I have, for years, purchased fruit and vegetable wash (to remove pesticides and bacteria), but just found this article that shows how to make your own.

Here’s the link: 

Simple water-washing does not remove ag-pesticides…they are formulated to NOT wash off in the rain!!! 

Blessings,
Lori
To join TWT and share your $$-saving tip, click on the graphic at the top of my post to be taken to CanadaGirl’s blog!  Be SURE to leave everyone comments…that’s 75% of the fun!!!

 If you’re from outside of HomeSTEADblogger, be sure to leave your URL so I can find you and visit! 

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Blessed with Grace

 

(To Participate in Tightwad Tuesday, write your post, visit CanadaGirl’s blog, and add it to the list!) 

(To Participate in Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, write your post, visit the Blessed With Grace blog, and add it to the list!) 

I’ve had this recipe for a little over a year now, and realized it would be a great one to share for both Tempt My Tummy Tuesday and Tightwad Tuesday!  It is from "Mother Earth News" Magazine, which…as I’ve stated before…I don’t highly recommend in general, but it does have some gems in and among all the humanistic and earth-worshipping junk.  This is one of the gems!  It’s from the December 2008/January 2009 issue, pages 46-51, if you have access to these somewhere.

The article is called "5 Minutes a Day for Fresh-Baked Bread."  It provides one of my favorite things…a "master recipe" from which multiple things can be made.  The recipe comes from a ccookbook titled, "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day–The Discovery that Revolutionizes Home Baking" by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.  I highly recommend a visit to Amazon.com (link to this book is here) to see the book and click on the "Look Inside" to read the introduction.

The Master Recipe is for a free-form loaf called the French boule (boule in French means "ball").  Once you’ve made this dough, you make the French boule, then refrigerate and use the remaining dough over the next 2 weeks, OR you can freeze it (they recommend in 1-pound portions) for use at a later date (just defrost overnight and then use it to make whatver). 

My Mother Earth News article gives the Master Recipe plus 3 extra recipes that can be made from it (Neapolitan Pizza Dough, 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread, Sticky Pecan Caramel Rolls).  Rather than type them out, I discovered that it is available as an archived article on the Mother Earth News website, here:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx

 

 

 

Enjoy, and be sure to visit Lisa to add your Tempt My Tummy Tuesday Recipe, and  Mary to add your Tightwad Tuesday Tip!

God Bless you!

Lori 
(Please leave your URL if you’re from outside of HomeSTEADblogger, so I can find you and visit!   Thanks so much!)

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To join the fun and fitness (Lord willing!), please visit sweet Chasity’s blog,
Seasons of a Godly Woman.

So, a couple weeks ago I joined Weight Watchers…and then we were sick again w/flu bugs.  I just haven’t been able to get out to a meeting yet, and I’ve been too tired and overwhelmed with life to try and calculate points on my recipes.  I’ hoping to get to a meeting this morning while the boys are in their classes at the college for a couple hours, and I think I’m just going to purchase a WW cookbook that has the points provided to help me get started.  I will NOT resort to eating frozen, microwavable food…I HAVE to do this with MY cooking style.  I can see why the meetings are going to be important for me, I need all the encouragement I can get to get going with this.  I am such an emotional eater, and…I will admit…I am feeling really tired, discouraged, frustrated, anxious, and "edgy" about my life right now.  Not all the time, oh no, but enough that it is exactly what has gotten me to where I am with my weight.  So, once I get going down the path, I usually go with gusto…but getting going is gonna take an awful lot of "push" from the outside.  Hopefully by next week, I’ll have been to a meeting, purchased a cookbook, and made some great, healthy foods.  Thanks for listening :-)

Blessings,

Lori
PS: Be sure you leave your name or your URL in your comment…you might just be "anonymous" here at HomeSTEADblogger!

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Blessed with Grace 

(To Participate in Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, write your post, visit the Blessed With Grace blog, and add it to the list!) 

 

I want to share my favorite recipe for whole wheat bread that I’ve used which turns out really good, soft bread.  I use fresh ground flour from "Prarie Gold" wheat, which is hard white spring wheat.  The recipe is from a cookbook called, "Wholesome Sugarfree Cooking" written and published by Ray and Malinda Yutzy of Howe, Indiana.  It was sent in by a Mrs. Troyer, from Ashland, OH, so I assume this is an Amish or Mennonite woman’s recipe…either way, they make the BEST bread! 

