Wednesday, August 1, 2012

A Cooking Kind of Day

After reading an amazing article about the health benefits of milling your own wheat, we began the adventure of buying wheat berries.  To make a long story short, we love the process, have seen visible health changes since starting, and are convinced it is much healthier than processed white flour.  We now use it to make our own bread, muffins, cookies - anything that uses flour.  Contrary to popular misconceptions, it is not hard and one does not have to be Amish to do it.  ;) It only takes a few minutes (we use an electric grinder) and is no big deal.






Shortly after the mill, we also invested in a pasta machine.  Yes, I know you can do this by hand, but no time, folks.  Anyway, the pasta maker comes with several recipes but the one we use the most uses flour and water.  Seriously!  That is it!  No health concerns there!  Plus, it is so easy even the boys can do it, and they love watching the process.  There is something about homemade pasta that can make your heart sing.  Plus, did you know that unprocessed pasta cooks in just a few minutes?  So, while the dough does mix for about 10-15 minutes (we walk away from it while the machine does its magic), the cook time is much shorter so really you just trade out your time invested.



A fun family project that allows everyone to get involved and be excited about cooking.  Can't think of a better way to spend my time!

What's cooking at your house?

9 comments:

  1. Michele,

    Could you briefly explain what is involved with the milling of your own wheat? Also, approx how much was the past machine. i know I can get answers from searching online, but thought the info may be beneficial to others as well. Thanks for sharing!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Teresa, we buy wheat berries in large quantities. Then just stick them in the mill, turn it on and in a few seconds you have flour. That is it, really! I do not grind ahead of time to keep the nutrients in, but some people do and store it already ground. I have a great cd you can borrow on the health benefits if yiu want to listen to it sometime! As soon as Clarke listened to it he said, buy a mill. It has helped numerous stomach problems in our house.

      Delete
    2. Also, check out the Bread Beckers website for the pasta maker current prices. They have wonderful stuff and info!

      Delete
  2. Which brand of mill do you have? This has been a desire of ours for awhile, but with Alan gone and a new baby, it's on the back burner for a while still. I love gathering info, though!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We use a Wonder Mill and love it! Got it from Bread Beckers. A wonderful site for supplies, as well as info on the health benefits of milling.

      Delete
  3. Oh this looks like a great project. I just broke down and bought a bread machine after seeing so many posts on it, and my family loves when I make fresh bread. Now I will look into a pasta maker next:) My kids would love doing that.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Replies
    1. We love it! Everyone says once you make your own you won't go back to boxed...we feel that way! We use hard white flour so it has a very rich taste. For a milder pasta, use soft white.

      Delete
  5. Wow! I've recently started getting into cooking and baking, and this is something else I'll have to add to my cooking bucket list. I'm enjoying reading andcatching back up on your blog!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for commenting. I love hearing from you!