Kombucha!!

Have you ever heard of kombucha?

Kombucha is a fermented drink made using tea and sugar and a starter, called a scoby.  Scoby stands for "symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeasts."  Here is a little blurb about kombucha that I found at seedsofhealth website.

A couple of months ago, my mother in law gave me a kombucha scoby.  I made it once, it didn't ferment quite like it was supposed to-- when properly fermented, it gets slightly effervescent-- and I just kept putting off brewing tea to make it.  Now that Thanksgiving and Christmas have passed, and I am trying all kinds of new things in the kitchen (and also on my sewing machine!), I made time to brew some more tea to make some more kombucha.  (You would think, as I drink tea multiple times throughout the day, that I would not have to 'make time' for this.  And really, I didn't.  I was just telling myself I would have to make all this time for it and thus putting it off and putting it off... ANYway...)

Making kombucha at home could not be easier.  Seriously.  And, if you already know about this stuff and how good it is, and you already have a craving desire for it, let me save you some (a lot of) money!  Get a kombucha scoby!  I can share mine with you, if you want and you are in the area.

Ok, so here is how I have been making mine, which method I got from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon.  (Great, awesome book, with lots of information and TONS of recipes covering all types of food.)  I seriously recommend this book to anyone who is serious about their health and crazy enough to think outside the conventional-food-available box.  :-)

Am I rambling a lot this evening, or is it just me?

Back to the recipe...

Kombucha
One scoby
1/2 cup of kombucha from another batch
2 tea bags
1/2 cup white sugar (I use organic cane sugar)
2 quarts of water
1/2 gallon jar

boil the water.  add the tea bags and the sugar.  stir until sugar is dissolved. let tea brew until it has completely cooled. pour tea, scoby, and kombucha into the glass jar.  cover with a cloth (and I put a rubber band around the top). leave on the counter 1 week- 3 weeks, until the kombucha is tasty and has bubbles around the edges. 

My latest batch of Kombucha-- you can see the scoby floating around in there. Actually there are two 'mushrooms' that have separated...

After a week or so on the counter, a new 'mushroom' should start forming on top of your kombucha.  It IS creepy, and looks slimy, but it is good!  It means your kombucha is working! Start tasting the kombucha, and when it tastes good to you (the longer you let it sit, the more vinegary the flavor will be), then it is ready to drink. 

You can brew another batch right away and use the scoby over again right away or store it in the fridge, with some kombucha for awhile.  Mine was in there for almost two months and it still worked when I used it this month. :-) I don't know if I will be storing mine in the fridge anymore, anyway, since the entire 2 quarts of kombucha was gone in two days at my house. 

Why drink this strange weird drink? Well, for one it tastes delicious.  It has a bit of bubbly-ness that is reminiscent of when I used to drink soda.  Also, it is packed full of B vitamins and other things like antioxidants and even more things that I don't know about because I honestly haven't looked up ALL the health benefits. :-)

Also, it's super cute to have your almost two year old say, "More kombucha, please, Mommy." :-)

Sprouted Wheat

Hello again, everyone!  I really do think about you all the time.  Even if it doesn't make it to the interwebs.  :-)

Well, one of my New Year's resolutions is to sprout or soak my grains as much as possible.  Or ferment them, as in sourdough bread.  I wrote a post on this about a year ago, but now I am serious, people.

The above picture is proof.  Look at those cute little wheat berries with little white tails-- those are the sprouts!

While it takes about 36 hours to sprout and 12 hours to dehydrate the grains, I actually spend very little time on this!  I just have to remember to keep up with it.  Here is how it has been going for me so far:

1. Fill a 1/2 gallon jar about 1/3 full of wheat berries.
2. Cover the wheat berries with water (plus about 2-3" above the water)
3. Let the berries soak either overnight or all day.
4. Pour the water off the wheat berries and drain well.  (Get a sprouting lid for your jar so that wheat berries don't go all over your kitchen!)
5. Rinse two or three times a day, and in about 24 hours, the berries will be ready to dehydrate.
6. Pour the berries onto a cookie sheet.
7. Place cookie sheets in the oven and turn it on to the lowest setting.  (Or, put it in your dehydrator and set for no more than 145*-- if you use a dehydrator, you need to get mesh screen to put on the trays, or the wheat berries will fall right through.)
8. Come back to your wheat berries in 12 hours or so and they will be all dried out.
9. Store in an airtight container until you are ready to use it.  :-) 

So there you have it.  I have been constantly sprouting wheat for a couple of weeks now, and not running out of sprouted flour.  Sprouted flour is such a healthy option for my family because the sprouting process wakes up, or unlocks the vitamins and minerals that are stored in the seeds to support a new plant.  Also, sprouting breaks down the phytic acid in the the grain that acts as an inhibitor in your digestive tract, which stops the minerals that are available from being absorbed. 

This is definitely a big step in our healthy eating journey!  And, it doesn't cost me any extra money!  Only a few minutes a day and my family is eating much healthier breads!  Yay!

My Little Helper

Isn't she cute?

Cooking Tip #4

Well, folks, I can't really qualify this as a cooking tip.  More like a "cooking/heating" tip...

