Book Review: Bean Appetit

Bean Appétit is packed with creative ways to make healthy foods not only delicious but fun. The dishes are so bright, colorful, and creative, they’re more like art than meals. Like the “High Note Nibbles” sandwiches, for example, that look like a piano keyboard. Or the “Bug Bites”—dragonfly-shaped pitas sandwiches made with fruit, turkey, and a pickle. The almost florescent-purple “Starry Night Bites” are made from berries and sticky rice and adorned with cheese stars. But my favorite was “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” which looks like the character from the book by Eric Carle. Chicken-and-vegetable-stuffed spring rolls form the body with a big tomato as a head and pretzel sticks as legs. It’s so cute and sounds really tasty. There are many more fun creations for parents and children to make together—with lots that don’t even require any cooking.

The recipes and language in Bean Appétit are appropriate for the preschool crowd. Directions to “Shake your hips and get ready to mix:” or “Roll around on the floor while chanting ‘Go bananas’ will be fun for young children, but may turn off older kids. Interspersed between the recipes are silly conversation starters, such as “Who do you know has the silliest singing voice?” or “Would you rather share your sleeping bag with a bat or a bear?” There are games like “Flash Dance” (a flashlight dancing game) and food related trivia like “Table Manners from Other Countries.” The book is bright and appealing with whimsical illustrations and colorful photographs. This would be great for parents of preschoolers and preschool or kindergarten teachers.

Quick bread made with rye flour

I got a couple of pounds of rye flour in my local grain CSA box this week. Of course, my first thought was to make a few loaves of yeasted rye bread but the day turned out so warm and sunny that I didn't want to spend my day kneading and rising dough. I paged through my Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book and found a couple of recipes for rye quick breads. Based on their method, my daughter Aimie and I came up with this one . . . and boy was it good--moist with hints of orange and spices--and vegan as well. Perfect with a tall glass of rice milk after a walk on the beach.

Orange-Spiced Rye Quick Bread
This is wonderfully moist and flavorful. Great for breakfast, tea, or with a soup or salad.

1 cup whole rye flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 1/3 cups water
3 tablespoons oil
grated rind of 1 orange
juice of 1 orange
1/2 cup chopped almonds, toasted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Oil a loaf pan. Sift flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spice together. In a separate bowl, whisk maple syrup, water, oil, orange rind and juice until combined. Stir in flour mixture. Reserving 2 tablespoons chopped nuts, gently fold in the almonds. Pour the batter into to the prepared pan and sprinkle reserved almonds over the top. Bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in center comes out dry. Remove bread from pan and let cool on a wire rack before slicing.

Makes 1 loaf

More body care safety news

I posted a while back about the deception of so-called organic body care products that were using non-organic and even in some cases toxic ingredients. Well, I hope you haven't been using Herbal Essences shampoos because this Friday, details of an agreement from Procter and Gamble to reformulate 18 products from its top-selling Herbal Essences brand to reduce levels of the carcinogenic petrochemical 1,4-Dioxane will be announced by the Organic Consumer's Association and other groups. In addition, OCA and allies will announce new results from a continuing study that has tested over 150 consumer products for the toxic chemical. This year, 20 laundry detergents were tested, including major "natural" and conventional brands. The seven laundry detergent brands from Procter and Gamble had by far the highest levels of 1,4-dioxane overall.

Check out this link for a list of safe body and personal care products.

More goodies with local grains

Rolled oats from my local grain box, made a delicious breakfast. These need to cook a little longer than the rolled oats I get at the store, but my kids like them because they come out firmer and chewier. We did find quite a few hulls in them however which I found annoying to keep spitting out . . . not sure if I soak or rinse them if it would help this problem. I'll have to experiment (but please comment if you have a tip). It didn't bother the girls though--they had two servings each.

We also made a batch of our favorite cookies from The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook.

Everything Cookies

These easy cookies are bursting with different tastes, textures, and flavors.

