Welcome to Friday with Food!
First I want to say that I am going to take a few weeks off from posting. There are things that need my attention. I plan to be back by Monday, March 24. You can sign up for email notification, and you will get an email as soon as I post a new entry.
Last weekend, I baked an 11.5 lb half ham. I served it with buttermilk biscuits (made with a mixture of whole wheat and brown rice flour), and some roasted red potatoes. We ate that ham in one form or another most of the week. Katherine was thrilled. Ham is one of the things she does like.
The second day we had ham and swiss cheese on the remaining biscuits, The next day we had ham and eggs. I don't know how many "snacks" Katherine made of grabbing a piece of ham from the fridge. Finally, I took the bone, with a little bit of the meat and put it aside for beans. I took what was left in my meat grinder and ground it up. I put some in the scrambled eggs Ed and I had for breakfast yesterday, and I put the rest in the freezer for future ham salad.
This morning I made the flax bread I had been promising Ed all week. I took about a half cup of almond butter and mixed it up with a little molasses and mashed banana. I spread it on the flax bread and that was our breakfast.
Then I put the ham bone in a crock pot with some pinto beans, pepper and rosemary. That, and some cornbread, will be our supper tonight.
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.
See ya later!
Connie
Showing posts with label Friday With Food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Friday With Food. Show all posts
Friday, March 7, 2014
Friday, February 28, 2014
Friday with Food: Affording Good Food
Good evening! Welcome to Friday with Food!
I really hate grocery shopping! I hate it even more when I have to go on a crowded Friday night. Normally Ed goes with me, and we do our shopping either Thursday or Friday morning. Well this week, Ed was tied up during the day cutting wood, (because we are expecting some signficant weather) so we ended up going tonight! I would have gone by myself, but we had to get dog food, which we buy 50 lbs at a time. Nah, I'm not lifting that.
Since we were getting dog food and a few other non-human food things, we needed to go to Wal-mart. I could tell that Ed was just dead tired, and really didn't feel like going to two or three different stores like we normally do, so I offered to just get what we could get at Wal-mart and go home. I can go back by myself tomorrow if I needed to. So that is what we did. Yeah, Wal-mart on a Friday night. Did I mention that this is also a payday for Military and probably other federal employees? By the time we got out of there, we both felt like we had been run over by shopping carts!
When my brain clears tomorrow, I'll figure out if Isaved any money, which brings me to the actuall subject of this post. How do normal people on an average budget, afford to feed their families healthy, real, food? The short answer is just like you do everything else: Do the best you can with what you have.
We would love to eat grass fed beef, and free range chickens/eggs, but we want to eat more than once a week, so we don't do that. We do however, read labels, and opt not to buy processed food. We don't buy white flour and or refined sugar. We've leared to do without or make healthier alternatives. Sometimes, in our budget, that means we have to do without sweets or snacks.I promise, it won't kill you. I use the money that I"m not spending on hot dogs and lunchables to buy organic milk and butter. It's a trade off. The weeks that we don't have to spend as much on meat, we load up on organic veggies. When we do have a little extra in the budget, we experiment with something new. Sometimes we like it, and sometimes we don't.
If you haven't figured it out from reading this blog, I cook almost everything from scratch. If I could, I would do it all that way, and some day I hope to be able to. Yes, that takes more time, and thats hard when you are trying to hold down a full time job and/or taking care of small children, but like the old cliche says: "Where there's a will, there's a way". Maybe you can't afford to buy all the ingredients for something you want to try. Can you buy some of them this time and some next? I do that when I want to bake something new and don't have the money to buy different types of flours, and other things too. So, I might buy 100 percent whole wheat flour this pay check, and buy walnuts the next one. Both things will keep in the freezer until you need them.
You don't have to change everything over night. Just do a little at a time. For me, little changes seem to stick better than a major overhaul. It took me about two years to decide that I was done with refined sugar. The internet is full of information that can help you get started eating healthier without breaking the bank. Many times, the healthier foods are more filling, so you won't eat as much in one sitting. This has the potential for producing leftovers, and therefore stretching your grocery budget dollar.
The idea is to keep working at it.
Have a great weekend!
See ya Monday!
Connie
I really hate grocery shopping! I hate it even more when I have to go on a crowded Friday night. Normally Ed goes with me, and we do our shopping either Thursday or Friday morning. Well this week, Ed was tied up during the day cutting wood, (because we are expecting some signficant weather) so we ended up going tonight! I would have gone by myself, but we had to get dog food, which we buy 50 lbs at a time. Nah, I'm not lifting that.
