In The Kitchen With Orzo

No this is not a person with a big red nose, floppy shoes and oversized mismatched clothes blowing up animal balloons. This is a whole grain that resembles rice in appearance and pasta in texture.

I have recently been inspired by my friend Jaime Gibbs to revisit the idea of whole grains and fresh live foods. She made such a convincing case for oat groats that we made a trip to Whole Foods ourselves today. Of course, it didn't stop with the oats.

The bulk food aisle has always been our favorite. We also had to get short grain brown rice (hopefully like the rice served at P.F. Changs,)whole wheat gluten flour, couscous for Jeremi, millet, sea salt, and the usual granola snack for each person in the car in their own little plastic container.

While standing in front of the little containers with plastic shovels, Tiffani recognized the orzo. She exclaimed, "Oh look mom! They have orzo! Can we get some?" Now, you have to understand that we used to have this little grain from time to time, but it has been a very long time. In fact, I don't think we have had it since we left RV life. We certainly had to get some, even if just for posterity sake.

When we got home, she wanted to cook it up right away. Tiffani found a recipe and began putting it all together. After tasting it 2 or 3 times along the way to ensure that it was 'al dente', she said to me, "It has to be just like I remember."

Well, it turned out nothing like I remember. I would have remembered this one. Tiffani made it very healthy, fat free and delicious! She is a very good cook!

Cooking from Scratch

Ever since we returned from Homestead with a 5-gallon bucket full of wheat berries, we have been making homemade bread. It has been great. It is so fulfilling to grind the flour, combine the yeast, knead the dough, let it rise, bake it up, and then slice into a warm loaf at the dinner table. (My husband especially likes this.) And, I feel so good about it. It is totally healthy, and (Jason, this is for you) it has SO MUCH FIBER!!

We wanted to try our hand at yogurt with the fresh milk, and we are getting quite good at it. It is really so easy! We have an abundance of yogurt, and so I decided to try yogurt cheese. It is just as easy. It has the consistency of cream cheese. I added fresh minced garlic, salt, and a bit of parsley, and it is a great spread for our rye crackers.

I've also been making these wonderful banana muffins sweetened only with bananas. They are filled with wonderful nutrients with 'extra' stuff I add like flax seed meal, and the pulp from when Jason and Amanda juiced for us. Yesterday I baked a dozen of these little guys, and this morning they were all gone!