Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Flax Bread

In the Jan/Feb (2010) issue of Hallelujah Acres' HealthNews magazine is a recipe for flax bread. I tried it and liked it. It's all raw and comes out very flat and thin, suitable for use as a wrap or eaten by itself. (Requires a dehydrator.)

Because of the flax this bread is loaded with Omega-3 EFA's and the flax and apple add loads of fiber.

2 cups ground flax seeds
2 cups water
2 apples, peeled, cored, quartered
1/2 tsp. cinnamon (I also added 1/2 tsp. of nutmeg -- add more of either to taste)
1 cup raisins

•Grind the flax seeds in a coffee bean grinder.
•Put apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, and water in a blender and blend well.
•Pour apple/water slurry into a large bowl and add the flax seed meal and raisins (make sure raisins aren't clumped together)
•Stir all ingredients together thoroughly and let stand for 30 minutes.
•Put 1/4 to 1/3 of the mix onto a Teflex sheet (I didn't have Teflex so used wax paper) the same size as a large dehydrator mesh sheet. Put the Teflex/wax paper onto the mesh sheet and put into the dehydrator. (I filled up five shelves in the dehydrator with the mix resulting from the recipe.)

[Note: the mix is thick and can be hard to spread out on the Teflex/wax paper. I used a rubber/plastic spatula continually dipped in water and it made smoothing the mix out much easier. Make the spread about 1/8" to 1/4" thick with no holes.]

•Dehydrate at 105 degrees for two hours.
•Take sheets out, flip the bread over and peel off the Teflex/wax paper and lay the bread directly on the dehydrator mesh sheets and dehydrate for another 1.5 - 2.0 hours at 105 degrees. (The thicker the spread of the mix, the longer it takes to dehydrate.)
•Take out before they get crisp and you can easily roll the sheets into wraps.

Here's what mine looked like:

Coming out of the dehydrator, the edges are ragged:

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I used a pizza cutter to trim the ragged edges and make them into "square" pieces . . .

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. . . resulting in a nice piece of thin flatbread (with scraps left for snacks):

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Here are all the pieces trimmed:

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Stored in a quart-sized ziplock bag (along with the edge scraps) ready for the refrigerator:

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I'm thinking half of one of the sheets, covered with a thin layer of almond butter, covered with a large lettuce leaf, with a banana cut lengthwise on top of the lettuce leaf, and rolled into a wrap would make a filling lunch. And it's all raw!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

The Manhattan Declaration

On November 20, 2009, a 4,700-word statement called "The Manhattan Declaration," signed by some 150 Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant Evangelical leaders, was released to the public at a press conference in Washington, D.C. This is the opening paragraph from the press release:

WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 20, 2009—Today a group of prominent Christian clergy, ministry leaders and scholars released the Manhattan Declaration, which addresses the sanctity of life, traditional marriage and religious liberty. The 4,700-word declaration issues a clarion call to Christians to adhere to their convictions and informs civil authorities that the signers will not—under any circumstance—abandon their Christian consciences. Drafted by Dr. Robert George, Dr. Timothy George and Chuck Colson and signed by more than 150 Orthodox, Catholic and evangelical Christian leaders, the Manhattan Declaration was made public at a noon ET press conference held in the Lisagor Room at the National Press Club.

Following is a summary of the purpose of The Manhattan Declaration from the
web site:

A CALL OF CHRISTIAN CONSCIENCE

Christians, when they have lived up to the highest ideals of their faith, have defended the weak and vulnerable and worked tirelessly to protect and strengthen vital institutions of civil society, beginning with the family.

We are Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christians who have united at this hour to reaffirm fundamental truths about justice and the common good, and to call upon our fellow citizens, believers and non-believers alike, to join us in defending them. These truths are:
  1. the sanctity of human life
  2. the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife
  3. the rights of conscience and religious liberty.
Inasmuch as these truths are foundational to human dignity and the well-being of society, they are inviolable and non-negotiable. Because they are increasingly under assault from powerful forces in our culture, we are compelled today to speak out forcefully in their defense, and to commit ourselves to honoring them fully no matter what pressures are brought upon us and our institutions to abandon or compromise them. We make this commitment not as partisans of any political group but as followers of Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Lord, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Participants in the writing, signing, and publishing of this document are asking like-minded Christians to affirm their agreement with its intent and principles by reading the statement and signing it here.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

"What Just Happened?!"

