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Friday, September 27, 2013

‘tis The Season To Be Canning!

In my kitchen yesterday: 25 lbs. of organic green peppers being sliced, diced, portioned and frozen!

In my kitchen today: Eleven quarts of applesauce in the making!

 

 

In my kitchen tomorrow: 25 lbs. of organic nectarines awaiting processing!

I'm so grateful for the abundance of inexpensive, organic produce this time of year! And since we seem to be staying out of the triple digits now, our own garden will be producing again soon too! Yay!

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Saturday, September 21, 2013

Water Kefir - My Basic Recipe

First Ferment


4 cups of structured, Prill water or living water (or filtered water)
1/4 cup of organic evaporated cane sugar
10 organic raisins or so

1.5 tbsp. hydrated water Kefir Grains

In a mason or fido jar, combine sugar and water and stir with a non metal spoon to dissolve sugar partially . It doesn’t have to be dissolved all the way, the kefir grains will do the rest.
Add the kefir grains and raisins.
Tighten lid on the jar and let the water kefir grains do their thing for 24 to 48 hours.


Note: Don't let the grains ferment for longer than 48 hrs (first ferment.) It won't kill them if you do, but experience has shown that they will stop growing and multiplying.
*{I started out using jars with an airlock lid as my means of making the initial ferment for water kefir, but for the last year or so, I much preferred fermenting in a large fido jar. Fidos off-gas by themselves, so no need for burping or fear of explosions, and we get very fizzy second ferments just that bit faster!}*




There is a great debate going on about aerobic and anaerobic fermentation and which one is better and there are many myths surrounding all the different methods of fermentation. I suggest you try it yourself and find out what works for you.

When all the raisins are at the top and are staying at the top or coming right back up when you move the jar, your kefir is ready. Currently that is 24 hours for me, but my kitchen is usually pretty warm during the summer, even in an air conditioned house. It can take anywhere from 24 to 48 hours.
Remove the raisins and strain out the water kefir grains.
Rinse the kefir grains for our next batch. (Personally, I always rinse them. It keeps the "yeastiness" down a bit. However, other people recommend not rinsing them. Find out for yourself which way you prefer!)

From here, you can either drink the kefir as is, or you go on to a second ferment, which will allow you to add flavorings.
At this point, your flavor options are pretty much endless. You can add (fresh or dried) fruits, juices, syrups, flavor extracts, herbal teas and anything else you can think of!
One of our basic flavorings but also a favorite, is to make grape soda.
I add about half a cup of organic grape juice to the strained water kefir and decant into flip-top bottles. Then I let them sit out on the counter for another day at room temperature, before refrigerating. The result is a delightful and very fizzy grape soda!
All manner of juices work, even though we’ve found that anything citrusy can make little stringy inclusions (they taste fine, but some people aren't font of the "look") and that anything that also contains apples always tastes more like cidery fermented than anything else.
But do your own experimenting and see what you can come up with!

Or you could go on to make:





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Friday, September 20, 2013

Healthy Soda Series: Probiotic, Homemade Root Beer

And so we have arrived at Root Beer in my series of probiotic sodas.
As I have mentioned before, I’m not the biggest fan of Root Beer - being European and all ... and that cough syrup thing!
However, I have found out that I just don’t like store bought Root Beer. The home made kind is a whole different ball game!
It’s real. It has depth and body. It has character! The flavors are round and compliment each other - not like cough syrup at all! Even to me!

So, much like the Cola, we will make the root beer syrup first and then we will add the syrup to the second ferment of the water kefir.
And this one does actually get to be as dark a color as the original version. But even so, it does not contain any gluten, as we are not using caramel color!
My starting point was a fabulous recipe by Hank Shaw and I adapted it to suit water kefir fermentation, and our taste buds!


Root Beer Syrup

Ingredients:
Preparation:
Put the sassafras and burdock roots, vanilla bean, coriander seeds, star anise, orange zest and clove in a heavy-bottomed 2 quart saucepan. Add  the water and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, place a lid on your saucepan and simmer for 15 minutes.
Add the molasses, stir, and return to a simmer for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, add the wintergreen extract, replace the lid and let the mixture cool to room temperature and sit for about 5 hours or overnight.

