Day 4

Ahhh, for the teaser. Lentil beer anyone? That's right. The final goal. So, lentils contain carbs, which are just long sugars. Yeast ferment sugar to turn it into alcohol. Therefore, yeast should be able to ferment lentils into alcohol. Right? I haven't seemed to be able to find anyone online who has done it, but it should work. I briefly thought about it the other day, but one part was missing: amylase. In order for yeast to more easily ferment carbs, they need to be first turned into sugar. This can be done with amylase, the same enzyme in your saliva that helps break down carbs while you chew them. So while I could chew some lentils, spit them out and then ferment them, it didn't seem like the most appealing idea. (Although that is how some types of alcohol are made around the world). In the brewing industry, this is done by sprouting the barley, activating its natural amylase, before continuing with the brewing process. So in order to make lentil beer, I would need to sprout lentils. Possible? Turns out people do it all the time. All you have to do is soak the lentils in water overnight, and then rinse them twice a day and keep them open to air (via cheesecloth or something similar) for about three days. So I bought a nice big mason jar, soaked about a pound of lentils and hopefully in a few days they will be sprouted. In the mean time, I will try to develop a protocol for lentil fermentation. Wish me luck.

Now for Day 4- Still had plenty of soup left, so it appears that it would be my meals of the day. However, since I was starting the day by playing tennis with Doug, a full belly of lentils was probably not the best way to play tennis. A quick look in the fridge and.....leftover pancakes? Seems reasonable. But to keep up with the lentil theme I spread a little cold, lentil puree on top of two of them. After tennis though, might as well finish the rest of the aliquot. For lunch? More soup!

And for dinner? Well, Katie had some lentils and wanted to make curry with them, so after assurance that there would be ample lentils, I thought it would be nice to have someone else try a spin at lentilizing my stomach. She made a nice meal of lentils, curry made from lentils and coconut milk, sauteed mushrooms and tofu, and rice. Naturally, I couldn't have the rice or saute, as they would take up necessary lentil room, but for lentils and lentil curry I was psyched. Except for one problem, when she was draining the lentils, she accidentally spilled them into the sink. So now there are lentils all over the sink. Katie scooped up some where the sink was relatively clean, but since a lot of them went in the dirty food catch, it looked like they were lost. What was I supposed to do? Not eat lentils for the meal? Then I would be behind. I already know that I will probably need to skip some lentil meals when I run a half marathon on October 3rd, so falling behind now really isn't an option. My only option?: scoop the lentils out of the sink and food catch, put them in a bowl and pour the curry over top. Sure, I get a few extra bits, like the spinach Katie cut up earlier in the day (along with whatever else has been festering there), but I got my share of lentils! Oh, the sacrifices I must make to ensure I complete this.

Total so far: ~5.5lbs lentils consumed, ~34.5lbs to go. 26 days remain.