Do you like a little fizz? Carbonated beverages are so NOT Good for You. But I found a coconut kefir I liked – I splurged on vacation for this Good for You fizzy drink – so I decided I’d give it a shot to make it myself. I can’t afford to buy those things often – and even though the ingredients were “good”, I knew they weren’t all necessary in a homemade version.

The fizz isn’t the main reason for drinking kefir though (and they aren’t as bubbly as soda pop). Kefir is Good for You because it is loaded with probiotics that help build gut health. Many (most) Americans have destroyed, or at least significantly weakened their gut flora by diet and anti-biotics. Eating and drinking fermented foods with Live cultures is a good way to help restore them. This Coconut Kefir is one of the best tasting ways, IMO, (as is raw goat milk yogurt).

I used a kefir starter packet (because that’s what I had access to. I hope to get some kefir grains sometime when I can find them, to give them a try). Anyhow, you just add the kefir starter to fresh (or I’ve heard canned works too – but I want fresh) coconut water (from a young Thai coconut, not the old “mature” brown ones). And let it sit. How “Freedom & Simplicity” can you get?!

Good for You-Naturally!™ “Pop”

• 1 packet kefir starter (a little over 1 Tbl. in my packet)
• 4 cups fresh coconut water ( to the 1 packet for the brand I used. Check your brand for correct proportions.)

Open Young Thai Coconuts and drain water into glass container. You should get between 1 and 1.5 c. of water per coconut. So you’ll need 3-4 coconuts to get a quart of water. (You may want to empty the coconut water into a larger container and then pour into your Mason jar or whatever you are using to ferment in.) (Find a youtube video to show you how to open it. I cut the husk off the top, then give it a good whack – or a few – with a sharp heavy knife, and pry the top open.) Scoop the Coconut meat out and use in your Green Smoothie, or freeze in an airtight bag to use in a recipe later.

Stir kefir starter into coconut water in a glass jar – with a NON metal spoon. (The experts say to heat to 92° first. Room temp works just fine for me.) Leave some head room. Cover – but don’t screw a lid on. This gets fizzy/bubbly, and could potentially blow. Let set, on the kitchen counter is fine, for 24-48 hours, until milky/cloudy and bubbly. (The experts say 70°-78°.) (It may take longer. I’ve heard 4-6 days for canned coconut water.) I don’t stop just when I see bubbles starting, but wait until the top is pretty foamy looking.

At this point you can drink it or screw the lid on it and put in fridge or add fruit and ferment it longer. In the refrigerator it should last a few weeks. But I don’t have it long enough.

You can drink it straight, or add fresh fruit to it – strawberries (3-4 per serving), or lemon ( a few slices – or juice of,) or whatever fresh or dried fruit you’d like. I like strawberries blended with the coconut kefir in the blender. If you want it sweeter, you can add a truly natural sweetener, like couple drops of SweetLeaf stevia extract (or real (green) stevia leaf powder,) in it before drinking.

You can also do a double ferment, by adding about 1/4 c. fruit, and letting it sit on the counter (covered) another day or 2 – even more bubbly. Strain or blend before drinking. When refrigerated, the fizz may be reduced  if left in the fridge very long. But the probiotics are still in there, alive but not as actively growing.

Before adding fruit, refrigerating, or drinking it all! – remove 1/4 cup to start a new batch. Add about 4 c. fresh coconut water to the 1/4 cup “starter” kefir, stir and follow as before. The packet starters are suppose to give 6-7 or more batches before they fizzle out. I’m going to need more starter (or find grains) AND buy more coconuts real soon. I may have to try to make water kefir in the meantime.

Do you make kefir? What about any other fermented/probiotic drinks or foods? Comment below.

Learn to make another Good for You-Naturally!™ cultured/probiotic food in our Freedom & Simplicity™ Guide to Yogurt Making.

As per request, here is my favorite granola recipe. Get this and over 60 other Good for You-Naturally!™ family-friendly, easy to make, budget conscious recipes in Good for You-Naturally! Weekly Menu & Recipes – Level 1. See demos of many of these recipes – and TASTE them too, at the Good for You-Naturally!™ Seminar LIVE!

