One of the best (& cheaper) ways to invest in quality foods for your family is to plant a garden. You can choose the items your family likes to eat, control what goes on your food and even get some exercise in the process.

There are so many different ways to garden. You can plant a salad garden in a container on your patio if your space is limited. We have planted several raised bed gardens and particularly like the Square Foot garden we planted last year.

We also got lots of good ideas from watching Homestead Blessings: The Art of Gardening (In fact I highly recommend this series for learning all types of skills.)

Mother Earth News also has a great article on getting started with a garden including a nice garden plan. We are hoping to implement something like it next year when we have our own place again.

This year we are blessed to be able to garden in a much bigger plot at my grandparents’ house. We planted onions, potatoes, peas, corn, beets, turnips, lettuce, carrots, green beans, zucchini, cucumbers, banana peppers, cherry tomatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon, and broccoli. We still have sunflower seeds, pumpkins and beans left to plant.

It is such a wonderful experience for the whole family and provides so much quality food for so little money.

I highly recommend it!

So what are the healthy fats and which are the ones to avoid?

Healthy fats are:
Virgin Coconut Oil
Butter (preferably organic from grass fed cows)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Cold Pressed Flax Seed Oil
Tallow
Lard
Palm Oil (Spectrum makes a great shortening with palm oil)
Marine Oils (i.e. cod liver oil).

Fats to avoid are:
any hydrogenated oils
Soy, corn and safflower oils
Cottonseed oil
Canola oil
All fats heated to very high temperatures in processing and frying

Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) is a wonderful fat that has antimicrobial, anticancer properties. Its health benefits have been recognized for centuries by many other cultures. It is easy to digest and contains lauric acid which is found in breast milk. When it is 76 degrees or warmer this oil is perfectly clear when the temperature falls lower than 76 it becomes a pure white solid. Although it is a saturated fat, it is only a medium chain fatty acid which is what makes it so easy to digest. For more specific information about the chemical structure of VCO and other fats please see the books listed below.

Instead of relying on carbohydrates to fill your hunger use proteins and good fats which will keep you satiated longer and give your body more of what it needs to be healthy. Whole grains, fruits and vegetables do have an important place in your diet but without the proteins and fats you will not be able to absorb the vitamins from those foods and you will still be hungry. (This usually translates into eating too much!)

VCO is easy to incorporate into your diet. You can use VCO to replace butter in most recipes with great results. Add a tablespoon to your smoothies or in a cup of tea. We love to make popcorn on the stove using VCO as the oil and then top with melted butter and sea salt. Delicious!

Here are some recipes to get you started.

Recipes:

Coconut Chicken Strips

Chocolate Drop Cookies

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES:

Sources for Coconut Oil:

Wilderness Family Naturals

This company provides several great coconut products. They sell some of the best organic virgin coconut oil from the Philippines and it comes in glass jars instead of plastic containers. I highly recommend this company!

Books:

Eat Fat, Lose Fat

This book has 3 different meal plans including for changing the way you eat: One for losing weight, one for good health and one for healing. It is a very practical way to introduce the Nourishing Traditions methods into your daily habits.

Nourishing Traditions

By Sally Fallon with Mary G. Enig, Ph.D.

The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats

This amazing cookbook/encyclopedia has been a wonderful addition to our library. It is filled with information about the kinds of foods that sustained generations before us. This book has over 700 recipes and an education on what to eat and how to prepare it. I highly recommend this book if you want to be challenged in your quest to feed your family healthy foods that will sustain them and generations to come. There is a huge chapter on fats in it as well.

The Coconut Oil Miracle by Bruce Fife

This informative book expounds on the health of the peoples who regularly consume coconut oil. It also discusses the battle that has taken place in our country over what are considered healthy fats. This is a must read!

I use the Bible as my guideline. I believe that God has given us everything we need to know through His word. We are not legally bound to the dietary laws God gave the Hebrews for our salvation but we can still benefit from following His guidelines for better health.

In Exodus 15:26 the LORD says to the Israelites, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer.”

The law God gave them was a way to protect them from the diseases in their time. It is a historical fact the Jews who follow the law have been free from many of the diseases that plague the cultures in which they lived.

