The Seven Wonders of the Cooking World

Here's my list of 7 wonders of the cooking world - kitchen tools that I would never want to do without again.

1. Bosch Mixer
2. Electric Grain Mill
3. Pressure Cooker
4. Blender
5. Microwave or Electric Rice Cooker
6. Hand Mixer
7. Pizza Stone

This was really hard to just pick seven. I tried to pick the seven tools that I use the most often, but I didn't order them exactly. I might have over-looked some more important than the ones I listed. So I'm asking you what are your 7 wonders of the cooking world?

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Oat Bread Recipe

I went over to my Aunt's house today to make bread with her. She just bought the Compact Bosch mixer and I went to show her how to use it. We decided to make an oat bread because that is the kind she likes to buy. It was a lot of fun and the bread turned out delicious. I usually make whole-wheat bread because it's healthy and my family loves it, but I realize there are many different tastes. I also realize some people can't handle whole-wheat for one reason or another. This bread is light and very moist. It has a wonderful texture and sticks together very well for being over half oat flour (oat flour has no gluten in it). The other thing about this bread is that you don't need a grain mill to make it. For the oat flour we blended up oatmeal in a blender to make a fine mill (you can also grind oat groats if you have a grain mill). This recipe is a variation from my regular whole-wheat bread recipe. Enjoy!

Oat Bread
3 C. hot water, microwave on high 2-3 min or until quite warm
1/3 C. oil
1/3 C. sugar
1 Tbsp. salt (put in first before adding yeast)
3 C. freshly ground oatmeal or oat groats
2 Tbsp. yeast on top of oat flour
3 Tbsp. dough enhancer

Combine above ingredients in Bosch mixer with dough hook and mix. Add 2 to 3 cups white flour (we used 2 5/8 Cups) until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Then mix for an additional six minutes. Divide dough into 3 loaves (the dough will still be VERY sticky - so sticky that you won't be able to form your loaves without putting oil on your hands). Let rise until double or fills the bread pans. Bake 400 deg. for 5 min., 350 deg. for 25 min or until done.

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Wonder Flour

I've posted about Wonder Flour before, but I thought I'd devote an entire post to it because it's so amazing. Wonder Flour was discovered by my Uncle Chef Brad who I've posted about before also. Wonder flour is made up of equal parts of three different grains: Spelt, Brown Rice and Barley. To make wonder flour simply dump equal portions of each of the three grains in your grain mill and grind on a fine setting and ...WAHLAH, you have wonder flour. Here's a Quote from a Chef Brad newsletter about Wonder Flour:

"For my favorite grain combo, you will need barley, brown rice, and spelt. Take these and grind them in equal portions on the fine setting on your grinder. I do this about once a week and I have a container and that is what I use for white flour. I use it in everything from sauces and gravies to pastries and treats; I have had the best success yet." I have also had great success with this flour! It is amazing and I use it as a white flour substitute all the time. It is delicious in waffles, cookies, muffins, brownies, etc. If you haven't tried this flour out, go for it. If you're scared because you've never heard of spelt, I've posted about it here. You can buy it in most health food stores in the bulk foods section or ask to buy it in bulk (and they usually give a discount). If you don't have a grain mill, spelt flour is available in the health food store as well (I'm not sure about the others).

The most valuable thing about this flour to me is that it allows you to make the lighter baked goods (like those that I mentioned earlier) without having to use ANY white flour. You actually don't feel too bad offering your family desserts when they are made with a whole-grain flour. And the desserts don't taste heavy like many of those made with wheat. In fact, the wonder flour has such a delicious flavor that our family prefers it to most baked goods made with white flour.

So here's my own cooking rule of thumb: I use as much wheat as I can get away with in my baking. I use whole-wheat for bread, pizza dough, breadsticks and other recipes. But when the wheat fails, I try wonder flour and it rarely fails. It's performance is worthy of it's name!

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Eat What You Store or Store What You Eat?

We know that rotating the food that we store gets us the best bang for our food storage buck. I've heard various philosophies about using our food storage. Should we eat what we store or store what we eat? Some people look at "food-storagers" as either on one side of the coin or the other. The "eating-what-you-storers" are those who try to incorporate the basic long-term storable food into their diets (wheat, beans, powdered milk, etc). The "storing-what-you-eaters" are those who try to find out what their family likes to eat and do their best to store those items and rotate them religiously.

