Someone told me recently that although the food on my blog looks good, they would never be able to afford the way I eat. I was shocked by that statement. But realized that unless you really break things down, it can look expensive and even daunting to cook with organic and local food. Here is a beautiful example – a root vegetable tart that my mom made for us when we were visiting a few weeks ago. It was delicious – roasted veggies, with goat cheese crumbles in pie crust. Quick, delicious and healthy – and lots of leftovers!

In my last post, I talked about how you can make an awesome Shepard’s or Cottage Pie (depending in the meat, I found out – thanks Donald! ) with all the best ingredients, like grassfed beef and organic vegetables for under $3 per hefty serving.

Food quality is a topic I am seriously passionate about. I believe it is important and a right for everyone to have healthy food available to them. But starting on this journey can be a challenge and like everyone, it was a process for me when I first started. I pride myself in being able to put good, wholesome and nourishing meals on the table while staying within a very conservative budget. It is one of the ways I like to challenge myself in the kitchen. This is something I have been passionate about for a long time, check out my post from 2 years ago, about the cost difference between shopping at the farmers market vs. the grocery store. I know that there are not farmer’s markets in every area, but even if you have to drive 30 minutes – it might be worth the time and extra gas money in the long run. If you can’t find one in your area – Start a Container Garden, it is easy, economical and fun, especially if you have kids!

I have been hearing a lot of conversations lately online, in real life and in the media about how it is hard to afford to eat good food in this economy. I agree, this is a hard time for a lot of us, and I don’t want to make light of people’s very real struggles. That said, I really do believe that you can eat good food for less than a meal at a fast food restaurant, and even cheaper and healthier than the frozen food section of your grocery store, especially over time.

What does that mean? Well say a fast food meal is $3/per person if you use the dollar menu – you can get a burger, fries and a drink for $3. That is still more than most of my meals because in your own kitchen you can stretch meat and veggies and make enough ahead for leftovers (making more of something like a casserole, takes the same time and effort as making enough for one meal – and it saves you time later). This is especially true if you are cooking for a family. Burgers and fries for 4 is about $12 a mealtime for the whole family. It is hard to stretch a fast food meal or have leftovers, so once you eat the $12 worth of food it is gone. Not so with cooking at home and having leftovers.

But the deal is, you have to be willing to cook. You have to make food from scratch. That is where you have to make your stand and your change and take better care of yourself and family. People seem to equate scratch with spending hours in the kitchen, just like equating organic with expensive.  However, this is not true. By making your own yogurt and cheese, which literally takes minutes, you can actually SAVE money by eating organic – as the cost to make your own, is significantly cheaper than buying it from the store. It doesn’t have to take over your life or mean hours in the kitchen everyday! All you need is some planning. Once you have done it a few times, it becomes second nature!

Here are several posts to help you with scheduling that into a busy lifestyle & some quick starter meal ideas:

Making Your Own Convenience Food

Making Your Own Bread

Making Your Own Dairy Products

Three Easy and Healthy Breakfast Options

2 for 1 Chicken

Beans and Rice -The Ultimate Leftover Meal

Eating on the Fly: Acorn Squash with Sausage Stuffing

Recently I was at the grocery store. I had just stocked up on frozen organic berries for smoothies and organic meat (they were on sale) and I was getting all my dairy to make cheese, yogurt and kefir for the week (not a farmers market week). The woman in front of me had her cart, which was not as full as mine, with frozen dinners, boxed lasagna, bags of frozen meals – where you add your own meat, soda and a few organic veggies (she was trying)– enough food for maybe a week of meals. I made sure to take note of her total. When my cart was rung up, my bill was only $2 more than hers. I had loads of fruits and veggies, grassfed beef, organic meats, frozen organic berries, eggs, dairy and pantry staples – things I would be using over the next several weeks. I make sure to stock up my pantry and freezer with good healthy staples during sales – especially on the highest ticket items, like meat. I also visit my health food store and do the same – especially grains, lentils and flours.

I really think there is something here. But you have to do your research and make a schedule. Yes, on the surface, it may seem like eating organic is expensive – and it is if you are going for pre-packaged organic foods. But that is not what I am advocating here. I am advocating you to have fun in the kitchen, prepare whole foods and feed your family healthy and nutritious meals for less than the cost of eating every meal out, or takeout, or from the frozen food section. Try it yourself and see what happens!

