Skip to content

Posts tagged ‘whole wheat’

Whole wheat and rye muffins

whole-wheat-rye-muffins

There’s been nothing like feeding a growing, exploring, tiny new eater to inspire me to seek out new recipes, ingredients, and techniques – healthier, simpler, easier meals that fit into our new normal (a normal that includes a tiny, joyous, screechy, maniacal human tornado). I’m not sure how we’d survive without the minutely detailed weekly meal plans and grocery lists I put together every Friday, and planning for easy breakfasts is particularly necessary. Aldo isn’t one to wait for breakfast (neither am I, let’s be honest), and stumbling around pre-caffeine isn’t a good time to start contemplating that day’s first meal.

So nearly every week I plan to make something ahead – a few pans of granola, an egg bake, or a batch of something baked and tasty that we can pair with some yogurt and fruit for a quick, filling, satisfying breakfast. Because Aldo eats all of these things too, I’m newly inspired to incorporate fruits and vegetables, whole grain flours, and healthier sweeteners into my baking routine, and the recipe I’m sharing here is the most recent success (there have been others, too, and hopefully I’ll get those on the site soon). These muffins are made with half whole wheat and half rye flour and sweetened only with a bit of molasses, making them nearly savory and deeply toasty. Perfect for pairing with scrambled eggs and a bit of cheese on a brisk fall morning.  Read more

Spring vegetable ricotta tart with whole wheat olive oil crust

tart_cut

Another spring one, from the same meal as yesterday’s post. We served this one alongside grilled salmon, roasted brussel sprouts, bread, and salad, and ate our first outdoor family dinner of the year. There was a heater, to be certain, and it was too dark outside by the time dessert was served, but it was still lovely to start the evening outside.

crust_veggies crust

filling

Read more

Whole wheat trail mix cookies for hitting the road (or the skies)

Food is always a big part of our travel plans. Both in the way of food tourism – whenever we talk about travel or places we want to go, one of the first questions is what will we eat there? – and in that food is always a big part of planning the logistics for our trips. I really can’t go more than a couple of hours without eating something, which makes traveling a little difficult sometimes unless we do some advance planning. I’m definitely a little hypoglycemic, and that leads to migraines, and everything just goes downhill from there. One minute I’ll be fine, and five minutes later it can feel like if I don’t find food soon I might have some sort of breakdown (this sounds dramatic, but … well … you can ask Brett).

But I’m a pretty good planner, and if you’ve spent much time with me you know that it’s rare for me to be without food on my person in some form or another. I’m the one you can count on to have a granola bar in my purse, or a baggie full of cookies, or a bit of fruit salad in a tupperware container (I love these, since they’re recycled plastic and it’s virtually impossible for them to leak or come undone in my bag). I can’t remember the last time I got on a plane without at least one meal packed into my carryon.

flour Read more

Whole wheat banana bread with brown butter

I’ve always loved banana bread. When I was young, my great-grandmother made it every few weeks and keep it wrapped in wax paper in a kitchen drawer, and I’d sneak slices whenever I could, preferably slathered with a pat of salted butter. After I stopped spending every day at her house before and after school, my opportunities to eat banana bread became more scarce, particularly because most people (and bakeries) fill their banana bread and banana muffins with walnuts or some other lurking nut menace.

slices2

All of this means I eat banana bread pretty rarely, and the last few times I made it at home I was always a little disappointed. It was tasty, certainly, but somewhat boring. A little too sweet, and a little too cakey, and a little too simple. It always left me wanting something more complex and flavorful – something toastier and more subtly sweet, that would fit as comfortably on a plate with eggs as with a cup of coffee in the afternoon.

I’ve outgrown the banana bread of my youth. Read more

Whole wheat shortbread sandwich cookies

Whole_wheat_shortbread_cookies

I’m pretty pumped up about my new jam making skills. Except that I’m not actually a big jam eater.  I’ll have a piece of toast and jam every now and again, if it’s particularly good jam, or maybe put some between some cake layers.

I actually once asked a professional jam maker what the heck he does with all the jam. I think he was a little offended, but it was a serious question. So much jam!

After I made a bunch of strawberry vanilla jam on Sunday and wondered what the heck I would do with it, the vision came pretty quickly – nutty, earthy, salty, sweet shortbread cookies. Read more