Goat Milk Kefir Overnight Oats

Three words: Goat's milk & honey. Holler.

These are two things you will often find in my diet, whether is creamy goat cheese with honey and figs on crackers, goat yogurt drizzled with honey and cinnamon, or most recently goat kefir. If you haven't tried goat milk products aside from cheese, you've got some seriously delicious branching out to do!

Last year when I was working in Fuerteventura, one of the Canary Islands, known for it's goat cheese, my friend Manuel found a woman up the road in our village who runs a goat farm where she makes and sells goat's milk and cheese. We were making fresh yogurt at the retreat for brunch, and he wanted to look into making goat yogurt instead. It would be locally sourced from humanely raised goats, the health benefits would be greater than those of cow's milk yogurt. It seemed like a really great idea. So we got some milk, and a jar of goat yogurt to use as a bacteria start, and we gave it a try.

The next day, there we were, sitting in our kitchen with two small dishes of goat yogurt to taste, both of us staring at our bowls waiting for the other person to try it first. I smelled it, which I wouldn't recommend doing. It had a strong scent, definitely not to be confused with cow's milk yogurt. With a count of three, we both raised our spoons to try it at the same time.

Mmm.. not bad, not bad at all.

Actually, it was pretty great, even better when topped with honey! Here's my disclaimer, this is not cow's milk, so don't expect it to taste like cow's milk. Goat products certainly have their own unique taste that is to be enjoyed. You'll never know until you try!

I was so excited when I returned from the Canaries to find a company called Redwood Hill Farm offering goat milk products, from cheeses, to yogurt, to kefir. Their products don't contain any added preservatives, gelatin, refined sugars. The goat's milk products in the U.S. aren't nearly as strong as those that we tasted and made in Spain, which is totally fine. This is more accessible to our market, and it gets people on board with the benefits of alternate dairy. To name a few, read more on this post for my Raspberry Goat Whey Protein Shake.

The recipe below is one for overnight oats, made with goat kefir, chia seeds, and rolled oats. You mix it all together, and let it sit in the fridge overnight, and in the morning you have a chilled pudding-like consistency or healthy proteins, fats, and complex carbohydrates. Overnight oats are a great breakfast staple, they can be made with almond or rice milk too, just reduce the amount of liquid to 1/2 cup.

What's even better is that it's whipped together the night before in 5 minutes, and it's ready to go in the morning. No excuses for not having time for breakfast!

Goat Kefir Overnight Oats serves 1

goat kefir, honey, cinnamon, blackberries

• 3/4 cup goat kefir
• 1 tsp honey
•  1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1 Tbsp chia seeds
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
•  1/2 cup blackberries
• 1 Tbsp slivered almonds, optional
• Additional honey and cinnamon

Method

Stir kefir and honey together in a medium bowl. Add rolled oats, chia seeds and cinnamon, stir until everything is well-incorporated. Cover and place in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, remove from the fridge and top with blackberries, slivered almonds, and additional cinnamon and honey.

Enjoy!

Fresh Homemade Yogurt

Good news- I'm still alive. I know, I missed you too.
I feel like I owe the blogosphere an explanation, and a recipe. Behold, how to make yogurt!
note: I've altered the recipe as of 3/26/13 to initially heat the milk to 180 F/82 C, let cool to 115 F/45 C as I have found that this higher initial heat results in a thicker yogurt. 

 If ever there was a recipe to make a comeback with, it's gotta be yogurt. Am I right? Maybe I'm the only enthusiast.

A little backstory of the past few weeks:

I'm used to working on my feet all day and standing for long periods of time, however this combined with awkward twisting, reaching, and lifting in the kitchen at the retreat, I acquired a mild pain in my lower back. Thinking nothing of it, I continued working, practicing power yoga and not listening to my body pushing my limits. Worst. Idea. Ever. Especially if you have aches and pains.

After one power yoga class in particular, I realized I had gone too far. There was an acute pain in my lower back. I spent the remainder of the class in Child's Pose, mentally kicking myself for not listening to my body sooner. After class, I slipped on my trainers and couldn't even bend down to tie them without my back seizing. I spent the rest of the afternoon walking on eggshells, in fear that any sudden movement would surely send me spiraling into agony.

Luckily for me, I happen to be in the best possible place for healing. We have an amazing Reiki practitioner, Wendi, who took very good care of me, answering my endless questions and entertaining my wild theories. As well, Jamie and Karissa were back for a visit. Jamie is a prominent Pilates instructor, and a wealth of knowledge in the way of the body's inner-workings. He gave me a few simple exercises that I could do each day to release the hip flexors, which helped me to find some relief. I was also fortunate enough to take almost a full week of rest. Bedridden and actually enjoying it, can you imagine? Two weeks later, I have significantly improved. I've crossed that line where laying in bed all day no longer feels good, this is how I know I'm better. A hard lesson to learn, but a necessary one. I was forced for the first time to listen, really listen, to my body. I became sensitized to the cues my body gives me in the way of physical exercise, what I eat, and how I move through my day. Everything became much more mindful and deliberate.

