Home Made Coffee Substitute Recipe With Gluten Free Option

Home Made Cereal Coffee substitute:  Here is a very old recipe for Coffee which is made from grains and treacle.  I will give two recipes here, a wheat version, and a gluten free version. The recipe which I have discovered in an ancient cooking book  is not gluten free.   If you wish to make a gluten free coffee substitute, then  basically substitute ground soy beans and millet for the flour and the bran in this recipe

I have not tried this recipe which uses wheat grains and treacle,  but I have used other grains to make a substitute for coffee in the past.  Roasted soybeans worked well, I found, with brown sugar sprinkled over before roasting. Soy beans are gluten free, and so is brown sugar.   I also found roasted barley to be good, also with a sprinkling of brown sugar put over before roasting,  although barley is NOT gluten free, so avoid this one if you eat only gluten free food.

These options for coffee substitute were very tasty and, I think, nutritious. You can virtually use any grain or bean to make a coffee substitute.  The secret is in the roasting.

This is the recipe from an un-named old recipe book – so well used that it does not even have a cover on it anymore, so I cannot tell you anything about it except that it says “Two-Burner Gas Cookers” at the top of the very first page of recipes.

Recipe For Coffee Substitute Made With Cereals and Treacle:

2 cups whole raw bran

1 cup of ground rice, or rice flour

1 cup oatmeal

1 cup ground corn groats – coarse yellow cornmeal

1 cup coarse wholemeal flour

1 cup of dark treacle

Slightly warm the treacle in a pot so that it will mix easily with the dry ingredients.  Then add the grains and flours, and mix everything up together.

Spread out over a greased baking tray or a large pyrex dish.  Bake in a moderate oven until the ‘coffee’ is a nice dark brown colour.  Take care not to burn it, otherwise it will be spoiled.

Let cool completely, then put into an air-tight tin or jar.

To Make a Cup Of  Coffee Substitute:

Use 4 tablespoons of the cereal coffee mix.  Put into a small saucepan, add a pinch of sea salt and 1 cup of boiling water.  Simmer this mixture for 5 minutes.  Strain. This will make about 4-6 cups of caffeine free coffee.  Use milk to make the coffee.  the proportions are 2 tablespoons of the coffee liquid to one cup of hot milk to make one cup of coffee.

Gluten Free Recipe For Coffee Substitute:

1 cup of treacle

2 cups of ground soy beans

2 cups cornmeal groats or coarse cornmeal flour

2 cups millet flour or millet porridge mix

Follow the same method as for the Cereal Coffee above.

Natural Herbal Remedies For Pleurisy Of The Lungs

Pleurisy is a lung condition where the mucous membranes covering the lungs become severely inflamed.  This causes pain in breathing.  You must see a health practitioner if you have sore lungs for any reason. It is important to rest and keep warm when recovering from pleurisy. 

Bed rest, hot lemon drinks,  and a hot water bottle are the best treatments for treating lung infections of any kind.  And don’t forget the Vitamin C – for an adult, use calcium ascorbate 1000mg every two hours for up to 3 or 4 doses in a day.  Use this dose for two days, then cut back the dose to just one or two doses of 1000mg per day.

Here are some herbal remedies to help treat pleurisy of the lungs.  Several of these remedies have been used by herbal practitioners of old.  I have also mentioned some of my own remedies:  Often, it is a case of what is available to you, when deciding what remedy to use for an illness.

I grew Hollyhocks, and let the garden have a wee corner where the honeysuckle  and other wild flowers and medicinal weeds could grow.  There was always something to use from the garden, in the event of an illness.

Hollyhock and honeysuckle flower tea proved efficacious several times, when I did not have homeopathic remedies on hand.  And other favourites – read below about Homeopathic Arsen Alb and Bryonia for helping pleurisy of the lungs.

