Turmeric Ginger Milk

Every once in a while you know I gotta talk about food. I just get the urge to share. My argument is this: There is too gnosis in food!! ... that sounds kinda bratty but ... there ya go. That's the only excuse I'm ever going to give. Food is medicine and good food is good medicine. You'll never hear me say that tofu is good food, though. Sorry. Been there, done that, and got really really weak and sick. Never again.

Well, here's a delicious way to get your dose of turmeric which is super healthy for the immune system and digestion overall. Very relaxing in the evening. I found the recipe on some site which I can't recall now. This stuff is sublime, otherwise you'd never see me yapping about it here. So take a leap and try something unusual in your kitchen with me today.

Some might say, "Ginger tea, ok.. yeah, alright. I go with you on this. But Ginger MILK? And TURMERIC? Angel, what the hell were you smoking?"

No drugs were involved in the making of this milk. I swear. lol. It is delicious and a fantastic way to enjoy the benefits of this spice, of which there are many.

It called for two cups of milk. I halved the milk to make it a single serving but kept the measurement for the spices and it tastes divine. I can't drink 16oz of milk, sorry. Tummy just can't do it. But I can drink 8oz.

Helpful hints for price and other issues are at the end of the post.  It's not expensive to make but I do have some hints to help you out to make it dirt cheap.

Here's how you make it and what you'll need:

• One small stainless steel pot
• One metal spoon for stirring
• 8oz milk(whatever fat content you desire)
• One pinch of ground(or freshly grated) ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• One pinch of fresh ground black peppercorns

Put your milk into your pot and turn on your stove to Medium. If you have a gas stove it'll be a tad bit lower.

Add all three spices.

 

Mix with your metal spoon(now do you see why you need a metal pot without Teflon coating?) while cooking and make sure you're scraping the bottom of the pot. Cook for about three minutes until you see little bubbles formed around the edge. Don't cook until it's boiling, it'll form a skin and you don't want that. Cook until it's steaming.

If you don't scrape the bottom well this is what your pot will look like when you're done. A lot of the spice will sink and will get stuck there. It's not hard to wash off, but that is spice that you're not getting in your drink.

Don't worry if you get this bright yellow milk on your stove or counter. Read the Tips below. Easy cleanup.

Now pour your turmeric ginger milk into your mug and sip to your heart's content!

If you choose to use freshly grated ginger you'll find that some of the slivers will float and some will sink. The ones that sink are really mellow tasting by the time you get to them.

I've even started sprinkling a bit of turmeric in my older cat's mushed up food. Poor thing only has a few teeth left and we have to mash her food up for her. She seems to eat more when I put the dash of turmeric in it. I leave out the pepper, though.

Here is the little princess herself. She just got shaved yesterday that's why you can see her pink skin in some areas. She feels like suede.

Helpful hints:

1.  Do not brush your teeth for at least thirty minutes after drinking this milk. Your toothbrush will turn neon yellow and you'll freak out. I learned this one personally. I don't have any problems with teeth staining from this drink but the turmeric does linger for a while so do yourself a favor and hold off with the toothpaste. Besides, turmeric is antibacterial! You're actually doing something good for your teeth by drinking this concoction.
2. Turmeric is a pretty potent dye. It'll wipe right up off of stoves and any other non porous surface very easily but if you happen to get it on a Formica counter top you'll need to put a dot(yes, just a dot) of bleach or a spray containing bleach on the stain. No scrubbing involved. It wipes right up after you let the bleach spray sit for about ten seconds. This is, yet again, something learned from first hand experience. I hyperventilated the first time I got turmeric laden liquid on the counter. I thought our rent deposit would be gone for sure. Nope. Nothing a little bit of bleach can't take care of.
3. Don't be surprised if you have mild 'hot flashes' by the time you get to the bottom of your cup. Ginger is a warming spice and the body does react accordingly. I tried chilling the concoction and it's horrible. But you may like it. Try it and see. I just don't think this is a very good cold drink.
4. I've found that dried and powdered ginger spice tastes just as good as raw ginger; just... different. Sometimes I like chewing on the tiny bits of ginger and other times I'm not in the mood. I keep a small chunk of ginger in my crisper for this reason. A good way to keep the root fresh as long as possible is to put it in a small ziplock bag, put in a paper towel with it, close the bag and then poke a few holes in it. Every time you use the ginger replace the paper towel with a fresh dry one. It absorbs moisture.
5. Turmeric is a pricey spice in some areas and from certain brands. Buy in bulk if possible. I can buy 14oz of turmeric from my local GFS for only $9.99!  McCormick is over $4 an oz by comparison so definitely shop around for the best deal.  
6. I also buy black peppercorns in bulk. To start off, though, you can get McCormick's pre-filled peppergrinder at Walmart for under $2. Not a bad deal at all. Until you figure that you can buy just under a POUND of peppercorns for under $8 at bulk spice areas, pop off the McCormick grinder lid and refill it. Niice! Now I use the different varieties in peppercorns on just about everything I make including meats.