Since we were getting dog food and a few other non-human food things, we needed to go to Wal-mart. I could tell that Ed was just dead tired, and really didn't feel like going to two or three different stores like we normally do, so I offered to just get what we could get at Wal-mart and go home. I can go back by myself tomorrow if I needed to. So that is what we did. Yeah, Wal-mart on a Friday night. Did I mention that this is also a payday for Military and probably other federal employees? By the time we got out of there, we both felt like we had been run over by shopping carts!
When my brain clears tomorrow, I'll figure out if Isaved any money, which brings me to the actuall subject of this post. How do normal people on an average budget, afford to feed their families healthy, real, food? The short answer is just like you do everything else: Do the best you can with what you have.
We would love to eat grass fed beef, and free range chickens/eggs, but we want to eat more than once a week, so we don't do that. We do however, read labels, and opt not to buy processed food. We don't buy white flour and or refined sugar. We've leared to do without or make healthier alternatives. Sometimes, in our budget, that means we have to do without sweets or snacks.I promise, it won't kill you. I use the money that I"m not spending on hot dogs and lunchables to buy organic milk and butter. It's a trade off. The weeks that we don't have to spend as much on meat, we load up on organic veggies. When we do have a little extra in the budget, we experiment with something new. Sometimes we like it, and sometimes we don't.
If you haven't figured it out from reading this blog, I cook almost everything from scratch. If I could, I would do it all that way, and some day I hope to be able to. Yes, that takes more time, and thats hard when you are trying to hold down a full time job and/or taking care of small children, but like the old cliche says: "Where there's a will, there's a way". Maybe you can't afford to buy all the ingredients for something you want to try. Can you buy some of them this time and some next? I do that when I want to bake something new and don't have the money to buy different types of flours, and other things too. So, I might buy 100 percent whole wheat flour this pay check, and buy walnuts the next one. Both things will keep in the freezer until you need them.
You don't have to change everything over night. Just do a little at a time. For me, little changes seem to stick better than a major overhaul. It took me about two years to decide that I was done with refined sugar. The internet is full of information that can help you get started eating healthier without breaking the bank. Many times, the healthier foods are more filling, so you won't eat as much in one sitting. This has the potential for producing leftovers, and therefore stretching your grocery budget dollar.
The idea is to keep working at it.
Have a great weekend!
See ya Monday!
Connie
Friday, February 21, 2014
Friday With Food: You Gotta Try This!
Good morning! Welcome to Friday With Food.
This is going to be a short post, but it won't take long to share this recipe.
Yesterday on facebook, a friend posted a recipe for Paleo Blueberry Scones. I like experiementing with paleo/gluten free recipes, and have found many of them to be very good. This one also contained two of my favorite foods: cashews and blueberries.
You can see the recipe here. Cassandra gives excellent instructions with great pictures, so I won't do it again here. Let me say, to quote Ed, that this was "slammin"! It is also gone. I already have a request from Ed to make more. Katherine, of course, would not try them because they have blueberries in them.
I am going to make more this weekend, and will probably try my own variation with walnuts and raisins!
This is going to be a short post, but it won't take long to share this recipe.
Yesterday on facebook, a friend posted a recipe for Paleo Blueberry Scones. I like experiementing with paleo/gluten free recipes, and have found many of them to be very good. This one also contained two of my favorite foods: cashews and blueberries.
You can see the recipe here. Cassandra gives excellent instructions with great pictures, so I won't do it again here. Let me say, to quote Ed, that this was "slammin"! It is also gone. I already have a request from Ed to make more. Katherine, of course, would not try them because they have blueberries in them.
I am going to make more this weekend, and will probably try my own variation with walnuts and raisins!
Friday, February 14, 2014
Friday with Food: 0 for 2
Happy Valentine's Day and welcome to Friday with Food!
Today was a crazy day! Katherine had a four day weekend, and she was working on catching up her homework, and cleaning her room, neither of which were things she wanted to do. While I was supervising that, I also made bread this morning, because we were completely out. In the meanwhile, I wanted to do something for Ed for Valentine's day, although neither of us are really crazy about the holiday. I didn't take pictures today, because I had too much else I was trying to do, but I hope you can follow what I"m saying without them.
