With Thanksgiving quickly approaching I felt inspired to share my family’s favorite pumpkin bread recipe. A friend back in California shared this with us when my boys were very little. We made it that first year and everyone loved it, so much we started making it for our neighbors, mailman and friends who would come over. It’s magic this pumpkin bread recipe. The grumpiest mail man in the world turned into the nicest mail man in the world once we game him some pumpkin bread. He actually wrote us a thank you note and I’m positive, to this day, we are the only ones he smiled for. Years later after we had moved away from our old neighborhood, we went back to visit. Low and behold, who pulls up just as we are outside saying good-bye to our neighbors, Joe, our ‘old’ mail man. He remembered us and smiled and said “HI” then asked how we were and where we landed after the trip. Magic pumpkin bread. Maybe, maybe not. But, it doesn’t hurt, does it?!
So, this Holiday season, make some magic pumpkin bread to give to your mail man, trash truck driver, chiropractor’s office, friends, or just for yourself. It’s delicious and everyone deserves a treat, even people who don’t normally get to have sugar, like me.
Here I’m listing the original recipe first and the healthier substitutions in parentheses. That way you may choose which version you want to make and eat. I’m grateful that I can still eat this wonderful pumpkin bread even though I do not eat sugar or gluten. But, the truth is, the original recipe truly does taste the best. Maybe not taste better, but the consistency is better. But, those of us with food sensitivities are used to trying new things and used to going without the old ones. We still live and thrive on delicious food. Enjoy either recipe depending upon your diet.
The muffins will be darker than these if you use prunes in place of the oil. Use applesauce on light-colored breads, like banana bread.
Delicious Healthy Pumpkin Bread
Ingredients:
1. Beat together in first bowl:
4 eggs (or substitute 6 oz egg whites)
3 C sugar or ( 2 1/4 C Honey) or (2 C Agave) (when using honey or agave reduce the water by 1/4)
1 C vegetable oil or (1 C baby food prunes) or (1 C no sugar added applesauce)
2. In a separate bowl, sift together:
3 C flour or (3 C gluten-free Pamela’s Baking Mix) or (1 C spelt flour, 1 C brown rice flour, 1 C Buckwheat)
1/2 t baking powder, 2 t baking soda, 3/4 t sea salt, 2 t cinnamon, 1 t nutmeg, 1 t cloves, 1 t allspice
3. Mix well, then add to the ingredients of the first bowl and blend with hand mixer.
4. Add last:
Make sure you have a Reiki Kid on hand to help with the making. They can run Reiki while they help. This is one of my first Kids Reiki students helping me make this batch.
2 C Pumpkin
2/3 C water (with agave or honey in between 1/3 and 1/2 C of water. Try the lessor amount and work up as needed.)
I have noticed lately that the guides who come to help are a little different during readings, healings or attunements. I’m meeting guides I haven’t worked with or been introduced to before during readings. In many of these readings they simply FEEL different. These guides are combinations of guides of Universal energy, star energy combined with Earth elemental energy. When I talk to other psychics who do spirit guide readings I find that they are experiencing the same thing, especially among elemental or earth type spirit guides. I personally believe this means that as more and more of us truly BELIEVE in them again, they are waking up from their ‘lack of belief’ induced slumber and are ready to aid us in this new energy that is emerging and changing. I believe that when people stopped believing in fairies, mermaids, angels and even God, many of the elemental beings went into a deep sleep within the earth or in another dimension, ready to be reawakened as soon as they are needed again. Now is the time, they are reawakening. They are here once again to help, because WE are asking for their help. We are grateful for their help. The more they are needed, the more that will wake up to answer the call.
The Neck/Nix are shapeshifting water spirits who usually appear in human form.The German Nix are types of river merman and mermaid who may lure men to drown.Nixes in folklore became water sprites, who try to lure people into the water. The males can assume many different shapes, including that of a human, fish, and snake. The females are beautiful women with the tail of a fish. When they are in human forms, they can be recognised by the wet hem of their clothes. The Nixes are portrayed as malicious in some stories but harmless and friendly in others. (Source: paranormalnight)
Possibilities
It is time to open up to the possibility that everything we have read about, fairies, mermaids, water sprites, gnomes, leprechaun, Atlantis, etc. are all possible, are all truly here on an energetic level and want to help us save our earth and ourselves. They are not just a figment of our imagination, they are real on an energetic level and who knows what could happen if many people start believing again, they may be able to have the strength need and desire to be real on a physical level as well. I believe they once were a long time ago. I do not believe it is an accident that more than a few different ancient cultures all around the world have stories of mermaids, fairies and other ‘little’ people who come to help and be merry or create mischief.
