Whole Wheat Pitas and Spinach Fritters

Sounds like some toddler torture device, but Abdullah loved them.

Pitas were a basic recipe, but the one I used specifically came from Emeril. Oddly enough, I could only find spinach fritters by Rachael Ray. I feel so commercial.

Abdullah couldn't figure out what the fritters were so he kept swapping out cookies and bread while he sat asking for them repeatedly as I was frying them. Who am I to correct him?

Diapers, Bikes, and Bread

What do these things have in common, there's a lot of them in our house. As winter winds on, the latter two are increasing while finally, alhamdulillah, we're close to putting the keibash on the first.

I have to say, I did think my mom was suffering grandmomnesia when she said that we were potty trained by 2. I knew for sure, looking at my crazy eyed 18 month old scooting around on his potty chair (which was thrust upon me by his sometimes overzealous other parent), I knew for sure that my MIL must have been mistaken for encouraging us to let him "sit on the pot." She must have meant that literally, I reasoned, toddlers and potties weren't meant to be together.

Happy to say today that Abdullah has been down to a diaper a day for about 2 or so weeks now. Just last week, he realized that he could ask to go potty anywhere and today even took his swankest tinkle yet when he alerted us in Gong Fu that it was time to go. I imagine their commodes must be as pristine as their tea canisters because as AK and Abdullah were coming out, a woman in socks was headed in. Hope he aimed true.

We had thought that our biking days would be limited until next spring, but a spat of autumnal weather has enabled us to venture out more than expected. This week, as the weather pushed just above 60, I decided to finally retrofit Abdullah's bike with a push bar to enable him to actually be able to bike to the park.

Every time we go out on the bike, I remind myself that next time, I'll ask my dad to go ahead and get the one with the pole attachment. I thought it'd be too cumbersome, but now, after watching Abdullah bike in circles and fight the pedals for 6 months, I realize, there's a reason for it. Maashaa Allah.

 



It's not the sturdiest solution, but it'll do for now.

KC got her first trip in the chariot last weekend outfitted in a hood padded helmet and a blanket booster seat. Although Abdullah suffered a great deal of random swatting from KC, they both seemed fairly amused by the whole endeavor.

Lastly, but not leastly, I think I've found the bread of my dreams. I thought eggs, butter, sugar, milk, and flour made cake. But no. Apparently, they make rolls. I subbed soy milk and soy spread for milk and butter, but these still came out delightful. Unlike some whole wheat disasters I've baked, turned out exactly as pictured, pillowly and perfect. I'll have to cut the fat and sugar down, but I think this will be the base for my everyday loaf. Autolyse Smautolyse.

White Whole Wheat Autolyse Loaf and Buns

I think this is a new-old whole wheat recipe. I've been trying to find the one the yielded this whole wheat gluteny beauty:

Didn't take pics of the final, but I remember it being a pretty bouncy loaf.

 

Today, I tried this recipe and it definitely seems to be a contender. I used white wheat flour for this one. Not sure what the difference is right now.

 



2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup water

2 teaspoons instant yeast

____________

4 cups whole wheat flour
1 3/4 cups water

____________

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup olive oil

3 teaspoons instant yeast

3 teaspoons kosher salt

Autolyse, mix, rise, deflate, rise, shape, rise, bake.

Added about 1 cup extra water and baked at 400ish.

 Here's what 5tsp of yeast gets you. These were dainty dinner rolls and a 1/2 full loaf pan before the final rise.



 

I think the yeast had already pushed this dough to the limit on the final rise. I figured I wouldn't get any oven spring, but I didn't feel like reshaping. Still got a great texture. Tastes kind of like a super crusty English Muffin. A French Muffin if you will. I've decided the rolls are actually burger buns. I'll them for my dad who is on a never ending search for a crusty bread for every occasion.

 

Did 1/4 cup of honey ever make anything taste bad? Bonus, Abdullah loves his new empty yeast jar manipulative. Alhamdulillah.

Next time, same recipe, 2tsp yeast (and maybe no steam).

Someone Wants Candy!

Someone who lives here eats a lot of candy. Hard to believe, but it's not me. In an effort to cut costs and to raise kids who know how to do stuff on their own, I try to make as many of the necessities as I can and for this particular resident, candy is a necessity.

I found these recipes online that claim they make "gumdrops" so I thought I'd give them a whirl. It's hard to actually fail at sweets making when you have kids short of my attempt at making fat free cream cheese icing with powdered Stevia. Even tasting like a spoon full of creamy, gritty bitterness, Abdullah still loved it.

I made three variations:
1) A basic Jell-o and Knox type.
2) The same recipe with extra Knox as suggested on that site.
3) This variation with fruit juice added. I subbed some cranberry juice and lime juice, which IMHO is a great flavor boost.

The juice one was pretty good. Actually kind of like jelly you could hold in your hand without making a mess. Abdullah liked them all. They're made out of sugar, so everyone in this house will enjoy eating them, inshaa Allah.

Pinterist worthy.

Next up, find a vegan candy corn recipe.

Purging: King Author Classic Sandwich Bread with Flax Seeds

I realized today why every mommy blog has a recipes/cooking section. It's not just to convince people that they haven't been following blog feeds all day. It's to fight mommy brain when you made the perfect dish and then forgot to write it down.

I've been searching for the perfect whole wheat sandwich bread recipe and have found a few contenders, but sadly have closed them all. Suggestions are more than welcome. One requirement: It can't have any ingredients like "milled buckwheat" or "orange juice" or other things that I wouldn't regularly keep on hand.

After finding out that a close relative of our age has less than perfect cholesterol levels, we've decided to try to phase out a lot of the meat (i.e. chicken breast) and dairy that we had been eating. The kids may or may not still eat meat and dairy. I can't confirm or deny their dietary habits in this particular forum.

To up the ante as it were, I've decided to shoot for a "plant based whole foods diet" emphasis on shoot for. I'm kind of a fan of fad diets (i.e. eating plans, not dieting strategies). They bring a new set of techniques and ingredients to the party and I don't really think I've ever seen one that was actually bad for you except maybe Atkins.

So, right now we're kind of in a purging phase. I used up the last of the coffee creamer just tonight so we're down to just having 2 bags of white flour and sugar left to eat before we can be processed free. We wont bother with the bags of left over almond bark or the 20 lbs of frozen chicken breast in the freezer right now. I'll have to find a way to feed those to the kids over the next year.

After realizing that I was out of whole wheat flour today, I decided to just take the leap and make a loaf of white bread using one of King Arthur's recipes. I used vegetable oil, added some flax seed and braided it to make it seem healthier.

Note to self, spraying loaf with cooking oil doesn't help flax seeds stick. Just use egg wash.

 

I'm glad I have kids to help me eat it. It tastes too good.