Wednesday, March 17, 2010

CHEAP, DELICIOUS, HEALTHY AND EASY - NOT



Mrs. Roy came across a blog title today:  Homemade Bread: Cheap, Delicious, Healthy and Easier Than You Think.  I see a lot of articles that make those promises - Easy Artisan Bread, etc.  I’ve tried a few of the recipes and I’ve got to tell you - either Mrs. Roy is the worst bread maker on the entire planet or homemade bread isn’t really cheap, delicious, healthy or easy. 

Cheap.  I have a friend whose brother is an executive for a major bakery.  She, as a single person, would get frustrated that her loaf of bread would go stale before she could eat it all so she told her brother they should market half loaves of bread for people like her.  Mr. Bakery Executive says that a loaf of bread is so cheap, there is no incentive to sell half loaves.  Just throw out the stale stuff and buy another loaf for $1.00.  He has a point.  Mrs. Roy loves saving money more than most but bread is cheap and readily available.  If I want to get really frugal about it, I’ll go to the day old bread store and buy it.

As a side note, I can now go to Publix and buy half loaves of their bakery bread - seems like someone else had the same idea as my friend.  And the price is very reasonable.

Delicious.  Most of the recipes I’ve tried for artisan bread just don’t taste very good.  They are heavy and chewy and yeasty.  I do have a really good recipe for sourdough bread but I get tired of having to feed the starter and make the bread or give away starter, etc.  We don’t eat enough bread to go through that process and I feel guilty if I let my starter die.  It’s too much unnecessary stress for Mrs. Roy.

Healthy.  If you want to eat healthy bread, there are about a zillion different kinds to choose from at the grocery store these days, everything from whole grains to organic to fortified white and back again.

Easy.  Mrs. Roy works full time so making bread is actually a time consuming process that is not usually easy.  It’s messy and I have to plan the rise time so that it will be ready to bake at a time when I’ll be home and then I have to clean it all up.  As I said, way too much stress. 

So, here’s Mrs. Roy’s pointers for cheap, delicious, healthy and easy bread.  Go to the bakery section of a good grocery store and just pick up whatever strikes your fancy.  Buy some real butter, cut yourself a thick slice and spread the butter on thick and then just sit back and enjoy every bite.

3 comments:

  1. Aaaah! I love you Mrs. Roy! I also love bread and real butter!

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  2. I freeze it if I don't think we're going to go through it fast enough. It works - my mom used to do it too plus, if I need some cubed bread crumbs, I have bread on hand to use.

    The only time making bread is "easy" is when you have and regularly use a bread machine. But that takes away the cheap part, doesn't it?

    A neighbor just told me about this blog that is crockpot recipes for every day of the year - supposedly you can even bake bread in your crockpot - I'm going to look into that. I think I could throw together dough and put it in the crockpot ;-)

    It's http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

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  3. I make the 5 minute a day dough and just totally don't follow the rules. mix it for too long in the kitchenaid, use more or less flour, leave it out for days, grease it with oil. and when I have made the quickie breads and still have leftovers, I form bunwiches and roll them out and pop into a VERY hot oven and make my own pita - from which I make my own pita chips that I devour late at night, or (more healthy) which I use with home made hummus or other yummy spreads. but it DOES take some time and mess

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