While I was doing the dishes the other day, I came up with my own philosophy that looks at storing food as a process. Rather than a deciding whether we're going to be an "eating-what-you-storer" or a "storing-what-you-eater", we should look at the goal for our food storage success as a combination of both. We know that the best investment of our food storage dollars will be when we are able to rotate and use our storage on a day-to-day basis. In other words, eventually we should progress towards being able to eat what we have stored, whatever it is. But I believe the process should start with storing a supply (say a one, two or three-month supply) of what our family likes to eat right now. Then bit by bit we start introducing long-term storable foods (whole grains, legumes, powdered milk, etc.). We experiment with recipes using these foods and find those that our family enjoys to eat. Gradually over time we can adapt what our family will eat to include more storable things. As we do this, we progress toward a successful food storage program. Not only are we eating what we store, but we are storing what we eat. And here's the best part: what we are eating is healthy!

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Planting Seedlings

I posted about ordering my seeds in December. Well, last week I went ahead and planted my onions. I used a gallon milk container and cut off the top and poked holes in the bottom. I planted my whole package of seeds in there and they are starting to come up. I'll post pictures when I get a chance.

Today C.G. and I planted the peppers and herbs. We used small yogurt and styrofoam cups - whatever I had on hand. I am fortunate enough to have a beautiful south-facing bay window in my kitchen which is perfect for starting seeds in. I've done this for the past 3 years and I'm hoping I'll finally get it right this year -it's quite an art! Part of the art involves discouraging children from tipping over the pots or "watering" them with gallons of water. But I guess that's also the fun. I figure I can always just buy the starts at planting time if I don't get any. I believe that the process of planting the starts is worth it just from the education standpoint and the fun (not neccessarily the cost effectiveness). Although I've lost quite a few, I've always had some to plant. I usually just start as many as I have room on my counters and hope for a few of them to make it to planting day. Last year I believe I only lost one or two. I think it's mostly because C.G. was older and I let him plant his own plant to watch grow. It was a sunflower and it actually made it all the way into the garden and it even grew a flower! I was impressed. The flower was tiny and bloomed just a few weeks after we planted it and then died (I think because it was so long and skinny from being grown indoors for so long). The other reason we only lost a few starts last year was because I invested in some shallow tupperware containers to put my pots in. It was a lot harder to tip them over that way and a great investment - I'm using them again this year.

I plan on starting my tomatoes this week or next week - whenever I get a chance. I grow them in the larger yogurt containers cut down to about 2/3 of their original size. It works really good - gives plenty of room to develop deep, healthy roots (unlike most of the tomato seedlings you can buy which are mostly growth above the ground).

I don't believe I'll start flowers indoors this year. I've done it in the past, but I'm going to stick to the vegetables this year, mainly for lack of space.

I love gardens, the whole process is wonderful. From planting the starts, to babying them and transplanting and watering...all the way up to the harvest. And then enjoying the fruits of all that hard work. You definitely enjoy the food more when you've grown in yourself!

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Healthy Kid Food Continuted...

I posted the other day on healthy kid food. Here are a few more ideas for healthy kid food that I've found:

• I've posted about the USDA recipe finder before. I've found quite a few good recipes on there. These sugarless oatmeal cookies are good, but the recipe still needs some improvement because my 4-year-old won't eat them. He said (and this is a direct quote), "They are too bland." Where he got the term bland, I'm not sure - he's a pretty smart cookie. And speaking of cookies, I think that when I called them "cookies" he was expecting a cookie - you know those sugary things that people eat for desserts - and he was a little disappointed. I have since re-named them for my kids "banana snacks" because that's more like what they are. The baby loves them and my husband and I thought they were pretty good for not having any sugar. We both thought they needed a little crunch to them. Brandon's idea was to add walnuts - of course that doesn't work so good with the baby - but for us I think it'd be tasty. I haven't tried it yet...so I'll let you know when I do.
  
