Redesigned Carrot Cupcakes Recipe

This is the second Carrot Cupcake recipe I've created. I decided the first recipe could be easier and, yes, even yummier. So I set about to make a newer, better recipe. Motivated by the upcoming celebration of our son's marriage to his college sweetheart, I spent the week before the event (dubbed the I Do BBQ) planning, shopping and making the dishes and dessert.

Our son Nur and his college sweetheart Annaliese met over 11 years ago. Nur participated in the Anime club on campus and met Annaliese there. Smitten from their first meeting, Nur spent much of the years winning her over—a true romantic tale. Both being minimalists and creatures of habit, they seem made for each other, highlighted by their love of Anime and annual vacation to Comic-Con in San Diego. The two lovebirds married in a private ceremony at San Francisco City Hall (a beautiful and cheap venue) on June 19th. The I Do BBQ allowed the extended family to meet Annaliese and share their well-wishes with the newlyweds.

Run the carrots through your juicer and add the filtered water. Add coconut oil, honey and eggs to a medium-size bowl and mix thoroughly then add to the carrots.

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. I used quinoa flour and buckwheat flour, but you can choose any flours you want—make it gluten-free or add 2 cups of one type of flour. Your choice.

Add the carrot mixture to the flour mixture and mix thoroughly. Add the vanilla, lemon juice, walnuts (optional if you like) and raisons. Add a bit of water if the mixture is too dry. Batter should be wet enough to easily scoop into cupcake papers. Sprinkle with some natural sugar and bake.

Viola! The buckwheat flour made these cupcakes look like chocolate cupcakes. I certainly fooled a few when they bit into the delicious cake. The crowd loved em!

Carrot Cupcakes ReDesigned

from Chris Pedersen

yield 16 cupcakes

category Dessert

cuisine Vegetarian, no sugar

ingredients

3 carrots

1/2 C filtered water

2/3 C coconut oil, melted

2/3 C raw honey

2 eggs

1 C buckwheat flour

1 C quinoa flour

1 C rolled oats

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1/2 C chopped wlanuts

1/2 C raisons

1-2 Tbsp coconut sugar or sucanate

directions

1. Preheat oven to 350º

2. Run carrots through a juicer and use juice and pulp. Add water to carrots and pulp.

3. In medium bowl, mix together oil, honey and eggs. Add to carrot mixture.

4. In separate bowl, mix flours, oats, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.

5. Add carrot mixture to dry ingredients and mix well. Add vanilla, lemon juice, walnuts and raisons. Combine.

6. Scoop mixture into cupcake papers in a muffin tin. Fill to just below the top. Sprinkle coconut sugar or sucanate on top of each cupcake.

7. Bake for 20 minutes. Test with toothpick.

I elected to add some fun and decorative frosting to the cupcakes. A search for vegan cream cheese frosting yielded this perfect and easy recipe. If you want to do something similar on top of your cupcakes, take a sandwich bag and cut a teeny, tiny triangle off one bottom corner of the bag. Scoop in the frosting then squeeze from the top of the bag (this can be messy) until the frosting comes out of the hole. Decorate away!

What's your idea of a good cupcake recipe?

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The Truth About Cancer

Powerful! is the word to describe the first episode of the 9-part doc-series The Truth About Cancer: A Global Quest. I hope you're seeing this!

Ty covers the history of chemotherapy and how the pharmaceutical companies have hijacked our health system turning it into a disease system that heavily promotes the sale of drugs and pads their bottom line. You will be shocked by what he found in his quest across the globe. Ty talked to health practitioners who are healing people from cancer, but at risk of losing their license because they are not using the accepted treatment of chemotherapy and radiation.

My father died at 63 of Stage 4 Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. That was 28 years ago. He lived 4 years with the disease refusing to do chemotherapy, but rather sought more natural means to heal his body.

My life-long healthy lifestyle is home grown. Dad encouraged eating healthy, took supplements, and read Adelle Davis and other early healthy eating champions like Jethro Kloss of Back to Eden. My mother cooked meals from scratch and shunned white bread and TV dinners which came into vogue in the 50's. We also had raw milk delivered to the door each week along with bottled water. Dad also stressed exercise. My most prized possession as a young girl was a 3-speed bicycle.

When faced with cancer, it was dad's drive to be healthy that kept him alive for so long. He used food and alternative therapies like acupuncture in an effort to heal his cancer.