It is hard to find recipes for foods that our ancestors ate but I believe that if we eat the foods God has suggested prepared in a way that makes the nutrients available to our bodies we will make major strides in having a healthier life. We are able to determine what God has given us to eat by his specific word of items being given to us as food, what he gave as gifts to his people to eat and examples of what Jesus ate.

Here is a partial list of acceptable foods found in the Scriptures:

Warnings against Some Foods:

1. “Do not eat any of the fat of cattle, sheep, or goats” (Lev. 7:23).

2. “You must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water” (Deut. 12:16).

3. “Do not eat the meat of an animal torn by wild beasts” (Exod. 22:31).

4. You must distinguish between the unclean and the clean, between living creatures that may be eaten and those that may not be eaten” (Lev. 11:47).

5. Camels, Pigs, Hares, Badgers, Shellfish, and Birds of Prey are not to be eaten. (See Lev. 11:1-47 for a more complete list of foods to be avoided.)

Expanding the Lists

“Neither the healthful nor the unhealthful foods on the list are all inclusive. Many plants fit into the categories of Genesis 1:29a: wheat, rice, oats, barley, millet, rye, and other grains; legumes of all kinds (e.g. peas, beans); bush and vine-bearing fruits and vegetables (melons, grapes, berries, squash, tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, etc.).

In Genesis 1:29b (KJV), God gave us:

Every tree, in which the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for [food].

This includes every conceivable fruit (apples, pears, apricots, plums, mangoes, avocado, etc.), as well as all nuts, both large and small (coconuts, walnuts, almonds, cashews, etc.).”

As our science has expanded we can now see many of the reasons for the laws God gave the Israelites to avoid certain foods.

We can also find out how people used to eat through many scientists that study the eating habits of our ancestors. Dr. Weston A. Price was one of those great men who went throughout the world looking at groups of people who had not adopted our western, processed way of eating. He discovered that people who did not eat the refined foods we do were free from diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart attacks. Nourishing Traditions is a great book that goes into the scientific as well as practical principles of eating the way our ancestors did. The WAPF website is also a wonderful source of information that I greatly encourage you to read.

As a family we have not fully converted our diets to eating only these things but it is our goal that the majority of the foods we eat meet these guidelines. We are also careful not to offend others who may serve us foods that we would normally not eat. Above all we are to love one another and when we are guests we should act accordingly.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES:

Nourishing Traditions

By Sally Fallon with Mary G. Enig, Ph.D.

The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats

This amazing cookbook/encyclopedia has been a wonderful addition to our library. It is filled with information about the kinds of foods that sustained generations before us. This book has over 700 recipes and an education on what to eat and how to prepare it. I highly recommend this book if you want to be challenged in your quest to feed your family healthy foods that will sustain them and generations to come.

Sue Gregg’s Main Dishes & Breakfasts Cookbooks

These wonderful cookbooks give a ton of background information on the foods that we should eat. She has Biblical references throughout them as well. The recipes are wonderful and include full menu plans. I highly recommend these cookbooks if you are looking to feed your family whole foods.

]]> http://investmentcooking.com/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=44 0 http://investmentcooking.com/wordpress/?p=42 http://investmentcooking.com/wordpress/?p=42#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:54:31 +0000 Krystal http://investmentcooking.com/wordpress/?p=42 In our society we are frequently lacking many minerals and vitamins that our bodies need to be able to function properly. We can help our bodies by making small changes in our diet. Eating whole foods is an investment in our health. Everything we eat should be filled will vitamins, minerals and as many live enzymes as possible. If we are filling our bodies with processed foods, refined sugars and flours we are eating empty calories that can not help our bodies do much more than survive.

It is very important to make small changes that can stick instead of trying to radically alter everything we eat at one time. One such change we can make is adding Organic Raw Apple Cider Vinegar to our diets. Raw Apple Cider Vinegar (that still has the mother in it) is high in potassium, acetic acid and live enzymes. ACV aids digestion and supports a healthy immune system and has been credited with alleviating arthritis, poor circulation, and weight loss.

Adding ACV to your diet is very easy to do. When eating a salad instead of reaching for a bottle of dressing from the store why not make the recipe below? Do you have problems with heartburn? Instead of reaching for your bottle of antacids drink a cup of ACV Tonic. Whenever you are making something that calls for vinegar use ACV instead of distilled white vinegar. Use it in your favorite marinade recipeLook for ways to add this wonderful food to your diet.

