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jmcbn

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I'm a part of a group of Kombucha Brewer's who have recently taken the decision to include all kinds of fermented food makers in the group too. It's been interesting to see how many Kombucha Brewers also make sourdough bread & add kombucha to the dough. It's really piqued my interest but as someone who doesn't eat grain I've been unsure about the process of making my own starter, and which flour I could use. Google seems to point to rice flour as the best GF option but I'm not a huge fan of rice - other than starch it provides little of nutritional value IMHO.  Anyway, it turns out that the friend of a very good friend of mine is a baker and actually travels the country teaching people how to make sourdough so I've been in touch with him to see what might be best to use - he's looking at coconut flour, gram flour (I know my son can eat this) or milled flax.... Watch this space!!

In other news it's Food Prep Sunday and this week I employed the help of my second born, who thoroughly enjoyed chopping mushrooms, leeks, peppers, broccoli, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes & parsnips, and successfully ground down some dried herbs etc for adding to our Thai Green curry. He also stripped his bed ready for me putting on fresh bed linen. The first born, meanwhile, sat on the sofa watching videos on YouTube. Chalk and Cheese. :rolleyes:

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Yes! Definitely want to hear about your sourdough adventures. I was an avid sourdough bread maker prior to whole30. I actually didn't eat a lot of it, I just enjoyed the therapeutic process and art of it so much. I totally stopped though because without me even eating a little bit, my husband was left to eat entire loaves to himself lol. 

I have considered getting a starter going again, because that was half the fun. 

A gal I followed for her sour dough blog had some success with alternate flours, but if I remember correctly they were still grains or gluten containing. http://tartine-bread.blogspot.com/?m=1 if you want to look at really gorgeous loaves :) she may have some helpful hints too, not sure. 

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Ooooh, thanks for the link to the blog - I'll bookmark that when I get home and have a browse at my leisure...!!

Yep, this sourdough guy came back to me and suggested I try getting the starter going with a combination of flours - 50% strong bread flour, 25% organic wholewheat, & 25% organic rye - initially to get familiar with the process and the science behind all of it. Then he'll help me experiment with non grain flours.... He basically said that the lactic acids produced during the fermentation process will break down the glutens anyway. He's in agreement about rice flour not bringing much in the way of nutrients to the table, but thinks that with coconut flour it would be hard to get the right consistency. Gram flour he thinks *may* work but I'd have to 'suck it and see' as we say here... Any guidelines I looked at online suggested skimmed milk, but he's suggested buttermilk as his preference. Not sure what you were using?

I've ordered the bread flour, the organic wholewheat & the organic rye so I plan to 'get the show on the road' at the weekend....!! :D

 

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Oh so fun. 

The blog I linked to is actually in reference to a book called  Tartine Bread. The guy that wrote it  Chad Robertson, is one of San Francisco's sourdough gurus. I used his method for a starter (I was actually given one that had been going for a few years by a friend who used his method, but I started a few of my own from scratch too). She actually started the tartine blog because she was baking her way through the book. She ended up branching off and doing some experiments of her own, which we're oretty amazing. She has a step by step guide on her blog and it is pretty fool proof. 

I just used a strong bread flour and organic whole wheat flour (both milled locally in my home town) and filtered water, if I remember correctly, it took about 9 days to get it going, but you may have enough wild yeasts in your kitchen from kombucha, to get it going a bit faster. I know the more I baked, the faster my starter would take. 

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It was my Birthday on Thursday so there's been a bit more socialising than is normal this week, albeit a little subdued by the fact I've contracted a cold virus of some description. Currently I'm coughing about every 2mins, have lost my voice, and could quite happily go to my bed for the evening as of right now even though it's not quite 9pm. My work place isn't the healthiest or warmest of environments & we were without heat of any kind for a few days this week and as such I'm suffering the consequences. That said I suffered on and had a night out with my gym friends last night, a lunch out with my mum today, and finished off with a drink at my parents club this evening. Food choices have been good - a chicken & veg thai curry last night with no rice or noodles on the side, and then marinated sardines on sourdough with a side of arugula salad & chunky fries today. No cake required. I treated myself though to x3 squares of locally made artisan chocolate from @cocouturechoc (each one a different (naturally) flavoured mini brownie just less than an inch square) - all low sugar, high cocoa - which I'll savour, one square at a time, when my taste buds are truly back in action.

