Ingredients
- 1/8 cups of juice
- Milk kefir grains
- 1 cup of milk
Directions
Milk kefir provides you with healthy choices when it comes to satisfying your thirst. When you are rushing through your day, it’s easy to stop by a convenience store and pick up unhealthy sodas or artificial juice drinks. It’s also the busy lifestyle that can wreak havoc on the digestive system. Eating the wrong foods, consuming too many greasy foods, skipping meals, consuming drinks with too much sugar, as well as the stress of the day can all combine to make the digestive system seem off sorts. Milk kefir can soothe the digestive system and provide the probiotics it needs to consume the bad bacteria that sometimes sneaks in without notice, giving you a much more balanced digestive system and helping you feel more in sync with your mind, body, and soul. If your digestive system is off just a little bit, it can cause a lot of problems.
What’s in Milk Kefir?
In order to make milk kefir, you will first need to find milk kefir grains. These grains can be purchased from a reliable source and can be used over and over again. Milk kefir grains will result in a creamy textured drink that you can flavor any way you want to while providing your stomach with enough probiotic to balance your system and reduce the acids as well as harmful bacteria that can grown into big problems if left untreated.
Flavoring
For this recipe, you can use fruit juice. You want to choose fruit juice that is healthy and not filled with artificial sweeteners or loads of refined sugar. You want to find 100% real fruit juice made from real fruit so you can be sure that your drink is healthy and delicious too.
Make your Own Flavoring
Now would be a good time to experiment in making your own fruit juice. Purchase fresh fruit from your neighbor, local fruit orchard, or buy organically grown fruit in your local produce market. You can choose from blueberries, strawberries, peaches, apples, pineapples, or grape. If you choose grapes, you may want to choose the seedless grapes for your first trial run.
When using fresh fruit, you will want to rinse the fruit thoroughly. Peel the skins if necessary. Cut the fruit into slices or chunks to fit into the blender. Add the fruit to your blender along with about 1.5 to 2 cups of water. Place the lid on the blender and purée until it’s thoroughly smooth. Once the texture has been reached, place a sieve over a large bowl and then pour the mixture through the sieve. Add approximately two more cups of water and stir to thoroughly combine. You can add ½ cup of organic sugar to the fruit juice to give it a sweeter taste.
Steps
1 Done | Pour the milk into a glass jarYou will want to use a glass jar that is large enough to hold the milk, kefir grains, and juice. |
2 Done 1 minute | Add the milk kefirPlace the milk kefir grains into the milk |
3 Done 1 minute | CoverPlace a coffee filter over top of the jar opening and secure it with a rubber band. This will keep any insects from going into the jar since the mixture will be attracting them with its sweet/sour smell. |
4 Done 24 hours | FermentPlace the jar in a dark corner of your kitchen where it can stay for 24 hours. The temperature should be between 68 and 85 degrees |
5 Done 1 minute | Remove coffee filterOnce the 24 hours is up, you will want to remove the coffee filter and visually examine your milk kefir. It should look somewhat thickened. |
6 Done 3 minutes | Remove Milk Kefir GrainsUsing a strainer, pour the milk through the strainer separating the milk from the milk kefir grains. Have another cup of milk ready and drop the milk kefir grains into the new cup of milk and begin with step 3. |
7 Done 2 minutes | Add the fruit juiceAdd the fruit juice to the cup of kefir milk. Note: Do not add the fruit juice to the milk while the milk kefir grains are still in the jar otherwise, it will stain the milk kefir grains and pass the color and the flavor on to other cups you may want to make in the future. |
8 Done | Refrigerate until ready to drinkNote: Adding the fruit juice will thin the milk. There is no way to avoid this if you want to add a fruit taste. |
