You can make your own flour!

Almond, other nuts, coconut, buckwheat, oat, spelt, rye, barley, rice, amaranth and wheat (if you’re into wheat) ….. CAN ALL BE MADE INTO FLOUR WITH A BLENDER

If you have a kick-ass blender, you really, REALLY should be making your own flours.  Some blenders even have attachments to grind flours. These attachments are essentially upside down blades. Traditional blenders push whatever you are blending down towards the blades. These grain attachments do the opposite.  They push up, and the bigger pieces fall to the blades. Once you have the kick-ass blender, the grain attachment is another smart investment. You can also grind spices, or coffee, which eliminates the need for another appliance.

When flour is made it starts to oxidize and the natural oils start go rancid.  Rancid oil is full of free radicals.  Free radicals are free to roam throughout your body and create serious problems. This is why anti-oxidants are so important to get in your diet. Anti-oxidants help neutralize some of these free radicals.  Don’t even get me started on what lurks in bleached flours.

Back to making flours – you want to eat the most nutritious foods, so grinding right before use, is as good as you can get.  Plus it’s way more flavourful!  Old stale flours have very little taste.  If you do grind in big batches, you want to keep all flours in the fridge, because keeping stuff cold prevents decomposition.

So how do we make flour? 

1. Take ingredient.
2. Put in Blender.
3. GO!

That’s it.  You are the master of the flour!

• You can choose how fine or coarse you want it by blending it longer or shorter.
• No addition of synthetic vitamins to “fortify” the finished product.
• No wondering how long this flour has been sitting in the warehouse oxidizing before you use it.
• No worries that flour is made in a grinding mill with the same machine as something else, causing cross contamination.

It’s just superior nutrition, and the peace of mind of knowing that you made it yourself and you know exactly what’s in it.

Oh, and the real kicker… IT’S CHEAPER!

Fresher, cheaper, more nutritious and easy.  Try it!

My name is Kathleen and I am addicted to my Vitamix. I have absolutely no affiliation with Vitamix. I am recommending this out of sheer love!

I resisted buying this expensive machine for as long as I could. I even lied to myself, saying that other blenders at half the price were just as good. I killed a Kitchen Aide and a Ninja! I know people talk about the Blend-Tech, and I have never used one so I can’t compare. The reviews I have read say that the Vitamix is the best blender you can get. The warranty is a beast – 7 years!

I can put an entire ginger root in it and turn it to paste. There is nothing I have thrown at this thing that it can’t handle. I use my blender daily for smoothies, soups, sauces, fruit rollups, nut milks, sherbets. I’ve even made amazing Nutella-like spreads. (Sit tight for that recipe.) And you know it’s powerful by the noise it makes. It screams louder than my kid can!

I am aware that this machine is a car payment, but there are ways to get discounts. My husband stumbled on a “demo day” at Costco, where the machine and accessories were priced considerably less than usual. You can call Vitamix and they will tell you when they are coming to a Costco near you. There are other stores that do “demo” days, but Costco has the best price I’ve seen.

Vitamix has a refurbished section on their website. This is the Canadian link for these machines. If you live in the US there are more variety, but this one is the one I have and love and it comes with the kickass warranty.

Did you know that over 10% of household appliances are returned? Not because they don’t work, but because people change their minds. The companies then sell them as “refurbished”. Of course the ones that are broken are fixed and sold here too, but not all the machines were broken. This is how I bought my vacuum, my freezer and my dryer. Refurbished is great!

So to summarize, I love my blender! It is such a crucial piece of equipment in my kitchen. I could not do the things I do with a lesser machine. There is nothing worse then drinking your smoothie and your gag reflex kicks in when it encounters a chunk of swiss chard or beet!  I will never use a hand blender again for a pureed soup, the textures are miles apart.

Seriously, Vitamix lovers are like a cult of healthy food lovers who make it themselves!

Water
Anyone who is trying to be healthier knows they should drink more water. Did you know that what kind of water, or even when you drink water matters?

The best time to drink water is first thing in the morning. This will allow your digestive system to be gently started after your night’s sleep. As well it will provide you with more digestive enzymes to help you better absorb your nutrients from food.

Did you know that the majority of your digestive enzymes are made of water? If you’re dehydrated your digestive system will be compromised. Drink as much as you can handle, experts say aim for at least 16 oz. (475 ml) to start your day.  If you want to be fancy and show your liver some love, add some fresh lemon (not the little chemical filled squeezey lemon). If you can’t be bothered to squeeze lemons every morning, and you have a juicer, you can juice batches of lemons and freeze them in cubes.  But don’t throw out the peels, you can make kitchen cleaner! (We’ll talk about that another day..)

Drinking with your meals
Don’t do it. Wait, what? Yes, really… Drinking with your meal is no good for your digestive process. And yes, I did just say that our digestive enzymes are made of water. Think of your belly like a camp fire. Food is fuel, and water is, well, water. When the fuel is burning – aka food digesting, it’s hot and effective. Signals are sent to the liver and the pancreas for digestive enzymes based on what you’re eating. If your splashing water (or whatever else your drinking) all over the fire, it won’t burn optimally. This can cause bloating, and malabsorption, and putrefaction your gut. Drink your water away from meals. 20 minutes before a meal, or an hour after a meal. This will help keep your fire burning!

