Milk Kefir Grains: Switching out thickened kefir

So, once the grains come out of hibernation and the milk thickens. What next? The only reason I did a video tutorial for this is because I have told some friends how to do this, and each time I do the person is completely confused. But, the process is so easy! It just sounds confusing. Each of them say they just need to see it, and when they do it makes a lot more sense. Here's the link!

Milk Kefir Grains: Switching out thickened kefir

Milk Kefir Grains: Bringing them out of hibernation

Check out my tutorial! The first of many to come! Sorry for the camera work, but no one could help me at the time.
Milk Kefir Grains: Bringing them out of hibernation

Traditional Food Prep: An Answer to Many Health Problems

Have you noticed the increasing amount of cancer diagnoses, blood issues, heart problems, digestion problems, mood and mental disorders, tooth problems, skin problems, etc.? My Man and I feel like it started pretty much with the baby boomers generation. Way to go guys! Just kidding (sort of...). Along with the mass procreation frenzy of babies during that time, food began to be mass produced. Canned goods were introduced, extremely soft smooth white bread, low-fat and fat-free food options, reduced sugar and sugar free foods, microwave meals, pre-packaged processed foods, year round fruits and vegetables (tons of them!), fast food chains. The food industry went crazy, and society went crazy for it. It sounded so amazing, though! Fast, easy, "healthy" is what they told everyone through the t.v. screen. House-wives could now actually maybe do something other than clean and do laundry and soak grains and make bread and kill chickens like their parents and grandparents before them! Because why would anyone want to do that, when the world had so much more to offer a person(valid question)? Men that didn't like to cook (because let's face it, their mom always did growing up) now could stand on their own. "Why hello there. Welcome to my bachelor pad. Schwan's has prepared us a delicious, lovely roast." I have talked to so many people that say, "I don't know why, but I feel like all these health problems have to do with how we are eating." YES, yes it does. And, even with a new look at diet and new attempts at saving our bodies, we are nutritionally starving them.

Do you know anyone who is gluten-free? Dairy free? Paleo? Clean eating? Doing Whole-30? Vegetarian? Vegan? All of these diet-types were created because there was first a problem with health (well, kind of except for vegetarian and vegan whose problem was largely based on treatment of animals), and ALL of them are proof that the mass production of food has indeed impacted our society, and in a not so pleasant way. Now, just like everything else there is a good side and a bad side. The increased production of these foods has helped out certain aspects of our lives (like easily obtaining a food storage), but right now, we are focusing more on what was lost through this food boom: our health.

Traditional food preparation is such a hopeful lifestyle change. It is hard to get into it, because it requires that little bit of extra time that we all have our fists clenched around.

I should mop the floor tonight.
Your eyes begin to widen, the tiny vessels begin to pop turning red. You notice that your finger nails are digging into your palm. Your shoulders and neck begin to cramp. Your heart beat kicks it up a notch. The upper left-hand corner of your lip begins to twitch sporadically.
But I need to do two rounds of scrolling through Facebook and then I WAS GOING TO WATCH THE SANDLOT TONIGHT ON NETFLIX, BECAUSE IT JUST GOT ADDED!!!
You notice the small growl coming from your throat.

Breathe. Breathe. It's okay. Most normal people have experienced this before....

Moving on.

The extra time you take to traditionally prep your food will bless your family generations down that big old tree. I promise.

So then, what the heck is it? I first heard about it through my older sister who came upon it after years of looking for answers because of debilitating health problems. She told me first about the book Eating on the Wild Side which is amazing and has a lot of info to offer on how farming has changed through the years, and in turn, ruined the crops :) Ha ha! Sad but true, and why? Because we (society) ask them to. And we continue to do so everyday. It also talks about how to get the healthiest options with what we have in grocery store. Really great info! I recommend it. The next book she found and actually bought me was Nourishing Traditions which is AMAZING. Did I emphasize it enough? You need to buy it. It is huge. It is extremely informational AND has so many recipes on how to prepare food that will give you a good gut, good immune system, cancer fighting blood and organs, healthy marrow, etc.

So, traditional preparation is preparing food in ways that it has been done traditionally, for thousands of years. I.E. sourdough bread. This basically used to be the only type of leavened bread there was (OH YEAH, watch "Cooked" on Netflix. It is an amazing food documentary(it is in episodes) that talks about traditional preparation). Our ancestors didn't have little packets of yeast to throw into their Bosch and let it do its work, and my guess is, they wouldn't have wanted our yeast anyways. Why? Because the only thing it does is make the bread puff up. Their yeast, wild yeasts, break down the nutrients and the gluten and the sugars in the bread and either change them or make them absorbent for our bodies. Another example, beans. Soaking them. Did you know soaking them gets rid of something called phytic acid, which is an anti-nutrient and makes it extremely hard for our body to get any of the nutrients those beans have to offer? If those beans were grown in your own yard, cool. With good soil, maybe you'd still end up getting something if you hadn't soaked them. But, canned beans? They are already nutrient depleted, and therefor don't have much to offer even if we had soaked them. Buying dry beans, soaking them and then cooking them gives your body the best of the nutrients the beans have to offer. Another example. Fermented and canned vegetables like saurkraut, salsa, beets, etc. These are all loaded with pro-biotics which are strains of healthy bacteria that our gut needs in order to give us a healthy immune system and fight cancer. Do you or anyone you know have joint or tendon/ligament problems? Do you just get told to take glucosamine? Did you know that the best way to help your body actually rebuild cartilage and tendons and ligaments is through bone broths? Bone broths were what people used to make soups before Swanson's started canning their own "broth". Bone broth uses the bones of animals and it melts down the cartilage and the tendons and ligaments and even the marrow and puts it all in a delicious broth, and guess what? When you drink it, YOUR body takes it and uses it to rebuild itself. What about dairy? Did you know dairy can have a much more vital place in your life when you traditionally prep it instead of just eating cheese and drinking milk? You can make pro-biotic rich cheese yourself. Cream cheese. Crumbled cheese. Butter. Kefir. Yogurt. All of these things are rich in the things your gut is begging you for AND they help you body digest that hard-to-digest lactose.

