GNOWFGLINS™ eCourse

Wish There Was A Simple Plan You Could Follow To Cook Healthy Food?

No, not a magic plan. Not a fancy machine that bakes the bread and washes the dishes, too.

You’re not afraid to put a little work into it, but what if you don’t know where to start? What kind of food are you supposed to be cooking? And why?

What if there was a straightforward, basic, healthy cooking plan that a reasonably intelligent person could follow? A plan something like this:

This is what you do first. Give it some time and attention. Do this if you run into a problem.

Now you’re ready for step two. Here’s how to do that.

And continue on until you’ve mastered the basics.

A Simple Plan

That’s the kind of plan I wish I could have followed six years ago when my family decided to embrace healthy food. Truthfully, our idea of what was healthy then is very different from what we think now. What a road this has been! It is littered with failed dishes, discarded information, and not always happy campers. Thankfully, most of my blunders occurred early on, and are now out of the way.

Don’t get me wrong – the time was well spent. The experiments, both successful and failed, have made me a better cook. I praise God that embracing His foods has resolved significant health concerns for my family members. But above all, this time of searching has brought me and my family a deep love for God, His goodness, and His perfect design. He created wonderful and nourishing foods to fuel our bodies. My family calls those foods GNOWFGLINS – “God’s Natural, Organic, Whole Foods, Grown Locally, In Season.”

(And because I know you’re wondering, let me tell you right off the bat: GNOWFGLINS is pronounced: g-NOWF-glinz. Hard ‘g’s and stress the middle syllable.)

Here’s a video that shows you the vision of GNOWFGLINS – how food can be and should be.

An Idea

Not too long ago, I got an idea to create that simple plan for healthy and traditional cooking. You might wonder what traditional means. Traditional foods are those foods that have nourished people for centuries, before industry brought us not-so-nourishing fast foods and processed foods.

I asked myself: if I had to start from scratch, re-learning everything I know now, what would I do first? Second? Third?

And so the GNOWFGLINS Fundamentals eCourse was born. Okay, I chewed on it for awhile (no pun intended). Then I got to work.

This is Not Gourmet, Folks

If you’ve been reading the GNOWFGLINS blog for awhile, you know that I favor simple foods, simple flavors, and simple techniques. God’s foods are not highly complicated. However, they are – thankfully! – highly nutritious and highly tasty.

Foods prepared the GNOWFGLINS way taste great, give sustaining energy and heal our bodies. That’s a winning combination, wouldn’t you agree?

The Main Problem

The main problem you’re probably facing is that you’re overwhelmed. Maybe you’ve read “Nourishing Traditions” by Sally Fallon, a fantastic resource for those interested in traditional and nourishing foods. It has taught me a whole lot. But let’s face the facts. It can be hugely overwhelming. Many put it down to take a deep breath, never to pick it up again.

And, let’s not forget the zillion websites, pages of information, and oodles of recipes across the internet. It’s no wonder you feel dizzy and find yourself getting nowhere fast.

There are so many things you could try to prepare or cook. But which should you make, where do you start, and how can you put everything together in a way that won’t completely overwhelm you? Even if you did figure out all you need to do, how do you get to the point where everyone is getting fed and enjoying it?

I Can Help You

The GNOWFGLINS Fundamentals eCourse is a brand-new, online, healthy and traditional cooking course. Cooking with GNOWFGLINS will help you feel better and look better – and the icing on the cake is that it jazzes you up for serving God and others.

We will focus on the simple, fundamental, traditional cooking skills that should be a part of every healthy kitchen. I will provide the basic information you need to get started now in healthy cooking. You’ll build your skills and your confidence one task at a time, one week at a time.

Here’s How the eCourse Works

Each week, you’ll receive one lesson, or one part of a lesson. You’ll get it in a combination of audio, video and/or print formats. In the video, I will demonstrate a lesson’s cooking technique, giving you the confidence you need to do it yourself. The print and audio versions of a lesson will deepen your understanding of GNOWFGLINS, share more details about the technique presented in the video lesson, suggest more recipes that you can follow to take the lesson further, and offer troubleshooting advice for possible obstacles. When you’re done watching, listening to, and reading each lesson’s simple yet comprehensive multi-media materials, you’ll know, as I do, that you can achieve delicious, healthy food, too!