I think a small dollop of pureed/canned pumpkin might be interesting to stir into this. I'll try it this Fall and if it's any good I'll let you know. 

Coconut milk might be good to use in place of cow's milk. I'm allergic to coconut so I can't try it but if you do then be sure to comment and let us know. Almond milk might be workable, however I read somewhere that almond milk that's heated too long can turn bitter. Anyone know anything about that?

Cheesy nom noms --nooch

The spiritual person must eat. Ya know... food. For survival. Two types, really. We've got our mindfulness and alertness to our spirit type of food and then we've got the nom noms that fill our belly kind of food.

At least for today I'm going to chat a bit about a nifty ingredient I found to make the body more healthy and give vital nutrients a chance to combat all the other crap we come into contact with on a daily basis. I am in love with this stuff. (I have a serious article on the way, folks, no worries. It's one that a few people have asked me for. It's grating on my brain, though, because it's such a tricky subject to research or write about. Hermes Trismegistos. I am working hard on it, though.)

My husband was a real piece of entertainment the first night I tried this new ingredient at dinner. 

I told him it was cheesy. He scoffed. I was just going to use it on my plate but he was being pushy. He wanted to investigate this new stuff. I knew he was leaning toward wanting to condemn it so that just made his reaction even funnier.

I had him sniff the bottle. He squinted and frowned.  "Put some on this chip," he said. 

So I sprinkled a bit on. He ate the chip. He then grabbed the container from me and liberally dowsed everything on his plate. It looked like a cheese storm. After dinner was done he(caveman beating of chest) licked the plate. I'm talking serious tongue-on-plate action. I was appalled. Pleased, but appalled just the same. I really shouldn't have been. If it's cheesy, he's going to go after it.

Ok. So the husband now likes this new ingredient, although he loudly protested for days beforehand, saying that I was such a weirdo and 'why do you need that crap?!' 

We've been together for around nine years and it still ticks him off that he likes the vast majority of the 'weirdo' things I bring into the kitchen and onto our plates to eat. But he's much better natured about it now. He just acknowledges that it's good and 'gimme some more.' Good enough for me, especially if it's such a powerhouse of vitamins. 

So what is it? Nutritional yeast! Yes, if you were weirded out by reading that then you read correctly. Say it again with me- nutritional yeast!!! YES! ... and not the same thing as brewers yeast or bread yeast or any other type of yeast. Just, nutritional yeast. It is an ingredient unto itself. 

For the yeast-initiated it's referred to in slang as 'nooch.' NUTritional yeast... nooch. get it?

Red Star's nutritional yeast flakes in a shaker, is what I've recently grown to love. I think I need to get a smaller shaker to refill for my purse when I go out. Sprinkled on fish it tastes like a blend of Romano/Parmesan cheese. You can also make a 'cheese sauce' with it and drip or mix it with anything you like, for example: french fries, steamed broccoli, nachos, or noodles. It's a little more difficult to make 'cheese' that'll stick to noodles from what I understand so I'm still investigating recipes for that. People even sprinkle it on popcorn. You can put it on anything. Sandwiches, soups, whatever. Oh and it's heavenly when sprinkled on freshly fried over easy eggs with lots of real butter. (are you salivating yet?)

