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Posts Tagged homemade kombucha

The Starter Chicken

Oct 7

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 3 Comments

Hey blod buds!

It’s FRIDAY-EVE!  Wahoo!  This week has been a whirlwind!  (When isn’t it, right?)  I had one of those nights last night where I kept dreaming that I was going to oversleep and miss my first morning client appointment.  So of course I was waking up every hour thinking I’d overslept – with a big rush of adrenaline to boot!  Fortunately my eyelids are cooperating so far today – no napping mishaps.  I think it will be an early night for me.

Workouts this week have been awesome.  Monday morning I decided to let Cathe Friedrich give me a great burn in her “Legs & Glutes” workout video.  That thing is SO old and yet it is always a killer workout.  Love to mix this DVD in every once in a while.  What I really like about her workouts is she combines heavier weight lifting with bodyweight work.  She’s very good about showing you how you can get an incredibly intense workout without needing to touch a dumbbell.  That’s something I really try to impress upon my clients.  YOU DO NOT NEED A GYM MEMBERSHIP TO GET A GYM BODY!  Then, yesterday MSP and I did a killer Tabata upper body workout (plank holds, side plank holds, rows, side raises, biceps curls, triceps dips).  And today we are both “ouching” about our tender arms!  This morning’s cardio was a visit to my favorite hilly trail for 4 miles of fun (this time in the daylight!)

Besides school, here are some of the things keeping my busy this week:

Random Pantry Organizing

Before

After

I’ve had “Pantry and Refrigerator” anxiety since starting school.  The stuff there is all labeled beautifully and so incredibly organized that I started to get a complex about how my cabinets are the exact opposite!  So slowly I’m working on getting them in better shape.  I also did a little fridge work as well.

Getting Spices Filled & Labeled

Bottling More Kombucha

I can’t bring myself to touch the scoby with my bare fingers yet!

Feeding my Brain for School

Green smoothie, with a Rascal eyeing it from afar!

Mocha Protein Shake … mmmmm!

Practicing My Roasting Skills

This picture was taken just as I put it in the oven, because it’s roasting as I type this post.  I’ll let you know how it turns out next time, after MSP has it for dinner tonight.  I honestly can’t recall that I have ever roasted a whole chicken – in my entire life.  (Sad, isn’t it?)  I made a whole turkey ONCE for Thanksgiving (epic fail!) back in my early 20s and since then I think I have always purchased just the pieces of poultry, rather than the whole birds.  But – I know this is something I’ll need to perfect for all of my future personal chef meat-eating clients!  I obviously chose the best organic brand I could find available at our local Sprouts (there was only ONE organic option) and it was more than double the cost of the non-organic ones sitting next to it.  However, if we want to have more options for QUALITY food (and hopefully at reasonable prices) we have to create the demand for the good stuff by leaving the bad stuff at the store!

I think MSP will be pleasantly surprised to have a whole roast chicken for dinner (rather than a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken I usually bring home for him).

I’m just looking forward to getting the bones when he’s done so that I can make some homemade chicken stock!  :) With the cost of this bird, not a bit will be wasted.  I even cooked up the chicken liver to give to the dogs as a small treat.

Any big plans for the weekend, friends? I’ll be doing a lot of school reading and getting started on my next homework project.  Plus I REALLY want to get in a good run in my Five Finger shoes!  Snow will be here before we know it and then my Vibrams will be reserved for treadmill use only until next spring!

– Shari B. =)

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Bottling the Homemade Kombucha

Sep 15

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 9 Comments

Hi friends!

Happy Wednesday – hope the first half of your week has been great!  If not, now’s your chance to turn it around for the second half of the week, right?  ;)

Look what’s in the stores now:

Tiny pumpkins!!! I love these!  So I had a get a few to ‘autumn up’ my table:

Well, today’s the big day.  Time to bottle my first successful batch of the kombucha homebrew.  I may have let the culture grow longer than it needed to, but I’d read that it can take up to a month when you are starting a batch without the culture.  I wanted to be sure mine was GOOD and READY.  Judging from the size of my culture, I’d say it was beyond ready!

I removed the culture and placed it in a ceramic bowl:

Boiled my ‘recycled’ bottles for 20 minutes (no directions I read said to do that but I remember when my mom would can things, the glass jars were sterilized by boiling, and I figured it couldn’t hurt!)

