Product Review: Sprouted Grains

Yo, so I'm moving again. Which means little time for creative food ventures. Also, my awesome Droid phone died. Which means I can't take any pictures of said ventures. Not having a phone is kind of like being on vacation, but instead of being somewhere awesome, I'm still sitting in a cubicle at work. I will say that I enjoy the complete lack of attachement and anxiety that comes with a phone. (Did I get a text message? Did I call that person back? Why didn't he call me last night? Why won't the post office supervisor pick up his phone?!?)

Until I get a new phone, I have to share a discovery I made.

So, I'm shopping for a quick meal item -pasta- in the whole hippy section of Giant, and I come across what might be the headiest of all heady pastas. Behold, Whole Sprouted Grain Pasta from "Food for Life". The ingredients are as follows: Organic Sprouted Whole Wheat, Millet, Barley, Lentils, Sobeans, and Spelt. They're ALL 'organic, sprouted, and whole'. What does that even mean? I was pretty clueless until I went to their website. I'm not even going to kindof try to paraphrase it, so here's a direct quote

Sprouting is the only way to release all the vital nutrients stored in whole grains. The sprouting process activates beneficial enzymes which cause the grains to sprout and become living and nutrient-rich. Stores of vitamins and minerals dramatically increase over the amount available in flour. Sprouting also converts the carbohydrates in grains into maltose, which is ordinarily done by the body during digestion, thereby predigesting nutrients for you. The enzymatic action enables the body to assimilate the vitamins and minerals more efficiently. Plus, the sprouting process naturally increases the protein content and decreases the calories and carbohydrates found in the original grain.

Hmm, predigestion? I haven't even formulated any opinions on this craziness yet.

Other things you should know about "Food for Life": they categorize their foods by bible versus which inspired each product. For example, the pasta has written on it "Ezekiel 4:9".

Upon desiring to eat this strange new food, I read that it cooks in 4 1/2 minutes (instead of 8-12), and grows to 100% it's original size once cooked. WHAT? Behold, GOD PASTA.

My review? Well, being a full blooded Italian, I'm a little picky with my pasta. It didn't quite have the 'al dente' effect, and was a bit more mushy than expected. But not in a 'this pasta has been overcooked and sitting in a hot tray in the lunch line for 2 hours' way. More like a 'I'm eating a crapload of whole grains and it's kinda chewy' way. Other than that, it had amazing flavor and was really filling. I ate one small serving of it with vegetable pasta sauce, but then went back for seconds eating it only with olive oil and parmesan cheese, which tasted SO good.

So, if you're looking to push the envelope on whole grains, I recommend Food for Life.

Whole Hippy Pancakes (with peach rosemary sauce)

I've come to the conclusion that at every age in your life, you need the occasional weekend hot stack. When you're a kid and you go to IHOP, a pile of chocolate chip mickey mouse pancakes cures any case of the Sunday morning blues (derived from lack of cartoons and hours in church.) When you're a teenager, you're hungry all the time so... enough said. When you're in college, a healthy dose of buttermilk can take the edge off a hangover (usually), and bring enough people to the table to piece together last nights' adventures. After that, well, they're just caloric monsters for your ailing metabolism, but they make you forget about work so whatever. And I'll bet if you're 80 and eating pancakes, it'll probably be at a restaurant with your lifetime partner. And going out to breakfast may very well be the event of your day.... so here's to pancakes!

I use to make pancakes all the time, but hadn't in a while. So without further rambling, I give you Whole Hippy Pancakes with Rosemary Peach Sauce. They were modified from the original king of dank pancakes, the Harvest Grain and Nut IHOP imitation cake. Otherwise known as 'the heaviest pancake ever'.

I took out the nuts, kept the grain (whole wheat flour and oats), added some peach sauce, fresh whipped cream, and pure maple syrup. Not particularly unusual suspects, I'll admit. Topped it with slices of fresh peach, and washed it down with creamy local chocolate milk. Soapbox sentence: I bought the peaches, heavy cream, and milk from a farm market down the street, and they were all locally made. The egg came from my hens. Without the usual rant, the bottom line is that everything had a lot of flavor, and I supported my neighbor.

This is what the hen does when it's hot sometimes. Why it sits on the stone, I'll never understand. Anyway, it's an ingredient maker:

If you want to bring Whole Hippy Pancakes to your weekend breakfast table, here's how:

Order of Business #1: The Flapjacks

• 3/4 c. rolled oats
• 3/4 c wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 c buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 1/4 c sugar (I used brown)

1. Grind oats in blender/processor until fine
2. Combine wet ingredients, mix well
   
3. Combine dry ingredients in different bowl
4. Combine wet and dry and stir
5. Use a healthy of dose of non-stick something to cover griddle or pan, because I omitted the oil from the recipe for a lighter cake.
6. Just in case you're a bad flapjack flipper: put the batter on the griddle, wait until the edges look firm and the middle isn't so wet looking, flip let sit for a minute or so, remove. Be careful to try and drain any oil that's browned, because it will burn subsequent pancakes.

OoB #2: Peach sauce

• two peaches
• rosemary
• honey

1. puree a peach and a half
2. add a girthy drizzle of honey
3. a heavy pinch of rosemary (if you can grind it, I think that would work better)
4. heat in a saucepan on medium low stirring occasionally
5. mixture should congeal a little bit
6. keep warm until pancakes are ready

OoB #3: Whip Your Own Cream

1. Pour a cup of heavy cream into an electric mixer
2. Whip on high until cream starts forming
3. Stop the mixer, sprinkle on a light layer of confectioners sugar
4. Continue whipping on high until cream gets stiff... you know, whipped.

Mix and match all your sides, or eat it plain, or drown it in maple syrup even if there's only a little bit left and everyone else still needs some.... it's fine, you can't help it sometimes.

P.S. Have you ever noticed how ridiculously small the 'handle' is on the maple syrup bottle? It's just silly.