On Thursday the plan had really been to stop off at the quaint vintage coffee truck I spotted a while back, but if truth be told I couldn't even smell the coffee let alone taste it so I thought it would be best left to another day.... But despite the freezing temperatures I still ventured out (every day this week) and made the new & extended journey around the block. It feels great to be getting in the extra movement each day, as well as spending the extra time just being outdoors and I'm sure that as the weather improves and the days lengthen this will do wonders for my Vit D production, and in turn my mood, my energy & my sleep.

The mornings & evenings are already brightening up here. Bring on the Spring.

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Well, I'm taking paracetamol every 4hrs, and in between sipping on hot water with a spoonful of honey & a squeeze of fresh lemon. I've also got a fresh batch of bone broth on the go, and am waiting on a portion of @stupideasypaleo's healing chicken soup defrosting for dinner. Food prep has taken a bit of a back seat this week, although that was always the plan knowing I'd be out most of yesterday and had planned to be out most of today... So there's a large pot of chilli done in the Instant Pot, a few large potatoes baked in the oven, and I've stir fried a HUGE batch of veg - cabbage, carrots, bean sprouts, mushrooms, shredded sweet potato, spring onion, red & yellow peppers, with loads of crushed garlic & fresh ginger. I've a second batch of the same prepped & ready to stir fry through the week.... To that I'll add my protein (salmon/mackerel/pork/chicken) & fat, plus I have a number of bone broth based soups in the freezer which I'll defrost as I go. Basically I'm eating the rainbow - and by that I don't mean skittles!!

Next up on the To Do list for today is bottling my next batch of Booch.

I'm a bit disappointed to not to have made it to visit my sister today as she is currently in hospital, but I'm very conscious of spreading my germs to those whose immune systems are already compromised. She'll be there for six weeks, another few days isn't going to make a difference to me, but will make all the difference to her.

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21 hours ago, MeadowLily said:

Hope you're on the mend.

Thanks, but just when I thought I was getting somewhere I started getting low back pain yesterday evening. What started out mild increased pretty rapidly and had me in bed with pain meds way before my usual hour. It worsened through the night to the point where it was excruciating no matter what position I tried, I was extremely nauseous, and I thought I might have to go straight to A&E this morning, but by the time I got the kids up & out & got myself sorted it had subsided a little so I decided to just talk with my Dr.....

Anyway, long story short I'm on NSAIDs, painkillers, and a muscle rub thing, had blood tests taken today and am seeing the Dr for the results tomorrow.

The pain in my back is manageable now, & the nausea has gone, but there is no feeling in the top half of my leg and a tingling in my arm. I'm thinking it's a trapped nerve from all the coughing :( 

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sourdough from kombucha sounds great!  I have a friend who is a food stylist, and makes sourdough, her dad was a master baker.  her blog/FB is 'recipes made easy'

http://recipesmadeeasy.co.uk/no-knead-sourdough-loaf/

I also frequent a home brew forum, where one of the brewers also makes a lot of bread, and he makes a mean sourdough, using beer yeast.  Actually there's a crossove here, you can use beer/ale yeast to make bread, and/or bread yeast to make ale - although neigher are fantastic, as they are bread specifically for different things, but they do work.  the bread from ale yeast is much better than the ale from bread yeast.

I might start my Kombucha up again - the previous batch got used as drain cleaner, but I've still got the starter in the fridge.

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2 hours ago, Crastney said:

sourdough from kombucha sounds great! 

