We’ve all heard the old adage, “You are what you eat.” The proverb makes sense. Garbage in garbage out, right? As a teenager and young adult, I never paid much attention to what I ate. Give me a hamburger and fries, pizza, ice cream, cake…regardless of what I ate, my activities burned off the excess calories. Even after my first child was born, exercise and eating less calories brought me back to my pre-pregnant body. But it wasn’t until my child was diagnosed with ADHD that I really began to pay attention to the food I ate. So, what does that have to do with my question, “do you bake bread?” Hang in there. I’ll get to that in a minute.
Life Changing Events
Aside from genetics, what I did each day determined who I ultimately became, and what I believed developed my frame of reference. Teachers, parents, books, media, and friends influenced me, but I found the most significant changes I made came from my own experiences. Case in point, major migraine headaches drove me to learn I’m super sensitive to Monosodium Glutamate, so I made a systematic change and read labels to make sure I avoided MSG. From accidents and illnesses to relationships and jobs, I changed directions according to the knowledge I gained. But when a doctor diagnosed my son with Ulcerative Colitis, I found out my “healthy diet” wasn’t all that healthy after all.
Back to Basics
That’s when nutrition and food jumped to the foreground. My jaw dropped at the amount of chemicals saturating the food I bought on a regular basis. And I thought I ate a pretty healthy diet. Yogurt, salads, fruit, vegetables and protein—I could go on and on, but this post isn’t about standing on a soapbox and preaching to my friends. Suffice to say, life changing events changed my focus. I had to go back to basics.
Though my son’s malady triggered my decision to delved deeper into the food we ate, the rest of my family had their own health issues. No one can escape the ailments and health issues that creep into our lives from time to time. But it seemed my entire family had issues inflammatory in nature, inflammation became an up close and personal enemy. So, I researched Inflammatory foods. Who knew that the yeast in bread was inflammatory? I mean, it makes sense, but we all love bread. I couldn’t illuminate that delicious staple.
Ah ha…hence my question, “do you bake bread?”
This picture is one of my first successful sourdough boules. In the last few months, I’ve bought more kinds of flour than I purchased over the rest of my life—combined. I focused on sourdough, because the natural yeast in sourdough doesn’t have the same effect on the body as commercial yeast. It took months to get my starter just right and several more months to bake low gluten bread that tasted halfway decent and wasn’t raw in the middle. But I’ve come a long way, and discovering Einkorn flour was a Godsend. Einkorn is an ancient wheat flour with very low natural gluten that is not like the GMO wheat flours that fill the shelves of the grocery stores today. [Click here for more Einkorn information.]
Yay. I finally got to the point.
Bottom line is, “do you bake bread?” If so, I’d love to know your favorite recipes and why you choose to dive into the art over the immediate gratification and ease of purchasing almost anything online or at the grocery store. I’ve discovered some decent recipes myself, but I’d love a great sourdough or no yeast sandwich loaf, especially an Einkorn recipe. I’m pretty sure a lot of you have much more experience than me. Actually, any bread based, yummy recipes would be wonderful.
My research stumbled upon a wonderful homemade yogurt and a cream cheese recipe, both filled with probiotics, and a yogurt French onion dip, which I’ll reveal in a subsequent post. But for now, I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with.
CONGRATULATIONS TO CINDI KNOWLES, WINNER OF A $25 GIFT CARD IN MY JANUARY RANDOM RAFFLE DRAWING!
Remember, when you comment on my posts, you’re immediately entered into my monthly random $ GIFT CARD drawing.
For more about Casi McLean, visit this post.
#BakingBread #Einkorn #HealthyFood
love baking bread using tried and true recipes and trying out new ones. thanks
That’s so cool. I’d love to know your favorites!
I Love baking bread my granddaughter and daughter love when I make homemade bread Have a great day!
Do you use a machine or are you old school. I think sourdough is hard to bake in a machine, but if I find a good recipe, I’m ready to try it. Do you have any favorite recipes?
Occasionally, I will bake pumpkin chocolate chip bread. I may try to bake other types of bread in the future.
I’m still new at baking bread, but it’s really delicious. I love the idea of pumpkin chocolate chip bread. Feel free to share the recipe.