Kickin' it with Karen : Beyond Sauerkraut

Kickin' it with Karen: Beyond Sauerkraut How on Earth is Christmas over already? I was just doing the countdown to winter break and BAM! Just like that 6 days have past, and Christmas is all over. Another one done. It was a whirlwind. I always look forward to the holiday season and especially Christmas because I like to give and get gifts. I'm not going to lie! I love receiving gifts. I LIKE PRESENTS. But what I like more is making homemade gifts and giving them away. This year, I made a variety of things: Macha Tea Soap , Mint Flavored Lip Balm , Orange Mint Hand Salve,  and my favorite, Lavender Scented Reusable Rice Heat Packs. I will add a post on how to make the hand salve in the next couple of weeks. Today, I want to focus on the Reusable Rice Heat Packs. Why would I use a rice pack over an electric one? First, the rice pack will mold to whatever body part you put it on. It will drape easily around the neck, hang down your shoulder to your mid-back, it will rest ni

Kickin' it with Karen: Beyond Sauerkraut Thank you for being patient with me. I had to take a break from writing for a week while I trudged through the last week of school before winter break. It is a difficult time for some students. I do my best not to cause them any more stress than they may already be experiencing. Bless them. So let's talk about Beet Kvass: In the video is a "Apple Ginger Beet Kvass" I did back in October of 2018. What is beet kvass? It's a fermented beet juice, a probiotic liver tonic touted to be excellent for heart health, gut health also the, "phytonutrients that give beets there deep crimson color also have powerful anti-cancer properties (Mecola). But what about golden, or orange beets? Do they pack the same powerful punch as the red ones? They sure do! Though their colors differ, golden beets are red beets nutritional equals (Corleone). Beet kvass is made by chopping up beets, salting them, adding water and letting them sit

"Just a simple sauerkraut without all the fancy stuff, please".  Kickin' it with Karen: Beyond Sauerkraut   A colleague of mine asked me if she could buy some sauerkraut from me. How strange. I never thought anyone would want to buy something made in my kitchen. But, she really wants the natural, fermented probiotics that are bioavailable in a quality sauerkraut and the only place she knows where to get it is from Whole Foods (EXPENSIVE) and well... from me. Probiotics are so important for our gut health. As a reminder from my previous sauerkraut post, "Probiotics are the good bacteria that line the intestines and help break down food and help your body absorb nutrients as well as help regulate and increase energy". We need probiotics to support our immune system and regulate our metabolism (Axe). For my colleague, I am glad to oblige. But it is so easy, anybody can do it. There are a thousand and one million hundred gazillion recipes out there in

Kickin' it with Karen: Beyond Sauerkraut Is anybody else out there a teacher? We are just a week and a half out from winter break and I feel like I have been hit by a bus. Exhausted much? Holy Hallelujah! These are they days when waking up - even if I have gotten 9 hours of sleep - feels like I'm waking from the grave. I think most professionals would say, "What are you doing for self-care?" - something I think teachers regularly forget about. We are so busy caring for our students, making sure they are meeting the standards and making progress, as well as making sure they are "OK" in and out of school. Our students face a myriad of challenges and with that comes the trauma and the drama.  Everything that happens to them out there in their world often comes back with them to school. When we get wrapped up in their story, we can experience secondary trauma.  This takes an emotional toll that if we don't pay attention to it, this can end up having rea

Kickin' it with Karen: Beyond Sauerkraut If you read my last post, you know that the gift giving season is very important for me for one specific reason. As young children, my dear sister and I would make gifts and spend hours happily giggling away as we haphazardly wrapped them with the tape all wonky and the corners sticking up and not really folded where the box had a corner or an edge. Again, the holidays are here and  I rejoice in my memories of my sister, but I miss her so much.  Forty-nine is too young to pass on. However, I was given the gift of those 49 years and I have memories to carry me through another year. So, in my sisters honor, I will make gifts. Not drawings or cut out dolls,  but non-toxic homemade gifts that my colleagues, friends and family can make use of everyday.  As I said in my last post, I believe in gifts with a purpose. I also believe in gifts from the HEART 💖 and not from the wallet. Winter is long here in Minnesota. Right around  Januar

As the snow flurries flip, twinkle, and waft gently to the ground, I find myself thinking of my family and loved ones, the one's I've lost and the family I still have left. I reminisce and hear the laughter of my dear sister (1964-2013); I remember us as young girls eating cookies and giggling endlessly as we haphazardly wrapped gifts we either made or that our parents bought  for our other siblings and let us say they were gifts from us. We were two peas in a pod. Just six months apart (I was adopted), we were the best of friends. As this holiday season ramps up, I rejoice in my memories, but I miss her so much.  Forty-nine is a young age to pass from this world 💔, but I was blessed to have the 49 years I was able to spend with her beautiful spirit. With a joyous heart, in my dear sister's memory, I make gifts. Not the Shrinky Dink  art I used to do when we were 5, but non-toxic homemade gifts that my colleagues, friends and family can make use of everyday. I believe in

Hi there! Just want to give you all a heads that both my YouTube channel and this Blog are undergoing a name change. I needed something a bit more catchy. The official name of this Blog and my YouTube channel will be: "Kickin' it with Karen: Beyond Sauerkraut" The Official name change will take place on 9 December 2018. Please keep coming back to read. I have enjoyed the tremendous support and the growth in readership. Please feel free to comment and subscribe to this Blog and My YouTube Channel. Thank You and let me know what you think. 

Hey folks, feel free to comment. What would you like to see me do? What are you interested in reading about? If you have been following my posts, you know that I am super wheat sensitive (not gluten - just wheat) and I have a scary allergy to chicken eggs; hence, I use DUCK eggs. Remember, a duck isn't a chicken.  The Healthy Home Economist   explains the difference and the benefits of duck over chicken eggs much better than I could. The following recipe is my attempt to reconcile my desire for sweet baked goods and the very real danger eating wheat and chicken eggs poses for me. I hope this recipe benefits someone out there who is in my same position. C I have been tinkering with this recipe and although it is good, it's not quite there. Gluten Free cookies are tricky. Doable but tricky. This is my current version. We will call it GF Oatmeal Cookie #1 . Just like I went through 9 versions of my SAUSAGE recipe to come up with Palmen Sausage #9, I am sure I will go thro

I was addicted to antiperspirants. All I wanted was to make sure I didn't have pit stains and I didn't stink. As a dancer, sweating is a fact of life. If your gonna dance, your gonna sweat. But I wanted to do it in a "Lady-Like" fashion and not pit out all of my clothes. Although, there were rumors abound suggesting that store bought deodorants, and especially antiperspirants, caused breast cancer and Alzheimers,  I was not inclined to care. I knew that the research available did not confirm that antiperspirants were the cause of such deadly diseases(Klotz et.al.).  However,  there was enough research that said that over-exposure to heavy metals such as aluminum is toxic and potentially dangerous (ATSDR - Aluminum). Aside from the heavy metals, there are other irritants such as propylene glycol. Propylene glycol, found in antifreeze, is a synthetic liquid that absorbs water. In most personal care products, it is used as humectant and emulsifier (McCay et.al.) Freq