Delicious Honey Oatmeal Whole-Wheat Bread

I had to post this recipe. This is the most delicious bread I have ever made. I have been trying to find the right balance to please my family's palate and this one is it. And let me just say that I was shocked, SHOCKED at how much sugar goes into bread! Some recipes called for 1/4 cup of the stuff. I tried making those recipes with sucanat or muscavado and while those sweeteners have their strengths, the breads we baked were slightly tougher than we like.

I found a book at the Goodwill bookstore the other week called The Bread Machine Bakery Book by Richard W. Langer and this recipe has become our family's every day bread. When I say every day, I mean I make a 1 1/5 lb loaf everyday.

1 1/4 cups water
1 tsp honey
2 cups unbleached bread flour
1/2 cup whole- wheat flour
1/2 cup oatmeal (rolled oats - not instant!)
1/2 tsp salt (or to taste...I palm it)
1 1/2 tsp yeast

Follow your bread machine's instructions for loading the ingredients and set it to whole-wheat. Easy as that and oh-so yummy. A nice soft and tender bread with just enough crustiness. Delicious!

Nourishing Fudge...Fudge Y'all!!

Doesn't that look scrumptious? Let me assure you, it is. I was reading one of my favorite blogs written beautifully by Lindsay and found this yummy, healthy treat. (You will need to follow her link to the blog she got the recipe from...another one of my fav's.)

I did it just a little differently...because, well...I just cannot follow a recipe exactly, what fun would that be? Where would the drama be? Anyway, I used local honey instead of the coconut palm sugar, but I will be adding that to my growing supply of nourishing sweeteners, tout suit.

Instead of a food processor I used my Magic Bullet. Are you laughing? Don't laugh. We got this as a gift a few years ago and I kind of snickered (sorry Lys), but I have grown to LOVE it. I use it several times a day. It makes our smoothies, grates parmesan cheese, makes fresh salsa, blends vinaigrettes, puries a few cups of beans to make soup nice and smooth, and this time, it served as a food processor. I love my bullet.

So, as I was watching the chocolate fudge mix, I started thinking, hhhmmmm, I bet peanut butter would work, too....so I tried it:

1/2 cup natural peanut butter - I dug down to the bottom of the jar where its nice and dry.
slightly less than 1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup local honey

That's it! dumped it all into the bullet, turned it on for a minute or so and presto! peanut butter fudge. :-) I even got lazy and just poured it into a little round pyrex and popped it into the freezer w/o using the parchment.

When they were set, I pulled them both out and cut them and wow are they yummy. We sent some to school this morning for the kids' Valentines Day party and the teacher was thrilled that it was made with wholesome ingredients and no refined sugar.

And yes, Papa, we can make this when you come to visit!

Then God said,

"I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it.  They will be yours for food."

So, after returning from shopping, I was washing our produce and was struck by how pretty it looked.  What beautiful fruits and veggies our God has given us.  Thank-you, Father God, for such an abundance of good things to eat!

We are really enjoying our new healthy eating  habits.  Shopping is so much simpler.  I don't even buy anything in a box, and only organic tomatoes in a can....we just circle the store and hit the produce, meats & dairy, then dart in to the paper goods, cleaners, grains & baking supplies, simple!  I highly recommend reading about how to make the most of the grocery store on http://www.keeperofthehome.org/nutritional-foundations/   

One of our favorite things to have is a Super Smoothie.  We make them every morning and sometimes again for an afternoon snack.  What a great way to get spinach into us without the usual hairy eyeballs from the kids. ;-)  This is why I want to try making my own kefir.  The health benefits of the live cultured milk are amazing and it makes the smoothies so yummy. Now, if I could just keep strawberries in the house we would be all set.  Do you have any idea how many strawberries 3 kids can put away?  It's mind boggling.     

Teeny tiny juice glasses...okay, I get it now.

I never really knew why juice glasses were so tiny.  I remember being told something about juice being rare, a treat or something like that, back in the day....That was only part of the story.  Here is the real reason:  It takes SO MANY oranges to get just a little bit of juice!!  The cups have to be small, or poor mom's would never leave the kitchen.  

Part of our plan to encourage healthy eating habits includes getting rid of purchased juice.  My 3 could (and did) consume a whole big jug of OJ in a day if I let them.  Little bellies filled with so much juice that they slosh when they walk don't have any room for good food...but there is always room for chocolate, how does that work?  Anyway, we now must start with real fruit and juice it ourselves if we want juice.  I truly didn't realize how much fun this would be.  And the kids are so thrilled to drink that precious nectar that they relish their tiny cup with great gusto.

I tried sneaking in veggies using the big juicer, but that didn't work so well.  Now, Jackson patiently tells me everytime, "Mom, I want fresh orange juice, cold, with nothing in it." ;-)  So we save the fancy veggie juicing for Mommy & Daddy, LOL, and boy are the kids game to to put anything in it if they know they won't have to drink it....one day....     

           

Fruitville Grove

The kids and I went to Fruitville Grove yesterday. It's an Amish produce stand with yummy ice creams, jams & jellies, breads & cheeses too.  

Big fun.

Being a 'burbs kid, myself, I really want to show my children that foods do not magically appear at the supermarket.  One of my goals for 2009 is to have a (mostly) organic, scratch kitchen.  This is no small undertaking, but we are making the journey as a family.  

The kids have gotten much more exciting about healthy, wholesome foods since they have gotten to go to the produce stand and pick out what looks good to them.  Next stop, a real farm where the foods are living and growing, can't wait!