Recipes:

ACV Tonic

1-2 teaspoons Bragg’s Organic Raw Apple Cider Vinegar

1 teaspoon Raw Honey

4-6 ounces water

Mix together and enjoy!

Salad Dressing

1 clove of Garlic, minced

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard

1 tablespoon Raw Honey

1/2 Cup Organic Raw Apple Cider Vinegar

1/2 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Whisk ingredients together and serve on your salad.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES:

To Learn More about Apple Cider Vinegar here are some resources:

Amazing Apple Cider Vinegar by Earl Mindell

This book details the history of apple cider vinegar and its many uses.

Folk Medicine by Dr. D.C. Jarvis

Originally written in 1958, this great book shares what Dr. Jarvis found to be great folk remedies in Vermont including the use of honey and apple cider vinegar.

One of the best tools for investment cooking is a crock-pot. With this simple appliance you can get lots of work done with very little effort. It usually takes 15 minutes of prep time to prepare a meal for the crockpot and you can choose when the best time is for you. I usually prepare dinner just after lunch. It is amazing how much better the evening goes when dinner is all ready. Crockpots are especially useful for making beans, cooking whole chickens, a roast or soups. They are an inexpensive tool especially when you consider what a difference they can make in the time it takes to prepare a meal. Almost every time I use my crockpot I have enough for 2 to 3 meals which is even better!

If you do not already own a crockpot may I suggest you look for one that has a removable crock. This makes it so much easier to clean! I see that they now have ones with timers which would be wonderful! I would make sure and get a larger version so you can have plenty for additional meals. Mine is a 5 quart and I love it!

General Tips for using a Crockpot:

Fill it 2/3 full for the best results. More than that and it won’t cook properly; less it will cook too fast.

Add dairy products and frozen vegetables in the last 30 minutes of cooking.

Don’t lift the lid! You lose 30 minutes of cooking time each time you lift the lid to check on the food.

When cooking vegetables with a large piece of meat make sure to put the veggies on the bottom so they will cook faster. They generally take longer to cook than meat does.

Browning meats before adding them to the crockpot adds to the flavor and look of the meal.

Reduce the liquid of recipes you are adapting to about 1 cup. Because of the way crockpots work less liquid is evaporated during cooking and it captures the juices from the foods you are cooking.

I hope you will take your crockpot out of the cupboard and put it to work for you.

Following are some recipes to get you started.

Recipes:

Whole Chicken

This is a great way to have cooked chicken for other recipes.

1 roasting chicken (thawed or frozen)
1 onion
1 celery rib
4 cloves garlic
Salt & Pepper

Rinse and dry the chicken. Cut up the onion and put half of it on the bottom of the crockpot. Put the rest of the onion, the celery and garlic cloves inside the cavity of the chicken. Salt & pepper the outside to taste. Put it in the crockpot. (If the chicken is frozen put a 1/2 cup of water in the bottom of the crockpot to act as a buffer.) Cook on high for 4-5 hours or on low for 8-9 hours.

Basic Bean Preparation

5 cups (aprox. 2 pounds) of Northern, navy, pinto or black beans
3 quarts Warm filtered water
4 tablespoons of whey (the clear liquid that separates from plain yogurt or raw milk) or lemon juice

Rinse the beans and put them in a bowl. Cover with warm water & add whey or lemon juice. Cover the bowl and leave overnight. Drain and rinse. Place in the crock-pot on low for 8-10 hours or high for 4-5 hours until desired consistency.

Cool and bag for the freezer.

White Chicken Chili

5 cups white beans, cooked
2 cups chicken, cooked and cut into bite sized pieces
1 onion, chopped and sautéed
2 cloves, minced garlic
1 can chopped green chilies
2 t cumin
1 t white pepper
1 t salt
1 quart of chicken broth

Garnishes:

Sour Cream
Monterey Jack or Pepper Jack Cheese, shredded
Tortilla Chips

Throw all of the ingredients (except the garnishes) in the crockpot. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours. Serve with a nice green salad and garnishes. Everyone in my family loves this recipe (especially with the cheese and sour cream)!

