The Kitchen: Sourdough Success!

Just when I thought sourdough bread was not possible, I figured it out.  Maybe I should mix up my ingredients differently and see what happens.  YES!  I got some fabulous bread that is predictable no matter what.  If it is typical northwest rain, I still get nice bread and if it is not, bonus, still nice bread!  After about a month or more of feeding my sourdough starter, I finally understand why it so great.  I don't have to find little packets of yeast in my pantry.  There is no need for sugar or honey to cause a reaction.  My fermented dough, makes the loaf.  All one needs are rye berries, wheat berries, all purpose flour, salt, and water.  This bread is really healthy and tastes great.

I have used the same dough to make baguettes, sandwich loaves, and it does not matter what shape, it still turns out nicely.  I like making sandwich loaves because there is a smaller amount of crust and my kids prefer it.  This bread is mostly hand milled flour, but to get a nice texture I do add a little bit of all purpose flour.  I could probably make it all hand milled flour, but my littler kids would not be able to chew it, so it is a small compromise, but worth it.

Use 3/4 cup sourdough
1 3/4 cup water
4 cups hand milled wheat berries
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt

Mix ingredients, knead, shape, and set in the oven (turned off) overnight about 12 hours.  Then wake up and bake bread in 375 degree oven for 45 minutes.  Place a pan of water on the bottom rack ( so you get a nice crust).  Volia, fantastic sourdough bread!  I plan on making more tonight.

To add to the fun, one can use sourdough for much more.  Our Friday night pizza is now made with my sourdough crust  (recipe also found in this blog).   The whole family gets to be a part of this.  So really having a batch of sourdough is really not that much work, and the rewards are many.  I do not have to wait 10 days to add it to pancakes, cinnamon rolls, burger buns, and so much more.

How does one make sourdough?  Just make sourdough with equal parts of rye flour and water.  I hand mill rye berries, but one can just buy rye flour.  Add more mix everyday and don't forget to use the stuff.

Me: 30 Years Old

Here I am enjoying a Birthday cupcake that I made for myself.  Before judging why I do not have someone else making me cake, remember that I love baking.  One of my favorite things to do is make birthday cakes for everyone in my family.  My mom is making Charis and I small birthday cakes on Sunday, but my kids expected a cake for me today.  So as I thought about cake, I started to crave it more.

Now for my readers who have been following my postpartum weight loss journey, one knows I am really trying to have more discipline over things like this.  I have promised myself I never want to go to a party and say no to cake or food, but I also want to make sure I do not have too much.  Life is about balance and yes, sugar is not so great, but once in a while, eat some.  So I set out to make the cupcakes slightly better (they are still basically cake, but oh well).

For the cake (makes 8 cupcakes)

1/3 cup of organic butter
2 eggs
1 1/4 cup of organic unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup organic whole cane sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup of milk

Mix everything but milk and flour.  Then alternate adding flour then milk until you have a creamy batter.
Place in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Fudge Icing

1 tbsp cocoa
2 tbsp organic whole cane sugar
1/3 cup butter
2 tbsp milk
1 cup of powdered sugar

mix all but powdered sugar together in a small sauce pan over a low heat burner.  Then use a whisk and add powdered sugar.  This will make a stiff dough like icing.  One can even shape into in to fudge, but I just tried to smooth it over the cooled cupcake.  Yum, this stuff melts in your mouth.

This cake is 358 calories a cupcake (yes I am counting my calories still to stay on track).  The organic whole cane sugar adds a slight caramel flavor. 

I enjoyed every bite of my cupcake this morning with a nice cup of decaf coffee.  What a lovely morning treat.  Making the cake was almost more fun than eating it.   

Me: Month Two, No Pounds Lost

So after my wonderful one month of what felt like a nice victory, I have worked so hard and lost nothing.  What could possibly be happening?  My baby started to eat solid food.  Yes, that could be part of it, but there must be more.  I am learning so much more about postpartum this time around.  This is the longest I have gone without getting pregnant in three years.

