Mama's favorite Iced Sweet Tea!!!!

If you have a large family like I do than you need to make large batches of stuff at once just to keep them all happy. This is my recipe for the perfect Iced Sweet Tea...

What you will need is a 1 gallon glass container, Lipton Green Tea, Luzianne Black Tea, white Stevia powder, and lemons.....

Boil up a quart of water
Pour boiling water into your glass jar (make sure the jar is not cold or it will crack)

Add:
1 (family sized) or 2 (regular sized) Luzianne tea bags
5 regular Lipton Green Tea bags (I like to use 1 mixed berry green tea in place of 1 of the green tea bags, I like my tea a bit fruity)

I usually tie all the bags together, be sure to remove the paper at the ends.

Put the lid on your jar and let it sit on the counter for a few hours.

Remove bags and ring them out into the jar (then put the bags into your composter)

Add:
2 teaspoons of white Stevia Powder
3 lemons juiced

Then fill the jar all the way up to the top, and enjoy!!

You can forgo the boil step and just add the tea bags to your jar full of water and put the jar into the sun, leave all day and then add the Stevia and Lemon. Yum!!!

Yummy Easy Breakfast Burritos.

This is one of our favorite meals, awesome any time of day and easy to prepare.

In a skillet, fry up some hash browns, I like to use olive oil, it's better for you then the cheaper alternatives, and season with sea salt & pepper, or Mrs Dash.

In a second skillet saute lightly:

Diced onion
Chopped garlic
Chopped chili peppers (or any fresh peppers from your garden, yum)
and diced turkey bacon (the one un-healtyish splurge in this dish, but it is better then the swine alternative)

When your potatoes are ready then add your sautee mixture, mix it all up and then move it all to one side of the skillit.

Crack several eggs in a bowl and add to the empty side of the skillit. Stir the eggs and start the scrambling process, then mix the whole shabang together.. I only takes a minute or so to finish up the egss, stir constantly.

Throw a big scoop in your favorite Whole Wheat tortilla, add salsa, cheese and sour cream.

Enjoy!

For the picky eaters, just put it on the plate, we call it Cowboy Breakfast. A little ketchup and even the pickiest child is eating peppers and onions.. HAHA

Water Kefir, what is it? Basic Recipe.

For those who haven't heard of Kefir before, like me only a year ago. I will try to explain what it is and why it's an awesome addition to any diet. Kefir is a yummy, sweet carbonated soda like, healthy wonder.

Water Kefir has been around for centuries, I have read many accounts where children in mountains somewhere in the east drank mostly Kefir and lived to be over 100 years old on average. The simple description is that Kefir is a mix of beneficial bacteria and yeasts that are held together, and feed off of cane sugar, and sugar from fruits. Technically water kefir is usually made up of Streptococcus, Lactobacillus, Pediococcus and Leuconostoc bacteria with yeasts from Saccharomyces, Candida, Kloeckera and possibly others. In my research I have found that all of these living organisms help you to have a healthy gut along with many other health benefits.

I have found that these little guys are like a life tonic, I have more energy and my gut seems to be in much better shape when drinking Kefir daily, not to mention how nuts' the kids get when I make a new batch. .

It is very simple to prepare Kefir, what you will need:

1 Quart wide mouth jar
1/2 Lemon
1/2 Cup Brown Cane Sugar (kefir grains don't seem to like beet sugar) Or Succanat (unprocessed cane suger)
1/3 Cup Kefir Grains
Dried Fruit (I like to use organic figs as my dried fruit, but prunes, or raisins work great as well.)
Good water (Kefir Grains hate chlorine, so don't use city tap water)

Wash your jar, then add your kefir grains, brown sugar, lemon (just toss it in), 2 figs or prunes or a small hand full of raisins. Fill your jar with good water until the rim, give it a bit of head space so the carbonation doesn't break the jar. Put a cap on the jar, give it a shake and your off.

A couple of times a day give the jar a shake or stir, and then unscrew the lid a bit to let off the pressure. Your Kefir drink should be ready within 24 to 48 hours, just taste it at 5 hours intervals to see when you like the taste.

If you let it go to long then it will taste alcoholic, since the Kefir grains eat the sugar, and give off bubbles, the longer it goes the less sweet it is.

When you reach the flavor you want, just drain your drink through a mesh strainer, squeeze the lemon into it, and enjoy!

Rinse your grains and start a new batch, you can reuse the dried fruit for a few batches. If you don't like the flavor of the plain batch then add it to some juice, or iced tea... Yum!

Purchasing Kefir is fairly easy, the Internet is awesome and you can even get some on e bay now. The best part about Water Kefir Grains, they multiply... if you feed them well and take care of them, they will multiply and grow. Soon all your friends and family will have grains you have given them. After you have given grains to everyone you know you can eat them, my mother in law puts them in her cottage cheese, and other foods. She feels like a new woman.