Ed's favorite cake is Coconut Cream Cake. Usually that means I make a white cake mix, poke holes in it with a fork, pour on a mixure of sweetened condensed milk and cocnut cream, and cover the whole thing with Cool Whip and coconut.
If you'll remember, a few weeks ago, I decided to remake a brownie recipe using healthier, real food ingredients. That didn't turn out so well, and I haven't felt like trying it again. Today, I decided I would try to do the same thing the coconut cake.
For the cake, I found a recipe in my Betty Crocker cookbook for white cake. I substituted whole wheat pastry flour for the all purpose flour, coconut sugar for the sugar, and butter for the shortening. No, I did not expect the cake to still be white. It smelled wonderful while it was baking, but I thought it looked very dark when it came out of the oven. Of course, I had used the wheat flour and coconut sugar, so that probably explained it.
For the filling, I decided to try and make my own sweetened condensed milk, and found a recipe here, using vanilla stevia instead of sugar. As far as I could tell, it worked fine, and I will file that recipe as a keeper. I shook it up in a jar with the coconut cream, and after I had poked holes in the cakes (I had two 8 inch rounds), I poured the mixture over the cake and let it sit. The cake was soaking up the cream just like it should.
Now for the whipped cream. I actually went and bought whipping cream, because I had found this recipe. I put the beaters and the bowl in the freezer for about 30 minutes. I started whipping and then added the sugar and vanilla while still beating. I think I almost made butter. It was very thick but had a nice flavor to it. Not too sweet though.
I removed one of the layers from its pan, which wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I put a layer of whipped cream and coconut on it, put the second layer on, covered the whole thing with whipped cream and sprinkled coconut on top of the cake. It looked...ok. I cut a piece for Ed, and one for me. Yeah, it was...ok. Nothing to write home about, that's for sure. The flavor of the whole wheat flour came through strongly, and it was very filling. I told Ed that I didn't think there was any danger of his eating this whole cake in one day (that is often what happens with the original recipe), because even if he wanted to, he would be too full.
So we decided to leave this one just like it is, but only make it twice a year: December for Ed's birthday, and June for Kyle's. It's Kyle's favorite cake too. That reminds me. I have to make a German Chocolate Cake in about two weeks for James' birthday. I think we will leave that one like it is too.
Have a wonderful weekend!
See Ya Monday!
Connie
Today was a crazy day! Katherine had a four day weekend, and she was working on catching up her homework, and cleaning her room, neither of which were things she wanted to do. While I was supervising that, I also made bread this morning, because we were completely out. In the meanwhile, I wanted to do something for Ed for Valentine's day, although neither of us are really crazy about the holiday. I didn't take pictures today, because I had too much else I was trying to do, but I hope you can follow what I"m saying without them.
Ed's favorite cake is Coconut Cream Cake. Usually that means I make a white cake mix, poke holes in it with a fork, pour on a mixure of sweetened condensed milk and cocnut cream, and cover the whole thing with Cool Whip and coconut.
If you'll remember, a few weeks ago, I decided to remake a brownie recipe using healthier, real food ingredients. That didn't turn out so well, and I haven't felt like trying it again. Today, I decided I would try to do the same thing the coconut cake.
For the cake, I found a recipe in my Betty Crocker cookbook for white cake. I substituted whole wheat pastry flour for the all purpose flour, coconut sugar for the sugar, and butter for the shortening. No, I did not expect the cake to still be white. It smelled wonderful while it was baking, but I thought it looked very dark when it came out of the oven. Of course, I had used the wheat flour and coconut sugar, so that probably explained it.
For the filling, I decided to try and make my own sweetened condensed milk, and found a recipe here, using vanilla stevia instead of sugar. As far as I could tell, it worked fine, and I will file that recipe as a keeper. I shook it up in a jar with the coconut cream, and after I had poked holes in the cakes (I had two 8 inch rounds), I poured the mixture over the cake and let it sit. The cake was soaking up the cream just like it should.
Now for the whipped cream. I actually went and bought whipping cream, because I had found this recipe. I put the beaters and the bowl in the freezer for about 30 minutes. I started whipping and then added the sugar and vanilla while still beating. I think I almost made butter. It was very thick but had a nice flavor to it. Not too sweet though.
