Baking A Sweet Life

Greetings fellow food bloggers,

I have selfish reasons for this blog event. I’m in search of new, great tasting ideas for the common and not-so-common grains that we are all starting to become more and more familiar with. I imagine (and hope) that I’m not alone!

Introducing this month’s guest - QUINOA!  (pronounced Keen-wah)

From whfoods.com, quinoa is described as “a recently rediscovered ancient “grain” native to South America, quinoa was once called “the gold of the Incas,” who recognized its value in increasing the stamina of their warriors. Not only is quinoa high in protein, but the protein it supplies is complete protein, meaning that it includes all nine essential amino acids. Not only is quinoa’s amino acid profile well balanced, making it a good choice for vegans concerned about adequate protein intake, but quinoa is especially well-endowed with the amino acid lysine, which is essential for tissue growth and repair. In addition to protein, quinoa features a host of other health-building nutrients. Because quinoa is a very good source of manganese as well as a good source of magnesium, iron, copper and phosphorus, this “grain” may be especially valuable for persons with migraine headaches, diabetes and atherosclerosis.”

For this blog event, I want you to make/bake something, anything, that showcases this lovely grain. From sweet to savory, sprouted to popped, I’d love to showcase all that is great about quinoa; with your help of course!

To participate -

1. Post your comestible on your blog, with a link in the post to this page
2. Email me at: melissa@bakingasweetlife.com and include the following (By September 1st!!!):

• Your name
• Your blogs name (with URL)
• The name of your creation and its permalink in your blog
• Your location
• A picture of your creation! (preferably 150 pixels wide)
• please note - I unfortunately only speak and read English -please submit your emails as such! :)

I will post the round-up by September 6th, so please check back then!

Its time again for the monthly Bread Baking Day bake-off!  Zorra, the founder of BBD is hosting the one year anniversary edition - and the theme for this exciting occasion is Bread with Sprouts!  For my bread I decided to do a variety of sprouted grains - an equal mix of Hard Red Wheat, Kamut, and Spelt.  I chose these grains because I love the flavor of each, and for ease of sprouting - they are all roughly the same size.
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It is my pleasure to present to you the fine collection of Breakfast Breads baked up for this month’s BBD challenge. We had 53 54 55 submissions from 16 different countries - quite a variety of breakfast goodies!

Before I showcase all that breakfast is made of, I’d like to thank Zorra for founding this inspiring event and to let you all know to head over to her blog to get the theme of the one year BreadBakingDay anniversary edition!

Also, a big thank you to everyone that participated in this event - it was honor to not only host BBD for its 10th installment, but to get to (virtually) meet each and every one of you - I think that this diversity is what the essence of food blogging is all about - From sisters in Saudi Arabia, to California (our most popular state this month), people coming together from all parts of the world to share a common passion is so incredible - thank you for letting me be a part of it! And I’d like to say a special thank you to Antonella; she doesn’t have a blog but was so eager to still participate.

And the fun begins!
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