Dare You To...

Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you all had a joyous holiday with your family and friends, and got some time to ENJOY the long weekend.  I'll give my reminder from last year toThank Your Bodyand all the wonderful, miraculous things it does for you on a daily basis. 

My Thanksgiving was lovely, thank you!  My mother hosted a delicious dinner, and I spent the evening surrounded by family--wouldn't have it any other way. The only thing missing was a dog, if anyone wants to send one my way. ;)  You're surely also wondering what we ate. One thing that there was plenty of: VEGETABLES.


And plenty of leftovers, which I put to good use.


On Thanksgiving morning after watching the parade, my mom and I took a walk around the neighborhood, and let me say: It was gorgeous! What a perfect fall day! The air was crisp and clean, leaves crunched under our feet, and I just barely needed the sweatshirt I'd put on.  Perfection!  I'd forgotten how much I enjoy just spending time outdoors in the…

Over the summer, I listed the health benefits of sauerkraut dared you to start eating it.

My next dare after adding sauerkraut in my diet was making my own.Whoah.  Trust me, I didn't think of this all by myself.  A friend of the family (Hi, Mike!) grew cabbage in his garden and suggested we ferment it into sauerkraut.  Of course, I was game.  Didn't really know what I was getting myself into, but that's okay.  It was awesome and definitely a learning experience.

We browsed several different recipes online to get an idea of the process and printed out Diane Sanfillipo's Easy Recipe for Raw Sauerkraut.  You can also find good instructions at Nourished Kitchen.


Mike had grown cabbage in his garden, so we took the green and red leaves and chopped it up really small.




By massaging and pressing the salted cabbage, the waters would naturally come right out.



Mixed it up in a way-too-big mason jar, with carrots and garlic that we shredded, as well.


It took a lot of work pressing…

Today, instead of daring you to cook a new food (although that's coming up, don't you worry!), I'm just going to dare you to eat a new food:


This is a food that I had nothing to do with growing up.  Never ate it.  Never wanted to.  Didn't quite know what it was.  Didn't care to look past its slimy appearance and pungent smell to give it a try.  No interest whatsoever.

In my paleo and general nutrition readings, podcasts, books, etc., I repeatedly find suggestions that Sauerkraut is one of the absolute healthiest things we should all be eating.
At Paleo FX (March 2012), a "Whole Foods vs. Supplements Mastermind Panel" of nutritional and digestive gurus (Chris Kresser, Amy Kubal, Diana Rodgers,Liz Wolf, Diane Sanfilippo, Dr. Dan Kalish, Joe Johnson) were all asked toname 3 foods or supplements they recommend.  Guess which food was essentially unanimously agreed upon?  (Hear discussion on that discussion in this Balanced Bites podcast episode.)Presenters at th…