SICKLY EATERS: May 2016

Vegan Baobab Coconut Milk Ice Cream

I was never really much for fake coconut flavors, but I love coconut milk. And seeing as my body no longer accepts dairy as a friend anymore, I've decided that rather than give up things like ice cream, I'll just find other ways to eat it instead. Hence Coconut Milk.

This recipe just happens to be plant-based. I don't say vegan outright because I am not vegan so I used honey, which I realise some do not consider it vegan. HOWEVER, obviously it's a pretty easy fix, to use something else such as monkfruit or turbinado sugar. (I'm sure you all have your favorites. )

Ingredients
1 Tin of canned coconut milk
2-3 Tbsp honey (or other to taste)
1 Tbsp baobab powder (optional)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp corn starch (or similar starch of choice: tapioca or arrowroot)
1 mango
Small bunch of basil

Heat the coconut milk on medium heat reserving a small amount to mix with the starch.

Mix starch into reserved coconut milk until completely dissolved. And add to heated milk slowly, mixing as you do. Add in honey, vanilla, and maca powder and heat until starch is thickened.

Set aside to cool. Then simply freeze (or use your ice cream churn of you have one). I ran through my frozen mixture with a fork (like a granita) to get more of an ice cream texture.

Serve with mango and shredded basil. :)

For those of you who don't know, Baobab powder is the powdered version of the fruit of the Baobab tree. That strange African tree that looks like it's somehow gotten confused and accidentally grew upside down. (See link)

It tastes sort of sweet and sweet our like sherbet powder. I use it, much the same, like a very very healthy version of citric acid. The health benefits are on the bag but if you want to see the comparisons of its nutrients to other foods. Such as 2× the antioxidants and 14× the vitamin C than açai berries!

Good luck and enjoy!

10:15:00 PM
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Herb Garden Window Boxes

Diy

Admittedly, the plants are looking a bit shabby right now, but they should perk up after a few days of getting used to the new environment.

I'd been meaning to start an herb garden all year, but sometimes life gets the best of you. Even though I wanted to work on it, I had no idea as to how I was going to pot and organize the sprouts. I finally gathered the creative motivation to figure it out.

I originally wanted to try and make my own but then I found these lovely drawers in my shed, and I loved the color of them, but they were a bit warped and termite bitten. To keep them from rotting away from the soils and water, I needed to spray them with waterproof paint. I would have liked to use a clear coat but, I only had black and navy blue. So, I decided to improvise to create something a little more... rustic.

A good friend of mine actually sent me these seeds, telling me to get a move on I suppose haha. I was lucky enough to find this miniature "greenhouse" on sale at Home Depot. It normally sells for about 8 dollars but if you're lucky you should be able to find it for about 3-4 dollars. I have to admit it's one of the cleanest and most effective ways to start seeds I've tried so far.

This is the growth after several weeks. The greenhouse kits come with little marker sticks for you to use! There are a lot of ways to start your seeds, a few of the more expensive ways are shown below. Of course, you can always start your seeds in something as simple as a wet paper towel or simply the soil. The latter being a bit harder for me to deal with because I like seeing progress.

However, with both of these ways to start the seeds, you'll need to put the seedlings through a hardening period after they've sprouted their first true leaves. By true, I mean specialized. Almost all plants grow out with Cotyledons, which are the embryonic leaves with no real distinction from one plant to another. The next leaves to grow out after the first set should be the true leaves and will probably look different.

I spray painted the bottoms of the drawers pretty much point blank and let the paint drip down. On the left, I wet the wood and then sprayed the drawer so that the paint spread and webbed out a little more. On the right I sprayed the wood while it was completely dry. The patterns turned out looking sort of like the slightly eerie silhouettes of a landscape against a sunset.

I filled the drawers with about 1/3 rocky topsoil, 1/3 potting soil, and 1/3 peat from the peat pods from the greenhouse.
Ideadly you would also have some sort of compost and perlite, but since I didn't have either, I just made sure I used more rocks from the top soil and I mixed in a few bits of decaying cut grass.
We actually left our topsoil outside for a period of time so that a few earthworms had found their way into the soil, fertilizing it. I found a couple of them wriggling around when I was digging through.

