"How long are you going to do this for?"

Does anyone find it ironic that people (like me) spend their time and energy trying to get back to whole foods, cooking at home, farming, and eating local and organic when that’s what so much human energy has been put into avoiding throughout history? It seems now like more of a burden than a blessing when being liberated from producing food has forced us to put our energy into fixing the environmental, political, and social consequences of that change.

I’ve had fun lately learning where food comes from, why our food system works the way it does, eating whole foods, and cooking at my house. However, this is a luxury I choose to pursue at this time. It’s fun because it’s not forced upon me daily to survive. I’m spending more money now than ever on food and using hours of my free time making things that I could buy in five minutes at the store. Consequently, I feel a lot more of a connection with food than I ever have before.

The other day I was asked: “well, how long are you going to do this anyway?” and I replied: “for the rest of my life”. Why would anyone ever want to buy granola when it’s so fun and easy to make? Why would I eat processed food when I can have fresh? This is not a weight loss diet - there is no finish point. My end result is feeding my body well and inviting others around me to do the same – that’s all!

Sweet Success! I have to admit that I was a little disappointed by my last bread semi-failure. It wasn’t horrible. It was edible. Sort of… I think that I was in too much of a hurry to let it rise all the way and (I know this is blasphemous) I didn’t realize that you actually have to knead the bread a lot. I got a lecture about this from my Mom – don’t worry. Anyway, Eliza (a great friend of mine) wanted to help me out and she gave me the following recipe that she made up. I waited until I had adequate time and felt relaxed. I followed her recipe carefully. I let the dough rise for the right amount of time and I kneaded the bread until my forearms ached. The result: fluffy, delicious, flavorful bread. I may have conquered this loaf, but I have a long way to go. I'm considering getting professional bread baking lessons – I’ll keep you updated.

Sweet Potato Bread

Sweet potatoes are an excellent source of vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin B6, and fiber. Delicious orangey tubers give rise to yummy bread.

• 1 cup warm water (about 115°F)



• 1 package active dry yeast (7g)



• 2 teaspoons salt
  


• 1 tablespoon honey
  


• 1 tablespoon butter, melted



• 1 medium sized yam or sweet potato, baked, peeled, and mashed (3/4-1 cup equivalent)
  


• 1 cup whole wheat flour



• 1 ½ cup all purpose flour plus more for kneading
  

1. Measure the water into a glass, measuring cup and add the yeast. Stir until the yeast has dissolved.

2. Pour into a mixing bowl and stir in salt, honey, and butter.

3. Add the whole wheat flour and 1 cup of the all purpose flour, stir with a spoon until incorporated.

4. Add the sweet potato and stir again. (you can bake potato in the oven for 30 minutes at 425 to get the perfect consistency!)

5. Add the remaining ½ cup of flour and mix with your hands to form a soft ball of dough. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead until the dough becomes elastic and less sticky, about 5 minutes. More flour should be added as necessary to keep the dough from sticking.

6. Lightly oil a bowl and place the dough inside. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and set in a warm spot to rise. Allow the dough to rise to double (1 hour).

7. Once the dough has doubled, punch it down and turn out onto a floured surface. Knead again for 5 minutes until smooth and shape into an elongated oval. Place the dough into an oiled bread pan, cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm place to rise. The dough should double in size once again.

8. While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 425°F.

9. Once the dough has doubled put the pan into the oven and bake for 25-45 minutes (this will depend greatly on your oven) or until browned.

Cool and slice, serve with butter and jam or peanut butter.

Preparation Time: 4 hours

Makes: 1 large loaf

Copyright 2010, E. Lagerquist, Original recipe

Dear Yeast,

Dear yeast,

I know that this was our first meeting and all, but I really expected a little more out of you. Going into it I had such confidence that you and I were going to connect right away, but when you were finished baking, I found you to be a little dry and stiff. You didn’t “rise” to the occasion as I expected you would. I propose that we meet up once more, on different terms, to give the relationship another chance. I realize, however, that the outcome on Friday wasn’t entirely your fault. I rushed you. I pushed a little too hard. I did not meet your “knead” like I should have. I’m willing to give it another shot; to use a little more patience. I feel like we owe it to each other to try again. Eventually, I would like to take this to the next level and extend our partnership into something more frequent and dependable. Let’s just both go into it with open minds and hearts and see what happens! The rest is up to fate….

