NT Sauerkraut

Here is my attempt at making Sauerkraut the Nourishing Traditions way. If you are not familiar with Nourishing Traditions, you can find a copy on Amazon or at your local library.

The Cast of Characters:

1. one regular sized cabbage
2. caraway seeds
3. whey
4. sea salt
5. quart jar with lid

First I shredded the cabbage and added about 2 teaspoons of caraway seeds. Then I added 4 tablespoons of whey along with 2 tablespoons of sea salt. My measurements were slightly different than what the original recipe calls for because I was leary of the caraway seeds since I had never eaten them before and the last time I made sauerkraut, it needed more salt.

Using my potato masher, I began to pound the mixture. Pounding for at least 10 minutes is fine and it's quite useful at getting out your aggressions if needed.


Here is what it looked like after about 10 minutes of pounding. You will find that there is a lot of juice formed at the bottom of your bowl- this is exactly what you need.


Load the mixture into your quart jar and make sure you leave at least one inch space at the top of the jar.


You want liquid at the top so if you have to gently push the cabbage down under the liquid with a wooden spoon, that is fine. If you still do not have liquid covering the top of the cabbage, add a little water to the top.


There you have it. Let it sit out on the counter for 3 days and then transfer to the refrigerator.

The Verdict:

I detest caraway seeds and felt like they ruined the sauerkraut. If you like a "clove" like taste, then you will be in heaven with the sauerkraut. If you are like me, ponder why you spent $4.00 on a jar of these yucky seeds, and make a mental note to leave those things out the next time you make this. Otherwise, the sauerkraut turned out exactly as it should have.

Just for your info, this sauerkraut is considered "fermented". Which is very, very good for you. You know those yogurt commericals that push that they are good for your digestive system. This cabbage is too because of the whey that it fermented in. You can get more info on fermented foods from the "Mastering the Basics" section of Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon.

Remaking an old favorite- The Peanut Butter Sandwich

A nice bowl of hard spring wheat- the makings for... a peanut butter sandwich?

Sometimes, at my house, we do things the hard way. Today, you will see that what I just said, is so, so true. Over the past year, I estimate that I have fixed approximately 350 lunches- give or take a few. Add that to the 350 or so breakfasts and 350 or so suppers and you will get the idea that we don't go out to eat very much. Truthfully, we don't eat "quick" pre-packaged foods either. What does this all add up to? I pretty much live in my kitchen.

Feeding my family wholesome and most importantly healthy foods is a labor of love for me. The meal that drives me crazy is lunch. There are only so many times that you can eat sandwiches, soups, leftovers, etc. To put it nicely, the kids get sick of their choice of lunch items.

In the past, if you mention peanut butter sandwiches around here, one or more kids quickly said they are not the least bit hungry, ran to the cabinet, and started scavenging for something else.

Fast forward to the present: The peanut butter sandwich now has been totally remade at my house. No longer is there scavenging at the mention of America's staple sandwich spread.

Here is what we did (the hard way) that has changed the PB & J forever:

The ingredients:

• Fresh flour tortillas
  
• Peanut Butter
• Applesauce
• Honey
  

We started with an idea (and the realization we were out of bread) of making flour tortillas to spread the peanut butter on. With the flour container empty, the trusty, old hand cranked flour grinder was brought out and set up. Everyone loves grinding grain (for the first 3-4 minutes only) and argues over who gets to grind first. If you are not out of flour like I was, just get your trusty bread flour out. (Mental note: I want an electric grinding mill for Mother's Day)

Here is the first grind. The grain was quite rough so we ground it two more times.

Flour Tortilla ingredients:

• 3 cups fresh whole wheat flour (if purchasing flour, use bread flour)
  
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 1 teaspoon salt (sea salt is best but not necessary)
  
• 6 Tablespoons shortening (I use organic palm oil)
• 1-1/4 cup warm water
  

Mix the salt and baking powder into the flour. Add the shortening and cut in using a pastry cutter. Continue to cut in the shortening until the mixture has the consistency of pea-sized clumps. At this point, mix in most - but not all- of the water. Mix together and add additional water as needed to get the consistency of biscuit dough. Transfer the dough to a surface and knead for a few minutes. You only need to knead the dough until it is well mixed and smooth. At this point, divide the large lump into lots of smaller balls about 2 inches in diameter. (You can make them smaller or larger but the idea is to have enough to make into a normal sized tortilla).

Divided dough balls

Let the dough balls rest for about 10 minutes. If you roll them out without letting them rest, they will be unruly and difficult to manage. No one wants unruly dough balls.

