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.

Homemade Chocolate Popsicles: Sugar-free, Raw & Easy!

Bear loves these popsicles (scroll down to the end). They are very good. And very expensive.

We recently bought those plastic popsicle molds, in hopes of creating something a little less expensive. I came up with a perfect solution. I generally have a plethora of ripe bananas in my house, so this recipe (a variation on "Awesome Ice Cream") just made sense!

This is not the best picture, but Bear was losing his patience as I held his popsicle out of reach :)



Chocolate Popsicles
3-3 1/2 bananas
1/2 cup milk (I used unsweetened coconut milk, raw nut milk will work as well - I was out)
1 1/2 tablespoons raw cacao powder

Blend this in your blender. It should be about 16 ounces at the end. I poured this into 8 popsicle molds, and put the sticks in. Freeze overnight.

This is 1 point in the Weight Watchers system, even with cow's milk, as long as you don't use heavy cream or canned coconut milk :)

Hot Pink Horsey Kraut

It's Hot Pink Horsey Kraut, and I helped :)



I can't believe I haven't had time to blog about my sauerkraut making because it's so, so easy! For now, I'll just tempt you with pretty pictures :)

Mostly Raw Monday: April 5th

Yesterday's food:

Green smoothie: water, Navitas Raw Chocolate Powder, Sun Warrior Raw Chocolate Protein, a banana, handful frozen cherries, some stevia, and red chard, collards, frozen kale and spinach

A sprouted buckwheat biscuit similar to some Kristen Suzanne makes (recipe to come later)

A banana

A bunch of homemade hot pink horsey kraut and some colorful carrot & caraway kraut

Some raw granola with raw pumpkin seed milk & dired coconut sprinkled on top

A grapefruit & an orange

Mostly Raw Monday: March 22

Our basement is semi-dry, and I'm back into the swing of things. I also started some new batches of sauerkraut. This is a really good thing because I harvested my first batch last week (it made 3 quarts), and we've eaten almost 2 quarts already!

Breakfast
2 tablespoons Master Tonic
3 bananas
21 sprouted almonds

A quart of green smoothie made with 8 ounces of water, some stevia, 2 tablespoons hemp protein powder, a peach, 4 strawberries, half a frozen banana, 6 huge romaine leaves, and a ton of spinach
A couple pieces of red pepper, some orange, raisins and apple (can you tell I eat my son's leftovers?)
4 or 5 raw almond & flax crackers

2 ice cube-sized chunks of Raw Fudge (made with agave instead of honey, and with sprouted almonds and dried coconut added)

1 quart of postpartum tea

I meant to have some kraut, but I got busy :)

Mondays are a challenge to do raw. The weekends are so busy that it's hard to do the food prep. So I usually end up eating almost as much raw food throughout the week. I had Chia Pudding made with truly raw almond milk for breakfast, for instance :)

Mostly Raw Monday: March 15

Today was Mostly Raw Monday, and I ate Mostly Raw but didn't have time to document it because my basement is flooded. But I did harvest my sauerkraut! So look for a post on that soon :)

Mostly Raw Monday: March 8

It's Mostly Raw Monday! Here's my food today:

Banana
Orange
Some carrot & celery pieces

Green smoothie with kale, spinach, card, banana, apples & strawberries
Homemade Pink Kraut (pictured above - recipe down the road!)

Small serving raw granola with raw pumpkin seed milk

Sort of a light day for me :)

Gluten-free Raw Granola

I made a variation on this granola and was quite pleased with the results.

Gluten Free Raw"Granola
2 cups almonds
1 cup cashews
1 cup pumpkin seeds
1 cup raisins
1/2 vanilla beans
½ tablespoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt

Soak the nuts & seeds overnight. Soak the raisins & vanilla bean in a cup of water in a separate bowl.

Place the raisins, vanilla bean and their soaking water in a food processor and puree until smooth. Drain and rinse the nuts and seeds.

