Bread: A Template – part 2

We’ll start with the water, 3 to 3 1/2 cups will give you an average size batch of bread dough. This makes 2 or 3 loaves, or a loaf and a bunch of rolls, etc. I pour in about 1/2 of the amount from room temperature filtered water, and the other half out of my tea kettle (heated of course), not necessarily boiling, but quite hot. (I will say here, that some people – Chef Brad for instance – dump in all the ingredients, half the flour, and add the yeast on top to avoid any risk of killing it with water that’s too hot. So, if you’re interested you can look into that method.) You’re going for “wrist temperature” water in the mixer, that means quite warm, but not anywhere near boiling.

Add in a bit of sweetener, 1/2 teaspoon is sufficient here, but who wants to measure? This could be almost anything; like molasses, agave, barley malt, rice syrup or honey.

Now add in your yeast, about 1 Tablespoon is good for a batch of this size.

Let this proof – proving to you that the yeast is active and happy.

Add in a few cups (about 3) of the flour (this needs to be a gluten containing flour, like wheat or spelt) for the sponge stage where you’ll let this raise for 1/2 hour or so. Of course bread can be made without this step, in fact if you have a mixer you could just mix it longer to develop the gluten, but I think using the sponge step leads to lighter whole grain breads.

Now, for the fun part.
Decide how much oil, sweetener, etc. that you want to add, 1/4 to 1/2 cup of each is a good range. I actually use less oil than that and often less sweetener. (Rather than adding any oil you could use ground flax seeds). Be sure to include salt, bread made without it will remind you never to do so again. Use about 1 Tablespoon for a batch this size.
You can at this point also include seasonings, herbs, soaked/cooked grains, or nuts in your creation.

Some suggestions:
For a french style bread you’ll want to leave the oil and sweetener out entirely.
For a richer dough you could use more oil/ground flax seed and even sub some non-dairy milk for part of the liquid.

Add/knead in the additional flour. This does not all need to have a high gluten content. For instance some of it could be oat flour, which does not contain gluten. Continue to add flour until the dough begins to leave the sides of the bowl. You want it a bit sticky, this gives a softer bread, be especially careful when using a mixer which can make it easy to add too much flour.

Here we have what you could call the official “template”, to be used as a jumping off point.

3 – 3 1/2 cups water
drop of sweetener
1 Tablespoon yeast
at least 4 cups of a gluten containing flour, such as spelt or wheat in it’s many variations.
1 Tablespoon salt
Oil or ground flax seed
Honey or other sweetener
Any desired additions
The rest of the flour, gluten or not depending on your creation

For more information on this method, and instructions with and without a mixer see the Basic Whole Wheat Bread recipe in our recipe section.

C

Bread: A Template – Part 1

I used to think it required special bread recipe for each new type of bread I wanted to make; crescent rolls, baugettes, pizza, etc. And while that might give your bread some subtle differences that those striving for perfection could appreciate, it’s often not a practical way to provide your family with bread. Who has time to make 4 different recipes in a week? So, that leaves you with the option of only eating one type of bread that week (I’ve done this a lot, not a bad option really), purchasing some of your bread ready made, or… becoming more flexible with the use of your basic bread recipe.

This way you can make bread once for a week, or two if you double the recipe. And still end up with your sandwich bread, rolls, pizza, buns, or whatever else is needed for the week (because you planned your menus, so you know what you need, right?). Here’s a very basic bread recipe, it doesn’t get much more basic than this.

However, I’ll elaborate on it a bit, and you should be able to come up with your own recipe’s in the future. I will say too, that making bread is one of those things you need to actually DO before you entirely “get it”. It’s not hard though, just a new skill that will take a small time investment to catch on to.

This will be a three part series, so stay tuned.

C

31 Days of Menus: Snacks are important

When you plan for snacks during the week it helps prevent impulse purchases, gives you some energy to run on while you get dinner going, and keeps everyone from feeling deprived. You know the “there’s nothing to eat” mantra – translated as, “there’s nothing I can just pop in my mouth right this second with no prep.” . So, if you make sure there is always “something to eat” everyone is happy.
Some of my favorite snacks to have on hand right now come from the book Raw Energy.

I’ve mentioned in the past how fond we are of Kale Chips! That same link also lists more snack options, check it out.

