Curried Kolhrabi Noodles

I've discovered the joy of a vegetable spiralizer and have turned all the veggies I can into noodles lately. My most recent obsession is kohlrabi noodles. Fresh at the farmer's market right now, they have that sweet and slightly spicy flavor paired with a nice crunch that makes a truly delectable noodle. Kolhrabi pairs nicely with Indian curry spice. Here's what's on my dinner plate tonight!

2 large kolhrabi bulbs peeled, spiralized

1 tbs coconut oil

1 tbs curry

1 tbs cumin

1 tbs garlic powder

1 tsp sea salt

Heat the oil in a large skillet, add noodles. Slowly sprinkle spices on and stir to evenly coat the noodles. Cover and let cook at medium heat for 5 minutes, checking once or twice to stir. Check to see if noodles are at your desired consistency. We like them slightly crunchy.

Yum! 

Hidden liver beef skillet dish

I've been looking to up the amount of folate rich foods in my meals lately as a part of my preconception perpetration. Chicken livers are one of the richest sources of folate and in a form that is extremely recognizable and usable for our bodies. I don't however just make myself food, it has to be something the rest of the family likes too. Luckily tallow toddler doesn't know that liver isn't everyone's favorite since it was once of his first foods. My husband on the other hand needs it hidden. So this afternoon I threw this meal together last minute for everyone's lunch using what we had on hand. Let me know if you give it a try! It was a big hit at my house. 

1 lb ground beef

.5lb chicken liver puréed 

1 bunch chard chopped

2 large carrots grated

1 bunch green onions diced

1 bunch parsley chopped

1.5 tbsp onion powder

1.5 tsp garlic powder

1 tbsp oregano

2 tbsp dried basil

Salt and pepper to taste 

1 26.46 oz carton chopped tomato

1 tbsp coconut oil 

In a large skillet heat your oil medium heat and brown the ground beef. While it is cooking, grate carrots, chop veg. Add spices and when cooked through add tomatoes. Now add puréed chicken liver mix well to combine, cook another 2-3 minutes on medium heat, don't let it get too hot. Nutrients are sensitive to hear in the livers so cook gently. Add vegetables and stir well, allow to cook another minute or two until greens are bright green. Remove from heat and serve! We cooked a small amount of rice in broth and added cultured ghee to the cooked rice before piling on the beef mixture. You can eat this as is or if you need more starch in your meal, rice, sweet potato, winter squash are all great options. This would probably be delicious with plantain chips as well.

Sorry I didn't snap a photo this time, but next time I make it I will try to!

Valentine's around the corner, why not give your sweetheart a dinner that's also good for their heart? Shh, organ meats ahead!

For those that know me, even just casually, it will come as no surprise that my family eats organs meats a lot, er nearly every day that is. By organ meats I mean, liver, heart, kidney, tongue, and every part of the whole animal I can get my hands on. That's because it's were the goods are! The individual organs house nutrients our respective organs need to go about their functions. And as part of a nutrient dense focused ancestral diet, I try to eat foods that are a powerhouse for crucial vitamins and minerals like organ meats. Heart contains all the essential amino acids, selenium, zinc, phosphorous and CoQ10.  Co-enzyme Q10 has been heralded as a powerful fighter of free radicals, energy booster, immune supporter, it may even help lower blood pressure, prevent blood clots and decrease fluid in the lungs and swelling in the legs. Heart also contains more collagen and elastin than most other cuts of meat, so if you want that healthy, supple skin have a serving or two of these heart burgers!

In honor of Valentine's day (my actual least favorite holiday by the way, but I'll set aside my differences for the sake of a good recipe) I thought it was fitting to share one of our favorite ways to incorporate heart into our diet. Heart burgers! My partner was really wary of organ meats and I mean couldn't be in the house when I cooked them, don't tell me what I'm eating kind of grossed out and these burgers are his favorite. He even brags to guests about how good they are and that anyone and everyone he meets should give heart a try. He is a heart convert and the man can evangelize some Co-enzyme Q-10 rich food like no other. So without further ado, here is the magic that is heart burgers.

