Comments (13)

By kilax, September 26, 2009 7:50 am

They’re alive!!!

Our very own, home grown alfalfa sprouts!

Steven’s parents set us a sprouter for our anniversary, and four different seeds to try – (from left to right below) mung bean, 5 part salad mix, bean salad, and alfalfa. We decided to try alfalfa first, since it is the sprout with which we are most familiar.

The kit has 5 containers – a basin on the bottom for collecting water, 3 trays in the middle for growing sprouts, and a container on top for putting water in. You can use the three trays in the middle all at once – to grow three different kinds of seeds, a bunch of the same kinds of seeds, or seeds at different stages (so you’ll always have fresh ones!) – or you can just use one or two trays. Since this is our first try, we just used one tray, and decided to see how it went.

Day 1:

You take the top container off, and put a tablespoon of seeds in the seed container, then put water in the top container until it is filled 1/2″ to the edge of the top. You put the top container on, and the water in it drips down into the seed container. The little white cap in the seed container siphons the water into the bottom basin. You empty the bottom basin when all the water has gone through the seed container.

You repeat this “rinsing” process 2 times a day until the sprouts are ready. The instructions said it would take 3-5 days, but it took us a bit longer.

Day 3:

I thought they looked kind of wormy on day 3.

Day 4:

Day 5:

Day 6:

It was so fun to come home each day and see how much the sprouts had grown!

I rinsed them off yesterday, dried them, and put them in a little baggie in the fridge. They taste just like the ones from Jimmy John’s!

We’ll probably eat them on a sandwich today! And I already started some more last night!

The finished product!

Comments (24)

By kilax, June 19, 2009 7:53 am

What foods are on your “will not eat” list?

I don’t want to encourage picky eating (says the vegetarian/vegan), but I am curious to find out what foods do not appeal to other people.

Besides not eating meat, dairy and eggs, I also do not eat tree nuts (almonds, cashews, walnuts, etc.). They give me severe headaches, so I avoid them altogether. Sometimes even the smell of them is enough to make me sick.

I avoid olives, mushrooms, and seeds, because I do not care for their taste. I will still try dishes that have these foods in them, but I am probably not going to like it if they are the main ingredient!

And brussel sprouts. We tried. We really did. I think this requires another go-around.

Side Note: Why are all of my Friday Questions about FOOD? I had two other questions in mind that were NOT food related. Hmm.

Comments (14)

By kilax, March 2, 2009 5:45 am

I’m not an economist, but I’ve been making my own internal speculations about products and services that may be affected by the current economy. I figured activities like library visits, grocery store shopping and working out from home would be up, and eating out, going to the movies and getting haircuts would be down.

The Sun-Times featured an interesting article yesterday on the same topic (click here for a visual version of the article). Their lists of “ups” and “downs” reinforced some of my assumptions, but shattered one of them (okay, and some of the things on their list are just silly).

UPS:

1. Seed Sales
2. SPAM Sales
3. McDonald’s Sales
4. Book (American History, Romance, Science Fiction and Fantasy) Sales
5. Library Book Borrowing
6. Wine Sales
7. Movie Attendance

DOWNS:

1. Frozen Meals for Seniors
2. Shark Attacks (???)
3. Stocks
4. Fortune-Telling
5. Cigarette Sales
6. Plastic Surgery
7. Hotel Occupancy

What do you think of the list? Have you been making any speculations of your own?

(I hope this post doesn’t offend anyone or make anyone think I am not taking this very seriously. I just found the article interesting and wanted to share it.)