Well, we are finally wrapping up our final detox week. This week was no added sugar. That basically mean that we didn't put any sugar in our coffee. So let me do a quick run through of all the things we have cut from out diets in the past 2 months.
1) No High Fructose Corn Syrup ( I can't believe I've gone 2 months without soda!)
2) No Refined Flour (we did cheat occasionally and have pizza nights, but it was at least sourdough!)
3) No Desserts
4) No Refined Sugars
5) No Quick breads
6) Limit Natural Sugars to 1 teaspoon per day
7) Limit Grains & Starches
8) No Added Sugar
Wow! I have to admit that this was a huge step for our family. This detox has caused us to cut out pretty much all processed foods with just a couple exceptions, but even the exceptions followed our detox rules! In cutting all of our processed foods, my daughter's bowels have regulated, I am no longer having severe digestive pain, and my husband doesn't think it has made a difference to him, but we'll see when he goes to eat a candy bar on Halloween next week!
To celebrate our success we get to enjoy some delicious tacos at church tomorrow. It will be our church's annual Ministry Festival. This year is a fiesta and they will be serving tacos. It will be the first time in 8 weeks that I don't have to ask what is in every little thing! I will still be careful not to eat a bunch of sweets. However, I'm not sure I can say the same for my husband ;-)
If you're thinking about doing a sugar detox, DO IT! I have to say that I feel so accomplished having finished something that is so good for me! And now, I've learned so much about what is in food and how it affects my body. I am planning on going on a true detox at the beginning of January and I almost can't wait to do it! If you're just starting to learn about nutrition and whole foods, keep digging, keep learning, and keep making changes. Take it one step at a time and embrace the changes because they are so good for you, your children, and your future family members!
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Monday, October 15, 2012
Homemade Raw Yogurt
A while back I found a local co-op in Las Vegas that goes out of state to purchase raw milk. It is illegal to sell raw milk in Nevada, so that is about the only thing that can be done to get it unless you happen to have a large amount of grassy land and a cow that you don't mind milking regularly.
I currently pay $7.75 per gallon. That seems ridiculous compared to the price of regular milk and even a bit high compared to organic milk, but compared to states where you CAN legally purchase raw milk, it's cheap. In Phoenix, the cost for a gallon of raw milk at the store is $12! Thank God I don't have to buy 3 gallons of that milk 3 times a month!
I'll do a break down of the cost of making yogurt after the tutorial, but for now, let's get started! If I'm going to give my family raw milk, why wouldn't I want to give them raw dairy products? We drink raw milk, eat raw butter, and enjoy raw yogurt. I hope to be able to splurge a bit in the future to enable me to make raw cheeses!
Raw Yogurt!
You'll Need:
2- Clean Quart-sized Mason Jars with clean lids and bands
4 Tbl Organic Whole milk yogurt (Or a yogurt starter culture)
2 Quarts of raw milk (You can do this with pasteurized milk too)
1 Empty Ice Chest
Optional:
1 Thermometer that goes as low as 100 degrees and as high as 180 degrees
2 large pots
I do this as simple as I possibly can, but if you're using pasteurized milk or you want to be exact, you'll need to take extra precautions, which I'll cover in a separate font so that you'll know what is what. If there is only purple font, it is for both pasteurized milk and for those who want to be exact. If there is purple and green then the purple is for pasteurized and the green is for those who want to be exact.
I do not sterilize my equipment because I know it's clean and I know the quality of milk I receive.
In order to sterilize your equipment bring a large pot of water to a boil and boil your jars, lids, bands, thermometer, and any stirring utensils for about 5 minutes. Remove them carefully and put them on a clean towel or a paper towel until they are ready to be used.
The next step is to put your yogurt starter into your jars. You'll need 2 Tbl per jar. I freeze yogurt in ice cube trays to use as starter later. I put 1-2 cubes per jar. Each cube is about 1 1/2 tbl. I will drop my frozen yogurt into the jars and let them sit until it is thawed. It is important to put your yogurt in first so you don't overfill your jars.
Next I fill each jar to the neck with milk and stir the yogurt starter in. I then let my jars sit on the counter for an hour or so until they are room temperature.