Good for You-Naturally!™ Maple-Almond Granola

1 cup pitted Dates

1/2 cup Purified Water

1/4 cup Real Maple Syrup

1/4 cup Raw Coconut Oil

1 tsp. pure Maple Flavoring

1 tsp. ground Cinnamon

1 cup Raw Almonds

8 cups Rolled Oats

1/2 cups dried, shredded Coconut

• Blend (or process in food processor) Dates, Water, Maple Syrup and Coconut Oil until smooth. (Add a little more water if you need to, to keep it blending. Medjool Dates will blend creamier than drier dates, like Deglet Noors.) Stop and scrape down the sides as needed. (Food Processor actually works better if you have one. But, add the water a little at a time, or it may splash out at the beginning.)

• Chop Almonds. (If you have a food processor, you can add them to your Date mix, after processing it, and process again until nuts are small chunks.)

• Blend or mix in Maple Flavoring and Almonds.

• Stir Oats and Coconut together in a large bowl.

• Mix Date mix into Oats and Coconut, with hands is easiest.

• Crumble onto solid sheets for dehydrator (or cookie sheets if you don’t have a dehydrator).

• Dehydrate at 105-110° overnight (or so, until dry) for raw granola. (If you don’t have a dehydrator, dry in oven at lowest temperature, 45 min. to a couple hours, until dry. (This will depend on what your oven’s lowest temp is.) Stirring every 10-15 minutes.

• Cool and break into clumps.

• Store in air tight container.

• Serve with Raw Almond or Goatʼs Milk

 This is just one of the over 60 Recipes in Good for You-Naturally! Weekly Menu & Recipes ~ Level 1, a family-friendly menu plan and recipes to help you gently transition to a lifestyle of eating for your health. It also includes and shopping guide for real foods and so much more!

SDG - For God's Glory Alone, For Me & My House, Me & My House ministries ~ Discipleship for Life!

These super yummy cookies are considered “raw”. They are dehydrated at low temp, rather than baked, to retain all their nutrition goodness.

If you follow a high raw lifestyle of eating, or if you just want to increase your intake of yummy Good for You-Naturally! foods for better health, give them a try.

Lisa’s (Raw) Maple Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies

2 cups whole oat groats (organic)
3/4 cup pure maple syrup (organic)
2 Tbl. raw EV Coconut Oil (organic) (melted or not)
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg, optional
1/4 tsp. ground allspice, optional
1 cap/tsp. vanilla
1 cup organic raisins
1/2 cup chopped raw walnuts, optional (organic)

• Soak oat groats in more than double the amount of pure water (4+ cups), overnight.
• Drain well.
• Process oat groats and maple syrup in food processor (or Blend in blender) until semi-smooth.
• Mix in coconut oil, spices, vanilla and raisins (and nuts.)
• Drop by spoonful on dehydrator solid tray and flatten.
• Dehydrate overnight at 105°.
• Turn over onto mesh screen and dry a few more hours until desired chewiness.

These are awesome cookies that taste like “regular” oatmeal raisin cookies (and look like them too, just not “browned”.)

You can use raw honey or pitted soft dates (or raw agave nectar), if you prefer, but the maple syrup gives a GREAT taste to these.

I usually add just cinnamon to my oatmeal cookies, but these other spices added a bit different flavor that is good too.

If you don’t have a dehydrator yet, click here to see what to look for when buying a dehydrator and the ones we recommend.

from my Good for You-Naturally! for Life online course

Are you looking for an alternative to harmful, chemical laden toothpastes? We love Dentarome Plus from Young Living (our referral number if you choose to order is 225374). But if you’d like something much cheaper that you can make yourself, homemade toothpowder to the rescue.

Whether you’re looking for a healthy alternative, a cheap alternative or just something “on hand” to get you through a pinch, homemade toothpowder is a good choice. Super simple, cheap, convenient, and works great.

Of course, you could just use plain baking soda. That would be great all on its own. But if you want a bit more complex recipe, with a few more benefits, like helping prevent tooth decay, tasting great, and giving you minty fresh breath, read on.

Good for You-Naturally! Tooth Powder

1 Tbl. baking soda

1/4 tsp. unrefined/sun dried sea salt

3-4 drops Thieves Essential Oil from Young Living

6-8 drops Peppermint Essential Oil from Young Living

Mix the salt into the soda well. I use a toothpick to stir. Add the oils and mix in well. Store in a small container with an air tight lid. (like a Tupperware mini midget) or a small bottle with a squeeze top (small hole in lid, with an over-cap.)

