Poached Eggs and a BLT Never Tasted So Good

Insipired by the sucessful whole wheat sandwich bread recipe here are a couple of classics:

BLT on homemade whole wheat, with local bacon,
 tomatoes, and lettuce.

 

Poached eggs on toast with orange and red
 tomatoes and avocado.
(Adding a splash of vinegar or lemon juice to
the poaching water keeps the white together.)

Tip for slicing cherry tomatoes or grapes: put them between
 two lids.  Place your hand flat on top of the upper lid. 
Slice between the lids with a serrated knife.
 (I'm a lefty so the picture looks strange!) 

Voila!  Halved tomatoes in no time.

Bread that Smells Like Bread!

I should know better than to look at ingredients on grocery store foods by now.  It's depressing!  Bread (including grocery store bakery bread) is no exception. 

Great Harvest Baking Company features several delicious whole grain options that are 5 ingredients or less.  At around $8/ loaf it's a bit pricey but  I knew I was on the right track when I unwrapped the first loaf.  Wyatt came over and said, "Mama, that bread smells like bread!" and walked away munching on a slice.

This week's challenge - find a whole grain sandwich bread recipe that is easy to throw together without a bread machine.  I want our bread to smell like bread!  I found a knock off recipe of the Great Harvest loaf.  Here is my version which makes a great PB&J, BLT and even poached eggs on toast:

Honey Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

• 2 cups of warm water (about 105-110 degrees)
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/2 cup ground flax seed
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 3 1/2 - 4 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon salt

1. Pour the water into the bowl of a stand mixer.  Sprinkle the yeast over the top and add the honey.  Allow it to sit for 10 minutes until it's frothy.
2. Add the ground flax, oats and 1 and 1/2 cups of flour.  With the paddle attachment, mix until combined. 
3. Add flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough barely pulls away from the side of the bowl.  The dough will be sticky.
4. Switch the mixer attachment from the paddle to the dough hook and knead on low for 4 minutes.  (You can also knead by hand for 10 minutes if you don't have a paddle attachment.) 
5. Remove the dough hook and cover the bowl with a towel. 
6. Allow the dough to rise until it has doubled in size.  This takes approximately an hour and a half depending on the temperature of your kitchen.
7. Dust your hands with flour and punch down the dough.  Shape it into a loaf and place it in a buttered loaf pan. 
8. Cover again with a towel and allow to rise until again doubled in size (about an hour). 
9. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees towards the end of the second rise.  Bake the loaf for 30 minutes.  Cool completely and store in a zip top bag.

The Anti PB&J - Kids Lunch 1 (recipes included)

In our house there is a nightly question that we generally know the answer to.

Me: "What do you want for lunch tomorrow?"
The boys: "Peanut butter and jelly!"

Despite their love for the classic kid favorite, when I reach for the peanut butter jar I feel guilty for not being more clever.  Granted, we do mix it up a bit by adding fruit, veggie and dip, trail mix, etc. to their BPA free Easy Lunchbox container.  Tonight after seeing what a favorite whole foods blogger put together I got a little crazy and broke us out of the PB&J rut.  Here is tomorrows lunch that the boys are super excited for:

Patrick: grapes, sliced red pepper, a whole wheat banana
muffin (recipe below) and a hard boiled egg (recipe below).

Wyatt: Hormel Natural Choice Oven Roasted Turkey, whole
wheat banana muffin (recipe below), mandarin oranges sprinkled
 withcinnamon and sliced red peppers.

Typically I don't make two different lunches for the boys but Wyatt is not a fan of eggs or (recently) grapes.  Since I was feeling like an overachiever I didn't mind working around their favorites tonight but tomorrow may be a different story.  ;-)


Banana Muffins

• 3 bananas (ripe to overripe)
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup applesauce, unsweetened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup wheat germ
• 1/4 cup ground flax seed
• 1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon (or less to taste)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Peel bananas and place in a large mixing bowl.  Mash the bananas with a hand held potato masher or the back of a wooden spoon.
3. Add the remaining ingredients to the mixing bowl.  Stir to combine.
4. Grease 12 muffin cups and pour the batter in evenly. 
5. Bake for 25 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs

• Eggs
• Large saucepan with lid
• Water to cover

1. Place cold eggs in the bottom of a large saucepan.
2. Cover eggs with water by about an inch.
3. Cook on high heat until the water comes to a boil.
4. Cover and remove from heat.
5. Set timer for 16 minutes.
6. Once timer goes off drain water (careful, it's hot!).  Add new cold water and lots of ice to cool the eggs quickly. 
7. Store either peeled or in shell in a zip top bag in the fridge.

Hopefully this will be the first of a series of Anti PB&J of lunch box posts.  Looking forward to having you along for the ride and would love to hear your comments and suggestions!  Perhaps the next post will contain these ice pop containers that I ordered today to hold frozen smoothies and yogurt pops.  YUM!

Whole Food Breakfast - Meyer Lemon and Currant Scones

Regardless of how high fiber, low sugar, whole grain, and organic a cereal is, it is still a processed food.

One of my favorite ways to break out of the cereal grind is with homemade scones.  Easy to make ahead, they are grab and go, slightly sweet, and you can't beat the buttery texture of the flaky biscuit.

I made a batch of Meyer Lemon and Currant Scones today to get us started for breakfast for the week.  Considering how we have eaten them for snack this afternoon I see another batch in my future tomorrow evening!

Today's recipe came from one of my favorite whole food sites.  With only Meyer lemons on hand, I modified the original version and they came out well.  Enjoy!

Meyer Lemon and Currant Scones

• 3 cups white whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup turbinado sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks of cold butter, cubed
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 2 Myer lemons, zested and juiced
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2/3 cup currants
• Turbinado sugar for sprinkling

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl combine flour, turbinado  sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 
3. Cut in cold butter with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles very coarse cornmeal. 
4. Add the oats, zest and lemon juice and stir. 
5. Add the buttermilk and currants and stir until moistened.
6. Transfer the dough to the counter and finish mixing with your hands.  Be careful not to over mix.
7. Work the dough into a 10 inch square shape.  Using a pastry cutter or knife cut the square into 9 scones equal pieces. 
8. Transfer the scones to a parchment lined baking sheet and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
9. Bake for 15 minutes or until the bottoms are golden brown. 
10. Store in an air tight container once cooled.