You need to re-pasteurize your milk. You can create a water jacket by putting a pot with your milk in it into a pot of water. You will then bring the water to a boil and heat the milk until it is 185 degrees. Hold it at that temperature for several minutes or up to 30 minutes. By heating your yogurt for 30 minutes you will get a very thick yogurt. You then need to allow your milk to cool down to 110 degrees before pouring it into your jars. Anything over 110 degrees will kill your yogurt culture and you'll end up with soured milk. Once cooled, fill jars up to the neck with milk and stir it up.
You can put your milk into a pot and heat it to 110 degrees. After 110 degrees enzymes will begin to die. Enzymes are the beauty of raw milk, so we want to keep them! Once your milk is 110 degrees you can fill your jars up to the neck with milk and stir it up.
Put your lids on and put your jars into a cooler.
I just fill my cooler with the hottest tap water from my kitchen sink. This is something that I have practiced. You can always check the temperature of your tap water before doing this. If your water is too hot, you'll kill the yogurt culture. If it is too cold, your yogurt won't turn into yogurt. My tap water is slightly above 110 degrees so by the time it hits my cooler it is 110 degrees exactly (I know, I'm lucky). Your water should not go above the neck of the jar.
Next fill a pot with water and heat it to 110 degrees. Be VERY careful not to make it any hotter or you'll kill your culture (I've done it!) Once your water is 110 degrees pour it into your cooler.
Your water should not go above the neck of the jar.
Put the lid on your cooler and cover/ wrap your cooler with a towel for added insulation. Let sit for 12 hours. Once the 12 hours is up you can put your yogurt in the fridge to firm up. The time doesn't need to be exact. You can let yogurt do it's thing from 8-24 hours. I like 12 hours best, but you don't need to stress about it.
Once you've got some time to stay home you're ready to drain your yogurt. you don't have to drain it, but draining the whey (the sour part) will make your yogurt thicker and less tart. I'm not sure if it is really needed for pasteurized yogurt, but I think it might be. If you make pasteurized yogurt and your yogurt is too tart, try draining it!
Stick a colander inside of a bowl and put a piece of cheese cloth or Birdseye fabric inside the colander. Then dump your yogurt into the fabric.
Tie your fabric into a knot and hang it from a cabinet over the bowl for a few hours. I have 2 fabrics that I use. One for each quart. The longer you hang your yogurt the thicker it will get. If you leave it for a whole day, you'll get yogurt cheese/ farmer's cheese. It's kind of like cream cheese.
While my yogurt is hanging, I will go scrape the bottom up every so often. the yogurt closest to the fabric will drain, but if you don't scrape it up, the whey in the middle will remain. You'll notice in the above picture that the liquid looks white. Normally it would be a clear yellow color, but I made a slight boo boo this time around and not all of the milk turned into yogurt. Therefore, it is white because there is milk in it. Oops!
I've found that 3-4 hours is good for a consistency that my family likes. My husband is fond of Yoplait yogurt, so that about the consistency I go for.
By the end of my draining I end up with 1 quart of yogurt and 1 quart of whey. I freeze my whey in ice trays and use it for recipes, lacto-fermenting, and soaking flour/grains.
I sometimes add about 1/4 cup of honey per quart of yogurt. That gives it enough sweetness for my picky husband. Another thing that we like is to make fruit bottom yogurt cups. They are convenient snacks for my daughter and easy fro my husband to pack in his lunch. Not to mention that they are great quick snacks when I'm craving something slightly sweet.
To make yogurt cups we use the 4 oz jelly jars. You could also use the 8 oz wide mouth jelly jars. We put 1 spoonful of homemade jam (made with honey), or 2 spoonfuls of homemade applesauce (no sugar added) and then fill the jar the rest of the way with yogurt (sweetened or not). Put a lid on it and stick it in the fridge until ready to eat! I'm not sure if these will last long with pasteurized milk, so I would recommend only making as many as your family will eat within a few days. Ours will keep for a while, but they rarely hang around longer than a week because we like yogurt.
I have thought about trying yogurt culture packets. There are some types that are supposed to make thicker and sweeter yogurts, but at this time I don't really have the disposable income, so this is what we do for now.
Last, and most importantly, don't forget to save enough yogurt for your next batch! You can freeze it for a couple months if you don't plan to make yogurt again for a little while.
Oops! I forgot to add my cost breakdown. Yours will most likely be different unless you pay the same amount for milk as I do.
1 gallon of raw milk - $7.75
Divided by 2- $3.88
Therefore, I pay $3.88 per quart of yogurt. Remember that after draining we get about half yogurt and half whey. It is slightly more that purchasing organic whole milk yogurt at the store, but it is raw and there are no stabilizers, which is worth the extra dollar to me!
