Honey Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread (Bread Machine)

Finding a whole wheat sandwich bread recipe is a bit tricky.  Most are crazy dense and just blah.  I found this recipe, tweaked it a bit following other peoples recommendations and I think it is fabulous!  

For this recipe I used the whole wheat setting on my machine, 1 1/5 pound, and the medium crust setting.  The bread turned out wonderfully light and soft with a crusty crust, figure that!   

This is NOT a 100% whole wheat recipe.  It is 2/3 whole wheat and 1/3 bread flour.  But it is better than no whole wheat!   Feel free to play around with your whole wheat vs. bread flour ratio and let me know what you come up with.  I think this is wonderful though!  

Of course with this being a bread machine baked loaf it ends up being that odd rectangle shape.  Weird looking, but tastes great!

 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/8 cup WARM water
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons melted butter (I used salted)
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup bread flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast (Made for a bread machine)

Directions:

1. Add ingredients into the bread machine as listed, or as your machine specifies.
2. Set machine with these choices:  Whole Wheat, 1 1/5 pound, medium crust.
3. Sit back and enjoy the smell while your bread is baking!

Tips:

• Your water needs to be around 110F.  Too hot will kill the yeast and too cold won't activate it.
• Make sure the salt is added in with the liquid ingredients.  
• Do NOT let the yeast touch the liquid ingredients or the salt.
• In the flour make  a small well and put the yeast in the well.  Do not let the liquid seep through.
• After the machine mixes the dough the first time, quickly open the machine and scrape the edges down.  The machine will go through another mixing cycle. 
• If there is remaining flour in the corners, it will end up being like that on the outside of your loaf and the corner will be a weird floury blob. <--Technical term.  :)

Grab a sharp serrated knife and slice in!  

Enjoy!

Lemony Kale Pasta

I just signed up for my first CSA, Home Harvest,  this week!  I am really excited about all that I received.  The one I signed up for gives you to option to pick and choose what you want, so it is the perfect chance for me to try some new things!

Kale isn't a new veggie for me, but I just thought you would like to know what was going on in my kitchen.

I found this recipe on Annie's Eats and LOVE it.  So yummy.  I have had it a few times just to make sure I got good results every time and I did!  Hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

 Ingredients:

• 2 cloves garlic
• ½ tsp. kosher salt, divided
• ½ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese (Confession-I used Kraft.  It was still awesome)
• 6 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• Juice of 2 lemons
• ½ tsp. red pepper flakes (I like heat.  Feel free to reduce this amount)
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 lb. penne 
• 1 large bunch kale, rinsed and dried, stems removed

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil for the pasta. 
2. While you are waiting on the water to boil, make the dressing.  Mince the garlic cloves and sprinkle the minced garlic with ¼ teaspoon of the kosher salt. Smash the garlic into a paste with a fork or the side of a chef’s knife.  (Confession time!  I could not get this done to say my life.  I tried my hardest, but still had some lumps.  It was still good.  :)  Don't stress if you can't get it either.)  Transfer the garlic paste, or your attempt, to a small bowl.  Add in the Parmesan, olive oil, lemon juice, red pepper flakes and black pepper.  Whisk together until well combined.
3. Cook the pasta in the boiling water according to the package directions.  Chop the kale into ½-inch ribbons.  Add the kale to a large bowl and toss with the dressing to coat well.  When the pasta is finished, drain well and let cool a minute or two.  Toss the pasta with the kale and dressing until well coated.  

Enjoy!!

From Annie's Eats

Sloppy Joe Grilled Cheese

WHY did I never think of this before??  I like sloppy joes.  I LOVE grilled cheese.  Perfect combo!  Thank you Pinterest for feeding my comfort food obsession!

 So.  I did not use a nonstick pan. VERY BAD IDEA.  This sucker will stick and stick HARD.  That is why the bottom piece looks a bit wonky.  But this sandwich was SO rocking I still posted it.  Yeah...it is THAT good.

Ingredients:

• buns
• cheddar - shredded
• salted butter
• sloppy joe meat at room temperature

Tools necessary:

• NONSTICK PAN
• straw
• spatula

Directions:

 1.  Get your bun.  The original recipe used brioche.  My husband bought these.  Don't 
      know what type they are, but you get the idea.  Large thick buns.
2.  Slice the bun in half and then on the top part, cut off the very top.  Make sense? Eat 
     or discard the top. You want the bottom and the middle.

3.  Get your straw and poke holes in it.  Lots and lots of little tiny straw holes. Poke them
     in the top and bottom.  This is where the cheese will leak out of.  The more holes, the
     better.

4.  Top with cheese.

5.  Then meat on top and then more cheese.

6.  Then you want to take the bottom part of the bun and flip it over.  So the soft inside
     is on top, make sense?

7.  Butter both sides of the bread and put it on the pan.  You want to cook it on LOW 
    heat.Slowly brown it and the cheddar cheese will squirt out the holes and make the 
    bread have a crispy cheese crust on it.  NOM NOM NOM.  Each side will take about 7 
    minutes.This is definitely a knife and fork sandwich.

Enjoy!

Original recipe from The Grilled Cheese Social

Slow Cooker Spiced Vanilla & Apple Steel Cut Oatmeal

Wowza...long title.  Did you get all that?  I am sure I have said this before but I LOVE OATMEAL!  There is really nothing better then a nice big steaming bowl of oatmeal on a brisk autumn morning.  Are you in the mood yet?

This oatmeal is SO good, yet not that pretty.  So therefore, no pictures.  Hope you understand. 

I made this oatmeal around 3pm.  It takes a recommended 5-6 hours in the slow cooker.  I am NOT waking up to start breakfast, so I made it late enough so I could have a small bowl for dessert before bed.  The steel cut oats retain their shape, I guess you could say, so you can reheat it just fine.  I added a touch of milk and an extra sprinkling of brown sugar before I heated it in the microwave.

The recipe I started with said it made 3 to 4 servings.  If you eat oatmeal on a regular basis I am sure you have seen how small the portion sizes are.  So I doubled the recipe.  I shouldn't have done that.  I now have a TON to eat.  So this will easily make 6-8 servings.  This would be a GREAT holiday morning breakfast!  Easy to make a feed a gang!

Let's do this thing.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups steel cut oats
• 8 cups water
• 1 cup milk
• 2 apples, cut into bite size pieces with the skin still on.  Just make sure to wash well.
• 3 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground clove
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar 

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients in the slow cooker.  Cover and cook LOW 5-6 hours.  NO LONGER.  
2. Stir and Enjoy!   If reheating add an extra splash of milk and an extra sprinkle of brown sugar never hurt anyone.

Recipe inspired by Sweet Treats & More