Health is Sprouting Up Around Here

Not bad as a crunchy "handful snack"

I have to hand it (once again) to LG. When we started this Engine 2 Diet adventure over 3 weeks ago, she went into the "mud room" adjacent to out kitchen and emerged with a 5 tier seed sprouting system. It looked like a gerbil cage to me, but she assured me the little black nuggets were residual seeds and not vermin droppings. I washed it a second time...just in case. She claimed the device would give us some crunchy, nutritious little goodies that we could add to our salads or just munch on. And - once again - she was right. After only a few days, we were proud parents to hundreds of tiny plant babies. I've had alfalfa sprouts over the years and found them to be palatable, if kind of annoying in salads. They stick together in exclusive little cliques like masses of hair from a hair brush (LG's that is...not mine) and don't seem to want to mingle with the other salad party guests. But I now have a new and improved respect for spouts.

Part of our sprout stash

The sprouts in the tray above are adzuki beans. They enjoy one another's company but are far more willing than alfalfa to integrate with other salad ingredients. Sprouts are crunchy and tasty, as advertised, and bring quite a bag of nutritional goodies to salads and cooking - protein and vitamins. They also contain some reported nutrients like canavanine, saponins, isothiocyanates and other stuff that I suspect are just made up words, but are purported to help prevent sclerotic build-up, cancer and all kinds of not-that-great stuff that other foods promote once they're past the tastebuds.

As you can see, we have a variety of seeds and bean stuff we use for cooking and sprouting - red, black and green lentils, adzuki beans, mung beans...other stuff I don't know the names of but can retrieve when LG calls for them. Apparently, if I could learn to live on just sprouts, I'd get younger each day and develop the capacity to leap tall buildings in a single bound. They're good, but I'd miss the lasagna. All the beans and seeds we sprout are organic and - therefore - non-GMO. From what we've learned while studying about our food these past few weeks, we're buying only foods with those qualities if they're available to us.

Confession time. As the end of our four week challenge approaches, I am really looking forward to a splurge here and there. LG and I honestly admit we'll never go back to eating as we did before, but we are likely to allow ourselves a bit more latitude than we have recently. I love that I'm losing fat, and losing it honestly and in a much healthier way than ever before. I want to keep that going. But, I strolled past the old [sodden, drenched] garden spot this morning and noticed that the rhubarb is about ready for harvest. That calls for a pie, cobbler or other concoction that will require at least some sugar. I've repeatedly mentioned a couple other food items I miss as well - of the grape and malted barley varieties. I am also going to be more dedicated next hunting season. There is no meat more "organically grown" than a wild elk or deer and - if we're going to eat animal muscles - it's going to be the healthiest and most natural we can find. If the darned rain would abate, I'd get out my bow today and start chucking some arrows in preparation for next season. Sorry if that concept is offensive to you, but - if you eat meat/foul/fish - it requires the killing of a sentient creature and I feel better doing it myself with an attitude of appreciation and thanks. So...there's that.

I just finished enclosing and painting the exterior of our wine room and will share a photo of that and the room's contents tomorrow, as we approach the day when we can once again partake.