Cooking with Chef Brad

This week I had a unique opportunity of taking an "intro to grains" cooking class from the one and only "Chef Brad". I hadn't heard of him before, but Spencer was familiar with him (from his show on BYU TV) and was the one to encourage me to sign up for the class. It was fabulous! I left feeling excited to cook and excited to cook healthier, while also a little overwhelmed as to where to officially start.

I wanted to included some of my notes and tips I wrote down during the class to save for future reference and to keep me motivated.

Main goal:
to eat 80% pure nutrition
the other 20% is whatever it takes to get the 80% down

- First thing: buy a pressure cooker. Fagor brand (future Christmas gift). Until then, rice cooker or pan on stove will do, just takes a LOT longer!

-2nd- buy some grains- quinoa is found at Trader Joes, Costco, Whole Foods. Best grain to start with - mellow flavor and texture and it's easy to cook. Cook the same way you'd cook rice. 1 to 1 ratio with water. Cook a large batch, put into a tupperware in fridge, incorporate into foods all week. (6 min in the pressure cooker- AMAZING!)

                -Try stopping in Whole Foods, or Lassens to explore other grains.  Buy small amounts of Millet, Teff, amaranth, spelt, brown rice, barley and test them out in cooking. 

-3rd- put grains in our regular foods.  Put them in anything: Ideas: Scrambled eggs, quesidillas, PB sandwiches, smoothies, sauces, pasta sauce, soups. They can virtually be added to just about anything! Or plain- try a bowl of cooked quinoa with butter, salt and pepper.
-4th- buy an electric mill or borrow one-  truthfully I don't see this one happening for a few years. But I would eventually like to be grinding my own flour like Chef Brad's "Wonder Flour" (equal parts of Spelt, Brown Rice and Barley mixed together and milled on finest setting). The nutrition in his flour is far superior to wheat. It's a "Super Grain" so much more fiber and amino acids/protein. Until then, I might try out the "Wheat Montana" or "King Arthur" brand white flour which doesn't have Bromine (which is supossedly harmful to your body). 

             

Other ideas:

-buy chia seeds, flax seed or ground flax- at Trader Joes or any other store. Buy a powdered sugar shaker and put the flax in. Leave on counter and shake on any food. 

- Use Coconut Oil in replace of butter or oil in cooking. 

-Trade out sugar/honey for Agave- XAGAVE brand is best. It is sweeter than sugar so you'll use less of it. It is low on the glycemic index so better for you. Ideas: sweeten smoothies, cookies, syrups, drinks, lemonades, muffins. 

-Redmans Sea Salt is a great everyday salt. Celtic Sea Salt is the best for you. 

-Baby Food: Millet Grain- cook like you would rice

In our class he made two recipes- a "sweet brown rice" breakfast Cereal that was to die for, and "Rigatoni" which was amazingly easy and all done in the pressure cooker in 7 minutes! I was sold! 

Looking forward to learning from Chef Brad again. I guess he's agreed to return sometime in the fall for a "bread" class!