Tuesday 29 April 2014

A Peek At A Day In My Food Life

This evening was a particularly productive evening because the rest of the family was still out for a couple of hours after I got home from work, but this is fairly typical of my daily routine.  First let's flash back to this morning...

I started the day with a lemon water - 500 ml warm water with the juice of a whole lemon.

I drank a further 2 litres of water throughout the rest of the day.

For breakfast I had porridge made from rolled oats, oat bran, chia seed, goji berries, and macadamia nuts fermented overnight in water and natural yoghurt as recommended by the Weston A Price Foundation's "Healthy 4 Life" dietary guidelines brochure.  I topped the porridge with sliced banana, cherries, homemade nut milk (whizzed up in my blender last night) and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

For a mid-morning snack I had a slice of my homemade sourdough bread, toasted and spread with tahini and a little honey.

For lunch I had a salad made from lots of mixed leafy greens, some chopped leftover beef rissoles, leftover fried onion, tomato, cucumber, avocado and dressing made from mustard, olive oil and apple cider vinegar.

Tuesday 22 April 2014

Sourdough Easter Bun

As Easter was approaching I thought to myself that I would like to try and make some hot cross buns this year.  I wondered if I could adapt the bread machine sourdough recipe to make hot cross buns.  So I just gave it a go!

SOURDOUGH HOT CROSS BUNS

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons yoghurt
3/4 cup water
4 cups wholegrain flour, less 3 tablespoons (I used Atta Wholemeal)
1 3/4 teaspoons dried yeast granules
3 tablespoons arrowroot powder + plenty extra!
1 teaspoon unrefined salt
1 tablespoon molasses 
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup mixed dried fruit

Mix together yoghurt and water and add to flour.  Mix to form a dough. Cover and leave in a warmish place for 18-24 hours.

prepared the water, yoghurt and flour mixture and left it to do its thing overnight.  The next afternoon instead of putting everything into the bread machine I added the yeast, unrefined salt, molasses and butter directly to the bowl containing the "sourdough" and began to mix with a metal tablespoon. The mixture was rather sticky but that was OK at this point because it made mixing in the other ingredients easier.  I found it important to pay particular attention to breaking up and distributing the butter evenly through the mixture.

Then I added the arrowroot, 3 tablespoons initially.  I had actually forgotten to take out the 3 tablespoons of flour (4 cups, less 3 tablespoons) the day before when preparing the "sourdough" but it definitely still needed the arrowroot.  In fact it was so sticky that I ended up adding a total of 10 tablespoons of arrowroot plus more on my hands and on the board that I used to knead it on.  Just add as much as you need to handle it, knead it and work it into six buns.  To make the crosses I put about 1/3 cup Atta flour into a small bowl and added a little cold water to form a dough.  Then I rolled this dough between my hands to make long skinny "dough strings" which I cut into 12 pieces to form the crosses.  I placed the buns onto a pizza tray greased with a little coconut oil and decorated them with the crosses.  I found that the crosses stuck to the buns without needing to dab any water on them. I left the buns to sit for about 30 minutes to rise.  I covered the buns with some plastic wrap to prevent the dough drying out. I recommend spraying the wrap with a little oil to prevent it sticking to the buns!


My oven was playing up so I actually cooked the buns in our bbq at around 170-180 degrees (C) for about 30 minutes, turning the tray around halfway through.  The bread is cooked when it sounds hollow when you tap it. Cool on a wire rack and then enjoy with some real butter!

So here they are my hot cross buns . . . um my hot cross bun pull-apart bun! It was surprisingly light and fluffy given that this is made from wholemeal flour, and delightfully delicious, if I may say so myself!


Of course you don't have to wait until next Easter to try this . . . make it without the crosses for a morning/afternoon tea anytime.

