If you are health-minded and like to be in the kitchen…chances are you’ve heard about flax seeds.
These days, flax seeds are everywhere and with good reason! For starters, they are a powerhouse of nutrition and offer healthy omega-3 fatty acids. The particular type of fatty acid in flax seeds is more scientifically referred to as alpha-linoleic-acid, or ALA. You’ve heard of it, right?
Each tablespoon of the stuff contains about 1.9 grams of plant based omega-3’s. That’s awesome and for anyone eating a vegan or plant-based diet, it’s extremely important to include fatty acids in your diet. As a bonus, flax seeds contain fiber and an awesome 1.9 grams of protein per serving! Again, definitely essential when eating an animal-free diet.
Flax seeds have been around for centuries and are known to aid in the prevention of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and many other ailments! In fact, while researching some details about flax seeds, I read a great little story about a King from the 8th century who so strongly believed in the awesomeness of flax seeds, he ordered everyone to consume them on a daily basis. No kidding!
Do you feel like a flax seed expert by now? I hope so! One last thing you should also know is that flax seeds come in two varieties – golden and brown. The golden ones, like I’m using in this post, are the ones I have seen most readily available at just about every store. The brown ones are also fine to use, and I think I might try them next time I need to restock!
So, are you ready to get down to business? While flax seeds are definitely a super food, our bodies cannot get the nutrients out of them when they are whole. You can find pre-ground flax seeds, also called flax meal or ground flax seeds, but making your own takes like 2 seconds (I totally counted), and lets you assure the freshness and quality of what you are eating.
To grind flax seeds you just pour them into a food processor, coffee grinder, smoothie maker – whatever you have in your kitchen that works well at grinding things up! I usually go for the food processor.
Put the lid on tight and grind away! This takes anywhere from 30 seconds to about 2 minutes, depending on how good your machine is.
When they are ground up they will look kind of flakey and powdery.
Just golden, delicious goodness all the way.
Store your ground flax seeds in an airtight container for quick and easy additions to soups, salads, sprinkled on anything and everything.
My FAVORITE thing about flax seeds, other than how good they are for me and my kiddos, is that they make a fantastic egg replacer!
Just mix a ratio of 1 part flax seeds to 3 parts water, let it sit for a couple of minutes, and what you end up with is a thick, gooey, egg-like binder for cakes, pancakes, breads, and they work marvelously as an egg-substitute when you are breading things to fry.
That’s all there’s to it! If you have any questions about this wonder-food please leave them in the comments below! As a matter of fact, leave us a comment for anything you like! We love hearing from you!
Also, please take a moment to like and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter!
Growing our following really helps us thrive and we appreciate every single one of you so much!
Leave a Reply