Whole30 Challenge

Hello to my blog readers!

I am doing the Whole30 Challenge and realized a lot of my recipes already fit the criteria.

If you've not heard of the Whole30 challenge, you can read about it here. Basically you commit to 30 days of whole, non-inflammatory foods like meat, veggies, fruit and nuts.

I know I have lots of people who come here and look for recipes and figured I'd start compiling the recipes for Whole30 in one place.

More posts to come!

It's Fermenting Season!

Some of my favorite fermenting options are in season right now, and that means it's time to ferment!

We were in upstate NY this weekend for my father's celebration of life service, and I popped into a little unmanned farmstand to see what was available.

Cukes were 4/$1 and blueberries were $3/pint. I also snagged a bag of dragon beans for $3 and a bunch of large patty pan squash for 2/$1. I did not buy any summer squash because I didn't know if it was GMO (it's a common GMO item).

Using a combination of items from my CSA, from a little farmstand in upstate NY, our garden, and a couple of items from the store, I came up with this:

Store items:

Organic carrots: $.65

Organic dill: $2.99 (I used all of it, but I went a bit overboard!)

CSA items:

2 heads garlic

Garden items:

2 red peppers

Farmstand:

Cucumbers: $2

Beans: $3 (didn't use them all)

Miscellaneous items:

Sea salt

Peppercorns

Not too bad for under $10! 

We didn't try to grow much in our garden this season, but I'll be doing a jar of pickles from our garden as well soon! That's if Chuckie the pilferer doesn't get them first! He seems more interested in tomatoes. 

Have you been fermenting this season?

The Cost of Homemade vs Store-bought Sauerkraut

I have been without a food processor since our move here to Virginia.  Ours was acting up in Boston in that it would turn on all by itself (dangerous!), so we left it behind.

Since we lived for over a month in a hotel with limited food and kitchen options, I decided it was imperative that we eat quality, raw, fermented vegetables to keep our gut flora active and healthy.

This meant I needed to buy them from the store.

Thankfully, the Wegmans here has an amazing natural food section, including whole food gluten-free options and raw fermented foods.

We absolutely fell in love with this Wild Brine Madras Curry Cauliflower Sauerkraut Salad. It is amazing! We also had already had Bubbies Sauerkraut several time, and knew it was quality.

Cost? $6.99 for each, both jars less than a quart.

Yikes.

For Christmas, I received a new food processor (yes!), and decided to do a cost comparison of the money saved by making my own sauerkraut, as I made a batch recently.

Supplies I purchased for this batch of sauerkraut:

2 pounds of red cabbage

7 pounds of green cabbage

4 carrots

1/2 onion

4 cloves garlic

Stuff I had on hand:

Sea Salt

Yellow curry

Dill

Caraway seeds

JJ thinks fermenting is fun!

Here is the per cup cost of the store-bought kraut:

$2.54/cup for Organic Curry Cauliflower Sauerkraut (2 3/4 cups @ $6.99)

$2.09/cup for Bubbies Sauerkraut (3 1/3 cups @ $6.99)

Here is what I purchased to make my kraut:
Red Cabbage: $1.50 (all @ $.79/pound)
Green Cabbage: $5.60 (1 1/3 heads @ $.79/pound)
Organic Carrots: $.46 (4 carrots out of a package of 20 @ $2.29)
Onion: $.15 (1/2 onion, 10 onions in 3 lb bag @ $2.99)
Garlic: $.13 (about 4 cloves)
Spices: $1.50 (4 T curry: $.50, 10 T sea salt: $.50, 2 t dill $.25, 1 T caraway seeds: $.25)

Total cost: $9.34

Wow. This made 5 1/2 quarts.

"Take my picture again!"

Per cup cost for the homemade kraut? 42 cents.

A couple of things to factor in:
Spices: The cost of spices is approximate. If you had to buy the individual spices, the cost would be more (Wegmans has small containers of spices in the natural foods section for $1.99/spice). You could also just make plain kraut with sea salt which would cut down the cost of spices and ingredients.

Organic Vs. Conventional: I wanted to do this experiment with organic cabbage, cauliflower, etc., but I do not have a Whole Foods close enough to get them.  The cabbage used in the curry kraut by Wild Brine was organic, but all the other ingredients were conventional. I did buy organic carrots (a preference of mine), but given that cabbage is on the Clean 15 list (conventional produce that is the "cleanest" after washing in terms of pesticide residue), I'm not too concerned about it.

Tools: My new food processor is fairly typical and cost about $100. Our last one cost about $50 and lasted 10 years. If you don't have a food processor, a typical cheese grater would work fine. That would cost you about $10 at Amazon.com or Walmart. The jars cost about $1.50 a piece this time of year, but you can get them for less than $1 during canning season.

Time: Some people might factor in time. If you're super busy or don't enjoy projects like this, you may ask, is it worthwhile for me to spend the time making this myself?  This might take about an hour to make, up to an hour and a half. It depends on how many varieties you are making (I made 4 different types of kraut).

Still, is it worth it to make your own sauerkraut, if you have the time and the resources? Absolutely. Even if you have to purchase tools to make it happen, you can easily make up the difference within a couple of years, if that.

How to Make Simple Sauerkraut

Finally - the post so many have asked about and have been waiting for.

Homemade Raw Sauerkraut!

Sauerkraut is super easy, and I'm so glad I took the time to try it.

