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Time for the next three steps in the Baby Steps in the Kitchen Series! If you have missed the first two, go back and read part 1 and part 2!
7. Replace white flour and white flour products with healthier alternatives (whole wheat, spelt, etc.)
8. Choose healthier oils
9. Try making your own chicken stock instead of buying broth or bouillon cubes, and your own soups!
Okay, so, why these three steps? Good question! Read on for more information!
White flour is basically a non-food. It is stripped of nearly all its nutrients when the hull is removed from the kernal. Most of us know that white flour isn't good for us for all of these reasons, because health experts are constantly asking us to switch to whole-grain alternatives. Right now, I'm going to tell you the same thing: get some whole grains! Buy brown rice instead of white (and NO instant!), whole grain bread, and whole grain flours to bake with. Spelt is an even better option for some -- lower in gluten and generally less "messed with." It can be found at many health food stores and before we went grain-free, I used only spelt flour in my baking for a long time. There will be more steps about grains later, but for right now, just switch to whole grains! Simple, easily available at any grocery store, and not too expensive!
Oils -- Good fats are essential in your diet. I've written two posts about fats so far, so I'm not going to write about why you need them here in detail. People use oil for a lot of things, too, like frying, in many boxed mixes (we'll talk about those later), baking from scratch, putting on bread, dressing salads, etc. Hydrogenated oils and even most liquid vegetable oils are not good for you, so you should limit your consumption. Replace them with healthy oils. These, too, are generally affordable ($4 - $5 for a pound of butter on up to $20 for a jar of coconut oil or bottle of really good olive oil) and easy to find. They're also very nutrient-dense. If you aren't sure of ways to use all these new fats, you'll want to check out my "30-Day Eat More Fat Challenge," starting on March 1st! (Only 2 more days to register!!)
Chicken stock is a wonderful food. Fresh, homemade chicken stock, that is. Canned broths (and canned soups) and bouillon cubes are NOT good. They're mostly made of salt and MSG so that they're "meat flavored" but contain little to no actual meat. (That's why you can get vegetarian "chicken" flavored broth.) These are highly processed, and we've already talked about avoiding MSG or other packaged food ingredients. And although there may be brands out there that are acceptable, be wary of any brand that says "natural flavors," "hydrolyzed" "autolyzed" etc. -- this is MSG too. But, it's so easy to avoid if you just make your own! Buy a whole chicken or turkey, or buy bones (thighs, backs, necks are great -- feet are even better if you can find them! I haven't tried that yet). Put the bones in a large stock pot (at least 8 quarts; 16 is even better) and fill with water. Add vegetable scraps -- onion ends, carrot peels, celery pieces, etc. -- and arguably, a little apple cider vinegar (I tried it once or twice and it didn't make a difference for me, but some swear by it) and turn it on low. Then walk away, for about 24 hours. You'll come back to a big pot of rich, golden broth. This broth is full of calcium and other minerals, it makes great soups and gravies and lots of other food, freezes well, is very healing, and more. It's a wonderful, all-purpose food, and it couldn't be simpler or cheaper to make. A quart of good-quality stock in the store would cost you $2 - $5, depending on brand. At home you can make a whole gallon (or more) for that much! Stock is so wonderful, I could write an entire post about it. This is a small change that is easy, will bring a ton of extra nutrition to your diet, and actually SAVES you money! Why not do it?
What are your next three steps, if you're further along? How are you doing on these? How have your changes been going over the last couple of weeks? Is there anything else you'd like to see in this series?
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Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ham and Potato Soup
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**This post has been entered in Pennywise Platters at Nourishing Gourmet, Ultimate Recipe Swap at Life as Mom, Food on Fridays at Ann Kroeker and Fight Back Fridays at Food Renegade!**
Only 3 days left to register for the 30-Day Eat More Fat Challenge!
This recipe was sort of an accident. I was planning to make ham and bean soup, but discovered a few days earlier that both my kids are allergic to beans. So, that was a no-go. Ben suggested potatoes as a substitute and I ran with it. This is what I came up with.
Ingredients:
1/4 c. coconut oil
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
2 stalks celery, chopped
3 carrots, diced
4 medium potatoes, chopped
1 c. leftover ham, chopped
6 c. ham stock (I made mine from a ham we'd had a couple nights earlier)
1 tsp. salt (or to taste)
1 tsp. thyme
1 - 2 c. coconut milk
1 c. kale
Directions:
Heat the coconut oil in a large soup pot. Add onion, celery, and carrot and sautee until slightly softened. Add potatoes, ham, ham stock, and spices. Cook for 2 - 3 hours, until all vegetables are soft. Add coconut milk and kale and allow the soup to simmer for 30 - 40 minutes longer, until kale is wilted. I served mine with green onions on top. You could add bacon, or cheese if you eat that.
It's yummy and a good source of vegetables with the kale! Next time I might try adding mushrooms too! I'm betting you could use chicken stock if you didn't have ham stock but I haven't tried.
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Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
**This post has been entered in Pennywise Platters at Nourishing Gourmet, Ultimate Recipe Swap at Life as Mom, Food on Fridays at Ann Kroeker and Fight Back Fridays at Food Renegade!**
Only 3 days left to register for the 30-Day Eat More Fat Challenge!
This recipe was sort of an accident. I was planning to make ham and bean soup, but discovered a few days earlier that both my kids are allergic to beans. So, that was a no-go. Ben suggested potatoes as a substitute and I ran with it. This is what I came up with.
Ingredients:
1/4 c. coconut oil
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
2 stalks celery, chopped
3 carrots, diced
4 medium potatoes, chopped
1 c. leftover ham, chopped
6 c. ham stock (I made mine from a ham we'd had a couple nights earlier)
1 tsp. salt (or to taste)
1 tsp. thyme
1 - 2 c. coconut milk
1 c. kale
Directions:
Heat the coconut oil in a large soup pot. Add onion, celery, and carrot and sautee until slightly softened. Add potatoes, ham, ham stock, and spices. Cook for 2 - 3 hours, until all vegetables are soft. Add coconut milk and kale and allow the soup to simmer for 30 - 40 minutes longer, until kale is wilted. I served mine with green onions on top. You could add bacon, or cheese if you eat that.
It's yummy and a good source of vegetables with the kale! Next time I might try adding mushrooms too! I'm betting you could use chicken stock if you didn't have ham stock but I haven't tried.
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Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Raw Honey
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**This post has been entered in Things I Love Thursdays at The Diaper Diaries and Frugal Fridays at Life as Mom!**
Note: It's frugal because it is cheap and it has SO many awesome uses!!
Raw honey is a really great food. In fact, it's not just a food. It's also a medicine! I thought, since next week the first "Baby Steps in the Medicine Cabinet" is coming up, I might give you a place to start with home remedies.
Honey is a natural substance produced by bees to feed their young. It is thick and rich with a characteristic taste, which can change subtly depending on the bees' diet and location. It contains a lot of beneficial bacteria, which can help to kill bad bacteria in your system, balance yeast, and much more (depends on who you ask). It is great for baking, mixing in drinks, or just eating off a spoon. It is 1.5 times as sweet as table sugar so you don't need as much of it.
That's just a quick summary of honey's benefits, though. There are many, many more! Here are others:
*Honey is an effective cough syrup. It has been shown to be more effective than medicinal cough syrups and much safer for kids age 1 - 6 (and for adults!). It can help to kill the bacteria in your throat (if it's raw) as well as coating your throat and soothing it.
*Some say honey can increase fertility, especially when paired with raw goat's milk (especially in men).
*Honey can be used as a salve to treat wounds and ulcers, more safely than antibiotics and with no side effects. In parts of Europe, it is put on wounds and then the wound is bandaged, and the honey will keep the wound clean and help it to heal. (This is not accepted in the U.S. in general, unfortunately.) At home, use honey on burns and other wounds and dress it with clean gauze, instead of using an antibiotic cream.
*Honey and lemon, when used together, can help you lose weight by making fat stores into useable energy. Drink some honey-ginger lemonade to kick-start your metabolism and weight loss! (Which is also a great morning sickness cure, by the way.)
*Honey can help to cure allergies! By taking a teaspoon per day, a person can build up an immunity to the dust, pollen, and molds that are naturally found in the honey (which won't make you sick because of the good bacteria in it). This is where being LOCAL is really important, so you're exposed to the bacteria from your own environment.
*Honey can help cancer, because it has anti-tumor properties (check the resources for a link to a published study on this).
*Honey is a good moisturizer and can be used as a facial cleanser or mask, and in homemade shampoos.
*Honey is antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and it never spoils, so it can be used for many things and kept for a long time! Honey may crystallize, but this is normal. Heat the honey gently ON THE STOVE in a water bath (microwaves are bad!) and it will become clear again.
Remember, all these benefits (and more! check the resources) are achieved by RAW honey. The pasteurized honey you buy in the regular grocery store won't have all these amazing properties.
There is a special kind of honey called Manuka honey, which is produced in New Zealand. It is very strong and used for medicial purposes. It's rather expensive, too, but it can cure many different conditions, including MRSA staph infections (with no side effects and the MRSA can't become resistant to it!). Read the resources below to learn more about it. (I looked up buying some awhile back but 8 oz. can be up to $45!)
Resources
Raw Honey Benefits
Really RAW Honey Science
WHFoods Honey
Natural Health Ezine
Benefits of Manuka Honey
Do you use raw honey? What do you use it for? Where do you get yours? What's your favorite benefit (anything I haven't mentioned)?
Like what you read? Subscribe over on the right and get posts everyday in your email!
Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
**This post has been entered in Things I Love Thursdays at The Diaper Diaries and Frugal Fridays at Life as Mom!**
Note: It's frugal because it is cheap and it has SO many awesome uses!!
Raw honey is a really great food. In fact, it's not just a food. It's also a medicine! I thought, since next week the first "Baby Steps in the Medicine Cabinet" is coming up, I might give you a place to start with home remedies.
Honey is a natural substance produced by bees to feed their young. It is thick and rich with a characteristic taste, which can change subtly depending on the bees' diet and location. It contains a lot of beneficial bacteria, which can help to kill bad bacteria in your system, balance yeast, and much more (depends on who you ask). It is great for baking, mixing in drinks, or just eating off a spoon. It is 1.5 times as sweet as table sugar so you don't need as much of it.
That's just a quick summary of honey's benefits, though. There are many, many more! Here are others:
*Honey is an effective cough syrup. It has been shown to be more effective than medicinal cough syrups and much safer for kids age 1 - 6 (and for adults!). It can help to kill the bacteria in your throat (if it's raw) as well as coating your throat and soothing it.
*Some say honey can increase fertility, especially when paired with raw goat's milk (especially in men).
*Honey can be used as a salve to treat wounds and ulcers, more safely than antibiotics and with no side effects. In parts of Europe, it is put on wounds and then the wound is bandaged, and the honey will keep the wound clean and help it to heal. (This is not accepted in the U.S. in general, unfortunately.) At home, use honey on burns and other wounds and dress it with clean gauze, instead of using an antibiotic cream.
*Honey and lemon, when used together, can help you lose weight by making fat stores into useable energy. Drink some honey-ginger lemonade to kick-start your metabolism and weight loss! (Which is also a great morning sickness cure, by the way.)
*Honey can help to cure allergies! By taking a teaspoon per day, a person can build up an immunity to the dust, pollen, and molds that are naturally found in the honey (which won't make you sick because of the good bacteria in it). This is where being LOCAL is really important, so you're exposed to the bacteria from your own environment.
*Honey can help cancer, because it has anti-tumor properties (check the resources for a link to a published study on this).
*Honey is a good moisturizer and can be used as a facial cleanser or mask, and in homemade shampoos.
*Honey is antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and it never spoils, so it can be used for many things and kept for a long time! Honey may crystallize, but this is normal. Heat the honey gently ON THE STOVE in a water bath (microwaves are bad!) and it will become clear again.
Remember, all these benefits (and more! check the resources) are achieved by RAW honey. The pasteurized honey you buy in the regular grocery store won't have all these amazing properties.
There is a special kind of honey called Manuka honey, which is produced in New Zealand. It is very strong and used for medicial purposes. It's rather expensive, too, but it can cure many different conditions, including MRSA staph infections (with no side effects and the MRSA can't become resistant to it!). Read the resources below to learn more about it. (I looked up buying some awhile back but 8 oz. can be up to $45!)
