- We need to stop thinking of meat (red or white)
as the center of our plate.
- Let us imagine ourselves in an economy with
unlimited access to cereal grains, roots, tubers,
plantains, legumes, nuts and seeds and restricted
availability of meats. This would make our
culinary interests develop more in the direction
of the unlimited items.
- Since this is the case in many parts of the
world, let's borrow their ideas (actually, their
- This will require an opened mind, some
experimentation, and yes, time. Any new recipe we
try is going to take a little longer to prepare.
- So you might want to 'experiment' only once a
week or every two weeks. In a year you will have
24 new recipes. Let's say you discard half
because you or a family member did not like them.
You are still left with 12 'new' preparations
that now are familiar to you and no longer take
extra time to prepare.
information on dry peas, lentils, chickpeas
- The Breadman's Healthy Bread
Has a chapter with a thorough
explanation of a variety of cereals (wheat, quinoa,
amaranth, etc) and their nutrient content.
4 "How to"
lists three excellent cookbooks. They will
help you with the 'experimentation' period. Sundays
at Moosewood and Jump Up and Kiss Me
offer menu samples. Menus can be helpful when you
are at a loss "
well now, and what do I
accompany this dish with?" They also have a
list of ingredients that explains what they are.
- White flour, flour, wheat flour
and plain flour are synonymous terms. They result
from the milling and sifting of clean wheat. The
germ and bran have been removed. It is not a
- All-purpose is also a white flour.
It contains a specific blend of wheats which
makes it suitable for home-made yeast breads as
well as for quick breads
- Enriched grains contain added
amounts of thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and iron.
Enrichment restores only partially what has been
lost during processing of the grain into flour
and cereal. Many other nutrients are lost but are
- Starting January 1, 1998, the US
Food & Drug Administration ordered the
addition of the vitamin folate to enriched cereal
grains. It will include flours from wheat, rice,
barley, triticale, buckwheat, corn and rye,
cornmeal, grits, rice, farina and pastas. Folate
has been found to prevent the birth defects known
as spina bifida (an opened spinal cord) and
anencephaly (babies born without a brain). Enough
folate is needed at the time of conception and
increase the use of whole grains
- Use brown rice whenever your
recipe calls for rice
If 'whole wheat' has been used, it
will be listed as such under the ingredients.
Otherwise it will only say 'wheat'
- Use breakfast cereals made from a
- Use whole wheat bread. Many
'wheat' breads have had coloring or molasses
added for a darker color. If it does not say
'whole wheat' under the ingredients, the bread is
probably made from white (no germ, no bran)
- Substitute a third to a half of
all-purpose flour with whole wheat when baking
breads or cookies