Wheat is for Woman

Some of you know that I like to store food and other home items away for the rainy day. I enjoy finding out how to make things cheaper and more nutritious/ healthy/ less processed. Tonight I attended a class with my mother in law that was FABULOUS! The class was taught by a lady named Mary Ann. Mary Ann does classes once a month for 5 bucks per person. She demonstrates some of her recipes and has a sample of every recipe she talks about. All of her recipes are tried and true. Everything I tasted tonight was sooo good!

The class was two hours long and we ran a half an hour beyond that. Some things that she taught about were: Breads, pie crust, crackers (saltines, wheat thins & graham), muffins, cereal (wheaties, grapenuts, granola, bran flakes & gluten crunch), rolls, tortillas (corn & flour), pita pockets, granola bars and bagels. She gave me recipes for all of these things and a few others too. ALL of her recipes but one were made with ground hard white wheat.

She also talked about some products that she uses like canned butter that has an indefinite shelf life. She talked about what kinds of grinders she likes and why. When she passed the samples of her cereals she passed some of the milk that she uses. It is a mixture of the dry milk that you can buy at the cannery and a product called Country Cream. She makes it for about $.50 cents a gallon less than the stuff you buy at the store and I HONESTLY could not tell a difference (this coming from a girl that is somewhat scarred from a childhood of powdered milk and goats milk (neither of which taste anything like cows milk from the store.

I am so thrilled to learn all of these recipes. I stay at home and I have time that I can make my own bread and crackers and all of these things. I am positive that they are far superior (nutritionally) than anything I could buy and (I would bet) way cheaper as well.

Next month the class is about making meat substitute from gluten and other gluten products (like the aforementioned gluten crunch cereal). I learned that gluten is the protein part of the wheat. April is a milk class where Mary Ann teaches how to make cheese spread & cream cheese from dried milk. I think there will also be recipes for making other things with dairy. I am thrilled that I found this resource! If any of you would like the recipes leave a comment and I will forward them on to you. I plan to add my notes onto the typed recipe. Mary Ann sent some of the dough around on some of the recipes so you can see what it looks like in the process. Sometimes the recipe doesn't accurately describe how it should feel/look.

I wish I could convey to you how yummy this stuff actually was. It is super healthy too. I was shocked. I never thought that whole wheat would taste so good. I never thought to make my own wheaties or crackers either. I think my mom tried to make wheaties once and the outcome was not the best. The grapenuts I tried tonight tasted good (I hate the ones at the store because they feel like I might chip a tooth while chewing).

I will post when I try out some of these recipes on my own. I think first up will be homemade granola and homemade bisquick mix. I can't wait. I don't own a wheat grinder yet so that is now at the top of my list of things to buy ASAP. Anyone out there have a grinder that they love? Mary Ann's grinder is 40 years old and works like a champ. I kind of want one that is going to last.