healthy flour options + recipes

As you know,White flour is no good.

Excerpt from the Global Healing Center

"It [white flour] is made by stripping wheat of everything useful, adding synthetic B vitamins, and bleaching it to remove the milled yellow color and increase the amount of gluten the flour can produce."

Basically, it is void of nutrition, added with preservatives and things our bodies can't understand.

I have been slowly weaning our house hold off of it for quite a while.

The problem being that so many recipes just don't turn out the way they would with white.

However, that doesn't  mean they taste bad...

for instance, breads/loaves made with other flours are much denser than with white.

I think its just a matter of getting used to it.

and finding flours that you like.

There are a whole lot of options out there!

Buckwheat, spelt, quinoa, rice, hemp, amaranth, barley, oat, millet, ....

and then I do usually blend it with little organic white.

we get most of our flour from the health food store,

 which gets it locally from the Daybreak Mill 

just outside of Estevan, SK.  

Their grains are all 100% organically grown without any additives! 

they also sell whole grains, flaked grains, cereals...

Breakfast Cereals:
They also have a great selection of wonderful breakfast cereals.  We buy a huge bag of oats and make our own blends with flax, spelt flakes, chia seed, sunflower seed, and so on.  Throw in chopped dates, other dried fruit or raisins and a bit of almond milk and honey.

 Attie loves oatmeal breakfast! I am so glad of this.

I am fond of their:

- Ezekial flour blend: Contains 100% whole wheat, rye, barley, millet, lentils and beans.

- 7 grain mix:  Contains wheat, barley, rye, durum, oats, flax, buckwheat.

Attie had a LOT of fun playing with flour while I was baking and refilling!

blowing on the flour!

elastics and flour.

Grains are a main part of our diet, and so I like to make them full of fiber and goodness!

Pancakes are another common quick breakfast meal here.   
I make a big canister batch of pancake mix for easy prep in the morning:  Buckwheat Pancakes

and here's my sunflower millet Bread making tutorial!

  I encourage you to find a local organic mill and take a visit!

Quinoa - Recipes and Growing!

Quinoa -  (Keen- O- Wa)

The super grain!  Full of what our bodies need and void of what we don't.

"This plant origionated in the Andean region of Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia and Peru

Quinoa was of great nutritional importance in pre-Columbian Andean civilizations, secondary only to the potato, and was followed in importance by maize. In contemporary times, this crop has become highly appreciated for its nutritional value, as its protein content is very high (18%). Unlike wheat or rice (which are low in lysine), and like oats, quinoa contains a balanced set of essential amino acids for humans, making it a complete protein source.^[14] It is a good source of dietary fiber and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. Quinoa is gluten-free and considered easy to digest. Because of all these characteristics, quinoa is being considered a possible crop in NASA's Controlled Ecological Life Support System for long-duration human occupied spaceflights.^[14]"

- quoted from Wikipedia

seed before cooking

 after cooking

Quinoa has a soft, slightly crunchy almost nutty taste. It makes a very healthy and yummy oatmeal,  can be used in baking, in place of rice or pasta for a side dish, with sauces, in cold salads, ...

Here is a yummy looking recipe:

Martha Stewart's Quinoa Spinach Bake

I am going to try it tonight and probably put in in a regular roatation!!

There is a Saskatchewan company who produces Quinoa,

 along with other organic grains, flakes and pastas.

NorQuin Brand.

the prices are really good...

They have tonnes of quinoa recipes!! 

check out the recipes

 The quinoa plant, is in the goosfoot family with things like spinach, beets and tumbleweeds.

The only downfall of quinoa, is that it can be kind of pricey.

So, in my seed ordering escapades, I ran into some local quinoa seed!

I am so very pumped to try it.  I guess the plant grows from 3'-8' (feet) tall.

Grows easily, and then there's some work to do involving the harvest.

But I am willing to try er out!!

Here is someone's story on their quinoa growing journey

And, THIS is the catalogue where I found quinoa seed! 

for the website and online catalogue:

Prairie Garden Seeds

Jim Ternier and Family have an excellent Heirloom seed company near Humbolt, Saskatchewan.

Their prices and variety are good.  Lots of grains, like quinoa AND chia!! 

(another plant I am going to try out this summer!)

Along with tonnes of heirloom veggies, grasses and flowers.

Also, cover crops for green manure.

(yet another experiment for this fall...)

They are a conscious and hard working family dedicated to the preservation of old heirloom varieties and seed variety in general.

check em out!

Jim,

 By Richard Widdifield

Forks over Knives

Today, I finally watched this great documentary called Forks over Knives.

With loads of research, charts and graphs,  Doctors  Colin Campbell and Caldwell B. Esselstyn divulge the secret they have been working on for decades.  The fact that certain amounts of meat and dairy products do and will cause cancer and heart disease if eaten regularly.
And that the forementioned diseases can be cured by switching to a whole food, plant based diet.  Bypass heart surgery can certainly be bypassed with vegetables and fruit!

It is information that we all have heard snippets of but here it is in black and white. Proven over and over.    Dr. Campbell may sound familiar as he co-wrote the book "The China Study".
 
"    The China Study describes a monumental survey of diet and death rates from cancer in more than 2,400 Chinese counties and the equally monumental efforts to explore its significance and implications for nutrition and health."  - David Klein -Publisher/Editor of Living Nutrition Magazine

One of the most in depth studies done on humans dealing with food, nutrition,  cancer ...


AANyways.  
Forks over Knives is a must watch... with your family, and friends.

Here's the trailer:







After watching it, we made sushi for supper!!

mmmmmmm.  And felt really good after.


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