The book ‘Successful Herbal Remedies’ by Nalda Gosling, published by Thorsons Publishers Limited, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England, 1985, gives two recipes for the treatment of pleurisy which are worth noting.  These both use pleurisy root.

Pleurisy Root,  Asclepias tuberosa.  This remedy can be used for bronchitis, pneumonia, and to treat the flu.  It reduces pain  in the chest, and eases breathing.  Pleurisy root is probably one of the most common herbs for treating inflammation of the lungs – hence its name.   Nalda says that the American Indians used pleurisy root simmered for 10 minutes for treating pleurisy.

Pleurisy root can also  be combined with hyssop, marshmallow root and liquorice root, used in equal quantities.  The method is to take 2 oz or 50 g of mixed herbs and simmer in 1 litre of water for 10 minutes. Allow the infusion to cool.

The dose is a wineglassful taken hot every two hours.  This remedy works best if no food is taken for a day or two, until the pleurisy has subsided.  This remedy promotes sweating, which is helpful in curing pleurisy.

Her second remedy is one which is recommended by Dr Schramm for the treatment of inflammation of the lung.  It uses pleurisy root again, with the addition of marshmallow root, liquorice root and slippery elm bark.    50g are taken of each of these herbs, and simmered in 3 pints of water, which is around  8 cups of water.  This mixture is simmered gently until it has halved in quantity.  Then half a teaspoonful is taken every half hour.  No food is to be taken with this treatment, until the patient is better and the pain gone from the chest.  Again, it is important to rest and to  keep warm in bed.  I would use hot a  lemon drink every hour as well, taken separately to the half teaspoon of herbal mixture.

Russell Setright, an Australian naturopath who wrote ‘Get Well:  An A-Z of Natural Medicine for Everyday Illness’,  published by Atrand Pty Ltd, Crows Nest, NSW, Australia, 1990, says that Pleurisy root is effective when combined with Capsicum, Grindellia, and Lobelia for treating any congestion of the lungs, such as bronchitis, pneumonia, and flu.

Honeysuckle Flowers and Hollyhock: My own concoction: I have used this remedy to cure pleurisy in the past, and to treat coughs of all kinds in myself and my children. This also will promote sweating.

Pour three cups of boiling water over half a cup of honeysuckle flowers, and half a cup of hollyhock flowers. Allow the mixture to sit until cool. Add the juice of two lemons and some honey – enough to make the tea palatable.  Take a warm cupful every hour for up to five hours.

Add some cod-liver oil capsules and a strong dose of Vitamin C to help this treatment along.

Comfrey Tea can also be used to treat chest troubles.  I would add some Hollyhock and/or Honeysuckle flowers to the tea, to help dry up the fluid in the lungs.

I found homeopathic Bryonia to be useful in treating lung conditions of various kinds, and, if I had this remedy, I would use it in combination with the honeysuckle and hollyhock treatment.

Another favourite chest remedy is Homeopathic Arsen Alb., 30c.  I keep this one on hand these days, at all times, and I take it with me if I am travelling.  It has come to the rescue of other fellow travellers who were sick with chest troubles.  It can be used for pleurisy, and for treating and preventing flu.

Homeopathic Drosera is a great remedy to have available for young children.  It is well-known as a whooping-cough remedy, and I have found it to be always effective in this instance.  It can also be used as a pleurisy remedy.

Wet Onion Pack Remedy For Pleurisy

This is the most effective lung and chest treatment of all, in my opinion.  I have used this remedy for my own pneumonia, as well as for pleurisy.  This is a marvellous remedy for creating a sweat, to get rid of the  poisons causing the pleurisy.  I do advise you to see a medical practitioner if you or your children have chest problems.  But for me, I found that antibiotics did not do much towards helping to cure these conditions, and I was loathe to take them anyway.  This prompted me to investigate herbal remedies, and homeopathic treatment.  This is one very old remedy for inflammation of the lungs.

