Homemade 100% Whole Wheat Bread

In my quest to eliminate or at least greatly reduce my white flour and sugar intake I have started making my own 100% whole wheat bread.  I have found that it is hard to find bread that is 100% whole wheat without any preservatives.  The brands that I have found are usually very dense and sometimes a little bit too hardy tasting.

I decided to start making my own so that I will know exactly what is going in to the bread.  However, as always, limited time is an issue for me.  So I found a recipe in the same 5 minute bread book that I posted about earlier.

I would post the recipe, but I do not want to break any copyright laws.  However, the bread has very few ingredients and is simple to mix and bake.  The only ingredients are whole wheat flour, honey, oil, yeast, milk and salt.

I mix up the bread and bake it on Sunday evenings, and then it lasts for the remainder of the week.  I have been experimenting with the recipe a little bit over the past few weeks.  I have added flaxmeal, whole flax seeds, oatmeal, and walnuts.  The flaxmeal I substituted for an equal amount of flour so that it would not change the ratio of dry to wet ingredients.  All of the other items I just added in addition to the regular recipe.  So far all of the additions have turned out fine.  The bread is a little bit dense, but has a great slightly sweet flavor to it.

I am hoping that I can soon start grinding my own flour rather than buying it in bulk from my local natural food store.

It is good with all kinds of toppings. . . 

PB&J, ham and cheese, 

chicken salad,
 

 avocado and cheese. 

 No matter what kind of sandwich, it makes for a great little lunch! 

Hmmm, I guess that I was feeling very orange today!  

- Laura

Kirkwood Market

I went to a local market in Kirkwood which is a suburb of St. Louis.  The market is open every day of the week, which I was impressed by.  The one in my area is only one day each week for a few hours.

When I got to the market I discovered that more vendors show up on some days than on others.  There were only three vendors the day that I went. 

I was kind of disappointed though because one of the vendors sold fruits and vegetables that they obviously had not grown locally.  Mango and kiwi in Missouri?  Prepackaged raspberries and mushrooms with commercial brand names on them?

However, they did have lots of locally grown tomatoes.  This was my favorite part.  You just cannot beat home grown tomatoes!

 The peaches had just come into season, and that is what I ended up buying.  I ate one each morning for breakfast.  They were delicious!  I was disappointed that I could not buy anything else because I did not think that I could safely transport them all the way home to the Chicago area.

- Laura

The Garden in the Garden State: Trenton Farmer's Market

Laura and I are both out of town this weekend.  So, a big thanks to Carrie from The Hungry Hippo for helping us out and enjoying her local market!

Seriously, if you don't subscribe to her blog, do it now.  Her take on brunch had me laughing out loud.  Dig through a bit and find some good stuff.

From Carrie:

These days people will snort or scoff when referring to New Jersey as the Garden State.  They think of the Turnpike stretching across twelve lanes, cutting through the industrial cities of Newark and Elizabeth.  But that isn’t all there is to New Jersey.  Where I grew up, in the central part of the state, are acres and acres of farmland.  It’s been diminished somewhat since my childhood by housing developments, but the farms still cling to the land.  Tucked up in hills, down in valleys, around dusty corners of old country roads, in among the waving corn stalks, farms still sell direct to the customer from their own stands.  But New Jersey farms have long gathered to sell at the Trenton Farmer’s Market.  At the edge of a city better known for poverty and crime than delectable produce, the Market has been running since the 1930s.  How’s this for Garden State?

 ______

I'm not going to lie.  This is much different than the only part of New Jersey I have seen.  That would be Newark Airport, cause it's cheaper.  

To see what Carrie does with some of all of this produce, head over to The Hungry Hippo !

-Meghan

Market Day!

It was very Sunny today for the Urbana Market at the Square.  I brought my camera to grab a few photos of the things I am most excited about:

the flower stands

I think this is a dahlia.  Does anyone know?

cucumbers

blackberries and raspberries

black raspberries...yum!

Um, these roots.

It was a big decision:

But I came home with these:

-Meghan