Resources
Raw Honey Benefits
Really RAW Honey Science
WHFoods Honey
Natural Health Ezine
Benefits of Manuka Honey
Do you use raw honey? What do you use it for? Where do you get yours? What's your favorite benefit (anything I haven't mentioned)?
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Saturday, February 20, 2010
Baby Steps in the Kitchen, Part 2
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Time for the next three Baby Steps in the Kitchen! I've decided to do all the kitchen posts on Saturdays because I have a feeling that kitchen baby steps are going to be the most popular. On Tuesdays I'll be doing the other Baby Steps posts (personal care, cleaning products, etc.). Look for the first one in the personal care series coming up this Tuesday!!
In case you missed the first three Baby Steps, check it out here! Then come back and read this one. :)
Now, here are my "4, 5, and 6" steps to healthier eating:
4) Replace white sugar with healthier alternatives (sucanat, raw honey, rapidura)
5) Get rid of aluminum cookware
6) Buy good milk, or milk substitute (coconut milk)
Why these?
White sugar is in ALL our food (that doesn't contain high fructose corn syrup, that is). It's in all the cakes, candies, cereals.... We eat WAY too much sugar, in general. Think about the recipes you bake at home -- many quick bread and cake recipes call for 2 cups of sugar! This much is just not necessary (did you know that in a lot of recipes, you can simply reduce the sugar by up to half without replacing it with anything and the recipe will still turn out well?), and white sugar is completely devoid of nutrients. It's awful, awful stuff. But right now I'm not going to ask you to cut sugar out of your diet -- yet. Instead, reach for a healthier alternative. Real maple syrup, raw honey, and sucanat are the best options. Rapidura is also very good. Turbinado sugar is not bad. Blackstrap molasses are good, but of course have a strong, unique flavor. When you're buying sugar next time, select a different variety. Try putting honey in your tea, maple syrup in your coffee. Use Rapidura or sucanat for baking (and if you remember, use a little less!). You'll feel better for it.
Aluminum is a huge problem. It's a metal that we don't need in our bodies at all, and which can cause serious health problems over time. When we use it for cookware, the metal leaches into our food and gets into our body. Most people who have some aluminum cookware also have cookware that isn't aluminum, and cookware that doesn't contain aluminum is easy to obtain. (It's also a good idea to get rid of any cookware that is coated with Teflon, but we'll get to that later.) We recently threw out a couple of pans that were bad, but most of our cookware was safe. OLD cookware is what you need to look out for now.
Milk is a big problem, in modern times. Unfortunately, it's all pasteurized (a process that was invented to purify beer and other alcohol, NOT milk) and homogenized (which breaks down the fat molecules into a size and shape that our body doesn't recognize). The factory farmed dairy cows are also very sick, given hormones (that is slowly changing), poor diet, and the milk they produce is unhealthy to begin with (which is why it needs pasteurized). Something else to consider is that calcium in this milk is not really useable by the body, so the argument "but you have to drink milk to get calcium!" is really moot. However, there are other options. You can buy milk that is non-homogenized, low-temp pasteurized, and grass-fed. Raw milk is even better (but not easy to obtain in many areas). Raw milk can be obtained by purchasing a share in a herd of cows, or by purchasing it for "pet use." These are common now. One caution: many brands of organic milk are "ultrapasteurized," which is even worse for you -- don't buy that! If you don't want to or can't buy good cow's milk, goat milk or coconut milk are very good options. We use coconut milk, which contains medium-chain fatty acids and a lot of great nutrients.
Those are my next three baby steps! Right now I have 24, so expect this series to continue for at least another 6 weeks.
What are your next three steps? Have you started on any of these? What do you think?
Like what you read? Subscribe over on the right and get posts everyday in your email!
Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
**This post has been entered in Works for Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family and Real Food Wednesdays at Kelly the Kitchen Kop!**
Time for the next three Baby Steps in the Kitchen! I've decided to do all the kitchen posts on Saturdays because I have a feeling that kitchen baby steps are going to be the most popular. On Tuesdays I'll be doing the other Baby Steps posts (personal care, cleaning products, etc.). Look for the first one in the personal care series coming up this Tuesday!!
In case you missed the first three Baby Steps, check it out here! Then come back and read this one. :)
Now, here are my "4, 5, and 6" steps to healthier eating:
4) Replace white sugar with healthier alternatives (sucanat, raw honey, rapidura)
5) Get rid of aluminum cookware
6) Buy good milk, or milk substitute (coconut milk)
Why these?
White sugar is in ALL our food (that doesn't contain high fructose corn syrup, that is). It's in all the cakes, candies, cereals.... We eat WAY too much sugar, in general. Think about the recipes you bake at home -- many quick bread and cake recipes call for 2 cups of sugar! This much is just not necessary (did you know that in a lot of recipes, you can simply reduce the sugar by up to half without replacing it with anything and the recipe will still turn out well?), and white sugar is completely devoid of nutrients. It's awful, awful stuff. But right now I'm not going to ask you to cut sugar out of your diet -- yet. Instead, reach for a healthier alternative. Real maple syrup, raw honey, and sucanat are the best options. Rapidura is also very good. Turbinado sugar is not bad. Blackstrap molasses are good, but of course have a strong, unique flavor. When you're buying sugar next time, select a different variety. Try putting honey in your tea, maple syrup in your coffee. Use Rapidura or sucanat for baking (and if you remember, use a little less!). You'll feel better for it.
Aluminum is a huge problem. It's a metal that we don't need in our bodies at all, and which can cause serious health problems over time. When we use it for cookware, the metal leaches into our food and gets into our body. Most people who have some aluminum cookware also have cookware that isn't aluminum, and cookware that doesn't contain aluminum is easy to obtain. (It's also a good idea to get rid of any cookware that is coated with Teflon, but we'll get to that later.) We recently threw out a couple of pans that were bad, but most of our cookware was safe. OLD cookware is what you need to look out for now.
Milk is a big problem, in modern times. Unfortunately, it's all pasteurized (a process that was invented to purify beer and other alcohol, NOT milk) and homogenized (which breaks down the fat molecules into a size and shape that our body doesn't recognize). The factory farmed dairy cows are also very sick, given hormones (that is slowly changing), poor diet, and the milk they produce is unhealthy to begin with (which is why it needs pasteurized). Something else to consider is that calcium in this milk is not really useable by the body, so the argument "but you have to drink milk to get calcium!" is really moot. However, there are other options. You can buy milk that is non-homogenized, low-temp pasteurized, and grass-fed. Raw milk is even better (but not easy to obtain in many areas). Raw milk can be obtained by purchasing a share in a herd of cows, or by purchasing it for "pet use." These are common now. One caution: many brands of organic milk are "ultrapasteurized," which is even worse for you -- don't buy that! If you don't want to or can't buy good cow's milk, goat milk or coconut milk are very good options. We use coconut milk, which contains medium-chain fatty acids and a lot of great nutrients.
Those are my next three baby steps! Right now I have 24, so expect this series to continue for at least another 6 weeks.
What are your next three steps? Have you started on any of these? What do you think?
Like what you read? Subscribe over on the right and get posts everyday in your email!
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Coconut Chocolate Muffins
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Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
Like what you read? Subscribe over on the right and get posts everyday in your email!
Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
**This post is linked to Food on Fridays at Ann Kroeker's blog!**
At the moment, we're grain-free, so we were really missing bread. I borrowed the original version of this recipe from Ann Marie at Cheeseslave, then made a few changes to suit our tastes and allergies (we can't do blueberries). I believe she found the recipe in Bruce Fife's Cooking with Coconut Flour: A Delicious, Low-Carb, Gluten-Free Alternative to Wheat. I haven't read the book yet myself, but I'd like to!
Our result was pretty yummy! Bekah LOVES them and eats 8 or 9 per day (I made mini-muffins so that's not as much as it sounds like). Here it is:
Ingredients:
6 eggs, pastured and at room temperature
1/4 c. coconut oil
1/4 c. coconut milk
1/4 c. raw honey
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. coconut flour
1/4 c. raw cacao powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
Directions:
Cream together honey and coconut oil. Blend in coconut milk, then eggs (if eggs are cold, you will get lumps of coconut oil mix throughout your batter). Add vanilla and salt, stir. Add cacao and stir in, then add coconut flour and baking soda and mix thoroughly (some suggest mixing the dry ingredients separately, but I'm too lazy).
Bake at 400 for 15 min. Or, 10 minutes for mini-muffins. This will make one dozen regular muffins, and 3 dozen or so mini muffins.
These are super nutrient dense, too, without being too sweet and totally grain-free! Coconut is great for you, and so is raw cacao.
Bonus recipe!!
Okay, most of you will NEVER try this. But Bekah loves this. It is "candy" she can have.
Ingredients:
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate (99% pure cacao)
3/4 c. coconut oil
1 vanilla bean, scraped out
1/2 c. unsweetened coconut flakes (opt.)
1 tsp. mint extract (opt.)
Directions:
In a medium saucepan, melt chocolate and coconut oil over low heat. Add the caviar (the part you scraped out) from the vanilla bean. Stir until smooth and mixed. Add coconut flakes and/or mint extract if desired. Pour into a small pan (8x8 or smaller) and freeze for 20 - 30 minutes or until hard. Store, covered, in the fridge.
This is completely unsweetened candy. Super nutrient-dense, super rich. Most of us couldn't stomach it because it is really bitter. But for those who don't have much of a sweet tooth, this is pretty good. You could also add 2 - 3 tbsp. raw honey if you'd like a lightly sweet candy. But it is smooth, rich, and very interesting unsweetened. :)
Our result was pretty yummy! Bekah LOVES them and eats 8 or 9 per day (I made mini-muffins so that's not as much as it sounds like). Here it is:
Ingredients:
6 eggs, pastured and at room temperature
1/4 c. coconut oil
1/4 c. coconut milk
1/4 c. raw honey
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. coconut flour
1/4 c. raw cacao powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
Directions:
Cream together honey and coconut oil. Blend in coconut milk, then eggs (if eggs are cold, you will get lumps of coconut oil mix throughout your batter). Add vanilla and salt, stir. Add cacao and stir in, then add coconut flour and baking soda and mix thoroughly (some suggest mixing the dry ingredients separately, but I'm too lazy).
Bake at 400 for 15 min. Or, 10 minutes for mini-muffins. This will make one dozen regular muffins, and 3 dozen or so mini muffins.
These are super nutrient dense, too, without being too sweet and totally grain-free! Coconut is great for you, and so is raw cacao.
Bonus recipe!!
Okay, most of you will NEVER try this. But Bekah loves this. It is "candy" she can have.
Ingredients:
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate (99% pure cacao)
3/4 c. coconut oil
1 vanilla bean, scraped out
1/2 c. unsweetened coconut flakes (opt.)
1 tsp. mint extract (opt.)
Directions:
In a medium saucepan, melt chocolate and coconut oil over low heat. Add the caviar (the part you scraped out) from the vanilla bean. Stir until smooth and mixed. Add coconut flakes and/or mint extract if desired. Pour into a small pan (8x8 or smaller) and freeze for 20 - 30 minutes or until hard. Store, covered, in the fridge.
This is completely unsweetened candy. Super nutrient-dense, super rich. Most of us couldn't stomach it because it is really bitter. But for those who don't have much of a sweet tooth, this is pretty good. You could also add 2 - 3 tbsp. raw honey if you'd like a lightly sweet candy. But it is smooth, rich, and very interesting unsweetened. :)
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Monday, February 15, 2010
Eating Fat: How and Why
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**This post has been linked to Real Food Wednesdays at Cheeseslave and Works for Me Wednesdays at We Are THAT Family!**
Okay, so, I've been harping on eating fat a lot lately! But now I want to get even more indepth about what types of fat you should eat, why, and then give you several meal/snack ideas on how to get more good fats into your diet. In the ideas, I'll be specifically focusing on dairy-free ideas. There is already a great list on how to eat more fat at Cheeseslave's blog that focuses on a lot of dairy-full ideas.
So, fat. It's EVIL in this culture. But here's what you need to know: in fat-free or low-fat products, something has to replace the flavor and calories that fat brings. That is almost universally SUGAR. Sugar is far more evil! Overconsumption of sugar is why we're a nation of people who are overweight and (type II) diabetic! The other day at the store, I looked at a box of Snackwell's fat-free chocolate cookies and the FIRST ingredient was sugar. Before flour! So if you think you're doing a good job on a diet because you're eating these fat-free cookies, no way! You'd be better off eating a tub of lard. For many reasons.
