Hiding Veggies in Baked Goods

Expectation: Kids don't mind veggies in their cookies.

I love putting vegetables into baked goods. Zucchini and pumpkin turn a dry bread into a moist bread, with no additional butter or oil needed (in fact, you need less), providing nutrients to a typically empty-calorie treat. Black beans give an otherwise unattainable, fudgy texture to brownies, while creating a protein-dense goodie that will keep you satisfied much longer than it's white-flour counterpart.

Zucchini Bread

Tonight, I read this article from NPR, which states that "nutritionists generally hate the idea of 'stealth veggies,' arguing that children should learn to eat their vegetables and like them, darn it. They got really bent out of shape after reading The Sneaky Chef by Missy Chase Lepine, and Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld, both of which argued for sneaking veggies into kid-friendly foods."

I consider myself somewhat of a nutritionist wannabe. I've considered going back to school to become one several times in my life, and nutrition is a topic I regularly read about for fun. Hearing that "nutritionists hate the idea of steal veggies" just seems plain silly. It's like saying that kids should stay quiet in the classroom because they should WANT to learn.

Beet Walnut Goat Cheese Muffins

Although I haven't read "The Sneaky Chef", and I've only skimmed Jessica Seinfeld's book, I'm pretty sure they aren't saying, "instead of feeding your children vegetables with dinner, hide them inside cake!" The point here is that we all need to eat vegetables, and lots of them. As Michael Pollan says; "eat food, not too much, mostly plants." Even the USDA knows that Americans need to eat more vegetables. I try to eat vegetables with every meal, and I snack on carrots, sugar snap peas and jicama in between those meals. Adding parsnips to my muffins is a way to get vegetables in my breakfast, while giving them a moist texture and lowering the carbohydrate content by replacing some of the flour. 

Pumpkin Swirl Brownies

Moms love to bake for their kids. They are the reason why most of us have a sweet tooth, and the reason the scent of a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie brings us back to our childhood home. Although many nutritionists would rather we didn't bake sweet treats at all, adding vegetables to baked goods is a way to make these treats healthier (using whole grains and less sugar is another way). It's a way for moms to help their children enjoy vegetables, and perhaps even help them be more receptive to them when meal time comes around ("you love beet cupcakes, so try some beet salad!")


Can we please get past they "kids should love vegetables" argument, and agree to embrace veggies in every form?

More Great Books!

Since beginning my adventures in baking with whole grains, I've received my share of books on the subject as Christmas and birthday gifts from supportive friends and family members. This past year proved to be especially fruitful, introducing some new favorites to my collection.

My favorite of these favorites is definitely Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese of The Tipsy Baker. For people who don't mind spending a bit of time and effort on their food, this book is not only a fun read, but also a great resource. Taking time, money, health and taste into consideration, Jennifer offers simple advice: what to make yourself (ie. bread), and what to buy from the store (ie. butter). This book has inspired me to make yogurt, hummus, mozzarella, sauerkraut, vanilla extract, thousand island dressing, marshmallows, and graham crackers, all homemade, and all delicious.

Another favorite is Baking Illustrated from the folks over at Cook's Illustrated. Just like the magazine, this book details each ingredient and recipe step of every cookie, cake, pie and brownie you could name. Unfortunately, these cooking masters haven't crossed over into the whole grain world just yet, so I haven't been able to enjoy too many of the recipes. For me, this book is a great reference for details, methods, and ingredients.

For those of you looking for a convenient way to add whole grains to your diet, I'd recommend the following three:

Lorna Sass' Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way is filled with mostly savory recipes containing a range of whole grains, from barley to triticale. I was disappointed to see that, like most of my whole grain cookbooks, many of the recipes for baked goods contain white flour. However, I appreciate the interesting flavor combinations and wide range of recipes presented in this book.

Kim Boyce brings us Good to the Grain, which takes you on a baking tour of whole grains, including: whole wheat, amaranth, barley, buckwheat, corn, kamut, oats, quinoa, rye, spelt and teff. Her "Sand Cookies" are a great, easy introduction to Kamut, which was easy to find in Seattle, but a challenge in the Bay Area. My only complaint is that some of the recipes seem to include just a bit of the featured grain, while still relying heavily on wheat flour, making it hardly worth the effort it may take to find these specialty ingredients.

Lastly, Maria Speck's Ancient Grains for Modern Meals is a surprise favorite. Also containing mostly savory dishes, the innovative flavor combinations in this book are inspired by Maria's mixed northern European/Mediterranean heritage. One of the only books I've come across that features baked goods entirely made of whole grains, I give it 5 stars!

