Review: Einkorn

These days, "gluten-free" has become a nutritional buzz word, and people right and left are ditching wheat products and claiming that their health has improved because of it. While there's still a fair amount of debate about exactly how wide-spread gluten intolerance is, it's hard to deny the abundant anecdotal evidence.

But is it really wheat that's the problem? What if the bigger issue is modern wheat, bred for high yields and specific characteristics to make farming easier? What if these changes have also altered something fundamental in wheat, something that our digestive systems haven't caught up with yet?

After all, our ancestors have been eating wheat since pretty much forever. If we could go back to eating those ancient varieties of wheat, would our bodies have an easier time digesting the gluten? Some people believe the answer is yes, and einkorn wheat, a relic grain that fell out of favor a long time ago, is starting to make a resurgence as a result.

But einkorn behaves differently than modern durum wheat in recipes. For readers who are interested in this ancient type of wheat but unsure of what to actually do with it, author Carla Bartolucci presents Einkorn: Recipes For Nature's Original Wheat. Bartolucci is a believer, and the preface to the book details how her oldest daughter struggled with an undiagnosed gluten sensitivity for years, and how they ultimately turned to einkorn wheat as a solution. The book also talks extensively about the differences between the gluten-forming proteins in einkorn verses modern wheat.

Because the gluten develops differently in einkorn wheat, you can't just substitute it in your regular recipes and expect the same result. Einkorn is very different, and Bartolucci has spent many years experimenting and adapting recipes to suit the different properties of einkorn flour. The result is that a gluten sensitivity no longer has to mean going gluten-free for many people; instead, readers of all kinds can enjoy the health benefits of recipes baked with einkorn wheat.

And Bartolucci certainly offers a wide variety of recipes. There's an extensive chapter on various types of bread, of course, but readers will also delight in being able to make breakfast dishes like scones and pancakes. There are cookies, like Goodness Graham Crackers or classic Chocolate Chip Cookies, and cakes like Dairy-Free Coconut Pound Cake or Brooklyn Blackout Cake. Pie crusts, cinnamon rolls, pasta noodles, pizza dough, and more can all be made with einkorn using the recipes in this book. There is even a chapter devoted to "Street Food," so readers can feast on cravables like Korean Dumplings and Soft German Pretzels.

Each recipe is very clearly written, and the pictures will make your stomach rumble. Bartolucci goes into extensive detail on making sourdough or yeast levains, offers techniques for turning the dough that is often super wet, provides instructions for how readers can sprout einkorn wheat berries at home for additional health benefits, and more. The recipes in here cover pretty much all basic wheat-based foods that those who face going gluten-free (or who are already there) might be miss the most.

Baking with einkorn still remains a daunting idea for many, but with a cookbook like Einkorn, those who are determined will have a much easier time finding their way.

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I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own!

The S-Word

Bug and I took a trip to the Natural History Museum the other day.

He absolutely loved everything about it, but he was especially enamored of all the hands-on exhibits. Of course, hands-on activities can also cause problems when more than one kid wants to play.

The museum had this one computer in particular that my son thought was super neat. It featured a bunch of wildflowers native to California, and you could click on individual ones to see a lovely painting of the flower, a picture of a dried specimen, and a lovely photo of it growing in the wild.

Shortly after Bug sat down at this computer, another little boy sidled up. I have no idea how old he was, because I'm a terrible judge of that, but I could tell that he was definitely older than Bug. So this boy came over and said, "I want a turn!"

Bug just ignored him, completely enthralled as he was. So I turned to the boy and said "You can play with it once he's done."

The boy watched as Bug looked at a second flower, going back and forth between the different pictures, and then started to reach for the controls, saying "It's my turn now."

To which I replied, "It'll be your turn once he's all done." The boy gave me a confused look, watched for another minute, and then got bored and wandered off.

