10 grain flour

We have come up with a white flour replacement that we like and feel good about using. So in my recipes when I refer to mix grain flour or 10 grain flour, this is what it is:

10 grain flour mix
soft white wheat
spelt
corn
millet
brown rice
hulled pearled barley
oat groats
hulled buckwheat groats
rye
kamut

We take a cup of each, mix it all together and run it through my Ktec kitchen grain mill. Then we put it in a Ziploc Freezer bag and store it in the freezer.

We also grind up about that much of Hard white wheat and store it another freezer bag.

When we do a recipe we usually do half the flour the mixed grains, a fourth of the flour the hard white wheat, and the other fourth unbleached all purpose flour. We feel pretty good about that ratio. They have good flavor and good texture.

La Piece de La Resistance - Peanut Butter/Chocolate swirl “Healthitized” Cookies

Healthitized cookies - the whole chocolate one don't have peanut butter in them for my sensitive son.

My husband loves cookies! Well, who doesn't! I prefer not to eat cookies from the store because I don't know what ingredients they are using and I probably don't want them in my body. So over time we have managed ways to change up recipes, substitue ingredients, and reduce the sugar amounts. These we can eat a couple of and not feel like we are getting too much sugar or bad fats or too much white flour.

Peanut Butter/Chocolate swirl “Healthitized” Cookies

Oven at 375°

Chocolate Drop Cookie dough

¼ C. coconut oil (virgin, expeller pressed, either flavorless or reg. flavor)

¼ C. butter

½ C. evaporated cane juice crystals (raw sugar)

¼ C. honey

1 egg, from our backyard chickens

1 tsp vanilla

½ C. 10-grain flour

½ C. unbleached, AP flour

1/3 C. cocoa powder

1/8 tsp baking soda

Optional: ¼ to ½ C. semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips, ½ to 1 C. chopped pecans

Cream sugar, honey, butter, coconut oil.  Then add vanilla and egg, mix well.  Combine dry ingredients and add.  Mix until well combined, scraping sides of bowl as necessary.  Add optional ingredients, if any.  You may need to add a little more flour until dough is dry enough to roll into balls.  The dough can also be refrigerated to make it easier to roll. Roll into balls individually or with Peanut butter cookie dough.  To combine the two doughs, I take a chunk of each dough and push them together with the thumb and forefingers of each hand offset 90° from each other so that they combine to look like a baseball, then I roll them together.  Flatten with fork to about ½” thick.  Bake at 375° for 11 minutes on unheated round stone, then subsequent batches on warmed stone only take about 9 minutes.  Cookies should have cracks and be puffy, but just starting to fall.

Peanut Butter Cookie dough

½ C. butter

½ C. peanut butter, Planters Natural

½ C. raw sugar

¼ C. honey

1 egg

½ tsp vanilla

½ C. 10-grain flour

¾ C. unbleached, AP flour

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

Cream sugar, honey, butter, and peanut butter.  Add egg and vanilla and mix.  Add combined dry and mix thoroughly, scraping sides of bowl as needed.  Roll into 1 – 1 ¼” balls with or without chocolate drop cookie dough.  Flatten with fork and bake same as chocolate drop cookies.

Oven roasted vegetables

Butternut squash diced up before it's cooked

After cooked

I made this tonight. Since we have a large afternoon lunch, usually a breakfast meal, I serve them a vegetable in the evening so they don't go to be hungry and so that they've had a vegetable that day.

We have enjoyed getting our kids to eat veggies by oven roasting them: potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, and today butternut squash.

I dice up the veggies, put them in a half sheet or casserole dish, use a ketchup sqirter filled with olive oil and sqirt it generously over the veggies. Then I sprinkle on hymalayan crystal salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. On this butternut squash, I also sprinkled on les herb de Provence. Then I bake them in a 425 degree oven for 30-45 minutes until tender. Each veggie is different, so I have had to play with the times. The kids go for the oven roasted vegetable first and they always eat them all up!

