A Bread-Making Genius!

Yes, that's right. I am a bread-making genius!

I decided that one of my goals this year was to make more homemade foods for our family to enjoy. My goal was not about making a bunch of sweets and things, more like replacing ultra-processed foods we normally consume. Like granola bars, biscuits, and sandwich bread to name a few. My motivation in doing this is to avoid ingredients that I don't understand (meaning I can't pronounce them or don't know where they came from) and also to save money in our family budget. Ryan and I recently reassessed and I made the commitment to reduce our grocery/toiletries budget from $600 to $400 per month. That includes all food, toiletries, diapers, and miscellaneous things we pick up at Walmart and Target. I should also mention that I don't really shop at Walmart (or Target) weekly anymore. My main store is Aldi's. And I love getting out of there for around $45 each week. Very satisfying when I'm used to spending almost $100. I stop at Walmart about every two or three weeks for the things Aldi's doesn't sell. We also make a Sam's Club trip monthly for diapers and chicken. And it's only fair to mention that we buy a whole hog and a quarter cow each year, too. So my weekly grocery trips don't often include any meat. But I digress... saving money and the health of my family (including my niece and nephew) are my main motive.

I searched for a dairy free bread recipe and landed on this one from The Curvy Carrot. I altered it to fit my needs, subbing non-dairy butter for Kia and replacing half of the white flour with whole wheat. I also have opted out of buttering the top of each loaf after cooking because I'm still on Weight Watchers and I can't justify the points. I'm still in the dark ages and I don't have a bread machine or a stand mixer. But that's okay, I kind of enjoy kneading bread by hand. After 10 minutes of it, I have a little more respect for a real farm wife, but all in all, I like the work of making bread.

So here's where the genius comes in. The recipe makes 2 loaves and the author and several commenters will tell you they are giant loaves. The bread just rises and rises. So much so, that a third of the bread is sticking out above the toaster when you try to toast it. And it's kind of difficult to cut because the pieces are so tall that its easy to slant the knife and end up with a wide top and skinny bottom on the slice. So it occurred to me, after 10 or so loaves (I know, what took so long?!) that maybe I could make 3 loaves instead of 2. That would mean the bread would last our family for 3 weeks, rather than 2. It would make it so the whole slice toasts. And it would decrease the Weight Watchers points value, because I'd be getting more slices. I'd also save money on the deal.

So tonight I tried it. And it worked!!! It's actually just the size of regular sandwich bread. I can cut it perfectly straight and I've got 2 loaves in the freezer, which will last us through the end of February. I haven't figured the cost exactly, but my homemade bread is much cheaper, much healthier, and tastes much better than what we used to buy at the store. Like I said, GENIUS!