I removed one of the layers from its pan, which wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I put a layer of whipped cream and coconut on it, put the second layer on, covered the whole thing with whipped cream and sprinkled coconut on top of the cake. It looked...ok. I cut a piece for Ed, and one for me. Yeah, it was...ok. Nothing to write home about, that's for sure. The flavor of the whole wheat flour came through strongly, and it was very filling. I told Ed that I didn't think there was any danger of his eating this whole cake in one day (that is often what happens with the original recipe), because even if he wanted to, he would be too full.
So we decided to leave this one just like it is, but only make it twice a year: December for Ed's birthday, and June for Kyle's. It's Kyle's favorite cake too. That reminds me. I have to make a German Chocolate Cake in about two weeks for James' birthday. I think we will leave that one like it is too.
Have a wonderful weekend!
See Ya Monday!
Connie
Friday, February 7, 2014
Friday with Food: Flax Bread
Today there was good news, more good news and bad news.
The first good news was that the lab results came back and my AIC (the test that determines blood sugar levels) was only 5.8! That means I have controlled my diabetes so well, just through my changes in diet, I no longer need medication.
The second good news was that Ed woke up this morning knowing what was wrong with our water. He said "It is frozen in the pump house. If we put heat in there, we'll have water. He was right!" We put a space heater in the floor of the pump house and within ten minutes, we had cold water in the kitchen. We then moved a space heater to the position behind the hot water heater in order to thaw out the secondary freezing spot. It thawed in about ten minutes too. Now for the bad news. One of those pipes broke and started spraying water everywhere! At that point, we turned off the breaker to the pump, left a message for our landlord, went to my mom's house for showers, and went out to eat! Sometimse, you just have to!
The landlord will fix it tomorrow, so when we talk on Monday, we should be back to normal.
Now for the flax bread. I first found this recipe when I was researching gluten free diets. It was a big hit with Ed, the boys and I, but not Katherine. If you read my blog enough, you'll come to realize that is the norm. She doesn't like anything that remotely resembles real food.
Anyway, this is a great focaccia style bread. Ed just likes it with butter, but I've made almond butter and honey sandwiches with it.
Normally, I use a jelly roll pan when I make this, but the one I have left was indisposed, so I used a pizza pan.
First you need two cups of flaxseed meal. You can either grind your own flaxseeds, or buy it like this, preground. I've made it both ways with equal success.
Anyway, this is a great focaccia style bread. Ed just likes it with butter, but I've made almond butter and honey sandwiches with it.
Normally, I use a jelly roll pan when I make this, but the one I have left was indisposed, so I used a pizza pan.
First you need two cups of flaxseed meal. You can either grind your own flaxseeds, or buy it like this, preground. I've made it both ways with equal success.
Then you add a tablespoon of baking powder, and a teaspoon of salt. Here the recipe also calls for one to two tablespoons of artificial sweetener. I used two tablespoons of coconut sugar. I have also used an equivalent amount of powdered stevia. Both work fine. Mix it all up with a whisk.
Crack five eggs into another bowl. Then add a half cup of water and a third cup of oil. I used olive oil. Again, whisk them all together
Add the two mixtures together and whisk until blended. Let it sit a few minutes to thicken. Then pour and spread into greased pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for twenty minutes. Enjoy!
Have a wonderful weekend!
See ya Monday!
Connie
Friday, January 31, 2014
Friday with Food: Brownies!
Last week I had the opportunity to hear an interview with Danell at Weed 'em and Reap. She was talking about how she lost about 30 lbs by simply cutting out processed food. She said that she gave herself permission to eat whatever she wanted as long as she made it herself from healthy, real food. She said she was making cakes and cookies like crazy for awhile, but the desire for them tapered off. She still makes it if she wants it, but she doesn't want it as often. She made her sweets with whole grain flour and real unprocessed sweeteners. Well, that got me thinking about brownies.
I have this cookbook that belonged to my grandma.
This is her handwriting on the brownie recipe. This is REALLY GOOD! Ok, so how do I make it better? Whole grain flour, real butter, and coconut sugar and stevia! Ok!
So that is what I did.
coconut sugar and stevia
Out of the oven.
It smelled wonderful. It looked wonderful! It was bitter and very dry!
First lesson: When using whole grain flour, you must increase the amount of shortening that you would normally use. I'm not sure by exactly how much at this point. I think double would probably be too much, so I'm thinking half again what the recipe calls for. If the recipe calls for a half cup, I would use ¾ cup. I'll let you know how that works.
The issue of bitterness, I first attributed to the possibility of too much stevia, but that really didn't make sense. I'm thinking now that there might have been too much vanilla, because the stevia was vanilla flavored, and then I used the whole amount of vanilla called for in the recipe. I'l have to watch out for that.