Sorry that I don't have a picture but next, use a rolling pin to roll the individual small dough balls into a circle. If you are lucky enough to have a tortilla press, now is the time to use that handy gadget! (mental note: I want a tortilla press- ask for one for Mother's Day).

Cooking Tortillas on the Griddle- (and yes, I know they are not perfectly round- cut me some slack please....)

Cook the tortillas for a few minutes on a hot griddle. Flip and cook the other side until both sides have a faint browning. (My griddle is set at 350 degrees). Don't over cook as you still want the tortilla to be soft enough to roll up.

It is at this point, I do not have any pictures of the assemblage of the sandwiches because they were gobbled up faster than I could run to get the camera.

Mix peanut butter and a desired amount of honey together. Spread an even layer of the peanut butter/honey mixture on the entire surface of one side of a tortilla. Spread a thin layer of applesauce over the peanut butter/honey mixture. Start on one side of the tortilla and roll toward from one side to the other. You should have a cute rolled up peanut butter sandwich when you are done.

Stand back and watch the "sandwiches" or roll ups disappear as quickly as you make them!

So there you have it. The peanut butter sandwich was remade at my house. I wonder how long it will take before the kids get sick of these? Maybe I have awhile ......

Diabetic Munchy Mix

The Cast of Characters
(Can you tell that we love Whole Food Market?)

Mixing the "mix"
(I love my huge silver bowl-it is my favorite)

The Final Product
(Don't you just love canning jars? They are so useful!)

Ingredients:

1. Sunflower Seeds (salted or unsalted- your choice) You could use any combination of nuts if you like.
   
2. Cashews (salted or unsalted- your choice)
3. Bag of Puffed Kamut (Check out your local health food store for this) You could use puffed rice if you like.
4. Bag of veggie straws or veggie fries (You could sub these with any low salt version of chips/straws/pretzels, etc) You can find these at health food grocery stores and some chain markets.
   

Well, that is it. The quantities are up to you. If you have nut lovers, put more nuts in. If you have veggie straw lovers, add more of those. This mix is great for diabetics as there are not a lot of bad carbs and oils to run the sugar up. Whole grains and nuts will digest slower and thus no flood of sugar into the bloodstream. Nuts are just plain good for you too.

This mix was the brainchild of my hubby. I give him all of the credit. He loves this stuff. His mother loves this stuff. As a matter of fact, she is getting some for Christmas. (She doesn't know that my blog exists so it's OK that I said that).

Every year, our family gets all of the kids something for Christmas and we adults just watch them quickly tear into all of the paper, sit back snapping photos, and laughing. No one really cares whether they get a gift or not (the adults I mean- the kids would freak out if they didn't get a gift). Well, every year, even though we are not supposed to spend on the adults, we get everyone a little something. One year, they got a coffee cup filled with reindeer poop. This year, well, they are getting munch mix. I still can't think of some cute and funny name to call it that compares to reindeer poop, but there is still time before Christmas. Maybe we'll think of something.


Warning: Home school mom has to throw in educational information:

There are diabetics in my neck of the woods. There are probably diabetics in your neck of the woods too. There are also thousands of diabetics in the world.

According to the Weston A Price Foundation's article by Dr. Tim Cowan, diabetes can be considered a modern day epidemic with more than 20 million people in the United States suffering with the disease. Some families are lucky enough to not have to worry about diabetes but others deal with it daily.

Around my family circles, we are known as "health" nuts. We weren't always what people considered nuts (or at least we didn't think so). Our "health nut" adventure began when we started researching herbs, a healthy diet, and the effects of our modern American diet on our bodies. Have you ever watched the film "Super Size Me" by Morgan Spurlock? It is a good starting point. Just google it and you will find information about it easily.

There are some good books out there too about diabetes. I have read these to begin with: Reversing Diabetes by Dr. Julian Whitaker and How to Prevent and Treat Diabetes with Natural Medicine by Dr. Michael Murray. Both are very eye opening reads in regards to finding out that some diabetics can treat themselves with diet, exercise, vitamins, and herbs (especially the "herb" part). The study of herbs is very close to my heart as I have just begun to try some of nature's miracle medicine on my family.

To further your own adventure, take a trip to a health food store. There are increasingly larger numbers of these types of stores popping up as the rising cost of pharmaceuticals are forcing people to seek more affordable alternatives to what their doctors are prescribing.

I could go on forever talking about natural treatments! My advice to you all is to research things for yourself. You just might be surprised at the information that is out there. While you are looking all of that great information up, snack on some munchy mix.