IF you bake (and you should bake) . . .

Have you considered trying flours outside of the whole wheat market? I’m sure that most people perusing this blog bake their kids’ birthday cakes and cookies and mix up their own pancake mix, right? RIGHT? Well here is yet another reason to bake from scratch, (besides eliminating all those preservatives and gross amounts of sugar and high fructose corn syrup and those pesky unpronounceable or unrecognizable chemical ingredients in premade mixes) – you can increase the amount of fiber and protein as well as whole grains if you bake from scratch. We are so lucky to have a bulk country store reasonably close by that sells most of these grains at a bargain price. So really, with some natural maple syrup I nearly consider pancakes as a healthy meal any more. Take a look at these nutritional comparisons of some of the flours available:

Barley Flour
½ Cup
Cals 220
Fiber 10 g
Protein 6 g

Buckwheat Flour
½ Cup
Calories 200
Fat 2 g
Fiber 8 g
Protein 8g

Bulgur Wheat (Sprouted Wheat) Flour
½ Cup
Cals 300
Fiber 8 g
Protein 10 g

Quinoa Flour
½ Cup
Cals 240
Fiber 8 g
Protein 8 g

Soy Flour
½ Cup
Cals 173
Fat .5 g
Fiber 9 g
Protein 24 g

Spelt Flour
½ Cup
Cals 193
Fat 1.1 g
Fiber 7 g
Protein 7.8 g

Flaxseed Meal
(technically not a grain)
½ Cup
Cals 240
Fat 18 g
Fiber 4 g
Protein 12 g
**Omega-3 Fatty Acid benefits

Just for comparison sake:

Enriched White Bleached Flour
1/2 Cup
Cals 228
Fat .6
Fiber 1.7 g
Protein 6.5

You can get real specific and complicated in your muffin and cookie recipes and get all confused by how much soy flour should be substituted for white flour in a recipe but really I think that you can just use some common sense. You do not want to substitute 2 cups of wheat germ for the entire 2 cups of flour in a recipe but you can probably get away with substituting 1/8 of a cup. Get creative and just make sure that you have some similar consistency flour as the recipe calls for and experiment. Too runny? Add more. Too thick? Add a splash or water or milk or if you were using applesauce then toss in a little more. I like to toss in a scoop of flax seed meal in just about anything so if I think we need a protein boost or if someone in the family (who will remain nameless) requires some more fiber then I can toss in some coconut flour. It’s not rocket science. In fact I think it’s fun to experiment. It might not always work out perfectly but neither do ordinary recipes that use less beneficial ingredients. Now I wouldn’t recommend playing with a cake recipe, but muffins, cookies and pancakes . . . I say experiment away!
My favorite pancake recipe:

1 ½ Cups Flour (any variety, any kind, including a scoop of flax seed meal)
3 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt
2 T melted butter
1 egg
1 ¼ C skim milk

Mix together dry ingredients. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix. If the mixture is too wet add more flour of choice. If the mixture is too thick add a splash of milk. Cook as any other pancake recipe.

I am Not A Whole-Foods Saint

My friend, Amy, had just come home from the grocery store and had all of her purchases out on her kitchen counter when I arrived unexpectedly today. She said something to the effect that I was looking at all of her previously hidden processed food sins as if I were some kind of whole foods saint. Truly, I am not but I can see how someone might get that impression of me. I do believe that the whole foods approach to feeding your family is an ideal that we all ought to strive for but let's face it, we all have our vices. I, for one, am a HUGE sugar addict. I have consumed a pound of jelly beans, (sneaked without the kids seeing), in the last 48 hours after almost 72 hours of yet another NO sugar attempt, so anyone who thinks I am a righteous judge of their grocery purchasing habits is clearly wrong. It may not seem timely now that we are into April but I have some New Year's resolutions concerning processed foods that I want to replace with homemade versions before the end of this year. Here are some of my processed foods confessions and New Year's resolutions:

Tyson Dino Chicken Nuggets
Kraft Mac N Cheese (it just seems like an American childhood tradition, so I'm not sure about replacing this one, I just limit the frequency)
Good Seasons Salad Dressing Mix
Taco Seasoning packets (it's so easy to mix your own, I have just not gotten around to it)
Jiff Peanut Butter - Skippy makes a better whole foods version but I don't have easy access to a bargain price for it


There are some other confessions that I should make that I have no intention of replacing with homemade versions:

Cheese-Its (my husband has these in his lunch every day)
Fishy Crackers (occasional)
Pretzels

I am sorry to tell any true whole foods saints out there that there are no homemade versions that will replace the occasional Oreo, Pringle or Ritz cracker. I think the goal is to feed our family the closest to whole foods as possible considering our culinary experience, budget and time constraints.

Top 10 Reasons Why Cooking and Baking from Scratch is Superior to Eating Food made from Boxes and Mixes:

10) Contrary to what you may think, cooking and baking from scratch really is as easy as making it from a box

9) It is more time consuming to research the harmful effects of those big artificial ingredients on a box than to just mix it yourself

8) Scratch cooking tastes better once you cut your taste buds off from the processed food wagon

7) It has been predicted that our generation, (30s/40s), and those born after us will NOT outlive our elders – why do you think this is?