Each lesson will answer three basic and essential questions:

What? – What is this food and/or technique? What ingredients do I need?
Why? – Why should we eat a certain food or prepare it a certain way?
How? – How is the technique carried out or how is this food prepared?

Each lesson will come with one or more “Fact Sheets,” which are one-page (more or less) documents that quickly summarize an important topic. You might call them Cliff Notes. All by themselves, these are a great resource and you’ll turn to them again and again to guide your kitchen tasks with surety. I recommend putting them all in page protectors in a handy binder.

As a participant of the eCourse, you’ll have access to the members-only forums. There, you can trade advice and experience, encourage – and be encouraged by – other members, brainstorm solutions, and get personalized advice from me. No matter what hiccups you face, your fellow community members and I will get you going again.

Are you wondering how you’ll ever figure out what to buy and what equipment you’ll need? I’ve got that covered, too! You’ll get ingredient and equipment notes well in advance of needing anything special. I won’t leave you hanging out to dry, unprepared. So breathe easy.

Oh, by the way, I’ll avoid requiring kitchen appliances as much as possible. Sometimes, the right tool is absolutely necessary. On the other hand, quite often the best tool is the simplest tool. If I can spare you from having to buy something when you really can’t afford it, I will.

What’s in the eCourse?

This plan isn’t called “Fundamentals” for nothing. I carefully selected the basic skills in this eCourse, and I believe every healthy cook should know how to do them. They each have a purpose in the nutrient-dense diet that keeps us feeling, looking, and doing our best for God and others.

• Overview: eCourse Overview
• Lesson 1: The GNOWFGLINS Foundation
• Lesson 2: How to Soak Whole Grains, Nuts and Seeds
• Lesson 3: How to Make Soaked Whole-Grain Flour Baked Goods I
• Lesson 4: How to Make Soaked Whole-Grain Flour Baked Goods II
• Lesson 5: How to Soak and Cook Dry Beans
• Lesson 6: How to Sprout Beans
• Lesson 7: How to Cook a Chicken and Make Chicken Stock
• Lesson 8: How to Make Skillet Dishes: A Dinner Formula
• Lesson 9: How to Make Water Kefir
• Lesson 10: How to Make Dairy Kefir
• Lesson 11: How to Make Soft, Spreadable Cheese
• Lesson 12: How to Make Sourdough Bread
• Lesson 13: How to Sprout Whole Grains for Sprouted Grain Flour & How to Bake With Sprouted Grain Flour
• Lesson 14: How to Make Natural Pickled Foods

Overview: eCourse Overview

This is the overview lesson to which you’ll get access immediately upon enrollment. It sets the stage for all the future lessons. I’ll give you more details about the eCourse format, what to expect from the eCourse, and give you tips for establishing new routines. I’ll share a few stories about our journey to GNOWFGLINS. And (drum roll, please)… you’ll get the complete ingredient and equipment list for the entire eCourse. You’ve got to know what you need in order to get it!

Lesson 1: The GNOWFGLINS Foundation

Obviously, if we’re going to follow a healthy cooking plan, the foundation must come first. In this case, the foundation is your understanding of God’s foods – GNOWFGLINS. This is one of the meatiest lessons in the course. In this lesson, we discuss GNOWFGLINS in depth, and we’ll discuss dietary guidelines. A really important topic in this lesson is “Why GNOWFGLINS?” What is our motivation? Why do we seek out God’s foods? After you’re done with the first lesson, you’ll have a deeper understanding of the way food should be, with a renewed love for the Creator who made it for us. You can take this knowledge with you when navigating local food choices, whether directly from the farm, from a health food store, from a farmers’ market, or at the grocery store.

