Artisan Bread – 5 minute recipe

This is the second post in the series “Sugar Wars.” You can read post 1 here. 

One of the staples of American fare is BREAD. We love bread with everything. We love bread by itself! But, in the midst of our love affair, we might not realize that most varieties we buy in the store, even the healthy whole wheat ones, contain added sugar. Some sugars occur naturally in foods: fructose, lactose, and glucose as carbohydrate. While other sugars are added: sugar, high fructose corn syrup, etc., and these are what we have to be careful with.

Orowheat Whole Grain Bread for example has 3 grams of sugar per slice (our daily intake should be limited to 24 grams). The third ingredient is sugar, right after whole wheat, and water. Admittedly, there are bigger fish to fry than sugar in your bread, but it’s an important component to understanding how much added sugars we are consuming – especially in our savory foods. 

About 8 months ago I came across a recipe that has changed my view of bread making AND bread buying. It was a post by Frugal Living called “Amazing No-Knead Bread.” Oh how I love this recipe, let me count the ways:

1. 5 minutes of work – start to finish.
2. One loaf costs $0.40 cents to make.
3. Fresh bread smells AMAZING!
4. I know exactly what I’m eating: Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast
5. It looks like this:

I know…you can hardly wait to make a loaf! So let’s get to it!

I have made a few modifications to the method of preparation that Frugal Living describes in order to match our lifestyle and my love of simplicity.

1. I halve the recipe – this lasts me and my husband about a week. We eat some as a snack, along with meals etc. We rarely eat sandwiches so if you eat those daily, you should make the full recipe. Here are the halved amounts:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
• 1 1/3 cups cool water

2. Dump all ingredients into a large bowl and stir until it comes together. It will be sticky.

3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or towel and set near the stove (or the warmest part of your kitchen).

4. Let the dough rise for 12-18 hours. NOTE – I usually mix it up in the evening after work, then put it in the oven the following evening after work. Thus I let it rise for about 24 hours.

5. After your dough has risen for 24 hours, it will be VERY sticky and bubbly. An hour before you want to bake it, sprinkle flour over the top and mold into a smooth ball, and let rise for another hour.

6. Pre-heat oven with heavy bottomed pot (mine is aluminum) in the oven. Plop the ball of dough in the preheated pot, cover and cook for 40 minutes at 425, then uncover and cook for 10 additional minutes at 425.

7. Take out of the oven, marvel at the beautiful thing you’ve just made, and place on a cooling rack.

IMPORTANT: DO NOT slice until it has cooled 100%. Otherwise you will have a dense block of bread and then you will be sad. Very, very sad.

We store ours in a gallon sized zip-lock bag, because we are classy like that.

This is such an easy recipe, much healthier without preservatives, and you can make it anytime you need it.  We’ve completely gone off store-bought bread and I’m quite happy.

I think you will be too.

Lime Shrimp Pasta Salad

I’m not sure why, but I can never follow a recipe. Either I don’t have all the ingredients and I’m too lazy to get them, or I think “Hmm, I could make this better..” Whatever it is, recipes serve as an inspiration, not a diagram for me and I’m okay with that.

One of my favorite places for recipe inspiration is AllRecipes.com . My favorite feature is the “ingredients” section where you can type in what you have (and what you don’t have) and it suggests recipes for you. LOVE IT! It has saved my tired recipe brain many a time.

The other night I wanted something different and simple and I came across this recipe: Lime-Shrimp Avocado Pasta Salad and I thought it looked delicious. I started by halving the recipe and then just using whatever amounts of other ingredients I had on hand.

The recipe is simple: lime, shrimp, pasta, avocado, cherry tomatoes, cilantro, green onions and spinach (my addition). Then top with a mustard vinaigrette. Easy peasy.

 Here’s what I did. I took my frozen shrimp (medium, raw, tail off, peeled & deveined) threw them in a bowl (still frozen) added about 2 tsp Olive Oil…

..and about 1 Tbs Lime Juice. I mixed them around a bit and let them sit while I chopped the other ingredients:

Meanwhile, I chopped up 1 avocado, half a pint of cherry tomatoes, two green onions,  4 springs of cilantro (all I had left) and I took two handfuls of spinach, lined them up and sliced them into matchsticks.

Mm, I love how fresh and delicious that all looks! Now is when you would put your pasta on to cook. I used spaghetti but you could use penne or any kind you like.

Once the shrimp had thawed, I drained the excess liquid and tossed them into a hot frying pan with about 2 tsp of olive oil (add more if needed). I gave a quick dash of salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika (I didn’t measure I just did a quick sprinkle across all of them like you would with salt). I fried them until they had little golden brown bits and were opaque, about 3 mins.

Dressing: I sadly did not have the Worcestershire sauce the original recipe requires (I blame our recent move) so I just did 3 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp dijon mustard, 1/2 tsp mustard powder, 1 Tbsp lime juice, salt, pepper, and a dash of Rice Wine Vinegar:

Once all the pieces were prepared I assembled them all in a giant bowl to mix, and poured on the dressing just before serving. The noodles were still hot so they absorbed the dressing:

I did a quick toss and served it up to my very hungry hubby!

It was a quick, easy and oh so very delicious weeknight meal. Next time I would try adding the Worcestershire sauce to the dressing, or try adding balsamic vinegar. Give both versions a try and let me know what you think!

My Version:

INGREDIENTS

1 lbs shrimp

1/2 box Spaghetti

1 Avocado, diced

1/2 Pint Cherry Tomatoes, sliced

1 Tbsp Fresh Cilantro, chopped

2 Green onions, diced

1 Handful spinach, sliced into matchsticks

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard

2 Tbsp Lime juice, divided

4 Tbsp Olive Oil, divided

1/2 tsp mustard powder

Salt and Pepper to taste

Garlic Powder

Paprika

Rice Wine Vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, or Balsamic Vinegar (All Optional)

Directions:

1. Marinate frozen shrimp with 1 Tbsp olive oil and 1 Tbsp lime juice for 30 mins, set aside. Chop cherry tomatoes, green onion, spinach, avocado and cilantro and set aside.

2. Cook spaghetti according to box instructions (usually 6 to 8 mins). Meanwhile heat skillet with 1 Tbsp olive oil. Drain marinated shrimp of excess liquid and toss in frying pan. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, paprika and garlic powder. Cook until shrimp has little brown bits and is opaque about 3-5 mins depending on the size of your shrimp.

3. In a small bowl mix 2 Tbsp olive oil, 1 Tbsp lime juice, 1 Tbsp dijon mustard, 1/2 tsp mustard powder and a dash of rice wine vinegar (or Worcestershire sauce), whisk. Adjust to taste.

4. Drain the pasta and put in a large bowl, add in avocado, tomatoes, spinach, green onion, cilantro and shrimp. Add dressing, mix and serve.

Original Inspiration: Lime-Shrimp Avocado Pasta Salad