Eventually he put his fate into the hands of the medical system which immediately put him on chemotherapy. Six months later he was dead. The oncologist admitted my dad kept himself alive for many years longer than expected by the treatments he did, although he (the oncologist) did not understand how.

Sad that many doctors today still have no clue how to heal cancer. Instead they administer drugs and radiation that cause more cancer and keep the industry making money at the expense of a bankrupt healthcare system. Really we've lost the war on cancer. Meanwhile there is a different war—against those who practice non-harmful ways to heal cancer.

Please educate yourself about the dangers and insidious foundation of our current treatment for cancer. The only way we can turn the tide is to get people educated. You still have time to register and view the videos for The Truth About Cancer: A Global Quest.

And if you know someone who is facing cancer, please send them a link to my post I Have Cancer—6 Tips.

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I Have Cancer—6 Tips

"You have cancer," is still the worst phrase a person can hear. It changes your life forever. Sadly, you become a member of a growing class of people who feel the grief and vulnerability of having a disease that not only kills, but the conventional treatment prescribed often harms and leads to death.

I'm not going to make this post about my feelings toward the conventional approach cancer patients are subjected to. But I will be firm about what you should do.

Remember you are ultimately in charge of your health. Not the doctor. Not your family or friends. YOU! You need to make the decision for YOU. Because you have to live with the disease. It's happening in your body. Not the doctor's. Not your spouse's. Not your friend's. YOU!

1. Don't Panic
The doctor will insist you need to get treatment started right away. They will role out the conveyer belt in front of you and urge you to jump on. Enjoy the ride!

Don't panic. It took many years for the tumor/cancer to develop. You have time to make an informed decision after you consider the remaining tips.

2. Get a Second Opinion

The doctors may balk at you getting another opinion, but remember, this is about YOU. Search out other treatment centers. Do your homework. Which brings up #3...

3. Educate Yourself

There is a vast sea of research and information out there for you to explore. Get on the web and start googling.

I learned everything I could about my defective gene. Did you know the majority of genes in your DNA are exclusively for repairing things that go bad during cell division (i.e., DNA replication). Realizing that process is happening right now as you're reading this post, I hope you begin to understand how cancer might develop.

This process will help you make peace with your cancer. After all, the cancer growing in you is YOU. Your body. A symptom in your body that is sounding an alarm: "Something is wrong!"

Please take this seriously, you are in charge of your health and YOU can affect your heath with changes in lifestyle choices. People do it every day.

4. Live Life to the Fullest
I've heard it said that health is 100% diet and 100% mental. You can change your health by changing what you eat. Equally important is what you think about yourself and others, stress you're under—your overall attitude. If your'e a negative person, then you need to make some changes. Negativity breeds ill health. Here are 3 studies that show how your thoughts can make you sick.

Slow down. Take time to pamper yourself. Count your blessings—of course there are things you can be thankful for. Live your life to the fullest every day.

Shortly after my cancer diagnosis, my husband took me to Paris, fullfilling a promise he made to me years earlier while on a business trip there. We enjoyed only 5 days in Paris, but we made the most of it. That trip is still one of the best trips I've taken—living life to the fullest.

5. Change Your Diet
When I started my diet changes I hoped to stop the possibility of cancer growing in my colon. Some thought I was extreme and wondered why—some were even mean. But I didn't care what they thought. I wanted to make my body healthy and not allow cancer to grow. Create an environment in my body that could NOT sustain cancer. Yup.

After succeeding, I discovered what happened to me was an example of epigenetics. No matter what my genes said,  I could control my gene expression (good or bad) by my environment—what I chose to eat and drink, think, or be exposed to.

So where do you start with changing your diet? Begin by eliminating processed food loaded with dead food, chemicals and sugar. Sugar has been added to everything. "Nom, nom!" said the cancer cell—makes me grow big and strong! Eat fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and legumes. Drink lots of purified water. If your body needs animal proteins, stick with wild-caught or strictly grass-fed with no hormones or antibiotics. I eat eggs from chickens eating what they forage as they free-range or fed organic food.

Don't make it complicated.

6. Beware!
I think when doctors get their medical degree they lose their ability to think critically. They are trained to focus on assessing the symptoms in order to apply an appropriate diagnosis, which can then be used to prescribe a medication. So when they tell you diet will not affect your cancer, they are not thinking.

Really? The cancer can be healed with a drug, but not food? So (you might ask) the reason you have cancer is because you haven't taken the right drugs?

