Real Food Kitchen Tour: Hybrid Rasta Mama

Welcome to another edition of the Real Food Kitchen Tour. This week we’re featuring Jennifer Saleem, author of Hybrid Rasta Mama.

What’s a Real Foodie?

A “real foodie” is someone who cooks “traditional” food. We cook stuff from scratch using real ingredients, like raw milk, grass-fed beef, eggs from chickens that run around outdoors, whole grains, sourdough and yogurt starters, mineral-rich sea salt, and natural sweeteners like honey and real maple syrup.

We don’t use modern foods that are either fake, super-refined, or denatured. This includes modern vegetable oils like Crisco and margarine, soy milk, meat from factory farms, pasteurized milk from cows eating corn and soybeans, refined white flour, factory-made sweeteners like HFCS or even refined white sugar, or commercial yeast.

We believe in eating wholesome, nutrient-dense foods that come from nature. So we shop at farmer’s markets or buy direct from the farmer, or we grow food in our own backyards.

This Week’s Real Food Kitchen Tour: Jennifer Saleem, Hybrid Rasta Mama

This week I’m featuring Jennifer Saleem of the Hybrid Rasta Mama blog.

Jennifer lives in California’s Gold Country, between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe. As you can see from the photo below, they are a very attractive family.

Blog Name: Hybrid Rasta Mama
Blog Author: Jennifer Saleem
How Long Blogging: I am a newbie. I started my blog in February 2011 but had guest posts published on a variety of other blogs prior to starting my own blog. I write about all things related to natural parenting, traditional eating, and Waldorf-inspired parenting/education. Here is a link to my post on how I got started with a Traditional Diet. Don’t Call Me Betty Crocker
Location: Orangevale, CA
House or Apartment: A house located on a really busy street but we have over 1/3 of an acre and are surrounded by lots and lots of acreage.
Size of Kitchen: About 250 square feet
Things You Love About Your Kitchen: LOTS of counter space, awesome spice drawer, good layout, bright and cheery, inviting, decent storage, easy to keep clean!
Things You Would Change: The dishwasher is a nightmare but I am still coming to terms with needing a new one. I would LOVE a walk in pantry one day! Oh, and the 150 dog who is constantly sprawled out in the middle of the floor. He just loves it there!
Favorite Tools & Gadgets: Food processor, stand mixer, good knives, bread machine (I have a toddler; I need to save time), salad spinner, and Pickl-Its.
Biggest Challenges Cooking Real Food: Finding the time to make most things from scratch. I have a 2-year-old who is either insisting on my attention elsewhere or who wants to help. Help is fine but is does slow me down! I am really good at meal planning and stock up shopping but seem to be a harried mess when it comes to the actual cooking. I get it done though!
Current Family Favorite Meal: Breakfast – Three egg omelet (duck eggs from my neighbor) with capers, wild salmon, and smoked Gouda cheese cooked in tons and tons of grass fed butter. Lunch – Raw milk yogurt or cottage cheese with honey and fresh berries, gluten free sourdough bread with liberal amounts of butter, and a pumpkin, banana, spinach, raw milk smoothie. Dinner – Pan-fried lamb chops with garlic cream and mushrooms served with side dishes of roasted beets, braised fennel, and spaghetti squash with pesto and pine nuts. Snacks – Gluten-free molasses carrot and zucchini  muffins; gluten-free peanut butter and whole fruit muffins; and crispy nuts. Dessert – Carrot cake cannellini bean “fudge” made with coconut oil and sucant.
Favorite Cookbooks: Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon Morell, The Indian Slow Cooker by Anupy Singla, A Jamaican Pantry (a great little family cookbook I picked up in Jamaica), How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman (as a reference).

Here are some photos of Jennifer’s kitchen (with her comments in italics and quotes and mine not in quotes):

All I can say is how CLEAN is that? It is so neat and there’s no clutter anywhere! I only wish my kitchen could look like that!

“This is the real reason my kitchen stays so clean. Free mopping daily!”

Oh, how cute! I only wish my daughter had a penchant for cleaning.

Oh, and I have the Learning Tower, too (just to the left of Jennifer’s little girl). It’s so fantastic for kids. My daughter uses it all the time to help me cook and wash dishes (or just play in the sink).

“And in addition to mopping, there is “crumb removal service” as well.”

“One of my kitchen gadget areas. This one has the blender, stand mixer, and bread machine.”

How do you like the Cuisinart bread machine, Jennifer?

“My spice drawer. LOVE THIS!”

“A few of my “pets.” Water kefir, ginger carrots, gluten free sourdough starter (aka Mr. Googly) and fermented lemons.”

“The view out of the kitchen window. Ugly, busy street. “

I love the figurines! Where did they come from?

“My little sous chef, “Tiny.” She has her own kitchen but why play there when there is real food to cook! If butter or coconut oil is involved (which it always is, Tiny is RIGHT there waiting to eat it by the spoonful.”

She is so precious!

“My cabinet of gadgets galore! The food processor, canning jars, Pickl-Its, steamer, cast iron skillet, muffin tins, Dutch oven, and 2 of 3 crock pots live here.”

You have inspired me to go hide some of the appliances and junk on my counters. I’m going to go empty out a junky cupboard and stash them away.

“My herb garden. It is a little light right now as I just cut and used a ton of my herbs. I have many varieties of oregano, sage, thyme, basil, and  mint, along with lemon balm, dill, bee balm, and savory summer herb. My favorite herb is sage! Love sage-infused butter. Pineapple mint infused water kefir is also pretty amazing!”

I love my herbs, too. They make a huge difference in how food tastes. Last night, at a restaurant, we had real mint chocolate chip ice cream made with fresh mint. It blew our minds!

“One of my garden areas. This will be the fall garden. My summer garden is not worth taking a photo of right now. It is in need of a little love.”

Wow, how exciting! I love the raised beds.

“Our favorite place to eat as a family! Nothing like a wonderful backyard patio area with copious amounts of shade!”

Check Out the Previous Real Food Kitchen Tour Posts

Real Food Kitchen Tour: Granola Mom 4 God
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Real Food Devotee
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Real Food Forager
Real Food Kitchen Tour: The Leftover Queen
Real Food Kitchen Tour: Health Home & Happiness

Let Us Tour Your Kitchen

Are you a real foodie? Do you have a kitchen that you’d like to see featured on CHEESESLAVE?

Please email me at annmarie AT realfoodmedia dot com. Either send me a link to a Flickr set or email me your photos (minimum of 5, but more is better). Note: Please send me LARGE photos. Minimum 610 width. If they’re too small, I can’t use them.

Oh, and please send the answers to the above questions (at the very top of this post).

As much as I’d love to include all the photos I receive, I can’t guarantee that I will use your photos in the series. I’m looking for creative, good quality photos.

Some ideas for photos:

• Show us what’s in your fridge or what’s fermenting on your counter
• Take some snaps of some of your favorite kitchen gadgets, or show us how you organize your spices
• Got backyard chickens? Send some pics!
• How about a lovely herb garden?
• Kids or pets are always cute!
• Try to include at least one photo of yourself, ideally in your kitchen

And no, you don’t have to have a blog to be included in the tour.