The Art of Zen Living

One of the ways I’ve been living simply is by making my own bread.  Week in, week out, one night a week (while I do other things) I “make me this night my weekly bread”.

As good as my basic Honey Whole Wheat recipe is (re-posted inside), a bit of variety is also good.  Here are a few things I’ve tried and what I thought.

1. Rolled Oats: Yummy.  I just throw a handful into the flour when I’m mixing it in.  Changes the texture in a subtle but pleasing way.
2. Spelt berries (seeds): Uncracked, they’re teeth breakers, but provide a nice nutty flavor.  I suggest cracking them with mortar and pestle, or perhaps placing them in a bag and using a mallet.
3. Millet: Very tasty.  Again, it’s more of a texture change.  Adds a nice, pleasant “pop” sort of crunch.  Again, I added this to the flour before I mixed it in, about a 1/4 cup.  No need to soak or crack it, but be sure it’s washed.
4. Rye Flour: Substitute 1/2 cup of rye for 1/2 cup of the whole wheat.  Gives it a nice, rye undertone.

I have a few other things I want to try over the next few weeks - quinoa, graham flour, cracked and toasted buckwheat to name a few - so I’ll keep you posted.  I’m also going to try some more traditional bread flavorings, cinnamon raisin swirl among them.  Look for that post in the next week of so as well.

See inside for the recipe, and stay tuned for more “Dough!”

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“Be careful about changing your beliefs, because if you do, your beliefs will change you…”

My 2 weeks as a vegetarian are drawing to a close.  Or perhaps I should say that my two week commitment to being a vegetarian is drawing to a close.  I’ve seen a big difference in how I feel, my energy level and I’ve dropped 3 pounds without meaning to.  I’m guessing that’s due to the type of “whole food” vegetarianism I’m trying being naturally low in fats.  A side benefit is that almost all of the fat I do eat now are “good” fats - the omega fats, mono fats etc. etc.

My forehead is also much flatter.  I spend a lot of time slapping it and saying things like “Oh, RIGHT - pizza has cheese on it!” or “Hmmm.  Alfredo has cream in it…”.  This isn’t a problem, it just shows that I’m very new at this whole vegetarian thing.  Today I wanted to ramble on a bit, in no real order, about how I feel about this experiment, and it’s impact on my life.

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It’s been a little over a week since I began eating as a vegetarian.  I’m trying to find some downsides that really are downsides, but I’m not having much luck.  Yes, it makes it a little harder to go out - I went to Carrabba’s with my mom and my cousins, and there was only one thing on the menu that was vegetarian.  There were several fish dishes that I could have eaten under my “fish is OK” rule.  In practice, I don’t really like eating fish - at least not that often.  It feels like cheating.  In the 10 days I’ve been eating like a vegetarian, I’ve eaten fish twice, so I’ve been glad the option was there.  Having said that, I think that a large part of the reason for having to eat fish twice during the first week is simply a lack of experience on my part.  With a little more experience, I think I could have avoided at least one, and possibly both, fish entrees.

I am finding a lot of benefits.  I think it’s important to once again note that I’m not simply eating a vegetarian diet - you can eat nothing but cheetos, twinkies and Oreo cookies and say you’re a vegetarian.  In reality, you’re a “crapitarian”.  I’m looking for fresh vegetables, whole grains, and whole foods.  The less processing, the better.  Most of what grows out of the Earth, from what I can tell, tends to be healthy and good for us - it’s only when humans get a hold of it and start to process it that things start to get bad for us.  Sustainable practices is more of an environmental concern, but it’s something I try to stay aware of and support.

Here are my top five observations:

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I’m up a little late tonight, it’s been a bit of a crazy weekend - hurry up and wait, mostly.  Tomorrow morning, I start my vegetarian diet.  Earlier this weekend I made a batch of the Best! Black! Bean! Chili! Ever!, so I have it ready to go for the week.  If I could only give you only one tip about making any sort of drastic change in your diet, it’s this: have food ready so that you do not have to think about it.  It’s the thinking and choosing that destroys 99.9937264% (this number was made up completely out of thin air, but it has the ring of truthiness* to it) of diets.

Tonight I made a week’s worth of breakfasts - Barley Harvest Cereal.  Barley is one of the first grains ever domesticated by humans.  In ancient Egypt, it was used to make beer and bread.  For many Egyptians, that was their entire diet.  Today, barely is largely forgotten as a food - we use it mainly for beer and as animal feed.  It’s low fat, and has an extremely low glycemic index, which means it has very little effect on your blood sugar.  The result?  You stay full longer, and have more energy longer.  The other ingredients in this mixture were also chosen for their relatively low glycemic index - it ends up being a reasonable amount of calories, low fat, high fibre way to start the day.  Sitting down with a bowl of it also makes me feel somehow connected to those ancient ancestors, and to the earth.

