A Groovy Kitchen

List of GROOOVY THINGS:
to help you feel groovy in your...
Snazzy Food Prep Place!


*scrumptious recipes provided below
  • Make homemade beautiful labels with crayons, markers, or pens for glass storage jars. (Tape over for the longevity of your beautiful work.) People will admire your simple kitchen's bulk teas and dried products!
  • That leads to the next point, buy bulk so you can reuse glass, ceramic and stainless steel containers.
  • Hum or sing anything that comes to mind with EMOTION as you putter. This attracts gnomes and other elementals into your day to help make it a MORE GROOVY experience.
  • Start a sprouting jar (widemouth mason jar with elastic and piece of nylon mesh screen will do), soak seeds for day and then keep in drainer by sink to drain after rinsing 2 times a day until tasty for salads and sandwiches. (Check out the Sproutman - He's the man!)
  • Make Swedish hardtack* (or Swedish Crispbread, Knäckebröd)
    with local flour for the whole family (dogs and cats included)
  • Joining a meetup or website where you can share local food buying options. Then take a fun field trip with friends and family (or even by yourself with a journal to mark the experience)!
  • Juice CSA (Community Supported Agriculture or farmshare) extra vegis for a morning pick-me-up before meditating or journaling.
  • Make flax crackers (soaking and spreading out flax seed on teflon sheets in dehydrator and flipping when half dry) or fruit leather (blending bananas, apples, and/or pears, and spreading onto sheets in the dehydrator the same way as for the flax crackers.)
  • Hand grate nuts and seeds - with tiny holed side of grater - (for nut milk or salad/cereal sprinkles), as well as carrots and other root vegis - with a larger holed side of the grater - for salads, etc..
  • Make a raw doggie treat* for making it a dog's special day!

  • Hand grind coffee if you are so lucky as to have a hand grinder for coffee.
  • Use washable hemp, metal or cotton colander for your coffee maker. (They're great!)
  • DON'T hand grind your coffee OR use non-paper products for coffee filters if you are lucky enough to not drink it at all!
  • Steam or bake in the toaster oven: squashes and non-meat proteins like soy products (tofu, tempeh, mild sausage), seitan (wheat gluten) or beans for the dogs or possibly you too.
  • Make your own special salt and dried herb mix and give it a cute container (AND label!)
  • Try to not use plastic bags or containers for ANYTHING. Check out glass storage containers (mason jars, 5 and 10 pyrex or corning ware), wax paper bags, and cotton or hemp bags with a drawstring.
  • When you dehydrate a new batch of Onion bread*, Energy bars*, or banana chips (lightly dipped in lemon juice), use any extra trays for garden, farmers market, or CSA produce.

  • Buy extra seasonal fruits and/or vegis and make chips to store in large glass containers.
  • Make Breakfast granola* for you and the animals.
  • Make a huge Raweo*(Raw "Oreo" substitute) for the freezer to cut and eat for "cookies and milk time" (that is nut milk from almonds and dates - a favorite here.)
  • Eat communally out of serving dishes (While fun and sort of savage-like there are also fewer dishes to wash!)
  • If you have a water filter attached to the sink, like we do, put ceramic bowl in your sink to catch extra filtered water to swish-wash vegis. We also use this water for inside plants.
  • Find a warm spot in the sun to make a glass gallon container of sun tea, from a combination of great dried herbs placed in a cotton tea sac or large tea balls. In summer months (or in the winter if you try a kitchen sill herb garden) try using mints and other herbs straight from the yard or farmer's market!
  • Eat a meal in a "nature's made" bowl of a cut in half kiwi, grape fruit, jack fruit, cantaloupe, or even watermelon. Internally cleansing and no cleanup except a cutting knife and spoon!
  • Try not using soap on washing food prep dishes and gadgets. Fruit and vegis don't cause oily build up!
  • Think of juicing for that “afternoon lull” in energy – or even morning lull, of course!
  • In the kitchen area, (but you could extend beyond if you wish) instead of vacuuming, dust, shake out the throw rugs and sweep. Much that accumulated on the floor (especially the kitchen) can recycle into the compost bucket. We keep an actual horse watering bucket on our counter for all of our compostable scraps! (Which may also include a few non-kitchen items such as hair from hairbrushes, dog trimmings and nail clippings.)
  • Hum or sing anything that comes to mind with EMOTION as you putter. This attracts gnomes and other elementals into your day to help make it a MORE GROOVY experience! Yes, I know I already said that, but I thought that bore repeating!