Tag Archives: kimchi

Mindlessly Mindful

Many of the circumstances surrounding “my” insomnia elude me.

Turns out reading Runners World before bed is not one of them.  I am totally convinced that reading about running and races before bed on Sunday night made me lie totally wide awake all night, just waiting until morning so I could get moving.  Won’t be doing that again!

Needless to say, I spent yesterday morning feeling pretty spacey and sleepy.  The first half of the day was spent mindlessly tinkering around the kitchen, making kimchi and yogurt and organizing.

Kimchi!

After a morning of trying to ignore my mind and body (both too tired to bother with), the afternoon was all about the mind-body connection.  Yoga and Pilates Reformer at the gym.  Both were delightful and glorious and throughly enjoyable.

The teacher for the Reformer class was new to me and a total hard-ass, she cut me down to size!  As a dancer and aerobics instructor I am used to  being at the top of the class with form and coordination and balance (not to brag but I’ve got A LOT of experience after all).

This class was a style of Pilates (Stott) that I have only taken one class in previously and she was on my sh**!  It was awesome because it made me work harder and learn a few things.

After weeks of a hot oats obsession, breakfast today was a little something different.

Quinoa, 2 hard-boiled eggs, nutritional yeast, liquid aminos, and chili flakes.  This bowl packs a serious protein and B vitamin punch, both great to start the day energized and alert.  It was very satisfying and tasty although I will probably go back to oats tomorrow (because I am already kind of craving them :)).

I haven’t been updating you on my “cleanse” but it’s going great.  The plan was to completely clear my diet of refined grains, alcohol, and refined sugar and limit flour and coffee.  I have cheated on all of the first three, a few bites of Tate’s pizza, a splash of wine and a sip of beer, and an AMAZING chocolate thing at the gallery stroll.   The important thing is that I gave each of these slips a lot of thought rather than just mindlessly imbibing.  And enjoyed every taste.

I’ll admit it though, I am looking forward to a juicy glass of red wine next week!

The coffee thing has been easy and good for me, I plan to stick with 3-4 coffee days per week and tea for the other days.  My energy levels and appetite are definitely more stable when I don’t drink coffee but I am not interested in stopping completely at this point.

We have another fun meal with friends planned for this evening.  Evan and Stephanie are having some folks over for some take out Thai food.  But not just any take-out, apparently the best in the area because they are driving 30 minutes to pick it up!

Remember, if you are missing comment commit you can still join in the fun on Facebook!

 

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Filed under Fermented Food, food, goals, workouts, yoga

Soda Pop

A love story.

It all started back in September at the Heritage Harvest Festival.

Tate and I attended a workshop on fermented foods.

Until this day my love of good bacteria, probiotics, and healthy enzymes was limited to kombucha and lots of yogurt.

And then Dawn introduced me to the world of spicy kimchi, tangy sauerkraut, and bubbly kefir water soda.

[well, she didn’t actually introduce me because my dad used to make all kinds of ferments when I was little and he was following a Macrobiotic diet. at the time I just thought it was all “weird” and slightly embarrassing when my friends came over.  oh boy, I can’t wait to embarrass my own future children!]

As soon as I got home I dove into making my own fermented veggies.

I loved the idea that I could use that giant $2 head of cabbage that I bought at the farmer’s market to make some ‘kraut that would last me weeks.  And fiery kimchi soon became a household favorite to add a little zing to any meal.

I ♥ bacteria.

🙂

I have seen improvements in my digestion, appetite (smaller), and a strengthening of my immune system since I added more fermented food into my life.

Back at the festival Dawn told us about making “soda” from water kefir grains and let us sample a few flavors from her cabinet.  Many of you have probably heard of the milk/yogurt drink Kefir, water kefir is the same thing except it ferments in water instead of milk.

In order to make kefir soda you have to have grains, which you can buy or get from someone else because once you start the process the grains multiply and you end of having loads of them.  Dawn was talking about websites to buy grains from when an audience member raised her hand and offered to give grains to anyone in the C’ville area.

I took her e-mail but soon got side tracked by a new love of fermenting vegetables and a cabinet full of kombucha.

The other day I saw the e-mail address tacked to the side of my fridge and decided I would give kefir grains a go.  Stephanie promptly returned my inquiry and said that she would be happy to leave me some grains on her front porch (she’s not home much).

She conveniently lives just a half a mile or so from me so I trotted on over there on Tuesday morning and found this waiting

Directions and everything!  Thanks Stephanie!  I left a little jar of my homemade lavender salt and a thank you note in it’s place.

When I returned home I quickly got to work on my first batch.  And just as quickly finished!  Kefir soda is super easy to make, the grains do 95% of the work!

The hard part is the waiting while it ferments but at least it is much quicker than kombucha (1-2 days instead of 1-2 weeks!).  After waiting 48 hours I eagerly got to work on the second step.

After the first 24 hour ferment

The grains from the bottom of the jar, they remind me of tapioca balls from “bubble tea”

I poured off the watery liquid into clean, empty kombucha bottles and added a splash of homemade grape juice to each

Now I wait.  In a day or so these bottles will start to get all fizzy and be ready to drink!

The flavoring possibilities are endless with popular ones being vanilla and lemon, both of which I am excited to try next!

I am SO looking forward to a 4:30 Vinyasa yoga class this afternoon at the gym!  My body with going to thank me from the inside out as soon as I hit the mat. 🙂

If you are missing COMMENT COMMIT from the holidays, no worries, let’s keep it going on Facebook!  Every morning I will post my workout plan on Gracefulfitness’s page and if you want a little extra push/bragging rights add your workout plan (or accomplished workout) as a comment.

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Filed under Fermented Food, goals, yoga