Flavor Customizable Heart Burger Template

1 piece of heart weighing roughly 1 lb (you can acquire an entire heart 10lbs or so and cut it down, or have your butcher do that for you)
1 lb ground beef
Here's where it gets fun ;)
Depending on what you are serving you can do the following flavor combos:

1-2 tbsp curry powder (depends on how spicy you want it)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)

or

1 tbsp dried basil
1 tbsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic granules
1 tsp onion powder

or

2 tbsp dried cilantro
1 tbsp coconut aminos
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin

or

1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp dried cilantro
1/4 tsp black pepper

Really the sky is the limit as far as flavoring goes. Experiment with what you like! For instance, with the chili powder variety, you could turn this meal into a taco bowl. The curry could easily become a ground meat with coconut milk poured over cauli rice, or slightly less moist mixture than curry and wrapped in raw or blanched collard leaves.

Ok, so what to do with this heart?! Trim off the silvery looking membrane as best you can. It's optional and according to personal preference whether or not to trim the fat. I personally don't, as you may or may not recall I have a love affair with tallow. ;)

Cut the heart up into manageable chunks and toss them in your food processor. Pulse until the heart is uniform and ground. Add ground heart to a large mixing bowl, add ground beef and preferred spices and mix by hand. Then form into thin small patties. (You'll want small burgers here. No pun intended, but these burgers are fairly hearty and a little goes a long way! You will be surprised at how filling a small amount can be, that's nutrient density for you right there.)

Heat a skillet to medium high with some coconut oil, tallow, lard, butter, whatever your pleasure. Add the patties and cook each side about 2-3 minutes, or until nicely browned.

Let me know if you give these a try and how you assembled your meal! I hope you enjoy them as much as my family does. Here's to heart health!

Sauerkraut Saga Part One

It's been a busy couple of months and I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things after the holidays. Tallow toddler just celebrated his 2nd birthday, shew that was fun and exhausting! And I decided after much trepidation to take a huge leap (for me) and begin the nutritional therapy practitioner certification program. I'm thrilled to be learning so much about what is near and dear to my heart, nutrient dense healing foods. I'm going to be insanely busy the next 9 months, but I plan on utilizing this blog as a tool for sharing and understanding at a deeper level what I am learning. I hope if becomes a tool that is someday very useful to my readers and clients.

Part of getting back into a rhythm for me includes a smooth running kitchen. My stalled kombucha scoby has been happily chugging along the last few weeks and the next step was to get a sauerkraut ferment up and running. I've had complete failure when it comes to sauerkraut fermenting before. So I dug deep, researched both online for others techniques, asked a friend who recently found success, and cross referenced a few books that are now part of my curriculum, Wild Fermentation and Nourishing Traditions. I decided today is the day to dive in and I'm going to share with you my process. Follow along with my next couple of posts to see where this journey takes me. I'm hopeful there is a delectable bowl of kraut waiting for me at the other side of this fermentation rainbow! 

First I gathered my supplies:

Food processor with shredder attachment

Hawaiian pink salt

Several heads and varieties of cabbage (green, red, savoy)

3 gallon ceramic crock 

Small plate

Weight

Cheesecloth and large rubber band

Knife

Large bowl

I think part of the success I had this time was in using the food processed to finely shred the cabbage. I do not have the patience nor skill to chop that much cabbage so finely. It really helps when kneading to release the juices if the cabbage is finely shredded. So if you have one use it, if not no big deal just more work for you! 

I started by coring the cabbage and tossing it all through the processor. Then I emptied the cabbage into a large bowl. I had a few bowls worth of cabbage and just worked in batches. Once I had filled the bowl to the brim I took handfuls and tossed them into the bottom of my crock. Then I sprinkled a generous handful of salt over this layer and start picking up fistfuls of salted cabbage and squeezing. I continued kneading the salted cabbage until the cabbage started to release juice. Then I repeated the process until there was no more cabbage. At this point I was very thankful for the strong forearms of being a massage therapist gives me! 

Once all the cabbage has been salted and kneaded, go ahead and press it down firmly with your fists to press out any air bubbles. Also wipe down the sides ensuring all the cabbage is off the walls. Place a clean plate on top and press down until the brine comes up over the top. Place a clean weight on top (I purchased a weight for this purpose but a boiled rock would do). We want the cabbage completely submerged in this brine, the fermentation is an anaerobic process. Don't worry if the brine doesn't cover the cabbage now, it can take up to 24 hours for the cabbage to release enough juice. If after that time there is still not enough brine, make a solution of 1 tsp salt per 1 cup water and carefully add being sure not to disturb the cabbage. Meaning make sure all cabbage remains under water. Now cover the crock with a piece of cheesecloth and secure with a rubber band. If your crock has a lid use it, mine does not so I am using a cheesecloth to keep flies out. I plan on checking the flavor in about a week, but it could take upwards of 7 weeks. It just depends on how sour you like the taste. 

