by pinchofyum

 For my food self, this is a yummy yummy good good week.

Mostly because I have a little collection of leftover containers holding what’s left of this delicious homemade Rice-A-Roni-esque meal. Two options right now: 1) judge the fact that I just likened this to Rice-A-Roni or 2) be a real person who likes good food made from scratch that just happens to taste like Rice-A-Roni. I already know what choice you’ll make, because you rock. Mwah.

I love when I get to the middle of a workday Monday and I remember that I have amazing lunch leftovers waiting for me. No more of this sad baggie of pretzels and small container of peanut butter thing I’ve been into lately. This week is going to be for realishly good.

Right now this 30 Minute Healthy Broccoli Cheese Rice is reminding me of an extra satisfying version of broccoli cheese soup, because sometimes broccoli cheese soup totally dominates in the flavor/comfort department but is a little bit lacking in the satisfying-my-imminent-hunger department. It’s just hard for me to consider liquid a real official meal sometimes. Amen? Everything about this – the incredible texture, the cheddar flavor, and the bright green of the broccoli – is giving me an instant food-mood boost.

Good thing my food self is having a great week because my regular life self is having a bleh moment.

Remember that studio that I fell in love with a few weeks ago? I don’t think I’ve shared much about it here, but I had shown a few pics of it on the social media thingys and had almost already taken to coming up with our own hashtag for it on Instagram. (Bjork wouldn’t let me. He’s always so rational like that.) It was a little studio in the arts district that we wanted to use as a blog photography and video studio kitchen for Pinch of Yum. So basically a food play room where adults pretend like they’re working but they’re actually just eating food and having fun. ❤

The bleh moment comes in when we took forever getting ready to commit and then when we finally did commit… we were too late. One day too late. And we didn’t get it.

Some supersneaky (read: organized and decisive and on the ball) person swooped in the day before our plumber was able to get there to confirm that the kitchen would function properly, and they nabbed that cozy little space like there was no tomorrow. And then there actually was no tomorrow for us to sign the lease. That was pretty much bleh.

It’s all well and good, it wasn’t meant to be, I know. I really do know that. But that doesn’t take away my depressed feelings about all the wasted time we spent driving there, looking at comparables, and deciding on which place we liked best. Plus, I’ve since scoured every corner of the internets and I cannot find a listing half as warm+cozy+creative. It was not the right place, but it was something special and now I’m a little mopey.

Right now our plans to continue the search are half-hearted. We’ve re-channeled our efforts —> these cookies and The Office and naps. Really healthy habits we have going on over here.

Okay, but on the other hand, this 30 Minute Healthy Broccoli Cheese Rice IS kind of healthy, and it will make you so glad that you didn’t pack yourself pretzels for lunch again. It’s meatless – weee! – and it’s full of good stuff like protein and fiber and vegetables and cheese, just like any good meatless dish should be. There is almond meal in the base of the sauce instead of flour. Seeerious. Be proud of me – I never do stuff like that. And then buckle up because there are crushed almonds on top to crunchify it all together. So good. Bjork loved it, I loved it, and the long-gone studio would have loved it in some other life. Le sigh.
Pass the ricey.

30 Minute Healthy Broccoli Cheese Rice

Author: Pinch of Yum

Serves: 5-6

Ingredients

• 1 cup brown rice (I used a brown rice blend from Costco – love it)
• 1 head broccoli, cut into florets
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons almond meal
• 1 cup milk
• ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
• ½ cup broth as needed
• 1 14-ounce can white beans, rinsed and drained
• crushed almonds for topping
• sliced green onions for topping

Instructions

1. Cook the rice according to package directions. Bring a small pot of water to boil (enough to cover the broccoli). Add the broccoli, cook for 1 minute or until the broccoli turns bright green, and remove from heat immediately. Drain and transfer to a bowl of very cold water. This keeps the broccoli bright green and pretty.
2. In a deep pot, melt the butter. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the almond meal and salt and cook for 2-3 minutes (it will be thick and clumpy). Add the milk a little bit at a time, whisking after each addition to smooth out the sauce and letting the mixture simmer until thickened slightly. Add half of the cheese and stir until melted.
3. Chop the cooked broccoli into fine bits, leaving a few larger florets (just for a more interesting texture). Stir the broccoli, cooked rice, white beans, and any additional broth or milk as needed until the mixture is well combined. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and cover the pan until the cheese is melted. Top with almonds and green onions and season with more salt and pepper.

