August, 2008 - Bettina Network's Blog

Archive for August, 2008

MORE ABOUT BLUEBERRIES

Monday, August 25th, 2008

from a letter received 8/25/2008

I read your blog and loved every word. I would like to add something I read from a newsletter i receive on a weekly basis. It is excellent and I would like to recommend it to your readers. “Blueberries offer many health benefits, including protection against urinary tract infections, cancer, age-related health conditions and brain damage from strokes. The European blueberry, or bilberry, is known to prevent and even reverse macular degeneration.”

This is from mercola.com. If your readers want to subscribe to this newsletter they just need to go to the web site and sign up – it is free.

Markus
Pennsylvania

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Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

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LEMON TEA BREAD

Saturday, August 23rd, 2008

copyright Bettina Network, Inc. 2008

A wonderful cake/bread which is delightful for breakfast and with tea anytime during the day – or try it with hot chocolate before bed.

8 ounce package organic cream cheese (Creole Cream Cheese makes this fantastic)
1/2 cup organic unsalted butter
1 and 1/4 cup organic Turbinado Raw Sugar
2 organic eggs rich in Omega 3’s
1 and 1/4 cup organic whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup organic whole wheat regular stone ground flour
1 tablespoon baking power
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 overripe bananas (organic – which you let ripen until the skins turn black)
the bananas are not a pretty sight on the side board while they over ripen,
but the taste and nutrition they add to this cake/bread are worth the eye sore
for a few days.

Sauce for After Baking

2 lemons
1/4 cup organic Turbinado Raw Sugar ( much better than powdered sugar for the
flavor and texture it adds to the bread.

A. Put butter in a mixer and let it whip until the butter becomes light and fluffy.

B. Add the cream cheese to the whipped butter and let it take a turn in the mixer
until the two ingredients have combined and are even lighter and fluffier.

C. Add sugar very slowly – Pouring it into the mixer turned on high until all three
ingredients are blended and look very light and fluffy.

D.  Add the eggs and mix until well blended.  Because at this point, heavy mixing does not increase the goodness of the bread, but too much mixing will make it very rubbery, be careful that you don’t overmix when adding the eggs.

E. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a glass bowl with a whisk until all the
ingredients are mixed together and look as though they are full of lots of air.

F. Mash the bananas until they are the consistency which you would try for if
you were going to feed them to a baby.

G. Add the flour mixture – alternating with the mashed bananas – and mix slowly
until well blended, being careful not to overmix.

H. Pour the batter into two buttered glass loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees for about
40 to 45 minutes. Glass loaf pans because when you look at your cake/bread you can
readily see the amount of doneness and are not likely to let this cake/bread get too
dark and because we think glass bakes this cake/bread beautifully. We tried it in
black steel and it wasn’t as good.

We would NEVER bake this or anything else in Aluminum
no matter if its in the core surrounded by tankers imported from Iraq to protect us from the bad that we believe Aluminum puts into your food – we just wouldn’t take the risk. Life is
too short and too full of disease as it is – why risk adding more.

I. Test your cake/bread for doneness by inserting a thin knife into the middle, which
should come out dry. – OR – we just touch the top and if it doesn’t feel like
hot whipped egg whites, but closer to a substantial bread feel we know its done.

J. Make the sauce to pour over the hot bread when it comes out of the oven.
Scrape the rind off two lemons and put it on the side. Squeeze the juice out of
the two lemons and mix the juice and rind. Add the 1/4 cup sugar, mix and spoon
this over the lemon cake/bread as soon as it comes out of the oven.

K. Let your magnificent creation sit and cool and absorb the juice from the lemon mixture.

L. When it has come to a nice, barely warm state – cut and serve it with organic hot tea –
your favorite kind or try it with Bettina’s Red Tea (known in other circles as Hibiscus Tea.)

The person who gets the end of this Lemon Cake/Bread Loaf is indeed a happy camper!!!

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

 

 

WHOLE FOODS vs ARROWHEAD MILLS FLOUR

Sunday, August 10th, 2008

copyright 2008 the Bettina Network, inc.

We have been noticing what looks like a regular marketing practice in some of the Whole Foods stores. We can’t say all because we have not visited all.

When Whole Foods is about to push or introduce a new Whole Foods brand – the other brands seem to disappear from the shelves – or – they are sold in other sizes – smaller and less popular sizes just to maintain a presence.

We’ve been looking at this phenomenon around Organic Whole Wheat Flour. Our choice is Organic Whole Wheat STONE GROUND Flour. In that group our choice is Arrowhead Mills Organic Whole Wheat Stone Ground Flour.

We’ve seen the Whole Foods brand of Whole Wheat Flour appearing on the shelves immediately adjacent to the Arrowhead Mills Flour. At the same time we’ve noticed the Whole Foods brand has depth in its positioning – usually, large bags of flour four abreast being placed either two or three bags deep on the shelves.

At the same time the Arrowhead Mills’ position is shrinking. Only one bag long and one bag deep and most of the time there is none available. When we ask, we are told it is due in tomorrow. Tomorrow comes and the shelves still do not have the Arrowhead Mills Flour and we get the same response from the Whole Foods employee – tomorrow!

We looked carefully at the prospect of changing to Whole Foods flour and decided against it because the Whole Foods brand is “Organic Whole Wheat Flour”. It is $1 less per bag, but it is not STONE GROUND. It is apparently ground with heat making it much less nutritious and with all that such milling implies. If you are going to get serious about this and are willing to spend more for organic products, make sure they are the best you can find. Make your money count. Eat less of the right food and save money even at higher prices.

While in one Whole Foods Store recently, we were standing in front of the Organic Whole Wheat flour and watched a woman pass quickly by, pick up the Whole Foods brand, advise us to do the same because it is $1 cheaper than the Arrowhead Mills flour. We stopped her and asked if how the flour was ground meant anything to her. “Of course,” she said. We asked her to read the label of the Whole Foods brand carefully and tell us if it was what she wanted and what she thought she was buying. She looked carefully at the label and expressed her shock at realizing this was not flour ground properly for it to have the Organic label. Why pay more for flour so milled. She put the Whole Foods brand back and instead bought the only two small bags of the Arrowhead Mills “Organic Stone Ground Whole Wheat” Flour. She was quite upset that Whole Foods had ‘tricked’ her (her words not ours).

So – shop carefully and healthily as you shop for flour and if you don’t like the Arrowhead Mills’ Flour, please read the labels slowly and carefully and make sure your “Organic Whole Wheat Flour” is STONE GROUND” – ground without heat to destroy the nutrients.

Whole Foods is changing. While they have some great organic products, they are not the store they used to be and look as though they are on that slippery slope to becoming just an ordainary grocery store with a few organic products, most of which are their own store brand watered down from what they should be.

We are going to call the Arrowhead Mills company to see if we can’t get the large bags of their stone ground organic whole wheat flour because what we see on the shelves at the Whole Foods Stores is small bags of Arrowhead Mills Flour and even those small bags are out most of the time now and we want a constant reliable source for our flour. Whole Foods seems to want to reduce and finally eliminate the competition, leaving us with lesser quality and less healthy products.

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

 

 


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