Then there's the perception that we need low-fat, low-calorie meals that are filled with just veggies to be healthy. The average person (and this is according to the government; I don't entirely agree) requires 2000 calories and 65 grams of fat in day. That's about 500 calories each at breakfast and lunch, 700 at dinner (or better, 700 at breakfast and 500 each at lunch and dinner) plus 300 calories of snacks per day. So if you're focusing on a super low-fat lunch of a salad and vegetable soup which contains all of 200 calories, you are way, way under the amount you need per day. A lot of people skip breakfast, too, so that puts you even further down. This opens you up to fatigue, slowed metabolism, weakened immune system, and of course the very likely possibility that you'll end up snacking on junk food later.
It's also known that eating fat helps the absorption of nutrients. It's why even mainstream dieticians recommend eating an oil-based dressing on your salad (of course, they say only a tiny bit and don't overdo the nuts, which I disagree with). There are so many detriments to NOT eating fat, and so many positives to eating it.
As I mentioned in another blog post, the body requires either fat or carbohydrates as energy. Fat is a great energy source isn't actually stored in the body as fat (it's actually burned slower than carbs, but to me it feels "faster" because I'm hungry sooner). Carbohydrates are burned faster by turning into simple sugars (yes, even whole grains -- it's slower and the bran helps, but they still break down into sugars, because that's what carbs are) and spiking your blood sugar. They are then easily stored as fat.
Fat also does many great things for our bodies, including:
*Balances hormones (including serotonin, responsible for mood; and serotonin, which tells you when to stop eating)
*Develops babies' brains
*Improves digestion and absorption of nutrients
*Saturated fat composes about 50% of our cells, so eating it helps cellular regeneration
*Many more! (read the resources below)
How much fat should you get in your diet per day? According to Weston A. Price Foundation, anywhere from 30 - 80% of one's calories per day should be from fat (high percentages being for therapeutic diets, not normal ones). On average, 37% is normal, which translates to around 97 grams per day (significantly more than the U.S. RDA's "65 grams or less").
If that's true, how do we go about getting more fat into our diets? Here are several dairy-free ideas:
*Smoothies with coconut milk or coconut oil added (or coconut cream if you can get some)
*Coconut milk ice cream made with honey and extra coconut oil
*Potatoes fried in coconut oil, lard, bacon grease, or beef tallow
*French fries made in beef tallow
*Grass-fed burgers cooked with extra beef tallow and grilled onions (add bacon too!)
*Bacon and pastured eggs cooked in bacon grease
*Eggs scrambled in beef tallow with avocado
*Coconut flour muffins made with coconut oil, and topped with sunflower butter or real butter (if you can eat dairy)
*Carrot or celery sticks dipped in sunflower butter (or peanut butter)
*Sausage fried in lard with peppers and onions
*Cream soups made with coconut milk and oil
Add cheese, cream, or butter to anything if you can do dairy!
Now that you've read about how and why to eat fat, it's time for a CHALLENGE! Starting on March 1st, I am launching a 30-Day Eat More Fat Challenge. Here's how the challenge works:
*Register for the challenge
*Each person will have a username throughout this challenge so that it is anonymous to other readers (this is because we'll be sharing height/weight/diet information)
*Each day, I will post a new tip or idea on fat: how to eat more, random fact about why it's good, etc.
*Each week, all the participants will come back to the blog (so, Mar. 8, 15, 22, and 29; final results on Mar. 31) to "check in" on a variety of factors (detailed below)
*The participant who does the best in the most categories (details below) will win either a copy of my new cookbook, or a jar of my Soothing Skin Cream (similar to the homemade diaper rash cream recipe I posted earlier), winner's choice.
Measures:
*Most weight lost
*Most (healthy!) fat consumed (fat sources added to meals or snacks)
*Most creative way(s) to add fat to your diet
Each week, participants will report the following:
*How much they weigh
*The fats/fattening foods that they ate each day (i.e. "organic bacon grease and eggs at breakfast, olive oil and almonds at lunch, coconut oil at dinner")
*The most interesting fat-filled meals they prepared in the last week
Rules:
1) All participants MUST officially register and agree that their username and other information can be posted to the site (real names won't be used)
2) Participants must come to every weekly check-in, including the final check in
3) All fat consumed must be HEALTHY fats. That is, coconut oil, organic lard, organic palm shortening, organic beef tallow, butter, ghee, sustainably produced meat, dairy, nuts, eggs, etc. The following fats do not count: vegetable oil, peanut oil, anything containing trans fats, commercial fried food, processed foods containing fat, factory-farmed meats, eggs, milk. (For your convenience, I'll post a chart of approximately how much fat common foods contain on Mar. 1)
4) The winner must submit his or her mailing address for the prize to be sent by April 3rd, 2010.
Please feel free to spam this contest everywhere!
Resources
Taking the Fear Out of Eating Fat
Benefits of Eating Coconut Oil
Proven Health Benefits of Saturated Fats
Like what you read? Subscribe over on the right and get posts everyday in your email!
Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
**This post has been linked to Real Food Wednesdays at Cheeseslave and Works for Me Wednesdays at We Are THAT Family!**
Okay, so, I've been harping on eating fat a lot lately! But now I want to get even more indepth about what types of fat you should eat, why, and then give you several meal/snack ideas on how to get more good fats into your diet. In the ideas, I'll be specifically focusing on dairy-free ideas. There is already a great list on how to eat more fat at Cheeseslave's blog that focuses on a lot of dairy-full ideas.
So, fat. It's EVIL in this culture. But here's what you need to know: in fat-free or low-fat products, something has to replace the flavor and calories that fat brings. That is almost universally SUGAR. Sugar is far more evil! Overconsumption of sugar is why we're a nation of people who are overweight and (type II) diabetic! The other day at the store, I looked at a box of Snackwell's fat-free chocolate cookies and the FIRST ingredient was sugar. Before flour! So if you think you're doing a good job on a diet because you're eating these fat-free cookies, no way! You'd be better off eating a tub of lard. For many reasons.
Then there's the perception that we need low-fat, low-calorie meals that are filled with just veggies to be healthy. The average person (and this is according to the government; I don't entirely agree) requires 2000 calories and 65 grams of fat in day. That's about 500 calories each at breakfast and lunch, 700 at dinner (or better, 700 at breakfast and 500 each at lunch and dinner) plus 300 calories of snacks per day. So if you're focusing on a super low-fat lunch of a salad and vegetable soup which contains all of 200 calories, you are way, way under the amount you need per day. A lot of people skip breakfast, too, so that puts you even further down. This opens you up to fatigue, slowed metabolism, weakened immune system, and of course the very likely possibility that you'll end up snacking on junk food later.
It's also known that eating fat helps the absorption of nutrients. It's why even mainstream dieticians recommend eating an oil-based dressing on your salad (of course, they say only a tiny bit and don't overdo the nuts, which I disagree with). There are so many detriments to NOT eating fat, and so many positives to eating it.
As I mentioned in another blog post, the body requires either fat or carbohydrates as energy. Fat is a great energy source isn't actually stored in the body as fat (it's actually burned slower than carbs, but to me it feels "faster" because I'm hungry sooner). Carbohydrates are burned faster by turning into simple sugars (yes, even whole grains -- it's slower and the bran helps, but they still break down into sugars, because that's what carbs are) and spiking your blood sugar. They are then easily stored as fat.
Fat also does many great things for our bodies, including:
*Balances hormones (including serotonin, responsible for mood; and serotonin, which tells you when to stop eating)
*Develops babies' brains
*Improves digestion and absorption of nutrients
*Saturated fat composes about 50% of our cells, so eating it helps cellular regeneration
*Many more! (read the resources below)
How much fat should you get in your diet per day? According to Weston A. Price Foundation, anywhere from 30 - 80% of one's calories per day should be from fat (high percentages being for therapeutic diets, not normal ones). On average, 37% is normal, which translates to around 97 grams per day (significantly more than the U.S. RDA's "65 grams or less").
If that's true, how do we go about getting more fat into our diets? Here are several dairy-free ideas:
*Smoothies with coconut milk or coconut oil added (or coconut cream if you can get some)
*Coconut milk ice cream made with honey and extra coconut oil
*Potatoes fried in coconut oil, lard, bacon grease, or beef tallow
*French fries made in beef tallow
*Grass-fed burgers cooked with extra beef tallow and grilled onions (add bacon too!)
*Bacon and pastured eggs cooked in bacon grease
*Eggs scrambled in beef tallow with avocado
*Coconut flour muffins made with coconut oil, and topped with sunflower butter or real butter (if you can eat dairy)
*Carrot or celery sticks dipped in sunflower butter (or peanut butter)
*Sausage fried in lard with peppers and onions
*Cream soups made with coconut milk and oil
Add cheese, cream, or butter to anything if you can do dairy!
Now that you've read about how and why to eat fat, it's time for a CHALLENGE! Starting on March 1st, I am launching a 30-Day Eat More Fat Challenge. Here's how the challenge works:
*Register for the challenge
*Each person will have a username throughout this challenge so that it is anonymous to other readers (this is because we'll be sharing height/weight/diet information)
*Each day, I will post a new tip or idea on fat: how to eat more, random fact about why it's good, etc.
*Each week, all the participants will come back to the blog (so, Mar. 8, 15, 22, and 29; final results on Mar. 31) to "check in" on a variety of factors (detailed below)
*The participant who does the best in the most categories (details below) will win either a copy of my new cookbook, or a jar of my Soothing Skin Cream (similar to the homemade diaper rash cream recipe I posted earlier), winner's choice.
Measures:
*Most weight lost
*Most (healthy!) fat consumed (fat sources added to meals or snacks)
*Most creative way(s) to add fat to your diet
Each week, participants will report the following:
*How much they weigh
*The fats/fattening foods that they ate each day (i.e. "organic bacon grease and eggs at breakfast, olive oil and almonds at lunch, coconut oil at dinner")
*The most interesting fat-filled meals they prepared in the last week
Rules:
1) All participants MUST officially register and agree that their username and other information can be posted to the site (real names won't be used)
2) Participants must come to every weekly check-in, including the final check in
3) All fat consumed must be HEALTHY fats. That is, coconut oil, organic lard, organic palm shortening, organic beef tallow, butter, ghee, sustainably produced meat, dairy, nuts, eggs, etc. The following fats do not count: vegetable oil, peanut oil, anything containing trans fats, commercial fried food, processed foods containing fat, factory-farmed meats, eggs, milk. (For your convenience, I'll post a chart of approximately how much fat common foods contain on Mar. 1)
4) The winner must submit his or her mailing address for the prize to be sent by April 3rd, 2010.
Please feel free to spam this contest everywhere!
Resources
Taking the Fear Out of Eating Fat
Benefits of Eating Coconut Oil
Proven Health Benefits of Saturated Fats
Like what you read? Subscribe over on the right and get posts everyday in your email!
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Taco Soup
**We've moved!!**
Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
**This post has been entered into Pennywise Platter Thursdays at Nourishing Gourmet and Ultimate Recipe Swap at Life as Mom!**
Taco soup is yummy and easy! I make this for my weekly lunches sometimes because it is filling and has plenty of fat, vegetables, and meat!
Ingredients:
2 - 3 tbsp. olive oil
1 - 1.5 lbs. grass-fed ground beef (I use less if it's for a night's dinner, more if it's for a whole week of lunch)
1/2 lb. black beans, soaked
1/2 c. onion, chopped
1 large green pepper, chopped
1 jalapeno, minced (opt.)
4 - 6 tbsp. taco seasoning
1/2 lb. mixed vegetables
1 28-oz. can crushed tomatoes (or 3 c. tomato juice)
4 - 6 cups chicken stock
Directions:
Heat olive oil in a large soup pot. Add onion, beef, and pepper. Cook until veggies are soft and meat is brown. Add beans, taco seasoning, mixed vegetables, tomato juice/crushed tomatoes, and chicken broth. Let the soup cook for 1 - 2 hours, until the veggies are cooked through and flavors are melded. Serves 6 - 8.
Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
**This post has been entered into Pennywise Platter Thursdays at Nourishing Gourmet and Ultimate Recipe Swap at Life as Mom!**
Taco soup is yummy and easy! I make this for my weekly lunches sometimes because it is filling and has plenty of fat, vegetables, and meat!
Ingredients:
2 - 3 tbsp. olive oil
1 - 1.5 lbs. grass-fed ground beef (I use less if it's for a night's dinner, more if it's for a whole week of lunch)
1/2 lb. black beans, soaked
1/2 c. onion, chopped
1 large green pepper, chopped
1 jalapeno, minced (opt.)
