Mmm, mmm, bread!

One of the things I have become passionate about over the years is feeding my family good food. Not just food that tastes good, but food that is nourishing, wholesome, full of healthy ingredients.

I saw a quote not too long ago that said, “The problem is that we aren’t eating food anymore, we’re eating food-like products.” This is all too true. The boxed, bagged, and shelf stable items in the grocery store aren’t really food. When you can’t pronounce most of the ingredients, it isn’t food. When it says “bio-engineered”, “GMO”, “natural”, it’s far from natural. Now there’s a growing trend to find “more sustainable proteins” meaning growing things in a lab and processing crickets into flour. This isn’t food.

Did you know the majority of illnesses today are a direct result of things we put into our bodies? This doesn’t just include food. It includes chemicals and toxins in shots, water, cleaning products, fragrances, and more. I could probably write a 1,000 page book on the detriments of all these things, and frankly, it would just be a really discouraging book. For now, let’s focus on food.

We all love food. We love to eat. We love to gather around food. We love to try new foods when we travel. And God created us to need food. So it is a good thing.

Now, don’t panic and trash everything in your kitchen. It’s taken us years to get where we are. We’re still not 100% organic in our house. It’s not something you can switch overnight. But every year, I pick one or two things that need to be “cleaned up” in our diet and work on that. I started gardening years ago so we could eat clean vegetables, not sprayed with harsh chemicals. Then for a couple years we focused on knowing how and where our meat was raised. Since moving to the country that’s become even easier because we can raise it right on our property.

Another year it was laundry detergent. Another, it was cleaning products around the house. It’s a slow and gradual change but it’s a purposeful one. I want my family to be as healthy as we can be and I’ve seen vast improvements as we’ve changed our food to real food.

Lately it’s been bread. I used to make my own bread for a while and then it fell by the wayside. I can’t even remember why. But I’ve wanted to start baking my own again and have found a fast, sustainable recipe. It’s so easy and so yummy!

You just mix all the ingredients together in a food safe container with a lid, stick it in the fridge for at least 24 hours (but it can stay there for fourteen days), and then whenever you want a loaf of bread you just pull off a chunk, form a loaf, and bake! The best part – no kneading!

With 12 people in the house plus many coming and going, I don’t have time for lots of steps. I never remember to feed a sour dough starter and I don’t want to knead for 5 to 10 minutes. This is doable! And it tastes amazing.

Another great thing about this recipe is when you mix a new batch in your container, you don’t wash it out. This way you get a sourdough like bread because it slowly ferments in the fridge and the residue from the previous batch helps the next batch ferment. It’s pretty much amazing.

If I can do it, you can do it! (Recipe posted on my new “Recipes for Busy Moms” page! https://desiredhavenfarm.com/busy-mom-recipes/ Here)