Friends, there is SO much more out there. I have found traditionally prep food blogs all over the place! There is so so much I still don't know, but I have found a passion for it and it is not something that will die out because it has so many answers to so many of our problems. No, it is not going to make us all cancer and disease free, but it will make things much better than they are right now. That is for sure.So, if you are interested in what traditionally prepped food has to offer you, check back under my "traditional food" label every now and then for recipes that I have tried, that have turned out, and that can help change your body and the health of the next generations :)

Disclaimer: Ummmmm, I still use canned goods, like all the time. I have a whole pantry full of them. And, we buy pizza sometimes. And I love huge bags of store bought cheese. The point is this, this isn't an all-at-once change. It is a lifestyle change. It takes time, and patience. So, give yourself that.

Milk Kefir---Yum.

KEFIR. What an adventure. If you haven't read my first entry on it, check it out here: Water Kefir---The Super Soda. I have so many updates for you guys on water kefir! A bunch of stuff happened, then they(our grains) had to go to rehab(the fridge.), and then we were trying to activate them again which hasn't worked so far. So, I ended up throwing them out! :( So sad.

But, this entry is on MILK kefir, as promised in the water kefir entry. It is funny because at first I thought water kefir was so easy (and it is, as long as you keep up with it), but our grains are definitely not bouncing back as quickly as our milk kefir grains did from their rehab! And, I actually think  it is because we were using sink water to make the water kefir instead of spring water...anyways.

Milk Kefir is like a liquid yogurt drink. Some call it the "Champagne of yogurt". If you buy it from the store, it is quite normal for it to be a bit fizzy from the cultures in it. If I remember correctly, in store bought kefir you generally get around 12 strains of different gut bacteria a.k.a probiotics. With homemade kefir you get almost double the amount and types of strains, PLUS you get good yeast strains as well. To read more on Milk Kefir FAQ go here.

Your gut is so so important when it comes to your health, because that is where all of your health comes from! The strength and health of your gut is what your immune system relies on to stay strong and what your body relies on to be strong. So, take care of your gut, and you will feel great.

I'll start at the beginning. The milk kefir was really hard for us to get started. If you haven't had kefir from the store, it is this delicious creamy milk fruit drink---like yogurt, but not. It is more tart. Anyways, for such a long time I could never get our kefir to be creamy. It always just separated into curds and whey or simply just soured(not normal souring...this is a good souring). Either way, we still used it all up in smoothies and it tasted great AND still had all of the pro-biotics as creamy kefir. But, it was not the same. We wanted our dreamy creamy kefir back that we had gotten used to from the store! And we wanted all of the added benefits.We had looked on SO many different sites trying to find what ratio might work for ours, because it depends on so many things like temperature of where you're at, what milk you used, what your grains are used to, etc. Finally, after giving some grains to my brother-in-law, he figured out the ratio (hallelujah!bless him.) We use 1 tsp. of grain per pint of milk. We have realized that with store-bought 2% cows milk, it takes a full day and night to reach that delicious consistency. After getting some raw goats milk from an awesome family down the street and using that to culture, it only takes literally like a day! Change the grains in the morning and you have creamy kefir by nightfall or sooner depending on the temperature. And, I have to say, the goats milk definitely gives it an aged rustic depth of flavor---if that makes any sense. So so good ! We always make smoothies with frozen berries and bananas OR just use fresh berries and a little bit of vanilla and it is so good. I like using the fresh fruit better and just having it be kefir than a smoothie, but fresh fruit is usually limited, and both are good :)

Kefir is an everyday thing. Fresh milk needs to get switched out consistently or the grain will die. But, it is also not that hard. If you end up not switching out the fresh milk in the morning and you wait a whole extra day, the kefir will just be more thick and more separated. All you do is mix it up and give the grains more fresh milk. The kefir will still be fine. If it goes too far and is pretty dang separated, you could always look into trying your hand at homemade kefir cheese! ;) Also, if you need to go out of town and won't be able to be feeding your kefir grains for a while, all you have to do is stick them in a little tupper-ware of milk and put them in the fridge for up to about a week! Maybe two....When you get back home just put them in some fresh milk out on the counter and wait a bit longer than normal because they take a while to get back into the swing of things, and then BAM, they will be thickening up that milk in no time :)



If you want any info on what milk kefir is and all of the health benefits it offers and WHY you should start making it too! Check out this website here. Our milk kefir grains are re-producing like mad, which is awesome!!!

Healthy Snacks For Kids

My girls would rather snack all day than eat a real meal, so we try to keep the snacks healthy (plus, they just honestly and luckily don't like eating much junk). Here are some of the regulars at my house and hopefully you can find something new to let your kiddos snack on that they like. Let me know what you are feeding your kids so I can get some ideas too!

sauteed mushrooms
fruit! Any kind, all day long.
corn quesadillas with tomato slices and dash of salt and pepper
plain yogurt with cinnamon and honey and apples
cucumbers with salt and pepper
sauteed crook neck squash with coconut oil/butter and salt and pepper
tuna+mayo+chopped celery+mustard+salt+pepper on top of crackers. Sometimes this IS lunch.
rice+beans+lettuce+tomato+plain yogurt/sour cream and eat it with chips!
apple tea (apple cider vinegar (w/ the "mother")+water+honey to taste!)
Toast(preferably sourdough) with butter and apricot jam or honey
toast+sliced tomato on top+salt and pepper
homemade guacamole+chips
Grilled cheese+thin slices of tart apple
banana chocolate shakes (frozen bananas+milk+cocoa powder
licuado (1 banana+ 1 tsp vanilla+ 1 raw egg+dash of cinnamon+milk+a few ice cubes+sugar to taste)
green smoothies
Cooked meat chunks (any meat cooked however your kids like it. Cut into small pieces)
any veggies with ranch
Turnips
Radishes (my girls east turnips and radishes like apples)


What are the healthy snacks that you guys do in your home???