Talking to fairies
Even though it’s easy for me to believe because I talk to them, see them and work with them daily, they are as real to me as the internet is to you. But, I have always believed. I never stopped believing as I grew from child to adult. Even in the pre-teen years and young adult years when I forgot about them, I still believed. Maybe not in the same way I do today, but I believed that there is way to much that is unexplained in the world, way to much magic in the world NOT to believe in something just because I hadn’t seen it. I was open to all good things being possible. That is all it takes to start. Open to the possibility that it could be true and if it is, you are open to EXPERIENCE them for yourself. Maybe I remembered somewhere in my soul that I had once talked with them, once played with them as a child. Somehow I kept that memory and that belief in magic and unseen things. You too have memories in your soul about spirit guides. You too can open your heart, stop being afraid of what people will think, what you think, if you believe in unseen things. What have you got to lose? Nothing, nothing at all.
Here are some fairies found in “The secret sketchbooks of Brian Froud”. Brian Froud is one of my favorite fairy artists. He has many beautiful books on fairies, good and bad.
Open your heart and your mind
It is time to open our hearts and our minds both, to POSSIBILITIES!! The possibility that maybe we don’t know everything. The possibility that maybe we don’t have to ‘see’ something in order for it to be real. The possibility that science cannot explain everything that exists. The possibility that maybe dreams do come true and maybe we can manifest everything we need and maybe we can live in harmony with each other and our planet without feeling a lack in our hearts ever. Maybe World Peace is a possibility! The more we all open our hearts to good things, new things, ‘CRAZY’ things, the more crazy will be the norm. I take great pride in being thought of as not ‘normal’ whatever that is, would you like to join me!!?
Water Sprite emerging from the water
I invite you to call me for a spirit guide reading. I invite you to come to a Reiki class and FEEL the energy for yourself. EXPERIENCE your personal Reiki guides on the first day. I invite you to learn how to meditate so you don’t need me to FEEL the presence of your personal guides. Are you ready to truly BLOW your mind? Are you ready to truly OPEN YOUR BOX to a much larger size? I’m here and ready to help you when you are. It’s an awesome ride and I wouldn’t live this life on earth without it. I need magic in my life to be able to see the true rainbow of colors and adventures that are available to us here. Don’t you need magic in your life, real magic?
Welcome back Spirit Guides
“Where Moonbeams Fall In the soft muted colours of the night, the ethereal fairy dances among the moonbeams, scattering stardust in her play. Serenity and inner joy are reflected in the radiance of her expression and the lightness of her fairy ballet as she dances in communion with the universe.” By Josephine Wall
Josslyn Streett is a Reiki Master/Teacher/Psychic reader and mom. If you would like a reading over the phone with her you may contact her at rainshadowreiki@gmail.com or 360-460-7829
(Low sugar and gluten-free cranberry cookie recipe at the bottom of the page)
A few days ago I wrote a blog called ‘Just Like Sugar®’ Chocolate Chip Cookies. I do not eat chocolate or sugar so even though I made them and ate them, I had made them for the kids with the chocolate. I decided I wanted a cookie that I can eat for real. I’m experimenting with a new product that a client of mine brought to me, Just Like Sugar®. Read the first blog to find out about ‘Just Like Sugar®’ for yourself and another blog in the comment section that has written about as well and tells a bit about how the company discovered and created the product.
To make a long story short, the cranberry cookies are just as delicious as the chocolate chip cookies especially if you cannot have chocolate or sugar but you can have cranberries. Bottom line, I’d use it to bake over and over again. Sawyer, my nine-year old son even liked them better than the chocolate chip cookies and he LOVES sugar of any kind.
Aftertaste
I did not taste an aftertaste like many commenters on Amazon and other blogs talk about with the baked cookies. However, when I tested the batter before baking I did taste a bit of an after taste AND when I used it in my tea as well. It was not distasteful to me but I can see how some people said it had an after taste. The baking somehow takes care of that from what I experienced.