So what to do with this pan of very dry brownies? I used them in a bread pudding recipe, this time using honey as the sugar replacement. It was better, but still had that bitter taste that increased with time. Still think it might have been too much vanilla.
Ok, so this experiment didn't turn out so great. I'll just have to take what I've learned and try again.
Have a wonderful weekend, and I”ll see ya Monday!
I have this cookbook that belonged to my grandma.
This is her handwriting on the brownie recipe. This is REALLY GOOD! Ok, so how do I make it better? Whole grain flour, real butter, and coconut sugar and stevia! Ok!
So that is what I did.
I used a mixture of cocoa powder and unsweetened chocolate because that is what I had.
Added to the eggs.
Sifting the dry ingredients.
Adding it all together.
Into the pan.
Out of the oven.
First lesson: When using whole grain flour, you must increase the amount of shortening that you would normally use. I'm not sure by exactly how much at this point. I think double would probably be too much, so I'm thinking half again what the recipe calls for. If the recipe calls for a half cup, I would use ¾ cup. I'll let you know how that works.
The issue of bitterness, I first attributed to the possibility of too much stevia, but that really didn't make sense. I'm thinking now that there might have been too much vanilla, because the stevia was vanilla flavored, and then I used the whole amount of vanilla called for in the recipe. I'l have to watch out for that.
So what to do with this pan of very dry brownies? I used them in a bread pudding recipe, this time using honey as the sugar replacement. It was better, but still had that bitter taste that increased with time. Still think it might have been too much vanilla.
Ok, so this experiment didn't turn out so great. I'll just have to take what I've learned and try again.
Have a wonderful weekend, and I”ll see ya Monday!
Friday, January 24, 2014
Friday with Food: Bagles!
Welcome to Friday with Food!
I had planned on making more of the Honey Whole Wheat Bread and trying out this bagel recipe from Kaitlyn Cooks last Saturday, but I ended up going to the hospital instead. That left me playing catch up all week, but I am happy to say that I got my baking done today!
It is not unusual for me to have several baking projects going on at once. Its simply a matter of timing things where you don't need to be doing something with two projects at the same time. I started the bread first, and this time I got the water temperature right to start with, so I didnt need to do anything else. I added my yeast and flour and let it rise for about an hour.
In the meanwhile, I started the bagels. Here is the list of Kaitlyn's ingredients as she has them at the link above. The notes are hers. Any changes I made are mentioned as I made them.
I had planned on making more of the Honey Whole Wheat Bread and trying out this bagel recipe from Kaitlyn Cooks last Saturday, but I ended up going to the hospital instead. That left me playing catch up all week, but I am happy to say that I got my baking done today!
It is not unusual for me to have several baking projects going on at once. Its simply a matter of timing things where you don't need to be doing something with two projects at the same time. I started the bread first, and this time I got the water temperature right to start with, so I didnt need to do anything else. I added my yeast and flour and let it rise for about an hour.
In the meanwhile, I started the bagels. Here is the list of Kaitlyn's ingredients as she has them at the link above. The notes are hers. Any changes I made are mentioned as I made them.
- 1 1/2 cups of warm water
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp dry active yeast
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 1 tsp salt *optional (I always omit)
- 4 - 5 cups whole wheat flour. Bread is best but I used Bobs Red Mill Organic Whole Wheat All Purpose Flour with excellent results
- Large pot of water
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp of baking soda
I mixed the yeast, sugar, salt and oil in the warm water and let it sit for about 15 minutes.
See how it bubbled up? Thats a sign your yeast is working. Then I started adding flour. I used generic whole wheat flour. It was exactly 4 cups.
Once it started to form a ball in the bowl, I put in out on my floured cutting board to knead for about 15 minutes. Then I put it back in the bowl, covered it, and set it to rise for an hour
By that time, the hour was up for the bread. This is what it looked like.
Just as I had done with the bagel dough, I turned in out on my floured cutting board and kneaded about 10 minutes. Once again, I put it back in the bowl to rise for another hour. I should mention here, that I used a differnet brand of whole wheat flour this week, and I didn't have the problem of the sticky dough that I had before.
When the hour was up for the bagels, I punched the dough down, and let it sit for a few minutes. then I turned it out on the board and tore it into eight pieces.
