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Wardeh at Gnowfglins is having a series called “Probiotics at Every Meal.” What a wonderful idea! We try to fit probiotics into one part of every meal and I’m really looking forward to reading other people’s suggestions!
This morning’s breakfast fit the theme perfectly. We enjoyed Sunshine Smoothies (adapted from a Sue Gregg recipe) and bright, zingy, in season blackberry muffins with cultured butter. I didn’t soak the muffin batter beforehand, but did use freshly ground flour. Hey, sometimes life’s a tradeoff, right?
Here are my recipes:
Blackberry Spice Muffins
1/4 cup melted butter
1 pastured egg
1/2 cup raw honey
3/4 cup cultured buttermilk
2 cups freshly ground whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon ground organic cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
fresh, organic blackberries
Mix dry ingredients and berries together in one bowl. Mix wet ingredients together in second bowl. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients just until moistened, don’t overmix. Scoop batter into greased muffin tins (coconut oil is amazing for this), top with a few extra berries for decoration and bake at 350° for 25 minutes. Allow to cool for a few minutes and the muffins will pop right out of the tins. Serve with cultured butter for a probiotic boost!
Sunshine Smoothie
For each two servings:
1 orange*
1 banana
1 teaspoon flax oil
1 teaspoon whey
1/2 cup yogurt
pinch cinnamon
Peel orange and banana, add to blender carafe. Pulse a couple times to chop. Add remaining ingredients, blend well. When everyone’s been served, pour leftovers into a popsicle mold for a probiotic boost on a hot afternoon!
*Note on ingredients: Don’t take all the white pulp off the orange when you peel it because that’s where the bioflavonoids are! Bioflavonoids (sometimes called Vitamin P) increase your body’s ability to absorb the vitamin C in the orange.
This post is part of Probiotics: Every Meal hosted by Wardeh at Gnowfglins.
I love berry season. It is way too short, in my book. Someday I definitely want several berry bushes in my yard both for us and for the lovely birds they attract! Right now, where I live, blueberries are in season. I try to buy enough blueberries to dry and keep on hand all year, but the big baskets we get at the farmer’s market rarely get as far as the dehydrator before they get eaten!
At only 81 calories a cup, blueberries are relatively low in calories for the flavor punch they pack. They also have anthocyanins, which provide their color. Anthocyanins work together with vitamin C to neutralize free radical damage to your tissues and work with your body to repair collagen for healthy skin and connective tissues. Unfortunately, anthocyanins don’t survive the canning process, so be sure to freeze or dry (at low heat) extra berries. Blueberries have even more antioxidant action than red wine, so the teetotalers among us needn’t feel shortchanged!
Of course, berries are delicious in pancakes and muffins, but can turn your food strange colors when they are cooked. In acids (lemon juice, vinegar) they can turn reddish. In base combinations (baking soda), they can turn an even darker blue. If your muffin batter has too much baking soda, the blueberries will turn the batter greenish blue! But, to preserve the vitamin C in the berries and keep the B vitamins from leaching out, it’s best to eat these gems raw. Wash berries immediately before eating to protect them from spoilage.
We use dried blueberries to combat diarrhea and urinary tract infections. A tea of a few teaspoons of dried blueberries steeped in boiling water can be enjoyed a couple times a day. The tannins in the blueberries stop diarrhea very effectively, and the acids in the berries will keep bacteria from adhering to the urinary tract and colon (much like cranberry juice, but tastier!) There has been some research indicating one of the bacteria blueberries repel particularly well is our old nemesis, E. Coli.
Blueberries are a classic pairing with peaches, which are just coming into season here. I made this salad for lunch the other day. It combines fresh peaches with chicken leftover from making stock, some standard salad ingredients and is topped with blueberries. The dressing complements the fresh flavors with cinnamon and lemon.
Peachy Chicken Salad
serves 6 as a main course salad
1 head organic green leaf lettuce
1 thinly organic red onion
2 small organic cucumbers
3 ripe organic peaches
4 cups cooked pastured chicken
1 1/2 cups organic blueberries
For dressing:
juice of 3 organic lemons
rind of 1 organic lemon, grated
1/2 cup extra virgin organic olive oil
1 teaspoon flax oil
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
2 teaspoons organic cinnamon
1/4 cup creme fraiche
Combine the dressing ingredients in a pint jar, screw the lid on tightly and shake to combine. Set aside.
Wash all fruits and vegetables and chop small, leaving blueberries whole. Chop chicken into small pieces. Toss all fruits and veggies together in a bowl with chicken except blueberries. Serve salad, stream dressing over and top with blueberries.
A word on organic ingredients: Blueberries and peaches are on the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen list, onions are on the clean fifteen. I would not use the rind of a non-organic lemon for eating.
This post is part of Real Food Wednesday, hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop. Hey, lookie there…blueberries!