Lesson 2: How to Soak Whole Grains, Nuts and Seeds

Raw nuts contain enzyme inhibitors which interfere with optimal digestion and put a strain on the body. I’ll teach you how to soak the nuts to deactivate those inhibitors, making them tasty, nutritious and highly digestible. Whole grains have those same enzyme inhibitors, and also phytic acid, which interferes with mineral absorption. I’ll teach you how to properly prepare whole grains for maximum taste, nutrition and digestion. Along with this lesson’s video tutorial and print lesson, you’ll receive the first of two Fact Sheets: “How to Soak and Cook Whole Grains” and “How to Soak and/or Dehydrate Nuts and Seeds.” These two documents are tremendous resources as they alone will summarize how to prepare any grain, nut or seed.

Lessons 3 & 4: How to Make Soaked Whole-Grain Flour Baked Goods

In lesson 1 you’ll learn how to soak whole grains to deactivate the enzyme inhibitors and neutralize the phytic acid. But what do you do if the grain is already ground up into flour? In lessons 3 and 4, spanning two weeks, we’ll practice a handful of recipes that incorporate an overnight soaking of flour. The recipes yield fabulously delicious whole grain baked goods that are nutritious and highly digestible due to the soaking of the flours. You’ll receive another Fact Sheet with this lesson – “Converting Recipes to Soaked Flour” – this one offering general tips for converting other recipes to incorporate the soaking step. I believe these are the lessons that your family will enjoy most – who doesn’t love a yummy biscuit or warm pancakes?

Sneak Peak! In this video, I demonstrate the easy and rewarding process of making nutritious, whole-grain soaked muffins. Be sure to grab the recipe notes, too. Feel free to share and embed this video, which is also on YouTube.

Lesson 5: How to Soak and Cook Dry Beans

You won’t be intimidated by dry beans any more! Cooking dry beans is not hard, but it is a task that should be done with great care in order to make them fully digestible. Beans are a great, healthy food – providing minerals, B vitamins, and fiber. My family turns to beans regularly as a cheap, nutritious food. In this lesson, you’ll watch and learn the best ways to prepare dry beans. And I’ll tell you what methods to avoid when preparing beans. You’ll get another can’t-live-without Fact Sheet, “How to Soak and Cook Dry Beans,” that will give you general information on preparing beans, and also particular information about certain beans that ask for special care.

Lesson 6: How to Sprout Beans

Sprouting beans boosts their nutrition exponentially, and converts their starches to simple sugars such as are found in vegetables. Often, you can sprout beans and use them in delicious meals, while no one knows the difference. In this lesson, I’ll show you how to sprout beans and give you ideas for using them in your meal-planning. I’ll let you know which beans are okay to eat raw and which should be cooked. I bet you know what’s coming… another Fact Sheet! This one is “How to Sprout Beans.” It will give you general directions for sprouting beans, along with directions for beans that need special treatment, beans that should not be eaten sprouted at all, or beans that should be cooked after sprouting. Basically, you’ll get all the information you need to confidently sprout many kinds of beans for years to come. Because the next lesson (7) involves chicken and I want to equip you when shopping for healthy meat, you’ll also receive an additional Fact Sheet, “Pastured Chicken.”

Lesson 7: How to Cook a Chicken and Make Chicken Stock

This lesson has two parts. The first is a fantastic, easy way to cook chicken where the chicken falls off the bones – moist, tender and fantastically delicious. Once I started cooking chickens this way, I’ve not used any other method. This moist chicken meat can be used in a myriad of dishes and I’ll give you many suggestions for doing so. But our lesson won’t stop there. Did you know that stock is an extremely nutritious food? It is rich with minerals and gelatin, the latter of which acts as a digestive aid as well as facilitating the body’s better use of protein. Sadly, most people do not make stock properly, if at all. I’ll show you an easy method for making stock that maximizes its nutrition. This isn’t rocket science, but it is important. Yes, you get another Fact Sheet with this lesson – “How to Make Stock.” But that’s not all. To prep you for lesson 8, I’ll give you the “Grass-Fed Beef” Fact Sheet. We all know that navigating the marketplace can be down-right daunting if you don’t know what the best choices are.

