I grew up on homemade mayonnaise - or at least, on the rare occasions when we had mayonnaise, it was homemade...

I remember standing beside my mother, watching as she slowly poured oil into the blender with the brilliantly orange eggs I had collected that morning, along with salt, mustard, and vinegar, forming a creamy yellow spread.

Ours never looked anything like the thick, gelatinous, almost bleached-white stuff in the jars that my grandmother and grandfather sometimes brought along when they visited.

Of course, that meant theirs was much more special to us kids!  Consequently, I never realized just how tasty homemade mayo really was until I grew up. Now I am surprised how few people actually make their own - especially since it's so easy.

All you need are 5 simple ingredients and a blender or food processor to make your own homemade mayonnaise from scratch in just 5 minutes!

As you've probably heard by now, the Keto (or Ketosis) Diet is all the rage right now. While I'm not normally a fan of extreme fad diets, I do admit that they can be useful on a short-term basis, or to help manage certain diseases or conditions. For example, the Keto Diet has been found to be very helpful for many people with diabetes. It can also help to jump-start a weight loss plan and release stubborn fat stores if you have hit a plateau.

While I wouldn't suggest trying to eat keto forever, doing it for 30 days or a couple of months can be helpful in some cases for some people. However, as with most diets, getting started and learning to stick to the new eating habits is the hardest part. Most people in America have sugar addictions, which can make it very difficult for them to stick with the Keto Diet, which includes very low levels of carbs and sugars. However, it is possible to satisfy your sweet tooth on the Keto Diet, so if you love desserts and you want to eat keto, you'll love this month's "freebie"!

Check it out below to find out how you can get your hands on this awesome Keto recipe book filled with 80 delicious Keto dessert recipes for free!

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is already upon us, which means...it's time for Thanksgiving recipes!  :-) If you've been reading this blog for a while, you may recall that last Thanksgiving I attempted a naturally fermented whole cranberry sauce - one of my few fermentation fails...

Okay, so just to clarify, they weren't horrible, just not as tasty as I had hoped. They were very sour, but palatable when served with a drizzle of maple syrup on top, as the recipe suggested. If I recall correctly, they also took at least 2 weeks to ferment, so they were definitely not ready by Thanksgiving.

However, I'm not giving up on fermented cranberry sauce just yet! This year, I'm trying a different recipe - this one has a few more ingredients and sounds quite delicious. Plus, I now have kombucha brewing constantly, so I will use some of that as the culture, since my hard cider was just started this weekend so it's not strong enough yet to provide a good culture.

We'll see how it goes - I think a yearly fermentation experiment would be a fitting addition to our Thanksgiving tradition! :-)

You are probably already aware that the hottest topic in medicine these days is the gut microbiome. Seriously - it seems like there's a new article about the importance of gut health coming out every 17 seconds these days!

However, if you've somehow missed this news and aren't sure what I'm referring to, your "microbiome" refers to the collection of trillions of microbes living within your intestinal tract. Influencing the microbiome in a positive way appears to be a key factor in promoting heath - and not just physical health, but mental as well.  

A healthy microbiome is part best friend, part power converter, part engine, and part pharmacy.

If you want to optimize your health, heal chronic disease, or know which foods are right for you… understanding your microbiome is absolutely your first step!

Of course, we all know we should be eating lots of healthy foods such as spinach, beets, broccoli and other colorful vegetables, fruits, nuts, and berries. But unless you have the right microbes present that can fully metabolize these foods, you won’t get the full benefits…

And, in some cases, these foods could actually harm you!

Obviously, knowing what works for your gut is key to optimizing your gut health. Read more below to find out why your gut health is so important, and what you can do about it!

I finally found a name for myself... According to Michael Pollan, I am a "fermento" - a name that I will embrace proudly from now on! :-)  As you may know by now, fermented foods are the best way to include lots of healthy probiotics in your diet to feed your good gut bacteria. Plus, they're very easy (and safe) to make at home, and they taste amazing!

Despite all of the various fermented foods I have made over the past few years (kombucha being my most recent foray), one thing I had never tried fermenting for some reason is green beans. I've made many jars of very tasty vinegar "pickled" (technically marinated) green beans, but for some reason it never occurred to me to try fermenting them - until I ran across the recipe below on one of my favorite blogs.

Not only is this a very simple recipe, but it is absolutely delicious! I only wish I had discovered it sooner, as our summer of 10,000 green beans is finally coming to an end, so I only managed to make one small jar of these delightful pickles... :-(    I will definitely be making lots more of these next year!

In some circles, yogurt is thought of as a "health food," and in truth, it really is one of the only fermented foods that is still regularly included in the American diet. As we have discussed numerous times before, fermented foods contain beneficial probiotics that, as more and more scientific studies are revealing, may be the key to many different aspects of health - not only physical, but mental as well.

