Finally...sandwich bread!

I have been trying to find a yummy, healthy, and easy bread to make that we can use for sandwiches, toast, and just for munching on. I think I may have finally found it. This bread came out soft, light, easy to cut, and it tasted great!

For duplication purposes, these are the exact steps I followed to make this bread in my bread machine:

Honey Wheat Oatmeal:
*Stir together 1-1/4 cup water (just over 100 degrees), 1 packet active dry yeast, and 1/2 cup or maybe little more of honey and let sit for 10 minutes
*Pour the water mix into the well of the bread machine
*Add 1-1/2 cups bread flour, 1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour, 1 cup (thick) rolled oats, 1-1/2 teaspoons salt, and 2 tablespoons olive oil
*Set to (regular/white) bread/specialty - light crust

Not quite 4 hours later, voila sandwich bread! Yum!

DH came home from work yesterday and made us great sandwiches for dinner using this bread. He met the kids and me (after our evening walk) at the neighborhood playground where we dined at the picnic table and then played until dusk. I love, love, LOVE my family!

And I also LOVE this bread! I really hate to mess with the recipe since it turned out so perfect, but I wonder if I can up the whole wheat flour to bread flour ratio without ruining it...hmm...

I also can't wait until I order my own grains so I can freshly grind my own flour before baking. So excited! This recipe might just have DH convinved to let me go for the bulk order. Yay!

Trail Mix

I am a snacker. Always have been. Probably always will be. One thing that has changed recently though is my choice of snacks. Instead of a whole sleeve (or two!) of Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies, I'll have something a lot more health conscious. This doesn't mean I have to sacrifice my chocolate or that it can't be delicious!

One snack I have come to really love (read: CRAVE!) is trail mix. I've had various trail mixes throughout my life, but really started to get into them when I found a couple of varieties I liked at the health food store Trader Joe's. Problem is, they're fairly expensive, and unless you buy different varieties, they're always the same. Since I have started buying in bulk and have begun to learn to use a dehydrator, I really enjoy creating my own trail mixes.

Here are some of the "pros" of creating my own mixes:
*I can whip up a snack in minutes
*I can have as many or as few ingredients as I want
*It can be a different mix every time or I can repeat my favorites
*I can include more variety than store bought mixes
*I control the ingredients, so I can be sure there are no unnatural additives or preservatives
*I can ensure my dehydrated fruits and my nuts/seeds are really raw for added nutrients
*Since I buy all my ingredients in bulk, creating the mix is much cheaper than buying a small bag of pre-made trail mix
*Because I buy in bulk, I always have ingredients on hand that make nice trail mixes
*I can make as much or as little as I want

When I buy foods in bulk, I take out a portion for daily use to keep in an airtight jar or canister. The rest of the food is stored away in an appropriate place (i.e. pantry, freezer). As my daily portion runs low, I simply refill from the larger portion that has been stored.

To make my trail mix, I simply pull out the containers with the ingredients I want to use and scoop the desired amount into a bowl. I mix the ingredients up with my fingers, and TA-DA! There you have it: instant (healthy) snack!



Today's trail mix consisted of:
*Raw Coconut chips (Wilderness Family Naturals -- I blogged about these yesterday!)
*Organic Raw Pepitas/Pumpkin Seeds
*Raw Sunflower Seeds
*Dehydrated Apples (Just Tomatoes, purchased through a coop)
*Dehydrated Bananas (homemade)
*Dehydrated Cherries (Just Tomatoes, purchased through a coop)
*Dehydrated Blackberries (Just Tomatoes, purchased through a coop)
*Organic Rolled Oats
*Raw Almonds
*Raw Cashews
*Organic Goji Berries (Navitas Naturals, purchased through Amazon subscribe & save)
*Organic Raw Cacao Nibs (Navitas Naturals, purchased through Amazon subscribe & save)

It only took a minute or two to throw together, but WOW was it yummy! And filling! I didn't produce any plastic waste that needs to be thrown away, and I ate a wide variety of fruits, nuts, and seeds. I even snuck in a few grains!

Now, this trail mix wasn't perfect. Ideally, I'd have liked for it to have been all raw, but I am just getting into this and learning more and more. To be as "green" and thrifty as possible, I feel I need to use up my on-hand ingredients first. I have purchased a lot from Just Tomatoes through coops in the past and actually have a large order on the way now. I am pretty sure these dried fruits (while super delicious) aren't dehydrated at temperatures that are considered raw. My goal now that I have a dehydrator of my own is to begin dehydrating my own fruits more and more; and actually the banana chips were dehydrated by me, but I'd better stop there because that's a WHOLE other post! :)

So, what do you like in YOUR trail mix??