That's kind of what this guy said.... He specialised in bread making at Uni and he's well into the science of it, and when he'd been at my house some months back & spotted my SCOBY hotels we got talking about fermentation, as you do... Anyway, when I went to him with the idea he was a bit hesitant at first, but he said the more he thought about it the more he thought it was a great idea. The flour is all sitting here, and my Dad has volunteered himself as guinea pig for the first batch of bread (he knows about the benefits of fermented foods and is a home brewer himself - wine & beer - but he isn't too keen on the idea of kombucha or cold fermented veg) so I just need to pull the finger out & get the starter going...!!

Is it an actual SCOBY you have in your fridge? Or some of the starter tea? If it's a SCOBY and you're wanting to store it for future use you need to keep it in a jar at room temp, they don't like the cold. You can put a solid lid on & just keep topping it up with some fresh sweet tea every now & then. You should be able to grow a new one from some starter tea though...

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2 hours ago, MeadowLily said:

Make sure it's not a secondary kidney or bladder infection (after flu bug) with that lower back pain...if it continues on.

No... I grew up with constant kidney infections and this is not the same. Last night was like nothing I've ever experienced. The Dr reckoned it's either the body's way of dealing with the inflammation from the virus, or it's a trapped nerve from the constant coughing. Blood test results should be back tomorrow by the time I get there, and hopefully I'm over the worst. It'll be an early night for me tonight - I spent most of last night trying to get comfortable. Neither vertical nor horizontal was helping, and all the while my first born is asking for advice on his English homework!!

In other news I was supposed to be at a trial for a new privately owned semi-private gym tomorrow morning which I've had to cancel. I'm hoping they'll let me re-schedule for next week because I'm seriously consider jumping ship from my current one.

 

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On 22 February 2017 at 7:16 PM, jmcbn said:

Is it an actual SCOBY you have in your fridge? Or some of the starter tea? If it's a SCOBY and you're wanting to store it for future use you need to keep it in a jar at room temp, they don't like the cold. You can put a solid lid on & just keep topping it up with some fresh sweet tea every now & then. You should be able to grow a new one from some starter tea though...

the first batch that I made was only in a small 1/2 demi john, it never really got going properly, but when I tried it, it was already too acidic.  I think I added more tea when it went into the fridge, but most of the liquid was bottled, with some bashed ginger, to see if it would get better bottle fermented.  it didn't.  the thing in the fridge is probably a scoby.  The wife got me one of those 1 gal glass containers with a tap at the bottom, ideal for Kombrewing in - if I'm drinking it on a daily basis too - I guess you could make a mug of tea, let it go cool, drain off a mug of booch, and put the cold tea back in the top, and drink the booch.  and add some sugar occasionally... if I get any free time I might give it a go.

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On 24/02/2017 at 2:40 PM, Crastney said:

the thing in the fridge is probably a scoby.

You'll know if it's a SCOBY because there will be a solid rubber-like object right at the top of the jar. If it's just liquid then it's just over fermented kombucha which you could add some sweet tea to in the hopes that the remnants of bacteria & yeast will form a new SCOBY. If you over ferment again you can use the resultant booch as you would Apple Cider Vinegar, or you may be able to sweeten it up a little by adding a HUGE amount of fruit to it when you bottle it, along with maybe some honey or syrup - of course doing this for the second ferment would rule it out for your Whole30 but it will keep until after. Or you could just add more sweet tea to it and kind of dilute it - let it brew like that for a few days and see how it goes.

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Yesterday I went to visit my sister in hospital. I'm still not really over the cold virus, but I'm over the worst and I sound a lot worse than I feel to be honest, and I hadn't seen her for ages. The lung infection and the meds have really killed her appetite, and despite being in hospital where they can keep an eye on her she has now dropped to less than 7 stone - so around 90-95lbs.

My sister is well aware of my feelings on fast food, but when she texted me before I left the house asking if it would be too much bother for me to bring her a McDs I didn't even hesitate. I'd rather see her eat something than waste away like she's doing right now. She turned down the fizzy drink in favour of milk though so I'm considering that a win.

