Category: Homesteading

Homesteading, Recipes

The Most Delicious & Easy Bread Recipe

Kath

I’ve been on a bread baking journey on and off for the past year. On and off because when I make “bad bread,” I get discouraged and give up. Well, since bread prices have gone up along with the unnecessary ingredients in it, I’ve decided to fully commit to baking and have completely fallen in love with the process.

The first thing I wanted to make sure I knew how to bake was basic sandwich bread. Being that my kids love sandwiches, toast, and a slice of bread with their dinner, this was a staple I wanted to confidently get down. And thankfully, we have!

INGREDIENTS

  • 3 cups of unbleached organic all purpose or wheat flour (sifted)
  • 1 TBSP salt
  • 1 TBSP turbinado sugar (you can use whatever sugar you like, I’ve had the best outcomes with this type and enjoy it more)
  • 1 1/2 TSP bread yeast
  • Approx. 2 – 2 1/2 cups of water (ideally you’ll want to this to be anywhere between 117-120 degrees Fahrenheit)

RECIPE

This recipe is super simple and hardly takes any time at all to make! Heres what you do:

  1. Sift the flour. Sifting the flour will break up any lumps and creates a light and airy texture to the bread. Highly recommend doing when baking!
  2. Combine and stir the rest of the dry ingredients (salt, sugar, and yeast) TIP: Always remember to refrigerate your yeast. This is something I didn’t know or realize was on the label of our yeast. For months I’d ask myself why the yeast was no longer working…now we know!
  3. Now you’ll want to add your water. To help get an accurate measurement I’ll place a meat thermometer under the faucet and leave it on that setting once I reach anywhere between 117-120 degrees F. Add 2 – 2 1/2 cups of water to your dry ingredients.

    You want to make sure you don’t have any dry flour leftover in your bowl- but you also don’t want the dough to be TOO wet. Think of it more like a sticky, thicker pancakey batter consistency.
  4. Stir the dough until the dry and wet ingredients are completely combined. Cover with a dish towel on your counter for 1-2 hours to allow the dough to rise.
  5. Once the dough has risen, give it a little drizzle of olive oil and carefully fold over the dough with a fork or spoon. Then transfer the dough into whatever baking pan or dish you plan to bake it in. I find it helpful to use parchment paper in my dish when baking the bread.
  6. Bake your bread at 375F for about 40-45 minutes.

& that’s it! It’s so simple. We can bake good quality bread that our family will love AND that will save us money. It’s a win win. I find it most productive to make the dough first thing in the morning, give it those couple hours to rise, transfer it, another hour to rise, and we’re able to bake it in time for lunch or the kids’ afternoon snack.

Let me know if you give this recipe a try in the comments or be sure to follow along on Instagram @honestlymommin

Talk soon.
Kath

Homesteading

The Homesteading Journey Continues.. With Sourdough!

Kath

Like a lot of people, I became inspired by homesteading and a more self sufficient life in 2020. It’s been a slow going process, but in these past couple of years I’ve already learned so much and am motivated to continue learning more — and hopefully live on 3 acres of land and have a farm one day.

There are many things I plan to share through this blog – motherhood, healthy meal and snack recipes (especially for those with picky eaters!), gardening, DIY crafts like as crocheting, polymer clay jewelry, creating home decor, along with sharing my personal hair regrowth journey and tips/tricks as we continue to decluttter our home and simplify our lives.

Our homesteading journey will be a big part of this blog, especially since I’ve committed to learning ONE new homesteading task each month of this year. Last month (January) it was learning how to crochet, which has already become one of my favorite hobbies and down time to do’s. This month, it’s been sourdough. I’m not gonna lie, I’ve always been intimidated by sourdough. The thought of creating the starter, knowing when to use it, how to actually make it have been excuses for me not to just go ahead and try it. Ending the procrastination pattern is another positive change I’m working on this year so what better way to get into 2023 than to bake delicious bread!

