cool until just warm and turn out on cooling racks.  When completely cool, frost the bottom layer, add the top layer and frost top and sides completely.

Frosting

Organic heavy cream, two 8 oz containers

Organic Neufchatel Cheese, one 8 oz package 

2 - 4 tbsp. dark maple syrup

1 tbsp. vanilla

Put all ingredients in a mixing bowl and use an electric hand mixer to whip into frosting consistency.

Enjoy this super yummy cake for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!  Paula

Update & Cake Eating

Have your cake and eat it too   & Book update!

So, about that birthday cake and coffee for breakfast... this IS getting to be a habit!  (See earlier post on cake for breakfast, July 30th, 2013.) We had much fun celebrating my sister's 50th birthday at Lake Ozonia around a campfire, roasting grass-fed, beef hot dogs and eating carrot cake (that is a 100% whole food carrot cake!) and I still can not figure out how she, who is older than I, looks younger??  Oh well! That's the birthday cake above, yummy.  Had a big piece for breakfast today, with a cup of coffee.  Camp habits die hard.   Want to learn how to bake whole food cakes, pies, cookies, and other goodies? Call me, we can do it at my house OR I will let you know when the Local Living Venture does our annual whole food baking class.  Yes, I am the whole food baker present to teach this class.  Workshops are posted on this Local Living Venture web page OR you can sign up for their newsletter and get their workshop notices. http://www.sustainablelivingproject.net/workshops-groups OK, the other news:  I have written a few updates and revisions for my first book, see book picture above. (No, not the cake picture.  Forget the cake, it is all gone!)  If you have a copy of my book and would like to keep abreast of my updates, send me an email.  I will zap you off the file on updates. Be well, have fun, and eat cake for breakfast (whole food cake)!  Love, Paula

Sustainable Superfoods

Superfoods:  used to describe food with high nutrient or phytochemical content that may confer health benefits, There is no legal definition of the term and it has been alleged that this has led to it being misleadingly used as a marketing tool.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfood

Blueberries, a so-called 'superfood' that actually does not have unusually dense nutrient content.

The "buzz" about super foods never ceases to amaze me.  We are told to eat: (and this is a seriously incomplete list)

goji berries from southeastern Europe and Asia (by the way, they are nightshade foods, for those who avoid nightshades)

acai berries from Central and South America

quinoa from the Andes Mountains of Peru

chia seeds from central and southern Mexico and Guatemala

dark chocolate from Central and South America, Africa and South Asian countries

wild salmon from Alaska

Why do I bring this topic up?  For many reasons, really, and I will go into just a couple of my reasons here.  If you want the full monty, give me a call, we can chat! 

So many food related writings, cookbooks, articles, etc. are about superfoods.  The word is blasted everywhere I look.  This is a great marketing tool to get people thinking that they need to be buying up every mentioned superfood or their health is in jeopardy.  Really, who wants to miss out on these nutritional powerhouses?  My cellular health could suffer!

I must tell you, any food in its whole state is a "superfood."  Whole foods are just as they come from nature; nothing added, nothing taken away.  I like to take this one step farther and include the heritage state of foods in that definition.  If we were so fortunate to have access to foods in their genetically un-manipulated state, we would have true nutritional power houses to eat at every meal!  Most modern versions of food, both plant and animal origins, have been cross bred and hybridized.  Despite the well meant intentions of these changes, it has an impact on the nutritional quality of the food.  For example, true wild black berries have much higher levels of nutrients (those nutrients we know exist and those nutrients we have not yet discovered!) than say garden cross bred varieties of berries.  When genetics are altered, characteristics are lost to acquire the gains being sought out.

...there are scientific indications that, by favoring certain aspects of a plant's development, other aspects may be retarded.  A study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition in 2004, entitled Changes in USDA Food Composition Data for 43 Garden Crops, 1950 to 1999, compared nutritional analysis of vegetables done in 1950 and in 1999, and found substantial decreases in six of 13 nutrients measured, including 6% of protein and 38% of riboflavin. Reductions in calcium, phosphorus, iron and ascorbic acid were also found. The study, conducted at the Biochemical Institute, University of Texas at Austin, concluded in summary: "We suggest that any real declines are generally most easily explained by changes in cultivated varieties between 1950 and 1999, in which there may be trade-offs between yield and nutrient content.[2]"   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_breeding

