Pinterest is an awesome tool. The one problem is that I can always find a ton of things I really want to pin and remember for later, but never really end up doing. I am working on correctly that. Today I ventured into bread making. Not only bread making, but baking it in the crock-pot. Yes, you read right, the crock-pot. How did it turn out? Pretty tasty! I will start by providing the pin I used as my inspiration...
Now, the recipe calls for making whole wheat bread. I do not have wheat flour, I have regular unbleached flour in my house. What did I do? Just used the white flour. It worked. Also, I used an equivalent amount of instant (rapid rise) yeast instead of regular yeast, because again, that is what I have. I made sure to reference a few different websites as to how to convert dry yeast to instant yeast before proceeding.
Otherwise, I followed the recipe using my Kitchen-aide mixer. After "kneading" my bread for a few minutes, I put it in my crock-pot, which I had lined with parchment paper to help with removing the bread. Line the lid with paper towels and let it go. When I thought it might be getting close to done, I would check it every 30 minutes or so until I liked the level of brown creeping up the edges of the loaf. Please note, that when baking bread in a crock, the top will not brown. When I thought the load was ready to be pulled out of the crock, I fired up the broiler. Then I a transferred the bread, parchment and all onto a pizza tray and put it under the broiler to brown up on top. This is a tip I found while cruising the many different crock-pot bread recipes. When browned, remove it from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack.
I was going to let it sit on the rack until Hubby got home. I just couldn't do it. I did let it cool completely, but I had to cut into to see what it was like inside (hoping it wasn't a dense mess). It looked good to me, though I thought it might rise a little more, which I may let it do next time. Then I trimmed off a little slice to taste test. Yup, it's good! I have a feeling it will be eaten up tonight and maybe last to tomorrow. Who knows. One thing is for sure. Bread making will be happening in this house. And some of that will be happening in my crock-pot! I am thinking of those hot summer days when heating an oven is right out. Have you ever tried making your own bread? Have you ever used a crock-pot to do it? Will you try? Let's hear your thoughts, recipes, and ideas in the comments!
Cancer is a nasty, nasty thing. It affects too many families. This month is all about Breast Cancer Awareness. I now have breast cancer on both sides of my family. As some of you may know from one of my last posts, currently my mom is fighting this terrible beast. I also have at least two women on my father's side who battled with breast cancer, many years ago. I learned about cancer at an early age, but the women I knew fought it and survived, so until I was six, cancer didn't have bad connotations really.
According to Breastcancer.org, an average woman has a 12-13% chance of getting breast cancer in her lifetime. While there are factors that can increase this number, there are also ways to reduce it. What are some risk factors?(As found at BreastCancer.org)
Being a woman
Age
Family/Personal History
Certain Breast Changes
Race/Ethnicity
Being Overweight
Pregnancy history
Breastfeeding and Menstrual Histories
There are even more factors that can increase your risk, but I don't want to focus on the negative too much.
How to reduce your risk:
Maintain a Healthy weight
Limit alcohol
Exercise regularly
Don't smoke (or quit if you do)
Reducing your exposure to certain chemicals
If you are 35 or over, there is a Breast Cancer Risk Assessment tool you can use. What are some things you can do this month?
Be aware of your risks
Perform a self-exam
Go and get a Mammogram done - If you have never had one, or it has been over a year, get checked.
Help support research/awareness - you can make a donation to an organization or purchase Pink Ribbon products. One thing, when purchasing pink ribbon items, I always like to make sure that part of my purchase is going towards research or awareness.
Wear Pink! If you have pink in your wardrobe or pink ribbon items, wear it.
Until next time... Know your risks, and love on those in your life...
I don't know about you, but I have heard so much talk about emergency preparedness lately, it isn't even funny. Now, I am one to "always be prepared," but I also reach my limits and know some who can take things overboard. I do, however, want our family to be ready should anything happen, like a natural disaster, storms, etc. While I could go and stock up on things like beans, canned goods, and the like, I also thought that there must be an easier way. I think I may have found it in eFoods. It makes being prepared easier. eFoods Direct offers packages that can sustain a single person or a whole family for various lengths of time.
Worried about that food going bad if not used in time?
