Traditional Foods (NT) Mamas - August Thread - Page 9

[Gale Force]

4cornersmamma,

I've got an extra package of grains this morning that I was going to send out. If you are around, send me your name and address and I'll mail you some grains. Xenabyte's mailing too from Colorado (I'm in Calif), so if she's closer she'd be a good bet.

mamaMAMAma,

I am so glad kefir is working. Have you been able to drink it?

Amanda

[Gale Force]

I tried the manna bread recipe that toraji posted in one of the archived threads (I pasted it below too). Here's my report:

I used spelt. The spelt didn't sprout that well -- some grains did, some didn't. I don't know if that's a characteristic of spelt or if I just got a bad batch. But I went ahead and ground it up in the food processor and put it in an oiled baking dish. I cooked it on 200 degrees for about 7 hours. Cooked is the wrong term -- it really just dries out.

The end product was good. It was a tiny thing, particularly considering the days of rinsing. LOL. But we all enjoyed it. It was a great excuse to eat butter too.

The recipe (I consulted Wild Fermentation too):

***************************
from toraji:

Manna Bread

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Here are the instructions for sprout bread from a good friend of mine:

1 cup of preferred grain (I really like kamut and rye so far)
pour into wide mouth jar and cover with a clean mesh.
add double the grain's amount in water-- so for 1 cup of grain, 2 cups of water

soak overnight

drain the next morning

rinse and drain thoroughly twice a day and store in a dry dark place

you will see that the grains swell after the soaking and will start sprouting little white "heads" that get longer and longer as the hours and days go on

When the sprouts are 2 or 3 times the length of the grain (about 2 or 3 days for rye and kamut), rinse them drain them and put them in a food processor. (or Champion or augur wheatgrass juicer)

you will get something that is a bit like the consistancy of hamburger.

form it into a loaf and smoothe it out a bit, flatten the top a bit and stick it in a preheated over at 275

bake for 3 hours. Check it-- spray it with water if you want. You know when it is done because the outside has a crust and is slightly firm, the bottom when pressed on gently springs back and the inside is moist.

Take it out, let it rest until cool because it firms up a bit and then eat. You will want to refridgerate it.

Don't forget to rinse the grains well and drain them well- you don't want to worry about bacteria and stuff. I have actually been dumping mine out into a large mesh strainer and washing them well but gently so I don't break off the sprouts and then carefully putting them back in the jars.

[Gale Force]

So I wonder how much more quickly this thread would move if we all weren't spending so much time in the kitchen. LOL. I spent four hours in the kitchen yesterday and didn't feel like I had a whole lot to show for it -- yogurt, kefir, manna bread, two crocks of veggies. I fit lunch in the four hours (my mom cooked it) and I harvested from the garden.

How much time do you all spend cooking? How does it compare to previous diets?

For us we have many more vegetables and fewer grains, so we spend lots of time chopping and cooking veggies -- so much more work than cooking grains.

[mountain mom]

I have prepared that manna recipe several times, substiting other sprouted grains such as wheat berries, rye and kamut.

The Kamut sprouts the best in my opinion.

[Brookesmom]

no problem Amanda. I probably wouldn't have seen the PM in time either!

I have a bunch of veggies from my CSA waiting for me to dice. And tomorrow is the pickup date. Sometimes with a toddler I don't feel like dirtying up the cutting board, knife, storage container and cleaning up all the scraps. I don't know why but it just takes a while with her impatiently "supervising".

I'm pretty lazy about the bread though- I buy Alvarado Street Bakery sprouted grain breads. Hopefully that is close to OK. Or pain au levain sourdough bread.

I did make a batch of chicken stock last week with organic free range whole chicken and froze some of the stock in cubes and made some green chile stew. Yummy, but a bit of work. It was so cool to put it in the fridge and see it gelatinize properly. Fresher and a bit cheaper and low salt compared to the store bought stuff. I was so proud of myself.

DH buys regular milk for himself (yuck!) and lets me get organic. I am going to start getting raw next week though. He will probably freak. His parents grew up on dairy farms and he thinks the industry is still a lot like that. He doesn't realize about the impact of big business, bovine growth hormones, homogenization, etc, etc.

His parents are on mostly a "low fat" diet. Lots of ground turkey burgers, turkey lunchmeat (salt and preservative city there), canned vegetables (yuck), and fat free milk and supermarket bread. THey are visiting next week.

Last year I made a nice pear crostada with fresh whipping cream and MIL turned it down. They would rather have fat free Cool Whip 'cause it's fatfree. Bless their hearts though, they are the nicest people. FIL loved my lamb stew though and after having sauteed kale asked me how to cook greens even (he doesn't cook!) They are trying to eat more greens and fresh veggies now.

[Brookesmom]

oh yeah, the in-laws and SIL don't put any salt or pepper on their homecooked food ("it's more healthful") but buy bunches of canned veggies, stocks and sauces that are just loaded with salt, as well as fast food etc. It's a weird society we live in as a whole here in the U.S. No wonder people at large don't know what diet advice to follow.

[Catarina]

I'm spending a lot of time in the kitchen but I see that as a good thing. Tonight we had something easy but very NT, I think - haggis. It's lamb's (grass-fed) lungs, hearts, and liver, beef suet, and pinhead oats, cooked inside a sheep's stomach casing. You get it from the butchers and just boil it up in the pan. It's pretty salty, and strongly flavoured, but really good and I'm never going to eat any offal any other way, I'm afraid. We had it with "neeps and tatties"; mashed potatoes and mashed turnip (rutabaga) and carrot. And Savoy cabbage.

I would love some ideas for cooking kale and other greens.

