If you missed the first few weeks of this series, catch up here.

A few years ago I sat in a class and learned that the bread I was eating and feeding my family was lacking any real nutrition.

Although we had been buying whole wheat bread, which was a better alternative to plain white bread, it still wasn’t offering the kind of nutritional benefits that I was looking for as I was beginning this journey to a healthier lifestyle.

If you are still eating white bread- I want to share a few truths with you.

The flour that is used in white bread is…white flour. White flour works the same way as white sugar in your body. When white bread is being produced, twenty six essential nutrients as well as the bran have been removed from wheat so that you can have that pretty white flour. They do return four of those nutrients in a chemical form to produce “enriched” flour.

And you know when you buy that 2 pound bag of bleached flour, they are very honest in their labeling. It does say bleached, for a reason.

Ok enough about that.

The benefits of fresh whole wheat flour and fresh bread lead us to purchase a grain mill. You can see that in action here.  But don’t worry This isn’t actually a post on milling your own grain, I know that there aren’t many people out there as crazy as me to actually consider it. – Being this kind of crazy does give my friends a good story to tell though.

So lets say you have already made the jump from white to whole wheat flour and your ready to experiment with a few other grains. I want to get you started with a few good ones.

Spelt:  Spelt is an ancient grain.  It is rich in essential fatty acids and higher in fiber than wheat. Spelt is a high energy food due to its higher fat and protein content than wheat, it is easily digested and has a nutty flavor and aroma.

Oats: Oats are rich in calcium, phosphorus and iron.  Oats provide high energy, containing one of the highest amounts of grain protein and fat. The higher fat content gives you a sense of fullness when eating them and therefore makes a great breakfast food. Oat flour can be made by placing rolled oats in a blender and blending until it looks like flour. It can then be used to make cookies, pie crusts and many other baked goods.

Quinoa: I talked about the wonderful benefits of quinoa here, but it’s a grain that we don’t want to leave out. This grain can easily replace rice as a side dish.

Brown Rice: Just like white bread, white rice isn’t doing you any favors. You can easily replace any recipe that calls for white rice with brown rice. Throw it in casseroles and soups for an added boost of healthy complex carbohydrates. Brown rice can be ground into rice flour and when mixed with another kind of flour can give you good results.

Kamut: I personally don’t love the taste of kamut but many people do and I would encourage you to try it. (how is that for an endorsement)  It does have a much higher protein content than wheat and boast of being higher in magnesium and zinc, and up to 65% higher in amino acids. If you have a wheat allergy then this is a great alternative. It also makes for a lighter fluffier bread than regular whole wheat bread.

So now you have a few new grains to try, what are you going to do with them?

*Well all of these grains can be ground into flour. If you have a grain mill this is easy, but if not you can also use a high powered blender like a Vitamix or Ninja, (make sure you check to see if yours can do this before trying) You can use that flour to make anything that you would traditionally make with white flour with just a few adjustments.

*You can also cook your grains on the stovetop, It only takes a quick search on Pinterest to find yummy recipes for each of these power grains.

*If you are feeling super crunchy then sprout them and use them in salads, smoothies or just on their own.

Do you have a hard time getting your family to try new things?