Nourishing Journeys » Yummy Finds

Making 100% Teff Injera

ahewcn — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:24:18 +0000

Once I got rid of my sweet tooth, I began to love certain foods that I had never before enjoyed. Ethiopian injera — a type of sourdough flatbread — is one of those foods. As I learned from my allergy experience that eating the same foods (especially grains) every day could prevent my gut from healing, I was interested in making injera from 100% teff as most, if not all, commercially available brands of injera contain at least 50% wheat — a cheaper grain in the United States.

For over 15 years, I have been looking for a 100% teff injera recipe. The only one I had didn’t work. Actually even the 50-50 teff-wheat recipe in the same book didn’t work either. When I met an Ethiopian last year, that didn’t help either as her English wasn’t fluent enough to explain it to me. Even after watching her make it, I was unclear as to what I was looking for before pouring it in the pan to “bake”. Finally, I stumbled upon a blog that gave me the best directions to go on. She used self-rising flour, but nonetheless, this young woman gave me some great ideas that I was able to adapt to my current knowledge of sourdough making. The results?

100% teff injera batter

Baked teff injera

Why purchase coconut oil when you can make it?

ahewcn — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:51:19 +0000

For centuries, people of the tropics have known the coconut to be one of the healthiest and most life-sustaining foods available. Unfortunately, due to a plethora of misinformation created by manufacturers of synthetic oils and nutrient-free juice drinks, the coconut has fallen out of favor even in those countries where it is amply found.

Such is the case in Jamaica. This summer, I was fortunate enough to visit members of my extended family that I barely new existed until a few years ago. Having cousins visit from their American cousin was a big deal and the two weeks we spent there were filled with many culinary delights.

Organic Virgin Coconut Oil by SunFood

At my request, my cousin, Jackie, showed me the traditional way that Jamaicans make coconut oil — a craft she learned from her mother, but so few younger Jamaicans are familiar with as their diet gives way to margarine and “bag juice” (essentially Kool-Aid in a bag). As expected, their health is suffering from this dramatic shift. Where not very long ago Jamaicans easily lived to the ripe old age of 100+ and vibrant until the end, now they succumb to diseases such as dementia, diabetes and cancer in their 60s, 70s and 80s. In fact, we had just missed the funeral of a 70-year old aunt a month earlier.

Typically, Jamaican coconut oil is not the organic virgin coconut oil that is finally getting it’s due in North American and European alternative health circles, but it seems to be just as effective at warding off disease and curing infections, thyroid and yeast conditions. The only issue I have with Jamaican coconut oil is that it is often made in aluminum pots since aluminum manufacturing is one of its largest industries along with tourism. (Driving the countryside in the parish of St. Elizabeth, you’ll notice very red soil. This contains bauxite, the mineral which makes aluminium.)

Here are a few photos of my cousin making Jamaican coconut oil.

First, she must tear the husk from the coconut which is deep inside.
	Then, copra (dried flesh) or coconut meat (fresh flesh) must be grated.
Here, you can see the difference between the copra (left) and the fresh coconut meat (right).The copra has a slightly translucent appearance. When it is opened, there is no water left inside and it feels rather oily to the touch. This is the preferred coconut used to make coconut oil.
	In this photo, you can see the coconut being boiled. As I stated above, this does not seem to destroy the beneficial properties much at all. When the water boils off, the oil rises to the top and a piece of coal (taken from the burned hardwood at the barbecue) is thrown in for a rich, roasted flavor!

For more information on the many benefits of coconut oil, consult one of the many excellent books by Bruce Fife.

Eating on the Road

ahewcn — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 22:46:34 +0000

For the traveler with food restrictions, the thought of travel can be even more overwhelming.”Can I get organic or gluten-free meals or snacks on the way to my destination? What will the airline allow me to bring on the plane since I can’t even eat their “healthy” meal option? What’s my back-up food plan in case my flight doesn’t leave on time or I get stuck in traffic?”

I am lucky to have overcome my food allergies, but that doesn’t mean that I can eat just anything. Once you’ve been eating a nourishing diet for as long as I have (going on 15 years), there are just some things you won’t eat. It’s not because you want to prove superiority to people who do choose Hot Pockets and Bagel Bites, but because you know how best your body works and food loaded with chemicals and preservatives just “doesn’t sit right” in your stomach. That said, when I’m on the road, I still try to eat foods that allow me to have lots of energy and think clearly.