I had to call around to various stores here in town to find it since it is something of a specialty item. Found it at Publix for $5.85 for a five ounce shaker. That's over $93 for five pounds and with as much as I foresee my family eating this stuff.... eh. I think I'll go with ordering it in bulk online at Whole Foods. It's $32.59 there.

So why would I purposely search high and low for such a weird grocery item? I have intense reactions to vitamin supplements, in general. I get achy and dizzy from anything that has rosehips in it for the vitamin C. It's the salicylate content, I know that now. Vitamin B shots, pills, or sublinqual drops make me jittery and then I crash and burn like a drug addict. And that's with a small dose. As you can see from those two examples, I'm sensitive. 

So nutritionally, what's a person to do with all the nutritionally deficient food available but who still needs additional vitamins? You have to supplement with high density, nutrient rich alternative foods. That's really the only other thing to do if you can't get your hands on a good supply of non-GMO foodstuffs. Here's Red Star's nutrition profile. 

Holy impressed!

Amount on left is per serving and the number on the right is % of a daily value
.

Thiamin (B1)	9.6 mg	640%
Riboflavin (B2)	9.6 mg	565%
Niacin	56 mg	280%
Vitamin B6	9.6 mg	480%
Folic Acid	240 mcg	60%
Vitamin B12	8 mcg	133%

This is just a super short list of the highest ranking vitamins I chose out of that list I linked above. It has zinc, selenium, and phosphorus, and other things. That's not counting the 17% protein!  And I have to say that even with the high amount of niacin, I haven't felt any flushing so far and I'm not exactly skimpy when I use it. 

I found the Red Star nooch in the flour and yeast section of Publix. Some carry it and some don't. I had to call around to three Publix's here in my city alone to find one that did and the manager told me that it's only because they have a few local vegetarians who come by regularly to get it.  Some stores carry nooch in their vegan/vegetarian health section. That's actually where I expected it to be here at this local store and probably why I missed seeing it the handful of times I did search for it. You just have to ask the manager, is what I've discovered. It's an odd product that even most of the stock people overlook so they forget about it and what it is let alone where to find it. 

Bob's Red Mill nooch is a little cheaper than Red Star but I've read that Red Star tastes the best so I figured I'd give myself the best chance at liking it. And I(we) do so maybe I'll go check out Bob's in the future. 

So do you like nooch? Have you heard of it before today?

Farmers Are Suing Monsanto!

Like food? Alright! Let's help our farmers get HEALTHY - non-GMO!-- food to our table! These guys need all the assistance they can get. I don't have much money in my PayPal account but every dime is going to them tonight. I hope all my Readers donate at least a few dollars, too. This is an issue which affects all of us in a very basic way. 

Family Farmers to Travel to Washington, D.C.  

to Take on Monsanto

Image Source

Activist Post,

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Dozens of family farmers, Plaintiffs in the landmark lawsuit Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association et al v. Monsanto, will travel from across America to Washington, D.C. next week to take on Monsanto and demand the right to farm. They will attend the January 10th Oral Argument in the Appeal of Dismissal to be aired before the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. A Citizen's Assembly in support of family farmers at 10am in Lafayette Square will coincide with the beginning of the Oral Argument inside the court room.
"Our farmers want nothing to do with Monsanto," declared Maine certified organic seed farmer, Jim Gerritsen, President of lead Plaintiff Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association. "We are not customers of Monsanto. We don't want their seed. We don't want their gene-spliced technology. We don't want their trespass onto our farms. We don't want their contamination of our crops. We don't want to have to defend ourselves from aggressive assertions of patent infringement because Monsanto refuses to keep their pollution on their side of the fence. We want justice."
Many farmers have been forced to stop growing certain crops to avoid genetic contamination and potential lawsuits from Monsanto. This case challenges the validity of Monsanto's genetically engineered seed patents and seeks Court protection for family farmers who, through no fault of their own, may have become contaminated by Monsanto's patented seed and find themselves accused of patent infringement.
Monsanto filed 144 lawsuits against America's family farmers and settled another 700 out of court between 1997 and 2010. These aggressive lawsuits have created an atmosphere of fear in rural America and driven dozens of farmers into bankruptcy.

