Homemade Yogurt!

We eat a lot of yogurt in our home and it is delicious! It's full of wonderful good for you fat and probiotics. Matthew and I love Greek Yogurt - Aidan prefers the Horizon Organic Yogurt in a Tube (not exactly completely whole foods but not filled with artificial stuff). So at about $1.25 for 6 ounces of yogurt times 2 a day for myself and sometimes 2 a day for Matthew, that adds up quickly! So, I decided to invest less than $30 on a yogurt maker from Amazon and get the starter grains for Greek and Bulgarian yogurt. Well - it's incubating and I am hoping it will turn out good! The above picture is my yogurt maker in action!
I am learning a lot more about the benefits of milk in one's diet. Even if you are lactose intolerant, you can benefit from yogurt and cheeses - especially homemade or made with raw milk products. Right now our family is drinking some delicious low pasteurized, non homogenized milk from JD Country Dairy out of KY. It's a little on the spendy side - about $9 for a gallon - but OMG!! It's sooooo worth it! Shake it up to mix the cream in and you have a wonderfully tasty delicious glass of milk. Even my non-milk drinking husband loves it! I stocked up yesterday at the Amish Country Pantry - 2 1/2 gallons so I could make plenty of yogurt after I get my serial culture up and running (when you make yogurt with a starter, you reserve a little of it to the side to produce other batches with - thus a serial culture). I will go more in depth about the great benefits of WHOLE, FULL FAT milk and even raw milk in a later post. I am reading about it now and it's pretty interesting. But one tidbit - a mammals milk - breast milk, bovine, goats milk is the most complete form of milk! It has all of the nutrients, ingredients, vitamins and everything one needs. Even though I breast feed for many reasons, I am learning what the HUGE benefits for a baby really are - brain development, gut development, antibodies, the list goes on!
Oh and a word about my sprouting grains - I have rinsed them and I am leaving them to sit for 24-36 while they sprout. Check out the pic of my new wide mouth sprout straining lids! So much easier than cheese cloth held on with an extra small hair scrunchy - LOL!

Wait With Me....

While my barley, rye and wheat berries sprout! What are these odd berries I am talking about?? Well, I am still learning about them myself, but the sprouts of certain grains, beans, nuts and seeds are very nutritious. Sprouting not only neutralizes phytic acid, which blocks the absorption of many important minerals, but it increases the vitamin content. Here is a great source of information about sprouts and other whole/real foods http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2008/03/nourishing-practices-soaking-grains-2.html
I have never in my life had sprouts.... it's sad, but very true. But all of that is about to change! I am going about sprouts in a kind of non-green'ish food way by making into something a carb-addict can appreciate - bread!! I am sprouting barley, rye and wheat berries to make into ground flour for homemade bread. I am still researching my recipes, but I still have a bit of time since it takes about two and half days to get the desired length on my sprouts (1/8-1/4 inch).
Thus far, I have rinsed my grain berries (the rye and wheat berries were purchased from Whole Foods and the barley from the Amish Country Pantry). Now, they are soaking for 24 hours. I will then drain and rinse them and then allow them to sit in the jar without watering for 24-36 hours. From there I will rinse and put some of them in the food processor for bread making and the other portion in the dehydrator to use for later flour grinding.
Until they are ready, here is a rather boring picture of my grains soaking.... It will be a few days until I can have something of edible substance to show - (hopefully) delicious bread! Also a shout out to my friend Annette for hooking me up with a bread machine - hopefully it can handle what I will be putting in it!
Want to know how to sprout your own grains, beans and seeds?? I used this link for the info http://www.ehow.com/how_4620081_sprouted-wheat-flour-diastatic-malt.html I also picked up some new sprouting lids today! I will feature them in my next picture of my sprouts - I know you can't wait!! Until next time....

High Fructose Corn Syrup

Ingredients:

CONCORD GRAPE JUICE, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CORN SYRUP, FRUIT PECTIN, CITRIC ACID, SODIUM CITRATE.