How to make Bulgar.

Making Bulgar is very simple, and very good for you. It is a staple in middle eastern diets, and you can add it to just about anything you are wanting to bake or cook.

Take 1 cup or Wheat or Rye berries ( I do one of each) Whole Barley not pearled will also sprout, but Oat Groats will not. Put your grain in a wide mouth mason jar. Cut some screen (like on your windows) into circle disks to fit the top of the jars, then put the band on the jar.

Fill to the top with water, let sit for 12 ish hours, then pore off the water into another container and water your plants with it (lots of good nutrients for your plants). Fill with water again then drain it off. I like to set the jars upside down at an angle in my dish drain rack, as you want to let the water drain out and still get air into the jar.

Do the rinse drain thing a couple times a day until it sprouts. Usually happens on day 2 or 3.

Put your sprouts in a thin layer on dehydrator tray, or even a cookie sheet. In the dehydrator set the temp for 115* for around 12 hours. If using a cookie sheet, then set in the sun on the back porch until dried, be sure to stir from time to time. Or put in the oven on the lowest setting, until dried. (try not to get to hot, as you don't really want to cook them ;)

When the sprouts are completely dried, crack them with a hand grinder, or you can use your grain mill, on the course setting. I like to just crack it so it is nice and course. It works great as a hot cereal, or in Taboli, and I add it to my bread, and my porridge.

Put you Bulgar in an air tight jar and store in the fridge. Keeps for a very long time, and don't forget to experiment, Bulgar is a great addition to any dish!

Mama's Lightweight Whole Grain Bread....

This is a recipe for whole grain wheat bread with other grains as well. I like to add lots of good for you stuff to my bread, because you can get away with it, and the kids are none the wiser. To make this bread you for sure need a grain mill, and a Bosch bread machine... This recipe makes 4 awesome loaves, and they are light enough for sandwiches like white, but filling like wheat....

• 2 1/2 C Whey (or buttermilk or milk) cold from the fridge
• 2 1/2 C Hot (just to boiling) H2o (I use an electric kettle)
• 1 1/2 T Sea salt
  
• 2/3 C Olive oil (grape seed is good as well)
• 1/3 C Turbinado sugar (or any sweetener you like Honey works awesome)
• 5 C Whole grain flour (I make a mixture of equal Wheat, Rye, Oat groat & Barley) Packed
• 1 C Bulgar (I do a mixture of equal Wheat and Rye)
• 1/4 C Gluton flour
• 1/4 C Ground Flax Seed's
• 3 T Yeast

Put the above ingredients into your mixer in the order listed, then run on 1, for 30 seconds or so. Then add:

• 5 1/2 C Packed Unbleached White Flour (I use Organic when I can afford it)

Put your mixer on 2, (I like to add the rest of the flour while its still going on 1, but some aren't comfortable with that). Set a timer for 10 minutes and walk away.

Divide into 4 equal loaves put in greased bread pans, put a slit lengthwise in the top of each loaf, let rise until just over the top of the pan, cook in a preheated oven at 350* For 30 Minutes.

Remove from pans and put on cooling rack, brush some butter or Olive Oil on the top of the loaves. And enjoy!

Sine they are made from scratch with no preservitaves you want to keep them in the Fridge or Freezer. I keep the one we are eating out on the counter, as I don't like cold bread ;).

Mama's Overnight Yummy Porridge.

Here is the recipe for my overnight porridge. You throw all the ingredients into your crock-pot before you go to bed, and then when you get up breakfast is ready and boy is it yummy!

c = Cup T = Tablespoon

• 1/2 c Brown Rice

• 1/2 c Oat Groats

• 1/2 c Barley (whole or pearled)

• 1c Rolled Oats

• 1/4 c Polenta (or cornmeal)1/2 c Millet (or Quinoa)

• 1/4 c Hulled Buckwheat

You can substitute any of the grains above with something else, sometimes mine has way more Rolled Oats then anything else, it all depends on what's on hand, and the budget of course.

• 1/2c Whey (or Buttermilk, or Milk)

• 1/2 c Raisins (or any other dried fruit)

• 1/2 c Turbinado Sugar (or any sugar you like)

• 4T Milled Flax Seed

• 1 T Cinnamon

• 1/2 T Sea Salt

• 3 T Butter

• 7 to 8 c Water

Stir it together, it will be very liquid, it needs it as it will cook all night. Turn your crock-pot on Low put the lid on and go to bed. This porridge will feed many mouths.

It should be sweet enough and just plain yummy, but some like it sweeter. And left overs should be put into a cake pan pushed flat, and refrigerated. Then during snack time, you cut it into squares and put a dollop of whip cream on it, and you have Porridge Cake, the kids will love it (my hubby like me to make whole batches for him to have in the fridge, he likes to have it at work, filling and tasty all at once).