Roasted Vegetable Stock

Market on the Move started back up again around here
and it's time to get back to canning.
I love vegetable stock and use it all the time.
It's a great way to incorporate more veggies into our meals
sneaky style, plus it adds great flavor in place of plain water.

I was looking around on the internet for different versions of stock
and came across a roasted version,
I've recently decided I like the flavor of roasted veggies.
Usually for dinner I will cut up a few different kinds of vegetables
into chunks, drizzle them with olive oil, and my favorite seasoning.
Then put it in the oven with the rack at the medium height, turn on the broiler,
then let bake for 7 minutes, stir, 7 minutes more, stir, 5 minutes, stir...
etc. until they are done to my liking.  It usually takes about 20 minutes.
Something about roasting boosts the flavor exponentially.

So I thought I would try roasting my veggies for the stock.
Let me just say that I will never go back.  So good!

So lets get started.

Roasted Vegetable Stock

Wash and chop the following:

1 pound carrots cut into 1 inch pieces
1 bunch celery cut into 1 inch pieces
3 medium onions cut into 1 inch pieces
2-3 bell peppers of your choice, I used green but red or yellow would be good too, cut into pieces
2 large tomatoes seeded and diced.

Place in oven on broil with the rack at medium height.
Roast for 7 minutes.  Remove and stir.
Roast for another 7 minutes, stir, repeat.
Roast for 5 minutes, stir, repeat.

When the veggies are done to your liking, remove from oven.

Put roasted veggies into a large stock pot and cover with water.

Add the following:

3 cloves garlic

3 bay leaves

1 tsp dry whole thyme

8 peppercorns

Stir and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 1-2 hours to reduce the stock.

Scoop a few cups at a time and place in your blender.  Puree.

Then pour through a strainer or cheesecloth to remove large chunks.

Don't discard the chunks.

I saved these and use them in my noodles for homemade chicken noodle soup, 

and replaced some of the liquid for the veggies in my wheat thin recipe for a veggie cracker.  

Very good!

You will have a lot of the chunky stuff, 

so put it in your cupcake tins to freeze individual portions.

When they are frozen, pop them out and put in ziplock bags to use later.

Easy, and nothing wasted.

Pour the strained stock into washed and prepared jars and attach lids and rings.

Remember to slightly heat the lids in simmering water to soften the rubber.

Put jars into a pressure canner.

Because there are more veggies than just tomatoes, you can't use a boiling water cannner.

Follow manufacturers instructions for pressure canning.

Process jars: 30 minutes for pints, 35 minutes for quarts at 10 pounds of pressure.

Let pressure come down naturally.

Remove from canner and let sit on a wire rack for 24 hours to cool and allow the jars to finish sealing.

Once the jars are done, lable, and add to your pantry.

Did you know that you can remove the rings after the jars are sealed?

The lid keeps everything protected, and you can re-use the rings on another jar.

Sometime I forget to remove the rings, but either way is OK.

Roasted Vegetable stock.

So good.

Need some ideas on how to use it:

Use it place of some of the liquid in Garden Breadsticks.

Use it in place of all or part of water making chili, stew, or other soups.

Use it to replace all or part of the water when cooking rice or pasta.

Use in place for all or part of the water in Artisan Pizza Dough.

Or in Artisan Cheesey Bread Sticks.

Or in Artisan Bread.

Really, you can use it just about anywhere to replace the water in a recipe.

Instant flavor and nutritional boost!

Yummm....

Soaked Homemade Grape Nuts Cereal

Generally in my house Breakfast consists of either 

Buckwheat Waffles, or eggs and toast, or cereal.  

Usually Cereal when I'm feeling lazy or have too much going on.  

Which unfortunately happens more often than I'd like to admit.  

I know you are fixing crepes, quiche, muffins, 

puffy oven pancakes, etc. etc. each morning 

but alas for us those are saved for weekends when I have more time.

