Most of us are hopefully conscious about what we eat, but the holidays have a special way of triggering overindulgence and alcohol plays a big role. The holidays shouldn’t be a time for guilt but for joy and celebration! Alcohol can be a vibrant part …
My son loves cream cheese. When we were living in Ireland the kids were not allowed to go to school with peanut butter in their lunch, which is fair and common here as well, but it left me with a chink in my mom armor …
This is soooo quick and easy. Slower when you’re photographing every step but really and truly it only takes a few minutes to put together when you have the coconut yogurtwhey or whey from a milk kefir strain. The probiotics eat up some of the lectin content as well as the maple syrup and aid in getting it to stick together. So the end product once you’ve let it culture and then dehydrated it is a microbiome boosting morning cereal without all the sugar, fillers and binders you get in store bought granola. My kids and husband love it, and especially this simpler version. For a fancy take on it you can have a look at this recipe, and here for a grain free version. I have started doing this again to help with quick, nutritious and enjoyable breakfasts for the kids before we start homeschool. They really love it! Give it a try and let me know what you think!
Update- March 2021: I have found my kids favorite oats to use for this are Bob’s Red Mill Golden Spurtle oats. They are a bit more rough cut and create a crumble when doing this recipe with whey or a thin culture. See photo just below. If you want the oats to cluster use old fashioned style rolled.
Enjoy!
Brenna xo
1) Oats!
2) Add cinnamon, pink salt & maple syrup.
3) Add coconut kefir water (whey)
4) Stir, cover and leave 12 hours or overnight.
5) Ready to dehydrate!
6) Spread out over unbleached parchment in frying basket or perforated baking sheet.
7) Dehydrated for 10 hours.
8) Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks.
9) Granola!
Simple Probiotic Oat Granola
A quick, simple probiotic cinnamon and oats granola that is a favorite in our home. This is for a small batch but feel free to double it. I almost always do, depending on how much culturing liquid I have available.
1cupculturing liquidI have used ginger beer, milk kefir, coconut kefir, whey from either and water kefir with varying but equally nice results. Kombucha will work as well.
For Post Ferment:
1/2cup coconut oilmelted, avocado oil or refined coconut oil if you don’t want a flavor. (Optional)
1/8tsppure monkfruit powderoptional
Instructions
Combine oats, cinnamon, pink salt, maple syrup and culturing liquid of choice in a large bowl.
Stir several times in the first 1-2 hours to keep it from clumping.
Leave covered for 12 hours or overnight.
In the morning, add the oil and any back-sweetener you like. I prefer to use pure monkfruit powder, if anything. Much of the sugars will have been consumed by the culture but it will still be sweet.
Lay out on a large parchment in a perforated baking sheet (you can use a normal baking sheet but it will take mug longer to dry). I use the fryer basket for my Breville Air Oven.
If you want it for bars you will need to pre-cut it now. Or a few hours into drying or it will get too crispy and crumble.
Dehydrate at 150°F-160°F for 8-12 hours. If it doesn't breathe as in a standard baking sheet it can take up to 24 hours and you'll need to break it up and flip or "toss" it. If your oven only goes as low as 170°F then you can still effectively dry it but it will kill off quite a lot of the probiotics. Still yummy though!
Trick question! They all do. They are all formulated to protect your microbiome. Fermented food for the inside and super healing hydration for your body’s front line: your skin. I’m Brenna May and I’m a believer, a wife, mother, autoimmune warrior, foodie, fermento, health nut, …
That’s a mouthful! But seriously it is a tasty mouthful. So… confession. I made this MONTHS ago but it was right about when I was becoming allergic to everything. It tasted so so good but then I couldn’t eat much. I’m about to give the …
The school year has begun and I have not quite hit my rhythm yet. Kids and homework, yes. Studying for my Nutrition course and blogging? Not so much. One thing at a time. Right now my youngest is happily attending her first day of preschool for the year and I am enjoying a precious few hours to get some things done!