On Monday I talked about my fitness goals for 2010 as part of the 10 in 2010 group . Today I want to talk about my food and kitchen goals for 2010. Food and fitness go hand in hand on the road to health and wellness. In order to reach my fitness goals, I have to have the right kind of fuel to do the physical part of what I have challenged myself to do.

As I have stated I am not a doctor, nor any kind of professional – just giving my own opinions based on my own experiences. Experiences always vary – that is part of what makes us human! So don’t take my word for it, as mileage may vary.

Towards the last half of 2009, this blog made a bit of a transformation. It all started this summer when I decided to go to a personal trainer to get my body to look the way I wanted it to. I dramatically decreased the amount of fats that I was eating to try to stay within the guidelines of 20-30 grams per day, which is what is recommended for weight loss. Once I had taken my daily fish oil supplement, had a TEAspoon of olive oil and maybe a handful of nuts, or part of an avocado, I was through my allotment for the day. Most calorie counting systems, like the one I was using at SparkPeople.com do not differentiate between good and bad fats or things like grassfed (which is much leaner) vs. industrialized meat. So to stay within those guidelines after having my essentials meant no cheese, no eggs (w/ yolk), no yogurt, no kefir, and no meat besides boneless, skinless chicken or something out of a package that said “fat free” but filled with additives and preservatives. After about 3 weeks of trying to stay within these guidelines, I had a bit of a breakdown. Not the strength and feelings of “Fitness” and “Health” I was hoping to achieve. Recently I found this article that might shed some light on why: Is Weight Loss as Simple as Calories In  – Calories Out?

So these last few months have been full of experimentation and trying to find my own way – both as it pertains to food to fuel my body and also in terms of the types of exercise I enjoy, and putting it all in sync with the way I think about food, and trying to eat more locally. Thankfully, on the food end, I have started learning more about “real food”, traditional foods, and food prep and have been slowly implementing those ideas into the way I buy and prepare foods. So far, so good. I feel much improved, despite a few set backs over the holidays (don’t we all have those?!).

When we were in New England during the fall, especially our 2 ½ weeks in VT, where local, minimally processed food like this is widely available, even at restaurants, I had a bit of a revelation. I lost a belt size, was getting up earlier in the morning and generally feeling much more energetic and motivated without really trying. Obviously I would like to see this continue. This year I received a Vitamix for my birthday from my lovely husband, so I would love to make quick and healthy meals using that – saving time. I also want to get more use out of my Yogotherm which I can make yogurt, kefir, creme fraiche and some soft cheeses in.

Here is what I plan to do in 2010:

* Make soups in my Vitamix 2-3 times a week for lunch – tomato, cauliflower, and squash come to mind – made from good quality canned supplies or what is seasonally fresh (local is an absolute bonus)

* On weekdays substitute an after dinner smoothie in the Vitamix for what has become an almost daily post dinner ice cream treat

* This spring when we move, expand the existing garden in VT, and try to produce as much food as possible from it. For year one, things like potatoes, tomatoes, squash, carrots, onions and greens – the things we eat the most of

* This summer begin to raise some chickens for eggs, and possibly, if that goes well, get one or two goats (and or sheep) for milk by the end of the year

* Continue eating regimen – but adding all local sources, once in Vermont (which is thankfully EASY in Vermont )– while still in FL, go to the farmers market on the weekends that we are here, and buy organic from the store

* Continue the adventure in cultured dairy making – add to the regimen buttermilk and make at least one cheese or creme fraiche per week

* Start making fermented veggies like sauerkraut and kimchee and have either a serving of that, homemade kefir or yogurt with every meal for probiotic goodness

* Continue to experiment with grains/ grasses. So far I can say yes to buckwheat, quinoa, and (Non-GMO)corn products. No to wheat and rice. Try millet, amaranth, sorghum and kamut – both grains and flours

* Experiment with sourdough bread

This may seem like a lot, but I am already doing a lot of it – so this is a way to help my stay on course and really make a commitment to it. Some of the new stuff is going to be challenging – like raising animals, but it is something I have been looking forward to for a long time. Other things will be easier to implement. I find like with any new changes, it is good to keep track of them and then every so often see if you are reaching your goals, and if you are, is it giving you the results you were hoping for? If you are reaching your goals and getting the results you want from reaching those goals, great! If there is something lacking or still not right, it might be time to re-evaluate and come up with a new set of goals, until you get it right. Best of luck to everyone with your goals this year!

