Whole Grain Blueberry Pancakes

Charles and I are pancake afficionados. Pumpkin, banana, blueberry, chocolate chip, oat flour, whole wheat flour, almond milk, applesauce....just a few of the many ingredients we've tried. I wanted to share these that I made this morning because I fell in love with them. So delicious. I usually use frozen blueberries in pancakes but opted to use the fresh ones I had in the fridge. Boy, was there ever a difference! The fresh ones just burst in your mouth and had so much more flavor.

I didn't post a picture of them because you probably would think I was off my rocker. My food tastes good but is rarely photogenic - ha! My son is, however.

Whole Grain Blueberry Pancakes

2 egg whites (we had some left over from ice cream - otherwise one egg would work the same)
1 cup almond milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 Tbsp honey
1/2 cup millet flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour

Beat eggs and milk together. Add following ingredients one at a time, beating as you go. Fry in sizzling canola oil and drop fresh blueberries on top of the batter in the pan.

Drool and enjoy with a drizzle of pure maple syrup.

Food for Her Household Part 4 - Ingredient Check

Ok, so this cartoon cracked me up. Too true, unfortunately! I didn't mean for this series of blog posts to drag on so long, but a lot has been going on in our life and therefore blogging about nutrition hasn't exactly been a priority. But I wanted to share some things I've learned about ingredient checking before I finished up the series.

Once upon a time I only checked prices. My mom taught me young about unit pricing and I was the price CIA. I'm still serious about grocery shopping on a budget, and I do actually go to two grocery stores with my Little Rascal every week so that I can save money (Aldi rocks!). The extra effort is worth it to me.

Now, I'm the ingredient CIA. Every item I pick up off the shelf of the store I scrutinize. It's incredible what they sneak into innocent food. By doing some extra work and checking out ingredient lists and learning what to look for and avoid, you can take steps to helping your family become healthier.

There is a general health concept that says, "Don't buy anything that has more than 5 ingredients." Now, whereas this is a little stringent, even perhaps legalistic, the principle is good. Every look at the ingredients on a loaf of bread, for instance? They can stretch on for miles! Or tried to buy a can of just tomatoes? Sometimes you have to check two or three cans before you get one that has just tomatoes, water and absorbic acid (Vitamin C) in it! Kinda bizarre. Many extra ingredients are often added to processed foods to make them stretch farther, and to preserve them longer. I get that - from a money-making-manufacturer perspective. But that doesn't mean I have to buy it that way anymore as a housewife. So the first thing I check is how many ingredients there are. If I were going to make bread it would have yeast, water, sweetener, flour, and salt in it (maybe milk and eggs, too). So what does this loaf of bread on the shelf of the store have in it besides those essentials?

Bread may be a poor example because in order for it to stay fresh they have to add those extra ingredients, but it actually works for me because it's a good example of why I'm working on finding good, easy recipes for homemade bread, tortillas, etc. Fruit juice might be a better example. So many juices are chock full of ingredients besides the simple juice and water. I look for the pure juices without added sugar and preservatives and flavors.

Next on the checklist is anything that is non-food: dyes, artificial sweeteners, artificial flavors, preservatives like high-fructose corn syrup(originally from food, maybe, but too processed and too harmful), MSG, BHT & BHA, and sodium nitrate (research more on your own if you want a more exhaustive list). My goal in cooking for our family is to provide food that is as close to its natural state as possible. Anything that is not food to begin with, or processed to the point of being a non-food definitely gets the scratch.

Finally, I look for the quality of the ingredients used. Is sugar high on the list? Do they use sugar alternatives like honey and molasses? Are whole grain flours the primary flours used?

By just taking the time to scour food labels and switch brands on some things you can eliminate quite a few unnecessary ingredients from your family's diet and take a healthier turn in your eating.

