real food « (y)our food choices™

After seeing Star Wars The Last Jedi twice over the holiday season, we’ve decided to take a lesson from our beloved Carrie Fisher and not give a fuck what people think and just say what’s on our minds. We’ve loved Carrie since we were kids but it’s only been in the last 12 months since her death that we’ve discovered what a bad ass she really was.

2017 has been a year of sticking our heads in the sand. No blog posts. No tweets. A few instagrams. And a lot of alcohol. The 2016 election sucked ass (and not in a good way). Then with the deaths of Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds we just couldn’t face the world. Our funk went deeper and deeper. Even with three trips to Hawaii we still couldn’t bring ourselves out of being depressed. It seemed like nothing would get better and the world would end in a giant nuclear war.

It wasn’t as bad as we were expecting. The stock market didn’t crash, North Korea didn’t launch any missles at the U.S. (directly), and women (and men) we’re finally given a platform to discuss the rampant problem of sexual harassment and abuse without being brushed to the side by the same men that are the problem. Of course, we still have the predator in chief in the White House and a bunch of white privileged men controlling congress, but as 2017 ends there seems to be a light of hope with the coming of 2018.

As for food—since this is a food blog—our food habits have changed for the better since starting this blog. We turned vegan last September in 2017 and then gave up alcohol in November, which our bodies have thanked us for doing, especially our livers. We started with a 30-day vegan challenge and found after a week that the challenge turned out to be not only easy but enjoyable and cheap. Food tastes better. Intestinal issues are all cleared up. We have more energy and we’re exercising more. It’s amazing what a little positive change in one’s life can do to create a snowball effect. In 2018 we plan to reduce the amount of sugar and caffenine we consume and exercise even more than we do now. Maybe they’re the same resolutions as everyone else, but when you start with just one, it’s easy to add another one after a month or two.

We’ll do our best to write more posts and recipes. At least one a week. We’ll also try to include humor in our posts, the occasional political rant, and maybe a reference or two to a movie we love. We’ll also be tweeting and instagraming a lot more but we left facebook last year with no regrets. That shit takes too much time anyway. We’ll leave FB to our mothers to enjoy. [Note: our mothers have never read one of our blogs.]

For our first recipe of 2018 we turn back to Star Wars The Last Jedi. Spoiler: there’s a scene where Luke milks some creature and then drinks the green liquid, most of which goes down his beard, as Rey looks at him in disgust. We’re not attempting to make any green milk product here, although hemp seed milk does sound interesting. Instead here’s our version of cashew milk. Better tasting than store bought nut milk and regular cow’s milk. If Luke only had cashews on his island he wouldn’t have to drink that green stuff.

So, Cheers and May the Force Kick Some Ass in 2018!

Cashew Milk

A high speed blender like Vitamix makes the job easy, but any blender will work if you blend it long enough, I think.

3/4 cup cashews (soaked overnight covered with water and a pinch of salt)

3 1/2 cups filtered water

Optional: 1 tablespoon maple syrup

Drain the soaked cashews. Add them to the blender along with 2 cups of water. Blend for a minute or two until smooth. Add the rest of the water and maple syrup if using. Blend until combined, just a few seconds. If the milk isn’t smooth enough for you, strain through a fine mesh stained. Use as you normally would regular milk. Keeps for at least 3-4 days or longer in the back of the fridge where it’s coldest.

More fun than a science experiment.

Whenever we travel back to visit our parents (Jason’s parents live in Utah and Steve’s are in Idaho) we end up at the grocery store in the dairy section looking for yogurt. With all the chips, dips, meats, sweets, and other bad-for-you foods that our parents serve us, our bodies get out of whack and in desperate need of repair. Yogurt, with its restorative probiotic cultures, seems to be just what the doctor ordered. But the problem we face is that the yogurt we find at the grocery stores outside our fair city is always crap. Sugary sweet concoctions with high fructose corn syrup as a main ingredient and low-fat or non-fat milk seem to be the only options available. It’s a tremor to the head, as Steve’s grandmother would say, that with all the obese people walking through the aisles with bags of processed “food” that they continue to think of yogurt as a diet food and something that needs to be free of fat to be good for you. And since there’s little or no fat to nourish and to satisfy hunger, manufacturers add lots of sugar to make the mess palatable. Why not just eat a little whole milk yogurt with fresh fruit or a nice drizzle of honey?

Plain, not boring. Homemade yogurt is rich and tangy.

Back in San Francisco we don’t have problems finding real yogurt. In fact, we have aisles of choices that may include the fat free and low fat options, but there are also real, organic whole milk yogurts, including increasingly popular creamy Greek yogurts, that are much tastier and keep the belly fuller longer. The problem with the “diet” versions is their lack of hunger busting fat. Those low cal tubs of sugar or artificial sweetener and non-fat milk just don’t keep people full. And with all the processes the sugary ones go through, there’s really no nutritional value left in the most important ingredient – whole milk.

Yogurt is natural. Its probiotic cultures help to repair the digestive system after we put it through the stresses of over eating crap and drinking too much booze, coffee and sugary soda. It helps to keep us “regular” and it’s easy to make. There is no substitute for organic whole milk in yogurt. We’ll revisit the whole v. low fat or skim milk argument in other posts, but believe us when we tell you that we do ourselves no health favors by cutting fat out of our yogurt, kefir or milk.

With fruit and nuts.

We started making our own yogurt about five years ago. It started with the purchase of a yogurt maker that had small glass jars and a warming bottom and cover. We made it a few times but found the machine to be just another cumbersome appliance that we just had to have. Like other specialty gadgets, the yogurt maker would be used a few times and then put into storage – out of sight and out of mind. We went back to purchasing yogurt in little plastic containers, but with our desire to go plastic-free a few years ago, we wanted to find an alternative. With a few web searches Jason found the perfect technique. Did you know you could make your own yogurt in your oven when it isn’t in use? It tastes better than anything you can purchase in the store and it takes no time to put together. Not all ovens will work, but if you have a thermometer in the oven and it’s registering something around 110 degrees when the oven is off, you’re set. The recipe is simple and easy. Give it a try, and if it doesn’t work do a web search for other methods. There are some interesting slow cooker recipes that look like they’re worth a try.

With multigrain pancakes and berries.

Yogurt

3 ½ cups whole milk
½ cup of whole milk yogurt

Using a candy thermometer and a medium pan, slowly heat the milk to 180 degrees. Prepare an ice bath by putting ice cubes and water in a large bowl, place the pan of heated milk on top of the ice and let sit until the temperature of the milk drops to around 110 degrees. Add the ½ cup of yogurt to the milk and whisk together. Place in a sterilized quart sized mason jar and place in the oven, turned off, for 12-18 hours. Remove from the oven and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before consuming.

When eating, top with your favorite fresh fruit, granola, or even a drizzle of honey.
Don’t forget to keep at least a ½ cup for the next batch of yogurt.