Add nuts and seeds to raisin/vanilla stuff in the food processor, as well as salt & cinnamon. Pulse until coarsely chopped (though my almonds stayed whole).

Spread on 2 Paraflexx sheets and load into the dehydrator. I dehydrated this on 125 for about 30 minutes, and then around 110 for 24 hours. It seemed done after about 10 hours but I figured I might as well leave it overnight to crisp it up some more. It would have made about 4 quarts of granola if Bear & I hadn't been snacking on it throughout the day while it dried :)

I ate this in the morning, topped with shredded dried coconut & a chopped banana, as well as raw pumpkin seed milk.

Mostly Raw Monday!

My kitchen counter: almond pulp (currently being used to make crackers) from making almond milk on the left, jar of almond milk, soaked pumpkin seeds (for salad dressing) and mung beans (for sprouting) on the right :)

What I've learned so far on my Mostly Raw Mondays that eating raw and well-rounded can require a lot of prep. I am blessed to have some of the main "tools of the trade": a Blendtec Total Blender, an Excalibur 4-Tray Dehydrator along with 4 ParaFlexx Drying Sheet, as well as a food processor. All of these things were gifts! But I don't have a juicer, or a fermenting crock, a sprouter or a nut butter machine (I'd really like one of these!). My "tools" do cut down food prep time considerably; I'm thankful for that. But there's no one but me to juice a lime, chop & wash lettuce, or dice veggies but me! It all of a sudden dawned on me - that's why quick, no-prep foods are called "convenience foods"! Yes, I can be slow :)

All that said, here's today's Food!
2 tablespoons Master Tonic (I'm almost out, but I have some more brewing that will be ready in 8 days)
1 pink grapefruit

Chia Pudding (basically this recipe with my own twist)
1/3 cup Chia Seeds (you can also get them from iHerb and get $5 off, but they are cheapest, with free shipping, if you do Amazon Subscribe & Save)
3/4 cup unsweetened raw almond milk
pinch of cinnamon
dash of salt
2 drops Vanilla Crème Stevia (they have it at iHerb, too - get $5 off!)

Mix it all in a bowl, but save about an ounce of "milk" for later. Let it sit for 30 minutes; it will become a big blob. Top with that ounce of milk. Hmm, hmm good!



1 date, 5 cashews & 5 almonds

Green leaf lettuce, beet greens & swiss chard, radishes, red pepper, cukes, carrots, and 1/4 of an avocado with Pumpkin Seed Ginger Dressing (except it calls for way too much salt -even 1 teaspoon is too much)

A Chocolate smoothie: 12 oz water, 8 oz unsweetened almond milk, 1 scoop Sun Warrior Raw Chocolate Protein, about half a 10 oz bag of spinach, and half a frozen banana

An apple and a bit of orange (my son ate 2 clementines and a cara, I had a bit of his)

Dinner was a chickpea and leek soup recipe I got off the side of this miso :)

Most Raw Monday, Part 2

Today is Monday, so it's time for Mostly Raw Monday, part 2!

A couple observations from last week:
This feels like a great way to do a natural "cleanse" of sorts after the weekend. I generally eat pretty healthily on the weekends, but since we tend to be out more, I may not get my green smoothies in. So focusing on smoothies and salads is a great way to start the week.
After eating high raw all day, I wasn't super-hungry for dinner. I defrosted what I thought was lentil soup but ended up being mujadara, a Middle Eastern lentil & rice dish. But it was rather tasteless. So instead of eating that, I ate 2 herbed cheesy biscuits that I made to go along with the soup. I had a meeting, so I got a black decaf there, but that was all. I didn't have a late night snack like I usually do.

