Kombucha Tea

My kitchen is has been temporarily converted into a science lab.

Over the last year or so, I've been hearing/reading a lot about fermented foods and how beneficial they are to our health, but I've always been so intimidated by the whole fermenting process. (I don't follow directions well and have little patients for long drawn out detailed processes.) I had this idea in my head that fermenting something would be just that. So, since I've been in the mad scientist mood, I thought I'd take the plunge and make a fermented tea, called Kombucha tea, that I've been wanting to make for over a year now.

Kombuch tea is a fermented Russian tea. They sell it at Central Market, Whole Foods, and Sprouts in 16 oz bottles for almost $4 a bottle!!!! I love it, but have major guilt every time I buy it...especially in today's economy. The health benefits are fantastic. Like any other fermented food, it introduces good bacteria into your digestive system, which is great for your immune and digestive system. It also has different cancer-fighting acids in it, as well as lot of vitamins and minerals. The GT brand of Kombucha that I normally buy is made by a man who says the tea helped his mom recover from cancer. Pretty cool, huh?

In order to make the tea, you have to start out with a scoby, which is basically a culture of bacteria and yeast that work together to ferment the tea. You can get a scoby from someone who already makes Kombucha tea...they multiply with every batch. A lady in one of my eGroups offered to give me one of hers...thank you Kathy!

Now, once you have the scoby, the rest is actually very easy. After making it for the first time a few weeks ago, I was HOOKED! All you need is a gallon jar, green or black tea bags, sugar, and a scoby. So far, my Kombucha batches have been a combo of fruity herbal tea and green tea. The hardest part is waiting 7-12 days for it to ferment...again, patience is not my strong point. The final product is a slightly carbonated tangy tea that is very refreshing to drink. Right now, I've got two batches going...one plain green tea and one strawberry/green tea. The whole family loves it! The kids even ask for it...Vance asks for "bucha". To learn more, Google "kombucha tea", and you'll find all kinds of info. Here are a couple of sites you can visit as well:

http://www.seedsofhealth.co.uk/fermenting/kombucha.shtml

http://www.thenewhomemaker.com/kombucha

Here is a picture of the two batches I just started today.



...and in case you're wondering, yes, this is ONE of my ideas of fun! :-p Don't knock it 'til you try it!

Flaxy Banana Muffins

The other day I was at Kroger and they had bags of ORGANIC ripe bananas for $1 a bag. I was so excited! I always miss out on this kind of stuff, so I grabbed 5 bags...yes 5...and froze most of them for our smoothies. I kept a few out to make the banana muffin recipe that was on the front of the banana bags. Of course, since I can't follow a recipe to save my life, I added my own twist to the muffins to make them vegan and more nutritious. (Even though we are not vegans, we try to keep our animal protein [eggs, meat, dairy] intake to a minimum.) The muffins turned out really well. Paired with a fruit smoothie or sliced apple, they are great on-the-go breakfast! Enjoy!

Flaxy Banana Muffins

1/2 cup EVCO (extra virgin coconut oil, organic)
¾ cup honey
2 tbs ground flaxseed + 6 tbs water processed in a blender on high for 30 seconds (or 2 eggs)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ cup ground flaxseed
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
3 medium to large bananas, creamed
1 medium to large banana, chopped
½ cup pecans or walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Assemble 12 muffin liners in muffin tins.

Cream EVCO, honey flaxseed/water mixture (or 2 eggs), and vanilla in a mixer.

Mix baking soda, baking powder, salt, flaxseed, and ww pastry flour with a fork until well combined. Then add the EVCO cream mixture; mix well.

Fold in creamed and chopped bananas and walnuts.

Pour mixture into muffin liners. Fill each cup about ¾ of the way full.

Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees.

Well, it's been a while since I last posted. Since my last post, I've been working on completing my yoga training, and I'm finally DONE...yay...finally! I taught my first class a couple of weeks ago, and boy that was quite an experience. I've been telling everyone that it was like running a mental marathon. I was so fatigued during the middle of the 90 minute class, I couldn't believe I had the whole last half to still finish. I never realized how much energy and mental focus it took to teach a class. I'm having to focus on every word I say, timing is critical, and then putting a lot of energy out there so that the students are motivated to push themselves in every posture for an hour and a half is really important to me. Needless to say, trying to do all that as a newby can be a bit overwhelming. I taught my fifth class tonight, and it went really well. So, each class seems to be getting better. All in all, I'm loving it! It's a great feeling to absorb all the wonderful energy that is created in a yoga room. Everyone always feels a bit high when they walk out, especially the teacher :-) Come vist me at Sunstone yoga.

Now that I'm not training on the weekends, we, as a family, are all enjoying having our time together on the weekends again. It's been so nice to sleep in a little, get up have a leisurely breakfast and then have the rest of the day to do whatever we want.

