Tutorial: Make Your Own Delicious Walnut Milk!

Hi, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I've got a tasty treat for those of you who are looking for a way to boost their nutrition, cut fat, and lower cholesterol. Or, if you're like us, make something tasty for people who are lactose intolerant!
                                               
First, an odd fact: did you know that while approximately 15% of Caucasians are lactose intolerant, up to 50%-80% of Hispanic/Latinos are? (East Asians have the highest at reported nearly 90%... which made me think of all the Asian food dishes I know and realize almost none of them have dairy. Interesting.)

Hazelnut milk, about $8 a quart.

When our pediatrician first suggested testing our oldest daughter for a milk allergy, I thought that was something he always did with babies who were colicky. But then he told me that studies have shown Hispanics to be much more lactose intolerant than Caucasians. Luckily, none of my children have inherited any milk allergies, but my husband can only handle dairy in small amounts.

Almond milk, about $6 a quart

  That wouldn't be a problem except that he LOVES dairy. Ice cream, cheese, milk, yogurt. Everything that is made from cow milk, he craves. The good news: he also loves goat milk (which is easier for l.i. folks.) And the better news is that he thinks nut milks are delicious.

Walnut milk $14.99 a quart

The bad news (again)? It's SUPER expensive. Walnut milk is 14.99 a quart in some places (like Amazon). We have six kids and I cook on a budget. I just can't imagine spending $14.99 for something you can drink in a day or two!
So, I was thinking of all the walnuts we have and decided to try and make my own.

I know these are hazelnuts. But I also had a whole bunch of hazelnuts around and decided to try two different varieties.

 So, rinse the nuts you have, if they're whole. No need to peel. Put them in a heat-proof dish and cover with boiling water. Add a few squeezes of lemon juice and a few shakes of salt. This is important. Every tutorial I had mentioned this and I decided to believe the people who wrote, "Don't skip this. It helps soften the nuts AND it brightens the flavor. Otherwise it tastes like mushroom water." Yuck. Mushroom water does not sound appealing!

 We had several canning jars full of shelled walnuts. (We also have a whole garbage can full of last year's nuts in the shed, curing for this year!)

 Let the nuts sit in the boiling water for several hours. I added a few more cups of boiling water to the bowls every now and then. Some people soak the nuts overnight, but most tutorials said a few hours, so that's what I tried first.
Strain the soaking water and put the nuts into a blender. Then for every one cup of nuts, add four cups of water. Some people use filtered water. I didn't think it really mattered since our water is pretty good.

 Blend for several minutes or until the water is light and frothy.

 If you have cheese cloth, great, but we'd just ruined our last one by letting it sit in red cabbage (don't ask) overnight. So, a pillow case also works. (Clean, naturally.) Place the pillow case over a large bowl.

 Dump everything into the pillow case. Doesn't look too appetizing!

 Carefully lift the case and let the walnut milk run out. You can squeeze the bottom to get the very last drops.

 This was pretty thick and I added a few more cups of water to the milk after I took this picture. It really was rich and creamy. I put some in fresh brewed espresso right away and it was INCREDIBLE. So good!
Anyway, at this point, some people put in a drop of vanilla and some honey, or other sweetener. I put in 1/2 tsp of raw sugar (cow's milk has sugar so although we knew it wasn't going to taste like cow's milk, I still wanted it to taste like MILK).

 You can see how creamy it is.

 The flavor reminded me of agua de orchata, a rice drink my husband makes sometimes, so I decided to put on a dash or two of cinnamon.

 OH MY WORD. Delicious! My husband drank the whole thing and had NO issues at all. His stomach wasn't cramping and there was no nausea. Plus, it has great nutrition, low fat, and helps lower cholesterol? YAY! He's a pretty active guy but he's pushing 50 and we've got to keep that heart healthy!

 So, the hazelnuts were waiting patiently.

 I could tell this batch would be different.

 It looks very rich and frothy.

 This was before I diluted it a little further with some water but you can see the darker color. It smelled heavenly even before the vanilla. It reminded me of the best hazelnut coffee creamers, but without any chemical taste.

The kids said this one was their favorite, maybe because it was so flavorful, but I think I like the walnut milk. My husband had a second glass of this one and said he really couldn't choose between them. 

So, there you go! It's super quick and easy to make your own nut milks if you have the curiosity, or the need, for a non-dairy alternative in your house. It can last up to a week in the fridge and a lot of people use these milks for their smoothies... but outs disappeared in hours. YUM. Now I'm wondering about granitas and other frozen deserts. Maybe I'll try that next!