Does this mean I never buy any of those things? Unfortunately not. In a perfect world, my husband would never ask me to buy chocolate syrup, which is laden with high fructose corn syrup, and I would always make wonderful homemade bread instead of buying the 40 ingredient kind, and we would be perfectly content without ever eating a bag of potato chips or a Jack's Frozen Pizza. But it's not a perfect world, folks. So we make little regular changes and choose to have a healthy lifestyle perspective and give ourselves grace when we choose to splurge.

Food for her Household Part 3 - Whole Grain Flour

The area of cooking with a variety of flours has been one of my most fun experiments...and has produced some of my worst cooking disasters - ha! It's also an area that I have and haven't researched much of the science behind for health issues.

There are a lot of concerns today with GMOs - Genetically Modified Organisms. Our advances in science have made it possible to grow grain (and other foods, but grain is the primary concern) to be more resistant to pests and disease, more hardy etc, by genetically modifying the seeds. This is great for farmers - I being a farmer's daughter would know! - but harmful to our bodies in many ways. I have not researched it very much, but enough to know that I want to cook for our family with as few GMOs as possible (none at all if I can help it!).

The second issue with grain and flour is that when our bodies process refined flours, the results can be identical to sugars. When you eat anything from white flour (wheat), your body responds in the same way as if you'd eaten white sugar. Refined wheat flour has almost all nutrients removed. Whole grains have good carbohydrates your body needs and nutrients like fiber, vitamins and minerals.

Again there is incredible amounts of research regarding this that I'm not touching. I'm speaking as a normal American mom whose family has no known gluten or other allergies. The changes I've made with our grain intake are by no means perfect (which bugs me to no end sometimes!) but they are beneficial.

When I think about how far our food has come from the natural state God gave it to us, I start to understand our many health issues today, particularly cancers and autoimmune issues that are linked to, among other things, the altered foods we're eating. It motivates me to get back to eating more wholesome foods and providing those for our family! 

So I have completely converted to whole grain flours in my baking. Walmart has a wonderful product from the company Prairie Gold - whole wheat flour from soft white wheat that is non-GMO and more similar to white flour than many whole wheat flours. That saves a lot of hassle for me. But I also love using oat and brown rice flour as well as flaxseed meal in my cooking. My wonderful husband bought me a grain mill for our anniversary, so I'm starting to use that, but before I had it, I would make oat flour out of old-fashioned oats and flax meal out of whole flax seed in my food processor. Once I tried rice flour in it, but that took forever, so I've only just begun making my own rice flour with the grain mill. You can also buy any of these flours (among others!) at the grocery store now. Bob's Red Mill is the most common company. They're not cheap, however, to buy already ground.

 

Here's a chart with basic equivalents.
1 Cup all-purpose flour
= 1 cup oat flour
= 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
= 1 cup brown rice flour
= 1 cup flaxseed meal

However, ratios are important when baking with other whole grain flours. For instance, in most recipes you only want to substitute 1/4 of the flour as a different grain. Otherwise your baked good can become too crumbly or doughy. When my muffins call for 2 cups of white flour, for instance, here are some of the substitutions I might make.

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup oat flour
2 tablespoons flaxseed meal

or

3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oat flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour

Flaxseed meal can be used as a substitute for oil in a recipe as well as flour! Check out this link for more info about that seed's usage.

More recently I've begun experimenting with buckwheat and I just got some millet to try as well. Honestly, this is just plain fun. Adds something new to cooking and baking, you know? Oats are incredibly versatile. They can be used for breading on chicken or fish - one of my favorite usages. I've been reading different books from the library about grains and flour. I especially enjoyed Good to the Grain. This blog by Gluten Free Goddess was informative as well. 

Have fun baking!
I'm a muffin and quick bread lady, and I've loved the extra heartiness and wholesomeness using these new flours has brought to my creations.

Food for her Household Part 2 - Glycemic Index

Okay, so here's a term I never knew until maybe 18 months ago: glycemic index.

