milling mondays: whole wheat almond cake

 

If you love almonds, you will love this cake. This cake is absolutely yummy. It reminds my of my farmor's baking. This cake is moist and the perfect amount of sweet.

Whole Wheat Almond Cake

 recipe adapted from good housekeeping

Ingredients

1/4 cup sliced almonds

1 egg

1/4 cup sugar

2/3 cup milk

1 1/2 tsp almond extract

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour (2/3 soft wheat berries and 1/3 hard wheat berries)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter, melted

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Sprinkle the almonds on a prepared 10inch pie dish.

 

Mix together the egg, sugar, milk, and almond extract until smooth.

If you mill your own flour, grind your soft and hard wheat berries. I of course use my WonderMill.



Pour the batter into the prepared dish with almonds.  

 

Bake the cake for about 40 minutes until the edges are golden brown.

 

Let the cake cool in the dish before cutting.

ENJOY!

 

milling mondays: four seed oat crackers

 

These crunchy crackers are full of nutrition and jammed packed with seeds. They are tasty and have so much more to offer than the traditional cracker. They are great by themselves or with toppings such as hummus.

Whole Wheat Four Seed Oat Crackers

print-text-email recipe

Ingredients

3 1/3 oz. oats

3 1/3 oz. sesame seeds

3 1/3 oz. pumpkin seeds

3 1/3 oz. sunflower seeds

3 1/3 oz.  flax seeds, slightly ground

11 3/4 oz. whole wheat flour (hard wheat berries)

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp salt

6 3/4 oz. water

4 1/4 oz. oil of your choice

Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 395F.

If you mill your own flour, grind your hard wheat berries. I of course use my WonderMill.

Mix all the dry ingredients together.

 

Then add the wet ingredients to the dry mixture and mix together.

 

Once the dough has formed, add the dough to a prepared baking pan. If you prefer thinner crackers, divide the dough in two and spread out on two baking sheets.

 

Score the dough to easier cut the crackers once they are baked.

 

Bake for about 15 minutes.

 

Finish cutting the crackers with a pizza cutter. You may want to then bake them for another 5 minutes for them to fully set. Let them cool in the pan before eating.

ENJOY!

 

diy thursday: how to freeze avocados

I love avocados. They are so tasty. The only thing that bothers me is that you wait and wait for them to get ripe, and then all of a sudden you have to eat them that very day or they spoil. Ugh. Sometimes avocados are on sale and you want to buy a bunch, but you don't necessarily want to eat them all at the same time ... that is when freezing them comes in handy. I wasn't so sure whether this would work, but it totally did! The avocados didn't taste any different and they were as green as when I froze them (they didn't turn brown).

Ingredients

Avocadoes, pitted and pealed

Lemon juice

Directions

Put avocados in a bowl.

Add some lemon juice (no more than 1Tbsp per avocado)

Mash them all together. I use my KitchenAid stand mixer.

 

 

Place the mashed avocados in an airtight bag(s) and store it in the freezer until you need it. I used mine several months after freezing it and it tasted great.

wordless wednesday

 

milling mondays: spicy chicken chowder

 

This is a great fall/winter recipe. I really like spicy food and this has a nice chipotle kick to it. Yum.

Spicy Chicken Chowder

recipe adapted from ourbestbites.com

Ingredients

4 Tbsp butter

1 large onion, minced

6 cloves garlic, minced

1-2 bell peppers, chopped

2-3 Tbsp chopped chipotle chilies with adobe sauce (use less if you don't like spice)

1/2 cup whole wheat flour (wheat berries)

2 cups chicken broth

5 cups milk

1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped

1 can black beans

1 can corn or frozen

2 cups chicken, cooked bite sized pieces 

Salt and pepper to taste

Shredded cheese (optional)

Tortilla chips (optional)

Directions

Melt butter in a large skillet.

Sauté the onions, garlic, bell peppers and chipotle chilies with adobe sauce.



 

If you mill your own flour, grind your wheat berries.  I of course use my WonderMill.

Add the flour to the sauteed vegetables and stir for a couple of minutes.

 

Add the chicken broth and stir until the flour is smooth and the broth is thick.

Add the milk and bring to a simmer before adding the chopped sweet potato. Let it simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

 

Finally, stir in the chicken, beans and corn.

Top with shredded cheese and serve with tortilla chips if desired and the chowder is ready to eat.

ENJOY!

milling mondays: whole wheat cornbread

Fall is here (except for the 90 degrees we had yesterday, but it in the evenings it is here:)). So it is time for chili and corn bread. The best kind of cornbread is made with freshly milled corn and wheat. YUMM. This cornbread is light and moist and not too sweet, perfect for chili.