Check back next week for an update, as the sauerkraut saga continues! Have you made kraut before? What tips for success do you have? 

Pemmican: A nutrient dense food source to go

Pemmican comes from the Cree word, pimikhan, meaning fat. It consists of a 1:1 ratio of ground meat and fat, typically from the tallow of deer, elk, and buffalo. This way of preparing the food was ideal for long travel, particularly in cold weather because it lasts indefinitely and contains the nutrients our bodies need to sustain us should there be no other source of food. Sometimes ground berries would be added such as wild blueberries, chokeberries, cranberries, and etc. The acid from the berries added another preservation component, as well as flavor. 

Meat was sliced into as thin of strips as could be managed then hung over a fire that was allowed to smoke for a bit to ward off flies. Then it would continue to dry without smoke for days until dry. Once dry, the meat was ground into a fine powder. Heated tallow was then poured over the meat and mixed well. The pemmican was usually stored large sack made from rawhide.

When I first started making pemmican, I did so because I was looking for an alternative to eggs for breakfast and I needed a quick, portable snack for myself and my toddler. Some people find the texture of pemmican unsettling, it can be rather mushy. You can adjust the ratios of the fat, meat, berries that you add to get the right consistency. If you have a very powerful blender and get the meat to a fine powder, which you may or may not like. My husband likes it better when the meat still has a bit of texture.

 I have found over time I crave pemmican. There are many recipes for pemmican. Sarah Ballantyne, of The Paleo Mom, has a very interesting take on pemmican which you should definetely check out for more ideas!

Without further ado, here is how I typically make my pemmican:

4 lbs top sirloin or flank steak (the leanest meat you can find) 

4.5 c tallow

2 cups dried berries 

Salt (optional)

You start by freezing your meat, then let it partially though. It is easier to slice thinly if the meat is mostly frozen. You'll need a very sharp knife!

Trim the fat off the meat, the less fat the better. This will help the meat keep longer and not go rancid. 

Slice as thinly as possible. 1/4" will do. 

Then lay the slices single layer on dehydrator sheets. (If you don't have a dehydrator that's ok, just place the meat on a cookie sheet and put in oven on lowest temp, 170, crack the door open.)

It will take about 4-6 hours to have the meat completely dry. You want it very brittle. 

Once the meat is dry, place it in your food processor. I had to do several batches. Grind until the meat is an even consistency. I like to have a few small chunks in mine for texture, to each their own. Measure how many cups of dried meat you have. I ended up with 4.5 cups.

Add your dried berries directly or process them as well to get an even texture. I process mine about half way, for a little chew. I used a mixture of wild blueberries and golden berries.

Next measure an equal amount of tallow as you had dried meat. In my case it was 4.5 cups of tallow. Melt it in a pan on low heat.

Make sure to stir to dissolve all the chunks.

Now pour the melted tallow over your berry/meat mixture and combine well with clean hands. Add salt at this point if you would like. You can check the taste at this point. Salt will help it store as well. 

Store in a lidded container. Depending on how soon you will use it, either store at room temperature, fridge, or freezer. This will store years at room temperature, so I don't bother refrigerating. I hope you enjoy! If you try this recipe leave a comment below. I'd love to hear how it turns out for you! 

Probiotic Sour Gummies

Gummy recipes seem to be all the rage these days and I have a gummy fiend living with me. Tallow toddler also happens to be a huge sour nut and absolutely loves him some "bucha" or kombucha as it's more widely known. So I play around with gummy recipes a lot to satiate his desire.

Gelatin from grass fed cows is rich in glycine which the liver uses to detoxify our bodies. Gelatin also helps to seal and heal the digestive lining of our guts, so these snacks are both delicious and give us a big bump up towards health.

This recipe is a product of what happened to be available in my house today. I tend to make things not very sweet, especially when giving them to my kiddo. I actually only used 1 tsp, you can adjust the sweetness or sourness to your liking.

