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Sprouting: Delicious Ideas

May 22, 2013 in DIY Day, Food Allergies, Recipe with 0 Comments

Last week, Emily, our guest poster shared how she has been growing sprouts right in her kitchen. Today the journey continues as she shares how she adds these vitamin-packed sprouts to her diet. 

Delicious Ideas

Hopefully you’ve got your sprouting trays ordered and your seeds watered. Now it’s time to use our sprouts!

Initially, the only use I had heard of for sprouts was to put them on top of salads. That’s a terrific option, but there are so many more possibilities.

  • Steamed sprouts with a little soy sauce as a veggie side for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
  • Add some sprouts to your sandwich or wrap.
  • Add a little red curry sauce from Trader Joe’s and microwave for a minute or two. (For those who prefer to avoid the microwave, a couple minutes on the stove-top works great, too.)

Since I have a steady stream of sprouts growing at all times, I eat 1 or 2 servings of sprouts a day. So far, so good! I don’t think you can really overdose on sprouts, and growing them yourself is a truly inexpensive way to get fresh vegetables into your system every day.

On a whim, I came up with a recipe that involves rice paper, fresh veggies, and black pepper SPAM. Here’s the full recipe. The SPAM is completely optional. You could also keep it vegan. If you prefer a non-SPAM meat, add egg, chicken, or bacon.

You can add sprouts to just about any dish. Here are a few staples for me:

It has been such a delight to share my love of sprouting with you! Please email me anytime with questions, thoughts, or sprouting recipe suggestions: emily.carson@gmail.com.

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Emily is a Lutheran pastor, weekly columnist for the Rochester Post-Bulletin, and blogger at www.theladypastor.com. She also collects treasures from the 1960s like cookbooks, broaches, and vintage planters.

Reuse and Repurpose Jars

May 21, 2013 in DIY Day with 6 Comments

Maybe it’s my kids, maybe it’s my age, but I grow more and more aware of the amount of waste we use. We try and recycle and compost as much as possible, but even still we have gobs of trash and recycle left for the garbage man each week.

I’m sure like many of you, one of the small ways we’ve tried to reduce our waste is through reusable bags at the grocery store. Anytime I turn around people seem to be giving away canvas or reusable shopping bags. By all means, when one is offered for free – unashamedly accept :)

We use these for so many things throughout the week. I used to forget to bring them with me into the store, but now I leave them in the back of my vehicle and it’s just habit to grab them… and the kids… and the shopping cart cover… and my purse… and…

Additionally, I purchased these reusable produce bags for our fresh fruits and vegetables. It keeps the additional pile of plastic produce bags out of our house. I throw these in with the reusables in my vehicle so I’m sure to not forget them.

As often as I possible, I like to buy in bulk. It saves me from having to re-buy things weekly, is often a cost saver, and cuts down on the number of plastic jars or containers we use. Our biggest problem is that our kitchen doesn’t allow for lots of large containers. As such, I’ve started reusing glass jars as often as possible.

Reuse Jars

We buy a large bag of something and put “jarable” portions in the cupboard. We will then store all the large bags in a teeny-tiny closet on the main level and pull additional items out as needed.

The problem, of course, has always been getting the 8 pounds of gooey-gluey-crap off the jar in order to reuse it. Seriously, if you make jars, cut the glue down by 90%!  I promise – it will still stick!

Easiest way I’ve found to clean your jars for reuse…

Place a mesh colander inside a large bowl and place the jar inside the mesh colander. Fill the bowl with super hot water.

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Let the jar sit in the water for about 5 minutes, rotating it every so often. Pick up the colander and pick out all the glue and paper pieces. Discard. (Duh.)

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You will most likely still have some crud on the jar itself, so with cleaning gloves, scrub off the last bit of glue and paper. Rinse clean and….

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Walla!!

I’ve found almond butter (or PB, if you have that in your house), jelly, baby food, and applesauce jars tend to be the best. You have to be careful with spaghetti sauce, salsa or other “strong” jars as the scent tends to linger. I’ve tried rinsing them in vinegar and they still take on the smell of what was in the jar prior. If you have suggestions to eliminate the smell, let me know, as those tend to be great, large jars.

Do you have any quick and easy reusing or repurposing tips or tricks? I’d love to hear what you do in your house!

 

Sprouting: Getting Started

May 15, 2013 in DIY Day, Food Allergies, Recipe with 1 Comment

I am so excited to share a guest post with you all today from one of my online friends, Emily. Emily has been “sprouting” lately – all the rage – and I’ve been loving watching her journey online. She graciously accepted when I asked her to share her journey in sprouting. I’m so fascinated by this! Please ask questions in the comments section if you want to ask Emily more about her experience.

 

Sprouting

My name is Emily. I like people, music, and photography. My other favorite hobby is exploring new, random hobbies (like growing sprouts).

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A few months ago I started juicing. I’d watching a bunch of good documentaries about eating a balanced, whole-foods diet, and many of the films mentioned the health benefits of juicing. I also noticed that Kerry juices and a few other blogger pals, too. So I thought, “It’s go time!”

Somewhere along the juicing path, I read that some folks juice sprouts that they grow in their homes.

“What?” I wondered. “How do you grow sprouts, and how do you juice them?”

And so began my new-found hobby of growing sprouts in my kitchen!  Over the last couple months I’ve been juicing sprouts and eating them, too.  They are delicious.  And you don’t need soil OR sunlight!  Just seeds, a tray, and water!  Easy-peasy.  From beginning to end, the whole process for most sprouts only takes about a week.  You’ll be eating fresh veggies from your own kitchen in no time!

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An additional bonus feature of sprouts is that they are extremely nutritious and quite easy to digest.  Most sprout varieties are high in vitamins and many are a great source of protein. They are also packed with flavor!

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Another sprout bonus feature: watching seeds turn into happy, green, sprouts is extremely entertaining!  (As a side note, my definition of “extremely entertaining” also includes things like watching Lawrence Welk re-runs, taking pictures of the pheasant who frequents my backyard, and writing letters on my typewriter.)

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There are just a few tools I’ve used to begin my new life as a sproutist.  I ordered my supplies from Amazon.

So far I’ve tried Holly’s Bean Mix (highly recommended), Salad Mix (tasty), Variety pack (I’ve liked the few I’ve experimented with so far), and some alfalfa seeds that came along with the kitchen sprouter.

Sprout collage

There are some helpful instructions that come along with the sprouter.  Basically, all you have to do is place about a tablespoon of sprouts on a tray, and then water the sprouts 2-3 times a day by adding water to the top tray.  I have found they actually grow a little bit better if I rinse the sprouts in each tray once a day.  It also helps to regularly change the order of the trays.

Here are some great resources for sprouting advice:

Next Wednesday I’ll be sharing what I’ve been doing with my sprouts.  Get ready for some super easy recipes with lots of room for individual taste and creativity.

Emily is a Lutheran pastor, weekly columnist for the Rochester Post-Bulletin, and blogger at www.theladypastor.com. She also collects treasures from the 1960s like cookbooks, broaches, and vintage planters.    
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