Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Eat Wheat!

My hubby and I just got finished with a major over haul of our food storage! We originally used a vacuum sealer system (Seal a Meal) to "preserve" 400 pounds of wheat, but found that the bags were too easily split and we would have to hurry and eat wheat all the time. Anyway, we finally borrowed the Dry Pack Canner from the LDS Home Storage Center and dry canned all that flippin' wheat! Now, this is not just any old wheat.... we bought nuthin' but the best: Wheat Montana!
This stuff is TASTY!

Now, you might ask... What the heck do you do with 400 pounds of dry packed, wheat? You can't build furniture out of it, and it's not comfortable to sleep on it! Well, you eat it, silly!

A good friend of mine, Janet Huff, from Montana wrote a book called Basic Essentials Cookbook. This is not just any ordinary cookbook, this is the mother of all cookbooks. It is as thick as a standard Bible. It has over 1,200 recipes that use basic ingredients to provide excellent nutrition and good food. Janet has researched pantry storage and advocates the idea of storing what you eat and eating what you store. This is very important... you don't want to throw all your wheat in the garage and forget about it! Eat it!

Have a great day!!! Katie Lyn

Details on Janet's Book:

Basic Essentials Cookbook
Would you like to improve your family's health while cutting your food budget? Would you like to cook from more natural ingredients such as whole grains? There are over 1,200 recipes to choose from in this extra thick volume. Special section, Make Your Own Groceries at Home, includes breakfast cereals, protein bars, pancakes syrups, crackers, pita bread, English muffins, tortillas, "Bisquick"-type mix, pickles, Tootsie rolls and more!


Here is a fantastic recipe for Wheat Bread:

Here is my latest bread making venture, and it is a good one. The bread turns out light and tender....even good for making sandwiches. 100% whole wheat. Cut with a serrated knife for best results in slicing this tender bread.


Ingredients

1 2/3 c. warm water
2 tsp. bottled lemon juice
3 T. vegetable oil
2 T. honey OR 2 T. sugar OR 2 T. brown sugar
1 tsp. sea salt
3 1/2 c. golden whole wheat flour
(this means hard white winter wheat flour)
1/3 c. vital wheat gluten
(usually found at a health food store)
1 T. dry yeast

Directions

This dough starts out rather small, thus a bread machine can be used to knead it. In bread machine: put ingredients in order given above, start dough cycle. When dough is mixed and on to kneading, touch lightly with finger....it should feel just slightly sticky. Add water a little at a time, or a bit more flour until this consistency is achieved. Allow dough to finish kneading, turn off the machine, remove dough. Put into an oiled bowl, turn to coat. Cover, let rise until doubled. Remove air bubbles by gently rolling raised dough on a greased surface, forming a long log. Cut into 2 even halves. Press each half into a greased and floured loaf pan until dough is even and flat. Cover, raise about 45 minutes, until dough is about 1 to 2 inches above rim of loaf pan. Bake at 375 about 30 minutes, or until well browned and sounds hollow when tapped on top. Cool in pans for 5 minutes; remove carefully (bread is tender) to a clean towel or rack to finish cooling completely. Store in plastic wrap or bag.

Comments

NOTE: What else could you make using this dough? 2 loaves french bread, or french rolls, or hoagie buns, or kaiser buns; or one large loaf farmer's bread.




2 comments:

Homespun Mama said...

Great post!!! I'll have to share it with my neighbor who really does use their food storage for furniture! :)

Katie Lyn said...

That is great! I just love Janet's book!!!

I am considering making a "table couch" out of a stack of boxes... I figure two boxes side by side and about 4 boxes high (that would be 48 cans of wheat) and cover with a nice table cloth!!! Woot Woot!

Thanks for the comment!

Katie Lyn