I’m still addicted to M&M’s, so maybe I’m not a true health nut, but I LOVE this fresh approach to cooking with whole grains and other natural ingredients. I was fortunate enough to receive a sample copy of The Diet Rebel’s Cookbook: Eating Clean and Green from one of its authors, Jillayne Clements, and from the day I skimmed through it, I haven’t been able to stop talking about it.  (My Facebook friends will attest.)  I relate to the authors (Michelle Stewart co-authored the book) quest to find truth amidst all the conflicting information on diet and nutrition.   I agree with Clements and Stewart that diet and health are strongly correlated and that good health can be found, and bad health often reversed, with a healthy, natural diet.  I haven’t advanced to the level of commitment shown by Jillayne and Michelle, but reading The Diet Rebel’s Cookbook makes me want to! 

Food storage enthusiasts, who are also into healthier eating will really appreciate that the authors have included an extensive one-year food storage list that includes products like brown rice, quinoa, and agave nectar in addition to more typical food and non-food items.  There are nice step by step instructions for sprouting and dehydrating.  I always skip right to the recipes in a cookbook like this one, but I found myself thoroughly enjoying my trip back to the front of the book to absorb all of the fantastic information on nutrition, healthy food preparation and “God’s recipe for health.”  I love that this cookbook offers this mini-education on healthier living  in addition to a mouthwatering collection of recipes.  Those who want to eat healthier without going to extremes will like that the ingredients for most of the recipes are familiar (there are a lot of sprouted ingredients, but Clements and Stewart make it seem easy to incorporate sprouting into your cooking), and the authors aren’t vegan!

I had been experimenting with recipes to find a soft caramel corn recipe that used agave nectar, and was giddy to see that Diet Rebel included one.  Jillayne has given me permission to share a recipe with All About Food Storage readers.  I hope you enjoy it, and that you pick up The Diet Rebel’s Cookbook: Eating Clean and Green for a fun new take on cooking with food storage and other whole foods.

LOADED BURRITOS

6 large sprouted wheat tortillas

8 oz. hamburger, cooked

1 c. sprouted and cooked beans

1 c. brown rice, precooked

1/2 c. frozen corn, thawed

handful of fresh cilantro, minced

1 medium tomato, chopped

1 medium onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbsp. chili powder

3/4 tsp. sea salt

6 oz. raw shredded cheese

Garnishes:

tomatoes, chopped

lettuce, thinly sliced

sour cream

salsa

Spread the tortillas in a single layer on a cookie sheet and warm in a 250 degree oven for 2 minutes. Promptly remove from oven, stack the tortillas on top of one another, and wrap them in a towel or placed them in a tortilla warmer with a lid until needed. When ready, layer all the remaining ingredients in each tortilla one at a time. Roll them up, then wrap each individual burrito in aluminum foil. They can either be baked at 350 degrees for 30 minutes and served, or frozen for quick and easy lunches or dinners.  If they are frozen, increase the bake time to 55 minutes.

The beautiful fresh strawberries from Costco were begging to be rolled in vanilla mousse and fluffy whipped cream, so I obliged with this family favorite crepe recipe.  I’ve posted this delicious recipe for whole wheat crepes before, but it’s SO GOOD that it’s worth reposting.  I think it’s the very best way to use any soft white wheat in your food storage.  Of course, it will also work with hard white wheat, but crepes will be slightly heavier. 

This time I made a different vanilla mousse filling that we liked even better, so I thought I would share.  It’s so simple, fairly low fat, and YUM-MY!

VANILLA MOUSSE CREPE FILLING

1 large box of vanilla pudding, prepared

1 8 oz. package of light cream cheese, softened

1/2 small container of light Cool Whip (you could use Spiff-E-Whip from your storage)–use more if you’d like

Whip the cream cheese. Then blend in prepared pudding. Gently fold in Cool Whip.

Fry crepe batter.  Then spoon vanilla mousse and plenty of fresh cut strawberries into the middle of each crepe and roll.  You can include whipped cream in the middle of the crepe or over the top to finish them off. Enjoy!!

WHOLE WHEAT WAFFLES

1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour (I like hard white wheat flour)

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 c. nonfat dry powdered milk (non-instant)

1/4 c. oil

2 eggs, beaten

2 Tbsp. sugar

Enough water to make the right consistency

Stir dry ingredients together, then stir wet ingredients together and combine. Add water last until the batter is the right consistency for waffles.  Cook on hot waffle iron.