(This is part of the Nourishing New Year’s Resolutions Carnival, 2010)!

Next post – Yummy Creamy Tomato Soup in the Vitamix!

I am really excited to announce that over the next 10 weeks, I along with many of my fellow food bloggers spanning the globe, are taking part in Ten in 2010. #10in10 is the brainchild of Lori from Recipe Girl. I think it is a great idea for those who want support in getting a jump on their health and fitness goals this year, whatever they are. If you are already on your way, or just starting, this is a great group to join!

I have really been working on “getting healthy” over the past year. For those of you who follow me on Twitter and Facebook, you know I talk about my fitness goals a lot. It never used to be that way. I used to be “allergic to exercise”, and try to find any other route to look the way I wanted to, that didn’t involve exercise. But when we decided we wanted to move back to VT, and raise animals and garden, I knew I had to get some strength. It started out as my New Year’s Resolution for 2009 – this would give myself over a year to get there. But what I found, was a new passion! Now, my day just isn’t right if I don’t sweat a little But you will never find me in a gym (unless I am doing martial arts). I have been hunting for regular exercise and strength training that I can do with as little equipment as possible and that I truly enjoy. If possible, ones that teach me a skill while getting exercise in at the same time- factors I know will keep me on track, personally. One of my goals is to get into a fitness routine – that doesn’t feel like a fitness routine, but is FUN!

But what does “getting healthy” mean? And how does one get there? And what does this have to do with food blogging?

First, “getting healthy” means different things to different people. For me, it means building endurance. It means having an increased measure and reserve of energy (I tend to be a low-energy person) so I can do the things I love without being tired. It means being balanced emotionally. It means having the ability to lift heavy things without hurting myself. It means being able to enjoy outdoor activities like hiking, kayaking, and possibly snowshoeing without extremely taxing myself or holding back fellow participants. It means, conditioning my body to be able to handle the manual labor that comes with farm work. It also means giving my body the best chance I can to live to 100 years old, staying off prescription drugs and staying away from the doctor as much as possible. It also means having arms like Sarah Connor and being able to outrun the Terminators

How you get there, is by doing a lot of research, making a very specific plan for yourself based on what you want to achieve, and sticking to it. It also means having the right fuel for your body. That is where the connection to food blogging comes in. This year I am freeing myself of buzzwords. Finding a new set of rules that works for me and my body – beyond low-fat, low-carb, sugar-free, protein packed, and all this terminology that is supposed to get you to optimal health and fitness, which never worked for me anyway. Besides humans were fit and healthy before any of this stuff was imagined into existence. So we have the capability to do that again!

I am not a big fan of protein bars/shakes as an everyday thing. I don’t like the word “diet”, I like “lifestyle change”.  I will never eat a diet meal plan that come out of a box, jar, or plastic square, and I certainly don’t like low-fat, low-sugar foods, which are generally a key word for “full of chemicals”. So my diet is not likely to change from the kinds of foods I have been blogging about over the past several months. It is important for me to continue to make foods from scratch, using whole foods that make me feel good and give me the energy to go on. Since this is a large part of what being healthy means to me, I won’t sacrifice real, nourishing foods, for the sake of “getting healthy”. To me, it is an oxymoron.

This summer I tried the low-fat, 1300 calories/day avenue and it did not work for me. I was tracking my caloric intake and calculating grams of protein, fat, and carbs. I was trying to lose about 5-8 lbs of fat, while at the same time gaining muscle. I went to a personal trainer and followed their diet and exercise plan, which required eliminating 20 grams of fat per day from my diet. After 2 weeks I started getting really clumsy, I was bruising easier, I lost productivity with my work. I was losing things. My digestion was bad. I was also very emotional and mentally exhausted. This is the very opposite of my definition of “healthy”. It was then that I realized how much my brain needed fat – good fat – things like nuts, fish oil, olive oil, avocados, eggs, cheese, yogurt and kefir –items which cannot be consumed in regular amounts while trying to stay under 30 grams of fat per day (since those calculators don’t differentiate between good and bad fats). My body also thrives on protein, but gets bogged down with a lot of grains – which is not the same thing as carbs.

