So, for the first time in my life, I'm actually really trying to stick to a budget. We're using nothing but cash. And apparently I need to spread it out a little better, because as of now, my allotted grocery "cash" is gone...until tomorrow. I was going to cheat. We're out of bread. What's a few dollars, right? But I'm trying to hold myself accountable. So, I decided to get creative. I got out the wheat. I got out the blender. (Have I told you how much I love my blender? Well, it grinds wheat, too.) So, in my attempt to save money by making my own bread, I decided to try not only GRINDING the wheat, but MIXING the dough. I have a bread maker, but why wait 4 hours for some fresh bread, when it can be done in 1! Plus, I had a pretty little blog post ending with a loaf of beautiful bread constructed in my head.
Here's what went RIGHT...
1. Wheat? Perfectly ground.
2. Molasses, water, and yeast? Perfectly mixed.
3. Yeast mixture? Perfectly added to the ground wheat.
But then things started going COMPLETELY WRONG...
1. The instructions said to press the PULSE button 15-20 times, scrape the sides, and repeat. Well...the repeat didn't go so well. NOTHING was happening. So I held down the pulse button. Which led to the blender actually over-heating, and the dough not really moving. Result? Some very hot, sticky dough.
2. I still thought it could work. I pressed the sticky, lumpy, hot dough into the bread pan. The instructions said to let it rise for 10 minutes. I ended up waiting a few HOURS, but the dough never moved. I KILLED THE YEAST!
3. But I baked it anyway. And sadly, the fresh-baked loaf of bread looked just like the dough. And tasted worse than cardboard.
BUT WAIT...The happy ending!
I reluctantly broke out the bread-maker. I ground some more dang wheat. I measured the ingredients. And I begrudgingly let the patient bread-maker do it's job (the machine...not me...my impatience killed the first loaf). And four hours later, we enjoyed this...
And I didn't spend a DIME! But going to the store would've been a lot easier! How do YOU eat healthy on a budget?
5 comments:
I am totally impressed that you grinded your own wheat! I've never tried it...
You really are sticking to your budget. Way to go, Robyn!!
Way to go! Is your blender ok? I have yet to have success at making my own bread.
By the way, I laughed out loud at your twitter comment yesterday!!
Oh my gosh Robyn! This is totally what I am going through right now--trying to eat really healthy on a really strict budget that I have set up for myself. The one place in your budget you can save big is on GROCERIES and then all of that wonderful savings can be applied somewhere else (but obviously you already know that)! I don't like to go over budget or go to the store until each payday and that has caused me to be in very similar situations as yours:)...it's all worth it, right?! Most recently I had our milk consumption down to an art...UNTIL, Chuck bought some new protein shakes that he is guzzling down all the time! We went through double the milk this week, UGH!! I was making smoothies with WATER...I broke down today and went to the store for milk and spent $46.00 (that I will have to take out of next weeks budget...I guess I should stalk up on powdered milk for those emergencies)! So props to you for bakin' bread!!!
My mom has a fabulous recipe for wheat bread, I think that she even posted it awhile back. It's really easy to make and is so yummy and stays soft!
You make me laugh, and way to go on the budget thing. I'm no good at that! I do love making wheat bread, however. I have a recipe that I make all the time for our bread if you ever want to try it!
Post a Comment