Our Daily Bread

I don't make bread that often. Or at least I didn't until recently, but I have the extremely important responsibility of nourishing a little tiny human (or two, if you count the gummy bear-sized babe I'm currently growing) with food. This responsibility has made me pause and consider what I know about nutrition and feeding a family. Baby and toddler nutrition is especially important to me because I've noticed that some of the most convenient baby foods are the least nutritious and a hungry baby + sugary snack or empty calorie snack = major meltdown. I feel like it's my responsibility to stay one step ahead of William by having healthy snacks that will encourage steady blood sugar levels. I take this responsibility seriously since I used to live off of chips & salsa and gummy bears, pre-baby.

I wanted to see if I could start making our bread myself on a weekly basis. I figured I'd try an easy recipe, and if it didn't work out, I'd suck it up and continue spending too much money on bread for the peace of knowing we were eating food that was prepared well and wouldn't cause sugar rushes and crashes. I knew that the recipe couldn't require a lot of time, a lot of time kneading, or strange ingredients I don't normally have on hand. And the recipe had to be 100% whole wheat.

Ta da!

  This recipe met all of my criteria (minus requiring dry milk, but a box of the stuff was easy to find). I did shape the dough into a rectangular log before putting it in the bread pan, which I "greased" with Pam 100% pure olive oil spray. 

The bread rose well and baked perfectly in 30 minutes. Plus, there's something so satisfying and homey about having a kitchen that smells like freshly baked bread. People reference that smell all the time, but when was the last time you actually smelled it in the air? It had been a while for me. 

The recipe is so easy that it's become something I make twice a week and it's completely replaced the need for me to buy english muffins and sandwich bread at the store, which makes my wallet and my heart happy.

Making this particular recipe for homemade bread isn't a "stay at home mom thing." It takes a whopping 15 minutes to make a loaf and if I can pull it off, then you can, too. The idea of bread baking used to freak me out (who are these people who make their own bread? how on earth do they have time to do that? etc.).  If your family eats a ton of sandwiches and you like the idea of making sure they get good, clean ingredients that will fill them up without weighing them down, I would encourage you to make this recipe just once and see how you like it. It's pretty satisfying to hear William "mmmm" over a slice of warm whole wheat bread. Happy bread baking!