Vinegar Drink

I've become addicted to vinegar drinks - but they are spendy! A lovely friend shared her homemade recipe and it's wonderful! The juice is the trickiest part - ideally, it should be homemade as well. But sometimes I'm in a hurry and I'll use some 100% juice with no added sugar if I have it on hand.

1 cup filtered water
1/3 cup juice
2 TBSP Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar (whatever brand you use, make sure it has the "mother" in it).
1 tsp honey

Mix and enjoy - if you think this is the grossest drink you've ever heard, just give it a try at least once, you might be surprised.

If you are concerned about the acidity and your teeth - I was as well. You can either sip it through a straw back past your teeth, or just make sure to wait at least 30 minutes before brushing your teeth.

Some Fermented Recipes I Want to Try

I love fermented foods, and I know the most economical way to eat them is to make them myself. However, I haven't been successful so far.

The latest issue of Paleo Magazine has a recipe for beet kvass, and recommends a nifty little device called a Pickl-It jar that is supposed to have fermentation down to a science (doesn't work with kombucha, unfortunately). I'm thinking these are worth the initial investment since I seem to suck at getting this fermenting thing down.

So basically, the point of this post is to share some links for when I save up to pick up a Pickl-It jar.

Pickl-It Jars
As far as I can tell, they only sell these through their website. Which is a bummer, since I have an Amazon gift card with just enough left on it.

They also have a blog with lots of recipes such as fermented mayo, fermented ketchup and many more.


Water Kefir and How to Make It
I ran across this article and am looking forward to trying it. I love the fizz of store-bought GT's Kombucha, but can't seem to replicate it.

I am very excited to tell you about a beverage that I have been making for our family for a couple of months now. It’s called water kefir. The best way to describe it is flavored soda minus all the processed sugar, artificial colors, flavors and preservatives. Water kefir is nature’s way of making soda and by far, one of the healthiest and easiest to make at home.

Beet Kvass
This isn't the one from Paleo Magazine (which seems simpler), but I love this blog and will go to this recipe if the first one doesn't work out.

Mayo Chicken

Tried a new recipe tonight - it was a hit!

• 2 large chicken breasts
• 1 cup Paleo mayo
• 1 cup ground paleo crackers
• 1/2 cup shredded Kerrygold cheddar (I get this at Costco)
• 1/4 cup shredded gouda goat cheese
• dash Merlot-infused sea salt

Use a kitchen mallet to pound your chicken breasts to an even thickness
Mix the rest of the ingredients together, and then slather the chicken with the mixture
Bake at 375 for 18 minutes

The Mallet: The most stress-relieving tool in your kitchen

Paleo Crackers

These are a staple in our house - you can use them in place of crackers or as a bread subsitute. Note that we use a Demarle silpat. If you don't have one, I highly recommend you get one! One of the best purchases I've ever made!


KPM's Paleo Crackers

• 2 cups almond meal (I get this at Trader Joe's - cheapest almond flour I've found)
• 2 egg whites
• 2 garlic cloves (I use 2 of the frozen Dorot brand garlic cubes, also from Trader Joe's)
• 1.5 tbsp olive or walnut oil
  
• Dash of salt
• Dash of paprika

• Mix all ingredients together
• Put the resulting dough ball onto your silpat
• Cover with wax paper and roll out with a rolling pin to about 1/8 inch. Try to get it an even thickness so it bakes evenly
• Remove the wax paper
• Bake at 350 for 14 minutes
• Let cool and break into pieces

We eat these most often with a bowl of tuna and paleo mayo. Dip these in and it's like the best tuna sandwich you've ever had minus the bread! I keep them in an airtight container and they don't seem to go stale ever.

I picked up some little flower shaped cookie cutters. We cut them into shapes and they turned out great. It's a little more tedious to break them apart, so I won't do this when we're in a hurry!

Zucchini Pizzas

I've really got to start taking pictures of stuff!

I was looking for a new side dish and came up with these by combining some various recipes. Lacto-paleo, but we don't mind that.

Zucchini Pizzas
- As many zucchini, sliced into 1/2 inch pieces (rounds)
- Garlic salt
- Fresh mozzarella (got mine at Trader Joe's, has a minimum amount of ingredients)

• Preheat oven to 350
• Put garlic salt on each
• Put pieces of mozzarella on each
• Bake for 15 min
• Crank up the broiler for the last couple of minutes to get a finishing crispiness

Chia Breakfast Pudding (or dessert)

Don't get me wrong. I love our turkey bacon and eggs breakfast...but I could use something else in the rotation. I'm familiar with chia gel (let chia seeds set with water, turns into a tasteless, tapioca-like gel that is easy to drink). But I stumbled across chia pudding this morning.

First off, a little bit about the amazingness of chia seeds.

Four tablespoons of chia seeds supply as much calcium as three cups of milk, as much magnesium as 10 stalks of broccoli, as much iron as one-half cup of red kidney beans, 30% more antioxidants than blueberries, 25% more dietary fiber than flaxseed and approximately the same amount of omega-3 as a 32-ounce fillet of salmon. (from this article)

This reminded me how much I like chia seeds, so I looked around at a few different recipes. I found a lot for breakfast puddings and threw something together.

This. is. amazing. It makes enough for the girls and I for breakfast, but we aren't big breakfast eaters.

KPM's Chia Breakfast Pudding
4 tbsp chia seeds (I get mine in bulk from either of these websites Raw Life or RawFoodWorld)
2 tsp flax seeds
2 cups coconut milk
1 tbs honey
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
Generous dash of nutmeg
Strawberries (optional)

Mix the chia seeds with 1 cup of the coconut milk. Let them gel for about 15 minutes. Add in everything else but the fruit and let it gel for another 5 minutes. Add the fruit on top and serve.

When I make chia gel, it usually needs to set for 15 min. I'm not sure what it is about this mixture that it didn't gel up as much, but I am going to make it the night before and let it set overnight to get that real tapioca texture.

Fermented Foods

So my naturopath has recommended eating more fermented foods. I found this link for a starter:

http://paleodietlifestyle.com/fermented-food-recipes/

Today's experiment is going to be saurkraut!

I'd also like to brew up some kombucha and culture my own kefir eventually!