Comments on: Announcing: Nourishing Frugal Recipes Carnival

By: Nourishing Food Panel: Healthy & Frugal Tips

Nourishing Food Panel: Healthy & Frugal Tips — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:07:59 +0000

[...] nourishing food on a budget. Tomorrow it’s your turn! Check out my announcement post for the Nourishing Frugal Recipes Carnival for more information. Hope to see you [...]

By: Coconut Kefir’s Health Benefits

Coconut Kefir’s Health Benefits — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:48:08 +0000

[...] Credit Make sure that you check out the Nourishing Frugal Recipe Carnival that is taking place this Friday! I would love to have you be part of [...]

By: stephanie bb

stephanie bb — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 04:32:36 +0000

Jeannie…I make muy yogurt using raw milk. I warm it but keep it below 115 so as to not kill the good stuff. Lots of people debate over boiling the milk. My daughters don’t care about the consistency (it is certainly runnier than store-bought). If they did I would try another starter culture that apparently makes a thicker yogurt. Gives me a great source of weigh. Oh and FYI any product you culture at home won’t be as thick as store bought since it doesn’t have all the thickeners in it. Good luck!

By: Kathy

Kathy — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:48:02 +0000

I make sour cream, buttermilk, kefir, and yogurt from raw milk. I do heat the milk for yogurt to about 180 degrees and I use an organic greek yogurt to start it because it makes it thick and creamy like I like it. My first batch of yogurt with the raw milk was not heated but it turned out to be too runny and more of a consistency of an egg custard which is not my favorite texture.

By: KimiHarris

KimiHarris — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 20:45:45 +0000

Loree,

I have never made Natto. I think that it would be a very long fermenting process and you would need to find a source for the bacteria to make it with. My mother in law was able to find one brand at a local asian store that didn’t have bad ingredients in it, but I haven’t looked for it on the internet yet. It seemed like Dr. Mercola recommended a natto brand. Have you checked his recommendations out?

By: Kimi Harris

Kimi Harris — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 20:43:18 +0000

Kathy,

Yes there is actually! I haven’t tried it myself, but am going to be experimenting with soaking corn (with lime). I will post my results as soon as i have something to share.

Jeannie,

I think that you can easily make kefir with raw milk (that’s what I always did using a kefir grain). Buttermilk made the traditional way is simply the by-product of making butter, so I am not sure about the process that FT has you use. With yogurt, I think that some people do think that you should start with boiled milk (or perhaps it was that you could start with raw milk but the yogurt making process involves heating the milk?). Anyway, all to say, most things can be made with raw milk. You could email them and ask why they say that. I’ve gotten good responses to questions from them in the past.

By: Jeannie

Jeannie — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 20:36:29 +0000

I would like to make yogurt, buttermilk & kifer. Can I use raw milk to do this? I went to Fermented Treasures and they say that they don’t recommend using raw milk. I understand this may just be a ‘disclaimer’, do you know if it is ok to make these items using raw milk? It seems it should be fine, there was a time that all milk was raw, right? Do you have any recipes you can share?

Thanks for your help. Your sight is one I go to most days.

By: Jen

Jen — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:51:45 +0000

I think the “healthy food is too expensive” excuse is code for “I don’t know how/don’t have time to cook”.

I remember as a kid my mom and aunts would buy several hundred dollars worth of junk food that would last a week. It was supposed to last the month.

I cook all of our meals from scratch and it is so much cheaper than buying junk. It’s an ongoing competition with myself to try to make things I used to buy. If I’m craving chocolate cake, then I go ahead and make it. Sushi is super easy and cheap. It helps to have a fully stocked pantry with all the dry goods you need to make what you like. When I see people loading up on what they think is cheap, junk food I have no idea how they can afford it.

Here even though our produce isn’t very good it’s still cheaper to buy fresh than canned/frozen.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:39:27 +0000

In Ohio I woke up to 9 degrees outside with winds so the dried navy beans I have been sprouting for 3 days will be a nice warm soup by tonight. This was my first dry bean sprouting and I was amazed that it worked!! The recipe for my soup was just stuff I had onhand. I used chicken broth I had made that was in the freezer, 1 organic onion, 1 organic jalepeno, and 2 cloves of organic garlic all chopped and softened in raw milk butter. I added a small piece of ham(3oz. cut up). They are cooking now and already smell yummy. I am trying to cut back on my salt but I will add some celtic later to taste. I have recently started converting my diet to the NT diet and it is very expensive. I am finally getting to the point where I just need to get 1 item a week to add to my kitchen stock for the basics. I am divorced with grown children so I can’t imagine how hard it is to do with small ones. Later on this week I am going to make a roasted chicken legs with potatoes and kale. If it is good I will submit that. I will be converting(to NT) that recipe from one that I found in Food And Wine magazine. A question what are the thougts on cornbread? Is there an NT way to make that?

By: schmadrian

schmadrian — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 13:27:13 +0000

I hate to be a dark cloud, so I’ll keep my comment brief. (Even though this subject is near and dear to me…and as a writer, I get my words wholesale.)

North Americans spend less per capita on food than any other industrialized nation. (This while -mostly- putting crap in their shopping baskets.) When I hear the complaint ‘I can’t afford to eat better!’, I want to add ‘…with my priorities being what they are, with my life designed as it is.’

The ‘economic downturn’ should be an opportunity to re-examine our values. Not just in how we deal with debt…but in how we see what’s important to us. Anyone remember the old computer axiom ‘Garbage in, garbage out’? We have severe health issues right in front of us, and much/most of these can be attributable to what we put in our mouths. So if this is true, does it still stand that “I can’t afford to eat ‘better’?”

Really; can we afford *not* to…?