Father's Day

I love Father's Day, because I love my dad. And, because there are a lot of dad's out there that I love and respect. I love all of my uncles, I love My Man's dad, I love my brother's who are dads, etc. But, I hate that Father's Day just flies by like nothing for the most part. Mother's Day on the other hand, wow. And, gross. Talk about a money making day. And so I just want to acknowledge right off of the bat, I don't want Father's Day to become what Mother's Day is, but in general, I do feel like mothers are way more celebrated than fathers. I do wish the day came and there was more of a pause and thought during it than there is now. Because the truth is, a father is needed in a child's life just as much as the mother. Yes, the mother usually does the raising, but I think Mother's Day is a celebration of motherhood---taking someone's life and becoming an active part of it. It is not a celebration of the actual taking care of the kids....and Father's Day is just the same. A celebration of fatherhood--- taking someone's life and being an active participant in it. Influencing it for the good. But, as of right now (and the past who knows how many years) I feel like Mother's Day is national "let all of us women remind our husbands how important we are(and they better acknowledge it) and how much heavy stuff we go through raising these kids of theirs". I'm not saying that is what you think, but the fact that Mother's Day is this big she-bang "how could we survive without our mothers!" and then father's day is like, "Oh, hey pops. Love ya." Society has told the family that father's are less important, and it just aint the truth. And we wonder why there are more absent fathers than mothers in the family unit throughout the world. When someone is told their role is less important, they believe it and they treat it that way. Both are just as needed. So, dad, Happy Father's Day. You shaped all the parts of me that mom didn't. And mom, Happy Mother's Day, you shaped all the parts of me that dad didn't. And while I'm at it. Happy Me Day, because I shaped all the parts that they didn't. Also, Happy Father's Day to my awesome My Man, because he sure has being an active and present participant in his children's lives down. Aint no denyin' that!

Onto what we did for Father's Day.

We ate. Because that is what My Man loves best. We did buy him some gifts, like some potted mint plants (all different varieties) and a corn tortilla press (yum) and....I forget what else.

The girls cooked him eggs and toast for breakfast and did it themselves. Number one cracked one egg and girly two cracked the second. They put the toast in the toaster and buttered it.

For dinner we did Shrimp Scampi and then a fresh fruit tart pie for dessert.

The Shrimp Scampi recipe I used was this one, and I loved it. It was the first time I have ever cooked shrimp (seafood is creepy), but I did it just for him. And, it was probably the second or third time eating shrimp in my entire life (I only ate two of them. Baby steps...)After he saw me eat those two shrimps like a total boss, he pretty much wanted to make out because I owned it that much, but alas, it was five o'clock and the girlies were there so aint none of that happenin'. This is one of those great examples of how seeing your significant other doing things they don't like to do that you do like to do makes you love them more. I would highly recommend the recipe because I did it, which means it is easy. But the flavors were very well balanced and I really did like it. And, the shrimp was decent!

My Man had said he wanted a fruit tart for dessert, but I don't yet own a tart pan :/ It is something that will be added to my "want" list. Because I LOVE fruit tarts. So, I decided to just do a fruit tart pie. Pretty much the same thing! My mom makes this BOMB fresh strawberry cream pie and I could literally eat a whole pie (okay actually probably only half) in one sitting. So, I basically just did that recipe. I baked a pie crust that turned out magnificent and flaky and crusty.This is the recipe I used. Then I took 8 oz of softened cream cheese and blended it up with a teastpoon of vanilla and a half cup of sugar. That is the cream! You bake the pie crust and when it is completely cooled, you smear ALL of that cream cheese mixture all over the inside of the pie shell. Then you can fill it with whatever sliced up fruit you want. This time I did strawberry slices, blueberries and some canned mandarin oranges and then I squeezed some lime juice and mixed it with sugar and drizzled it all over the fruit. And it was .SO. good. You have to experience it to believe it. Plus, it's easy to make.

Happy late Father's Day to all the awesome men out there doing their best! We need you all.

Product Review: Blendtec Mix n' Blend II

*This is not a sponsored post. I am doing this on my own just because I think it will be helpful to others.*

I have decided it would probably be useful to other mothers out there to be able to get some good product reviews for everything we end up buying for ourselves our the household or our children! So, here is my first product review. And, what better thing to start off this series with than a Blendtec?

I have waned a Blentec for quite a few years now, because I am pretty obsessed with making shakes and smoothies and fresh flours and blending up extremely thick batters :D. The only problem is that Blentecs are pretty dang expensive (along with Vitamix), and even though everyone that has bought one says it is well worth the investment, My Man and I could never actually bring ourselves to say we had enough spare money sitting around to buy it, even with it staring us in the face and making us ice cream every time we entered Costco. You can buy a refurbished blendtec for anywhere between 2-300, and a brand new one ranges anywhere between 400-600. That is hundreds of dollars people! Not something you just drop on some random day. Luckily, my birthday and Christmas were coming up and My Man had a GRAND idea for a present: a blendtec. Finally. So, he went to a kitchen store to get one. But, they were out. What???? The lady said, "but we do have the Mix n' Blend II" and My Man was all like "What's that?". Because seriously, what is that? I had never heard of it before in my life. Blendtec makes more than just awesome blenders? Guys, the Mix n' Blend is a mixing bowl with multiple attachments and a blender, all on one base. The best part? It costs around 350. I love to cook cookies and cakes and cupcakes and whip up frostings and so many other things, and the Mix n' Blend II allows me to do that ALONG with making all my awesome shakes and smoothies (I don't know how many of my house guests would agree with them being "awesome"). I have had no problems with the blender or the mixer as of yet, but it has only been like six or seven months, so time will tell. The only hold-up is that the blender is not as strong as a regular blendtec. BUT WAIT KEEP READING! The only thing it doesn't do is heat up soup, it can do everything else. My second favorite thing about the Mix n' Blend II is that it actually is pretty small. They did a good job of keeping things tight, but still functional. We have a super small apartment right now, so small is good. It is way way way better than have one huge bosch mixer and then a separate blender. I much prefer this.

So, there is my review. If you love baking things or mixing a lot of things up and you also use a blender on a daily basis, the Blendtec Mix n' Blend II is for you! It was definitely the right choice for me.

Beehive Lemon Honey Cupcakes

I've been slacking on the cupcake entries, so let me just reassure you, there are plenty of them to come. Trust me. Just haven't had the time to write about all of them. These are some cupcakes I did for one of my really great friend's baby's first birthday. The theme was Winnie the Pooh (hoo hoo hoo!). I'm a big Winnie the Pooh fan, and loved him probably a lot longer than a normal kid, but I don't care because he's just too cute. Him and his stuffiness...maybe that's it. The fact that he's a stuffed animal. I've always had a huge thing for stuffed animals.Moving on...