6) You will consume significantly less sodium eating homemade foods than boxed/processed and that will make your heart happy

5) Foods that come from real plants and animals are more nutricious than man-made non-pronounceable ingredients

4) You can drop an expensive vitamin habit by getting all your vitamins and minerals from eating homemade food

3) Cooking/baking from scratch is almost always less expensive

2) To teach your children to cook healthy nutritious food is to give them lifelong tools for living a long healthy life

And the Number 1 Reason That Cooking and Baking from Scratch is Superior to Eating Food from Boxes and Mixes (drum roll)

1) Homemade/scratch food is made with love

Daily Lunch Salad for Mom

I have been on this salad kick for about 8 months. Never before has a salad habit lasted so long for me. In the past whenever I switched to salad eating it was always in an effort to loose a few pounds so I limited what went into my salad making it as fat free and low calorie as possible. Well clearly that was my salad success downfall. Last Spring I had lunch at my friend Karen's and she grilled a chicken breast and served a simple salad with Good Seasonings Italian dressing. I fell in love. All that oil and the warm meat with cold crunchy fresh greens . . .yum! So I established my salad habit. On Mondays or Tuesdays, depending on when I do my produce run, I make a big salad that will last me about 5 days. It's rather simple really, I put whatever fancies me at the moment into it and whatever I have on hand. Generally it consists of:

Romaine lettuce, chopped
Spring Mix or Baby Spinach
Green, Red, Yellow, Orange Peppers
Scallions or red onion minced
Carrots
Cucumber (de-seeded or seedless since I am told that the seeds wilt your salad faster)
Cherry tomatoes when in season
Apple, diced and tossed with lemon juice to prevent browning


Then I diced up a block of sharp cheddar and keep that in a separate container otherwise it gets slimy or mushy if it is put in with the greens. When I go to have my lunch salad I just toss in the

Diced cheese or feta if I have it
Walnuts or pecans
Craisins
Chopped turkey deli meat or a grilled chicken breast

My New Year's resolution is to take the time to figure out how to make the Good Seasons salad dressing from scratch. I'm sure there is a formula out there somewhere to be found.

I am no photographer, but I try:

I like that my daughter sees me eat a salad every day at lunch. I always offer salad to her but she declines. She often tells her playmates at lunch time, "my mom ALWAYS has a salad . . . EVERY DAY!" as if I'm a freak or something. It's funny but I hope it sticks with her as a good example. I don't push it for lunch but for dinner it is a must. The big salad prepared in the fridge makes it easy to dish out a little salad for everyone with every dinner meal.

Efficient Kitchen Processes saves time and Money

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that there are many tasks in the whole food kitchen that can be done efficiently to save time. Warning: I’m about to babble on yet AGAIN about how great meal planning is. Here it goes. If you have a menu printed out with the ingredients in each meal, when you go to chop your onions for the first meal of the week it is super simple to scan the rest of your week to see if you can chop up 4 onions instead of one for later use. Throw the unused portions that you have chopped in a container and throw them in the fridge. This kind of efficiency can be used in so many ways to reduce the time you spend in the kitchen without sacrificing a whole food diet.

Besides dinner meals, I efficientize (ooo, a made up verb) several breakfast processes also. Whenever I make pancakes for instance I will get out my bowl plus two airtight containers. I measure out my dry ingredients first and triple my recipe into each container. I then label with the kind of pancake and the needed ingredients on the airtight containers since we have 4 or more different pancake recipes regularly. I also do this with several cookie mixes and muffin mixes and most anything that I bake often.

Other ideas include tripling rubs or spice mixes. We like a yellow tumeric rice recipe but there are about 5 or 6 dry ingredients to it. The recipe goes so quickly when it is already mixed up and it takes so little extra time to quadruple the recipe when I already have the ingredients out. I also have a blackened catfish recipe that I like to make so I make a big batch of the blackened seasonings and it lasts many meals.

I believe that the more of these processes that you approach with efficiency in mind the more second nature it becomes for you. It’s like trying to establish a new good habit or way of thinking. You can approach many tasks with an efficient mindset but the kitchen holds the most opportunities.

This efficient approach also lends itself to less waste and therefore money savings. For instance, we love our pumpkin pancake recipe but it only calls for 6 T of pumpkin puree. One can of pumpkin puree holds a lot more than 6 Ts so unless I want to get myself into trouble with those browned buttered frosted cookies (and I have in order not to waste pumpkin puree), I will measure out as many 6Ts in containers or baggies to freeze as the can holds. Then when I get out my premixed pumpkin pancake mix, I just microwave the frozen 6Ts of pumpkin puree, add my butter and milk and we are cooking. Also, in October my menu had three dishes that used canned pineapple chunks. This was no coincidence. The pineapple chunks were needed for two recipes and a third recipe just called for pineapple juice to marinate the meat. When I cooked the first entrée that called for pineapple I scanned the rest of my meals and saw that I needed to divide the can for the second recipe (rather than let the kids gobble up the pineapple) and save the juice for the third.

So when you are all wondering how I cook so much with 3 young kids, I swear to you that I do not. I have freezer meals, crockpot meals and simple pasta meals during the week and I efficientize processes as much as possible for the other meals. The most time I spend in the kitchen for a meal is when I am making a massive amount to freeze or when I am trying a new recipe. It can be done.

Spreadable Butter that is actually Butter

Up until a few years ago we used to use margarine. As we gradually shifted to a more whole food diet this was one of the first things to go. I know there are “healthy spreads” but being the skeptic I am cautious to the fact that most things advertised as “healthy” usually isn’t. My husband’s favorite latest example of this is the new “Super Donut” marketed as a healthy donut. So one thing I know for sure is that butter is butter and it doesn’t have any weird ingredients I can not pronounce and have to research. I also know that Canola oil is low in bad fat and high in good fat, so this has been our butter spread for the last several years.

1 lb butter, softened
1 ½ Cups Canola Oil

Blend two ingredients together with a hand mixer. Refrigerate.

I have had a store bought margarine and spreadable butter type products since becoming accustomed to our butter recipe and I have to say that they do not compare. The margarines taste like spreadable plastic in comparison. You will never go back once you use real butter for a while.