A MESSAGE FROM PEGGY
I mostly love the month of January. It’s my renewal month, the fresh start to a new year, time to actually start scheduling all the plans I have, and knowing that spring is just around the corner. The “
mostly” part means that I don’t care for the cold and rain, and getting back into full swing after a couple weeks of easy going usually takes a few stressful days.
We’re excited about continued changes at To Your Health. Our new sprouting machine is due to arrive January 5, and we’re expecting to add new offerings to our line of sprouted products. Our sprouted beans and peas will be available in 1–lb. packaging hopefully by February 1, and sprouted oats and quinoa should be added to our web site shopping cart by then as well. We have lots of new recipes to share in upcoming issues of the newsletter and encourage feedback from our customers and readers to help us continue to improve our products and service to you.
Take a deep breath and be thankful for each day. Expect greatness and adventure around every corner. Look at life, not through it, and know that you are blessed.
Reflection
“Sometime in your life, hope that you might see one starved man, the look on his face when the bread finally arrives. Hope that you might have baked it or bought or even kneaded it yourself. For that look on his face, for your meeting his eyes across a piece of bread, you might be willing to lose a lot, or suffer a lot, or die a little, even.” (Unknown American poet and priest)
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Alena's Biscuits
- 2 cups TYH Sprouted Wheat or Spelt flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon sucanat
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar (optional)
- ½ cups butter, softened
- 2/3 cup buttermilk or plain yogurt
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. In separate bowl mix wet ingredients. Make a well in the center of dry ingredients, pour wet ingredients into the center. Work all ingredients together with hands until just combined. Grease a baking sheet. Form dough into lumps of approximately 3–inches diameter and place on baking sheet. Make sure oven has reached 425, then bake for 15–20 minutes. Makes 8–10 biscuits. We like to spread our biscuits with a mixture of molasses and softened butter. Enjoy!
(Thank you! Rachel for sending this simple and delicious recipe to us. Biscuits are a great way to serve bread at breakfast and with soups and stews to warm up a cold winter day.)
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Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season filled with lots of wonderful family, friends and food! As usual, I spent the holiday season baking (I always make all kinds of baked goods to give as presents), and hanging out with friends. But mostly preparing for and trying not stress out too much about U. S. Allround Championships which were December 30th–31st. You might think that after making the World Cup Team every year since 2004 I might not get quite so nervous about all of this, but somehow it hasn’t worked out that way. I like to think that a healthy bit of fear and respect for my competition is a good thing. And even if I was the only person racing, I think I would still be nervous about performing up to my own expectations!
I like to go into big completions fully rested and just wanting to go. But this year, in spite of backing off of training as usual, I was just exhausted and my legs were sore. I realized that these races would not come easy, that I would have to focus on excellent technical skating and race with a lot of heart and guts. It was two days of mind over matter, of just focusing on what I had to do and not letting how I felt even enter into my mind. Of simply skating my best and blocking out everything my body was screaming at me. While I did not skate as fast as I might have like to, given the circumstances I think that I put together three very good races. I placed 2nd in the 3000m, 6th in the 1500m, and was in 2nd place overall after three distances (the third distance being the 500m). I am happy to say that I qualified for both the World Cup Team and the Regional Qualifier Team, as well as earned an automatic invite to the U. S. National Team next year. I will be competing in the Regional Qualifier event January 16th–17th and will hopefully qualify for World Allround Championships–the most prestigious event in speedskating.
And then, after two hard, stressful days of racing, I took some well earned rest! I had two whole days of just lying around my house, baking, eating and sleeping–it was awesome! New Years morning I slept in and then made myself some delicious cranberry pancakes, they were so good, and are one of my all time favorite foods. I have a million different recipes for pancakes, but cranberry spelt pancakes are probably my all time favorite. I just love the tartness of the cranberries mixed with the sweetness of maple syrup, and have included this recipe for this month. Hope you enjoy!
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Cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla and salt. Then add the flour slowly by the cup (I use a Borsch Mixer). Mix thoroughly. Put in jelly roll pan and spread evenly. Sprinkle organic sugar on top. Cook at 350 degrees for approximately 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and slice while hot. Cool in the pan on a rack.
Shortbread is yummy when aged, but ours never lasts long enough to mellow. This was my first batch with the sprouted grain flours and my taste buds believe this shortbread would make any Scot thrilled!! Enjoy!
(Lynn is an accomplished baker and regular TYH customer from Oregon. This recipe is tops on my list to bake this month.)
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TYH Tips for Baking:
Let’s talk SUGAR this month. Sugar has almost become a dirty word to us with all the articles and books written about the negative effects of too much sugar in our diets. Well, in my opinion (we all have lots of them, don’t we?), too much of anything in our diets can be detrimental to our health. Even the wonderful, nutrient–dense foods in excess will tax our systems and prevent optimal health. So let’s resolve to enjoy a little “sweetness” in moderation and not consider sugar as a substance to be shunned (Of course, if you are working to heal chronic health conditions or cancer, this logic may not fit your eating protocol at this time. Please know that I’m not making light of your individual situation).
There are so many choices for sweetening options it’s hard to choose sometimes. Some options you can ALWAYS steer clear of are any processed sugars, and any fake sugar or sugar substitutes (they’re all chemically formed). Be careful of the new trendy sweeteners such as agave nectar, which is most often made from the starchy root not the fruit.
Some great sweetening options include honey, molasses, maple syrup (especially Grade B), coconut sap sugar, maple or date sugar, rapadura, sucanat, and muscovado sugar. These versions are unprocessed and it’s best to purchase them organic or chemical–free.
So, enjoy a little sweetness in your life and pull out those favorite dessert recipes for a healthy revamp using a natural sweetener and TYH’s organic sprouted flours.
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- Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar and Survival, by T. S. Wiley.
- Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It, by Gary Taubes – If you read Gary’s Good Calories, Bad Calories, then you know this new release will be just as great a read.
- Don’t Waste Your Life, by John Piper – Piper has a long list of great books. This one is currently captivating my morning quiet time.
- Reflections for Ragamuffins, by Brennan Manning – An oldie, but goodie. I enjoy Brennan–s poetic insightfulness to a life lived in God.
- Breaking the Vicious Cycle, Intestinal Health Through Diet, by Elaine Gottschall.
- Got On the Ball, by Lisa Westlake – A fun, easy book to follow if you're once again resolving to get in better shape this year. No stress here. Easily done at home when you have the time a couple of days a week. Only requires an exercise ball and maybe a couple of free weights. Pick 4 exercises to master over 4 weeks, then try 4 new ones over the next 4 weeks, etc.
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