On Kefir "cheese," and soaking beans with whey

Although my koji rice adventures didn't go so well this weekend (and neither did my bread making, actually), I did try a couple of new things that I'm pretty happy about.

I had a coupon for kefir about a week ago, so I got a couple bottles of plain kefir at the store the other day, and have been slowly going through it, mostly with fruit. I also decided to try using kefir instead of mayonnaise for deviled eggs, which I thought worked out very well. Then I decided to strain the whey out of my kefir to make a thicker spread that I could put on bread or use as a veggie dip or whatever. So far I have tried the following combinations with my kefir "cheese"

• 3 parts kefir cheese to 1 part nutritional yeast and a sprinkle of dill to make a savory spread = yum!
• Plain kefir cheese in place of sour cream on my tempeh and veggie wrap also = yum!
• Kefir cheese mixed with a bit of honey and a big dash of cinnamon on my (gluten-free chia seed) muffin = yum x 2!

Of course, straining the whey out of my kefir also means I have to figure out what to do with all this whey. When I made greek yogurt over a year ago, I wound up with a lot of whey and no CLUE what to do with it. Well, this time around my dear friend Jen's blog steered me in the direction of using the whey when soaking dried beans to aid in digestion. So tonight I did a bit of google action and learned that if you want to get all the goodness out of your beans, it's almost essential to add an acid such as whey (or lemon juice) to the soaking water. It helps your body absorb all the good nutrients you're eating the beans for in the first place, and cuts down on the pesky gas issue that makes beans the, errr, butt of the joke.

So now I've got my big batch of black beans soaking my some of my leftover whey, and I'm pretty darned excited about it, although I kind of feel like I'm late to the party! But now that I'm at the bean-soaking party, I just wanted to make sure the rest of you join me! To make it less complicated, I found this nifty soaking guide. I plan to format it for my recipe box so I always have the cheat sheet on hand.

This concludes your healthy eating lesson for the day. Class dismissed!