Whole Wheat Pancakes

Blend together in blender:
1 cup milk
1 heaping cup ground white wheat flour

Add:
1/2 cup more milk
1/4 cup Canola oil
1/4 cup applesauce
1 egg
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. of ground flax meal (if desired)

Blend well and then add 3 tsp. of baking powder and blend again.

Pour onto hot greased griddle and cook.

Mom’s Homemade Maple Syrup

2 cups of water
2 cups of white sugar
2 cups of brown sugar
Bring this to a boil and then add 1/2 tsp. Maple flavoring and it is done!

1. Use whole grains. Use wheat flour, oats, or other grains in your cooking.   They add much more flavor and nutrition to your recipes.  If this is new for your family, start slow.  Begin by swapping out part of the white flour in recipes for whole wheat flour and work up to using more.  Flour made from hard white wheat works great this way and the change is rarely noticed. Oats add nutrition and work just as well as bread crumbs in meatloaf. Cooked wheat can be added to ground beef to stretch a recipe for tacos.  The wheat takes on the taco flavoring, and generally goes without detection, while making the meal healthier.

2. Use powdered milk.  The pricey smoothie shops do it all the time!  Powdered milk has fewer calories and less cholesterol than whole milk products and adds protein.  Try it in soups, casseroles, bread recipes…and smoothies. I also love to have powdered buttermilk on hand.

3. Convert eggs.  I love having powdered eggs on hand.  They are convenient and easy to use.  They are even great for camping…no more cracked eggs in the cooler. Just add the egg powder with your dry ingredients and the required water with your liquid ingredients.  Click here for my post on using powdered eggs. It includes a handy conversion chart.

4. Use dry beans instead of canned. The savings is significant.  To make them more convenient to use in your cooking, soak and cook a big batch of beans and freeze them in can-size portions. Place 1 2/3 cup portions of cooked beans in zippered sandwich bags and freeze. Then when your recipe calls for a 15.5 oz. can of beans, you just have to pull a bag from the freezer.

5. Throw in dehydrated vegetables or fruits.  Dehydrated or freeze-dried fruits and vegetables retain much more nutrients than do canned vegetables. Once you start using them, the convenience will win you over.  No washing, peeling, or chopping.  Dehydrated potatoes, onions, carrots, corn, bell peppers and celery are ready to go in soups and casseroles. Dehydrated apples are fantastic in oatmeal, or reconstituted and chopped for baked goods.  They’re also wonderful straight from the can as a snack.

There are several benefits from incorporating your long-term food storage ingredients into your everyday cooking.

• You’ll rotate your products and retain freshness.
• No waste. With dehydrated foods, you just reconstitiute what you need. 
• You learn how to use these food staples in a way that your family will enjoy them before there is a crisis. 
• You have a healthier family.  Whole grains, fruits and vegetables make for satisfying meals that boost nutrition.

Food storage staples like whole wheat, oats, and molasses never tasted so good!

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like chocolate chip cookies.  For years, I have baked a family-favorite recipe named after a boy I had one date with.  He prided himself on his chocolate chip cookies and named the recipe after himself.  The cookies are quite good so for nearly 17 years, the name has stuck.  So, I imagine my husband will be delighted that I have finally found a replacement for “Kurt Palmer Chocolate Chip Cookies.”  Sorry, Kurt, but this recipe is my new favorite, and it’s healthier ingredients make it much easier on the waistline for future reunions. I think the recipe is a copycat of Great Harvest Bread Company’s Chocolate Chip cookies, but they seem thicker than the ones sold in my local store so I actually like them better.  The recipe is 100% whole wheat and includes oats for double the whole grains.  I made it with Smart Balance instead of butter to lower fat and it worked like a charm.  I love the little addition of molasses too.  It really adds a nice flavor and I think helps to keep the cookies so chewy.  I also used Guittard Milk Chocolate Chips, which I love because they are so rich and creamy (and my hubby prefers milk chocolate to semi-sweet).  The hearty grains and molasses in the recipe give it the flavor of a special treat you might find in an old-fashioned mercantile.

GREAT HARVEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

2 c. whole wheat flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

2 c. brown sugar, packed

1 c. butter

2 c. rolled oats

2 eggs

2 tbsp. molasses

1 tbsp. milk

2 c. semisweet chocolate chips

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Cream brown sugar and butter until well combined.  Add oats, eggs, molasses, and milk and beat well.  Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and stir until blended.  Fold in chocolate chips.

Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup (or muffin scoop), scoop dough and drop onto nonstick-sprayed cookie sheets about 3 inches apart. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-13 minutes, until cookies start to brown on the edges.  Cool 2 minutes on the pans and then remove the cookies to a cooling rack.

Makes 24 big cookies

NOTES: This recipe is really versatile.  Use your imagination and any combination of white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, nuts, raisins, chopped dried cherries or craisins to create a new cookie every time. ENJOY!

PIZZA CRUST

1 C. warm water

1 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp. yeast

1 tsp. salt

1 Tbsp. oil (I use grapeseed, but you can use olive or canola)

1 C. whole wheat flour (I like the hard white wheat for milder flavor)

1 1/2 C. all-purpose flour

In mixer or bowl, combine water, sugar and yeast.  Let stand for 5 minutes to let yeast foam.  Add salt, oil and sugar.  Stir in wheat and white flour and knead until smooth and elastic.  I like to let the dough rest for about 15 minutes before rolling, but you can roll it out immediately if you like.  Roll the dough into mini pizzas or one 15 inch pizza on a cornmeal dusted board.  The cornmeal works much better than flour on the board because it doesn’t dry out the dough and it gives a nice crispness to the finished product. Let everyone top their pizzas to their liking, and bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.  I bake my pizzas on a pizza stone, but a cookie sheet works fine.

Here’s a picture of last night’s topping selections:

Our almost vegetarian toppings: fresh garden squash and zucchini, mushrooms, purple onion, tomatoes, rehydrated red and green peppers, and turkey pepperoni

GRANOLA WHEAT BREAD

3 cups warm water

4 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast

2 cups unsweetened applesauce

1/4 c. brown sugar

3 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened

2 1/4 tsp. salt

1 c. nonfat dry milk powder

 2 1/4 tsp. cinnamon

2 1/4 cups granola without raisins

6 3/4 c. whole wheat flour

3 3/4 c. all-purpose flour

In stand mixer, combine yeast and warm water; allow to foam.  Stir in applesauce, brown sugar, butter, salt, cinnamon, dry milk powder, granola, and about 4 cups of flour.  Mix well.  Continue adding flour until  dough pulls away from the side of the mixing bowl.  Dough should still be somewhat sticky, not dry.  Allow mixer to knead dough for about 8 minutes.  Remove dough from mixer and shape into 4 loaves in bread pans.  Allow loaves to rise and double in size.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

Dough Enhancer or Dough Conditioner
This product improves the rise, taste, texture, color, crumb and shelf-life of whole grain breads. It contributes softness and lightness to breads.

How to make your own dough enhancer:

It’s best to use all three of these enhancers when making whole wheat bread.

Gluten: Use 1/2 Tbsp. – 1 Tbsp. per cup of flour (this means before you measure a cup of flour, place the measured gluten in the bottom of your cup and then measure the flour as usual).  Gluten holds the air bubbles.  It is a non-animal form of protein.

White Vinegar: Use the same amount of vinegar as the amount of yeast called for in the recipe (i.e., 1 tsp. yeast = 1 tsp. vinegar).  Acid strengthens the bubbles.

Potato Flakes:  Use 1/8 – 1/4 cup per loaf of bread you are making.  Experiment to see what works best in your recipe.  Do not substitute potato pearls for the flakes.  They don’t dissolve as easily and add artificial flavoring to your breads.  The starch in the potatoes adds an extra casing around the bubbles.  The bran in the wheat is coarse and can pop or rupture the bubbles, so this helps maintain the fluffy texture of the bread.

Vital Wheat Gluten

Vital wheat gluten occurs naturally in all wheat and whieat derived white flours.  Some white flours have more or less than others.  In a dry form, it is used to give the yeast a boost because it contains a high amount of gluten forming proteins.  Vital wheat gluten only does one thing.  It helps improve the rise and texture of the bread. Use it in your heavier breads that rise slowly, such as whole grains, rye, or ones loaded with sugar, dried fruit and nuts.  Generally, if you are using white bread flour you don’t need to add any gluten.  However, all-purpose or whole-grain flours need vital wheat gluten. 

