Home Made Food

I am really getting into this whole home made bread thing. I made another loaf of bread, rolls, and a pita bread last night. I got home and decided to make the bread and it is so easy, I get to multi-task while making it. I am still getting ready for my weekend trip, but got basically three loaves of bread made. And it tastes so good. I am glad I found that book. I also have been enjoying all the other stuff I made on Sunday. I did a lot of batch cooking again. I made tuna casserole, taco stew (usually called soup but I don't make mine that thin), hard boiled eggs for egg salad, pasta salad and healthy sloppy joes. I just had a really good time making everything from scratch. It all tastes better and there is no added salt to anything, just good for you herbs and spices.

I am guessing that it is also a lot cheaper than buying stuff at the store. For example, the taco soup that I make, I used a pound of turkey ($1), one bag of kidney beans ($1), two cans of corn ($1), one can of tomatoes ($.50) and then homemade seasoning mixes (guestimate of $.25). I will get at least 7 meals out of this. I packaged them individually and then stuck them in the freezer. That means that for just over $.50 each, I have just made 7 main courses or total meals. I may add bread or some other veggie if I am really hungry. All in all, even if I add something else to the meal, I can't beat a meal with a cost of around $1. And since I batch cooked, I do not have to keep turning on the oven and stove, I can just microwave it when mealtime rolls around.

I have not calculated for every meal what the cost is, but I am confident that it is cheaper than prepared food from the store, with a whole lot less salt.

I also wanted to add that in many of my dishes, I use shredded carrots. You cannot tell they are in there, you don't taste them, and you will get an extra serving of veggies. I added them this past weekend to the pasta salad, the tuna salad and the healthy joes. Instant serving of veggies for those picky eaters.

I Made Bread - Again

And this time I took pictures of my ugly bread!

This is the bread as soon as I was done shaping it.

This is the bread when it was rising. It looked more like spreading than rising, but whatever, it worked out in the end...

This was the bread when it was done baking. I wish I had scratch and sniff, it was heavenly. The loaf on the right stuck to the mat I was using so it kinda just fell on to the baking stone. It was a little misshapen, but this is my ugly bread after all.

And this is me cutting into the tasty ugly good smelling bread.

And here is the wonderful yummy insides of the bread. Oh, the smell......Have I mentioned that it smelled absolutely divine?

And meet Blue and Magenta, my friends when I cut myself while trying to cut the bread......

Hope you enjoyed looking at my ugly tasty bread. It is super easy to make following the recipe in the bread book that I got the other day: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day. It was easy to mix, easy to make, easy to smell.....wait that was not part of making it. It was easy all around, especially easy to slice my finger open. Man, that knife is sharp.....

I Made Bread!

Ok, I really did make it, but I took zero pics. I took zero pics because I did not want my first and very ugly bread to be posted out there for the world to see. I made the dough on Tuesday night. That part was easy enough. Then last night I followed the rest of the instructions for shaping, letting it rise and baking. I tell you, my bread was just ugly compared to the pics in the cookbook. But let me tell you, that was some tasty bread. I say was, well, because it is gone. I ate a couple of slices and brought it in to work. My mom and all of my co-workers had some. It was a success. I will make more when I return from my trip this weekend, and this time I will show you my ugly bread. And be proud of my ugly tasty bread!

Preparing For the Weekend

Tonight I am going to stop at Wags to get some ice cream. I love love love Bryers ice cream. Just most of the time I refuse to pay what they ask for it at the store. But you can't beat BOGO free and a MC to boot! I have a couple of MC to use on the ice cream. In my neck of the woods, it is $6.29. So I will get two for the price of one, which will be even cheaper with my coupons! So $4.29 for two with 1% food tax=$4.34 ish. I can totally handle $2.17 for a quart of Bryers! I have some leftover christmas candy (the old fashioned kind) that I am going to break into little pieces for a topping. What a tasty treat! I am also going to get some goodies to make s'mores. We love s'mores and S (my son) has been asking for them. We will get to roastin' those marshmallows and makin' some gooey goodness. Right now at Wags, they are 2 for $6 for the graham crackers and Hershey's bars, and get a bag of marshmallows free. I also have a q that if I get chocolate and marshmallows I get $1 off Honey Maid graham crackers. I will hope for it to go through. My favorite cashier should be there tonight, so I most likely will be in luck. Hopefully for less than $10 I can get all of it. I do not have any RR to help offset the price, but these are pretty good deals for my area and I do not want to miss them just because I am out of RR.

When I get home, I have to check in the super messy garage to see if my mom's folding table is still in there from my yard sale last fall. If it is I will load it into the van. I also have to wash/dry a load of clothes, wash the dishes, sweep the floor in the kitchen, and then take out the trash to get ready for the weekend. I will also try to remember to dump one of the litter boxes. I am going to try out some new litter. I got some Yesterday's News litter a while back. I am going to dump it in there and see how it does while I am gone. If it can hold up to the "weekend gone" test, then I know that it is good litter. I will let you all know what I think of it and how it held up, and more importantly, what my kitties thought of it. They are totally laid back on litter choices and will use just about anything without protesting. My favorite litter was Swheat Scoop. Unfortunately there are never any q's for it and it is super expensive. So back to Tidy Cats.

I had my mom order me a book the other day. I am super excited to get it. It is called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I could get the basic recipe off the internet, however, I prefer to make whole grain bread. I could not find the recipe for that. I also would like to see the variations and directions to make lots of different styles and types of bread in an easy fashion. I read over on Mary Hunt's Debt Proof Living where she is joining the BYOB challenge. It stands for Bake Your Own Bread, has nothing to do with beer! I am hoping that this is another challenge for me to try! I will let you know when the book comes in. On the Debt Proof Living blog there is a link for the bread book authors. It is artisanbreadinfive and is the official website. I will let you know if it is as easy as it sounds.

If you are participating in the Challenge, how are you doing? Got any good ideas to pass along?