New Grains in 7Grain Menu: Spelt

Good news everyone! Summer holidays are over and we are back with new exiting recipes. We decided to expand our menu and start a new line of products that will be suitable for people who are sensitive to wheat and gluten.

Today I am going to tell you about spelt the ancient grain, wheat's distant cousin, the first that was grown by farmers as long as 5000 years BC. Spelt was originally growing in Middle East and was used by Greeks and Romans. Just recently spelt was reintroduced to US consumers.

What's so cool about spelt? It's an unusual grain because it retains all of its nutritional value in the kernel. Spelt has a tough hull, or husk, that makes it more difficult to process than modern wheat varieties. Its husk protects it from pollutants and insects and usually allows growers to avoid using pesticides.
Even after processing spelt contains high levels of proteins and carbohydrates. Spelt wasn't modified and still has many of the original traits.

Spelt is a good source of dietary fiber, thiamin, niacin, iron and potassium. Easily digested. It contains less gluten than wheat and many wheat sensitive people can tolerate it. Easily substituted for wheat in recipes. In the old times a bowl of boiled spelt was inexpensive but nutritional food for workers. It's even mentioned in great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin's The Tale of the Priest and HisWorkman Balda. The bowl of spelt cereal was his payment for a day's work.

In 7 Grain we use only certified organic wholegrain spelt flour that mill ourselves.

We developed couple delicious recipes: Spelt Pizza Crust and Spelt Tortillas.

As always we tried our new recipes on our teenage children. They loved it saying that spelt products have a delicious, light and nutty flavor. At the same time it's filling without being heavy on your stomach. One usual size wrap made out of spelt tortilla was enough in comparison to 2 wraps out of white wheat flour that kids usually ate.

Nutrition Facts on Organic Spelt Berries 

Serving Size: 1/4 cup (43 g)

Nutrient Amount % DV

Calories 140  

Calories from Fat 10   

Total Fat 1 g 2%   

Sodium 0 mg

Total Carbohydrate 31 g 10%   

Dietary Fiber 3g 11%   

Protein 6 g   

Iron 10%

Next week at the Farmer's Market ask for Spelt Pizza Crust or Spelt Tortilla.

Sicilian Pizza Bread

This recipe is enough to make two 12” pizzas 

Ingredients: 

1/2 tsp. honey (2.5 ml)

1 1/4 cup warm water (300 ml)

1 tsp. active dry yeast (1/8 oz or 3.5g)

1/2 Tsp salt (8g)

3 cups whole wheat flour (450g)

1 Tsp. olive oil (15 ml)

Dissolve honey on 1 ¼ cups warm water and stir the yeast.

Stir the salt into the flour. Make a well in the center and pour the oil and the yeast mixture into the well. Stir it with the spoon or with your hand until the dough incorporates all the flour. Knead well about 10 minutes. 

Use ¼ cup of water instead of flour. The dough will be soft and sticky. Form the dough into a ball and place smooth side up into a bowl.

Let the dough rise for 1 hour. Divide dough into two balls. Let them rest for 2 minutes.

Stretch the dough on a pan using more water or oil. Pre-bake the crust for 7 minutes at 410F.

Put your favorite sauce and toppings. Finish baking it for additional 12-15 minutes at 400F.

You can also use this crust as a flat bread, just bake it a little bit more to make it crunchy.

Enjoy!

Make Pizza as a Pro

I didn’t post anything for a week already! I’ve been really busy last week. So I need to catch up.

Last week our friend Lena Mutonono invited 7 Grain to do a master class at her church in Lacombe, LA. At the Village Lutheran church we met bunch of very friendly people who were eager to learn how to make pizza as a pro.

It was so much fun!

Lena Brannon shared about the advantages of eating whole grain. 

The participants witnessed the process of making Sicilian pizza from scratch. They saw how grain turned into delicate dough and had hands-on time where they could play with it a little.

And in the end we all shared a delicious meal together and of course everyone took home a pizza crust made by their own hands!

We really enjoyed our time with you guys and hope to come again and teach you how to make homemade pasta!

Whole Grain Healthy Breakfast Ideas Under 400 Calories

Today I am starting the series of blog posts on healthy breakfasts.

7 Grain Bread with Homemade Pesto

The nutritionists say that a breakfast is an important part of healthy dieting. It’s giving a body a necessary fuel for the morning and somehow programs the body to consume less fat and overall fewer calories during the rest of the day. So those of us who have a habit to skip the breakfast in the morning have to realize it won’t help us to get slimmer and stay in shape. Why? Because the energy we hoped to get with the coffee will disappear in an hour or so. Very soon we will feel tired and hungry and start munching on junk snacks.