[Gale Force]

We definitely need some ideas on cooking greens. The summer crop is almost over and all I see are greens on the horizon.

[hrheka]

I just finished making a batch of the sourdough bread from the NT cookbook. I made one small change and it came out very fluffy and yummy. At the beginning of the recipe it calls for a cup of water but I added a cup and a half of kefir instead. I'd made some pancakes earlier in the week w/ kefir and noticed that it rised significantly over night. By adding it to my starter I got it to rise in about half the time as the recipe called for and pretty fluffy considering there is no commercial yeast in it. Everyone in the house has been happily eating it.

As for greens, our favorite thing is to make a veggie curry and then towards the end (unless its collards or kale then a little earlier) I chop the the greens up into fairly small pieces and mix them in. It makes something close to saag but a bit different. My daughter really loves greens this way though in general she's pretty fond of greens.

[toraji]

Finally! Gelatin info

Whoever wants gelatin instructions PM me your email addy and I will send them to you.

I've been spending lots of time in the kitchen lately, lots of stuff being harvested from the garden. Just finished canning 40 lbs of tomatoes. Now I need to deal with the mountain of green beans. Ack! It will be nice come wintertime though.

Xenabyte: I heart you too!

Greens! I love greens! Our favorite is a tahini or nut cream garlic "mayo" mixed into sauteed shredded greens and carmelized onions. Put on top of bread and you have "Greenwiches". I can post the recipe if anyone's interested (it's even vegan if you make vegan mayo). Or chop up and add to soups. We've been putting it in our blended salads lately, which is good because I wouldn't be able to eat them raw otherwise.

[4cornersmamma]

[QUOTE=hrheka]I just finished making a batch of the sourdough bread from the NT cookbook. I made one small change and it came out very fluffy and yummy. At the beginning of the recipe it calls for a cup of water but I added a cup and a half of kefir instead. I'd made some pancakes earlier in the week w/ kefir and noticed that it rised significantly over night. By adding it to my starter I got it to rise in about half the time as the recipe called for and pretty fluffy considering there is no commercial yeast in it. Everyone in the house has been happily eating it.QUOTE]

That is a great idea, my family complains about how thick and hard the bread is. I'll try your idea and see if it works for us!

[4cornersmamma]

brooksmom,

Good for you! Stock is pretty easy once you get the hang of it. As for your inlaws and hubby - DH brought home a loaf of bread today where the second ingredient was "high fructose corn syrup". When my inlaws visited, my mother in law was very concerned with how many callories were in my sprouted grain bread! At least I was nice enough to buy her low fat milk.

DH is addicted to 'miricle whip', I've tried making the mayonaise, but I don't have a food processor, so I made it with my mixer and added the oil with a medicine dropper. I used EV olive oil, it was bad. So I bought some saflower oil and I'm going to try that. Does anyone have ideas for me as to get my hubby off that yucky stuff?

[mamaMAMAma]

Has any one tried the almond cookie recipe? I made a batch for dd#1 to take to preschool tomorrow, but it was very crumbly. I used olive oil instead of butter (dairy sensitivity) and I haven't ordered our coconut oil yet. Could that be it?

[HerthElde]

I haven't tried the recipe, but based on experiments in baking, that could definitely be part of the problem. You could also try lard in place of the butter (it might be easier to find than coconut oil).
HTH

[4cornersmamma]

I have made the almond cookies, and I make the peanut cookies all the time. They are just very crumbly cookies. The butter helps though, because when they cool, they harden up a bit. I have never used coconut oil. . . so I don't know if that would help. I have found that I need to chop up the nuts ALL THE WAY because if I don't the nuts come out my daughter in the same form and she says that her "poopy hurts".

[mamaMAMAma]

Thanks for the tip on the almond meal. I put the almond in the processor and let it go a for a while so it was very fine. I see you point about the butter hardening up when it is cool. Hmm, I wonder if coconut oil would do the same or not. Anyways, I was meaning to order the coconut oil but just haven't done it yet.

[Catarina]

Toraji, do you steam or boil greens, kale, etc first before sauteing them? And what's a blended salad? Anything to get us eating more vegetables.

I have been using kefir for pancakes and "buttermilk" biscuits too and they have been coming out very well.

[toraji]

I'll post my recipes for blended salad (basically a salad in a blender with olive oil/vinegar "dressing", turns out like a cold soup) and greens separately as they would appeal to the veggie population too.

[MaryCeleste]

Nursing caries (in me, not DD)

Argh. I had to go "under the drill" today. This was an unpleasant surprise, since I've always had very good teeth. I guess 9 months of nursing, combined with my somewhat haphazard eating habits, have taken their toll. So I went back and checked here:

http://www.westonaprice.org/children...ormothers.html

I'm nowhere near eating all this! I'm having a hard enough time consuming a pint of milk or kefir, two eggs, 2 or 3 tbsp of butter, and normal-sized servings of meat and fish. If I get pregnant again, I might not even be able to manage that. (I seem to recall Sally Fallon theorizing that raw milk can prevent morning sickness...well, that didn't work for me last time. )

Out of all the recommended foods on the list, which ones do you think would make my teeth happiest? Can I just eat more of the bone broths, soaked grains, and lacto-fermented vegetables? Or do I really need to add all those tablespoons of CLO, coconut oil, and other assorted fats?

P.S. On the up side, the dentist is holistic, and I noticed a copy of NT in his office.

[aimeemac]

MooblesMama.......Hi. I think we are going through something similar w/ my son and daugher (on a wheat free dairy free diet). They eat whole foods, but nothing like what the NT diet describes and they have cavities. They eat no sugar etc.
It is such a mystery to me.