Use 1 tsp. per cup of all-purpose or 1 1/2 – 3 tsp. for every cup of whole grain or rye flours.  Or 1 Tbsp. for each loaf of bread.

I altered my favorite whole wheat bread recipe to make it more like a “harvest bread” with apples and pecans, and then added a brown sugar topping.  Great Harvest makes a yummy Apple Crumble Bread, but it is only available on Thursdays at my local store, so I had to find a way to appease my cravings.  This bread makes your house smell fabulous and is delicious toasted, plus it uses dried apples from storage.  You can leave off the topping and it is totally healthy.  It is a really simple recipe, but I’ve tried to include plenty of details for anyone new to breadmaking.   I’m posting my basic whole wheat bread recipe first and then the alterations.  This makes a nice big batch with enough to share a couple of loaves with neighbors and freeze some for later.  My neighbors love breadmaking day!

DELICIOUS WHOLE WHEAT BREAD

2/3 c. oil (I use grapeseed or canola)

2/3 c. honey

2 tbsp. SAF instant yeast (you can use regular RED STAR yeast, just proof in water first)

2 tbsp. vital gluten powder

2 tbsp. dough enhancer

2 tbsp. salt

6 c. warm water

whole wheat flour

In a mixer, with dough hook attached, place SAF instant yeast, vital gluten, dough enhancer and 4 cups whole wheat flour.  Pour in warm water and blend gently.  Then add honey, oil and salt.  Continue adding flour and blending until dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.  When the sides of the bowl stay clean, set a timer for 10 minutes and allow the mixer to knead the dough.  This develops the gluten and negates the need to raise the dough so many times for a light bread.  After 10 minutes, remove dough from bowl and divide into 7 or 8 smooth loaf shapes and place in greased 1-lb. loaf pans (I use Vegalene).   Let bread rise until double (about 30 minutes).  When dough has completed rising, place in a preheated 350 degree oven (or 325 degree convection) and cook for 35 minutes (until golden brown).  When done, remove from oven, take bread out of pans and cool on a cooling rack.  When bread has completely cooled, place into bread bags for storage.  This recipe is really versatile.  I usually add 2-4 Tbsp. potato flakes to make it even more tender and to rotate my potato flakes.  You can use it for cinnamon pull-aparts, pizza crust, hamburger buns, etc. but I like it best just for bread.  

KIM’S APPLE PECAN BREAD ALTERATIONS

After mixing in the initial 4 cups of flour, stir in the following:

4 cups dehydrated apple slices (break into smaller pieces and rehydrate with 2 cups hot water for 15 minutes.  Drain excess water.)

2 cups chopped pecans

2 Tbsp. apple pie spice or cinnamon

Continue to add flour as in the recipe above.  The dough is a little bit stickier with the apples but avoid the temptation to add too much flour.  If the dough is pulling away from the sides of the bowl and you can handle the dough to mold it into loaves, you’ve added enough flour.

After you’ve placed the dough into the pans, you can mix up this crumbly topping and spread on top before baking.

BROWN SUGAR TOPPING

8 Tbsp. white flour

1/2 c. white sugar

1/2 c. brown sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon

5 – 6 Tbsp.  butter, melted

Raise until it is peaked nicely above the edge of the pan, then bake as directed above.

My next fun recipe is for a Cinnamon Chip Bread made healthier with part whole wheat flour and liquid eggs.  You can make it as unhealthy as you’d like, but my family devoured it with the lower-fat alterations.  Again, it makes the kitchen smell heavenly.

Almost too delicious to be healthy.

HEAVENLY CINNAMON CHIP BREAD

3 Tbsp. SAF instant yeast

1/2 C. sugar

1 c. liquid eggs, like Egg Beaters [Or, 4 whole eggs; or, 1/4 c. dehydrated egg powder + 1/2 c. water]

3 3/4 c. warm water

4 tsp. salt

3 Tbsp. canola oil (or grapeseed)

2 1/2 c. cinnamon chips

10-12 cups flour (I used about 4 cups hard white wheat flour and 6 cups all-purpose white flour)

In mixing bowl, combine 4 cups flour, yeast, and sugar.  Add water, eggs, and oil.  Beat well until combined.  Stir in salt, cinnamon drops, and more flour until dough pulls away from sides of bowl.  Knead with mixer for about 5 minutes. Place dough in greased bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 hour.  Shape dough into 4 loaves, and let rise again until doubled (about an hour) in pans.  Bake at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes.