Sourdough Starter

I'm super excited to start my own sourdough starter! I have read a ton of articles and watched a few videos to get a technique and finally settled on the pineapple juice method.

Why that one? I don't have ideal conditions. It would be better if it were a warm summer day and I could put my starter by an open window. Instead, it's the middle of winter and we keep the house on the cool side. I figure if I'm going to try to lure some wild yest to my starter I better give it something it can't resist - sticky sweet pineapple juice!

It seams everyone has their own unique way of getting their starter going and its a bit confusing to sort out the "best" method. I've decided to jump in and try this one. If it fails, I'll just try another!

Day 1
I have taken a can of pineapples with no sugar or preservatives and mixed it up in my Vitamix.

(Yes!! I got a Vitamix for Christmas and I am having so much fun with it!!!  More Vitamix posts to come.)

I have washed out my non-metal tools in hot soapy water and rinsed in filtered water (no chlorine). I'm not sure if that step matters but I didn't want chlorine in my bowl killing my good wild yeast!!

I've put 1/2 cup of organic whole wheat flour into my ceramic bowl. I've added about 1 cup of pineapple juice to get the right consistency.

(I would have needed only 1/2 cup if it was thin strained juice and not blended up pineapple bits to thicken the juice.)

I mixed it with a wooden spoon, put a clean dish towel on top and left it alone for 12 hours. This was approximately 10 am.

Here it is sitting on top of this room heater (It's not hot on top).

So, at 10 pm I gave my mixture a stir and FED it with more flour and juice (about 1/4 cup of each this time).

This feeding must continue twice a day about 12 hours apart.

Day 2
Nothing interesting happening yet. I completed another morning and evening feed.

Day 3
It's 7 am and I am peering into my started dish looking for signs of life. I don't really see bubbles but I do think the mixture has grown in volume - could that be a sign? I smell the mixture repeatedly and decide that yes, the smell has changed. I don't know what sourdough is suppose to smell like but considering the thing is full of sweet pineapple juice, it certainly doesn't smell pineapple-y or sweet. It smells kind of neutral and light, maybe a bit floury. So, I'm convinced something is happening. I give it a big stir, send out a little prayer and tuck it back in under its dish towel.
                                
                                                                            * * *
I just completed the morning feeding. This time I had to take out 1/4 cup before doing anything as the starter was filling up most of my bowl. I put in my usual 1/4 cup of flour and a bit more than 1/4 cup of pineapple juice.

I was suppose to continue the pineapple juice in my feedings for the first 3 days, then switch to water and flour after that. However, I just used up the last of my juice (since I spilled some yesterday! oops!@&^!!) So for this evening, I will scoop 1/4 cup out again and compost it and put in a new 1/4 cup of flour and 1/4 cup of water.

Day 4

Well, I was feeling unhappy about my starter.

I thought I could see bubbles, but the dish I was using didn't allow me a good look. I did a bit more reading online and decided to switch to a glass mason jar. I also put a coffee filter on top rather than the thick towel.

I think these improvements will help as I can see what's going on much better and the filter lets more air pass into the starter.

Day 5

I got fancy and gave my starter a touch of molasses with this evenings feed. There are definitely bubbles and signs of life.

Oh, and by the way, now that the starter is ALIVE, it has become very intriguing for my 8-year-old so he now helps me feed the starter and has given him a name - Michealangelo!

Plus, he drew a cute little face on the jar :)

Michealangelo

Day 6 

SUCCESS!!!!!!!!

I am SO excited! This morning when I got up the mixture looked quite different. It was FULL of bubbles. They were actively rising and popping. The colour had darkened slightly, some water separated out a bit on top and it had a more intense smell (sort of like beer). This is sourdough starter!

I am convinced that the molasses made the difference. The yeast seams to love it!

Word of caution though... I have un-sulfured molasses. If you buy the kind that does contain sulfur it will KILL YOUR YEAST. Check and double check!!

So, not only had that worked out, but my wheat berries had also sprouted in their little jar. So without further ado, I blended my sprouted wheat in the vitamix with water, and put the resulting blend plus starter, flour, sea salt, and molasses, into a big bowl and mixed up my first batch of bread.

I put the mixture in a bread pan and left it in the oven with the oven light on to keep it warm so it would rise while I went about my day. Now I have good news and bad news....

The good news: 
This starter is powerful stuff! After 6 hours the mixture was light and fluffy and full of air bubbles and had risen very, very well!

The bad news:
My bread tin wasn't big enough to handle all that rising and it overflowed all over the bottom of my oven :(.

So I transfered the dough to 2 smaller pans (loosing some fluffyness and height in the process) and baked those pans of bread for 45 mins.

