Category: Healthy Living

About an hour ago, I placed a tray of freshly harvested habañero peppers into my dehydrator. Much earlier today, I ground up the habañero peppers, that I’d dried yesterday. I made sure I put something around my nose so I would not accidentally inhale the fumes. We should have plenty of hot pepper powder to last us well into 2015. I’ll be using my ground hot pepper in a variety of dishes including soups and other spices.

This past Saturday, I spent a lot of time canning. I much prefer canning my produce than buying the jarred version in stores. The reason is simple, it’s not loaded with preservatives and a lot of extra junk I don’t need. It simply contains produce, spices and the occasional sweetness.

The pears all came from our pear tree and there’s plenty more where those came from so I’ll be canning for a little while. Later this week, I’m hoping to make strawberry jam and a spicy habañero jelly.

Last week, I made my daughter a simple dish, of sauteed vegetables.

To the dish, I ground up some herbs and seasonings into my mortal and pestle and added them to the vegetables. As an afterthought, I added ramen noodles. I made this dish earlier that morning. I packed her Zojirushi lunch jar, with the noodle dish and other goodies and off to the car we went.

My daughter was happy since she had a home cooked meal that stays hot, thanks to the wonderfully insulated lunch jars. I’m thrilled because she rarely brings home food. I’m also thrilled that I stumbled upon the insulated lunch jar towards the end of last school year.

My 1 gallon Ohio Stoneware crock arrived today and since it’s much wider than the 3 qt. crockpot liner and the 1qt. Mason jar that I was using to store my kimchi, I transferred all the ingredients to my new fermenting crock.

Of course, during the transfer, I had the opportunity, to set aside some of the kimchi and sample and I must say it’s tasting great. Boy does it pack a kick!

Once I had all the kimchi placed in my stoneware crock, I covered everything with some large collard leaves that came from the garden. I pressed down the produce to make sure it was tightly packed and that the released liquid from the fermentation process covered the produce. This is a very important part of fermenting. I then placed a weighted saucer over the leaves so that the liquid covered the produce.

On top of the saucer, I then placed a ziploc bag filled with water to make sure everything stayed submerged. Afterwards, I placed a cover on top.

I had ordered an appropriate weight for this fermenting crock, but that does not arrive until tomorrow. Since I did not feel like waiting, I improvised! Which I’d already mentioned in my earlier post about these fermented crocks, that you could easily do with things you have around the home.

In my last post, I mentioned I made a few mistakes with this batch of fermented kimchi. Next time, I make the kimchi I’ll slather the produce in a paste,  instead of coating the veggies with the spices. For the “paste” I’ll use sweet rice flour, add liquid and all the other yummy spices that were added in this blend. Who knows, I might add a few more things. However, I can’t complain too much, from what I sampled today this is going to be a delicious kimchi.

One of the main reasons why I’m starting to make more cultured/fermented foods is because of my candida overgrowth. Thankfully with juicing, enemas and continuing to eat the healthy foods I’d been consuming it’s becoming a distant memory. While I’m happy about that news, I really don’t want to see a candida overgrowth gain a stronghold inside my body again.

I do believe a powerful and effective way to keep this from happening again is to add cultured/fermented foods to my already healthy diet. I plan on consuming some type of fermented food each day. In doing so, I’m flooding my body with a large source of healthy bacteria. Which my intestines will love. The thing about fermented foods, is that I disliked most of the store bought ones that I’ve tried. I know that has everything to do with the fact that I’ve eaten homemade fermented foods that were either prepared by myself, or someone else. The ones purchased simply could not compare and so I avoided them, without actively making my own. Moving forward, having something fermenting in the home is on my “to do” list.

I definitely won’t get bored with fermented foods. I do enjoy them, and there is a wide variety of foods that can be fermented. I will admit that at times, I might become impatient waiting to sample some of the delicious foods that are fermenting.

This morning at 5:00 a.m., you would find me at my local gym, tucked away in the sauna producing a healthy sweat. Which is to be expected when the temperature sits comfortable at 180F. It felt great!

Once I arrived home, I whipped up this following Broth based soup. I’m sipping on it now.  Simple, but so delicious! Good thing I have leftovers!