Honey Wheat Bread

I made bread this past weekend…

There is a lot of waiting in bread making…. hence the corona with the second rise.

I used a honey wheat bread recipe from the kitchn website.

Several years ago I tried my hand at baking bread, but I never really got very good at it so I just stopped. I’ve been wanting to start baking bread, which I’m sure comes as no surprise to you since I’ve been ranting about the fake crap in the grocery stores…. But the thought of hand kneading bread for the 8 to 9 minutes like this recipe called for did not appeal to me.

For a long time I’ve been debating on purchasing a stand mixer, but I just kept hesitating spending the money for one because they are expensive, and I didn’t know how much use I would give it. Then about six weeks ago a wonderful thing happened. I was given the opportunity at work to pick out a bonus prize from a vendor points award catalog. Guess what I picked?

Well that sealed the deal and I couldn’t wait to try my hand again at making bread. So, I started researching sour dough starter recipes and all kinds of other bread recipes.

I have to admit that while the stand mixer was kneading the honey wheat dough for 8 to 9 minutes, I took great pleasure in popping the top on a Corona and just watching it work.

I couldn’t be happier with my honey wheat bread, both loaves turned out almost perfect. It was moist with a great texture, a perfect sandwich bread. I probably could’ve baked it for another minute or so, but I’m not complaining and the Z Man loved it too. My first wheat bread bake turned out great, which gave me the inspiration to keep going….

In the third picture you can see that I have two bowls covered. One is the wheat bread and in the other bowl I had a sour dough bread rising.

I’ve been working on my sour dough starter for about 2 weeks now, and again for the starter and the bread recipe I referenced the kitchn website. (really that is how it’s spelled) 😉

I baked two loaves of sourdough bread after the wheat breads. While the sourdough bread had a great flavor to it, I have to say that the bread was too tough, which was completely my fault because I tried to rush it. You can’t rush baking!

But all in all I’m very pleased with my baking day. I turned out two really good loaves of honey wheat bread, and two tasty sour dough bricks. Next I want to try the frugal girls homemade hamburger bun recipe.

Again, sometimes I post the recipes I use and sometimes I don’t. But, if you would like a recipe you see on Z Life Blog just let me know and I’ll be more than happy to share it.

What’s Cooking 4/13/16?

Breakfast: a properly sweetened jar of overnight oats with walnuts, a sprinkle of cinnamon, diced apple, and a tablespoon of maple syrup
Lunch: salad in a jar (the same as yesterday)
Dinner: meatloaf, steamed broccoli and corn on the cob

Y’all Have A Great Day!

Till Next Time,

Lori

What’s Cooking 4/12/16?

This morning before I left for work I filled the crock pot with everything to make drip beef or Mississippi pot roast (they are both about basically the same recipe). But, instead of using beef I used venison and added a couple heaping teaspoons of bacon fat in it. Fat is good people, fat is good 🙂

I grabbed my breakfast and lunch and left the house without taking my omeprazole, L-Glutamine, coconut oil, or turmeric. We’ll see what happens. This could inadvertently speed up the weaning off omeprazole process. Yesterday I started taking an even lower dosage that calculates to 20mg which is half of my prescribed amount.

I was in a hurry to get the dinner dishes done, kitchen cleaned, and breakfast and lunches made last night so I could settle in and start on a few library books I picked up yesterday. Joel Salatin is an American farmer whose is the owner and operator of Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia. He is the author of many books regarding alternative farming, often calling himself a grass farmer, letting the animals do all the work of tending to the farming processes without industrial pesticides or fertilizers. He is doing it the right way y’all.

Anyway… apparently I was in too much of a hurry because as I was making my overnight oats, I forgot to put the tablespoon of maple syrup in them. I didn’t realize it of course till this morning….

Here is a picture of my breakfast and lunch for today (and my love for wide mouth mason jars, of all sizes) 🙂

But after my first bite of unsweetened overnight oats, I decided to save that till tomorrow when I can properly sweeten it and instead I went with this….

Honey wheat bread with peanut butter and jelly.

Breakfast: honey wheat bread with peanut butter and jelly and a apple
Lunch: salad in a jar with a creamy avocado dressing that I experimented with last night and turned out lovely.
Dinner: Z’s venison with mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus

Sometimes I include recipes sometimes I don’t… if you ever want one of my recipes just let me know and I’ll gladly share it. 🙂

Y’all have a great day!

Till Next Time,

Lori

What’s Cooking 4/7/16?

