Water Kefir... what is it? And why is it good for you?

Water Kefir Lemonade prepared by my lovely daughter.

There is a new beverage in town! It's called water kefir, and boy, do we love it around here. Okay, so it's not REALLY new, but it is to my family. Water kefir is a wonderful probiotic beverage, and it is so simple make, I'm actually a bit ashamed I didn't give this a try any sooner.

Let me tell you a little about the kefir grains you need, in order to culture your water kefir. The grains are called tibicos, tibis, Japanese water crystals, or California bees. They are believed to originate in Mexico, where they form on a cactus. The grains are a culture of healthy bacteria and yeast, and they are held together in a polysaccharide matrix. In a sugar/water solution, the microbes in this symbiotic relationship will feed on the sugar and produce lactic acid, a very minimal amount of alcohol, and carbon dioxide. This fermentation process takes approximately 24 to 48 hours, and the outcome is a delicious, healthy beverage.

Why is it good for you? The probiotics delivered to your intestines will feed on unhealthy bacteria and bring a healthy balance back to your gut. I used to take probiotics as a supplement, but with how easy it is to culture, and how much cheaper it'll be in the long run, it makes sense to me to drink it as water kefir instead. Plus, my children love water kefir lemonade.

What do you need? I highly recommend making your order from Cultures for Health, a company located in Vancouver, Washington. Their outstanding customer service leaves nothing to be desired. You have a problem? They're here to help... by phone, chat, or e-mail. (No, I'm not getting paid for this little promotion.)

They offer the grains by themselves or as a kit. I simply bought the grains and the mesh strainer. Additionally you'll need mason jars and of course sugar. I use raw, organic sugar. Your grains will come in a small box, and they'll be dehydrated. Don't leave them in your mailbox for too long, especially in the summer! You'll have to follow the instructions that come with your grains to rehydrate your grains. No worries, it is super easy.

Once rehydrated, you can culture your grains with a solution of sugar and water. I always make two quarts. The mixture sits on my kitchen counter for 48 hours. I then strain the grains, pour the kefir into smaller mason jars (of course you can use bottles, too), and immediately start a new batch. Every 48 hours I have two more quarts of water kefir.

We really like lemonade, so I just add 1/4 cup of lemon juice to 1 quart of kefir and store it in the refrigerator. But I think I'm ready to try some new flavors. I've heard of people adding fruit juice or fresh fruit, and they turn out wonderfully.

Is it Paleo? I will use the Cultures for Health Frequently Asked Questions to answer this one:

Q.  How much sugar does finished water kefir contain?

A.  While certainly variation will exist between batches, generally speaking approximately 20% of the sugar you start with will remain following a 48- hour culturing process and almost all that sugar will have been converted to fructose from its original glucose-fructose state.  Therefore if you use our recommend ratio of 1/4 cup sugar to 1 quart water, the finished kefir will contain approximately 1.4% fructose.

In my book, this makes water kefir perfectly acceptable for us Groks and Grokettes! :)

Nom nom! Paleo Pancakes

So, this right there is supposed to be a picture of the awesomely delicious paleo pancake recipe from Fast Paleo, that I made this morning. And then I forgot, and all I had left was this empty plate.

Yes, the pancakes were scrumptious, and both kids and my husband devoured them. And I did, too, of course. I did tweak the recipe a bit, and I will share with you just exactly what changes I made.



Here is the recipe as listed on the Fast Paleo website:

Ingredients

• 2 cups fresh strawberries, diced
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 1/2 cups shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup egg whites plus 3 eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup vanilla egg white protein
• 1/2 - 1 tbsp sweetener of choice
• 1/8 tsp baking soda

Cooking Steps

Syrup:
Combine the water and strawberries in a saucepan and bring to a boil
Once boiling, turn down and simmer for 15-20 minutes
Pancakes:
Add all ingredients in a blender and combine
Heat an oiled skillet to med-high heat
Use 1/3- 1/2 cup batter and spread out a little as it is thick
Cook until lightly brown and flip to cook the other side
Makes about 8 small pancakes and 2-3 servings of syrup

I have no egg white protein (I didn't even know there was such a thing as egg white protein powder!), so I decided to use a quarter cup of chia seed meal instead. I have a ton of chia seeds and ground them in my Magic Bullet. The Bullet makes a very fine powder, so you won't get the jelly texture that is so characteristic for chia seeds.
Instead of 1/8 tsp of baking soda I added 1/4 tsp.
Also, instead of turning the stove to medium-high heat, but cooked them on medium-low. Good things will take a little time. 
The pancakes came out incredibly fluffy.

For the syrup, I used a combination of raspberries and boysenberries. I don't ever use water to make syrup. There is enough juice in the fruit. Because the boysenberries were pretty tart, I added a tbsp of honey. I cooked the syrup for about 15 minutes.

Yum! These are truly delicious!

Halfway? No way!

Okay, so things are good. Really good actually. I got thinner. I sleep well. I have lots more energy at Crossfit. And of course, what's most important, I really do not crave the sugar.

And so, I was able to bake these super delicious cookies for my kids without eating even one of them. Granted, I did lick my fingers when I got some batter on them and decided... I did, after all, have to make sure that the cookies were going to turn out just fine! Yum!! And yes, the kids loved them too.

But you know what sucks? Being invited to a birthday dinner, and being confronted with wine, chips, and other goodies. Now that it's summer, and the sun is here to stay (for a while), there is nothing quite as delicious as a glass of wine with my grassfed steak. I hated to watch my friends enjoying their beverages, while I sipped on a glass of sparkling water. And this is not a matter of being addicted to the stuff... But it does confirm that food and drink have become so much more in my world than nutrition. The pleasure of enjoying these things in a social setting is big, and I really don't like to miss out.

