Tag Archives: kombucha

Splendid Sunday

One of my newly-created Sunday rituals is to listen to The Splendid Table podcast while working on a meal or other kitchen project.  After a weekend out of town, a little Sunday ritual was exactly what I needed when we got home yesterday evening.

To the sound of Lynne Rosetto Kasper’s fabulous chuckle (Tate loves to make fun of her), I set to work.

First order of business after being away from home is to check on my ferments and make sure I am not nearing an over-carbonation catastrophe.

The kefir spritzer

and kombucha were right on track.

I ♥ bubbles so I let my brews ferment at room temperature until they are light and fizzy but it’s possible to take it overboard and end up with the shaken-warm-soda-like eruption that ends in a sticky mess on the counter.

But the bubbles are worth it. 🙂

Dinner was combed together from the near-empty fridge and muffins were mixed from the freezer and cabinets.

Apple-Ginger

These babies turned out to be a complete failure in the filling department but otherwise they are awesome.

They were filled with an almond butter and banana combo but I guess the ratio of fat to fruit was off because the filling was totally absorbed into the muffin and I couldn’t even taste a hint of it in the center. 😦

Delicious and so-quick breakfast

I won’t even bother with the details for the filling since it was non-existent!

The Dry

  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup cornmeal
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 tsp ginger powder

Whisk the dry together in a medium bowl.

The Wet

  • 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 1 very ripe banana
  • 1/4 cup plain yogurt
  • good sized knob peeled fresh ginger
  • 1 Tbsp maple syrup
  • 1 egg

Puree all ingredients except egg in a food processor until banana and ginger is fully incorporated, add egg, pulse until mixed.  No food processor?  How do you cook?!  Sorry.  You could mash the banana by hand and grate the ginger.

Add wet to dry, mix until batter forms, add 1 chopped apple.  Fill muffin cups until just full.  Kinda random but this batter made 7 muffins, without filling you could probably do 6 big ones or 12 small.

Bake for 25 minutes in a pre-heated 375* F oven.  Take out, let rest for 5-10 minutes, remove muffins and set on cooling rack.

Each large muffin contains just under 200 calories and is an excellent source of dietary fiber.

Today will be full of fitting in errands and exercise between patients at the clinic.  We got the morning off on the right foot with an active commute

Note Tate’s raised left arm, that would be a cup of coffee.  There’s talk of rigging a cup holder to his bike but I think he prefers to be able to drink it en route. 😉

There’s a lull in patients so I think I’ll head upstairs to the studio and flow through a few Sun Salutations.  If you are in the area, I am subbing a 12pm Vinyasa class tomorrow here at Core, come play with me!

Hope your weekend was fantastic, have a great Monday!

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Filed under baking, breakfast, cooking, Fermented Food, recipes

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.

8 Comments

Filed under Fermented Food, goals, yoga