A Deliciously Simple Recipe for Whole Wheat Bread

Quote du Jour
How can a nation be called great if its bread tastes like kleenex?

                                                                  ~ Julia Child

On a recent road trip

Look at the different languages on
these labels. It makes me happy
that our country exports such 
excellent products.

I stopped by Bob’s Red Mill in Milwaukie, Oregon to stock up on whole wheat flour and several other grains including ground flax seed. I had no idea that baking with freshly milled flour means more flavor!

Think and drive

Oil change

On the drive home, I got to thinking about deleting oil in my bread baking. Curious how replacing the processed oil with ground flax seed would affect the texture and flavor of my old whole wheat bread recipe, I tried it. Success, it's perfect!

Perfect texture! Oil? Who needs it?

Label‘tude

Manufacturers have blurred the meaning of “whole grain”: their meaning may be fuzzy, inaccurate and disingenuous, but the FDA (Food and Drug Administration, the organization that recently classified pizza as a vegetable) lets them get away with it.



Tired of being confused
I Stopped Buying Bread
To control ingredients and tweak flavors to suit family tastes, I make my own. At dinner, I serve fresh, warm, just baked bread. To top it off, the whole house smells of delicious baking bread!

This Whole Wheat Bread recipe
makes a 2 pound loaf of bread.

Keeping it ridiculously simple
I use a Bread Machine
It’s so easy; I bake a fresh loaf every other day. Left-overs turn into bread pudding or bread crumbs. To make bread crumbs, whirl any left-over stale bread in a food processor, put in a covered jar or Ziploc bag and freeze. Oh my goodness, thrifty!

No bread machine?
Knead-by-hand instructions are included, too
But, to incorporate fresh whole wheat bread into our daily diet, I keep it simple and use a bread machine. Believe me, I end up saving money. Below the recipe, check out my Whole-foods Plant-based Cooking Strategies.

Recipe Notes: No special flours or ingredients needed. Just layer the recipe ingredients, beginning with liquids first, topping off with the yeast. To keep the yeast from contacting the liquid too soon, make a “lake” in the flour, then put the yeast in the “lake”.

To keep liquid from interacting with
the yeast too soon, form a "lake"
at the top of the flour.

Place the yeast in the "lake" and,
ta dahhh, you've got bread machine
skills. Take a bow!

Whole, Plant-based & Awesome Recipe
Whole Wheat Bread
Bread Machine Recipe: 3 hours and 40 minutes
2 pound loaf

Snap bread pan in place - make sure the paddle is properly inserted.
Measure then add ingredients in this order. See Recipe Notes.

• 1 3/4 cup tap water
• 2 tablespoons ground flax seed
• 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 4 2/3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast

Close the lid, select the Whole Wheat Bread setting and press start.

Knead by hand recipe: 3+ hours
1-9X5 loaf

Into a large bowl, measure, add, then mix together all the dry ingredients

• 2 tablespoons ground flax seed
• 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 4 2/3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast

Add and stir

• 1 3/4 cup tap water

Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes. As needed, add additional 1 tablespoon increments of whole wheat flour if dough is too soft.

Place in a bowl coated with cooking spray, turning once to coat top. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down; shape into a loaf. Place in a 9-inch x 5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 35-40 minutes.

Bake at 375° for 35-40 minutes, until golden brown. Turn loaf out of the pan to a wire rack to cool.

My food costs are low!
Whole-foods Plant-based Cooking Strategies: Bread
Eating whole plant-based foods does not mean extra work or money - just new habits and cooking strategies.

Making your own yeast bread saves money

Yeast

• buy in bulk at warehouse stores
• for less than $5, you’ll have enough for dozens of loaves (at least 50 loaves)
• store in a covered glass or metal container in the refrigerator

Flour: Bread Flour, All-Purpose Flour, whole wheat flour, etc.

• purchase 25+ lb bags at warehouse stores
• store in large covered glass or metal containers

Put appliances to work for you

Use a bread machine! 

Want to serve warm fresh bread at a meal? Use the Bread Machine Timer!

Decide when you want to serve the bread

• Snap the loaf pan and beater bar into place
• Layer ingredients according to machine’s directions
• Select the baking option (whole wheat, French, etc.)
• Set the timer based on when dinner will be served

Piggy endorsed! This is a great loaf of bread.

Fabrics of Our Lives

Update
"Stories From Tohoku" Documentary Begins Airing on PBS Nationwide in May. Check your local listings. It's excellent!. KQED 9: Tue, May 20, 2014 - 11:00 pm

Quote du Jour
Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so that each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire fabric. 
                                                                                  ~ Richard P. Feynman
Fabric from an epic disaster becomes
A Japanese O'hime Doll
Watching a screening of the film documentary, Stories from Tohoku, I was enchanted by the O'hime dolls made by Japanese tsunami survivor, Setsuko Abe.