When they came out, they were lovely! The crust was crispy but the inside was soft with a pretty lattice of air holes. The only down side is they were both "short".

It would have been great if the loaf was baked in one nice, tall bread pan. Now I have 2 loaves of bread that are about half the height a loaf of bread should be. Not great for sandwiches or toast.

It was, however, wonderful with dinner... sliced up fresh and still warm with pats of butter melting on the slices of bread at the sides of our plates.

Many lessons learned today...
And for tomorrow -- Pancakes!

update: Things are running smoothly with the sourdough starter. I've been making bread, pancakes and pizza with it! I still keep it on my counter since it's still "young". After a while I will start keeping it in the fridge when I'm not using it.

Apple & Butternut Squash Soup

I was excited to use my new bone broth for soup and thought butternut squash with apple would be just the ticket.

Recipes for this soup usually call for peeled and cubed butternut squash but I find it really hard to peel. Whenever I try it the peeler slips and I end up banging my knuckles on the cutting board or somehow injuring myself. Instead, I am a fan of cooking it first and then pulling off the skin. So that's how this recipe goes!

Ingredients:

1 large butternut squash
2 tbs butter
1 large onion
2 carrots
2 ribs of celery
2 apples
3 cups bone broth
2 cups water
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp cracked black pepper
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Before making the soup you need to have some bone broth ready and you'll want to roast your squash...

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Slice the butternut squash in half and place cut side up on a baking sheet.
Cook from 40 mins to 1 hour, until tender.

Okay so I cut my squash before it cooled... you can see the steam! And I also have 1 and 1/2 squashes here because I had an extra 1/2 squash in the fridge and didn't want to waste it :)

Let the squash cool. I like to score it into cubes (don't cut through the skin), then peel the skin off the back of the cubes. Set your cubes aside.

(While my squash is baking I do the prep work for the rest of the soup.)

And on with the soup....

Put a large, heavy-bottomed pot on low heat. Add 2 tbs of butter.

Add chopped onion, carrot, celery. Stir into melted butter and cook med-low heat for approx. 5 mins.

Peel and chop apples and add to pot. Toss in cooked butternut squash.

Add bone broth and water and bring to a nice simmer. Let it cook for about 10 mins (longer if your sqaush wasn't roasted to the point of being soft).

Empty the pot into a blender if you have one large enough. If you have to blend in batches, empty the pot into a large bowl first. This will give you the chance to rinse out your pot.

Puree your soup in blender and put the puree back into the clean pot.

Turn the burner on low to heat the soup back up to desired temperature.

Now it's time to add the spices. I gave measurements as a guide, but you may want more or less of something. I like to add, taste, repeat as necessary.

Use a wire whisk to mix in the spices so they don't clump together.

Serve hot and enjoy.

Easy Chicken Bone Broth

I have read lots of bone broth recipes and although the concept is simple, I ended up overwhelming myself with all the information. I didn't know where or how to start. Finally (thankfully) I decided to just give it a go and see how it turns out.

I may add to or change my methods later. For example, I may venture into chicken feet for the coveted gelatin. And I may learn the "perpetual bone broth" method. But I'm not there yet. I wanted a simple way to get started, and here it is.

1) As you make meals with whole chickens or bone-in chicken meat, freeze the left over bones after the meat is used.

I have a large zip lock bag in my freezer and I add to it when I have bones.

2) Once you have enough bones, dump the bag into your crock pot.

I have enough to fill the crock pot 3/4 full.


3) Add enough water to cover the bones.

I used 8 cups of water.


4) Add 2 tbs of vinegar to help get the most minerals out of the bones.

Apple cider vinegar is said to add the best flavour, so that's what I went with.


5) Add some veggies. This can be cut up whole veggies or kitchen scraps.

The classic broth veggies, and the ones I've added are: onion, carrot, celery.

6) Turn the crock pot on LOW and let it simmer for 24 hours. If you need to, leave the lid half off to keep it from boiling.

7) Strain your broth and drink a small cup of it with dinner. (Or use it as a soup base, or as the liquid to cook things such as rice... the uses are endless.)

If you have more than you want to use, go ahead and freeze it in mason jars and thaw when needed.

Be sure to toss the bones you strained right back into the crock pot and get a couple more batches out of it. How many? I'm not sure yet, but from what I've read 3 or 4 more batches can be expected but the flavour won't be as strong as the first batch. 

Getting Started

I'm new to Blogger (I'm still working out the details of how to build a blog!) and I'm new to many of the cooking and prepping techniques discussed on the blog. I've always been interested in healthy eating but my understanding of healthy has slowly changed over the years.