Until next time! Be sure to stop by my author page at Mary Jane Hathaway, my other author page Virginia Carmichael, or my blog at The Things That Last. We've been super busy with state testing, college stuff, baseball, a woolen mills tour, and an alpaca farm visit, but I hope to finish my newest historical in the next few weeks. (Wouldn't it be great to have an alpaca on the cover?? No?? Ok, fine...)

The Ever Popular Breakfast Bowl

Hello from The Belle! I wanted to share a recipe my daughter made this week. She's really into Pinterest and has seen a ton of recipes for healthy breakfast bowls. This is one she decided to try. It's from Foodnetwork.com

Coconut-Chia Pudding Breakfast Bowl

She made the basic bowl:

⅔ cup light coconut milk
2 TBS chia seeds
1 TBS maple syrup (the real thing!)

Mix these together, cover and let sit in the refrigerator overnight so the seeds plump up. (If you haven't seen this before, it's pretty amazing.) It comes out with the texture of a pudding.

My daughter actually added greek yogurt and a dash of vanilla to her mixture in the morning to make it creamier.

You can check the original recipe (click here) to see the ingredients they used to top theirs. My daughter topped hers with fresh blackberries, fresh pineapple and shredded coconut. But you can go wild and try any toppings! :)




Have you seen these popular bowls? Have you tried making them?

www.missytippens.com

Let's Have A Heart to Heart Healthy Talk

Have you had a heart to heart with your heart lately? It's really easy to ignore your heart. After all, it's inside your body and it tends to just do it's job without much fanfare.

But if you don't treat your heart right or your heart has a defect, it'll let you know loud and clear. If you ignore warning signs, it will let you know when it's too late.

Several studies have been released lately about how women ignore the signs of heart disease and heart attack because they tend to make excuses: "I'm too young," "I'm having a panic attack," and "I don't want to go to the ER, find out it's nothing and be embarrassed."  True, true, true. How do I know? I've said every one of them recently.

Here are signs and symptoms, as what to do if you think you are having a heart attack and how to communicate with 911, EMTs, ER personnel and doctors.


Episode one got me a stress test. Episode two I ignored (yes, shake your heads). When the third episode happened in my neurologist's office, I was sent straight to the cardiologist who set up a heart catheterization test to look for internal issues. ASAP.  It was a fun Maundy Thursday.

Now here's the weird part, there were no blockages, thank goodness, but the doc found my arteries were 40% narrowed, probably genetic (my mom suffered from this). I don't smoke. I don't eat meat all the time. And you know me, no processed food. The doc was thrilled because she normally sees people with blockages requiring stents. ME? I freaked even as I'm grateful this issue was found.  My blood pressure is great. I'm only fifteen pounds overweight and have already lost five of that (thanks RWA Conference in NYC for giving me a goal already). That's not bad right? WRONG. 

I need to lower my cholesterol and treat my heart even better. I thought I was doing a good job but, in my case, not good enough. The nurses told me you can do everything right but you can't beat genetics. My mother's father died of a massive heart attack. My mother I told you about. There's diabetes on the other side which raises heart risks. I needed to start something new and get even more healthy.

Here are a few of my tips for jump-starting my heart health, thanks to the American Heart Association and Mayo Clinic:

1) Get the butter out of the house: Butter was my fat of choice.  Sob. I use it to grease my pans and bake my gluten-free goodies. It was the one thing I treated myself to because I thought if I did everything else right it would balance out. I'm not saying it won't be back but for now I need to see what a difference it makes. 

2) Eat more oatmeal: I don't eat as much oatmeal in the Spring but I will this season. It helps with cholesterol fighting.

3) Those once a week trips to Five Guys Burgers and Fries are history:  ManO and I always had the small burger (mine wrapped in lettuce some of the time and I only ate half). We declined fries half the time. For now, we are changing our weekend ritual to Zoe's Kitchen where I can get hummus (legumes are great for heart health) and salad with olives. Olive oil is great too.

4) Exercise more:  My foot is in a boot for a broken toe but I'm still using my standing desk, proving to be one of the best things I've added to my study. ManO and I also realized we are getting the steps in when we walk but not the heart rate. If you see folks chasing each other down the street, it's just us getting our heart rates up.

There's more and plenty of recipes to come. But I have a few requests for you now.  Read and pay attention to the signs of heart attacks in women. Pay attention when your cholesterol goes up. If you can't afford to go to the doctor, find a health fair and get it checked. Take up a heart healthy diet.

Disclaimer: This post is all about my own experience and general information found on the web. Please consult your doctor ASAP if this post makes you think you may have heart issues or want to find out more information. 


Do you know any women who have had heart attacks? How is your family's heart history? What can you do right now to improve your heart health? What is your favorite heart healthy dish? 