For a fun listen about how food and it's nutritional content have changed over the millenniums, listen to this edition of NPR's Fresh Air  with Terry Gross and Jo Robinson, author of Eating on the Wild Side.   http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/07/10/195592468/Eating-On-The-Wild-Side-A-Field-Guide-To-Nutritious-Food

In my training in natural healing, herbs and whole food nutrition, one concept kept coming back to me:  "eat food from under your own tree, out of your own back yard."  I think this speaks loudly of how our superfoods are best found: close to home.  I am quite certain, but I could be wrong, that the Himalayan peoples are not importing our wild blackberries as their latest superfood.  I think perhaps that the cultures living high in the Andes Mountains are also not importing our very nutritious buckwheat as a superfood.  What I am trying to say, is get your superfoods from as close to home as you can.  Close to home means fresher foods and the food does not have to travel thousands of miles to get to your plate or bowl.  What a savings on fossil fuels!  

Looking for local superfoods?  Visit farmers markets, join a CSA*, go to your local farm stand and buy the whole foods being grown locally and sustainably by environmentally conscientious farmers.

What better way to rev up your health to pure radiance than through eating what grows locally and in season?  Wild leeks, asparagus, spinach, salad greens, green onions and peas in the spring (peas into midsummer this year at Martin's Farm Stand!); salad greens, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, beets, kale, collards, Swiss chard, garlic scapes and then the garlic bulbs as we move through the summer; parsnips, turnips, rutabaga, celeriac, potatoes, burdock, daikon, salsify, horseradish, squash... the possibilities are endless, right here in your "back yard!" Embrace the superfoods that grow locally!

In summary:

1.  All whole foods are superfoods.

2.  Eating foods grown close to your home is sustainable for the planet.

3.  Need more info?  Call me, we can chat over a cup of locally grown, superfood, herb tea!  Stinging nettle and wild raspberry leaf tea with a hint of peppermint, perhaps!

*CSA: community supported agriculture:  you buy a share of the farm's food production and get fresh food delivered to you or you pick up on a weekly basis. (Frequency and timing of pickups depends on the farm's CSA plan.)

Health and Healing Hint

Gentle exfoliation of the skin improves circulation to the skin, removes dead skin cells, and encourages new skin cell growth.  Take this idea and move it to your scalp.  Gently scrubbing the scalp with an exfoliating blend of natural substances is good for the scalp and just may slow down hair loss as well as encourage new growth.  What have you got to lose?

In an earlier newsletter, I included my half and half mix of sea salt and organic sugar scrub for facial skin.  Use the same blend and gently "scrub" the scalp.  You can blend the salt - sugar mix into your shampoo or use the blend alone, before shampooing.  In the shampoo is easiest to get the "scrubbing" salt and sugar to the scalp.

Another gentle way to stimulate scalp circulation is with essential oils.  Blend 2-4 drops of rosemary pure essential oil into a teaspoon of carrier oil (olive, almond, apricot kernel, sesame) and rub into the scalp after using the salt - sugar scrub.  Leave the oil on your scalp for 1-2 hours, or overnight, before shampooing.

Mix it up!  Add 4 drops rosemary pure essential oil to a tablespoon of the sugar - salt mix to scrub, exfoliate and stimulate with rosemary all in one action.  Rinse the salt - sugar out of your hair but hold off on shampooing for and hour or two, or overnight.

Pay attention to how tingly your scalp feels.  Does your hair start to look fuller and/or healthier over the months?

No Body Is Perfect: Birthday Cake for Brunch?!

www.HandsOnHealthHH.com Holistic Hugs & Peaceful Blessings! Paula M. Youmell, RN, MS, CHCCertified Holistic Health, Nutrition & Fitness Counselor (315) 265-0961 "Just lift the corner of the cloudsand the sun is ALWAYS shining!" Eli Schechter