Definition: 

The glycemic index, GI, ranks foods on a scale of 1 to 100 according to how quickly they can raise your blood sugar level. The lower a carbohydrate scores on the glycemic index, the slower it becomes glucose in your body, and the less impact it has on blood-sugar levels. Originally developed as a tool for diabetics to help them choose carbohydrates that would keep glucose levels stable, low-GI foods can also help reduce cholesterol and lower your risk of heart disease. Several popular diets, including the Zone and South Beach diets, are based on choosing foods low on the glycemic index scale.

- Courtesy of the Livestrong website

Science in Plain English: 

Simply put, all foods have a ranking on this index, and the higher the number, the harder the food is on your blood sugar levels, consequently making you more susceptible to diabetes and heart disease. When you eat refined sugars and flours, your blood sugar spikes then plummets. Refined sugars and white flour also addict you to them by releasing a chemical called dopamine in your brain that makes you feel good. So it becomes easy to mindlessly eat food you don't need because you're addicted to it.

All foods are on this index, but I've mainly been concerned about the sugars and flours that we eat, as those make up a large portion of our diet. You can search online for charts, listings or articles of/about this index. Livestrong has some good ones. This article at Organic Living is good as well for sugars.

Here's an example of the ratings:
High Fructose Corn Syrup - 87
White Table Sugar - 80
Honey - 30 to 50 (depends on the variety)
Fructose (the sugar in fruit) - 12 - 23
Xylitol - 8
Stevia - 0

However, the glycemic index is not the only factor in deciding what ingredients to use. Sweeteners like honey (raw is best, however, non-pasteurized honey is better than nothing) that are natural have at least some nutrients and don't have some of the toxic side effects of refined sugar or corn syrup. Whole grains contain more nutrients, are lower on the glycemic index, and are more complex carbohydrates (meaning your body has to work harder to digest them, resulting in better nutrition and preventing the spike and crash). Our foods in America are so far from the natural state that God made them for us to eat! The closer we can get to that natural state, the better for our health.

There's so much more that goes into all of this, but these are some of the basics in everyday English. You can research more on your own - my goal in writing this is to just simply pass on my reasoning for making these choices.

Practical Considerations:

Because it is so good for you, and tastes just as sweet as white sugar, I love xylitol. It is a natural sugar alcohol that doesn't harm your body in any way and actually has several good benefits (see this page). However, it is pretty pricey, so I use it as sparingly as I can. In the average recipe, I use honey, molasses, or maple syrup as substitutes. Molasses has a strong flavor, so I generally pair it with something else. Sometimes I use dark brown sugar, which is not great, but a slightly better alternative to white sugar, and good to use when I'm bringing a dish to a potluck or party.

Ratios (from AllRecipes):
Honey: 3/4 cup for 1 cup of white sugar
Maple Syrup: 3/4 cup for 1 cup sugar
Molasses: 1 1/3 cup for 1 cup sugar
Xylitol: 1 cup for 1 cup

It takes practice to use new sweeteners, and like I said in my first post, you will find these more expensive than your white sugar and corn syrup. Sometimes it also takes developing a new taste for old favorite foods. But it's not a bad new taste, I promise. For instance, brownies made with honey and whole wheat flour taste just as scrumptious as the normal ones!

I hope this is clear. And I'm not pretending to be an expert, or exhaustive. Just passing on some info that's been helpful to me. Research some more on your own if this interests you!

Food for her household... Part 1

"She provides food for her household." ~ Proverbs 31

I will never claim to be among the world's healthiest people. I like ice cream far too much. I also am terrible at exercising like I should. However, in the past two years, I've started becoming more educated about the food America eats and have slowly and surely begun making changes to our family diet.

I must here add a caveat. I'm an opinionated person, and a determined one, but I strongly dislike fanaticism for the sake of fanaticism. For instance, I don't want to be a person who jumps on the next superfood bandwagon just because everyone suddenly thinks that a food like avocado is the solution to the nation's health issues. I refuse to be a fanatic. But I'm incredibly practical, and therefore, when I learn something legitimate, seek to put it into practice. Can it be done and would it be beneficial? Then I will attempt it.