 

Family Friendly Fat Burning Meals: 7 Tips To Make Fat Burning Meals

My name is Diana Keuilian, I’m the creator of Family Friendly Fat Burning Foods and today I’d like to share with you my top 7 Tips To Make Fat Burning Meals. Here’s a page where you can learn more about my Family Friendly Fat Burning Meals Program

Wouldn't it be great if all your favorite comfort meals naturally promoted fat loss? I think that would be awesome.

My old favorite comfort meals were fried fish tacos, fully-loaded veggie burritos, angel hair pasta with mizithra cheese and cheese-smothered veggie burgers with fries. Yummmmmmmm! Unfortunately these old favorites brought on rapid fat storage.

Due to my love of food, in my twenties I went from a size 4 to a size 12. 

In my frustration I tried portion control, and began to limit the amount of foods that I ate. This began a yo-yo cycle of eating less food one day, more the next, and never seeing the results I wanted.

Over the past few years I've read countless books on nutrition and have finally landed on the formula for creating meals that promote fat loss, and taste good while doing it. 

Oh and this method of eating has effortlessly brought me back to that size 4 :)

This is what I discovered...

Fat Burning Tip #1) Focus On Protein
The base of a fat burning meal is a healthy serving of quality, lean protein. Choose from organic, hormone-free chicken, pork, beef, lamb, veal, fish or eggs.

No wonder I was gaining weight! Most of my favorite meals had very little to do with protein. After giving up meat at age 12, I spent the next 18 years as a junk food vegetarian. Most of my meals were made up of processed grains and sugar.

Why is protein so important? Protein supports and fuels your lean tissues, namely your muscles, and does not have an effect on blood sugar levels, which would promote fat storage. 

Fat Burning Tip #2) Ditch Grains and Refined Sugar

A fat burning meal does not contain a serving of grains or starches. Yes, I realize that

this goes against everything that we have been taught or experienced with dinners. Most meals are plated with a jumbo serving of noodles, pasta, potatoes, rice, has been breaded or is served with bread, tortillas, chips or buns.

As I learned the hard way, these carbs are more than we need, and end up being stored as fat. And, yes, it is possible to create fat-burning dinners that satisfy even the hungriest meat-and-potatoes members of your family.

This was the hardest part for me to get used to. Grains and sugar are filled with fat-promoting carbs, and as you saw above, my favorite meals were all carb-ed out. 

There's really no reason, other than habit, to eat grains or sugar on a regular basis. Once I removed these from my diet, and got out of the habit of eating them, I no longer craved or even found my old favorites very appealing.

Fat Burning Tip #3) Bring On The Veggies

After you remove the grains and sugars from your meal, add a bunch of fiber-filled veggies instead. One of my favorite things to do now when building a fat burning meal is to get a bowl, add a few handfuls of organic spinach and arugula, and then top it with protein and some cooked veggies. Add a light homemade dressing and you're looking at the perfect, quick fat burning meal. 

Fiber-filled veggies are important for many reasons in addition to the fiber. They are filled with nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, all of which your body needs.  They are also very low in calories compared to the amount of space that they take up in your stomach. So you'll get full faster on fewer calories.

Fat Burning Tip #4) Quality Ingredients


Ingredients are the building blocks to a healthy meal so pay attention to the quality of the ingredients you use. Fast food just isn’t going to cut it! Be willing to spend a little more on the foods that you eat. Quality is much more important that quantity.

When choosing meat look for organic, antibiotic and hormone-free. Avoid processed meats, like lunchmeats, as these contain potentially harmful additives and lots of salt. Also avoid highly processed soy fake meats.

Choose foods that are:

• Fresh, organic and seasonal
• Pronounceable ingredients
• Whole foods

Fat Burning Tip #5) Use A Healthy Cooking Method


The method in which you cook your meal determines how many calories, how much added fat, and the number of nutrients that survive.

