How To Make Kombucha Tea at Home

Kombucha Tea at Home!

I am tea lover. I love all the varieties, especially the herbal and medicinal teas. For the past 7 years, I have been drinking the popular kombucha tea elixir, and I just started making it at home! I experimented once before years ago, but it didn’t taste right. My first batch this time was a hit! I am now waiting for the second batch to finish, so hopefully that one is as great as the first.

I wanted to share the recipe and show you how easy it is to make kombucha at home.

Kombucha tea is an ancient Chinese health elixir that is known to detoxify the liver, provide vital nutrients and probiotics, promote weight loss and increase energy levels. It is so economical and easy to make it at home. Kombucha is made with a starter SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Yeast and Bacteria). Lots of people mistaken the SCOBY as a mushroom, but it is actually yeast and bacteria. The SCOBY is also called a “mother” because it grows a new “baby” after each batch. If you know of someone who brews their own kombucha, they might have a mother to share, or you can purchase one online for a reasonable price.

What You Need To Brew Kombucha at Home:
 • 2 gallons of sweetened tea (8-10 tea bags, black, green, white, etc. plus 2 cups sugar)
 • 1 kombucha starter(AKA SCOBY, mushroom or mother)
 • 2 large 1 gallon glass jars
• 1 thin kitchen towel • 6 quart sized jars with lids (enough jars or bottles to hold the liquid)

First, boil 2 gallons of filtered water on stovetop. Remove from stove and add tea bags. I let the tea cool before removing tea bags and then add sugar, which can take a few hours. (I have always been a bit skeptical about making my own kombucha tea because of the cane sugar that is used, we usually only use honey and fruits as sweeteners. But the sugar is actually eaten by the yeast and the sugar content of the finished kombucha drink is very low.)

After the tea has cooled, pour into glass containers. Then add 2 cups of sugar.
Next, add the kombucha starter. Cover containers with a light cotton cloth and rubber band. Let the tea sit in a dark, cool place like in a cabinet or closet. After about 10-14 days, you can use a straw to extract a small amount of tea to try. If the kombucha tastes too sweet, then let it sit a few more days. If the taste of vinegar is too strong, then you may want to remove it earlier next time. Now you will have your very own kombucha tea! I  also like to double ferment my tea, so I place the finished tea in air-tight bottles for 48 hours and then move it to the refrigerator. The result is a refreshing, bubbly elixir! Delicious!

Cleanse Your Liver & Gallbladder!

Please note that I recently changed the instructions of the actual
liver/gallbladder cleanse and inserted the instructions from Andreas Moritz's book called The Amazing Liver & Gallbladder Flush to avoid any confusion. I highly recommend reading this book and following the directions to obtain the best results. You can order it here at www.rawlife.com.

Paul and I recently decided to do a liver/gallbladder cleanse together. It's always more fun to have someone to cleanse with! After a few weeks on the road, we felt like our bodies deserved a kick start, and this liver/gallbladder cleanse is pretty simple too, so we thought it would be easy to do it in between trips.

The liver is one of the most vital organs in the body. It is the largest organ and also performs the most functions. It filters the blood and excretes waste through bile, which is then sent to the gallbladder. When oil or fat is present in a meal, it signals the gallbladder to contract and squeeze bile, which helps the oils and fats to be properly absorbed by the body.

There are six fundamental things that tend to damage the liver:

1. Overeating
2. Eating and drinking refined white flour products, processed foods, junk foods, white sugar, and fried foods.
3. A low-protein, high-carbohydrate and fat diet.
4. Alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, theobromine, and hard, recreational drugs.
5. Medicinal drugs and pharmaceuticals.
6. Consuming insecticides, preservatives and other cumulative poisons.

You can also help your liver and gallbladder by eating foods high in potassium, like brown rice, bananas, blackstrap molasses, almonds, seeds, kelp, dulse, prunes and raisins. Drinking lots of pure water, and eating mostly raw, organic foods and fresh fruit and vegetable juices.

It is important to be nice to your liver! If the liver is functioning properly, most illnesses and cancers can be eliminated!

While it is possible to control a few aspects of your health, like what you eat and drink, there are a few things that you cannot control, like environmental toxins, and damage that may have happened before your health journey. This is why it is important to cleanse and fast. Your body needs a break and an opportunity to do its job!

