The Nutrition Label: This Cafeteria Got It Right

You can too using made from scratch whole foods!

In the last years of the twentieth century, quantity packages of food were not required to have nutrition labels. Many customers wanted nutrition labels at point of service. The work began. With help from the salesperson and a computerized computer program, the work began. First, ingredients for recipes were entered. The highlight of the process: the staff made everything from scratch using ingredients found in the kitchen and storage areas.

I was a retail dietitian.  I used the information to plan meal deals, to meet the Mayo Clinic guidelines for sodium, to meet the American Heart Association guidelines for added sugar, to determine eligibility for the Whole Grains Stamp and to add value before testing.  The nutrition labels gave customers nutrition facts as well as ingredients so they could determine the fit into their eating plan. We used limited manufactured preservatives, additive, flavored and colored ingredients.

The same principles apply in the home:

Use whole ingredients found in the kitchen.

Fit those into a healthy eating plan.

The Perfect Bread with Easter Dinner

 

This Marble Whole Grain Bread champions a Ham, Au Gratin, Green Beans and Pineapple meal. It includes my whole rye sourdough discard and instant yeast. I adjusted the flours in the recipe to include whole rye, whole wheat and all purpose flours with just the right amount whole grain flour to make it 50% whole grain.

Here's the recipe with Cindy's adjustments. Original recipe from King Arthur. 

Marble Whole Grain Bread

(2 Loaves)

Night Before:

44 grams sourdough culture (mine is whole rye)

145 grams whole rye flour

73 grams all purpose flour

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon cold water  

In mixer with dough hook in place, combine sourdough culture with water, whole rye and all purpose flour. Turn dough into greased bowl. Knead by hand  into sticky ball. Cover and let sit at room temperature over night.

 

Next day:

312 grams all purpose flour

196 grams whole wheat flour

3 Tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon caraway seeds

2 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast

1 1/3 cups warm water

2 eggs, warmed to room temperature

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoon olive oil. 

In mixer with dough hook in place, combine all ingredients. Knead for 8-10 minutes until dough leaves the side of the bowl.

 

With scraper, break off 2/3 of the dough to and place in greased bowl. Cover. 

To remaining dough, add:

1/4 cup sifted unsweetened cocoa

1 Tablespoon molasses

Mix thoroughly, then place in greased bowl. Cover.

 

Let both doughs rise in warm place until double in bulk.

 

To shape dough:

Divide each in half. 

 

On lightly floured board, roll lighter dough into a rectangle about 12 inches by 10 inches. 

On second floured board, roll dark dough into a smaller rectangle.

Place the dark dough on the lighter dough. Fold shorter ends of light dough over dark dough. From the top of the long side, roll 2 doughs toward you.  Place in greased pan. 

Repeat with remaining dough.

Cover and let rise until double.

 

Bake at 360 F for 30 minutes. Cover with foil the last 10 minutes of baking.