4 - 6 tbsp. taco seasoning
1/2 lb. mixed vegetables
1 28-oz. can crushed tomatoes (or 3 c. tomato juice)
4 - 6 cups chicken stock
Directions:
Heat olive oil in a large soup pot. Add onion, beef, and pepper. Cook until veggies are soft and meat is brown. Add beans, taco seasoning, mixed vegetables, tomato juice/crushed tomatoes, and chicken broth. Let the soup cook for 1 - 2 hours, until the veggies are cooked through and flavors are melded. Serves 6 - 8.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Making Jerky
**We've moved!!**
Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
**This post has been entered in Real Food Wednesdays at Kelly the Kitchen Kop and Frugal Fridays at Life as Mom!**
Jerky!
This is a really great snack for us on our new diet. But when you buy it, it's expensive, made from factory-farmed meat (often, not always...but if not it's even more expensive!), and can contain sodium nitrite. No thanks!
I figured I could make my own jerky. How hard can it be? I looked up a bunch of recipes and unfortunately didn't find the step-by-step instructions that I really wanted. So I decided to just plunge in.
First, I took a grass-fed chuck roast that weighed about 2.5 lbs. It's important that it's as trimmed of fat as possible, because the fat turns to gristle that is impossible to eat once dried. It's hard to trim it off, so find a piece that's pretty fat-free already if you can.
Freeze the piece of meat until it's mostly solid, but still slightly soft. It will be easier to cut this way because it will hold its shape (instead of just mashing and sliding under the knife). I didn't do this the first few times and it was really annoying.
Take your meat and slice off all the fat that you can. Then start slicing the meat into very, very thin slices. Less than 1/4" thick, 1/8" is better if you can manage. If it's thicker, it will still work, but try to do it thinly. Once all the meat is sliced, you need to put it into a marinade. Here is my basic marinade:
Ingredients:
Juice of one lime
1/2 small onion, chopped
3 - 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tbsp. sea salt
Water to cover
Put the meat in a large bowl and add all the marinade ingredients. Add just enough water to cover the meat. Put a piece of foil over the bowl and refrigerate. I've left it just a couple hours, and I've left it overnight. It doesn't seem to make a difference. You'll notice that the blood will seep out of the meat, and the marinade will become dark red, while the meat turns grayish. This is normal.
Once the meat is done marinating, you will need a dehydrator to dry them out. I have heard that you can use an oven on low (170 degrees), but I haven't tried that and can't guarantee it. I use my Excalibur Dehydrator. Lay the strips out on the trays and then put them into the dehydrator. Turn it on to 155 (the highest setting) and leave it for 3 - 4 hours, checking until it is completely dry. If it's still squishy, bacteria could grow. If you need to leave it longer (I did a batch overnight), turn the dehydrator down to 125 and go ahead and leave it overnight. Just be sure to check for dryness.
Then, your jerky is done! Store in an air-tight container and eat whenever the mood strikes! Full of protein and very yummy. :)
Like what you read? Subscribe over on the right and get posts everyday in your email!
Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
**This post has been entered in Real Food Wednesdays at Kelly the Kitchen Kop and Frugal Fridays at Life as Mom!**
Jerky!
This is a really great snack for us on our new diet. But when you buy it, it's expensive, made from factory-farmed meat (often, not always...but if not it's even more expensive!), and can contain sodium nitrite. No thanks!
I figured I could make my own jerky. How hard can it be? I looked up a bunch of recipes and unfortunately didn't find the step-by-step instructions that I really wanted. So I decided to just plunge in.
First, I took a grass-fed chuck roast that weighed about 2.5 lbs. It's important that it's as trimmed of fat as possible, because the fat turns to gristle that is impossible to eat once dried. It's hard to trim it off, so find a piece that's pretty fat-free already if you can.
Freeze the piece of meat until it's mostly solid, but still slightly soft. It will be easier to cut this way because it will hold its shape (instead of just mashing and sliding under the knife). I didn't do this the first few times and it was really annoying.
Take your meat and slice off all the fat that you can. Then start slicing the meat into very, very thin slices. Less than 1/4" thick, 1/8" is better if you can manage. If it's thicker, it will still work, but try to do it thinly. Once all the meat is sliced, you need to put it into a marinade. Here is my basic marinade:
Ingredients:
Juice of one lime
1/2 small onion, chopped
3 - 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tbsp. sea salt
Water to cover
Put the meat in a large bowl and add all the marinade ingredients. Add just enough water to cover the meat. Put a piece of foil over the bowl and refrigerate. I've left it just a couple hours, and I've left it overnight. It doesn't seem to make a difference. You'll notice that the blood will seep out of the meat, and the marinade will become dark red, while the meat turns grayish. This is normal.
Once the meat is done marinating, you will need a dehydrator to dry them out. I have heard that you can use an oven on low (170 degrees), but I haven't tried that and can't guarantee it. I use my Excalibur Dehydrator. Lay the strips out on the trays and then put them into the dehydrator. Turn it on to 155 (the highest setting) and leave it for 3 - 4 hours, checking until it is completely dry. If it's still squishy, bacteria could grow. If you need to leave it longer (I did a batch overnight), turn the dehydrator down to 125 and go ahead and leave it overnight. Just be sure to check for dryness.
Then, your jerky is done! Store in an air-tight container and eat whenever the mood strikes! Full of protein and very yummy. :)
Like what you read? Subscribe over on the right and get posts everyday in your email!
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Pseudo-Healthy Diets
**We've moved!!**
Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
Today, most people believe a healthy diet is what mainstream America (and many doctors) say that it is: lots of whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, low-fat dairy, lean meat, and generally low fat, low cholesterol choices.
However, this is NOT a healthy diet. At all. It's true that fruits and vegetables are very healthy and should absolutely be included in your diet -- in fact, up to 50% of your daily intake can come from fruit and vegetables (some say even more). But eating a lot of grains (even whole grains), a lot of sugar (which is what replaces fat in most products) and too little fat and cholesterol is extremely unhealthy!
I wrote a previous post about Why We Eat Fat, but now I'm going to break it down for you, discussing each area that mainstream America considers healthy and necessary for your diet, why it's NOT healthy, and what to replace it with. Get ready! All your knowledge about healthy diets is about to change....
First point. Every food is measured in major nutrients: protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Usually a food is high in one or two and low in another. We derive our energy either from carbs or from fat. We cannot survive on a diet that is low in both; we will get sick and weak. This is why the South Beach Diet is the worst possible diet you can adopt. The optimal fuel is fat. Most people, however, get a large amount of carbs, and mainly from sugar (juice, fruit, sweetened foods). This is why diabetes (type II) is so rampant in this country now.
A quick side note: Although we are not exercising formally at this point (just chasing children), we have continued to lose weight since my post in October. Ben's lost about another 5 lbs., and I've lost 7 - 8 lbs., putting my weight at the lowest it has ever been since I reached my full adult height (around 12o). This is eating a very high fat diet. I aim for 4 tbsp. of saturated fat per day whenever possible.
Now, for the list of foods that are "healthy" and why they're not.
Whole Grains -- Everyone wants you to believe that whole grain foods are good for you (and in some cases, they are). However, there are several problems with this. The first is that normal, whole grain foods are filled with phytates (which are anti-nutrients; they pull nutrients from you and/or prevent absorption). This is because the way grain is grown and processed has changed a lot over the last 50 or 60 years. Grain needs to be either sprouted or soaked to release its nutrients and enzymes to make it digestible and absorbable, but almost no one does this. Instead, manufacturers fortify the grain with various vitamins and minerals, but only synthetic ones (which really doesn't increase absorption at all). Much grain is also extruded to be processed into cereal, and a lot of it is mixed with high amounts of sugar (think cereal again, and breads, cakes, cookies...). Even worse, some grains (corn, and sometimes rice) are grown genetically modified, which are also bad for you. Grains should be organic, sprouted or soaked, and consumed minimally (no more than 25% of your daily food intake). This is hard because most snack foods, breakfast foods, and side dishes are filled with grains.
Low-fat dairy products -- There are LOTS of problems with this! First, there's the issue of actually being low-fat. Low fat is bad, since that's where you should be getting your energy. Then, there is the fact that making dairy low-fat requires it to be heavily processed. Water is added, nutrients are removed, fat is removed, and in some cases, skim milk powder is added to give the milk body. Skim milk powder contains oxidized cholesterol, which is NOT naturally occurring and is bad for you. The dairy products then have fake nutrients added back to it (fortification). These are NOT healthy. Instead, you should consume full-fat dairy products that are either raw or which have been pasteurized at the lowest legal temperature and are not homogenized. The milk should be from grass-fed cows. And you should eat plenty of butter, raw cheese, raw milk and cream, etc. It is extremely nutrient-dense.
Lean meat products -- Some meat is naturally lean and that is okay. But you shouldn't strive for only lean meats, or limit your meat consumption due to fat content. Beef (grass fed) is good for you! Most people say that red meat is bad, but that's only because factory farmed meat is bad. Factory meat has a low vitamin and mineral content, potential contamination, and often is full of hormones and antibiotics. However, naturally raised, grass-fed meat is not the same, and you should consume plenty of that. Natural sausages (containing fatback), lard, beef tallow, etc. are also very good for you. Saturated animal fats are also nutrient-dense. I personally can't wait to get my beef tallow to fry food in!
Cholesterol -- Cholesterol is actually absolutely key to brain development and function. Modern baby formula doesn't have any cholesterol in it, while breastmilk contains large amounts. This is a huge detriment (formula)! Cholesterol helps protect us from many problems and has never been proven to cause heart disease. Only natural sources of cholesterol are good, however; oxidized cholesterol (as in processed milk products) is not good. But don't worry about the cholesterol in butter or healthy meat. Your body needs it.
Unsaturated fats -- Experts recommend eating primarily or entirely unsaturated fats. However, they are not as healthy as they seem. Olive oil should not be used for cooking, because heating it can create trans fats. In fact, most liquid oils can go rancid easily when exposed to heat, light, and air (which they are on grocery store shelves). Also, corn and soybean oils ("vegetable oil") are often made from genetically modified plants. Finally, unfortunately, canola oil, which is engineered, is bad for you as well (click the link for more). Saturated fats, like butter, grass-fed beef tallow, organic lard, and coconut oil are the best fats to eat and cook with.
Artificial sugar -- In attempt to eat less sugar (and yes, sugar is bad), a lot of people have turned to artificial sugars, like Splenda (which is mostly made from chlorine) and aspartame. Both have been shown over and over again to be harmful. The body doesn't recognize them as food, and so they can create several long-term health problems. In fact, real sugar is better but should still be eaten in moderation. Evaporated cane juice, raw honey, and real maple syrup are all "good" sugars, but in general, our country eats far too much sugar. Limit your consumption to rare occasions. A spoonful of honey in your tea or an occasional (not daily!) dessert are okay.
Soy -- For quite awhile, soy has been considered the ultimate health food. However, soy is bad. It contains phytoestrogens, which have been claimed to cause cancer in women, and puberty issues in kids. The jury is still out on these claims, but soy is not a food you should turn to. It's also frequently genetically modified, which is not safe. If you do consume soy, it should be organic and fermented, and in moderation.
Yes, this is pretty weird stuff! But the new Baby Steps series will help you to make changes in your diet, if you're so inclined.
Also, starting on March 1st, I am launching a "30-Day Eat More Fat Challenge!" The details of this challenge will be announced on February 15th, so look for that post. Starting on March 1st (which is also the launch date of our NEW SITE!), I will post a daily tip or idea on eating fat. We'll have a weekly "check in" for those participating, and the winner will have a choice between a copy of my cookbook or a jar of my skin cream. Coming up soon!! Tell your friends!
Like what you read? Subscribe over on the right and get posts everyday in your email!
Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
Today, most people believe a healthy diet is what mainstream America (and many doctors) say that it is: lots of whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, low-fat dairy, lean meat, and generally low fat, low cholesterol choices.
However, this is NOT a healthy diet. At all. It's true that fruits and vegetables are very healthy and should absolutely be included in your diet -- in fact, up to 50% of your daily intake can come from fruit and vegetables (some say even more). But eating a lot of grains (even whole grains), a lot of sugar (which is what replaces fat in most products) and too little fat and cholesterol is extremely unhealthy!