We did have a bit of drama last weekend. Ethan had to get stitches under his chin after falling during a gymnastics stunt on the furniture. All is well though...stitches are coming out tomorrow.

So, that's life right now. I've been feeling the desire to do some baking, so maybe the next post will be a healthy baked goods recipe. Stay tuned!

Love and peace to everyone!

Amy

I did it!

Yesterday at yoga training, I took my final yoga instructor exam, and I passed!!!! This means that after learning the operations part of working at the studio (Sunstone), I can start teaching. So, I should definitely be teaching within the next month. I am so excited!

The really cool thing about passing the test was that I didn't plan to take it yesterday. I was actually expecting to take it in a couple of weeks. But, at training yesterday, when our teacher asked me if I'd like to "test out" with a couple of the other girls in my group, I impulsively said "yes!", and then I thought, "What the heck did I just do!?" I didn't think I was ready. In fact, I had planned on clearing the evenings for the next couple of weeks to study. But, when I got into the room to take the test, I didn't let my nerves take over (and boy did they try!), and I actually did really well! I was more prepared than I thought. One of my good friends from yoga was testing with me (she was pretending to be my student), and I think that helped ease my nerves a lot. Thanks Des!!!

Anyway, I'm so relieved to have the test over with. I'm can't wait to start teaching. I only have 2 weekends left of training, and then I'm DONE! I'll have my weekends back with Pat and boys. We are ALL very excited about that ;-) I'm so grateful for all the love and support Pat has given me during the past 6 months of training. It was a big sacrifice for him to give up his weekends for 6 months to watch the boys while I went to training (7:30AM - 7:00PM Sat and Sun), and he did not complain EVEN ONCE! Now is he not a great guy or what?!

Love,
Amy

Nacho (Un)cheese

Over the years, I've tried making many different vegan (dairy-free) nacho cheese/queso recipes, but I never found one that I really liked. A few months ago, I finally found a recipe that had potential. After making some changes to it, I settled on combo of ingredients that create a really good knock-off cheese dip. Now, it doesn't taste exactly like the Velveeta queso, but it's got a cheesy flavor with the same consistency and appearance of regular queso. It's a hit in our house. Give it a try!

Nacho (Un)cheese

1 cup water
1 cup raw cashews (preferably soaked for at least 6 hours, but not necessary)
1 4oz jar pimentos, drained
3/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 ½ tsp salt, or to taste
½ tsp onion powder
¼ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp cumin
½ tablespoon fresh lemon juice (optional)

Place all ingredients in the blender and blend until completely smooth. Add more water, if need be, to thin out the sauce. Heat if desired.

Optional: For a true queso knock-off, add one can of Rotel (drained) to mixture and heat to desired temp. If you don't have Rotel, salsa will work. I add jalapenos sometimes.

Serve with tortilla chips, tortillas, and/or veggies…or whatever sounds good to you .

Enjoy!!!

Day at the Rodeo

My dad took Ethan to the Fort Worth Rodeo on Tuesday. They made a day of it (3pm - 10pm) and had a blast. This is a picture of them before they left. So cute...

Chocomole

Ok, so a couple of weeks ago I read an interview of Jason Mraz in Vegetarian Times, and he mentioned this chocolate pudding that he makes out of avocados. Apparently, it's one of his favorite things to eat on the road when he's touring. It sounded really interesting. So, I put it on my list of recipes to try. Well since then, I have seen other chocolate pudding recipes made from avocados. Coincidence? I took this as a sign that I need to make this pudding!!! So, I decided to try the recipe today. I actually didn't follow one specific recipe...it's impossible for me to follow recipes...so here's what I did: Took two avocados and 1 cup of cocoa and put them in the food processor. Then, I added about a tbs of coconut oil (to make it silky), chocolate almond milk (unsweetened), maple syrup, and agave nectar. With the milk and maple syrup/agave nectar, I just added them little by little while the food processor was on until I got the desired consistency and sweetness.

The end result was a really yummy chocolately pudding. You honestly could not tell it was made out of avocados! The texture ended up being a little bit firmer than regular pudding, but it still looked, felt, and tasted like a dark chocolate pudding. Here are a few pics. The white on top of the pudding is shredded coconut.




In the future, I think I'll add LESS cocoa...maybe use only 1/2 a cup for two avocados and add more if need be. It was just a little too rich for my liking. I'd also use more almond milk to make it less firm. The reason I used maple syrup and agave nectar was because I didn't want to use all my agave nectar. You could probably use either by themselves.

Clearly, Vance liked it....

Give it a try! Here is the Jason Mraz recipe, if you want more specific instructions: http://www.vegetariantimes.com/features/690

Love,
Amy