Friday, June 28, 2019

How to make cultured (real) buttermilk video tutorial

Made a 5-minute video tutorial today for how to make real, fermented, probiotic-rich buttermilk quickly and easily at home.




Any local peeps who would like to get some buttermilk starter from me (for free), please just let me know.

Milk can be curdled with any acid (such as lemon juice or vinegar) to mimic the consistency of buttermilk, but that is not real buttermilk. In a pinch, that will work for a recipe, but you are getting none of the health benefits that fermented foods such as real buttermilk offer.

This is the starter culture I am using: https://amzn.to/2Nm1FC7
2-quart mason jars: https://amzn.to/2NfrbbR

(affiliate links)

~~~~~~~~~

Check out my new cookbook at http://bit.ly/2RsX7av.

If you sign up for the newsletter, you get Week 1 FREE as a PDF download so you can give it a try.

Order the cookbook here: https://store.framingtheworld.com/products/cookbook

Read more at http://www.stevenandersonfamily.com

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

How to buy a smaller (non-standard) Willow breast pump flange

The Willow wearable breast pump only comes in 2 standard flange sizes: 24 mm and 27 mm. If neither of these sizes work for you, please watch the video below to learn of a hack that makes it possible to size the flange down to whatever size you need:





Even though I have breastfed all of our babies, the older I get, and the more babies I have, the more I struggle to provide enough milk for them. I think it's a mixture of being more busy, getting older, and inevitable hormonal changes. I have heard the same from several other moms of many.

With Peter, in addition to supplementing him with formula, I also pumped to help build my supply. However, traditional breast pumps are time consuming and inconvenient, which made it difficult for me to pump as often as would have been ideal.

I am excited to have discovered this hack to make it possible for me to pump much more often after the arrival of baby #11 to help establish a solid milk supply.

 Please let me know in the comments below if you have a question.

Monday, June 10, 2019

What we eat and spend on food in a month - Week 4 of 4

This is over a month late. Eek! 

Week 1 here
Week 2 here
Week 3 here



Monday: Costco - $118.90

2 x 5 lbs tangerines, 2 x 4 lbs fish sticks, 2 lbs parmesan, 4 dozen organic eggs, 11 lbs lbs pork loin, 2 lbs organic strawberries, 4 lbs organic peaches (first of the season, yay!), 1 box ice cream bars, organic apple sauce packs, granola bars, 2 x 3 lbs organic bananas, 3 lbs organic baby carrots

The only conventional meat I buy is some pork (roasts, ribs) because finding organic pork is so difficult. We get our grass-fed beef from a local ranch, and the organic chicken from Costco.



Monday - Alpine Valley Bakery: $37.50

5 loaves organic raisin bread, 9 loaves organic white bread

That's probably the most I have ever spent in that store in one trip. The breads I bought that day were at full price, which at $3/loaf is still about 50% cheaper than how much they sell for in store. I normally only buy if they are $.50 - $1.50/loaf, but it had been weeks since they last had the white bread so I bought all they had while I could. 

I bake most of our bread at home using einkorn, but ready bread holds up better for sandwiches that the boys take to work, plus I won't be baking bread for a while after the baby comes. 

Click here to read why we don't eat whole grains. 



Tuesday (delivered): Dairy - $35


5 gallons milk, 2 quarts cream. We get the first 10 gallons each month at half price for being a drop point for the dairy, so this week was cheaper than the previous two. 

This picture is of an order from a couple of weeks ago that was exactly the same, so please ignore the bottling dates on the cream. 



Tuesday: Jovial Foods (online, delivered) - $111.65

Four 10lb bags of einkorn flour. That's about how much we go through every month. I had some loyalty points I redeemed for a bit of a discount.



Saturday: POWWOW market - $12

Not all organic, but mostly: 2 honeydew melons, 6 English cucumbers (plus they gave me a whole extra box to give out at church), 17 cucumbers, 9 beefsteak tomatoes, 7 orange bell peppers, 7 red bell peppers, 4 acorn squash, 8 tomatoes on the vine, 4 zucchini, 15 Roma tomatoes, 3 spaghetti squash



Saturday: Sprouts - $95.87 (delivered by Instacart)

4 boxes organic cereal, 1 bag Love Crunch granola, 3 lbs organic onions, 3 lbs organic egg noodles, 5 lbs organic apples, 5 lbs organic Russet potatoes, 2 organic avocados, 1 bunch organic cilantro, 1 bag organic garlic, 2.5 lbs organic leeks, 2 dozen organic pasture-fed eggs, 4 organic Siggi's Icelandic yogurts, 1 24-oz organic sour cream, 5 lbs tangerines, 30 jalapeno peppers

Total for Week 4: $410.92

Total for all four weeks: $1,811.85

Since four weeks are not quite one full month, I'm guessing this month's total will climb a little higher to maybe around $2,000. I do feel that these weeks represented well what we eat and spend in one month. I went into it with a lot of foods in stock already, but still have a lot of the foods I bought during this time left to make meals with.

Breakfasts:

Mon: Crepes
Tue: leftover birthday cake
Wed: Banana Bread Pancakes*
Thu: Pudding
Fri: Danube waves cake
Sat: German Apple sheet cake
Sun: Oatmeal cale*

 Dinners:

Mon: Calzone Pizza
Tue: Chicken Paprika and spatzles
Wed: leftovers
Thu: Pork roast w/ veggies*
Fri: Schnitzel, potatoes, cauliflower
Sat: ate out (Burger Fi)
Sun: Creamy Tomato Soup


Other:

Birthday Cake for Boaz
Strawberry ice cream




Pizza Calzone. I am planning to include these in the Einkorn Baking Book I am currently working on.



Crepes - it's hard to tell how large they were, but the ones on the left are 9" diameter, the ones on the right are 15". They are on my massive Thanksgiving turkey platter.


I can't believe my Boaz is 5 years old now!! Where does the time go!?!


I hope you have enjoyed this mini-series. Thanks for checking in!