The bread stocks have been run down to next to nothing and it's still 4 days until shopping day so tonight I had to bake bread. I say had to but really for me breadmaking isn't a chore. I love kneading it. The only part I don't like is trying to get the bench clean after the kneading!
I made my usual wholemeal loaves which are on their second rising right at this moment, ready to be popped into the oven when I wake up. To mix things up a bit I also made Sophie Gray's english breakfast muffins. I LOVE english muffins but they are quite pricey. These ones taste even better than shop bought and were so easy to make (just a little time consuming if you don't start making them until 10.30pm).
I'm so looking forward to breakfast in a few hours time when I can top one with fresh spinach from my garden and a poached egg. All that's missing is the hollandaise sauce!
There's also baking in the tin for lunches tomorrow. We ran out of butter so I made a carrot cake - no cream cheese icing though or icing at all for that matter. If I get a chance in the morning I might quickly do a batch of anzac bikkies to tide us over until grocery day. The only other snack food in the house is fresh fruit (getting low at this end of the week) or popcorn therefore baking is more of an essential than a treat (at least that's what I tell myself).
We've been slightly naughty this week and had peach upside-down cake with custard and strawberry souffles for dessert. How my flatmates stay so skinny I do not know, haha.
When I bake bread I'm reminded of how easy it is to do and that there isn't really any reason why we should buy sliced bread at all. At $4 a loaf vogels is delicious, but expensive. If we put our bread budget towards raw ingredients like grains, dried fruits and nuts to make our breads interesting, I bet we wouldn't miss sliced bread at all. I'd just have to allocate an evening a week to do a whole lot and freeze it. Perhaps bagels for next week...
The other thing we've been thinking about is not buying fresh milk anymore and making it all up from powder. I don't taste the difference and it only takes less than 2 minutes to make up a litre or two and would save us a few dollars each fortnight. We're going to trial that idea next week.
When I bake bread I'm reminded of how easy it is to do and that there isn't really any reason why we should buy sliced bread at all. At $4 a loaf vogels is delicious, but expensive. If we put our bread budget towards raw ingredients like grains, dried fruits and nuts to make our breads interesting, I bet we wouldn't miss sliced bread at all. I'd just have to allocate an evening a week to do a whole lot and freeze it. Perhaps bagels for next week...
The other thing we've been thinking about is not buying fresh milk anymore and making it all up from powder. I don't taste the difference and it only takes less than 2 minutes to make up a litre or two and would save us a few dollars each fortnight. We're going to trial that idea next week.
One more thing I've been sneakily doing is topping the juice up with a bit of water once it's half drunk. Nobody has said anything to me yet so maybe they haven't noticed... when we have run out, I've chucked whatever fruit is lying around into the blender with some water. No wasted fruit and one delicious glass of goodness for breakfast. My favourite so far is pineapple/kiwifruit. Yum!
No comments:
Post a Comment