Line a fine mesh strainer with cheesecloth, place over a bowl or pot and pour the steeped infusion into it to strain. Do not press on the contents, but let the roots rest in the strainer for about 30 minutes so everything can drip out. 
Return the sassafras infusion to a pot and add the sugar to the pot. Bring the mixture to a boil one more time, reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for 5 minutes. Pour the hot syrup into mason jars, put on lids and let it cool to room temperature.
Refrigerate the syrup.
It will keep for a year in the refrigerator.

Second Ferment - Combining the water kefir and the syrup


4 cups of water kefir (finished the first ferment, grains strained out)
1/4 cup of root beer syrup (you can adjust the amount of syrup to your liking)

Mix the above ingredients, decant into flip top bottles and leave them on your kitchen counter at room temperature for 24 - 48 hrs.  If you have a warm kitchen and the carbonation is really building up, 18-24 hrs. may be enough.
Refrigerate you bottles.

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You can also use this syrup with carbonated water to make root beer, or if you have a really fizzy first ferment of the water kefir, forgo the second fermentation and drink it as is!
Personally, I like to get the second ferment in, as it does seem to add to rounding out all the flavors!

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Probiotic Soda: Ginger Ale

In the series of healthy, probiotic sodas, here is a really simple but-oh-so yummy one: Ginger Ale!

 

Water Kefir - First Ferment

4 cups of structured, Prill water or living water (or bottled water)

1/4 cup of organic evaporated cane sugar

10 organic raisins or so

1 organic lemon wedge (1/4 of a small lemon)

1.5 tbsp. water Kefir Grains

In a mason jar, combine sugar and water and stir with a non metal spoon to dissolve sugar partially . It doesn’t have to be dissolved all the way, the kefir grains will do the rest.

Add the kefir grains, lemon wedge and raisins.

Tighten lid on the jar and let the water kefir grains do their thing for 24 to 36 hours.

When all the raisins are at the top and are staying at the top or coming right back up when you move the jar, you’re kefir is ready.

Remove the raisins and lemon wedge, strain out the water kefir grains.

Rinse the kefir grains for our next batch.

Combining The Two - Second Ferment

4 cups of water kefir (grains strained out)

1/2 small organic lemon (you can reuse the one you had in the first ferment too)

1 1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled, chopped/grated or finely sliced

1.5  tbsp. organic evaporated cane sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla emulsion/extract

 

Combine all the above in a large jar, squeeze 1/4 of the lemon for juice, then add the lemon back in,  screw down the lid tight (it needs to be a tight lid as this will build quite some carbonation) and let it steep for 12 -18 hrs. You probably need to burp the liquid several times a day to release some of the carbonation build-up.

Strain the solids out and decant the ginger ale into flip top bottles. Refrigerate the ginger ale.

 

 

This recipe is very adjustable to your own tastes.

Use more ginger, use more vanilla, less of anything, use real vanilla, use extract, add something else - the possibilities are endless.

For example, my daughter’s favorite way is to add 2 tbsp. of fresh pineapple juice per bottle when I decant it. The gingery pineapple soda is delightful!

There will likely be a little sediment at the bottom of the bottles - that’s from the ginger and lemon. Don’t worry about that, it’s perfectly normal and you can drink it just fine!

 

Next up in the series of healthy “sodas” - probiotic, natural, gluten-free root beer!

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Thursday, September 19, 2013

Healthy Sodas? Is that even possible? YES!

I have told you about our relatively new found love for water kefir before, but I have been experimenting since.

The kids and I are perfectly fine with juice based water kefirs, but my husband continues to be a bonified soda drinker, all be it with the soda fountain. He has given up the caffeine soda a couple of years ago, but his favorite drink continues to be coca cola, dr. pepper and root beer.

I have been on a mission to at the very least reduce his chemically based soda intake, so I have been experimenting with making a healthier form of “soft drink” to at least tempt him to try other things!

