Kefir-staches

We are part of a wonderful home school group. For the most part, they are uber health conscious and know tons and tons about the best foods and cuisine and all things health food related. We, as a family, however, are not uber health conscious... I think we would fall more along the 'Yeah-we-think-it's-a-great-thing-to-be-doing-but-can't-afford-the-time-or-cost-at-this-point-in-life' level of health. We eat lots of fresh fruits and veggies, but don't go much farther than that. But this weekend we tried to hop into (what seemed like a simple part of healthy living) the world of making and drinking our own kefir.

Kefir is supposed to be a super food that helps in enormous ways. It is like super yogurt, except that it isn't yogurt. It has all sorts of healthy bacteria and yeasts and all sorts of living organisms that your gut needs. It can help with allergies, inflammatory issues, high blood pressure, cholesterol issues, warding off tumors and cancer, colitis, and the list goes on and on and on!

We got some kefir babies from a friend and brought them home to start our own little kefir garden. Today was our first day trying out a kefir mango smoothie...we were excited and nervous at the same time!Emmy decided he didn't like it too much. The kefir has a bit of a sour/tangy flavor, and our mango added some extra sourness. He passed his cup on to the next willing person.
The other kids thought it was a little bitter, but they drank their whole cups full. Garrett and Owen did add some extra sugar into their smoothies, though! I am hoping that I did it right and that I was actually giving us the kefir milk and not just soured milk that had been on the counter for the past day! I guess we will see if we all get tummy aches in a few hours or not! My fingers are crossed!

****UPDATE**** no one got belly aches from our first batch of kefir, and for our second batch I added sweetened condensed milk and peaches and the smoothie tasted a lot like those little Mexican yogurt drinks you can buy at the store... yummy stuff!