Tag: whole-grain

Nutrition + Health, Running, Spring, Summertime

Strawberry Crumble

by Rebecca1 Comment on Strawberry Crumble

and Sustainably Attaining Healing + Health

I’ve been reflecting lately on healing and health – how some of us are ‘gifted’ with easy and good health, and easy and quick recovery from running and workouts for most of our lives…and then for some of us, health is a multi-faceted journey, a ‘getting to’ figure out what the nugget(s) of wisdom are underneath the sometimes long periods of pain, struggle, fear, disease, injury…

I certainly don’t have all the answers. But I know that finding and immersing yourself in what brings you joy, eating more foods that still look like they came from the ground/earth, and learning to set aside some of your hurry and worry helps a whole lot in the process.

I could give more details about eating colorful and anti-inflammatory foods, specific nutrients, etc. for sustainable and lasting healing.

But today, I’ll offer encouragement that is a little more abstract. Because finding what makes you feel whole and healthy long-term, what brings you joy and makes you feel like your most authentic self will always be worth pursuing.

If you’re in the thick of your own complicated health journey, don’t give up hope. Focus on finding what brings you joy. See if you can begin by eating your next meal, whatever it is, in a way that makes you grateful for everyone (people and all the other creatures) involved in getting it to you.

Strawberry Crumble
Prep + Cook: 60 minutes | Makes: 4-6 servings

I shared this recipe in a virtual cook-along with a few of my local Oiselle Volée running teammates this week and it was a big hit. It brought so much joy to me, and hopefully them, to share and bake it in community. Everyone loved the little pop of lemon this contains. The addition of the slight hit of acid enhances all the other flavors. This is also a great sweet dessert for individuals who are following a gut-healing dietary pattern. It contains only a little added sugar, which is highly inflammatory and problematic for gut-healing, but lots of flavor. Hope you enjoy!

Filling:
1 pound / 4-6 cups fresh strawberries
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1-2 teaspoons lemon zest
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Crumble Topping:
1 cup / 100 g old-fashioned or quick oats (or a combo of the two)
⅓ cup / 37 g almond flour or ⅓ cup raw sunflower seeds, ground into a meal
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup /55 g coconut oil, ghee, or butter
2-3 tablespoons / 36 g sugar

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place the berries in a 8 x 8-inch baking dish or similar, and toss with ½ tsp. vanilla, lemon juice and lemon zest.
  2. Prepare the crumble in a separate bowl. Start by mixing oats, almond or sunflower flour, salt, spices, and vanilla.
  3. Then add the coconut oil and sugar. Use a spoon or your hands to mix until combined. With your fingers, crumble the filling evenly over the berries.
  4. Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes until the fruit juices are bubbling around the edges and the topping is golden brown.

    Notes:
    – Change up the berries depending on availability and season. Some berries might require 1-2 Tbs. of maple syrup or sugar added to the filling. If using frozen berries, thaw and drain the excess liquid before using. 
    – Make this a strawberry rhubarb crumble by using 2/3 lb. strawberries, 1/3 lb. pound chopped fresh rhubarb, and add 1 Tbs. maple syrup to the filling.
a couple shots of the last batch in the vibrant, bright morning light
Autumn, Journal, Nutrition + Health, Summertime

Better than the Bakery GF/DF Blackberry Muffins

by Rebecca5 Comments on Better than the Bakery GF/DF Blackberry Muffins

During my senior year of high school, my agricultural science class focused on business and economics principles, and in one unit on our future in the workforce, I did some business planning on starting a cake bakery. I don’t know if we were focusing on entrepreneurship specifically, or if I’ve always had a streak of planning to run my own business, but to my way of thinking, I was owning, managing, baking, selling, etc. The whole dang thing. Never mind that I was in agricultural class, not growing or milling wheat or other grains, or just using an example from the then business I had at the time of raising and selling club lambs. Nope. Instead I did an abrupt turn and planned for baking artistic cakes in my future.

To this day, I often joke that if the pay were better and other things didn’t work out, I’d be baking and handing over the goods to other happy people instead. Oh and starting a porridge and brunch restaurant. Which is where my love for baking muffins comes in. If you go ahead and browse the recipe section, you’ll see I’ve published more than a handful of muffin recipes over the years. Along with cake, muffins are one of my favorite baked foods to experiment with.

When it’s up to me, I often tend to go for the heavily spiced, oat-rich, morning glory-type muffins that are stuffed with ingredients like raisins, shredded zucchini or carrots, mashed pumpkin, or other fruit. But not everyone favors that kind of porridge reincarnation. William, for instance, is a plain vanilla cake / vanilla frosting person, and likewise prefers simple berry muffins without the frills and extra ingredients. Since he’s been stopping by a local bakery before work many mornings for exactly that type of muffin, we settled on me making him some that are a little more wholesome and he can grab and take instead.

That’s where these come in. These are blackberry muffins made from milling oats, buckwheat, and almonds in my spice / coffee grinder. But they can easily become blueberry or raspberry-flavored instead, and if you have more of the flours than I do, start with oat, buckwheat, and almond flours for one less step. Either way, they’re an early morning treat that stands up to the bakery muffins with more whole foods, and especially whole-grains and reduced sugar. A big win and less of the side effects of refined sugars and flours, etc.

