For this week, my Tuesday Tip over at Turf HK is all about healthy snacks at the office.

The office is a minefield.  Besides the stress of work and hours of sitting, there is often piles of junk food in the kitchen or on the counters.  That chocolate your co-worker brought back from their recent trip, the omiyage from Japan.  Oh, and the birthday cake that seems to appear at least once a week.

It’s hard to say no, especially when you are hungry.  One technique to help avoid the birthday cake offerings is to not be hungry!  The best way to stave off hunger at the office is to have healthy snacks at your finger tips.

Go over to Turf to learn some great ideas for healthy snacks at your desk!

http://www.turf.com.hk/tuesday-tips/

Excited to share my very first Tuesday Tip over at Turf HK!

In an ideal world, we would all take a 10 minute work break every hour.  But who are we kidding?  In Hong Kong, that is not what our offices are like, they are busy and go, go go, but you still need to have a break.  Here are some very quick ideas that take 3 minutes or less. 

Go over to Turf to learn some of the tricks that get me through every day, in and out of the office.

http://www.turf.com.hk/tuesday-tips-3-minute-work-break/

(Gluten Free, Vegan, Sugar Free)

I love adding kale to my green smoothies in the morning.  The most convenient way to do this is by making these super easy frozen kale 'muffins'.

Where I live in Hong Kong, kale is not readily available, so I tend to buy a 2 week supply at a time.  Kale is so very big and fluffy it takes up an entire shelf of the fridge.  These Frozen Kale Muffins are the solution!

Directions

• Take the kale leaves off of the hard stems
  
• Soak in a water with some vinegar or kombucha, rinse well
  
• Blend in small portions in a high power blender like a Vitamix or food processor
  
• When blending, you will probably have to mash it down and scrape the sides at least once, a bit of water (or water kefir!) can help if needed
  
• Pour into silicon muffin containers (see photo)
  
• Freeze
  
• Pop them out into a zip lock bag in the freezer - label and date the bag
  

Now you know how to make a 2 week supply of 'frozen kale muffins' for your green smoothies!

Of course, I also love to have fresh kale salads, kale chips, kale pesto and more.

You can buy kale in HK at the following locations:
Green Queen's Guide to Kale in Hong Kong
Green Vitamin (It's organic, grown in HK and they have kale chips too!)
Just Green with locations around HK
Spice Box Organics in Sai Ying Pun
Great Supermarket in Pacific Place
Corner Block on Stanley Street in Central
Culture Organic Foods online shop
Eat Fresh has kale sometimes

(Gluten Free, Refined Sugar Free)

Going gluten free can be really hard.  Not everything is easy to make from scratch and have it come out great.  An added problem is many of the gluten free foods have some nasty ingredients - but not Namaste Brand, which is a staple in our house.

Prior to making our home wheat and gluten free, I used to bake a lot - breads, muffins, pizza dough etc... all from scratch.  I would use whole wheat flours mixed with white, I would even add gluten to my bread!  

When I first went wheat and gluten free, I would mix flours and make things from scratch... then I discovered All Purpose Gluten Free Flour - yippee!  I still make some things from specific flours, but the AP GF Flour is handy for so many recipes.

For pizzas, muffins and pancakes, all of my gluten free attempts, be they with a mix of healthy flours or using All Purpose Gluten Free Flour, were less than impressive.  I love our cauliflower and also our quinoa pizza crusts, but it's not the same really...

Then I tried Namaste brand, and my whole family fell in love with them!  

Namaste Sugar Free, Gluten Free Muffins
This mix makes perfect fluffy muffins, and we have them a couple times a month. We add cinnamon and vanilla, then a load of frozen raspberries or blueberries - soooo yummy! No sweeteners needed at all. They are best hot from the oven, okay the next day, but the third day quite chewy - so eat them fast :)

Namaste Gluten Free Waffle and Pancake Mix
Much better than anything I have made from scratch (both gluten free and non gluten free). For pancakes, I have to add almost twice the amount of recommended liquid (I like a thinner batter than most people). We just add a bit of vanilla and cinnamon.  You can also use yogurt or milk kefir as the liquid for extra fluffy pancakes.  Add liquid until the batter is the consistency you like. 
We did a taste test with the Arrowhead Mills Gluten Free Pancake Mix, we found Arrowhead Mills a bit heavier, but worth trying to see which you prefer.

