Millet and Quinoa Breaded Chicken Strips

3 chicken breasts
1 clove garlic, minced
1 lemon, juiced (about 3 tablespoons)
1/4 cup millet
1/4 cup quinoa
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
2 tablespoons olive oil

Slice chicken breasts into small strips (1 inch by 2 inch). Mix minced garlic with lemon juice in a shallow dish. Add chicken and marinate 1 hour (or overnight is fine too). Place millet, quinoa and salt in grinder (coffee grinder or magic bullet work well). Blend until they resemble a course flour. Roll marinated chicken strips in the millet and quinoa mixture. In cast iron pan, heat olive oil on medium high heat for one minute. Add the breaded chicken and cook until golden on each side (about three minutes for each side). Enjoy!

Banana Bread II

Gluten-free and a wonderful change from wheat.

1 cup mashed bananas (about 3)
2 eggs
1/3 cup melted butter
2 tablespoons milk (organic cows milk or unsweetened soy)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup agava sweetener (or honey)
1 cup buckwheat flour
1 cup brown rice flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Beat together mashed bananas and eggs. Add butter, milk and sugars. Mix until well blended. Mix dry ingredients together and gently fold dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Do not over mix. They work great as mini muffins. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 -15 minutes if doing muffins. Otherwise, bake for 30-35 minutes if using an average bread pan.

Black Bean and Barley Salad

This is great to make and keep in your refrigerator (for up to a week). Anytime you make a salad mix the black bean and barley salad into it and you have an instant dressing and a complete protein meal!

3/4 cup barley, uncooked
1/4 cup lime juice
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained

Place 2 cups of of water with the uncooked barley into a sauce pan. Bring to a boil. Turn down heat, cover and simmer for 45 - 60 minutes. Combine lime juice and the next 8 ingredients in a jar. Cover tightly and shake well. Mix the beans and cooked barley into a bowl and pour the dressing over them. Stir and let marinate 8 hours in the refrigerator.

I made a salad with; lettuce, tomato, bacon, avocado, zucchini, chopped almonds and chopped onion. Then I mixed in a scoop of the black bean and barley salad. It was fantastic. Enjoy!

Chickpea Flour Brownies

Complements of: www.foodandspice.blogspot.com
A gluten-free pure indulgence!

2/3 cup butter
1/3 cup dark chocolate
3 eggs
1 cup of sugar (I used 1/2 cup sucanate and 1/2 cup white sugar)
2/3 cup dried cranberries (optional)
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
2/3 cup chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour

In a small saucepan melt butter and dark chocolate together. Remove from heat and cool a few minutes. Beat eggs and sugar together. Add the butter and chocolate mixture and mix. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour into a greased 8x8 (or 9x9) pan. Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees. Enjoy!

Baking and Cooking Wheat-Free

Today you can buy many wonderful varieties of grains. If you can't eat wheat because of the gluten or any other reason there are a wide range of grains/flours you may be able to eat. A favorite alternative to wheat is often spelt.


Spelt: Many people who can't eat wheat gluten can handle spelt. Spelt has gluten, but different form of gluten. If cooking with spelt I just replace 1 cup of wheat flour (white or whole wheat) with 1 cup of spelt flour (white or whole spelt). It works perfectly and spelt is an amazing alternative.

Other wheat alternatives you will see me use on my blog are: brown rice, teff, buckwheat, corn, kamut, barley, rye, oats, millet or quinoa.

Check out my "baking and cooking with various flours" post or "baking and cooking with various grains" post.

Also, be sure to check out my recipes listed under my post "wheat-free".

I highly recommend all people to cook without wheat a few times a week. Are bodies will thank us!

Baking and Cooking Gluten-Free

I thoroughly support baking and cooking gluten-free recipes a few times a week. The simple reason for cooking gluten-free in our kitchen is variety! Our bodies crave variety. Really, enough wheat already! ;)

Gluten-free grains/flours include:
Rice
Teff
Buckwheat
Quinoa
Millet
Corn

These grains can be a pain to bake with. They lack gluten. Gluten is the protein in wheat, spelt, kamut, barley, rye and oats that help give texture.