Waffles

Expectation: To make a delicious, healthier waffle!

Winning Box Recipe: Kodiak Cakes Flapjack and Waffle Mix

Winning Homemade Recipe: Cinnamon Sweet Potato Waffles

Kodiak Cakes 

Always on the lookout for quick and easy whole grains, I stumbled upon Kodiak Cakes Whole Grain Frontier Flapjack and Waffle Mix on a recent trip with friends to Oregon. This mix contains all-natural ingredients: whole wheat flour, whole oat flour, milk, honey, leavening, egg whites and salt. Although I haven't made the flapjacks yet, the waffles were excellent: crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. We happened to add bacon to the batter, which definitely didn't hurt, but I know the waffles would be great without it!

Cinnamon and Walnut Sweet Potato Waffles

For Christmas this past year, I received a great new cookbook, The Frugal Foodie, by Alanna Kaufman and Alex Small, authors of the blog TwoFatAls.com. This recipe caught my eye from the very beginning.

Along with whole grains, I love using vegetables in my baking because they add nutrients to otherwise empty-calorie foods. These waffles contain several healthy ingredients; whole wheat flour, cinnamon, sweet potato (or yams, in my case), walnuts and bananas (depending on your choice of toppings). Another bonus about this recipe is that it only contains a quarter cup of brown sugar, as the waffles are sweetened mostly by the sweet potato. I used a yam because yams are a bit sweeter and have that great orange color. 

These waffles are really fun. They have a rich, brown color, and offer layers of flavor from the spices, orange zest and yam. Although they are not particularly crispy, the texture is solid and holds up well to toppings. 

For this recipe (and more), click here: Cinnamon Sweet Potato Waffles

While on the topic of waffles, don't miss one of my all time favorite blogs, Waffleizer.

More Books

Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating

This book is the single most influential book on my diet. It is a straight-forward guide to healthy eating for a long, happy life and was the first book that got me really excited about healthy eating. Dr. Willett tears apart the USDA food pyramid and prescribes a brand new pyramid; one that places fruits and vegetables, whole grains and healthy fats at the bottom, along with daily exercise. The book contains solid, in-depth explanations of a variety of foods, including whole grains and vitamins. It also includes some great recipes. This is a must-read for anybody interested in the food they eat!

Food Rules: An Eater's Manual

Michael Pollan's Food Rules is a small, $6 book that everybody should read. Pollan presents 64 simple rules about food in a very easy-to-understand format. Some of my favorites include:
#2 Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food
#22 Eat mostly plants, especially leaves

and best of all:
#43 Have a glass of wine with dinner.

His "rules" make complete sense, and if you're committed to a healthy lifestyle, are quite easy to follow.

The New Glucose Revolution: The Authoritative Guide to the Glycemic Index - the Dietary Solution for Lifelong Health

This is the book that I use to get many of the glycemic index values of ingredients used in my recipes. It is perfect for anybody interested in the glycemic load and glycemic index and how they affect us in every-day life.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

This is a really fun book by Barbara Kingsolver that chronicles her family's year eating locally, including many foods grown in her own backyard. Kingsolver writes about the importance of eating whole, organic, in-season fruits and vegetables. The book also makes you appreciate the hard work involved in the lost art of farming. This is a great gift for people who love to read Kingsolver's novels, but haven't quite made the switch to local, organic and sustainable eating. For more information and great recipes, check out www.animalvegetablemiracle.com.

Books

I am very excited about the arrival of my new book, the King Arthur Flour book of Whole Grain Baking. It is a huge, hard-cover book with almost 400 recipes including chocolate croissants (my favorite), Danish pastries, sticky buns, cinnamon rolls, Christmas Panettone, pretzels and even doughnuts! It also has a ton of information about different grains and how to bake with them. This is definitely going to be my go-to book for this blog!

I also have to share another book that I found at the library yesterday, Spelt Healthy! by Marsha Cosentino, M.A. There's no easy way to describe it, so I'm just going to quote bits of the first chapter:

"Spelt has strength of character. She is stalwart when treated with gentle strength; she is sensual and sure. Spelt flits about in history's shadows and comes into the light at human turning points and crossroads...Spelta will appear to you in many forms: sprout, berry, farro, bulgur, cracked grain, creamed for cereal...She comes to you as pancake mix and many pastas, garlic bread and more...She tantalizes."

I don't think I'll be buying this one, but it does have some recipes that I'd like to try, and a ton of information about Spelt, which is one of the first grains eaten by humans (evidence points to 6500 B.C.).

Up next: Peanut Butter Cookies!