1 quart of milk kefir (preferably from raw milk)
Large Handful of concord grapes with skin and seeds
Large Handful blueberries
About 1 cup or so frozen cantaloupe or other frozen fruit
2-3 generous tablespoons coconut cream concentrate, spread or even virgin coconut oil
A little raw milk if desired for consistency
Put it all together and blend it up and enjoy! SOOO good and VERY good for you too!
My kids said it tastes like ice cream. I’m not sure about that, but we loved it!
Quick Yummy Kefir Smoothie
October 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Thanks for checking back at Pure Homemaking, I hope you make yourself at home!
Kefir Soda
June 27, 2011 By 17 Comments
Many people are familiar with the increasingly popular pro-biotic beverage kefr but usually think of the diary version. Dairy kefir is fabulous and amazing beneficial to you, but what if you are looking for something a little light in flavor and texture and more appropriate for sipping on a hot summer day? You could also be looking for an alternative to the nasty poisonous cola type sodas that many American’s are hooked on? [Read more...]
Sorry for the Silence!
June 24, 2011 By 2 Comments
It has been quiet around here the past few weeks and I apologize! I have had a lot on my plate and have been trying many new things. My oldest daughter Emily is home for the summer now and my focus had been more on what to do with the kids while they are all home. I am trying to enjoy this summer as it is the last one before my second daughter heads into school in the fall-my heart is still sad. So I want to enjoy them while they are still young and help them to create lasting memories of spending summers at home being lazy and also doing things. It is hard coming up with new ideas, so if anyone has any frugal ideas on what to do with kids over the summer I’m all ears.
Last night I went into DC and saw the movie Farmageddon. I must say that it was very moving and really grabbed those emotions. I went with my husband who appreciates and puts up with all of my traditional cooking and grass-fed everything, and he was very touched by it. He is so not the type of person to be an activist about things but he told me this morning that he had a tough time getting to sleep last night because he was thinking about the attack on all the small family farms. It’s a must watch! I highly recommend it! Although it has re-lit the fire under us to get some land and become more self-sufficient-so be warned!
On the cooking front I have immersed myself in all things sourdough! I am loving this stuff! I have made so many new things and even managed to come up with a recipe of my own. Right now there are 4 loaves of bread rising slowly for spelt sandwich bread that turns our great every time! I made an adaption to my pop-over recipe to incorporate sourdough and it went very well! I cannot believe that I waited so long to get a starter going! It’s so easy!
I have also been tipping my toes in lacto-fermenting veggies. In fact I have 3 quart of veggies pickling now and some yummy gingered carrots and beet kavas in the fridge right now.
I think my next post is going to be a tutorial on making water kefir and pickling! Or maybe peach-rhubarb cobbler, hmmm…
So, that’s what’s going on in my world and why I have been a bit absent lately. But good things will be coming soon so stay tuned! I hope all of you have had a good jump-start to your summer and I would love to hear from you about what’s going on in your world.
A Tale of Two Sourdough Starters
June 10, 2011 By 7 Comments
Many of you have read the very popular post I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the new information about soaking grains and how it is now recommended to avoid calcium containing soaking mediums. Well, finding out that information caused me to finally stop avoiding sourdough. I thought it would be so hard to get it going and then once I did so, I wasn’t sure how I was going to use it. I had sourdough worked up as being this level of real food cooking that I just wasn’t ready to tackle yet. I was happy with soaking my grains and had found some really great recipes that worked well for my family. I simply didn’t have room in my life for another fermented food project. I was already up to my ears in water and dairy kefir, and kombucha. I was good. Besides, what do you do with sourdough other than make bread right? Boy was I wrong! [Read more...]
Going Sugar Free-A Personal Experience
June 7, 2011 By 23 Comments
My journey toward becoming sugar-free
by: Julie Hunter
This post was written by a friend of mine, Julie Hunter. Over the past several months almost a year she made the personal decision to cut sugar completely out of her diet. The following is her personal story about how and why she made the change. She also shares some of the struggles she has had and also the great payoff that it has made in her health. Julie has shared a very easy home-made sugar free chocolate recipe that I can’t wait to try. I hope you enjoy reading about her journey and find it as inspiring as I have. I made a small change already by cutting out sugar in my morning coffee. If you have any questions I’m sure Julie wouldn’t mind popping over and answering them!
In September of last year, upon the advice of my wonderful doctor (and countless hours of surfing the internet for advice), I made a decision to kick my sugar habit to the curb once and for all. There was no way this was going to be easy, and there was no way I could just “cut back”. It had to be all or nothing, and it had to be right away. My health was at stake, and I had put it off long enough. [Read more...]