I'd like to write a few blog entries about some of the things I've learned about baking and ingredients and nutrition, etc. I've learned so much by trial and error and would love to share some practical ways to simplify the healthier eating process and why certain things are beneficial. If I can save others some time and frustration, it would be worth it.

Eating healthier doesn't have to be difficult or distasteful. No, I'm too much of a simple housekeeper and a foodie to boot to make complicated and un-tasty changes to our diet. It really mostly involves simple substitutions. Sometimes those are more expensive substitutions but you have to be the one to count the cost financially and decide what is worth spending more on in the short run to keep your family healthier in the long run. There's no right or wrong answer to that question, although I believe there are wiser and less wise choices. But it's up to you to decide what is most beneficial.

I used to judge people for their physical lifestyle choices. I've since been convicted and realized how futile that is. Judging other moms and families is completely unproductive and unhealthy. So this series of posts is not about telling anyone what to eat, but rather sharing some useful things I've learned through weekly interaction with our chiropractor, Dr. Abby with Health from Within, and also my friend Julie, a nutritionist, as well as from my own research, and as mentioned before, much trial and error. I've also learned much from having a business with the wellness company Melaleuca, and continuing as a shopper with them even though I no longer represent them as my occupation.

I'm looking forward to verbalizing some of these things! It's been a fun journey that will continue all of my life I'm sure.

My Monster Cookies

So I promised one of the boys I care for in our home that we could have monster cookies soon. Today I fulfilled that promise. I looked up the recipe online and found this one on a blog:
Sally's Baking Addiction

I quickly made changes and started realizing that my recipe was actually entirely different. Just wanted to give the tiniest piece of credit to this blogger that she was due.

These more nutritious cookies are scrumptious. We are quickly devouring them. I had thought that there would be enough to take to our neighbors, but I was wrong. I guess batch #2 will be upcoming. :)

My Monster Cookies

1/2 cup soft butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup flaxseed flour
1/2 cup oat flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup peanuts
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Cream butter, peanut butter, sugar and honey together. Blend in egg and vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients. Fold in add-ins. Bake 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees.


The amazing thing about making healthier choices is that you can learn how to use better ingredients and then still enjoy your old standard recipes but know that you are doing less harm to your body. The way your body processes white sugar and flour hurts you. Whereas honey and dark brown sugar are not the ultimate best, they’re still better choices, and these ARE cookies we’re talking about here. :) I have found that Wal-mart carries a whole wheat flour from Prairie Gold that is GMO-free, so I only buy that now. In the original monster cookies you would find whole oats, but my husband isn’t a fan of the oatmeal texture, so I grind old-fashioned oats in my food processor and use oat flour as a substitute for part of the wheat in almost everything I bake (*note* Oat flour makes baked goods slightly more crumbly). Adding the flaxseed flour gives extra nutrients. We don’t take Omega supplements so I like to make sure we have some Omega-rich foods in our diet. I add flaxseed flour to most of my baking as well.

Pumpkin Cranberry Deliciousness Bread

Pumpkin Cranberry Deliciousness Bread

1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup coconut oil
2/3 cup honey
2 cups pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1/2 cup hot water
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cloves
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup oat flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup flaxseed flour
2 Tbsp. wheat germ
1 cup chopped cranberries

Cream butter, oil and honey together, scraping bowl. Add pumpkin and eggs, beating until smooth. Dissolve soda and powder in water, then stir into mixture. Add salt and spices and vanilla. Then mix in flour one cup at a time. Stir in cranberries. Pour into greased loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until knife comes out clean.


What I absolutely loved about this recipe was creating the ingredients myself. I pulled out my blender and ground up the oats and the flax into their flours, and chopped the cranberries as well that way. The original recipe called for 2 2/3 cups of white sugar, 2/3 cup shortening, and 3 1/3 cup white flour. What triumph to convert a family favorite recipe into this still-scrumptious-but-much-healthier alternative. It tastes sweet and nutty and hearty.