Chop up two large onions, skin and all, and boil  in 2 litres of water for ten minutes.  Allow the mixture to cool  sufficiently so that it will not burn you.  Put some rubber gloves on.  Take an old towel which is big enough to wrap around the whole chest.  Dip it into the cooled, but still hot, onion broth.  Wring the towel out as quickly as possible and wrap it right around the chest.  Quickly cover up with a plastic sheet, and then an old blanket.  Wrap everything quickly and firmly around the chest so that the heat stays in.  Now – drink a cup of  hot lemon drink, or hot  ginger, or herbal tea, and cover yourself up in bed from neck to toe with plenty of blankets and a hot water bottle, to sweat it out.  Leave the onion pack on the chest for up to an hour.  Surprisingly, the onion pack does not cause you to get cold, but, instead, to heat up and  sweat away the pleurisy condition.

You can repeat the process a couple of hours later, using the same onion broth from the first treatment.  Generally, though, I found that one treatment of the onion pack was enough to effect a cure.

Again, you can use homeopathic Bryonia with this onion pack remedy. Take  5 Drops of homeopathic  Bryonia 30C  twice a day for two or three days.

Natural Remedies and Foods To Help Prevent Gall Stones

Cut Down On Animal Fat:  A diet low in animal fat is recommended.  However, this does not mean that you avoid fat altogether.  Fats are needed for a healthy body, because they provide nutrients which cannot be found in other foods.  Also, if you cut out all fats, then the gall bladder becomes lazy, and it begins to diminish its output of bile.   When this happens, your ability to digest any fats will be impaired.  Cutting out all fats can actually LEAD to the formation of gall stones.

The secret to avoiding gall stones is balance in the diet: an alkaline  diet which includes enough of the nutrients which combat the formation of gall stones should be adopted.  Also, it is important that enough exercise be taken on a daily basis.  Keeping the weight down is important for the prevention of gall stones, although thin people can also get gall stones when their diets are not right, or they have been years on medications such as warfarin which interfere with the body’s ability to counteract ill health, and instead, contribute towards degeneration and weakness of the body and its functions.

You NEED your gall bladder.  So look after it.  Many people get the gall bladder  whipped out at the drop of a hat, rather than take the trouble to get rid of the stones which have formed in it.  Getting the gall bladder taken out means that your system will be devoid of this important fat-processing organ, which means that your body will not get the fats that it needs for maintaining healthy joints, nerves, heart, and brain.

Taking extra lecithin is helpful  to the gall bladder, because it increases the phospholipid concentration in the gall bladder.  Lecithin is found naturally in egg yolk, but it is also found in soy beans, from which granulated lecithin is made.  Eating two raw egg yolks daily, on their own, or in salad dressing, is recommended in some natural therapies for treating degenerative disease.  This can be helpful also in maintaining a healthy  gall bladder.  The lecithin in egg yolk helps to emulsify fats, which lessens the work of the gall bladder.  Fats, which are essential to good nerve, brain and heart health,  have to be emulsified first,  so that they can be easily digested by the body.

Olive oil is helpful to the gall bladder.  Using olive oil each day can help to prevent gall stones from forming.  This is because the olive oil stimulates the bile flow.  Using olive oil daily will also help any small stones in the gall bladder to be passed through the exit duct.  Olive oil is helpful in the digestion of fats, because it helps to increase the production of lipase, a digestive enzyme which  breaks up fat molecules.  Olive oil can be  used in combination with lemon juice as a treatment to rid the gall bladder of gall stones.

Eat plenty of pears.  These are very soothing to the mucous membranes and to the gall bladder.

Astrology Of Amy Winehouse and The Saturn Return

Amy Winehouse, born 14 September 1983 and who died recently on the  23rd July, 2011,  was coming up to her Saturn Return. She was born under the astrological sign Virgo.

