Are your chilli bushes brimming with scarlet fruits? Dry your chillies to make them last the year through. Great for chucking in whole to that curry your making. So much better than chilli or cayenne powder for some reason. I grew a Thai chilli and a Dave's hot chilli (named by the guy at the market I bought it from) which have loads of ripe chillies right now that I'll never get through fresh. They are both fairly thin-walled so ideal for drying. My Jalapeno's and yellow Cayenne's have pretty much finished and provided chillies in the summer and autumn.

I picked them all using fingers and scissors, both seemed about equally effective, fingers a bit easier but of course you get a bit of heat in your fingers which I didn't mind but was careful not to touch my eyes. Been there, done that when I was little, lesson learned for life.
I gave them a rinse and then cut off the tops with scissors.

Then I put a little slit down the side with a knife to aid in the drying process. They were then laid on dehydrator trays and dried at about 55 - 60 degress C (130 - 140 F) however you could also do them in your oven - set it on low, you'll need to turn them half way through drying to ensure they're drying both sides if you're using an oven.
Dry them until crispy and store in a jar in the cupboard. Drying time was about 8 - 12 hours.
They are fantastic straight out of the jar and into a curry etc or easily sliced. If you prefer them less hot or less piquant scrape out the seeds - easily done when they're dry and you're less likely to get hot juice on your hands.

Love that delicious pizza taste but just don't want the bread? Try this and its myriad variations for a great flavour without bread, grains or gluten. The only difference is you will need a fork to eat it, Oh and the crust is tastier.

Preheat oven 170 degress C
Grease pie plate or similar dish with coconut oil or ghee or similar
Ingredients:
Base
3/4 cup grated pumpkin/sweet potato for each pizza
1/2 - 1 egg / pizza
salt, pepper to taste
Mix all ingredients together and line pie plate.
Place in oven and partially cook, until egg is setting and mix is starting to soften.
Remove from oven.
While par-cooking you can prepare the topping.
Topping
It's up to you and your particular likes/dislikes. This is my usual -
Spread base with good quality pizza/pasta sauce, tomato puree/passata or tomato paste.
Chop meats/vegetables/herbs/spices that are desired eg mushrooms, capsicum, onion, tomato, olives, eggplant, salami or other types of meat, anchovies, left over meat, chicken, fish etc, garlic, chilli, herbs - oregano, basil and place strategically over the pizza.
Grate cheese for the top unless you have problems with it - mozzarella for traditional but we usually use whatever is in the fridge, something like gouda, cheddar and parmesan.
Now place your pizza/s in the oven and turn the oven up a little if your impatient and when it browns to your desire - Enjoy! .... with your fork unless you don't mind messy fingers.

Let me know what you think.

Nuts have many anti-nutrients in them so it's good to soak them before you use them, which is what many traditional cultures used to do. You can eat them straight after soaking or dehydrate them and crisp them up, by using a dehydrator on low or just your good old oven.
Use fresh pecans, almonds, macadamias, walnuts or other nuts.
Soak 2 cups of nuts in brine (filtered water with 1 teaspoon of good quality salt) for 7 - 24 hours or overnight. If using cashews soak for no longer than 6 hours. I soak most nuts for 24 hours these days and almonds I take the skins of after about 12 hours.
Drain and lay out on trays and place in oven or dehydrator at 60 degrees C or less for 12 - 24 hours until crispy, stir occasionally.
Store nuts in airtight containers at room temperature for most nuts, walnuts need to be refrigerated.

Nuts to be eaten straight after soaking may also be soaked without salt.

Bowen Therapy: Healing and the Autonomic Nervous System

One of the comments Bowen Therapists often hear is that after a Bowen treatment their clients have a feeling of wellbeing and a lifting of anxiety. They are able to sleep better and feel they are better able to cope with life. Bowen stimulates the body to heal on different levels, so as well as physical healing we also experience psychological healing.

An important function of the basic Bowen moves and some other moves is the balancing of the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system is that part of the nervous system that we don’t give a lot of attention to until something goes wrong. It happens in the background, responding to our needs. There are 2 parts to it - the sympathetic, also called the fight and flight type response and the parasympathetic, also called rest and digest response. Often in today’s society we have a predominance of the sympathetic nervous system. Our bodies are ready to respond and our stress levels go up resulting in our adrenals becoming overworked and overstimulated. We become used to this and it seems normal, although our bodies end up in a state of distress. Our stress hormones, like cortisol and adrenaline have increased while our healing, happy hormones, like serotonin and melatonin have decreased. Our systems are less able to heal, sleep is compromised, life becomes more difficult and acute or chronic disease can settle in. Sometimes at the beginning of this process we can actually feel good because we’re super-charged and feel that we are accomplishing more, however this soon catches up with us and our bodies begin to tell us we need to slow down and allow rest and healing to occur.

“It is a physiological fact that it is very difficult for the body to repair unless the parasympathetic-sympathetic balance is restored. In any case, once the activation of the sympathetic system becomes lowered, they will begin to feel so much better in themselves.” John Wilks

 The first Bowen moves and some following ones address this balance as they affect nerves along the spine and other areas that consequently affect particular areas such as the brain, adrenals, spinal cord and Vagus nerve, which is the major parasympathetic nerve in the body. This is part of ‘balancing the body’ that Bowen Therapists talk about and is important before addressing other problems. Research has shown that Bowen is effective in engaging the parasympathetic nervous system as shown by measures of heart rate, body temperature and mood states.

 Once the body has calmed down it is in a state where healing can occur. The body is then able to receive messages that enable it to heal. This may take more than 1 treatment. Just as it took you a while to become out of balance and for problems to manifest themselves, healing may not necessarily happen overnight. This is particularly so for longer term problems. The body often takes longer to calm down and address all the issues involved.

This is an informative blog for people who would like to know all about Bowen Therapy. Feel free to share your Bowen experience and how it healed your Neck Pain, Back Pain, Siatica, Frozen Shoulders, Asthama,migrain etc. Do you need to find relief from any of these conditions? If Yes - Then Take Action and speak to me at Bowen for Health.
It's also where I'll share a few other aspects of health as Bowen is a wholistic modality. So I'm anticipating you'll find some nutritious recipes , information on health such as nutrition, lifestyle, exercise, research etc.