I wrote a previous post about Why We Eat Fat, but now I'm going to break it down for you, discussing each area that mainstream America considers healthy and necessary for your diet, why it's NOT healthy, and what to replace it with. Get ready! All your knowledge about healthy diets is about to change....
First point. Every food is measured in major nutrients: protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Usually a food is high in one or two and low in another. We derive our energy either from carbs or from fat. We cannot survive on a diet that is low in both; we will get sick and weak. This is why the South Beach Diet is the worst possible diet you can adopt. The optimal fuel is fat. Most people, however, get a large amount of carbs, and mainly from sugar (juice, fruit, sweetened foods). This is why diabetes (type II) is so rampant in this country now.
A quick side note: Although we are not exercising formally at this point (just chasing children), we have continued to lose weight since my post in October. Ben's lost about another 5 lbs., and I've lost 7 - 8 lbs., putting my weight at the lowest it has ever been since I reached my full adult height (around 12o). This is eating a very high fat diet. I aim for 4 tbsp. of saturated fat per day whenever possible.
Now, for the list of foods that are "healthy" and why they're not.
Whole Grains -- Everyone wants you to believe that whole grain foods are good for you (and in some cases, they are). However, there are several problems with this. The first is that normal, whole grain foods are filled with phytates (which are anti-nutrients; they pull nutrients from you and/or prevent absorption). This is because the way grain is grown and processed has changed a lot over the last 50 or 60 years. Grain needs to be either sprouted or soaked to release its nutrients and enzymes to make it digestible and absorbable, but almost no one does this. Instead, manufacturers fortify the grain with various vitamins and minerals, but only synthetic ones (which really doesn't increase absorption at all). Much grain is also extruded to be processed into cereal, and a lot of it is mixed with high amounts of sugar (think cereal again, and breads, cakes, cookies...). Even worse, some grains (corn, and sometimes rice) are grown genetically modified, which are also bad for you. Grains should be organic, sprouted or soaked, and consumed minimally (no more than 25% of your daily food intake). This is hard because most snack foods, breakfast foods, and side dishes are filled with grains.
Low-fat dairy products -- There are LOTS of problems with this! First, there's the issue of actually being low-fat. Low fat is bad, since that's where you should be getting your energy. Then, there is the fact that making dairy low-fat requires it to be heavily processed. Water is added, nutrients are removed, fat is removed, and in some cases, skim milk powder is added to give the milk body. Skim milk powder contains oxidized cholesterol, which is NOT naturally occurring and is bad for you. The dairy products then have fake nutrients added back to it (fortification). These are NOT healthy. Instead, you should consume full-fat dairy products that are either raw or which have been pasteurized at the lowest legal temperature and are not homogenized. The milk should be from grass-fed cows. And you should eat plenty of butter, raw cheese, raw milk and cream, etc. It is extremely nutrient-dense.
Lean meat products -- Some meat is naturally lean and that is okay. But you shouldn't strive for only lean meats, or limit your meat consumption due to fat content. Beef (grass fed) is good for you! Most people say that red meat is bad, but that's only because factory farmed meat is bad. Factory meat has a low vitamin and mineral content, potential contamination, and often is full of hormones and antibiotics. However, naturally raised, grass-fed meat is not the same, and you should consume plenty of that. Natural sausages (containing fatback), lard, beef tallow, etc. are also very good for you. Saturated animal fats are also nutrient-dense. I personally can't wait to get my beef tallow to fry food in!
Cholesterol -- Cholesterol is actually absolutely key to brain development and function. Modern baby formula doesn't have any cholesterol in it, while breastmilk contains large amounts. This is a huge detriment (formula)! Cholesterol helps protect us from many problems and has never been proven to cause heart disease. Only natural sources of cholesterol are good, however; oxidized cholesterol (as in processed milk products) is not good. But don't worry about the cholesterol in butter or healthy meat. Your body needs it.
Unsaturated fats -- Experts recommend eating primarily or entirely unsaturated fats. However, they are not as healthy as they seem. Olive oil should not be used for cooking, because heating it can create trans fats. In fact, most liquid oils can go rancid easily when exposed to heat, light, and air (which they are on grocery store shelves). Also, corn and soybean oils ("vegetable oil") are often made from genetically modified plants. Finally, unfortunately, canola oil, which is engineered, is bad for you as well (click the link for more). Saturated fats, like butter, grass-fed beef tallow, organic lard, and coconut oil are the best fats to eat and cook with.
Artificial sugar -- In attempt to eat less sugar (and yes, sugar is bad), a lot of people have turned to artificial sugars, like Splenda (which is mostly made from chlorine) and aspartame. Both have been shown over and over again to be harmful. The body doesn't recognize them as food, and so they can create several long-term health problems. In fact, real sugar is better but should still be eaten in moderation. Evaporated cane juice, raw honey, and real maple syrup are all "good" sugars, but in general, our country eats far too much sugar. Limit your consumption to rare occasions. A spoonful of honey in your tea or an occasional (not daily!) dessert are okay.
Soy -- For quite awhile, soy has been considered the ultimate health food. However, soy is bad. It contains phytoestrogens, which have been claimed to cause cancer in women, and puberty issues in kids. The jury is still out on these claims, but soy is not a food you should turn to. It's also frequently genetically modified, which is not safe. If you do consume soy, it should be organic and fermented, and in moderation.
Yes, this is pretty weird stuff! But the new Baby Steps series will help you to make changes in your diet, if you're so inclined.
Also, starting on March 1st, I am launching a "30-Day Eat More Fat Challenge!" The details of this challenge will be announced on February 15th, so look for that post. Starting on March 1st (which is also the launch date of our NEW SITE!), I will post a daily tip or idea on eating fat. We'll have a weekly "check in" for those participating, and the winner will have a choice between a copy of my cookbook or a jar of my skin cream. Coming up soon!! Tell your friends!
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Thursday, February 4, 2010
Granola Bars
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Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
**This post has been entered in Pennywise Platter Thursday at Nourishing Gourmet and Frugal Fridays at Life As Mom!**
I found the original version of this recipe at Kitchen Stewardship's website, but have modified it to suit my family's tastes. So, here is our favorite version of granola bars!
Ingredients:
1 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup raw honey
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup gluten-free all purpose flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
4 cups gluten-free oats
Directions:
Mix together coconut oil and honey. Add salt, vanilla, and flours and stir. Add oats 1 cup at a time, stir until completely mixed. Add any extras, like chocolate chips, seeds, nuts, etc. (I add about 1/2 cup chocolate chips.) Bake at 350 for about 25 min.
Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
**This post has been entered in Pennywise Platter Thursday at Nourishing Gourmet and Frugal Fridays at Life As Mom!**
I found the original version of this recipe at Kitchen Stewardship's website, but have modified it to suit my family's tastes. So, here is our favorite version of granola bars!
Ingredients:
1 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup raw honey
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup gluten-free all purpose flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
4 cups gluten-free oats
Directions:
Mix together coconut oil and honey. Add salt, vanilla, and flours and stir. Add oats 1 cup at a time, stir until completely mixed. Add any extras, like chocolate chips, seeds, nuts, etc. (I add about 1/2 cup chocolate chips.) Bake at 350 for about 25 min.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Beef with Tomato and Zucchini
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Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
When I was faced with the necessity of cutting grains out of my diet recently, I had to become more creative in what I cooked. This recipe was born of necessity. If you're not grain-free, you could serve it with some pasta as a sauce. If you are, it's great just by itself. :)
Ingredients:
1 lb. grass-fed ground beef
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 c. chopped tomatoes or strained tomatoes
1 zucchini, chopped
1/2 tsp. basil
1 tsp. sea salt
Directions:
Heat olive oil in a large pan. Add garlic, zucchini and beef. Cook until beef is browned. Add tomatoes and spices. Cook until zucchini is soft and flavors are mixed, 10 - 15 min. Serve by itself or over pasta.
*I personally like it better with chopped tomatoes, and even if I use strained tomatoes (I haven't found chopped tomatoes in glass jars yet and the flavor of the raw tomatoes isn't quite the same) I will usually add some fresh tomatoes too. I think, though, if you were using it as a sauce, you would prefer strained tomatoes. It is VERY thick and meaty but that is the point; it can be a meal in itself! Would go great with a nice salad too.
Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
When I was faced with the necessity of cutting grains out of my diet recently, I had to become more creative in what I cooked. This recipe was born of necessity. If you're not grain-free, you could serve it with some pasta as a sauce. If you are, it's great just by itself. :)
Ingredients:
1 lb. grass-fed ground beef
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 c. chopped tomatoes or strained tomatoes
1 zucchini, chopped
1/2 tsp. basil
1 tsp. sea salt
Directions:
Heat olive oil in a large pan. Add garlic, zucchini and beef. Cook until beef is browned. Add tomatoes and spices. Cook until zucchini is soft and flavors are mixed, 10 - 15 min. Serve by itself or over pasta.
*I personally like it better with chopped tomatoes, and even if I use strained tomatoes (I haven't found chopped tomatoes in glass jars yet and the flavor of the raw tomatoes isn't quite the same) I will usually add some fresh tomatoes too. I think, though, if you were using it as a sauce, you would prefer strained tomatoes. It is VERY thick and meaty but that is the point; it can be a meal in itself! Would go great with a nice salad too.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Muscle Testing and Yeast-Free Diets
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Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
Recently, we have undergone some muscle testing to check for our allergies. Ben, Bekah and I were all tested. First I want to explain what muscle testing is and who performs it.
There are different types of doctors who do muscle testing -- Eastern medicine practitioners. So acupuncturists, NAET (Nambudripid Allergy Elimination Technique), sometimes massage therapists. This is because the theory behind muscle testing has to do with the electromagnetic fields that surround everyone and everything. Each person and item has their own electromagnetic field. Some work together well; others clash. The idea is that if you are allergic to a food or experiencing discomfort from a substance, placing it into your electromagnetic field will produce a reaction. The reason this works is because under normal circumstances (if you are healthy), your body sends blood to all of your extremities and throughout the entire body. But if you are not healthy, when your arm is extended, the brain diverts the blood to vital organs, namely the one that is having a problem, and away from the muscles in the arm. The muscle then becomes weak. It is also important to know that if the body is weak and you introduce the substance that is making the body weak to the body's electromagnetic field, it makes the body strong again. This is because, like in math, two negatives make a positive.
The testing procedure is basically where a person either stands or lies down and extends their arm. The doctor pushes on the arm while the person meets the doctors' resistance. If the person is weak, then the arm will be easily pushed over. If the arm is strong, the muscle will lock and remain extended. The doctor will place a bunch of different substances into the body's field to see what is causing the problem. He will also check various acupuncture points of energy, including various vital organs, and may have you hold your hands in a particular way. I don't understand exactly why all this works, but it has been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years. It's also important to note that this type of testing and subsequent treatment have a very high accuracy and success rate -- 80 - 95%. Many people have been cleared of yeast, allergies, heavy metal toxicity, etc. by this method.
We recently underwent this testing and discovered the following things:
Me -- Allergic to brown rice and soy; systemic yeast; heavy metal toxicity (aluminum and mercury).
Ben -- Allergic to all grains, including rice; soy; all dairy, including raw; brown sugar; improperly healed scar.
Bekah -- Allergic to all dairy, all grains, brown sugar, white sugar, fruit sugar; yeast issues.
It was kind of cool because while Ben was getting tested the Dr. became momentarily unsure what to do. He hesitated then said, "Where's the scar?" Ben said, "What?" The Dr. repeated, "The scar. You have a scar somewhere. Where is it?" Ben remembered and said, "Well, I have one on my knee from when I got cut with glass when I was a kid...." The doctor located it and said "That's it! That's what was blocking this." Ben is now being treated for this scar, to help it heal properly. At the time of the testing, he had no health history on Ben at all, had not asked any questions (Ben has the paperwork at home to fill out before our next visit). Yet his testing let him know that there was a scar somewhere on Ben's body that was causing problems, and he was correct. How's that for accuracy?
As a result of this muscle testing, we were put on several supplements. Bekah is only taking 2, and very tiny amounts of them. Ben and I are taking several more (4 for me and I think 6 for him). We were also put on a completely sugar-free (including natural sugars, honey, and even fruit in large quantities) and also grain-free. Our only source of carbs is a limited amount of potatoes and other root vegetables. This is because of the allergies, but also because yeast feeds on sugars (carbs breakdown to sugars) and one way to kill it is to get rid of the sugar so it can't feed. So far it's been no problem for her and not much for Ben (he feels a little weak and tired, but basically okay). But for me...I've been so nauseous and weak. This is what happens when the yeast dies off. The yeast releases toxins when it dies and can overload your system. This lasts anywhere from a day to a few weeks, depending on how bad the problem is. It's very, very hard to get through. I can't decide yet if it's worth it, but I'm assuming it will be.
