Daily homemade bread from "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day"

I know I haven't posted in a while and I'm going to post more often. I'd say that at least two meals a week are ones I'd like to share; they are tasty, nutritious, cheap, easy to make ... or some combination of the above.

For my comeback post, I'd like to share my adventures with Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. This book change my life! Those of you who know me IRL have probably heard me go on and on and on about this book. :)

Due to T's allergies,  I started scouring ingredients for dairy and soy. I started to buy bread at $5 a loaf on a weekly or twice weekly. It was way too much. I had heard about the book but when we visited my friend M, we ate bread fresh out of the oven and I was sold.

It truly spend only five minutes a day and I make fresh bread daily. For those who haven't heard for this took, essentially what I do is mix flour, yeast, water and salt together in a storage container. I let it sit out for two hours and pop it in the fridge. Then, when I want to make bread, I just pull off hunks of dough, dunk it in flour and place on a greased baking sheet. It bakes in 25 minutes. I don't clean out the storage container between batches and the remaining dough develops a lovely sourdough taste.

Let me share some pictures.

 Bread on a baking sheet (I tried to rotate the picture but it got lost somehow)

 

 Rosemary and roasted garlic flatbread (half-eaten). S's favorite. 

E took this picture. She loves the bread, especially fresh out of the oven.

 Bread in a container in the fridge. 










http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=1616 is the basic recipe I use. I also make the flatbread and rye recipes.

Let me know if you want more baking tips or want to borrow the cookbook!

Shana

Homemade falafel and pita bread

I originally did not to post these recipes because I did not alter them to make them my own. They were easy, solid, nutritious, cheap recipes but definitely Budget Bytes's recipe. However, I decided to share them because they truly are wonderful to have in the recipe repertoire. 

Here a recipe for homemade falafel. Here is a recipe for homemade pita. Aside from the tomato and cucumber, the rest of the ingredients were in my pantry. It was truly a cheap meal.

I baked navy and garbanzo beans in the crockpot overnight on low for 8 hours. Look at the steam!

Edited to add: I used dried beans and cooked them first. You can certainly use canned beans, but I like the lower price and lower salt content of dried beans.

 

 I did not have oil to fry or cumin. I baked the falafel balls on a cookie sheet, omitting the cumin. They were OK. I think next time I will shape smaller patties and definitely make sure I have all the ingredients.

The pita was a cinch to make. I rose the dough in the morning and then stored it in the fridge until supper time. I did not even try to cut the pita in half.I just folded it over tomato and cucumber. Drizzling the pita with tahini sauce was just perfect!

See the camera cord?

This is definitely on my list of cheap and nutritious eats.

Christmas dinner: make this simple baked ham!

E woke to find mac 'n cheese in her stocking. She was ecstatic. I think she would've preferred to eat this instead of our delicious Christmas meal!



Garlic for the mashed potatoes. Mmmm. I split the potatoes in two batches. One received cream cheese and cow's milk and one received coconut milk. The garlic gave the potatoes so much flavor. Highly recommend the heavy-duty mixer.



Green beans for the casserole. It was OK. I don't think we needed more meat for the meal and S was a little disappointed that there wasn't fried onions on top. I think if I could've used butter and real cream, instead of olive oil and coconut milk it would've been better. Probably not a surprise.



Homemade bread for the stuffing. I used PWs recipe and the bread was amazing! The stuffing was good and easy to make. I think next year I will omit the meat and add more fresh herbs.



Extra bacon for snacking. Yum!


The ham was amazing. I cannot recommend this ham more. Sweet, succulent, moist. It was easy and delicious. I used a roasting bag and a liberal amount of apple juice. I basted every 20 minutes and used a roasting bag.


The dessert was OK. I used unsweetened baking chocolate and lard to keep things dairy/soy free. I wonder if that made a difference. The torte was a little dry. I also only had one 9-inch pan and had to make the cakes in batches. The second batch congealed a little and I had to warm it up to spread in the pan. I think I need to do a little reading on tortes because I think I was missing something.

Please share your torte secrets, if you have any.

Looking forward to the next big holiday meal!