Fasting and cleansing is not for everyone, and I do not advise pregnant and nursing mothers to do any heavy cleansing or fasting. I am currently nursing Noa, but this cleanse is pretty simple and gentle, so I did not have an issue completing it. But it is important that if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, that you do major cleansing when you are finished. That way you do not jeopardize your health or your baby's, by dumping too many toxins into your blood too fast.

There are many websites online that describe different ways to do this liver/gallbladder cleanse.

Here are the directions from The Amazing Liver & Gallbladder Flush:

You will need:

• Apple juice: 32 ozs. a day/for 6 days
• Epsom salts: 4 TBSP dissolved in 3 8-oz. glasses of water
• Extra virgin olive, cold-pressed: one-half glass 4 oz.
• Either fresh grapefruit (pink is best), or fresh lemon and orange combined
• 2 pint jars, one with a lid

1. Drink 1 container of 32 ozs. of freshly juiced apple juice, use packaged apple juice if not juicing.

2. Avoid foods that are cold or chilling, animal foods, dairy products and fried foods. Eat normal, but do not overeat.

3. Plan to do the actual cleansing on a weekend. That will allow you time to rest if needed.

4. Avoid any medication, vitamins or supplements.

5. Cleanse your colon before and after your do the liver flush. Either by colonics or enemas.

6. One the 6th day:

• Drink all 32 ounces of apple juice in the morning. Eat a light breakfast, juice, fruit or oatmeal. Eat a light lunch of plain cooked or steamed vegetables and white rice preferably basmati. Do not eat protein foods, butter, or oil. Do not eat or drink anything (except water) after 1:30 p.m.

The Actual Flush:

• Evening:
• 6 p.m.: Add 4 TBSP of Epsom salts to 24 ounces of water (three 8-oz. glasses) of filtered water in a jar. This makes four 6-oz servings. Drink first portion (3/4 glass) now. This will open the bile ducts, making it easy for stones to pass.
• 8 p.m.: Drink second serving.
• 9:30 p.m.: Do a water enema if you have not had a bowel movement or colonic.
• 9:45 p.m.: Wash and squeeze grapefruits by hand and remove the pulp. You need 3/4 glass. Pour the juice with 1/2 cup of olive oil into jar. Shake hard until it is watery.
• 10 p.m.: Stand next to bed, and drink concoction while standing, without interruption if possible. Some people use a large plastic straw.
  
• LIE DOWN IMMEDIATELY! Turn of lights, lie flat on your back, with one or two pillows propping your head up. Your head should be higher than your abdomen. Or, lie on your right side with your knees pulled toward your head. Lie perfectly still for at least 20 minutes, and try not to speak. You may feel the stones traveling along the bile ducts like marbles, but there will not be any pain.
  

The Following Morning:

• 6-6:30 a.m.: Drink your third 3/4 glass of Epsom salts. You may go back to sleep, or do light exercise.
• 8 - 8:30 a.m.: Drink your fourth glass of 3/4 glass of Epsom salts.
• 10 -10:30 a.m.: You drink fresh juice, then 30 mins. later, eat fresh fruit. One hour later you may eat light food. By the evening, you should be back to normal start feeling signs of improvement!

What to Expect:
That is it! The next morning, be prepared to pass gallstones in your stool. They look light to dark green, are very irregular in shape, are the size of grape seeds to cherry seeds, and feel like gelatin.

To permanently cure health issues, all stones must be removed, and this can take up to 8-12 liver flushes! Liver flushes should be performed is 3-week or monthly intervals.

Paul and I were both tempted to take pictures of ours, but I was not sure if I was ready to expose myself so much! But I will post a few pictures of what ours looked like instead.

This really is an easy cleanse, and you only need 6 days to complete it. I encourage everyone to try this cleanse! You will be amazed at the results, and feel energized, lighter, and happier!

Starting to Eat Healthy

While traveling on the road, Paul and I meet lots of families with concerns about what they are feeding their children. Common questions that both Paul and I get asked a lot are “How do you start feeding young children raw foods?” and “What are you feeding Noa?”

It might seem a little overwhelming at first when you start to make healthy changes to your family’s diet, but once you get the hang of it, it starts to come naturally! A great place to start is to replace a meal or snack that might not be that “healthy” with something that is healthy. If you find a healthy alternative for a food in your diet that you know is not good for you, then you won’t even miss that food!