My cousin has just  returned home to New Zealand, bringingt me back a book of quotations from famous musicians, which she bought at Chatsworth Castle, in the United Kingdom.  This wonderful little book has a quotation from Amy Winehouse in it, which says:  “I only write about stuff I can’t get past personally.  Luckily, I’m quite self-destructive.”  This self-destructiveness she talks about so often fuels the lives of very creative people, and you can usually detect signs of this self-challenging behaviour, with highly charged emotions,  in creative people’s astrological charts.  This means that when Saturn’s Return arrives at around 27 to 29 years, and every 28 years afterward, the person with such creative tendencies will be seriously challenged – more so than an  average, emotionally stable person.

The Saturn Return is one of the most vulnerable times in a person’s life.  This is when Saturn, after having ‘gone around the clock’ of the astrological signs, arrives at the point where it was at the moment of birth.  This is usually around the 27th to 28th year of life, because Saturn takes roughly 28 years to circuit the Sun.   The following Saturn Return, after the one at 28 years,  is roughly another 28 years later, around the 56th year of life, and so on.

The cycle of Saturn can be broken into four squares – each square of the circle of signs taking about 7 years to transverse.  This is why we have what is known as  ‘the seven year cycle’.  Around every seven years, we often have disturbances and challenges in the life, and these usually correspond to the cycle of Saturn and its ‘squares’.   The times of most challenges usually occur when Saturn is square to Saturn, or opposite, or when Saturn is over a major planet such as the Sun or Moon.

Many young people have ended their lives during the time of the Saturn Return, or died of some other accident which has come about because of emotional reasons.  Heath Ledger is one famous Australian actor who died only about a year ago during the period of the Saturn Return. He, sadly, committed suicide.  Things would have changed for him once Saturn, which was retrograde at the time of his death, became direct again.  Saturn, when it goes retrograde over your own Saturn, often gives the feeling of doom, of things remaining in a perpetual negative frame. When Mercury is Retrograde at the same time, then you can feel as if your world is caving in. If you are having relationship difficulties, or some other challenges in the life, then it might seem that life will stay this way for the rest of your life during the Saturn Return.  Depression is often a characteristic of the Saturn Return.

Many others have died around this time of the Saturn Return:  I know of several young people who gave up the ghost when they were 27 or 28.  Some other famous people who died during the Saturn Return are: Jim Morrison of ‘The Doors’, who died of heart failure, exacerbated by heavy drinking according to the papers,  in Paris, when he was 27 years old, and Kurt Cobain, born 29 February 1967, who died April 5th, 1994, at the age of 27.  Jimi Hendrix was just at the end of his Saturn Return cycle when he died.  Janis Joplin, born Janurary 19 1943, died October 4th, 1970 aged 27 years.

Of course, the severity of the Saturn Return depends upon the other planets and how they are placed to each other, and in relation to the placement of Saturn in the chart.

Amy Winehouse still had a little way to go before Saturn would meet her own Natal Saturn in the ‘Saturn Return’, but the pressure would have been building up because of other aspects, which I will mention a little further on.

Amy had Moon conjunct Neptune in Sagittarius,  opposite her Moon’s Node which was  in Gemini. Moon conjunct Neptune gave her wonderful creativity and a sense of mysticism in her work, and about her, which captivated the world.  But when the Moon’s Node, travelling about the zodiac, hit her Moon/Neptune opposite Node, the emotional pressure would have become very intense for her.

The moving Node of the Moon had moved forward, striking her Natal Moon/Neptune conjunction, which was directly opposite her Natal  Moon’s Node.  These Natal configurations  which were both  in Square to her Sun and Retrograde Mercury, then became afflicted by the current moving Node of the Moon. 

So the current Node of the Moon triggered off an intense and overwhelmingly negative chain of events.  On the day she died, the moving Node of the Moon was right over her own Moon/Neptune conjunction, and opposite her own Natal moon Node Square her Sun/Mercury retrograde.