Namaste Gluten Free Pizza Crust Mix
We have this once a week, and it is by far a family favorite!  
I followed the instructions exactly, and used my food processor with the plastic blade to mix the batter. 
I line a baking tray with parchment/baking paper and spread the batter thin with an offset spatula.  It's never really even, but it always comes out great!
In the oven, the crust really puffs up, after the recommended 20 minutes, I take it out, flip it, press down any huge bubbles and bake it again for a few minutes for extra crispness, before taking it out again and adding the sauce and cheese before the final bake.  
My favorite cheese is to mix mozzarella and goat cheese! 
Comes out really great every time. The crust has lots of flavor, with a nice crunch. It also works in long thin strips as 'not' bread sticks.
The only negative is that it doesn't really work for 'cold pizza for breakfast' - but then again, it is soooo good, we rarely have leftovers!

Pizza Tips: 
If you have one, use a pizza stone in the oven under the tray
Always cool on a rack before slicing - you can use an oven rack if you don't have anything else

(Raw, Gluten Free, Sugar Free, Vegan)

UPDATE: If you want to buy an Excalibur in Hong Kong, you can from buy one from ME!  It comes at a 10% discount off the list price, and will be delivered to your door in most places in Hong Kong.

My dehydrator of 6+ years died a few months ago.  Within 2 days we ordered a new one of the exact same model. Then finally replaced it with an Excalibur - the work horse of dehydrators! 

Dehydrators come in two shapes - rectangle and round.  I prefer the rectangle shaped dehydrators over the round ones, they heat more evenly and are easy to taste as you go since you have access to each tray. A rectangle dehydrator has a heating element and a fan at the back to blow a constant low heat over the trays. 

I use it quite simply - to dehydrate sliced fruit for snacks, kale chips, fruit roll ups, soaked tamari almonds, raw crackers, SCOBY jerky, raw sprouted wraps/bread, raw probiotic nut cheese and more.

When drying fruits, the nutrients and sugar content stay the same, but since the water is not there they are smaller so the 'sugar per bite' is higher. 

Dried fruit is: a healthy snack in limited quantities, ingredients in meals, a way to preserve in season fruit and can be packaged in glass jars as pretty and tasty gifts.

One of the major benefits of making dried fruit at home is keeping it all natural, most dried fruits in the supermarket have added sugar or sulfur. There is no need to add anything to make it taste different or look 'prettier'.  

Fruits and Veggies to Dry

• Pineapple - it tastes amazing half way through being dried
• Mango – everyone’s favorite
• Apples - we like to slice thin, and dry them until they are crisp, adding cinnamon is an option
• Little tomatoes - cut in half, add nothing, leave the seeds in and dry them skin side down
• Bananas - cut into coins or dry the small bananas whole
• Kiwi - peel and slice into circles
• Purple dragon fruit - slice thin, they never get crispy, but are great chewy
• Star fruit - they almost shrink to nothing, but are very pretty
• Jack fruit - superbly unique taste, take the stone out first
• Kale Chips - wash, rip out the stem, and dry at 105 degrees for about 12-15 hours
• Fruit roll ups - fruit and homemade yogurt and a bit of cardamon or cinnamon - yummy
• Soaked and Dehydrated Nuts - soak 12 hours, dehydrate at 115 degrees 24-72 hours
• SCOBY Jerky - marinate and dry at 105 degrees

Timing

• Timing suggestions for dehydrators are just suggestions because everyone's humidity and starting base is different.
• Anything from 12-72 hours depending upon the fruit, the thickness, your preferred taste, etc... just put them in and taste every 6-8 hours

Storage

• Glass jars work great, and look pretty. 

Most of all, have fun with it!!

What and where to buy?
Sedona and Excalibur are by far the top of the market.  While they are expensive, they do come with warranties.  Sedona has an electric control panel and a 1 year warranty in HK. The Excalibur has a 3 year warranty in HK, and is much simpler with two knobs (temperature and time). I prefer the Excalibur as the controls are simple (no digital control panel to go wrong) and it is a total workhorse, mine is often on for 5 days non-stop!

UPDATE:  I am now selling the Excalibur dehydrators at 10% off the retail price - contact me for details!

If you live in Hong Kong or China, we bought our 'no name brand' from Taobao, and it arrived less than 24 hours after we ordered it!

If you need extra mesh liners or non stick mats, you can get them on Shanghai Street in HK or from Amazon in the USA.

Related Links

From Taobao, http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=22840772053
Learn about Taobao, http://taobaofieldguide.com/how-to-buy-from-taobao/how-to-buy-from-taobao
Taobao shopping service, http://snappyshopperasia.weebly.com/

I make and drink about 1-2 liters of kefir water a day. Grains are really sturdy things, they multiply like crazy, and can live through most events.  Most grains would never need to be rinsed or washed.

Recently, my grains started to get a bit smelly, then they got really rotten egg / sulfur smelly, and so did my kefir water.  The kefir water got so bad, I could not drink it, nor even use it to wash hair - it was that smelly!  I had about 3 cups of grains at the moment, and didn't want to lose them all.  In the past this happened a couple times, and a quick rinse with water was all that was needed, but this time it was really strong and no amount of water rinsing was working.