I guess I've been slowing waking up to some realities. Issues that some informed and concerned people have been talking about for years are really sinking in. Maybe it's my advancing years (I'm in my mid-thirties haha!) or maybe it's watching my children grow... but something has changed in me.

These are the things I find myself thinking about...

1) I am in charge of my own health and well being. No one else is going to do it. Whether or not I am healthy is largely in my own hands.

2) I am also in charge of my children's health and well being. At least while they are young. Not only am I responsible for nourishing their bodies so they can grow and develop I am also responsible for teaching them. I am setting patterns and teaching healthy eating behaviour as well as passing down knowledge of proper food preparation.

3) Like many women, I am the (health) protector of the whole family. As the primary cook, gardener, and shopper, I am the one who has been given the task of watching out for the whole family's nourishment. My dear husband who works long hours and also spends most of his free time with our family and working on the house is counting on me in this area.

4) I cannot count on some mystical notion of a health "watchdog" to ensure our family's food is safe. It's up to me to look into what I feed my family. The more I've learned, the more I know how naive I was.

5) As a community member, I have a role to play in supporting local farmers, especially those employing organic farming methods.

6) As a member of the human race, I have a role to play in learning about sustainability and supporting groups that are trying to make a difference. I can also learn to waste less food with better meal planning.

So, with those things in mind, I endevor to provide healthy meals for my family :)


This site is a place for me to post recipes that are tried and true, newly learned, and everything in between. So I can...

Find my favourite healthy recipes easily!

No more digging through notebooks and scraps of papers or reading scribbles in the margins of old recipe books with details on changes/substitutions I've made.

Post my own creations! 

The best part of learning to cook is being creative! I have had a wonderful time trying out ideas and building confidence with making my own recipes.

Communicate with others!

I'm hoping to hear from those of you who know better than I about homemade goodness. I'd love it if you could offer tips and tricks that I haven't yet learned.

I'm also hoping that those who are just learning like me will share their experiences.

And maybe, just maybe, I can be of service to others who would like to try some homemade, whole food recipes and who are in need of some inspiration.

Homemade Applesauce

Nothing makes a kitchen smell better than apples cooking on the stove. And it's also about the easiest thing to make.
There's nothin' to it! You'll never go back to store-bought applesauce once you've made your own.

Take out a few apples and chop them into chunks, cubes, whatever.
Remove the core and stems.

I buy organic apples because we eat so many of them, but if you are using regular apples you should peel them first.

This pot contains 3 chopped organic apples.

Put them in a pot on medium heat and add enough water to barely cover them.

Bring them to a gentle boil and let them cook until fork tender, about 10 minutes.

Take them off the heat and let them cool a bit. Then transfer to a blender and pulse a few times to get the consistency you like. (If you had peeled them, you could just mash them with a potato masher right in the pot.)

Finished applesauce.

Note 1: I don't like mine to be too watery, so I lift my cooked apples out of the remaining water with a slotted spoon and transfer to the blender instead of dumping in apples and water together.
(But save that water for soaking grains or nuts!)

Note 2: Its lovely plain, but you could also add a sprinkling of cinnamon before blending.

And that's it.

I'm sure you could put it in a jar or covered dish and it would keep in the fridge for a while... but I have never made any that didn't get eaten up right away!

A Use for Eggshells

We eat a lot of eggs! I didn't want to keep wasting our eggshells, so I put them aside and looked for something I could do with them. Then I found the perfect use for our home.... put them in the garden!

It seams that you can drop a scoop of crushed egg shells into the hole before you add your plants. This is especially good for tomato plants as they require lots of calcium in the soil. And eggshells are made of.... calcium!

You can also drop them into your compost pile.

To crush the eggshells, I used my mortar and pestle.

These are the shells from 1 dozen eggs

All crushed up

This medium freezer bag holds the shells from 10 dozen eggs.

Once I finished crushing my eggshells, I put them in a freezer bag to keep in the freezer for the rest of the Winter (I did this in December). I may do a couple more bags up before planting in the Spring.

I will be sure to provide an update after I plant my garden to report on using the eggshells!!

Let me know if you have a favourite use for eggshells....

Baked Pears

I had some ripe pears that I wanted to use up before they became overripe and decided to try baking them.
Lets see how this turns out...

Ingredients:

2 ripe pears

A spoonful of real maple syrup

A sprinkling of cinnamon

A handful of walnuts


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Slice pears lengthwise, discard cores and stems.

Place them into a glass pie plate or other cook wear.

Sprinkle cinnamon, drizzle maple syrup, and top with walnuts.

Bake until the pears are tender, approx. 25 minutes.

Here's my ingredients and the pears ready for the oven. That's my baby girl in the background!

Fresh from the oven!

