Nikki says, “This soup has a sweet and savory balance: sweet potatoes, spinach, homemade broth and sausage combine to give you a nourishing meal that warms you from the inside out!” Curious? Check out Nikki’s recipe for Sweet Potato Soup!
I read somewhere (sorry, can’t remember where) that one of the biggest food trends in 2012 is making your own dairy products. You know, yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese, cream cheese, etc. Make-your-own-cheese kits are popping up in local grocery stores, and more than a few bloggers have posted yogurt cheese and whey tutorials.
What’s driving this interest?I don’t know. But I admit I’m one of the people that’s riding this wave to see where it goes! Before I ever even read the article about 2012 food trends, I had already decided for myself that this year that I would try my hand at making my own dairy products this year! I’ve actually already started on the process and am now an old hand at yogurt cheese (and whey!) but I have bigger mountains to climb.
In case you’re interested in being a dairymaid for a day (or even for the rest of your life), here are some tutorials that I plan to use to help me along the way.
Cream Cheese/Yogurt Cheese & Whey This is a great place to start for any dairy newbie. It’s SO easy! Don’t do it, though, if you need cream/yogurt cheese right this minute, cause it kind of takes all day. But the part where you actually have to be involved is approximately 30 seconds.
Crock Pot Yogurt I actually already make my own yogurt, and I do it the lazy way, with a machine. But a list of dairy tutorials would simply not be complete without one for yogurt. So here you have it: yogurt in your crock pot!
Mozzarella Absolutely my all-time favorite cheese ever. I would love to make this at home!
20-Minute Goat Cheese Another favorite that’s too expensive to buy (except at Costco where it’s pretty cheap).
Sunflower Milk Yogurt I’ve started experimenting with this, and have a ways to go. I guess that it’s technically not a dairy product, but at this point, it’s the closest thing my boys will get to yogurt! I used to make coconut milk yogurt, but since Baby Boy is allergic to coconut, that is no longer an option.
Creme Fraiche Basically cultured cream and seemingly very easy to make.
Butter These days, it’s probably the easiest dairy product to make because it no longer requires a churn. Just a KitchenAid!
Ghee Once you’ve made your butter, you can boil it down to ghee!
I’m also on the lookout for the following tutorials:
Cottage Cheese
Cultured Butter
If you have a blog post about any of those, or another dairy product you think I might like to try, please let me know!
I will keep you all posted as I experiment with these various dairy products, and let you know how it goes.
Link up to any of our blogs with your favorite healthy post!
This week it was my privilege to choose my favorite 3 submissions from last week’s H2W. You guys. Seriously. You made it so hard on me! I had a really tough time picking my favorites, but here goes:
I’ve seen recipes for this particular kind of cleanser before, but this is the first time I actually understood the directions. And now, I want to try it again, now that I know what I’m doing!
And just so you three know… you’ve been pinned, Facebooked and Tweeted! Oh, and Stumbled. Cause you’re just that good.
Rules for this Link-Up:
Share an idea, tip, recipe, things to avoid, something new to try, natural remedy, alternative medicine, going “green” tips, etc. that will help us to remain or become more healthy!
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Comment on another participant’s post.
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Spread the word so we can learn more ideas on keep our families healthy; feel free to share on Facebook or Twitter.
Ideas: homebirths, natural remedies, an interesting article, something eco-friendly, a review, natural cleaner, alternative or holistic approaches to health, how to’s, the list goes on & on!
If you are adding a recipe, make sure the ingredients do not include white flour, refined sugar, processed products, packages products (unless it is clearly stated or pictures that it is organic or all natural) and the like. We are looking for whole food recipes that are beneficial to our health!
If you’re not participating today, I hope you’ll come back & join in next week!
Anyone who’s been around here for a while knows of my love affair with 5 Minute Artisan Bread. I truly believe it is the easiest way for the average home cook/chef/baker to make their own delicious, healthy bread for their family. It saves money, and it really is pretty much the quickest way to make bread.
But to be honest, I rarely make loaves with it. Plain old sliced bread is just so yesterday. Instead, I usually make sliders , dinner rolls, pizza crust, pocket sandwiches or flatbread with it. Each option is so super simple and a lot less fussy than a loaf of bread. You know, all those technical terms about crumb and crust and fermentation blah blah blah. I’m not into all that. It takes too much time, effort, and skill that I just don’t have.
I always – always – have a batch of this dough in the fridge, ready at a moment’s notice for whatever bread-like goodness I want to whip up, which just adds to its attractive qualities. Recently, I found yet one more use for this amazing bread dough: mini flatbreads. They are reminiscent of sandwich thins, although not exactly the same thing because the official sandwich thins are technically smooshed rolls, and these are definitely flatbreads. Two different things.
But I like to think these are even better. Flatbread is my favorite all time form of bread because it’s so soft, and yet a bit chewy. But it doesn’t necessarily make a great sandwich because it’s usually too thick to fold effectively like a tortilla into a taco or burrito shape. And way too floppy to stack on top of another piece to form a real sandwich shape. Enter the mini flatbread: all the yummy taste and texture of traditional flatbread, but miniaturized to make the perfect sturdy little sandwich.
Trust me. It’s way better than sliced bread.
Flatbread Sandwich Thins
Ingredients
8 oz (or about 2 cups) white whole wheat flour
8 oz (or about 2 cups) all-purpose unbleached white flour
1 TBSP yeast
1/2 TBSP salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger, optional
12 oz (or 1.5 cups) lukewarm water
Instructions
Measure the dry ingredients into a very large bowl. Whisk together.