I tried thinking up tons of really great cupcake frosting recipes that involved honey, but nothing that brilliant came to mind, and anything semi-cool that did come to mind I knew I didn't have enough time(or the money, let's face it...butter prices are way too high!) to experiment around with. So, lemon+honey=always the right choice. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty disappointed with the cake itself, but I'm not focusing on the actual cake this year, I'm focusing on frostings, and I thought the frosting was a winner.

The frosting recipe is one I have used A LOT this year. Because I have already decided it's my favorite. Why??? Because you can pipe it like buttercream, but it's NOT buttercream! And, I'm not that big of a buttercream fan (but I have had a couple of killer buttercreams before). This recipe uses whole milk, regular granulated sugar, and flour and butter of course. You can check out the original recipe over at Our Best Bites (which is a blog I have loved since forever ago. The first food blog I fell in love with, in fact! It was before I had even gotten married).This frosting has a soft flavor but some weight to it, which is what I love. It's like you're actually eating a dairy product, instead of just sugar air. Honestly, I have not ever used the recipe the exact way it says because I have never used it for a vanilla frosting. I've used it for an orange-vanilla frosting, a coconut frosting, this honey butter frosting, and a couple of others that I don't remember right now. So, I am always toying around with it to get the right flavor and texture I want. So, here is how I made the Beehive Honey Lemon Cupcakes!

Lemon Cupcake:
1 lemon cake box mix
substitute water for whole milk
substitute butter for oil
add 5 eggs instead of 3 (I am pretty sure this is what gave it the texture I didn't like. It was way to fluffy-ish...I'd probably just add one or two egg yolks instead of two whole eggs if I were to do it again which would make it more dense which is what I like. I'd also maybe add a bit of milk kefir or sour cream to help keep it very moist)
Bake according to directions on box.

Honey Butter Frosting:
Make according to the directions on Our Best Bites, but do not add the vanilla extract. Also add 1/4-1/2 tsp salt depending on how you like it. Add in 1/2-3/4 c honey. Be tasting it as you add it! Not all honey has the same strong flavor. I also added about a half a stick of butter, because the butter flavor had gotten drowned out by the honey, and I really actually wanted it to be honey BUTTER flavored, not just honey. Because butter makes everything better. Luckily, I was able to balance the flavor without messing up the texture of the frosting ( I used half liquid honey and half crystallized honey to help keep the frosting more stiff). I also added quite a bit of drops of yellow dye until I got the color I wanted.

To pipe the frosting like a Beehive, I just took a gallon sized ziploc bag and cut the corner at a curve to make the frosting come out round. I started on the outer rim of the cupcake, make sure to be squeezing tight enough to make a thick circle come out, and laid each new layer about halfway onto the one below to make sure it didn't fall into itself (if that makes sense). It's so hard to get the frosting perfectly centered and looking the same each time! As you can obviously tell. They are definitely not consistent, but I still thought they turned out cute. My friend (the one hosting the party) is awesome and made those cute little bees out of royal frosting, and she did awesome! Maybe I'll have her do a guest post on how she did it :)

I didn't take that great of picture because I procrastinated and didn't take them until they were out on the food table! Ha! O well, don't care. They still look delicioussss. And, even though I didn't like the cake texture much, the flavors were still great.

The Year of Frosting Cupcakes Series:1

Ever since watching the Cupcake Wars however many years ago, for the first time, I've thought making cupcakes looked fun. I'll be the first to admit, cupcakes aren't my favorite dessert to eat, but I strongly believe that is because cupcakes have been slid to the back burner and underplayed for far too long. Cupcakes can be better than from the box with a little tub of Pillsbury chocolate frosting. Sure, for a random craving or an upcoming event you completely forgot about, those boxes and tubs put something sweet together pretty dang fast. But, cupcakes can look cute or beautiful and taste simple or complex. I like simple, and I like cute. I have been wanting to practice my piping for a while, but have never done it because i seriously can't eat all of the cupcakes it takes to practice that, and I am pretty sure people actually CAN get sick of you giving them cupcakes when they are the only people you give your sweets too. I came up with this great idea to bake them monthly and hand them out to the women in my congregation that have birthdays that current month. Then, I can bake and decorate to my hearts desire at least once a month, and have a place for those cupcakes to go and be appreciated. They might not taste the best or look the best, but hopefully over the months they will at least get a little bit better. Currently, I don't have tips so I use what I've got (plastic zip lock bags). Hopefully, one day I will convince myself to get some actual tips! Right now, I am more just looking into which frosting recipes I actually like, because there are so many NASTY frostings out there (which I mainly blame for people's hate of cupcakes). Maybe next year I will actually focus on the cake of the cupcake. I will be posting the cupcakes I have made and what recipe I used for the frosting and how I altered it and if I liked it---if anyone is interested in purchasing a certain amount of a particular recipe of cupcakes for any event, you can contact me at oneforthefamblog@gmail.com about getting an order of them for an extremely low price! Look forward to showing you which ones I've liked making!

Cypress' St. Patty's Birthday---Chunky Carrot Cake Cupcakes

My Cypress Sky was born on St. Patrick's Day. I wasn't too thrilled about it but My Man was, because his family loves celebrating St. Patrick's Day. I had never celebrated St. Patty's Day, until I married My Man. They eat corned beef (how did I live my whole life without it?), cabbage and carrot cake. Is that carrot cake part Irish? No idea. I have no idea about that carrot cake. And my poor little Cy Sky will be stuck with that exact same meal every birthday her whole life, and green as her birthday theme color. Anyways, with carrot cake being the cake she will forever eat every birthday, I've decided to find ways to spice it up a little. This year, cupcakes. Very magnificent, I know. But, let me say. They were so so good. You should make them. And, then eat them all. There are so many carrot cake cupcake recipes out there with so many ingredients i.e. wheat flour, apple sauce, chunked apples, spices, etc...I seriously have limited time when baking or cooking or anything, so I chose the fastest one. And, I loved it. And it was fast, and it was good. But, I did change up the recipe quite a bit. Find the original here.