However, others rail against yogurt, calling it a glorified "junk food," packed with sugar, artificial ingredients, and, of course, dairy - an oft-vilified food type by many in the new "plant-based" diet movement.

So what is the real truth about yogurt? Is it a healthy food that you should include in your diet, or a junk food that you should avoid?

Today's guest article by one of my favorite natural health writers and nutritionists will explore some of the problems you should be aware of when eating  yogurt, as well as how to choose the right type of yogurt for good health. He will also discuss the differences between yogurt and kefir - another dairy-based fermented food that has gained a cult following in the U.S. in recent years, although it has been consumed for centuries in other parts of the world.

Read on to find out more...

I'm back!  I'm so sorry for the long absence. I returned from our trip to Minnesota to find that I was unable to log into the blog, and after a couple of weeks of back and forth with the support team, I have just now regained access. Whew! Anyway, we may have some changes to our posting schedule coming up, but I will keep you informed. In the meantime, we are back on schedule with our end-of-the-month recipe.

One of the simplest and easiest nutritionist-recommended ways to eat healthier is to "eat the rainbow" - that is, to eat as wide a variety of colored fruits and veggies as possible. It should come as no surprise that salads are my favorite way to get lots of beautiful colors on my plate. There is nearly an infinite variety of colors, flavors, and textures that you can add to a salad, which makes it one of the most exciting things to eat, in my opinion!

You can have a big salad, or small one, a salad as a whole meal, or as a side dish. A salad can be just greens and vegetables, or topped with fruit, nuts, or seeds. You can add beans, meat, eggs, or fish for protein, and throw some healthy fats on there like avocados. Toss on some homemade kimchi or pickled veggies for some healthy probiotics, and of course, don't forget the huge array of dressing options to top off your salad. Just about anything goes when it comes to salads, so they are just as fun to make as they are to eat!

This week, I'm sharing a colorful and delicious salad idea full of loads of healthy and flavorful ingredients that are packed with vitamins, fiber, and antioxidants. Some of these items are more commonly found in your garden in the spring or fall, but feel free to use your own creativity and whatever fresh garden veggies you have on hand and make it your own!

As you may know by now, I'm a big fan of fermented foods, and I regularly experiment with interesting new fermentation methods. One fermented food that I have yet to try making myself is kombucha.

Kombucha is a fizzy, fermented tea drink that has gone mainstream in recent years, and you can now find it in the refrigerated section of not just health food stores, but even big supermarket chains. However, the kombucha you buy in stores is, of course, a far cry from what you can make at home. Some storebought kombucha contains artificial ingredients such as colorings or flavorings, and of course, most contains lots of sugar.

However, homemade kombucha can be a delicious and nutritious drink, and it's a great way to get more fermented foods into your diet for their healthy benefits.

From what I have read, kombucha is also really easy to make, so I'm looking forward to trying it! The recipe below demonstrates how easy it is to make your own homemade kombucha.

If you're busy like me (and let's face it, in today's world, who isn't?), eating healthy can seem a chore at best, and nearly impossible at worst. Who really has time to prepare a home-cooked meal from scratch every day? This can seem especially difficult if you're trying to feed a family with both parents working full time.

However, the good news is that it can be done - and it may be easier than you think...

With a little advance planning, and a bit of creativity and flexibility, you'll find yourself eating healthy, delicious homemade meals on a regular basis, which will not only have a positive impact on your long-term health, but also on your wallet!

Below are 4 tips to help you eat healthier every day, no matter how cram-packed your schedule seems, or how many kids you have to shuttle to soccer practice or dance class.

It's a holiday weekend - yay! :-)  For me, that means extra time for blogging, catching up on website stuff, and of course, working in the garden. (Although, with temps in the 90's this weekend, I'm not getting as much done outside as I would have liked...)

It also means catching up on stuff around the house - such as processing all of our extra butternut squash for freezing for later use in soups and pies, and making a batch of red wine vinegar from some old Pinot Noir we had sitting around open from a couple of weeks ago.

As you may know if you've been reading this blog for a while, I love fermenting stuff! :-)  It's so much fun, plus it's simple, easy, and interesting - and the result is almost always very tasty.

I started off with fermented vegetables (kimchi, sauerkraut, etc.), then moved on to hard cider, hard ginger ale, and most recently, wine vinegars.

If you want to try making your own vinegar, there are lots of ways you can do it, but the easiest way to start is with wine, since that's already fermented so you've got a good head start. You COULD just leave some wine open and uncorked for a while and it would eventually turn into vinegar. However, the results could be unpredictable so it may not turn out as you had hoped or expected. But if you culture the wine with some raw, natural vinegar, it should develop into a lovely wine vinegar for you over the course of a few weeks - just follow the super easy steps below...