• I made whole-grain crepes for breakfast today that were really good. Our whole family loves them and they are quite healthy. Here's the recipe for those:

Whole-Grain Crepes

2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. baking powder
¾ C. wonder flour (or 1/2 C. wonder or whole-wheat flour and 1/4 C. white flour works a little better)
1 C. milk
½ tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. melted butter

Mix very well and smooth. Heath griddle or pan. Spray cooking spray or use a small amount of oil. Ladle batter onto griddle. Flip onto other side when bubbles form. Make sure to spray before each crepe or they will stick to the pan and not work as good. Yields 14-16 small crepes. Serve filled with peaches, strawberries, low-sugar jam, or other fillings. Do a search on Google - there are TONS of fillings for breakfast, lunch and dinner! Make this recipe gluten free by using gluten-free flour!


• This book has quite a few good ideas. There's tons of recipes at the back for breakfasts, lunches and dinners. I plan on adapting many of them to be whole grain to make them even healthier for my family.

What about you? Have you thought of any more healthy kid food ideas?

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Shopping with Kids: Not for the Fainthearted!

This story is aching to be shared...so I guess I will.

Today I decided I was going to start the new year off right and add to my food storage inventory. I took off to a local warehouse with my two kids in tow. I drive about 25 min. because the closer one is out of white wheat (and in my opinion white wheat is the ONLY way to go!). I get there only to find that they only accept cash or check and I only had a debit card (I had misplaced my checkbook). So I left and drove 10 min back the way I had come to a local ATM to get the cash. Go back and get my stuff. One of the bags of beans falls on the ground, but no beans spill so I put it on my cart, pay for it all and am on my way out the door.

As I'm leaving the door opens and a huge forklift carrying a big load is heading straight toward me at top speed about 8 feet away. I've got the baby in my arms, four-year-old (who is terrified of forklifts) clutching my arm while I'm pushing a large cart loaded with food. My steering mechanism is already hampered to begin with, with the baby and the 4-year-old and now I am terrified to boot. I try to back up while the cart is doing jackknifes and the forklift doesn't slow down one bit. I look up in terror and see the driver who is watching me. I finally manage to get off to the side and I'm out of breath and panting. The driver pulls up next to me and says, "Oh, I saw you and the kids, but I guess I didn't see the cart." Huh? Oh well. I get outside, pack my stuff in car. The bag of beans that broke in store opens and beans spill all over the car. Oh well again.

I get home. J.B. (baby) falls asleep in car. I start unloading my stuff and putting it away. Broken bag of beans spill all over the kitchen floor. J.B. wakes up. Put him in his high chair. I try to make a game of picking up all of the beans with C.G (4-year-old). He and I hunt and get most of it picked up. I go to put the rest away and more spills all over the floor. By this time J.B. has had it with the high chair and has wiggled his way to a standing position. Phone rings. Wrong number. C.G is tired of game. J.B. gets out of high chair so it's just me racing to pick up all the beans before he puts them in his mouth or nose or wherever. I lost the race. J.B.'s eating the beans. C.G. is eating the beans. J.B. and C.G. laugh. I cry...and then laugh too. The end.

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Goals 2009 - Homemade Tortillas

Well, I thought I'd give you the latest update on my goals. I mentioned earlier that I wanted to start making homemade tortillas. I made some the other day. They turned out good - the best I've ever made yet. I found that one of the tricks is to make sure you don't overcook them. In fact I undercooked them just a bit so they didn't turn hard. When overcooked, tortillas turn brittle.

Here's the recipe in case you want to try them. I'm not done yet. I'm going to try more recipes and alterations until I get one that I like the most, but this one was pretty good. The nice thing about this recipe is that the leftovers were still good afterward refrigerating (just as good as the first day). I'm not sure how long they last yet, it's been about 5 days and they are still good.

Whole-Grain Tortillas

3 C. Freshly Ground White Wheat
1-3/4 C. Wonder Flour (Grind equal amounts Barley, Brown Rice, and Spelt)
1/4 C. Gluten Flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1-1/2 tsp salt
2/3 C. lard or shortening (I used lard)
2 C. (or less) very warm water (microwaved for 2 min.)

Cut lard or shortening into flours and salt in the Bosch bowl, using the cookie beaters. Change to dough hook and add water until dough pulls away from sides of bowl. Knead for 3 min. Divide into small balls. Roll and cook in skillet (or tortilla press if you have one).