I currently pay $7.75 per gallon. That seems ridiculous compared to the price of regular milk and even a bit high compared to organic milk, but compared to states where you CAN legally purchase raw milk, it's cheap. In Phoenix, the cost for a gallon of raw milk at the store is $12! Thank God I don't have to buy 3 gallons of that milk 3 times a month!
I'll do a break down of the cost of making yogurt after the tutorial, but for now, let's get started! If I'm going to give my family raw milk, why wouldn't I want to give them raw dairy products? We drink raw milk, eat raw butter, and enjoy raw yogurt. I hope to be able to splurge a bit in the future to enable me to make raw cheeses!
Raw Yogurt!
You'll Need:
2- Clean Quart-sized Mason Jars with clean lids and bands
4 Tbl Organic Whole milk yogurt (Or a yogurt starter culture)
2 Quarts of raw milk (You can do this with pasteurized milk too)
1 Empty Ice Chest
Optional:
1 Thermometer that goes as low as 100 degrees and as high as 180 degrees
2 large pots
I do this as simple as I possibly can, but if you're using pasteurized milk or you want to be exact, you'll need to take extra precautions, which I'll cover in a separate font so that you'll know what is what. If there is only purple font, it is for both pasteurized milk and for those who want to be exact. If there is purple and green then the purple is for pasteurized and the green is for those who want to be exact.
I do not sterilize my equipment because I know it's clean and I know the quality of milk I receive.
In order to sterilize your equipment bring a large pot of water to a boil and boil your jars, lids, bands, thermometer, and any stirring utensils for about 5 minutes. Remove them carefully and put them on a clean towel or a paper towel until they are ready to be used.
Next I fill each jar to the neck with milk and stir the yogurt starter in. I then let my jars sit on the counter for an hour or so until they are room temperature.
You need to re-pasteurize your milk. You can create a water jacket by putting a pot with your milk in it into a pot of water. You will then bring the water to a boil and heat the milk until it is 185 degrees. Hold it at that temperature for several minutes or up to 30 minutes. By heating your yogurt for 30 minutes you will get a very thick yogurt. You then need to allow your milk to cool down to 110 degrees before pouring it into your jars. Anything over 110 degrees will kill your yogurt culture and you'll end up with soured milk. Once cooled, fill jars up to the neck with milk and stir it up.
You can put your milk into a pot and heat it to 110 degrees. After 110 degrees enzymes will begin to die. Enzymes are the beauty of raw milk, so we want to keep them! Once your milk is 110 degrees you can fill your jars up to the neck with milk and stir it up.
Put your lids on and put your jars into a cooler.
I just fill my cooler with the hottest tap water from my kitchen sink. This is something that I have practiced. You can always check the temperature of your tap water before doing this. If your water is too hot, you'll kill the yogurt culture. If it is too cold, your yogurt won't turn into yogurt. My tap water is slightly above 110 degrees so by the time it hits my cooler it is 110 degrees exactly (I know, I'm lucky). Your water should not go above the neck of the jar.
Next fill a pot with water and heat it to 110 degrees. Be VERY careful not to make it any hotter or you'll kill your culture (I've done it!) Once your water is 110 degrees pour it into your cooler.
Your water should not go above the neck of the jar.
Put the lid on your cooler and cover/ wrap your cooler with a towel for added insulation. Let sit for 12 hours. Once the 12 hours is up you can put your yogurt in the fridge to firm up. The time doesn't need to be exact. You can let yogurt do it's thing from 8-24 hours. I like 12 hours best, but you don't need to stress about it.
Once you've got some time to stay home you're ready to drain your yogurt. you don't have to drain it, but draining the whey (the sour part) will make your yogurt thicker and less tart. I'm not sure if it is really needed for pasteurized yogurt, but I think it might be. If you make pasteurized yogurt and your yogurt is too tart, try draining it!
Stick a colander inside of a bowl and put a piece of cheese cloth or Birdseye fabric inside the colander. Then dump your yogurt into the fabric.
Tie your fabric into a knot and hang it from a cabinet over the bowl for a few hours. I have 2 fabrics that I use. One for each quart. The longer you hang your yogurt the thicker it will get. If you leave it for a whole day, you'll get yogurt cheese/ farmer's cheese. It's kind of like cream cheese.
