Friday, March 9, 2012

Sprouting!! Yep, I'm on the Sprouting Bandwagon now, too!

Warning:  I am feeling like a smart aleck today, so read with this in mind.  I'm feeling humorous... so please pretend I'm funny and leave me appreciative comments about how I made you smile.  Or else next week I'll bore you to tears with something bland.

Okay, ladies and gentlemen... I'm back.  I've promised my hubby and facebook fans that I will indeed commit to making a clean eating (and at the moment gluten free) post every Friday.  It may be midnight on Friday, but I am going to do my best.



At the moment, as many of you know, I am obsessed and consumed by a certain purple monkey and all that entails, but we all still need to eat, so I will suck it up and put forth some effort to be a good wife and mom for my family... (wait for it...) by cooking/making something edible at least once a week.

WHAT??? I know, I know, hold the applause and cheering for later.  I know I've raised the bar for moms and wives everywhere by this bold commitment.  Feel free to show it to your spouse as a definitive post on what a good wife/mom can accomplish.

As another example of my awesomeness, I bought my son a sprouting kit for Christmas.  A deluxe sprouting kit, no less.  I thought he'd be all into it and whatnot, having always been into plants.  Not so much, apparently. However, my husband and I have found a new snack love... sprouted things.

We started out with sprouted lentils and now have moved on to the variety packs.  Sprouted radish seeds are surprisingly spicy and radish tasting.  Sprouted lentils are awesomeness.  All sprouted things are awesome on salads or just to sit and munch on and they last forEVER.  Especially when I make them, because every single week I forget how much beans GROW when you soak them.  I end up with so much overflow, its ridiculous.
This was only supposed to be three trays, and yet I ended up with all of this AND a big strainer full!!!
Instructions:
Anyway, get your beans/seeds/lentils, whatever you're going to sprout, and start by soaking them in water for about 24 hours, like so:
See?  Beans and seeds under water.  Its like they're going out for a swim!

*I have found that the trays I bought with the kids actually DO make a BIG difference.  You can sprout just using a strainer and something to cover it with, but when done side by side, I get a lot more "sprout" our of using the trays.


Day 2:  Rinse the beans and cover.

Look!  Isn't that snazzy???   They just stack up like blocks!
Day 3: (This is where it gets complicated) Rinse beans and cover again.

Day 4: (Now hold onto your pants, people, this is really complicated) Rinse and cover beans again.  Admire, if you will, the delicate sprouts...


Day 5 and so forth.  Keep repeating these steps until your sprouts look like... well, sprouts.  Like so:

When you are so happy with your growing little beans, and feel that they are "just right", take the covers off and place them in your window so that they glowing, amazing orb of light in the sky can shine down upon your new baby sprouts and fill them with chlorophyll.

Once they're a nice pretty green, take the sprouts and stuff them into baggies or your container of choice.  As I said above, they are great for just crunchy munching and taste AMAZING on salads.

Enjoy... and, you're welcome.