Chunky Carrot Cake Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

1 c flour
3/4 c sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 c grated carrots (use a hand grater---the largest holes)
2/3 c oil
2 eggs, beaten
approx. 1/2 c water. Add this last, because the amount of water you add will depend on the texture of the batter after mixing everything together. When I had finished adding all of the ingredients from the original recipe, it was not a batter AT ALL. I think it's because I grated the carrots instead of using the food processor. So, add the amount you think makes the best better. I had added about 1/2 c.

Cream Cheese Piping Frosting I doubled the recipe

8 oz cream cheese
8 tbs butter
1 c powdered sugar(she uses two.that was way too much for me)
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 12 cupcake pan or line it with liners.Combine all of the ingredients together in a bowl, making sure to beat the eggs a little before adding them in. Add in the water at the end. Spoon them about 3/4 full into the cups. Bake for 15 minutes (that time is based off of my oven). For the frosting blend the cream cheese the butter and vanilla together (make sure the cream cheese and butter are softened) until smooth. Add in the cup of powdered sugar or however much you choose to at the end. Adjust to taste and texture. Separate into two separate bowls, and dye one of them green(or whatever color you want). Spoon each color side by side into your piping bag. I just used a zip lock and cut the tip with a little dip so that the frosting would come out round. Check out this video that shows you all sorts of cool ways to use zip locks to use as your piping bags. It's the one I learned it from! Refrigerate cupcakes (optional, but I like them cold).

Delicious Soaked Breakfast Oats

Do you like oats? I love em. I love them for breakfast, I love them for lunch and dinner. I love them in bread or as flour. I love them in ice cream and in cobblers. I just love them period. I always have. When I think of oatmeal I think of sludgy sticky stuff that is thick and is loaded with brown or white sugar. GROSS. Or, I think of the little packets, which are eh. The only type of oatmeal I liked growing up was my parents'. It's called avena in spanish, and it is a combo of oats and cream of wheat and it is more like a soup. It has delicious evaporated milk and regular milk and butter and lumps and lumps of brown sugar and it sings to my soul. It's creamy and dreamy and I love eating it(or drinking it) hot with a nice hot buttered toast. Since getting married, I've never been able to make it like them. I never will be able to---I have come to terms with that. Sometimes in life, you gotta just make up your own recipes, you know? So, here I am giving you my family's delicious soaked oats recipe, hoping it will work out for you, and honestly, I have a lot of faith you'll make it even better than we do!
My parents' avena is to die for, but also literally. That is the one thing that I grew to dislike it for---the lumps and lumps of golden brown sugar that I have a love hate relationship with. Not to mention, the oats aren't soaked which is something I first heard about doing through my older sister (pretty much anything I do in my life, my older sisters do first---because I'm a wussy). Did you know that by eating oats that aren't soaked you are putting a huge burden on your digestive system and getting the minimal amount of nutrients from those oats? When you don't soak your grains (in this case oats), the phytic acid in those grains is not released. Phytic acid is an anti nutrient which means it blocks your body from absorbing all of the nutrients it can from the very grain the phytic acid came from! INTENSE. and so rude of that phytic acid! By soaking grains with an acid base (milk kefir, whey, apple cider vinegar) you get rid of the phytic acid and release the minerals, so when you eat it your body is able to digest it and absorb all those great minerals so much easier. For ages grains have been soaked, and for some reason that tradition got lost---like many other traditions that are worth their keeping. Change is not always progressive....just saying.

Here's the recipe!

Delicious Soaked Breakfast Oats

1 c oats
2 c water(1 c during soak, 1 c during cooking)
2 tbs liquid whey or milk kefir or apple cider vinegar(we have tried each one, and they all taste great)
1/2 tsp salt

Before going to bed stick all of the ingredients in a bowl (except 1 cup of the water which will be used in the morning to cook them) and let them sit overnight with a dish towel covering the bowl. If you like, you can also add in some chia seeds with it. In the morning, simply dump the now swollen oats into a pan and add another 1-2 cups of water and let them cook. You can add more or less water depending on how you like them. Once they are completely cooked you can add a good lump of butter to the pan (2 Tbs?) and equally good lump of honey(preferably raw unfiltered, but store is also good) and mix it all up. Dish up however much you like, stick some berries (we just use some from a large frozen bag) in with it, let them thaw, and then add some milk if you want! That is how I like it---soupy. We also like adding some pecans or walnuts to it. My Man likes to put plain kefir in his instead of milk. I haven't tried it like that, but he says they are his all time favorite that way. So maybe it's worth a try! Add more honey and butter if you need it. Enjoy!

Fluffy Buckwheat Pancakes (GF)

Buckwheat. Funny thing is it is not even closely related to wheat. It is a pretty close cousin of rhubarb though! Weird, I know. We love buying bulk grains and then vacuum packing them for storage and later use. We are lucky enough to have a lady that we usually go through to order great organic grains and all sorts of other great power packed foods. Our last order had buckwheat, barley, brown rice, and rolled oats. My Man and I started to do this when we went on a short bout of a GF streak for our oldest girly just to see if it had been effecting her no-fun rashes, but that's a different story(currently none of us are gluten free).We also decided that it would be a great idea to order all sorts of grains, and learn how to actually use them and make good food with them in case an emergency ever did come, so that we didn't have just tons of nasty grains we didn't know how to use.So, we invested in a hand powered grain mill (in case we didn't have electricity), and we also inherited a motorized grain mill from My Man's loverly parents. Then we bought a whole bunch of great grains we were interested in. With that being said, I have tried multiple buckwheat recipes, and this is one of the best. Buckwheat pancakes are hard to be successful with just because they can make kind of dense, not fluffy foods :) ha ha! This is one of the best I have found, and you can find the original at goodnesstoglow.com !

Normally, I would just eat regular pancakes but with a recent health event (I will post on that later), I have been on a pretty strict and LAME diet! Hence, buckwheat and gluten free pancakes this morning :) They sure were delicious!!!Hopefully you will like them too.

Ingredients:
1 L egg
1/2 c buckwheat flour (if you are going to be grinding the grains like we do, I ground 1 cup of the grains and that gave me about 1 1/4 c ground flour)
1/3 c milk of your choice or water
1/2 tsp baking powder
oil of your choice for cooking ( I used coconut)

Whisk egg together with your liquid. Then add in the flour and baking powder and mix until all combined. Heat your pan at medium heat with the oil in it, and drip little bits of batter. Once the bits of batter start to sizzle as they hit the pan, pour the batter into approx. 6 inch circles (we do our pancakes kind of small).