Poking my fingers through the middle of each piece, I formed them into bagle shapes. Here they are in the boiling water
Waiting to go in the oven while I boiled the other four.
Following Kaitlyn's directions, I set my kitchen timer for nineteen minutes. Then I turned them over for the last minute. Look, it's bagels!
They are very good!
Back to Lisa's bread
See how pretty it looks after rising for an hour. Time to knead again and put in bread pans.
I don't know why, but I can never get my loaves the same size. Oh well! One more rising. This time about 30 minutes.
Ready to go in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minuutes.
All done! Even better than last time!
Now, I have to finish cleaning my kitchen. I have a tendency to wear as much flour as I use!
Have a great weekend!
See ya Monday!
Connie
Friday, January 17, 2014
Friday with Food: Sugar, Sugar Everywhere, and Nothing Fit to Eat...Except Some Awesome Honey Whole Wheat Bread
“There is sugar in my Rice Chex!” I was pretty sure that Ed didn't mean the kind of sugar someone might spoon in. No, he was reading the ingredient list, and didn't like what he saw. Ed has become an avid label reader in just a few weeks. He had started looking at those things we already had in the house including his favorite cereal, Rice Chex. He has since switched to shredded wheat. It only has one ingredient: wheat.
I'm not going to go through the whole sugar thing in this post. I have some other things to talk about, but I will tell you just to read the ingredient list on food labels. You will be amazed at how often you will find sugar.
I did want to talk about our basic food plan, and some of my favorite food related websites.
No refined white or brown sugar. Natural sugars (coconut sugar, pure maple syrup, raw honey) in moderation. Stevia in moderation. All other sugar comes from fruit and veggies.
No white flour. Use whole wheat and experiment with other types of flour. I really like almond meal, but its expensive.
No white rice. Experiment with other grains. I like Quinoa. I grew some last summer, but never got it harvested.
Read the labels. If we can't pronounce it, we don't eat it. If it has sugar, we don't eat it. That includes corn syrup and of course, high fructose corn syrup.
So what do we do about all the things that we consider staples that aren't real food? We take one step at a time, and learn how to make real food replacements. More about that in a minute.
My favorite food related website is100 Days Of Real Food. For Lisa Leake and her family, a challenge to only eat real for food just a hundred days, turned to a whole new way of eating. She has a ton of information
I recently found this one. I found particularly interesting because most of these sites are maintained by moms. This one is a young dad, and I found his perspective refreshing.
Whole New Mom deals with a lot of special diet issues.
One of my favorite all round sites is this one: The Prairie Homestead. Jill writes about a little of everything to do with the homesteading life including great recipes using real food!
I've also started drinking green smoothies, and you can find out about them here. I don't do all the different recipes, just the basic idea. I have to get a little creative, because the ingredients can get pricey in a hurry. Anyway, I really like them.
Ok, back to making real food replacements for packaged staples. Remember last Monday, when I said I made some honey whole wheat bread?
Well, we are starting our real food replacements with bread. After spending a significant amount of time searching the bread aisle for something that really was as healthy as its label claimed, I made an announcement. I am just going to make our bread. I've made bread for years. As I've said before, its the one thing Grandma could teach me because my left-handedness didn't matter. However, most of my baking has used either white all purpose flour or unbleached flour. Time to learn something new.
I went back to 100 days and found this recipe for honey whole wheat bread. Lisa just gives the ingredients, because she uses a bread machine. That was ok, because I know enough about making bread to be able to figure out what to do.
Here is her ingredient list:
4 ¼ cups whole-wheat flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups warm water
¼ cup honey
2 tablespoons olive oil (or melted butter)
1 packet or 2 ¼ teaspoons yeast
Simply because I am used to doing it that way, I put the water, salt, honey, and olive oil in a 3 qt sauce pan and warmed them all up together. Then I let it cool back down to luke warm. Technically it should be about 105 degrees. Too hot and the yeast dies, too cold and it's sluggish and your bread won't rise properly.
Once it cooled, I added the yeast and enough flour to make the sponge. Basically, that means the batter loses its runny look, and looks more like, well, a sponge. I noticed I was having to add a lot of flour to achieve the sponge, compared to what I would have needed with white flour. When I did, I covered it with a dish towel and let it rise until doubled in size. Normally that takes at least 30 minutes, but usually it's more like an hour.