I have recently jumped head-first into the soaking/sprouting world of preparing grains, legumes, seeds and nuts.  I hope to share my new resolutions (of sorts, I guess that's appropriate, since it's the new year!) with you soon.  :-)  But for now, let's just say my (FIL's) dehydrator has made a reappearance in my kitchen!

Today I soaked almonds.  Soaking helps to make the almonds more easily digestible.  I don't know a whole lot about it at this point, but I kind of see it as giving my tummy and intestines a bit of a break.  :-)

So, after I soaked the almonds (8-12 hours), I put them in the dehydrator at about 145* for 12-24 hours, or until they are crispy.  Well, I set up the dehydrator in its usual spot-- the dining room. 

Chris walked by the dehydrator, and pointed out I had placed it in the wrong place.  I agreed, and we moved it-- to our bedroom!  It's the coldest room in the house, and the dehydrator is set at 145*!  So I'm looking forward to my room possibly being warm-ish tonight.  :-)

Please excuse the mess all around... but I just had to show you! 

 My tip for today-- use your dehydrator to heat your house!

Oatmeal Pudding

For the last two weeks or so I have been craving warm vanilla soother.  I made this recipe from Heavenly Homemakers last year and it was so delicious and warm and comforting.  mmm.

However, the recipe calls for quite a bit of milk and eggs and I know my kids will just drink it down in two seconds and then want more.  Or something else. Or both.  Oiy.  So, I wanted to bulk it up a bit, that it might hold their tummies for at least a little while.

I made the warm vanilla soother recipe, (but only with three egg yolks because that's all we had), and I added one cup of oatmeal to it while it was cooking.  It ended up like warm vanilla soother oatmeal pudding.  Yum.  It was delicious.  :-)

Check out that yummie food!

But still, I did not want to make it very often because it really used up so much of my milk and eggs and also, even with the oatmeal added, the kids ate the whole thing and were still asking for more.  How can I tweak this recipe so that it is still yummie and creamy like pudding but still uses less eggs and milk?  Here is what I came up with:

Watch how I can eat it!

Oatmeal Pudding
3 cups water or milk
1 or 2 TBS yogurt
1 1/2 cups oatmeal
2 ripe mashed bananas
2 TBS ground flax (or you could add two eggs, or one egg and one TBS flax)
honey to taste (i think i added about 1/3 cup)
vanilla to taste (about 1 tsp)
cinnamon to taste (1/4 to 1/2 tsp)

the night before, put the water/milk, yogurt and oatmeal in a pan and stir it up.  cover it and leave it to soak overnight. in the morning, mash the bananas, and add the bananas, flax, honey, cinnamon and vanilla to the pan. cook over medium heat until it is nice and creamy.  stir frequently if you used eggs to make sure they don't scramble in your oatmeal-- gross! add more milk if you want it more creamy.  (i added 1/2 cup milk while cooking)

Yum, yum. :-)

Okay, so what would I do differently the next time I made this?  I would probably use one egg and 1 TBS flax and soak the oatmeal using at least 1 cup milk for added creaminess. And that's it.  I will definitely be making this creamy oatmeal pudding for breakfast again, and often. :-)

Pita Bread Recipe!

One time, long ago, I made pitas and they turned out perfectly!  I was thrilled to make them and they actually puffed up in the oven all by themselves! Then, I lost the recipe for hmm, over a year or so to the interwebs.  just couldn't find it. until, .... TODAY!!!

And I will share it with you, and myself, so I can find it again soon.  Because I love homemade pitas!!

Make sure you only roll them out to 1/4".  I used my handy rolling pin spacers that my husband got me for Christmas (or was it my birthday?) a year or two ago!  I was rolling mine too thin all those times I tried to make pitas and ended up with thick tortillas instead. 

Also, I took the suggestion of the first commenter, and added a 1/4 cup of water to the bottom of the oven for each batch of pitas I put in.  I only baked them for 4 minutes at around 500*.  They were great.  mmmm.  You better believe I will be dreaming of warm homemade pitas tonight!  :-)

Lentil Shepard's Pie

The other day I was wanting to eat Shepard's pie.  However, I didn't really want to make a meat based one, because we had had meat the last two or three days in a row.  I really wanted this comfort food, but was trying to figure out how to make it vegetarian.  I thought, what about lentils?  (I make a killer "Sloppy Sam's" using lentils!)  Lentils are very high in protein, but rather inexpensive to buy.  I happened to have some, and we had not eaten them for awhile. That being said, I googled, "Lentil Shepard's Pie." 

Here is the recipe I found and everyone really enjoyed it.  Sam, my picky one ate his whole bowl the first night (But wouldn't touch it the next day for lunch.)

I changed the recipe just a bit.  Cut up a carrot and cooked it with the lentils. (Make sure you add the carrot right at the beginning of the cooking, because I didn't and then the carrots were not quite cooked.) I used earth balance instead of butter and unsweetened coconut milk instead of milk.  I left out the thyme and added about a 1/2 TBS Worcestershire sauce.  Then I sprinkled peas on top of the lentil layer instead of corn. 

I really enjoyed this lentil Shepard's pie recipe and I will definitely make it again.  Also, I want to try the 'black bean burgers' and the 'simple french lentil soup' recipe listed on this site.