Good Things to Eat

Hot Cereal For Breakfast

Cooked rolled grains

This is a good deal healthier than cold cereals. And you get a good supply of very healthy oat fiber to reduce cholesterol and for other benefits. See below for an even healthier choice.

1. Prepare the cereal mix
2. At the Food Coop, buy about a pound of every kind of rolled organic grain that they have. Last time, I got rolled oats, rolled millet, rolled barley.
3. Mix and store in airtight jar.

Put one cup water into a small saucepan. Turn heat on high. Add four or five paper-thin slices of fresh ginger. Cover the pan. Measure out one-half cup of the rolled grain mix, and a small handful of raisins. Leave aside.

When water is boiling, add the grain and the raisins, and stir. Replace lid on saucepan and turn heat off. Leave pan on the burner.

Go get dressed for work. By the time you are done, the grain will be cooked.

This is much fluffier than oatmeal. It is not gluey like library paste or oatmeal. The raisins provide natural sweetening. The oats reduce cholesterol. All these grains reduce the tendency to constipation and promote healthy bacteria in the bowel. The ginger improves digestion. Plus it tastes good.

Why whole grains?

Grains contain essential oils we call omega-three and omega-six fatty acids. These are preserved in the grain by the tough outer coating. Once the grain is ground into flour, or crushed between rollers to produce a "rolled oat", for example, the contents of the grain are exposed to oxygen. Goodbye essential oils, and goodbye to vitamin E and other important nutrients. Another substance lost when grain is processed is an acarbose, which slows absorption of the carbohydrate in the grain. Your doctor may prescribe acarbose for treatment of diabetes, if you have it, but that's an awfully expensive and time-consuming alternative.

Cooked whole grain breakfast — thinking ahead

Certain grains, such as wheat berries or whole oats, require more time to cook. Here's how to do it. (We'll give a recipe for those in a hurry a bit later on.)

Buy whole hard red winter wheat berries and whole oats.

The night before

At night, as you head for bed, and you think "I will be waking up and eating breakfast tomorrow", put on some water to boil. Put 3/8 cup of your grain mix (enough for one serving) in your Pyrex measuring cup, then fill to 1 cup with boiling water. Cover and go to bed.

Morning, the next day

As soon as you arise, pour your grain and water mix and some slices of ginger into a small saucepan, add another half-cup water, and turn to simmer. On our stove, this is one notch below medium. You will have to see what your stove requires. The stove setting should result in a few bubbles rising to the top of the boiling water. Set the timer for 50 minutes and go do something else.

When it is done, you can flavor with a bit of butter, or add some raisins.

Cooked whole grain breakfast - almost last minute

If you've not started the night before, here's a cooked whole grain breakfast that requires less forethought. Your whole grain mix will contain grains that require less cooking time; we use

• Quinoa three parts
• Millet one part
• Buckwheat one part

Change the proportions if you like, but too much buckwheat will result in a less fluffy texture. Three/eighths cup of this mixture will be enough for one serving. Rinsing the grain mixture with water a few times just before cooking will make the quinoa more fluffy when prepared, but this is not necessary and I usually don't do it. Add 1 and a half cup of water and 5 slices fresh ginger to the grain. Turn your burner to a simmer for about 25 minutes. Serve with butter, ghee, or raisins. If you've never tasted the South American grain quinoa (pronounced "keen-wah"), you are in for a pleasant surprise.

Tasty Mixed Whole Grains for Main Dish

To prepare the grain mix, use

• 10 parts brown rice (try brown basmati rice)
• 1 part each
• rye berries
• buckwheat
• hulled oat
• hulled barley
• 1/2 part wild rice

Cooking method A

This is the method used at the now-closed Alisan restaurant in Anaheim, California, where I learned about this mixture of whole grains.

• soak overnight
• drain in the morning
• let sit in colander all day (cover)
• rinse and cook (They didn't give further details)

Cooking method B

Place one cup grain mixture into pressure cooker with two cups water, bring to pressure and cook one-half hour. Should serve about four people.

Cooking method C

Two parts water to one part grain mix placed in a lidded casserole and cooked in a 325 degree oven for about an hour.

One-Dish Quick-Fix Meal

If you put all this together when you get home from work, it'll be ready to eat once you've puttered around and are ready for supper.

Turn oven on to 350 degrees. Oil or coat with ghee (ghee is clarified butter) the bottom of a casserole. Place one-quarter cup per person of above grain mixture into the casserole. Add double that amount of water. This is your constant base.