So I'm just going to put this out here. I absolutely hate the current standard of "sharing." Learn to share. Let him have a turn. You're all done now; someone else wants to play. Why is this what we're teaching our kids these days? I don't understand it. It seems like many parents are teaching their children that instant gratification is their due, that once they express interest in something, they deserve to have it right now.

And if you dare to challenge the status quo, if you're that parent that doesn't force your kid to give up something of theirs the moment another child asks for it, whether it's toys or food of anything else, you get dirty looks and under-the-breath comments disparaging your parenting skills.

I see it all the time. A parent forces their child off the swings within seconds of another child saying they want to use it. A mother glares at other parents when the line to go down the slide doesn't move fast enough. One child steals borrows a toy from a second child, and when the second child protests and tries to take it back, their parent tells them that they they've been playing with that toy all day so now they need to share.

He's having fun. So no, I'm not going to make him get off just yet.

It drives me crazy, and it comes from all directions. At the aforementioned museum, my son tried to take a toy dinosaur away from a younger girl, and I redirected him to a different toy (there were plenty of lonely, unattended toys in the area) as the girl's father stepped over and to tell her that she needed to give my son a turn. I pointed out that there were plenty of other toys, and my son could wait until she was done, and the father looked baffled. "She'll play with it all day if you let her," he told me. So? If there are other toys for other kids, why is it a problem to let her play with, even monopolize something she's interested in?

Later that day, we sat down at a table to have a snack. There were already people at the table, and when the woman saw Bug looking longingly at her child's pretzels, she immediately told the boy to give some to my son. Aside from the fact that she never even asked if I was okay with my son eating pretzels, I just can't stand the message this sends. We shouldn't be teaching our children to give their anything of theirs away simply because someone else wants it.

Kids tend to naturally covet things that others have; isn't it better that we teach them not to indulge in that impulse to take? Patience is a useful skill, and I'd rather my son learn to wait for things rather than that the world owes him everything he wants right now.

Don't get me completely wrong. I believe in sharing, but I don't want it to be forced. The desire to share should come from within, not be imposed by others. A child, especially a two- or three-year-old, shouldn't be punished because they don't want to share their toys (I see this all the time too--Since you can't share, we'll just have to go home now.). And I fully recognize that my three-and-a-half-year-old doesn't really understand the concept the way we do as adults.

If my son has brought a pile of toys to the sand pit at the park and another child is eyeing them hopefully, I might encourage Bug to see if the other child wants to play with something he's not currently using. If he's playing with the train table at Barnes & Noble and another child shows up, I point out that someone else would like to play, and maybe he would like to offer them one of the engines so that they can ride the rails with him. If someone else has a toy that he thinks is really cool, I suggest that he ask the other child if they'd be interested in trading it (temporarily, of course) for one of his toys. (And if they're not interested, it's a learning experience: other children are not required to share their toys if they don't want to, just like he's not required to share his. Sharing is a nice thing to do, but in most cases, it's not mandatory.)

Ultimately, I want my son to share for the right reasons. I have no problem with talking to him and helping him to recognize times when it'd be nice to share. Better yet, I talk him through things when possible, so that the idea to share comes from him, rather than from me. I want him to share because it's more fun when everyone can play, and it feels good to let others use your things (so long as they give them back, of course).

And taking turns? I definitely believe in that, as kids can get much more behind this idea. But I don't think someone else should necessarily get a turn the moment they express interest. There's nothing wrong with teaching our kids to wait for the things they want.

In the case of the wildflower computer at the Natural History Museum, the boy did come back awhile later, and while Bug was still pretty absorbed, he'd also had a fair amount of time to play. I told him he could look at three more flowers, and then we'd move on so that others could play too. And after those three flowers were done (we counted down), he got up with absolutely no complaints.

Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Muffins

Ever have one of those days where you just want to eat cupcakes for breakfast?

No? Just me?

Come on, now, be honest. Everyone wants to eat cake for breakfast sometimes, but most of us are too responsible to actually do so. (At least, we are once we're no longer teenagers.) But that's where muffins come in to play.

