The eclectic learner

http://www.simplehealthytasty.com/2010/07/homemade-vegetable-broth-powder.html Good morning! It's the first week of December and there's nothing like a warm soup to make me feel good. Some people asked me if I use stock for my soups. Yes, I do, I like a Swiss vegetable bouillon which is sold in most UK supermarkets. However, I have also found out years ago that I can easily make my own mix and store it for years, with no added ingredients that I might not like. So, today I'd like to share this simple recipe I found in Tammi's blog, 'Simple Healthy Tasty', which I found truly informative and full of lovely recipes. This home made broth should be a staple in your homes for sure! The recipe originates from a book I studied for my Nutritional Herbologist course, and I must say that book is also great! Tammi knows where to find good stuff! Vegetable Broth Powder 2 cups Nutritional Yeast (optional) 1/2 cup Real Salt 2 Tablespoons onio...

Good evening! I like experimenting with new soups when the cooler weather arrives here in England. This time I'd like to share a soup that I found really tasty - although I reckon that when it comes to personal preferences, everyone is different - and to make sure I won't forget how I made it, I will pen the ingredients before they leave my busy mind for good! I will add a photograph as soon as I can - so far I only managed to get really ugly ones! ************************************************************************ Hearty vegetable soup with cauliflower and kale Ingredients 1/ cauliflower, cut in small bits 2 large kale leaves, cut in bits, stalks not included 1 large onion, shredded 3 or more gloves of garlic salt to taste 1 spoon of medium Curry powder 1 medium potato, sliced and diced olive oil optional: a few tomato crisps * and some fresh parsley to add to each plate Preparation Stir fry all the ingredients, then add water (about 1 litre), and s...

Good morning, world! It's sunny today in Norfolk, and after a week of foggy, cloudy weather it's so energising to have breakfast in a sunny living room! But I am digressing. The reason for this post is another one- some lovely food I wanted to share with you! Well, at least the recipe... Last year I found  This  recipe in Gena Hamshaw's gorgeous Choosing Raw website. I tried to make it and as usual I adjusted the recipe to account for my preferences. It came out so good that I wrote, "voted 10/10" and put it permanently in my raw food recipes folder (which is an expensive plastic folder, with printed recipes, not a digital folder). Yesterday I decided it was time to prepare these tartelettes again as we had guests coming for dinner. With the ingredients I had I made 6 of them, plus a plate full of raw choc balls, and half a jar of raw nutella. Let me explain. The product in the picture above is the one prepared by Gena. My version is different and ...

I am so in love with the Natural Buzz - wonderful website, lots of useful information, and plenty of organic, had-made products for you lucky people who live in the U.S.A. Today I wanted to share their immune system boosting recipe, which reminds me of what Dr. Christopher taught us about natural healing. Nature knows best - always! Here's the recipe… Immune system booster 1/4 C. Honey 2TBSP Apple Cider Vinegar 2 Tsp Turmeric Pinch of Pepper 1/4 Tsp Ginger 1/4 Tsp Grated Lemon Peel Mix ingredients and store in refrigerator. Stir and add a large spoonful to hot water and drink like tea. We drink it every morning and every evening. Enjoy and Bee Well… To learn more about each ingredient you want to go to  The Natural Buzz ! I can almost visualise how one can twist this recipe to make a soar throat remedy or even some delicious dehydrated pills which could be so convenient to carry in a purse… Let me know how it works for you. I do prepare something very si...

This is how things go in my household nowadays - I turn on my iMac, thinking that I really need to update my blogs, and instead I stumble upon an interesting blog written by somebody else, where a link catches my attention and leads me somewhere else….until I realise that two hours have passed and my blogs remained intact! Which describes, by the way, exactly what happened yesterday evening. I was browsing a lovely blog named  anywaytostayathome , and of course I checked all the links there. Among them there was  mojomums , which was also rather intriguing, and once again, I checked their links. I ended up checking a new website called Phyto-fit . Mmm. That sounded interesting. Phytos means plant in Greek, so I had to have a look. Immediately. And was I glad I went there! First of all, their mission is inline with mine, "Our mission is a simple one. To become the largest Natural Health Based Solutions Company within the UK. Its so hard for consumers to know what is actua...