The hospital food is atrocious - dry potatoes (quite possibly powdered!), over boiled frozen veg, charred & dried out tiny portions of meat, white bread, white rice, no fats of any kind - bland, bland, bland.... The thing is that it is SO bland that it's putting her off even eating the home-made, well made equivalent that any of us would gladly bring in from home, but thankfully she's completely lost her sweet tooth for anything other than fruit (although even with fruit we're talking only 2 or 3 portions per week) so at least she's not chowing down on chocolate.

Her mouth is constantly dry from the heating system, her sleep is constantly disturbed by the nurses checking on her IVs, the other patients on the main ward are mostly elderly and cry out often in the night, and she's finding the whole thing exhausting and upsetting too. Almost four weeks down, and two more to go.

We had all hoped that after 3-4wks they could arrange for a community nurse to do the IV's for her at home, but a community nurse will only call at the house once a day, and since she currently has x3 IVs per day it's just not an option right now so I'm trying to come up with things that she might find appetising, that won't need refridgeration, and that will help her gain back a little weight.

It's not easy.

 

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So it's now almost three weeks to the day that my cold started and, honestly, Monday was the first night that I did not have to sit upright in bed to cough, or get out of bed to blow my nose. It's a good thing about the coughing because that was causing immeasureable pain to my sore back and in fact was most likely the cause of it.

On Sunday I went for a sports massage with my guy. Mentally I'd prepared myself for pain, but when we sat down & talked, and then he got me to do various bends & stretches to check on my mobility he told me that actually  the pain wasn't coming from my back at all, but was deferred pain coming from my sacroilliac joint - that's the pevis to the uninitiated, and for those who've never had a trapped nerve massaged & stretched out of there & I can assure you it ain't pretty.

One hour & 15mins of manipulation (with a lorra lorra screams & a lorra lorra swearing - Erm, put myself in my 'safe place' you say? My safe place is back in my car when you're done I told him!) and a further 15mins of learning new & extreme stretches and I was sent home feeling like I'd gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson. Sunday's sleep was fitful & for the most part uncomfortable, so much so that I was glad when it was time to get up. Then Monday was emotional, and by emotional I mean 'Holy Sweet Peaches!!' painful - but it was a different kind of pain...

I took myself off to bed with a hot water bottle, a cold therapy rub, and more anti inflammatories on Monday night, and woke up on Tuesday morning having come out the other side. Now don't get me wrong. I am by no means healed JUST yet. But I AM over the worst. And last night was the first night I have slept right through without the need for pain killers, NSAIDs, or the cold rub, or to cough or blow my nose - Bliss!!

I've been ordered to rest but stretch until the end of this week, to walk as much as I can, and to check in with an update on pain levels to see if I need to go back for more manipulation. I'm hopeful that won't be necessary.

So as a celebration of the fact that I can smell, taste & breathe normally again, and sit down without pain again I indulged in one of my artisan chocolates after dinner tonight, and it has to be said that it was beyond expectations. Bitter, rich, creamy & just enough to satisfy.

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So it's now almost three weeks to the day that my cold started and, honestly, Monday was the first night that I did not have to sit upright in bed to cough, or get out of bed to blow my nose. It's a good thing about the coughing because that was causing immeasureable pain to my sore back and in fact was most likely the cause of it.

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Soooooo......

This evening was supposed to be my 'gym comeback' after the trapped nerve incident, but true to form on a Friday my Boss kept me an hour and a half late; and since he was in my office working with me I couldn't exactly get mobile during that time to stretch out my lower back/pelvis/hips as they started to sieze up a little from sitting at my desk, as has been the norm over the past week or so. Also it is CHUCKING it down outside.

So I decided to just come home, take some pain meds, do some chores & pack an overnight bag just in case the rain eases off and I drive the boys up the North Coast as planned tomorrow. It's my mum's Birthday and my folks have access to a little apartment up there where they are starying for a few days, and I thought it would be nice to have the day on the coast with the boys tomorrow, then go out for a family meal in the evening with my folks to help my mum celebrate. But did I mention it's CHUCKING it down???

