Ideas for Wheat and Beans

Ideas for Wheat and Beans

http://providentlivingisfun.blogspot.com/2010/05/canning-beans.html
(Here is a link to directions for canning beans)

(Great video and recipe for regular no knead bread)
http://www.breadtopia.com/basic-no-knead-method/

http://www.pbs.org/parents/kitchenexplorers/2011/04/16/healthy-bread-in-five-minutes/
(This is a whole wheat recipe for no knead bread)

No-Knead Pizza Dough Recipe

The ingredients are simply stirred together, left over-night to rise, and that's it.  This is the perfect pizza dough recipe for the first timer.  Makes 2 15” pizzas

1 1/2 cup tepid water
1/4 tsp dry active yeast
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp sugar
1 1/4 tsp salt
18 ounces (about 4 cups) flour, plus more as needed
Add the water, yeast, olive oil, sugar, salt, and flour into a mixing bowl. Using a heavy wooden spoon, stir together to form a wet, very sticky dough. Do not try to knead with your hands, as it is too sticky to handle. The mixture will seem dry at first, but as you continue to stir together all the flour will be absorbed and it will pull away from the edges of the bowl. Add more flour if needed to form a very thick, very sticky dough ball. Once mixed, cover the bowl with a towel, and leave out at room temperature for 12 to 16 hours.

Flour a work surface very well; using a spatula scrape the sticky, bubbly dough on to the flour. Flour your hands and pat down to flatten. Cut the dough into 2 pieces and using plenty of flour to handle, knead each portion for several minutes to form 2 smooth, elastic, balls of dough. Allow to rest on a floured board covered for 30 minutes. Your pizza dough is ready to use! This dough is even better if kept refrigerated overnight, but let come up to room temperature before shaping pizzas.

This pizza dough works equally well for thin-crust or thick-crust pizza recipes.

 Pinto Bean Bread (from Food.com)

This bread is really good.  I usually use 1/2 wheat and 1/2 white flour.  The beans add a lot of nutrition and you can’t taste them at all. 
2 cups lukewarm milk
2 packages yeast
2 cups pinto beans, mashed
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons shortening, melted
5 -6 cups flour (I use half wheat)

Combine the milk, beans, sugar, salt, shortening, and 1 tablespoon of the flour.
Stir in the yeast and wait for it to bubble.
If it has not bubbled in 5 minutes, get new yeast.
Stir in 5-6 cups flour, to make a kneadable dough.
Knead 5-10 minutes, until satiny.
Place in a greased bowl, turning to grease dough.
Cover loosely with a clean damp cloth and let rise till double.
Punch down; let rise again.
Punch down; shape into 2 loaves.
Place in greased loaf pans.
Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes, or until thumps hollow on bottom.

 Bread Chips

Slice some day-old bread thinly with a sharp knife. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Brush one side of each slice with oil, or a butter/oil mixture with a basting brush.  You can flavor the oil/butter with some salt, a few cloves of crushed garlic, herbs, spices, whatever takes your fancy. If you’re using white bread you could make sweet variations too. 
Place slices in a single layer on a baking tray or roasting tray (largest you can). You can put 2 trays in the oven at a time. Bake for about 10 minutes until the inner edges start going golden brown. Add 5 minutes at a time if they are not lightly browned.  If they are not crunchy, cook them a little longer.  Cool completely on a rack, and store in an airtight container. 
If the next day they are not as crunchy, reheat them in the oven for five minutes to crisp them up again.

Crockpot Whole Grain Breakfast Cereal

 You can also make a smaller or larger amount of this, just use parts water to one part grain.  This tastes great in place of toast.  Put a few fried eggs, cheese and green onions on top for a savory instead of sweet taste.
2 cups of grains (I like a combination of wheat, brown rice, quinoa, oatmeal, buckwheat etc)
1-The morning before you want to serve this, take out 2 cups worth, and place in a bowl. Cover with water and add two tablespoons apple cider vinegar  or lemon juice. Let set on your counter, until that evening. (you don’t have to do this, but it makes the grains more digestible)
2-Right before you go to bed, rinse off the grains in a fine sieve, and place in your crockpot. Add 6 cups of water and a pinch of salt. Turn on low, and cook for 8 hours. Some of the grains turn soft and some stay kind of firm.  I like the combination.
You can use any leftovers in meatloaf, taco meat, pancakes, soup, tuna salad.  Just add a little to start.

Bean Flour

(Don’t throw away your old beans)
 Add to pancakes or muffins etc (replace 1/4 of flour with bean flour)
-Replace up to one-fourth of the flour in any recipe with bean flour. Beans combined with grain form a complete protein which is exceptionally efficient nutrition for the body, and best of all, no one has to know they are eating it! White bean flour or fava bean flour generally work best for baked goods.

-Thickener: Use bean flour to thicken or cream soups and stews. This is a great way to reduce the fat content of creamy soups. White bean flour has a neutral taste and a creamy flavor that could replace some of the heavy cream in vegetable soups. You can also use bean flour to make white sauce, as long as you use a mild-flavored flour.

Combining bean and wheat flours also helps form a complete protein for those cutting out or down on meat. The best part is that no one will ever know they’re eating beans!

Whole Wheat Blender Pancakes

Makes 6 to 8 pancakes
1 cup milk (1/3 cup non-fat dry milk and 1 cup water)
1 cup uncooked whole wheat (add 1 TBS flour for waffles)

2 eggs (¼ cup powdered egg and ½ cup water)
2 tablespoons oil (add 2 TBS oil for waffles)
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons honey
½ teaspoon salt

Put the milk and wheat in the blender. Blend on the highest speed for four or five minutes or until the batter is smooth. Turn the blender down to low and add in: eggs, oil, baking powder, honey, and salt.