Although I don't seem to have any free time to post, I am still trying new recipes with raw food, vegan delicacies etc. My journey into natural healing continues and I am learning new things every day. One simple truth is that I feel much better and much more energetic when I eat mostly those things that Mother Earth has created - with no processing.  Sometimes people come to me and ask for one specific item that will make them feel better. Some think of a superfood or a formula or a new pill that might restore their failing health to its former glory. It would be nice to have such a product but in this moment in time it does not exist. So far I am not aware of any product which can revert overnight years of processed food, lack of exercise and toxin loading. Our body needs constant care and love just like our cars, computers and gardens do. However many excellent formulas Dr Christopher and Dr Schulze have created, none of them can work properly if we are daily polluting our...

Well! Long time, no see. I've been busy designing fabric and uploading my projects to Spoonflower and to Zazzle. Have a look and tell me what you think!!!!!!! It's so fun! Franz http://www.zazzle.co.uk/franzsunshinestudios http://www.spoonflower.com/contest_voters_temp/new?contest_id=247 http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/sunshine_creations

Garlic  and Echinacea tincture - Cold and Flu Fighters!  We’re coming up on winter time again, and for many that means more colds, flus, coughs, sniffles and other annoying ills .  What natural remedy helps to keep you healthy during this time?  The answer is probably sitting in your kitchen cupboard.  It’s garlic. Garlic has been touted as a health booster for a long time, that’s nothing new.  Anecdotal evidence , old wive’s tales, and folk medicine are full of uses for the herb .  Turns out though, that they are actually pretty accurate. A study done at the University of Alabama at Birmingham sheds some light on exactly why garlic is such a powerful herb.  In the study researchers extracted juice from supermarket garlic and added small amounts to human red blood cells.  The scientists discovered that the cells immediately began emitting hydrogen sulfide (HS2) which acts a cell messenger. Interestingly, hydrogen sulfide is ...

Healing Broken Bones With Herbs This is from a student at the School of Natural Healing.  Just shows what is really possible using herbal remedies: It has now been three weeks since my daughter broke her collarbone, and if I hadn't seen her healing with my own eyes I wouldn't believe it. The medical profession says  a collarbone typically takes 4 to 6 weeks to heal.  My daughter’s took two. Many of you, like my wife, won't be surprised by this, but having not come from an herbalist's background, things like this still amaze me. My wife has been studying herbs and natural healing for quite a while, so as she saw this healing occur her reaction was simply “Well yeah, that's the way it works.” On a Monday morning my 4-year-old little girl fell off the couch and landed just right to break  her collarbone. She immediately began screaming in pain, and not just the kind of screaming when a kid falls down and gets bumped. This was the type of screaming where you...

If you are good at designing things or with photography/illustration etc, I suggest you try uploading your designs on Zazzle. Simply create a new account with a memorable store name, upload your photos or textures etc and apply them to any item on offer on Zazzle. When enough items are in the store send the link to your friends and to your favourite sites (twitter, Facebook etc) and see if anyone would like to purchase your very own creations. If you are successful, you could create a profitable business with Zazzle. Many blogs describe just how to do it and some sellers have around 150,000 items! You will be competing with Disney and Hallmark but there are also some very simple designs. take a look at my little store if you wish! Have a good day, Franz http://www.zazzle.co.uk/franzsunshinestudios

http://www.zazzle.co.uk/a_modern_and_upbeat_design-223851679971437642 My very first fabric applied to a toiletry bag....

Hello! One of my children's favourite treats is a fruit roll, or fruit leather. This is made by preparing any smoothie and then dehydrating it until it's a soft and pliable fruit roll. If by mistake you dehydrate it too much and it becomes too hard, don't worry! You have just made your first batch of fruit crisps - delicious! To make the fruit roll in the photographs, I made two smoothies: one with peaches and one with strawberries (fresh or canned is your choice, of course keeping in mind that fresh doesn't contain added sugar and it's probably yummier). When your smoothies are ready, pick up the teflon sheet of your dehydrator and spread a very, very thin layer of olive oil or coconut oil, using perhaps a silicon brush. Slowly pour one smoothie occupying only one area of the dehydrator tray (the centre or one half). Then pour the other smoothie, avoiding mixing the two. Now to have some fun use a fork or any tool that won't scratch the teflon sheets, and gentl...

