![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/VolunteerCeremony.jpg\" "\\"VolunteerCeremony\\"")
<\/a>Pardon the blurriness. I was recognized by Hurlburt Field earlier this month as a nominee for the annual "Angel Award". I didn't win (I didn't hold a candle to most of my fellow nominees!) but I was incredibly flattered to be among such amazing volunteers.<\/p><\/div>\n
But now it has all wound down, with the new Hurlburt Spouses’ Club officers installed a couple weeks ago, the boys’ baseball and Cub Scouts having come to a close and I have a summer season that I can dedicate to my family.<\/p>\n
One of the things that really came to a screeching halt in April and May was normal cooking for the family. \u00a0Our dinnertimes became dominated by the “quick and easy”, from chicken nuggets to Firehouse Subs.<\/p>\n
With the help of some inspiration from several friends who have embarked on similar cooking\/eating journeys, I am going to try to go “back to basics” with our eating. \u00a0Not a “fad diet”, per se, but just trying to reset my cooking and eating habits a little.<\/p>\n
What is “back to basics”? \u00a0Simple, I’m trying to keep fundamental with the foods we eat. \u00a0Minimal processed foods, real homemade meals, etc. \u00a0Less empty carbs, such as juices, white sugary foods and starchy snacks. \u00a0Dinners will consist of a meat, a veggie and a basic starch, such as brown rice or homemade whole wheat bread. \u00a0Minimal reliance on oils, and we will try to keep fats to naturally occurring fats: butter is a winner in my house. \u00a0Heck, maybe we’ll even delve into cooking with lard (that isn’t as bad as it sounds)!!!<\/p>\n
My garden is producing nicely, so we can enjoy green beans and peppers straight from the yard right now too, yum!<\/p>\n
So I am starting with pulling my bread machine down from the top shelf of my appliance pantry and giving it a go. \u00a0I’m in search of a yummy honey-sweetened whole wheat bread machine recipe. \u00a0Whole wheat flour has a higher protein content than all-purpose or bread flours and therefore can go from yummy to tough if over-kneaded. \u00a0Here are the two I’ve tried so far, and there’s one more in the queue that I’ll try out later this week.<\/p>\n
<\/a>If you have a bread machine, making homemade bread is about 1\/4 the cost and 1000x the nutritional value of store-bought bread.<\/p><\/div>\n
Honey Whole-Wheat Sandwich Bread for Bread Machine<\/a>: This recipe calls for only whole wheat flour, which has This one baked up smelling and tasting good but it was way too dense. \u00a0We’re using this bread for toast now.<\/p>\n Heavenly Whole Wheat Potato Bread for Bread Machine<\/a>: I substituted honey for the white sugar in this recipe. \u00a0It still came out rather dense, but had a little more “fluffiness” compared to the recipe that had no bread flour.<\/p>\n This is the next recipe I’m going to attempt. \u00a0We like “potato” breads, it adds a nice flavor. \u00a0Once I find the right recipe, it’ll be our keeper for all-purpose bread uses.<\/p>\n Whole Wheat Potato Bread for a Bread Machine<\/a>: Unlike the 2nd recipe above that uses dry potato flakes (such as Betty Crocker’s “Potato Buds”<\/a>), this recipe calls for already-prepared mashed potatoes. \u00a0A great way to use leftover mashed potatoes. \u00a0Or nuke a potato in the microwave, fork-mash it and add it to the recipe. \u00a0Also, this recipe uses vital wheat gluten<\/a>, which is an additive that helps produce more gluten for whole wheat breads without over-toughening the bread.<\/p>\n One of the perks of a “back to basics” campaign is the incredible cost savings. \u00a0Did you know a homemade loaf of bread costs well under $1? \u00a0Perhaps as low as $0.50! \u00a0Compare that to most loaves of bread costing $2-3!<\/p>\n Stay tuned as I write about our adventures making homemade laundry detergent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" These past two months have been a blur to me. \u00a0I was busy with both boys in baseball, and my responsibilities with the Hurlburt Spouses’ Club ramped up, as I was in charge of organizing the elections of next year’s officers and a biennal review of the Constitution and other legal documents. But now it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[255,184,8,253,33,254],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-h6","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":678,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/11\/hurlburt-spouses-club-charity-auction.html","url_meta":{"origin":1060,"position":0},"title":"Hurlburt Spouses’ Club Charity Auction","date":"19 November 11","format":false,"excerpt":"I just got home from the Hurlburt Spouses' Club Charity Auction. \u00a0This year was the 25th year of the auction. \u00a0The auction is the year's biggest fundraiser for the organization's scholarship fund.Being that this was my first HSC auction experience, I didn't really know what to expect. \u00a0All the ladies\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force wife\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-x8_E1y7sH0U\/Tsc_ExP7bWI\/AAAAAAABbsQ\/FX0wsvhNUts\/s640\/IMG_0021.