While my yogurt is hanging, I will go scrape the bottom up every so often. the yogurt closest to the fabric will drain, but if you don't scrape it up, the whey in the middle will remain. You'll notice in the above picture that the liquid looks white. Normally it would be a clear yellow color, but I made a slight boo boo this time around and not all of the milk turned into yogurt. Therefore, it is white because there is milk in it. Oops!
I've found that 3-4 hours is good for a consistency that my family likes. My husband is fond of Yoplait yogurt, so that about the consistency I go for.
By the end of my draining I end up with 1 quart of yogurt and 1 quart of whey. I freeze my whey in ice trays and use it for recipes, lacto-fermenting, and soaking flour/grains.
I sometimes add about 1/4 cup of honey per quart of yogurt. That gives it enough sweetness for my picky husband. Another thing that we like is to make fruit bottom yogurt cups. They are convenient snacks for my daughter and easy fro my husband to pack in his lunch. Not to mention that they are great quick snacks when I'm craving something slightly sweet.
To make yogurt cups we use the 4 oz jelly jars. You could also use the 8 oz wide mouth jelly jars. We put 1 spoonful of homemade jam (made with honey), or 2 spoonfuls of homemade applesauce (no sugar added) and then fill the jar the rest of the way with yogurt (sweetened or not). Put a lid on it and stick it in the fridge until ready to eat! I'm not sure if these will last long with pasteurized milk, so I would recommend only making as many as your family will eat within a few days. Ours will keep for a while, but they rarely hang around longer than a week because we like yogurt.
I have thought about trying yogurt culture packets. There are some types that are supposed to make thicker and sweeter yogurts, but at this time I don't really have the disposable income, so this is what we do for now.
Last, and most importantly, don't forget to save enough yogurt for your next batch! You can freeze it for a couple months if you don't plan to make yogurt again for a little while.
Oops! I forgot to add my cost breakdown. Yours will most likely be different unless you pay the same amount for milk as I do.
1 gallon of raw milk - $7.75
Divided by 2- $3.88
Therefore, I pay $3.88 per quart of yogurt. Remember that after draining we get about half yogurt and half whey. It is slightly more that purchasing organic whole milk yogurt at the store, but it is raw and there are no stabilizers, which is worth the extra dollar to me!
Sugar Detox Week 6 & 7: Reduce natural sugar intake & Reduce Grains
So I got a little busy last week and didn't get to update you on my detox. Last week was week 6: Reduce natural sugar intake. Last week wasn't too bad because we had been preparing for it mentally. Basically, you're supposed to limit your added natural sugar to 1 teaspoon per day. My husband made an adjustment and made it 2 teaspoons per day because he has 2 cups of coffee in the morning. That is an amazing improvement from the 2 tablespoons he usually puts in each cup of coffee :-)
I will confess that we did break our detox a couple times. Friday was our niece and nephew's birthday celebration and we felt compelled to go simply because we have avoided mostly all family functions involving dessert (which is the majority of them) for the past 6 weeks! We did have cake and it was made from a box so not only did we eat something bad, my daughter ate soy, which she is allergic to. She has been having a harder time with her seasonal allergies since then :-(
On top of that, Saturday was my husband and my 5 year wedding anniversary, so we decided to break detox and have a nice dinner at Steak N Shake followed by a movie where we had candy and soda. My husband thinks I'm crazy, but that soda seemed sweeter than usual, it was almost gross. Almost! We did throw away all of our extras so that we wouldn't be tempted to eat them later.
Ok, now I've confessed and now we are back on track, although I fear that I may have ruined all of my hard work because I could swear that I was experiencing die off last week. All week I was having terrible stomach and intestinal pain. While I do experience it on occasion, it just wouldn't let up! I am still having some of that pain, so perhaps I didn't completely do myself in.
Now for this week. Week 7: Reduce grains. Basically the goal is to have 1 meal a day without grains or starches. The reasoning is that grains and starches do still cause an increase in blood sugar and the goal of this detox is to break your body's addiction to that increase. That is why we cut the really bad sugars first. The refined sugars cause more of an increase. Now we are limiting the increase from healthy sugars. I will be focusing on 1 meal per day. My husband on the other hand, due to his need to pack a lunch and our need to keep within our grocery budget, will be doing 1 meal every other day. Basically, I will make dinner without and grains or starches every other day and then I will eat a lunch without grains or starches on the in between days. I may need to make a meal plan, which I should be doing anyways. Oh well!