Toppings: We used butter and plain regular yogurt, which we all love (my girls eat that stuff plain!), and then put honey and berries on top. If you don't like that you could always do just butter and syrup, or any flavor of yogurt and add some nuts on too! YUM.

*On the original recipe on goodnesstoglow.com it says that it made about 5-6 pancakes, so I thought I would double it hoping to have some for freezing for later. I doubled the batter and got ten pancakes. So, we did have two left over, but they got eaten throughout the day (by me, of course). So I would triple the recipe or even quadruple it if your are looking for a decent freezer storage of it!
**Buckwheat has a nice nutty flavor, which all of my family loves. So, we were totally fine with this recipe. If you don't like that flavor much but you are still going to be using the buckwheat, consider adding 1/2 tsp. vanilla or some mashed up bananas or apples with a dash of cinnamon and that will probably help out your taste buds!

Water Kefir: The Super Soda

Kefir kefir kefir. Oh Kefir. The past two weeks have been quite an adventure. KEFIR HAS BEEN QUITE AN ADVENTURE. But, one that my husband and girls and I have sure enjoyed! It is pretty fun figuring these little grains out. We drink a lot of milk kefir in my house. About two bottles a week. So, when I found out we could make it and that it was even healthier than the stuff in the stores (with over half of the bacteria strains than found in store bought kefir and multiple beneficial yeast strains, which are not found in store bought kefir), and save a bunch of bucks! I was all there. I called and talked to my awesome sister to tell her about my wanting to start making milk kefir, and she is the one who told me about water kefir. So, here we are now with 2 quarts of it culturing as we speak, 4 bottles sitting out with delicious juice in them fizzing away and 3 bottles in the fridge! Milk kefir, we are just figuring out, and it has definitely been an interesting journey. But water kefir has been a breeze! Water kefir (obviously) is not milk based so if you can't drink milk kefir because of milk allergies try this stuff out. It doesn't have as many strains of probiotics and yeasts, but it does have more than yogurt and buttermilk, and SODA!!! Water kefir naturally produces electrolytes so it is also a much better option than all those overly sweetened sports drink out there. You seriously gotta try it out. We bought our water kefir grains from http://www.culturesforhealth.com/ and they are working great. This website is amazing and has a PLETHORA of information on naturally cultured probiotic rich foods and drinks like milk kefir, water kefir, yogurt, kombucha, cheese and so much more. Check them out! It is like entering a new world.

So, a little more on the water kefir. You make it with water, sugar, and the water kefir grains. The water kefir grains actually consume the sugar, and produce the good bacterias. You can use regular table sugar, or organic sugar or rapidura, just not honey because honey is naturally antibacterial and therefor kills the good bacterias. That is something I wanted to say right up front, because we use honey for everything and would have easily tried to sub that in ha ha! We generally let the water kefir grains sit in the water for two days. You can do less, but if you do the extra day, the more sugar gets consumed by the grains and more beneficial bacteria is made, it just doesn't taste as sweet. After that, you strain out the water kefir grains (with a cheesecloth or plastic colander or stainless steal colander) and put the water back into the jar(and add your flavoring if you want it, using either fresh fruit or pure fruit juice) and let it sit out for another day or two. Doing this is what adds fizziness to the water and makes it like soda. Then, bottle it in a glass jar and seal it tightly in the fridge, and enjoy! Healthy, delicious, super soda! Like I said, visit Cultures for Health to read more about all of this.

Don't replace drinking water with this. Treat it like any other juice. Drink it sometimes, and drink plain water often! ;)

Homemade Probiotic Cream Cheese and Whey

My Cream Cheese

Little Miss Muffet

Sat on a tuffet,

Eating her curds and whey;

Along came a spider,

Who sat down beside her,

And frightened Miss Muffet away.

You might be asking, what is whey? I wondered that every single time I heard the nursery rhyme "Little Miss Muffet". First of all what the heck is whey, and why in the world would Little Ms. Muffet eat it? Reading Sally Fallon's Book Nourishing Traditions, as well as reading multiple other traditional food prep blogs, has provided me with the answer! Despite Little Miss Muffet's fear of spiders, which always made her seem a bit of a wussy, she is BOMB because she knows what is good for her. Whey is a protein that is "whole" because it contains all 9 amino acids. Anyone who has recently studied nutrition will know about amino acids and how vital they are to the body. And, normally a food will not contain all 9. Amino acids help build and repair muscles and tissues, so pretty much they make you like Wolverine. YEAH BABY! Curds and whey come about when you let milk ferment, which can be done in a gross nasty whey or very healthy whey (get it? I crack myself up). Either way, you end up with curds (cottage cheese) and then the whey. But, this post is on cream cheese and whey which is what you get when you do the following:

What You Need:

1 Quart Plain Regular Yogurt-a good brand preferably

1 Cheesecloth

Glass or Plastic bowl

Directions:
Take the cheese cloth and lay it over the top or inside of the bowl. Take your quart of yogurt and dump it into the center of the cheesecloth. Pull up the sides of the cheesecloth into a bunch and find a handle to hang it off of. Cabinet handles are good, or microwave handles if you won't be using the microwave often. If you don't have a good handle to use, you could always use a strainer and just lay the bag of yogurt inside, but it will take much longer for the whey to separate. Place the bowl underneath it, and let it strain overnight, or throughout the day. Once it has stopped dripping, take the whey from the bowl and store it in a glass container. Then, do the same with the fresh cream cheese and store them both in the fridge.

Note: When I did it, I let it hang overnight, but when my husband went to get the cream cheese out, he said that the bottom was hard like cream cheese but that the yogurt on top still had quite a bit of liquid. So, he emptied out the cream cheese textured yogurt and put the yogurt that still had some whey in it back in the cheese cloth. Then I let that sit for a while. Now, I have a little more than a half a pint of whey(which you can use for so much!) and about two cups of cream cheese :) Try it out! This cream cheese (yogurt cheese) beats out store brands because of the probiotics still in it from being yogurt, which aid in digestion, and it hasn't been processed at all. Yay for real food :) Let me know how it turns out!

The whey stores up to six months in the fridge, and the cream cheese one month.