This was right at 30 minutes. Then I turned the dough out on a floured board to knead it. Kneading usually involves working in 1-2 more cups of flour into the dough while you fold and push the dough until it gets that “smooth and elastic” look and feel. Honestly, I don't know how much more flour I put in, because I couldn't believe it was still sticky, and kept thinking that just a little more should do the trick. I lost track after 8 cups. Next time I make it, I'll keep better track. It had nothing to do with the original recipe. It was just the adjustment for the different method. Eventually, it was ready to be formed into loaves, for a second rise.
This time I let it sit an hour. I used three loaf pans because that is what I normally use. Next time I will use two, because I want higher loaves that I can use for sandwiches. I put in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes.
It smelled wonderful! I sliced a piece off and spread on some butter. I was wonderful! I took some to Ed. “Oh this is good!” he said. Ok, I found our replacement for bread. However, Katherine wouldn't even try it. Its ok. She's like that with everything new. It just takes her some time.
This weekend, I”m going to make some more of this bread, and I'm going to work on bagels. I'll let you know how it turns out, and yes, I'll remember to take pictures!
Oh, speaking of pictures. I wanted to leave the bread out on the counter, so we could just slice some off when we need it. So, I used a dinner plate and a glass trifle bowl that I got at a yard sale for a dollar.
Instant cake plate!
Have a great weekend!
See ya Monday!
Connie
I'm not going to go through the whole sugar thing in this post. I have some other things to talk about, but I will tell you just to read the ingredient list on food labels. You will be amazed at how often you will find sugar.
I did want to talk about our basic food plan, and some of my favorite food related websites.
No refined white or brown sugar. Natural sugars (coconut sugar, pure maple syrup, raw honey) in moderation. Stevia in moderation. All other sugar comes from fruit and veggies.
No white flour. Use whole wheat and experiment with other types of flour. I really like almond meal, but its expensive.
No white rice. Experiment with other grains. I like Quinoa. I grew some last summer, but never got it harvested.
Read the labels. If we can't pronounce it, we don't eat it. If it has sugar, we don't eat it. That includes corn syrup and of course, high fructose corn syrup.
So what do we do about all the things that we consider staples that aren't real food? We take one step at a time, and learn how to make real food replacements. More about that in a minute.
My favorite food related website is100 Days Of Real Food. For Lisa Leake and her family, a challenge to only eat real for food just a hundred days, turned to a whole new way of eating. She has a ton of information
I recently found this one. I found particularly interesting because most of these sites are maintained by moms. This one is a young dad, and I found his perspective refreshing.
Whole New Mom deals with a lot of special diet issues.
One of my favorite all round sites is this one: The Prairie Homestead. Jill writes about a little of everything to do with the homesteading life including great recipes using real food!
I've also started drinking green smoothies, and you can find out about them here. I don't do all the different recipes, just the basic idea. I have to get a little creative, because the ingredients can get pricey in a hurry. Anyway, I really like them.
Ok, back to making real food replacements for packaged staples. Remember last Monday, when I said I made some honey whole wheat bread?
Well, we are starting our real food replacements with bread. After spending a significant amount of time searching the bread aisle for something that really was as healthy as its label claimed, I made an announcement. I am just going to make our bread. I've made bread for years. As I've said before, its the one thing Grandma could teach me because my left-handedness didn't matter. However, most of my baking has used either white all purpose flour or unbleached flour. Time to learn something new.
I went back to 100 days and found this recipe for honey whole wheat bread. Lisa just gives the ingredients, because she uses a bread machine. That was ok, because I know enough about making bread to be able to figure out what to do.
Here is her ingredient list:
4 ¼ cups whole-wheat flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups warm water
¼ cup honey
2 tablespoons olive oil (or melted butter)
1 packet or 2 ¼ teaspoons yeast
Simply because I am used to doing it that way, I put the water, salt, honey, and olive oil in a 3 qt sauce pan and warmed them all up together. Then I let it cool back down to luke warm. Technically it should be about 105 degrees. Too hot and the yeast dies, too cold and it's sluggish and your bread won't rise properly.
Once it cooled, I added the yeast and enough flour to make the sponge. Basically, that means the batter loses its runny look, and looks more like, well, a sponge. I noticed I was having to add a lot of flour to achieve the sponge, compared to what I would have needed with white flour. When I did, I covered it with a dish towel and let it rise until doubled in size. Normally that takes at least 30 minutes, but usually it's more like an hour.
