Make Your Own Kimchi

October 17th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Vegetable Lovin' - (11 Comments)

We discovered kimchi about 3 years ago, thanks in part to The 4 Hour Body (a gimmicky book but some aspects were informative and entertaining nonetheless.)  Kimchi is an Asian dish – it’s a spicy, sour fermented cabbage. Fermented foods like yogurt, sauerkraut, real pickles (and kimchi!) are an important part of your diet (have I convinced you read Deep Nutrition yet?  Come on people!)

With that, store bought kimchi (or kim chee) seems to fall under one of two categories:

Category 1: Not that good.

Category 2: Not that cheap.

I’ve always been curious about straining regular yogurt to make my own Greek yogurt. I prefer Greek yogurt to regular yogurt these days – it’s thicker, it’s creamier.  It’s got more protein and fewer carbs compared to regular yogurt.  It’s a great sub for sour cream too.  (Hello, homemade burrito bowls!)

Plain and simple – I love (plain and simple) Greek yogurt.

With a quick glance at the numbers in the dairy section, I guessed I could save some money if I made Greek yogurt at home by straining it myself.  Of the two brands of yogurt I buy, the price breakdown looks like this:

How to Make Your Own Kefir

January 15th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Healthy Habits - (19 Comments)

Fermenting stuff is one of my new favorite things to do.  I’ve recently started fermenting milk to make kefir because it’s cheap, easy and good for you.   You had me at “cheap and easy”.

(I’ve been fermenting tea too – brewing my own Kombucha WORD UP!  More on that in a future post.)

The First Thing To Know About Kefir

Short answer: it’s a yogurt-like drink that’s full of probiotics and good bacteria.  More info here.

The Second Thing To Know About Kefir

It’s pronounced “ka-feer”, not “key-fur” like I’d been saying, surely sounding like a dope.

This is the third post in a three part series about measuring the various aspects related to weight loss to more effectively achieve weight loss success.

This series began with the line “what gets measured gets managed“.

Part 1 was about counting calories.

Part 2 was about keeping track of your work out stats.

Part 3 is going to be about measuring your weight in order to manage it.

I am of the personal opinion that if you want to get serious about losing weight, calorie counting is the best approach for real results.

Last summer I wrote about Ava learning to ride a bike with the “balance bike” approach.  I’m here now to sing the praises of this method once again.  It’s worked just as well for Thing 2 – but this time two years sooner!

The balance bike approach is exactly that; no training wheels.  It’s about learning to balance first, pedaling comes later.  A “real” balance bike has no pedals – but we just used a regular, very small bike for Ava.  You don’t need a special bike, what matters is that they can easily catch themselves when they lose their balance.  Ava was 6 when she learned, so her legs were long enough that the pedals didn’t get in her way while she was learning to balance.

Welcome Back Flax

September 5th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Healthy Habits - (38 Comments)

Do you remember when flax seed was suddenly the new and hip seed to eat? Flax seems like old news to most of us now, and it’s a kitchen staple among many health conscious foodies.

But for me, this seed has been nothing but a giant pain in the flax.

It seems well known that it’s important to eat ground flax seed. Their little hulls are so hard, if you eat them whole they’ll pass right through your body undigested and you miss out on their rich supply of essential fatty acids, Omega-3 in particular.

How to Eat More Vegetables

August 30th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Healthy Habits - (7 Comments)

Once upon a time I always ate processed, snacky type foods like Kashi crackers, pretzels or frozen, baked french fries as my “side” at lunch.  While those are certainly better than some foods and are of course OK once in a while – one of the best habits I ever created for myself was learning to automatically put vegetables on my plate instead.

A pile of steamed veggies, vegetable sticks, a side salad – I don’t even miss crackers or pretzels anymore and don’t feel like I’m depriving myself either.

How to Make Awesome Hummus

August 4th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Lunch - (57 Comments)

Have you ever run your finger along the side of the near empty Sabra container and wondered:

“how the heck do they make hummus so dang smooth?”

Have you then stuck that hummus covered finger in your mouth and wondered:

“how the heck do they make it so dang creamy?”

Well wonder no more.  I’ve busted two of Sabra’s smooth and creamy secrets and I’m here to spill the beans.

The naked beans, that is.

Secret #1You’ve got to peel the skin off your chick peas.

Naked Beans

I Hate To Burst Your Bubble

August 2nd, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Parenting - (5 Comments)

This is the only time you are ever going to see a recipe here with corn syrup – so this is serious business. It’s time to sit up straight and pay attention.

Karo Corn Syrup for Making Big Bubbles

(aren’t I bossy?)

Actually, if you don’t have kids – never mind. Skip this post.

On second thought – wait. Don’t go just yet.

I suppose if you don’t have kids but are yourself sort of playful and/or laugh a little too loudly/hysterically/obnoxiously with your spouse/partner/friends/dead goldfish when you’ve had just a little too much to drink/smoke/eat – keep reading. This recipe/activity has the potential to be pretty entertaining.

The Pizza Show

July 17th, 2011 | Posted by Alison Spath in Dinner Time - (1 Comments)

(with some behind-the-scenes extras.)

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls.  Tonight we’ve got quite the performance lined up!  Allow me to present to you the summer time rendition of:

The Homemade Vegetable Pizza Party Show!

(this is where you cup your hands around your mouth and do that faux screaming/crowd-goes-wild thing.)

The Yeasty Boys are our opening act.

Yeast Resting

(my trusty crusty easy pizza dough recipe at play here.)

My mozzarella likes to do The Shred.

Shredded Mozzarella

(i do typically opt for organic dairy, but I went the conventional route tonight.)