(If you don’t use Young Living Essential Oils, be sure the oils you use are safe for ingestion. We choose Young Living for their supberb therapeutic-grade quality and safety. IOW, they work–not just smell good.)

Again, if you choose to order the Young Living oils, and haven’t before, you’ll be asked for your referral/sponsor/enroller’s number: 225374

Today I’m trying the perfect Smoothie for this time of year–Cantaloupe and Nectarine/Peach.

The cantaloupe was really large so I only used 1/4 of it, 1 nectarine, a large handful of baby spinach, a couple large handfuls of ice, and enough water to blend it all up.

Very yummy.

I’m also trying posting from my WP mobile app. So not perfect formatting I’m sure.

Nuts. Flakes. And Fruits. Granola is known as the “health food”. But beyond that granola can be a great Good for You-Naturally!™ food for our health. It is super simple to make, and has endless variations – according to your tastes or what you have on hand.

Granola begins with grains – traditionally flakes, that is rolled oats, but more healthy is soaked/sprouted and dried oat groats or buckwheat. Soaking releases enzymes inhibitors that are in the grain to keep it dormant, (from sprouting,) to preserve it. Soaking will once again awaken it to life, and our health, providing better digestibility. If you prefer, you can leave the grains out and use nuts and seeds only.

Nuts and seeds are the next key ingredient. We stick to raw ones, for their health and life giving factors. Ideally, these should be soaked and dried too, to release the enzyme inhibitors. If you have tree nut allergies, leave those out and just include seeds that you are able to tolerate.

Sweetener and fat are the next ingredients. These can also help hold the granola together, and are both somewhat optional. Dates are a great natural sweetener that also help bind the other ingredients together for a crunchier/chunkier granola. Raw honey and pure maple syrup are other good options, and raw agave nectar, if you use that. Raw coconut oil is our good fat of choice. Of course, the nuts and seeds also provide good fats. Flax seed is a great seed to include that also provides good fat and acts as a binder. While adding these liquid ingredients, you may add a bit of water too.

Seasonings are our next ingredients. Any of your baking spices may be appropriate, such as cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, even ginger if you really like it. I also like to add real vanilla and/or maple flavors.

Finally we get to that third category, fruits. I’m listing them last, because all the other ingredients are mixed together and dried or baked before adding dried fruits. Dried coconut shreds are a staple in our granola. Raisins, dried apples, apricots, or most kinds of dried cherries or berries – strawberries, cranberries, blueberries, raspberries, etc. -  can be added. You could also add fresh apple bits, or even a bit of applesauce as a binder, before dehydrating/baking.

OK, I’ve said it twice, dehydrating or baking. We recommend dehydrating, at low temperatures, for retention of nutrients. If we’re going to make a good healthy food, we want to keep as many of the nutrients as we can intact. Cooking destroys far more nutrients than dehydrating at low temps does.

That’s it. Mix it together and dehydrate it at about 105°-110°, until dry. Store in an air right container. Preferably glass.

What about proportions. Use what you like. there is no right way. But below are some proportions we like – and in parenthesis one of our fave mixtures. All amounts are approximate. This one is more traditional and uses the more common rolled grains, which are steamed, not completely raw, but still a good whole grain.

Lisa’s Good for You-Naturally!™ Granola

7 cups flakes (rolled oats 5 c., rolled barley 1 c., rolled rye 1 c.)

1-1.5  cup raw nuts and seeds – any combination you like (1 c. almonds, 1/4 c. sunflower seeds, 1/4 c. sesame seeds)

1/2 – 3/4 cup sweetener/water  (1/3 c. maple syrup, 1/3 c. water)

1/4 c. fat/oil (raw coconut oil)

1/4+ c. ground flax seed (These are full of really good fats that we are all so lacking, always add them.)

1-2 tsp. spice (1.5 tsp. cinnamon)

1-2 tsp. flavoring (1 tsp. vanilla, 1 tsp. pure maple flavoring)

Mix all together and dehydrate. When dry mix in:

1+ c. chopped dried fruits (1/2 c. coconut, 1/2+ c. raisins, dried apples or strawberries.)

Store in air tight container.

Serve with milk, or in/on yogurt, or just by the handful!

For Me & My House,
Lisa

Keep in touch by “Liking” us on Facebook @ MeAndMyHouse and subscribing to our free monthly email newsletter, Me & My House musings, as well as subscribing to our feed here.