Neptune often figures strongly in  the charts of artists and musicians. I know about Neptune, because I have it strongly in my own chart.

Neptune is the Planet of imagination, of creativity, of mysticism and invention.  It is also the Planet of deception, and self deception, and this is why people with a prominent Neptune, besides having exceptional artistic and musical skills, will often have difficulty with drugs and alcohol, and with partnerships.  The wool is very easily pulled over the eyes of these Neptune-prominent people.  They are usually very good at fantasizing about themselves, other people, and being unrealistic in their expectations.  Sometimes they will pull the wool over another’s eyes, too, although this is not necessarily done with the intention to deceive. They are just not so good at thinking things through logically when it comes to matters of the heart.  That is not to say that Amy’s relationship was a negative one – I do not know anything about her relationships – but, generally, there are often problems with relationships, because these Neptune-prominent people have a habit of choosing unsuitable people, and will attribute many qualities and things to their partners which often they do not possess.  They are wonderful dreamers. And drugs and alcohol only make this state of unreality, and  lack of good judgement, even worse.  So coping in the real world is not an easy thing for these Neptune-inspired dreamers and charmers.

What a sad loss Amy’s death is to her family, especially, as well as to the music world.  Rest in Peace, Amy.

Natural Antibiotic and Detoxifying Drink For Flu and Other Infections

Alternative To Antibiotics:  Garlic, Vitamin C, Cinnamon, Paprika, Ginger and lemon juice all contain natural antibiotics.  That is, they contain ingredients which kill bacteria.  These herbs and spices are  capable of killing germs in the blood stream, such as the flu virus, and also the germs which cause chicken pox, scarlet fever, meningitis, and other diseases.  Once you get used to using the natural sources of antibiotics in treating common illnesses such as flu,  your confidence in natural remedies will be boosted so that you will never want to take another vaccination again.  Sometimes, of course, prescription antibiotics are necessary, but for the majority of people, if the illness is treated early enough, then the natural antibiotics found in herbs and foods such as garlic and lemons, will be effective in alleviating and curing most common infections.

Here is a version of a detoxifying antibiotic drink which the wonderful Dr John Hilton gave to me many years ago.  Dr John was an alternative doctor who practiced in the Green Bay area of Auckland many years ago.  He delivered two of my babies.  I learned many good health tips from this compassionate and wise man.

Dr John’s Remedy For Flu:  The  Natural Antibiotic and Detoxifying Drink

Juice of half a large lemon

1/4 teaspoon paprika pepper

1/4 teaspoon ginger root powder

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

2 cloves of crushed or chopped garlic

1 or 2 teaspoons liquid honey

1 large cup of boiling water.

Use a small bowl to prepare this natural antibiotic drink for flu:  Pour the boiling water over the garlic, cinnamon, ginger root powder, and paprika.  Add the liquid honey and the lemon juice.

Allow to cool for a couple of minutes, then drink the lot while it is still hot.

Repeat the dose every hour while the infection is rampant.  Use it every hour for around four to five hours if necessary.  Then use three times a day until the infection has subsided, or until the bowels have become loose.  This might be anything up to three days.  If you are not getting better by this time, then you should visit a doctor or health professional such as a homeopath or ayurvedic practitioner.

Detoxifying the Body Is Necessary To Cure Disease:  This natural antibiotic garlic and lemon and cinnamon drink helps to detoxify the body.  Loosening the bowels is a good thing in any illness, as it gets rid of the toxins which otherwise feed the infection, thus making it last longer.  By using this natural remedy, you help the body recover through the natural antibiotics  in the ingredients, as well as by removing the poisons in the system which encourage infection.

Fasting:  This natural antibiotic and detoxifying drink for flu will work best if you do not eat other food, at least for one day.  If you need to eat, then taking oranges, or stewed apple, will help the detoxification process.  Heavy meals are best avoided for the first day or two, while treating flu with this antibiotic and detoxifying drink.