I am not a doctor, nor am I certified to tell people how they should pursue their own health goals. I am speaking from my own experience when I say everyone’s body is individual and responds differently to exercise and food. So sometimes it takes a while to reach your goals – because first you have to figure out how to get there. So don’t get frustrated! You can get there! Sometimes it is easier, and sometimes you gotta work for it a little harder!

So here marks the second year on my journey to health. I will continue with weight lifting, calisthenics and cardio. I will also continue with archery. However, I will let go of Martial Arts (for now), as we just don’t have time for everything, something has to give, and this year, it will not be my sanity! I will add kettle bells to my routine and some outdoor activities, especially once we move to Vermont in April.

My goals for this 10 week challenge are:

* Bicep curl sets (3 sets of 10) w/ 20 lb free weights (one 20 lb. dumb bell per arm) – currently I am at 15 lbs.

* One unassisted pull-up – Currently I can do 7 assisted (with a chair under me)

*Turn upper/ inner leg flab to muscle – my biggest problem area

* Lose one pant size

How am I going to do this?

* I will continue my healthy eating plan – but instead of almost daily ice cream treats, I will enjoy a smoothie from my Vitamix 80 % of the time, instead.

* I will not succumb to bread, pasta and grain ladened foods. Instead choosing to eat exclusively veggie pastas like corn, or jerusalem artichoke, and enjoy my grasses like buckwheat and quinoa.

* I will exercise 4-5x/wk, for 30-45 minutes per session – either doing weight lifting, kettle bells, a cardio routine, outdoor activities, practicing martial arts at home, or a combination thereof.

* I will go to range 3x/month to continue with archery training.

Thank you Lori for putting this together for everyone! It is a great way to start the new year and get the support of others!

To read more about the challenge and see how is participating, check out this link!

Are you looking for Finest Foodies Friday? If so, please go over to Foodieblogroll.com. From now on, all Finest Foodies Friday posts  will be featured over there! Click here to check out today’s featured blogs!

It has been almost two years since I have written a non-Finest Foodies Friday post on Friday on this blog! So I decided to post something simple, yet profound (for me, in any case). A few months ago I posted about Breakfast being the most important meal of the day. What I like to call my “Breakfast of Champions”.  In that post I mentioned that I soaked my grains or grasses (buckwheat/quinoa) for 24 hours before cooking them in my breakfast. The post also explains my reasons behind soaking. I got a lot of comments about how good the breakfast looked, but about how it was too time consuming with the soaking for most people to make everyday.

I have wanted to write a post addressing this for a while, so yesterday as I was doing my weekly soaking and dairy product making, Roberto reminded me that I should post about it. So here I am. Basically I am here to say that you can soak your grains, grasses and legumes and make dairy products on a weekly basis, without taking much time out of your busy schedule. In fact, doing this helps you to save time during the week, because you have food ready to go. As I was telling Amy the other day, that this is my idea of convenience food. You can check out her time saving efforts here.

Basically prep time for getting beans and grains soaking is about as long as it takes to boil a cup of water and mix it with apple cider vinegar and more water to cover. Then it does the work itself over 24 hours. If you want to take it further you can cook them to almost al dente, and then freeze them for throwing into quick meals later in the week. The beauty of that is that while they are cooking, you can be doing other things. You can even cook them in your crock pot, and you don’t even have to be home!

The same can be said for dairy products. Every week I make yogurt, kefir and some kind of cheese. If you let your milk come to room temperature before cooking it to make these items, the whole process takes about 5 minutes. Maybe 15 for yogurt. Then you let it sit for 12-24 hours, while you are doing other things.

This week I made creme fraiche, which is a delicious version of sour cream! It is well worth the extra few minutes in taste as well as health because you can monitor exactly what goes into it.

All you need is 2 days – and really only about an hour or two on both of those days of actual labor. If you don’t have that much time, you could break it up into ½ hour over several days. Between yesterday and the day before, I made 8 cups of homemade turkey stock in my crockpot. I also soaked chick peas, buckwheat, 2 kinds of rice and oatmeal AND I made yogurt, kefir and creme fraiche. If you can spare 2 hours a week, you can do this too! It is fun, easy, a way to save money, and much better tasting than what you can buy at the store in cans, as well as better for your health! So try it today!

To get you started on the benefits of soaking beans, grains, grasses and making your own stock, please check out: Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats

If you want to get into making dairy products, please check out: Home Cheese Making: Recipes for 75 Delicious Cheeses

Have fun and enjoy!!!!