So thankful this morning for small blessings and joys, like the ability to cook with good ingredients, and a nice long nap for baby, and the reminder that God is enough to satisfy my heart. 

Deluxe Omelet

Hubby wanted me to post this on the blog. :) He created this for supper last night and made it again for brunch today. He saute`d mushrooms, red peppers, onions and spinach together in a drop of olive oil and then made a 3-egg omelet with mozzarella and turkey breast meat and the veggies in it. In his words, it was "possibly among the healthiest thing I've ever eaten." :D I'm pretty sure I've fed him things that were healthier, but probably not quite as good to his taste. He used to create omelets for himself with piles of sausage and bacon and fry his eggs in a pan full of butter, so he has come a long way. He's actually starting to enjoy vegetables. We are working on learning to cook with minimum oil/grease.

Nate and I are enjoying embracing healthier living together. In fact, we talk about when we will have our own home in the country and can grow our own food. BAH HAH! When I was younger I never thought I would come to that, nor when I married this city slicker did I ever assume he would say something like "We could even have a couple cows and raise them ourselves for beef" like he did after lunch.

It's so good to be doing what's healthiest for you and your family. I never thought I'd be the kind of person who added black beans to her scrambled eggs for healthier fiber and protein, or who converted her home to natural cleaning and bath/body and laundry products, or who took nutritional supplements every day (along with her husband!), or who dreamed of a little house in the country with a garden and cows of all things. But I sure do like it. And maybe the most fun part is being able to do all of this frugally, and actually save money by living healthier. It makes me feel just a tad more like the Proverbs 31 woman, you know? :)

Not-so-unhealthy Dessert

Everyone keeps asking if I've had any cravings while being pregnant. Honestly, no, at least not the kind that recur or make you go crazy. I think most of mine have been normal pregnant-or-not girl cravings for sweet things, like chocolate, or coke, or, like last night...cupcakes.

This was my healthy substitute. I did whole wheat waffles with fruit and Greek yogurt sweetened with honey on top. It was yummy, and rather guilt-free.

I've never worked so hard to be healthy as I have over the past 8 months. Why is it that it becomes so much easier to do something for someone else than just for yourself? I've never taken vitamins regularly (in fact, I've despised the notion), and yet here I've gradually worked myself into the habit of taking my Melaleuca prenatals twice a day, every day. AND now I'm taking herbs as well. It fascinates me how just the beginnings of motherhood have so naturally changed me already...and Baby C isn't even here in my arms yet.

Nate and I are working toward having a healthy lifestyle. It's coming by degrees. I'm incredibly excited about living less than a mile from our farmers market this summer, and about being able to grow some of my own veggies, or at least attempt it. We're hoping to buy farm-grown local beef in bulk soon, too. Melaleuca is enabling us to detoxify our home and get rid of any chemicals in our cleaning, toiletries, etc. We've been seeing a chiropractor who specializes in wellness who has been adjusting us for 6 months now to help us become physically stronger. I'm so thankful to the Lord to be able to have and do these things - what a privilege.

Our life has been absolutely crazy over the past 10 months...and I have no idea that it will ever settle down into normalcy (although I'd like to pretend, soon). God's grace is so incredibly overwhelming - that He would give us all of these trials and tests of faith to endure, and see us faithfully through them, and change us so much in the meantime. He's never left us to walk alone, and never will.

Here's the recipe for the waffles:

2 eggs
1 2/3 c. milk
4 t. baking powder
2 T. sugar
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. oil (I used coconut)
2 c. whole wheat flour

Whip eggs. Beat in milk, and then remaining ingredients. Bake on a waffle maker. Top with fruit of choice (I did fresh blueberries and frozen peaches). Stir together honey, a touch of vanilla extract, and Greek yogurt. Dollop yogurt on top of waffles.
Enjoy!