They've just come out of the oven, pipping hot, and smelling beautifully!
Here goes the first bite...  this is really nice!

But the big test -- will my 8-year old like it?

Well, he ate one slice and said it was okay, but didn't want any more.
I'm a little disappointed... but more for Mummy then!

UPDATE: Little M decided to have a bowl of pears before bed after all. He still just classifies them as "okay" though.

Soaking Oats

If you've been reading Nourishing Traditions, and you want to soak your oats, it's really quite easy to do. (I learned how here on Just Making Noise's blog).

Why soak them? According to Nourishing Traditions author, Sally Fallon, all grains contain phytic acid (and oatmeal is particularly high) which is a substance present in the bran of all grains that inhibits absorption of calcium, magnesium, iron, copper and zinc. Soaking (and also sprouting) helps to neutralize phytic acid.

Now I am in the habit of having some on the go all the time. Here's how I do it...

1: Warm 4 cups of water in saucepan on the stove (don't let it boil). It should feel like bathwater.

2: Pour 4 cups of oats (the slow-cook kind) into a non-metal bowl.

3: Add the warm water to bowl of oats.

4: Add 8 Tbs of Whey.

I use my left over whey from making yogurt. Just put the whey in a mason jar and keep in the fridge.

5: Mix it up and put a plate on top to keep the mixture clean.

Let it sit for 24 hours. Don't even think about it!

This is my whey, and jar of oats... and ceramic bowl.
(And that's my helper in the background!)

All mixed up.

Covered and ready to stick in a corner on my counter.

When finished, you can spread it out on parchment paper that has been rubbed with a bit of coconut oil and bake it in the oven at 250 F for 2 hours.

Turn it over with a spatula and cook another 2 hours.

(I find, I can loosen the oats from the parchment paper by running a spatula between them and then I can lift the oats as one big piece and flip it over.) When it's dry on both sides, it's done. If it's still "rubbery" cook it a little longer.

Afterwards, just break up into chucks and put them in the blender to grind into flake-size pieces.

Soaked, dried oats used for cereal.

Here is an example of some of my oats when soaked and dried. I keep them in a glass gar in the cupboard.

I use these "Soaked and Ready Oats" as they are called on Just Making Noise's blog as Cereal.

For use as Homemade Cereal, I add some chia seeds, some sliced almonds and pour cold milk over it all. Let sit for 1 minute and the consistency is like store-bought cereal.

I also use these oats in Mirko's Lunch Box Cookies.

Lunch Box Cookies

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
(Made with Pre-soaked Oats and uses Homemade Applesauce instead of sugar.)

These cookies aren't overly sweet, so they're great for a mid-morning snack. Actually, that's just why I make them... to pack in my son's school lunch box for his mid-morning break. I don't want him hopped up on sugar at school AND I want to send some nutrition and fuel to bridge breakfast and lunch... Enter the low-sugar, nutritious, school lunch box cookie!

This recipe is a modified version of the one found here at Cheeseslave and is inspired by the philosophy of Nourishing Traditions (although I have not yet learned to sprout my own flour).



They contain two things you need to plan ahead for...

1: You'll want to soak your oats. That takes 24 hours.
See Soaking Oats post.

Why soak them? According to Nourishing Traditions author, Sally Fallon, all grains contain phytic acid (and oatmeal is particularly high) which is a substance present in the bran of all grains that inhibits absorption of calcium, magnesium, iron, copper and zinc. Soaking (and also sprouting) helps to neutralize phytic acid.

2: You'll want to make homemade applesauce. Yep, you will.
It's easy to make, it's delicious when it's fresh, and it makes your kitchen smell amazing.
See Homemade Applesauce post.

Now you can go ahead and make your cookies!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup butter
1 tsp real vanilla extract
4 eggs

1 cup organic whole wheat flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 tbs chia seeds
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt

2 1/2 cups of soaked and dried oats
1 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

 Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Cream butter and applesauce in mixer. Add vanilla, eggs, beat well.

Mix coconut flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, chia seeds, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a bowl then add to wet ingredients in your mixer.

This will smell heavenly due to the combination of coconut flour and freshly cooked apples. Seriously.

These are the soaked and dried oats.

Stir in soaked and dried oats, shredded coconut, and chocolate chips.

Mix it all up on low speed.

Drop onto ungreased cookie sheets. Press flat with your fork.

Bake for 15 minutes (check them after 12 in case they are done to your liking then since ovens vary).

Let cool. Lift off with spatula.

 

Stack carefully into freezer bags and put in freezer. (After scarfing down a few sample cookies!)
I take them out of the freezer as I'm making lunches. They are thawed in time for morning break.

Makes 50 cookies.

 Enjoy!