The last time I announced that I was having chocolate chocolate-chip muffins for breakfast, a friend asked what the difference was between them and a cupcake. Hmm. Lack of frosting, perhaps? These are also just a little bit denser than cupcakes; they don't have that same airy cake feel. On top of that, these muffins have a banana and some applesauce baked into them, which obviously makes them healthy.


So the next time you feel like indulging for breakfast, make yourself some muffins instead!

Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Muffins

1¾ c flour
¼ c cocoa powder
1 tbsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
1 ripe banana
¼ c applesauce
½ c milk (I use nondairy, but I imagine cow milk would work just as well)
2 tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp chocolate extract (optional)
1 tbsp oil
½ c chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. In a blender (or in a smaller bowl and using an immersion blender), combine banana with applesauce with milk, water, extracts, and oil. Blend until smooth. Mix into dry ingredients until just combined (leave it a bit lumpy!). Gently fold in chocolate chips.

Pour into prepared muffin tins. Bake 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick poked into the middle of one comes out clean (allowing for the fact that sometimes you'll hit a chocolate chip, and that of course won't come out completely clean at all).

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This post is shared at the Happy, Healthy, Green, & Natural Party Blog Hop on 8/24/2015.

Never Stop Learning

Welcome to the August 2015 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Life Learners
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have talked about how they continue learning throughout life and inspire their children to do the same.

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When I was younger, I used to secretly believe that others were judging me for the amount of "formal" education I had completed.

I graduated high school, then I pushed my way through two and a half years of community college. With an associate degree to hang on my wall, I was ready to be done. I was burned out on school. I didn't want to take on gigantic loans in order to complete a four-year degree. I didn't even know what I'd major in if I did keep going. And since I was about to move out of my mama's house and into my own apartment, with my then-boyfriend-now-husband, I knew I would need to devote my time and energy to working and paying the bills.

I was at peace with that decision on a personal level, but since I had so many friends who got a Bachelor's and beyond, and since I worked with so many people who had so much more education than me, I always found myself wondering on some level whether it was really enough. Would people respect me more if I had a higher degree? Would I get paid more? Would it be worth the time, energy, and money to pursue more schooling? Should I go back?

Ultimately, I never did go "back" to school. Well, I'm currently working on a certificate program, but I never went back for a B.A. And I'm not sure that I ever will.

But that doesn't mean I stopped learning.

On the contrary, I think that the most important things I know now are things that I have taught myself in the years since finishing high school and college. (I don't actually remember much of what I learned in school, to be honest... I was always good at writing essays and taking tests, but not at actually retaining information for long-term use.)

Most of the things I pride myself in knowing now are not subjects I set out to learn about. Not formally, anyway. Most of them are, to me, life skills. Things that, as I grew and understood myself better, I realized I needed to know more about in order to become the kind of person I aspired to be. Things that can be taught in a classroom, but that really need to be experienced in real life in order to fully have a handle on.

When I first moved out, I honestly didn't know how to cook. This was despite growing up with a mama who cooked for most of my younger years, despite voluntarily taking a cooking class in high school. Sure, I could bake cookies and pumpkin pie. I could make macaroni and cheese from a box and heat up frozen veggies. I could boil frozen tortellini and dress them with jarred marinara sauce.
But I didn't know how to cook. And I realized that if I wanted to be successful and happy as a vegetarian, I needed to learn how to cook. Real food. And so I did.

My mama is fond of saying that anyone who can read is capable of cooking. And that is so completely true, at least in my experience. I bought cookbooks and found recipes that sounded appealing. I looked up cooking terms on the Internet when I didn't understand them. I got into the kitchen and, by golly, I learned how to cook! Sure, I failed on a number of occasions along the way. I burned things, undercooked things, turned out a few meals that D and I couldn't eat more than a single bite of. But the more I practiced, the better I got. And while I'm certainly no expert chef now, I can cook the kind of food I like and want. And I am relatively confident that I can pick up any new cookbook, any new recipe, and have a good chance of successfully reproducing that meal on my own.