One thing that I do not like about just stocking canned goods and dry beans is that these things do go bad. Canned goods have a shelf life, and truly it isn't all that long in the grand scheme of things. eFoods' meals have a 25 year shelf life. If you get their pre-mixed foods, they are best used in 15 years. Still, 15 years is a long time. I think that is much better than the two or three years max from canned goods or dried goods.
How good for you can they really be?
More and more people are finding that they must live with allergies or metabolic disorders. Food limitations are a part of everyday life for so many. Also, we want to be able to eat healthy, even in an emergency. eFoods has this covered as well.
eFoodsDirect meals are Cholesterol-Free, great source of fiber, vegetarian options, no trans-fats, no hydrogenated oils, no added MSG, not genetically modified, lactose-free, soy-free, gluten-free, oxygen-free packaging and made in the USA.
It seems that they truly have thought of so much to help families be prepared for what can be thrown at us. If you want to try this all out, you could opt to try 6 meals for free, or you could use one of their two current offers.
In remembrance of the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster in Japan a year ago, we've created special family preparedness offers: www.efoodsoffer.com. Don't forget to enter the special coupon codes,Food40 and Food50, when ordering to get this memorial discount. eFoods' mission is to empower every family to have food security in the case of storms, natural disasters, or even financial crises like shrinking income or the loss of a job.
Until next time... Always Be Prepared!
Disclaimer: I am working with this company on a review of their products. I did not receive other compensation for this post. See my disclosure statement for more information.
Do you want to know one of the presents that is found on my family's Christmas list this year?
Yes, we are asking for a household scale. We have never had a scale in our house. We did when we were not married and still living with our parents, but as a couple we have not owned one, or really wanted to/felt it necessary.
Now we have found ourselves in an interesting dichotomy. LJ has always been light. He is below the 3% for his weight, while being in the 40% + for his height. At one of his last visits to the doctor, we were told that we should own a scale and weigh LJ every week. If he does not gain weight or worse loses weight in a week, we would have to call and take him in to the doctor. Coming from the genetics that LJ comes from, I was not too worried, really. My dad was 5' 5" and weighed like 110 pounds, in his mid 30's. I graduated high school at a whopping 92 pounds and was 5' 4". Genetics were against LJ from the start. He is the spitting image of my father. It is a wonderful thing to the point that I can sort of watch my dad grow up and see what he would have looked like if he ever hit 40 (Lord willing I will see LJ reach that point). Fattening up my son has been a focus since he was born.
Now, Hubby and I on the other hand are a different story (hello, dichotomy). I have not grown at all in height since graduation. My weight on the other hand had gone up. My first year in college I gained the freshman 20-25, but we were all thrilled about that as I was now a more normal and healthy weight. When we started trying to have kids, the weight crept on even before a baby bump could. I even had the dreaded question of "When are you due" asked when I wasn't. Yes, it got that bad. Well, now after two kids, I am at my highest non-pregnancy weight. I had not thought of it too much until a doctor's visit following a car accident. In the little write up they give you after each visit, it had my BMI. It was just over 30. I looked that up and found that I was technically obese. OBESE!
As for Hubby, what can I say, we are decent cooks and enjoy food. :) Can sympathy pregnancy be another excuse? I was able to get him to finally switch doctors and go in for a yearly physical. The doc said he should either grow 4 inches or lose some weight.
While neither of us feel that what the "experts" state as our ideal weights is really within reasonable goals for us, we do feel losing weight would probably be good. So, we have set goals for ourselves to lose about 20 pounds each. This leaves our house with two people trying to lose weight and one trying to put on as much as possible. You know, this makes dinner very interesting. It does not help that LJ likes eating what we are eating and he loves his fruits and veggies. The other night we even had quinoa for dinner and LJ loved it. He didn't want to add anything to it either. No chicken, no veggies, just the quinoa. I am thrilled he likes things like that, but man! I am trying to fatten you up kid!
I know this may mean a number of meals will be totally different for LJ and Hubs and I. I also know this means the temptations are always going to be present. Ice cream, cookies, chocolate, candy; they are in our house for LJ, but act as huge temptations for Hubby and I.
All I can say is.... This should be fun....
products. One thing, when purchasing pink ribbon items, I always like to make sure that part of my purchase is going towards research or awareness. 