Man has eaten some form of bread since he was forced out of the Garden of Eden. Genesis 3:19 says, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” The Bible mentions bread specifically 330 times. It is a vital part of our diet. Then why do so many people seem to have trouble when they eat bread? Why do all of the fad diets tell us we should stop eating bread and that gluten-free diets are healthiest? Could it be that the bread that is found in most homes today is not the nutrient dense food of our ancestors? We as a civilization have taken a wonderful food, removed all of its nutritional value and then called it bad. Let us go back to our ancestors and find how they created a life sustaining food instead of a health hazard for their daily sustenance.

The flour used to make breads was not a refined and processed flour that we see today instead the whole grain was ground into fine flour that was then made into bread. There are many grains that are easily available to us to make bread today as in yesteryear. The most popular, of course, is wheat. The best wheat for bread is hard winter wheat. You can also make wonderful bread from spelt and Kamut. For more variety you can replace 1/3 to ¼ the total amount of flour with other grains such as barley, oats, or rye.

Whole grain breads are a great way to add nutrition to your diet. They are delicious, inexpensive and are packed in vitamins. Whole wheat flour (especially when freshly ground) contains the following nutrients: thiamine (B-1), riboflavin (B-2), niacin (B-3), pyridoxine (B-6), choline, folic acid, pantothenic acid, vitamin E, chromium, manganese, selenium, zinc, iron, cobalt, calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, molybdenum, copper and fiber. When wheat flour is refined and turned into white flour the loss of these nutrients is between 16-89% depending on the nutrient.

To get the most nutrition possible for your time and money you need to grind your grain fresh or find a store that will grind it fresh for you. Within 72 hours of being milled grains lose much of their nutrients and start going rancid. Always store flours in the refrigerator or freeze and use them within 2-3 months. Bring the flour to room temperature before using for the best results.

We are blessed in that we don’t have to get out a stone to grind our grain. There are appliances now to help us in our work. I highly recommend investing in a grain mill and a bread making/kneading machine if at all possible. It takes me around 30 minutes to prepare enough bread to feed our family of 7 for a week using these tools.  This is investment cooking at its best!

I buy my grain from a Azure Standard or Wheat Montana. The grain to me in 25 lb or 50 lb bags depending on the type of grain. The cost is a lot cheaper than getting it from the bulk bins at Sprouts or Whole Foods. I pay just over $1/pound including shipping for my grains. One recipe that produces 4-5 loaves of bread needs about 3 ½ pounds of grain. I store my grains in food storage buckets with gamma lids that securely seal the buckets. Whole grains can be kept for at least a year if they are kept dry and at room temperature or below.

Making my own whole grain bread costs me less than $2 a loaf. At the health stores around here the same bread costs between $3-4 per loaf. Besides when there is bread on the table the rest of our food goes a lot further which saves money as well.

With a little practice you can invest some time in preparing homemade bread and reap great health for your whole family.

Recipes:

Our Daily Bread

Makes 6 Loaves

Ingredients

Place 10 cups of flour into mixer bowl with kneading arm. Add dry yeast, vital wheat gluten, and Vitamin C. Pulse to mix well.

Add water and mix for 1 minute. Turn off mixer, cover and let sponge for at least 15 minutes for lighter bread.

When the sponging is finished, add oil, honey and salt.

Turn mixer on and quickly add remaining flour, 1 cup at a time, until dough form a ball and cleans the side of the bowl. The amount of flour needed may vary.

Knead 7-10 minutes. (If kneading by hand, knead for 12-15 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic.)

Grease pans - 4? x 8 1/2? pans work best - I use olive oil

Divide dough into equal portions

flatten dough out into a rectangle

Fold dough into thirds

Fold into final third

Fold dough into thirds going the other way

Shape dough into loaf shape

here's what the loaf should look like

Place the dough in the greased pan

Repeat until you have 6 loaves of bread

Cover pans and let rise until almost double, approximately 20-30 minutes.

This is just right

Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes until loaves are golden brown.

Rub butter on tops of loaves and let them rest in the pans for 10-15 minutes.

Remove from pans and let cool on a rack on their sides.

Enjoy! Keep in the extra loaves in the freezer not the refrigerator for best results.