FIRST BREAKFAST – “Breakfast of Champions”

(My “Breakfast of Champions”)

Today I want to talk about Breakfast – the most important meal of the day. I have spent my whole life sort of at odds with it. I generally prefer something savory in the morning, but I also like something that is quick and easy to prepare, without a lot of cleanup. I like a breakfast that gives me good balanced energy – that keeps me feeling full and energetic until lunch time. I am not really a fan of typical breakfast foods like bagels, muffins or pancakes. I like eggs, but cleaning the pan deters me from cooking them everyday – and I don’t like to rely on the microwave for an everyday meal. I avoid the micro as much as possible. Until recently, I never really worried much about breakfast, but lately it has taken a place of importance.

For the past few months I have become a total work-out-a-holic. I hate the gym, and have never joined one, but I do work out a lot at home. So now, my breakfast needs to stand up to and fuel me for the intense workouts I do 5-6 days a week (whether it is Combat Hapkido at the dojo or heavy weight lifting, strength training and intense cardio at home). It has become an important part of my lifestyle – something I really enjoy, makes me feel good, and keeps me healthy and fit. Plus I am married to a Sardinian – the first “Barbarians” so I might as well start looking the part! But, anyway,  I am not into all the supplements, or weight machines at the gym. I want to do it myself, with real food, a balanced diet and my own body.

So I tried to work first with my tastes. Some mornings I get a craving for last night’s chili or even a hot dog (grass-fed that is). I have tried protein bars and shakes, smoothies, cereal, oatmeal, and toast with all the toppings you can imagine. But nothing ever really cut it. So I made it a goal of mine to re-think breakfast and come up with something I could rely on, and also change up without a lot of hassle. I want to share with you three different breakfasts that really work for me in terms of flavor, nutritional value and energy giving elements.

The first one I want to share with you is what we call my “Special Breakfast” here at home, but really it is my breakfast of choice. I like to call it my “Breakfast of Champions”. Not that I am a champion or anything, but it has a wonderful balance of all the ingredients that are very energy giving, protein, greens, some carbs and dairy.

It starts by soaking a huge batch of barley and buckwheat for 24 hours in warm water with some whey. The soaking allows enzymes and other friendly organisms to break down the phytic acid, an organic acid found in all grains (and legumes) that may make the digestion of grains (and legumes) harder for some people, like me! Once the grains have been rinsed, I store them in a leftover container in the fridge. I make enough for about a month’s worth of breakfasts. I also hard boil 6 eggs (I do this about once a week).

When I wake up in the AM, while the espresso is brewing, I sautee a palmful of barley in some extra virgin coconut oil that I got as a sample from Tropical Traditions (if you are a food blogger, you can also get a sample from them!). Then I add a nice handful of chopped greens, swiss chard, arugula or kale, cook until starting to wilt. At that point I add a chopped hard boiled egg and another palmful of the buckwheat, and cook until it is heated up. I put it all in a bowl, add some fresh ground pepper, flax sprinkles and homemade goat cheese. Sometimes if I have leftover sausage from the night before, or an odd hotdog, I will add that into the beginning of the mix. The amount of the various ingredients can be tweaked based on your needs. But this is the base. It is nice, balanced, tasty and very filling. Gives you lots of fuel too, and cooks up in under 5 minutes.

SECOND BREAKFAST – Homemade plain yogurt with toppings

The second breakfast I want to share is a sweeter one. On the rare occasions that I am in the mood for something sweet, I will take a half cup of homemade yogurt, and add to it either peanut butter and blueberries or pumpkin butter, peanut butter and a handful of nuts or seeds. But I usually prefer this as an after workout snack.

Sometimes I will cook up the buckwheat and barley, and eat it like a hot cereal with a nice liberal splash of homemade kefir and cinnamon. This is good with soaked steel cut oats too, but I prefer the buckwheat and barley to oats. This is also a good snack – and way better for you than pre-packaged cold cereal. You can enjoy it cold too – but you do have to cook the buckwheat ahead!

THIRD BREAKFAST (or maybe Elevensies for the Hobbits among us) – Buckwheat Pancakes

On weekends, when we have a quiet morning, I like making buckwheat pancakes. In general I am not a fan of pancakes or waffles at all. But I do enjoy crepes, and I found that I really love buckwheat pancakes – they are not as sweet, and not as “bready”.