Since the base of the water kefir is relatively neutral, it really does lend itself to a variety of options. The Cola one is the most work intensive, but it is also the one that can be played with and adjusted to your personal preferences.

The initial ingredients I started to experiment with, were from a variety of websites and suggestions. Many of them included essential oils, but that didn’t work well in a water kefir application. So, I went with this recipe from the New York Times and adjusted it some!

Sounds quite spicy and more medicinal, doesn’t it?

I expected it to be somewhere between a Christmas cookie and a Root beer on the flavor scale. And I don’t really like Root beer all that much, even though the rest of my family loves it. Having been raised in Europe, Root beer tastes like cough syrup to me, conjuring images of being sick as a child. Not exactly that enjoyable, even though after all these years, I am starting to warm to it a little more!

But I know it’s a big thing in the USA! You even float ice cream in it and call it a treat! *shudders*

But I digress! Well, not entirely - I will also show you how to make natural, good-for-you water kefir that tastes like Root beer!  And this one does actually taste like the real thing!

Anyway, back to the Cola syrup!

Amazingly, some way, somehow, once the syrup is done, and fermented for that second time with the water kefir - it definitely reminds me of the flavor of ... Cola! 

Does it taste like Coca Cola/Pepsi?  Definitely not! It’s different!  It’s better! It’s homemade, with wholesome ingredients and no artificial anything added.

Since we are not using any kind of food coloring or caramel color, this syrup is a lot lighter in color than we are used to.

 

 

Cola Syrup

Grated zest of 2 medium organic oranges

Grated zest of 1 large organic lime

Grated zest of 1 large organic lemon

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg,  freshly grated

1 section of a star anise pod, crushed

1/2 teaspoon dried lavender flowers

1 1/2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger

1 one-and-a-half-inch piece vanilla bean, split

1/4 teaspoon organic citric acid (personally I prefer 1/2 tsp)

1 cup organic evaporated cane sugar

1/2 cup organic brown sugar

2 cups of water + 2 tbsp..

1. In a heavy pot over medium heat, bring 2 cups water to a simmer with the zests, cinnamon, nutmeg, star anise, lavender, ginger, vanilla and citric acid. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer gently for 20 minutes.

2. In a non-stick pan, bring 1 cup of organic evaporated cane sugar and 2 tbsp. water to a boil. Slowly caramelize the sugar, JUST until it turns a DARK brown. When it starts to smell ever so slightly burnt, but isn’t actually really burnt just yet, you’re there! Take it off the heat immediately and slowly and very carefully add it to the hot syrup, a little at the time, stirring constantly.

If you are not comfortable with handling all this boiling hot stuff, you can caramelize the sugar ahead of time, pour it onto a lightly greased sheet and let it cool. It will be like hard candy once it’s cooled and you can break it into pieces and add them to the boiling mixture, stirring to dissolve the sugar chards.

Then add the brown sugar and stir to dissolve.

 

Alternatively, you can forgo the whole caramelizing step all together and just add the sugars right to the water and spices. It will taste slightly different as the caramelization and the “almost burnt” sugar add a flavor note, but if you’re going for quick and easy, this is the way!

 

3. Line a sieve or colander with a double thickness of cheesecloth and place over a bowl. Pour the contents of the pot through the sieve. Carefully gather up the corners of the cheesecloth and twist the top to close. Use a spoon to press the bundle against the sieve, squeezing out all the flavorful syrup.

4. Stir the syrup and let cool. Transfer to containers with a lid and keep refrigerated.

 

 

 

Water Kefir - First Ferment

4 cups of structured, Prill water or living water (or bottled water)

1/4 cup of organic evaporated cane sugar

10 organic raisins or so

1 organic lemon wedge (1/4 of a small lemon)

1.5 tbsp. water Kefir Grains

 

In a mason jar, combine sugar and water and stir with a non metal spoon to dissolve sugar partially . It doesn’t have to be dissolved all the way, the kefir grains will do the rest.

Add the kefir grains, lemon wedge and raisins.