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":675,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/11\/roses-roses-and-more-roses.html","url_meta":{"origin":1060,"position":1},"title":"Roses…Roses…and More Roses…","date":"16 November 11","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm making a cake later this week for the Hurlburt Spouses' Club Charity Auction. \u00a0I hope it turns out really pretty and yummy...the money earned from the auction will help provide scholarships for members of the Team Hurlburt family!Tonight I decided to start on the roses, since I hadn't made\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force wife\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-Jj4QOtfJ6as\/TsMiWrQDcEI\/AAAAAAABbnc\/YV8X2O2N4nw\/s640\/IMG_9980.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1445,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2012\/09\/hurlburt-birthday-ball.html","url_meta":{"origin":1060,"position":2},"title":"The Hurlburt Field Air Force Ball","date":"21 September 12","format":false,"excerpt":"Hurlburt Field had their first ever Air Force Birthday Ball last weekend. For those who might not have been aware, the US Air Force celebrated their 65th Birthday on September 18th. They oversold the ball by several hundred tickets. I manage the website and Facebook pages for our base spouses'\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"air force\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/photo-1-768x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":663,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/11\/marshmallow-fail.html","url_meta":{"origin":1060,"position":3},"title":"Marshmallow Fail!","date":"04 November 11","format":false,"excerpt":"Before I get into the main topic of this post, first let me say that this was a much much better day for Dave's recovery. \u00a0He woke up in a good mood, and seemed to do well while I was briefly at a Hurlburt Spouses' Club board meeting during mid-morning.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"dear husband\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-pdY0kzHF8XU\/TrNO_xN4mEI\/AAAAAAABbDg\/d8kb7gxFQYU\/s400\/IMG_6080.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1425,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2012\/09\/milspouse-friday-fill-in-74-its-been-a-while.html","url_meta":{"origin":1060,"position":4},"title":"MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #74: It’s Been a While","date":"06 September 12","format":false,"excerpt":"So...the last time I did one of these was precisely 52 weeks ago (9 Sep 2011). I guess it's been a while.\u00a0I got a bit lazy and now that I'm not running around crazy with my Hurlburt Spouses' Club responsibilities, I have time to do this again and I'm so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"military life\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/wifeofasailor.files.wordpress.com\/2010\/06\/milspouse-friday-fill-in.jpg?w=350&h=200&crop=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":661,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/11\/halloween-2011-minimalist-style.html","url_meta":{"origin":1060,"position":5},"title":"Halloween 2011 — Minimalist Style","date":"01 November 11","format":false,"excerpt":"First of all, let's show a recovering Dave this evening, happy after a Panera sandwich and chocolate brownie. \u00a0My poor guy had to go 36 hours without food. \u00a0While that stinks for most people, those who know Dave well can imagine how it must have been for him. \u00a0He's recovering\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"dear husband\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-jZL-Yo6Dpi0\/Tq963IVNkFI\/AAAAAAABbCU\/wQnmJMKNdQs\/s640\/IMG_6072.JPG?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1060"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1060"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1063,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1060\/revisions\/1063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}