For more information about Just Like Sugar® please go to my first blog
Reiki your recipes
Reiki or pray over anything that you take into your body for a healthier outcome. Blog coming soon on ‘Reiki your food’ !
Before baking with Just Like Sugar® I muscle tested myself and my assistant as I had the client who brought it in to me in the first place, to see if our bodies “liked” the product. We all tested positive for the Just Like Sugar® product. We had the green light to go ahead with out baking experiment. We also did Reiki over the batter before baking the cookies to assure the best energy and nutrition possible. Reiki your food!!
Delicious!!
Cranberry nut cookies
Totally non-biased kid ratings
Sawyer (Age 9) and my baking assistant, said “These are even better than the other ones. I like the cranberries even better than the chocolate chips!” He rated the cookies a 10 out of 10!
Success!
The second experiment was a success as well. We LOVE the cranberry macadamia nut cookies and we will bake them again.
Yield: approximately 20 cookies. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar, add egg and vanilla then beat together. Add Pamela’s Mix, chocolate chips and nuts, then mix thoroughly. Place scoops of dough (1 TBSP scoop) on lightly greased cookie sheet. Flatten. Bake for 15 minutes or until edges start to brown. Let cookies cool slightly and use a spatula to remove from cookie sheet. Eat and enjoy!
.
Sawyer loves to help me in the kitchen, sometimes.
(I changed some things just because that is what I do. Play with it and have fun!)
1/2 cup butter (this would be a good one to play with. My kids said it was too much butter and they LOVE butter. Any suggestions?)
7/8 cup Just Like Sugar (next time I’ll buy and try the brown sugar version)
1-1/2 cups Pamela’s Baking Mix
1 cup cranberries dried
1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts
2 med eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Yield: 20 cookies for us.
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar, add egg and vanilla then beat together. Add Pamela’s Mix, chocolate chips and nuts, then mix thoroughly. Place scoops of dough (1 TBSP scoop) on lightly greased cookie sheet. Flatten. Bake for 15 minutes or until edges start to brown. Let cookies cool slightly and use a spatula to remove from cookie sheet. Eat and enjoy! 1 hour to make and bake cookies, 1 hour to write the blog.
Cranberry nut cookies
Loving comments greatly appreciated!! Try the recipes and come back here and tell us what YOU think!
(Low sugar and gluten-free chocolate chip cookie recipe and kid approved ratings at the bottom of the blog)
The ONLY sugar in these is in the chocolate chips! Find out HOW. Read on……
Note: This blog write up is not paid for by any companies. This is my choice to bake and rate these products, a totally non-biased, non- paid opinion. If either of these companies would like to pay me for a testimonial please, I’d be happy to oblige, feel free to contact me via my email! Although, it looks like I have already done it here for free. Oh well, Never mind.
SUMMER IS HERE!!
Summer is here, my boys are out of school and I am a mom FULL time again! The blogs may change a bit because my blog is simply a mirror of my life and what’s going on in that moment.
Baking Fun!
Sawyer is an early riser so we have some time together to do projects in the summer without big brother around. Not the government big brother, HIS big brother. “Hmmm, I wonder if these will taste good?”
Yes, summer is here but in the Pacific North West it is still in the high 50’s and low 60’s with gray. So, excellent time to bake!! I love to bake and I love experimenting with new recipes. I change the recipes a lot since I do not eat any sugar, gluten or soy in my daily diet and have to change most recipes to suit my body’s desires. I have not had a desert for over a year and a half. I have gotten used to this and am happy 99% of the time having fruit in place of desert. However, now and then, it would be nice to have a cookie or some other yummy desert. So, I’m experimenting with a new product that a client of mine brought to me, Just Like Sugar®.
Just Like Sugar®
Just Like Sugar ingredients
On the package for Just Like Sugar® it says, all natural, gluten-free, zero carbs, zero calories, diabetic and celiac safe, no soy, no yeast, no animal derivatives, no “MSG”, no L-Glutamic Acid, no D-Glutamine Acid, no Aspartic Acid, no preservatives or dairy. It is not organic but you can take care of that with Reiki. (A blog coming on that topic soon! Reiki your food!)
Just Like Sugar’s® ingredients are chicory root dietary fiber, calcium, vitamin C, natural flavors from the peel of the orange and that is it!
