Eggs, Not So Incredible

Who remembers the slogan from the 70's, "The incredible edible egg"? And the commercial where the Batman character Egghead, played by Vincent Price, pitched the nutritional value of eggs?

Here's the thing, I cut eggs from my diet for about a week and I felt great. I had lots of energy, I got my housework done, cranked out a bunch of mini-literacy centers, wrote a really long and involved emergency lesson plan, slept well and got stuff done. Now, up until that point, everyday felt like a struggle. All I really wanted to do was to go home and vegetate.

So, I'm felling great, I come home from work and I decided to make millet pancakes with eggs. Big mistake. I made the pancakes and then decided to make some banana bread with eggs for a few of my colleagues and ate a slice. "Boom!" It hit me, that familiar sinking feeling. I could feel myself sliding into a pit of emotional quagmire. Since it occurred immediately after eating the egg laden fair, I put two and two together and did a mental inventory. There was no discernible reason to feel that way, sure there was some drama going on in my life, but it was predictable, dysfunctional family drama that was occurring on the other sided of the world. Nothing to get freaked out about.

Since I've struggled with low grade depression on and off over the years. I always tied it to my circumstances - lack of funds, not being where I had hoped I would be at this stage in my life, and the list goes on and on.

I had one of those light bulb moments.

I remembered all those times it felt like I had food poisoning and I just chalked it up to eating a bad egg.  Whew, what a relief! I mentioned it to a close friend of mine and she was amazed that I was so in touch with my body. She made a comment along the lines of, "If you were back home and this happened to you, they would have put you on medication." It made me think. I wonder how may people are on medication for depression that in reality, are only allergic to something in their diet, such as eggs?

While I'm not doctor, it's plain to see that people with allergies often suffer due to lack of information. And, after doing a preliminary search, it's clear to see that the most common side effects for egg allergies include, diarrhea, vomiting and other gastrointestinal issues. I couldn't find anything linking egg allergies to low grade depression, so there you have it. One woman's antidotal experience. If you suspect that eggs may be an issue for you, then by all means do what you have to do in order to find out for yourself.


Here's my top picks for websites that provide multiple options for egg substitutions.

• Love to Know - vegan egg replacements
• The Vegan's Society's suggestions for egg free dining
• PETA's egg replacement tips
• Vegan nutritionista's top choices
• Bryanna Clark Grogan's advice
• Chef in You recommendations - I have this page bookmarked for easy reference.

You may notice that there are all kinds of options for egg replacements, so I suggest you do a little bit of experimenting and see what works best for you.

Personally, I've been using flax seed in my baking endeavors a lot lately. It doesn't get the same rise or consistancy as eggs do, but it's a compromise I can live with.

A Flexible Gluten Free Quick Bread Recipe

I haven't been here for a while, but at the same time I haven't forgotten about this blog either. So with that being said, I'm here now and I plan on doing periodic updates as I stumble upon recipes that I feel you all would enjoy.

Let's kick off a new chapter of The Daniel Fasting Lifestyle blog with a flexible gluten free quick bread recipe. I've been experimenting with this recipe a lot in the last two weeks.  Now I'm going to share it with you.

Fair warning, this isn't a strict Daniel fast recipe as I have to use sugar. Please remember that I'm in China and some ingredients I used back home,  just aren't available here. For instance, normally I would use blue agave nectar instead of sugar. Unfortunately, that product is nowhere to be found, so I have to use sugar instead, but if you have access to agave nectar, then by all means please use it.

Regarding gluten free flour, one of the fantastic things about China is that you can take your little bags of millet, brown rice or whatever over to this little kiosk in the grocery store. There, they will grind it up for you. From my understanding, they don't use the grinder to grind wheat. They use it for other ingredients, which I'm not particularly familiar with.

As an egg replacement I prefer to use ground flax seeds mixed with a bit of water. Why flax seeds? Well, sometimes it's difficult to get my hands on apple sauce. It's considered an imported luxury here. With that being said, tofu is plentiful and cheap here. I just haven't whacked up the courage to use it yet. Although I do have a wonderful memory of making some tofu carrot muffins when I lived in St. Pete, FL. That was a long time ago, pre-internet days. I have since lost that recipe, but I may try to find it online somewhere and try it out again at some point in the near future.

Let's talk about sweeteners. A strict Daniel fasting recipe wouldn't include a sweetener, but this recipe would be destined for the trash can if you didn't add some sort of sweetener, so I leave it up to your judgement as to whether or not it make the cut in YOUR Daniel fasting lifestyle.



Ingredients:

300 grams of flour - I prefer millet flour, but I've been known to break it up into random ratios based on what I have on hand. The important thing to remember is the ratio of flour to starch, which should be about 60 percent starch to 40 percent flour.

400 grams of starch - Yeah, yeah, I know it isn't exactly 60 percent, but it's close enough for our purposes. As far as starch goes, I'm lucky enough to have lots of choices, so I usually stick to my favorites, sweet potato starch and plain 'ol potato starch, although I have a bag of pea starch in my pantry. It sounds exotic, doesn't it? The thing is that I doubt it will taste exotic. It is just starch after all.

Egg replacement - Click here for a compressive list of vegan egg replacement options.

3 tablespoons of oil - I like to use rice bran oil. It's plentiful and cheap here. Also, it has a nice neutral taste and does well when exposed high heat.

1 cup of sweetener - As mentioned previously, I prefer agave nectar, but unfortunately I don't have access to that ingredient in Chengdu. Maybe some specialty import shop in someplace like Shanghai or Beijing may carry it...