What Makes A Man (or at least ManO) Happy and Healthy

Poor ManO. We get back from his business trip to Hawaii just in time for his birthday and for him to have skin cancer surgery.  PSA: USE SUNSCREEN and check any strange bumps or moles. Head to the doc ASAP.

This baby face has had it rough over the years.

Yep, it's been a fun month, a fun year. So I decided I needed to make him an extra special birthday dinner. I even planned ahead. But it had to be a healthier version. No excuses.

The main dish: ManO loves meatloaf but it had to be healthier.

But meat loaf and healthy don't go together! Yes they can.

Going low carb? Substitute in sauteed celery and onions for bread crumbs. I use about a half onion and a half of a bunch of celery. Put it in the food processor and pulse down. Be sure to saute it with a little olive oil and let cool before adding to your other ingredients. Cooking the veggies will keep them from drawing moisture away from the meat. The things you learn!


Dropping that cholesterol count? Use lean meat and substitute half of your beef with turkey.

Watching out for heart stress and bloating? Don't use a lot of salt. Put a little bit bacon on top. Bacon makes everything better. We didn't even miss the salt. You can also use any number of spices.

And most of all, serve smaller portions!



The side: ManO loves scalloped potatoes but they had to be quick and less fattening.

Going low carb?  I went with Yukon potatoes this one birthday celebration. This foods to reconsider article in our local paper made me feel better about a not so orange potato being served.


Dropping that cholesterol count? Instead of cream, I used lowfat milk with one pat of butter and a dash of salt for flavor.

Strapped for time? I discovered pre-cooking in the microwave saves a lot of time. I just cooked my yukon taters, sliced them and laid them in my baking dish. I just baked them the last thirty minutes while the meatloaf was cooking.

Again, serve smaller portions. 

Veggie: ManO loves green veggies. A shocking turn of events. So sauteed spinach it was! 

Dessert?  Jetlag sent me down the street to our French bakery. I got their brownies, made of Ghardelli chocolate and very little flour but cut them into small bites. No whole brownies for us any more.  Again, per that newspaper story, the infamous they have shown that folks who cut out indulgences totally are doomed to failure. And smaller portions are plain and simple cheaper!!!

So, we've talked a lot about programs and ideas that lead us to healthier eating. What is the once a year indulgence you can't give up? Have you had success with remade recipes and your family's reaction to them?   

Zumba and Ice Cream

Missy, here. I wanted to show you something I just discovered that is AMAZING.

It has the richest, creamy chocolate flavor. I was so surprised! I saw the "Carb Smart" and thought it would be a poor imitation of ice cream.

I was wrong!

It's not too bad on the nutrient panel either.

Today is an odd post. I don't have a recipe to share. Just the new discovery for a way to eat chocolate ice cream. :) And also wanted to share that since Mindy inspired many of us with this post (click here), I've started going to Zumba classes again.

A friend from my church and ladies Bible study group has just been certified and is teaching us at her home.

I wanted to share her gorgeous back yard! It's amazing. I could go and just spend all day there. So, for your enjoyment... a walk through her garden...

My friend is whipping us all into shape! I'm slowly but surely building up stamina with the dancing. And having so much fun doing it! (I'm also thankful there are NO mirrors.) :)

Have any of you tried Zumba? Anyone else been working to get healthier since Mindy's post?

Playing with our Food

Hi everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I don't have anything really great to share.

(Now THAT'S a winning first line, eh??)

 Seriously, the recipe I have isn't really a recipe but more of a peek into the American obsession with fun food. I never really thought about how the rest of the world 'eats to live' while Americans 'live to eat' until I read a book called 'Hungry Planet'. Amazing. Huge picture book of a week's worth of groceries, in dozens of countries around the world. The differences were SHOCKING.

And it made me understand my foreign-born and raised hubby a little better.

 

 

But before I get to all that, I have a fun link for Jane Austen's Bicentenary of Pride and Prejudice!! As you can tell, I'll be celebrating all YEAR.

 

The Everything Austen Daily has some awesome links and articles to what's happening right now. Janeites, unite! (oooh, that rhymes)

 

Ok, back to playing with our food....

My husband hates the way Americans play with their food. And not just those cute little Pinterest ideas or laughing over inappropriate carrots we find in the garden.

          My sister unearthed these. Cover your eyes, innocent ones! These here are some romantically inclined carrots.

 And he doesn't mind food that is actually going to be devoured and enjoyed... Like these cupcakes. My girls started attending a book club and the first book was 'The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe'. The hostess made these . Aren't they adorable???
                                     