If you or your child has severe food allergies or intolerances, your task is even harder. Not only can you not tolerate preservatives and other chemicals that have no place in the human body, but the allergies and/or intolerances are probably to real, otherwise nutritious foods such as wheat,eggs, or dairy.

Here are a few general ideas to keep in mind when adhering to a nourishing diet on the road:

Have an arsenal of snacks and cold foods that is at least double what you think you will eat. If your drive or flight are more than 3 hours, pack even more than that in case of unexpected traffic or airplane delays.
What time of day will you be arriving at your destination? For example, flying from the New York to Western Europe means that your flight will arrive at breakfast or lunch time over there. Just because you’d normally be asleep at home, doesn’t mean you won’t be hungry getting off the plane. Also, keep in mind that places like the Netherlands have laws that prevent all stores from staying open past 7 pm most days of the week. Pack extra food accordingly.
What day of the week will you arrive? When are stores open at my destination? Much of Western Europe is closed on Sundays — that includes farmer’s markets and supermarkets. In non-Christian countries, that day off could be Friday or Saturday. Check the net or ask the hotel or owners of the rental property you’ll be staying at about what your options are for the first 48 hours after arrival.
You are allowed to bring dry snacks and foods. Homemade popcorn, hard boiled eggs, strips of bacon, sandwiches, trail mix, pork rinds, raw milk cheese, veggie sticks with dip, hummus and pita, and cold chicken are good options. Packing them in large plastic baggies or tupperware type containers should be fine.
Is any of the food you’re packing for the plane going to leak at high altitudes? While bottles larger than 3 oz are not allowed on planes, you may decide to take small amounts of other foods, such as a small jar of a non-dairy butter alternative to spread on your bread. Believe it or not, I have been permitted to bring thermoses on the plane too — just make sure you don’t put something like a smoothy inside, which will ooze everywhere!
Is the water potable at my destination? Many countries still have water sources that upset the digestive systems of “civilized” Westerners. Find out if the place you’re staying in has proper water filtration or adequate access to bottled water. Some companies make special travel filters that you can bring along in your luggage. In restaurants, make sure the cap is tightly sealed and you open it at the table, not the waiter. Remember that salads will be washed in this stomach-churning water, so go easy or avoid them unless they are from a reputable hotel.

Throughout this site you will see other ideas of good snacks and tips on how to control your food intake overseas. Don’t think that because you can’t “just eat anything” that you’ll be missing out on a lot. While most other countries don’t have the same level of familiarity that Americans do with food allergies and intolerances, they often have much wider options of delicious local foods that are ignored by the average North American traveler.

Healthy School Lunches

ahewcn — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 19:46:52 +0000

Every parent want their child to eat well, but for parents focused on nutrition, Uncrustables® and Lunchables® are not even an option. Luckily as time goes on, more and more parents and school systems are making it easier to feed their children the way the parents see fit.

Unfortunately, today even some seemingly innocuous lunches similar to what I grew up on 30 years ago are highly industrialized and downright unhealthy for children to eat. Besides the obvious additives that we’re all trying to avoid, what was once normal food now contains rancid vegetable oils, heavy metals, high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners. These foods are indeed a major reason for all the health problems children are experiencing today.

If packing healthful lunches is a challenge for you, here are a few ideas:

sandwiches made with tuna fish, roast beef, raw milk cheese, nitrate free bacon, or ham real mayonnaise made from healthy fresh oils, apples, avocados, nut butters and other goodies
quiche
hard boiled eggs
vegetable sticks with hummus
fresh fruit — as an adjunct to something more substantial, of course
roasted chicken
baked sweet potato slices
lacto-fermented pickles or sauerkraut
fish, chicken, or hamburgers
patés
crackers with butter and raw milk cheese
raw nuts with a little dried goji berries, apple or raisins

Of course, if your little one has multiple food sensitivities or serious allergies, you’ll need to adjust this list accordingly. As a nutritionist, I must urge you to strive for real food that has a long history of safe consumption (i.e. is not made in a factory) and not to get hung up on avoiding the offending allergen.

For example, if your child is allergic to cow’s milk, don’t jump to soy, rice, hemp or storebought nut milk as an alternative. You would do better to track down goat’s or sheep’s milk to give that a try or make homemade almond, pecan or cashew milk.

Soy milk is a new invention with a little over 100 years of history. Amongst other things, soy foods have a serious impact on a child’s sexual and overall physical development. Boys fed soy foods are more apt to have low testosterone levels leading to abnormal breast development, small genitalia and testicular cancer as adults. Girls have been known to hit puberty even in infancy due to the increased estrogen intake. For more information about soy, you must read Kaayla Daniel’s The Whole Soy Story.

