Bread Maker-Ready Bread Bags

One of my most prized kitchen appliances (besides the fridge, of course!) is the bread maker.  After stumbling repeatedly (Divine intervention? Yes!) across nutritional information about the average store-bought loaf of bread, I have gradually cuddled closer and closer to my little white friend on the kitchen counter.

Did you know that the average sandwich made from the "cheap" loaf of bread from the store contains enough enriched (code for overly-processed) flours and sugars that it turns into the equivalent of a candy bar in your stomach!?

On a related note, I recently did an experiment with the store brand hot dog buns where I left them on the top of the fridge until they got moldly, wanting to see how long they would last.  Also note, that this bag of buns was purchased near its sell-by date, therefore this test began when the food should have been starting to go bad.  We waited, and waited...then waited some more.  Finally, after THREE WEEKS of the buns sitting on the fridge, I threw them out, but NOT BECAUSE OF MOLD, but because I was beginning to get a little freaked out by the strength of the preservatives in this bread!

I decided it was time for a change. Now, I have been baking my own bread for my family here and there for the past four years.  Finding a bread machine at a garage sale (plus the recipe book!) for $10 was heaven-sent.  However, after the experiment from above, I have had a true change of heart and can't see myself going back to store-bought bread as a staple form of bread in the house.  Granted, I am not to the point of making my own hamburger and hot dog buns, but I am a work-in-progress. :-)

To help ease the time constraint of making your own bread, a woman from our previous church gave me the idea to make bread bags.  Bread bags are quart ziplock bags holding the dry ingredients for a particular bread machine (or by-hand bread) recipe.  Then, all you have to do when you need a loaf for the day is dump in the dry ingredients, quickly measure in the wet ingredients, and push the right buttons on your bread maker!  While this idea sounds not completely necessary for saving time, I like it because in a rush, I A GUARANTEED TO HAVE ALL THE DRY INGREDIENTS. How often do we go to make something, only then realizing we are short a half cup of sugar, or other ingredient?  This helps avoid that problem.

Rye Bread Bag

I also needed an organized way to store the bread bags, so I made a 2-paneled box to keep the bread mixes, labeling one side "White" and "Wheat" while the other side says "Potato" and "Rye", as these are the top 4 breads I use in my house.

Lastly, it is helpful to bookmark the bread recipes or even better is to write them out on separate recipe cards for easy access when it's time to add the wet ingredients.
NOTE: yeast does NOT count as a dry ingredient and should be kept in the fridge until time for baking. :)
Here are the recipes I use for the four different breads (each makes 1.5 lb. loaves):

I made 20 bags in 30min!

White Table Bread
Dry: 3 cups bread flour (I use basic white flour)
4 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
Wet: 1 cup milk
1/4 cup water
4 tsp butter, olive oil, or coconut oil
1 tsp active dry yeast



Whole Wheat Bread

Loaf of Whole Wheat Bread

Dry:  1.5 cups whole wheat flour
1.5 cups bread flour (I use basic white)
3/4 tsp salt
Wet: 1 cup milk
3 T water
4 tsp honey or sugar
1 T butter, olive oil, or coconut oil
1 tsp active dry yeast

Potato Bread
Dry: 3 cups bread flour
1/2 cup instant mashed potato flakes or buds, flavor of choice
1 T sugar
3/4 tsp salt
Wet: 1/2 cup water
2/3 cup milk
1 egg
2 T butter, olive oil, or coconut oil
1 tsp active dry yeast

Rye Bread
Dry: 2 cups bread flour
1 cup rye flour
2 T gluten flour (I used a product called Vital Wheat Gluten)
2 T brown sugar
1.5 tsp caraway seed (gives that tangy rye flavor, but opt)
3/4 tsp salt
Wet: 1 cup water
2 T butter, olive oil, or coconut oil
1 tsp active dry yeast

As another note, you can even oven-can into canning jars these bread starters! Google "oven canning" for more information on how to do that, but I promise it's easy!