I also learned a lot from Wendi, as she works holistically, we talked about everything from stress to my diet. At one point she advised me to stop drinking lemon water for the time being because it was too taxing on my kidneys. We talked about how my diet has changed over the past few months since coming to Fuerteventura. Before, I was relying on eggs, soy milk, and yogurt as a primary protein source, but in the past few months the above foods have become almost non-existent in my diet, in lieu of grain+legume combinations to create whole proteins. After telling Wendi this, she reminded me how great of a pro-biotic fresh yogurt is (you knew this had to wraparound somehow). She said, "Keep eating how you're eating, just try adding in yogurt again". Don't have to tell me twice.

At the retreat, we make our own yogurt. It far surpasses commercial brand yogurts. And I'm not just saying that. If you look at the ingredient list on some of the most popular dairy brands- and don't even get me started on "flavored" yogurt, I'm talking plain, as close as you can get to fresh clean yogurt- you'll find stabilizers, thickeners, preservatives to prolong shelf life. Gross.

You know what's not gross? Creamy, fresh homemade yogurt with a drizzle of raw local honey.

And it's so damn easy! If only I'd known this years ago. All you need is two liters of fresh whole milk, and roughly 250g of plain natural yogurt. Get the best quality milk you can, preferably the freshest. If you know a local farmer, give them a call. It's worth it. The fresher the milk, the creamier your end result will be, you will taste the difference. Another thing to note, the specific amount of already-cultured yogurt you use is not terribly important. Anywhere from 150g-300g will absolutely work, what is important is that you start with an unsweetened, whole milk, plain yogurt. The ingredients should read something like,

pasturized organic whole milk, living cultures: A Acidophilus, L Bulgaricus, S. Thermophilus, and Bifidobacterium Lactis

If you're in North America, a couple brands that I'm familiar with and would shoot for are Straus, and Mountain High.

The milk gets slowly heated, then the already-cultured yogurt gets slowly stirred in. Once you make your first batch of yogurt, you can reserve some, and begin using this as your active culture when you make your next batch, just as you would with kombucha, and any other cultured good-ness.

Then simply cover the yogurt, wrap it with a few kitchen towels to insulate it, and let it rest on the counter over night. Shhh, it's culturing.

The next morning, you can transfer it to another container and place into the fridge. Overnight, it will have thickened up and you will be left with the creamiest yogurt that money can't buy. From here, you can strain it through a cheesecloth to make greek yogurt. This process concentrates the cream and solids in the yogurt by straining out any excess liquid, or whey. Straining leaves you with a thicker, creamier, and significantly less tart tasting yogurt. I think the first thing you'll notice about homemade yogurt, however, is that it is already much less 'sour' than store-bought. If you do strain your 'gurt, don't throw away the whey! It's a natural acid that you can use to soak whole grains and beans before cooking to make them more easily digested, you can also use it the next time you make something like Raw Buckwheat Porridge. And hey, some people even drink whey straight. To each their own.

Fresh Homemade Yogurt  

• 2 liters whole milk
• roughly 250g unsweetened plain yogurt

Method 

note: I've raised the initial heat temperature to 180 F/82 C after finding that this higher initial heat results in a thicker yogurt.
Pour the milk into a large metal pot, heat over a low flame until it reaches about 180 degrees F/82 degrees C. The milk should be steaming and frothy, but not yet boiling. Remove from heat and let it cool to 115 F/45 C, which will still feel warm to the touch. This is optimal for the live bacteria in your yogurt to thrive.

Slowly add already-cultured plain yogurt, stirring gently with a metal spoon  or whisk to dissolve completely.

Once dissolved, place a lid on the pot, and place it on the counter out of the way. Wrap a few kitchen towels around the pot to hold the heat it. Let the yogurt sit undisturbed on the counter overnight to culture. In the morning, transfer to another container and place in the fridge. Enjoy throughout the week, and reserve some of this culture for your next batch!


Eat on, friends!

Spelt Bread On A Rainy Saturday

Such a strange day. I'm sitting inside my house in Villaverde, and the rain is pounding violently against the window. We have some of the strongest winds in Villaverde, we're situated about 15 miles inland, up in the hills amongst two old volcanoes. The whole island gets wind coming from the north east, but being this much higher than sea level, we get a bit more.  When it's beautiful and sunny the wind is highly appreciated, as it tempers the heat. But right now it is absolutely treacherous. I've never seen weather like this here.