Other fake milks don’t have a long enough track record for me to recommend them. Don’t you want to eat real food anyway?

Costa Rican Coffee Sucks!

ahewcn — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 10:52:45 +0000

This was a major source of anxiety when we arrived. I don’t generally drink a lot of coffee, but I figured in a country known to produce excellent coffee, a sip here and there would be a nice little indulgence. Unfortunately, what we were told was the best coffee was about as good as the stuff Dunkin’ Donuts serves at 3 o’clock in the morning.

Luckily our neighbors didn’t protect their wi-fi service we were able to locate Café Milagro on the internet.

Café Milagro was started by an American (also named Adrienne), who over a decade ago was equally horrified by the lack of good coffee available within the country. All the good stuff got shipped overseas!

Unlike me, however, Adrienne decided to stay and be part of the solution. She started out by acquiring a small coffee roaster in the town of Quepos. Over time, she gained the respect of the nearby coffee growers (who by now had stopped selling her bags of nails!) and locals who would swarm around her shop to smell the freshly roasted beans and enjoy a pastry.

Today, Adrienne has a thriving business. Café Milagro is now a very popular restaurant (seemingly popular with the gay crowd for all my homosexual friends!). And she’s also opened another restaurant about half way between Quepos and Manuel Antonio — considered by many the most beautiful of Costa Ricas national parks. Her coffees are available at several restaurants and hotels throughout the country and to you through the internet! She offers organic, whole bean, ground, dark and light roast all with flat rate shipping to the US of $9.95! If you visit, make sure to stop in the roasting building next door where you can also pick up some souvenirs and learn a little about the roasting process.

Another great place we found for coffee is a souvenir shop and restaurant called El Mirador del Cafetal, located about 50 minutes outside of San Jose on the road to Jacó. It will be on the driver’s side overlooking the west coast valley. Actually, there are only two restaurants on that mountain. It is the second one — only a few hundred meters past the first one. You can’t miss it.

It turns out that this restaurant is an extension of El Cafetal Inn, a coffee plantation and bed and breakfast in Atenas (20 minutes from the SJ airport). The view from this restaurant is breathtaking! And the souvenirs were not only reasonably priced, but had an authentic, Costa-Rican made look to them. El Mirador also sells coffee beans that you can bring home, including green beans that you can roast yourself, (although not vacuum-sealed to preserve freshness, so get them in the freezer when you get home!).

For food, I’d have to say that I enjoyed the food at El Mirador more than the fare at Café Milagro. The food at Milagro was not bad, but it had a distinctly American flair. A little like Friday’s gone Latin American with some experimental concoctions based on locally available foods. Milagro also had the soy milk option on the menu which just makes me cringe since soy is NOT the health food we’ve all led to believe (read The Whole Soy Story for the dirty details of this phenomenon or wait for my blog entry under health).

El Mirador’s menu, by contrast, featured an extensive selection of Latin American favorites such as black beans with yucca fries, chicharrones and tamales at really, really good prices. Because the country has been duped into widely using industrial oils in their cooking, it was unfortunately prepared with less than ideal ingredients. I considered this, however, a small price to pay for the spectacular views and more traditional menu that afternoon. To my knowledge, you cannot purchase their coffee over the internet.

As a final note, in the town of Quepos (same town as where Café Milagro is located) facing the bus station is a place called the MegaSuper. While this store caters to the expat crowd, complete with sushi fixin’s and a few fresh vegetables (rarer than you’d think it would be down there), it also carries Costa Rica’s most famous coffee, Café Britt. Café Britt isn’t only reputed to have excellent coffee, but they have a huge variety of shade-grown organic coffee, hot cocoa, chocolates, and iced drinks in interesting flavors. Keep in mind that they export the best, so that would probably put Café Britt on top since they are also available in the airports as well.

Nourishing Journeys » Yummy Finds

Making 100% Teff Injera

Why purchase coconut oil when you can make it?

First, she must tear the husk from the coconut which is deep inside.

Then, copra (dried flesh) or coconut meat (fresh flesh) must be grated.

Here, you can see the difference between the copra (left) and the fresh coconut meat (right).The copra has a slightly translucent appearance. When it is opened, there is no water left inside and it feels rather oily to the touch. This is the preferred coconut used to make coconut oil.

Eating on the Road

Healthy School Lunches

Costa Rican Coffee Sucks!