Just Like Sugar® costs more and you need to use more than sugar because it is not nearly as sweet. But is still very good and for people like me who have changed their taste buds by not eating any sugar, it is plenty sweet! I bought a 16 oz bag of Just Like Sugar from Amazon for about $14 with free shipping. The recipe below used almost one cup of the product.
Sugar cane to Just Like Sugar®conversion chart
Sugar to Just Like Sugar®
1 t = 1 -3/4 t
1T = 1 -3/4 T
1/8 C = 1/4 C
1/4 C = 7/16 C
1/2 C = 7/8 C
2/3 C = 1 -1/4 C
1 C = 1 -3/4 C
Gluten Free
Our favorite gluten-free baking mix!
I am not celiac but I am gluten-free because my body prefers that. Therefore, my recipe also uses a gluten-free flour by my favorite brand, Pamela’s Products. I used the basic recipe for chocolate chip cookies off of the bag of Pamela’s Products Baking & Pancake Mix and then tweaked it a bit. I bought it at Amazon for $44.61 for 3, 4 pound bags with free shipping. We use this for all baking, pancakes and waffles mostly. YUM!
The ingredients for Pamela’s baking mix are: Brown rice flour; White rice flour; cultured buttermilk; natural almond meal; tapioca starch; sweet rice flour; potato starch; grain-less & aluminum-free baking powder; baking soda; sea salt and Xanthan gum.
Alterations to the recipe
I did not change out the chocolate chips, even though they have sugar, because my kids love them and since they are so incredibly deprived of eating “normal” kid food (LOL) I kept them in for this recipe. I also wanted to keep the recipe as much to the original recipe the first time and then alter it more from there. In the future, I will use something else that I can eat to replace the chocolate, like cranberries or raisins.
Reiki your recipes
Reiki or pray over anything that you take into your body for a healthier outcome. Blog coming soon on ‘Reiki your food’ !
Before baking with Just Like Sugar® I muscle tested myself and my assistant as I had the client who brought it in to me in the first place, to see if our bodies “liked” the product. We all tested positive for the Just Like Sugar® product. We had the green light to go ahead with out baking experiment. We also did Reiki over the batter before baking the cookies to assure the best energy and nutrition possible. Reiki your food!!
Delicious!!
For this first time using Just Like Sugar®, I really just wanted to know if it tasted good or not and would I use it again. IT DOES!! The cookies are DELICIOUS and I would totally bake with it again. Here are the results from my very picky kids and neighbor kids.
Totally non-biased kid ratings
Note: None of the kids tried the cookies at the same time as the other kids. I did not want anyone else influencing their words and ratings.
Sawyer (Age 9) and my baking assistant, said “Mmmmmmm, Delicioso!” and many other great adjectives that I can’t remember but went on the entire time he was eating his cookies. He rated the cookies a 9 out of 10!
Robby (age 11 1/2) said “Delicious” and rated it a 7 out of 10 because it tasted really good but was more flaky then he likes.
Neighbor Tim (11 1/2) rated the cookies a 7 out of 10 and said they were very good!
Neighbor Josiah (8 1/2) said “scrumptious!” and rated the cookies a 9 to 10 out of 10!
Adult Josslyn who has lived without desserts for a year and a half, 10 out of 10!
Success!
Mmmmmmmm, delicioso!!
The experiment was a SUCCESS!! I will most definitely bake with Just Like Sugar® again with my other favorite recipes and share them with you! A lot of people on Amazon and other websites talked about an after taste. With the cookies I did not taste any lingering after taste.
Yield: approximately 20 cookies. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar, add egg and vanilla then beat together. Add Pamela’s Mix, chocolate chips and nuts, then mix thoroughly. Place scoops of dough (1 TBSP scoop) on lightly greased cookie sheet. Flatten. Bake for 15 minutes or until edges start to brown. Let cookies cool slightly and use a spatula to remove from cookie sheet. Eat and enjoy!
.
Sawyer loves to help me in the kitchen, sometimes.
(I changed some things just because that is what I do. Play with it and have fun!)
1/2 cup butter (this would be a good one to play with. My kids said it was too much butter and they LOVE butter. Any suggestions?)
7/8 cup Just Like Sugar® (next time I’ll buy and try the brown sugar version)
2 cups Pamela’s Baking Mix
1 cup mini chocolate chips (We lowered the amount of chocolate chips, but Sawyer and I agreed this is even too much. I’ll lower it even more next time)
1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts (Thank you Nana for sending these up from CA! LOVE macadamia nuts and they are sooooo good in cookies!)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Yield: 23 cookies for us.