Stir in the water until well combined. This might take a little oomph, but when the dough starts to get just a bit on the sticky side, you’ve accomplished your mission.
Allow the dough to rest at least a couple hours (I usually let it sit all day); it will rise and fall. Just let it do it’s thing.
Cover the bowl loosely and store in the fridge until you need it. (It’s easier to work with the next day.)
To make the mini flatbreads, sprinkle the dough with a bit of flour. Pinch off a small piece and form a ball; it should be maybe 1.5″ in circumference, and you should be able to hold the ball in your palm and curl your fingers around it. The size is the most important thing here. Too large and it will be too floppy; start smaller than you think and adjust from there.
Pat the ball into a round disk and place it on a lightly floured surface. Gently roll it into a circle about 2.5-3″ in diameter.
Heat a frying pan over high heat (no oil). Place the flatbread on the pan and cook until bubbles form on the top. Flip and cook briefly on the other side. Remove from heat, and continue with remaining dough.
Notes:
The ginger is a dough conditioner and is totally optional. It does not add flavor.
You can also use 1 or 2 TBSP of orange juice as part of the liquid; according to King Arthur Flour, orange juice improves the texture of whole-wheat-flour bread dough. Once again, it doesn’t affect the flavor.
You can make a few flatbreads at a time, as you need them, and store the remaining dough in the fridge.
This recipe is halved. You can double it all except the yeast, which only increases to 1.5 TBSP.
This recipe really is truly best when the ingredients are weighed. I use the EatSmart Digital Kitchen Scale. I also like to sift the flour through a mesh strainer as I’m pouring it into the bowl; it really creates a lighter finished product.
Fill your mini flatbreads with whatever filling you would normally put between regular sandwich bread slices!
Don’t be put off by the lengthy instructions and storing bread dough in the fridge: this really is QUICK! Stove-top flatbread is pretty much the quickest ever way to make bread. And making the dough easily becomes part of your weekly (or bi-weekly) routine; at least it has for me!
It is soooo incredibly EASY also. If loaf bread scares you, then try this!
Making your own bread is so much CHEAPer than buying it. I typically buy 10 lbs of flour every 6 weeks, and it costs me (at most) $6.00. This flour not only makes all my bread, but all my other baked goods as well. So my DH and myself get all our bread (including dinner rolls and pizza crusts) for less than $1 a week. (My children are another story. Let’s not discuss the cost of wheat-free flours.)
And it goes without saying that this bread is considerably HEALTHY-er than the vast majority of breads available in the store. And the ones that might be healthier are also quite heftily expensive, so take that into consideration.
I am so glad we’re doing this soup series now! For one thing, I am freezing my tail off even inside my apartment (I am no engineer, but I’m seriously beginning to wonder if that earthquake did some damage to the building structure! When it’s cold outside…. it’s cold inside!). Soup is just the thing to warm me up. For another, I have been in such a soup rut – potato soup and chicken noodle soup have been taking turns on my menu rotation for a while. Time for some inspiration!
A large part of frugality is being careful about what you spend. You know, don’t waste your grocery money on Twinkies and Oreos and then say you can’t afford organic fruits and vegetables.
But an often overlooked aspect of frugality is being careful with what you already have. As our grandparents said, “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” Our generation is just starting to grasp this concept, but we’ve got a long way to go. Take a clue from those who lived through the Depression and the Great War, and learn to use up every last bit of everything before you throw it out.
Trash into treasure. Something from nothing. It’s like you’re a magician.
The process is pretty simple. All you have to do is this:
If your orange is not organic, wash it very carefully before peeling it.
Peel your orange (or clementine, or tangerine) and eat it. Yum, yum!
Take the pieces of the peel and lay them on a plate. Leave them there for about 24 hours.
Run the dried orange peel through a coffee grinder (A clean coffee grinder, please. You don’t want coffee grinds mixed in with your dried orange zest!)
Store in an empty spice container (see all the trash you’re turning into treasure?!)
You can also store the dried orange peels in their entirety, and just grind them as you need them. Whatever’s easiest!
The people who know (those gourmet foodie types) recommend removing the pith (that white stuff that sticks to the inside of the peel) to avoid a bitter aftertaste in your orange zest. This is great advice that I usually don’t follow. Personally, I think it’s only a real issue if you’re going to simmer the peels for a long time in something like broth or spiced cider. (Or maybe it’s because I only ever use clementines. I hate oranges with a passion, mostly because they have a lot more pith and membrane than clementines. I mean, by the time you get to the good stuff, you’ve discarded half the orange!) But if you want to take that extra step, I actually recommend that you remove the pith after it’s dried and not before. It scrapes off really easily with the back of a small paring knife when it’s dry. At least with clementines. As I mentioned, I have no experience with real oranges because I avoid them like the plague. (Maybe I should retitle this post “Dried Clementine Zest”. Hmmm.)
Now what to do with those orange-y bits of goodness? Use them pretty much in the same way you would use fresh orange zest. Here are some of my favorite uses:
stirred into any batter (cake, cookie, brownie, etc.)
as a garnish
in fruit dip
in marinades
The possibilities are practically endless! Anywhere you want a little orange flavor, throw in your dried orange zest and voila! Instant orange clementine yumminess.
What’s your favorite something-from-nothing trick?
* QUICK - because who has time for anything more?
* EASY - because I'm no gourmet.
* CHEAP - because who has money for anything more?
* HEALTHY - because you are what you eat.
