Thursday, May 05, 2011

Who Does That?

Who sets an alarm for 2AM to eat bread?

Nobody.

Ok, well, maybe us. Last night. Being completely honest, I had a terrible time falling asleep knowing we were getting back up to taste our bread in a few hours. Left side. Right side. Back. Curled up. Legs straight. Stare at the ceiling. Close the eyes and will sleep to come, which it finally did.

It's only been seven days since I first learned about the possibility of grinding my own wheat. I can't say for sure why the message of health stuck with me this time, when I so often just ignore it all and subscribe to the moderation philosophy. Maybe it was the tie in to Biblical passages. Maybe it was the science behind the explanation. Maybe I was just open to hearing.

I did not know that so much of the nutrition is stripped out when they process flour and that they only add 4 nutrients back into it - synthetically. That shocked me. I just did not know.

I did not know that whole grains can be stored indefinitely. I did not know that the kernels begin to lose their nutritional value as soon as they are cracked open, but not before. I'm not sure I even knew it was possible to mill your own flour. I did not know that whole grains have 40 of the 44 known essential nutrients that our bodies need.

I just did not know. And I thought buying wheat bread at the store was all I needed to do. It isn't. We can do so much better.

I have spent hours this week on the Bread Beckers website. I've read articles, watched videos, browsed products, and considered what they are teaching. It makes sense to me.

Whenever I jump into something, whether it's quick or slow, I usually drag somebody along with me. Michael was already on board, so I called my friend Christine, whose family contends with several food allergies. I figured if anyone would know about nutrition it would be her. She let me babble on for a good ten or fifteen minutes in all my excitement and then she dropped this bomb: She already knew about Bread Beckers. And then this one: She has a grain mill. And finally this one: I could borrow her grain mill if I'd like.

Is that confirmation or what?! So on Monday she brought her mill over, along with two kinds of wheat. Michael and I wanted to do this together, but the week has conspired against us. Not to mention the crazy that is our life right now - never knowing when we'll get a call to show our house...and not wanting to be in the middle of making bread!

Finally, last night we could not stand it any longer. After he got home from rehearsal, we hooked up the grinder and made flour. Can you believe that? We made flour! How cool is that? For our first try, I wanted to see if this could be done in the bread machine. The truth being that I'm not crazy about kneading. So we followed the directions and started it up.

That was about 9:30PM.

The time on the bread machine said 4 hours and 20 minutes.

We looked at each other busted out laughing. 2 o'clock? The middle of the night? Well, then, 2AM it is. So we watched part of a video on the Bread Becker website and then went to bed.

When the alarm went off and I smelled the aroma of that fresh whole wheat bread, I couldn't wait to get downstairs and taste it. Oh my goodness it smelled so good. We lifted the lid on the machine to discover that our loaf hadn't fully risen. Undeterred, we cut into the steaming brown bread and felt our mouths water in anticipation.

It did not taste like cardboard. I was amazed. I LOVED it! LOVED it. It was absolutely delicious bread. A little on the dense side because it hadn't risen properly, but it was so good. The butter melted immediately down into the steaming holes and it was just scrumptious.

I did not think I would like anything 'whole wheat'. So many times I have tried things that are supposedly healthy and just really disliked the taste. Not so with this bread. It was fantastic. In fact, it was so good that eleven hours later, the entire loaf is gone. The kids loved it. Carrie even asked for more.

I am still in the overwhelming beginning stages of this process. Learning. Experimenting. Researching. Reading. Networking. But I like where this is going. And I'm excited about it.

Here are some links to what I've been reading:
A book I ordered: What the Bible Has To Say About Healthy Living by Rex Russell
The Cookbook that goes along with the book (which I bought because the description included a recipe for chocolate peanut butter balls ~ Now that's my kind of healthy cookbook!)
The Bread Beckers website
Information on bread history
Information on using honey instead of white sugar

I encourage you to pick something there and just start reading. It's truly fascinating and it might change the way you eat.

(though not necessarily when you eat. 2am is a little odd. ;-)

2 comments:

Ginger said...

LOVE your enthusiasm! And I am convinced heaven will smell like fresh baked bread...it is one of the best. smells. ever. ps - I grind my own wheat and make the dough in the kitchen aid (so I don't have to knead). Not always though! just when we're low on bread - about once a week or two. I find it funny that everyone is going off gluten and I'm adding it to my bread. It's always so nice to know what you're eating and being able to name (and pronounce) all the ingredients. :)

Heather said...

I make our bread too but have never made my own flour. Hmmm, may have to try it now!!