So when I decided I didn't want to buy boxed cereal anymore, 

I started searching for other kinds of cereal 

I could make from scratch at home 

that would be much better nutritionally for my family.

I've been making granola for a while, but haven't posted my new favorite yet.  

That will come later this week.  

Today I thought I'd share a wonderful recipe that uses my two favorite ingredients.  

Whole Grain and Milk Kefir.  

It's fairly easy to make, just a little extra time so plan ahead.

Here's my milk Kefir grains freshly strained and ready for the next batch.

I love these little guys!

My milk Kefir always goes in a Mason Jar.  

Usually in the fridge for a few days to let the grains do their job.  

If I need more Milk Kefir faster, the jar goes under the counter in the cupboard for 24 hours.  

They work faster when they are warmer.  

Hmmm... Kind of like me.

Maybe that's why I live in Arizona.

Here's the Recipe:

Soaked HomeMade Grape Nuts Cereal

3 1/2 cups of fresh ground whole grain flour

(I usually mix the grains, soft white wheat, hard white wheat, buckwheat, hard red wheat, etc.)

2 cups milk Kefir

1/2 cup raw sugar

1 tsp soda

1/2 tsp sea salt

We go through cereal pretty fast so I doubled the recipe, but this is for one batch.

Mix the fresh ground flour and 1 1/2 cups milk Kefir until well moistened.

Cover and let sit on the counter for 12-24 hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

To the soaked mixture add remaining 1/2 cup milk Kefir, raw sugar, soda and sea salt.

Mix well.  It will be a soft runny dough like mass.  Don't worry.

Prepare a large cookie sheet with cooking spray.  I use Coconut Oil Spray.

Pour batter on to cookie sheet and spread out to an even thickness.

Bake for 30 minutes and check it.  If the sides start to brown, remove the pan and gently break up the dough and turn it over for even baking.

Continue for another 30 minutes or until browned to your liking.

If it's still too soft, bake a little more, or break up the pieces and put them in your dehydrator for a couple of hours to completely dry.

In a blender or food processor, place no more than 1/2 to 1 cup chunks of the batter and pulse to break up the pieces to the desired size.  It doesn't take too long. 20 seconds or so.

Store in an airtight container.

I like mine topped with blueberries.  These were frozen from last summer's harvest.

Still perfectly yummy!

Pour some whole or raw milk and enjoy!

So good!

Perfectly Wonderful Sprouted Whole Grain Bread

Let's get back to basics.

Bread.

It's my life. My weakness. My world.

I'm constantly trying new recipes and since I make bread about every 5 days,

I make a TON of bread.

Now that I'm on the Real Food way of eating and preparing,

I sprout every batch of whole grains.

It is a little more time consuming, but not difficult.

I usually have a batch of grain at one point or another nearly every day of the week.

I just put a fresh batch of grain in to soak this morning.

It will soak for 24 hours.

Then I drain it and leave it in the container for another 24-36 hours to sprout.

Then in the dehydrator to dry for about 8-12 hours, usually overnight.

This means my grain is ready to be ground into flour in the morning which is when

I like to make bread.  

Usually while I'm getting the kids ready for school.

And since this recipe is whole grain it is fairly quick to make, 

no double rise, like normal white bread.

I can have fresh bread coming out right about the time 

the youngest kiddos are ready to walk out the door.  

Let me just say that I love the smell of fresh baked bread.

I better.  I make it all the time.

So this is my new favorite.

It is a remake of a King Arthur Flour recipe that you can see here.

But of course I "Shell-i-fied" the recipe to make it suit my tastes better.

I tried making their version and it just didn't work for me. 

Honestly I'm not sure why.

But here's my version.

Sprouted Whole Grain Bread

I soak 10 cups of grain for each batch.  It gives me enough for bread and a few cups leftover for other uses like waffles, cookies, tortillas, crackers, etc.. etc...

Here's my blend of grain:

3 cups hard red wheat

2 cups soft white wheat

3 cups hard white wheat

1 cup buckwheat groats

1 cup kamut

Place grain in large container and cover with water.