Whole Wheat Cornbread

recipe adapted from foodnetwork.com

Ingredients

1 cup cornmeal (corn kernels)

3/4 cup whole wheat flour (hard wheat berries)

1 Tbsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup milk plus 4 1/2 tsp lemon juice (or buttermilk)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

6 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 425F

If you mill your own flour, grind your corn kernels and hard wheat berries. I of course use my WonderMill.



 

Combine your freshly milled corn meal and whole wheat flour with the rest of the dry ingredients -sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

 

Since I usually don't have buttermilk on hand and hate to buy it to only use a little bit, I usually make a buttermilk substitute. A very easy substitute is combining milk and lemon juice. For every cup of milk add one tablespoon (or three teaspoons) lemon juice. In this recipe you will add 4 1/2 tsp to 1 1/2 cups milk. Let it sit for a couple of minutes and it is ready to use.

 

Mix the milk, eggs, and butter together in a separate bowl.

Then fold in the wet mixture into the dry mixture.

 

Pour the batter into a greased 8x8 baking pan.

 

Bake the cornbread for about 20-25 minutes.

ENJOY! 

 

milling mondays: whole wheat chicken potpie

 

 

I have never made chicken potpie before, but when I came across several recipes that used biscuits as the pie crust, I was intrigued. At first I thought it would be a lot of extra work to have to make the biscuits, but since they bake with the filling, it doesn't really take much time.  

 

 

Whole Wheat Chicken Potpie

recipe adapted from allyou magazine

 

 

Ingredients

 

Filling

1 onion, chopped

1 bell pepper, seeded and diced

1/2 cup whole wheat flour (wheat berries)

3 cups chicken broth

1 cup milk

1 1/2lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1" pieces

1 cup frozen peas

3 carrots, sliced

salt and pepper to taste

 

Topping

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (wheat berries)

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 cup plus 1 Tbsp milk

 

 

Directions

 

Sauté onion and bell pepper in skillet over medium high heat for about 5 minutes.

If you mill your own flour, grind about 2 plus cups of wheat berries. I used my WonderMill.

 

Add 1/2 cup flour to the sautéed onions and bell pepper and stir for about a minute.

 

 

Then stir in the chicken stock and let it boil until the mixture gets thick.

 

 

Reduce the heat to medium low and stir in one cup of milk.

 

 

Add the chicken and let it cook for about 7 minutes.

 

 

Finally stir in the carrots and peas and season with salt and pepper. Pour the mixture into a 2 quart baking dish. Let the mixture rest while making the biscuits.

 

 

Pre-heat the oven to 425F.

In a food processor, pulse 2 1/2 cups flour, baking powder and salt together before adding the butter.

Once the butter has been incorporated into the dry ingredients, add the oil and milk, continuing to pulse until a sticky dough is formed. 

 

 

Remove the dough from the processor and knead the dough before rolling it into half inch thickness.

 

Use a two inch cookie cutter to form 15 biscuits. I somehow don't have any round cookie cutters?! so I used the mouth of a recycled jar and it worked just fine:)

 

 

Place the biscuits on top of the filling.

 

 

Use the last tablespoon of milk to brush over the biscuits.

 

Bake the pie for about 25 minutes, until the top of the biscuits are lightly brown and the filling is bubbling.

 

 

And it is ready to serve.

 

Enjoy!

 

wordless wednesday

 

wordless wednesday

 

milling mondays: whole wheat chocoloate chip pumpkin bread

It is almost October and fall is kind of here. It has even cooled down here in Arizona ... it is only in the 90s during the day:) So I decided to feature another pumpkin recipe to help bring in the fall. This chocolate chip pumpkin bread is whole wheat and vegan, but that doesn't compromise the taste at all. It provides just the right amount of sweetness with a hint of pumpkin ... and of course the chocolate chips make it even better (chocolate makes everything better:)

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Bread

print-email-text this recipe

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (1 cup soft wheat berries and 1/2 cup hard wheat berries)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup honey

1 1/2 Tbs ground flaxseed mixed with 4 1/2 Tbs water  

1/2 can pumpkin puree (7.5 oz)

1/2 cup chocolate chips

yields one loaf

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Grind your flaxseeds and mix together with the water (don't grind it in your WonderMill). This is a great egg substitute. Let the mixture sit as it becomes an egglike consistency.

If you mill your own flour, grind your soft and hard wheat berries. I of course use my WonderMill.

Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

 

In a separate bowl mix together the vanilla, apple sauce, sugar, honey and the flax seed mixture.

 

Combine the dry and wet ingredients and then add in the pumpkin puree before folding in the chocolate chips.

 

Pour the batter into a 9x5 loaf pan.

 

Bake the bread for about 45 minutes.

Let the bread cool on a rack.

 

ENJOY!