Whole Wheat Bread

One of my favorite foods is bread, especially homemade bread. My Mom makes the most delicious homemade bread, there is nothing better than coming home to a house with the auroma of fresh, warm bread. YUM!

Well, we live in Colorado and making bread is a bit challenging in this high altitude. One day several months ago my friend Candace shared a recipe for Whole Wheat Bread you can make in the bread maker. I have a bread maker and used it regularly in Idaho, but had no success here in Colorado. I decided to try her recipe, and loved it. It turned out so great, and was even healthy for you. Well, now I have been making this recipe for 7 months, and no longer by bread from the store. We go through almost a loaf a day, sometimes it will last two days depending on how many people eat sandwiches for lunch. It is so convenient to just through it all in the bread maker, turn it on, and 3 1/2 hours later - we have the auroma of fresh homeade bread.

I have slowly been tweeking the recipe a bit, to make it healthier. Amazingly, the taste is still great. I will share the original recipe as well as my substitutes. My most exciting new substitute was using apple sauce instead of butter. It worked, and tastes great. So, if you are interested, here is the recipe.


Breadmaker Wheat Bread (original)

2 cups white flour
1 1/2 cups wheat
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 T. yeast
1 cup warm water
1 egg
1/4 cup melted buter


Breadmaker Wheat Bread (Becca's alterations)

3 cups wheat flour
1 cup oats
1 tsp salt
1 T. Gluten (helps when you use all wheat flour)
1/4 cup flax seed ground (you can buy it whole and use a coffee grinder to grind it, or buy it already ground (flaxseed mill))
1/4 cup honey
1/2 T. yeast
1 cup warm water
1 egg
1/4 cup apple sauce (I actually used pear sauce from the family cannery)

On my machine I havea 'whole wheat setting' that is what I use (It takes about 3 1/2 hours, which works great here). I just put everything in, in the order on the recipe, and then I check it after it startes mixing to see if it needs more flour or water.
I think I am going to go have a piece of bread.

First Ice Cream Cone - Yum!

After Family Home Evening last night we were all having a little "treat". I was giving Jackie and Dallin and ice cream cone and Brea did not think it was fair for her older brother and sister to have one and not her. I decided to give her one and see how she did. Boy, she loved that ice cream. She was so happy eating it. What pure joy! The picture is a bit blurry and doesn't do it justice, but you can still see her enthusiasm in having her own ICE CREAM CONE! She is all grown up now, eating her own ice cream cone. She won't let us feed her anymore, and does quite well with a fork and spoon. She loved to eat. When I start making a meal she runs over to her booster seat and begs to be put in so she can eat. She doesn't realize that it takes a bit to make a meal. Usually she eats snack while I make dinner. She is a happy little toddler!

We had some more warm weather, have I told you how much I like Colorado in the winter. We went up to Denver last weekend to attend the Temple. We decided, since it was gorgeous outside, to take the whole family. Jeff did a session first while the kids and I hung out at a nearby park for 2 hours. It was so warm, they played and played until they were worn out. They all love being outside just as much as their parents do.

Dallin (3) has come up with a couple of imaginary friends. He talks about them daily. They are either at our house doing stuff (like sitting in the chair where Mom is about to sit - "Don't sit there Mom Tiki is sitting there") or they are gone because they don't actually live at our house, or they are shopping. They go shopping at lot! They always need to buy FOOD. Their names are Tiki and Go Go. He came up with them and their names all on his own. These friends also know the rules very well. Dallin will say "Ya, Go Go told me I shouldn't do that, or Tiki knows that we are supposed to hold Moms hand when we cross the street." So I guess they are a good influence on him.