Tighten lid on the jar and let the water kefir grains do their thing for 24 to 36 hours.

When all the raisins are at the top and are staying at the top or coming right back up when you move the jar, you’re kefir is ready.

Remove the raisins and lemon wedge, strain out the water kefir grains.

Rinse the kefir grains for our next batch.

 

Combining The Two - Second Ferment

4 cups of water kefir (grains strained out)

1 cup of Cola Syrup

 

Combine the two and bottle in swing top bottles. Leave the bottles to ferment at room temperature for at least 24 hrs., burping them once or twice. Once you have achieved the desired level of fizziness, refrigerate the bottles.

 

And there you have it! A healthy probiotic drink, very reminiscent of Cola! And it has nothing artificial or chemical in it! And no gluten!

 

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Incidentally, if you don’t really care about the food color (gluten) and artificial flavor aspects and just want to make probiotic cola - this flavor concentrate makes a pretty mean cola soda that tastes a lot like store brand Cola!

 

To make it with the flavor concentrate, do the first ferment as described above.

For the second ferment, you will need:

 

4 cups strained water kefir

1 tsp cola extract (for a gluten free cola extract, try Lorann’s Cola Flavor Concentrate and use 1/4 tsp)

2 tbsp. organic evaporated cane sugar (More if you like it sweeter - the second ferment will feed on the sugar and some of the sweetness will go away, but you need at least 2 tbsp. to feed the ferment!)

 

Mix everything together in a jar/jug and stir to dissolve the sugar.

Pour into flip-top bottles and let ferment at room temperature for at least 24 hrs., burping them about once a day. Once you have achieved the desired level of fizziness, refrigerate the bottles.

 

Next up in the series of healthy “sodas” - Ginger Ale!

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Monday, September 9, 2013

Orange And Vanilla Honey Shampoo And Body Wash

This has become our favorite shampoo since we stopped using store shampoos and body washes several months ago!


This shampoo/body wash is quick and easy to mix up and even though it may seem odd to put honey in your shampoo, I highly recommend you try it!
It is NOT sticky at all and the antibacterial  and antifungal properties of the honey are oh so good for your hair and scalp (and skin for that matter!) Not to mention the softness it imparts on your hair! Hair and scalp just seem to be moisturized and the oil production balanced!
It seems to also cover pretty much any hair and scalp problem our family has (from dandruff to eczema) which is an added bonus!
My children and I also use it as a body wash, so for us, it’s an all around good thing! For my husband I replace the vanilla essential oil with peppermint and/or tea tree essential oil, so he doesn’t smell quite so “girly.”

Orange And Vanilla Honey Shampoo


1/2 cup of castile soap (I generally use Dr Bronner’s Citrus or Baby Mild)
3/4 cup of raw honey (I use Nature Nate’s Raw Unfiltered honey, which I can get locally at Fry’s/Kroegers!)
1/4 cup authentic African black soap (optional - can be replaced with with more castile soap or any other natural liquid soap)
1 tsp of sweet orange essential oil (use no more than 1/2 tsp if making for a baby)

Mix everything together and fill into a shampoo bottle!

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To use, wet your hair, then massage shampoo into your hair and scalp. A little goes a long way with this shampoo!
You don’t need to pay special attention to the ends of the hair - the scalp is the important part.
Rinse thoroughly!
There is no need for conditioner, but for added benefits, use a Raw Apple Cider Vinegar rinse!
I generally use 1/8 cup of  Raw Apple Cider Vinegar to 2 cups or so of cool water! This is your final rinse, don’t wash it out!
Using cool or cold water closes the cuticles in your hair and makes it even softer and gives it amazing shine!

As always, be aware of the transition period if you are switching from regular shampoos, even some organic ones. Your hair and scalp will go through a transitional period, which can mean that your hair looks dull or oily after the first couple of times using this shampoo. Generally these effects are however short lived and your hair and scalp will adjust and come out healthier and happier at the other end!
If you are lucky like our family, we skipped the transition period and went straight to happier and healthier hair and scalps!