Okay, enough observations. On to today's food :)

Breakfast:
A couple handfuls of sprouted almonds
Green smoothie: 8 oz water, half an apple, half an orange, half a scoop raw chocolate rice protein powder, some hemp protein powder, about 8 oz of spinach, 8 or so collard leaves, a handful frozen kale and a frozen banana
About 2 oz of fresh raw almond milk - seeing if it was sweet enough before chilling it

Snack before heading out:
More sprouted almonds
A banana

We walked to "downtown", which is really just a congregate of stores about a third of a mile away to run some errands and pick up some produce. Bear fell asleep on the way home, so I got the dog and walked about another 1.5 miles. In the cold. Yow, my pants were not thick enough for all that freezing cold walking!

Snack upon coming home:
A few more sprouted almonds (can you tell I soaked almonds overnight and hadn't had a chance to put them in the dehydrator? They were sitting on the counter, calling my name.)

I had to resist the urge to make some hot soup for lunch. I was so cold from all that time outside!

Lunch:
Big salad with red leaf lettuce, red grapes, radishes, cauliflower, carrots, cukes & pumpkin seeds sprinkled on with the last of the King Garlic Hemp Dressing
Half a grapefruit
2 raw fudge chunks
A decaf Americano

Above is a picture of my salad :)

Mostly Raw Mondays

I've decided to institute "Mostly Raw Mondays" in my life. I've been quite purposeful about increasing my intake of raw foods, and what better way to continue that purposefulness (I think I made that word up) than to declare Mondays "mostly raw".

The name is a bit misleading because I plan on having a cooked dinner with my family, but breakfast & lunch are high raw with the exception of my hot tea (post-partum brew!).

Breakfast:
1 quart of Veggie Smoothie - this is a weird concoction I've been drinking in an effort to eat lots of veggies without chewing as much :) I actually started making it because I had all these organic carrot tops that I wanted to use up.

4 oz Veggie Juice (not raw)
4-6 oz water
Misc. Veggies - today was collard/kale stalks, carrots, celery, red leaf lettuce, half a large cucumber, red pepper, some spinach and some cilantro

2nd breakfast: Raw oats with raisins, chopped sprouted almonds and raw pumpkin seed milk

Snack: banana

Lunch:
Chocolate "Milk Shake": frozen banana, raw pumpkin seed milk, water & Sun Warrior Raw Chocolate Protein (shared this with Bear)
Red leaf salad with red pepper, celery, cukes, avocado, homemade bean sprouts & King Garlic Hemp Dressing
Collard Doritos

Snack: Raw Fudge - I made a third of a batch of this (used agave instead of honey), dumped it into an ice cube tray, and added some cashews and almonds to about half of the cubes. Froze it for a while - ready in about 45 minutes. I had one cube (so far!)

I imagine I'll have a green smoothie later :)

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!

Crockpotting, Dehydrating & Running

I started running again. I joined the community center that's about half a mile away. It has a simple fitness area (2 treadmills, 2 bikes, a small walking track, some weight machines & dumbbells), but I couldn't beat the location or the price: $50/year! I've only been back at it for a few weeks, but I am in better shape than I thought; I was able to run 3 miles on the treadmill on the first time back. And this morning, I ran 3.1 miles in 23:21! I would have run longer, but the building wasn't opened on time, and I had to get home.

I'm back into doing some minor meal-planning. Recently, I've made Sweet & Spicy Lentil Chili (from a church lunch - a big hit!) and Moroccan Lentil Crockpot Soup. I also made some pesto homefries with fresh organic basil that I got through my local buying club. I really scored on the organic produce this month: red chard, kale, collards, basil, cara oranges, gala apples, and as always, fair trade bananas.

Since I got so many bananas, I've been trying my hand at making banana chips in my new dehydrator that I got for Christmas. I knew that wouldn't taste much like the banana chips you buy in the store, since those are fried and sweetened with sugar, but these were even better! They were SO naturally sweet that if I hadn't made them myself, I would have sworn someone put sugar on them. Over night, I dehydrated some sprouted almonds, and today, I'm making more banana chips.