Source / Further information:  Recipe adapted from Bread Machine Bread from the Weston A Price Foundation's "Healthy 4 Life" dietary guidelines brochure
http://www.westonaprice.org/images/pdfs/healthy4life2011.pdf
http://www.bdfarmpariscreek.com.au/index03.php?id=36&pl=20&tl=8 natural ~  biodynamic non-homogenised natural yoghurt available from Woolworths supermarkets*
Jimmy's Atta Wholemeal Flour ~ available from Woolworths supermarkets*
http://www.mainland.com.au/cheese-product/buttersoft-pure-butter/ ~ Mainland Buttersoft butter available from Woolworths supermarkets*
*possibly also available from Coles supermarkets, I just haven't checked yet!

~ take every opportunity to put the good stuff in ~

This blog is about me, what I'm doing, what's working for me, and what's not. It includes my experiences and opinions. It is for general information only and is in no way intended to replace the advice of a health care professional.

Bread Machine Sourdough

I am avoiding eating commercially made breads so I was very excited to discover this recipe for sourdough that can be made in a bread machine!

This recipe comes from the Weston A Price Foundation's "Healthy 4 Life" dietary guidelines brochure.  Weston A Price was a dentist who studied the diet, lifestyle and health of indigenous cultures around the world in the 1930's.  He found a definite connection between the consumption of traditional and natural foods and the maintenance of good health.

So why sourdough?

The "Healthy 4 Life" guide explains that:

"Grains, legumes and nuts and seeds . . . are a source of many nutrients, including B vitamins, minerals and special types of fats.  However all seeds contain what scientists refer to as "anti-nutrients", substances that block the uptake of nutrients, block digestion and irritate the intestinal tract.  In traditional cultures all over the world, grains are very carefully prepared to lower the level of these compounds to make grains, legumes and nuts easier to digest.  These preparation techniques include roasting, long soaking of beans followed by cooking, soaking grains in slightly acidic water, followed by cooking, and fermenting bread dough to make sourdough bread.  These preparation techniques not only make these foods easier to digest, they also greatly increase vitamin levels.  In cultures where people depend on grains, legumes and nuts for most of their calories, these preparation techniques ensure that they get ample nutrition."

BREAD MACHINE SOURDOUGH

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons yoghurt
3/4 cup water
4 cups wholegrain flour, less 3 tablespoons
1 3/4 teaspoons dried yeast granules
3 tablespoons arrowroot powder
1 teaspoon unrefined salt
1 tablespoon molasses 
2 tablespoons butter

Mix together yoghurt and water and add to flour.  Mix to form a dough.  Cover and leave in a warmish place for 18-24 hours.

Put the dough plus the yeast, arrowroot powder, salt, molasses and butter in the breadmaker.  Set it to a wholemeal setting and begin.  When it's part-way through the kneading section, check that all the ingredients have mixed together and check the consistency.  If it is slimy, add some more arrowroot, if it's too dry add a few more drops of water, drop by drop.  Proceed as directed and enjoy the bread!

The first time I made this recipe I used the standard wholemeal setting on my bread machine.  It turned out ok.

The second time I made it I decided to try the machine's turbo setting.  I hadn't used this setting before and the bread machine's manual does warn that loaves are likely to be heavier due to less rising time.  To my surprise the bread turned out better than the first time I made it, so I have used the turbo setting ever since.  The turbo setting on my bread machine takes just 1 hour and 5 minutes which means that I can put it on after work to have yummy fresh bread with dinner.

So far I have successfully made this recipe with wholemeal Atta flour, organic wholemeal spelt flour, and Powlett Hill GMO free biodynamic stoneground wheat flour.  I have also made a loaf with all Powlett Hill GMO free biodynamic stoneground rye flour.  That one was a little heavier but still yummy.  A mixture of the stoneground wheat and rye flours worked better.

I use b d Farm Paris Creek organic natural yoghurt because it's the most natural, natural yoghurt that I can find.  It's organic, biodynamic and made from non-homogenised milk.

I like to use Mainland Buttersoft butter because it is pure butter but easy to spread because it's "triple churned".  Other spreadable butter brands are a blend of butter and canola or sunflower oil.