Lesson 8: How to Make a Skillet Dishes: A Dinner Formula

My skillet dishes go beyond the skillet, and there are no recipes required. This formula encourages you to dive in your pantry and create meals around handy ingredients with flavors you already know your family loves. If you’re the type of person who relies on recipes, don’t worry – you can do this! Anyone can succeed with skillet dishes. You’ll see me demonstrating creating a skillet dish in my own kitchen, live before the camera. I’ll also give you plenty of ideas to keep you going while you get the hang of the helpful skillet dish formula. This lesson includes a Fact Sheet, “How to Create Skillet Dishes,” which will guide you for many years as you come up with your family’s favorite skillet dishes.

Lesson 9: How to Make Water Kefir

Want to help your family get away from sugary sodas? Water kefir is the answer! This is a delicious, dairy-free beverage that is rich with beneficial probiotics to aid a healthy digestive system. It is quick and easy to brew and offers unlimited flavoring opportunities. For many people, water kefir is easier to make and more tasty than Kombucha. I give you simple, straight-forward, no-fuss directions in both video and print for brewing your own beneficial water kefir quickly and easily. Two Fact Sheets will be included with this lesson. The first, “Water Kefir,” will summarize all the key points of making and brewing water kefir in a print-and-go document for future reference. The second comes in anticipation of lesson 10, “Raw Dairy.”

Lesson 10: How to Make Dairy Kefir

Ever wanted to make homemade yogurt? Dairy kefir is a similar cultured food. It tastes similar to plain yogurt, but a little more tart and bubbly, and it can have a thinner consistency. But it is easier to make, cultures at room temperature, and contains more beneficial probiotics. In this lesson, I’ll show you why dairy kefir is so good for you, a simple way to make it and keep it going indefinitely, and oodles of yummy ways to use it in your family’s diet. The “Dairy Kefir” Fact Sheet will summarize all the benefits and instructions in one easy reference.

Lesson 11: How to Make Soft, Spreadable Cheese

Cheese! Who hasn’t dreamt of learning this lost art? I couldn’t put together the Fundamentals eCourse without giving you the chance to make your own cheese. After watching me demonstrate the process on video, you’ll make your own soft spreadable cheese from cultured raw cow or goat milk. It is delicious spread on toast, or used as the dairy base for a creamy salad dressing (a recipe I’ll share with you). Don’t worry about needing expensive equipment to make this cheese – it isn’t necessary. You don’t need a cheese press or even a place to hang the cheese. Nope. Just cheesecloth, a pot and a colander. And, once you learn my simple technique, you can use it to make other soft cheeses, like from yogurt or dairy kefir. You’ll save the by-product of this cheese, called “whey” to use in lesson 14. I’ll summarize all the particulars of healthy cheeses on a Fact Sheet called “Raw Cheese.”

Lesson 12: How to Make Sourdough Bread

Ahh… sourdough bread! Every cook dreams of getting it right and most struggle with the learning curve. I keep my process simple and it yields delicious, soft bread most all the time (just being honest). Sourdough bread is more nutritious than today’s quick, commercial yeast risen breads, and for many reasons. The most important reason is that the process of fermenting the dough with wild yeasts neutralizes the phytic acid that would interfere with mineral absorption, and it works to partially break down the tougher to digest protein, such as gluten. I’ll share all the details with you in this lesson, as well as demonstrate appliance-free kneading and dough development. I’ll help you learn to recognize the signs of good gluten development – soft, elastic, and smooth dough. I’ll share multiple uses for the basic soured dough (made with either whole spelt or whole wheat), and I’ll give you a Fact Sheet on “Sourdough Bread” that summarizes why sourdough is better than conventional bread. The Fact Sheet will also help you know what to buy if you’re shopping for sourdough from an artisan bakery. Good bread is in your reach!