Tonight we are going to be having spaghetti made with spaghetti squash. If you've never had it before, it is delicious. The spaghetti squash is a bit crunchier than spaghetti pasta, but still very tasty. I make my own sauce, so I don't have to worry about added sugar and it is very easy to make!
Homemade Spaghetti Sauce:
1-2 Tbl Oil (I like Olive Oil)
1 lb. ground meat (We like sausage)
1-2 cloves of garlic
1/2 c. chopped onion
2- 15 oz cans tomato sauce (I make my own due to my daughter's soy allergy)
1 Tbl Italian seasoning
Put the oil in a large pot or pan with a lid. Your pot needs to have a wide bottom to accommodate the amount of meat. Break up the meat into the pot and brown. Once it is brown add the garlic and onion and cook until the onion is translucent and tender. Next pour in your tomato sauce and your Italian seasoning. Stir until well combined. Let simmer for at least 30 minutes before serving. If you want your sauce thicker, let it simmer uncovered for a while until the extra liquids evaporate. If you want it thinner, you can either add more tomato sauce or add some water. If you want it chunkier, you can either chop up some ripe tomatoes to throw in or you can use diced tomatoes instead of tomato sauce.
This is a very basic spaghetti sauce, but my husband raves about it :-)
Do you have any grain/starch free meals that you prepare? I need some ideas!
I will confess that we did break our detox a couple times. Friday was our niece and nephew's birthday celebration and we felt compelled to go simply because we have avoided mostly all family functions involving dessert (which is the majority of them) for the past 6 weeks! We did have cake and it was made from a box so not only did we eat something bad, my daughter ate soy, which she is allergic to. She has been having a harder time with her seasonal allergies since then :-(
On top of that, Saturday was my husband and my 5 year wedding anniversary, so we decided to break detox and have a nice dinner at Steak N Shake followed by a movie where we had candy and soda. My husband thinks I'm crazy, but that soda seemed sweeter than usual, it was almost gross. Almost! We did throw away all of our extras so that we wouldn't be tempted to eat them later.
Ok, now I've confessed and now we are back on track, although I fear that I may have ruined all of my hard work because I could swear that I was experiencing die off last week. All week I was having terrible stomach and intestinal pain. While I do experience it on occasion, it just wouldn't let up! I am still having some of that pain, so perhaps I didn't completely do myself in.
Now for this week. Week 7: Reduce grains. Basically the goal is to have 1 meal a day without grains or starches. The reasoning is that grains and starches do still cause an increase in blood sugar and the goal of this detox is to break your body's addiction to that increase. That is why we cut the really bad sugars first. The refined sugars cause more of an increase. Now we are limiting the increase from healthy sugars. I will be focusing on 1 meal per day. My husband on the other hand, due to his need to pack a lunch and our need to keep within our grocery budget, will be doing 1 meal every other day. Basically, I will make dinner without and grains or starches every other day and then I will eat a lunch without grains or starches on the in between days. I may need to make a meal plan, which I should be doing anyways. Oh well!
Tonight we are going to be having spaghetti made with spaghetti squash. If you've never had it before, it is delicious. The spaghetti squash is a bit crunchier than spaghetti pasta, but still very tasty. I make my own sauce, so I don't have to worry about added sugar and it is very easy to make!
Homemade Spaghetti Sauce:
1-2 Tbl Oil (I like Olive Oil)
1 lb. ground meat (We like sausage)
1-2 cloves of garlic
1/2 c. chopped onion
2- 15 oz cans tomato sauce (I make my own due to my daughter's soy allergy)
1 Tbl Italian seasoning
Put the oil in a large pot or pan with a lid. Your pot needs to have a wide bottom to accommodate the amount of meat. Break up the meat into the pot and brown. Once it is brown add the garlic and onion and cook until the onion is translucent and tender. Next pour in your tomato sauce and your Italian seasoning. Stir until well combined. Let simmer for at least 30 minutes before serving. If you want your sauce thicker, let it simmer uncovered for a while until the extra liquids evaporate. If you want it thinner, you can either add more tomato sauce or add some water. If you want it chunkier, you can either chop up some ripe tomatoes to throw in or you can use diced tomatoes instead of tomato sauce.
This is a very basic spaghetti sauce, but my husband raves about it :-)
Do you have any grain/starch free meals that you prepare? I need some ideas!
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