The more I read about grains and specifically wheat. The more I am convinced that our family should limit the consumption of them whether they are whole, sprouted, soaked, etc. While I think that we can get by pretty well on meat, veggies, fruits and dairy, I would still like to have the option of making a muffin or a pancake for the kids every so often. And I should say with the exception of the few cavities our family has, we are not suffering any ill-health affects because of our consumption of grains, so if the kids have a cupcake or some corn chips at a birthday party, I really don't care. I just feel that in the long-term minimizing our consumption of them is best for our family.
For that reason, I recently ordered some books and alternative flours to help us on our grain reduction journey.
Grain-free Books:
Almond Flour Cookbook
Cooking with Coconut Flour
Everyday Grain-free Gourmet
Eat Well Feel Well (this one follows the Specific Carbohydrate Diet Recommendations for people trying to heal their gut based on the book Breaking the Vicious Cycle)
Grain-free Flour:
Coconut Flour
Almond Flour (it is bleached, but I emailed the company to see how they bleach it and they remove the Almond skins by quickly steaming them.)
There are other grain-free flour options available, but I choose these two because they had cookbook accompaniments I could use to guide me as I start cooking with them. I should also say that I only bought these to use occasionally. I wonder what would happen if we all started consuming as much almond and coconut flour as we do wheat, I can imagine that too much of these flours could be bad too...but that is just a guess.
I got the books a couple of weeks ago, but today the flours arrived:
I am super excited to try these alternative flours and look forward to sharing the results here. The only problem is I am heading up to beautiful Traverse City next week and won't be have the time to try them until I get back. Adios Amigos!
Lettuce: Will use for salads during the week.
Tomatoes: Will eat on our salads or give to the kids for a snack during the week. I always ask them if they want it cut up like a "farmers market sample" which means I chop it up and give them toothpicks to eat it with.
Potatoes: Yum! These were good I slow roasted them in my mini-slow cooker. Had a few leftover that I will put in the kid's eggs in the morning.
Green Beans: Will use as a side veggie for dinner. This Peanut Butter Green Bean Recipe is a fun side dish that is pretty kid-friendly that I have made in the past.
Broccoli: Will use as a side veggie for dinner. I usually just steam them.
Green Peppers: Not sure what I am going to do with these, the black bean soup recipe from How to Eat Supper is AMAZING and calls for green peppers, I might chop them up and freeze them for use with the recipe over winter.
Onions: I put them in my storage bin and will use them through the week for cooking as needed. I just bought some of these vegetable keepers from reuseablebags.com that are in the mail. I can't wait to get them and hang them up in my kitchen to store my garlic, onions, and potatoes in!