When we read Nourishing Traditions three years ago we began to transform our food reality. Since then cereal has been out. Overnight porridge (soaked for at least 12 hours in water with a splash of whey drawn off of our homemade yogurt) is in, but cold cereals and granola is on our no list.
But I love cereal. Love it. So with some creative kitchen work we came up with a simple soaked, sprouted, dehydrated granola recipe. (I never measure anything out side of the soap studio, so the amounts before are estimated.)
A note: Pete hates buckwheat and he loves this granola. If you are not a buckwheat fan, give it a shot. The sprouting (not toasting) gives it a wholly different flavor than other things buckwheat.
Buckwheat Granola
3 C whole buckwheat groats (not toasted)
1/2 C almond butter (or other nut butter)
1/3 C honey, agave, or maple syrup
1 1/4 C orange juice (reconstituted is okay)
1 Tb cinnamon
1/3 C unsweetened coconut (optional)
1/3 C chopped nuts or sliced almonds (optional)
1/2 tsp salt
Soak buckwheat overnight. Drain, rinse, and drain again. Allow to sit for several hours (or overnight again) and rinse and drain well (15 minutes would be great).
Combine all other ingredients except nuts and granola until smooth (the blender works well for this step) and pour over the drained buckwheat, coconut, and nuts.
Stir with your hands or a wooden spoon to combine.
Spread out on a lightly oiled cookie sheet (coconut oil is best).
Dehydrate for 12-24 hours, stirring once or twice until the granola is thoroughly dry and crisp (ideally keep granola below 108%, but work with what you've got.)
Raw granola can be stored in the refrigerator for longest shelf life, but for us in never last long enough to bother with the fridge.
Enjoy!
We go the TF route – that looks like a great recipe. Will have to try it!
Yum…thanks! We’re a TF family too…I’m dehyrating this as I type!
Awesome that you are both Traditional Foods families! We got on the path seeking solutions for early childhood caries (cavities). After changing our diet her decay stopped completely (and we ate well before! Just not well enough.) Let me know how you like the recipe. xo Rachel
I just wanted to let you know that your granola recipe is awesome! I’m pretty sure it will start to be a mainstay in our house. Thanks for sharing.
I also wanted to quick ask you about cavities. We’ve been mildly practicing TF (all raw milk, brew kombucha, we raise our animals on our pasture but I could be better about soaking all of our grains) since my twins were one and my son, now 4 was recently diagnosed with (gulp) 7 cavities! We’re just sick about it. I’m obviously missing something somewhere. What did you focus on when you started eating for dental health? I just started the kids on a DHA/fish oil supplement because I think we’re lacking there. Our Weston Price group disbanded here in Rochester a couple of years ago, so my support group is gone! Any tips or resources would be appreciated!
Have a great Thanksgiving,
Jody
Jody,
Weve done so much research on this. Know that your child can heal from this, and it isnt about brushing and it isnt about night nursing and it isnt about some parenting short-coming on your part! Children are amazing healers. Heres how we did it (and her decay stopped within one month of starting what I describe below. We did have caps done because the decay was sever before we figured it out and we werent willing to have her lose her teeth while we figured it out).
There is an amazing thread on Motherings Community Pages: http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=399989 It is an exhaustingly long read, but so worth the nights you will spend working your way through it. That was our jumping off point. What most of my research pointed to was a vitamin D deficiency, something that is amazingly common. Also, Canada just released a study last month (this month?) confirming this. Mothers with low vitamin D levels had babes with decay.
I should do a tooth care post sometime, but to get you by here is our basic framework:
1. Eat primarily traditional foods, including grass fed raw milk, limited refined foods, limited dried fruit. Focus on whole foods, meats, broth, veggies, live food.
2. Make bone broth and consume (ideally daily) at least 4 times per week (easy to do when you cook your grains and beans in it)
3. Brush without toothpaste! (Gylcerin in toothpaste impedes the ability of teeth to remineralize) We brush with homemade toothpaste that is something like this (http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/2008/08/going-fluoride-free.html) or homemade tooth powder (without abrasives like baking soda).
The two points that follow are key…
4. Supplement with Vitamin D (2500 IU) and Vitamin A (25,000 IU) daily. We do this in the ideal form of High Vitamin Cod Liver Oil (http://www.greenpasture.org/community/). Expensive, but worth it!
5. Suppliment with Butter Oil (Also from Green Pasture), 1/2 tsp/day
Let me know if I can help more. There is a great book I recommend as well. Thought I have only read excerpts, I am about to purchase it to read completely. It seems right on track. http://www.curetoothdecay.com/
Good luck! I am so willing to be helpful if youd like some guidance or a sympathetic ear.
Blessings,
Rachel
Rachel,
You are wonderful!!! I wish I could give you a hug right now!!! Thank you SO MUCH for getting back to me! This would have taken me forever to figure out!
I was just looking at the Cure Tooth Decay book too…I’ll pick that up. Also I JUST got on the green pasture website and I see they have the butter oil and Cod liver together…that might be easier? I was wondering how I would get the kids to take it but it looks like it comes in flavors. Which do you use and how do they take it?
Again, I can’t thank you enough,
Jody
We bought them separately and then pre-mix a jarfull at home. Its cheaper and works just as well. I bought the flavors the first time but regretted it. The unflavored were much more palatable to them – they disappear better. My kids arent use to flavored things and they were not into them. We like these best disguised into a strong, tiny cup of OJ (the only juice they get) first thing each AM or into a smoothie. She just began to tire of those two, so last week I blended them together with some honey and stevia and shes so-so on it but will take them.
If you are nursing your should supplement too so that your babe gets vitamins in your milk. For our off days when I cant get her to take the Green Pastures stuff (my son whos teeth are rock solid hates it, so I dont push the GP supplements for him) we do Carlsons D Drops and Vitamin A. The ideal ration is 10:1 A to D, ideally the IUs I listed before. I bought them online.
What you are going through is scary. It rocked our world in a big way. But in hindsight it was a great reality check on where we were at with nutrition (something I thought we were doing great with!). Tooth decay is not the problem, simply a symptom that you cannot ignore that changes are needed.
With love and a big hug I say – You can do this! You will all be blessed by the journey.
Hi Rachel,
Another question…Did you find a holistic dentist in the area to treat your daughter? I’m just worried about the type of fillings the dentist wants to use since Cullen needs so many. (Funny enough…having the work done in the Viroqua area is easier for me since Grandparetns are available to watch the other kiddos!)
You should see my kitchen since we got home tonight…bone broth simmering and grains soaking everywhere! It feels good to take healing into my own hands.
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving,
Jody
Hi Jody,
I sent you a private message with your answer.
Many blessings,
Rachel
Any suggestions on what I can use instead of buckwheat? I’m allergic to it.
Thank you!
~Nicole
Gosh. Ive never done it with anything else. Are you gluten-free as well? You could substitute whole oats with a small batch to see how it works (suggestion of my 7 year old… I have no better ideas than that!). If you try it report back your experiences, please.
I just have a question re: the agave nectar, recently I’ve been reading that it is more highly processed and worse than most ‘conventional’ sugars! And so was surprised to see you recommending it in the recipe here….Any thoughts about it? Otherwise really looking forward to trying the recipe! 🙂
Its funny. I wrote that recipe a couple of years ago when I was seeing agave recommended all over and using it quite a bit. We no longer use agave. In fact, when I printed the recipe out for Sage this morning and was also surprised to see it there too! We used maple and a local sorghum molasses. Hope this helps!