Homemade Bread

A few weeks ago I decided that I wanted to try my hand at making homemade bread. My husband's favorite food is bread and I wanted to see if I could find a way to make bread at home for cheaper than I could get it for at the store, and without all of the preservatives typically used to keep store bought bread from going bad quickly.

I searched the internet high and low to find a recipe that would meet my needs. I don't have a bread maker, but wasn't too excited for the time requirement of making it completely by hand. I wasn't having much luck at first, and just when I was going to stop the search I came across a great recipe. I've been adjusting the flour levels a little bit everytime I make it, and the version I'm sharing today has more whole wheat flour than I've used before. Very happy with the outcome, and it's a good feeling knowing that I can provide my husband and I with healthy bread that is also a great source of fiber.

My mom told me about 'white whole wheat' flour and I love using it in my baking. The color is lighter than traditional whole wheat flour, and it seems to have a lighter texture.

The original recipe called for 2.5 cups white flour and 1.5 cups wheat flour. The first time I followed this exactly, then I went half and half. Today I used 3 cups for wheat flour and 1 cup of white. The flavor and texture actually didn't change all that much for me, but definitely an increase in the healthfulness of the bread by the ratio change.

No bread machine is used here, but you do use a stand mixer.

To begin, place 3 cups of whole wheat flour in the stand mixer bowl. Then add 1 cup of white flour. Next, add 1.5 tablespoons of sugar. Follow this by 1.5 teaspoons of salt and 1.5 teaspoons of yeast. I use rapid rise yeast (it says bread machine yeast on the bottle, but doesn't really matter... I use it for this and for my cinnamon roll dough!). Next I use 3 tablespoons of instant nonfat dry milk.

I actually had this ingredient on hand from another recipe I tried out. I wanted to make a 'box cake mix' mix that I could have on hand, but that wasn't full of preservatives and chemicals. The recipe I found uses nonfat dry milk..... I'll share that in the future!

Now melt 2 tablespoons of butter and add that to the bowl. At this point you can put the bowl into the mixer stand and use the 'paddle' attachment. Turn the mixer onto low. While it's combining the ingredients, get 1.25 cups of warm water and slowly pour it into the mixture.

I have had to add at least an extra 1/4 cup of warm water every time I've made it. Just watch as it's mixing and if there is unincorporated flour on the bottom of the bowl, add a little more water to combine it.

Now remove the paddle attachment and place your dough hook on. You could also choose at this point to knead the dough by hand. If that's you, sprinkle some flour on the counter and get started. .....that's not me, though. I put on my dough hook and let it go on medium for 5-7 minutes. It will make lots of funny noises, don't worry, this is normal.
After the time is up it should look something like this.... If it feels too sticky, add some more flour and let it mix up!
Take your dough ball and place it in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and let it rise for 1.5 hours, or until doubled in size.
Here's the risen dough....
Place out on your counter and use your hands to form it into a rectangle shape. The dough is very easy to mold at this point.
Now let's get folding! I usually fold it in thirds approximately, but do more folds if that's your thing!

Here's one fold -
and the next...
Final product. Now you can seal the seams a little bit more than I did as you go if you want to.
Grab your loaf pan and lightly oil it. I just sprayed it with some cooking spray. Spray the top of the loaf with the cooking spray, and lightly cover with plastic wrap. Make sure the dough is long enough to touch both sides of the pan. Let proof for 1 to 1.5 hours. You want the dough to rise and start to crest over the top of the pan.
I could have let it go a little bit longer at this point if you want, but it will still be awesome if you put it in the oven now. Place into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, turn the pan 180 degrees and put in the oven for another 15 minutes.
Take the beautifully browned loaf and immediately place on a cooling rack.
Yum! Does anything beat the smell of homemade treats? Try to let it stand for 1-2 hours before cutting.

I wanted to show you all a comparison..... I decided to make a second loaf today and make a cinnamon swirl bread. I let this proof for longer in the loaf pan and you can tell in the size difference. Both were delicious with a nice texture, though.
For the cinnamon swirl, (I forgot to take a picture of this step!) when you have the dough formed into the rectangle, sprinkle a mixture of sugar and cinnamon over the top to cover. Then roll up as we did above, and follow the recipe exactly after that. This had such a lovely sweet taste to it! So yummy with a little butter or margarine spread on top. You could do the same thing with lots of fillings.....an olive mixture, herbs, anything really!

How pretty is the swirl?
One other thing I wanted to mention was that you don't even have to have a loaf pan for this recipe. I made two batches of the dough at the same time last week, and only have one loaf pan so I just placed one on a baking sheet. It's wider and shorter, but same flavor. Just a little more rustic look. :)

I still have to figure out the cost comparison, but I know for sure that it is cheaper for me to make this bread than it is to buy it in the sore. And guess what, I think it tastes WAY better!