I would recommend with anyone with health issues go see an alternative practitioner to see if they can help you. Please seek out a trained, certified professional. I will continue to share our experience for your information.
Here are some things we've learned:
*If you have yeast issues, ease into the new diet slowly. Otherwise the detox symptoms could be overwhelming. This isn't a good thing, because it means the body is detoxing too fast and there is an overload.
*Have fruit as your "sweet" instead of grains or processed sugar. Raw honey may be a good option too. But, limit it.
*Include a LOT of healthy fat in your diet for energy, especially saturated fat. Coconut oil is great, and butter if you can handle it. Beef tallow, lard, and meat are good options too.
*Eat what sounds good to you that is okay for your new diet (I frequently crave tomatoes, green peppers, orange juice, and cilantro, all of which are okay).
*Make sure to ask your doctor about what you should eat for your specific case.
Resources:
Muscle Testing
Muscle Testing and EFT
NAET
Standard Process (whole food supplements; we are taking these)
Have you ever seen an alternative practitioner or gone on a yeast-free diet? What was your experience?
Like what you read? Subscribe over on the right and get posts everyday in your email!
Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
Recently, we have undergone some muscle testing to check for our allergies. Ben, Bekah and I were all tested. First I want to explain what muscle testing is and who performs it.
There are different types of doctors who do muscle testing -- Eastern medicine practitioners. So acupuncturists, NAET (Nambudripid Allergy Elimination Technique), sometimes massage therapists. This is because the theory behind muscle testing has to do with the electromagnetic fields that surround everyone and everything. Each person and item has their own electromagnetic field. Some work together well; others clash. The idea is that if you are allergic to a food or experiencing discomfort from a substance, placing it into your electromagnetic field will produce a reaction. The reason this works is because under normal circumstances (if you are healthy), your body sends blood to all of your extremities and throughout the entire body. But if you are not healthy, when your arm is extended, the brain diverts the blood to vital organs, namely the one that is having a problem, and away from the muscles in the arm. The muscle then becomes weak. It is also important to know that if the body is weak and you introduce the substance that is making the body weak to the body's electromagnetic field, it makes the body strong again. This is because, like in math, two negatives make a positive.
The testing procedure is basically where a person either stands or lies down and extends their arm. The doctor pushes on the arm while the person meets the doctors' resistance. If the person is weak, then the arm will be easily pushed over. If the arm is strong, the muscle will lock and remain extended. The doctor will place a bunch of different substances into the body's field to see what is causing the problem. He will also check various acupuncture points of energy, including various vital organs, and may have you hold your hands in a particular way. I don't understand exactly why all this works, but it has been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years. It's also important to note that this type of testing and subsequent treatment have a very high accuracy and success rate -- 80 - 95%. Many people have been cleared of yeast, allergies, heavy metal toxicity, etc. by this method.
We recently underwent this testing and discovered the following things:
Me -- Allergic to brown rice and soy; systemic yeast; heavy metal toxicity (aluminum and mercury).
Ben -- Allergic to all grains, including rice; soy; all dairy, including raw; brown sugar; improperly healed scar.
Bekah -- Allergic to all dairy, all grains, brown sugar, white sugar, fruit sugar; yeast issues.
It was kind of cool because while Ben was getting tested the Dr. became momentarily unsure what to do. He hesitated then said, "Where's the scar?" Ben said, "What?" The Dr. repeated, "The scar. You have a scar somewhere. Where is it?" Ben remembered and said, "Well, I have one on my knee from when I got cut with glass when I was a kid...." The doctor located it and said "That's it! That's what was blocking this." Ben is now being treated for this scar, to help it heal properly. At the time of the testing, he had no health history on Ben at all, had not asked any questions (Ben has the paperwork at home to fill out before our next visit). Yet his testing let him know that there was a scar somewhere on Ben's body that was causing problems, and he was correct. How's that for accuracy?
As a result of this muscle testing, we were put on several supplements. Bekah is only taking 2, and very tiny amounts of them. Ben and I are taking several more (4 for me and I think 6 for him). We were also put on a completely sugar-free (including natural sugars, honey, and even fruit in large quantities) and also grain-free. Our only source of carbs is a limited amount of potatoes and other root vegetables. This is because of the allergies, but also because yeast feeds on sugars (carbs breakdown to sugars) and one way to kill it is to get rid of the sugar so it can't feed. So far it's been no problem for her and not much for Ben (he feels a little weak and tired, but basically okay). But for me...I've been so nauseous and weak. This is what happens when the yeast dies off. The yeast releases toxins when it dies and can overload your system. This lasts anywhere from a day to a few weeks, depending on how bad the problem is. It's very, very hard to get through. I can't decide yet if it's worth it, but I'm assuming it will be.
I would recommend with anyone with health issues go see an alternative practitioner to see if they can help you. Please seek out a trained, certified professional. I will continue to share our experience for your information.
Here are some things we've learned:
*If you have yeast issues, ease into the new diet slowly. Otherwise the detox symptoms could be overwhelming. This isn't a good thing, because it means the body is detoxing too fast and there is an overload.
*Have fruit as your "sweet" instead of grains or processed sugar. Raw honey may be a good option too. But, limit it.
*Include a LOT of healthy fat in your diet for energy, especially saturated fat. Coconut oil is great, and butter if you can handle it. Beef tallow, lard, and meat are good options too.
*Eat what sounds good to you that is okay for your new diet (I frequently crave tomatoes, green peppers, orange juice, and cilantro, all of which are okay).
*Make sure to ask your doctor about what you should eat for your specific case.
Resources:
Muscle Testing
Muscle Testing and EFT
NAET
Standard Process (whole food supplements; we are taking these)
Have you ever seen an alternative practitioner or gone on a yeast-free diet? What was your experience?
Like what you read? Subscribe over on the right and get posts everyday in your email!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Gluten-Free Apple Cinnamon Muffins
**We've moved!!**
Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
**This post has been entered in Real Food Wednesdays at Kelly the Kitchen Kop!**
These are fabulous. I looked at several different recipes I'd created over time and combined them to form these. They are light, fluffy, and very sweet. Sweet enough to be cake, rather than muffin! No one would know they are gluten-free, either. :)
Ingredients:
1 c. sorghum flour
½ c. brown rice flour
¼ c. coconut flour
¼ c. arrowroot starch
½ tsp. sea salt
2.5 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ cup dark brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
¼ c. coconut oil
¼ c. coconut milk
¼ c. rice milk
2 medium apples, peeled and shredded, or ¾ c. unsweetened applesauce
Topping:
2 tbsp. coconut oil
¼ c. dark brown sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tbsp. brown rice flour
Directions:
Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl – flours, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon – and set aside. Cream oil and sugar together until thoroughly mixed. Add eggs, coconut milk, rice milk, and shredded apples (shred very finely). Stir until combined. Add dry ingredients. Combine and fold gently. Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups (3/4 full). In a small bowl, mix all topping ingredients. Sprinkle topping over muffins. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.
Like what you read? Subscribe over on the right and get posts everyday in your email!
Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
**This post has been entered in Real Food Wednesdays at Kelly the Kitchen Kop!**
These are fabulous. I looked at several different recipes I'd created over time and combined them to form these. They are light, fluffy, and very sweet. Sweet enough to be cake, rather than muffin! No one would know they are gluten-free, either. :)
Ingredients:
1 c. sorghum flour
½ c. brown rice flour
¼ c. coconut flour
¼ c. arrowroot starch
½ tsp. sea salt
2.5 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ cup dark brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
¼ c. coconut oil
¼ c. coconut milk
¼ c. rice milk
2 medium apples, peeled and shredded, or ¾ c. unsweetened applesauce
Topping:
2 tbsp. coconut oil
¼ c. dark brown sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tbsp. brown rice flour
Directions:
Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl – flours, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon – and set aside. Cream oil and sugar together until thoroughly mixed. Add eggs, coconut milk, rice milk, and shredded apples (shred very finely). Stir until combined. Add dry ingredients. Combine and fold gently. Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups (3/4 full). In a small bowl, mix all topping ingredients. Sprinkle topping over muffins. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.
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Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Health Benefits of Herbal Tea
**We've moved!!**
Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
***
Before tonight's regularly scheduled post, I wanted to note that there is an awesome giveaway at Kitchen Stewardship! It is for a Charlie's Soap package, including the powdered laundry detergent and all purpose cleaner! Hop over there to check it out and get a chance to win!
***
**This post has been entered in Things I Love Thursdays at Diaper Diaries and Finer Things Fridays at Amy's Finer Things!!**
Herbal tea!
It's one of the few "treats" we can have at this point in time. As a quick personal update, we've recently undergone allergy testing and have been told to cut out all grains, all sugar (including fruit sugar), legumes, nuts, dairy. We're left with some vegetables, meat, eggs, and coconut. When I need something "sweet," tea is about all I have left! But that's okay, as long as we are getting better.
There are many different types of herbal teas, and each has its own individual benefits. Let's just sum up a few things about herbal tea so we all know what we're talking about:
*Herbal tea is naturally caffeine-free (so yes, you can give it to your children...Bekah loves it!)
*Herbal tea does not contain any green or black tea
*Herbal tea may contain fruits, flowers, herbs (obviously) or any other "healing" plant parts
Common varieties include:
*Lemon
*Chamomile
*Rooibos
*Mint
*Ginger
*Echinacea
*Elderberry
*Juniper
Of course, there are a myriad of blends using all of the above ingredients and more. I couldn't possibly list them all. The health benefits of the tea depend on what ingredients are in them. I'll list benefits of just a few common teas/ingredients:
*Chamomile -- calming, relaxing (often used for "sleepy" or bedtime teas)
*Rooibos -- aids digestion, can help allergies
*Mint -- helps nausea
*Ginger -- helps nausea, fights colds
*Elderberry -- fights colds and flu
Rooibos tea is probably one that you haven't heard of before. It's something we discovered a few months back. We were at the mall one morning with a friend, when a salesperson came out of Teavana and offered us a sample and a brochure. I'd always seen the store and occasionally sampled the tea but never paid much attention to it. I tried some tea and took a brochure home. It was there I first learned about the rooibos tea and its benefits. I started researching it further, and learned how great it was and how it could possibly help us! And since Bekah loves tea I thought I'd give it a try. I returned to the mall the next night (note to self: do NOT go to the mall with a double stroller on a Friday night, when all the teenagers are shopping) and purchased some Rooibos peach bloom. I LOVE peach tea and this is pretty good stuff. :) Bekah likes it too!
I begged my mom for a gift card for Christmas and have since ordered MANY more varieties. My favorite combination is Caribbean breeze (which contains elderberry) and Kiwi-strawberry. Love it! It's sweet enough to drink without any sugar, hence it helps get rid of my "sweet" cravings now.
Enough about that. You can read more about rooibos, chamomile, and ginger tea.
What are your favorite types of tea? Do you drink them for the health benefits?
Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
***
Before tonight's regularly scheduled post, I wanted to note that there is an awesome giveaway at Kitchen Stewardship! It is for a Charlie's Soap package, including the powdered laundry detergent and all purpose cleaner! Hop over there to check it out and get a chance to win!
***
**This post has been entered in Things I Love Thursdays at Diaper Diaries and Finer Things Fridays at Amy's Finer Things!!**
Herbal tea!
It's one of the few "treats" we can have at this point in time. As a quick personal update, we've recently undergone allergy testing and have been told to cut out all grains, all sugar (including fruit sugar), legumes, nuts, dairy. We're left with some vegetables, meat, eggs, and coconut. When I need something "sweet," tea is about all I have left! But that's okay, as long as we are getting better.
There are many different types of herbal teas, and each has its own individual benefits. Let's just sum up a few things about herbal tea so we all know what we're talking about:
*Herbal tea is naturally caffeine-free (so yes, you can give it to your children...Bekah loves it!)