1/2 cup softened unsalted butter or coconut oil

1/2 cup evaporated cane juice

1 egg or egg replacer

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup brown rice flour, barley flour, or whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup rolled oats (or other rolled grain)

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 cup raisins

1/3 cup chocolate chips or unsweetened carob chips

1/3 cup sunflower seeds or chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 375°F. Oil cookie sheet. Beat together butter and evaporated cane juice until creamy. Beat in egg and vanilla. In separate bowl, whisk together flour, oats, sea salt, and baking powder. Mix flour mixture into liquid ingredients until combined. Stir in remaining ingredients. Drop by tablespoonfuls on prepared baking sheet leaving space between cookies for slight spreading. Bake 6 to 8 minutes, or until bottoms are golden. Let sit one minute before removing to wire rack to cool.

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen

Yummy way to use up leftover porridges

I had some of the cracked wheat porridge leftover from breakfast the other day so I made the Leftover Oatmeal-Raisin Muffins from The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook, substituting the porridge for oatmeal and dried cranberries for raisins. Since I had 1 cup of porridge, I doubled the recipe and now I'll have enough to freeze. They are a great addition to a thermos of soup or a salad in our lunches.

Leftover Oatmeal-Raisin Muffins

I always seem to have a little oatmeal leftover from breakfast, but not quite enough to save for another meal. Hence, the creation of these muffins.

3 tablespoons oil

2 tablespoons blackstrap molasses

1 egg or egg replacer

2/3 cup milk (dairy or nondairy)

1/2 cup cooked oatmeal

1/2 cup raisins

1 cup whole wheat, brown rice, or barley flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Pinch sea salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375°F. Oil muffin tins. Beat together oil, molasses, egg, and milk until completely combined. Stir in oatmeal and raisins. In separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon together. Add liquid ingredients to flour mixture. Stir gently until combined. Fill prepared muffin tins about 3/4 of the way full. Bake 15 to 20 minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes out dry. Cool muffins 5 minutes before removing from tin. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 8 muffins

Variation

Leftover Oatmeal Surprise Muffins: Omit raisins and prepare batter as directed. Fill muffin tins half full with batter. Place 1 teaspoon jam in the center of each muffin. Top with remaining batter to full tins a little over 3/4 full. Bake as directed.

Cracked Wheat Porridge

We tried the cracked wheat from our CSA box for breakfast. I cooked the cracked wheat with about 2 1/2 times water for about 15 minutes. We loved it with rice milk and a little blackstrap molasses. Emily added some sliced bananas as well.

Local Grain Box #2

I got my second CSA grain box. This week:

- hard red winter wheat flour
- spelt flour
- Khorasan flour
- cracked hard red winter wheat (for porridge)
- rolled soft white wheat
- rolled spelt
- thick rolled oats

We made vegan blueberry-lemon muffins for breakfast with soft wheat and spelt flour. While they were baking started some bread. I used 2 cups hard wheat, 2 cups spelt flour and 2 cups Khorasan. I used my own recipe this time rather than the one from Laurel's Bread Book. I like this recipe because it is dry and you incorporate water while you knead rather than the opposite. I find this is much easier to work with then the sticky dough that needs flour added. My daughter Emily and I took turns kneading. After the first rise, she rolled out half the dough and added raisins and cinnamon to make raisin bread.

Here's my recipe:

Whole Wheat-Spelt Bread

1 tablespoon yeast
2 tablespoons brown rice or agave syrup (or honey)
2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon sea salt
4 cups Whole Wheat Flour
2 cups Spelt Flour

Stir yeast and sweetener into water. Let sit 5 minutes or until it froths. In large bowl, mix flours and salt. Add yeast mixture and stir until combined. Pour into board to knead. With wet hands knead 10 to 15 minutes, or until soft and stretchy. Rinse bowl out with water and leave wet. Form dough into a ball and place in bowl. Cover with damp towel. Let rise 2 hours, or until doubled in size. Gently press down dough and knead into a ball. Divide the dough in half and form into logs. Place in oiled loaf pans. Cover with damp towel and let rise about 1 hour, or until dough rises over the edge of the pan. Preheat oven to 375. Bake loaves 50 minutes. When done they should drop from the pan easily and have a hollow sound when thumped on the bottom. Let cool before slicing.

Makes 2 loaves