I could share my mother’s delicious brownie with you today. It is indeed yummy, but it wouldn’t help you on your road to good health and weight loss. It wouldn’t be Good for You-Naturally!™

Instead I will share with you another delicious, special brownie recipe I shared with our Good for You-Naturally!™ for Life Online Course & Community this week.  A yummy, super quick and easy raw brownie. These truly have the texture and even taste of cooked brownies. They take only 4  ingredients and probably no more than 4 minutes – start to finish. Measure.  Blend. You’re done.

Good for You-Naturally!™ bRAWnies

from the kitchen of Lisa @ Me & My House

• 1 cup organic raw walnuts
• 1 cup organic medjool dates, pitted
• 1/4 cup raw carob powder
• 1/2 tsp. real vanilla

Put walnuts into food processor and process until ground. With processor still running add halved dates, 1 at a time, then carob power and vanilla. Process until smooth. Check consistency. It should hold together. If it doesn’t, add just a little bit of water.

Press into pan. (Double this recipe to fill an 8×8 pan.) Cut into squares. Eat as is, or refrigerate to firm up a little more.

NOTES: You can stir in some chopped walnuts, if you like some chunky nuts in your brownies.

Just wait till you see what I do with the recipe for a decadent dessert in our forthcoming Good for You-Naturally!™ Simply Snacks recipe book.

For Me & My House,
Lisa

Keep in touch by “Liking” us on Facebook @ MeAndMyHouse and subscribing to our free monthly email newsletter, Me & My House musings, as well as subscribing to our feed here.

Good for You-Naturally!™ Caramel Apples

‘Tis the season. Apples and pumpkins are 2 of my favorite fall crops. Raw pumpkin is yet to be tried here, but we love Good for You-Naturally!™ Pumpkin Bars, Pumpkin Muffins, and of course, Pumpkin Pie.

When it comes to apples, we never run out of ways to serve them – from fresh apple juice to apple crisp, and of course, apple pie. For a very special treat, there’s Caramel Apples. Very special, but still very Good for You-Naturally!™

Good for You-Naturally!™ Caramel Dip
for Apples and other Sweet Treats

• 10 fat and juicy, organic medjool dates

Soak in distilled/purified water to cover. (At least 1/2 – 1 hour.)
Drain – but save soak water.
Add to dates:

• 1-2 Tbl. soak water
• 2 Tbl. raw, organic extra virgin coconut oil
• 2 Tbl. raw honey [or real maple syrup]
  
• 1/2 – 1 tsp. pure real vanilla flavoring

Blend all in a food processor (or high performance blender) until smooth. Add enough soak water to make it nice and creamy.

Serve with crisp organic apple slices.

Yummy!

3 fruits

2-3 green veggies

1 protein

Perfect lunch yesterday.

Green smoothie with:

apple

strawberries

banana

baby spinach – LOTS of baby spinach

homemade raw goat’s milk yogurt

So yummy!

Learn more about Green Smoothies in Green Goodness ~ A Freedom & Simplicity™ Guide to Green Smoothies.

SDG - For God's Glory Alone, For Me & My House, Me & My House ministries ~ Discipleship for Life!

Last week I posted my Super Spaghetti Sauce – the one with the fresh herbs and all, that simmers all day. Do you want a quicker, easier – delicious, but not quite as over-the-top sauce, for those times you’re in a hurry? Dried herbs and canned tomatoes make this one a cinch. Here’s the recipe for you.

BTW, this is one of our QuikMix Recipes. Use all dried herbs/spices and mix together ahead of time. Then just open your cans, dump in your pre-mixed spices and honey, when you’re ready to make sauce. Make up several batches of QuikMix spices at a time and store each in a small jar, Tupperware container, or zip baggie, to always have a QuikMix on hand.

Lisa’s Quick and Easy Spaghetti Sauce

• 3/4 c. onion, chopped (or 1/4+ c. dried minced onion)
• 1 clove garlic, minced (or 1/4 tsp. dried minced garlic)
• 1 pint canned tomatoes (1# can)
• 2 cup tomato sauce (1# can)
• 2 tsp. dried parsley flakes
• 1 tsp. dried oregano, crushed
• 1 tsp. dried basil, crushed
• 1/2 – 1 tsp. honey
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Mix all together and simmer for 1 hour or more. Serve over 1 pound cooked, whole wheat spaghetti.