Our Bread's Secret Heart Healthy Ingredient: Omega 3's

One of the overlooked ingredients in our bread that packs a huge nutritional punch is flax seed flour.  Not only is the bread high in fiber but is rich in omega 3's which according to current research have benefits for the heart.  Flax seeds also contain high levels of lignans that may help inhibit some types of cancer.  Below are links to some good information on flax and omega 3's from the Mayo Clinic and WebMD.

Mayo Clinic - Omega 3's
WebMD - Info Flaxseed

We use Hodgson Mill flax flour found at most major chains.  It's fairly easy to find and doesn't require an extra trip to the health food store.

Favorite Music For Breadmaking

The reason we love our bread is because it is rich in nourishment and is very satisfying to our hunger.  That is the same reason we highly recommend the music from the artists below.  Indelible Grace and Matthew Smith create music that is rich, deep, and nourishing to our souls. 

Below are some really cool widgets that you can both sample, purchase and share the music with someone else. 

We had the opportunity to meet Matthew Smith a couple of years ago when he came to play at our church.  He is a special artist with a gift of communicating God's grace through music.   Listen and be fed.

Versatility of Basic Dough Recipe

This morning, after I had taken our 3rd child to swim practice, I came home and started making bread.  I tripled the Basic Dough Recipe out of my Bread Beckers Recipe Book and started the dough going in my Electrolux Assistent.  After I kneaded it (using the machine) for 15 minutes, I put the top on the bowl to let it rise while I went back to the pool to take the 4th child and pick up the 1st and 2nd who swam really early this morning. I came back home and punched down the dough in the bowl to let it rise again. I let it rise for about 20 or 30 more minutes and shaped the dough into 3 different forms. After shaping and rising again, I baked the different breads. I typically put butter on the bread as soon as it comes out of the oven.  It tastes amazing and it helps keep it moist, especially if I freeze the bread.  We have discovered by trial and error that it is important to make your pizza crust as thin as humanly possible because it does rise.  I now use a rolling pin and put down enough olive oil to make it easier to lift the flattened dough onto the pizza pan. Today I had the best luck ever and we put pepperoni and chicken sausage on the pizza.  YUM!

 I decided to make pizza for lunch (see picture) with part of the dough, make a pan of rolls, and 2 loaves for French toast.  We will use the rolls for sandwiches later next week (or for snacking) and make French toast for another meal next week too.  I will put the loaves and part of the rolls in the freezer to keep them fresh until we need them.  I make the basic bread recipe at least once a week and usually try to keep a quick bread around like banana bread for my breakfast or the kid's snacking.

Basic Dough Recipe

1 1/2 cups hot water                  2 Tbs. lecithin
1/3 cup cold-pressed oliveoil     1 tsp. gluten
1/3 cup honey                           4 cups freshly milled flour
2 tsp. salt                                  1/2 cup ground flax seed
1 egg                                        1 Tbs. yeast

Combine water, oil, honey, salt, and egg.  Add lecithin, gluten, half of flour, and ground flax seed.  Mix thoroughly.  Add yeast and enough flour to make a soft dough.  Knead until smooth and elastic (15 minutes for a triple batch or 10 minutes if kneading a single batch by hand,  5-6 minutes for single batch with mixer).  Let rise until double.  Punch down dough and let rise again until double.  Shape as desired and let rise again until double.  For 2 loaves bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.  For rolls, bake at 350 degrees for 17 minutes.

This recipe is valuable because you can use it for any variation you'd like...bagels, filled breads, rolls, pizza bread, pizza, cinnamon rolls, etc. Adding the flax seed and eggs also makes it a powerhouse of nutrition. Enjoy!!

After my husband did the final pick-up at the pool, we had a delicious and nutritious lunch...pizza.  It's not often that you consider pizza healthy and nourishing, but if you make it yourself it certainly is nourishing, healthy and delicious.

For information regarding purchasing the ingredients at the best possible price, see our earlier post.

The Right Baking Pans Make a Big Difference

I have two Pampered Chef bar pans that I use for my rolls and oatmeal bars.  They are the BEST! I have several commercial-weight loaf pans that I use for my loaves.  The thicker the pan the better.

My little spatula I got from Pampered Chef is the perfect size for taking rolls out of the pan.

