Homemade Whole Wheat Bread

I love bread and so do my kids. Who doesn't!? I would have to say of all the homemade whole wheat bread recipes I have tried so far, this is the easiest, fastest, and best tasting. This recipe (which requires the use of my mixer) caused me to donate my no longer used bread maker. Never once did I have a successful 100% whole wheat loaf in the bread maker anyway! I wish I could remember where I found this recipe and credit the owner, but unfortunately I can't find the link.

Ingredients:
5 1/2 - 6 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 pkg active dry yeast
1 tbsp. salt
1/4 cup honey
4 tbsp. softened butter
2 1/2 cups hot tap water
vegetable oil

In a large bowl (or even your mixer bowl, I am all about saving work when it comes to washing dishes), combine 2 cups flour, yeast and salt. Stir well. Add the honey, butter and tap water to the dry flour mixture. Next step is to beat the mixture with a stand mixer at medium speed for 2 minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl occasionally. 

Fit the mixer with dough hook. Add another cup of flour and knead for 2 more minutes. Gradually add just enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough that pulls away from the sides of the bowl (this all depends on the dryness of the flour). 

 

Today, I only needed 5 1/2 cups of flour. Using the mixer with dough hook, knead the dough for 4 more minutes. At this point, the dough will still be sticky.

 

Place dough in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rise til double (only 1-2 hours later). I have even left the dough in the mixing bowl and covered with plastic cling wrap. After the dough reaches double size, punch down (literally take your fist and punch it with all your pent up aggression!) and divide dough into two portions. 

The original recipe requires you to grease two loaf pans (8-1/2 X 4-1/2 X 2-1/2), form 2 loaves and place in pans, but I do not have any loaf pans at the moment, so I place the loaves side by side in a 9"x12" oven safe glass baking dish. Set the pans or pan in a warm place to rise until doubled.

The final step before enjoying this delicious home baked bread is to place in a preheated 375°F oven for 30-40 minutes or until loaf sounds hollow when lightly tapped on bottom. Remove loaf from pan immediately and cool on a wire rack. Brush loaf tops with melted butter, slice and enjoy!

Bacon, Celery Salad with Tomatoes; The New BLT!

It was one of those days where I was too lazy to go to the store and buy lettuce for a BLT, but noticed that I had plenty of celery in my fridge. Maybe lazy is not so much the word, but my hands were full with my two youngest at home and one with bronchitis. No way I was going to the store with these two in pursuit.

"Hmmmm, could I substitute celery for lettuce in my BLT?", I wondered to myself.

I think I should experiment and see if this can happen. The bacon was already under the broiler.  The toast in the toaster. What do I have to loose? I needed to decide soon or find something else for my Sunday afternoon lunch because my stomach was growling and so was the stomach of my three year old.

I made the leap and gave it a try, and let me tell you, I am so glad I did. It was wonderful and even my three old enjoyed it and asked for seconds!

Ingredients:
4 stalks of celery, washed and diced into small bite size pieces
1/3 pint of grape tomatoes
2 thin slices of onion, diced
4 TBSP Real Mayonnaise
A dash of salt, pepper, and basil

 Did I mention that I didn't have large tomatoes...only grape tomatoes in the fridge?!

 

All the vegetables diced and ready for the mayo, salt, pepper, and basil.

 

Ready for the toast and bacon!

 

This was delicious and something I will do again, especially when I am lacking the appropriate ingredients for the same old BLT. My new BLT, the BCsT; Bacon, Celery salad with Tomatoes!

French Dip Sandwich with Au Jus

I love french dip sandwiches and so does my family. When I don't feel like cooking, its such an easy meal to make and healthier than eating at our local restaurant chain with all its processed food. Previously (before our switch to unprocessed foods and meals), I would just buy a condensed can of beef consomme and use that as our Au Jus sauce. But after reading the label of ingredients on the back of the can of soup and not understanding half the ingredients' list, I decided a change needed to take place in order to make the meal more healthy and less processed for my family. I searched online for homemade versions of beef consomme and from my research (Let me remind you, I am only a hobby cook) the soup takes a long time to make and ends up as a clear liquid (really!? how is that possible)...sounds like too much work to me. So I found a base for my own version of Au Jus and adapted it with some minor changes. Thanks to Katie over at Chaos in the Kitchen for the inspiration to my own unprocessed version of Au Jus with some consomme' characteristics. The whole point of this meal is to be easy and use as little processed ingredients as possible. Roasted garlic mayonnaise (condiment of choice for this sandwich) is very simple to make for yourself, see step 4 below.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups beef broth, organic or natural
• 1 small onion, sliced into rings
• 1 carrot diced
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1-2 TBSP organic ketchup (or to minimize sugars use tomato paste)
• 2 bay leaves
• salt and pepper for taste
• 4 hoagie rolls
• 1lb lean, deli roast beef, thinly sliced
• roasted garlic
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise (I prefer the olive oil all natural version)

In a medium sauce pan, add beef broth, onion, carrot, garlic, ketchup (tomato paste) and seasonings to a boil.

 

Boil vigorously until reduced by half. You should be able to measure out 2-3 cups of au jus.

Mix the roasted garlic (just place a garlic head in a small crock or aluminum foil, drizzle with olive oil, and place in the oven under the broiler until mushy) and mayonnaise to make the tangy mayo condiment. 

Heat the sliced roast beef directly in the sauce pan with the au jus. Slice hoagie rolls and open, butter the insides and place under broiler in your oven until slightly crisp. Watch the rolls! Just like my roasted pepper post, I tend to multitask while cooking and several times caught the rolls, or any food product for that matter, on fire because I walked away too long.

Once the rolls are crunchy, spread the garlic mayo on one side of each roll, loosely pile 3-4 ounces of roast beef on top of the mayo. Serve sandwiches with au jus on the side.

The side dish is my Garlic Baked Potato Wedges.