"whole wheat" news and stories

Here is the second baked pasta dish I made over the weekend (you can find the first one here). This one is more traditional, being that it uses sauteed onions, garlic and peppers. I made this one especially for the omnivores in the crowd, although I used turkey sausage instead of pork to keep the amount of fat a little lower. Especially since it used three different kinds of cheese.

The thing to remember about recipes like these is that you should feel free to make them your own. If you don't like peppers, leave them out. If you've got a friend who is allergic to ricotta cheese, use cottage or farmer's cheese instead. Feel like using three different kinds of cheese is sort of excessive? Cut out the parmesan. It's a technique more than an exact recipe and you can bend and shape it to your tastes.

Speaking of pumpkin-based baked goods, another one of my favorite recipes for this time of year is for Whole Wheat Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffin. It's true that you can make these puppies any time of year with canned pumpkin puree, and that's a good option for when you start craving them in March. But there's no better time of year than now to whip up a batch of these puppies with freshly roasted pumpkin. The recipe is after the jump.

Sunday afternoon, I found myself in a building full of art. It was the first of two weekends in which artists' studios all over Philadelphia are open to the public for viewing and opportunities to meet the artists. It's a program called Philadelphia Open Studio Tour (POST). I went to check out my friend Wendy Wolf's studio. Her work is amazing, looking like organic textiles that have been translated onto paper. When I got there, we chatted for a few minutes about her work and life in general, but quickly the conversation turned to food.

She pointed me in the direction of the snacks she had made for her visitors and I was transfixed by the goodness of it all (it didn't hurt that I had also skipped lunch). The standout was the whole wheat pita with parmesan cheese chips that she had created. They were delicious and once I started to gush over them, she willingly confessed that they were something she had found in Gourmet four or five years ago and are very easy to make. So, if you need an easy gallery snack or something crunchy for a cocktail party, give these little crackers a try. The recipe is after the jump.

There's a group of freelancers and independent folks here in Philly who get together twice a month to work. Everyone brings their laptops and spends the day quietly focused on their own projects while in the company of one another. I volunteered to host this time around and threw in the added incentive of fresh muffins. I still have a dozen of the whole wheat zucchini ones I threw together earlier in the week (they've been hanging out in my freezer for the last couple of days) but since I had some bananas on their last legs, I decided to make another batch of muffins tonight.

I went off in search of a banana bread recipe that I could alter to work as muffins, vaguely remembering that Molly at Orangette had posted one that didn't use eggs and featured dark rum and coconut. I found it, and threw it together with only minor changes. I substituted whole wheat pastry flour for the regular unbleached (I do that with just about every baked good I make these days, and nothing seems worse for the alteration) and skipped the sprinkling of sugar on top (because I totally forgot). I also didn't measure the coconut because my measuring cup was wet and I didn't feel like pulling another one out, so I think I put more in that might have been called for, but they turned out gorgeously nonetheless.

The term "It's what's inside that counts" definitely applies to Krispy Kreme's latest offering, but I'm not referring to a fruit filling or a 'kreme' center. Instead, this particular doughnut is made with 100% whole wheat flour. Weighing in at only 180 calories each, the Whole Wheat Doughnut has a distinct caramel flavor and is similar in style to their "original glazed".

With an enormous number of consumers turning to low-carb dieting over the past few years, it isn't surprising that sales in the doughnut industry have taken a hit. Hoping to recapture some of the lost market by offering an alternative to the original, the Senior VP of Marketing for Krispy Kreme promises that this doughnut delivers the taste we expect, while offering the benefits of whole wheat to the health conscious consumer.

If this is a success, I imagine they may offer the choice of whole wheat in some of their other flavors as well, but no official word has been given on that yet. The doughnut is now available in participating Krispy Kreme stores throughout North America.

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