Don’t prepare meals like this:

• Fried and battered
• Processed and packaged
• Doused with cream sauce

Choose these cooking methods:

• Grilled
• Baked
• Broiled
• Steamed

Fat Burning Tip #6) Cook With Coconut Oil

I used to always cook with vegetable oil, never realizing how harmful it was to my fat loss efforts. Unfortunately most people use harmful, unstable and fat promoting oils when they cook.

The good news is that coconut oil is an amazing, healthy oil that not only tastes great but also helps promote fat loss. Among its many benefits, coconut oil is stable, even at high temperatures. It’s filled with lauric acid, which boosts the immune system and helps ward off infections.

           

Best of all, coconut oil has been shown to increase metabolism and thyroid activity, which boosts fat burning.

Fat Burning Tip #7) Enjoy Dessert of Fresh Fruit

When is the last time that you bit into a fresh, organic, perfectly ripe piece of fruit? Delicious, wasn’t it? I used to overlook fruit as the perfect dessert that it is, and instead would eat artificially flavored, cane sugar sweetened, processed desserts that encourage rapid weight gain and declined health.

I’m not going to say that ice cream and chocolate don’t taste awesome, because they do. But eating desserts like that on a regular basis is one of the big reasons that I kept gaining weight back in my twenties. By making the simple switch from refined sugar desserts to desserts of organic, fresh fruit I was able to lose weight without feeling deprived. 

Let’s bring fruit back to its rightful place as our favorite, most popular after-dinner sweet. Out with the refined sugar and corn syrup and in with Nature’s sweetest gift…fresh fruit.

Hope that you have enjoyed these 7 Tips To Make Fat Burning Meals. I’m walking proof that this way of eating truly delivers results without deprivation or boring, bland meals.

I love food WAY too much to give up flavorful, delicious dinners, snacks and desserts. In fact, I’m so passionate about creating fat burning foods that, for the first time ever, I’ve put all of my best recipes and eating secrets together into a full Family Friendly Fat Burning Meals program.

This system has over 100 of my family’s favorite fat burning recipes – which I used to effortlessly reverse the weight I had gained in my twenties. It’s tasty stuff like Chicken Enchiladas, Baked Chicken Nuggets, Make-Your-Own Tacos, Healthy Brownies, Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies and much, much more.

Here’s a page where you can learn more about my Family Friendly Fat Burning Meals Program <CLZCK HERE>

I’m excited to hear your fat loss success story. Good luck, and enjoy all of those tasty recipes :)

by myeverydaymusing

Looking for some healthy and delicious recipe for your breakfast? Look no further. This banana, strawberry and orange shake is a healthy option for breakfast and is delicious too. I have used fresh orange juice for the shake, but you can use canned juice too. So enjoy this shake while strawberries are still in the season. Here is the

All you need is

• Banana - 2 cups ( chopped )
• Strawberries - 2 cups ( chopped )
• Orange juice - 1 cup
• Milk - 4 cups ( chilled )
• Honey - 4 tsp

Method of preparation

1. Blend banana, strawberry and orange juice in a blender to make a smooth paste.
2. Add milk and honey and blend to mix well.
3. Serve in glasses.
4. Garnish with mint sprigs.
5. Serve chilled.

by glutenfreecanteen

Imagine chocolate, banana, grain-free (almond flour) and chocolate chips all in one cake. One big giant pound cake, that is.

It’s a pretty large (and tall) loaf, made in a Pullman 9-inch x 4-inch pan, so count on having plenty to share.  It’s also easy to mix together. Two bowls, one wooden spoon, a whisk and that’s it.

The cake takes a while to bake (blame it on the bananas) but it will eventually get there. Using an instant read thermometer, it should read somewhere close to 195°F or use a toothpick and make sure it comes out with dry crumbs – nothing gooey. As it cools, the cake will firm up and it tastes even better the 2nd day (chocolate ages well). A little crunchy on the edges and fudgy in the center. Be sure to slice it with a serrated knife for the best results.

That little tiny bit of brewed coffee does plenty to pop the chocolate flavor and does nothing to make the cake taste like coffee. It’s important, but decaf is a fine alternative. Coconut sugar is the best choice for this recipe, but granulated sugar will work, too. There’s a small amount of cinnamon which is a nice companion to chocolate, but it by no means tastes like cinnamon cake. It’s a big bold chocolate cake with lots of banana flavor.

