Friday, October 5, 2007

The Grains are Here!

I picked up my first Grain CSA shipment last weekend, and it included:

2 bags of pancake mix
1 bag of rye flour
1 bag of hot cereal
1 bag of hard red wheat
1 bag of whole barley
3 dried red corn on the cobs
1 spray of wheat

Each bag weighs about two pounds, some more, some less. The newsletter tells me that the whole corn can be used as posole, added into soups, breads, or whole with butter. I'll be looking through the whole grains cookbook for posole recipes!

The pancake mix has this to say for itself:


Rafael's Pancake Mix
You can use this pancake mix for waffles, pancakes, muffins, cakes, or any non-yeast kind of quickbread in place of all-purpose flour or pastry wheat. Rafael shucked all the corn for this and the San Francisco Waldorf's 4th grade class picked all the corn. This is Rafael's special blend of many rare grains, including: Oaxacan green dent corn, teff, flax seed, orange popping amaranth, len wheat, ry, Ethiopian hulless barley, and hulless oats!

I made up a batch of peach pancakes this afternoon, and the mix is made delightfully fluffy, light pancakes with a more complex flavor than standard white flour mix. I froze them flat between layers of wax paper for quick breakfasts; they'll be easy to reheat in the toaster. Everything but the spices and baking powder is locally grown, with pancake mix from the CSA and peaches frozen after our August trip to Frog's Leap.

Peach Pancakes
3 c. pancake mix or all-purpose flour
1 T. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. cinnamon
1/8 t. ginger
1/8 t. nutmeg
2 eggs
2 T honey, melted to liquid consistency, or 2 T sugar
1/4 t. vanilla
1 T canola oil
2 c. fat free milk
2 peaches, diced into 1/4 inch cubes
(optional, 1/4 c. chopped pecans)

Sift together dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, beat eggs, then beat in honey, oil, and milk. Stir liquid mixture into dry ingredients. Do not over mix. Gently fold peaches into batter.

Preheat griddle, then spray with non-stick spray (I use Canola oil in a Misto sprayer.) Ladle about 1/8 c. onto the griddle to make 4 inch pancakes. Cook until bubbles are just set, then flip to cook the other side. Serve immediately or freeze flat between layers of wax paper. Serves 8, 3 pancakes per serving.

Pancakes are not CORE because flour is not CORE. Each serving is 4 Points.


Dinner tonight is leftover lentil-rice soup with kale. I made a big batch last night. This had just 10 minutes of hands on time and made the whole house smell yummy. You might want a dash of Tabasco sauce for the heat-seeking eater, but it's really warm and hearty, full of fiber and protein, and lots of healthy veggies.
Lentil-Rice Soup with Kale
8 servings
1 T olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 cup red lentils, rinsed and picked over
1 cup brown rice
8 cups vegetable or chicken stock
1 bay leaf
1 t. thyme
1 t. oregano
1/4 t. pepper
1 bunch kale, chopped into bite sized pieces
Saute onion, garlic, carrot, and celery in olive oil until onions are translucent. Add lentils and brown rice and stir together for a few minutes. Add stock and spices. Cover and bring to a boil; reduce to simmer for 45 minutes. Add kale and cook 5 minutes longer. Remove bay leaf before serving.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your blog is great! Very inspiring to find another mom doing WW successfully but eating REAL food. I am trying to do the same thing, but with a bit less success so far. Anyway, tell me about the grain CSA! I belong to a meat csa and produce csa, but the grain sound good too.

Momaste said...

The grain CSA is based in way northern California, and the farmer delivers to Davis. I pick up in Berkeley from another woman who picks hers up in Davis. It's $300 per year. You can e-mail me for contact information.

I'm glad you like the blog!

kmberrien said...

Thanks for responding so fast! I don't even know why I posted my comment annonymously. Out of it, I guess, after a long day with the kids. Anyway, I tried to click the CONTACT link and couldn't get it to work, so if you have a moment and don't mind would you please send me the contact info about the grain CSA?

I am going to make this lentil soup for tomorrow. I actually have all of the ingredients on hand. Yay!

Thanks so much!

Momaste said...

I edited the contact me - I don't know why it isn't working, but you should be able to e-mail me now. :) The lentil soup is really good and makes tasty leftovers, too.

Anonymous said...

The pancakes sound yummy! Mixing pumpkin or apples with spices into the mix is another yummy variation.

For freezing, I found that freezing them separately on cookie sheets then putting them into a ziploc bag much easier than the waxed paper method.

Congrats on hitting 3000!

Melanie Lytle said...

I am so jealous! If only I could find grain here in San Diego. It's really limiting my my attempts to eat locally.

Anonymous said...

you guys in California are so lucky on the eating local front -- there is so much more variety. If I could get grains and legumes (beans) I would be a super happy eater. That soup looks fantastic -- I will have to save that recipe for when I get back from my mini vacation up to the Poconos.

Jennifer Maiser said...

Hi there - I am so jealous that you are part of this CSA. It's a little more difficult for us SF folks to join it, but I this is reminding me that I need to try.

Did you find a pozole recipe? I made a good one two weeks ago. It's not quite ready for primetime, but I can email it to you the general gist if you'd like.

Momaste said...

I have not yet found a posole recipe and would love it if you would e-mail me yours. I think anyone could join the CSA, but you have to be willing to pick up at the established pick up spots in either Davis or Berkeley.