Tammy's Recipes

It's Frugal Friday time over at Crystal's blog, and I thought I'd participate this week by answering a question someone recently asked:

I know you make your own bread and I did too for a while. But I make white bread. When I tried making wheat bread it was heavy and dry. With summer here I have been buying it. I think it is a good deal at $.75 a loaf for white & $.99 for grain.

Do you think it is even worth me making bread at this cost?

Short answer: Only you can decide if the time, expense, and health benefits of homemade bread is worth it to you!

Every home runs a little differently. One person might care more about the cost upfront, and choose to buy their bread. Another person might have special equipment that makes homemade bread very quick and easy -- and so it is worth it to them.

Others feel so passionately about consuming only the healthiest bread, and feel that the health benefits far outweigh the other factors. And some families don't eat much bread, so it's not really a big deal. Or the husband/father prefers bread from the store.

Several times recently I've been asked to sell a loaf of my homemade wheat bread (this is the bread we normally consume). In order to come up with a price, I decided to figure out what each loaf was costing in ingredients.

Cost analysis of my homemade 100% whole wheat bread (per loaf):

1 cup filtered water = $0.01
2 tablespoons oil = $0.06
1 teaspoon salt = $0.01
2 tablespoons raw honey = $0.20
1 tablespoon milk = $0.02
2 tablespoons dark brown cane sugar = $0.04
3 cups freshly ground whole wheat flour (about 1 pound of grain) = $0.58
2 teaspoons yeast = $0.08

Cost per loaf: $1.00 (no, I didn't try to get it to come out even!)

Optional dough conditioners for whole wheat bread (we do add these):

Pinch ginger = $0.01
Pinch citric acid or ascorbic acid = $0.01
1 teaspoon lecithin = $0.05
3 tablespoons gluten flour/vital wheat gluten = $0.30

Final cost for my loaf of bread: $1.37 (minus other considerations such as: butter to grease the pan/dough, fuel for the oven, wear and tear on equipment such as grain mill and bread machine, and additional strain on the air conditioner during hot months)

This does make a very large loaf, comparable in size to the 100% whole wheat loaf that Aldi sells for $1.49 (last time I checked -- a few months ago).

I realize that we are not saving money by making homemade bread -- at least, not compared to what we could spend for the cheapest bread in the grocery store.

I like making bread for taste reasons and for health reasons. Commercial bread has an odd chemical smell to me. One time I tried warming up a few slices of wheat bread (from Aldi) in the oven to go with some soup. The bread was doughy and smelled awful!

And have you ever noticed that loaves of bread from the store just don't mold anymore? Seriously. I have had loaves from Aldi (which has the cheapest price -- the price I compare my bread to) that sat here for three weeks and beyond -- even a month after the expiration date on the bag, the bread still hadn't shown any signs of aging, aside from being slightly dry. But only slightly dry.

And the taste of fresh homemade bread, well, the $1.49 loaves at Aldi just can't compare.

Health reasons -- I won't go into all of those here, but I feel as though my homemade 100% whole wheat bread just as healthy or healthier than any loaves you can buy in the store -- and comparable loaves would cost $4+ each -- if we're comparing taste and quality.

Those of you who make your bread, I'd love to hear your take on this topic! Why do you choose to make homemade bread? Do you eat both homemade and store-bought? Is the time you put into it worth the savings and health benefits -- or do you feel like you're "just breaking even"? :)

I'm too tired to write much tonight... Here is some apple crisp we made with apples that were given to us. The apples were "drops", so they were far from perfect -- but the flavor was fantastic!

Lots of jars to wash! I'm so thankful for the food. Two pints didn't seal, which is disappointing (usually they all seal, or maybe just one doesn't!) but it will be a good excuse to have pizza a couple of times in the coming week. We haven't had pizza recently. :)

And a messy stove to clean. I went to bed as soon as the last canner came off last night, so today I'll be cleaning the stove! It's not always this messy from canning... I filled some of the pans too full.

We absolutely love our homemade pizza sauce, but it sure is a lot of work! :)

My mom came over today and brought 2-3 bushels of tomatoes from her garden. I had a few tomatoes from our garden as well, and we started making pizza sauce.

It was a long, busy day. Joshua helped for a while, and my mom was here for about 7 hours too. It's 11:20pm and my last canner of jars will be done in about 20 minutes! Yay! About an hour ago, I told Joshua "I think my 16-hour day is up." ;)

We ended up with 39 pints and 7 quarts of pizza sauce -- plus a little extra sauce in the fridge for some pizza tomorrow. Our homemade pizza sauce is just the way we like it -- slightly sweet and very flavorful.

I didn't take any pictures today, but I have some posts from previous years:

Here we are in 2006 doing up tomatoes. (Look at Eliyahu! He was a baby!!)

