"Tour de Colorado" Whole Wheat Bread

Today was just one of those days. Those beautiful days. Visiting my dad, we went for a 12 mile bike ride. I like to call it the Tour de Colorado.  {eh? eh? See what I did there?} It was so beautiful outside and such a good activity that not only exercises your body, but exercises your mind. Riding a bike is such a perfect time to think. The trail we rode is so beautiful and feels so secluded from the world. My favorite part by far was the people we saw along the way. They never failed to smile or wave or say "hi there" when we passed. It just made me think, wouldn't the world be so great if everyone just loved everyone? We really have no reason not love everyone. So let's start! Yeah? Me and You. Here we go. Let's just love everyone. Let's not be afraid to say "hi" to those strangers we pass everyday. Let's not hold back from a harmless conversation with a person we have never met. You never know how far that little act can go. That's gonna be my goal. After all, we are all sent here to live a life of our own. We were all nervous to leave our heavenly home and come to create our own story. So why not reach out to each other a little? These were just some thoughts strolling through the beautiful countryside today. And I just know I surely need to work on reaching out.

Hey! Remember that bread recipe I got you all excited about in my Divine PB & Blackberry Sandwich post?! Well, hopefully you don't remember how long ago that was because let's just say, I slacked off on posting that as quickly as I hope. I apologize! But here it is. It is sooooo delicious. Please try it if you want to be happy in life. Yep, that's right. I'm giving you the key to happiness right here in this recipe. {Okay so maybe it isn't the key to happiness, but its gotta be pretty close!}

Oh and this is one recipe that I did not create. I got it from a woman in my church ward. So don't give me credit.   :)




Ingredients

*Makes either 2 large loaves, or 3 small-med. loaves*

• 5 cups hot water
• 1 cup grapeseed oil
• 1 cup honey
• 4 Tb. yeast
• 12 cups whole wheat flour (be brave and grind some hard wheat yourself. It is too good not to)
• 2 Tb. sea salt

1. Dissolve the honey in the hot water and mix in the oil
2. Once the mixture has cooled to a warm temperature, sprinkle the yeast gently on top
3. Mix the flour and salt
4. Once the yeast mixture has foamed, about 8 minutes, pour it into the flour
5. In a bread machine and or in a kitchen-aid, knead on medium speed for three minutes(If you don't have either, just knead really well for about 3-5 minutes)
6. Let the dough rise for 30 minutes
7. On an oiled counter surface, roll out dough and form the loaves (to avoid creating air bubbles, fold in the sides of the rolled dough to the middle, and then throw it hard onto the counter a few times)
8. Press the dough into the corners of a bread pan
9. Bake on 200 degrees until the bread has sufficiently reached the top of the pan
10. Once it has reached the top, turn up the heat to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 30 minutes (I found that to be not quite enough, so I would suggest 38-40 minutes)
11. Remove and let the loaves cool before you take out of the pan
12. Enjoy the happiness that will flood over you the second you take the first bite!!

Greek Pasta Salad

Lately I have been looking into my family history and it has been really fun! I's really interesting looking at old profiles, old immigrant records, and especially old photos. Old historical photos are hard to find, especially when they are your own family. But guess what? I found some! My dad practically has a whole family history museum in a chest in his house. It is full of records of my grandparents and great-great grandparents. There are plenty of pictures and I got glued to the floor for a good half hour just flipping through them. So interesting! I love it! I can't wait to look farther back in history and start discovering some mysterious family stories!

Anyways, on the topic of food, let me introduce to you a pretty stinkin' delicious pasta salad recipe. It is really refreshing and light. It is a Greek style salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, feta cheese, and kalamata olives. Great for a light lunch! Here you go my friends. Try it out....





Ingredients

• roughly 8 oz. dry whole wheat noodles, cooked
• 2 Tb. extra virgin olive oil
• 20 sweet golden cherry tomatoes, chopped
• 1 large cucumber, chopped
• 20 kalamata olives, seeded, chopped
• 1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
• sea salt to taste
• drizzle of agave (optional)

1. Mix all ingredients in a tupper-ware container
2. Refrigerate
3. Serve when desired
4. Enjoy

Protein Cinna-Banan-cakes

These pancakes are a perfect breakfast to get you going in the morning. They're full of protein and they taste perty good. I like them cause they have a sponge-like consistency and they're really filling so I am not hungry right after breakfast. (Which is pretty astonishing because yes, I am carb crazy and yes, I am pretty much hungry every second of my life...) But these keep me full so that is always desirable in my book. Try'em out! Here, how 'bout you get the griddle going while I give you the recipes! Yes? Alright, let's go.....













Ingredients
*Made 3 pancakes*

• 6 Tb. whole wheat flour
• 1/8 tsp. sea salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 Cup Greek yogurt
• 2 egg whites
• 1 1/2 Tb. raw agave
• 1/2 banana, smashed

1. Mix together the yogurt, banana, agave, and egg whites.
2. Once completely mixed together, stir in the flour and salt and cinnamon.
3. Heat a greased frying pan or griddle on low-med. heat
4. Pour your batter onto the pan and with a spoon or spatula, thin out the batter to make a pretty descent sized pancake
5. Flip after roughly 4 minutes
6. Let the other side cook for roughly 2.5 minutes
7. Remove from pan
8. Top with agave and/or fresh fruit

Don't Be Afraid of Brussel Sprouts!!

Ok, so you read the words "brussel sprouts" in the title! Don't turn away!! Brussel sprouts just have a bad reputation for some reason as that one tasteless healthy gross food that you threaten your kids with. But I'm here to say, challenge that reputation! I did and I came to find out that there are really good and if prepared the right way, I actually crave them! Say what?! Crazy I know. But try it sometime. You might actually surprise yourself. This is the way that I like to prepare them even though there are several different ways I'm sure. You could always steam them, roast them, or other methods. Personally, I like boiling them. Here is how I do it....

First Step:

Peel off the first layer of leaves

Second Step:

Chop of the little stem thing at the end

 

Third Step:

 

Cut an X on the bottom, as shown

 

Fourth Step:

 

Place brussel sprouts in boiling water so that there are covered completely

 

Fifth Step:

 

Take out after 8  minutes of cooking



Sixth Step:

 

You can either stop here, OR what I like to do is chop them up a little just to make it a little easier to eat.

 

Last Step:

 

Top with a little bit of extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice along with some sea salt and pepper and enjoy your snack! :)