Also, I’ve found that corn chips and salsa along with popcorn are good shelf stable items to keep around the house.

Currently we air pop our popcorn drizzle on some flax seed oil and then sprinkle it with sea salt and nutritional yeast.

What are your favorite healthy snacks?

C

31 Days of Menus: Halloween

Pumpkin Rolls
Split Pea Soup
Baked sweet potatoes

Any Black bean and Sweet Potato Recipe would make a good main dish too.

Here are some fun Halloween treat ideas.

C

31 Days of Menus: Breakfast

Here’s a list of potential breakfast items that work well on a plant based diet.

Green Smoothies , alone or with some of the following suggestions.
Hash Browns
Oatmeal – We just put the rolled oats in a bowl and pour boiling water over the top to soften them.
Other oatmeal options: Instant Oats Tammie style, Oh She Glows Vegan Overnight Oats, and Apple Pie Oatmeal.
Sauteed Apple Slices (post recipe)
Cinnamon rolls
Muffins like; Pumpkin Chocolate Chip, Blueberry Muffins, or Whole Wheat Apple Cinnamon Muffins, and Dreena’s As You Like Muffins.
Granola: Angela’s, Tammie’s,
Quick breads for instance – Banana Bread – I like this recipe.
Pancakes – this looks good!
French toast (I use the recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance)
Toast
Bagels, good with the Sunny Vegetable Pate from Raw Energy, or leftover Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Dip
Grapefruit halves
Fruit Salad

Obviously, you could also enjoy any of these without the green smoothie.

C

31 Days of Menus: Start with what you already have

In planning our menus for this last week I took into account both the leftovers from the week before and our fresh garden produce.

For instance, we had leftover refried beans as well as olives in the fridge from last weeks tostadas, so I decided to make Navajo Tacos since I needed to make bread anyway. I just use dough from what ever bread I am baking for the scones and fry it in coconut oil, but if you want more precise directions check out Tammie’s blog post on this topic.

We have broccoli, cabbage, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, lemon cucumbers, and zucchini among other things growing in our garden right now.

So I made plans for the week that would take all that into account. Our dinner menus looked like this:

Monday
Navajo Tacos

Tuesday
Creamy Potato Soup with salad

Wednesday
Mongolian BBQ

Thursday
Monk Bowls from the The 30 Minute Vegan

Friday
I had planned on a lasagne recipe, but due to life we ended up with last minute spagetti instead.
Go backup plans!

Saturday
Panzanella from the Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen
with fresh fruit

Sunday
I had planned to make Homey Vegetable Stew with Dumplings from The 30 minute Vegan. But, it was too hot for such a filling dish so we had canned Amy’s brand minestrone soup with toast and fruit (should have had salad too, but I was too lazy).

C

31 Days of Menus: Plan for a lack of planning

As nice as it would be to always be on top of things, there are days/weeks (O.k. even years) when that just doesn’t happen. So, one strategy to continue to avoid last minute stress, eating out, and relying of prepared food (freezer meals or boxed & canned items) is to have a backup plan for your lack of planning.
This is essentially also a menu, but instead of planning a week at a time for instance, it is a list of potential meals that either rely on pantry staples you always have around or are really quick to prepare, and preferably meet both requirements.

A recent post at Happy Herbivore highlighting 23 quick meal ideas is a good source of inspiration for this list, as well as a springboard for additional ideas that could work from your existing recipe pool.

Meals that center around quinoa, a quick cooking whole grain, are also a good bet.

Some of my other favorite quick fixes are:
Tomato Basil Cream Pasta

Creamy Comfort Casserole

and
Thick and Creamy Potato Soup

The goal in this case is not a perfectly well-rounded meal (although that would be nice), but rather something to fall back on, to fill your stomach and provide some nourishment that is superior to things like; nothing, fast food, snacks & junk or whatever else you would be eating for dinner without the backup plan.

C

A week of menus for August, or – what we ate last week

Monday:

B – green smoothie
L – Peanut butter & jelly sandwiches on Whole wheat bread
D – Monk bowls from The 30-minute Vegan

Tuesday:

B – green smoothie
L – Hummus with veggies (zucchini sticks, cherry tomatoes, carrots, butter lettuce, cucumber) and pita triangles
D – Navajo Tacos (I think these are a Western thing, try it, you’ll like it )
This is essentially Navajo Fry Bread with taco/tostada toppings on it. Eat it like a tostada.

