Links of the Month

A new feature here, I want to point out good articles from my fellow bloggers.  Theses caught my attention this month:

70% of U.S. Children Have Insufficient Vitamin D – report from Cheeseslave.

We can learn a lot from history – Lessons on Real Food from 100 Years Ago, from Food Renegade.

Kelly the Kitchen Kop has posted a really great article about gut health, a passion of mine - Gut Health 101: 6 Questions and Answers About A Strong Immune System and the GAPS Diet

Two posts from Nourished Kitchen have caught my eye - Iron Deficiency and the Breastfed Baby and Water Kefir: A Quick Tutorial.  What is water kefir?  It’s a fizzy drink that’s full of wonderful probiotics, apparently tastes milder than kombucha and is easy to make.  A great substitute for soda pop.  I need to try this soon.

And finally, a recipe – Rustic Fresh Tomato Tart – from The Nourishing Gourmet.  This looks so yummy and I love the photos!

Breakfast

I tried something new today.  I made a batch of my Sourdough Molasses Bread, but instead of molasses, I used honey and then when it was time to shape the loaf, I rolled it out flat and spread it with butter, sprinkled it with cinnamon, sucanant, and raisins.  Then I rolled it up and let it rise in the loaf pan.  I baked it for 45 minutes at 350F.

 

I want my kids to start eating whole wheat toast with their eggs, plus I just thought cinnamon raisin bread sounded good.  It was a hit!  This will now be part of my baking repertoire.

Homemade Yogurt

You can make this with raw or pasteurized milk, but raw milk will give you more benefits.  This makes a nice, mild yogurt, not too sour.  My daughter and I eat it plain, my son prefers some all-fruit jelly added to his.  You could also sweeten with raw honey.  Yogurt provides us with beneficial bacteria and protein.  Plus, yogurt is very low in carbs!

 

This recipe is really easy; I think it takes be about 40 minutes at the most.  Just read through the entire recipe before starting (and check out the pictures at the end of the article).  Last time I made it, I also folded a load of towels at the same time J.  I do this once a week to keep us supplied.  It will make almost 2 quarts.

 

For the starter, I use Dannon Plain whole milk yogurt.  Some say you can always save some of your yogurt to start another batch, but I have heard that it will not set up as firm each consecutive time.  I buy a container of Dannon yogurt and then freeze it in an ice cube tray for later batches.  I use ½ cup fresh yogurt or 4 yogurt cubes as my starter.

 

I pour 6 cups of milk into a two-quart saucepan and heat over medium heat on the stove until it reaches 180°F.  I stir frequently (or rather, I whisk) and use a meat thermometer to accurately test the temperature.

 

Then I turn the heat off and cool my milk down to 110°F.  You will kill your starter if you add it to milk that is heated to 115°F or higher.  To cool down quickly I set my pan over a plate of ice and constantly stir or whisk it.  When the temp is at 110°F, I then stir in the starter (see above).  This will bring the temperature down a bit.  If I’m using the yogurt ice cubes I will actually add them at 120°F, since they will bring the temperature down quite a bit.  You want the temperature to be 100°F when you are ready to pour into your jars.  If it has dropped below this, just put it back on the stove and gently warm it, stirring constantly.  If it’s a little about 100°F, don’t worry; it will cool when you put it in the jars.  Now you are ready to pour into quart jars and put on the lids.

 

You need to keep this warm for 6 hours.  Some people will put them in the oven with the light on.  I don’t think my oven stays warm enough for that.  Some people will put them on a heating pad and wrap them in towels.  I put mine in a little cooler.  Before I start the process I will fill the cooler halfway with hot water to get it warm.  Then I dump the water out right when I’m ready to put the jars in.  I will put the jars in and pack a few hand towels around and on top of them to insulate even more.  Then I set the timer for 6 hours.  When it goes off I take the yogurt out and chill it overnight before we eat it.

 

Homemade yogurt has more of a custard-like texture than store-bought yogurt (I am speaking of plain store-bought, not fruit flavored).  This is because the manufacturer has added powdered milk to thicken it up.  Store-bought plain yogurt is not a food to avoid, but it is a compromise food; homemade is ideal.  Powdered milk is processed milk and you know what I say, “If God created it, it is healthy; if man has processed it, it is unhealthy.”  According to Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon, “commercial dehydration methods oxidize cholesterol in powdered milk, rendering it harmful to the arteries.  High temperature drying also creates large quantities of cross-linked proteins and nitrate compounds, which are potent carcinogens, as well as free glutamic acid, which is toxic to the nervous system. (pg. 35)”  So powdered milk is something you want to stay away from.  Powdered milk is added to skim, 1%, and 2% milk to give it body, also to yogurt to thicken it, and many other packaged food items.