So far I have found the flour to liquid ratio to work well and haven't felt the need to add extra arrowroot or water on checking the mixture as the recipe suggests.  This may of course vary depending on climate conditions, ie more or less humidity.

Obviously this is not going to produce a loaf that looks like your commercially baked sandwich loaves, in fact it looks more like a banana bread, so it's not really suitable for sandwiches.  That doesn't bother me though because I rarely eat sandwiches these days, opting for salads for lunches instead.  It is however very delicious served freshly baked, with real butter, accompanied by a good slow-cooked stew!  I also like to have it as a snack toasted and spread with tahini and a little manuka honey.





Source / Further information

http://www.westonaprice.org
http://www.westonaprice.org/basics/principles-of-healthy-diets
http://www.westonaprice.org/images/pdfs/healthy4life2011.pdf
http://www.bdfarmpariscreek.com.au/index03.php?id=36&pl=20&tl=8 natural ~ yoghurt available from Woolworths supermarkets*
Jimmy's Atta Wholemeal Flour and Macro Organic Spelt Flour ~ available from Woolworths supermarkets*
http://powletthill.com.au/tablet/flour.html ~ GMO free biodynamic stoneground flours available locally from Greenies Real Food http://www.greeniesrealfood.com.au
http://www.mainland.com.au/cheese-product/buttersoft-pure-butter/ ~ available from Woolworths supermarkets*
*possibly also available from Coles supermarkets, I just haven't checked yet!

                      ~ take every opportunity to put the good stuff in ~

This blog is about me, what I'm doing, what's working for me, and what's not. It includes my experiences and opinions. It is for general information only and is in no way intended to replace the advice of a health care professional.

Tuesday 8 April 2014

People Who Have Inspired Me: Dee McCaffrey

Dee McCaffrey is the author of "The Science Of Skinny".
I have been gleaning nutritional information from a number of sources for a while now but this book has a lot of great information packed into one place!

There are a couple of spots in the book that got a little too scientific on me, but mostly there are very clear explanations of the effect that different foods has on the body making it easy to understand why it's good to eat certain foods and why certain "foods" should be avoided. (When you read the book you will understand why I used quotation marks around the word "foods" here.)

Dee is well qualified to give us this advice. She begins the book by telling her own story of how she fell into emotional eating and wound up being obese, and she explains how she turned that around to lose her excess weight and keep it off for the past twenty years.  She is a qualified chemist, nutritionist, health coach and co-founder of Processed Free America.

I highly recommend this book to everyone, fat, thin or in between, because optimal health is not just about being skinny.  This book teaches how to help your body function the way it was designed to.

The Science of Skinny gives you the inside information on all those strange food additives which will change the way you look at processed foods.  You will learn why refined sugar and refined flour are your enemies.  You will learn why you should avoid unfermented soy products.  You will learn a lot about fats and oils, why we need fats in our diet, which ones to use and which ones to avoid.

The Science of Skinny provides comprehensive information about the health benefits and disease-fighting qualities of a number of foods.  Knowing this information makes eating a healthy diet so much easier because you understand the benefits!

The Science of Skinny also includes an eating plan and recipes to help you get started.

It seems that it often takes a health crisis for people to get serious about overhauling their diet, like me with my migraines and Dee with her obesity. Those of you who know me personally know that I have always been fairly skinny, although there was a time when I weighed 13kg more than I do now. So for me this journey is about inner health, but I do believe that if you get that right then everything else will fall into place, including losing excess weight if that's what you need.  From my own experience it is definitely not only about eating more of the good stuff, but it is about what you don't eat as well.  Forget those "sometimes foods" and find yourself healthier alternatives that you love to indulge in!

The Science of Skinny is available as an ebook from iTunes, Google Books or Kindle

The paperback version is harder to find.  None of my local bookstores had it in stock but were willing to order it in.  Or you can order it yourself from their online stores.

~ take every opportunity to put the good stuff in ~

This blog is about me, what I'm doing, what's working for me, and what's not. It includes my experiences and opinions. It is for general information only and is in no way intended to replace the advice of a health care professional.