Probiotic Sour Berry Gummies

3/4 c lemon juice

3/4 kombucha

1 1/2 c raspberry

1-2 TBSP honey

Scant 2/3 c gelatin

Mix lemon juice and raspberries in small sauce pan on medium until the berries soften and the mixture is nearly simmering. Remove from heat, slowly add gelatin while blending with an immersion blender. (You can whisk briskly by hand, just be sure to add very slowly to avoid clumping.) Once the mixture has cooled to body temperature (test with a clean finger) add the kombucha and stir. Pour into a 9 x 13 pan or molds of your choice. You can create of fun shapes. I used a couple of ice cube trays. The sky is the limit. Place your pan or molds in freezer for 10-15 mins to solidify. Enjoy! 

Unconditional Holidays: Why the compliments for weight loss need to stop.

The holidays are a time of year filled with copious amounts of food, traditions, and are often riddled with body image pitfalls. It's a time of year where our eating habits are on display and our bodies along with it. How much weight have we gained or lost since we last saw everyone? For some reason commenting on someones weight seems to be the first thing most people will say, even before, "How are you?".

This is a topic near and dear to my heart because I've lived the whole of my life as an overweight person. I've lost upwards of 75 lbs twice in my adult life. And I've weathered many unwelcome comments about my body. I started this blog to chronicle the journey I've found towards health and part of that is healing my relationship with food and body image.

I am still a fat person, after a 75 lb weight loss. I am the weight I was as a college freshman, the same weight as when I met my husband at 22. This is a weight my body knows and feels comfortable in. My weight does not equal my health nor does it change the way I feel about myself. It has taken so many years to get to this place. A place of thankfulness for all my body does. I am strong. I can easily carry my 30# toddler in one arm for long distances if need be. My body accomplishes feats every day that I am both proud of and in awe. My lungs never stop breathing, my heart keeps beating, my bones support my frame, my body creates milk to nourish my son and my eyes take in the sights all around me. I am so thankful for my body and all it does.

All of this and yet, the first thing most people will say to me after this long year back to health is , "Wow, you have lost weight, you look so good!" Let me put it this way, in the inverse situation, when I was 75 lbs heavier, not one person would say, "Wow, you've gained so much weight, you look good." This may seem like a silly thing for me to point out, right? But it isn't at all. In our society, we give praise and acceptance conditionally, based on ones appearance, namely ones thinness. We do NOT praise or accept those that are fat and especially do not praise their bodies. We encourage them to get off the couch and "work those pounds off", or to "know when to put the fork down." We accept them when they lose weight and ignore them or worse push them to change when they are doing anything but actively try to change their appearance. This is wrong and deeply damaging.

Our acceptance of another human being should not be based on the condition of appearance, period. I was the exact same person 75 lbs heavier that I am today. However, today I experience things I never did heavier. Things like, having a door held open for me, strangers engage in conversation, and praise, so much praise for my appearance. There are others that lose weight that don't have weight to lose and are suffering from dangerous eating disorders that deprive their bodies of nourishment. To these suffering individuals, we hand out the same compliments, reinforcing their disease.

Losing weight is the holy grail of acceptance. This mentality is a sickness. Our focus should not be on weight or the presence of "thigh gap", but rather, on creating health in our bodies, our hearts, our spirits.  Our worth is not determined by the size or shape of your body.

Whether or not you've lost or gained weight this year, it should not be on the docket of conversation at the dinner table next week. I hope that with more people speaking about fat shaming and size acceptance, we can begin to heal this festering wound felt by far too many. I've come up with a list of questions that do not involve appearance that can help with the transition.

Example: a relative or friend you haven't seen in a while walks into the room and you notice they have lost/gained a substantial amount of weight.

"I haven't seen you in so long! How have you been?"

"I'm so happy to see you, it's been too long. Are you still living at such and such place? How do you like it?"

"I've missed you! What is new? Tell me everything."

You get the drift? Ask engaging, non judgmental and unconditional questions. It's pretty simple really, just takes a shift in attitude.

Now for those of you that may be on the receiving end.

Example: a relative or friend you haven't seen in a while comments on how well you look since losing weight.
Your response:

"We haven't seen each other in so long. Yes I am well." -short and sweet

"Yes it's been awhile. I' feel great!" 

"It's been too long! I look differently this year right?! Same awesome person though!" - feisty

If you are in a situation where you have to deal with people commenting on weight gain or suggestions for weight loss, I highly suggest reading Ragen's blog, Dances with Fat. I began healing my body image issues with her blog.

I hope this has given you some food for thought and perhaps some courage. Let's celebrate healthier attitudes to all bodies this holiday season! What are some ways that you cope with the holidays? Have any suggestions to add?