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Saturday, September 7, 2013

Easy, Creamy, Lump-Free Sauces and Soups

Do you have trouble making roux based sauces and soups without lumps?

Then this may be for you!

In German recipes, something called “Mehlbutter”, which literally translates into “flourbutter”, has shown up more and more recently.  And it works!

So what is it?

It’s a nifty way to get your soups and sauces smooth and creamy, without lumps (!) and without having to do a roux (melting the butter, adding the flour, letting the flour cook out,  whisking in the liquid, etc.) first.

And it’s really simple, too!

Mix and equal amount of flour and softened butter, divide it into balls (or form a sausage and wrap in plastic wrap, then once frozen/chilled, cut slices) and either keep in the refrigerator, or, in the freezer.

 

 

Then whenever you need to thicken a sauce, take one or more of your flourbutter balls/slices out of the fridge/freezer and add to your soup and sauce.  Start with a small amount and see how much it thickens - you can always add more!

It will slowly melt into your liquid, you give it a quick whisk and voila, thickened without lumps! Yes, really - NO lumps!  I know it sounds like it will just cook little balls of flour, but really it won’t - try it!

 

Dairy-free: This also works with room temperature ghee and earth balance buttery spread. If using Ghee, the resulting mass is a little softer than butter, but it still works just fine in the soups and sauces. I put mine into ice cube trays, freeze them, pop them out and place them in a Ziploc bag in the freezer.

 

 

 

 

Gluten-free: Incidentally, this also works with a variety of gluten-free flour mixes, even though not all are created equal and you may have to play around with it a little. So start with a test batch of 1 tbsp. butter and 1 tbsp. of gluten-free flour mix, mash them together, roll them in a ball and then test them in a soup or sauce.

 

 

If you are satisfied with the thickening power and texture, go ahead and make a larger batch and freeze for future use!

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Friday, September 6, 2013

Inexpensive Solutions To Home Fermentation

We love Kefir at our house! My kids have grown up with milk kefir and they would have it morning, noon and night if it was up to them!
But because I have been off Dairy since earlier this year, I branched out into Water Kefir a while back, as I still wanted to get all those good probiotics! And we have totally fallen in love with Water Kefir!
We all love it and we love experimenting with different flavors, different stages of fizziness, etc.
We generally have our Water Kefir in the evenings with dinner and the kids have become quite the connoisseurs, judging every new flavor as to it’s fizziness, ripeness, overall flavor profile and if we should have it again!
So, after a while of doing water kefir, I started looking into other home fermenting, especially with all the fruit and vegetable abundance summer brings with it!

{From left to right: Water Kefir Lemonade, Grape Water Kefir and in the back in the large bottle is some Blueberry Water Kefir. Then a half gallon jar of Water Kefir in the process of fermenting, two jars of fermenting peppers and other vegetables and a jar of lacto-fermented sauerkraut!}

The internet is full of fermenting recipes, ideas, descriptions of the benefits and last but by no means least, gadgets and contraptions that aid you in proper fermenting. All 0f it of course costs quite a bit of money, which I was not prepared to spend.
When you first start playing with it, you can do it with just regular mason jars, but once you do it on a regular basis, it really helps to have the proper equipment!
So, I went about rigging up my own!
It’s not all that hard. Since I use Mason Jars for just about anything anyway, I am of course using them for fermenting too.
The caps I am about to show you how to make rather quickly and inexpensively, run from $10 to almost double that on the internet and are basically exactly the same.
For my initial set-up I used what I already had on hand. Note that there should be no metal touching fermented food or drinks, so please always choose glass or BPA free plastic lids!



You will need Plastic Lids for Mason Jars or Tattler Lids (make sure they fit your jars - wide mouth or regular,) a 3-piece Airlock, 1/2 inch rubber grommet and a rubber gasket. Unless you’re using the Tattler lids, then you don’t need a gasket as that is already provided. You do however need one of the metal rings that come with a mason jar to tighten the finished lid down.
Since the  plastic lids for the mason jars are rather leaky and not air tight at all, we need to trim the rubber gasket so it fits inside the lid and seals it.
You only need to cut a few millimeters off around the outside, which is easily done with a pair of scissors.


