Louisiana Style Corn Grits

Well, last Saturday in Covington, LA many of you asked for the recipe of our corn grits.

Here it is. Yields 6 servings.

1 Tsp oil

1/2 pound smoked sausage, diced

 1/2 onion, finely chopped

1 cup sun dried tomatoes or ½ cup fresh tomatoes, chopped

 1 teaspoon garlic powder

 4 cups water (or 2 cups water and 2 cups milk)

 1 teaspoon ground black pepper (or Chipotle)

 1 teaspoon salt

 1 tablespoon Louisiana hot pepper sauce (or Tabasco™)

 1 cup organic corn grits with chives and flax seeds

 1 cup shredded cheese

Directions

Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add oil, sausage and onions; cook and stir until browned. Add tomatoes and garlic powder. Cook and stir until onion is tender. Pour in the water (or water and milk) and season with pepper, salt and hot pepper sauce; bring to a boil.

Gradually stir in the grits, cover and reduce the heat to low. Simmer, stirring frequently, until the mixture is thick, 5 to 10 minutes. Stir in cheese. Heat through until cheese is melted.

Of course you can play around with it. Tweak this and that, add your favorite seasoning or exclude some ingredients. Anyway, you can always find Organic Corn Grits with chives and flax seeds at our stands at the Farmers Markets.

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.

NEW! Raisi’n’Shine Energy Bread

For a long time we wanted to develop a new specialty bread recipe for our friends who lead an active lifestyle, who love sports and fitness and watch what the eat. And here it is!

Raisi'nShine Energy Bread

It’s packed with raisins. They are soaked overnight along with the organic flax seeds, then pureed and serve as the basis for 100% whole grain wheat dough. 

Raisins contain phytochemical compound resveratrol. Resveratrol, a polyphenol anti-oxidant, has anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, blood cholesterol lowering activities. Studies suggest that resveratrol has been found to have protective action against cancers like melanoma, colon and prostate, and diseases such as coronary heart disease (CHD), degenerative nerve disease, Alzheimer's disease and viral/ fungal infections.

The raisins are giving this bread its color, sweetness and the distinct flavor along with apples, organic carrots, cranberries, honey and molasses. Raisi'n'Shine Bread is also full of organic sunflower seeds, organic pumpkin seeds, almonds and pecan nuts. They are high in energy and are incredible source of health benefiting nutrients.

Pumpkin and sunflower seeds contain fatty acids, which help to prevent coronary artery disease and strokes. The are also great source of good quality protein, vitamin E and vitamin B group such as thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, B-6 and folate. 

It has absolutely no oil, no eggs and no dairy products.

You can eat it for a breakfast or as a absolutely healthy and delicious snack, when you need to boost your  energy and help you shine all day long.

And as with all our breads it has to be refrigerated because we don't use any preservatives. Enjoy!

Twelve Steps from Grain to Bread

Did you know that baking bread is a multi step process? 

There are 12 steps from wheat to a crusty fresh bread to be exact. It’s not a rocket science, you know. But choices you make at each step will affects the final result: the taste, shape and texture of a loaf.

So let me to take you through an amazing journey of making handmade bread.

Step 1. Grinding the grain 

Freshly ground grain is first and only way to healthy baking. If you want to eat healthy baked goods than the main ingredient has to be healthy and wholesome. We mill our own flour every time we start a new batch of dough. Our grain is 100% organic and our flour is fresh and wholegrain.  

Step 2. Measuring and Mixing

It’s important to measure a right amount of ingredients. As I said before it’s not a rocket science so you can tweak here and there, play with the recipe in order to reach the desired results. But it’s important to pay attention and do your math, if you don’t want to put too much sugar or forget about yeast altogether. Mistakes at this stage are usually costly.

While mixing baker sets for herself three mail goals: distribute the ingredients evenly, activate the yeast and help the gluten start to develop. At 7 Grain we do everything by hand. It takes about 10 minutes a loaf to mix the ingredients well. And it’s a hard work I have to say!

Step 3. Fermentation (Rising)

It’s a miracle step. That’s the time when yeast starts working and transforming still ingredients into a living dough. Because we are making large batches of dough, we are making a starter (or bulk ferment). Often it’s done one day before actual baking. The flavor and texture of bread to be are developed during the fermentation process. So if your bread is too sour or bland then probably the fermentation didn’t go too well (may be yeast was too old, or it was too cold or too hot). Yes, the dough is rising itself, but it doesn’t mean that baker can relax. While the dough is rising you may need to punch it down few times in order to degas it.  