Sausage Gravy over Biscuits and scrambled eggs

Sunday dinner we always have breakfast. It's fast, easy, and filling. Today we had Sausage gravy over biscuits and scrambled eggs. We have to do a pan of 20 eggs to fill our family. We have backyard chickens so they are a nice brilliant yellow scrambled eggs with shredded cheddar cheese on top.

Cream Biscuits (from Americas Test Kitchen)

Bake the biscuits immediately after cutting them; letting them stand for any length of time can decrease the leavening powder and thereby prevent the biscuits from rising properly in the oven. (Bolded amounts for 2 C cream.)

2 cups (10 ounces) flour (2 2/3 Cups) 

        (1 C 10-grain flour, 1/2 C unbleached all-purpose flour and 1/2 C wheat flour)

2 tsp evaporated cane juice sugar (2 2/3 tsp)

2 tsp baking powder (2 2/3 tsp)

½ tsp sea salt (2/3 tsp)

1 ½ C heavy cream (2 Cups) If we have some from the local cow, we will use it.

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees.  Line baking sheet with parchment paper.  (I just use my round stone.)

2. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in medium bowl.  Add cream and stir with wooden spoon until dough forms, about 30 seconds.  Transfer dough from bowl to countertop. 

3. Cut biscuits into rounds.  Place rounds on parchment-lined baking sheet or stone and bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes.  Serve immediately.

Sausage Gravy

1 lb Jimmy Dean natural sausage
4 T butter
1/2 C all-purpose flour
4 C whole milk
Seasonings:
Salt
Pepper
onion powder
garlic powder

Brown the sausage, do not drain. Jimmy Dean only puts off a little bit of fat and it is needed to flavor the gravy and help in making the roux.
Push the sausage to the edges and melt the butter in the center of the pan and then sprinkle on the flour.
Stir it around and then pour in the milk.
Keep mixing it until it comes to a boil and thickens.
Turn it to low and add seasoning to taste. I can't really give measurements on this because my hubby makes the gravy and he doesn't measure them. He just sprinkles it on and then tastes it.

Homemade Pizza

My sister is the ultimate pizza maker and I can't even compete with her fabulous pizza, but I like mine too. She makes a white flour thick fluffy crust and I make a thinner half white / half wheat crust. 

This is my recipe for 1 pizza dough, but I never made just one crust:

Pizza Dough

In your grain mill:

1 cup of wheat

In your Kitchen Aid mixer or Bosch,

Ground wheat flour

1 Level Tbls. Saf instant yeast

1 C warm water (105 degrees F)

2 T honey

2 T olive oil

Stir and let sponge until it doubles in size, about 20 minutes.

Add 1 C high gluten unbleached white flour mixed with

1 tsp salt (sea salt)

1 T Vital Wheat Gluten

Beat for about 1-2 minutes until thoroughly mix.  Pour out into an oiled bowl and cover with wet thin cloth or oiled plastic wrap.

Let raise until it doubles in size, about 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees with baking stone in it.

If you are using a Pampered Chef stone, preheating it may break it.

Roll out onto counter to desired size and thickness, a little smaller than your stone.  Transfer dough onto a sheet of parchment paper a little bigger than  your stone. Coat dough thinly with olive oil and let it rise.

Put desired sauce and toppings on.  Slide onto cookie sheet (or directly on Pampered Chef baking stone) and slide it onto your preheated baking stone.

Bake for 8-12minutes.  Check after 8 minutes and continue for addition 2 minutes at a time if needed.  Should be golden brown on the bottom and sides.

Pull it out onto cookie sheet and let cool for a couple of mins. before cutting.

