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!!!

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!

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.