Most often baking gluten-free also requires the use of tapioca flour, xanthan gum, sorghum, potato starch/flour or arrowroot. I do not emphasize the use of these additional ingredients. The gluten-free recipes on my blog are meant to be simple and easy to replicate (and truly tasty!).

There are so many wonderful websites, blogs and books that share being able to bake and cook strictly gluten-free and be successful. The propose I have is to share gluten-free recipes that anyone can succeed at easily. Come on mix up those grains a bit and give wheat a break a few times a week!

Baking and Cooking With Various Grains

"Whole grains are so very simple and bland they provide a blank canvas on which to create culinary wonders with taste, color, aroma & texture". (A quote from Joanne Saltzman the founder and director of the Natural School of Cookery)

Grains are wonderful. My goal for my family is to incorporate as much variety into our diets as possible. This includes grains. I like to keep recipes simple with a down home taste. I hope that through my sharing of easy to reproduce recipes I can share the great world of grains with others. It is part of a healthy lifestyle when our bodies get to experience processing a wide range of grains!

You can use whole grains in savory dinner salads, sweet dessert salads, casseroles or add them to your soups and stews.

Many times a recipe calls for a grain to be cooked before adding it to the dish. Here is a list of our favorite grains and various cooking methods you can use with each grain.

Millet: Millet is one of the oldest foods know to humans.
To Bake- Use 1 cup millet to 3 1/2 cup water and place in oven at 350 degrees for 45
minutes.
To Steep- Place 1 cup of millet in sauce pan and add 3 cups of water. Bring the millet to
a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and let simmer 25-30 minutes.
To Boil- Place 1 cup of millet in 8 cups of water and boil for 20 minutes.

After cooking millet I like to spread the grain out on a cookie sheet to cool.

Quinoa: Quinoa was to the Incas as buffalo were to American Indians!
To Bake- Rinse with warm water to remove the saponin (bitter outer coating). Use 1 cup quinoa to 2 cups of water and place in oven at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
To Steep- Rinse with warm water to remove the saponin (bitter outer coating). Place 1 cup of quinoa in 1 3/4 cups of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and let simmer 15-20
minutes, until all the water is absorbed.
To Boil- Place 1 cup of quinoa in 8 cups of boiling water. Boil for 7 minutes.

After cooking quinoa I like to lay out on a cookie sheet to cool.

Brown Rice: Brown rice still has the germ and bran layers (white rice has these removed).
Bake- Use 1 cup of brown rice to 2 1/3 cups of water and place in oven at 375 degrees for 1 hour.
Steep- Place 1 cup of rice in 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and let simmer 30 minutes or until all the water is absorbed.
Boil- Not recommended.

Kamut: Kamut is a relative of wheat. Apparently kamut was abandoned 2,000 years ago after Romans & Greeks brought higher-yielding strands of wheat to Egypt, just recently (the last 50 years) kamut has been making a comeback.
Bake- Use 1 cup kamut to 3 cups of water and place in oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour.
Steep- Place 1 cup of kamut in 2 1/2 - 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and let simmer 45 -60 minutes.
Boil- Not recommended.

Pearl Barley: I would recommend steeping pearl barley. Place 1 cup of barley with 3 cups of water into a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and cook about 45 minutes or until all water is absorbed.

Hulled Barley: Start with soaking hulled barley for 2-3 hours. Then place 1 cup of hulled barley with 4 cups water into a sauce pan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and let cook for 1 hour or until all water is absorbed.

Spelt Berries: Start with soaking spelt in 2 1/2 cups of water for 2-3 hours (or overnight). Then place 1 cup of spelt with 2 1/2 cups of water into a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and let cook for about 45 minutes or until all water is absorbed.

Oats: My favorite way of cooking oats starts with using extra thick rolled oats. Place 2 cups of water into a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Turn off burner and add the oats. Stir and then let sit for 20 minutes or until all liquid is absorbed. This makes a wonderful oatmeal or to add to breads!

Note: To increase the flavor of a grain you can dry roast the grain first before cooking it. To dry roast a grain you place the uncooked grain in a frying pan on medium high heat and toast for a few minutes. This helps bring out the flavor of the grain.