"The District Court erred when it denied the organic seed plaintiffs the right to seek protection from Monsanto's patents," said attorney Dan Ravicher of the not-for-profit Public Patent Foundation "At the oral argument on January 10, we will explain to the Court of Appeals the District Court's errors and why the case should be reinstated."
A Citizen's Assembly In Support of Family Farmers is scheduled for 10am in Lafayette Square on Thursday, January 10. Family farmers, their lawyers, and supporters will join after the hearing to explain why they traveled thousands of miles to protect their farms and communities.
"Farmers have planted and saved seeds for more than 10,000 years without interruption until Monsanto's genetically engineered seeds entered the market in 1996. Almost immediately Monsanto began a campaign of harassment against America's farmers, trespassing on their land and launching frivolous patent infringement lawsuits," said Dave Murphy, founder and executive director of Food Democracy Now!. "It's time to end Monsanto's campaign of fear against America's farmers and stand up for farmers' right to grow our food without legal threats and intimidation."
The lawsuit was originally filed in March 2011 by a large group of 83 Plaintiffs, which included individual family farmers, independent seed companies and farm organizations, whose memberships total over 300,000 individuals. The case was dismissed in February 2012 by Federal Judge Naomi Buchwald who ruled that the farmers lacked standing.
Lawyers from the Public Patent Foundation representing the farmers have identified numerous reversible legal and factual errors committed by the judge, which they assert caused her to mistakenly dismiss the case and have filed a powerful appeal brief with the court. Amici briefs in support of the Plaintiffs have been filed by a group of eleven prominent law professors and by a group of fourteen non-profit agricultural and consumer organizations.
OSGATA has established a Farmer Travel Fund to provide travel assistance to Plaintiff farmers for the case. Donations can be made here:  www.osgata.org/support-osgata/.

About OSGATA: The Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association is a not-for-profit agricultural organization made up of organic farmers, seed growers, seed businesses and supporters. OSGATA is committed to developing and protecting organic seed and its growers in order to ensure the organic community has access to excellent quality organic seed free of contaminants and adapted to the diverse needs of local organic agriculture. www.osgata.org

Going Back To Pure Foods

I originally wrote this 6/26 and am just now posting it. Life, man. It calls. And obviously too fast and furiously for me to click on that Publish button. So I deprived you all for a solid week of a really good recipe. My apologies.

This past week has been odd. A niggling in the back of my head keeps saying, "look up this" and "research THAT".... "*impatient foot tap* ....NOW!" ... and it ain't about rediscovered gnostic codices or lost and now rediscovered mega-cities, although I have been reading about those, too, gosh darn it. I am writing three blog posts at once here. Keep getting side-tracked. Damn YouTube. I hate those "you might like" video offerings when you're done watching the one you were. I end up chasing my tail for three hours. 

Anyway! Going back to pure foods- that is what the topic has been from my Divine Nag. That's what I'm calling him now. With much love. Because he is lovely. And most definitely silly, waking me up this morning at 4:30am saying, "Ya know, flax seeds might actually give that bland thing some taste..." After today's lunch, I have to concur that milled flax seeds made it awesome. He does have some good culinary ideas. So now I'd like to share a recipe with you to tuck away for some rainy day experimentation. Or even for dinner tonight! This is a very flexible recipe. I've included pictures.

The thing which got my brain churning to create this recipe today was to get away from all the sugar in my diet. The high fructose corn syrup, plain sugar, aspartame, and white flour in my diet has been making me feel pretty crappy. In my teens when I danced and was so athletic I ate insanely healthy and didn't have the physical problems I have now.

I've noticed that the more soda I drink the more anxious(and obnoxious) I feel, the more white flour items I consume the more of them I want, and overall- I make really bad choices! I have almost no fresh vegetables in my diet or whole grains. Yeah, it's fine and dandy to buy whole wheat bread by the loaf, but what about all the other ingredients in there? What if you want to make it more nutritious and make it more versatile?(Sorry, but I'm cheap. I don't want to pay $3+ for a loaf of super-yuppie bread) I haven't found a product out there like that. These pancakes seem to be it, at least they are for me. Try them and tell me what you think.