It's glorious up there, IF there's no rain. If it's raining it's a bit of a wash out, with nothing much to do but sit indoors, and we can do that at home, with WIFI.

 

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Well, the sun is trying hard to break through the clouds afer a night of torrential rain. My overnight bag is packed, I've been to the gym (Navigated tabata without any pain - Yay!!), and I've got some emergency food items in a rucksack all ready to go - a half a dozen eggs (cos even after all these years my arents STILL can't fathom that a person - a female no less - would eat more than one egg in one sitting :rolleyes:), avocado, tinned mackerel in EVOO & 'no drain' tinned tuna in spring water, a jar of pickles, a punnet of baby plum tomatoes, an orange pepper, some romaine, a cucumber, a bottle of san pellegrino, a bottle of kombucha, some green tea bags and some other non-compliant bits & pieces for the boys. We'll be eating out this evening, and again for lunch tomorrow but I'm not overly concerned about navigating that - been there, done that many times before.... Just looking forward to some time outdoors with my boys, followed by some time indoors with my folks...

It's the weekend......!!! :D

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Well I'm back. Actually we got back around 8pm on Sunday evening, knackered from two days in the great outdoors & the two hour drive, but still with uniforms, school bags & lunches to get organised before I could even think about food prep - so I didn't think about food prep.

Thankfully I had enough eggs & various bits & pieces to make a decent dinner, and from the freezer I grabbed a portion of chicken curry for Monday's breakfast, a portion of chicken & pepper soup for Monday's lunch, and planned on a tuna salad for Monday's dinner after which I'd get some meal prepping done. So yeah, having NEVER done meal prep on a week night I can see how people struggle with it..... It didn't help that my youngest had quite a nose bleed in the early hours of Monday morning which he attempted to clean up, himself, in the dark before coming to snooze in my bed. When I checked in his room on Monday morning his bed - where he keeps pretty much EVERY cuddly toy he owns - looked like the site of some horrific massacre so I'd that to deal with too after work... :blink:

So last night I sorted his room, hung up some laundry, got the lunches/uniforms/school bags ready again for this morning & then prepped a beef stew in the Instant Pot. I probably could have just thrown all the ingredients in but I was adding sprouts and I like them browned in ghee first, then by the time I chopped the kale & onions & other veg and browned some bacon it was time for TWD meaning that food prep rolled into this evening too.

Weekend Batch Cooking FTW - fact!!

Anyways..... the weeknd was just what I needed. The further we drove away from home the brighter the skies got and we spent all of Saturday afternoon exploring the coast. We live on an Island, and we live 5mins from the coast, but there are coasts, and there are coasts, and the North Coast of Ireland is known as an area of out-standing natural beauty and we love it - it never grows old. We saw the Dark Hedges & Ballintoy Harbour - both used as locations in GoT, and then hit the Carrick a Red rope bridge which was chock full of Spanish & French tourists, then as the sun was falling along with the temperature we headed to the apartment to meet my folks, dump off our overnight bags & head out to dinner where I opted for pan fried blackened salmon, new baby potatoes in garlic butter (NOT Whole30) and a fresh house salad with a fancy dressing.

When he headed back to the apartment later that evening the boys were worn out & settled down for the night fairly quickly so I had some quality time sitting chatting with my parents. As always we were planning trips & it looks like we have the summer sorted and have started making plans for a return to Greece next year, all being well.

On Sunday we woke late, had a relaxed morning and then headed to a local Hotel that sits high above the beach for a carvery where they served THE most amazing parnsips I've ever eaten - honey glazed, oven roasted and not Whole30 but oh. my. word they were GOOD!! My folks were staying on for a few nights so we left them after lunch and headed home, stopping off at two beaches and a couple of small harbours along the way.

It was one night away from home. One night away from the computer. Two days in the great outdoors, and yet it feels like it could have been a life time because it uplifted my very soul.

Vitamin Sea - there's nothing quite like it.

 

 

 

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