I have been meaning to post this for quite some time. It is something I make literally every day for my husband and it seems to prevent the migraines that have plagued him ever since I met him. That being said, I must state that this is not medical advice and his migraines are fewer and further between when he is not eating grains and sugar. I would generally say that if you don’t want headaches you should avoid foods that trigger them for you. I know that some people cannot avoid them though, and a lovely beverage with benefits is a nice way of coping.
I slowly acclimated my kids and husband to milk kefir. I drink coconut kefir these days as I can’t do dairy (made the same way just with bpa free coconut milk) but this can go both ways. I have tried it with cultured hemp milk as well and it is also a winner. I can’t really speak for anyone else but when I drink kefir my brain feels alive. And wet. As weird as that sounds. My husband has expressed a similar feeling… as though the moment it hits your stomach and starts to process, your brain just wakes up. As our gut and brain are connected through the gut-brain axis, this now makes scientific sense to us. You can read more about how probiotics boost cognitive function here and more about milk kefir here.
I have slowly built on this smoothie for the sake of my husband’s migraines, and it works on my brain fog as well. The base is kefir and a bit of cold brew (but you can leave that out if you like). I add cinnamon because of it’s brain boosting benefits, it’s tasty, complements the kefir and the two together act as a metabolism booster, and lion’s mane because it is a healing nootropic mushroom. It enhances brain function, has immune boosting properties and is a powerful anti-inflammatory. I have a blend of cinnamon and lion’s mane with my tea stash as well as a matcha with lion’s mane blend. I use it that much and for good reason. Turmeric is a great booster as well as it thins the blood.
I took a punt that it would be helpful for Steve’s headaches when I started putting it in and it surely helped. I will sometimes add a bit of cream of tartar for potassium and a couple drops of milk of magnesia for magnesium if it is a particularly rough day. For me, I will drink those salts straight after a workout if I am getting foggy so I figured it would help here and it seems to. But again, this is not medical advice. If you don’t have kefir grains to make your own kefir usually someone local will sell some. I sell them here. You can buy kefir at the store as well but it is less powerful than homemade so I would not necessarily recommend cutting the recipe with water as I do below. I put collagen in ours for both general and brain health but if you are a vegan I would recommend mct oil or powder to boost ketones as ketones are a powerful anti-inflammatory as well. I have also found broad-spectrum (non-psychoactive) hemp oil or cbd oil to be an effective substitute. I will sometimes add a blend of mushrooms including reishi and chaga as well. Give it a shot and let me know what you think!
pinch of pink salt for sodium (ketones are going to be much more effective)
1 drop liquid monk (optional)
Method:
In a pint mason jar, add cold brew followed by collagen, cinnamon, vanilla, lion’s mane, bhb salts/exogenous ketones OR cream of tartar and milk of magnesia (if using) and stevia/monk.
Seal with a leakproof lid and shake shake shake!
Add your kefir and water, seal and shake it up again.
Drink!
Look at that cinnamon vanilla goodness. Nom.All shaken up. Beaut.
