No Need To Starve (Part 1)

DURING married student days I thought of writing on "How to Live on Love" for the encouragement of fellow strugglers for survival. A short time on internship surprised me with little change—improved income was matched by increased demands. But time, taste, and improved health have taught us that a simple diet has advantages that might be the envy of people without financial restrictions. It is still true that "grains, fruits, nuts, and vegetables . . . prepared in as simple and natural a manner as possible, are the most healthful and nourishing." ¹

Grains

The less-processed grains and flours are more nutritious. My family prefers home made bread. My usual busy schedule often allows only the one-hour variety. I simply stir whole-wheat flour and salt into warm water with dissolved honey and yeast, knead it into small loaves, and pop them straight in the warming oven. There is no more fuss—just turn the heat up high after fifteen minutes, and five or ten minutes later reduce it to medium and bake loaves until the bread is honey brown, approximately half an hour.

I have never lost my childhood taste for frumenty made from whole wheat, which we gleaned from the fields in war-time Britain. Boiled an hour in the evening and left to stand overnight, the grains were plump and bursting with goodness next morning. Heated and served with dried fruit and chopped nuts or nut cream, this makes a sweet and tasty breakfast dish. There are other grains that can yield their distinctive flavors the same way—buckwheat, rice, rye, oats, for instance.

Fruit

Fruit is its own advertisement. Color, line, shape, texture, flavor, are all obviously made for man. In my college days apples, oranges, and grapes were used as each took turn to be in season. In some sections of the world the variety of fruits is greater.

For years I have sweetened my canned fruit with dried fruit only, with complete success. In this way we not only obtain attractive and varied flavor combinations but more vitamins and minerals for our calories. In addition, 100 grams (about 31/2 ozs.) of dried apricots gives almost 11,000 I.U.'s of Vitamin A².

Dried fruits, singly or in combination, soaked before mincing, grinding, or blending, make spreads that never fail to be popular. If used without being soaked, spread on trays and cut in cubes. The cubes set hard in a few days and are used up as candy in next to no time.

Nuts

During our married student days we found using nut spreads instead of margarine not a needless extravagance but a necessary step in household economy. What delicious punishment! And they are so very easy to prepare.

Mince, grind, or blend the nuts with water or fruit juice, with water and dried fruit, or with tomato juice and fresh herbs, or other savory flavorings. Use thick for spreads. Dilute as desired for soups, sauces, savories, salad creams, hot or cold drinks, shortening. Use in fancy cakes and breads, dips, dunks, or decorations.

For example: Blend a cup of raw cashews with a cup of water or fruit juice and a little salt. Refrigerate overnight. Use with fruit salad for breakfast. You may prefer to simmer this for ten minutes after blending, stirring to prevent sticking. Made with one half water, one half carrot juice, the flavor blends exceptionally well with apricots.

An elderly church member told me the other day that her nerves were bad and her son complained that she had too little protein. The canned protein foods were too expensive for her, she explained, and nuts out of the question. I suggested she use almonds with rice in the proportions recommended by the Lord—one tenth to one sixth.3 In this way she could prepare savories at a fraction of the cost of canned protein foods, approximately one eighth the cost in this instance. She could add the flavorings she always used—onions, herbs, and salt.

What she could do with rice and almonds could be varied many times with different nuts, grains, and flavorings by inventive cooks in many parts of the world. Nuts are obviously better food value than oil, which contains no minerals or vitamins but 884 calories to the 100 grams! 2 A person changing to nut spreads from fortified margarine would need to have a good supply of Vitamin A, which brings us to vegetables.

Vegetables

Green leaves, which lose so much of their value within a few hours of picking, are easy to grow in a small garden patch.

To a little onion, lightly cooked in oil, we add shredded dock, dandelion leaves, lamb's quarters (called fat hen in Australia), plantain, leaves of the grass of parnassus, and other edible "weeds," beet, carrot, and kohlrabi tops, endive, pumpkin leaves, or any other greens, and steam them with an added spoonful of water and a little salt for three minutes only with the lid on. To save the vitamins, do not cut them up too finely.

These few examples will leave no question about the value of these natural gold mines of minerals and vitamins, especially vitamin A. They will lose little of their food value if pre pared as described.

We enjoy a handful of parsley blended into a salad dressing, made by blending one-half cup of bean water with a little less oil. We add salt, lemon juice, honey, onion, garlic, celery seed, or tomato paste to taste. "Bean water" is nothing more than the cooking water strained off soy beans, Limas, garbanzos, or other dehydrated legumes.

Right now my neighbors and a number of their friends are buying lucerne seed from the farm-produce store to copy the lucerne sprouts I introduced to them last week. These need no garden, being prepared something like soybean sprouts. The last day or two I leave them in the daylight to turn a healthy green.

Sir Francis Chichester was reported as having wheat sprouts and fruit for one of his meals every day on his epic solo sailing trip around the world.

"There's one thing you've taught us," the neighbors exclaim. "There's no need to starve!"