To prepare the pancakes, I soak a mixture of buckwheat and whole wheat flour overnight in ½ cup of filtered water and ¼ cup of whey. In the morning, I mix it with ½ cup of almond milk, 1 egg and some cinnamon and nutmeg. These pancakes are good with pumpkin butter, peanut butter, butter and Vermont maple syrup, or even nutella (that is Roberto’s favorite way!).

Make sure to get in your fruits (and veggies)

I always accompany these breakfasts with a bowl of fruit. Generally whatever is in season – watermelon, papaya, cantaloupe, blueberries, orange segments, apple slices, pear slices, peach slices, etc.

These are just some ideas of how to make homemade breakfasts at home that are delicious, fast, easy and full of nutrition, perfect for athletes, or just active people. All you need is a little planning. I have been at battle with breakfast in years, but I think I finally have my bases covered.

What do you like to eat for breakfast that keeps you going?

Body By Basic Homemade Goodness

(I just love my new pear apron from The Cupcake Provocateur. They are sponsoring an awesome Foodie Blogroll giveaway next month! So be sure to stay tuned for details about that!!!)

This year I challenged myself with some new cooking goals. Along with this blog I have grown, not only in culinary skills, but also in discovering the kind of life that I want to live – one in which I begin to produce more of my own food. Blogging has definitely changed me. Last year, I challenged myself to make our own bread and ice cream. Now that these have been easily assimilated into our lifestyle, I decided to add some more things. This year, as I have become more serious about it, I wanted to challenge myself to begin learning some skills that I will be utilizing even more when we finally have our a place in Vermont, and room for a big garden (and some goats and sheep) to go with it! Things are moving forward in that department! We are really looking forward to starting a new life up there and having a nice big kitchen and herb garden, and later expanding to animals. My eventual goal is to produce the majority of our food ourselves (with some food coming from our very rich local agricultural community) and raise sheep and goats so that I can make artisan cheese. But everyone has to start somewhere. So my challenge this year was to start making cultured dairy products, like yogurt, soft cheeses, kefir, buttermilk and creme fraiche that are easy to do in any kitchen. I started with the yogurt and cheese last week. This week, I am moving on to kefir.

Another challenge was to start preserving, so that I could stop buying condiments and canned goods at the grocery store. I started by switching from canned beans to dry beans and utilizing the soaking method in Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats. I also started adventures in preserving by making some jam earlier this year, during the height of blueberry season. But with summer coming to an end, I really wanted to make some pickles and pickled banana peppers or peperoncino rings. These two condiments we regularly enjoy – on salads, sandwiches, burgers and more. These were both important challenges, as both store bought varieties are chock full of dyes, corn syrups and MSG. I have been buying Bubbies pickles for the past 6 months or so, but at $8 a jar, it was getting out of control.

So I found pickle cucumbers at the farmers market a few weeks ago and bought several pounds to make refrigerator pickles. I used the recipe out of my Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.

It was really fun and quite easy. I got 4 ½ 1 quart jars. Each jar costing probably around $1. A great savings from buying Bubbies! Plus they tasted better (you know how homemade stuff always tastes better than even the best store-bought brands!). Something I will definitely be doing again. Although I would like to try some other varieties, especially naturally fermented pickles.

As for the banana peppers, in the last few months I haven’t been able to find a single brand to purchase, and we have really missed them. We tried growing the peppers ourselves with preserving in mind, but our plant only produced a few peppers. With all the rain this summer, so many Florida gardens just got soaked and moldy.

This weekend I went to a new farmers market near my mom’s and I bought almost 2 lbs of banana peppers (also known as Hungarian waxed peppers) for about $3. I could not wait to get home and pickle them! I had some help in the kitchen from our little dog Peperoncino (that is how much we love these peppers), who goes by the more pronounceable name of “Pepino” these days. Again, it took very little effort to do this, and I ended up with 4 1-quart jars, saving me a whole lot of money too!

I am really excited to continue learning more about canning and preserving and making it a natural part of our lives, just like bread has become. I am enjoying seeing the ratio in the refrigerator from store bought regulars like cheese, pickles, yogurt, kefir and condiments being slowly switched to homemade varieties! Soon I will begin canning seasoned beans, soups and condiments like ketchup and BBQ sauce. It is a wonderful warm and fuzzy feeling to get back to basics and provide the best quality food for myself and my family that I can.