My newest lesson is, when one loses some weight, then it is time to revise the diet again.  Lindsey Brin's diet is in three phases for a reason, you BMR changes.  I just did not focus on the meals because I do not eat things like shrimp and pork.  When all of last month's work was complete, I did still lose an inch around my waist and hips, but the scale and I are no longer friends.

What am I going to change?  I have had to be really honest with myself.  Dominic's birthday cake was the beginning of many cheat days.  One cheat day a week is not as big of a deal, but every other day does not work so well.  I started to miss chocolate and sugar.  I do not even eat that much sugar, but that seemed to be all I wanted.  Oh and salt.  I basically hate salt, but that craving kicked in too. 

Routines of similar snacks and meals put me in a food rut.  Now I am adding more to my life.  What foods do I almost never cook, but wish I could come up with something fun to do make?  My latest discovery.  Sweet potato.  I love it now.  This has helped my sweet cravings.  A couple of days ago our dinner was baked sweet potatoes, with ground turkey, spinach, sun dried tomatoes, chives, garlic, and feta.  I am already thinking about making it again.  The kids even liked it because it was fun to scoop the sweet potato out of the skin.  

Then there are calories, a word I hate to talk about.  If anyone has ever tracked calories then one knows that something like a glass of milk adds quite a few calories.  I kept a journal during month one of everything I ate and looked up all the calories, but by month two I just figured my tummy had some idea of what it would be like to be full.  It was not so good at this.  This month I am holding myself accountable using caloriecount.about.com.  This website allows you to sign up, count calories of foods, add your recipes to find out calories, add your workout routine, and then there is a complete analysis of everything.  One can even see what key nutrients are missing from a days worth of food.  It is great.  I have added around 200 calories from what is expected of me to account for breastfeeding.  These calories need to include protein. 

All I can say is my calorie bank adds up faster than I would like.  I must of been eating a little too much last month.  There is actual hunger and then desire to eat because I am bored, tired, sad, and often lonely. 

The Kitchen: Baby Food

I must be spending most of my time in the kitchen these days as my posts seem to all revolve around food.  Yes, I must say the kitchen is probably my favorite room in the house and I do spend a little over half the day in there.  All of our meals are made from scratch, or as close to scratch as possible.  I have not fully gotten into making my own pasta yet, but I have attempted it a couple of times.  Even though I am so snobby about cooking fresh food there has been a big gap when it comes to homemade baby food.

When I set out to make baby food for my first child I had no idea how much an infant can actually consume.  It was more than I ever expected.  My first challenge was keeping up with the child.  I was already cooking for my husband and I and my son needed his own "special" meals.  When I found out I was pregnant with baby number two, I gradually gave up on my homemade baby food adventures.

We have been huge fans of Earth's Best baby food.  All of my kids have loved the stuff and I have seen them polish down two to three jars in one sitting.  It is an expensive, but easy way to feed a baby.  I also went out more with my baby and this made it easier to take food on the go to coffee dates and such.

I did not have the pregnancy excuse with baby number two, but I still could not work up the energy to make baby food.  Someone gave us a food mill, so on nights when I made things the baby could eat I would mill some food, but we still bought jars of baby food.

Just like everything in life, making baby food needs to become a part of one's routine.  I have heard parents who just steam veggies for baby next to the meal one is preparing for everyone else.  Then there are the super prepared moms (I wish I could get this good) who manage to make a week worth of baby food ahead of time and store it in the fridge.  I have managed to make jam, why not baby food?

My routine so far with baby food goes as follows: we are out of bananas today, I guess I need to steam some pears and maybe I will throw in some blueberries.  Start out with easy foods, bananas and avocado.  All one needs to do is mash these foods up.  Then consider making more things.  I tried sweet potato mixed with applesauce and my baby loves it!

Figuring out a texture that is acceptable for the baby can be a challenge.  In the past I have used the little food mill and even a food processor.  My latest discovery is the blender.  Babies like smoothie texture.  Do not be afraid to add a little more water to the mix.  It is more like a thicker blended soup.

Now baby Bria does not want to go back to baby food in the jars.  This is a little sad for me when I might want to take a break.  She still eats a few things, but mostly, she is waiting for mommy's creations.