Add different foods each meal for variety. Suggestions are carrots (whole ones will be fine, they will cut up easier when cooked), onions, yams (better cut these up first), kale, beets, jerusalem artichoke. Top with nuts or gomasio mix. Add a little Braggs Liquid Aminos for flavoring. Cover casserole with a tight lid so your water doesn't boil away too fast. Place casserole in the oven.

Cooking time varies from 45 to 60 minutes depending on your casserole and your oven. You might want to add some quicker cooking vegetables at the half-hour mark; try broccoli, cauliflower, chard, squash, spinach, green beans. If you are lazy as I am and don't mind them being well-cooked, you can add them at the beginning. We often take this out and check to see if grains are done at about 45 minutes.

We will often place this meal in the oven before afternoon meditation; it is usually done when we are ready for supper. Mmm, Mmmm.

Quick fix meal dudes up

A tablespoon of flax oil added to the quick fix meal at the table will improve the taste and provide essential fatty acids. You can also add cashew nuts or chutney to wow your friends and family.

Quick fix meal with cheating

Buy a Tasty Bite brand instant meal at the Food Coop. My favorites are Kashmir spinach and Spiced peas. Fix one half cup grain mixture using method C, toss in a couple of slices of onion for flavor. When grains are cooked, put Tasty Bite package in boiling water. Remove in three minutes and add to the grains. Serves two.

(Gourmet split pea soup)

I don't like the name split-pea soup for this, because usually split pea soup is thick and tasteless. However, since the split pea is a legume, and you can make this with lentils with a little extra cooking time, let's call it

Gourmet legume soup

This is like no split pea soup you ever tasted. Once you taste this, you will want to cook it again and again, and so will anyone you share it with.

OK, all excited now?

Bring 4 cups water to a boil. Add one cup rinsed split peas and one/half teaspoon salt. Note: the Food Coop has red, yellow, and green split peas like the yellow ones.

Simmer 30 minutes or pressure cook 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a covered cast iron skillet, heat one tbsp ghee, two crushed cloves, and 1/4 teaspoon black mustard seeds. When the mustard seed s pop, remove the lid and saute two chopped scallions until slightly browned (we could also call these green onions. Scallions sounds more gourmet don't you think?). Add to cooked peas. Then add 1 teaspoon chopped fresh ginger and 1 and 1/2 teaspoons curry.

Serve. You will not be disappointed.

Bake-a-dahl

Dahl is an Asian dish made from lentils. Every Indian cookbook has at least a half-dozen recipes. This is one that you can toss in the oven to save time.

For two people, put into a covered baking dish:

• 1/2 cup lentils
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 tsp Braggs amino acid mix (from Food Coop — other spices will do as well)

• 1 and 1/2 hours at 250 degrees or
• 45 to 60 minutes at 350 degrees

Before it comes out of the oven, saute sliced Shitake mushrooms in butter, add 1 teaspoon curry (available at Indian grocery), and a couple of sliced green onions.

When the lentils come out of the oven, mash them up a bit, and then add the saute mixture.

Another great dish!

Note we give you two cooking times. Say you have a hour-long errand to do after work, you can put this in the oven, do your errand, and then eat a short time later.

Squash

(special remedial recipe included for men only)

Buy a squash. Butternut is tasty; if you cat find a butternut, and you don't know any other good varieties of squash, ask the produce person what is good. Cut your squash in half and remove the seeds. (If you are particularly energetic, save the seeds for the next recipe.) Place the halves face down in a baking dish in about 1 inch of water and cook at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. Test with fork before eating. You can cook the squash whole, but it takes longer (use your fork to see when it is done) and then you have to deal with cleaning the seeds out of a very hot squash. It can be done, however.

Flax oil makes a very tasty garnish.

Squash seeds

Squash seeds contain zinc and other healthful nutrients. I reveal here the closely kept secret of how to cook them. First, remove the seeds from the fleshy material that connects them. This is easiest in a colander under running water.

Then put the seeds in a baking dish, add some soy sauce, tamari, or other flavoring, and bake at 200 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes or until dry. Store in an airtight jar so they stay crispy.

What to drink

If you are cold, drink hot water. If you aren't cold, drink room-temperature water. Or quality fruit juice.

Easy snacks

• Apples
• Bananas
• Grapes
• Pear
• Mango

• Date
• Dried figs
• Nuts with the exception of peanuts (usually not fresh enough for my liking). Try pistachios, cashews, filberts, almonds. Really fresh peanuts are very good, too.
• Healthful chips and salsa
• Healthful fruit/energy bars

Shopping

The word organic or natural on a label usually means nothing. Shop at a food cooperative where they are more careful about what they stock and you can trust the word organic.

Avoid foods with these words on labels:

• Partially-hydrogenated vegetable oil.
• Artificial flavor.