Next, I will try apple rings :)

New Recipes: Sweet & Spicy Lentil Chili & Mostly Raw Chocolate Pudding

I made 2 new recipes tooday that I'd like to share with you.

The 1st is Sweet & Spicy Lentil Chili from the cookbook, Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker. This is 95% the same as what's in the cookbook, but of course I can't make a recipe as it's written :) Part of that is I didn't have all the correct ingredients!

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 1/2 cups brown lentils
1 can 28 oz crushed tomatoes
1/3 cup blackstrap molasses, unsulfured
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cayenne pepper to taste
1 1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cup apple juice

You can either just put it all in the crockpot as is, or saute the onion, pepper & garlic in olive oil first. This time, I did actually go the saute route, something I rarely do.

This was awesome!

Then, I tried my hand at Green Smoothie Girl's Raw Chocolate Pudding. It's in chapter 11 of her e-book, linked above. Again, I didn't follow the recipe exactly. Here's what I did:

1 cup water
1/2 cup kale
2 cups baby Thai coconut meat (she has YouTube demos about these coconuts)
1 cup raw cashews
6 tablespoons raw chocolate
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup raw honey (or 1/4 cup raw agave for vegans)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 xanthan gum (or guar guam, soy lecithin, or some other emulsifier)

She recommends pureeing the kale & water first, but I didn't find that to be necessary. Blend this until smooth. We ate it at room temperature, but I think it'd be better chilled.

Check back in the next few days for more on young Thai coconuts, as well as my other East Bay food adventures :)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone! Did you make resolutions? I made a couple myself, one of which is to continue on my healthy living journey.

On that note, I made Raw Fudge again & further refined my recipe, using my new Blendtec!

Raw Coconut Fudge
I made some raw coconut oil fudge this weekend. Here's the original recipe:

1 1/2 cups coconut oil
1 cup raw honey
1 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup almonds

Dump it all in the blender, except the almonds, and mix till smooth. Stir in almonds, and pour it into an 8X8 pan lined with wax paper. Put it in the fridge to solidify; then cut it into small squares to serve.

Raw Coconut Fudge

I made some raw coconut oil fudge this weekend. Here's the original recipe:

1 1/2 cups coconut oil
1 1/2 cups raw honey
1 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional, tastes fine without it)

Dump it all in the blender and mix till smooth. Pour it into a pan (I use a 9x13 glass pan) and let it set up. Depending on your climate and time of year you may need to refrigerate it if it's over 70 degrees or so in your kitchen. Cut into small pieces and try not to eat it all the first day.

********

I made a half recipe & put it in an 8X8 pan, and it was really thin. I just stirred it in a bowl. Next time, I will make a 2/3 recipe, use wax paper to line the pan, a little less salt & less honey. Also, I needed to keep it refrigerated.

This would be good with some raw almonds or shredded coconut.

Growing Your Own Sprouts

My latest project is growing my own sprouts. It's actually quite easy, and I'm excited with how they've been coming out.

I started with just mung beans. Here's how to do it:

Put 1/3 cup of dry mung beans in a ceramic bowl or a mason jar with at least 1 1/3 cups purified water, covered (I used a clean dishtowel, most people use cheesecloth), and leave it overnight in a dark place. Drain the water & rinse the sprouts and re-cover them. Rinse them every 8-12 hours (I usually just did 12, sometimes 24 - oops!) until they grow to a length you like. It generally takes about 5 days for me to declare my sprouts "done".

Some people grow their sprouts in a colander to ensure that there isn't excessive moisture.

I now grow a combination of mung & adzuki beans; that's what you see here (I should stop taking pictures with my phone - it's a little blurry!):


I know you can also use lentils and various seeds. I stick with beans because of their fiber & protein content, though I may try buckwheat next.

There are lots of complicated explanations on growing sprouts on-line. My head spins when I read them. This simple method has worked for me.