OK all fired up after the weekend so going on a bit of a rant! As you know, I have always tried to feed the boys the best food I can. We used to have Weetbix for breakfast as alongside oats and the odd gourmet muesli they were the only things from the breakfast aisle worth eating. But then as I read and I studied and I thought I realised Weetbix didn't fit into one of my key parameters for family food. It was processed. We try to eat minimally processed food as much as is feasible (and still have lives!!). Then as I read more and more about what I term "cheap wheat" I began to see that it probably wasn't a great option at all processed or not. Modern wheat has been developed with mass production in mind and so many of the benefits have been engineered out and many negatives have crept in. Research led me to the conclusion that avoiding all "cheap wheat" was probably a sensible idea.
Now that was fine except for a) Roy and b) Max. Roy loves his toast of a weekend morning and Max loved his Weetbix. Being a problem/solution kind of personality I knew the problem and now just had to figure out how to overcome it. With Roy we switched to organic wholemeal spelt. It has been grown without the pesticides that many experts posit as the issue for more and more people becoming sensitive to baked goods. It hasn't been modified like the "cheap wheat" so has a lower gluten content and is far easier for the body to digest. We invested in a bread maker and so Roy is able to have his toast of a weekend and is happy. Yes it's a lot more expensive but it's a luxury that keeps Roy happy and that's important!
Max was a little harder as he really loved his Weetbix and I didn't want to take it away without providing a suitable alternative. As I always preach to other parents ... baby steps .. change must be done so that it is sustainable and having Max fighting me every morning was not going to work. We spent about 3 months road testing other alternatives before we hit upon porridge as an acceptable switch.
And so I had a box of Weetbix left over and decided to feed it to the chickens who of course go mad for grains. They are also possibly the greediest birds on the planet, one sniff of food and they're racing towards it feathers all a flap. Except the Weetbix. They looked, they had a peck and then they just left them there!! If there was ever a moment when I just knew my gut feeling was right, this was it.
So you may be wondering what the photo has to do with the Weetbix rant. Well, I am making a fish pie for Max tonight as we're having roast chicken (and I'm always stuck with what to do for him) and decided to make pastry with brown rice flour. As you can see it didn't roll and stretch nicely as regular flour would as there is no gluten to make it stretchy. It has however, created a shell to hold in all the filling so I shall report back on the verdict!
Have you ever thought about the wheat we consume so readily in everything from cereals to bread to pasta to pizza to crackers?
Now that was fine except for a) Roy and b) Max. Roy loves his toast of a weekend morning and Max loved his Weetbix. Being a problem/solution kind of personality I knew the problem and now just had to figure out how to overcome it. With Roy we switched to organic wholemeal spelt. It has been grown without the pesticides that many experts posit as the issue for more and more people becoming sensitive to baked goods. It hasn't been modified like the "cheap wheat" so has a lower gluten content and is far easier for the body to digest. We invested in a bread maker and so Roy is able to have his toast of a weekend and is happy. Yes it's a lot more expensive but it's a luxury that keeps Roy happy and that's important!
Max was a little harder as he really loved his Weetbix and I didn't want to take it away without providing a suitable alternative. As I always preach to other parents ... baby steps .. change must be done so that it is sustainable and having Max fighting me every morning was not going to work. We spent about 3 months road testing other alternatives before we hit upon porridge as an acceptable switch.
And so I had a box of Weetbix left over and decided to feed it to the chickens who of course go mad for grains. They are also possibly the greediest birds on the planet, one sniff of food and they're racing towards it feathers all a flap. Except the Weetbix. They looked, they had a peck and then they just left them there!! If there was ever a moment when I just knew my gut feeling was right, this was it.
So you may be wondering what the photo has to do with the Weetbix rant. Well, I am making a fish pie for Max tonight as we're having roast chicken (and I'm always stuck with what to do for him) and decided to make pastry with brown rice flour. As you can see it didn't roll and stretch nicely as regular flour would as there is no gluten to make it stretchy. It has however, created a shell to hold in all the filling so I shall report back on the verdict!
Have you ever thought about the wheat we consume so readily in everything from cereals to bread to pasta to pizza to crackers?
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