 

I like thick, creamy yogurt, so I strain some whey out of mine.  Plus I need the whey anyway; I use it in my oatmeal, pickles, sauerkraut, and more.  You can place some cheesecloth in a wire strainer set over a bowl and fill it with yogurt.  Cover it and place it in the refrigerator for an hour or more (I usually leave overnight).  I buy unbleached coffee filters (basket-style) from Whole Foods and use them instead of cheesecloth.  The longer you let the yogurt strain, the easier it will be to turn it out of the cloth or filter.  I strain some of the yogurt and then mix it with some that is unstrained.  You will have to play with it to get the thickness you are looking for.  I usually end up with a little more than half the amount I originally made.  But it’s worth it, to me.  It’s oh so creamy and delicious!  If you want to make dip out of it, just strain more whey out of it.  Some use strained yogurt in place of cream cheese, too.

Sourdough Molasses Bread

 

 

 

The IDEAL way to eat grain of any kind is either sprouted or properly soaked to neutralize the phytic acid. 

 

Jordan Rubin writes, in The Maker’s Diet:

“Before the advent of mass-manufacturing processes, it was common for long-lived peoples to soak their grains overnight and then allow them to dry in the open air until they were partially germinated or sprouted, or to go through an ancient leavening process.  From these grains they made bread and other foods.  We now know these processes effectively remove the phytates from the outer covering of the natural grains.  Phytates are substances that contain phosphorus in acidic form as well as powerful enzyme inhibitors that combine with (or “grab”) minerals in the intestinal tract and block their absorption.”¹ 

 

“Sprouting neutralizes phytic acid, a substance present in the bran of all seeds (grain is a seed) that inhibits the absorption of calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc.”²

 

When choosing leavened bread, the IDEAL is one made WITHOUT commercial yeast.

 

Jacques DeLangre writes:

“When yeast (what we know as commercial yeast) was first introduced in France at the courts of Louis XIV in March 1668, scientists already knew that the use of it would imperil the people’s health, so it was strongly rejected.”³

 

And finally a selection from fiction that shows us how bread was made in the 1870/80s:

“But how do you make the sourdough?” Mrs. Boast asked.

“You start it,” said Ma, “by putting some flour and warm water in a jar and letting it stand till it sours.”

“Then when you use it, always leave a little,” said Laura, “and put in the scraps of biscuit dough, like this, and more warm water,” Laura put in the warm water, “and cover it”, she put the clean cloth and the plate on the jar, “and just set it in a warm place,” she set it in its place on the shelf by the stove.  “And it’s always ready to use, whenever you want it.”⁴

 

So we can see that the bread we are accustomed to is very different from the bread that was eaten for thousands of years in the past.  I am quite sure this is one of many reasons we have numerous ailments our ancestors didn’t.

 

Now that we’ve talked about IDEALS, let us remember that we here are ALL about BABYSTEPS!  We must remember that EVERY little thing we change REALLY does count.  Don’t be discouraged by the last article, just because we can’t balance junk food with healthy food or exercise doesn’t mean we don’t still move forward.

 

We need to think of food in the context of GOOD, BETTER, and BEST.  A whole-wheat loaf of bread is good, one that is whole wheat and has soured is better, and one that is soured AND made without any commercial yeast is the best.  Every little bit that we change in our diet counts.  It’s just like the principle of saving money, every little bit adds up.

 

So here I present a recipe for yeast bread that uses much less commercial yeast than the typical recipe AND it is soured by a long rising time, so that the phytic acid is neutralized.  So even though it’s not the IDEAL, it is BY FAR, better than the store-bought fare.  Plus it tastes delicious.  I toured the Great Harvest Bread Company recently and was happy that my homemade bread tastes so similar to the professional’s.  J

 

This is a recipe for the cook who is familiar with making his or her own bread.  If you have never made your own bread, a good recipe to practice on is my French Loaf.  Then you can move on to this recipe.

 

This bread takes very little of my time, it just has to sit and sour a long time (about 40 hours from start to finish).  It doesn’t taste overly sour, though.  My daughter and I made some a few days ago and enjoyed a slice fresh out of the oven with butter.  It is important to follow the directions and not vary.

 

A word on gluten – some people like to add gluten flour to their homemade wheat bread so that is doesn’t come out as a brick, but I wanted to keep this loaf as close to whole food as possible.  You will see with this loaf that you won’t need that gluten flour if you just let it sit for the prescribed amount of time.  But there is a breaking point I have discovered with gluten.  Gluten is the protein of the grain, by the way.  If it is developed properly it will give your loaf structure and allow it to rise nice and high, the strands are like 2-by-4s in your house that hold up the walls, they hold little rooms of gas.  Without proper gluten development, there are no rooms of gas bubbles, it’s just like a house that is fallen, it’s a pile of rubble, or densely packed wheat that tastes like rubble.  J  Anyway, back to the point.  I have noticed that the longer the dough sits, the better the gluten is developed, BUT if it sits too long, those nice strands of gluten break and you end up with the dense, brick loaf.  L  So the moral is, follow the recipe as I have set it.  I have tried to vary the amount of yeast or the souring time and it has flopped.