1 and a half tablespoons of guar gum - One popular website suggests:

Cake, muffin and quick bread recipes: Add 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum or guar gum per one cup of gluten-free flour used.

You can follow their suggestion if you want, but some people have reported gastrointestinal upset after using guar gum and xanthum gum in their gluten free recipes. So far, using only a teaspoon and a half has been fine as far as this particular recipe is concerned. And I'm happy to report that I haven't suffered from any gastrointestinal discomfort at that level of usage and if appears that the recipe hasn't suffered either.

Side note: My family had to mail the guar gum to me as it is impossible to find here.

1 and a half teaspoons of baking powder - Of course, I use the aluminum free type of baking powder. Fortunately, we have an import store here that carries it.

1 and a half (or more) cups of liquid - I usually use water, but you can use whatever vegan alternative you chose. I've been known to use rice milk/soy milk/almond milk and orange juice in my recipes. It's really up to you and whatever you have on hand at the moment.

Optional flavoring choices - As always, you can add vanilla extract or any other extract your little heart desires, but for a period of time, I was unable to lay my hands on vanilla extract. Guess what? I didn't miss it.

Recently, I sprinkled some cinnamon sugar on top of the quick bread just prior to placing it in the oven and it turned out great. That was the time I mashed up two bananas and threw it into the recipe, which by the way,  isn't such a bad idea if you are going to go light on the guar gum.

I've also added cardamom to the basic recipe. That resulted in a very tasty,  light flavor.

So you get the picture, right? The optional flavorings are only limited by your imagination.


Directions:
Mix the dry ingredients together until they are thoroughly mixed together and the color is uniform in appearance.

Then add the wet ingredients. A word of caution, if you don't want the batter to come out all lumpy mix the wet and dry ingredients together with a whisk. The result will be velvety a smooth batter.

Place a bit of oil in your pan and wipe it thoroughly with a clean paper towel.  Now you're ready to pour the batter into the pan.

Place it in a preheated oven, set at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Bake for about 30-35 minutes. When you poke the center with a fork and the fork comes out clean, it's done.

Fresh Cilantro Salad

• 1 yellow bell peppers, diced
• 2 large tomatoes, diced
• 2-3 cups fresh cilantro
• 1 cup fresh parsley
• 1 clove of chopped raw garlic
• 1 Tbsp. dried thyme
• 4 Tbsp. dried cranberries
• the juice of 2 fresh lemons 
• 1 tsp. cumin powder
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil

Toss all the ingredients in a large bowl.  

To make the dressing, just whisk the juice of 2 lemons, olive oil, cumin powder and thyme together in a small bowl.

Drizzle the dressing onto salad and let it marinate for 20 minutes.

Why Was Daniel Fasting?

In order to answer that question we must first look in Daniel chapter 9.Daniel was praying because he understood what Jeremiah said was coming to pass. In Daniel 9:2 it says:

 In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

He was praying for the Hebrew nation.

Today, the Lord has called me to fast and pray for the nation of China. Will you join me as we fast and pray for the people of China?

Daniel Fast Tea List

I've been thinking about some of my favorite Daniel Fasting beverages and decided to put them down in a handy list. Some DF (Daniel Fasting) authors do not include teas on their list. I personally believe that it's fine as long as the tea is pure and no other flavoring or unnecessary ingredients have been added.

Teas

Gentle cleansing herbal teas - Parsley, burdock root and yarrow (absolutely no diuretic or laxative teas - those type of teas are too harsh on your system during a fast.)

Popular teas - For example, green tea and jasmine tea do contain caffeine. I personally would only drink them if I was going through coffee withdrawal. Otherwise, I'd just stick to caffeine free herbal teas.

Personally, I love a cleaned up version of a popular "milk tea" that is sold in most bakeries and coffee shops here in China. I just fix it at home with a splash of unsweetened soy milk, coconut milk, almond milk, or rice milk.

Edit: I had to give up milk tea because there was something in the Chinese version of Lipton's Yellow Label tea that my kidneys didn't agree with. I'm guessing it was the pesticide they sprayed on the tea leaves. My kidney function returned to normal after I quit drinking it.

Calming teas - Chamomile is always a staple in my pantry, but again, please read the label. When in doubt, just buy the loose leaf tea, put it in a tea ball and pop it in your mug. Then you don't have to worry about what is not being fully disclosed on the labels.

Pineapple Lime Smoothie

1 banana peeled and sliced

3/4 cup pineapple juice

1/2 cup of freshly squeezed lime juice

Place all the ingredients in the blender and give it a whirl. 

High Protein Millet Salad

 

This is the perfect salad to bring along on a picnic or take to a potluck any time of year. 

Your meat eating friends will love it and your vegetarian friends will be thrilled. If you are going to a rather large function, you may want to double the recipe.
 
High Protein Millet Salad 

2 cups cooked millet
1 mango diced, fresh or frozen
1 handful of chopped cilantro
1 can of black beans, drained
1/2 red bell pepper diced
1 large carrot diced 
4 green onions thinly sliced
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoons fresh lime juice or more to taste


In a small bowl, combine wet ingredients. Set aside. 
In a large bowl, combine all the other ingredients. 
Pour the wet ingredients over the millet mixture
and toss.


Add ground black pepper and/or a few dashes of hot sauce to taste.
(You may not want to add any salt because the canned beans were
probably loaded with it already. Check the label.)