Mary

Dinner Tonight

I have been missing in action on the blog, but have been cooking up a storm and been taking lots of pics, so here goes tonight's healthy dinner....
Roasted Chicken and Asparagus, and Mac 'n Cheese
Chicken legs are always on sale for .99cents/pound, so I use them often because of price point, moistness, and high iron level (I'm a regular blood donor!!) I almost always skin my chicken, and then I rubbed with Lawrys, garlic and lemon pepper. If time, I usually throw in a zip lock and use a little olive oil, fresh lemon juice, garlic and assortment of herbs that I have on hand. Anything will do. I didn't have time tonight, so hence the seasonings. No salt and pepper necessary. I decided to grill on my grill pan first, as I like the look and taste of grill marks.

I then threw them on a baking sheet and roasted at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.
Next comes the Mac 'n Cheese. Now, some of you might be surprised by this being on my menue, but once you see the "sneaks" in it, you will understand why I allow it....
This recipe is Ellie Kreiger, the nutrition chef on Food Network:

Step one is measure and weigh out your ingredients. I could not find squash puree in two grocery stores, so I cut up a butternut squash, you can easily buy ready to go at Trader Joes or Costco, and then I steamed for about 15 minutes. I drained the squash and poured milk into the same pot adding back the squash. Brought to simmer, as stated in the recipe, and then pureed.

Meanwhile, bring pasta, whole wheat, of course, to a boil.

Mix pasta and sauce, place in baking dish and top with bread crumbs topping as given in recipe.

Twenty minutes into chicken baking, put mac in the oven as well.
I then heated my second oven to 450 degrees. If you don't have the luxury of two, then when you pull out chicken and pasta, up temp. I placed my cleaned asparagus on baking sheet, sprinkling with a little olive oil and tossing and then sprinkling with some parmesan cheese. Roast in oven for 5-10 minutes.
Dinner is complete....

Chicken & Cabbage Soup (With lots of other veggies, too!)

[Writer's note: just ate some leftovers of this for lunch and it was fabulous - better than yesterday. Even though my rice sopped up all the liquid, it just made for very moist and rich rice!]

My mom made a version of this soup last week, and after hearing her rave reviews about it for several days, decided I needed to make it myself. Yesterday's cold and rainy weather provided the perfect opportunity to get nice and cozy and make soup for lunch. This is a veggie packed soup with cabbage, carrots, zucchini, and tomatoes....and lots of them!

Let's dive right in...

My mom used chicken thighs in her soup, but I didn't have any so chicken breasts it was. She recommended using about 4 thighs. Salt and pepper these babies and put them in a very hot pan to brown. You want to hear a sizzle when they make contact.
While your chicken is browning, wash and peel your carrots. No exact measurements in this recipe....the more the merrier really...
Grab your zucchini and wash that, too. Then cut up your veggies. Size does not matter here... I went with a rustic interpretation and had various sizes.
Crack open a can of whole tomatoes. Now let's go check on our chicken!
Flip it over and mmm browning nicely. See all those brown bits on the bottom of our pan? That is the flavor right there. And guess what - it's 100% natural.
Alright, once both sides are browned throw in your chopped veggies.
I then got a big measuring cup and proceeded to pour cupful after cupful of water in. You want to add enough to cover everything. And you see how it looks like I added chicken broth and not water? That's due to the brown bits on the bottom of the pan. *Do not overlook the importance of browning.*
I decided to use my tongs and add in each tomato instead of pouring it in with all the juicy goodness. Your choice. I wanted to be a rebel yesterday.

Pack everything in so it's covered, and put your lid on for about 20ish minutes.
In the meantime, grab a big head of cabbage and whack it in half. I think I'll do a post on how to cut cabbage soon. I know I was quite intimidated the first time I tried on my own. You want to cut the cabbage into wedges. After your 20 or so minutes are up, go check the carrots in your soup. They should be fork tender. When they are, add in your cabbage wedges. Nestle those babies down in there.
You then want to grab a few jalapenos and chop those up. Some of you may want to mince these very finely if you're a little wimpy when it comes to heat, but I was feeling brave so I left relatively large pieces. Rustic, remember?
Now here is the only thing I would change about this soup. I LOVE adding rice to my soups. However, I have since realized that the rice sopped up all of the wonderful broth, and continues to do so as it sits in my fridge this morning. My recommendation, cook you rice separately, and when you go to survive, add some into each individual bowl. That way you get the benefit of rice in your soup, but don't lose the delicious liquid it cooked in.
Go ahead and add some salt and pepper in. Be generous. Remember, we used water not chicken broth so there's really very little salt in the soup at this point. Add, taste, adjust as necessary. Put your lid back on after all of your additions are in. I was now waiting for my rice to cook, but you could just wait long enough so it's an hour of cooking time total (from when you added the water) and then dig in.
Serve this soup in a big bowl with a sprinkle of cumin, roughly chopped cilantro, and a squeeze of lime.