This was right at 30 minutes. Then I turned the dough out on a floured board to knead it. Kneading usually involves working in 1-2 more cups of flour into the dough while you fold and push the dough until it gets that “smooth and elastic” look and feel. Honestly, I don't know how much more flour I put in, because I couldn't believe it was still sticky, and kept thinking that just a little more should do the trick. I lost track after 8 cups. Next time I make it, I'll keep better track. It had nothing to do with the original recipe. It was just the adjustment for the different method. Eventually, it was ready to be formed into loaves, for a second rise.
This time I let it sit an hour. I used three loaf pans because that is what I normally use. Next time I will use two, because I want higher loaves that I can use for sandwiches. I put in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes.
It smelled wonderful! I sliced a piece off and spread on some butter. I was wonderful! I took some to Ed. “Oh this is good!” he said. Ok, I found our replacement for bread. However, Katherine wouldn't even try it. Its ok. She's like that with everything new. It just takes her some time.
This weekend, I”m going to make some more of this bread, and I'm going to work on bagels. I'll let you know how it turns out, and yes, I'll remember to take pictures!
Oh, speaking of pictures. I wanted to leave the bread out on the counter, so we could just slice some off when we need it. So, I used a dinner plate and a glass trifle bowl that I got at a yard sale for a dollar.
Instant cake plate!
Have a great weekend!
See ya Monday!
Connie
Friday, January 10, 2014
Friday With Food: What?
Yeah, I know what your thinking. You're wondering if my ADD has kicked in and I've gone off in a direction that has nothing to with what this blog is about. Well, the ADD is always here, but no, I haven't.
If you want to talk about making do, and using what you have, and particularly, not wasting what you have, food is a perfect place to start.
I hate to see food go to waste. I particularly hate to spend money on food, and then have to throw it out because I forgot I bought it and it got shoved to the back of the fridge. We're going to talk about how to prevent that. If you have any practical ideas, please share them in the comments.
Ever know someone who could take the heel from a loaf of bread, a half cup of leftover peas, and a slice of onion and turn it into a seven-course meal? I have a friend like that. I suppose it comes from the same creativity that lets people turn tomato cages into Christmas trees. If it is, then it can be learned. No, I haven't learned it yet. Maybe we can learn together.
Additionally, food is a big part of how we get, and stay, healthy. Our health is one of our biggest assets, when it comes to making the best of what we have. So we are going to talk about how to do that with real food. There is a lot of information about all that on the internet, and we are going to try not to rehash it all. However, if I come across something worth sharing, I will definitely share it.
Because we have both gained a LOT of weight, and because we don't want to gain any more, Ed and I have decided to focus on eating better. That means reading labels, and sticking to real food as much as we can. For me, that also means no refined sugar. However, that does not mean we are going to toss the food that is already here. No,we will use what we have, and gradually replace it with healthier stuff.
Katherine thinks we are trying to kill her!
Next Friday, I'll share some of my favorite food blogs and tell you how we are doing on our journey to better health. I'll be back Monday though, to talk about something else.
Have a great weekend!
Connie
If you want to talk about making do, and using what you have, and particularly, not wasting what you have, food is a perfect place to start.
I hate to see food go to waste. I particularly hate to spend money on food, and then have to throw it out because I forgot I bought it and it got shoved to the back of the fridge. We're going to talk about how to prevent that. If you have any practical ideas, please share them in the comments.
Ever know someone who could take the heel from a loaf of bread, a half cup of leftover peas, and a slice of onion and turn it into a seven-course meal? I have a friend like that. I suppose it comes from the same creativity that lets people turn tomato cages into Christmas trees. If it is, then it can be learned. No, I haven't learned it yet. Maybe we can learn together.
Additionally, food is a big part of how we get, and stay, healthy. Our health is one of our biggest assets, when it comes to making the best of what we have. So we are going to talk about how to do that with real food. There is a lot of information about all that on the internet, and we are going to try not to rehash it all. However, if I come across something worth sharing, I will definitely share it.
Because we have both gained a LOT of weight, and because we don't want to gain any more, Ed and I have decided to focus on eating better. That means reading labels, and sticking to real food as much as we can. For me, that also means no refined sugar. However, that does not mean we are going to toss the food that is already here. No,we will use what we have, and gradually replace it with healthier stuff.
Katherine thinks we are trying to kill her!
Next Friday, I'll share some of my favorite food blogs and tell you how we are doing on our journey to better health. I'll be back Monday though, to talk about something else.
Have a great weekend!
Connie
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