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I’m cooking through Nourishing Traditions and hope to take as many people with me as possible (evil laugh )…. so here’s a list review of what I’ve tried so far. “Stars” are equivelent to family members, so you’ll know what the crew thought too.

• Whey and Cream Cheese, page 87: Addicted!! I make the cream cheese with whole milk yogurt. Super simple: put it in cheese cloth and let drain for 7 or so hours. The liquid left over is the whey, for use in porridges, fermenting veggies, and other recipes. The cream cheese is dense and tangy and fabulous. Most often we eat it spread on whole grain toast with jam OR topped with blueberries and toasted almonds and then drizzled with local honey. Shazzam! Six out of six stars.
• Ginger Carrots, page 95: the first fermented veggie I’ve tried. Easy to make but time consuming as I had to grate my carrots by hand since I don’t have a food processor. When we had them a week or so later they were a nice, salty condiment, and nice to have in the fridge when you want a relish of some kind. Three out of six stars.
• Sour cream sauce, page 140: easy, golden, and good. Made it to top Lentil Pecan Patties and found it especially fabulous over braised tomatoes. Great on the patties too. 4 stars.
• Carrot Salad, page 193: a familiar favorite. 5 stars
• Coconut Chicken Soup, page 198: just as promised, warm and soothing. It’s an island flavored broth really and will be great in the months to come served in steamy mugfulls. Filling and comforting. 5 stars.
• Roman Lentil Soup, page 215: FANTASTIC. Should have made a double batch. Hearty and flavorful; every kid had seconds and begged for thirds. 6 stars.
• Carrot Soup, page 221: pretty good. Warm and orange and brightening. Got it a touch too spicy for one of my kiddos or this would have been six stars. As it stands, 5 stars.
• Traditional pot roast, page 340: made it both times without adding the veggies. Good roast; makes good gravy. I shred the beef and serve it in gravy because it’s easier to serve to a crowd that way. Both times I used a chuck roast. 5 stars.
• Potatoes Anna, page 399: made with the roast twice. The kids like the crispier slices. Neither time has it made a “cake” like the recipe suggests. But tasty and Andrew sliced the potatoes for me; anytime he gets time with a knife he’s happy. 5 stars.
• Leek Fritata, page 442: Great! Nice that it has such a generous amount of montery jack cheese. Nice and easy supper though it only gets 4 stars here. And one of those missing stars is quite vocal over his displeasure with this on the menu!
• Breakfast porridge, page 455: done so many ways! Our far and away favorite so far is Steel Cut oats. That one get 6 stars. I think we like it’s familiarity and that it stays someone “toothy” even after soaking all night in water and whey. We’ve also had millet (4 stars) and Amaranth (4 stars). Amaranth tastes exactly like corn on the cob but has a “beady” texture that put one of us off. And the other was just being a booger about trying something new. We serve all of them with butter, maple syrup, crispy pecans, and berries.
• Millet Cakes, page 460: already posted about these. YUM!! We love them here and they are very versatile. Can be a side dish or a main, depending. 5 stars.
• Bulgar Casserole, page 462: I buy mine already sprouted and ground from the health food store because I don’t have a grinder. I love this, though it’s misnamed. I think of “casserole” as something saucy, maybe cheesy, and it definately clumps together on the spoon. Not this. More like rice. But toasty and nutty and really great with salmon. 5 stars.
• Wheat Berry Casserole, page 463: again, misnamed. And a total BOMB. All it did was absorb chicken stock and toast in the oven. It was completely inedible though I probably could have salvaged it nicely if I had a grinder or food processor to make a paste and create some patty recipe. I may not have sprouted them long enough but it was a disappointment for sure. Can’t win ‘em all I guess. no stars
• Mexican Rice Casserole, page 471: topped it with crushed tortilla chips. Really good side for a big salad, fajitas, black beans or the like. 6 stars.
• I’ve done well tweaking my pancake recipe and hers, on page 478. I soak half of the flour, whole wheat, overnight in half of the buttermilk and the morning we have them I add another cup of unbleached white flour and the rest of the buttermilk. More if I want them runnier. I’m doing very well not using white sugar (haven’t had it in the house in a month!) or baking powder (contains aluminum) and my recipes that called for it don’t seem to be affected. 6 stars.
• Banana Bread, page 483: gorss. Heavy and not even close to my paradigm for nana bread. zippo stars.
• Yogurt Dough, page 485: used it for the pizza recipe. Have to wonder why? Regular pizza dough is great, easy, and fits within the book’s nutritional view. This dough was very rich, flat, and not worth the trouble or expense. Might work better for a tart needing a rich background. 1 star.
• Lentil Pecan Patties, page 508: GREAT! I served these to David and he thought at first it was a hamburger patty. I wasn’t able to make the sprouted lentils into paste, nor the almonds, but I chopped the nuts fine and I had a great amount of sprouting in my beans. The patties were a touch on the dry side but like I said above, with the sour cream sauce they were worthy of an entertainment menu. They’d also be good on a whole grain bun with lettuce, tomato and cheese for a high protein/vegetarian sandwich. 6 stars.
• Crispy Pecans (and almonds, pine nuts, and walnuts), page 513: Again, addicted!! It’s so nice to have a jar of toasty nuts on hand at all times. They make a great snack and I toss them into recipes at least twice a day. I totally “buy in” to the idea of pre-digestion with the removal of phytates in nuts through soaking, and also with soaking grains; I can see the results first hand! 6 stars.
• pizza, page 523: will stick to my tried and true, more faithfully italian recipes thankyouverymuch. This didn’t taste authentic in the least. 1 star.
• carob chip cookies, page 531: may carob never ever enter my house!!! Where I will not follow this book is in the total removal of chocolate, wine, and coffee, nor do I forsee a Brain omelet or other organ meat specialties having a chance. ever. So….I made these with dark chocolate chips (high in antioxidants you know!) and Rapadura, the unrefined sugar that I”m so excited about. I also used unbleached flour rather than bulgar flour. And the result was pretty good. Still a bit dry; I may experiment with using coconut oil next time. But a good treat to have around. 6 stars.
• tapioca pudding, page 544: there must be better, “real” tapioca out there but all I could find was minute stuff. And after soaking it, I had a sticky, glue-like mess. Ick. The kids wondered what happened to dessert. 1 star.

We are enjoying whole milk, veggies sauted in coconut oil, no white sugar, and hearty meals that feel nourshing right down to our toes. We’ve all had better digestion, fewer headaches, and we can see a clearly defined sugar high/low anytime we have something like commercial ice cream or soda. In fact, we feel so gross after that, it’s almost like an allergic reaction and it certainly makes us want to eat it less the next time! The kids are in the “notice it” stage and still get googled-eyed at the soda display so there is no unreality around here! But still, I bought a head of cabbage this week at Andrew’s request and he and I have that sauted almost daily. Celia and I eat more than our fill of tomatoes. Andrew begged for goat milk rather than the host of other treats he could have had. W has a fondness for herbal teas. Baby will still eat just about anything put before him. I think we see definite improvement for all of us and there is still so many more neat things to try!! The boys’ reflux is only around when they’ve had a product with corn syrup; David and I are both noticing trimmer bodies, despite the fat in our menus…and it’s all good fat and REAL fat so it’s nice to see the visible proof.

If you haven’t bought or gotten from the library Nourishing Traditions yet, consider this yet another plug for it. It is most certainly on the list of “10 books that changed my life”.

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