And the 'Jack Frost' cookies we made on a day we woke up to loads of frost were fine because the sprinkles and all were edible. So, no big grumbles were heard there.

But what IS hard for my husband is to watch Americans carve pumpkins (because a good pumpkin crop can get a family through the lean winter months in his native country) or make those little Christmas air fresheners from tangerines and whole cloves.

 

 It drives him bonkers when I make home made play dough. All that flour and salt! That should have been made into something edible! (He doesn't know about the cream of tartar. I won't tell him. That stuff is spendy.)

I don't even make little pretty batches like this...

Ours are the giant mega-batch that takes up an entire fruit bowl.

Ahhhh, play dough in the fruit bowl. The irony!

The more I thought about it, the more I realized we really DO love to play with our food. I like a dish that's fun to make... and fun to eat. It's not just sustenance, it's entertainment. It's definitely a sign of a wealthy nation when we prefer our food to be FUN.

 

Recently I decided to try artichokes. Why? No reason. Maybe because they were exotic and actually a vegetable that we hadn't tried yet. When I lived in California we ate them all the time. But I didn't think my kids had ever tried them and it might be... yes, fun!

This one was looking a little worse for wear. (Edna was quite skeptical. She told me that even trimming off the edges of the leaves was not going to make this an edible dish.)

After trimming, you gently pry the leaves from the heart. Spread them out so that when you steam the artichoke in a pan of water, each leaf will cook at the same speed. I added lemon to my water. Some people douse the artichoke with salt, pepper and oil before steaming, but I didn't.

About 15 minutes after steaming in an uncovered pot, the artichoke is soft and pliable. You can remove each leaf by tugging gently at the base.

(Side note: my husband's family cooks them by burying them in hot ashes for a few hours, wrapped in banana leaves. It sounds to me like the original crock pot.)

My daughter liked hers dipped in mayo and pepper. *shudder* I just salted mine. You scrape the tender 'meat' from the base of the leaves with a knife (or with your teeth, if you're like us and completely savage).

We cut into the heart of the artichoke to retrieve the very softest pieces. Here's the 'beard', and you can see how closely it's related to thistle down at the center.

My kids were in love with the innards because one of them asked what plant artichokes were related to... and of course we had to look it up. Apparently, they're a thistle! Cultivated for more than a thousand years, found wild in North Africa, improved by the Italians and passed around the world, the artichoke is really just a spiny, edible weed. :) Originally the size of a hen's egg and preserved in syrup, it's now the overgrown monster you find in the local grocery store.

 

   Anyway, back to the original topic, I'm learning to be more aware of how I prepare food and what I'm wasting just to provide a prettier product.

But still,  I can't resist a little 'entertainment' value in my meals. Here's a tea cup I was gifted recently.

 I don't think she and Edna are getting along. We'll have to see how this all works out. Perhaps dear Goldy is just too flashy for Edna.

So, what's your favorite 'fun' food? It can be edible or not, for eating or just decoration. We promise not to laugh! (Unless it's a pair of naughty carrots...)

Thanksgiving Casualties

Missy, here. I feel like a casualty of Thanksgiving. First off, the scales tell me so. Yep, gained a pound.

But also, my carelessness led to two burns that almost match! One on each hand. Now, how much talent does it take to do that, I ask you?

After Thanksgiving, I'm sick of heavy food. Early this week, I decided I needed to lighten up. And when I went to make my regular diet iced tea, I also decided it was time to take a break from artificial sweetener and drink water.

I don't like water. Have I ever told y'all that?? (Yes, I'm weird.)

So I went back to a recipe that I've used in the past (taken from The Flat Belly Diet). In the Flat Belly Diet, they call it Sassy Water. I love the recipe from that book, but I've also adjusted according to the ingredients I have on hand.

This particular day, I didn't have lemons or cucumber. But I did have ginger and oranges.

First, I got my favorite pitcher and filled it with filtered water. (We have a Pur filter on our faucet.)

Next, I washed and sliced an orange. I squeezed the juice from a couple of the slices into the pitcher. Then I put all the slices in the pitcher. It looks so pretty!

Next, I pulled out the ginger and broke off a little piece, about an inch long. A little goes a long way!

Use a sharp knife and peel the small piece.

Then grate it right into the pitcher using a small grater.

Voila, you have fresh-tasting water that even I can drink! :) I cover with plastic wrap and keep it in the refrigerator. When the water is gone, I add more, making a second pitcher using the same orange slices and whatever is left of the ginger in the bottom of the pitcher.

Next time I'm a klutz and burn myself, I need to have some of this chilled to dunk my hand into!

So who else around here is like me and needs a little flavor to drink water?