Hello, sunshine!

The Grain Geek’s good advice

By Kim Carlson

June 12, 2008

Wandering agog among the bulk bins, Carrie Floyd and I spent the morning last Friday at the Bob’s Red Mill store. We were lucky to link up with Lori Sobelson, self-acclaimed Grain Geek, aka the Assistant Director of Retail Operations and Event Coordinator. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more enthusiastic advocate for whole grains. Lori was practically evangelistic, describing various grain and gluten-free dishes she’s developing: teff pudding and teff pie crust, millet loaf and millet mulligatawny.

“Oh, it’s so good,” she said, over and over, about everything from seven-grain cereal to spelt berries. And that mulligatawny, which we got to taste, was good. (I’ll have to get back to you on the spelt berries.)

You can eat as many steel-cut oats as you want for breakfast.

“I think Americans have it backwards,” says Lori on the topic of mealtime. Instead of eating small breakfasts and lunches, then big dinners at the end of the day, Lori says we should be eating our biggest meal early in the day, and our smallest in the evening. Not only does a hearty breakfast in the morning sustain energy throughout the day, but it’s also good for our hearts and, um, regularity.

As for breakfast, Lori says, when it’s whole grains you can eat as much as you want. Her favorites include multi-grain hot cereals (there are many to choose from in the Bob line) and oat groats. One look at Lori and you can see she’s on to something: Radiant and energetic, she’s as fit as — farro?! “I never worry about calories,” she says.

Lori advised us to cook up a batch of grains to keep in the refrigerator and eat throughout the week. “Just be sure you rinse your pans and bowls well afterwards,” she said. Whole grains might be great for internal plumbing, but it turns out they’re hell on the dishwasher lines.