Apparently the slimy texture of the water and the rotten egg smell might come from too much minerals - which would make sense as I use coconut sugar which is full of minerals. Also, the weather just changed from summer to winter here in Hong Kong, and my brews went from 12 hours to 24+ hours, but I had not yet reduced the amount of sugar I was using.

I tried to find something online about rinsing grains, but there is little info out there - and what I did find was either too simple (rinse with water, which I had previously tried) or much too complicated involving boiling water, cooling water, egg shells, etc...

My solution was simple:

• Rinse the grains in filtered water 2 or 3 times
  
• Put them in a 1 liter glass jar with plastic lid
  
• Add filtered water until they are all submerged
  
• Add 1 Tablespoon of baking soda
  
• Shake the jar, and put it in the fridge
  
• 12 hours later, rinse the grains from the jar
• If they are still smelly (mine were!), repeat the above steps
  
• 24 hours later, rinse the grains from the jar
  

Mine were then perfectly opaque and not smelly at all!
Best off all, 24 hours after that I was back to enjoying perfect tasting water kefir - yeah!

To prevent this from happening again, I am using less sugar.

• 2 liters of filtered water
  
• 3 Tablespoons of coconut sugar
  
• 4-8 Tablespoons of water kefir grains

This will hopefully keep them happy and healthy!

I also rotate my grains - keeping them in two different jars in the fridge, and using one jar for a week, then the other jar, so they get a chance to rest.  

Just a note on the timing - in summer in Hong Kong, it is hot and humid, and my kefir water takes 8-12 hours.  In winter in Hong Kong, it is cool and dry, and my kefir water takes 24 hours.  

Related Links

http://loulanatural.com/kefir-faq/
http://www.yemoos.com/faqwamain.html
http://www.culturesforhealth.com/rehabilitating-fixing-repairing-damaged-water-kefir-grains
http://chemistry.about.com/cs/foodchemistry/f/blbaking.htm
http://culinaryarts.about.com/od/bakingdesserts/a/Baking-Soda-And-Baking-Powder.htm

Warning - this is not a comprehensive blog or post on kefir and kombucha - if you want that, see the book links at the bottom.

I have also included links to popular easy to read articles - this is not complicated, and it is becoming more common knowledge.

So here's the shortest most simple intro to kefir and kombucha ever.  More importantly, I hope to explain in a simple way, why the probiotics in homemade kefir, kombucha and fermented foods are so good for all of us and our trillions of friends in our guts!

Your gut
Everyone has loads of bacteria/microbes in their gut. Trillions of them, perhaps more.  In fact, we have more bacteria than human cells - how funky is that?! Scientists are studying them more and more because they believe they control a lot more than just digestion - they could possibly be the root of many chronic diseases and ailments.

is imbalanced
Many people, have an imbalance of these bacteria.  Why? Because our diet has changed over the years and we no longer eat and drink things that the good bacteria like - things like fermented foods.  But we do eat lots of things that the bad bacteria thrive on - things like refined flours and sugars and processed foods.  Other reasons include increased use of chemical anti-bacterials, and increased antibiotic use for both people and animals.

which means
What does an imbalance do - well for some people it can make them more susceptible to illnesses, for others it could make them uncomfortable or bloated after meals, for quite a few people it leads to 'leaky gut', IBS or other digestion issues.  It could potentially also contribute to chronic ailments, mood and more.

probiotics could help you
Solutions include changing one's diet and taking probiotics.  Probiotics are good things, they help populate your gut with the good bacterias - and therefore help them multiply and correct the imbalance.

but they are expensive
Well, probiotics are expensive (about 30-60 USD per month), and they are made in factories only out of limited numbers of strains (3-7 or so), and they lose potency from production to ingestion.

so try making kefir and other yummy ferments
There are 35 strains of probiotics in kefir, they in the right ratios and live harmoniously together, and they are alive ready to go and actually take up residence in your body and start working for you!**

easily at home.
So, by making fermented foods and drinks at home.  Then you can easily get probiotics, with more strains, fresher, cheaper, tastier and most importantly more effective.

*phew*

Kefir and Kombucha are two easy to make homegrown probiotic drinks.  I will post more on them in future posts so stay tuned...

**Special thanks to Louise Kane Buckley who wrote this great kefir FAQ http://loulanatural.com/kefir-faq/ and for reviewing this post.

