Here is my own recipe for Cranberry Christmas Granola.
5 C Organic Old Fashioned Oatmeal
1/2 C Whole Sesame Seeds (you can use any mix of seeds that you like – Sunflower, Pumpkin, Sesame etc)
2 C Sweetened Dried Coconut
1 TBS FlaxSeed Meal
1 tsp FG (Fresh Ground) whole Anise
1 tsp FG Whole Fennel
Mix together well, then add in the spices and salt
1 TBS FG Whole Star Anise
20 FG Whole Cloves
1 FG Whole Cinnamon Stick
1 tsp Salt
Then toss in the olive oil and Agave Sweetner
1 1/2 C Agave Sweetner
3/4 C Olive Oil
Mix well and then put this mix on two cookie sheets. I cover the sheets with parchment paper, then spread the granola on the pan.
Bake for 45 minutes at 300 degrees
While the granola is cooking squeeze the juice from two organic Lemons.
Put this in the blender with
1/2 C Agave Sweetner and
1 C Dried Cranberries
1/4 C Dried Black Cherries
1/4 C Dried Raisins
Mix gently on a slow setting in the blender, and then let this sit while the granola cooks.
Pull the mix out of the oven and toss it into a bowl, then mix the dried fruit into the mix and put it back on the cookie sheets.
Bake the granola for an additional fifteen minutes at 300 Degress.
Pull it out and add in one more cup of dried cranberries. Let the mix cool.
I then put the mix into decorative bags and then put it in the freezer overnight to make sure it was completely cooled.

Mix 5 cups of organic old fashioned oats.

Adding in the agave and olive oil and grinding the spices.

This clip shares how to mix the dried fruit with lemon juice and agave nectar.

This clip shows the Granola just before baking.

This clip shows the Granola finished and all ready for packaging!
Merry Christmas!
Jenny Hatch
UPDATE:
Here are a couple pictures of Pauls Cinnamon Rolls with a little bag of Granola. We delivered these treats to our friends over the past few days.
Jenny

Over the Thanksgiving holiday we did some yummy baking. Ben wanted to make sugar cookies, because he loves to use the cookie cutters. So I made up a double batch of dough and we spent an afternoon baking and later that night we decorated the cookies.
By using whole wheat flour and flax meal, plus fresh ground spices as the dry ingredients, these cookies are way healthier than your average sugar cookie. We keep the sugar and butter the same, and use a cream cheese icing, and so they taste like regular sugar cookies, but the whole grains really boost the nutrition level sky high, especially when cookie monsters around the house like to eat ten or fifteen cookies in one sitting.
Here is the recipe (Again, it is a double batch)
4 sticks (2 cups) Butter
2 Cups white sugar
Cream sugar and butter together and add in
2 tsp vanilla extract
then add in
4 eggs
and whip together until the dough is light and fluffy
Video Clip of how to grind the spices, flax, and wheat:

Then add in the dry ingredients
3 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 C Fresh Ground Flax Meal
1 TBS sea Salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp whole anise seed
1 tsp whole fennel
10 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick
Grind up the spices and add to the dry ingredients, mix well, then stir the dry flour mix with the butter and sugar.
After this dough is well mixed it needs to go into the fridge for an hour. I wrap it in plastic and let it sit and then we use lots of white flour to roll it out with the rolling pin before cutting out the shapes and baking the cookies.
Bake for 10 minutes at 375 F degrees.
After the cookies are completely cooled, frost with a cream cheese frosting and then decorate as you like with sprinkles etc…
And here is a clip of Ben cutting out the cookies with his different shaped cookies cutters. He also describes what birds are……

Ben lays down the law!

And the best part of all, eating the cookies!