What is Obama THINKING?
June 2, 2011 By 2 Comments
This article nearly brought tears to my eyes and I don’t cry easily. I feel so upset and almost defeated by this. I will be praying hard that this doesn’t go through. Please join me.
Obama Deregulates GMO Crops Despite Supreme Court Injunction
Thursday 2 June 2011
by: Robbie Hanna Anderman, Tikkun
Early this spring, while the world was distracted by Egypt’s uprising, President Barack Obama pushed the Secretary of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to deregulate genetically engineered alfalfa and sugar beets in the United States. The USDA came through as he directed, totally deregulating these Monsanto-patented genes in early February.
In so doing, Obama and the USDA have chosen to override and ignore decisions and injunctions made by the U.S. Supreme Court that banned planting of genetically engineered alfalfa and sugar beets without consideration of the Environmental Impact Assessments, which showed high risks to organic and conventional (chemical) farmers.
So how does this affect you and me? Neither of us remembers seeing alfalfa or sugar beets on our breakfast table or even on our Seder table. Or do we?
Sugar beets provide over 50 percent of the sugar Americans use in their coffee, cereals, and desserts. For the moment, let’s not focus on the fact that sugar beets can cross-pollinate with red beets and make our borscht genetically modified.
Alfalfa reaches our tables within milk, cream, butter, and meat, as it is used as a major animal feed in the dairy industry. It is also used to enrich soils in organic farming.
Click on the article link to read the full story. I’d love to start a conversation about this and see what if anything we as consumers can do other than voting with our forks which I always advocate. It is a STRONG vote. But if you read the article you will see that if this is allowed to go through and become 100% legal then the organic farming and meat industry will be wiped out completely. We have to do SOMETHING, but what can be done so late in the game?
Hot off the press: Dairy is OUT for soaking grains
May 31, 2011 By 34 Comments
I must admit that when the email from Amanda Rose from Rebuild from Depression landed in my inbox about the latest on soaking grains I was perplexed. Upset even. How could this BE? Sally Fallon herself has preached about the need to soak your grains in an acid medium to break down phytic acid. Phytic acid is basically an anti-nutrient and it is mostly found in grains, beans, legumes, nuts and seeds. Nuts have a slightly different make-up than grains and don’t contain a ton of phytic acid but they do contain and enzyme inhibitor that prevents absorption of nutrients so they can benefit from a soak as well (I use a brine solution-4 cups nuts with enough warm water to cover and about 2 tbls. sea salt). [Read more...]
What’s on Your Plate Sunday 5/29?
May 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment
I am EXHAUSTED! I just spent about half the day making about 20 pint-sized jars of strawberry jam. It all started yesterday when I got a call from my friend at about 8am asking if we wanted to go strawberry picking-right away! We said sure because I knew that I had to drive about 45 mins away later to pick up 1/4 hog that I ordered from our local Mennonite farm. I wanted to get the berry picking done before it got to hot out as it’s been getting up to 90 degrees outside already and it’s not even June yet!
Meatloaf with a clever name
May 28, 2011 By 1 Comment
I got nothing on the cool name for this one. It’s meatloaf, I don’t know! It’s very good though. I started making meatloaf about a year or so ago for my family because my oldest daughter Emily LOVES meatballs and I figure hey why not? I always had it in my head that meatloaf was sort of a joke dish, I always heard it being teased about and what not so I never really thought of making it. But it’s SO good! And really easy and good for you too! (If you are using grass-fed meat)
So anyways, I searched on-line for different recipes and tried different ones and they were all very good. I learned how to make different toppings for them, trying to avoid just straight ketchup as I’m not really a huge fan of the stuff. It reminds me of when I was waiting tables with my good friend Lisa Gale like 10 years ago and we used to have to fill up the containers with this bulk bag of ketchup. I think it just spilled all over me way to many times and I would have to walk around all day smelling like it, it just eeked me out. I don’t mind ketchup if it’s IN things but you won’t find me dipping my french fries in it or anything. Maybe when I start making my own but I haven’t done that just yet. [Read more...]
Peanut Butter Granola Bars
May 27, 2011 By 7 Comments
These granola bars are to DIE for! And I’m not just saying that because I made them. My husband declared they were “the best granola bars I ever had”. They really are very good better than the expensive store variety. Plus they are way cheaper to make AND you know that they aren’t filled with junk like high fructose corn syrup which contains mercury half the time. These granola bars are a healthy snack, especially when you to soak your granola to break down the phytic acid content and make to make the grain more digestible. Even if you forgot to do the soak you can still benefit from a junk free snack that you can feel good about giving your family (and yourself!). [Read more...]
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