I brush an egg wash on the rolls after I shape them on the pan.  I do this to give rolls a golden brown color and more crispy texture.

An aside ......  when you put your rolls on the pan to rise, place them close enough so they touch when they bake (see pictures).

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Why We Grind Wheat for Fresh Flour

Mommy, where does flour come from?

Well, not from the grocery store, Wal-Mart or even ground chalk.  It comes from wheat and specifically wheat berries. 

Why go to the trouble to grind your own wheat?

That's a great question.  The major principle that guides our family's food planning is, "eating food as close to its natural state as possible."  Please Note: We are not 100% purist and believe you can become obsessed and not very fun to be around (especially eating out) holding rigidly to this principle, but when we can we try to make our regular diet as healthy as possible.

Back to the question: we grind wheat because bread can be a very healthy food if it is made from freshly ground wheat vs. store bought flour.

 I tried to seek some "non-health-nut" information regarding the processing of wheat to make flour as purchased in most grocery stores.  The short answer to the amount of processsing is A LOT.  This link to the North American Millers Association is a very factual account of all the processes wheat goes through to become flour.

There are two main reasons for the degree of processing: shelf stability and baking properties.

Bleached flour is really bleached, I mean chlorine bleach, just in the form of a gas.   Other chemicals are also used, but the most common is the chlorine. 

Flour is also enriched. Remember, enriched is a bad word instead of a good one.  Why do the millers have to enrich the flour?  The process of making flour removes a good portion of the nutrients that are really good for you.  So you get a good dose of the "spray on" vitamins similar to those in Lucky Charms or Fruit Loops.

The processed flour also produces baking qualities that most Americans really like.  We like soft and fluffy bread. The processing of flour helps achieve that texture.  Unfortunately, in many types of flour a little component called FIBER is lost on way.

So if that is what we gain from the industry website; just wait to see the information the health and wellness sites reveal.  We always try to read the health and wellness websites with a critical eye, but the WomenFitness link here has some eye-opening information on processed flour. 

Conclusion
Our bread is made from freshly ground wheat so it is NATURALLY good for our family.  It is high in fiber and many vitamins, especially vitamin E.  We also know it doesn't have residual chemicals used in the processing (there is debate over how much is in processed flour, but we err on the safe side).

Our Recommendation for Homeschool Book Source

We found out about AbeBooks.com from a seminary friend who orders lots of textbooks.  It is a great source for new and used books and textbooks at greatly reduced prices.  Many homeschool curricula suggest many books that are hard to find or out of print.  This is a great website to find these more obscure titles that are not carried by some of the more well-known book sellers.

One word to the wise if you are buying used books.  You will need to look through the book right after you receive the shipment just to make sure it is the condition the seller said it was in.

Our Recommendation for Deals on Swim Gear

We are a year round swim family and have a constant need for some type of swim gear whether it be practice suits, drag suits or googles.  Chlorine is hard on everything.  If you are a swim family you know it is hard to find gear at "normal" stores year round without paying full retail. 
We found SwimOutlet.com to be a good source for suits, googles, and most any other swim gear you will need.  We are a regular customer and order several items from them for Christmas gifts this year.  We have found this a helpful tip, especially to families new to the sport, that aren't sure where to get all the stuff.  The link above is active and will take you directly to the site.

Happy New Year! - Resolutions

This is the first post from Ashley's husband, primary beneficiary of all the good bread. I'll be posting from time to time on some non-bread topics so here it goes....

Many of us start the New Year with resolutions. Most have something to do with diet and exercise and hopefully eating more healthy bread. Please click on this link Jonathan Edwards Resolutions to see some really thought provoking and challenging resolutions written in the 1700's by Jonathan Edwards! 

I'm also posting for a period of time (on the right side of the page) a really cool widget that displays all 70 of his resolutions one at a time.

Enjoy!

Making Bread for Extra Income or for Bartering

If you have wheat, a mill to grind it, and time you can make some money for your family.  Trust me, people who taste your bread will want more and most of them won't have the ingredients or the time to make it.

My issue is the lack of time, and I imagine that is universal.  With homeschooling, cooking and cleaning, AND playing taxi, there's not a lot of time. BUT I have started a bread fund envelope where I put the money I earn when I bake bread for others and I willl use that money to buy wheat when we order again.