Alternative:

You can freeze this dough to have on hand for fresh baked bread on another day as well. Just grease the inside of a gallon freezer bad and add the dough. When you are ready to use it take it out and let it thaw, then shape, let it rise and bake.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES:

Yeast Breads by Sue Gregg

This is a great cookbook with lots of techniques explained and diagrams to show you how to make wonderful breads.

Set For Life by Jane Merrill & Karen Sunderland

Although I do not agree with all of the premises these authors make in their book, their bread section is outstanding! They give several wonderful recipes for whole grain bread and rolls.

Using whole grains for breakfast can stretch your budget while adding vital nutrients to your meal. There are lots of choices: barley, cream of brown rice, buckwheat, cornmeal in the form of Polenta, cracked Kamut, cream of millet, oatmeal, steel cut oats, quinoa, cream of rye, whole spelt, or whole wheat. This is a great way to expand your grains. The grains can be cooked whole, cracked, rolled, as flakes or as a flour. They contain lots of B vitamins, folic acid, vitamin E, zinc, iron, potassium, calcium and more! Talk about taking a multivitamin and these are a lot easier to swallow too!

In order to get the most nutrition from your cereal both Sue Gregg and Sally Fallon recommend soaking, fermenting or sprouting your grain before eating them.

Here is what Sue Gregg has to say about it:

Soaking, fermenting, or sprouting the grain before cooking or baking will neutralize the phytic acid, releasing nutrients for absorption. This process allows enzymes, lactobacilli and other helpful organisms to not only neutralize the phytic acid, but also to break down complex starches, irritating tannins and difficult-to-digest proteins including gluten. For many, this may lessen their sensitivity or allergic reactions to particular grains. Everyone will benefit, nevertheless, from the release of nutrients and greater ease of digestion.

The first stage of preparation in making whole grain porridges or baked recipes, is to soak the whole grains or whole grain flour in an acid medium such as buttermilk, yogurt, or other cultured milk, or in water with whey, lemon juice or vinegar added. As little as 7 hours soaking will neutralize a large portion of the phytic acid in grains. Twelve to 24 hours is even better with 24 hours yielding the best results.

The easiest way to do this is to start the night before. If you want to have oatmeal for breakfast after dinner measure out the oats, water and salt then add a tablespoon of whey* put a lid on it and leave it for the morning. In the morning add raisins and cinnamon if desired and cook the oats until finished. The oats cook up quicker and you can attain the most nutrition from your breakfast. (Don’t forget to serve them with a pat of butter, raw milk or some yogurt for the protein and fat to keep you fuller longer and add the yum factor.)

Sue Gregg’s Breakfasts cookbook contains several recipes for cooking the whole grains for breakfast and the two stage process for the hot cereal, pancakes, waffles and muffins. Read her Talking Pages report on the Two Stage Process that you can find at: http://www.suegregg.com/about/c.htm for more information.

I hope you will add whole grain breakfasts to your meal rotation!

*You can get whey from yogurt or raw milk by letting the yogurt or milk separate and then pour it into a strainer lined with cheesecloth set over a bowl. Tie the cheesecloth to a wooden spoon placed over the bowl. The whey (the clear liquid) will run into the bowl. Let it stand until it quits dripping.

Use the whey as a starter culture for lacto-fermented fruits and vegetables, soaking grains and legumes. The solid is cream cheese. We like to mix it with flavors like pineapple juice, cinnamon or honey or spices and serve it on crackers or celery sticks.

Recipes:

Baked Oatmeal is mostly prepared the night before and tastes delicious with the lemon curd recipe that follows.

Baked Oatmeal

2 cups  oatmeal
2 cups  milk
4 eggs
1/2 cup oil — (I use Virgin Coconut Oil)
1/4 cup honey
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
cinnamon — to taste

dried fruit — to taste
nuts — to taste

Mix ingredients except baking powder and cinnamon together and pour into a greased 9 x 13 pan. Refrigerate overnight. Add the cinnamon & baking powder just before cooking

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes until edges are golden brown.

Serving Ideas:  Serve with milk, cream, applesauce, lemon curd or other fruit topping.

Lemon Curd

We make this delicious topping with lemons grown in our own backyard.