Lesson 13: How to Sprout Whole Grains for Sprouted Grain Flour & How to Bake With Sprouted Grain Flour

Earlier lessons will have covered soaking or fermenting of grains to ensure maximum nutrition and digestibility. This lesson’s topic – sprouting grains – is the ultimate grain preparation. Sprouting of the grains neutralizes phytic acid, increases vitamin levels, and transforms the grain into simple sugars. In addition, sprouting increases enzyme activity, the growth of beneficial bacteria, and pre-digests gluten. This is something anyone can do, and the sprouts can be used in interesting dishes as sprouts. Turning the sprouted grains into flour requires special equipment – a dehydrator and a grain mill. This Fundamentals eCourse wouldn’t be complete without covering this information, regardless of when you’re able to do it for yourself. This lesson includes the usual video tutorial and printed lesson, along with a “Sprouted Grains” Fact Sheet.

Lesson 14: How to Make Natural Pickled Foods

Lacto-fermentation is the traditional method of food preservation done without freezers or canning machines. In this process, sea salt and/or whey inhibits the growth of putrefying bacteria until enough lactic acid is produced to preserve the vegetables for many months. But, the lactobaccili which produce the lactic acid to preserve the vegetables do much more! They enhance the digestibility of the vegetables, increase vitamin levels, produce enzymes, offer antibiotic and anticarcionogenic substances, and support the growth of healthy flora in our intestines. And they taste great, too! I’ll demonstrate making sauerkraut, to give you the confidence to do it yourself, and I’ll share some other lacto-fermented food recipes, too. This lesson’s Fact Sheet will be called “Lacto-Fermentation” and you can turn to it again and again as a general formula for creating your own lacto-fermented masterpieces.

And More

In addition to the specifics I’ve mentioned, you’ll be getting more… more Fact Sheets, links to delicious and simple recipes, supplemental information, and ingredient and equipment notes as we go along.

How Much?

This 5-month eCourse – offered on a private website which contains all the multi-media lesson materials and a members-only forum – is $27 per month for 5 months.

I’m committed to providing much more value than this every month. This is what you’ll get from me:

• A simple plan that builds your healthy cooking skills incrementally – not too fast and not too slow. By the time we’re done, you’ll be a confident, successful, healthy cook.
• My best advice on all topics related to traditional, healthy cooking – providing simple yet comprehensive answers to facilitate your mastery of the skills that will nourish you and your family.
• Extensive multi-media tutorials that I won’t be sharing on my blog – my tutorials will help you see yourself doing the cooking; we all know that if you can dream it, you can do it.
• Ingredient and equipment notes – you’ll find out the best, better and good choices for everything required, along with tips for where to find the best deals and who usually offers the healthiest choices.
• Exclusive forums for accountability, advice, encouragement, and brainstorming – let us share your goals, pick you up when you’re stuck, and keep you feeling good about your food choices.

So, Members Get

• Five (5) months of access to the private eCourse site at the monthly price of $27 per month.
• Full access to download, watch, listen, and read the multi-media materials. You can absorb them however is convenient for you, no matter what time of day it is. If you have to wait for the baby’s nap time, you can.
• Access to the private forums. We can support each other as we work through the lessons.

Enrollment is Closed

Current Class In Session: February 23 through July 23, 2010.

Upcoming Class: Fall 2010

Subscribe to our mailing list for announcements of upcoming eCourses and dates. Thank you for your interest in GNOWFGLINS eCourses.

What If You Don’t Love It?

I offer a 30-day, unconditional, no-questions-asked, money-back guarantee. I welcome you to try out the Fundamentals eCourse risk-free for those 30 days.

I think you’re going to find solid information, confidence-building multi-media lesson materials (video and print), and a warm and welcoming community of members.

If you don’t agree, just let me know within the first 30 days of your membership. I’ll gladly refund your first month’s tuition, and I’ll still consider you a friend.

If you decide you the course isn’t working for you after the 30-day period, you’re welcome to cancel and you won’t be charged again.

Thanks for considering the eCourse – be sure to subscribe to our mailing list for announcements of upcoming eCourses and dates.

P.S. Whether or not I see you inside the eCourse, I look forward to seeing you at the GNOWFGLINS blog – and I pray that God blesses you and your family with abundant health and happiness!

P.P.S. Get on our mailing list and I’ll keep you informed of future eCourse news.