Love,

Ginger

Mission Bread

On the phone the other night with a great old friend of mine, I was asked, “has being in nutrition grad school changed the way you eat?”

She got a wholehearted YES!

I told her about my new mission to eat whole foods and she sounded surprised as she asked, “is that hard for you?” and I realized – it has been. The person I was talking to makes dinner every night at home. She buys healthy food and really enjoys cooking. She doesn't drink often and only goes out to eat on a rare occasion. For her, eating whole foods is a no-brainer. To someone like this, I probably sound a little silly. On the flip side, to someone who lives on fast food daily, I probably sound like a radical.

However, I have had to make a conscious effort over the past two weeks. I’ve turned many foods down, made different choices at restaurants, and paid a lot more attention to what I’m putting in my mouth. But it feels good! This is what I’ve wanted to do for a long time, but honestly didn’t know how. It seemed too hard to change. The more we learn in class about bioactive compounds in food and disease prevention, the more I know that this is a hugely important choice I’ve made.

Now that I’ve conquered eating whole foods, I’m going to tackle some other challenges on the road to becoming ginger. I’m going to bake bread. That’s right – for the first time ever.

I’m going to whisper to the yeast and coerce it to do whatever I command.

This is the recipe I’ve chosen to tackle:

Ingredients

1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2/3 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1 tablespoon and 2-1/4 teaspoons honey
1-2/3 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 tablespoon and 2-1/4 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup and 3 tablespoons whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons butter, melted

Directions

This recipe's Ingredients were scaled to yield a new amount. The directions below still refer to the original recipe yield of 3 loaves.
In a large bowl, mix warm water, yeast, and 1/3 cup honey. Add 5 cups white bread flour, and stir to combine. Let set for 30 minutes, or until big and bubbly.
Mix in 3 tablespoons melted butter, 1/3 cup honey, and salt. Stir in 2 cups whole wheat flour. Flour a flat surface and knead with whole wheat flour until not real sticky - just pulling away from the counter, but still sticky to touch. This may take an additional 2 to 4 cups of whole wheat flour. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to coat the surface of the dough. Cover with a dishtowel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled.
Punch down, and divide into 3 loaves. Place in greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pans, and allow to rise until dough has topped the pans by one inch.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 25 to 30 minutes; do not overbake. Lightly brush the tops of loaves with 2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine when done to prevent crust from getting hard. Cool completely

“Simple Whole Wheat Bread” on allrecipes.com submitted by Nita Crabb

Wish me luck...

Making allowances..one bite at a time

The offending event: Dinner last night with Trevor (undisclosed location)

Me: large romaine salad with lemon and salmon
Trevor: salmon with mashed potatoes, creamy white sauce and veggies

accompanied by gingerale (I did not have a sip) AND
flour-less chocolate cake with strawberries and whipped cream.

The gingerale I can deny, though I love it. Crisp, tangy with an underlying sweetness –the carbonation is like tiny explosions in your throat. But, soda is not a whole food, so I passed. I think have conquered eating out while consuming whole foods - at first it seemed daunting, but if you get in the habit of it, you realize - restaurants are full of whole foods! You just have to know where to look. The chocolate cake….here’s where it gets so much harder. Should I have to go the rest of my life not having a bite of dessert at a restaurant? Does anyone out there realize my true addiction to chocolate cake and delicacies of that nature? I’m doing a self-proclaimed “great job” at eating whole foods. I’ll admit that I’ve had to make some allowances: dairy in general (though I’ve switched to organic, unsweetened yogurt), oils, bread if I know who has made it, and some products I bake myself but that have sugar in them. I am happy with the change and don't plan on going back to processed. It was too much, however, looking at that magnificent chocolate cake – more brownie really – drizzled with real strawberries and their delectable rose-colored juice…a dollop of fluffy whipped-cream sitting shyly on the corner. I had a bite – it was sweet and gooey. I dipped it in strawberry sauce. But honestly, we shared and left a few bites behind.