I know this next picture is a little gross, 

but I discovered another benefit to soaking and sprouting your grain.  

Let's face it. 

Grains get bugs.  

In a perfect world, 

I'd have a huge walk in freezer and refrigerator to keep all my grains in.  

I do have them in the house in a cool dark room, 

but inevitably the little buggers get in there.  

Some people would through out the whole 25 lb bag of grain.  

I don't have that luxury, 

or they would just grind it all up and 

never know they were getting a little added protein in their food.  

Not the ideal.  

So when I started soaking the grains, 

I realized the huge added benefit.  

I can fill my container all the way up.  

Swish my hand inside the grain a bit 

to loosen up the grains and allow all the buggers to float to the top.  

Pour off the top.  

Bye Bye Buggers!  

Awesome!

Let the grain sit drained and covered for another 24-36 hours to let the berries sprout. 

It's ok if you forget and let them get longer tails.  

I actually like the end result better than just the little nubs in the picture below, 

but I wouldn't have known that had I not been sprouting on a weekly basis.  

Put it on dehydrator trays.  

I had to cover my trays with parchment paper 

because the holes are too big and the wheat berries would fall through.

Dry in the dehydrator for 8-12 hours.  I usually let mine go overnight.

They need to be completely dry or they will gum up your grain grinder.

I cannot be held responsible for messing up your grain grinder.

Grind the grain as usual.

Now that's done, let's make Bread!

In a Bosch or Blend-tec mixer combine the following:

(if you're using a Kitchen-Aid, you will need to 1/2 the recipe)

5 1/3 cups warm water (if its comfortable for you, it will be for the yeast)

(Optional: if you have some tomato juice, I sometimes reduce the water to 4 cups and add 1 1/3 cups tomato juice.  The acidity of the tomato helps calm down the grainy-ness of the whole grain and makes it more,... well just better.)

1 cup applesauce or oil

1 cup raw sugar

1/4 cup molasses

2 Tbsp sea salt

2 Tbsp dough enhancer

2 Tbsp vital gluten

5-6 cups fresh ground sprouted flour

4 Tbsp yeast

Mix for about 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Cover and let the mixture sponge for about 10 minutes.

Uncover the mixer and on speed 1, slowly add more whole grain flour.

As the dough starts holding together, I add about 3 cups unbleached white flour.

I wish I could be a purist, 

but unfortunately I have yet to find the perfect 100% whole wheat recipe that doesn't fall flat.

When the dough cleans the sides of the bowl, 

cover, increase the speed to 2 and let knead for 10 minutes.

Prepare the loaf pans with non-stick spray.  

Coconut oil spray is my favorite.

Put a little olive oil on the counter and on your hands when the kneading is done.

Turn out the dough and separate into 4 balls of dough.

Shape into loaves and place in bread pans.

Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until about 1 inch above the rim of the pan.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

When the oven is ready, uncover the loaves and place in oven.

Turn heat down to 325 degrees and let bake 35-37 minutes depending on your oven.

I have found that sprouted wheat tends to be 

a little more moist than traditional wheat flour 

so I bake my sprouted loaves longer to make sure they aren't dough-y in the middle.

When they are done baking, remove from oven and let cool on wire racks.

Slice a little piece of heaven, or store in airtight bags or containers.

My favorite is a fresh slice of homemade bread and real butter!

Mmmm.... is it lunch time yet?

By the way, this is perfect sandwich bread.  

Not too crumbly and holds up well for my kiddo's lunches every day.

Enjoy!

Milk Kefir Syrup

Buttermilk syrup is a long time family favorite around here, 

but I wanted to try using milk kefir instead of milk and vinegar.  

Plus we started using raw organic sugar I get from WinCo.  

The combination is heavenly.  

I know the picture shows a store bought bottle of kefir, 

which I bought initially just to see if we liked it.  

Since then I wash it and refil it with my homemade milk kefir.