Jenny Hatch

I will be team teaching a Whole Wheat Bread Class tomorow with my dear friend Esther at our church. I just spent the morning typing up this flyer to use in the class, and thought I would share it here on my Blog.
If any of you readers are local people, please feel free to contact me by Email – Jenny@NaturalFamilyCo.com to get directions to attend the class – it will be from 10AM to Noon at the Boulder Stake Center in Louisville, in the Kitchen.
Here is the flyer, I am planning to add pictures and maybe even a little video to this post tomorow to enhance the information:
Whole Wheat Recipes
“All grain is ordained for the use of man and of beasts, to be the staff of life, not only for man but for the beasts of the field, and the fowls of heaven, and all wild animals that run or creep on the earth; And these hath God made for the use of man only in times of famine and excess of hunger.
All grain is good for the food of man; as also the fruit of the vine that which yieldeth fruit, whether in the ground or above the ground– Nevertheless, wheat for man, and corn for the ox, and oats for the horse, and rye for the fowls and for swine, and for all beasts of the field, and barley for all useful animals, and for mild drinks, as also other grain.”
D&C 89:14-17
Esther’s Perfect and Precise Whole Wheat Bread:
Put rack on lowest part of oven
In Kitchen aid mixer bowl:
2 ¼ C Cold Tap Water
¼ C Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/3 C Madhara Raw Honey
1 TBS Sea Salt
5 tsp Yeast (from Sam’s Club)
Grind 5 C Mixed Grains in an electric grain mill
½ part White soft spring prairie gold wheat
½ part Hard Winter Wheat (red)
1. Turn Mixer on #1 dial (Set timer for 20 minutes for mixing dough)
Start adding Wheat Flour 1 C at a time until the sides of the bowl are clean. The last cup of flour you may not need.
2. Spray counter, knead ball of dough five times
Spray bowl – put in ball, spray plastic wrap and put over dough.
3. Turn on Oven to 170 degrees, put timer on just one min – turn off oven.
4. Put bowl in oven on lowest rack, let rise 20 minutes
5. Take out and knead dough five times.
6. Second rising: Put dough in bowl, cover with plastic wrap, back in oven for 30 more minutes
7. Knead 5 times, cut in half, roll to size of pans with your hands. Put dough in loaf pans, and cover with same plastic wrap. Put pans in lower rack in over, rise 50-65 minutes – try to let it rise 2 ½ to 3 inches above the rim of the pan.
8. Take loaf out of over, remove wrap. Preheat ove to 375. Cook at least 20 minutes or until the center of the loaf is 170 degrees. Use a baking thermometer to test the temp.
All of these steps will give you the absolute best whole wheat bread you have ever eaten!
Whole Wheat Snickerdoodles
1 C Butter
1 ½ C Sugar
2 eggs
1 ¼ C White Flour
1 ¼ C Whole Wheat Flour
¼ C Flax Meal
2 tsp cream of Tartar
1 tsp Soda
¼ tsp Salt
2 Tbsp Sugar
1 Tbsp Cinnamon
Cream Sugar and Butter.
Add eggs and blend well.
Combine next 4 dry ingredients, then add to the wet mix.
Form into balls, and roll in sugar and cinnamon mixture.
Place on cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degree for 6 to 9 minutes.
Elijah Muffins
“And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse, and behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress if for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die. And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for they son.
For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house did eat many days. And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah” 1st kings 17:12-16
2 ½ C Whole Wheat Flour
½ C Flax Meal
1 tsp Sea Salt
¼ C Maple Syrup
½ C Olive Oil
Mix ingredients together and drop into a 12 cup muffin pan. Bake for 25 minutes in a 375 degree oven.
“And we began to till the ground, yea, even with all manner of seeds, with seeds of corn, and of wheat, and of barley, and with neas, and with sheum, and with seeds of all manner of fruits; and we did begin to multiply and prosper in the land”
Mosiah 9:9
Easier whole wheat bread (but it does not taste as good As Esther’s Bread)
Whole Wheat Bread
1 tbsp. dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
2 cups hot water
2 tbsp. shortening
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup dry milk
7–8 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup cold water
Mix yeast and warm water and set aside.
Pour hot water over shortening, sugar, and salt.
Mix dry milk with 1 cup whole-wheat flour, add hot water mixture and 1 cup of cold water, and then add yeast mixture.
Add remaining 6 to 7 cups of whole wheat flour.
Knead until smooth and elastic, and let rise until almost double in size.
Then time as follows: Let rise 40 minutes, punch down;
let rise 20 minutes, punch down;
let rise 20 minutes, punch down.
Shape into 3 loaves and place in 3 small greased bread pans.
Allow to rise until double in size.
Bake at 375° for 40 to 45 minutes.
Makes 3 loaves
Jenny’s Whole Wheat Brownies:
1 Stick melted butter
½ C Olive Oil
2 Cups Sweetener (Sugar, honey, maple syrup, or agave)
1 Cup applesauce
4 Eggs
3 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 Cup Fresh Ground Flax Meal
1 tsp sea salt
1 bag chocolate chips
Mix wet ingredients and then slowly add dry ingredients until the dough is well incorporated. Add half of the chocolate chips to the dough.
Put dough in 9 by 13 pan and sprinkle the last of the chips over the top.
Bake for 30 minutes at 375 or until a toothpick comes out clean when you poke it in the middle of the dough.
I cut these up and freeze them for lunches. I like to eat them partially frozen, but they are also great right out of the oven.
Blender Wheat Pancakes (Makes 6 to 8 pancakes)
1 cup milk
1 cup whole wheat, uncooked
2 eggs
2 tbsp. oil
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tbsp. honey or sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
Put milk and wheat in blender. Blend on highest speed for four or five minutes or until batter is smooth. Add eggs, oil, baking powder, honey, and salt, and blend on low. Bake on hot griddle.
For Waffles: Add one additional tbsp. wheat; increase oil to 4 tbsp.
Great Resources: (Click on the image to get to the Amazon Link)