I’m pretty sure we’ve found a new pound cake to love around here. Any excuse for another pot of coffee.

Ingredients

•     230 grams blanched almond flour (2⅓ cups)
•     80 grams tapioca starch (1/2 cup)
•     2 tablespoons coconut flour
•     35 grams unsweetened cocoa (1/3 cup)
•     150 grams coconut sugar (3/4 cup)
•     2 teaspoons baking powder
•     ½ teaspoons kosher salt
•     ½ teaspoon baking soda
•     ½ teaspoon cinnamon
•     180 grams pureed banana (about 2 medium to large gnarly bananas)
•     120 grams non-dairy milk (1/2 cup)
•     3 extra large eggs
•     160 grams neutral vegetable oil (2/3 cup)
•     1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•     1 teaspoon brewed coffee
•     70 grams semisweet mini chocolate chips (1/2 cup)

Instructions

1.     Spray a 9×5-inch pan with nonstick spray. Do not preheat the oven. In a large bowl whisk together almond flour, starch, coconut flour, cocoa, coconut sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda and cinnamon until well combined. In a medium bowl whisk together banana, milk, egg, oil, vanilla and coffee until smooth. Add to flour mixture and fold until combined and the batter is smooth. Fold in most the chocolate chips, holding out a tablespoon or two.
2.     Scrape batter into the prepared pan and top with remaining chocolate chips. Place in a cold oven and turn the temperature to 350°F. Bake 35 minutes and then turn the temperature down to 325°F and bake 25-30 minutes more or until the center of the cake is done and a toothpick inserted comes out with dry chocolate crumbs. Cool in the pan about 15 minutes and transfer cake to a rack to cool completely before slicing (with a serrated knife).

by sweetandsavourypursuit

I just love this Spinach and Clementine Salad.  In fact, I have become somewhat addicted to it and have had it at least 4 times in the last 10 days! What’s really great about it is that it is made up of complementing flavours and contrasting textures. The baby spinach with the soft goat cheese and the crunchy Marcona almonds, the clementines bursting with sweet juice and the sharp flavour of the red onions all come together to make a simple yet yummy spinach salad. This salad, filled with nutrient rich ingredients, is so delicious and so quick to put together that you will probably find yourself making it more often than other salads.  The salad will serve four people as a starter or a side, but if you are having it as a main, there will probably only be enough for 2-3, depending on your appetite!

If you are not familiar with Marcona almonds they are a Spanish variety of almonds found in many gourmet food markets but are becoming increasingly available in supermarkets.  I got mine from Costco.  If you don’t have any in your pantry, I would just use regular unsalted almonds.

• Servings: 4
• Difficulty: easy

Author: Sweet and Savoury Pursuits

Ingredients:

For the salad:

• 5 cups packed baby spinach, washed
• 4-5 clementines, peeled and segmented
• 1/4 cup unsalted toasted Marcona (or regular) almonds, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 small red onion, sliced into thin slivers
• crumbled soft goat cheese, to taste

For the dressing:

• 3 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tbs. pure apple cider vinegar
• 2 tsp. honey
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• freshly ground pepper, to taste

Directions:

For the dressing, combine the olive oil, apple cider vinegar, honey, salt and pepper and whisk until the dressing has emulsified. Set aside.
In a large bowl, top the baby spinach with the clementines, red onion, almonds, and goat cheese.   Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss well or serve the dressing on the side.
Enjoy!

by amandascookin

Prep Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons garlic wine vinegar (red or white wine vinegar will work as well)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons canola oil
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce
• 1/8 freshly ground black pepper
• 1 large avocado, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 large Roma tomatoes, chopped
• 1 15-ounce can black eyed peas, drained and rinsed
• 1 14-ounce can whole kernel corn, drained
• 1 bunch (about 2/3 cup) green onions, sliced
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the garlic, vinegar, oil, hot sauce and pepper.
2. Add avocado and turn to coat. Add remaining ingredients and stir to mix well.
3. Chill, covered, for 2 hours to allow flavors to meld. Serve with tortilla chips or nachos

by  smellofrosemary

These made from scratch muffins are delicious; they are topped with crunchy streusel and studded with fresh blueberries. The wholesome ingredients like oats, whole wheat flour and fat-free yogurt make these muffins a healthy and tasty breakfast. This recipe makes 24 wonderful muffins. 