Next you need to use a 1/2 inch spade bit and drill a hole in the middle of your lid.
Once you drilled your hole, place the rubber grommet in the hole and adjust so it sits properly. Next insert the airlock and fit the trimmed rubber gasket - and you’re done!

To use your airlock lid, pull off the little lid off the 3-piece airlock and fill it about 1/3 full of water. Place the lid back on and screw the entire lid on your fermenting jar.

For the Tattler Lids, you do the same thing as above and then tighten down the lid insert with the metal ring provided with your mason jar!


I usually use this lid for my first ferment with the water kefir grains.


Then I remove the floating raisins* (I keep them in a little container in the freezer and use them as probiotic, pre-soaked raisins in baking and smoothies,) strain out the kefir grains and the lemon (I squeeze the juice into the finished water kefir and use the rind like I would any other organic lemon rind.) 
*The raisins are there to feed the kefir grains as well as a good indicator as to when the kefir is done with the first ferment, as they all float to the top (and stay on top) when it’s ready! During fermenting time you often see some being pushed up to the top by the bubbles, but they sink back down to the bottom. Until it’s ready, then they stay on top!
I then bottle our water kefir with a little fruit juice (our favorites so far have been organic grape juice, blackberry, raspberry, pineapple and cranberry) in flip top bottles (check your local wine and beer brewing store for those, they tend to be less expensive locally,) leaving them out on the counter for another day, burping them once.
Then I place the in the refrigerator. We usually drink the water kefir within a day after it has been placed in the refrigerator, even though we have found that some flavors develop better if they are given an additional day in the refrigerator, like the water kefir lemonade and ginger ale!

If you want to be really adventurous, you can also make your own Pickl-It jars. You would be drilling the hole into the glass lid however, which can be a little bit more involved than a simple drilling into a plastic lid. But it’s doable. There are plenty of tutorials about drilling into glass on the internet and once you have done that, you just add the grommet and the 3-piece airlock as above!
I am getting ready to try this soon, as I just stocked up on some of those jars at IKEA! They currently have quite the variety of flip-top bottles and jars!
I will keep you updated on my progress!
Now let’s move on to fermenting vegetables.
In fermenting it is pretty much the most important thing to keep any fruit and vegetables submerged and well below the brine. The vegetables float to the top and anything that peeks out over the brine can grow moldy and spoil your entire jar.
So fermenters usually use weights that keep the food below the brine. For large crocks you can buy ceramic weights, but for the individual jars, you can purchase glass disks that keep your food submerged.
They are however quite expensive and it occurred to me that there must be something less expensive out there that would do the same job and that would be commonly available!
I did find it eventually, in the form of  the dollar store glass candle holders!


Yep, you’ve probably seen them before and they fit into most mason jar openings just right.
The best part? They are $1 for two. So yes, that’s 50 cents instead of $9 + per glass disk!
First, I thought the indentation in the middle might present a problem, but as it turns out, it’s actually a good thing as it makes getting the glass disk out of the jar much easier. You can just grip it from the middle and lift it out!


Just make sure you place the glass candleholder with the hole facing up in your jar and that you don’t have any food in the middle indentation, as that would invite spoilage! Having the brine in there is fine though!


And yes, it has occurred to me too that that cheap dollar store glass is probably made in China and that it may contain lead. So, I consulted my trusty Lead Check before I started using them and I can report that they do NOT contain lead! Yay!


I’ve been collecting a variety of fermenting recipes, which I will be trying. I have collected them here, if you want to follow along and try some of your own!

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In The Garden ...

Even though we are still in the lower 110 F most days, we had quite a bit of rain and a drop in temperature last week and things are starting to happen in the garden!

The seedlings are starting to emerge, some new growth is happening on the transplants and there is a promise of cooler weather (well, “cool” is somewhat relative in Phoenix) and the fall growing season starting!

I can’t wait!