UPDATE:
I forgot to take my camera, so I did not get any shots of the class, but we had nine moms, eight children (mostly babies), and two missionaries who just happened to show up at the church to do some other things, and stayed around to snarf bread and brownies.
I made a huge pan of blond brownies using the above recipe, and a batch of the bread dough. Esther put together her bread dough as we all visted and talked, and I gave three fifteen minute lectures on whole foods cooking, the economics of Natural Family Living, and the scriptural references to Grain eating in the four standard works of the church. It was a spirit filled, fun morning and I feel really blessed to have been a part of it.
Tired now….really tired, and I have Colorado Rep Choir practice tonight, and tomorow is stake temple day and I plan to run down to Littleton to attend two sessions while my kids are in school.
I need a nap, so nighty night.
Jenny

Last night I put together my first Pod Cast Video. I’m planning to do this once in a while to help demonstrate whole foods cooking.
Since Whole Grain Bread is the foundation of our Diet, I thought it would be an appropriate Place to begin.
Recipe:
3 and 1/2 Cups Fresh Ground Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 Cup Fresh Ground Whole Golden Flax Seed
1 and 1/3 Cups Water (purified water works best!)
1 Tsp Honey
1 Tsp Yeast
1 Tsp Salt
Bake in Bread Machine that can handle a two pound loaf and has a whole wheat setting.
Here are the Video Clips:
Grinding the Flour:

Here is a video explaining how to fresh grind flax seeds into meal. I used Golden Flax, which has a more buttery flavor than the traditional brown flax. I purchase almost all of my seeds and whole spices at Vitamin Cottage.

Here is a video of Ben and I putting the ingredients for the Bread into the Bread Machine: Ben turned off the camera before I had a chance to explain and demonstrate the rest of the ingredients. You want to add your ingredients into the machine in this order: Water, Honey, Yeast, Flour, Flax Meal, Salt. It is important to put them in the right order. Then I baked the bread on the 2 lb whole wheat setting with a light crust. It is important to make sure your bread machine can handle whole wheat before you try this recipe.

Here is a video taken right after the bread finished baking in the bread machine:

The question must be asked, “can this recipe be used without a bread machine?”
Of Course.
All you would do is put the ingredients into a bowl and mix it well, let it rise, punch it down, let it rise again in a bread pan and bake for 40 minutes in the oven at 375.
I love the bread machine because I can time the loaf to come out hot whenever I want, minimal mess, and I don’t have to spend more than five minutes a day making bread for my family. I made the bread last night and this morning used it to make my children peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for school.
Total Cost of indredients for bread? 25 Cents.
The Economics of Natural Mothering are incredible. To purchase a good loaf of whole wheat bread at the grocery store generally costs between $2 and $5 a loaf. To get the equivelent type of bread (fresh ground grains, hot out of the oven), the only place I know of where you can get it is Great Havest, and a loaf of bread from them costs about $5.00 a loaf.
When you grind the grains and seeds fresh and immediately make the bread, the moisture content of the flour is at its highest peak. Within 12 hours of the flour being ground, 90% of the moisture is gone and the oils in the wheat germ begin to go rancid. That is why it is ideal to freeze whole wheat flour, and why the better health food stores keep all of their whole grain flours in the freezer.
How much better to just purchase your own organic grains and grind them up fresh every day! It only takes a few minutes, the money saved is real, and the costs of the bread machine and wheat grinder can be recouped in just a few short months.
Jenny Hatch

Spelt Muffins
This morning Ben and I cooked breakfast for the family. It took about an hour, and we made four different recipes.