 

Now for the recipe, first I make a sponge; I usually do this in the evening, as I like it to sit for 24 hours.

 

Sponge

1 cup warm water

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (I’ve been using hard white wheat, but have also had success with red)

1/8 teaspoon yeast (I’m using rapid rise)

 

 

 

Stir together and let sit 24 hours, stirring a couple of times during that period.

 

Dough

Then the next evening I will put the following ingredients in my Kitchenaid mixer:

 

1/2 cup warm water

1 teaspoon yeast

2 tablespoons molasses or honey (black-strap molasses is packed with minerals, especially iron; honey is good, but it’s benefits are killed at 117°F⁵, bread is usually around 185°F when done baking)

2 tablespoon melted butter

1 cup whole-wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoon unrefined sea salt – I prefer Celtic Sea Salt

2 Tablespoons millet (optional, for some crunch)

 

I stir this by hand till mixed and then add my sponge.  I let the machine mix it for me while I add another cup of flour or so till the bowl is clean.  See the picture.  I will then let it knead 10 minutes in the machine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I then let it rise in a buttered bowl on counter for 90 minutes.  Then put it in the fridge overnight – I want the new flour I added to have a chance to sour.  The next day I’ll set it out for a bit to warm up, from about 8am to 10am.  Then shape into a loaf, place in a buttered bread pan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let rise till it’s nice and tall (last time I made it, this took about an hour and a half since the dough is still a bit cold).  Bake at 350°F for 40 minutes.  Enjoy your wonderful high and soft loaf!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you would like to try baking a true sourdough loaf without any yeast, you might try this one.  I have not made it myself, but a friend has and says it’s good.

 

Want to learn more about phytic acid?  Take this free e-course, from someone who has done more research on this subject than I.

  

 

 

 

¹The Maker’s Diet by Jordan Rubin, pg. 138

²The Maker’s Diet by Jordan Rubin, pg. 152

³Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, quote by Jacques DeLangre, pg. 491

⁴By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder

⁵Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, pg. 536

 

Macaroni and Cheese

Update 1/8/09

All kids love macaroni and cheese.  My son never cared for the powdered cheese variety so I started buying him the creamy kind, which I liked better, too.  I am a cost-conscience mother though, so after a few boxes at $2.86 each, I decided we needed another option.  I did the math and realized I could buy a pound of Velveeta and some generic macaroni and make an individual portion of macaroni and cheese for about 25 cents!  Much better and he liked it, too (he is a bit picky).

 

I was not raised on Velveeta, I knew full well that it was processed junk food, but I just ignored my better judgment.  We did this for a few years and then one day a friend mentioned how Velveeta has a shelf life of many, many years, unopened.  It can not possibly be even remotely like real cheese if it can last that long at room temperature.  Velveeta is basically like plastic!  I knew this, but it was really helpful hearing it again.  Sometimes we have to hear things a few times and from a few different sources for it to sink in.

 

I decided then, no more Velveeta.  So I found a wonderful recipe for macaroni and cheese with REAL cheese and it tastes fabulous!  It did take my son a few times of trying it to forget about the Velveeta.  J  Not only has he forgotten about the Velveeta, he LOVES this recipe!  Sometimes when we switch our family off of a packaged food item we just need to not have that food item for a while, so they can forget about it.  Then introduce another version and if they still do not go for it, wait a while longer.

 

This recipe is practically as easy as a boxed variety.  It makes about 6 servings as a main dish; it will be more as a side dish.  We enjoy ours with a side of broccoli with plenty of butter on it.  If you have extra time, you can add an extra special touch – toss some fresh bread crumbs with melted butter and toast in the oven till golden brown, 375°F for approximately 15 minutes.  Use these as a yummy, crunchy topping.  Mmm, so good! 

 

Bring 2 quarts of salted water to boil in a medium saucepan.

 

Add 3 cups macaroni or other small shaped pasta (14 oz.), cook until al dente; drain.  Pasta is a compromise food regardless of whether it is whole grain or not.  Do not be fooled by the new higher fiber varieties that promise Omega-3 and such.  They are still packaged food.  Pick pasta you enjoy and just do not eat it every night.  J  If you have issues with wheat you can find pasta made out of other grains at the health food store.