Muffin Ingredients

• 1½ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 cups vanilla fat free yogurt
• ½ cup 2% fat milk
• ¼ cup canola oil
• 1 large egg
• 1½ cups fresh blueberries

Streusel Ingredients  

½ cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a large bowl mix together the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, oats, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

In another bowl, combine yogurt, milk, oil, vanilla, and egg, stirring with a whisk.

Add yogurt mixture to the flour mixture, and stir just until moist.

Fold in blueberries.

  

To make the streusel, combine together in a small mixing bowl, ½ cup of the all- purpose flour, brown sugar, and butter.

Fill muffin pans with liners. Spoon batter into each liner until it is about 2/3 full. Sprinkle evenly with streusel. Bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes.

 

Cool in pan for 10 minutes on a wire rack. Remove muffins from pan, and serve warm or at room temperature.

by reluctantgourmet

How to Bake Great Bread at Home

Many people are extremely intimidated by bread making. I’ve heard folks say everything from “I’m afraid of yeast,” to “I can’t make bread.” And that last is usually before they even try their hand at it. With the proliferation of helpful tools–everything wonderful bread cookbooks to stand mixers to electric bread makers to baking stones–one would think that bread baking has become more accessible. The basic ingredient list is very simple and easy to find. Of the four main ingredients, water, flour, salt and yeast, I’m willing to bet that everyone has at least three of them in their kitchen or pantry right now.

Maybe what’s needed here is not gadgets, but knowledge. An understanding of how the ingredients work together along with some tips on technique will hopefully help you become more confident and successful with your bread baking.

#1. 
Buy a Scale.

A successful bread dough is all about the ratio of flour to water. You will get more consistent and reliable results if your measurements are accurate.

If your bread recipe is written in cups, do the conversions. Measure flour in a cup and then weigh it. Write down the weight. Do this three times, and then take the average of the three weights. If your three cups weigh 4.3, 4.5 and 4.4 oz each, the average weight is 4.4. Now you can use that weight to do your conversions. If the recipe calls for 7 cups of flour, you know you will weigh out 30.8 oz.

#2. 
Proof Your Yeast

When you proof yeast, all you’re doing is proving that it is alive. That it is eating sugar and emitting bubbles of carbon dioxide, because that is what yeast does. If you are starting with brand new yeast well within its use-by date, it is not strictly necessary to proof every time you bake, especially if you make bread frequently. But, if you found some yeast shoved into the back of your cabinet or you haven’t baked bread in months, it is best to err on the side of caution and prove to yourself that the yeast is alive.

If you are using a bread recipe that calls for putting all your ingredients, including the yeast, in the mixer together and turning it on, warm up a portion of the water called for in the recipe. Yeast will die in temperatures of over 140°F anyway, which defeats the purpose of proofing your yeast in the first place. Don’t stress over the temperature too much. As long as it feels warm and comfortable to you, it will be warm and comfortable for the yeast. Add a tiny pinch of sugar, squirt of honey or splash of maple syrup, just enough to give the yeast a reason to wake up and eat.

Stir everything together and wait 10-15 minutes. If the mixture is nice and foamy with a dense head on top (kind of like the head on a freshly pulled pint of Guinness stout) you’re good to go. If you don’t see any bubbles, let alone foam, the yeast is dead and you’ll need to buy more.

#3. 
Limit the Flour in Your Dough.




One of the real sticking points for many people is the range of flour amounts that many recipes call for. Most of us like clear instructions, and telling us that a certain bread requires between 7-8 cups of flour is just not precise enough for us. 

Maybe this will help. Most sandwich bread does best when the ratio of flour to water is 2:1. So, for every 4.4 oz bread flour, you’ll need 2.2 oz water by weight. One half the weight of the flour is the amount of water you’ll need. Know that, even if you think the dough seems too sticky, if your ratio is correct, your bread will be just fine. Resist adding extra flour. While adding more flour does make dough less sticky, it invariably leads to a dense loaf that does not rise as much as it should.

#4
. Don’t Use Flour When Kneading.

