Freezer Cooking - Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

I love, love, love Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  Did I mention that I love it - it is so easy and really delicious.  Its only downfall is that, you know, it has white flour instead of wheat but sometimes easy and homemade just work even if they aren't full of nutrients.  Someday I will make a quick and easy wheat bread but that day is not today.

If you want the master recipe you can find it here.  (*A note about the recipe:  if you use regular table salt - HALF IT!  I only use 1 T. of salt anyway.)  It is so easy to mix up.  I usually do two batches and then I form my loaves.  Below is a picture of when I made 6 loaves and then cut them in half and slathered them with a garlic herb butter (that I just mixed up).  I put them back together and wrapped them in foil and froze them. 

When I needed to use them I just pulled them out and cooked them in the foil at 350 for about 20 minutes or until it was heated through and lightly toasted.

I made more yesterday and decided that since I had the ingredients out I would go ahead and make some loaves but then I would also mix up some "Artisan bread mixes".  I just took a gallon size freezer bag, put in the dry ingredients and wrote "-just add 3 cups of lukewarm water" on each of the bags.

I was wanting my younger kids to be able to mix it up themselves, now they can!  They can just pull the bag from the freezer and dump it in the big container that I use for this bread.  Then they only have to measure out the 3 cups of warm water, dump it in and mix!

If you haven't tried this bread I highly recommend it.  It is easy and delicious.  If you have tried it - what do you think and what other things have you done with it?



 

Impromptu Freezer Breakfast Session

I needed to go grocery shopping and I was trying to think of how I could save some money and then it hit me - I have 50 lbs. of spelt in a bucket, I should use it.  I have a grain grinder so I used that to grind the spelt and experimented with it.  It does well in quick breads and muffins.  I did use some all purpose flour in the yeast recipes and they turned out yummy.

I just did this throughout the day as I did other things.  The bread machine works well without me so that is something that I can do and just let it go while it mixes up the dough.  I always bake my bread in the oven though.

Here are the recipes that I used:

Blender Batter Waffles
Chocolate Chip Honey Pumpkin Muffins
English Muffins in the Bread Machine
My Favorite Homemade Bread!

 

My waffle maker - it makes thinner waffles - easier to put in the toaster

Miss M helped me make the English Muffins

Most of the food (minus one plate of English muffins)

By far the favorite item that I made.  They always go quickly.

Do you have any favorite breakfast freezer recipes?

 

Impromptu Freezer Cooking Session (light on the cooking)

My friend and her kids came over the other night.  She lives like 3 minutes from me and we just discovered each other about 6 months ago.  Can I tell you how I wish I would have known she was here all along?

I borrowed butter from her the other day.  Which I know doesn't sound exciting but I have lived in my house for 7 years and haven't had a neighbor I could borrow butter from.

I was super excited.

Anyway, she came over and lucky for me, her daughter loves to cook and bake.  So being a good friend I had to think of something for her to do - and she ended up doing this mostly herself with some assistance from me and my daughter.

She made brownie mixes first and then she made brownies.  I made the breakfast burritos while she was making the brownie mixes and then she made coconut baked oatmeal muffins.

And then after they left I made bread kits.

She inspired me.

I decided to have them come over every Sunday night.