 

After you have drained the pasta, return it to the pan and add 2 tablespoons of butter.  Turn the heat back on to medium and stir until the butter is melted.  Add 1 cup half and half or whole milk and salt (I use abut ½ teaspoon) to the pan and keep stirring.  (You can add an optional few dashes of mustard powder here.  I know it seems strange, but it is really good, even the kids like it, it adds a bit of depth.)  Add 8 ounces grated cheese (we like White Sharp Cheddar), 1 tablespoon flour (omit if you do not eat wheat), and stir until melted and creamy.  Add an additional ½ cup of half and half or whole milk and keep stirring till heated through.  Serve immediately.

 

Note:  The key here is salting to taste.  Taste your cooking before it gets to the table.  I didn’t used to do this and now that I do, it makes a big difference.  I can salt my food once it’s at the table, but a child is not likely to, they just know the food does not taste quite right.  Especially when we introduce new foods to our families and try to cut out some of their packaged food favorites, we want that food to taste it is best, so do not be afraid of this important seasoning!

 

Update – Food made with real cheese versus Velveeta can be hard to clean off dishes.  I have learned a trick that makes it easy.  Fill the pan with warm water and generously sprinkle in baking soda.  Add a couple squirts of dish soap.  Let soak for a bit (10 min.).  Scrub the pan WITH that baking soda liquid still in it, it seems to work better than if you empty the pan out.  The cheese should come off easily.  Make sure you have most of it scrubbed off before rinsing, the baking soda really helps release the cheese.  For the plates and bowls I just sprinkle a bit of baking soda on and then scrub.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marinara Sauce

Updated 1/8/09

I hope that the font size does not bother anyone.  I have formatting issues when I post recipes so I have to revert to this format and I don’t like the small font.  You can change the text size on your Internet browser temporarily to make it more readable.

As promised, here is a recipe that you can easily whip up to substitute for commercial spaghetti sauce.  I grew up in a house where everything was made from scratch, there were no packages to open, so when I got married I knew how to make marinara and did for many, many years.  Then when I had a child, I succumbed to the convenience of the jar variety, and my family got very hooked on it.  I finally cut that out last year, as I do not want to consume things that have HFCS in them.  So I came up with this recipe.  There are plenty of good marinara recipes out there; this is what my family will eat.  Please tweak it however you like to your family’s liking.  If you have questions, please let me know.

I do add some sugar to it to cut the acidity of the tomatoes.  Some say you can add some stewed apple or pear to accomplish the same, but I haven’t tried that.  I figure 2 tablespoons of sugar spread out over 1 quart of sauce isn’t going to make much of an impact.  Two tablespoons of sugar equals 24 grams of sugar.  If you have a half-cup serving then you are eating an extra 3 grams of sugar, minimal to my mind.  At this point, my family won’t eat it any other way because I let them eat the jarred variety for so long and they want that slightly sweet taste.

But I digress; let’s get back to the recipe.  You can use this sauce for spaghetti, you can add ground meat for a meat sauce, you can use it for lasagna, stuffed pasta shells, manicotti, cannelloni, I even use it to top my meatloaf and as a dip for our meatloaf instead of ketchup.  Ketchup is so full of HFCS, but meatloaf is the only meat that I have to have ketchup with, so thankfully this sauce now takes that place.  When we do meatless spaghetti, I like to add some cream to this sauce; it’s a wonderful variation.

This recipe will make a little more than a quart.  I like to keep it in a mason jar in the fridge.  I suppose you could make a large batch and freeze it, you might allow for some expansion room in the jar.

1 med. onion, diced

1 Tb. coconut oil

2 cloves garlic, pressed or finely minced

1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes (I like the petite cut)

1 28 oz. can tomato sauce puree (I now use puree because it doesn’t list any other ingredients. The sauce lists some objectionable things.)

2 Tb. sugar

1 Tb. dried basil

1 Tb. dried Italian herb blend (I’ve been using 5^th Season brand)

salt to taste (I probably use ½ teaspoon)

Optional:  I have been adding about 1 – 2 teaspoons Balsamic vinegar lately, I’m not sure if it enhances the flavor, but I’ve had this bottle in the fridge for so long I feel I need to use it in something.

Place oil in warmed pan over medium heat.  Add onion and sauté till clear, 5 to 10 minutes.  If your family doesn’t like onions you can chop them really finely in a food processor and then sauté them for longer, till they are caramel color, they will disappear in the sauce.  This is what I have to do.  But you really don’t want to omit the onions as they add sweetness to the sauce.  When the onions are done, add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute.  Add the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, sugar, basil, Italian herbs and salt, and vinegar, if you are using it.  Bring to a boil and then reduce and let it simmer (remember this is not on the lowest temperature, you want to see a few bubbles) for at least 20 minutes, uncovered.

This is a quick easy sauce to make, but I know it’s not as convenient as opening a jar.  You may need to think ahead some if you need spaghetti to be a super quick meal.  I plan my meals out by the week and sometimes I will make the spaghetti sauce on the weekend if I know it’s on the menu for the week.

Enjoy!