This sweet little O'hime doll tells a story of 
culture and survival.

Among many other things, Kimonos, a beautiful part of the fabric of Japanese culture, were mixed in the rubble from the March 2011 tsunami. Searching through miles of devastation, Setsuko found and salvaged many kimonos. 

She washed those that could be cleaned, and somehow a few families were reunited with their kimonos. With the remaining kimonos, she started to make little O'hime dolls. O-hime means "princess" in Japanese.

In the documentary, Setsuko Abe says each doll takes 50 minutes to make, all completely sewn by hand.

A third of a million people became homeless from the tsunami, many are still living in temporary housing. Thirty of Setsuko's O'hime dolls were available for purchase at the film's screening, with proceeds benefiting the Northern Japan Earthquake Relief Fund, supported by the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California.

The beautiful hand-painted silk fabric has a history I can only imagine. Who sewed the kimono from this fabric? What girl wore the kimono? Was this an antique kimono? Where did they live?

A very simplified sketch of how this special doll is made.

Origami
A close look at the construction of this doll yields another Japanese art form, Origami. Simply a lined fabric square, folded into a sort of envelope - just like paper Origami - the dolls' head is tucked into place, then finished with silk thread.

The Tag

A friend asked her Japanese mother-in-law to try and translate the tag. Roughly, here's what it says:

The back of the O'hime doll. The 

painted silk is truly beautiful.

● the date: "heisei" 23 (the current period in Japan) 3/11 

● omamori: which is a keepsake/charm 
● it was a pleasure for her to sew this 
● she hopes that we carry it when we go to church/pray

Such a project seems to make the world a smaller place - we're members of a global community. Her keepsake is a treasure, and her hopes, honored.

To Learn More About Stories from Tohoku

Setsuko's story is only one of many in this documentary. To air on PBS this fall - stay tuned - I'll post the day, time and station when this information is available. 

● Watch

The Film's Website and Trailer

StoriesFromTohoku.com
The documentary has numerous stories about people affected by the March 2011 earthquake and epic tsunami. 

● Read
Here's a link to a San Francisco Chronicle article:
Film Explores Aftermath of the Japanese Tsunami

● The JCCCNC
Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California

The Film's Website and Trailer

StoriesFromTohoku.com

Amazing

It's remarkable that kimono fabric could survive the tumult of the tsunami. But what's more remarkable to me is that a survivor creates these lovely dolls from a fabric synonymous with her country - fabric that also survived the tsunami - and sends us a message of resilience, acceptance, patience and hope. 

Piggy is proud to give these O'hime dolls - made by 
tsunami survivor, Setsuko Abe - the closing of this blog.

Health: By Choice, Not by Chance

Quote du Jour
    In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments ~ there are consequences.
                     ~ Robert Ingersoll, American orator and political leader

Refreshed and Recharged
Engine 2 Retreat
With the great health benefits of plant-based eating, it's good every so often to take a refresher class. My husband and I attended the Portland, Oregon Engine 2 Retreat and it delivered!

Rip Esselstyn, author of

The Engine 2 Diet

Outstanding speakers, plant-based whole-foods cooking demonstrations, great food and interesting attendees, we feel recharged as we continue our plant-based whole-life journey.

Rip Esselstyn: Plant-Strong
After 10 years as a professional triathlete, Rip Esselstyn became a firefighter at the Austin Texas Engine 2 firehouse. His strength, vigor and stamina soon had fellow firefighters asking questions about his health strategies.

Firefighters are competitive, and via a challenge to eat plant-based for 28-days, firefighters in Austin's Engine 2 fire house experienced amazing health outcomes. 

 This book became a New York
 Times Best Seller. Rip recently
 published My Beef with Meat

Then came local, and then national recognition in the New York Times in March 2006:

Firefighters Gone Vegan? Even Austin is Impressed, New York Times, March 26, 2006

In early 2009, Rip published his first book, The Engine 2 Diet: The Texas Firefighter's 28-day Save Your Life Plan that Lowers Cholesterol and Burns Away the Pounds, Hachette Book Group USA.

My husband, Mark Jones, pictured
with Rip Esselstyn at the conclusion
of the April 2014 Engine 2 Retreat in
Portland, Oregon.

Visit his website: 
Engine2Diet.com

The Portland Retreat
At the conclusion of the weekend, my husband was asked to participate in a panel of attendees to share their improved health with plant-based eating. 

