Oat Flour--my new favorite food storage item!

About a year ago Oats went on sale at Albertsons for less then .50 for an 18 oz. container of oats. It was such a GREAT deal that I pretty much bought Albertsons out of their oats (three carts full!--you only need around 20 lbs. per person for a year supply). I have loved using my oats in cooking, for cereal in the morning, cookies, etc. but I just couldn't get through my oats fast enough. I was told that I could turn my oats into 'oat flour' and have LOVED this idea!! I broke my last wheat grinder by trying to grind flaxseed (don't ask me why I thought that would work?), so I was hesitant to grind anything but wheat. But..it worked and my wheat grinder is still intact :) I have now used oat flour in ALL of my baking since I started grinding it. I now take a recipe and do 1 part white flour, 1 part wheat flour and 1 part oat flour. You can't tell a difference and it feels great to be using up my oats. I have put it in cookies, pancakes, cornbread, pizza dough, and just tried it in my homemade bread recipe (recipe below). It turned out yummy and seems to make the dough a lighter color and gives it a little more texture. To help me rotate through my food storage I grind wheat, oats, pinto beans (into pinto bean flour--

another favorite!) once each month (or whenever I run out) and keep the flour in a large Tupperware in my pantry. I have them all labeled for which flour it is and this makes it easy to help me use up my wheat and other food storage items. Because the grinding is noisy and makes a small mess it is nice to grind a lot and keep it stored in your pantry for later, so you're not having to grind it everytime you need more flour. Make homemade bread with honey butter as your reward after your items are ground into flour and you will look forward to monthly 'grinding' day ;)

**The least expensive place to buy oats is at the LDS Canneries--$10 for a 25lb. bag.