Bottled Water
Bottled water can say whatever it wants on the label. I won’t drink it. Any soft plastic vessel leaches chemicals into whatever is in the bottle, BPA free or not! No water company puts that on the label.

The bottled water is shipped from far away where water regulations might not be as strict or regulated. Not to mention the environmental impact of manufacturing bottles, shipping to get filled, and shipping to the store. We think because we recycle that were helping the environment, but that comes at an emissions cost as well. In some cases, bottled water is actually tap water, put into a bottle, sealed and then sold to you for a huge fee. Buy a glass or stainless steel bottle and fill it up yourself.

Tap Water
Hang on folks, this one is gonna sting. No municipal water people I have spoken to test for pharmaceuticals in tap water – and that’s because they don’t have to. In addition concerns about “acceptable levels” of heavy metals, pesticides and other non-stick coatings are found in treated tap water every day.  And these are all allowed in “safe water”.  That’s what you get in your tap.

Where I live our drinking water comes from the Great Lakes.  It’s pumped out of the lake, treated chemically, finished with fluoride (in a one-size fits all dose) and pumped to your home.  Once returned to the sewer systems, it is chemically treated again and returned to the lake to repeat the cycle.

One of those chemicals used for removing human waste from our water supply is chlorine. Remember when your parents told you not to drink the pool water, because it was bad for you? Guess what, you probably do it every day.

In tap water there are heavy metals, synthetic hormones, anti-seizure medications, blood thinners, non-stick coating from cookware, and super harmful pesticides, just to name a few. Doesn’t that sound healthy! No wonder people are sicker than ever, they are full of other peoples’ prescriptions!

So in a perfect world, we would all run out back to our perfect untouched natural spring for our drinking water. If you have access to such a source, that would be a fantastic choice for water. If you don’t, you have choices.

Filters
Either you HAVE a water filter – or you ARE the water filter
There are hard and soft carbon filters, there are UV filters, alkaline water systems, reverse osmosis, reverse osmosis that will alkalinize your water.  Or you can get distilled water in glass bottles, you can even get spring water delivered to your door in glass containers, water softeners, and the list goes on.

They are not all created equally! Some systems just remove chlorine, and that’s it.  Before I had my filter, I boiled tap water thinking that would kill everything. It doesn’t, it actually just concentrates some chemicals. It did kill a pot of mine, when I forgot it on the element though.

In my home I have a reverse osmosis system, but just for the kitchen tap, not the whole house, although there are models that will do that. Of all the systems mentioned, it removes the most chemicals and pharmaceuticals.  It also removes the minerals naturally found in water, but it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make for my family. It’s expensive up front and you need new filters regularly.  I don’t have the shower head filters, because they are not compatible with my showers. You can even get attachments for your ice maker and fridge.

I love my water system. It’s probably my favourite thing in my house.  I use the Vectapure 360 system by Waterite.  This is what works for me and my family. With the water in my area, this was the best choice for us when we did the research a couple of years ago.  And we’re still happy with it.   The price was mid-range for this type of product.   (I have no affiliation with this company – really!)

Learn more about the Vectapure system by Waterite

So the moral of the story here folks, is drink clean water. Drink it first thing in the morning, drink it away from meals, and please don’t drink it out of plastic bottles!

I have been on an amazing journey. I wanted to be able to provide the best nutrition for my family. I knew about eating fresh foods and preparing them simply for the best results. But that was not enough.

I started by taking a nutrition class at a local community college. It was a start but many parts of it didn’t make sense to me. All they spoke of was the Canada Food Guide and I knew it was bull sh*t. There had to be more.

Then I became pregnant and my interest became a mission! How could I be sure I was getting the best nutrition I needed for my body and a healthy baby. I switched to organic and got serious. But I needed to learn more.

I had a beautiful baby girl and while on my maternity leave I enrolled in a Registered Holistic Nutrition program full-time. Now that was serious. And as my husband would say “that was the beginning of the real crazy”. Yes – a newborn baby and full-time school – that was crazy.

I survived – my family flourished and my passion for holistic food continues to grow and evolve as I learn more every day. I finished the program – and I have completely changed the way my family eats. And we love it!

Along the way I learned my daughter has a severe (read anaphylactic) allergy to peanuts. That sure changes your life! No restaurants, no kids parties, no sleep overs at other kid’s homes, no Halloween trick or treating and the restrictions continue. But we will get through this with our nutrition plans.

I hope you find my website and blog both interesting and helpful. I hope you will join me on my journey of discovering real food and healthy eating. I am willing to help you with questions and concerns. Please contact me if I can help you with your concerns. I look forward to sharing my adventures (and perhaps mishaps) along the way to better health for you and your family.