   Breakfast included hot or cold cereal,
   fruit, greens with salsa and a really
   delicious whole grain muffin.

Evidence-based
Data Driven
I value that the plant-based diet is a scientific evidence-based diet. Rip's dad, Caldwell Esselstyn MD, author of Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, has his patients start each meal with cooked greens.

Visit Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn's website -  the URL says it all - at: HeartAttackProof.com

Meals Included
Rip had each meal begin with cooked greens and salsa and other sauces. At first it seemed a bit odd, then we began to love starting each meal with them. Crazy how our body does let us know what it needs.

As Dr. John McDougall says
It's the Food!
Somehow, you could tell that this was a guy's diet. Each meal - breakfast, lunch and dinner - included several salads and side dishes, and plenty of each. Folks piled their plates high with food! (Of course I did, too!!)

I piled my plate so high with food
that it's difficult to distinguish one
salad or casserole from the other.
It was all good!

Great Produce (choke)
As a Californian it's really difficult for me to admit this, but Oregon sure grows delicious strawberries. They are SO good!

Rip's mother, Ann Esselstyn managed the food service, and also spoke about strategies for daily cooking of whole-foods.

This little piggy ate roast beef veggies!

Strawberry Shortcake ~ Plant-based and Awesome!

Info du Jour
     Can you send me a picture of a strawberry tree? Are strawberries sold in 
     brown containers last year's strawberries? Is a sweetener applied to fresh 
     strawberries to make them so sweet? What are those things on the outside
     of strawberries?        
                     ~ CaliforniaStrawberries.com FAQ: Funny Questions we've heard

Spring is Strawberry Season!

My dad enjoyed Strawberry Shortcake for his April birthday nearly every year of his life, which is why re-imagining a plant-based Strawberry Shortcake has been on my mind. It's been a delicious excuse to have lots and lots of strawberries!

I've made it a mission to come up with a recipe for a delicious Strawberry Shortcake made with a plant-based sponge-type cake, and think I've come close. Let me know what you think!

   A rustic, family-style plant-based Strawberry Shortcake, topped with 

  a favorite vegan frozen ice-cream-like dessert, my re-conceived recipe

  for this shortcake gets an A for awesome! And surprise - the cake
  doesn't crumble when cut - it's so moist! Did I mention, yummy?

A vintage linen tablecloth and 
a bowl of strawberries, ready for 
plant-based Strawberry Shortcake
 - yum!

My cake of choice for Strawberry Shortcake 
Sponge Cake
With all kinds of teensy holes to soak up strawberry juices, I love the texture that sponge cake brings to Strawberry Shortcake. Can a spongy texture be achieved without using eggs? 

My thought process...1,2,3
1. Leavening Ingredients Considered

• Baking powder provides a "pancake" texture
• Yeast gives a heavy bread-like texture
• What about baking soda? It needs an acid to activate, for example lemon juice or vinegar. Because of the instant reaction between an acid and baking soda, if the cake can immediately be baked, it might yield all kinds of bubbles that could soak up the strawberry juices...

Juicy strawberries star in this 
deliciously rustic plant-based 
Strawberry Shortcake.

Will the shortcake taste of lemon or vinegar?

2. A supporting - non competitive - flavor
The cake plays a supporting role of soaking up and accentuating the juices from the star of this dessert, the strawberries. 

Baking soda...
3. Avoiding Volcanic Shortcake...

While it's fun to add vinegar to baking soda for the instant fizzy reaction, I need a controlled reaction for my sponge cake.

The internet helps avoid disaster
Since I didn't want cake-batter-lava flows in my kitchen, I googled vegan-shortcake recipes, and came across this cool website and terrific article (please note, as a Cal grad, I am refraining from commenting on UCLA, aren't you proud of me?)(Grrrrah!):

        Shortcake Science Science and Food, UCLA - the science behind 
        creating an egg-free shortcake.

I tweaked the recipe from the Shortcake Science article and switched all-purpose flour for the cake flour, replaced the oil with ground flax seed and warm water, and changed the baking time. 

The result is a moist, spongy cake, that absorbs the strawberry juices, and - nice surprise - holds together when you cut and serve. Plus - super important - it's really good!

Gently mix the sliced strawberries with a few
tablespoons of sugar. Cover, and allow time
for the sugar to draw out juices of from the
strawberries.

Recipe Notes: Prepare the strawberries several hours in advance to allow time for the sugar to draw out the strawberry juices. 

To avoid metallic or off flavors from metal or plastic bowls, I prefer to use glass or porcelain bowls.

Once the dry and wet ingredients are combined, the baking soda and vinegar react instantly. 