Like bread, it doesn’t take long to put the pieces together, but you do have to come back to it a few times over the course of about 90 minutes.  I think it’s well worth it.  This is the second time I’ve made it, although it’s the first time I’ve followed the actual recipe.  The last time I made it with pecans, dried strawberries and bananas.  It’s a very flexible recipe that adapts well to a variety of flavors.  I think I’m going to try cranberries and almonds next!

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This isn’t your typical “Dough!” entry.  I’d envisioned “Dough!” as being more about bread as food, not bread as dessert.  However, Costco had huge containers of strawberries and mom offered to split them with me, and right then I knew what the next bread article was going to be.

I also dried some in the dehydrator (along with some bananas) to use in my breakfast cereal mix.  I’m getting ahead of myself.  The breakfast cereal is an article for Vegetarian week.

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“The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men.”
Leonardo da Vinci, artist and scientist

I love meat.  I really do - as in “What?  If I can eat the entire 5 pound Porterhouse it’s free?  Bring me TWO of ‘em, medium rare!”  So no one is more surprized than I am that I’m even thinking about this, let alone dipping my toe into the waters.  Here lately, it seems like I’m eating less and less meat, partly because I’m enjoying trying out new bean recipes and lentils and other healthy alternatives, but also partly because my beliefs have started to shift.  It doesn’t take much research to find out that the animals we rely on for meat are treated really badly, and go through a tremendous amount of suffering.  I’d heard about it before - we all have, really.  Hearing about it and seeing the pictures, or the video, are very different things.  When the video of workers using a forklift to torment and torture the “downer” cows came to light earlier this year, it became very difficult for me to continue to ignore what goes on in our nation’s meat factories (let’s face it, these animals aren’t raised on farms anymore).  Between eating less meat and not wanting to support big agri-business, I’ve decided to try and live as a vegetarian for 2 weeks, and see how it effects my health, happiness and lifestyle. This isn’t the only option out there. You can have your meat and support sustainable non-industrial farming, too. If I don’t like the vegetarian life, that’s my fallback plan.

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I was down at my local “scratch and dent” grocery shop, and came across a few packages of organic Buckwheat flour.  It was past it’s “good til” date, but since there were no additives to go bad and the package seemed intact, I decided to take a chance - as you can see, I got a great price on it.  When I opened it up, it still smelled fresh and the batch of buckwheat pancakes I made with it came out great, so I decided to give buckwheat bread a shot.

I used my basic honey whole wheat bread recipe, and started with 2 cups buckwheat flour and a cup and a half of unbleached, unenriched white flour.  I was overboard on the amount of buckwheat flour - it’s very flavorful, but it’s also a very fine texture, which means it doesn’t absorb the wet ingredients very well.  I ended up having to add another cup or more of white flour and another three quarters cup of the buckwheat flour to get it to the right consistency.  Kneading was also an issue because the dough kept getting stickier than it should have been.

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Welcome to the second edition of Dough!  I really enjoy doing these articles, because I get to play with the camera and I get to eat the results.  This week I made what is not a traditional Irish soda bread.  It’s more of an American St. Paddy’s Day Traditional Irish soda cake.  It’s also delightful.

I was going to make an honest to goodness Irish soda bread, but the recipe on the Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread’s website had a warning that a fluid cup contains 8 ounces of liquid. A dry ingredient cup contains around 4 ounces by weight. It threw me a bit, and I don’t have a kitchen scale. I think I’ve worked out the conversion, so I’ll try the “real deal” traditional soda bread next time. For now, let’s take a look at what we’re going to be snacking on this Memorial Day Weekend at The Art of Zen Living!

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This has got to be one of the best, tastiest and easiest recipes I’ve had in a long time.

1 pound dry black beans

1 Pound carrots

6 Stalks celery

1 green pepper

1 medium onion

6 roma tomatoes (medium size)

2 cloves garlic

2 Tbsp chili powder

1 Tbsp cumin

Pepper and season salt to taste

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There’s something very satisfying about making a loaf of bread.  It’s almost as if home made bread is the ultimate in domestic achievement.  You tell someone you’re baking home made bread and their eyes light up.  It’s a very pleasing experience, heavy on the senses - the contrasting colors of the ingredients, the firm but pliant feel of the dough, the heady scent of the yeast as the bread rises, the sound of the whisk in the liquid before you add the flour, and the clank of the spoon against the bowl as you mix the dough, the pounding of the dough being kneaded.  Finally, the wonderful aroma of the bread baking, and the taste of the fresh, still warm bread with butter melting into it.  Yummy!

Somewhere along the line, we’ve been tricked into thinking that bread is hard to make (it isn’t - if I can do it, then believe me YOU can!), that it’s cheaper to buy at the store (not by a long shot - but that’s another post in the frugality category), or just that you don’t have the time to make bread.  Let me walk you through the steps, and you’ll see that it takes very little time and effort, and is extremely rewarding!

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