Pizza Options  (toppings are listed in order to go on pizza round)

BBQ Beef or pork

6-8 fl oz of your favorite BBQ sauce (I prefer Bill Johnson’s original)

1 pound of cooked and shredded roast beef (or pork roast)

½ onion and ½ bell pepper, sliced and sautéed in a cast iron pan

½ lb mozzarella cheese or more to taste

Chicken Alfredo

About ½ a jar of Alfred sauce (preferably Bertollis) or Ranch salad dressing

Baby spinach leaves

1 zucchini sliced thinly

About 4 oz sliced mushrooms, lightly sautéed

1 chicken breast diced and sautéed in bacon grease

1 onion diced and sautéed

1 tomato seeded and diced

½ lb shrimp fillet sliced or baby shrimp, cooked (optional)

½ lb mozzarella cheese or more to taste

About 6 slices of bacon cooked and chopped

Hawaiian

1 can of tomato sauce mixed with pizza seasoning according to pkg directions

4-5 slices of ham diced or Canadian bacon slices

1 can of pineapple tidbits or sliced and cut them smaller yourself

1 onion sliced and sautéed

About 4 oz mushrooms sliced and sautéed

½ mozzarella cheese or more to taste

Pepperoni

1 can of tomato sauce with pizza seasonings or pizza sauce

Pepperoni slices (desired amount)

½ lb mozzarella cheese or more to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Roll out pizza dough to desired thickness and diameter on parchment paper.  Brush with olive oil and let rise for about 5-10 minutes.  Put desired toppings on the crust.  Once pizza is prepared, bake in oven on a pizza stone for 8-12 minutes.  Check after 8 minutes and every two minutes thereafter until the bottom of the crust is golden brown or desired doneness.

My Homemade Toothpaste

Coconut oil, tooth powder, and essential oil

Homemade Toothpaste

2 Tbsp. coconut oil

2 Tbsp. baking soda

2 Tbsp. bentonite clay

2 Tbsp. calcium magnesium powder

4 Tbps. xylitol

1 tsp. real sea salt powdered (must be powdered)

I doubled all this and put it in my vitamix to make sure it was in a fine powder so as to not be too abrasive and then store it in a glass jar. 

I give each container a couple of tablespoon of the powder and then pour in the desired amount of virgin coconut oil. I like the taste of it. I start with 1 T and then add more if I need to. 

Then I add to each container:

4 drops on guard oil, 2 drops melaluca oil and 2 drops peppermint oil (doTerra brand)

10 drops trace minerals (optional)

Most of my kids will use this and I use it too.

From: http://www.keeperofthehome.org/2012/04/rethinking-oral-health-care-a-homemade-toothpaste-recipe-for-tooth-remineralization.html

With a  little twist on my part.

Homemade mascara

This recipe came from: http://thankyourbody.com/all-natural-homemade-mascara/

Beeswax melting in coconut oil

3 filled mascara tubes

Today I tried a recipe that I've been wanting to try for a while. It just took a while to get all the right ingredents.

Homemade mascara

2 tsp coconut oil 
4 tsp aloe vera gel
1/2 tsp grated bees wax (grate then measure)
2 capsules of activated charcoal

a clean mascara container, from Amazon.com

Directions:

1. Put coconut oil, aloe vera gel, and grated bees wax in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir until beeswax is completely melted.

2. Open 1 – 2 capsules of activated charcoal (depending on desired color, about 1/4 – 1/2 tsp) and pour into oil mixture. Stir until completely incorporated. Remove from heat.

3. Pour into a small plastic bag, pushing the mixture down to one corner. Then cut a very small hole in the corner of the bag.

4. Fold the corner with the cut whole until you have a small tip that you can push into the empty mascara tube. (It’s much easier if you have an extra set of hands nearby to hold the tube in place!) Make sure the tip goes far enough into the tube or you’ll have a big mess on your hands!

5. Keep the small-hole-end securely in the tube (or get your helper to hold it in place). Begin pressing the mascara mixture toward the tube. Don’t move too quickly or it will come out and you’ll have mess to deal with. (I highly recommend doing this with a paper towel or napkin underneath.) Keep moving the mixture into the tube until it’s all in.

6. Place the inner cap in place and then twist the wand on tightly. Viola! Homemade mascara!

RESULTS:
So I can't say this was a success. I tried this today, Sunday, and I can't seem to get the substance to stick onto my eyelashes. What a bummer. I am going to have to comment on the blog I got it from and see if we can figure out why it worked for her and not me.