Easy Homemade Sandwich Bread!

"Keep calm and bake on!"

That's what we did during Typhoon Trami and there's nothing like the smell of fresh homemade bread in the home...can you smell it now? Happiness!

A lot of work went into this lovely loaf of bread. I mixed all the ingredients together and then my youngest got to work kneading it. He did a great job! I usually put it in my kitchen aid and let that do the work, but the bread came out dense. My 7yr. old wanted to help knead it so I should him how and he ended up giving it a few too many punches and then folding. It turned out to be a great method!!

It wore him out a little bit and he had fun! Plus the dough came out nice and soft and rose perfectly!!

So glad my kids love to help out in the kitchen. I certainly love teaching them the importance of cooking!! 

They love love this bread and I love that they love it!

Happiness is definitely homemade!

I've been using King Arthur's Bread Flour and it's been great....

*This recipe is for a bread machine. I don't have a bread machine, so I do it a little differently. If you have a bread machine then add it all together in the machine and press start. If you don't follow my directions.

Easy Sandwich Bread

Ingredients:

• 1 cup lukewarm water
• 1/3 cup lukewarm milk 
• 3 tbsp. butter
• 3 3/4 cup bread flour
• 3 tbsp. sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast or instant yeast

Directions:

• Put lukewarm water in your mixing bowl and add sugar and instant yeast. Let it rest for 5mins.
• It should be foamy and bubbly, add the rest of the ingredients and mix together.
• Knead it for 10-12mins until nice and soft.
• Oil a loaf pan and shape the dough for the pan. 
• Let it rise for 1 hr. and don't forget to set your oven at 350 degrees.

For the small 1lb. loaf use this...

• 2/3 cup lukewarm water
• 1/4 lukewarm milk
• 2 T butter or I like avocado oil
• 2 1/2 cups bread flour
• 5 tsp. sugar
• 1 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1tsp. active dry yeast or instant yeast

• I let it rise for 2.5 hrs. I turn the oven on about the last 30 mins of the rising time to 350 deg. and then bake for 33 mins in a glass baking dish.

• After it's done rising put into the oven for 40-45mins until golden brown..... 

Let it cool and enjoy with some fresh butter and smile :) 

Whole Wheat Waffles & Non-GMO

This picture and whole wheat waffle recipe is from Vitamix.com. I've used many recipes from their website to make things in my Vitamix and they have all turned out great!

 My mix of dry ingredients...

1 cup Organic Whole Wheat (Bob's Red Mill)

1 cup Organic Unbleached White Flour

1 tablespoon Baking Powder (Rumford Aluminum/GMO Free)

1 teaspoon Sea Salt

Then all the wet ingredients for the batter go straight into the blender...

  I used...

2 cups Unsweetened Almond Milk

2 Organic Eggs (egg substitute chia seeds, etc.)

2 tablespoon Raw Organic Honey (Honey down below is so so good!)

4 oz Organic Tofu (You ALWAYS want GMO free soy!)

Click on the highlighted links for good information on why to buy GMO free, especially soy...USDA Organic Soy & GMO's = not good.

Top Genetically Modified Foods...Corn and Soy are ALWAYS at the top of every list and also in just about every single piece of processed food you buy cereals, chips, popcorn, granola bars, crackers, baby foods, baby formula, pre-made mixes, animal feed, dairy, etc. Check out this list of more GMO foods. These kinds of foods are especially harmful to kids. The government is allowing so many more GMO foods. Would you ever think Sugar Beets (one variety of beets) to be a GMO food? Beets have the highest content of sugar of all vegetables, all natural, but when it's processed into refined sugar it loses all nutritional value and is just plain sugar and no bueno for our bodies. All of this GMO stuff is terrible, just terrible! The best way to avoid GMO foods/products is to make your own food and know what you are feeding your body. Also, a lot of health foods will definitely say right on their product "Non-GMO." I'm not saying you should never eat gmo's, but it should be very minimal.

Then take out the plug on top of the lid and put the dry ingredients into the batter and let it mix.

Put some frozen or fresh berries on top and enjoyed this nice & simple meal!

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

This bread is too good to be true! My kids love helping make it and the spices make our house smell so good while it bakes! Here is the recipe. I use organic unbleached flour. I've substituted the sugar with agave and need to work on substituting other ingredients like the oil with applesauce and try other flours.  

Broiled Herb-Crusted Salmon

This broiled Salmon was so good, try the recipe here. I also cut up red potatoes in cubes, spiced 'em up, and then baked them. Served with fresh organic spring mix/spinach salad (red onions, carrots, tomatoes, and cucumbers). Very good!