I alternate grains every day to get variety and today was our Spelt day. Spelt is a wheat alternative, and I use an Organic grain that has been sitting in my basement for a couple years.

I used my Whisper Mill to grind three cups of spelt, which was plenty to make the muffins, bread, and pancakes.

Ben helped to stir the muffin dough

Quality organic eggs up the protein in your foods considerably.

I use Olive Oil almost exclusively in all my baking and cooking.

Muffin Dough in pans

Finished Spelt Muffins

I went through several years when my older children were small when I prided myself on never having any white flour or white sugar in the house. This lasted for as long as we home schooled and didn’t interact with society too much. But when my children started going to school, I quickly learned that I was in competition with everything. Vending machines, friends who wanted to “trade” at lunchtime, and the never ending supply of treats being handed out at school, church, and any party my kids attended.
In the past few years I have started buying white flour and white sugar in bulk at Wal-Mart. I still get the unbleached flour, and this high altitude hungarian flour is the best in my opinion. Usually I mix it half and half with just about anything I cook. Once in a while I will make 100% whole wheat pancakes or waffles, as anything eaten with syrup will generally be gobbled up by the children. But when making muffins and bread, I have learned that if I want the food I create to be eaten, I need to sweeten it up a little bit.

We made some herbal tea as it is a cold morning, and this brand of Celestial Seasonings helps to ward off colds and flu.

Vitamin C powder helps with the immunity of my family

Ben adding in the Vitamin C powder

We also add in Fresh Lemon juice to up the vitamin C

And Orange juice

And Grapefruit juice

Here is my hand crank roller mill used to crack the spelt for hot porridge

Ginding the Spelt

Adding in Flax seeds to the cereal pot

The Breakfast table

Boys eating breakfast

Some people ask me what I do all day long and I often reply, “Dishes”. Most often they laugh because they think I am joking. But I’m not, I usually do five loads of dishes a day. Meaning I load my dishwasher five times a day and empty it just as often.
Here are the recipes.
Spelt Bread
For a two pound bread machine loaf of bread.
1 1/4 cups water
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp sweetener
1 tsp salt
2 cups Spelt Flour
1 1/2 cups white flour
1 tsp yeast
Put in bread machine and cook on the whole wheat setting for three hours.
Muffins
2 cups spelt
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/8 cup olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
Bake at 375 for twenty minutes
Cracked spelt cereal
Crack up one cup of spelt in a hand crank grinder
Add it to a one quart of water that has been boiling hard for twenty minutes with one cinnamon stick, three cardamon pods, three whole cloves, one piece of ginger and a sprinkling of flax seeds. Add in one teaspoon of salt, and then add in the cracked spelt and let simmer for a half hour.
Spelt Pancakes
2 cups of spelt flour
1 c of white flour
1/4 c sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
Mix dry ingredients and then add in
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/4 cup olive oil
Bake in a frying pan at medium heat.
Serve with fresh fruit and syrup or jam
Herbal tea
4 Celestial Seasonings tea bags – any wellness tea
2 packets of E Mer Gen C supplement
juice from one each – lemon, grapefruit and orange
1/4 c honey
Mix together in 1/2 gallon jug with 1/2 gallon of boiling water – let steep for ten minutes and serve!
The kids and Paul snarfed most of the pancakes for breakfast and most walked out the door to school and work with a muffin or two tucked in lunches and being munched on as they went.
The bread is still cooking in the bread machine, but I’ll take a picture when it is finished.
All told this was a healthy, inexpensive meal for my family. We have plenty of muffins left for snacking on later in the day, and I still have some cracked Spelt left over which I will throw into something I make later on, or store in the fridge for a snack for me. Often I will use leftover cereal to make more muffins.
Spelt can be purchased in bulk at most health food stores, and is a great alternative to wheat, especially if one has a wheat allergy.
Jenny Hatch
UPDATE:
January 25
Pictures of the bread, which we ate last night with a baked chicken and mashed potato supper.


Sliced bread

Organic Spelt in a ten pound bin
Jenny Hatch