I cannot tell you how many bread recipes call for turning the dough out on a floured surface. But we have already established that it’s not a good idea to add extra flour. The solution is fairly simple. Spray a light mist of olive oil or pan spray on your counter and on your hands. You can also use a touch of melted butter. Now you can shape the dough without it sticking so you won’t be tempted to add any extra flour.

Even if your dough doesn’t call for any fat, a small amount of oil on the counter will not adversely affect the dough. As a matter of fact that tiny amount of added fat will probably help to keep the bread from staling too quickly after baking. If you really don’t like the idea of adding oil, a light spritz of water will do the same thing.

Use a bench scraper to scrape any dough that might stick to your counter. I have found that using a bench scraper (bench knife) also helps to keep me from reaching for additional flour.

#5
. The Windowpane Test


The purpose of kneading is to develop gluten. Gluten is a protein that is formed when two other proteins, glutenin and gliadin, combine with water and then get agitated–stirred, mixed or kneaded. (Incidentally, that’s why when you make some baked goods, you mix minimally and gently once you add liquid to the flour. You don’t want much gluten to form at all in the case of cakes, pancakes and muffins).

But how do you know when enough gluten has formed to let your bread rise nice and high and to get a lovely chew? It’s called the windowpane test. After kneading for several minutes, tear off a small piece of dough (if it stretches a lot before pulling away, that is another good indicator of good gluten formation).

Roll the dough into a small ball and then flatten it into a disc. Now start rotating and stretching the dough, as if you are making a tiny pizza. You should be able to get the dough thin enough that it is gets nice and translucent before tearing. If the dough tears before stretching out nice and thin, you know you have some more kneading to do.

This test works best on white breads as the sharp edges of bran in whole wheat and other whole grains tend to cut some of the gluten strands. That’s why whole grain breads tend not to rise as high as white breads. You should still be able to stretch the dough into a windowpane, but you won’t be able to get the dough as thin.

#6
. A warm fast rise or a long cool rise?


 A bread dough that rises in a warm place rises more quickly than a bread dough that rises in a cool place. A faster rise will allow you to enjoy your bread that much sooner, but you’ll get better flavor from a longer, slow rise. Most bread recipes call for two rises. The first in a bowl and the second after shaping. If you have the time to refrigerate your dough overnight after shaping, go ahead and do that. The next morning, pull the dough out, let it come to room temperature and finish its rise before baking.

Knowing how to manipulate rising time can help you if you suddenly get called away in the middle of your bread baking day. As long as it is well covered, refrigerating the dough at any point before baking is perfectly acceptable. And it is much preferred over just leaving the dough out on the counter to overproof.

#7. 
Slashing/Washing/Finishing.


Slashing the dough before baking does more than just make a pretty pattern on your bread. It also helps direct how the bread will rise in the oven. Have you ever baked a loaf of bread and ended up with a large air pocket right under the crust? Well, slashing your loaf helps prevent this.

For a sandwich loaf, one long slash down the center of the loaf is a nice finishing touch. If you are baking a round loaf, a “Tic Tac Toe board” slash will let your bread rise evenly all the way around. For long, slender loaves like baguettes, a series of angled parallel slashes down the length of the dough gives you a classic baguette-look.

Prior to slashing, you can brush the dough with egg wash, water, milk or egg white. Now is the time to add some poppy seeds, sesame seeds or whatever topping you would like. You can also leave the bread plain.

#8
. Store Fresh Bread in the Freezer.


Unless I know that we will be eating all the bread I have made in one day, I let it cool to room temperature and then freeze it. With sandwich loaves, I go ahead and pre-slice. That way, when I want to make a sandwich or some toast, I can pull out only the bread that I need. Go ahead and make your sandwich on frozen bread. It will surely be thawed and soft by the time you’re ready to eat, especially if you’re sending it in child’s lunchbox.

You can also toast the bread straight from frozen. Either way, eating bread in a sandwich or as toast, the bread will taste as fresh as the day you made it for up to three weeks.

To freeze fresh bread, make sure it is completely cooled first. Then, slice (or not) and put in freezer bags. Press out all the air that you can and seal. I sometimes even use a straw to suck out even more air, like a person-powered Food Saver. I would not use a Food Saver machine to freeze bread as the amount of vacuum created can smash the bread.