As for me, I love a good breakfast. I’d rather skip on lunch than on delicious and healthy breakfast. And whole grains can provide you with a nutritious 400 calorie starter in the morning.

So let’s look at few breakfast options the 7 Grain is more than happy to offer you.

Blueberry Muffin

Along with wholegrain it already has a fruit. You can eat the muffin as is or split it and toast it. Spread 1 Tbsp of peanut butter on it. Add half a banana and 1 cup of fat free milk or yogurt for a well balanced breakfast.

Raisi’n’Shine Energy Bread

It’s already full of raisins, cranberries, pecans, flax seeds, almonds and pumpkin seeds. Toast two slices and spread 1 Tbsp. of your favorite non-fat cheese spread.

Wholegrain Pancakes or Waffles

It’s easier to make them than you think. We offer two versions now: wholegrain wheat with flax seeds and wholegrain BOB (barley, oat, buckwheat) with flax seeds. You can make a whole batch ahead. In the morning just toast 2 pancakes or waffles. Sprinkle with berries and nuts of your choice. You can also eat them with plain yogurt.

Homemade Granola

Instead of commercial cereals eat our homemade granola. If you like it crunchy just add 1 cup of skim milk. Some find it more interesting when they soak it in 1 cup of yogurt overnight.

Wholegrain Sandwich

That’s what my children can live on and I don’t mind, ‘cos they fix it themselves (ha-ha!) Toast 1-2 slices of 7 Grain Bread (or half of the 7 Grain Sandwich Flat) or Sprouted Bread. Spread 1 tbsp. low-fat cream cheese or pesto over it. Place few slices of lean ham or turkey on the cream cheese sandwich. Add 1/4 cup fresh spinach leaves and two slices of tomato for a delicious wholegrain sandwich. It’s so good it can even serve as a lunch. 

Breakfast Pizza

Get our pre-baked pizza crust. Top it with spaghetti sauce, mixed chopped vegetables and shredded cheese and throw it in the oven until the cheese melts and voila! Fiber and complex carbohydrates from the crust and vegetables along with the protein and calcium from the cheese make this a well-balanced choice.

Healthy breakfast though will make it easier to meet the requirements for daily vitamins and minerals and keep our energy level till lunch. According to “Obesity Research” published in 2002, 78% of those who successfully lost weight and were able to maintain it ate breakfast at least four times a week.

So, don’t you think it’s time to start a new habit? And next time I’ll tell more about hot cereals for breakfast.

Pizza's here!

7 Grain’s pizza crusts were always very popular among our friends and customers. Lately we were asked numerous times why don’t we make pizzas. So, we decided why not to try?  We love pizza! It’s tasty, easy to make and can be healthy and nutritious as well, especially if made on wholegrain crust.

So we are proudly present to you the new addition to our menu. Four delicious pizzas:

1)      Roasted Vegetables No Cheese Pizza.  And I need to add no tomato sauce as well, there is pesto instead, which makes it unbelievably good. It has chunks of tomatoes, red bell pepper, baby bella mushrooms, onions and artichokes. Yam-m-m! To be honest that’s my favorite pizza, that’s why I wanted to share it with you guys!

2)      Mushroom and Olives Pizza is another one with pesto instead of tomato sauce. It also has baby bella mushrooms and roasted onions plus black olives. There is cheese on the this pizza, but (surprise!) it’s a fresh goat cheese, which has very different taste from regular cheese. That little touch makes MO Pizza whole new twist.

Next two pizzas are based on a tomato sauce. These are:

3)      Spinach and Feta Pizza. Rich and creamy taste of Feta is balanced with amazingly fresh and light taste of Spinach. Parmesan cheese is sprinkled on the top. Spinach is not what my kids like the most, but they ate the whole thing and asked for more. I admit they are my favorite Guiney pigs I try my recipes on.

4)      Three cheese pizza. Old time kids’ favorite. Fresh diced tomatoes, Feta, Parmesan and Mozzarella give this pizza additional flavor for cheese lovers. You can’t go wrong with it.

All our pizza’s are made on pre-baked 8” crusts, so it makes a perfect lunch or dinner for two. You can keep it in a freezer up to 2 weeks. Bake fresh pizza at 400F for 8-10 minutes. If frozen, bake at 400F for 12-15 minutes.

Enjoy!