5 large egg yolks

2 cups sugar (I use Succant)

1 cup lemon juice (juice of 4 lemons)

Finely grated zest of the 4 lemons (I use a microplaner to help do this job)

¼ pound (1 stick) butter cut into pats

Combine all ingredients except the butter in the top of a heavy double boiler and place over a pot of boiling water. (Make sure the top pan doesn’t touch the water.) Whisk ingredients constantly or use a rubber spatula to scrape the bottom until thickening begins to occur. (About 15 minutes)

Remove from heat and whisk the butter in one pat at a time. The curd should coat the spoon at this point.

Strain the curd into a cool bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and chill. (It will thicken as it chills.)

This keeps well for 2 weeks in the refrigerator.

Serving Ideas: Eat on biscuits, toast, make tarts, or serve on baked oatmeal.

Foods that don’t freeze well:

• Raw salad vegetables

• Raw eggs in their shells or hard-boiled eggs (You can freeze egg whites separately.)

• Raw potatoes or boiled white potatoes (they turn black)

• Cottage Cheese

• Instant Rice

• Custard, cream or meringue pies

• Mayonnaise – It separates. It can be used limitedly mixed in with other ingredients in a sauce or casserole

• Sour cream – It becomes watery but can be used the same way as mayonnaise

• Deep Fried Foods become soggy

Foods That Change in the freezer:

• Gravies and sauces separate and will need to be recombined during reheating.

• Heavy Cream can be frozen but won’t whip.

• Milk can be frozen for drinking but will separate. Shake to recombine.

• Vegetables, pastas and grains are softer following freezing. Make sure to undercook them before freezing to help compensate.

• Cheeses often change texture. Hard cheeses become crumbly. They freeze best if grated before freezing and can be used in recipes but not for slicing

You can cook a month’s worth of food in one day to stock up your freezer. In reality this takes three days of effort but one day of cooking. The first day you do your planning including what meals you want to prepare, create your shopping list and plan the best order to cook the items. On the second day you would do your grocery shopping. Finally on the third day you cook and assemble your meals. At the end of 6-8 hours you will able to put away 30-60 meals for your family’s consumption depending on your abilities and meal choices.

Another very efficient way of investment cooking is to do a mini-session based on one meat or base. This is a great method to use when chicken (or another staple) goes on sale. You stock up on that ingredient and cook as many meals as you can out of what you got. For example, if you bought chickens on sale you could make roasted chickens (use the cooked meat in other recipes), chicken soup, casseroles using chicken, and freeze chicken with marinade to grill later. You could also do a baking day making muffins, pancakes, waffles, cookies, etc. to stick in the freezer.

Finally, one of the easiest ways to start incorporating investment cooking into your life is by simply doubling or tripling a recipe as you make it and stick the extras in the freezer. When you are making French toast for breakfast, go ahead and make up a whole loaf of bread’s worth. Flash freeze and you’ll have a yummy breakfast another day that only needs to be warmed up in the toaster or microwave. If you are making spaghetti sauce, double it and freeze the extra for another night. It takes so little extra effort and the returns are tremendous.

I use all three of these methods throughout the year. When I’m making meals that are easy to double I take advantage of it and put some away for another meal. When I get meat on a good sale I will cook up a whole bunch for the freezer. Every so often I plan a cooking day and really fill up my freezer.

Recipe:

Here’s a great recipe I like to make when I get ground beef on sale.

Make-Ahead Meatballs

4 pounds lean ground beef — or pork or turkey or a combo

2 cups bread crumbs

1 cup onion – diced

1 tablespoon kosher salt

pepper to taste

1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder

4 eggs

2 cups tomato sauce

Mix all ingredients very well with your hands in a large bowl.

For Meatballs: Form approx. 180 meatballs (large walnut size). Place meatballs on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake at 400 for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned and no longer pink in the center. Cool. Flash Freeze then bag in freezer bags.

To serve: thaw meatballs and bake at 350 for 10-20 minutes or heat in a sauce. (Spaghetti Sauce, Sweet & Sour, Stroganoff, BBQ, etc . . .)

For Meatloaf: Form into a loaf in a baking dish. Brush with favorite sauce. Bake at 350 for an hour or until no longer pink. Cool and chill. Slice meatloaf if desired.

Or freeze mixture raw, flattened out in a freezer bag, thaw and cook when desired.