BTW does anyone have a tortilla press? What kind do you have (and is it electric or non) and how do you like it? I'm looking into purchasing one maybe. Here's a few options I'm looking into:

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Goals 2009 - Healthy Breakfasts

Here's the update on the Breakfasts:

We started about a week ago with the two boys only eating about 2 bites of cream of wheat sweetened with applesauce. They then ate their cold cereal. The next day they had a few more bites. We had some kicking and screaming with C.G. (the 4-year-old), but bribed him with as much cold cereal as he wanted after he finished his hot cereal and he ate it. There wasn't much progress on the hot cereal the next couple of days due to making whole-grain waffles and having some busy mornings.

Finally, today we made some progress! We all enjoyed quick oats cooked in milk with little brown sugar and some cut up unsweetened canned peaches! C.G. still had some chex afterward, but ate a small bowl of hot cereal and didn't complain! I'll be using the peaches again tomorrow and a larger bowl of oatmeal - I think they did the trick!

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Healthy Kid Food

I'm always looking for healthy snacks and food for my kids. As I've talked with other mothers, I realize that this is a problem for many of us! Here's a few ideas I've found to start with. I'll post more as I run across them:

I checked out this book at my library and it has a lot of great recipes! The author doesn't include any sugar in these recipes. Many of them are low sodium as well. Most are sweetened with natural fruit juices. I like the ideas in the book. I think that a lot of these recipes can be modified to work for the entire family.



Here are a few sites that I've found good ideas at. I don't agree with everything said on these sites, but there are lots of good ideas!

http://www.5dollardinners.com/2008/09/healthy-snacks-for-kids-and-toddlers.html
http:http://www.realfoodandmore.com/

What about you? What healthy snacks and foods do your kids like to eat?

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Healthy Eating Habits for 2009

I'm going to make a confession. Our family has two (well probably more than two but two that I'm going to confess) major dependencies on processed foods. The first is probably a big one with a lot of you also - cold cereal! We don't buy the sugary kind - just corn chex, cheerios, and multi-grain flakes. Some would argue that those are good for you, but while they are better than some options I still don't think they are the best option. I'd like to try to eliminate this dependency on processed cereals as much as possible in our family. Especially me and the kids. My husband is very consistent about eating oatmeal almost every morning. He just cooks quick oats in milk. Sometimes he'll put some fruit or cinnamon or something in it, but he doesn't put sugar or any other sweetener in - I don't know how he does that, but he does and he enjoys it.

The second dependency our family has is on tortillas. A few years ago I made my own tortillas, but I've fallen back into the habit of buying them, partly due to a busier schedule and partly due to not liking the kind I made.

So there you have it: our two less-healthy eating habits that I'd like to work on this year. I'd like to help my kids (and myself) learn to enjoy hot cereal for breakfast. And I'd like to find a tortilla recipe to make that is do-able with my schedule and healthy.

Have you thought about your eating habits lately? What would you like to improve for 2009?

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Spelt - a wonderful grain!

I've had a few posts where I've mentioned spelt, so I thought I'd give you some information about it from the expert. I got this information from my uncle, Chef Brad's November 2008 Newsletter. You can see all of his newsletters and other great information about grains at: chefbrad.com.

Spelt
This grain has been around since early 5000 B.C. in what is now Iran. It continued to grow and be harvested in other countries, such as Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and other parts of Europe. Purity Foods reintroduced it into North America in 1987. Today, Spelt is becoming more popular with bakers, manufacturers, and consumers.

Spelt is unique in more ways than one. Spelt has an incredibly strong hull, which protects the grain from pollutants and insects. This is an excellent characteristic especially when wanting to store this grain. Also, Spelt contains more 30% more protein, more fat, has a higher mineral content and more amino acids than wheat. It has considerable B vitamins, magnesium, and fiber. Added to that wonderful list, Spelt is water soluble, which makes it easier for your body to absorb the nutrients.

But what if you can’t have wheat, but would like to eat Spelt? Well, Spelt is actually considered an excellent alternative to wheat. Because this grain is unhybridized and contains low gluten it may be just what you need. But we suggest consulting your doctor about using Spelt as an alternative for wheat sensitive individuals.

As you can see, Spelt is a fabulous grain, packed full of nutrients and complex carbohydrates. Spelt can be used in almost every recipe where wheat exists: cereals, pastas, crackers, pancake mixes, cookies, and so on. With a little experimentation Spelt can become a large part of your diet.

