Pinterest

Friday, March 23, 2012

Milk!

I know this is slightly controversial  BUT my family and I drink and enjoy unprocessed milk.  We've visited our local farmer and filled up our glass bottles directly from the milk tank for over 3 years with great results.  Not only have we eliminated the plastic gallon jugs from our house, we are drinking milk that tastes FANTASTIC and is actually healthier for us.


Milk in a glass bottle


I grew up on skim milk and raised my teenager on skim milk and as many of you know, skim milk has been stripped of many nutrients and preservatives are added back in.  They even add something back to the milk to make it white. Not to mention, skim milk has more sugar than whole milk.  Anyway, when I was feeding Graham skim milk, he would eat 4 bowls of cereal for a snack but once I switched to unprocessed milk, he was full and satisfied on one bowl of cereal.   In fact, we all lost weight when we switched to raw milk.    A recent study in Sweden proves that kids that drink whole milk versus skim milk weigh less.  Amazing.

Read this blog on the health benefits of unprocessed milk, and you too might make the switch:  Benefits of Raw Milk

I love to make home-made butter too with the milk I receive from the farm. 

BUTTER:

Pour the cream from the top of the milk into a glass jar
Let the cream sit out overnight (12-20 hours)
Add a lid to the jar and shake until you have butter
Add salt to taste


Home-made Butter

I also make my own ricotta cheese which is ridiculously easy.

RICOTTA CHEESE

2 cups of whole milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons vinegar

Microwave above for 2 - 4 minutes (4 minutes in my micro) until the milk separates.  With a slotted spoon drain into a paper towel-lined colander.  I drain mine in the fridge overnight and have 1/4 cup of ricotta cheese goodness in the morning.

I have many ricotta based recipes, but I'm saving that for a later blog.  Today I enjoyed the cheese spread on an English Muffin with a little agave nectar drizzled on top.


Ricotta Cheese - Greta and I have been working on this puzzle and our nails :)


Here's my favorite milk-based soup:

Zucchini, Corn, Potato Chowder

2 tbsp. butter

1 cup of zucchini
3 potatoes cubed
1 onion
1 cup of carrots
2 cups of corn
4 cups of vegetable broth
1 cup of whole milk (Sometimes I use goats milk from the goat Myrtle)
Salt, pepper and parsley

Saute zucchini, onion,  and carrots for 5 minutes.  Add broth and potatoes.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for 25 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.  Add corn and milk - done when the corn is warm.  Delish!!

Corn Chowder

Going to our local farm is an outing for the kids and me.  We usually go in and visit the cows and my kids are growing up with a real connection between animals, plants and the food we consume. 


Happy Cows make Happy Milk

Moooooooo!


Thanks for reading,

Kristin

No comments:

Post a Comment