Nonsense!

Here's another tool to add to your toolbox so you might get a fair shake and make it out alive if you get a cancer diagnosis. Click below to get a FREE guide from Chris Wark (fellow cancer conquerer) on what you should ask your oncologist.

Please pass his on to anyone you know who is facing cancer. I'm sure you know several since cancer has become a pandemic in this country. Remember when you didn't know anybody who had cancer? I'm old enough to remember.

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The Truth About Cancer: A Global Quest

It's finally here—the 9-part docu-series you won't want to miss. Another groundbreaking video series from Ty Bollinger of The Truth About Cancer. He is passionate about bringing you knowledge about non-harming cancer treatments.

Starts October 13th, Tuesday 9 PM EST

The series is FREE and starts October 13th when episode 1 airs at 9 PM Eastern Time. Don't miss out! Get signed up to get linked up.

Over 131 doctors, researchers, scientists and survivors from 27 countries across the globe come together in unity to reveal their amazing new findings. It’s not just news—it's a movement! The Truth About Cancer!

If you or anyone you love has been touched by cancer, you owe it to them and to yourself to watch this explosive FREE docu-series, The Truth About Cancer: A Global Quest.

Watch the Trailer

The information you gain by watching could save your life or the life of a loved one. This is my passion, dear readers. We do not need to be slaves to the conventional medicine conveyor belt treatments for the most dreaded disease of our time.

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Wisdom Wednesday

More than half of Americans take medications. Many experience side effects, but may not realize the medication also creates nutrient deficiencies. Check out mytavin.com to learn about nutrient deficiencies triggered by a drug. The site lists symptoms of those deficiencies so you can adjust your diet or supplement intake to compensate.

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Paradigm Shift: Disease Care to Healthcare

Would you like to avoid chronic diseases, keep your family healthy and discover healthcare that actually works? This week you have the opportunity to listen to the Evolution of Medicine Summit FREE. Starting Monday September 21 - 28, 2015 at 10AM (USA Eastern Time) each day you'll hear from doctors and health professionals who are making a difference. 

Today, our healthcare system works well when you have an emergency, but to treat chronic illnesses like heart disease, diabetes, obesity and cancer, we need to reinvent healthcare to help you live a longer, happier and healthier life. Change the current system of disease care to true healthcare.

The Evolution of Medicine Summit is FREE and online. Register to attend.

Chronic diseases could kill 52 million per year…

Plus, the summit will introduce the very first affordable, ACA-compliant alternative to health insurance, Liberty Direct!

WHY ATTEND?

With 30+ presentations that give you information to effectively prevent and manage chronic disease, the Evolution of Medicine Summit will discuss:

• Our current health system and its limitations (plus, alternatives you can access!)
• How to take advantage of health technology
• Share a vision for an empowered, proactive and participatory healthcare system
• Preventing chronic disease and taking control of your health today

It will take all of us, patients and practitioners, to create a medical system that truly combats chronic disease. Join me at The Evolution of Medicine Summit!

Register for FREE now at the following link:

https://ji177.isrefer.com/go/summitreg/chrispedersen/

Here are a few of the incredible experts who will speak at The Evolution of Medicine Summit:

• Suzanne Somers, What is making Your TOX-SICK
• David Perlmutter, MD, The Gut, Brain and Chronic Disease
• Rangan Chatterjee, MD, The Doctor of the Future
• Mark Sisson, Hidden Genetic Switches
• Chris Kresser, MS, LAc, Healthcare from Scratch

With 30+ presenters sharing their expertise about healthcare, this invaluable (and FREE) resource is intended for patients and practitioners everywhere!

Better yet, if you register today, you’ll have access to the following FREE GIFTS as soon as you register!

• Free Gift #1: Chris Kresser’s talk, “Healthcare from Scratch,” which discusses the key role of the “exposome” in chronic disease, evolutionary mismatch and its relevance to medicine and his insights on scaling the foundations of “healthcare from scratch”
• Free Gift #2: Evolution of Medicine Founder James Maskell’s talk, “Evolution or Revolution? The Rationale for Healthcare from Scratch,” which discusses learnings from the 2014 Evolution of Medicine Summit and the 8 opposites that truly demand an environment for creating “healthcare from scratch.”

I've listened to both of the above talks and they are mind-blowing. We are certainly on the cusp of a paradigm shift in healthcare. Register now so you can learn the exciting aspects of an evolutionary—even revolutionary—medical system that is patient-centered and effective to fight chronic diseases.

