This week was definitely easier. Things that were totally new concepts are now becoming habits and I am starting to think about food differently. However, I found myself really craving fast food. I didn’t give in, but it was odd because I don’t normally find fast food terribly appealing. At one point I wandered into the prepared food section of the grocery store and drooled over some fried chicken. Odd.
Day 15 – What’s a SCOBY?
Still living on leftovers from last week and Ethiopian food from lunch with a friend. Have no SCOBY, but have store-bought kefir culture to try once I get some more milk. Also, sourdough bread + butter + honey = delicious snack. Definitely need to get some water kefir grains.
Pizza! ... whole wheat crust...
Day 16 – Get Cultured (Veggies, that is.)
Hit a wall today – apparently I’m mildly allergic to whole wheat. I’m not entirely surprised, because my mom is quite allergic to it, and I have mini versions of most of her allergies. Sadly, this renders my bread, noodles, and… the two whole pizzas I just made more or less inedible. Fortunately, it’s just a whole wheat allergy, not a gluten allergy. Excited about fermenting veggies, but discouraged that all my pre-cooking went to waste. What am I going to eat now?
Day 17 – Making Yogurt at Home
You know what corn tortillas aren’t made of? Cornmeal. I ate them anyways. Still allergic to wheat. Fridge still filled with wheat food. Broke down and went rooting through my bags of processed food. (I am sure that by “discard your processed food,” she meant for us to put it in bags on the kitchen table.) Surprise, surprise – nothing in the bag looked good! I guess that’s something resembling progress. Had a big salad instead, but token cheated by adding some flavored Asian crispies from my refugee food shelf. Because they’re just so good.
Day 18 – Make Cheese at Home
Made sauerkraut today! Sent pictures to my family, who now think I’m certifiably insane. No clue what I’m going to do with it once it’s done. Maybe I should find some grass-fed bratwurst and learn to make my own buns. Accidentally dumped a glass of water on my dinner (salmon, baked potato, brussel sprouts), but everything still tasted good damp and slightly cooler. I appear to be through sulking about wasted wheat. Bought spelt and oat flour today to start baking again.
Purple sauerkraut makes purple hands.
Day 19 – Nuts & Seeds
Fish tacos. Fish tacos, fish tacos, fish tacos. Successful tortillas (funny how recipes actually work when you buy the right ingredients) made from organic blue corn flour. Considering living on nothing but fish tacos for the rest of time. Also started milk kefir and now have five things growing/fermenting on my counter – wheat berries, mung bean sprouts, lentils, sauerkraut, and kefir. Fortunately I’m not one of those obsessive clean counter types.
Day 20 – Preparing Beans & Legumes
Out to lunch with a friend today (where I almost ordered fish tacos). Ate a ton of food and mooched off various leftovers for dinner. Eventful day (getting seeds for the garden!), but uneventful for food. Kefir moved to the fridge to hang out with the sourdough. Is milk kefir supposed to taste vaguely carbonated? That’s weird.
Living on these. Forever.
Day 21 – Vegetables & Salads
RIP tiny food processor. You were not made to grind sprouted wheat. I knew your limitations, yet still I pressed on (or grind, ha ha). How will I make cilantro salsa without you? The bread wasn’t even edible. Also, seriously… put butter and fat on your veggies? Could I love today’s tip any more?
Onwards and upwards to Week 4!
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I’ve never had bratwurst on a bun, actually, just on a plate. With mustard (and sometimes a side of sauerkraut). Mmm.
Ooh, maybe I’ll just omit the bun then. One less thing for me to have to learn how to make!
OMG. I haven’t had a fish taco since I left San Diego. They were so good. I have no idea what was in them. But they were so good.
Aren’t they, though? I used to be a regular at a little taco stand in Long Beach… heaven. I think I could seriously live on fish tacos.
Try the red cabbage on the fish tacos with a little bit of yogurt sauce. Yummy and crunchy at the same time.
Yum – that’s definitely a plan, particularly since I have green cabbage that is currently experiencing an existential crisis in my fridge.
Good Lord. I have never considered the psychological welfare of the stuff in my fridge. This could paralyze my day…
When I first started grinding our own flour I realized that the red hard wheat gave me troubles, even when I soaked it overnight. I found that I can use white hard wheat to 50% and spelt to 50% and get a pretty decent crumbed loaf of bread that doesn’t bother me. Not sure if that would work for you or not. I have my soaked bread recipe on the blog.
I buy the spelt from Lentz spelt at wholesale prices so if you decide to use it let me know and I can email you when the farmer comes to town.
Also, I have dairy kefir grains and buttermilk starter if you wan them and I can hook you up with some who could get you a scoby for free too. There are several local Weston Price chapters by region, one Snohomish and one Ballard. We buy lots of this stuff at wholesale or reduced “buying club” prices and they have monthly meetings.
That is really good to know! I’ve had a hard time finding information because most of the info online is for gluten allergies. Did you have trouble with 100% white wheat that made you cut it to 50% spelt? I haven’t tried spelt yet (on this week’s to do list), but if it works well for me I would love to take you up on that offer.
And I would love some dairy kefir grains and… maybe a scoby? I’m a little nervous about that one, to be honest. I love the store bought kind, but for some reason making my own seems scary.
Thank you so much for your offers!
I don’t have any problems with the pizza dough which is 100% white whole wheat but I try to mix up our grains so we aren’t just eating wheat all the time. I used spelt for all pancakes, which we eat a LOT of, muffins, snack cakes, pie crust, etc.
Sometimes I add oats when I’m grinding spelt too to change the flavor. I add rye and spelt to my bread but the pizza dough is 100% white whole wheat. And like I said I never had a problem until I started grinding my own and using hard red wheat for the bread.
I tried to brew my own kombucha but I have too many ferments in my kitchen already and I didn’t like the flavor so I just buy it at the market occasionally.
Right now I have kefir, buttermilk, fermenting olives and trying to muster up the energy to start kimchee since I’ve been so sick. That’s a lot of stuff to keep separated.
Let me know if you want the scoby and I can post to the group. I live just off Sandpoint close to Magnussen park but maybe I could meet you somewhere to get you the kefir grains?
Beautiful photos and great breakdown of the days. I’d love to check out that counter full of growing stuff … mmmm … bacteria and sprouts. Gotta love it.
I wish I had taken a photo of it – I don’t know why I didn’t! I’m still getting into the hang of photographing stuff regularly. Now I’m back down to one jar – clabbered milk. Next time it works its way back up, I’ll definitely be sure to grab a picture.