Wednesday, March 30, 2011

When the Moon is in the second house, and Jupiter realigns with Mars

We just got a box filled with a major connection to our younger healthier selves. I'm going to start sprouting again. More than 25 years ago, my dh and I, were on a camping trip in Leadville, CO with friends. We ate our first deliberately veggie sandwich. I'm sure both of us had eaten tomato sandwiches as kids, but didn't really store those memories for easy retrieval. *Just remembered PB&J are also veggie sandwiches. Both of us ate tons of them growing up.

On that trip, we literally sat around the campfire, singing "Rocky Mountain High", caught and cooked lots of trout, and I learned about sprouts. For years afterward, I faithfully sprouted mostly alfalfa sprouts to add to salads and sandwiches. During that time, I was also making homemade whole wheat or rye bread and we had a Salton Yogurt Maker. We weren't hippies or vegans (although we did go to Colorado in a van ☺), but the times were encouraging to eat healthy foods, and we didn't have a child yet. Although one of her earliest favorites to eat was alfalfa sprouts...  When we moved to TX, she was still a preschooler, and still eating those sprouts, but then the differences in climate did in my sprouting green thumb. High humidity and air conditioning for a much longer portion of the year didn't bring much success. Luckily, at about that time, sprouts began appearing at the grocery store.

We got our sprouting supplies from Sprout People so if you've sprouted earlier in your life, or miss being able to buy sprouts at the grocery store, check 'em out. We decided to add sprouting to Greek yogurt and quinoa in our attempt to  get back to healthier eating. But I don't intend to give up marshmallow creme, which for me is a quality of life decision. Back in the good old days, I used a Mayo jar and a set of plastic screen lids with increasingly larger openings. The new and improved EasySprout has 6 parts and came with a set of directions, which to be honest I had to read through several times. Back then, there were health food stores that sold bulk alfalfa seeds. Good luck finding those in your home town now!

I'll let you see some pictures in a day or two, and give you our favorite variation of ingredients for veggie sandwiches. But for now I'm off to scrub the sprouters before using them. We'll be doing alfalfa and a seed mixture called LongLife for our sprouts.

4 comments:

Farm Girl said...

I still do sprouts and radish sprouts. I make them in a quart jar with cheese cloth. I love them with avocado. My daughter was going home to make yogurt in her crock pot today. So I am right there with you. :)

Joanne said...

Healthy eating is good but I need to "lead into" sprout eating! I know I could never get my hublet to give up his cheesesteak sammies!

Kathy (woolfind) said...

great job on the healthy eating! hope we all can look at our eating habits and at least change one thing :)

PrisNasonShartle said...

Thanks Jo.....can't wait to start cooking again in my own home and sprouts would make a nice addition.

P.S. Thanks for the beautiful music on your blog.