Category Archives: Organic Mama Cafe

Here’s the recipe I promised. It’s a delicious biscuit recipe made with 100% whole wheat pastry flour and yogurt. The biscuits are light and have a great flavor.

Wish I could tell you how long this takes – but I’m probably not a good measure. I dragged my youngest off the desk three times before finally resorting to having her “help” me by playing with flour at the counter. By the way, little people LOVE to “help” by measuring the flour or cutting the biscuits!

As my fourth grade teacher always said, READ all the instructions before following! 🙂
The instructions are detailed and a picture tutorial follows. Excuse the pic quality. I’m using my cell phone!

Whole Wheat Yogurt Biscuits 
Makes 14 – 2 1/2″ biscuits

Dry ingredients
2 3/4 c. Whole wheat pastry flour
2 t. salt (I use sea salt – fine is best)
1 T + 1 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
2 t. sugar (optional – I use fine raw cane sugar)

Wet/fat ingredients
6-8 T. COLD butter (I do NOT use shortening…it’s not food!)
1 1/2 c. yogurt

Tools needed
measuring spoons
measuring cups
glass measuring cup (for yogurt)
bowl
food processor (*optional but SO much faster)
Rubber or silicone spatula

*If you DON’T have a food processor, you can still make this recipe. You’ll just measure your dry ingredients in a bowl and stir thoroughly. Then, cut butter in with a pastry cutter or two forks.

** An IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT FLOUR! – Don’t ever “scoop” your flour into the measuring cup. The measurement won’t be accurate because the flour will pack into the scoop. Result: heavy biscuits. Instead, spoon the flour into the measuring cup. You could probably sift the flour for fluffier results but I haven’t done it. Don’t care that much. 🙂

1. Preheat oven to 450 F.
2. Combine 2 1/2 c. flour and other dry ingredients in a food processor & pulse till thoroughly blended.
3. Cut butter into little cubes (see pic).
4. Add butter cubes to dry ingredients and pulse until butter is in pieces that resemble coarse cornmeal or small peas. Don’t overmix!
5. Dump dry ingredients into a bowl.
6. Add yogurt and only stir till ingredients are combined. RESIST the urge to beat it. Dough should look fluffy
7. Flour counter with remaining 1/4 cup flour and plop dough on it. It will seem damp.
8. Flour your hands and knead the dough about 6 times.
*Haven’t kneaded before? Just stick the heel of your hand into the middle of it and squish – then turn the dough, fold it over and do it again! Easy!*
9. Gently pat the dough till it’s about 1/2 inch thick.
10. Cut into biscuit shapes, whatever you like – as long as they’re all the same size. Otherwise they won’t bake evenly. Also, cut them as close together as possible so you don’t have to re-shape the dough for another round. The less you handle the dough, the better!
11. Place on cookie sheet – close together for fluffy biscuits and spread out for crispier ones.
12. Bake 10-12 minutes, or until slightly golden brown. (Mine took exactly 12 minutes but they might take more or less depending your elevation.

They taste awesome hot but they aren’t bad cold or reheated either.

 

Last night, after a late afternoon trip to the library, I made dinner for my family while my husband played with the kids. I was pretty excited I got to cook because my husband and I fight over dinner rights. We both find cooking so relaxing. There’s something about planning and timing and chopping and touching all that beautiful fresh food that is immensely nourishing to the soul.

Of course, we try to pick food that is nourishing to the body as well. But lately, my challenge has been picking nourishing food my three and a half year old will actually eat. She’s been on a yogurt, bananas and bread kick. Not bad choices but not very balanced. I usually have to say, “Sure, you can have that – AFTER you eat what I’ve made.” Last night, my goal was to make something colorful and delicious that she’d at least be willing to try. It also needed to be quick because the girls were pretty tired.

After a quick inventory of the contents of the fridge, I found myself reaching for the basics. We had a small package of grass finished beef, carrots, fresh tomatoes, red and green peppers, onions, scallions (we’re kind of onion fanatics), fresh garlic and some rice we’d cooked a few nights previously. As I listened to my daughters and husband chortling over whatever crazy game they had created, I reached back through my memory banks to figure out what my mom would have created with food like this. Here’s what I did with it.

Not Your Mother’s Hamburger Helper

Ingredients
1.5 lbs grass finished ground beef
2 large peeled carrots
2 tomatoes
1/2 green bell pepper
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 onion
1 green scallion
3.5 cups of cooked rice (Mine was seasoned like Mexican rice courtesy of my husband)*
3 T. olive oil
1 t. paprika (more to taste if needed)
2 t. dried oregano (less if fresh)
1/2 cup chicken, beef or veggie stock

1. Brown the beef in a large saute pan or wok (I used a wok). Just add a few tablespoons of olive oil and cook till you can’t see pink in the meat anymore.

2. While the meat is browning, mince the onion and throw it in with the meat.

3. Generously add salt and pepper to the meat – as well as the oregano and paprika.

4. Chop the carrots, peppers and scallion and garlic. I cut everything pretty small – almost minced – like confetti. I never liked big chunks of carrots in my food as a kid & neither do my girls.

5. Throw the carrots and peppers in as soon as you finish chopping them.

6. When the carrots and peppers are cooked, add the scallion, garlic and rice. I like to add garlic at the end to keep it as close to fresh as possible, retaining more of the nutritional properties.

7. Add a little chicken, beef or veggie stock if needed. Cooked rice can be a little dry after a few days.

8. Heat all the ingredients thoroughly.

9. Very important… TASTE the food!!  Add salt, pepper or spices if necessary.

10. MOST important step – always cook with love on your mind.

*Potatoes would be an appropriate substitute for the rice. While they don’t need to be staples at every meal, they are very nutritious and a great source of potassium.

Dinner came together pretty quickly and we all sat down and gave thanks for the food in front of us. Then, my daughter took one look and grimaced. I smiled and told her she had to taste it. She took a tentative bite, her face lit up and she said, “Mom, this is really good. I love meat!”

Yay for small successes!!!

We’ve had lots of lovely meals lately – Christmas Eve tamales and a huge Christmas ham. Since then, we’ve been eating pretty simple food. Yesterday, my girls and I had a lazy day at home and I made homemade split pea soup in the crock pot. I don’t use my crock pot much because it has a tendency to make sort of soggy food which I don’t really like – but it’s perfect for soup that needs to cook a while – especially when I’m too lazy to watch it!

I pre-soak split peas because it helps to make them (all legumes, really) more digestible. Plus, it reduces cooking time! Soaking is a very simple process. Simply cover the legumes with filtered water by a few inches and add 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice. Leave them on the counter overnight and rinse a few times before using the next day. I try to prepare two batches of beans at once so I am prepared for a few meals. Try being the operative word.

As a testament to how lazy I was yesterday, I rinsed the adzuki beans I soaked the night before and threw them in the leftover water from the peas. The water was already flavored by the carrots, celery and onion. We’ll eat that tonight. Like I said, LAZY…

The picture at the top of the page is what my girls and I enjoyed together because I wasn’t standing in the kitchen cooking!