NOTES:

To make meatballs of equal size:

1. Lightly pat mixture into a 1 inch thick rectangle (on wax paper).

2. Cut the rectangle into the same number of squares as meatballs in the recipe.

3. Gently roll each square into a ball.

(Be careful not to handle the meat too much.)

]]> http://investmentcooking.com/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=46 0 http://investmentcooking.com/wordpress/?p=26 http://investmentcooking.com/wordpress/?p=26#comments Sun, 07 Dec 2008 12:00:45 +0000 Krystal http://investmentcooking.com/wordpress/?p=26 I love making cookies for our friends and family every year. I usually dedicate one day to baking as many cookies as I can. I try to involve the children in some of the fun ones. I plan it just like an investment cooking day. I pull together all my recipes and compile a grocery list of all the ingredients I need. Then I put together a plan of which order to do them in. Some need the dough refrigerated and other recipes need to be baked right away. I grind all the flour I need for all of the recipes at once. I also use parchment paper on the pans to make clean up and doing the next batch easier.

As I have become more health conscious I have looked for cookie recipes that are actually good for you instead of ones filled with trans fats, refined sugars and flour. Some simple changes you can make to recipes are just ingredient replacements although you will need to experiment to make sure that you get the consistency you desire. By making these simple changes even your holiday cooking can be an investment in your health.

Here is a basic list of replacements:

All-purpose flour: soft wheat/pastry flour, spelt flour or if you must use white flour try King Arthur’s unbleached white flour

Fat: you can use butter or Spectrum Naturals has an all vegetable shortening made from palm oil that is not hydrogenated and therefore has no trans fats in it, you can also use applesauce in cake, brownies or moist cookies with good results

Refined Sugar: use evaporated cane juice sugar (Sucanat or Rapadora), honey or molasses

Make sure that if you are using baking powder that you use a brand that contains no aluminum in it. Rumford is the brand I use.

Instead of grabbing regular salt use one that still has minerals in it. Use an unrefined sea salt. I like RealSalt which is readily available.

Always use free range eggs instead of the battery eggs. The yolks should be a bright golden to orange color not the pale yellow that you get from the normal grocery store eggs. If you can get your eggs from someone locally that has their chickens outside all days that is even better!

Recipes:

Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

½ pound butter — softened
1 cup brown sugar — firmly packed
½ cup evaporated cane juice sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
3 cups oats — rolled, raw
1 cup raisins

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, mix flour, baking soda, & cinnamon.

Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add flour mixture; mix well.

By hand, add oats & raisins; mix well.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Snickerdoodles

3 ¾ cups soft wheat pastry flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup butter
½ cup shortening (non-hydrogenated)
2 cups sugar (evaporated cane juice)
2 eggs
¼ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons sugar (evaporated cane juice)
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Sift together 1st 4 ingredients. Set aside.

Beat butter & shortening for 30 seconds; add sugar and beat until fluffy.

Add eggs, milk and vanilla, beat well.

Add dry ingredients a cup at a time mixing until well combined.

Chill dough for at least 1 hour.

Form dough into balls the size of walnuts; roll in mixture of cinnamon & sugar

Place on cookie sheet & flatten slightly.

Bake at 375 for 10-11 minutes or until light golden brown.

Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

Soft Gingerbread Cookies

½ cup butter — softened
½ cup brown sugar
2/3 cup molasses
2 eggs
4 cups soft wheat pastry flour — divided
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cream together butter and brown sugar until smooth. Add molasses and eggs.

Combine 1 1/2 cups of the flour, baking soda, salt & spices; beat into molasses mixture. Gradually add remaining flour by hand to form a stiff dough.

Divide dough into 2 pieces. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into desired shaped with cookie cutters.

Place 1 inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 8 – 10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes on cookie sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Date Balls

(Dates are one of the highest fiber foods, have more iron than beets and more potassium than bananas!)

In a food processor combine:

10 oz. pitted dates
½ cup chocolate chips
½ cup nuts (we like almonds)
¼ cup sunflower seeds
¼ cup shredded coconut

Whiz together until everything is mixed then add 2 tablespoons of barley malt or brown rice syrup to bind it all together.

With damp hands, roll mixture into balls.

Variation: Use peanuts and peanut butter

The Magnificat:

And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate;
he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away.
He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
Luke 1:46-55