I haven't marketed myself, but I do have enough "business" just from word of mouth.  My goal at this point is to make enough money to pay for my next shipment of wheat and to cover the expense of the ingredients.  My husband did a cost analysis of my basic roll and loaf recipe so I would know what to charge.

You can also barter for goods or services using your breads.  There is another swim family on our team who has four hens.  When they have enough eggs to share, she tells me and I bring her bread to swap.  You can also barter for services that your family needs using bread. The bad economy and the loss of a job has made our family much more creative!

Cheapest Stores to Buy Ingredients

Most of the daily ingredients I use to make my bread are available locally.  Lecithin(an emulsifier) is the one I have to order through Something Better.  I haven't tried our local health food stores to see if they have it, but I imagine it is cheaper to buy it in bulk when we place a big order for wheat.  My experience is that the little health food stores are more expensive. 

Wal Mart carries Hodgson Mills ground flaxseed and gluten.  I also buy Hain sea salt, Florida Crystals natural sugar, and the store brand of unsalted butter from Wal Mart. Sam's Club has honey and cold-pressed olive oil, and Fleischmann's Instant Dry Yeast much cheaper than other retailers. Don't buy the little bottles of bread machine yeast at the grocery store, it costs a fortune! Sam's just came out with their store brand of cold-pressed olive oil.  Choose foods and ingredients with little or no processing and with NO high fructose corn syrup.

I would love to buy all organic foods, but it's not economically feasible for our family or most others, for that matter.  I love raw honey, raw milk, and fresh eggs; however, the honey is expensive, I can't find raw milk and I only get fresh eggs every once in a while.  Reality sometimes stinks.  I save my precious jars of raw honey to use in hot tea or eat with hot rolls, not to bake with.

We don't have any organic national food chains near us, to I have to shop at regular national food chains.

If you have questions about any of the ingredients, Sue Becker has a great explanation of different ingredients like gluten, lecithin, and different kinds of wheat in her cookbook. 

Healthy Sports Nutrition For Swimmers and Perimenopausal Moms

Whew, I'm sitting down for a minute while I wait on the banana bread and the laundry to come out of their respective appliances.  I fed one little swimmer, my husband just took him to practice, and my husband will return with 3 very hungry big swimmers wanting dinner.  The family life of competitive swimmers seems insane to most of the world (you never get a break except for 3 weeks out of the year); however, its a life we live and love.

The big two don't love it right now.  They are swimming two-a-day practices over Christmas break and they are HUNGRY, sore, and tired.  If you have swimmers or other athletes you are feeding, it is very important to feed them good, nourishing food to fuel their bodies; not highly processed ones.

I discovered the Ezekiel Fasting Bread recipe in the Bread Beckers cookbook.   I made the bread several times, but it rose too much and made a mess in my already dirty oven.  However, I wanted to use the flour because you grind several kinds of dried beans along with the grains and it makes a complete protein.  PERFECT! You make your breads with this flour and it is the perfect answer for swim meets or other times you need a stand alone meal.  I always use it in my pancakes, my oatmeal snack bars (energy bars), and banana bread.  I take oatmeal snack bars and banana bread to swim meets for a perfect breakfast and for subsequent snacking throughout.

Another added benefit.........
I learned that after women turn 40 their nutritional needs change.  Good grief, everything changes with your body.  You have to exercise to maintain a healthy weight and you start experiencing the not so pleasant changes of perimenopause.  Now I must have protein and carbohydrates for breakfast or I experience a blood sugar crash and get shaky and irritable.  I discovered if I eat something made with Ezekiel flour and have some yogurt (without high fructose corn syrup) I can tackle the world.  Well not really, but I do feel much better!
I read the book Take Charge of the Change - Nourishing Your Body and Spirit Now Through Menopause by Pamela M. Smith (Link to AbeBooks).  It is well indexed and very helpful, giving nonprescription diet modifications to help with the physical symptoms of perimenopause.

You can find the recipe for Ezekiel flour on the Bread Beckers website.  I use a recipe for oatmeal snack bars from Martha Greene's Martha's Family Cookery Book.

Well, the other 3 kids are home and I've fed the rest of us. Our daughter said,"Mom, you made my day.  That was yummy!".  We've now eaten almost an entire loaf of banana bread and an entire breakfast casserole.  The true joys of motherhood.