Teaching Bug to knead bread.

For me, that's the way a lot of learning has happened over the years: a willingness to discover new skills + lots of reading and researching on my own time.

When I wanted to learn how to knit, I took a class to help me get the basics down. I followed the class up with lots of practice and a bunch of pattern books. I'm not a particularly talented knitter, but when I have the time (not often, these days), I can follow almost any pattern and produce something workable.

When I decided I wanted to learn how to can things, I bought a book, hit the farmers' market for some produce, and made a few jars of jam. I've burned a batch or two, but I've also become proficient enough that I haven't bought jam from the store for years.

When I wanted to learn more about yoga, I started out with DVDs and books, then eventually graduated to taking live classes. I can practice now at home, on my own, building strength and flexibility on my own schedule, when I need to decompress or just get comfortable in my own skin.

When Bug watches me practice, he usually wants to practice too! Which then encourages me to practice more often!

When I was pregnant, I picked up tons of books to learn how to give birth. After I finally figured out which books were the good ones, I learned the basics but ultimately learned that I'd have to rely on myself, since birth is truly not something you can learn ahead of time (although classes and reading are a great way to prepare yourself!). And when I opened myself to trusting my intuition, I learned that I could, in fact, give birth exactly the way I wanted to. All of my parenting "skills" have been acquired in much the same way: listening to my intuition and reading any and all books that seem to speak to the kind of parent I want to be.

When I wanted to start making Halloween costumes for my son, I went out and bought a sewing machine. I poured over the instruction manual, learned how to read patterns, watched a few videos on YouTube, and eventually turned out a pretty decent costume. Since then, I've made pajama pants for the entire family, and I'm looking forward to some other sewing projects in the future.

These skills have served me so much better than anything I've ever learned in formal school. And I learn more every day, simply by continuing to remain open to new experiences.

This is not to say that there is no value in formal education; there is plenty, and different amounts work for different people. But school is not the only place where learning takes place, and learning doesn't stop once we've got that diploma hanging on the wall. We are so much more than the sum of our degrees and certificates.

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Visit Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting! Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

• The Financial Advice That Saved My Marriage — Shortly after they got married, Emily at Natural Parents Network and her husband visited a financial planner. Many of the goals and priorities they set back then are now irrelevant, but one has stuck with them through all of the employment changes, out-of-state-moves, and child bearing: allowances.
• Lifelong Learning — Survivor at Surviving Mexico--Adventures and Disasters writes about how her family's philosophy of life-long learning has aided them.
• Inspiring Children to be Lifelong Learners — Donna from Eco-Mothering discusses the reasons behind her family's educational choices for their daughter, including a wish list for a lifetime of learning.
• Always Learning — Kellie at Our Mindful Life loves learning, and lately she's undertaken a special project that her family has been enjoying sharing with her.
• We're all unschoolers — Lauren at Hobo Mama embraces the joy in learning for its own sake, and wants to pass that along to her sons as she homeschools.
• My children, my teachers — Stoneageparent shares how becoming a parent has opened doors into learning for her and her family, through home education and forest school.
• Never Stop Learning — Holly at Leaves of Lavender discusses her belief that some of the most important things she knows now are things she's learned since finishing "formal" schooling.
• Learning is a Lifelong Adventure — Learning has changed over time for Life Breath Present, and she is more excited and interested now than ever before.
• Facebook: The Modern Forum — Dionna at Code Name: Mama explains why Facebook is today's forum - a place where people from all walks of life can meet to discuss philosophies, debate ideas, and share information.
• 10 Ways to Learn from Everyday Life (Inspired by my Life in Japan) — Erin at And Now, for Something Completely Different offers tips she learned while living in Japan to help you learn from everyday life.