Bread. And Zucchini.

I'm on a bread making kick.  First you should know that prior to this July, I had never even made a yeast bread before.  Then I found a wonderful sandwich bread recipe, and as of today we are completely off of store bought bread.  Have been for over a month.  (Okay, that's not entirely true.  I still buy the occasional package of buns or pitas, but as for regular old sandwich bread?  It's all us.)

I'm telling you this of course because you can do it, too!  Like any recipe, the first time will take you longer, but I've now got this thing down to where it only takes 7 minutes to prepare from start to finish. I make loaves on weekend mornings or on weeknights after the girls are asleep, because you have to allow about one and a half hours of total rise time, plus a half hour for baking.  Aside from the taste, there are a couple of things I love about this bread.  One is that even the healthiest store bought breads seem to have at least 14 ingredients, some of which I cannot recognize or pronounce, whereas this recipe has only 6.  The other is that I don't have to read labels to avoid Georgia's allergens.  You would be amazed at the number of plain old "regular" breads that are labeled as "may contain sesame or tree nuts."  


{Proof that it really is sandwich-able.}

Don't worry about gaining 100 lbs. due to loving your own bread so much, because the "oh my gosh, this is so exciting, I'm going to eat a slice with honey every time I walk through the kitchen!" effect will only last for the first week or two.  With no further ado, here's the recipe:   The Sassy Apron - Simple (really!) Sandwich Bread

In other bread news, I found a new zucchini bread recipe that I want to share, and a baby/toddler food tip.  The zucchini bread is unlike any I've ever had before, because it's much more substantial, and less sweet and gooey.  Oh, and it has chocolate.  The thing is, I've convinced myself that it's kind of healthy.  I mean, it has vegetables and whole wheat flour and yogurt.  Here's a link to the recipe:  Simple Bites - How to Make the Best Zucchini Bread Ever. Georgia keeps confusing the word zucchini with quinoa and calling this "quinoa bread." I can assure you I had no idea what quinoa was at age 3. Or age 30, for that matter. But I digress. If your garden is overflowing with zucchini, note that this recipe includes instructions for freezing grated zucchini.  (Not that an overflowing garden is a problem I've got at the moment.)

Oh, and my baby/toddler food tip is that you can serve the leftover grated zucchini raw simply by tossing it on your babe's tray.  It's fairly bland, and June can gobble it up even with no teeth.


{In case you don't know what zucchini looks like? Not sure why we need this photo.}

So there you go.  In the interest of full disclosure, I would like to add that we ate boxed mac n' cheese for dinner tonight, and last night's menu was microwaved Amy's spinach feta pita pockets.  With work, travel, diapers, laundry, [picking up the house because my mom's coming to visit], baking and the rest of it, something's always gotta give, and this week it has been dinner. 

[It's 9:57 and I still have a loaf of bread ready to go in the oven, and a half-made batch of zucchini bread sitting on the counter because Joe is at the grocery store right now buying eggs (among other things). Yeah, this is how it goes sometimes. Okay, most of the time.]