Step 4.   Dividing

When dough is ready it feels like the baby’s skin. It’s soft and warm. And it’s a pure joy to touch it. You should handle it very gently, but quickly, dividing it into individual units that will become loaves. At 7 Grain we use the scale to make sure that all our loaves are the same.  

Step 5. Pre-shaping

Usually Steps 4 & 5 go together. One of us is dividing the dough, the other forms it in the round balls or torpedo shapes, depending of what we are making to do with them. This step insures that the loaf will have an beautiful smooth crust.

Step 6. Resting

Dough was punched and shaped so it has to rest a little bit before it will get the final shape. It’s needed for gluten that became very tight during the pre-shaping to relax and become more elastic again. The rest time depends on a bread type. It takes from few minutes to few hours. Fermentation process by the way still continues in the units.

Step 7. Final shaping

The dough balls are finally shaped into loaves, baguettes or buns. Don’t think it’s that easy. It’s an art. Every shape has it’s own tricks that you learn over time. If you shape the dough gently, the bread will have large irregular wholes in it. In some types of bread it’s not desirable, so you need press it harder to degas the dough. There are variety of different shapes: traditional brick, torpedo, ball, baguette, round and knotted rolls, braids and wreathes. These are traditional, of course, I’ve seen bread in the shape of bunnies, lambs, letters and even Christmas tree. So some bakers run wild.

Step 8. Panning

This step takes seconds, while you are putting the loaf in a bread pan where it will be baked.

Step 9. Final proofing

The dough “proves” it’s alive and well by filling the baking pan. It grows and takes its final size. This step may be short or long, depending on a temperature and humidity. If you don’t give the dough enough time to proof, the bread will not be as big as it could be. If you give it too much time, the middle of the top can fall down during baking. Any way right timing is everything here or your bread will be small, dense and won’t bake through.

Step 10. Baking

It’s the process of transforming the live dough into bread. A moment of truth so to say, that shows if all the preparations you did were in vain or not. The proteins in the bread coagulated by the heat, the starches gelatinized and sugars caramelized. You’ve done your best, so now you are just admiring the golden glow of the baking crust and enjoying the aroma of fresh bread.

Step 11. Cooling

When you get it from the oven and let it cool, the bread continues to bake for a while, driving off the unnecessary moisture. It’s very tempting and hard to keep yourself from breaking the fresh loaf and biting into the moist and hot bread. But the truth is that bread still is not ready, it doesn’t have the right texture and flavor. To be healthy and digestible the proteins need to cool down and firm up for 6 to 8 hours.      

Step 12. Packaging and Storing

The bread goes into paper or plastic bag and we bring it to the farmers markets for you to enjoy. Our fresh bread has to be refrigerated. It has no preservative that’s why its shelf life is very short. You can freeze it up to one month.

It’s complicated but fun process. We go through it with every type of bread over and over. But we love to bake for you, guys.  

Whole Grains That Kids Would Love

Wanna to introduce your kids to whole grains? Start with the foods they’ll love it for sure. Incorporating whole grain pancakes or waffles into your family meal will not only make your children happy and nourished, it will also help them to develop life long healthy eating habits.

What’s great about whole grain pancakes is that they taste great (and not like “a cardboard” as many “healthy” commercial mixes do), give you energy, and don’t leave you with this unpleasant heaviness in your stomach. Our kids say these are the best pancakes they ever ate.

So what’s in the bag of our wholegrain pancake mix? There is fresh 100% organic whole grain soft white wheat flour, raw cane sugar (we cut back 50% of sugar from most recipes. So no sugar rush and crash!), ground organic flax seeds and aluminum free baking powder. 

One bag contains 3 cups of whole grain pancake mix. If you don’t use the whole bag at once, keep it refrigerated. One bag makes about 18 pancakes, which is 6 servings.

You can make pancakes in 2 easy to follow steps.

Step 1: Add 1 cup of milk to 1 cup of mix. (You can use whole, 2% or skim milk as you wish. Also you can substitute milk with buttermilk, plain yogurt or sour milk. For the fluffier pancakes add 1 egg and ½ tsp of baking powder. To make waffles add 1/3 cup of oil.) Whisk it together until smooth.

Step 2: Make pancakes as usual but on lower temperature than white flour pancakes.

Step 3: Serve your pancakes or waffles with fresh seasonal fruit like banana, blueberries or strawberries. Enjoy!

You can make a whole batch of pancakes or waffles ahead and keep them in the freezer for a quick and satisfying breakfast, healthy school or bed time snack or lunch. Also it’s a great family activity and a good way to start teaching your kids about healthy eating.

