The whole (wheat) truth.

I've been to farmer's markets, Whole Foods, Sunflower Market and finally today I made it to Trader Joe's. I have loved shopping there for years but there isn't one close to me so I have to really want to go before I make the trek. The funny thing is, shortly after we moved out of Henderson, they built one a mile from our old house. I guess they didn't realize the money they would have made if only they had been there a few years earlier! My favorite find there today was white whole wheat flour. It is their own brand and sells for $2.99 for 5 pounds. Why is this exciting? White whole-wheat flour can be substituted for all-purpose flour when you are baking and still has a smoother texture than regular whole-wheat flour. It is made from a softer white wheat so you still get whole grain but the texture of your bake goods does not resemble wet cement. About a week ago, I made some dinner rolls substituting the regular stone-ground whole-wheat flour for half of the all purpose flour. They were like little hockey pucks. I found the recipe on the internet and I imagine that there were probably some proportion issues with the ingredients however, I have been scared to use whole-wheat flour ever since. We had chocolate chip cookies made with the white whole-wheat flour today and no one could tell any difference. The cookie recipe is on the bag but it is basically the Nestle Toll House recipe with the proportion of white sugar to brown sugar altered slightly.

We tried a new brand of whole wheat pasta(see photo) this evening which I have decided is now my favorite. My older son asked if it was whole wheat (he is paranoid about the food I make lately) but I know he couldn't tell the difference this time. This brand is made in Italy, organic and sells for under $2.00 per pound at Sunflower Market. I served it with a meat sauce and it was delicious.

Our latest Winder Farms delivery arrived today and I can honestly say the their honey whole wheat bread is as amazing as the ten grain. We have already gone through a half gallon of the new milk (probably because we had the chocolate chip cookies) and the organic red grapes were beautiful and delicious. They are clustered together much closer than conventional grapes, I don't know if that means anything or not but it looks cool! My organic produce box contained fresh beets with the dirt still on them. I am up for the challenge of preparing them in a way that my family will enjoy eating them. I have to admit I have hated beets since I was very young but I don't want to waste food that we paid good money for so by golly, I am cooking them.

When I was at Trader Joe's today, I realized how much of their food is actually not good for you. It is still important to read labels if you are trying to avoid chemicals, hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup. I especially noticed these ingredients in their frozen items. Adios mini beef tacos, the Nolls are breaking up with you. You are full of ingredients I can't pronounce so this relationship is not going to work anymore. No, we can't still be friends...please stop calling!

Do you know the muffin man? He might want this recipe.

When we went to the farmer's market in Summerlin, I had picked up some sweet potatoes. Usually I use them to make sweet potato fries which Todd and I totally love, but it has been too hot to run the oven at dinnertime and these potatoes were a little short and squatty--not really good for cutting into fries. I browsed several recipes but I couldn't find one that worked for the ingredients I had on hand or they just had some ingredients I didn't want to use. Feeling particularly adventurous, I made up my own recipe that was loosely based on some of the others. Unlike yesterday's granola bars, these were a hit. I think we have 3 of the 12 leftover as of right now. Next time I make them, I will throw the shredded sweet potato in the microwave for a couple of minutes to soften it up. Some of the shreds still had a little crunch to them in the finished muffins. Yes, I know there are chocolate chips in them. I used them to lure my kids to eat them. If this grieves your conscience just buy the best organic chocolate chips you can or use carob chips. Remember, this is a gradual transformation for our family, we aren't there yet!

For dinner, we had Taste of Home's Southwestern Spaghetti with whole-wheat pasta and zucchini from Lissa's neighbor's garden. We have no leftovers which is always a good sign. This is a tasty and quick skillet meal if you would like to try it yourself.

MFOM Sweet Potato Muffins

1 1/8 cups packed brown sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 cups stone-ground whole wheat flour (I used Bob's Red Mill, it was the cheapest at Sunflower Mkt)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp salt

4 cups peeled, shredded sweet potato

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper liners or grease.

2. Mix together brown sugar, oil, vanilla and eggs in a large bowl.

3. In medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, spices and salt.

4. Gradually add dry ingredients to the large bowl of wet ingredient until just mixed.

5. Fold in sweet potato and chocolate chips.

6. Spoon the batter evenly into 12 muffin cups. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Take the muffins out of the pan and serve warm.

I have secretly replaced their regular noodles with whole wheat spaghetti...

Okay, so I didn't replace all of the pasta with whole wheat; only about half. It seemed like a good way to introduce the unfamiliar texture to my family. Whenever you change your pet's food, the bag always says to gradually mix in the new food with the food they are currently eating until you have totally replaced the old food with the new food. If it's good enough for dogs, why not us? I served it with meat sauce (the pasta, not pet food) and I personally couldn't tell the difference between the two types of noodles and everyone else seemed to love it. Next time I may go 100% whole wheat.

Since it is Tuesday, we headed to the Las Vegas Farmer's Market in Summerlin. I was excited to buy produce from real farmers, unfortunately there were only two of them. I hadn't been to a farmer's market for about 5 years and I had hoped that it had grown since the last time but apparently it has shrunk. The trip wasn't a total waste however, as I am now signed up for Winder Farms home delivery. I had consider doing this a year ago but it didn't make sense financially. Now the prices and startup fees are lower and it seems like less of a commitment than when I looked into it before. I can't verify if any of this is true, but according to Bob the Winder Farms salesman, their milk is better for you because it is not ultra-pasteurized like every other milk at the supermarket. This enables the milk to retain more nutrients and does not destroy the natural enzymes that aid in digestion. He also said that even people who are lactose intolerant can drink this milk because of this fact. Their milk has no chemicals, hormones or antibiotics and is processed in Salt Lake and than delivered to Las Vegas the next day. Conventional milk has a 6 week shelf life but their milk has a two week shelf life. This is a good thing! I also learned that all of the organic milk in the U.S. is processed at one of two locations: Colorado or New Jersey. It is also ultra-pasteurized so it can travel across the country. Winder Farms also carries organic fruits and meats in addition to all-natural breads. The minimum order for delivery is $5 and the startup fee is $10. My $10 included a 55 gallon cooler that is mine to keep. We tried samples of their milk, apple juice and raspberry tea and loved them all. The apple juice tastes as good as the cider from Gilcrease Orchards.

Our diet makeover is going to be gradual and rather than throwing away all the naughty food we are finishing it and not replacing it. I did throw out two unopened packages of Kroger popsicles after I found out they had propylene glycol in them. Just because the whole bag is 88 cents doesn't mean we should be eating an ingredient found in shampoo and hand soap. Thanks for the tip Meg. Hazelnut Biscotti and Peppermint Mocha Coffemate are what I will miss the most. In powdered form non-dairy creamer is highly flammable and yet I faithfully pour it in my coffee every morning. Click here to see a video of the Mythbusters using it as an explosive in a cannon. Is that really what I want in my body? Do you want it in yours?