Sauerkraut
1-2 medium heads of green or purple cabbage
1 tablespoon sea salt per head of cabbage (don't use table salt!)
Whatever else you want to add: carrots, beets (golden are great), ginger, dill, horseradish, whatever!
Quart-sized Ball/canning jars or
A food grade bucket with a ceramic plate that fits inside perfectly and a heavy weight (a jug of water, boiled rock, etc.)

Start with cabbage, the fresher, the better. If you have a food processor, grate it on the slice setting, not the shred setting. My processor has 2 settings. The first time I tried to grate it on the shred/fine setting, and it was too...well, fine. So use the slice setting. Put the cabbage in a bowl, add the salt, and let it weep for a few minutes. If using fresh cabbage, you will notice a difference; freshly picked cabbage lets off a ton of water! If you are going to add other items (carrots are a great and easy addition), shred those up, too, and mix in with the weeping cabbage.

The easiest way to start is to stuff it into jars. I have done this 2 ways. First way: Don't screw the lid on all the way because liquid will leak out of the jar for a few days - basically, leave it loose by like one quarter of an unscrew. Make sure you put the jars in a bowl or a big tupperware to catch the liquid. This is done so they don't expand and explode. Second way: Tighten the lid all the way. This is what I did last time. They still leaked liquid, and they didn't explode. So who knows :) Add extra water if the liquid doesn't cover the kraut, and then add a little more salt. With fresh cabbage, I had so much extra liquid I saved it in a jar in the fridge and added it to the jars when they looked a little low.

If you'd rather use a bucket (I did the first time), just shove the cabbage in there (you will need to use at least 3 heads), again making sure there is enough liquid. Cover with a plate (the edges of which must touch the sides of the bucket), and weigh down the plate. Then cover this with a towel to keep out bugs and dust.

Then put it in a closet or dark place. I check it after 4-5 days and screw the lid on the jars the rest of the way if there's enough liquid in there. Leave for 4 weeks, or a little less if hot.

That's it! When it's done fermenting, store it in the fridge. It is a living food, after all! Right now, I have some new flavors fermenting, including a Mexican-themed jar with jalapeno and cilantro, a jar with beets, and I don't remember what else!

Find out more information here at Wild Fermentation.

And I'll leave you with some pictures:
Below, you see 2 jars of Colorful Caraway Kraut with carrots and caraway seeds, and 1 jar of Hot Pink Horsey Kraut with green & purple cabbage & some fresh horseradish. This is the before shot :)


Colorful Caraway Kraut after fermenting (and after me eating half the jar before I stopped to take a picture!)


Hot Pink Horsey Kraut


And a bucket shot before putting the plate and weight in it:


Next up: fermented pickles! I'll let you know how they come out.

Kale Doritos!

I followed this recipe this weekend (albeit loosely - what is it with me and recipes?), and made the healthy equivalent of Kale Doritos :) I didn't have green onions, I used less chili powder and cayenne (to make them a wee bit more kid-friendly) and I only used one bunch of kale, so they were a little salty, but oh so good.

A local grocery store has kale and collards on sale, so I plan on making a lot more!

Lemon Mint Salad Dressing

Yesterday, we had a pick-up for our buying club. I got some amazing fresh produce, including some beautiful yellow bell peppers (which are #3 on the Dirty Dozen list) and fresh mint! I figured a big salad was in order and so I whipped up a batch of this raw salad dressing in my Blendtec.

Lemon Mint Dressing
1/4-1/3 cup lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 packed cup fresh mint (about 1 ounce)
2 cloves garlic
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
a few dashes of pepper

Blend in a blender till blending (that was fun to say), and put it on a fresh salad.

Wow, is this good! It brings me back to my days of working at Aladdin's Natural Eatery; I really miss their food! They had a very similar salad dressing, except it used dried mint. Yum!

Feeling Off & Rejuvenating

I've been feeling a little "off" lately. I have not been sleeping well because Bear has not been sleeping well. When I don't sleep well, I'm unmotivated and don't make the best food choices. The fatigue also makes me not want to exercise, as does the fact that the jogging stroller broke. Since Bear has been waking up obscenely early, I can't run in the mornings. I ran earlier this week when I had a sitter. I only ran 40 minutes and it kicked my butt.

So today, I've tried to make a conscious effort to make better choices. It's amazing what a difference these small choices have made. I ate a 50% raw breakfast rather than my usual 100% cooked breakfast, I had a green smoothie with my lunch, I limited my refined sugar intake, and added a large salad with Hemp Omega Caesar dressing to my dinner. I changed it a little and it was quite good (more on that later).

So even though I'm not getting enough sleep, I can still make an effort to take extra good care of myself.

So, the dressing! I had an issue because I realized halfway into making it I had no lemons! So I had put the oil, seeds, salt, dulse and mustard seeds in the blender and already blended them, and then they sat there for over half an hour. I think this was a good thing because the dressing came out really, really thick and creamy. I recommend trying it!

Hemp Omega Caesar Dressing
4-6 ounces cup water
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil, flax oil, or hemp oil
1/2 cup Manitoba Harvest hemp seeds
3 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon Himalayan crystal salt
3/4 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 tablespoon raw agave nectar (skip for Whole30)
1 1/2 tablespoon dulse
zest of 1/2 lemon

Yum! This is enough dressing for 2 very large salads :)