And PEOPLE, this stuff literally almost tastes just like the stuff from the store. You can eat it on a bagel or bake with it just like regular cream cheese! Check out my photos below.

If you are interested in learning more on cooking traditionally, buy this book by Sally Fallon and check out all the recipes I use and more! It is seriously amazing.

my beautiful rugelach! Another recipe of Sally Fallon's.

bagel and cream cheese :)

My beautiful whey and cream cheese! Cheesecloth in background.

                

Buñuelos(Easy Mexican Treat)

These are one of my all time favorites. I DON'T eat them often in real life, but I do in my dreams. And when I do eat them in real life, I always end up reminiscing about spending holidays at my abuelita's house in the good and great El Paso, Texas!!! Specifically, a New Year's Eve we spent there while I was still pretty little. My abuelita had made a TON of dough, and had us all rolling it out into HUGE circles. I kid you not, these things were wider than a full twelve inches. We would roll and stretch them out as thin as we could and hang them anywhere there was room. Over the chairs and across the table and her bed. She would fry the heck out of these babies and drench them in cinnamon and sugar. DONE. That's how easy they are. They taste amazing. Thin, crunchy, oily and buttery and cinnamon-y and sugar-y. I ate them for like every meal that trip. And anyone who knows me knows I'm seriously not kidding about that. But, when you only cook them once a year, who really cares? NOT ME. And, tonight I made them with my family. AWESOME. I love eating good stuff with them. Today was mexican monday for food (yes, I make up things like Waffle Wednesday, Fish Friday or Fancy Friday or Pasta Tuesday (because they both have T's.... to help me think of things to cook)) so I did chicken enchiladas with lettuce and tomato and sour cream(plain yogurt) and then buñuelos for dessert. And, the best thing about this recipe is that it's SO SO easy and almost tastes just as good as if you were to make the dough yourself. There's no way I could ever say anything I make mounts up to how my grandma does it, because she's just that good. But, I can say that out of 100(her's being 100) this comes to like a 98. FOR REAL. Check it out. And more importantly, MAKE THEM.

Ingredients:

Frying oil-vegetable or coconut ( I like the coconut because then it adds a coconut flavor...)

Uncooked Flour Tortillas

Cinnamon 

Sugar

Directions:

Combine the sugar with the amount of cinnamon that you would like. Set to the side in a bowl.

Put 2-3 Tbs(or you could put more if you really want to fry it a lot) of the oil into a pan set at medium heat. Let it heat up. Test it by putting in an edge of the tortilla. If it sizzles it is ready. Put in the tortilla and let it cook and brown on one side, then flip it and do the same on the other side. Take it off and set it on a plate. Put some butter on it while it is still hot and then dust however much cinnamon and sugar you want all over it. Then flip, and do the same with the butter and sugar on that side. Then, it's done! That's all. Super easy, super good.

Side note: You don't have to put the butter. Only if you like living on the edge---chances of experiencing a heart attack being on the edge. But, boy does the butter taste good :) I'd say, if you are going to eat one. DO THE BUTTER. If you are going to eat two, don't. Ha ha! Hope you like it.

Tasty Tuesday---Oriental Chicken Pasta Salad

So today was one of those days where I needed to make dinner quickly, and for a lot of people...11 to be exact. Everyone had been gone all day, and then my husband walks in the door STARVING, not to mention there is an awesome linky party today! What to do??? I got this idea from my awesome sister-in-law who cooks everyday the way that I wish I could pull off on special occasions. This one didn't turn out completely like hers, but it definitely was a hit and good enough for me to want to make at least once a week! YUMMMMMM. The cashews just top this thing off. Seriously...I'm nuts for nuts. What can I say?

Oriental Chicken Pasta Salad
1 12. 0z bag of bowtie pasta
1 handful raisins/craisins
1 can mandarin oranges
1 bag of spinach
Cashews
3 chicken breasts

Dressing
1/3 c olive oil
1/3 c rice vinegar
1/3 soy sauce
6 TBS sugar
Dash of pepper

First, start thawing out the chicken. Then, start cooking the pasta. Once the pasta is done, drain it and rinse it with cold water. Let it drain out, again. Throw it into a big bowl and add however much spinach you would like ( I used about 3-4 handfuls). Fold these two ingredients together. Start cooking your chicken in its own pan. Next, throw in the desired amount of cashews (I did two handfuls), raisins (I did one handful) and mandarin oranges (one small can) with the spinach and pasta mixture. Pour all of the dressing on top and fold everything together, remember to try to not take break up the pasta and mandarin oranges. Cut up the cooked chicken into cubes and fold it in. Eat with a slice of buttered bread of grilled cheese for a light, healthy and delicious dinner!

Check out even more delicious dinner/dessert recipes like this that I linked up with at www.mandysrecipebox.blogspot.com!

Easy Take 5 Cupcakes

Peanut buttttterrrrr.
Chocolaaatttteeeeeeee.

Peanut butterrrrrr.
Chocolaaateeeeeeeeee.

Um. YUM. Peanut butter and chocolate. Need I say more? YES.
Peanut butterrrrr
chocolateeeee 
caraaaamelllll
pretzelsssss.

QUADRUPLE YUM in honor of the link-up party at Buns In My Oven! Make sure to go here and check out other deliciously awesome recipes.

Take 5 has been one of my favorite candy bars since first biting into that salty caramel-y chocolate-y goodness....y(ha). There is this adorable quaint little cupcake shop that I miss more than anything back up in northern Utah, my former stomping ground. In fact, this little cupcake shop happens to be this past season of Cupcake War's winner! Hurray. And I must say, they definitely deserved it. Just last night it was me and my hunk-of-a-husband's date night and we've already gotten ice cream twice on our date night because its so hot here(already hitting above the 100's!). I don't know how I will survive. Anyways, we decided to go try out the cupcakes at this cake parlor just in the heart of St. George. MISTAKE. They were expensive.Tiny. And, most importantly, none of their cupcakes have any filling.SAY WHAT?!Yeah, don't I know it. Needless to say, we just bought one and left feeling this deep yearning for the large and luscious decadent cupcakes sold at Cravings Alisha's Cupcakes in Pleasant Grove, Utah. I am not kidding you guys, best cupcakes ever. They are big and moist and crumbly and everything a perfect cupcake can be. And, most importantly, they have filling. I want to tell you about all the kinds of cupcakes I've eaten there. Rather, I'll just encourage you to try them out yourselves. The atmosphere there is extremely comfy and family friendly. We go eat cupcakes on Monday nights and let our little Yogurt Drop play in the kitchen play area they have there for kids. She loves it. Anyways, I've been needing great cupcakes badly. I was going through withdrawals when I got here, and so I thought up one that I have never had before. And, oh my. Um, yeah. You'll see.