Have the baking pan prepared and the oven preheated, ready to bake the cake. Gotta retain those bubbles!

Lining the baking pan with parchment paper makes it easy to remove the cake from the pan. Although I used a spring-form baking pan, a regular baking pan works excellently. Here's how to line a baking pan with parchment paper:

         1. 8-inch cake pan, parchment paper, oil spray and scissors
         2. Spray the bottom and sides of the pan with the oil spray
         3. Fold the parchment paper in half, then in half again. Then
             fold into a triangle, and keep folding until it's too thick to fold again
         4. With the center point of the triangle over the center of the baking 
             pan, visually estimate the distance to the edge of the baking pan, 
             and trim with scissors - it does not need to fit perfectly. I like a bit 
             of the paper to curve up the corner edge of the pan.
         5. Place in the pan, then spray with oil spray. 

Maybe rustic is the wrong word.
Old-fashioned Strawberry
Shortcake, family style. Now,
that's what I mean!

To Serve: Top my Strawberry Shortcake with a plant-based iced topping - remember, it can't be called Ice Cream unless it contains cream. 

Check out plant-based (vegan) frozen non-dairy desserts in the ice cream cases at most grocery stores. 

I really like Rice Dream Vanilla frozen non-dairy dessert. It tastes like the iced-milk my parents would serve when I was growing up.


Strawberry Shortcake - Plant-based and Awesome

Serves 6 (or maybe 8 after a big meal)

Strawberries in a clamshell. Photo from

Robert Mann Packaging website.

Strawberries

       
       1 pint (clamshell) Strawberries 

       2 tablespoons sugar

Clean and slice strawberries into a glass bowl. Sprinkle with sugar, and gently mix together. Cover and let sit for several hours, to give time for the sugar to draw out the strawberry juice. 

Cake

Preheat the oven to 350 °F

1 8-inch cake layer - hey, one layer keeps it short!

• Prepare the cake pan: Shortening can be used to grease the pan, but I prefer to minimize the use of fat as much as possible, so I use oil spray. Using parchment paper makes it easier to remove the cake from the pan. See Recipe Notes (above) for how to line a baking pan with parchment paper. 

Dry ingredients

1. Mix dry ingredients together.

2. Whip ground flax and warm

water, then let sit 1-2 minutes.

3. Combine water, vanilla extract

and vinegar

     1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
     1 cup sugar
     1 tsp baking soda
     1/2 tsp salt

Wet ingredients

     3 Tablespoons flax, ground
     1/3 cup warm water

     1 cup warm water
     1 tbsp vanilla extract
     1 tsp white vinegar or apple cider vinegar

In a mixing bowl, mix together all-purpose flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.

In a separate bowl, whisk or whip the ground flax seed and warm water for 1 minute. Set aside and let thicken for 1-2 minutes.

Stir together water, vanilla extract, and vinegar. Add to the ground flax seed mixture and mix well.

50 turns of the mixing spoon and 

the batter is ready to bake.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients. Mix until most of the dry ingredients are incorporated, about 50 stirs. (Clear as mud? One turn around the bowl with a spoon counts as one!)

Pour the batter into an 8-inch round cake pan and bake for 35 minutes, until the surface is firm to the touch. Cool in the pan for 15–20 minutes.

I had way too much fun with photos...the instructions are also written...between the photo strips!

1) Cool the baked cake layer 15-20 minutes before removing from pan. 2) Remove the cake from the pan - the parchment paper makes this step easy. 3) Peel off the parchment paper. 4) Center the cake on a serving plate.

Cake Construction: Cut off the top 1/2 inch of the cake, and set aside. 

On the bottom layer of the cake, spoon about 3/4 of the strawberry juices over the cake, letting the cake absorb the juice. Spoon on about half of the strawberries.

Top with the 2nd layer, cut-side-up. Spoon on remaining strawberry juices and remaining strawberries.

1) Cut off the top 1/2 inch of the cake and set aside. 2) Spoon about 3/4 of the strawberry juices over the bottom layer (happy face optional). 3) Place about half of the strawberries over the bottom layer. 4) Spoon remaining juices over the top layer, and top with strawberries. I got carried away and sifted on some powdered sugar. 

Top with a dairy free ice cream, I really like Rice Dream Vanilla.

Delicious by itself, dress up this Strawberry 

Shortcake with a dollop of a plant-based

frozen non-dairy dessert.

Enjoy!

Cartwheeling through California Strawberry Fields! 

 Photo from CaliforniaStrawberries.com website.     