HAPPY HEALTHING!

Soothing a Teething Baby

Red cheeks.  Fussy whimpers. Low-grade fever.  And the DROOL!  Your baby is teething.  I proudly welcome a good friend of mine from Ohio to chime in on her wisdom of teething children after having gone through it with three kiddos. Please enjoy!

Well,  I am on my third teething child and while I’m sure I have more to learn, I know I would not want to go through it without a few essential items. I would like to share them now with you.

#1: Teething Oil:

I read how to make this concoction in the book “Aromatherapy: A Lifetime Guide to Healing With Essential Oils” by Valerie Gennari Cooksley and I am in love with it so much I started giving vials of it away. Here is the recipe I use:

½ oz amber bottle with screw top

good quality olive oil

Roman Chamomile essential oil (I purchase my oils from www.mountainroseherbs.com)

Put 3 drops of oil in your bottle and fill with olive oil leaving a little space at the top. Screw on the lid and shake well. To give to your child, shake well, take off the lid, place your finger over the top, turn the bottle upside down, and rub on your baby’s gums. I usually do this two to three times per application. Within 10 minutes your baby should be much calmer.

I also know people who have used this method to help an older child who is having trouble going to sleep. If your child has teeth already, you can rub it between their lip and gum.

This concoction for me has been WAY better than Hylands Teething Tablets, however if you cannot afford to purchase the Roman Chamomile Essential oil, the next best thing I find is Hylands Chamomile Tablets 30x. Start with 1 tablet and increase to 2 or 3 at a time as you find necessary for your child.

#2: Baltic Amber Teething Necklace:

With my second teething child, I decided to purchase an amber teething necklace to see if it helped any. What a difference! Now that I’m on my third child, I wouldn’t let them go through teething without one! At about 3 months old I put it on my child and only take it off for bathing. If I forget to put it back on after bathing, within 12 hours or so I notice a huge difference in the amount of fussiness my child shows!

So you might ask, what makes these necklaces so wonderful?! As a trained chemist, I will try to explain a little bit. The compound in amber is succinic acid and amber necklaces contain 3-8% succinic acid (the darker the amber, the higher content of succinic acid).  Succinic acid is a known analgesic, or essentially a pain reliever. When the amber is in contact with skin, the succinic acid can be slowly absorbed into the system and act as a gentle pain reliever.

If you choose to order one of these, be sure that you order Baltic amber and that there is a knot between each bead. That way if the necklace breaks, only one bead will be lost. Technically you are supposed to take them off while your child sleeps, but I never have.

Fore more information, check out this website: http://www.amberartisans.com/frasqu.html

#3: Favorite Teething Toy:

My children have never really enjoyed frozen items to chew on while teething, they have some sensitivities to hot and cold temperatures (at 3.5 years, my oldest still doesn’t like ice cream because of how cold it is… more for me I guess!). A few years a neighbor told me about this rubber banana toothbrush and since then it has become the ultimate teething toy in our house. The soft rubber bristles massage their gums and the whole thing is flexible silicon. The other end of it has nice ridges to chew on as well. This does not work as well once they have teeth as they can bite the little bristles off and bite into the soft silicon. 

The other thing that we are using that is new for kiddo #3 is a Dr. Brown’s teether.

I am loving this, especially because it can be attached to my kiddo with a pacifier clip so its not thrown down onto the ground when we are out and about. The brown ridge along the bottom really gives them something to chomp on that massages and soothes their gums. It is really easy for my child to hold as well.

 I hope that these 3 ideas help you to sooth your teething child! 

A note from Maggie: I would also like to add how important calcium is for a teething baby.  The low-grade fever is a sign that your child does not have sufficient calcium in her body to amply prepare/carry out this particular round with a new tooth.  Be sure she is getting extra calcium at this time! The link above goes to my blog post concerning calcium. Happy Healthing! :-)