More tomatoes and some ramblings about the overwhelmed feelings that lots of work can bring...

and pizza sauce and corn on the cob from last year -- 2007. :) We had corn on the cob for lunch today -- the very last from my mom's garden.

And while I did have a very full day, my mom spent 7 hours here helping us, and then went home to make supper and fill a dehydrator with plums from their trees. She's not some magical energetic superwoman, but when there is ripe food, my parents always make the time to preserve it. :) The work slows down in the winter, thankfully. :)

Is there anything Bethany won't try?! :)

Amid loads of apples and other fresh fruits and veggies this summer, Bethany is experimenting with making homemade cheese!

Read about her first cheese here, and read mozzarella-making part 1 and part 2 for more info! :) And if you love blogs full of beautiful pictures and various projects, be sure to subscribe to Bethany's blog, Happy to be Called "Mommy". It's one of my favorites. :)

I love cheese and hers looks so yummy... but I really don't need any new projects right now. ;)

Here's something I recently learned from our friends at Paul's Grains: Leftover hot cereal (like oatmeal or 7-grain cereal) can be added to a normal bread recipe. Just reduce the liquid in the recipe (to compensate for the moisture in the cereal) and slightly reduce the flour.

Dry cracked grains can also be added to bread, though they have the potential to make your bread drier if they haven't been soaked or cooked.

I like the idea of using leftover cereal! Now I don't have to make sure we eat every bit of the cereal I make for breakfast. :)

Here's some bread I made this morning. I used our regular whole wheat bread recipe, and added some cooked 7-grain cereal. I used about 1 cup of cooked cereal and 2 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour per loaf. My loaves turned out beautifully! :)

To participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays: Post a kitchen tip in your blog, with a link to this post. Then come here and add your name, tip subject, and URL to this post! Links must be family friendly, as always. If you don't have a blog but would still like to share a tip, just leave a comment here with your tip! Everyone's ideas are appreciated. :) Note: Please link to your individual post, not your blog's main/front page! Thanks for participating! :)

I love potatoes. My parents got a bumper crop of potatoes this year from their garden, and we were the blessed recipients of a small box full. I like to scrub the littlest ones and put them in soup for an elegant, fine-dining effect. :)

The soup in this picture was sort of a failed experiment. It tasted good, but wasn't what I expected. I used:

Potatoes
Chicken
Chicken broth
Great Northern beans
Carrots
Celery
Onions
Garlic
Seasonings: salt, pepper

The soup tasted like chicken noodle soup, but with beans and potatoes instead of noodles. The beans really didn't fit in my opinion. The potatoes were good, but I really like regular old chicken noodle soup or potato soup better than this stuff.

It was, however, a healthy side dish that lasted for several meals. :)

I don't always take pictures of our meals, especially when we're having the same thing several times a month. This barbecue turkey burger looked so good when I held it up for a bite, so I reached for the camera.

It's actually very difficult to hold the camera up at the right angle in the right lighting and try to get a good picture while holding a very large sandwich that is threatening to fall apart on me! :|

Several of you commented on my last burger post and said that your husbands don't like turkey burgers. I think the key is to not think of turkey burgers as "like beef", but to expect something different. Many times I have tried a food expecting it to taste a certain way, and when it tasted different than I expected, I was disappointed -- even if it was a good food. (My faux apple crisp is one such food.)

What do you think? Have you ever disliked a food because it was different from what you expected and then later decided you liked it after all -- if eaten with the right mindset? Or am I making things up?

I have such a wonderful husband. He's been doing more than his fair share of cooking lately. Having three children has meant that I've needed a lot more help around the house in order for things to run smoothly. Joshua has been more than willing to pitch in -- even after a full day of hard work away from home.

Joshua made this chili. He didn't use a recipe, but included:

Leftover Texas Broil steak
Kidney, black, and Great Northern beans
Green peppers
Onions (from my mom's garden)
Tomatoes (from our garden!!)
Seasonings -- garlic, salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, chili powder, brown sugar, and cayenne pepper

We also had corn on the cob (from my mom) and some fresh whole wheat bread.

I never get tired of fresh homemade bread. :) Corn on the cob is a nice treat, even if I do have to floss right away after eating it. ;)

Ruth was sitting on the living room playing with toys and looking so cute that I had to run for the camera! Such a sweet little treasure. :)

I got some barrettes for her hair. Now her hair stays out of her face!

Ruth loves to sit up and play with toys. She says "mama" and "dada" and is still the sweetest little baby I have ever met! She's not very big (compared to my boys at this age) but she is chubby! :)

Joshua loves burgers, and he loves to grill. I've been taking full advantage of these two facts, and he's been faithfully grilling burgers for us at least twice a week these days. :)

This was a turkey burger, with garden-fresh tomatoes and sweet Vidalia onions. With fresh veggies to add to the sandwich, even I like a plain old burger -- though a garlic turkey burger is my first choice any day. :)

How do you prefer to season burgers? And that's your favorite burger meat? :)

You know how some foods really go together? Like lasagna and garlic bread. Or hot soup and homemade bread...

