Health Nut Bread

My son surprised me the other day, upon leafing through The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book (borrowed from a friend), by requesting Health Nut Bread (p.166), full of fruit, nuts and containing soybeans.
Given that I did not have all the ingredients on hand, nor am known for following recipes anyhow, here's what I tried:

I had some sprouted beans (small navy), so I ground those up with a bit of water and added them to the dough in lieu of the soy grits. The result was a moist loaf, on the dense side, but it lasted well for a week (I did refrigerate the 2nd loaf). Good toasted!

Meanwhile, I bought some soyflour, which I plan to add to my next "Health Nut" loaf.

Borealkitchen's Health Nut Bread
1 c assorted dry hard fruits (raisins, apricots, peaches, prunes, cherries, etc), soaked in warm water if very hard
2 t active yeast, dissolved in 1/2 c warm water
1/2 c yogurt
2-3 T oil or butter
pureed cooked or sprouted beans (1/2 cup)
(Note: original recipe called for 1/3 c soy grits soacked in 1/2 c hot water)
1.5 c fruit broth (from soaking fruit) or fruit juice (apple, etc), water, or combination
1-2 T ground flaxseed
optional: 1/4 c soy flour, garbanzo bean flour, or buckwheat flour
5 c+ whole wheat flour (plus 1 T Gluten flour)
1 t salt
1/2 c toasted nuts, chopped

Let rise once, then form 2 loaves, let it rise again, and bake for approx 1 hour at 350F.

Makes a good breakfast toast.

Antibiotics in Factory Farmed Animals

Why eat less meat?

There's a bumper sticker I see around occasionally, which reads

PETA People for the Eating of Tasty Animals

(For my German relatives, let me spell out that PETA originally stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which is the most vocal Animal Rights Advocacy group in the US.)

Besides Animal Rights issues (and despite how tasty meat can be), there are good reasons to eat less of them, and to me one of the main argument is that it's wasteful to raise meat -- both in the sense that productive land that could be used to raise vegetables, but also that it's inefficient to grow grains and corn for the purpose of feeding to livestock... But there is further trouble!

A study by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that in the United States, 70 percent of antibiotics are used to feed healthy livestock, with 14 percent more used to treat sick livestock. Only about 16 percent are used to treat humans and their pets, the study found.

More antibiotics are fed to livestock in North Carolina alone than are given to humans in the entire United States, according to the peer-reviewed Medical Clinics of North America. It concluded that antibiotics in livestock feed were “a major component” in the rise of antibiotic resistance.

Kristof concludes his piece quoting a former president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, Dr. Martin J. Blaser, as agreeing that agricultural use of antibiotics produces cheaper meat. But he says the price may be an enormous toll in human health.

“You could have very lethal pandemics,” he said. “We’re brewing some perfect storms.”