Lesson learned: its ok to split a piece of a chocolate cake smothered in fresh strawberries.

You have an active mind and a keen imagination

“To determine whether a food is whole or not one must be awake when making food choices. Before we put a bite in our mouths, before we heat it up, before we even decide to toss it in our grocery cart, there needs to be a moment, a second, when we consider where the food came from.” Cynthia Lair, Chef and instructor extraordinaire

I would like to describe 3 near pitfalls into the depths of NOT whole foods choices.

#1. Location: QFC

While shopping for yet more grapefruits, I passed the bakery and there were free sample crumbles of their chocolate chip cookies encased in a plastic dome with a pair of black, plastic tongs invitingly dangling over the side. Normally I would wander by several times, acting nonchalantly, grabbing cookies as I passed so I would have enough to munch on while waiting in the grocery line to buy the grapefruits. NO MORE. I walked directly past and into the self-checkout line.

#2. Location: apartment complex lobby

As I picked up mail from the office (not 5 minutes after the QFC cookie fiasco) I was met by a large blue platter filled with cookies of undefined origin and type on a plate next to the coffee machine. The aroma of coffee and sugar filled the air, taunting me. Again – I ran the other direction. Is it possible that the only tool I need to eat whole foods is avid avoidance of processed foods?

#3. Location: Snappy Dragon aka. the best Chinese restaurant in the world

My first try at eating out “whole foods” style. I have determined that noodles are decidedly NOT whole foods. Noodles do not grow on trees, unfortunately. We ordered chicken with bell peppers and onions with a side of asparagus with black bean sauce. Because Judy Fu makes her own sauces, I feel better about eating here than some other restaurants, however, I would like to admit that I know that there may be sugar or other additives in the sauce that don’t completely fit into my new diet. I would like to counterbalance that statement by declaring that I did not eat my fortune cookie. For the first time in my life, I did not eat the fortune cookie. My general analysis of fortune cookies is that they are delicious vanilla-crunchy goodness, however, on a second observation of them sitting there on top of the check at the table in their little bowl – they are sort of like waxy styrofoam and certainly not a whole food.

“You have an active mind and a keen imagination”

Gum xia and Thank you Judy Fu!

Whole foods what?

I’m a student of nutrition, but I have a secret. My own nutrition is less than perfect. My husband threatened the other day that when I’m a famous nutritionist, he’s going to start a blog on the side to record the things I eat as entertainment for the public. He told me this while I was munching on Margherita pizza the other night after an appetizer cup of rocky road ice cream.

I think the problem (or non-problem) is that I really love food. I love the way things taste, I’m fanatical about my favorite restaurants, and I am hungry ALL THE TIME. I don’t exclude foods such as dairy, wheat, or sugar. I love good-for-you food as well as not-so-good-for-you food and I am now in search of balance. It is my goal to start practicing what I preach.

It’s not that I want to become a different person or change the way I am. I just want to change some of the things I do and some of the choices I make. Some of my short terms goals are to: follow a whole foods diet, start doing yoga, bake bread. It can’t be that hard, right?

However, when I went to the Whole Foods in Bellevue last night, I ended up with a huge basket of grapefruits, apples, and granola. I can’t live on that alone – I’ll starve! What does eating whole foods really mean? Can I truly incorporate this lifestyle into my crazy schedule? How can I become more “Bastyrian” without becoming obsessive? These are the questions I’ve set out to answer.

Glossary of terms
Bastyrian: bas [teer] ee-uhn
-noun
1. a student attending Bastyr University in Kenmore, Washington.
2. any of various naturopathic minded students of whole foods nutrition
3. person or persons carrying containers of fermented foods in clay pots around with them daily wherever they go as to improve digestive health and promote flora growth in gut