Real Food Challenge, Week 1

So, I'm sort of following this Real Food Challenge put on by Nourised Kitchen. It's really interesting and I'm leraning alot. However, the pace is WICKED fast - and nothing is announced much ahead of time so you dn't have time to, say, aquire a whole stash of organic sprouting grains, or research and buy a dehydrator and grinder. So mostly I'm watching, reading, trying a few things as I have time, inclination, and supplies. Some local natural mamas are thinking the same thing, and have a more realistic plan: do a similar challenge, but over TIME. Seems very smart to me!

Anyway, on Day one, you were supposed to toss out all your junk food, refined food. I am comfortable with the level of junk food in my house. It's very little - there's very little refined food on the premises, and what we have is what we're keeping. I don't think a can of coke (liberally laced with rum and lime) once a week or so is going to kill me. :) And, yeah, I should be making my own pasta, and I will, but for now, I'll finish off the bag of organic dried pasta. And so forth.

Day 2 - aquire new healthy foods. Again, I pretty much have those. So, easy.

Day 3 involved soaking grains. Okay, I'd been meaning to try that anyway. I've soaked my meusli in a bit of whey and water overnight for the last 3 days. in the morning, rinse it, cook it and eat it. Easy. I don't know that I notice any changes in how I digested the food. it had a slightly different texture, but tasted fine. I do have alot of whey on hand, generally, left over from cheesemaking, and usually use it in my bread dough (generally Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes bread), so I think overall I was kind of doing that anyway.

Other challenges for the week included starting a sourdough, and sprouting grains. I haven't done either of these yet. I have some Carl's Sourdough starter that i've been meaning to play with anyway, so this will be incentive to get me doing so.  And, I'll try sprouting seeds sometime, to add to bread, I think it would be an interesting texture. I like the looks of this recipe. I DO love the Artisan bread in 5 method, but also kind of miss doing the kneading and rising process, especially on snowy days at home like this. I would still like to learn more about making bread the "old-fashioned" way. So much to do, so much to learn! I have never used a dough enhancer, or vital wheat gluten. Anyone have recommendations about these, yay or nay?