Joy of (More Healthful) Baking
I'm a total foodie. In addition to going out to eat, I love to cook, and I love to bake. I especially like to cook and bake with whole food ingredients where possible. I'm something of a self-taught cook, having started cooking as soon as I could reach the stove. My sister and I were responsible for cooking dinner for our family of four at an early age, as I recall. Dinner was almost always from scratch, though we sometimes did use things like Hamburger Helper (always modified), and packaged ramen noodles. I used to specialize in making fancy ramen noodles, with meat, veggies, and spicy soup base. We always had dinner as a family, and rarely ate out. My mom had a great collection of cookbooks, and I often read them for entertainment and to further my education about food and cookery.
When I was on my own as a young adult, I indulged myself with previously-forbidden foods like Chef Boyardee and Peanut Butter Capt'n Crunch. It was heavenly, until it wasn't. I realized that it didn't really taste as good as I'd imagined it during those stolen moments at the homes of childhood friends. Somewhere along my dyke journey, I took on vegetarianism. Not as a statement about animal cruelty per se, but as an investment in my health. Plus, it was a dykely thing to do! I started reading cookbooks like The Moosewood Cookbook and The Vegetarian Epicure, and learned more about whole foods and grains. I stalked used bookstores (remember those?) for funky cookbooks from 70s communes, and learned a lot about uncommon veggies like dandelion leaves and sundry root vegetables. I didn't always use recipes from those books (often finding them a bit bland), but I learned so much about healthful and seasonal eating. I explored vegetarian cookery from diverse cultures, and found my niche in Indian food. So many vegetarian options, and so flavorful! I learned some great kitchen techniques from Indian cookbooks, and use those techniques in just about all of my cooking these days.
After about two and a half years, I was done with vegetarianism (cursed/blessed bacon!), but my education about whole foods was solid, and stayed with me. I've learned more about wholesome food and eating from sporadic attendance at Weight Watchers meetings, and have added fiber to my criteria for health-giving foods. I really don't understand why, after so much information about the relationship between (low) fiber content and colorectal cancer and the like, the food industry still strips grain-based food of the germ. Why do Americans still want impossibly soft, squishy bread with no nutritive value when delicious whole-grain options exist? And I don't just mean deliciously dense multigrain breads (love them!)--there's an incredibly tasty whole wheat potato bread available that's soft, tender, and only 80 calories per slice with at least 3 grams of fiber. And, it's made by the same manufacturer who makes that other basic potato bread (too lazy right now to look up the manufacturer, but it begins with an "M").
So, today, afflicted with a nagging sweet tooth that demanded baked goods... I decided to try my hand at baking something wholesome and delicious. I turned to my 70's yogurt cookbook, found a recipe for walnut poundcake, and got to work. With a few modifications, I now have a bundt pan full of tasty batter baking in the oven as I type. Instead of the 2 1/2 cups plain flour called for, I used 1/4 cup soy flour, 1/2 cup oat flour, 3/4 cup whole wheat flour, and 1 cup unbleached plain flour. I reduced the amount of sugar asked for. To make a more unique cake, I candied some pecans and walnuts (hey, that's not wholesome, that's just tasty!) and added them to the mix. In just ten more minutes, I'll have a gorgeous whole grain poundcake sitting on the rack, cooling. And while it won't be the lowest calorie food out there, it'll be more wholesome than most cakes, and I'll feel just a bit snobby about it as I chow down.
