Is it Fresh or Rotten? It's Fermented!

I have heard that Fermenting is the stage between Fresh and Rotten. Not many in my house will touch my fermented projects but I have found a few winners. 

The one that everyone will eat is my fermented salsa!

2T Sea salt

3 pounds tomatoes

6 jalapenos

2 bunches green onions

1 large garlic bulb

Cilantro

1 tsp Cumin & Chili Powder

Lime Juice

-put everything in a food processor then put in a jar with plastic wrap on top (I usually just use a coffee filter) let sit for 4 days stirring a few times a day.

Then put in the fridge. It will last for a long time in the fridge.

I love love love to make saurkraut. Not just regular kraut but crazy krauts.

Here's a few

Taco Kraut

Dill Kraut

Spicy Kraut

Turmeric Kraut

I always have Taco Kraut in my fridge because it's amazing. I put it on my nachos & taco's. 

2 medium heads of cabbage

1 medium onion

5 bulbs of garlic 

1 T Cumin Seeds

2T chipotle peppers - I used the canned ones found by the taco stuff at the grocery store.

2 Lemons

1T fresh oregano

1 tsp coriander seeds

*finely slice cabbage and sprinkle with salt and massage the salt in. cover with a towel and let sit overnight. Mix in the rest of the ingredients and put in a jar (half gallon size). Cover with a coffee filter & let sit 21-28 days. 

As for the dill kraut that's one is a must have with grill cheese.

Regular kraut is way different than the store bought kind. I even have friends that don't like kraut but they like my homemade kind. So so so good with smoke sausage. 

As for Fermenting fail I made Cashew yogurt the other day and it didn't taste so hot! 

So you soak the cashews overnight then drain and blend in some maple syrup, cinnamon then add two capsules of probiotics. It will bubble up anywhere from 12-24 hours then it's ready. I added some fruit tried to get down half of it but it was a no go. 

I've done kombucha, milk kefir and water kefir. My favorite is milk kefir because I can make a ranch jalapeno dressing that is amazing!

If you make Milk Kefir here's the recipe for Ranch Jalapeno;

Milk Kefir (a cup or so)

Fresh parsley

dried dill

Onion & garlic Powder

Salt & Pepper

Jalapenos diced as small as you can

Mix and let sit for at least a day - in the fridge 

Can my goodies for the Winter Freeze

Have you ever canned a bunch of stuff but don't want to eat it? I mean not eat it because you don't like it but because you don't want to deplete your supply. Yep, that's me but I'm trying to get over that.
What have I canned?

Tomatoes
*got a bushel or two of those ones at the farmers market that are labeled for canning since they aren't as pretty.

Salsa
*you can only can so many jars of Tomatoes lol

Apple butter
*I get apples from my business landlord he owns an apple orchard! I dehydrated a ton of the apples so this is was else I decided to do with them only problem is no one I know likes apple butter lol.

Boiled Peanuts
I did this earlier this year with the 50lb bag of peanuts I bought & now we are down to 8 jars yikes

Pear anise butter
 I got the pears for free!. I only have one jar left I ate them all with my finger! amazing stuff.
This is the book I got the recipe from and that ball thing is Fresh nutmeg. I don't normally like nutmeg, I mean I don't hate it but I could take or leave it Until I used fresh nutmeg!

Apple Juice
Juiced with the juicer then canned. 

Peaches in Sweet Tea
We don't really eat peaches but I had to have the bushel of peaches that were calling my name at the farmer's market. I also went back for another bushel! I juiced some of them and canned the rest in sweet tea! Recipe is in the book above.

Cowboy Candy
If you don't know what this is you are missing out. They are jalapenos that are cooked in a sugar syrup then canned so spices too. The jalapenos are hot but the sauce is amazing when you cook chicken in it! I have made this a couple of different ways I just google cowboy candy and pick the one I have the ingredients for. All have turned out great.

Peach Habanero rum Preserve 
This is some amazing stuff - sweet with a kick. I grew the Habanero's.

Cranberry Sauce
I'm not a fan of the canned cranberry jello looking stuff so I made my own.

I am thinking about canning pumpkin but you need a pressure cooker which I have but I think I will wait to hubby is home to help keep an eye on it (I tend to get distracted lol).

When I juiced the apples for apple juice I saved the cores and the apple pulp to make apple cider vinegar. I made it last year too and this year I decided to make as much as I possibly can with all the apples I have been gifted.

Oil me up Baby!

All you see lately is essential oils - Well I take that back it has been all over the place for awhile now I just happen to recently jump on board.
See I like to sit back and see what stuff is all about first before I dive in but when I do make that jump watch out because I am ALL IN!!

I went with Young Living because my Sister in Law picked them and she did her research since she mainly uses them on her son (my nephew) who is Autistic. It took me awhile but I bought the kit and I got the one that came with a diffusor because really it was a great deal verse buy the diffusor afterward.  Oh the kits is the bees knees folks! comes with a ton of oils, samples and even little bottles with cards to give as samples to your friends and family. I loved it so much when it came up that there was a sale where you got an extra 10% off I bought another one!