Apart from the weather, my day has been fantastic. Since arriving Tuesday evening, I've worked close to twenty five hours in the kitchen. I've been coming in for split shifts to try and get as much time in and learn my way around again. In the morning we prepare brunch for guests.

Brunch buffet, insert homemade bread on the cutting board

This morning's menu included homemade muesli, granola, homemade yoghurt, 

Muesli, granola, yoghurt, honey, and soy milk on the breakfast buffet

 fruit salad of pear, banana, papaya, persimmon, and kiwi, homemade muesli bread served with, you guessed it, homemade marmalade 

Rolling out the dough for muesli bread

I think we can just assume from here on out that everything is made in house- it's fantastic) and ghee, as well as a platter of crudites with spicy cannellini bean dip.

Avocado, cucumber, red bell pepper, carrot served with spicy cannellini bean dip

 After brunch, we start preparing the evening meal. There are four evening meals each week. Saturday's are change over day at the Villa, so a whole new group will be joining us this evening. They're in for a soul warming Indian inspired dinner. Perfect for this chilly day.

Tonight's Menu

Puy Dal lentils

Brown rice

Indian spiced cauliflower

Carrot salad with apple, mint and sesame seeds

Fresh baked bread with ghee

Marinated courgette 

Vegan aioli 

Baked bananas and dark chocolate (using bananas picked from the tree outside!)

I spent my morning chopping and sauteing onions for the cauliflower dish- I've never cried so much in my life, and learning how to make gluten free bread using rice and buckwheat flour. My efforts are slow-rising in the fridge now, this allows for the yeast in the dough to naturally ferment, or pre-digest. When the yeast has ample time to ferment, it releases nutrients into the bread and breaks down what our body alone can not. Many of us eat store bought bread, which is not prepared in such a way. Bread that is poorly made will be poorly digested. Wheat gluten absolutely MUST be fermented for human consumption, when done so, it contains a powerful blend of 18 amino acids, complex carbohydrates, and necessary vitamins and minerals such as B vitamins, iron, zinc, magnesium, and selenium. Who knew bread could hold such a powerhouse of nutrients? 

When improperly prepared, wheat gluten is one of the most highly allergenic foods we can consume. It would be hard not to notice the explosion of gluten allergies in recent years. You now see gluten-free (GF) labeling on everything from restaurant menus to ketchup (not that tomatoes, vinegar, sugar or salt contain gluten, but thank you new food labeling laws). If you are intolerant of commercially made breads, and dry rice bread isn't cuttin' it for you, you may want to try to make a loaf of your own bread. You can use any flour that you like, if you tend towards gluten intolerance, I would recommend experimenting with spelt flour. Spelt is an ancient strain of wheat from Europe, it has not been hybridized for high rates of market production and consumption like common wheat. The gluten in pelt is water soluble, and it is easily digested, which also allows your body to absorb the most nutrients. Below is a very simple recipe for bread, one that you can dress up in any way you choose. Here at the retreat we make a number of different loaves, if we have leftover porridge we add dried fruit, nuts, and seeds to make muesli bread, you can also add and herbs of your choosing. The options are infinite!

Basic Spelt Bread makes 1 loaf

8 cups spelt flour

2 tsp sea salt

1.5 c warm water

1-2 Tbsp honey

15 g fresh yeast

mixed seeds (flax, sesame, poppy, sunflower, etc.)

Directions

1. Add the warm water, yeast,  honey, and sea salt into a large mixing bowl, leaving enough room for the dough to rise substantially, stir to dissolve honey and yeast.
2. As you stir, pour in flour to slowly incorporate. You don't have to worry about over mixing the dough, spelt just breaks down further when stirred, unlike wheat which becomes tougher. 
3. When fully combined, cover the bowl with a towel and let it sit in the fridge overnight. The dough can truly sit there for over a day, so don't sweat it, more fermentation for you.
4. The next day, uncover your dough, pull it out onto a floured surface and knead it a little until it feels pliable and uniform in texture. Place a piece of parchment paper in your desired baking tin, and press the dough into it, filling in the corners. Brush the top of the loaf with water (to make the seeds stick) and sprinkle them generously on top of your bread.
5. Place this tin into a 150 F oven for an hour or so, the time does not have to be exact, it's simply an opportunity for the bread to rise further in a warmer environment. 
6. Turn the oven on to 350 F and bake the bread for 45-60 minutes, depending on your oven. To check if the bread is done, turn it on it's side and knock against the bottom, it should sound hollow. If you're still unsure, simply slice a little and see if the dough is still sticky.

Muesli bread crusted with sunflower and flax seeds

I think spelt bread is perfect with a little coconut oil and a drizzle of honey, it's also moist enough to use for sandwiches or to accompany soup. You can do no wrong! 

Cheers!