Fresh Homemade Pasta

If you just start thinking about introducing whole grains into your diet, then 100% organic whole grain homemade pasta is a good way to start. We make it with durum wheat flour, which is the same as saying "whole semolina flour." "Semolina" is another word for "coarsely ground durum wheat." Durum wheat is rich in protein and gluten, that’s why we do not recommend it to people with celiac disease or sensitive to gluten. Also we add some flax seed and a little bit of olive oil to make our pasta more nutritious and healthier.

Fresh whole grain pasta may taste a little bit different to you. It has a little bit heartier coarse texture and a nuttier taste. Our pasta has no preservatives, so you have to eat it quickly or keep it refrigerated up to 1 month. Serving size is 1/2 cup of cooked pasta. There are 4 servings in one pack of 7 Grain Homemade Pasta.

Nutrition facts for 1 serving:

Calories 135

Total Carbohydrates 22 g (8% DV)

Protein 5 g

Dietary Fiber 5 g (20% DV)

Fat > 1g

Whole Grains 1 serving

You should cook your pasta only 2-4 minutes and add your favorite pasta sauce, pesto or fresh vegetables.

There is Russian saying “You can’t get fat on pasta”. Truth is you can. If you eat pasta made of wrong sorts of wheat or just eat it too much.

Eat healthy, stay in shape, enjoy your life. 

Whole Grains Help to Decrease Risk of Diabetes

While surfing the Internet this morning I came on the interesting article on new scientific evidence about whole grains helping to decrease the risk of becoming pre-diabetic. So I couldn't help but to share it with you, guys. It sounds like a great news!
http://www.foodproductdesign.com/news/2012/12/whole-grains-slash-pre-diabetes-risk.aspx


STOCKHOLM—The addition of more whole grains into a healthy diet is associated with a decreased risk of deteriorating glucose tolerance, including progression from normal glucose tolerance to pre-diabetes, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital investigated whether a higher intake of whole grain protects against the development of pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes and tested for modulation by polymorphisms of the TCF7L2 gene. Participants included 5,477 Stockholm residents aged 35 to 56 years who were not diagnosed with diabetes and who kept food journals of how much whole and refined grains they consumed. Researchers measured blood glucose in study participants and followed up 10 years later.
Participants who ate 59 grams of whole grains a day had a 34% lower risk to deteriorate in glucose tolerance compared to those who ate 30 grams of whole grains a day. Risk reduction was significant in men, but not in women. Participants who consumed 59 grams of whole grains a day also had a 27% reduced risk of becoming pre-diabetic.

Dietary recommendations for whole grain

I personally like taste of whole grain bread, so I can eat it all day long. But how much is enough for maintaining a healthy diet. The US Dietary Guidance recommends different amount of whole grains daily according to your age and sex.

For children: age 2-3 — 1.5-3 servings; age 4-13 — 2-4 servings.

For women: age 14 to 50 — 3-6 servings; 50 + — 3-5 servings.

For men: age 14 to 50 — 3.5-7 servings; 50+ — 3-6 servings.

But what counts as a serving? In 100% whole grain products as 7 Grain offers to you that would be:

1 slice of 7 Grain, Rye or Sprouted bread

1/2 of 7 Grain sandwich flat

1/2 of a cinnamon bun
1 muffin

1 pack of biscotti
1 cup ready-to-eat homemade granola (there are 3 cups in our granola packs)

1/2 cup cooked homemade pasta or 1 ounce dry pasta (there are 6 ounces in our pasta packs)

1/4 of 8” pizza crust or 1/6 of 12” crust

1/2 of focaccia

You see how easy it is to start eating right at every meal with 7 Grain? Health experts agree that every bit of whole grain you eat contribute to your good health. So if you are never before ate the whole grain bread, you can start with as small as 1 serving a day and look for opportunities to get a little more here and there. After a while you will fall in love with the taste of whole grains and will be surprised that some of you old tie favorites may taste strangely bland and unappealing!

100% Stone Ground

Let me introduce you to very important team member. Without it you wouldn’t be able to enjoy your delicious bread every week. Oh, I didn’t make a grammar mistake. In fact our crew member it’s not a real person.

It’s our  KoMo PK 1 grain mill.

It was designed in Germany and made of natural materials — solid native beech wood and corundum/ceramic burrs. It can grind grain to any desired texture from coarse to very fine flour. It’s elegant and hardworking, beautifully simple and yet strong and efficient. That’s why we can proudly write that all our breads are made of flour is fresh 100% whole wheat stone ground.