Just the Facts
* Spelt contains more protein, fat and has more minerals than wheat.
* Spelt has large amounts of B-17 and special carbohydrates that aid in blood clotting and stimulating the immune system.
* Spelt contains a strong hull, perfect for storing.
* Spelt has a delicious “nutty” flavor.
* Spelt can be used in cookies, cereals, pastas, bread, crackers and much more

Try using spelt in your cooking and you will be amazed. The rule of thumb when using spelt is for every three cups of white flour the recipe calls for you will need three and a half cups spelt. It takes more spelt, the reason is that it grinds so fine.

Have a great time using this wonderful grain.

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Sweet Potato Muffins

I posted about the pumpkin chocolate chip muffins that I made a few weeks ago. Well I used the same basic recipe but substituted pureed sweet potatoes instead of pumpkin. They were delicious. I loved the flavor. I used a mixture of whole grains for my flour instead of just wheat. I used barley, brown rice, spelt and wheat. You don't need the chocolate chips. These muffins are so light and moist that they're great without. If you're just beginning to introduce whole-grains into your families, the chocolate chips will help mask their "healthiness" so it would be good to include them. Here's the latest recipe:

Sweet Potato Muffins
1 C. White Wheat Flour
2 C. Wonder Flour (equal parts of Spelt, Barley, Brown Rice)*
1 1/4 C. White Sugar
2 tsp. Baking Powder
2 tsp. Baking Soda
1 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Nutmeg

2 Eggs
2 C. Cooked, pureed Pumpkin, Sweet Potatoes or Yams
1/2 C. Unsweetened Applesauce
1/4 C. Oil
1 C. Chocolate Chips (or Walnuts, which are a great substitute!), optional
1 1/2 C. Warm Water

Mix together dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately. Then combine wet and dry ingredients. Mix enough to incorporate the wet and dry ingredients. Do not over mix. Handle as little as possible once the wet and dry ingredients are combined. Then add Chocolate Chips or Walnuts to the mixture. Coat 18-20 average size muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray. Fill till heaping with muffin batter. Bake at 350 degrees F for 22-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Don't open the oven door, except near the end of the cooking time to check for doneness, or stomp around the kitchen because the muffins can easily flunk. Let the muffins cool for 5 minutes before removing from the tins. Then let cool on a wire rack.

*This Wonder Flour is wonderful - Chef Brad (my uncle) told me about it and I use it all the time!

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Why Store Food?

With the shakiness of the economy and the beginning of a new year, now is a good time to discuss why it's important to store food. Some of us have heard a lot about storing food. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have heard church leaders speak about storing food for many years. Having a supply of food on hand makes a lot of sense. Here are a few practical reasons I have found to store food:

• Emergency Preparedness - having a supply of food on hand in case of an emergency is a good idea. Natural Disasters, large or small can prevent us from being able to go to the grocery store or for the grocery stores to replenish their supply of food. It's a good idea to have some food on hand to prepare for these occurances.
• Less Trips to the Grocery Sore - When you have food and other supplies on hand, you don't need to make as many trips to the grocery store. It's true that the more trips you make to the grocery store, the more money you spend.
• Shop Sales - You can save a lot of money if you buy items you use in bulk and when they go on sale. By doing this, you can rotate supplies from your own store when the items are not on sale. In doing this, you never have to buy things at full price.
• Health Benefits - We've found that by storing food, we actually have eaten healthier. I guess the main reason is because we've tried to adapt our diets according to the food that stores well, which for the most part is healthy.

What are some more reasons that you can think of to store food?
This is a quote from our church leaders on food storage:
"Our Heavenly Father created this beautiful earth, with all its abundance, for our benefit and use. His purpose is to provide for our needs as we walk in faith and obedience. He has lovingly commanded us to “prepare every needful thing” (see D&C 109:8) so that, should adversity come, we can care for ourselves and our neighbors...
"...Do not go to extremes; it is not prudent, for example, to go into debt to establish your food storage all at once. With careful planning, you can, over time, establish a home storage supply and a financial reserve."
—The First Presidency, All Is Safely Gathered In: Family Home Storage, Feb. 2007, 1 To learn more about storing food, visit http://www.providentliving.org/channel/0,11677,1706-1,00.html. This site give a lot of great ideas about how to get started with your home storage.

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