Evidently there is a commercial on TV by the corn growers touting that HFCS is ok.... in moderation. Well what is HFCS and how is it made? This is from http://www.sweetsurprise.com/ (the HFCS website) How is high fructose corn syrup made? The corn wet milling industry makes high fructose corn syrup from corn starch using a series of unit processes that include steeping corn to soften the hard kernel; physical separation of the kernel into its separate components—starch, corn hull, protein and oil; breakdown of the starch to glucose; use of enzymes to invert glucose to fructose; removal of impurities; and blending of glucose and fructose to make HFCS-42 and HFCS-55. Wow - that's all I can say, WOW!
Gosh, it's really hard to have HFCS in moderation when it's in most processed foods. If you go down the grocery store isle you will be amazed to see what all HFCS is in - yogurt, cereal, soda, bread, salad dressing, ketchup and many more processed foods! I have been trying to cut HFCS out of our diets for a few weeks. Why have fake stuff that has been truly bastardized from it's original form instead of sugar? Granted I really need to watch my sugar intake, because I like to intake more sugar than exercise.... but that's for a different post - LOL!
But I reckon if HFCS is not in something, then Red 40 is lurking and waiting to pounce on our poor children and wind them up like a top! Read the labels - you will be surprised! We are trying to go for the "we will buy it if it has less than 5 ingredients in it" kind of route. It's hard and especially with children that want stuff on the go, but it's possible!
Here is a link to a good article from the Mayo Clinic: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/high-fructose-corn-syrup/AN01588 It outlines the health concerns and issues with HFCS interesting stuff. And to close out and get off my soap box here is a clever YouTube video about the stuff: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjppyTWuZJ0&feature=related
Until next time....

Change is good....

Especially in our diets. This is our Whole Food Journey were our family is going from processed and fast to REAL Foods with good nutrition! I don't know a lot of the statistics behind fast or processed foods - but I do know that refined sugar, high fructose corn syrup, food high in starch and other additives are not good for me or my family.
What I am learning is there are good fats in all kinds of food that I have discounted as making me "fat". Whole milk is good for you! Raw Milk is even better! Let me caveat that with if your Raw Milk comes from a trusted source, cows without hormones or antibiotics and that are grass feed, then it is should be considered safe. At the present I am purchasing non-homogenized, low pasteurized milk from JD Country Dairy out of Russelville, KY. This can purchased at Whole Foods and a Amish Country Pantry. It's a little spendy - but delicious!
This process is NOT an overnight process - it's baby steps to better health and good eating. I have thrown out everything that has HFCS, dyes, or words I cannot pronounce in it. It is a slow process - but really we don't need Ketchup with HFCS when we can have Organic Ketchup. Aidan uses ketchup as a meal sometimes when I am not looking as it is! Chocolate syrup for chocolate milk - it either has HFCS or Red 40..... So, Matthew found a recipe and we make our own! That way I can have my Mocha's instead of spending $4 at the coffee shop for something that has HFCS or refined sugar in it and we can use it for chocolate milk too! Recipe: Cocoa Powder, evaporated cane juice (unrefined cane sugar), water and vanilla and a pinch of salt! It's too easy and it has 5 known ingredients in it!

The title of my blog is "Our Whole Food Journey", but the web URL is "What is in your cart". Do you ever catch yourself looking in other carts when you are our shopping?? Do see some carts piled high with junk, processed foods, refined sugars, and no fresh stuff? How do you feel when you see these carts? I am attaching a picture of my grocery shop two weeks before I started doing more research and writing this blog. I am going to try to start taking pictures of what I shop for. This is more for me to see how my shopping is evolving and the changes we are making. If you will note in the picture - I do have Nesquick Chocolate milk syrup - this has since been thrown out - as it had Red 40 in it. There are a few other junky type things in there, but I am hoping to make those changes soon. Again - going Real/Whole foods needs to be process for some and not an overnight event. Until next time....