Related Links

Books
Culture Your Life
Wild Fermentation
The Art of Fermentation

Websites and Articles
5 Ways to Heal your Digestive System
Kefir FAQ
What is Dysbiosis?
Live Science - 5 Ways Gut Bacteria Affect Your Health
The Economist - Gut Instinct 
NYT - Some of My Best Friends are Germs
HuffPost - What Your Gut Bacteria Says About You
Daily Mail - The Unlikely New Medicine... Pickled Cabbage

Videos
NPR - Gut Bacteria Cartoon 

UPDATE: If you want to buy a Vitamix in Hong Kong, you can from buy one from ME!  It comes at a 10% discount off the list price, and will be delivered to your door in most places in Hong Kong.

Having a high power blender, really is all that.  After going through 6 blenders in 10 years (one I broke, engines burnt out, plastic connectors cracked, you get the idea...)  
After saying things like:

• 'a blender is a blender, what's the big deal' 
  
• 'I would never spend that much on a blender' 
  
• 'I only like blenders with glass jars' 

There are many high speed blenders, Vitamix, Blendtec, German Pool, Ladyship, etc...  

What tipped me towards the Vitamix was the 7 year warranty due to my amazing talent for killing blenders.  Plus I love the more 'manual' controls versus the digital control panel of some of the other blenders - less to go wrong!  

I finally got a Vitamix and love it... 

• My daily green smoothies, are actually smooth now.
  
• I can make raw soups in an instant.
  
• Make flour from nuts and grains.
  
• Homemade nut butter is also very smooth.
  
• Hummus and other dips are silky.
  
• Family entertainment is putting whole (peeled) carrots in the blender and turning it into carrot juice, or even better adding some coriander and black pepper and letting it go a bit longer so it gets warm and turning it into soup.  
  
• It is a true powerhouse.
• It has metal connectors, no plastic to break.
  
• The switches are mechanical, no electronic panel to go on the fritz.  
  
• Super easy to wash - just put in water and two drops of soap and turn on - self cleaning for the inside :)
  
• 7 year warranty!

Although expensive, a back of the napkin calculation showed I spent at least that much on blenders in the past 10 years.  Considering mine never lasted that long, and this comes with a 7 year warranty, it's good value for me!  Very happy with it, and use it at least once a day, often 2 or 3 times.

It lives on my counter, no need to ever put it away.  
Is it sexy looking?  No, but I love it anyway.

Unfortunately, it could not replace my food processor - but my cheap food processor does some things better than my fancy expensive Vitamix - grating, dough, whisking, etc...

Only negatives are:  

• it is loud 
  
• It is not that pretty
  
• It is expensive 
  
• It can be hard to get 'sticky' stuff out
  
• It does not replace my food processor

The new model offers a shorter wider container, I think it might be better than the tall skinny one to get stuff out.  Apparently this new wider container will fit my base, very tempting!

My parents have a 50+ year old Oster Osterizer which I adore, I used it as a teenager, and still use it every time I am at their house. I think of my Vitamix as the updated version of that.  While the engine is not as strong as a Vitamix, the parts are all metal and the construction is beyond solid.  Will my kids speak so nostalgically about my Vitamix, or will they still be using the Oster Osterizer?!

If I were one of those artsy creative bloggers, I would so do a 'Things I make with my 50 year old Osterizer' blog - it is truly a thing of beauty! 

At end of the day, it doesn't matter which blender you have - it matters that you use it to get healthy foods into your body and for your family.  

I had loads of fun and learning a lot watching these Vitamix demo videos: 
Blending an avocado pit smoothie
Engaging 10 minute demo
Tortilla Soup recipe and 3 minute demo

Vitamix Recipe Sites:
https://www.vitamix.com/Find-Recipes
http://healthyblenderrecipes.com/ 
http://thespinachman.com/beginner-demo-recipes/
http://blenderlady.com/recipes/
http://www.rawblend.com.au/explore-recipes.html
http://joyofblending.com/vitamix-recipes/

Below Vitamix magic:
Organic apples + organic carrots with the tops = yummy thick green carrot apple juice

Lack of sleep destroys me, literally, I had very little sleep last week, and this week feel awful with laryngitis and a very sore throat, even whispering or speaking softly hurts.

This morning, thinking about Louise's great morning drink, I whipped up this in my Vitamix.

• 2 small pieces of fresh turmeric
  
• 2 large chunks of fresh ginger
  
• 1 whole lemon, pitted and peeled 
• 1 Tablespoon of cinnamon
  
• 1 Tablespoon of raw honey
  
• 1 Tablespoon of raw apple cider vinegar
  
• 1 Cup of water kefir
  

If you don't have all the ingredients, don't worry, make it with what you do have and be creative.  As usual, any blender will work, just use what you have.

I drank it with a glass straw to get maximum benefit for my throat and get into my body as fast as possible.  The Vitamix did make it super frothy, so  it might be best to wait a bit before drinking... not that I did.  

Can't say if it helped or not, but it tasted great and I'll have this again later today and tomorrow morning.