After a few Instagram reels and A LOT of googling, I realized making the starter is SO simple. Kicking myself now for not making it sooner. All you need are 3 things: flour, water, and a mason jar. Here’s how you make it:

– Add 1/2 cup of flour (I use organic all purpose flour) to your mason jar

– Add 1/4 cup of room temp water to the jar and mix it up really good

– Seal your mason jar, and leave it on the counter (a place that it will stay around room temp- ie. kitchen counter) and check back on it in 48 hours

If all went well, your starter will have just about doubled in size. This is my favorite part. Such a rewarding feeling! You will then remove about half of the starter and re-feed it with another 1/2 cup of flour and 1/4 cup of room temp water.

Based on my research, room temp and water on the warmer side helps to activate the starter and help it grow. If you are leaving your starter at room temp, you will need to feed it daily. If you choose to put your starter in the fridge, it can be fed once or twice a week. Storing your starter in the fridge is a great option for those who may need to press the pause button on their sourdough journey and want to keep their starter in stable condition.

48 hours after creating the starter
What our starter currently looks like. This is after 2 weeks of consistently feeding it!

Thinking about giving sourdough a go? Try it! It’s so simple and all you have to gain is delicious future recipes.

We’ve gotten as far as the feed and re-feed phases of sourdough. Next up is seeing if we can actually bake with it. Stay tuned for how that goes and what we learn!

Homesteading

Homesteading for the busy mom that doesn’t know where to start

Kath

Like most, the past couple years may have sparked new interests, hobbies, even careers. Being a stay at home mom and always wanting to find new things to try and do around the home I’m always on the search for what I can do next. When all things quarantine began, this amplified. New home projects, becoming more invested in our health than ever, and trying new hobbies for fun. It was a crazy and stressful time but I’m grateful for it. Without those tougher times the good things never would have surfaced, which brings me to homesteading.

I can’t recall what it was that first drew me to homesteading, but whatever it was left a huge impact because here we are almost a year later still trying new things and learning from all the beginner mistakes. As inspiring and motivating as it was when I first dove into the homesteading hashtags, youtube videos, and podcasts..it was also EXTREMELY daunting. Where do I even begin? I don’t live on 2 acres of land with a cow and 4 goats..is this even doable for someone living in the suburbs? Can I do this being a busy mom of 3 wild boys? The answer: YES.

Since I began to share my gardening journeys and bread baking adventures I’ve received motivated messages from other busy mamas inspired to make similar changes in their home. Since I totally get how intimidating starting out was, I figured what would be a better first blog post than to share what helped me as I dove into the homegrown, from scratch, do it yourself lifestyle.

  • Tip #1. Keep it simple and doable with your daily life and routine. What comes to your mind when you hear the word “homesteading?” For me, it was chicken coops, a farm, 5 acres of land, milking a cow. Yes, those are definitely components of homesteading. But if we don’t have those things, it doesn’t mean we can’t homestead! To avoid quitting before I even got started or getting completely overwhelmed, I kept it as simple as possible.
  • First thing I did- buy seeds. You can find vegetable, flower, and fruit seeds on amazon or at your local garden nursery. Fun fact, you can even grow your own fruits and vegetables from the produce you purchase at the grocery store! Just be sure to buy organic and non-GMO. You can grow your seeds on your windowsill, outdoors in your garden bed, in a pot on your deck, or under an indoor light.
  • 2nd thing – Begin with the basics. For me, that was baking bread. Working through the basics before moving on to the harder tasks helped me find my footing and how to fit this lifestyle in with house cleaning, errands, carpooling, and other mom life things.
  • & the 3rd thing that helped me get started – commit to ONE new thing a month. This was actually my new years resolution and it’s made not only sticking with it so much fun but I’m actually learning valuable, self sufficient tasks that will benefit our family. Write it down, make a list in your phone’s notepad of one thing for each month. Commit to it, try it, learn from your mistakes, keep going, and then move on to the next thing the following month.

Example:

January: Bake bread

February: Make pasta from scratch

March: Sow seeds indoors

April: Plant seedlings outside

May: Focus on properly caring for garden

June: Learn how to sew and mend clothes

July: Make at least one from scratch meal a week

August: Learn how to dehydrate foods

September: Plant fall and winter vegetables

October: Learn how to can food

November: Educate myself on medicinal herbs

December: Learn how to make soap and/or candles

There are so many cool, new things we can try and learn through homesteading. Above are just a few. Keep up with me here as I continue to dive into all things busy mama homesteading, gardening, fitness, and focusing on living a balanced, healthy lifestyle with all things parenthood!