I know a lot of people trying to create their own creative/functional herb gardens. While this isn't really a perfect way to do it, it might help show that their isn't any one way to do it. And that sometimes the best things to use are the things you already have laying around, like those drawers. (Just make sure you have enough drainage!)

10:37:00 PM
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Shopping Local at the Akron Nutrition Center

food

I've been driving by this place on my way to visit my friend at work about every week. And we finally decided we would stop in to have a look and have one more place to shop locally. The Akron Nutrition Center is located in an old school house so merely walking inside is a cultural experience. They sell a lot of natural/organic foods and supplements (with a lot of options for dietary restrictions), natural beauty products, Green cleaning products, and even natural pet care. If you're looking to make a significant lifestay change, and you've got the money to spend, this place is the way to go.

They stock a lot of local wares but they also stock more mainstream products that they've curated themselves. What I love about shopping local isn't just the economical benefit to the community, but the fact that you can ask really in depth questions about what you're buying and get real answers without bias towards brands.

There were a lot of locally made beauty products that I might be looking into this summer.

I'm so excited about this butter, I watched an episode on PBS' Mind of A Chef (Season 3 'Spring') where they show how butter is made by the farmer, by hand. And knowing that I can get that here as well is so friggin exciting. Another great thing about shopping local is that you feEl safer about the quality of the product. The butter sold commercially in stores ia so processed that you hardly know what is in there anymore. But with this you could actually call up and even visit the farmer if you truly wanted to, to ask about the product and how it's made.

Needed to check out the dairy free ice cream selection... of course.

My parents have been really into smoothies lately so I wanted to check out the supplements they could put into the drinks that might provide nutrients that just the veggies and fruits might not provide.

Something that I used to do because I had really terrible allergies was eat local bee pollen. There are a lot of other nutritional benefits to bee pollen that I haven't really paid attention to, but I really do think that it improved my allergies. I used to have such bad allergies that my sinuses and eyes would swell up so much that it would look like I was crying all day. Things are better now so something must've helped. About 10 grains a day did the trick for me.

Ah, bone broth, the new health trend. Haven't hopped on that wagon yet, but it's really only a matter of time. Chances are I've already been drinking something similar in myour mom's Asian cooking.

Also local cheeses.... local wine... fill in the blanks.

If you're not into the whole been pollen thing, local honey can do the trick as well! Luckily Lancaster has a good few aviaries in the area. I learned a tip today from a nice man at the farmer's market about shopping for local honey. You always want to look for a local phone number on the product because then you know that it's truly local and you can contact the aviary at any time if the product isn't satisfactory.

I never really got into the açai trend. Of course, I never turned it down if it was in a smoothie, but I just don't think I was ever fully convinced by anyone who used it.

Dairy free Mac and cheese, when I finally accept my fate and knock the bad habit of eating dairy, this is what I'll be reaching for... ugh fortunately I keep falling off the wagon, and my skin has been suffering.... rashes and dry spots... bad, Mia.

Dairy free milk options.... sigh.

Looking at my dairy free protein options, if I ever do get serious about weight training again.

A truly magnificent organic tea selection.

They also have a little (tiny, really) library of health books for you to read up on different healthy lifestyle options and cookbooks. These are the two I was most interested in.

Organic and free trade coffees.

I picked this up from the sale section. It was meant to be really, I had been looking to buy some baobab powder online. I was so glad to find this raw, organic variation at a fraction of the price. The powder is made from the fruit of the baobab tree, which is that African tree that looks like it's growing upside down with its roots up in the air. I like to use it in smoothies, oatmeal, and baking. It has a fruity, sweet/tart taste.
You can read the benefits on the label in the picture but the reason why it's so good isn't simply that it contains these nutrients, but it contains a very high amount of each of them, making it a lot more 'nutritious' that a lot of other foods such as salmon and pistachios (in levels of potassium).

Well, I hope this might encourage you to look further into shopping locally in your area. Investing in the local economy is one of the best things you can do for the greater community with the added benefits of quality and knowledge of the products!

2:14:00 AM
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Papermaking

art

I've had these pictures tucked away, gathering technical dust in my tablet's photo gallery. I so enjoyed this class in papermaking but I didn't quite have the words to pair with the pictures. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves though, so here they are!