Cracked Wheat Meat Loaf

2 1/2 cups cooked bulgur wheat (or cracked wheat)
2 pounds lean ground beef
2 pounds lean ground beef
1 1/4 cups milk
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup ketchup
1 egg
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 cup sauteed onions
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Saute onion in 1 tablespoon vegetable oil until transparent. Mix all ingredients together and turn into loaf pan or shallow baking dish. If desired, spread surface with thin layer of ketchup.
Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour.

Mexican Wheat Chili

1 lb ground beef
2 TBSPS oil
1 large onion, chopped
¼ teaspoon garlic salt
4 TBSPS Flour
2 cups cooked wheat
5 cups beef bouillon or stock
1 teaspoon to 1 TBSP chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon oregano
1 cup tomato sauce
pinch cayen pepper (opt.)
Brown meat and saute onion with garlic salt. Drain of excess fat. Add and stir in flour. Add rest of ingredients, cover and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Makes 6-8 servings. (For thicker chili add 1 to 2 TBSPS more flour, stir often.)

1. Thermos Wheat
Recipe from author Rita Bingham

Bring 1 c. of wheat kernels, 2 c. water, and 1 t. salt to a boil in a medium saucepan. Pour into a heated stainless steel or glass-lined thermos bottle. Secure cap. Place bottle on side. In the morning, pour off any additional water, add butter and honey, and serve hot.
Wheat Berries
Add some of your plain dry wheat kernels to a pot of water. Bring it to a boil and cook for a few minutes. Then let simmer for about 1-2 hours or until soft. I like them quite soft. Drain the wheat berries and stick them in a tupperware container in the fridge. These are delicious to add to yogurt or to use to replace some meat in recipes. You can also use it in place of brown rice in a lot of recipes.

Poppped Wheat


Take 1 cup of your cooked wheat berries (see above) and add to a frying pan of pot with two tablespoons of oil in it. Cover with a lid and cook over a hot stove shaking the pan while it cooks. After about 4-5 minutes the kernels will be nice and toasted. Put the popped wheat on a paper towel to get the extra oil off, and sprinkle with your choice of seasonings. Try it with salt, seasoned salt, garlic, barbecue salt, onion salt, cinnamon and sugar or any combination you desire. These are delicious on salads as a topping, mixed with trail mix, or as toppings for a desserts or just as a healthy snack.

Cracked Wheat


You can crack wheat in a blender or a coffee grinder. To do it in a blender you simply put in about 1/4-1/3 cups of wheat and pulse it until it looks like little cracked kernels. These kernels will cook much faster than regular wheat, and cook up in the same way that you cook rice on the stove. You can use cracked wheat to make hot cereal, add it into bread, or cook it up and use as a meat filler. 

HIPPIE TACOS

Fresh Ingredients
1 lb. ground beef
15 10″ tortillas
toppings: baby spinach leaves, grated cheese, diced tomato, avocado, cilantro, and Ranch dressing
Storage Ingredients
2 c. cooked whole wheat berries
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. paprika
2 tsp. chili powder
* 1 packet of taco seasoning may be used as a substitution for individual spices
Brown ground beef and drain fat. Stir in the cooked wheat berries and spices. Spoon meat mixture onto warm tortillas and top with fresh baby spinach, grated cheese, diced tomato, avocado, cilantro, and Ranch dressing.
During one of my food storage presentations a woman shared how she substitutes cooked whole wheat berries for ground beef. She seasons it just as you normally would for tacos to create a very healthy vegetarian alternative. If that sounds too hard core, consider giving this recipe a try. I made them for my daughter that lives in Oregon and she thought they were amazing. Hippie tacos is her name for our little culinary invention. Guess she’s in the zone

Tuna Salad with Wheat

2 cans of tuna
1/2 to 3/4 cup of chopped pickles
3 celery stalks chopped
4 green onions chopped
dash of tabasco
garlic salt
1/2 cup of mayo
1 1/2 cups of cooked wheat berries

Mix all together.  It tastes even better the next day.

Hummus

2 cans or 2 16 oz jars of garbanzo beans drained -keep liquid to add if needed  (this is kind of a big recipe. I put it in smaller amounts and freeze it for later)
1/2 cups tahini (add more to taste)  I make my own with toasted sesame seeds, olive oil in a blender.
Juice from two lemons (about 1/4 to 1/3 cups) I taste it at the end and add more if I need it
1 tablespoon of cumin (to taste)
1 - 2 garlic cloves
Drops of sesame oil
4 tbs. olive oil
dashes of tabasco sauce
garlic salt to taste

Put it all in a blender or food processor until smooth.  I usually taste it and add more of whatever I think it needs.

Delicious Cream Cheese Bean Dip

1 cup sour cream 
4 cups  cooked beans (I used my canned ones)
1 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese 
4 green onions ( chopped) 
1 tbs chili powder
1/2 tbs. cumin
1 can green chilies
dashes of tabasco
1 cup grated cheese

Directions

1. Empty bean jar and heat until water and beans separate--dump off most of the liquid (save it in case your bean dip is too dry)
2. Put everything else (except grated cheese) in on a low temp (just put a lid on it and wait until the cream cheese softens)
3. When it is all hot, mix in cheese
4. You can serve it now or put it in the oven to keep it hot.