If you have a blog, how has blogging changed you?

I know I talk a lot on this blog about eating locally, supporting your farmers market and area farms, and reading food labels. I have also started to become more interested in producing much of my own food. I am very much about taking personal responsibility for my diet, health and well-being, and that is what has led me to this point. I have found that living in Florida, if you want to be in control of what you put in your body, you have to be very proactive about it. When I lived in New England it was much easier, I could just shop at Whole Foods (when I could afford it) or Trader Joe’s (which was always affordable) and local farmstands, and I was pretty much guaranteed finding good, quality, and local foods easily and for a reasonable cost. Just look at the labels on many of your organic items, and those that are not from CA are most likely from a New England state. In Florida, where there doesn’t seem to be as much focus on local foods (besides it being a buzzword) it has challenged me to really take control of the situation myself. Which in itself is a good thing.

By the way, if this is a topic you care about, you should really join myself and other food bloggers in discussing the problem of obesity, in our Stuffed: An Insider’s Look at Who’s (Really) Making America Fat, Giveaway that is going on through the month of October. You could win a copy of the book!

Last year, I started with making my own ice cream and bread – foods that are pretty much staples in this house. I have always made my own sauces and really never used much in the way of pre-packaged meals or heavily processed foods. But in this day and age, that in and of itself really doesn’t prevent you from ingesting crap like corn syrup, MSG, colored dyes and a myriad of other chemicals, like artificial sweeteners, that are in more foods than you can imagine, if you don’t take the time to read those labels and educate yourself about what is in pre-packaged foods.

To that end, I decided instead of wasting hours at the supermarket reading labels, I would start making more stuff on my own and I would start with things that we eat a lot of. For me, dairy was one of the first things that I switched over to purchasing exclusively organic. Once I started eating organic eggs and drinking organic milk, I found that chronic stomach aches I had been experiencing went away. So when I decided I wanted to start making some more of my own foods, I decided to start with dairy. I have always been a cheese lover. Besides Wisconsin, which is known for cheese, a serious contender to the title of cheese state, would have to be Vermont, the land of Cabot, and tons of local artisanal cheese producers. I have always had a thing for dairy, and I love working with dairy products. So making cultured dairy products seemed like a good place to start.

Recently I purchased a Yogotherm from The New England Cheesemaking Company as well as the book Home Cheese Making.

I also purchased several different cultures for dairy products that we consume often – yogurt and kefir, as well as things I wanted to try my hand at – fromage blanc, buttermilk and creme fraiche. All of these items can be made in the Yogotherm.

So last week, now that things have settled down after our summer of visitors, I decided to make fromage blanc and yogurt. I was able to get a half gallon of raw goats milk from the farmers market that I used to make the cheese. It was a very simple procedure. Heat the milk to 86F, add the culture, stir to mix and then let cool to a72F and then transfer to the Yogotherm. Twelve hours later, transfer to a cheesecloth and let drip for another 6-12 hours. The cheese turned out very good. It is a bit dry, I think I might have squeezed too much liquid from it, so we have been using it as a crumbling cheese on to of eggs, pasta and salads. It does have a wonderful goat milk flavor and I would certainly make it again and probably monitor the liquid better.

Having that success under my belt, I decided to try my hand at yogurt. This was even easier. Use any kind of organic milk ( I used 2% Stonyfield) and ¼ cup of organic dry milk powder. Mix the two together and heat it to 180F. Let cool to 116F and add the yogurt starter. Place in Yogotherm for at least 6 hours, or until the consistency of thick cream.

This yogurt is really THE BEST I have ever tasted. It is not super sour like many plain yogurts, but it still has that quintessential tangy yogurt taste, yet there is a bit of sweetness. I am really enjoying it in the morning or as a snack with pumpkin butter and peanut butter mixed in and seeds with dried fruit on top. It has also been wonderful to cook with. I think next time I make it, I may try making it with goats milk. I have almost exclusively switched over to drinking goats milk. This is in preparation for making room for goats in my life…a pretty major lifestyle change, I will be talking about in a few months in more detail

Just a quick announcement that this week’s Stuffed Nation Giveaway winner is Eleanor from Make Friends with Food.