I get such a kick out of seeing what my friends pick up at the Farmers Market each week. Usually we photograph what we bought and tweet it, but my market trips are usually too big for one photo. For example, here is what I got this week:
Four heads of lettuce, three cucumbers, a bunch of parsley, a box of sugar snap peas, four onions, two heads of broccoli, two pints of blueberries and three gallons of milk
Two more gallons of milk, three packages each of beef jerky and snack sticks (like Slim Jims), two packages hot dogs, two pounds of ground beef, two pounds of freshly ground peanut butter
Four dozen eggs, some chive/onion cheddar, three pints of (non-ultrapasteurized) cream, a wedge of aged cheddar
The snack sticks and jerky are something I like to keep around in summer. Very often it’s too hot to eat a meal at lunchtime, but I know the kids won’t make it until dinner on an empty stomach. They are made from grassfed beef and are nitrite/nitrate-free. Same goes for the hot dogs. There are times you just need a hot dog, you know? If we have any leftover baked beans from dinner tonight, I’ll probably chop up some hot dogs and add them in to punch up the leftovers a little. I’m going to use the chive/onion cheddar on quesadillas one lunch this week. I bought two baskets of blueberries: one for eating and one for muffins. Any leftovers will get pureed and frozen for smoothies or adding to popsicles.
Our market is growing. Each week there seem to be more producers, and within each producer’s area there are more items and greater variety. Late spring is such a great time to eat!
Sometimes, I confess, the seasons just don’t move quickly enough for me. It’s been a long winter full of winter squash and dark leafy greens, beef and bread. The only fruits have been a touch of citrus, but it’s not grown locally, so not often; lots and lots of delicious apples in the most amazing varieties; a few pears early on; and loads of dried fruit. The few packages of frozen fruit I was able to put aside went very quickly for smoothies and yogurt topping.
It finally got to a point this week where I could take no more. We’ve already had our first 93° day, the air conditioner has already kicked on once or twice, the garden is in and sprouting, and organic strawberries arrived at the store. I chose Florida-grown over California-grown: even if they are grown at the furthest tip of Florida, that’s “only” 1000 miles from here. Read here about why it’s so very important to choose organic strawberries.
And it was worth every mile. Every single bite was densely flavorful and absolutely sang of spring! I probably won’t indulge again until the foods of springtime are available locally, but it was just the lift my heart needed. And while I try not to eat foods shipped at great distance or out of season, the exception is all the more a special occasion.
The orange juice took much of the “avocado” flavor out of the dressing, so even my avocado-haters didn’t threaten revolt. The dandelion greens (so very plentiful this time of year) provided a nice bite to the sweetness in the rest of the salad. This fed all 7 of us, but if you love salad, it might only serve 4.
Early Spring Salad
3 green onions, just the white part, sliced
1 avocado, peeled and pitted
2 oranges, juiced
1 large handful foraged (unsprayed) dandelion greens
1 head romaine lettuce
6 boiled eggs, shelled and sliced (we used leftover Easter eggs!)
12 organic strawberries, washed and hulled
Combine onions, avocado and orange juice in blender. Season as desired with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Tear greens and toss in large salad bowl. Divide greens among plates, top with eggs, strawberries and a dab of dressing.
We picked up some local burdock root last week. I’m familiar with it from my herbal medicine study, which recommends burdock for clearing congestion in the circulatory, lymphatic, respiratory and urinary systems. But I was fascinated to read that it could be eaten raw or cooked as well!
Burdock gets its name from its burrs, which inspired the invention of Velcro, and “dock,” a name common to plants with a certain leaf shape. Because it is a taproot, it digs deeply into soil and brings up nutrients from deeper than shallow-rooted plants. Medicinally, burdock is used as a blood purifying agent, an excellent tonic for spring.
The first adventure came peeling the roots. I heard that scrubbing them was sufficient, but because they were narrow, I only managed to scrub my fingers. I tried a vegetable peeler, but the soft roots had too much “give.” The method I finally used was the “whittle” method. If you’ve ever had to sharpen a pencil without a mechanical sharpener, you are familiar with the whittle method.
I cut them into 2-inch lengths, just long enough to get a taste without committing to a lengthy string, and put them into cold water as they were peeled. I was thinking this might crisp them up, like a carrot, but as the water turned muddy (along with the creamy white roots) I did a little more research. A touch of vinegar or lemon juice keeps the root from browning, just like one would do with apple.
The taste of the root before soaking was very tannic, but once it came out of the water it was much less so. It was also very reminiscent of jicama. If you haven’t tried jicama, and can find it reasonably locally, you should, it’s yummy. We think it tastes like the love child of an apple and a potato! Burdock tasted much the same, but needed just a little more chewing than jicama. We had the first batch raw.
My next experiment was to cook the julienned roots. I cooked them very slowly in butter with some parsnips, here cut into rounds. They were very chewy, and the sweetness was much less pronounced.
My conclusion? If burdock grew wild here, it would be a great addition to a foraging menu. I don’t have garden space to commit to it, though, and we weren’t so taken with it that we will be purchasing it on a regular basis. It is a bit labor-intensive in preparation as well, making burdock root a rare treat instead of daily fare.
This post is part of Real Food Wednesday, hosted this week by Cheeseslave.