So what to do with all these oils?
The list is endless and I am still learning everyday.
Here's what I do with them so far. Diffuse them in every room in my house. Seriously if you light candles in your house all the time you will want to switch to diffusing oils because it's way cheaper and you don't have to worry about burning your house down. Just a few drops and your good to go. If you want to change up the smell it's as simple as adding a different oil. It's not just about the smell though the oils do so much more- if your under the weather there's oils to help, if your depressed yep oils to help - you get the picture. By the way all the oils in the diffuser recipes below can be found in the Premium Starter Kit!

Next Thing I love love love to do with them:
I love using the Vitality oils in my water. Just a few drops and it jazz's up that plain old water making me want to drink more of it. It's also super convenient to just pop the bottle in my purse so I can add it to my water where ever I go. Infusing water is pretty hot right now and I have done that but the downfall is that the fruit goes bad quickly and then you end up throwing it away (well hopefully composting it) and lastly it can get expensive. A few days worth of fruit you could get a bottle of Lemongrass and have it for months and months!

So I had the bright idea that I wanted a cordless diffusor so when we went camping I could put citronella essential oil in it and put it by the campfire - I am allergic to mosquitos so they are a real issue for me. Well that didn't work out so good because let's face it there is so much open space it just wasn't enough. Well I didn't have the oil in the diffusor correctly so it leaked some and I decided to just rub the oil on my feet (mosquitos love my feet lol). Well holy moly I was mosquito bite free! I should have read the label that you are to dilute it one drop to one drop carrier oil but lucky for me I didn't have any issues with it at full strength. So my favorite summer time oil is Citronella!!

As for the cordless diffusor I LOVE it!!

It's a bit pricey but I think it's totally worth it! I have a diffusor by my bed with oils I like when I'm sleeping but I'm not always just in my room to sleep so I like to have this for during my awake time in there lol. I also take it when we travel it's nice to diffuse the hotel room. I use it in the car as well. So many uses making it totally worth the money. 

There are blends you can rub on your feet to help you or even your children sleep. Constipated? there's oils you can rub on your stomach for that. The list goes on and on.

I will keep you posted as I discover more amazing oily stuff!

Join me on my Facebook event I'm hosting to get you started with oils called the "Oily Low Down"
If you want an invite just email me at LampeTracie@gmail.com

Juice Juice & More Juice

We went to visit my Sister in Law down in Tennessee and she took me to a Juice Bar. Now I know what a juice bar is but don't know where one is in my area or have I ever been in one. We decided to just a 2 day juice cleanse & picked up our juice the next day- just happen to be the day we were heading home so I didn't have her in my face to keep me on track. I got hangery but mid afternoon to say the least and being cooped up in a car was not helping lol. I did make a healthy choice when we stopped to eat but I realized I don't think I am cut out to just drink juice for days- God bless those who can do it I am totally jelly of you!

Now just because I couldn't do a Juice cleanse doesn't mean I don't like juicing! I am lucky enough to have two juicers and I am so thankful I didn't get rid of them. I picked up this book.

 It is my juicing bible now and is quite a mess from all the veggies and fruits that have landed on the pages! In this book however there is a juice cleanse that has food involved as well. I think I could pull this cleanse off but have yet to do it.

Fresh veggies and fruits can be pricy so I try to use what it plenty at hit up the farmers markets as much as I can. My fridge looks like a forest lol.
Here are some of the recipes I have tried:
The Sicilian - This one is pure veggies! It's like a tomato juice but I really like it.
Orange Uplift- heavy on Cantaloupe taste.
Immune boost- I have this a lot!
I have made a few others but not as much as those three I think it's because I always have what I need to make those.

I get a big bag of organic spinach from Costco, Canning tomatoes from the farm stand as well as peaches. Apples will be in abundance soon here.

Depending on the juicer you have depends on how long the juice will last. The book explains all the kinds of juicers. I have one that you have to drink right away (I'm not using that one right now) & another one that buys me 48 hours! Is nice to juice for two days.

Now what to do with all the pulp that's left???
There is a recipe to make pulp chips and I have made two batches.
The first batch was very fibrous. Seriously they look like grass clipping patties lol.
They taste pretty good a bit weird texture wise but with the zucchini hummus dip (recipe in the book) they are even better.

The next batch I had less fibrous material and even had some hot peppers so they were packing a kick. You can add whatever spices you like and add salt!! These ones were even better than the first.

Now I'm on to my third batch and tried to pull even more fibrous material out- Its the pulp from the Sicilian minus the carrots - I forgot to juice them and had to add it later because it was just too hot with that jalapeño! What did I do with my carrot pulp? I  made Carrot Bread!!

Here's the link to the recipe.
I used organic sugar
Coconut Oil instead of oil
Raw pumpkin seeds instead of walnuts
Holy Moly this bread is Amazing!
Great way to up my carrot pulp too.

Don't forget the butter!! My absolute Favorite is this brand- It taste just like real butter I promise!!