Juice for two of the bottles that I plan on flavoring (using açai):

I’m adding 1 oz of juice to a 16 oz bottle of the tea – these funnels I picked up shopping with MSP’s mom this weekend came in handy today!

Stir up the ‘sediment’ in the tea before pouring in a bottle.

The finished product:

I left a little room at the top of the bottles because I’m not sure how much it expands (if any) while it continues to ferment.  The non-flavored bottle in the middle is a little short because I needed some of the remainder to add to my next batch.

I’ll let them sit at room temperature for 2 days, then I can refrigerate from there for up to 30 days.  Hoping to try my first one on Friday!

But I did sneak a little sip before bottling.  I won’t lie – I was a little scared.  BOTTOMS UP!

It had a pretty strong vinegar taste – we’ll see if that goes away a little as the fizz builds.  But I did like it!  And I’m so excited!

So now I have my next batch getting ready (the tea has to cool to room temperature before I can add the culture).  But since this last batch only made 2.5 bottles I’m graduating to a gallon jar this time.

I’ll be up to my eyeballs in the ‘booch soon!  Wahoo!

Are any of you going to join me in the homemade kombucha endeavor?

***

Did you know that September is National YOGA month?  Click here for more info on getting a free week of yoga at 1,500+ participating locations.  Or you can try some yoga at home.  My three favorite yoga DVDs are:

(BTW: These are not affiliate links – I just really like and recommend these DVDs.)

I really want to try Bethenny Frankel’s yoga DVD.  I’m on the waiting list at the library, because I’d prefer to try before I buy.  If I love it, I’ll let you know!

I don’t practice yoga daily because I also like to lift weights, run, hike and walk.  I’d love to do it daily, but there just aren’t enough hours in the day to do it all, since I still want to do those other things I love.  I’ve read of people who say they have reshaped their bodies with only yoga.  But for me personally, I add it in for flexibility, stress reduction and core/balance work.  Weight training and cardio are where I find the most change to my body.

OK, friends – I’m off to get the next batch of kombucha moved into its new jar!  Have a GREAT day!  FEED you body with nourishing foods and MOVE it a little as well!

– Shari B. =)

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Growing Like a Mother (My Kombucha, That Is…)

Aug 29

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking | 4 Comments

Hi friends!

Thank you all so much for the very sweet and encouraging comments regarding both my attendance at Bauman College and for FitFeat turning one!  I loved reading the messages and they brought serious smiles to my face!

As I sit here typing the draft for this post on Sunday evening, the Broncos/Steelers pre-season game is on our TV in the background.  Can it really be time for football again? Football season to me means pots of hearty veggie chili and curling up with my blanket to watch a game while the leaves are falling outside, or maybe a few snowflakes.  But I’m not ready for that time of year!  I just can’t wrap my brain around the fact that fall is right around the corner.

Fortunately summer is still holding on – it is currently 82 degrees and gorgeous out, at 7:00 in the evening.  That’s the kind of football weather I can deal with!  We’ve really been blessed with a beautiful summer in Colorado this year.  Nice and HOT and plenty of sunshine!

Speaking of sunshine, doesn’t this bottle invoke thoughts of summer?

MSP found a new brand of kombucha tea for me to try, called Vibranz.  (And when we went back to get more, it was already out of stock!  People are crazy for BOOCH!)

Since I only had one bottle, I knew I had to take the opportunity to try my hand once more at making some from scratch.  I have high hopes that this bottle has enough culture in it to get something started.

Before I used it all for my homebrew, I did take a few sips of the Vibranz tea.  And I have to say, I LOVED IT!  I am so happy to know that there is a brand that I can turn to that tastes very similar to the BUBBLY I’ve grown to love.

It was hard not to want to finish the whole bottle, I’ve been so starved for kombucha.  But just in case I have a hard time finding it on the shelves around here, I got busy on the BACKUP PLAN!

Rumor has it that when one is starting their BOOCH BATCH from a previous brew and without a starter culture, it will take about a month before it’s ready.  I have a note on my calendar to check it out mid-September (as it is currently stored down in the dark recesses of our basement!)

I peeked in on it today and it’s GROWING!!  It looks like there is a culture layer on the top!  YES!  But I must confess, it might be one thing to pour a pretty glass of kombucha from a bottle you bought at the store and quite another to pour something that looks like this:

I might have to plug my nose and close my eyes for the first few sips!

What do you think?  Would you drink it?

Have a GREAT week blog buds!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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