wholefood step-by-step: #1 apple cider vinegar

Welcome to a new series designed with wholefood beginners in mind. After reading lots of blogs and facebook pages it seems many mamas want their family to eat real food but feel overwhelmed about where to start - especially when they are confronted with fussy eaters, resistant husbands and tight budgets! So in response to this, each Monday I will post one step you can take to include wholefood in your family's diet.

By making one small step each week, in one year you will have incorporated 52 ingredients, habits or recipes into your repertoire. This adds up to a huge difference in your pantry, your cooking and health and well-being. Small changes add up to a big transformation.

Let's get started. And tell me your thoughts in the comments, anything specific you want covered? Anything specific that you trip over on getting started with or continuing with wholefoods?

Raw Organic Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV)

This delicious elixir is a wholefood pantry essential. ACV tastes sharp like vinegar only with a sweetness from the apple that rounds out the flavour, it is versatile, and excellent for your health. ACV is easy to find at your local health food store and in many supermarkets and independent grocery stores.

What is ACV?
Basically, it is fermented apple juice. The key to buying good quality ACV is to look for an organic, unfiltered version, one that contains the 'mother'. The mother looks cloudy and settles at the bottom of the bottle (shake before use), this tells you that the ACV is 'alive' with good bacteria and that it has not been filtered and pasteurised which strips the ACV of its powerful health giving properties.

What to do with ACV
- ACV can be used in practically any recipe that calls for vinegar.
- We use it everyday as a salad dressing, either splashing some directly on to the salad or mixing up a dressing of olive oil and ACV (2 parts oil to 1 part vinegar) sometimes with crushed garlic and dried herbs or mustard mixed in. This is a much better for your health than buying ready made salad dressings.
- I also use it on rice when I make sushi in place of rice vinegar which I find to be very sweet tasting.
- ACV is a great digestive tonic, a couple of capfuls mixed into a glass of warm water with a teaspoon of raw honey is a wonderful pre or post meal drink. It is best to drink it half an hour before a meal but any time you or your children have an unsettled stomach drinking a glass of water with ACV can help to settle things. (disclaimer: I am not a doctor or naturopath, this post is based on my personal experience and research, please seek professional advice if you have health concerns).
- At the first sign of a sore throat mix 1 tbsp of ACV into one cup of warm water and gargle every hour.
- And the main other thing I use ACV for is cleaning! I mix a couple of tablespoons into a bucket of warm water and clean the bath, diluted it is great to clean windows with too I wash the windows with the water and vinegar and then dry them off with newspaper. This will give you sparkling, streak free windows.

Paul and Patricia Bragg, makers of Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar have managed to write a whole book about the health benefits of ACV - 'Apple Cider Vinegar - Miracle Health System'

For further reading on the benefits and uses of ACV go here to the Wellness Warrior and here to Sarah Wilson.

And if you are wanting some more salad dressing recipes go here.

Do you already use apple cider vinegar in your kitchen? What's your favorite use?