*Herbal tea does not contain any green or black tea
*Herbal tea may contain fruits, flowers, herbs (obviously) or any other "healing" plant parts
Common varieties include:
*Lemon
*Chamomile
*Rooibos
*Mint
*Ginger
*Echinacea
*Elderberry
*Juniper
Of course, there are a myriad of blends using all of the above ingredients and more. I couldn't possibly list them all. The health benefits of the tea depend on what ingredients are in them. I'll list benefits of just a few common teas/ingredients:
*Chamomile -- calming, relaxing (often used for "sleepy" or bedtime teas)
*Rooibos -- aids digestion, can help allergies
*Mint -- helps nausea
*Ginger -- helps nausea, fights colds
*Elderberry -- fights colds and flu
Rooibos tea is probably one that you haven't heard of before. It's something we discovered a few months back. We were at the mall one morning with a friend, when a salesperson came out of Teavana and offered us a sample and a brochure. I'd always seen the store and occasionally sampled the tea but never paid much attention to it. I tried some tea and took a brochure home. It was there I first learned about the rooibos tea and its benefits. I started researching it further, and learned how great it was and how it could possibly help us! And since Bekah loves tea I thought I'd give it a try. I returned to the mall the next night (note to self: do NOT go to the mall with a double stroller on a Friday night, when all the teenagers are shopping) and purchased some Rooibos peach bloom. I LOVE peach tea and this is pretty good stuff. :) Bekah likes it too!
I begged my mom for a gift card for Christmas and have since ordered MANY more varieties. My favorite combination is Caribbean breeze (which contains elderberry) and Kiwi-strawberry. Love it! It's sweet enough to drink without any sugar, hence it helps get rid of my "sweet" cravings now.
Enough about that. You can read more about rooibos, chamomile, and ginger tea.
What are your favorite types of tea? Do you drink them for the health benefits?
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Soup: Comfort Food
**We've moved!!**
Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
**This post has been entered in Tuesday Twister at GNOWFGLINS and Real Food Wednesday at Cheeseslave!!)
Here are three of my favorite soup recipes! They are great winter comfort foods.
Chicken Chili
Ingredients:
¾ cup chopped onion
1 large green pepper, chopped
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 large clove of garlic, minced
1 – 2 jalapenos, chopped
6 oz. tomato juice
6 c. chicken stock
2 large chicken breasts (about 1.5 lbs)
3 15.5 oz. cans chili beans
3 tbsp. cumin
4 tbsp. chili powder
Directions: Heat oil on medium, add green pepper, jalapeno, onion, and garlic. Cook until vegetables are soft, 5 – 10 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir to combine. Taste and adjust cumin and chili powder if a spicier flavor is desired. Cook for 1 – 2 hours until chicken and vegetables are cooked through. Remove chicken from pot and cut into bite size pieces; return to chili. Serve immediately or freeze for later. Makes 6 – 8 servings.
Potato Soup
Ingredients:
2 tbsp. butter or coconut oil
3 strips bacon, chopped
½ cup onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 tbsp. flour
2 medium potatoes, chopped
3 cups chicken broth or stock
½ tsp. celery salt
½ tsp. thyme
½ tsp. parsley
¼ tsp. black pepper
½ pint cream or coconut milk
Directions:
Melt butter in large saucepan. Add bacon, onions, celery, and spices, cooking until veggies are soft and bacon is crisp. Add flour and stir until it is smooth. Then, add potatoes and broth or stock and cook on medium heat (soup should boil lightly) until potatoes are soft. Stir; add cream. Heat through, remove from heat, and serve immediately. Add green onions, if desired. 2 servings.
Chicken Noodle Soup
Directions:
4 tbsp. butter or coconut oil
4 tbsp. flour
4 stalks celery, chopped
4 small carrots, peeled and chopped
1 small white onion, diced
4 – 6 oz. chicken breast
8 cups chicken stock
8 oz. noodles
1 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. celery salt
½ tsp. pepper
Directions:
Saute onion in butter. Add flour, stir and cook until flour is lightly brown. Add carrot, celery, stock, vegetables, chicken breast, and spices. Cook 1 – 2 hours, until chicken is tender. Add noodles 5 – 10 minutes before serving. Serves 4 – 6.
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**This post has been entered in Tuesday Twister at GNOWFGLINS and Real Food Wednesday at Cheeseslave!!)
Here are three of my favorite soup recipes! They are great winter comfort foods.
Chicken Chili
Ingredients:
¾ cup chopped onion
1 large green pepper, chopped
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 large clove of garlic, minced
1 – 2 jalapenos, chopped
6 oz. tomato juice
6 c. chicken stock
2 large chicken breasts (about 1.5 lbs)
3 15.5 oz. cans chili beans
3 tbsp. cumin
4 tbsp. chili powder
Directions: Heat oil on medium, add green pepper, jalapeno, onion, and garlic. Cook until vegetables are soft, 5 – 10 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir to combine. Taste and adjust cumin and chili powder if a spicier flavor is desired. Cook for 1 – 2 hours until chicken and vegetables are cooked through. Remove chicken from pot and cut into bite size pieces; return to chili. Serve immediately or freeze for later. Makes 6 – 8 servings.
Potato Soup
Ingredients:
2 tbsp. butter or coconut oil
3 strips bacon, chopped
½ cup onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 tbsp. flour
2 medium potatoes, chopped
3 cups chicken broth or stock
½ tsp. celery salt
½ tsp. thyme
½ tsp. parsley
¼ tsp. black pepper
½ pint cream or coconut milk
Directions:
Melt butter in large saucepan. Add bacon, onions, celery, and spices, cooking until veggies are soft and bacon is crisp. Add flour and stir until it is smooth. Then, add potatoes and broth or stock and cook on medium heat (soup should boil lightly) until potatoes are soft. Stir; add cream. Heat through, remove from heat, and serve immediately. Add green onions, if desired. 2 servings.
Chicken Noodle Soup
Directions:
4 tbsp. butter or coconut oil
4 tbsp. flour
4 stalks celery, chopped
4 small carrots, peeled and chopped
1 small white onion, diced
4 – 6 oz. chicken breast
8 cups chicken stock
8 oz. noodles
1 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. celery salt
½ tsp. pepper
Directions:
Saute onion in butter. Add flour, stir and cook until flour is lightly brown. Add carrot, celery, stock, vegetables, chicken breast, and spices. Cook 1 – 2 hours, until chicken is tender. Add noodles 5 – 10 minutes before serving. Serves 4 – 6.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Gluten-free Pancakes
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**This post has been entered in Real Food Wednesdays at Kelly the Kitchen Kop!**
These are fluffy and yummy! With a bit of maple syrup, they kind of taste like donuts!
Ingredients:
3/4 cup gluten-free all-purpose flour (I use Bob's Red Mill)
1/4 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 egg
1 tbsp. raw honey
1 tbsp. coconut oil
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. + 2 tbsp. almond or rice milk
Directions:
Mix together all dry ingredients. Make a well in the center and add egg, vanilla, honey, coconut oil. Stir together, mashing the coconut oil if it isn't already melted (it won't be in the winter). Add almond milk. I add it 1/4 c. at a time until I reach the consistency I like. With the amount indicated, the batter will be medium-thick and will make VERY fluffy, thick pancakes. Melt additional coconut oil into a pan or onto a griddle. Pour a bit of batter onto the pan, making sure it begins to bubble/sizzle around the edges immediately (if the pan is not hot enough, the pancakes will not rise) and that the batter is in the oil. Wait 4 - 5 min., checking carefully, and flip. The edges and parts of the center should be golden brown. Cook an additional 4 - 5 minutes, then serve.
Yummy! A perfect winter breakfast.
Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
**This post has been entered in Real Food Wednesdays at Kelly the Kitchen Kop!**
These are fluffy and yummy! With a bit of maple syrup, they kind of taste like donuts!
Ingredients:
3/4 cup gluten-free all-purpose flour (I use Bob's Red Mill)
1/4 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 egg
1 tbsp. raw honey
1 tbsp. coconut oil
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. + 2 tbsp. almond or rice milk
Directions:
Mix together all dry ingredients. Make a well in the center and add egg, vanilla, honey, coconut oil. Stir together, mashing the coconut oil if it isn't already melted (it won't be in the winter). Add almond milk. I add it 1/4 c. at a time until I reach the consistency I like. With the amount indicated, the batter will be medium-thick and will make VERY fluffy, thick pancakes. Melt additional coconut oil into a pan or onto a griddle. Pour a bit of batter onto the pan, making sure it begins to bubble/sizzle around the edges immediately (if the pan is not hot enough, the pancakes will not rise) and that the batter is in the oil. Wait 4 - 5 min., checking carefully, and flip. The edges and parts of the center should be golden brown. Cook an additional 4 - 5 minutes, then serve.
Yummy! A perfect winter breakfast.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Cookbook Project
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Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
Introducing....
My brand new cookbook!
The cookbook, Modern Alternative Mama in the Kitchen: A Cookbook of Whole Foods, contains over 60 recipes that use whole foods. Many are easy to put together on a weeknight and some can be easily frozen or partially prepared in advance (which and how to do this are noted in the book). Several are also allergy-friendly (gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, legume-free, etc.). If you are interested in eating and cooking whole foods, but have no idea where to begin, this book can help you. Also included are cooking tips, sources for finding good quality foods, easy substitution ideas, and other great resources. (If you like the recipes I've posted so far, most of them -- plus many more -- will be in that cookbook.)
This cookbook will be available in just a few short weeks for those who are interested in learning more about cooking and eating whole foods!
Although writing a cookbook has been a dream of mine for years (since back when I only wished I could cook), writing it now has a special purpose. I am writing this cookbook in support of women's rights to birth where and how they choose. Part of the proceeds from this cookbook will be donated to both local and national charities that promote access to midwives, doulas, and other natural birthing resources. These include CHOICE, Ohio Families for Safe Birth, and The Big Push for Midwives. If you support this movement, please consider purchasing a cookbook. These are grassroots organizations that are trying to make a difference, and they can use all the help they can get.
Unfortunately, not a lot of women are informed that they have different choices, beyond the usual OB-hospital situation. Many wish for a more natural birthing experience but have no idea where to go to find one. Birthing centers are currently very limited, and many women have no idea how to find midwives, or that they even exist. The idea of home birth or even of natural birth is foreign to most women. (I've heard women say others are "super women" just because they gave birth unmedicated!) Rather than separating women from one another and forcing them to birth in one location, in one way, we should be uniting them and empowering them. Women should have the support of a midwife, doula, or other professional who are trained in natural birth and who believe in them and their ability to birth their baby naturally.
This cookbook is dedicated to aiding a natural lifestyle and supporting womens' right and ability to birth naturally.
Please tell everyone about the cookbook so we can get a lot of support! The cookbook will be available through this blog -- details to follow.
Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
Introducing....
My brand new cookbook!
The cookbook, Modern Alternative Mama in the Kitchen: A Cookbook of Whole Foods, contains over 60 recipes that use whole foods. Many are easy to put together on a weeknight and some can be easily frozen or partially prepared in advance (which and how to do this are noted in the book). Several are also allergy-friendly (gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, legume-free, etc.). If you are interested in eating and cooking whole foods, but have no idea where to begin, this book can help you. Also included are cooking tips, sources for finding good quality foods, easy substitution ideas, and other great resources. (If you like the recipes I've posted so far, most of them -- plus many more -- will be in that cookbook.)
This cookbook will be available in just a few short weeks for those who are interested in learning more about cooking and eating whole foods!
Although writing a cookbook has been a dream of mine for years (since back when I only wished I could cook), writing it now has a special purpose. I am writing this cookbook in support of women's rights to birth where and how they choose. Part of the proceeds from this cookbook will be donated to both local and national charities that promote access to midwives, doulas, and other natural birthing resources. These include CHOICE, Ohio Families for Safe Birth, and The Big Push for Midwives. If you support this movement, please consider purchasing a cookbook. These are grassroots organizations that are trying to make a difference, and they can use all the help they can get.
Unfortunately, not a lot of women are informed that they have different choices, beyond the usual OB-hospital situation. Many wish for a more natural birthing experience but have no idea where to go to find one. Birthing centers are currently very limited, and many women have no idea how to find midwives, or that they even exist. The idea of home birth or even of natural birth is foreign to most women. (I've heard women say others are "super women" just because they gave birth unmedicated!) Rather than separating women from one another and forcing them to birth in one location, in one way, we should be uniting them and empowering them. Women should have the support of a midwife, doula, or other professional who are trained in natural birth and who believe in them and their ability to birth their baby naturally.
This cookbook is dedicated to aiding a natural lifestyle and supporting womens' right and ability to birth naturally.
Please tell everyone about the cookbook so we can get a lot of support! The cookbook will be available through this blog -- details to follow.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Baked Ravioli
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Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
I made this for dinner this week and it was yummy! So I thought I'd share with you. :) It's also a GREAT real food recipe. Lots of pastured eggs, grass-fed beef, whole grain flour, raw milk cheese (if you want; we still can't do dairy).