Inspirations for Earth Day 2014

Photo from NASA.gov

Quote du Jour
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. 
              ~ Native American proverb



Oddly enough, the overriding sensation I got looking at the earth was, my god, that little thing is so fragile out there.
              ~ Mike Collins
                 Astronaut, Apollo 11


                                                               


Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. 
           ~ Albert Einstein


...as a WWll veteran, all I hope is that the sacrifices that were made in WWll, before and since, that the younger generation will take to heart what was done and the sacrifices that were made and the environmental degradation and all that was inflicted on the earth in hope that all of this was not in vain...to make a better world. 
            ~ my dad, Russell Wikander

Always leave a place better than you found it. ~ A family value

A tremendous sense of empowerment

A plant-based life contributes to a healthy planet

Besides being delicious, surprise! We had a sharp reduction in garbage when we switched to a plant-based diet. Slowly, we realized that the garbage can we set out every week was always nearly empty. We've composted food scraps for years. Now, without being aware of it, we reduced our carbon footprint! 

This single action - switching from meat and dairy to only plant-based food - is the most important change we've made to help our environment, our world, our earth.

My husband with our teensy garbage can.

Even this small size is never full. It's our 
recycling can that fills up!

What a beautiful world!

Asian Coleslaw Salad: A Plant-based Winner!

Quote du Jour
     Fat has a dulling effect on taste.
          ~ Cook's Illustrated Magazine, March and April 2013 issue, page 30

Oh yum, I got home first!

Colorful Asian Coleslaw is loaded with flavor!

I beat my husband home from a morning meeting, which means I had first dibs on last night's leftover Asian Coleslaw Salad. It's so good!


An Evolving Recipe
Beginning as Chinese Chicken Salad, my coleslaw recipe has undergone many iterations over the years. In 2009, when we converted to plant-based eating, I eliminated chicken as an ingredient. Deleting the chicken actually improved the salad, somehow, the taste was "cleaner." I renamed the salad Chinese Coleslaw. 

Because any fat I eat these days I end up wearing...
I decided to try make this salad without the vegetable oil in the dressing. Afterall, the salad oil could always be added back.

...why use oil if it doesn't add flavor?
It tastes terrific! Without vegetable oil, the bright flavors of ginger, soy sauce, pineapple and orange sing! I keep going back to today's Quote du Jour. It's true, fat blurs flavor.

Some of the fresh ingredients for
Asian Coleslaw Salad

This is the best version yet of Chinese Chicken Salad, Chinese Coleslaw, Asian Coleslaw Salad!

But first

What an odd name, Coleslaw

From Wikipedia: Coleslaw is a salad consisting primarily of shredded raw cabbage....The term "coleslaw" arose in the 18th century as an Anglicisation of the Dutch term "koolsla", a shortening of "koolsalade", which means "cabbage salad."

Recipe notes: A terrific salad for a picnic or potluck, and a cool salad for hot summer days, the flavor and textures improve while sitting, so make ahead. And maybe double the recipe for leftovers!

I like a chunky salad, but the look
of this salad can differ when the
ingredients are finely chopped.

Asian Coleslaw Salad

Main dish servings: 6
Preheat oven to 325*


Dressing 

    1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
    1/2 cup soy sauce
    1 tablespoon honey or agave syrup
    1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
    optional, 1/4 cup vegetable oil

Add all the above ingredients into a jar and cover with a tightly fitting lid. Give a good shake, then set aside.

Crunchies

    2 pkgs Top Ramen, any flavor (toss seasoning packets)

While still in the package, I hammer with a

meat tenderizer to break up the noodles.

     1/4 cup chopped almonds

    3 tablespoons sesame seeds

Break up ramen noodles while still in the package. Place dry noodles on a cookie sheet. Add chopped almonds and sesame seeds. Put sheet in the oven and toast to a light brown, 10-20 minutes, checking every 5 minutes or so. Remove from oven and cool.

Toast the ramen noodles, almonds

and sesame seeds to a golden brown.

Veggies   
   1/2 head green cabbage, chopped 
   1/2 head purple cabbage, chopped 
   1 bunch parsley, chopped
   4 green onions, chopped



Fruit          
     Your choice, fresh or canned:
         3 oranges, skinned and cut into chunks, 
            or 2 11-oz cans mandarin oranges, drained
         1 small pineapple, cut into chunks, 
            or 1 20-oz can pineapple chunks, drained

Add the cabbage, dressing, toss then serve!

In a large bowl, combine the cabbage, parsley, onions and fruit. Add the cooled toasted crunchies, toss with the dressing and serve. 

The salad only gets better as it sits. Any leftover salad makes a great lunch for the next day...if it lasts that long!

No cartwheels till I'm done!