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar, add egg and vanilla then beat together. Add Pamela’s Mix, chocolate chips and nuts, then mix thoroughly. Place scoops of dough (1 TBSP scoop) on lightly greased cookie sheet. Flatten. Bake for 15 minutes or until edges start to brown. Let cookies cool slightly and use a spatula to remove from cookie sheet. Eat and enjoy! 1 hour to make and bake cookies, 4 hours to write the blog.
Loving comments greatly appreciated!! Try the recipes and come back here and tell us what YOU think!
Having two boys can sometimes be difficult for a peaceful mom like me who is doing her best to spread Love and Light around the world. My boys are very active and very much into playing war, ninja, and all games about fighting and pretend killing even though I never encouraged it at all. I see it as roll-playing that is important for them to play out otherwise they’d suppress those feelings. More on that in another blog. However, sometimes this peaceable mom just can’t take it.
Volkswagen Beetle that was created by artist John-Paul Philippe for Barney's New York and celebrates the decor of the 60s. Peaceable Bug!
slug bug
When the boys picked up on the “Slug Bug” game a while back, it got to be too much for me to take. The slugging each other, the yelling that came with it, the wining and fighting, all in a small space, nope, I couldn’t take it and stay in my loving space at the same time. So, I quickly put a stop to the slug bug game and created a new one. I’ve since found, not surprising, that other people play “my” version too. How intuitive of them.
PLAY HUG BUG
We now play “Hug Bug” and they actually DO IT! We drive along and each call out the bug and color of the bug we see. We keep track, most of the time it’s an estimate, and when we get out of the car or when we remember they “owe” me hugs. Again, THEY DO IT! Amazingly, they like it. We all get more hugs, no more fighting or slugging about VW’s in the back of the car and we all spread a little more love around. It’s been slightly more peaceful in my car ever since. Give it a try if you have little active ones in your back seat.
WOW! What a great Reiki circle we had on Saturday. I felt a need to write a post about it. You know, if you are one of my students, I talk about the Reiki circle a lot. That’s because I so totally believe in it.
This month we talked about healing ourselves and others using a technique of reliving past lives. We talked for about an hour, answered questions and I shared some of my favorite books about past life healing (which are all available in my lending library)
I led everyone into a meditation for them to experience their past lives themselves. I was pleasantly surprised EVERYONE was able to retrieve a past life themselves, even if they have had very little meditation experience. I don’t know why I was surprised other than it was my first time doing this particular meditation with anyone else. But, when I do past life hypnosis every one has been able to do it as well. This meditation is very similar to that. But, with leading a whole group of people this time, I had to wait until the meditation was over to hear how it was working. I loved hearing the lives that each person experienced themselves and HOW it is able to help them heal something in their lives NOW. It was very exciting. (For more Past Life Healing stories). I’d love to do this topic again in a future circle. It is of course, one of my favorites!
The more people in a spiritual group, the more powerful the energy, connection to the energy and connection to Divine Source!
Another quick pitch for the Reiki circle. I believe in it so much and for so many reasons. Here are some of them off the top of my head:
No matter how busy your life is, you can fit Reiki in once a month. YES, you can! It’s a matter of priorities. Make YOU a priority!
Practice, practice and more practice! Here is a chance to practice on other Reiki people CONSISTENTLY once every month. (Twice a month if you have children)
Getting together in groups is a stress reliever in itself, but a Reiki group must be 10 x the stress relief! We always feel GREAT afterwards.
Getting together with like-minded people is also important for your spiritual growth, affirmation of who you are and the journey you are on.
The more you run Reiki the more you raise your vibration, are able to run more energy and receive information better as well.
When you run energy as a group, your abilities expand even faster and you are able to learn more and TRUST your abilities better.
You become much more confident in your abilities when you come and practice them with others at Reiki circle and are able to ask questions and share ideas.
Plus, It’s just so much FUN!
There are many more reasons but to me those are my KEY reasons to make Reiki circle a priority, once a month. Can YOU think of any? Please comment.
In Love and Light of the Divine, welcome. Here, I share ideas on how to live a more spiritual life using Reiki and other spiritual tools and techniques. I help private clients –like you– break through blockages so you can freely move forward on your spiritual path. –Josslyn Streett