If you have not read about the giveaway yet, please see this post!

It is a very important topic that food bloggers should be weighing in on! I am really hoping for some more entries over the next 2 months! For those of you who left comments on my post about the giveaway, I do hope that some of you decide to expand upon those comments and write a blog post about it! I would love to hear more of your ideas and thoughts, and I would love for more people to be eligible to win!

Now onto Finest Foodies Friday.

IF YOU LIKE FOOD BLOGS, THIS IS THE PLACE TO BE EVERY FRIDAY!

As always here is what the FFF is all about. Finest Foodies Friday is a weekly Friday post featuring favorites from The Foodie Blogroll! We do this so we can share in the rich diversity of what The Foodie Blogroll has to offer by featuring some of our favorites and yours!

What is the Foodie Blogroll? It is the first and fastest growing free membership blogroll for food bloggers and has become a wonderful community to share ideas about all things food related. With a membership of over 5,000 food blogs, I am sure you can find much inspiration and new friends!

The only requirement to be featured here on FFF is to be a member of The Foodie Blogroll and be displaying The Foodie Blogroll widget on your blog. If you are not yet a member, but you have a food blog and would like to join us, please click here!

If you have a favorite foodblog on The Foodie Blogroll, that you would like to be featured here on FFF, please join us over on The Leftover Queen/Foodie Blogroll Forum, and post your favorite Foodie Blogroll foodblogs here.

My Colombian Recipes

This blog is written by Erica, and she was inspired by her grandmother to write this blog. She says that she never saw her grandmother use a recipe for cooking, she just used whatever she found in her kitchen! Erica wants to share the food of Colombia (and elsewhere) with you. Her photos are gorgeous, and I love her recipes! I made a modified version of her Coconut Rice Pudding Brulee and it was AWESOME! There are tons of other recipes I would like to try too! I just subscribed to her blog, why don’t you?!

When I’m Bored I Make Soup

This is a most perfect blog to feature this time of year! I really love soup (and ice cream) any time of year and with this blog you will never get bored checking out all the delicious creations! The blog is written by Peter, a dentist in New Zealand! He loves soup, and coins it The Ultimate Food. He says: “Soup is surely the ultimate food. From the poorest of the poor standing in the street beside a soup kitchen to the richest of the rich at a posh dinner party, we can all eat soup”. Check out some of his amazing creations.

Food & Creativity Meet The Web

This blog is written by Justin, who is a student in Singapore that has been blogging about food for 6 years! Six years may not seem like a long time, but in terms of blogging, Justin is one of those food blogging pioneers. In 2007, he decided to take a new perspective on blogging – one that involves doing food reviews. He likes to focus those reviews on restaurants that give you the best food, for the best value. Being a student, and expert of Singaporean food for so many years, he would know! Although I have never been to Singapore, this blog is awesome for learning about all the diverse foods that make up the cuisine of Singapore.

Tuti Foodie

Written by Mara, this blog features all of her her own original creations, although she uses cookbooks and notable blogs as inspiration. She waxes poetic about fall in New England and the idea of Tapas on a recent post that features a delicious end of summer, moving into fall menu of Sauteed Baby Bellos and Feta-Mint-Basil Pesto . Delicious! Go check it out!

Divine Domesticity

Ali has been blogging about all things domestic since 2004 and Divine Domesticity is a mish mash of all the things she finds comforting and domestic – including food and cooking! Hee blog is a tenet that “homemaking can be fun, silly and totally worthwhile”. She admits that although she doesn’t read food labels, she is trying to eat healthier these days. Check out the recipe index of her blog for more info .

That’s it for this week! I hope you enjoyed this week’s FFF. Remember, if you would like to see a blog featured here, who is part of the FBR please visit the forum and nominate them.

I NEED NOMINATIONS!!!!!! I know we all have our favorite blogs that we read everyday, and I would love to know about them. We have a very diverse food community, and I would love to see more of the blogs you love featured. We also have a lot of humanitarians out in the Foodie Blogosphere. If you think there is a food blogger out there that deserves a little recognition for their culinary skills, or what they are doing to help the world through the lens of food, please tell us about them!!! Please post your favorite Foodie Blogroll foodblogs here.

Also we all love to know how people came to find our blogs, so please visit all of our featured bloggers today and don’t forget to tell them that you found them via Finest Foodies Friday! They would love to have your feedback.