[lt_recipe name=”Cold Brew Kefir for a Happy Brain” servings=”1″ prep_time=”3M” difficulty=”Beginner” summary=”A great drink for a pick me up, for those who get eye strain from staring at a computer all day and for rehydrating to prevent headaches. (Not medical advice) You can sub the vanilla with maple or caramel flavoring or leave it out if you like your coffee pure.” print=”yes” image=”https://www.brennamay.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/img_9214-300×300.jpg” ingredients=”1/4 cup cold brew;1 cup milk kefir or coconut kefir;1-2 scoops collagen peptides;1/4-1/2 tsp cinnamon;1/4-1/2 tsp lion’s mane;1 tsp vanilla (or other no sugar flavoring);1 scoop bhb salts/exogenous ketones OR ;1/2 tsp cream of tartar;a few drops milk of magnesia;1 drop liquid stevia or monk (optional)” ]In a pint mason jar, add cold brew followed by collagen, cinnamon, vanilla, lion’s mane, bhb salts/exogenous ketones OR cream of tartar and milk of magnesia (if using) and stevia/monk.;Seal with a leakproof lid and shake shake shake!;Add your kefir and water, seal and shake it up again.;Drink!;[/lt_recipe]
This recipe is an adaptation of my cultured barbecue sauce. As I said in that post, among the first ferments I attempted was barbecue sauce. Since my Hashimoto’s Diagnosis I have been honing what I can and cannot consume… so this barbecue sauce is sans …
Fermented Swedish Turnips (Rutabaga) I did this recipe in a 68oz pickle jar but you can adjust proportions if you like. Fermenting lids and weights are helpful but you can do this with stainless steel, plastic lids or a swing top like this one as …
Okay. Admittedly I have never been to Cuba. But a few years back the movie Chef came out and I was watching all that beautiful food happen and could almost taste it. My husband was working in Northern Ireland and I and the kids were waiting for our visas. I was up late watching it and stopped the movie, watched the sauce recipe happen about six times, then pulled myself of the couch and went in the kitchen to replicate it as best I could. Every time I have made this I have literally stood there, finger in jar, licking the Vitamix clean. It’s that good. Now that I’m on keto I ferment it to eat up the sugar from the oranges. And now that I’ve been diagnosed with autoimmune disease and am avoiding nightshades… this is my new favorite Latin American sauce. I like to couple it with hot mustard which makes it fairly authentically Cuban. So good. This recipe makes four 12-16oz bottles of sauce, so if you want less feel free to divide the recipe.
Ingredients:
4 cups fresh picked mint leaves, washed
1 bunch fresh cilantro/coriander
1/2 cup stirred tahini (totally optional – leave out if seed cycling in menstrual and luteal phase as it encourages progesterone production)
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lime juice (I used key limes)
1/2 cup fermented white onion
1/2 cup olive oil, divided
1 whole organic lime with rind
4 organic clementines with rinds rinds or 1 orange with rind, washed
Combine all ingredients for the dressing in high powered blender and pulse until smooth or mix with an immersion blender.
Pour into a 1.5 -2 Liter sanitized glass jar and leave to ferment for four days give or take.
Transfer to bottles. I like to use these Oxo Chef Squeeze Bottles for homemade condiments as they pour in a way that photographs well, but I prefer generally to store sauces in this style of glass bottle to prevent plastic leeching. But in all reality you might stand there with a spatula scraping every last drop out of the blender and it may never make it into the bottles. So enjoy. I did.
Cultured Cuban Mint Mojo Dressing
Brenna May
A fermented version of a classic Cuban dressing. This recipe makes four 12-16oz bottles of sauce, so if you want less feel free to divide the recipe. But fermented it keeps for quite a long time.
1/2cupstirred tahinitotally optional – leave out if seed cycling in menstrual and luteal phase as it encourages progesterone production
1/4cupfresh squeezed lime juiceI used key limes
1/2cupfermented white onion
1/2cupolive oildivided
1whole organic lime with rind
4organic clementines with rinds rinds or 1 orange with rindwashed
3/4cupcultured brine from fermented onions
1/2cupApple Cider Vinegar with the Mother
3-4garlic cloves
2-4tspblack pepper
2tspground cumin
1tbspdried oregano or a small handful of fresh oregano
1tsppink saltaccording to taste
Instructions
Combine all ingredients for the dressing in high powered blender and pulse until smooth or mix with an immersion blender.
Pour into a 1.5 -2 Liter sanitized glass jar and leave to ferment for four days give or take.
Transfer to bottles. I like to use these Oxo Chef Squeeze Bottles for homemade condiments as they pour in a way that photographs well, but I prefer generally to store sauces in this style of glass bottle to prevent plastic leeching. But in all reality you might stand there with a spatula scraping every last drop out of the blender and it may never make it into the bottles. So enjoy. I did.
Who loves fennel?! I do (obviously) and so does my husband and a handful of other folks I’ve met but for the most part when I explain that the key vegetable that goes into one of my favorite salads is a licorice tasting bulb I …