 

 

 

 

 

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Thursday, September 5, 2013

New Follow-Your-Heart Dairy-Free Cheese Shreds (plus coupon and contest!)

If you live dairy-free, you may still be on the hunt for that cheese substitute that brings you closest to that melty, ooey-gooey bubbly goodness that we used to know!

There are lots of cheese substitutes out there and I have probably tried them all. Some are better than others, but between funky texture issues, odd flavors and a host of melt ability and ingredient issues, it just doesn’t seem worth the trouble, so I mostly do without.

A couple of weeks ago, Follow-your-Heart contacted me and asked if I would like to try their new Vegan Gourmet Cheese Shreds.

 

 

Follow-your-heart products are a staple in my house. I have used their Vegenaise for near 10 years now as our only “May0”. Not because of any kind of restrictions, but because we just love the flavor of it!

A few months ago their diary-free cream cheese and the dairy-free sour cream have joined our list of staples. Follow-Your-Heart just have this way of making non-dairy so tasty!

In addition to being dairy free and cholesterol free, their new shredded cheese alternatives are also lactose free,  soy free (!), gluten free, Non-GMO Project verified and contain no preservatives or trans fats!

So, of course I jumped at the chance to try their new cheese shreds!

I got to play with 3 flavors, the cheddar shreds, the mozzarella shreds and the fiesta blend shreds.

Of all three flavors, the cheddar shreds were probably my favorite. They seemed to be closest to the “real” thing! Does it taste exactly like cheddar cheese? No. But close enough for me, especially when incorporated in recipes!

Do they melt? Oh yes, they do! They take a tad longer than regular cheese, but they melt beautifully!

It is more of a soft melt and reminds me more of a melted American cheese kind of consistency, rather than other kinds of melted cheeses! It works beautifully in cheese sauces!

 

 

And in these Grain-free Cheddar Bacon Spinach Muffins:

 

 

{I replaced the parmesano regiano with 2 tbsp. of nutritional yeast.)

 

And it took this Dairy-Free Mexican Queso Dip/Sauce to a whole new level!

 

 

And it brought these Quesadillas back into my life.

 

 

Since the cheese shreds melt a tad differently to “normal” cheese, I adopted a different way of preparing the Quesadillas when using the vegan shreds. It’s a quick and easy way to a perfectly melty Quesadilla!

 

I sprinkle the cheese shreds in the warm pan first, and let them melt.

 

 

Then I cover it with a tortilla and press down a little. The melted cheese shreds will no adhere to the tortilla and are already mostly melted.

 

 

Now turn the tortilla around, add the shredded chicken/meat/veggies (or just nothing like my kids prefer it,) spread the quesadilla sauce on the remaining tortilla and cover the fillings with it.

 

 

Now let it cook for about one minute, then flip it around to cook the other side and you have the perfectly crispy Quesadilla, complete with lovely melted cheese inside!

 

 

One other, quite delightful little thing I discovered about these shreds, is that, unlike ANY other cheese substitute I have tried, these cheese shreds actually turn into that slightly golden brown and crunchy cheesy goodness when you melt it/cook it long enough. Just like real cheese!

 

Those little crispy cheesy bits taste the most like real cheese to me! I have so far refrained from just sprinkling the cheese shreds in the pan and letting them all become crispy, cheesy little nuggets, but I think the day when I will do just that is not far off!

 

If I would have to find one con, then it is that the shreds are just a bit on the salty side for our liking. I find I can adjust most of my recipes to accommodate that, but for some recipes it may be harder to do so!

 

You can try the shreds for yourself with this $1 off coupon from Follow-Your-Heart here.

 

 

Follow-Your-Heart  are also running a recipe contest until the middle of September to launch their new shreds  and you will receive a higher coupon value after you submit a recipe to the contest.

Check out all the great recipes that have already been submitted!

Not to mention the fantastic prizes for this contest! Go check it out! And let us know if you enter one of your recipes to the contest, so we can all go and vote for it!

 

If you feel like voting for my entry,  it’s the Dairy-Free, Grain-Free Cheddar Bacon Spinach Muffin.

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