Well, this meal did not go together at all. I guess sometimes when you're just eating what's in the fridge, you come up with strange menus.

I had some cabbage from my mom, so I made fried cabbage. I sliced up some fresh tomatoes, and made a veggie omelet.

Oh, and we had leftover soup on the side. (Soup recipe coming this week... I hope!)

Joshua looked the food over and said, "I hope you don't put pictures of this on your blog. People will think you're pregnant or something."

Nope, not pregnant. And this was definitely not a menu I plan to repeat in the future! :)

What's your strangest food combination -- that you love? :)

I like ketchup on my fried potatoes, but that's not weird -- that's how I grew up eating them. As a child I also liked jam on my scrambled eggs. It's not too bad... :)

Sitting down to write a new blog post opens so many possibilities. I usually have numerous post ideas waiting to be used... and my camera's memory card is nearly always bursting with photos of recent meals, just waiting to be shared.

And then I like sharing just normal stuff from our life, too. But how to fit it all in?! And it's nice to try to stay on-topic just a little bit... since there are plenty of blogs written about normal life stuff...

But this evening I got an email from Annie H., encouraging me to share more about our life.

I'd love to know what it is Joshua does and how you are able to save enough money to order things like the water filter system... or wait until you're out of everything to go grocery shopping and how the two of you met and courted... and what your routines are like throughout the day and what your growing up was like and whether you rent your house and what you and Joshua do for fun and...

Sooo... :)

I'll start with a Q&A from someone else's blog (I think this is the first time I've ever posted something like this!) and then answer some of Annie's questions. :) (Read more...)

Jules asked how my mom managed to store potatoes all winter. I called my mom for her tips, and here is what she said!

1. Dig potatoes and place into boxes (my mom uses banana boxes with lids). My mom likes to keep the smallest potatoes separate for use in soups (whole), etc.

2. Store boxes in a dark location, and preferably a cool and dry location. My mom puts hers in the basement (they run a dehumidifier).

3. Whenever you notice sprouts growing on the potatoes, go through the boxes of potatoes and take off all of the sprouts. Make sure you pull out any bad potatoes while you're at it, too, and use those as soon as possible.

Does anyone have any more potato storage tips to share? I have heard that potatoes should be stored away from onions or both will spoil faster. Is this true? And if so, why?! :)

To participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays: Post a kitchen tip in your blog, with a link to this post. Then come here and add your name, tip subject, and URL to this post! Links must be family friendly, as always. If you don't have a blog but would still like to share a tip, just leave a comment here with your tip! Everyone's ideas are appreciated. :) Note: Please link to your individual post, not your blog's main/front page! Thanks for participating! :)

(Grilled chicken sandwich)

I don't think I can even count the times dinner has been rescued by my husband's grilling skillz in the past month! Somewhere amid fun walks to the park, trips out to the clothesline, garden maintenance, changing diapers and schoolwork, menu planning has been on the light side around here.

With summer vegetables, it's easy to throw together a meal with grilled chicken or beef or turkey and lots of veggie sides -- and fruit!

We love our Weber Q grill. (Here is a review that Joshua wrote about his grill 2 years ago.) After 4 years of heavy use, it's still going strong! And having a grill (and a husband who loves grilling!) has been a lifesaver for me at times. Literally. I mean, we have to eat to live, right? ;)

Are there any other Weber grill fans out there? I'd love to hear what model you have and any comments about its performance! :)

Monique wants to know:

Do you happen to know of a recipe for bread sticks (made out of pizza crust) and the cheddar or American cheese spread that comes with? Up here in northern Michigan we can buy these at the local restaurant. Talk about fantastic?! But, I'd like to find a homemade version.

I don't think I've ever had anything like what she described! It does sound yummy though, so I'm hoping one of my readers can enlighten us!

Making good bread is such a science. That can be either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how scientific you are.

I'm not very scientific. Joshua is. He's the reason we own measuring cups, and he even wants me to get a kitchen scale. He developed our 100% whole wheat bread recipe, which includes some extra fancy ingredients that make the bread turn out really really awesome.

So I just follow his recipe. With the bread machine to knead the dough, sometimes I wonder if I can even take credit for the loaves of bread I pull out of the oven!

Have you ever seen a bread pan this long? Our neighbor found it at an estate sale and got it for me. I tried it out this evening, and I like it! I think our loaves will last longer this way, and the smaller slices are cute. (It's not as wide as my usual bread pans.) The loaf I made this evening was about the size of a store-bought loaf. :)