100% Whole Wheat Bread – Homemade

I decided to make my own bread today.  After flipping through recipes I found one that I thought would be good.  I was looking for a recipe with the least amount of animal products and processed products.  And since this was my first real go at making bread (I cook, I don’t bake…at least not yet), I wanted to stay in the “simple” range.  I found a recipe and tweaked it to fit what I was looking for.  So here it is.

100% Whole Wheat Bread

Makes 1 loaf

INGREDIENTS

1 cup warm water

1 tbsp almond milk

3 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp honey

2 tbsp organic sugar

1 tsp salt

3 cups wheat flour

2 tsp instant active dry yeast

1. Combine first 6 ingredients (using only 2 tbsp of the olive oil reserving the rest for later) in a large mixing bowl; stir.

2. Add flour and yeast, and knead until dough is smooth and elastic, about 10-15 minutes if kneading by hand or 2-4 minutes if using a mixer. Grease a bowl with 1/2 tbsp olive oil and place the dough in the bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover with a clean towel and let rise in a warm area until doubled, about 40 minutes.

Dough ball ready to rise

3. Punch dough down; knead for a few minutes until smooth and then form into a loaf. Grease a loaf pan with 1/2 tbsp olive oil and place the dough in the loaf pan and cover. Let rise in a warm place until almost doubled in size, about 30 minutes.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. If loaf starts browning too soon, lightly lay a piece of foil on top of the loaf to prevent too much darkening.

Fresh baked bread resting

5. Remove bread from oven and allow to rest in pan for a few minutes. Remove to a wire rack and cover with a cloth. Slice and enjoy while still warm! Leftover bread can be stored in an airtight bag or frozen until needed.

100% Whole Wheat Bread

My bread stayed fresh for almost a week without freezing or placing it in the fridge.  My husband liked it (that means it must have been good!) and my co-workers liked it as well.  I think I still have a little tweaking to do for my taste, but I tend to be over critical.  🙂

This took me about 2 hours and most of that time was spent doing other things while I waited for the bread to rise and bake.  Making this recipe was surprisingly easy and something I could easily do every week or two to avoid consuming preservatives and chemicals found in store bought bread.

I have to admit, I like having control over what I put in my body.

Please try this recipe and let me know what you think!  🙂  Enjoy!

Look at that beautiful loaf of bread!

Call Me Mrs. Farmer Beavers!

Our rooster - Big Daddy

It’s official!  Mountain life has gotten to me.  Last Sunday I acquired 5 hens and 1 rooster!  Mr. Farmer Beavers (Randy) and his father graciously built me a very nice chicken coop for my new chickens.  I’ve had to make an adjustment in my schedule in the morning and in the evening, but so far so good!  The girls are only 6 mths old so they are not really laying eggs yet, but one of them lays one per day.

Mr. Farmer Beavers and our new babies

I’ve tried for 3 years to talk Randy into letting me have chickens.  I finally wore him down!  🙂  I’ll keep you updated!

Choc-ful-o-Veggie Soup

Now that I can use my gas stove I can’t wait to get home from work and cook dinner.  Tonight’s creation has been in the works for a couple days.  I decided I wanted a nice veggie soup.  Fall is here and it’s time for hot soups.  I had a veggie tray left over from a poorly attended Open House, so I decided to make soup!  But, instead of chicken, beef or ham as a source of protein, I decided to use beans.  Since I do like to cook healthy most of the time I chose to skip the canned beans and cook my own.  After a night of soaking beans I came home to perfectly cooked beans ready for my veggies.  (I cooked navy beans and black beans together, which gave me black navy beans!)

I dug around in the fridge and found some fresh spinach, broccoli and a few red potatoes that needed to be used or kissed goodbye!  I added those to carrots, celery, green onions, zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes and the beans.  I used a little chicken base and a little ham base for added flavor.  If you prefer to stay on the vegetarian side just use a little sea salt and garlic (fresh or powdered).  That will complement everything nicely.  Once the veggies were tender I added some avocado chunks just for fun.

I tend to do these one-pot, mystery concoctions a lot.  I find them fun, my husband seems to dread them.  This one came out quite tasty (in my opinion)!  We’ll see if Randy eats it.  🙂