The Evolution of Medicine Summit is online and free from September 21-28, 2015!

Register for FREE at the following link today:

https://ji177.isrefer.com/go/summitreg/chrispedersen/

I’ll see you at the summit!

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Egg-Free Mayonnaise Recipe

This recipe comes from fellow plant-based eating friend, Jennie. She's always looking for recipes on the web and, like me, subscribes to a few healthy recipe sites. Since she doesn't like regular mayonnaise (made from eggs) and those vegan choices made with soy, she was always looking for a replacement. She found this one on Nourishing Meals.

Egg-Free Mayonnaise

from NourishingMeals

yield 1.5 C

category Condiment

cuisine Vegan

ingredients

1 C raw cashews

1/4 C filtered water

2 Tbsp apple cidar vinegar

2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 tsp yellow mustard powder

3/4 - 1 tsp sea salt

6 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

directions

1. Place cashews in bowl then cover with filtered water. Set aside to soak for 3 hours.

2. Add the soaked cashews, water, vinegar, lemon juice, mustard powder, and sea salt to your high-powered blender. Blend until thick and creamy. 

3. Then add the olive oil and blend until combined. Keep blending until it is ultra smooth. You may need to stop the blender, stir it, and then blend again.

4. Scoop the mayo into a jar and refirgerate. It will thicken when it chills.

If you were looking for something to dip veggies in for an appetizer, you might use this recipe. The flavor presents a mild zing. Sprinkle some smoked paprika on the mayo/dip and scoop away. I think you'll like it.

What's your favorite use for mayonnaise?

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Aiden Is Back In School

It's back to school time and learning is in full swing. Some kids are getting more screen time (the good kind) as more schools roll-out iPads. Here's where a company called eSpark is making a difference helping teachers achieve goals for their students.

Using the technology of iPads in the classroom, eSpark is focused on education that is student-centered—working with the needs of an individual student. Each child gets a personalized assignment, called a quest, using particular apps to achieve defined goals.

"eSpark empowers teachers to transform their classrooms with technology.... Teachers can focus iPad instruction on students' individual needs to improve their academic outcomes."

Rather than creating educational apps for their platform, eSpark scours the vast ecosystem of iPad apps to identify highly engaging and challenging activities. Apps are vetted through a strict rubric to ensure Common Core alignment, academic rigor, and engagement.

The Prisoner of Carrot Castle is privileged to be one of the hand-picked kid's apps used on the eSparkLearning platform. Kids in 4th grade might be assigned The Prisoner of Carrot Castle for Reading Literacy (Common Core aligned to RL 2 and RL 9) in their prescribed quest.

I hope you'll visit eSparkLearning to find out more of how their teaching process works. It is very cool. Those kids are really learning to dig in and be critical thinkers... even creating a video to re-teach and reinforce the learned concepts from their quest.

Here's a video from the Chicago area (Home turf for eSpark) from news station Fox32 on the Good Day Chicago program featuring eSparkLearning.

If you have kids in school, do you volunteer in the classroom? What have you learned about the use of technology in teaching today (called edtech)?

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Cucumber, Tomatoes & Avocado with Balsamic Vinegar Salad Recipe

I've made this salad three times since seeing it on Kalyn's Kitchen. It is so delicious and easy. Four simple ingredients: cucumbers, tomatoes, green onions and avocado. I went to the Wednesday Farmer's Market and got a basket of beautiful cherry heirloom tomatoes. Look at those beautiful tomatoes.

The dressing is one ingredient: a good quality balsamic vinegar. I used the Trader Joe's brand, Balsamic Vinegar of Modena.

Cucumbers, Tomatoes and Avocado with Balsamic Vinegar Salad

from Kalyn's Kitchen

yield 4 servings

category Salad

cuisine Vegan

ingredients

3 small persian cucumbers, sliced in half-moons

1 C cherry tomatoes, halved

1/4 C thinly diagonally sliced green onion

1 firm ripe avocado, cut-up

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

sea salt and pepper to taste

directions

1. Combine the cucumbers, tomatoes, onions and avocado in a large bowl.

2. Pour vinegar over the salad and gently toss to coat.

3. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Try this one and I think you'll agree, it's a keeper. The best part? I can remember all the ingredients without looking up the recipe. That's a bonus.

What recipes do you like because there are only a few ingredients you have to remember?

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