You may wonder why does it matter? What so special about stone ground flour?  Well, it is important because modern mills use serrated and flat cast iron rollers that separate the bran and germ from the endosperm. Stone-griding is an ancient method that keeps all these nutrients in the flour making it healthier. So with our small mill we can’t really produce flour un mass. We grind right before making the bread, just enough for all our bread, buns, pizza crusts and pasta. We don’t blend our wholegrain flour with any white bleached or refined commercially produced flour. We don’t add bran to enrich our flour and make it look brown.  

So when you are eating 7 Grain bread you can be sure that entire grain has been used to make it. It’s old fashioned traditional flour. The one that our grandmothers used to make their daily bread with.

Our Signature 7 Grain Bread

Many of our friends and customers are asking what our Signature 7 Grain Bread that comes in three shapes (loaves, baguettes and sandwich flats) consists of.  Today I am going to reveal that big secret to all y’all.

Behold, I present you our “Magnificent Seven”.

1. Organic Hard White Wheat Berries 

It’s the best choice for bread because it contains natural gluten, that let’s bread rise more than other types of grains. It gives light color to breads and pizza crusts without losing the nutrition of whole wheat.

2. Organic Hard Red Wheat Berries

Flour made out of red wheat considered to be “classic” whole wheat and it gives nutty flavor and rich brown color to our bread. It’s a little bit less in carbs than hard white grain and higher in proteins.

3. Organic Durum Wheat Berries

Durum is also high in protein. The flour made of it has a distinct yellow color and good for pasta. When it’s ground it’s called semolina flour. It is used not only for pasta bud also for speciality breads such as chapattis and pitas.

4. Organic Spelt Grain

Spelt is an ancient relative of the wheat. It’s very nutritious and full of light nutty flavor. Even after processing it keeps all the nutritional value. It has less carbs than wheat but higher in proteins. Spelt is a great source of dietary fiber, thiamine, niacin, iron and potassium. Some people use it as a substitute for wheat when making bread because it’s easier to digest. The natural gluten it contains is often tolerated by many wheat sensitive people.

5. Organic millet

Millet is small round grain of creamy yellow color. It’s often used in wheat free diets. Millet is rich in proteins, lecithin and calcium and high in fiber. In Russia and Eastern Europe millet is eaten as a hot cereal. You can bake it in to bread, add to your vegetable salad, put it in casseroles like rice and other grains.

6. Organic Buckwheat (whole and hulled)

Buckwheat is not really a wheat family. It has grain of triangular shape and a black hull. Inside the hull is a greenish yellow color kernel. Buckwheat flour is used for delicious pancakes, French crepes or waffles. Also you can cook it whole and eat as a hot cereal (kasha) or add to salads. It has a unique flavor, rich in iron and dietary fiber.

And last but no least

7. Organic yellow and black flax seeds

They are tiny but mighty, carrying the biggest nutrient payload of all. Technically flax seed is not a grain but it has a similar amount of vitamins and minerals as many grains and even larger amount of dietary fiber, antioxidants and Omega-3 acids.

As opposed to Ezekiel brand 7 Grain bread has no barley, lentils or soybeans.

All our grains and seeds are USDA certified organic, which means they were grown without use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides on the soil that is nurtured, not treated.  Organic grains are not genetically modified. And you can taste the difference!

PS If you are interested in making your own bread or want to experiment with any grain or flour mentioned above, you can place your order with us personally at the Covington Farmers Market or the Camellia City Farmers Market or you can text us at 904-600-8785 and pick it up next Saturday at our stand.

Why go whole grain?

Healthy diet will not be complete without complex carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. And the whole grains are a great source of all the above, which makes them a great choice for someone who us serious about healthy living and organic food. Adding whole grains to your daily diet can significantly lower risk of diabetes and other health problems like high blood pressure, heart disease and certain cancers.

Most people eat a lot of grain every day in a form of cereal, bread, crackers deserts and etc. But most of it highly processed and refined and has little or virtually no dietary value for your body. According to Dietary Guidelines for Americans at least half of the grains you eat are supposed to be whole grain. That means that grain has to contain the bran (outer layer of the grain) and germ (the part from which a new plant sprouts), which are usually removed in the milling process. The important nutrients like potassium, selenium and magnesium, and dietary fiber are contained in bran and germ. So we don’t get them by eating white flour that is made out of endosperm, the bulk of the seed which contains minimum of vitamins and minerals. It has fine texture, tastes good, stuffs your stomach, gives bread a longer shelf life but doesn’t give your body what it needs to be healthy and strong.

So next time you are munching on your sandwich think for a moment may be it’s time for you to go whole grain.