Ingredients:
Dough:
1.5 c. flour
2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. basil
3 eggs
Water as necessary (less than 1/3 c.)
Filling:
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 c. bread crumbs
1 egg
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tbsp. onion, minced
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
Sauce:
1/4 c. olive oil
1/4 c. onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 lb. ground beef (opt.)
1 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. oregano
3.5 c. crushed tomatoes
1 c. parmesan, romano, or mozzarella cheese (opt.)
Directions:
Mix all ingredients for dough together. Add a little water as needed until dough comes together and is smooth, but not sticky. Knead briefly on a floured cutting board, then set aside.
Mix together all ingredients for filling. Set aside.
Heat olive oil in a large pan. Add onions and garlic and cook until softened. Add meat, if using, and cook until browned. Add salt, oregano, basil, and tomatoes. Let this simmer until ravioli is done, 1 - 2 hours.
Divide the dough into 3 equal parts. Roll out one part at a time until quite thin (you can also use a pasta machine to thin the dough). It should be no more than 1/8" thick. Cut into equal size squares. Place a small amount of filling in the center of half the squares, then place the other squares on top and pinch closed carefully on all sides. Set finished ravioli on a plate. (I wasn't particularly careful to make them look nice; I didn't make them match exactly in shape and size, nor did I measure the filling, and I didn't do anything to the edges. But this was just for us to eat. You can do a lot more to make them look pretty, but then it takes a lot longer.) Continue the same procedure with the other parts of dough until all the ravioli are finished.
(I made the filling with gluten-free breadcrumbs and made the extra filling into mini-meatballs for Bekah.)
While you are making the last set of ravioli, put a large pot of salted water on to boil. Place the ravioli into the boiling water in 3 or 4 batches (they should have enough room to swim) for 4 - 5 minutes. When they are done, scoop them into a 9 x 13 baking pan. When all the raviolis are done, cover with the sauce. Top with cheese if desired. Bake at 350 for 15 - 20 minutes. Serves 3 - 4.
Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
I made this for dinner this week and it was yummy! So I thought I'd share with you. :) It's also a GREAT real food recipe. Lots of pastured eggs, grass-fed beef, whole grain flour, raw milk cheese (if you want; we still can't do dairy).
Ingredients:
Dough:
1.5 c. flour
2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. basil
3 eggs
Water as necessary (less than 1/3 c.)
Filling:
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 c. bread crumbs
1 egg
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tbsp. onion, minced
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
Sauce:
1/4 c. olive oil
1/4 c. onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 lb. ground beef (opt.)
1 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. oregano
3.5 c. crushed tomatoes
1 c. parmesan, romano, or mozzarella cheese (opt.)
Directions:
Mix all ingredients for dough together. Add a little water as needed until dough comes together and is smooth, but not sticky. Knead briefly on a floured cutting board, then set aside.
Mix together all ingredients for filling. Set aside.
Heat olive oil in a large pan. Add onions and garlic and cook until softened. Add meat, if using, and cook until browned. Add salt, oregano, basil, and tomatoes. Let this simmer until ravioli is done, 1 - 2 hours.
Divide the dough into 3 equal parts. Roll out one part at a time until quite thin (you can also use a pasta machine to thin the dough). It should be no more than 1/8" thick. Cut into equal size squares. Place a small amount of filling in the center of half the squares, then place the other squares on top and pinch closed carefully on all sides. Set finished ravioli on a plate. (I wasn't particularly careful to make them look nice; I didn't make them match exactly in shape and size, nor did I measure the filling, and I didn't do anything to the edges. But this was just for us to eat. You can do a lot more to make them look pretty, but then it takes a lot longer.) Continue the same procedure with the other parts of dough until all the ravioli are finished.
(I made the filling with gluten-free breadcrumbs and made the extra filling into mini-meatballs for Bekah.)
While you are making the last set of ravioli, put a large pot of salted water on to boil. Place the ravioli into the boiling water in 3 or 4 batches (they should have enough room to swim) for 4 - 5 minutes. When they are done, scoop them into a 9 x 13 baking pan. When all the raviolis are done, cover with the sauce. Top with cheese if desired. Bake at 350 for 15 - 20 minutes. Serves 3 - 4.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Health News Tuesday: GMO Crops, Autism Issues, and Boosting Your Immunity with Foods
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Health News Tuesday!
Real Age Website Scam
Some of you may have heard of the website RealAge.com. According to an NY Times expose, it is little more than a pharmaceutical company marketing tool. Stay away!
New Reasons why GMO Crops are Bad News
Guess what? We have "super bugs" in hospitals, which are antibiotic resistant. Now we have "super weeds," which are pesticide resistant! This leads to the use of more and more pesticides, among other problems.
Treatments for Asthma and Pre-term Labor may increase risk of Autism in Developing Fetus
A new study showing the dangers of taking certain medications while pregnant.
Shunning the Family Bed: Who Benefits Most?
New research shows that co-sleeping is TWICE as safe as sleeping alone in a crib.
Top 12 Foods to Boost Your Immune Response
I would recommend eating all of these!
Carbon Dioxide Declared Health Hazard by the EPA
An opinion piece on the EPA's move.
Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
Health News Tuesday!
Real Age Website Scam
Some of you may have heard of the website RealAge.com. According to an NY Times expose, it is little more than a pharmaceutical company marketing tool. Stay away!
New Reasons why GMO Crops are Bad News
Guess what? We have "super bugs" in hospitals, which are antibiotic resistant. Now we have "super weeds," which are pesticide resistant! This leads to the use of more and more pesticides, among other problems.
Treatments for Asthma and Pre-term Labor may increase risk of Autism in Developing Fetus
A new study showing the dangers of taking certain medications while pregnant.
Shunning the Family Bed: Who Benefits Most?
New research shows that co-sleeping is TWICE as safe as sleeping alone in a crib.
Top 12 Foods to Boost Your Immune Response
I would recommend eating all of these!
Carbon Dioxide Declared Health Hazard by the EPA
An opinion piece on the EPA's move.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Adventures in Water Kefir
**We've moved!!**
Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
Water kefir!
If you've been reading other blogs like mine, you probably already know what water kefir is. In case you haven't, though, I'll tell you. Water kefir is a drink made from sugar water, which is cultured with kefir grains. These grains are composed of yeasts and good bacteria. I don't totally understand how it works, but then, I'm not supposed to. There are lots of great posts about water kefir that might understand it better than I do (other bloggers), and I'll link to those at the end.
So, why drink water kefir? It has more probiotics in it than yogurt, and some sources even say more than traditional milk kefir (that was in one of my Health News Tuesdays links). It is a super healthy drink that can help restore your good gut flora and is rumored to help allergies and various digestive upsets. It also is slightly carbonated, and is therefore a healthy substitute for pop! That's how I got Ben interested, initially.
There is some controversy about whether or not this is alcoholic. Some say it must be; but tests have shown it to be less than 0.5% if at all. It does smell sort of alcoholic because of the yeasts used in culturing. But it's never made us even the slightest bit tipsy and we don't drink at all, so if it WERE alcoholic, you better believe an 8 - 12 oz. bottle would do something to us. There's a link on that at the end, too.
There are many different recipes for making kefir out there. Some people kefir freshly pressed juice. Using a wedge of lemon and/or dried fruit is very common too. When I first started reading about it, I was pretty intimidated by all the variations and the many different things required. I just wanted something simple and straightforward, at least to start! So I'll give you our simplest recipe here:
*3 cups filtered water
*1/2 cup white sugar (most of it will be eaten by the yeast)
*1 tbsp. water kefir grains
*4 - 6 oz. organic apple juice
Mix together the water and sugar in a quart mason jar until the sugar is dissolved. Add the kefir grains with a plastic spoon (don't use any metal). Cover the jar loosely (we use a piece of fabric attached with a rubberband, so nothing can get in, but the gases can escape). It should ferment about 2 days, less if you live in a warm climate. Generally 2 days seems about right, but you can start with 1 if you think it'll be too much. When it's done fermenting, strain the grains out and set them aside to start another batch (they need to be kept in sugar water if you're not using them again right away, and refrigerating is a good idea too). Pour the kefir into bottles (we bought some at a local brewing store) and add apple juice. Seal tightly. Let the bottles stand on the counter, sealed, about 2 days longer. Then refrigerate. This is important because if you leave them sitting out they'll continue to ferment and could explode. Ben says when he releases the cap it sounds like "a gunshot." The drink will be lightly sweet and carbonated!
That is our simplest concoction. I'd like to experiment in the future with using ginger (to make a ginger ale, sort of), lemon-lime, and grape juice. I think I'm going to do grape juice next because it's the simplest. You can add the fruit juice to the original ferment, but then your kefir grains get stained. Best to keep them in plain sugar water and avoid that problem.
Have you ever heard of water kefir? Are you interested to try?
Resources:
Cheeseslave's How To
Kelly the Kitchen Kop on Alcohol Content
Kitchen Steward on Kefir Making
Dom's How-to Website (one of the most well-known on the web)
Fermented Treasures (one place you can buy grains)
Kefir Making (yahoo group, you can usually find free grains here, plus help)
Please visit our new site, ModernAlternativeMama.com.
Comments on this post have been locked and updates are no longer being made to this page. Please click here to view this article on the new site.
Water kefir!
If you've been reading other blogs like mine, you probably already know what water kefir is. In case you haven't, though, I'll tell you. Water kefir is a drink made from sugar water, which is cultured with kefir grains. These grains are composed of yeasts and good bacteria. I don't totally understand how it works, but then, I'm not supposed to. There are lots of great posts about water kefir that might understand it better than I do (other bloggers), and I'll link to those at the end.
So, why drink water kefir? It has more probiotics in it than yogurt, and some sources even say more than traditional milk kefir (that was in one of my Health News Tuesdays links). It is a super healthy drink that can help restore your good gut flora and is rumored to help allergies and various digestive upsets. It also is slightly carbonated, and is therefore a healthy substitute for pop! That's how I got Ben interested, initially.
There is some controversy about whether or not this is alcoholic. Some say it must be; but tests have shown it to be less than 0.5% if at all. It does smell sort of alcoholic because of the yeasts used in culturing. But it's never made us even the slightest bit tipsy and we don't drink at all, so if it WERE alcoholic, you better believe an 8 - 12 oz. bottle would do something to us. There's a link on that at the end, too.
There are many different recipes for making kefir out there. Some people kefir freshly pressed juice. Using a wedge of lemon and/or dried fruit is very common too. When I first started reading about it, I was pretty intimidated by all the variations and the many different things required. I just wanted something simple and straightforward, at least to start! So I'll give you our simplest recipe here:
*3 cups filtered water
*1/2 cup white sugar (most of it will be eaten by the yeast)
*1 tbsp. water kefir grains
*4 - 6 oz. organic apple juice
Mix together the water and sugar in a quart mason jar until the sugar is dissolved. Add the kefir grains with a plastic spoon (don't use any metal). Cover the jar loosely (we use a piece of fabric attached with a rubberband, so nothing can get in, but the gases can escape). It should ferment about 2 days, less if you live in a warm climate. Generally 2 days seems about right, but you can start with 1 if you think it'll be too much. When it's done fermenting, strain the grains out and set them aside to start another batch (they need to be kept in sugar water if you're not using them again right away, and refrigerating is a good idea too). Pour the kefir into bottles (we bought some at a local brewing store) and add apple juice. Seal tightly. Let the bottles stand on the counter, sealed, about 2 days longer. Then refrigerate. This is important because if you leave them sitting out they'll continue to ferment and could explode. Ben says when he releases the cap it sounds like "a gunshot." The drink will be lightly sweet and carbonated!
That is our simplest concoction. I'd like to experiment in the future with using ginger (to make a ginger ale, sort of), lemon-lime, and grape juice. I think I'm going to do grape juice next because it's the simplest. You can add the fruit juice to the original ferment, but then your kefir grains get stained. Best to keep them in plain sugar water and avoid that problem.
Have you ever heard of water kefir? Are you interested to try?
Resources:
Cheeseslave's How To
Kelly the Kitchen Kop on Alcohol Content
Kitchen Steward on Kefir Making
Dom's How-to Website (one of the most well-known on the web)
Fermented Treasures (one place you can buy grains)
Kefir Making (yahoo group, you can usually find free grains here, plus help)
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