HUBBA WUBBA! Yeah, baby! Starting from the bottom, up.
Crumbled pretzels on the bottom.
A peanut butter cupcakes that is so moist inside you'll die, and so crunchy on top it's like a peanut butter cookie!
Is there filling you ask?Caramel.
The frosting on top is one I made up which you don't need a lot of and it's not super buttery, which I love. 
Garnish: a few chunks of soft-chewy caramel, Hershey's chocolate and a few more pieces of pretzel.
Make it. You wont regret it.

TAKE 5 CUPCAKES
The peanut butter cupcake recipe I used was from: marthastewart.com. I used crunchy peanut butter instead of soft, and I used salted butter. Also, don't forget to crumble up some pretzels and sprinkle them in the bottom of the cupcake liners before putting the batter in.

Peanut Butter Cupcake Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup natural, creamy peanut butter
3 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Directions
Make cupcakes as directed in Basic Cupcake How-To, adding peanut butter before adding eggs. Use sour cream and vanilla as wet ingredients. Once cupcakes are cool, frost tops with peanut butter frosting. Place a dollop of jam in center of frosting. Decorated cupcakes will keep, covered and refrigerated, for up to 2 days.

Once your cupcakes are looking like they are ALMOST ready to take out, take a Werther's original chewy caramel and just shove it right into the center of the cupcake! Then, let them finish baking. Take them out and let them properly cool. Put however much frosting you would like onto them, and garnish them with the leftover pretzel bits, caramel bits and little chunks of Hershey's chocolate.

Take 5 Cupcake Frosting
1 8 oz. tub of Cool Whip.
1 16 oz. container of Hershey Milk Chocolate frosting.
Then, just blend it all together in a big bowl! I don't like that much frosting, so if you want more you can just put as much Cool Whip or chocolate frosting as you want. I used beaters to blend it all together, which makes it kind of runny which is how I like it. You can try to fold it in to make it a bit more fluffy.
Toppings
1 bag of Werther's soft and chewy caramels (1 per cupcake center). After you have filled the center of each cupcake chop up the left overs to put on top of the cupcakes.
1 Hershey's milk chocolate bar. Break this into small chunks, as well.
Use the left-over crumbled pretzels to sprinkle on top.

Single-Serving Huevos Rancheros

Ummmmmm, yum. Let me preface this by saying I am not a big fan of eggs. Ever since being forced to eat them when I was younger even though I was gagging (dad!), I have never been a big fan of them. I have grown to like them alright, but I still will only eat them if they're completely cooked. I hate the runny center. That being said, my uncle (the one who was kind enough to let me use the beautiful pictures of his chickens) wrote up a recipe for Single Serving Huevos Rancheros, and I love it. You can cook the egg just as much as you would like, so I cook mine all of the way. But, if you like that sunny yoke spreading its joy all over those fried tortillas, then go for it! Thanks again for sharing, Tio! Hope everyone can enjoy this recipe.

Single-Serving Huevos Rancheros
"In response to I have a recipe for those that like Huevos Rancheros! First, I have to explain that often I do not like the hassle of frying the tortillas separately and then having to break them when I am eating. So, I came up with this method. (Maybe this recipe should be named something other than Huevos Rancheros because it is not the same thing.) Give it a try and suggest a name for it.
You will need: Three eggs, Three corn tortillas already cut up into nickle-size pieces, Salt, 1/2 cup Salsa (homemade red chile sauce is the best)

Heat whatever oil you like to frying temperature. (I absolutely prefer coconut oil, and I have tried them all.)

Fry all the tortilla pieces together until golden brown. Add the salsa and salt to the frying tortillas and simmer for 1 minute. Add the three eggs stir and fry until well-cooked. (If you prefer a runny yolk, separate the yolks beforehand and add only the whites to the tortillas and salsa. Once the whites are cooked, add the yolks and try not to break them. 
 by Guillermo Sanchez."

I made it for my husband and I put Parmesan cheese on it with chuncky salsa verde (uhhhh yum.)

Good stuff!

THE muffin

Time to set aside coffin time (meaning couch time) because this chocolate muffin(cupcake?) kills! Okay, not really. It is most likely one of the healthiest chocolate muffins you will eat. Really. Just look at the ingredients before leaving the page. I promise! See, I told you so. I first saw this recipe on another girls site (she deleted it! I wanna give cred.) and thought I would give it a try. I did. After making them I would spend hours between eaten muffins staring at them and looking away dramatically, acting as if I didn't want another. But I always gave in. Because who has ever said greek yogurt, oats and cocoa are bad for you? Until it is proven that they can cause heart attacks, I will feast my heart out on these little suckers. Here are a few not good pictures of them, just to show you how they shouldn't look if you are a pro-baker (or even just a good baker) which I most definitely am not.

There it is. I added a little plop of homemade strawberry jam because I thought it sounded good (fruit and chocolate always goes good together) and because it would add to the V-day festiveness. The rest of this batch is going to go to friends! Then I won't have them weighing on my mind all day. P.S. the jam was great. Do it.

Nutri-Choco V-Day Cupcakes

1 3/4 c old fashion oats

3 egg whites

3/4 c unsweetned cocoa

1 tsp vanilla(if you have some from Mexico use that!)

1/2 c plain greek yogurt (or regular low fat yogurt)

1/2 tsp cream of tartar( or 1 1/2 Tbs vinegar)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 c hot water (I microwave it for 2 min.)

1 c sugar substitute (I just use sugar because I don't like the diet taste-maybe try honey?)

1/2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips

Mix it all together in a bowl. I mix dry ingredients first then add liquids. Then put it all in a blender and blend away! Put into cupcake liners. Heat oven to 350 F and cook for about 15 minutes. To check if they are cooked stick a toothpick or knife in and if it comes out clean they are done! Instead of them looking shiny they should look more of a matte brown.