Sugar...And Kombucha!

Gosh, some days the sugar cravings are just bad!  Thanks to a Lyme's flare-up I've been pretty out of commission for a week.  Things are looking up thanks to a new vial of awesomeness, but trying to overcome this disease and eat right while trying to be a good mom is a bit daunting.  Remember when I said I overdid it on these coconut chocolate chip cookies?  The baked ones were sent with Mark to work while the rest of the dough went in the freezer.  Problem #1: the dough is still accessible when frozen.  Problem #2: the dough tastes super-awesome when frozen.  Problems #3: I was determined to be a fun mom today.  Solution: carbs - for physical and emotional "stability."

I don't have a good relationship with sugar (think crazy blood sugar highs and lows) and I haven't touched refined sugar in, well, I honestly can't remember the last time I had refined sugar.  Although I do let myself indulge in a store-bought treat once in awhile, most of the treats usually have cane sugar.  My favorite not-quite-as-guilty pleasure is usually one of these amazing cookies, but they definitely aren't AIP - potato starch, white rice flour, etc.  When I bake I always use raw honey or maple syrup (usually grade B not only because I like the taste better, but because it is better for you).  I really do try to avoid desserts and to limit my snacks to veggies w/ lots of good fat or a little fruit w/ lots of good fat (yes, fat with everything!).  Instead of dessert Mark and I have gravitated to cooked apples while we watch Agents of Shield.  :D  But, today I couldn't make it on starchy vegetables and fruit alone.  If I wanted to be a good mom I needed an extra boost.  So, I broke out the frozen cookie dough.  Man, it was good!  It did give me the positivity to handle grumpy babies and crawl around on my hands and knees like a crazy dog (James needs to do as much crawling as possible to strengthen those muscles!).  My goal, however, is not to be dependent on sugar for positivity and happiness.  It is really hard to break the cycle, especially for an emotional eater. I am struggling to find other treats to look forward to in the day.  It just may take awhile to achieve that goal.

Instead of baking I am trying to focus on other "fun" foods.  My new favorites: flavored kombucha and sauerkraut (more on sauerkraut another day).  There are so many flavors of both to try!  Regular kombucha, depending on it's brew time, tastes like tart tea.  I can drink it on its own, but I definitely prefer to second-ferment it with fruit.  Here is my favorite flavor, blueberry-mint.

Second fermenting is really easy to do.  When your kombucha brew is ready you add your fruit of choice to a brewing bottle, enough to fill, at most, about one fifth of the bottle.  If you want to get crazy you can add herbs as well.  Or you can use fruit juice or puree instead of chopped fruit, but I prefer slices of whole fruits.  Depending on how fizzy you want your brew you can leave it for 2+ days.  If I'm not dying for a new batch I try to let it sit as long as possible for optimal taste and fizz, two days will give you a descent flavor but very little fizz.  Flavored kombucha does give me a drink to look forward to other than water or water with apple cider vinegar, my typical meal-time beverage.  It also gives me a nice connection with my wine-maker husband.  :D

Never heard of kombucha or don't know how to brew?  Here's how to get your own scoby for your brew or you are welcome to take one off my hands!  My kombucha scoby is so big at this point that the brew is done within three days and then starts becoming too tart to drink.  That's doable, but a little more maintenance than I would like!  Brewing is super-easy, I use this recipe, but since it is a video how-to I wrote the recipe for you all:

The mantra on my kombucha recipe, too true!

Supplies:

Glass bowl, wooden utensil (***Do not use metal utensils, it will damage the potency of the scoby***), large rubber band, cheesecloth or sackcloth

Ingredients:

Kombucha scoby, sugar (I use the organic sugar I get at Costco.  No worries about the sugar "effect", the sugar is food for the scoby and it eaten up in the brewing process), green tea, black tea (the tea should be caffeinated)

Directions:

1. Boil 3 quarts of filtered water
2. Add 1 cup sugar, stir well until dissolved
3. Cover and boil 5 minutes
3. Remove pot from heat
4. Add 2 tea bags each green and black tea
6. Let tea steep 10 minutes
7. Remove tea bags
8. Pour tea water in glass bowl, let cool until "body" temp (be careful not to let it cool past room temp; this step could take a couple hours)
9. Add 2/3 cup kombucha starter (already brewed kombucha), stir
10. Add skoby
11. Put sackcloth over bowl, rubber band
12. Place in low-traffic area (scobies react to stimuli)
13. Brew 7+ days (***This depends on the strength of your culture.  I do not take the new "baby" scoby off the top so my scobies get really thick and brew much faster.)
14. Check kombucha after a week, if baby is 1/8 to 1/4 in thick, the brew is probably done.  However, you can brew it to your taste.  Some people like it to still have a sweet taste while others like the tart flavor.  I tend to err on the side of tart so that there is less residual sugar.

Ok, great, you know how to brew it.  But, why go to all this trouble to drink a funky tea?  I won't go into all the reasons, but you can check out a good summary here.  The reason we drink kombucha is for the probiotic and gut-health benefits.  Our goal is to get to the point where we eat probiotic foods at almost every meal and drink kombucha in between so we don't have to buy probiotic capsules.  And it tastes super-good as the base for a berry smoothie instead of using water!

Soon, you may just need your own kombucha cabinet!

A re-purposed pie cabinet.