Nobody is Perfect? I get comments all the time: from clients, readers of my book, friends on the streets, "I can not be as perfect as you with food and health choices, because I like... junk food, etc., etc., etc. Despite my efforts to try and explain, I am not perfect either, my words are generally ignored.  Perhaps holding someone else's choices as too high to aspire to makes it easy to do nothing to change one's own personal health and lifestyle choices.  "If I can't do it like that, why bother?" So, I have to tell you, I am not prefect either.  It is about making the best choices in any given moment.  Living in the present, living for the moment, not bashing oneself for yesterday's choices or lamenting about the "bad" choices you might make tomorrow. Enter Jake's 14th birthday:  I made a very yummy, whole food birthday cake.  See above. The next morning (well, it was more like 1 PM) I had a cup of coffee and a piece of cake for my brunch.  See, not so perfect!  I had a big handful of blueberries as well! It was 1 PM:  I do not obsess over eating breakfast, in the AM, because it is the meal to break the fast of the night time before or the way to rev my metabolism for the day.  If I am not hungry, I do not eat.  Who made those rules anyhow?  Very simple, living in the moment's needs. Not hungry for breakfast, don't eat!  I was hungry by 1 PM and left over birthday cake sounded splendid! With that said, I would not eat a commercial bakery cake (for breakfast or at any other time of day!); a boxed, cake mix cake; or even a "from scratch" white flour / white sugar cake. The above pictured, whole food cake was made with: 100% whole grain spelt flour unrefined, sucanat sugar crystals (1/2 cup instead of the recipes 2 cup suggestion) local, free-range eggs local, grass-fed milk vanilla extract grass-fed butter my homemade strawberry jam between the layers (very low sugar jam made from Martin's berries) frosting from grass-fed heavy cream and black cherry juice concentrate For a class on whole food baking check out the Local Living Venture's web site, sign up for their emails... I will volunteer teach a class this fall to prep you for holiday baking. http://www.sustainablelivingproject.net/   I also teach classes in my home, group and private sessions. My justification:  A piece of whole grain toast with butter, soft fried egg and bowl of berries... same ingredients, different configuration!  So I ate the cake!  (I grew up with Bill Cosby telling me it was just fine to eat cake for breakfast!) Life is not about being perfect (and are we not all perfect anyhow?), it is about perfection in the moment! This picture is the next day's 1 PM brunch:  Local free range eggs; local, grass-fed cheddar and local blueberries in a scrumptious omelet.  I added the blueberries just before I folded the omelet and slipped it onto my plate.  Prevents the berries from becoming cooked blueberries.

Spare Moments, Peaceful Moments

www.HandsOnHealthHH.com

Holistic Hugs & Peaceful Blessings!

Paula M. Youmell, RN, MS, CHC

Certified Holistic Health, Nutrition & Fitness Counselor

(315) 265-0961

"Just lift the corner of the clouds

and the sun is

ALWAYS shining!" Eli Schechter

I should have been a cat!  

Their peaceful moments

are, well, so peaceful!

“Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.”       ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Movement Magic

I truly appreciate the minimalist philosophy in shoes for walking, hiking, etc.  I think we do better in many ways when we are closely connected to the earth: balance, stability, muscle development, etc.

Recently I purchased a pair of Earth brand Prosper shoes, see picture below, for this minimalist purpose.

I like being able to feel the ground under my feet.  Yes, barefoot is fine with me.

My thoughts:  I am returning the Earth shoes, as the soles are too stiff and hard.  I am going back to a pair of inexpensive water shoes; the micro-fiber, mesh ones that stretch and pull on my feet.  Their soles are completely flexible (I can roll them into a ball!) and I can feel everything under my feet.  They also get a great grip on hiking trails.  I recommend these as a cheap, summer walking shoe!

For climbing high peaks in the heat of summer... I always go back to my Teva sandals.  My feet get fresh air and the soles are quite flexible.

They are ripping apart after 15 years of mountain climbing. I would say Tevas are a good 'bang for the buck and the miles!'

Blueberries!

Local U-Pick Blueberry hint from a HOH reader!  Thank you Karen!

"I just thought I would pass along a place for U-pick blueberries.  It is on 11B almost to Malone.  Just a short distance the other side of West Bangor from Potsdam.  Turn right onto Spaulding road (sign is there for u-pick blueberries) and it is a short distance up on the left. 

He has lots of yummy blueberries to pick and a very nice older gentleman.  I went last night and he is open 6am to dusk, so you can go anytime. 

I have been going here for three years.  Last year I think I went back three times.  I froze them on cookie sheets and put them in ziplock bags.  I ate them frozen, very good frozen when you let them thaw in your mouth a little.  

Just thought I would share in case you are looking for a local blueberry patch. 

They started with just a few plants years ago and have split and planted through the years.  They now have a very large field of berries.  Last year they were rotting on the bushes because there were not enough people coming to pick them. 

He does sell them at the Malone fair. I don’t have his name, his daughter is taking over the business this year."

Happy Picking, Paula  (via Karen!)