Because the pancakes are so neutral tasting you can dress them up with fruit and even make a fruit glaze to drizzle on top, or slap a few eggs on top of them and call it a meal. So it can be sweet or savory. Again, there's NO SUGAR in these! IHOP these are not. But they do taste kinda nutty, because of the flax.

What is this, you ask? This was my lunch just a few short minutes ago. The second picture is the finished plate before I noshed on it. Here we have two medium sized graham-and-flax pancakes with one piece each of sliced smoked turkey and topped with shredded five-cheese blend. I moved a slice of turkey so you could see the pancake underneath.   

I popped  my pancakes in the microwave for a minute to melt the cheese and warm it all up and voila! An... open faced... pancake/sandwich thingie with a side of sliced apple. I don't know what to call this thing. Help me out.

I tried eating it with a knife and fork but that didn't work out very well because the meat kept sliding off. So I rolled them up and ate them like a pita. YUM! I was like the richest whole wheat turkey cheese sandwich ever made! My tastebuds were smiling. My fingers were a little buttery, but my tastebuds were dancing happy.

Here's the recipe for the pancakes; other great topper ideas are below. It's the basic pancake recipe from Joy of Cooking Cookbook(yes, I actually have the original hardback which is three inches thick) but tweaked with healthier ingredients and measurements.

Graham and Flax Pancakes, makes about 12-15 medium sized pancakes.

2 cups graham flour(the healthy flour!)

1.5 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1.5 cups of milk(your choice of fat content)

2 tablespoons of butter, melted

2 large eggs

1 heaping tablespoon of milled flax seeds

Mix dry with dry and wet with wet in two separate bowels. Combine the two, gently folding in the wet ingredients taking care not to over mix. Don't whip out all the lumps. Finished batter consistency will be like a runny porridge. Cook pancakes like normal, on medium heat and flip once golden brown on one side.

Other topping ideas for meals: 

shredded meat

bacon and cheese

peanut butter

raisins/craisins

plain sliced fruit

curried okra in tomato sauce

humus

cottage cheese

pecans, walnuts, almonds, etc

guacamole and sliced tomatoes

scrambled sausage, onion, and garlic

agave or honey

Sheesh, the sky is the limit for these things. If you make large pancakes, because they're so thin, you can roll them up and stuff them with virtually anything. You can also use them in place of cornbread to mop up drippy sauces that are part of the main course, like a gumbo or bean or meat stew. 

When I made this today I fully expected the pancake to be dry and stiff, like a brick. I haven't had much luck using graham flour before now with muffins. But these pancakes were very flexible. The secret is the flax seed PLUS the melted butter. See, you can use milled flax seeds to substitute a large portion of the butter or oil in a recipe; it's a very oily seed. Loaded with Omega 3 fatty acids. 

The original Joy of Cooking recipe called for 3 tablespoons of butter. I decreased that down to 2 tablespoons and replaced it with one tablespoon of a healthier fat- flax seeds.

Once the seed is milled/shredded the shell is cracked and you have these superfine little spindle shaped threads and chips. Inside the seed is where the good stuff lies and that's what you want to use in your baking. Some of the fatty acids are destroyed during cooking but the oil itself is much healthier to use. Just don't go trying to use actual flax seed oil in your cooking unless it calls for it. The oil in the bottle is insanely good, yes, but I don't know the conversion. And besides, it's highly unstable. The dried seeds are easier to keep fresh. If you can't find milled flax seeds(they're in the flour section) then you can purchase the whole flax seeds and just pop them in your blender/food processor for a minute or three. Never tried it. But I've heard it's pretty easy.

I made about 15 of these pancakes today and shoved 13 of them in a gallon sized freezer baggie, squeezed the air out, pressed it shut, and the tossed them in the freezer. The butter they're cooked with in the pan will make really easy to separate when I need to grab a few. Or just wack the bag on the counter(or floor) to separate and there ya go- instant pancakes.

Now I am off to stuff my blender full of peanuts to make peanut butter....  Hydrogenated vegetable oils are next on my hit list.