Perfect meal for a cool winter day. And guess what, the leftovers will be even better as the flavors have a chance to marry and settle in together overnight in the fridge. Thanks for sharing, Mom. :)

Mary

Awesome bean salad

I first came across this delightful salad from our wonderful friend Diane. She made this at a little get together at her house and I fell in love. I was so happy when she made this same salad for my bridal shower. I could have eaten the whole bowl! Diane was given this recipe from a family friend, and I'm so glad that she's since shared the recipe with me!

This recipe makes a large bowl of the salad. I just about halved it and there was still more than I could eat in one sitting (not because it wasn't super delicious!! just very filling).

Here is the original recipe:

Preti's Bean Salad

- soybeans

- white kidney beans

- red kidney beans

- red onion chopped

- cucumber chopped

- avocado, cut up

- corn (a quick saute is nice)

- cilantro chopped

Rinse and drain all beans. Combine ingredients and dress with the following dressing:

1/2 c red wine vinegar, 1/4 c olive oil, 2 T lime juice, 2 T lemon juice, 2 T sugar, 1 t salt, 1/4 t black pepper, 1 T ground cumin, 1 clove chopped garlic, 1/2 t chili powder (as desired)

The recipe uses a whole can of each type of bean. I used about 1/3-1/2 of a can of each. [I forgot to saute my corn, and totally spaced on adding the cucumber - oops!] Here is my bowl of soybeans (edamame), kidney beans, corn, white kidney beans (cannelini beans/great northern beans).

Chop a red onion...

Chop an avocado and add that and the onion to the bowl.

Chop up some cilantro and add it in. A rough chop is nice with this salad...really adds to the varied texture going on. [By the way.... I LOVE cilantro!]
Time to make the dressing. Combine all ingredients and stir up! By the way, I also am quite fond of cumin so I went ahead and still added the whole tablespoon of it. Also, I did a sprinkle of cayenne pepper for the heat.
Start dressing that salad... I halved the dressing recipe and still had too much. Used about half of the dressing I made. But I have a tupperware of leftover kidney beans, cannelini beans, and corn so I'll use that and the dressing later! [I had a frozen bag of soybeans, so I cut it open... put some into my little strainer and did a quick defrost under some warm running water. Then I placed the rest of the soybeans back in the freezer for another time.]
Stir it up and dig in!

I took a whole wheat pita and cut it up into chips and put in the oven under the broiler for a few minutes. Awesome lunch and I'm so happy to have this awesome bean salad recipe in my arsenal now!

Enjoy,

Mary

If you want to improve your health, you must modify your food....

After almost 25 years as a fitness professional, and as someone who struggled with anorexia in high school, I know firsthand how difficult it is to fix a metabolism that was screwed up from yoyo dieting. I have been a regular exerciser for 25 years now and have had a handle on eating nutritionally now for 20. As I have discussed in past, it is about balancing calories you eat with the calories your body uses each day. Not brain surgery by the way. But what has come to my attention in the last few weeks, just by really paying attention to how and why people choose to put certain things in their mouths, it is never about what "I should eat", it is always about "what i want to eat", for most of us. This is what has to change. If you desire to lose weight and feel better, and maintain that mentality, you must make the decision to eat for your health, especially given that the majority of diseases that will kill us stem from unhealthy eating and exercising habits. Things that we must choose to control. I for one plan to do everything I can to avoid dying, or worse yet, being incapacitated from having a stroke, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, colorectal cancer and the like. Most of these are self imposed illnesses, though some will get us no matter what we do to avoid them. In my "no regrets" mentality, as long as I KNOW that I have done what I can to give my body the best chance of avoiding these killers, than I can have no regrets along the way. Same reason I choose not to partake in unhealthy endeavors like motorcycle riding, riding a bike without a helmet, or being in a car without a seatbelt.
So, you wonder, where the hell do I start? The answer is easy. A food diary. Yes, you must take responsibility for what you put in your mouth, the good, the bad and the ugly. And it starts with writing down everything you eat, each and every day, until you finally "get it". This is what I require of all my clients and I will remind you once again, that most never have the opportunity to work with me because they refuse or are unable to commit to the food diary. And just to continue to practice what I preach, earlier this year I committed to my own food diary for a month, writing down everything I put in my mouth and counting every calorie. The modifications I had to make during this time, which is what I expect of my clients in the beginning, is to "keep it simple stupid" and eat basic, clean food that is easy to measure and calculate calories with. That means unless you are willing to do the work associated with making a complex meal and figuring out the accompanying calories, you keep it basic....chicken, steamed veggies, brown rice type of meals.
Just like with any addiction, most of us have an addiction to eating "yummy" tasting food, which happens to be high in fat and full of empty calories, we must eliminate these foods from our diet. PERIOD. You cannot have your cake and eat it too, otherwise you will want that cake every day. While you are in the "losing" mode, most people must completely eliminate the problem rather than try to have a smaller amount of it every day. Be it chocolate, alcohol, or heroin, you have to abstain from your drug of choice, in total. Interesting to think about drug addicts or alcoholics, don't get the privilege of ever partaking in these goodies ever again. But with food, unless you have an allergic reaction that can kill you from eating it, you can make the decision to eat "it" in the future, and while that bite won't kill you directly, it could ultimately kill you indirectly because of your self-imposed addition to unhealthy food items.
So, what is your plan. As you approach the new year and the chance to use a "new year's resolution" as you excuse to finally make that change, are you in? Step one in the process is just to write down every morsel you put in your mouth, along with approximate amounts. Step two, with the help of an inexpensive food scale, which you can buy for $19.99 at Costco right now, is to begin to calculate every calorie you put in your mouth. Step three is to start to modify what you eat with healthier options. I.E, if you eat a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast each day, you change it to a high fiber option, and lite cream cheese. That coffee latte, with whole milk and whip cream, easily changes to low fat and no whip. Simple changes add up to lifestyle changes that will improve yours.