I know for me that learning how to make a few raw food desserts helped me resist the temptations of the unhealthy desserts I was so accustomed to eating. It is so simple to make a raw, fruit pie using nuts, dates and any fresh or frozen fruit as a topping. I often made these pies for my friends who weren’t familiar with the raw food diet, and they loved them! You can also make date balls with the same ingredients you use in the pie crust; dates and nuts. It is really simple, and children love them!

When we first began to introduce raw foods into Noa’s diet, she had just turned 1. We really tried to hold off on feeding her any foods because we did not feel that it was necessary for her to eat anything other than breastmilk from me. She barely had any teeth to chew any food either! We researched a lot about what age is appropriate to start feeding infants, and we decided that we would not introduce new foods until she turned one, and she was almost two before I really felt like she was actually eating. She mostly put food into her mouth, chewed it up, and then spit it out. I did let her put food into her mouth before she was one, like avocados and bananas, but she was not consistently eating solid foods. I admit too, there was a lot of pressure from family members and friends to start feeding her. I tried to explain nicely that we are waiting, and that she is receiving enough nutrients from me for it to be any concern.

Now that Noa is two, she is eating a diet similar to mine. We drink fresh green juices in the morning, which can include kale, collards, sunflower sprouts, celery, cucumber, apple, and carrot. For snacks, we eat blueberries, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, bananas, apples, cucumbers and lots of other fresh fruit, especially if it is in season. Black sapotes are in season now here in South Florida, they are also called Chocolate Pudding Fruit, and if you aren’t familiar with them, they are a delicious fruit, high in ascorbic acid. We have been making lots of recipes with the black sapotes that I will be posting soon. Noa loves them, and can recognize them in the market too. I love it when she says “black sapotes” and points to them before I can even find them! For lunch, we eat avocados and kimchi, and maybe sprouted and lightly cooked quinoa too. We really try and keep it simple, and we also adhere to the Daylight Diet.

If you are beginning to make the transition to healthier foods for your family, then try and make it fun for them. And try not to use the word “healthy” too, because that might trigger an automatic “ewwww” response. Just have fun and be creative, and your family will follow your lead!

Fall in NY, Potty Training & Elimination Communication

Right now, we are in NY visiting Paul's family. We are having a blast staying with Paul's twin sister and her husband on Staten Island. The fall weather has been amazing, and we love visiting the parks and watching the trees changing.

Today we visited the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and enjoyed the fall colors and cool weather. We only have a few more days left of this trip, then we fly back to Florida for a short visit home. We are trying to squeeze in as much fun into this trip as we can because when we return in November, it will be cold!

We have a packed schedule until the end of the year, and will be on the road until January. Please check out Paul's tour dates HERE and come and say hi! We love connecting with old friends and especially love making new ones!

Noa is having a blast visiting the parks, playing and making new friends. I love that she can spend time with Paul's family, and it's fun having Paul show me around Brooklyn where he grew up.

Noa is almost 21 months, and we are taking huge steps toward becoming potty trained.

Since Noa was about 11 weeks, I began a practice called Elimination Communication (EC). EC is a toilet-training method that uses timing, signals, cues, and intuition to address an infant's need to eliminate in an appropriate place, like a toilet, portable potty, or even bowl. While at home, I mostly let Noa play diaper-free, and I tried to tune into her elimination rhythms and take her when I felt she needed to go. I was not always in tune with her, and when we went out, I would put her in a diaper. I did not practice this 100% of the time, but I did my best, and when it was not convenient or if I had a day with lots of "misses", I tried not to be too hard on myself. I always tried to keep a small portable potty with us in the car, and even took her in public restrooms and held her over the toilet. I started using a "pssssss" cue, and she caught on! It was really amazing connecting with her and tuning into her needs. It also was a huge help and encouragement that my close Mama Friend Debra was also practicing EC like a pro and I was able to learn a lot from her too.

Here is a picture of Noa at about 3 months, sitting on the potty while I cue her.

I'll admit that it did seem like more work getting started with the Elimination Communication early, but now that Noa is approaching two, she is almost completely cuing and letting me know on her own when she needs to go. She even makes her own "tssss" sound, or says the word "potty". I always try and take her potty when I go too, and she has no problem saying "no" if I ask her, especially if she is busy playing!