  

So here's the original recipe:

Buttermilk Syrup

1 cube butter

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 Tbsp Karo

Now my Real Version of 

Milk Kefir Syrup:

1 cube butter (organic and not treated with rBST, we like Tillamook)

1 cup raw organic cane sugar

1/2 cup milk kefir

(omit the Karo.  That stuff is poison.)

Boil and stir for 1 minute.

Add 1/2 tsp real vanilla

1/2 tsp baking soda

Stir well.  It will foam alot so use a deep pan.

Pour and Enjoy!

Because I'm using Real ingredients, a little goes a long way!

We love it over my Sprouted Buckwheat waffles and some raw peanut butter.

Milk Kefir syrup.  It's a beautiful thing!

PS.  If you hadn't noticed I took my blog from public to private 

and eliminated all the banner adds and links to other blogs.  

I got a letter in the mail from an inmate at the state penitentary yesterday and I got really scared.  

How did he get my information?  What will he do when he gets out of prison?

Consequently I'm severely restricting my pubic profile.  No more pictures.

This is a process going off grid, but I love posting things I'm doing, 

mostly for me because I rarely do the same thing twice 

and I regularly go back to old posts to find recipes I made up.

Rethinking and re-evaluating is necessary sometimes, 

but getting forced to do it the way I did....  Sigh.

Heavenly Homemade Wheat Thins with Milk Kefir

I've been looking for a good cracker recipe that fits the Real Food critera.

I think I've struck Gold!  Almost Literally!

These are some deliciously tasty crackers that are

jam packed with super nutrition.

Personally I like them with my Lime Cilantro Hummus,

but my family likes them with soup or as a snack.

I'm just happy they are loaded with nutrition.

My youngest sister came by today and I had her try some.

Loved them!

She also said they have a nice after taste.

Regular Wheat Thins have a kind of weird after taste.

I didn't notice because I haven't bought regular 

Wheat Thins in a while so I didn't remember.

But I'm happy with that bonus!

The original recipe is here.

It's very good, but I've made a couple of modifications to ramp up the nutrition.

The biggest change around here is learning about kefir.

I'm certainly not an expert on Kefir, 

but a great source for info is over here at Cultures for Health.

There are 2 kinds of kefir.

Water and milk.

We love both and it's been fun trying new ways to use it.

I will definitely be sharing more recipes using kefir.

You can get kefir here and here, 

or if you're lucky enough to live by someone who already has some, 

just be patient.  

They will definitely have some to share.  

The little grains grow like crazy and you'll be splitting your culture regularly.  

I've only been at this about a month 

and have already given my mom her own milk culture.

Ok. Let's get started.

These are milk kefir grains.

Not really a 'grain', they just look like little grains.

They are kind of soft and squishy like a firm jello.

When you add the kefir grains to fresh whole milk, 

they go to town eating the sugar out of the milk 

and leaving a slightly sour but uber-nutritious thick milk.

You can buy milk Kefir ready to go at the grocery store, 

but it's about $4 for a quart.

I make mine using whole milk.

Raw organic milk is best, 

but I don't have access to that right now so regular whole milk it is.

Let the cultures sit in fresh milk for 24 hours on the counter, 

or about a week in the fridge.

Head on over to Cultures for Health for a great video tutorial on all the details.

At first I was overwhelmed with keeping the kefir healthy and happy every 24 hours,

until I learned I can keep it in the fridge and use it when I need to.

Much less stress and work for me, but all the nutrition when I'm ready for it.

Strain out the cultures and put them in a fresh jar of milk.

Keep the processed kefir milk in another jar and seal.  

Let sit in the fridge for at least a day before using.

Then it's ready to go.

Usually I use it in place of buttermilk or milk in recipes,

but I also like to add a little honey and just drink it.

It's probably and aquired taste, but I like it and so do my boys.

Alright, enough kefir stuff.

Let's get on to the crackers.

