My photography blog is beginning to look like a foodie blog! I’ve really been trying to incorporate whole foods into my diet, paying attention to where my food is coming from, eating more local foods and eating as much of my food homemade as possible. Cutting out animal products and processed foods has worked wonders on my body. I feel amazing and I lost 10 pounds in 5 weeks. I don’t count calories, I don’t deprive myself and I’ve even cut back on exercise (I injured my knee).

I’ve been reading everything I can get my hands on related to vegetarianism, veganism, conscious eating and anything else along those lines. One book that I HIGHLY recommend is Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating by Mark Bittman. Even if you aren’t a vegetarian I think you will like it, as it is written by an omnivore. He eats meat, but eats less of it and tries to eat closer to the ground with more whole foods- something I think everyone would benefit from doing. The second half of his book is full of  amazing recipes (though some contain animal products). I made two of them tonight. The first being a chicken dish that I modified (and will post shortly), the second one being his “Almost No-Work Whole Grain Bread”. I feel good eating a bread product that has only FIVE  ingredients… and it really was “almost no work”. This bread is dense and full-flavored; a definite 5 star in my book.

Almost No-Work Whole Wheat Bread

Ingredients:

3 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp instant yeast

2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups lukewarm water

up to 1 cup chopped nuts, seeds, dried fruit or proofed whole grains

(I used quinoa and only had a little more than 1/2 cup)

*note: to use whole grains like cracked wheat, millet or quinoa, soak 1/2-3/4 cup grain in a small bowl, covered with water for an hour or so. Drain and add to dough as described.

Directions:

Combine the flour, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Add the water and stir until blended; the dough should be wet and sticky but not liquid; add dome more water if it seems dry (I ended up having to add about 1/4 cup extra). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest in a warm place for at least 12 hours and up to 24 hours. The dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Rising time will be shorter at warmer temperatures, or a bit longer if your kitchen is chilly.

*note: for those of you who aren’t experienced bread-makers (like me) A good way to let dough rise is to turn your oven on warm (don’t open it or the heat will escape!) and then turn it off about 10 minutes before you put the dough in. The bread doesn’t need a super warm environment to rise. I wouldn’t have known this (I flopped 3 different bread recipes) without my bread-master of a mother who makes the best potato rolls EVER. I made my dough after dinner and let it rise overnight and while I was at work.

Use some oil to grease a loaf pan. Add the nuts, seeds, fruit or proofed whole grains with your hands or a rubber spatula. Transfer the dough to the loaf pan, and use a rubber spatula gently to settle it evenly. Cover with a towel and let rise until doubled- about an hour. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

bake the bread until deep golden and hollow-sounding when tapped, about 45 minutes. (An instant-read thermometer should register 200 degrees when inserted into the center of the loaf) Immediately turn out of the pan onto a rack and let it cool at least 30 minutes before slicing.

Tags: baking, healthy train, vegan

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 6th, 2010 at 6:58 pm and is filed under making magic in the kitchen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.