I’ve modified it and use my Bosch Universal Kitchen Machine to make 6 loaves easily.  I’ll first give the original recipe, which uses old-fashioned human muscle power to make, and then the modified one for the Bosch.

ORIGINAL RECIPE (makes 4 loaves)

4 cups warm water
1/3 cup maple syrup or honey
1/3 cup vinegar (I use organic apple cider vinegar when possible)
3 Tbl. yeast
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup olive oil or coconut oil
8 cups (heaping) whole wheat flour

Mix water, maple syrup or honey, vinegar, and yeast in a bowl.  Let set 15 minutes or until yeast has worked (becomes spongy or bubbly).  Then add salt and oil.  Add flour, 3-4cups worth, and mix well; then add 1 cup at a time until the rest of the flour is stirred in and it’s a spongy* soft dough.  If it’s not spongy*, the bread won’t be nice and soft.  [My note: *spongy means a bit on the sticky side...this is NOT a "dry, smooth, elastic" dough...the dough is a bit wetter than what is typically described in recipes, but this is what makes the cooked loaf so wonderfully soft!]  Set dough in a warm place (not hot) till ready to work out.  Let rise; punch down every 10 minutes or so.  Punch down 3 times.  DO NOT let rise longer than 1 hour before putting in pans or it won’t rise well in pans.  Divide into 4 pans and prick with fork.  Set in a warm place and let rise till edges of loaf reaches top of pans.  Bake for 30 minutes, starting at 350 degrees for a little bit then close to 400 degrees until it’s done.  [My note: I look for the bread to be 200 degrees on an instant read thermometer stuck in the middle to be done just right.]

MODIFIED RECIPE FOR BOSCH UNIVERSAL USERS:

6 cups warm water
1/2 cup maple syrup or honey
1/2 cup vinegar (I use organic apple cider vinegar when possible)
4Tbl. + 1-1/2tsp. yeast
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 + 1/8 cup olive oil or coconut oil
2 Tbl. dough enhancer
4 Tbl. vital wheat gluten

Follow the same steps as the original recipe, except you add the dough enhancer and vital wheat gluten along with the oil and salt, and it should make 6 loaves (depending upon the size of your loaf pans).

UPDATE: A couple of people have asked "why the vinegar?"  There’s a substance in the wheat germ called "Glutathione" which breaks down gluten.  It’s also present in small amounts in yeast, and if the water you’re using is too cool (under 100 degrees F), it will leak out of the yeast and weaken your dough strength.  (Note: if you use fresh milled flour, it is warm enough that this isn’t likely to happen.)  Anyway, the acid in the vinegar (many recipes call for Vitamin C powder…which is ascorbic acid) helps to counteract the effects of Glutathione by preventing the gluten bonds from breaking and by repairing any bonds that have already broken.  This does 2 things: strengthens the leavening of the bread loaves during baking, and promotes yeast growth so the yeast works longer and faster (yeast grows best in an acidic atmosphere).  (This is all from "Cooking & Baking with Fresh Ground Flour–Complete Grain Guide" by Christine Downs.) 

I think the vinegar is just a cheaper ingredient than buying Vitamin C crystals, and works the same way. 

Enjoy, and please take a second to say "hello!"

God Bless you!

Lori 
(Please leave your URL if you’re from outside of HomeSTEADblogger, so I can find you and visit!   Thanks so much!)

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I wish I could take credit for this one, but it goes to a new blog that I’ve just added to my "follow" list!  Heidi at "The Official Boot Camp for Lousy Homemakers Blog" posted it, and–after ruining one set of glasses years ago with homemade automatic dishwasher detergent and swearing I’d never try it again–I’ll be making my own detergent mix!  I’ll link you to her post, where you can read the recipe and the ingredients cost analysis in detail.  Suffice it to say, the homemade costs .05c per load, vs. .14c per load for store-bought (Palmolive).

Here’s the link: 

And NO, visiting this blog does NOT mean you are admitting to being a lousy housekeeper!!! 

Blessings,
Lori
To join TWT and share your $$-saving tip, click on the graphic at the top of my post to be taken to CanadaGirl’s blog!  Be SURE to leave everyone comments…that’s 75% of the fun!!!

 If you’re from outside of HomeSTEADblogger, be sure to leave your URL so I can find you and visit! 

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