Real Food

*Sorry for the quality of pictures-this was very impromptu, so they are all pretty much from my phone. :)

We've recently been making some lifestyle changes in an effort to be healthier & eat REAL food.  I've had quite a few people ask me about this, so I thought it would make it easier to do a blog post & then be able to refer people to this.  Here we go:
In May of last year, we took a little trip to Bread Beckers to buy our grain mill & some buckets of wheat!  We made a big deal to Hannah Kate about how we were going to buy grain just like Joseph stored grain in the Bible.  When we got there, she wanted to know where the "green" was....I thought I had a picture of us at the store, but oh well.....we came back home & got to work on our first loaf of bread!

Freshly milled flour

Ingredients all ready to go

Our first loaf of bread! 

That is our WonderMill in the background.  We have a Zojirushi BB-PAC20 Home Bakery Virtuoso Breadmaker, but you do not have to have a bread machine to make bread.  I use it about half of the time now & the other half of the time, I mix it in the machine then shape into two loaves to make two one pound loaves. I have never had a bread machine before, but the nice thing about the Zojirushi is that every setting is adjustable.  From my understanding, not all machines are like that, so if your bread machine is set to rise too long & the bread falls, there is not much you can do to fix it.  Another nice thing about the Zojirushi is it has memory settings, so I have the main kneading/rise/etc. times I use programmed in & all I do is push a button to start that process
*Those two links are Amazon affiliate links. We have had these items now for five years & they are still being used almost daily! (added 3/6/19)

That same week we also made yummy dinner rolls, Ezekiel brownies, & cinnamon rolls!

For Christmas, the kids' Bible class teachers got a jar of homemade spaghetti sauce & a loaf of tomato basil bread! 

Another huge favorite around here is waffles or pancakes made with Ezekiel mix.  It's the same rations as the bread God told Ezekiel to make in the Bible & makes a complete protein. You can purchase it already mixed from Bread Beckers or buy the ingredients & mix yourself (that's what we do).   It is a complete protein & they taste so good!  We freeze what we don't eat that morning & then the kids & I enjoy them for a quick breakfast later.

Okay, so here is the quick link info about starting your own bread making (& anything that uses flour-making!)!

~Bread Beckers, has TONS of GREAT classes available online in video format (for free) including handouts that you can download yourself.  They also have a free CD of the information on why real bread is so much better for you.  (Disclaimer: the info is WONDERFUL, but we do not agree with all of the religious information that she includes-some if it is interesting though! Wesley is pretty skeptical of most all "natural" or homeopathic stuff. Of course he had to walk in on one part that was questionable so he won't endorse all of the medical stuff on there. BUT, he will agree that it is GOOD for you. :) )  I ordered the free CD & listened to it, then watched Bread Making 101 to begin (Ashley demonstrates the different grain mills & the bread machine in this video too).  I have also watched several of the other videos & am in the process of watching the Healthy Eating Simplified video classes too.

~This series on Southern Savers about real bread is really good:
Organic vs Conventional Grains-Wheat
Milling Your Own Wheat & Saving Money (I was thankful to see that she points out that it can be inexpensive to eat healthier!)
Conventional vs Organic Bread

~I love the blog Heavenly Homemakers for lots of real food & freshly milled wheat recipes!

~We have the big red cookbook from Bread Beckers & use it all of the time.  Their basic bread recipe is the one we use.

~We have also switched to using honey granules in place of white sugar & sucanat in place of brown sugar.  They are cup for cup substitutions & in most things you cannot tell any difference.  They are so much better for your body & blood sugar.  We bought both of these from Bread Beckers to begin with & are currently getting sucanat from Azure Standard & looking into trying to get an order together for honey granules (if you are interested, please let me know).

~When we bought our first wheat, we got hard red, hard white, & soft white.  Since then, we have used up our soft white & decided not to buy any more of it.  Most things we made with it were really crumbly & we can use hard white for those things instead.  We have started buying our wheat from Azure Standard-very reasonably priced (hard red & hard white) .  We recently bought some kamut from there too & like it.  Wesley loves Heavenly Homemakers soft pretzels made with kamut.  Be sure you get the buckets & gamma lids to store your grain in safely!
Edited to Add: For local people, I discovered today that Village Market has grains available for purchase in small amounts.  Since we don't have any soft white wheat & I decided I wanted some to make Hannah Kate's birthday cake, I bought 3 pounds of it today.  The price was much cheaper than I expected it to be there.  That is an option if you want a small amount of something or are in a pinch & need it quickly.

The biggest thing that people ask is, "Isn't it more expensive?"  There is a good chunk of money you spend up front because you have to buy the equipment, but after that it is not so bad.  Plus, think about the money you are probably saving in medical stuff because you are healthier!

Hopefully, that is all of the important info all in one place.  If there is anything I left out or you have questions, please let me know & I will add it to this post! HUGE thanks to Christy & Beth for their encouragement on this change for our family. We still have lots of room for improvement & enjoy eating out as our budget allows, but we are making better choices on our food & are thankful for that!

Happy Cooking!

We bought our breadmaker from Amazon. You can also check eBay for those items & might find a great deal there.