Good afternoon! Many people would like to learn how to dehydrate their food so they can preserve it. Others would love to learn some dehydrated raw food recipes. I am posting here some bits from my book, "Back to Basics", where an entire chapter is devoted to dehydrating. Happy reading! How do you use dehydrators? It’s quite simple; there are detailed instruction books, but anyway just slice fruit or veggies to achieve slices of 2 mm, spread them evenly on the tray and keep going until all the food is sliced and ready to be dehydrated. Then plug in/turn on and set the temperature to medium (for most foods), low for herbs and high for meat. That’s it. It’s easier to set the dehydrator before going to bed and when you wake up everything is ready.  Create your very own “ready meals” cheaply Regarding soups, you can prepare a soup roll up, make it really dry and brittle, then put it in a good blender to powder it and then store it. If you are good at cooking you can create your v...

Good evening! As we are soon starting a second round of war  against Candida, I thought we would first of all ditch wheat, the great cause of inflammation in so many people. This is because modern wheat has been crossed pollinated zillions of times, to achieve a highly productive, dwarf plant which is completely different from the ancient wheat that people used to eat, say, sixty years ago. The new wheat we eat now, according to Dr. Davies (author of the best seller "The wheat belly") contains something like 37% of gluten instead of the old,3%, plus it contains a substance called I think glialine, which is an opiaceous. Ooops. This means 'addictive': the more wheat you eat, the more wheat you crave. Now that you know what sparked our decision to ditch wheat for a while, don't feel guilty if you do eat it: apparently not everybody reacts badly to it. So, here we have our recipe for wheat free, crispy and crunchy crackers. Spelt crackers Ingredients: 500 gr. spelt f...

In the last couple of months we have really grown to like this green smoothie, so it's time to share the recipe. Green Smoothie Ingredients: - a couple of leaves of kale (without the hard bit in the middle) - Apple juice or other fruit juice you prefer,  filling 1/4 of the Vitamix jug - 3 ripe bananas - a handful of almonds - optional, 1 bananas and 3 pears instead of 3 bananas - optional, fresh and tender lettuce instead of kale - optional, a bit of crushed ice Preparation: Put kale and apple juice in the blender and mix until the liquid is perfectly smooth Add the other ingredients, then mix If you wish, add a bit of ice but don't crush it too small Pour and enjoy!

It looks like everything I do is for the others and I keep the rubbish stuff for myself. Mmm. Years ago...again.....a friend of mine got married and was about to move to the USA with her young husband, who comes from Hawaii or Tonga, sorry can't remember, just a robust guy with very exotic looks. I got thinking about the beautiful environment where he came from and I chose a fish pattern in a cotton fabric, to make a cute apron for her. I know that she's a good homemaker....and I hope she still wears my apron! I also made a Japanese one but I forgot to take a photo (typical of me!) Franz

When a friend of mine had a baby girl, who then became a pretty toddler and a young girl, I loved making her little presents. This is one of them. It's knitted in acrylic yarn on my Passap Knitting machine (which has  a double bed). I added the fringes and some sequins as this girl loves sparkly things (I do, too). It was fun to make and definitely something that most people can make in one day or two. Franz

Many years ago a friend donated me a strange fabric in a weird violet hue, and it was a really tough fabric. I really didn't know what to do with it. In the end I made a large, embroidered shopping bag, and also a little bread bag (embroidered) where to slid in those French baguettes we used to eat. Sadly, when we were diagnosed with a wheat allergy we found out that we can't eat the majority of artisan breads as they all contain milk in some form. So eventually I gave away the baguette bag and also made 5 more, which I donated to friends. So, fabric can always be used for fun things! Franz

When a friend had a baby girl, I was dying t do something girly for her as I had no daughters then. I had a look in my fabric pile and I found just what I was looking for. Without thinking about measurements I just put together this really silly dress and I sent it to my friend. She actually liked it! I was amazed. Here it is: have a laugh! Franz

Five years ago I designed and made an Indian dress using a white fleece blanket that was on offer in our local supermarket. It was just a fun project but I ended up adding a fringe, beads and the lot, plus some embroidery, and I even lined the entire dress with satin. When it was finished and I tried it on, it was like being enveloped by a warm white cloud. I loved it and I tend to wear it once a year, when it snows. :) Wicked sense of humour, I know. That dress is special to me also because in the month when I worked on it I became pregnant with my now five ear old daughter, Kim. Making the dress was fun and it costed me only £5,00 for fabric and probably £5,00 for beads. There is so much we can do when we have time, passion and a good idea. I'm not saying that you should go around dressed like American Indians though! Franz