I will definitely write more about EC again, but for any moms who are interested in letting their new babies or even older infants go diaper-free, here are few quick tips to help you get started:

• 1) Babies will not eliminate while they are sleeping, so always take them potty immediately after waking up in the morning or after a nap.

• 2) Take them potty after a feeding.

• 3) Before a bath.

• 4) At different intervals throughout the day (15 mins., 20 mins, etc.).

Once you get started, it gets easier and starts to become routine! You will be amazed at how easily you can tune-in to your baby. I loved showing Noa the proper place to eliminate at such an early age and now that she is older, she knows where to go. There is no un-training!

I encourage all of you parents out there to try EC even once a day to get started! You will be amazed at how natural it feels and how connected you become to your baby.

Check out these websites to get more information on going diaper-free and Elimination Communication: DiaperFreeBaby.org & the EC Store.com.

Check back here too, and I will be posting more!

Interview with Rhio from Hooked on Raw

Rhio and her partner Leigh recently visited Paul and me in West Palm Beach and set up our kitchen for their radio show Hooked on Raw with Rhio. We had lots of fun and touched on some interesting subjects!

Check out my interview running this week or download the podcast here!

The Discover Kingdom Health Summit

Starts November 30th, 2009 for 7 nights
6 pm Pacific / 8 pm Central / 9 pm Eastern

Imagine inviting 7 Health Experts into your home to teach you how to create an inspirational health plan that will give you more energy, more peace, and more power than you ever thought possible!

Click here to view more details

Blended Salad Recipe

This recipe is so simple and delicious. We add variety with different vegetables, sprinkling on top crackers, dulse, or sauerkraut.

Blended Salad:

1 tomato
juice of 1 lemon
3-4 celery stalks
3-4 handfuls of greens (collards, romaines, kale, etc...)
cilantro to taste
1 avocado

(seasonings like sea salt, garlic and cayenne can be added to taste)

Blend it up, and eat it quick because it will oxidize quickly after blending.

Our Raw Life

The time has finally come! I am now ready to focus on the passions of my heart, and I hope to find more time to do it all. The words of our wise mid-wife Janice are ringing true! She told us last year before Noa was born, not to expect to get much done for at least a year after her birth. Well, Noa is now 10 months, and I am finally ready and motivated to start following my passions again! And having Noa along for the ride is definitely an extra blessing.

I recently ended my extended part-time position at Hippocrates Health Institute, where I worked for more than three years. Working there was a wonderful experience, and I learned so much about the raw food diet and lifestyle. A part of me is sad and a little nostalgic about my time there, but it’s a new season! I’m so excited to start sharing my experiences as a new mom, being a wife to Paul Nison, and our desire to live a sustainable lifestyle, and to help others do the same naturally. Our main focus is to share with people the truth about natural living and healing. Our creator made us perfectly! If we allow our bodies to do the job they were created to do, then we can heal from obesity, sickness and disease, and begin to thrive!

I believe that we are living sacrifices, designed for living a fasted-lifestyle. Yeshua (Jesus) lived it perfectly, and I desire to be more like him everyday. He is the perfect role-model for me, and I have learned so much by reading The Scriptures (Bible). A favorite verse that encourages me is 1 Peter 4:7-8. It states: But the end of all things approaches: therefore be sober and wakeful for prayer. And above all things, have fervent love one towards another, for love covers a multitude of sins.

We are called to be clear-minded and self-controlled so that we can pray. What wisdom, that if we live a lifestyle of fasting and prayer, it will be easier to hear His voice so that we can pray! I long to be a loving example of Yeshua’s love, and I know that in love, I am also forgiven for my sins. What an incredible gift of life!

So this blog will begin the documentation of our journey through life, and our passion to help others as we have been helped, by discovering the truth!

Please feel free to post comments and you can also email me at andrea@rawlife.com. We will be covering a wide range of topics, from mothering & fathering, raising kids naturally, elimination communication (diaper-free), sustainable living, raw foods and so many others. If there is something you would like us to cover, please let us know!

My husband Paul also has a video blog where he posts videos every weekday. So please check that out at www.therawlifehealthshow.com.

We look forward to hearing from all of you, and have a great Raw Life!

Blessings in love,

Andrea Nison