At the church I have been attending of late, the pastor, Dr. Munro, usually prepares questions for the older children (who attend the preaching service) to discuss when they go to their respective classes after the service is over. The questions help the children discuss what they heard in the sermon. The children discuss the questions with their teachers and sometimes draw pictures that represent their impression of the sermon.

At present Dr. Munro is doing a short series on the Christian doctrine of the Rapture of the Church—the belief that all believers in Christ will be removed from the earth (the deceased first, followed by those alive) to meet Christ in the air above the earth. (The event itself is described in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; the dynamics in 1 Corinthians 15:50-53.) This is not the Second Coming of Christ, but an event that removes all Christians from the earth (Revelation 3:10) prior to a time of great judgment that comes against those who have rebelled against God. If you are not familiar with the biblical teaching on the Rapture (Christians differ, as you might expect), Dr. Munro taught last week that it is an event that takes place instantaneously—the common view among evangelical Christians who hold to this doctrine. One moment, Christians are here on earth; the next minute they have vanished.

Well -- today he shared with the congregation a picture drawn by a fourth grade boy who heard last week's sermon. He should have shown it on the large video screens, but didn't—he just described it:

The boy turned his paper horizontally and drew a vertical line down the middle, separating the page into two equal-sized panels. Both panels were a child's rendering of the inside of the vast Calvary Church sanctuary—rows and rows of pews.

In the left-hand panel there was a clock on the wall that showed the time: 10:47 a.m.—the middle of the worship service. The pews were filled with innumerable circles representing the heads of those in attendance. The place was packed; not an empty seat anywhere.

The right-hand panel showed the identical scene of clock and pews. Only this time the clock read 10:48 a.m.—one minute later—and the pews were all empty except for a few scattered people on the back row. Above one of the heads of the people on the back row was a cartoon-like speech bubble, pointing to one of the people. Inside the bubble were the words, "What just happened?!"

This fourth-grader was communicating two things: One, he understood the nature of the Rapture to be the instantaneous removal of Christians from the earth—10:47 they're here, 10:48 they're not. And second, at such a young age, he had picked up the idea that folks who sit on the back row in church aren't really Christians at all—that they would be left wondering "what just happened?!" after the Rapture.

Calvary Church is well-versed in this doctrine and they "got it" immediately as Dr. Munro delivered the punch line. There were waves of laughter. Thousands of people in the sanctuary wanted to turn around to see who was sitting on the back row this morning—all in good fun, of course. And in his Scottish brogue, Dr. Munro, in an "I'm just saying" kind of way, said, "Front row in church, front row in heaven!"

Okay -- you had to be there. But it was great fun. And all "out of the mouth of a babe." Amazing what children pick up when we don't think they're listening (for good and for ill).

How Not to Offend

Michael Pollan offers a wimpy defense of his use of the word "mostly" in his now-famous motto about how we should eat: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." With the word "mostly" he succeeded in offending both the meat-eaters and the vegetarians/vegans. He called "mostly" a "compromise." He says, "You can't please everyone"—yet it appears that's exactly what he was trying to do; mollify the multitudes without taking a stand. The sign of a great politician (or perhaps a really wise man who plans to eventually remove the "mostly" in a future book—just winning the battle by inches at a time instead of all at once).

Michael Pollan is a very smart guy. But I don't think for a minute that, knowing what he knows, he believes eating any meat at all is a healthful thing to do. Until he writes a book debating the findings of Dr. Colin Campbell in The China Study I think he ought to humble himself before those who have scientific abilities he lacks. He's done amazing work in raising the subject of food and eating in the national consciousness—and has moved gradually toward a plant-based position in his books. But he should go ahead and make the leap.