I was craving a good hamburger yesterday, so instead of chili last night I fried up some grass fed hamburgers in the cast iron skillet and made some fried potatoes to go with. I did stop at the store on the way home from work and picked up a pack of hamburger buns, which was the first pack of bread I’ve bought in over a month. Mainly because I’ve been wanting to make my own because what’s on the shelf at the store isn’t actually bread, it’s a bunch of ingredients that we can’t pronounce or digest. But, I have to say that those burgers were the best burgers ever! Maybe it’s because it’s not something we eat often or maybe it’s because I wanted one so bad. Don’t you love it when you have a craving for something and it turns out to be really really good, especially when you made it yourself. 🙂

What’s Cooking 4/7/16?

Breakfast: leftover fried potatoes with leftover sausage gravy on top

Lunch: leftover veggie stir fry with jasmine rice

Dinner: I made the chili last night and put it in the crock pot for the Z Man to put on today. Chili and cornbread for dinner.

I’m glad dinner is already made because I want to get my yoga in and I’ll be making yogurt tonight too.

Now, if I only had some interesting pictures for you to see! Here I’ll show you a picture of the squirrel in our yard.

You thought it was going to be a real one didn’t you? Nope 🙂

Have a great day!

Till Next Time,

Lori

What’s Cooking 4/6/16?

It’s been a little over a week now I’ve been weaning off the Omeprazole and honestly the first few days I thought it was going to be a walk in the park. I even mentioned to the Z Man that I wasn’t having any problems and I wanted to “hurry up” the weaning process. Patience is not one of my strong points. I’m glad I didn’t rush it because I began to feel the effects of lowering the Omeprazole dosage after about 4 days into the process. It makes sense that while lowering the dosage, the first few days would have remnants of the higher dosage still in my system. It was on Wednesday of last week when I began to feel a little burning and a little reflux, but it wasn’t too bad at all and it wasn’t continuous.

When I felt a little discomfort I chewed one of my Slippery Elm lozenges which made it very manageable.

Here is a little information on Slippery Elm…

What is Slippery Elm?
The slippery elm tree is native to eastern Canada and eastern and central US, where it is found most commonly in the Appalachian mountains. The trunk is reddish brown with gray-white bark on the branches. In the spring, dark brown floral buds appear and open into small, clustered flowers at the branch tips. White elm (U. americana) is a related species used in a similar manner.

What is it used for?

North American Indians and early settlers used the inner bark of the slippery elm not only to build canoes, shelter, and baskets, but as a poultice or as a soothing drink. Upon contact with water, the inner bark, collected in spring, yields a thick mucilage or demulcent that was used as an ointment or salve to treat urinary tract inflammation and was applied topically for cold sores and boils. A decoction of the leaves was used as a poultice to remove discoloration around blackened or bruised eyes. Surgeons during the American Revolution treated gun-shot wounds in this manner. Early settlers boiled bear fat with the bark to prevent rancidity. Late in the 19th century, a preparation of elm mucilage was officially recognized in the United States Pharmacopoeia.

Slippery elm prepared as a poultice coats and protects irritated tissues such as skin or intestinal membranes. The powdered bark has been used in this manner for local application to treat gout, rheumatism, cold sores, wounds, abscesses, ulcers, and toothaches. The tannins present are known to possess astringent actions. It also has been known to “draw out” toxins, boils, splinters, or other irritants.
Powdered bark is incorporated into lozenges to provide demulcent action (soothing to mucous membranes) in the treatment of throat irritation. It also is used for its emollient and antitussive actions, to treat bronchitis and other lung afflictions, and to relieve thirst.

When slippery elm preparations are taken internally, they cause reflex stimulation of nerve endings in the GI tract, leading to mucus secretion. This may be the reason they are effective for protection against stomach ulcers, colitis, diverticulitis, gut inflammation, and acidity. Slippery elm also is useful for diarrhea, constipation, hemorrhoids, irritable bowel syndrome, and to expel tapeworms. It also has been used to treat cystitis and urinary inflammations.

I have noticed some foods that triggered some discomfort. Raw onions, cooked and raw cabbage, bananas, and raw green peppers. No big deal, as these foods, for me won’t be difficult to manage. Actually, it gives me a reason to not feel guilty about really not liking bananas. Hand count, who out there honestly really likes bananas?

This week I begin a week of a little lower dosage, and it will be very important to maintain a meal plan, and portion control, otherwise I know I’ll have some discomfort. I do expect some discomfort, but what I don’t want to do is to cause more damage to my esophagus and stomach lining in the process.

During the summer months I work longer hours and six days a week at my “job” which makes it difficult to get a lot of other stuff done. I get especially busy when it’s time to harvest and “put up” the gardens. I’m hoping to use the blog as a tool for meal planning, a food diary, and hopefully a tool for my grocery budget. We’ll see how it all plays out as it goes along. That’s the idea behind “What’s Cooking”

So, What’s Cooking 4/6/16?

Breakfast: overnight oats – oats soaked in milk with a few walnuts, dried cranberries, drizzle of maple syrup and a sprinkle of cinnamon.