Eating Healthy on Vacation

This past weekend I had the privilege of traveling to northern South Carolina where Alaina was competing for running. My mom and her made the trip from CA and we were able to stay at a Marriott hotel set up like a timeshare. We love staying at a place with a kitchen because it really makes eating healthy on vacation very realistic.

Even outside of the hotel, my mom and I were able to eat healthy. Subway is always a good option when traveling, so we went there for lunch one day. Make sure not to load up on the dressings, cheeses, or unhealthy meats. Chicken, turkey, tuna, or veggie are great options. Then, when Alaina's team went to get ice cream, we found a TCBY frozen yogurt for our healthier treat option.

Back to the hotel, we decided to make an awesome dinner, versus going out to eat. Let's get started...

Grab some sweet potatoes, scrub them up and get cutting. Cut the sweet potatoes in half.

Try to cut each half in half again, so you have two thin long flats. Then cut slices in each flat piece.
Now all of the slices go on to a foil lined baking pan.

Drizzle the sweet potatoes with a little bit of olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Get your hands in there and get mixing!

Set the sweet potatoes aside for now, and let's start on some cilantro pesto for the shrimp we're making. Chop up a whole bunch of cilantro, and finely mince some pecans.

Then chop up some green onions...love the flavor of these...
Throw your greens into a blender or food processor.
Add in the nuts.Drizzle some olive oil into the blender. This amount really will vary because you need just enough oil to be able to puree the other ingredients. We used garlic infused olive oil for this. If you have regular olive oil, then also add a few mined garlic cloves. Next, use your microzester to add some lime zest to the mixture. Then cut your lime and squeeze some juice in!

Time to mix it up! Nice and blended. Add a little more oil if it needs it - you be the judge here!Alright, moving onto the shrimp. Grab your bag of frozen shrimp and place in a colander. To quickly thaw run cool water over the shrimp. Make sure not to use hot water, it can be a safety risk!

Okay shrimp are ready to go, onto the broccolini. Rinse and chop off the ends.

Place in a pan with a little bit of water, add a lid, and steam the veggie.

Remember those sweet potatoes we prepared? Get them in the oven. 425 for 30-40 minutes, you want them crispy and lightly browned! (We did end up moving ours onto two sheet pans so it wasn't so crowded).

In the meantime, grab yourself a nice cold beer! We choose a hefeweizen, and added some orange slices to compliment the flavors of the beer.
Let's get the shrimp in the pan. Add the shrimp to the pan, and just pour the pesto right on top! These babies will cook quickly, like 1-2 minutes per side, so keep an eye on them.
Once the broccolini have steamed, add a little of the garlic infused oil (or olive oil and garlic) with salt and pepper and let's saute these.Voila! A fabulous meal on vacation with just a little bit of effort.
Here's our sweet potato fries - they were AWESOME! Try these for your family this week!

Here we are, at the end of our cooking, very excited for our meal!

Vacation doesn't have to mean bad eating! You can still find ways to meet your healthy lifestyle goals, no matter where you are.

Mary