Wheat Cooking

My wheat cooking started today. Lots of fun! I started off by having some wheat berries this morning for breakfast. I have to admit, it was less than desirable. To make wheat berries, I washed 2 cups of wheat kernels (hard red wheat). I then put them in the crockpot with 4 cups water and cooked in crockpot over night. I just scooped out 1/2 cup to eat. I only added a little almond milk and a banana, it would have been better with some brown sugar or cinnamon. Then I put the rest in the fridge to use later. These can be stored up to 10 days in the fridge. For dinner tonight I made wheat stir fry, it was very yummy and since I made up my own recipe, here you go:

Wheat Stir fry

2 chicken breasts, sliced
1 tsp. ginger powder
1 tsp. dried chives
1 pkg. oriental veggies
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 TBS. cornstarch
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 1/2 cups wheat berries

Heat olive oil in pan. Add slied chicken breasts, ginger and chives. Sautee until done. Then add 1 pkg. Oriental veggies and cook until soft. Then add 1/4 cup soy sauce mixed with 1 TBS. cornstarch, stir. Add 1 cup pre cooked brown rice and 1 1/2 cups wheat berries heat through and serve warm. You may wish to add some salt and pepper to taste. Let me know what you think of this recipe and if you have any other ideas for wheat.

I have a friend who did take out from the Olive Garden for Valentine's Day. It sounded so yummy, but our nearest Olive Garden is at least a 10 minute drive, on a good day, so I gave her the knock-off recipe for Olive Garden alfredo that I have, I hope she likes it. So I will share it with you today. I got this from my sister-in-law, I don't know where she got it, but I do know there are many knock-off recipes for different restraunts. Have fun with this one. I even shake it up and add spaghetti sauce to it to make a pink sauce, which is very yummy. I will also make my own breaded chicken breast. Dip chicken breast in milk, then in Italian bread crumbs and just cook on stove top with a little olive oil untl done, one of my favorites.

Olive Garden Alfredo

1 pint heavy cream
1 stick butter
2 TBS. cream cheese
1/2 - 3/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 tsp. garlic powder

In saucepan combine butter, cream cheese and heavy cream. Simmer until all is melted and mixed well. Add parmesan cheese and garlic powder. Simmer 15-20 minutes on low. You ma wis to season with a little salt and pepper.

This also freezes really well, but when you reheat it (even if it comes out of the fridge), you need to reheat it on the stovetop. The butter separates from the cream and heating it in the microwave doesn't combine it. Have fun with this one. It is a favorite at our house and it's a lot cheaper than going to the Olive Garden to get it.

If any of you have been to Ogden's The Greenery restraunt, you know how good it is. We love to go there but don't make it often. They have the famous "Mormon muffin", they are so yummy! They are a bran muffin, so good for you, but to buy them at their restraunt, they are over $9 for 6 of them. Way to pricey for me. Well, our stake had some a few years back at a dinner, homemade. So here is the very yummy recipe. Just remember, this recipe make 6 dozen regular size muffins or 3 dozen big muffins. I made the whole recipe with regular and big size and then I put them in the freezer, they freeze well.

Mormon Muffins

Muffin mix must sit in the refrigerator over night before baking. Muffin mix will last one week, covered and refrigerated. Makes 6 dozen regular size tin cups or 3 dozen large tin cups.

2 cups boiling water
5 tsp. baking soda
1 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 quart buttermilk
5 cups flour (I used half wheat and half white)
1 tsp. salt
4 cups All Bran cereal
2 cups 40% Bran flakes
1 cup walnuts chopped

Add soda to boiling water and set aside. Whip shortening and sugar until light and fluffy, add eggs slowly, mix well. Add buttermilk, flour, salt and mix again. Add soda wter very slowly. Gently fold in cereals and walnuts in the mix.

spoon 1/8 cups into greased muffin tins. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes for regular size and 30 minutes for large size. Let cool for 5 minutes. Serve with favorite honeybutter.

Enjoy! These are my favorite bran muffins.

So I think my newest craze is cooking with wheat. A dear friend of mine gave me a book and video from someone that she knows who ordered 10,000# of wheat and has learned to cook with it over the years. Well, I don't have that much wheat but we did inherit pounds and pounds from my inlaws when they moved years ago, so I have slowly started to use it here and there but I feel that I need to try harder to use more. So you will start to get recipes using whole wheat flour, which can be purchased in bulk at winco for pretty cheap, if you don't have a grinder and wheat on hand. Good Luck.

This recipe I got from The Food Nanny and can be found on her website (thefoodnanny.com), but I just love this recipe. It is for pizza crust that we have made a couple of times. I have altered it a little because it was too sweet the first time we made it.

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

1 cup warm water
1 TBS. yeast
3 TBS. olive oil
3 TBS. honey
3/4 tsp. salt
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour.

Mix all ingredients together. Makes 2 thin crust pizzas. Top with favorite toppings. We made a BBQ chicken pizza that was very yummy and canadian bacon, or we made a yummy chicken ceasar pizza.

We did not put the honey in the second time and it was much better, but experiment for yourself and make what you like. Let me know what you think of it