Wednesday:

B – green smoothie
L – Kale Medicine Salad – from The Complete Book of Raw Food
D – Back on Track Wheat Berry and Bean Salad (made with Spelt berries)

Thursday:

B – green smoothie
L – hummus with veggies and pita bread
D - Potato Salad with leftover Spelt Berry and Bean salad and garlic rolls

Friday:

B – green smoothie
L – Leftover salads
D – Pizza Primavera from Vegan Italino and Caesar Salad from The Complete Book of Raw Food

Saturday:

B – Cinnamon Rolls

Brunch – Healthy Vanilla Milkshake (with Frozen cherries pulsed in at the end) and Cinnamon Rolls – I’ll post this recipe on Friday.

L – green smoothie

D – Pasta allaVerde from Vegan Italiano on zucchini noodles served with sliced tomatoes

D – Pizza from Whole Foods

Sunday:

B – green smoothie

Snack – chips, salsa, and guacamole

D – Ligurian Minestrone from Vegan Italiano (Basically minestrone with pesto on top, delicious!)
served with garlic rolls

Snacks: Fresh cherries, blueberries, and grapes, Cocoa snowballs from Raw Energy and Chocolate Chip cookies (made with whole wheat flour).

Obviously all did not go according to plan .

C

How to Change Your Diet, Part 5 – Education

Decide what you need to learn more about.
Probably more recipes, cooking ideas, techniques, etc.
Possibly you want more background information/motivation to make the switch or continue along the same path.

Here are some resources I would recommend:

The why of it all:

Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s book Eat to Live
The China Study by Colin Campbell
The Green Smoothies Diet by Robin Openshaw

More recipe ideas:

This blog
Tammie’s blog, Simple, Healthy, Tasty
The Oh She Glow’s blog
How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman – excellent mini cooking school in a book, lots of good techniques and information, use the recipes selectively of course – but, it’s such a large book that even cutting out all of those including dairy you are left with quite a selection.

C

Is “normal” really normal?

It’s helpful to realize that what is currently mainstream for dietary choices is far from normal or moderate. There is nothing normal about eating most of your food out of boxes, deep fried, or picked up at a drive up window.Such a diet is extreme, and in the world we live in today it can be hard to avoid. Even the salad dressings on the grocery store shelf have been developed in a lab. How do I know? Well, one of my many majors in college was food science. And food scientists spend a lot of time in labs, developing new flavors, things that will sell and have a long shelf life. There is a lot of chemistry involved in that field, and as fascinating as chemistry can be, I’d rather not eat someone’s lab experiment.

I mention this all because of the pervading view that eating a more natural, whole foods, and especially plant based diet is somehow extreme.
I can certainly see how it could seem that way when contrasted with the perversions that have developed in our world’s eating habits in the last 50 or 60 years. When we become more focused on appearance than health, and people are willing to do anything to lose weight and be thin, especially when it means they can keep eating all those delicious lab developed foods, that is a seriously warped perspective.

God created this world and he provided everything we need to be healthy, strong, vibrant people. If we choose to reject that and complicate our diets to such an extent that they no longer resemble anything in the natural world, how is that normal?

I am saddened to watch all of the little children who are fed a constant diet of processed lab developed food. I believe many of them are never offered an option, and if they are it is something like cut up fruit or veggies placed in front of a child who has never really eaten them. When the children refuse to eat this “weird” unfamiliar food, their parents use that fact to defend their eating habits, “My kids just won’t eat ______”. Fill in the blank – healthy food, fruit, veggies, etc. I will say that both Melissa and I have experienced feeding children who are used to a more SAD diet, and they will eat healthy food, right off the bat if it is presented in the right way. Sure, it’s harder to work with them than a child raised to eat almost anything and to whom real food still looks like food, but it can be done. It works in much the same way that changing an adult diet does, start with things that are familiar. For instance frozen fruit smoothies in a popsicle mold are going to taste great to anyone, even and maybe especially someone who is used to frozen high fructose corn syrup.

C