Blackberry Muffins, makes 6

65 grams / ¾ cup gf-certified oatmeal
65 grams / a little less than 1/2 cup raw buckwheat groats
60 grams / ½ cup raw almonds
8 grams / 1 Tbs. arrowroot flour
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. sea salt
70 grams / 6 Tbs. organic cane sugar
25 grams / 2 Tbs. coconut oil
1 large egg or a vegan alternative (1 Tbs. ground flax mixed with 3 Tbs. water)
½ tsp. grated lemon zest, optional
1 tsp. lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
½ tsp. vanilla extract
170 grams / ¾ cup plain non-dairy yogurt (unsweetened coconut yogurt is best)
150 grams / 1 cup fresh or frozen blackberries

  1. Begin by weighing or measuring out the oats, buckwheat and almonds, and then finely grind them to a flour mixture in a spice / coffee grinder. Alternatively, if you already have light buckwheat flour, oat flour and almond meal, you can skip this step.
  2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and prepare a muffin pan by adding the paper liners, or lightly wipe the insides with oil and dust with flour. Set aside.
  3. In a small bowl, mix the flours, baking powder and soda, and salt. Then set it aside.
  4. In a medium bowl, mix the coconut oil and sugar with a spoon until light and fluffy. Then beat in the egg, lemon zest and juice, and vanilla.
  5. Add in about 1/3 of the flour mixture to the sugar and oil and stir. Then add in ¼ cup of yogurt. Stir in another third of flour and another ¼ cup of yogurt, and then add the rest of the flour and the final ¼ cup of yogurt. The batter should be slightly fluffy. Don’t overmix.
  6. Gently stir in the blackberries, and then evenly divide the batter into the six muffins cups.
  7. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool them slightly in the pan, before tipping out and eating
Nutrition + Health, Running, Spring, Summertime

Radish + Hazelnut Grain Salad

by RebeccaLeave a Comment on Radish + Hazelnut Grain Salad

This is the type of meal situation that’s my bread and butter. It’s the sort of thing I’ll bring to a potluck or picnic-style situation, and it makes a routine visit in our regular meals much the same way tacos do – i.e. same concept, different ingredients depending on what’s on hand and seasonal. Over the years, I’ve also found that William usually takes some of the leftovers for his work lunch the next day – which only happens if it meets his slightly different than mine taste-bud standards. It also helps when I add raisins, which in our house grace many a main dish. We are both lifelong raisin affectionados. :)

While everything is fairly interchangeable here, you’ll note I only list gluten-free grains as options. I don’t tend to be outright against gluten-containing grains for those that can tolerate them, but many individuals tend to be at least slightly sensitive – especially those with pre-existing autoimmune conditions (since inflammation in the gut significantly contributes and/or is part of the cause, and gluten is inflammatory to everyone to a certain degree). I also find that many individuals running long miles, particularly in the summer heat, suffer from more achy tummy – not hungry – can’t tolerate lots of foods symptoms. That’s because these kind of long or hard workouts in stressful physical conditions contribute to damage of the endothelial tissue in the gut, which by design is very thin (one cell thick!) to allow for absorption. If you eat gluten and wheat products regularly, purchase a few non-gluten grains next time you’re out shopping. And if you do avoid wheat and gluten, try to find one or two new to you or haven’t tried in a while gf grains next time. Dietary diversity is also imperative for good long-term gut health.

One last note I’ll make here is that I left out a protein-rich ingredient to this. If you tend to follow a vegan or vegetarian way of eating, and especially if you’re active, please add one to your meal. You can read more here about the importance of protein, particularly for plant-based, active folks. Often I’ll add cooked beans such as garbanzos to make this type of salad a one-dish situation, but a side of seasoned/baked/grilled tempeh or tofu, grilled salmon or similar, a couple fried eggs, or whatever else is your protein of choice will round this out nicely into a true meal. Enjoy!

Radish + Hazelnut Grain Salad, serves 4
1 cup mixed grains (like millet, quinoa, buckwheat or any combination of these)
1 onion, thinly sliced
a large handful of baby spinach or kale leaves
1 cup radishes, thinly sliced
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup dried apricots, sliced into small pieces
1 cup parsley leaves, minced
1 cup mint and / or basil, minced
2 Tbs. olive oil
2 Tbs. white wine or raw apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup hazelnuts, toasted
salt and pepper to taste

  1. Place the grains in a medium saucepan and add 2 cups water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, and then cover. Cook for 20-25 minutes until the water is absorbed, and then set aside to cool slightly.
  2. While the grains are cooking, saute the thinly sliced onions in a skillet with a little of the olive oil. Cook them until they are soft and translucent, bordering on being caramelized. Pull off the heat and transfer them to a large serving bowl.
  3. Tear or slice the spinach or kale leaves into small pieces and then pile them on top of the the onions.
  4. Add the slightly still warm cooked grains to the mixing bowl on top of the greens. Stir through to wilt them slightly. Then mix in the radishes, dried fruit, and herbs.
  5. Add in the olive oil and vinegar, 1 Tablespoon of each at a time, and stir through. Add additional as needed to make it the right consistency for you, i.e. add more oil and vinegar if you like a wetter mixture. Also taste as you go, since you might need more vinegar to bring a little more acid flavor for balance. Salt and pepper to taste at this time as well. You might need up to 3/4-1 tsp of salt and 1/8-1/4 tsp. black pepper.
  6. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.