Flaxseed Wrap

Since reading Wheat Belly, by William Davis, MD, I've stopped eating wheat products and feel much better. Some folks have asked me what I eat for bread if I'm not eating wheat. The book contains a recipe for a flaxseed wrap that substitutes nicely for bread. It tastes good and is filling.  Here's what you need to make it:

3 tablespoons ground flaxseeds
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon paprika
Pinch of sea salt
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 tablespoon water
1 large egg

Mix together the ground flaxseeds, baking powder, onion powder, paprika and salt in a small bowl.

Stir in the 1 tablespoon coconut oil. The oil is solid at room temperature, so you might want to heat it slightly. The mixture will be a little thick.

Beat in the egg and 1 tablespoon water until blended. That thins the mixture.

Grease a microwave-safe plate with coconut oil. Pour in the batter and spread evenly over the bottom. I use a fork to sort of comb the mixture out from the center. 

Microwave on high for 2 to 3 minutes until cooked. I microwave it for 2 minutes and 20 seconds, but your milage may vary. Let cool for 5 minutes.

Then you have this.

Slide a knife or spatula under it to loosen it from the plate and turn it over

The result works great as a wrap—I've used it to make a tuna salad wrap and a sliced chicken wrap—but it's good just as bread. I added some butter (I never use margarine or whatever a "spread" is) . . .

. . . and fold it over. The result is big enough for two servings if you slice it crosswise. And it's goooood! 

Here's the recipe that I found online, but it's also in the book:

This flaxseed wrap has about 6 grams of carbs, as near as I can figure. If you like, you can also make these wraps ahead and refrigerate them. Besides using a wrap for a hunk of bread or a sandwich wrap, you could probably put some pizza toppings on it.

I haven't tried it that way yet, but I'm thinking about it.

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Another Family Recipe: Light Bread

One of the delights of my childhood was going to Grandma’s house on Sunday and smelling her light bread baking. Eating it hot from the oven was even more delightful. She had both a wood stove and a gas stove in her kitchen. She used the wood stove for baking the bread and for most of her cooking. I rarely saw her use the gas stove.

Mattie Blanche Nace Ruble—who lived to be nearly 97—grew up in Lithia, Virginia, but moved to Roanoke when she married a railroad man. Here is a picture of her as a young mother with her three children (Lawrence, the oldest; Raymond, the baby; and Alene, my mother).


Grandma probably got the recipe from her mother, Sulmena Frances Spence Nace, pictured here with her husband, William Robert Nace.

Grandma Ruble’s Light Bread

1 cake or package of yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon shortening (She used lard but Crisco works)
6 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon of salt
1 pint lukewarm water

Dissolve 1 cake yeast and 1 Tbs. sugar in one pint lukewarm water. Add 1 Tbs. shortening (Crisco) and 3 cups plain flour. Beat until smooth. Then add 1 tsp. salt and 3 more cups of flour—or enough to make a dough that is easily handled.

Knead the dough until smooth and elastic–about 10 minutes. Place dough in greased bowl, cover, and set in a moderately warm place, free from drafts, until light (about 50 minutes).

Punch down dough and form into rolls. Place rolls in greased bread pans, cover, and let rise one hour. Bake 30 minutes in preheated 350 degree oven. [Note: I added the time and temperature that worked for me.]

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I liked the rolls from the corner of the pan—crust on two sides so it held up well for buttering.

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Old Family Recipe: Spoonbread

I just finished reading Mom’s Family Pie, Peggy Shifflett’s wonderful book of family recipes and the stories behind them.

Unlike Peggy, I don't have many family recipes, but I have a couple. One came from Aunt Leona.

When I was a kid, my great aunt Leona Ruble Davy (maybe it's spelled Davey) and her husband (she called him Buddy, but I don't know his real name) would come from their new Castle home to visit us aound Easter. She usually brought me a fruit-and-nut chocolate-covered egg. Sometimes it had my name in icing on it.

Supposedly Leona, the youngest child of G. William Ruble and Margie Caldwell Ruble of Botetourt County, was known for the beautiful clothes she made herself. This photo from her youth isn't in very good shape, but it shows how pretty she was. She still had her red hair in the 1950s.

Aunt Leona never had kids. I don't know when she died, but I can vaguely remember driving my brand new 1967 Firebird from Roanoke to New Castle to take my mother to visit Aunt Leona.


Besides the picture, I have her recipe for spoonbread. Here it is:

Leona's Spoonbread

1 cup boiling water
one-half cup corn meal
1 tablespoon butter
one-half cup sweet milk
one and a half teaspoons baking powder
one-half teaspoon salt
2 eggs, well-beaten

Pour one cup boiling water over one-half cup corn meal. Beat in 1 Tbs. butter, one-half cup milk, one and a half tsp. baking powder, a half teaspoon of salt, and 2 beaten eggs. Pour into a greased baking dish. Bake until set. This would be at 400 degrees for 20 or 30 minutes in a modern stove. Serve hot with butter.

I'm not much of a cook, but I've made this spoonbread before and it is wonderful.

I wonder how much more wonderful it would be baked in a wood stove?