Oh well, 15 more days of this... I suppose at the end of 30 days I will be proud of myself for challenging my body and mind and for sticking with it. Enjoy your glass of wine tonight. I'll be sipping some water...

Pork Tenderloin and Asparagus

I don't usually post recipes, but now that I basically check out FastPaleo every single day, I feel like I should! Plus this recipe is quick and easy, and it tastes delicious.

I'll have a grilled and stove top option. Living in Oregon you just never know... The weather could change at any minute. Or you could run out of propane, which was the case for me last night. I really should keep an extra bottle of propane in the garage...


Ingredients

1 pork tenderloin
seasonings: salt, pepper, smoked paprika, garlic powder, coconut aminos
(Ghee or expeller pressed coconut oil if cooked on stove)

1 bunch of asparagus
seasonings: salt, pepper, chopped garlic, balsamic vinegar

Directions

Marinate the tenderloin in coconut aminos and seasonings. (Approximately 2 hours)
Marinate asparagus with two tablespoons of balsamic and seasonings to taste. (Approx. 30 mins)

Heat grill to high heat, brown tenderloin all around, then turn down heat to medium low.
Add asparagus to grill about 10 minutes before you take off the tenderloin. Cook for a few minutes, then turn over and cook a few more minutes.

If prepared on the stove, heat a cast iron pan to high heat. Add a good heap of coconut oil, ghee or whatever you like. When thoroughly heated, add tenderloin and brown all around. Turn down heat to low, cover pan and cook until meat it just slightly pink in the middle. Steam asparagus for no longer than 3 minutes. When finished cook, set tenderloin out on a serving dish and cover. It will cook all the way through, while sitting there.
In the meantime, add asparagus to the pan and cook for a few more minutes until nice and tender.

When serving, I like to add the drippings as sauce on my tenderloin. Serves about 3 adults, depending on the size of your tenderloin.

Divine!

Body Image

You see that girl? This is me, in March, only two months after I started Crossfit, and 14 months after I switched my diet to Paleo. I am in the best shape of my life, and I am not even close to where I want to be. I'd love to be one of those hot Crossfit chicks with the sexy abs, and the awesome bi- and triceps.

I want to do straight pull ups without a band. Right now I am still working on the kipping pull ups, meaning I use my entire body to help me move my head up above the bar, and already I've worked my way up from the black band (the widest, giving me the most support) to the red band (the thinnest giving the least support)...

This morning I read a guest article (How Perfect is the Perfect Body?) on Whole9. And it made me think about the way I have changed over the years, and how the way I look at my body has changed. I vividly remember the first time I went on a diet, because I felt I was fat. I stopped eating candy bars, and at very little meat. Of course this was just the beginning of my long journey of dieting.

The most extreme thing I did was after Toothless Fairy was born. I wanted so desperately to be thin, that I dragged myself to the gym for a two hour cardio session six days a week. Just before leaving the house I'd take a double dose of ephedra. That stuff made me unbelievably jittery, and the only way I could get rid of that awful feeling was to wear myself out on the crosstrainer and various other cardio machines. I did this religiously, and ignored the fact, that it was not recommended to take ephedra for longer than a few weeks at a time. I lost the weight, was down to a size 6, and I was "happy". For a while, because as soon, as I changed my diet even slightly... as soon as I did not religiously go to the gym, I'd start gaining weight again. I wondered if this was it. Would I have to spend the rest of my life running to the gym every single day, pumping myself full of weight loss drugs, just so I could have the perfect body? It never even occurred to me, that not having the perfect body was just fine... or that what I was doing was clearly wrong.

Of course, things have changed. A lot! Making the switch to the Paleo lifestyle made me a better person in so many ways. Yes, the extra weight I was carrying around with me since my son was born 9 years ago, came right off, and obviously I was thrilled. And now I have plans to become this lean, mean muscle machine.

BUT, and this is what is really important, the way I look at myself has changed entirely. I'm not chasing an ideal anymore. I am very happy with who I am, and I like the person who's looking back at me in the mirror. I still have the soft middle from giving birth 3 times, and if it sticks around forever, so be it. My reward are three amazing children, and I love them to pieces. Stretch marks, sagging boobs, I have them all. And I may never look like this gorgeous chick in the picture.

The body I want is the body I can get with the work I do. I don't know yet what that will look like. What I can do is to eat right, and to work out right. I am absolutely addicted to Crossfit.

And I am absolutely addicted to the way I feel about myself now. Life is good. Better live it now rather than to chase the perfect body. I love to be healthy. And this is really what it comes down to. Being healthy... no matter how strong I am or how strong I will get.

Day 6 of my Whole 30 Challenge

Wow! I woke up this morning after a ridiculously good night's sleep. It was almost like I closed my eyes and then opened them again, only it was 7.5 hours later, and I felt rested and ready to go. This makes me incredibly happy, because there really is nothing quite as wonderful to me as a great night's sleep!

Overall I feel healthy and strong. The headaches are gone. My digestions works great.

I still have some cravings for sugary things. Not overwhelming by any means. Last night we were invited to a Name that Tune party, and even though part of me wanted to grab one of those delicious looking gluten-free brownies, the bigger part of me chose not to give in.

It was a little more difficult with the wine and tequila. Although, in all honesty, it wasn't so much my own cravings for an alcoholic beverage, as the wish to enjoy said beverage with everyone else in the room who drank. I found this to be an interesting sensation. Wanting a drink because others had them. But, well, I resisted, and ultimately I was glad I did.

Today, I'm cleaning my garage with my Ogre husband. I should have plenty of energy for that! Tonight, we'll eat baked chicken. Yum!

Have a happy day!!