Heavenly Homemade Wheat Thins

In one bowl combine the following:

2 1/2 cups sprouted whole grain flour

(I always sprout my grains.  Always)

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

Whisk together.

In another bowl combine:

1/4 cup raw honey

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

(my recipe is here)

1 egg

1/4 cup kefir milk

Whisk liquid ingredients together then add to dry ingredients.

Stir to form a soft dough.

Knead a few times and wrap in plastic.

Let sit in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.

Longer is OK.

After it's rested, it's time to make the crackers.

I'm not strong enough to roll out the dough thin enough, 

so I used my pasta maker.

It works perfectly for making uniformly thin crackers.

You can find your own pasta maker here.

If you don't remember, 

I made some awesome homemade ravioli using my pasta maker.

Anyway. 

I had to knead the dough a few more times before putting it through the pasta maker.

Cut off a chunk about baseball size or smaller.

Press flat and feed it through the pasta maker on setting 1.

Fold the dough over and roll it through again.

Keep folding and rolling 5-6 times to get good cohesion in the dough.

Then run it through at setting 2, then 3.

I'm happy with the thickness on setting 3. 

Feel free to experiment on the thickness you like.

Lay out the dough and cut into squares with a pizza cutter.

I re-rolled the excess dough in the next batch.

Place the cut squares carefully on a sheet of parchment.

When you're about 1/2 way done rolling out the dough,

preheat the oven to 350 degrees farenheight.

Put the parchment on a cookie sheet and 

bake for 10-11 minutes or until desired doneness.

We like to bake them for 10 minutes, then when they are all baked,

we put the whole pile back in the turned-off warm oven 

for about an hour or so to crisp them up.

Longer than that and they get a little to brown on the edges.

Still wonderful, just more done than we would like.

 And Voila!
A whole batch of super nutritious crackers.
Now that we've discovered them,
I'll definitely be making them
over, and over, and over, and over again!

Real Applesauce

Since I've joined the Real Food revolution around here,
I have been going through my tried and true recipes
and seeing if I can re-work them to fit the Real Food critera.
Many recipes I don't have to change at all, but some needed a tweak here and there.
Since it's apple season and I'm making applesauce today,
I thought I would revisit my Fabulous Applesauce post from a while back.

It definitely fits the Real Food profile.
Just apples.
No sugar.
No additives.

I do bathe the cut pieces in 100 % pineapple juice to prevent browning.
But that doesn't count as an additive.

So here's the original post.
Happy Canning!

 Apple season is upon us.  I love this time of year and Apples are my favorite.  

I wanted to make applesauce for a while and finally had a chance to do it.  

It's not really time consuming especially if you have a pressure cooker.  

I used 4 different varieties of apples.  

The combination makes Fab-u-lous Applesauce and there isn't any sugar in it at all.  

Even better.

I used Golden Delicious, Fuji, Gala, & Jonathan Apples. 

Really, you just need multiple varieties. 

Choose your favorites.  

I just wouldn't add a tart apple like Granny Smith.  

Let's save those for Pie Filling.

Wash them and then cut out core.  

No need to skin them.

Put them in a bowl of 100% Pineapple juice before processing to prevent browning.

Put apple pieces in pressure cooker in steamer basket with 1 cup water in the bottom.

This is the pressure cooker I use.  

Here is the link to Amazon were you can get one of your own.

Heat on high to bring pressure to 2nd ring.

Remove from heat and place in sink to run cold water over the sides of the pan.  

This will drop the pressure rapidly.  Ladle out cooked apples and put in blender.  

Blend to desired consistency.  

I left mine in for about 1 minute for a smooth texture.

Pour hot applesauce into prepared jars and attach lids and rings.

You could add cinnamon or other spices to the applesauce at this point but I wanted mine plain so I could doctor it up later if I wanted to.

Process in boiling water or steam canner for 20 minutes.

Let rest 24 hours. Lable and add to your pantry.

Homemade Real Applesauce.  Fabulously Yummy!