Does anyone here have a totally non processed food lifestyle?

ceridwen

Zazen999 wrote: »

Interesting! I also make bread with no sugar....just flour, water, yeast and if I remember, some salt. The things people get hung up on...:D

I think I'm going to be experimenting a bit more by the look of it - I've made my 5 Minute Bread without oil and it was fine ...still good....just think its even better WITH the oil. Think I might try it without either oil or honey/molasses and see how it turns out. I suspect it will still be fine - good...but not quite as good. Still a lot better than shop bread though. I shall have to try this out at some point and see - and my 5 Minute Bread recipe made without either "sweetening" or oil would be a VERY cheap way to go for someone to make homemade bread if finances were very bad...

Now - what was that phrase describing bread as "the staff of life"? i certainly think a loaf of good healthy bread probably provides quite a large "whack" of the nutrients necessary in a diet and...topped up with what fruit & veg and protein one can probably goes a LONG way towards providing everything necessary.

westcoastscot

ceridwen you don't need oil in your bread but it does help it keep fresher for longer, and if you freeze it then it tastes better on defrosting - it doesn't dry out so quickly

MrsE_2

ceridwen wrote: »

I shall be interested to follow this thread.

Hopefully there are people out there eating this way - I tried starting a "cooking from scratch" thread a bit back and got no response at all as I remember - because I really DO mean "cooking from scratch".

I usually make my own bread, I have started making my own buttery spread for it, grow own beansprouts if I decide to have them. My problem is I have a full-time job - so it makes it difficult to go as far down the road as I wish - ie homemade pasta, homemade yogurt or kefir, homemade soft cheese, homemade vinegar.

So - for now - I do what I can and the only processed food I buy I think is readymade pasta, the occasional loaf of bread, tomato puree, canned tomatoes (I'm hoping my homegrown tomatoes will turn out enough to make my own canned tomatoes and tomato puree), vinegar and I'm buying my yogurt readymade for the time being. I won't buy any ready meals. I'm in the process of swopping from canned beans to soaking and cooking dried pulses.

A work in progress here - including dealing with the frustrations of not being able to "go the whole hog" yet because of the amount of time not available because of my job.:(

Would love to grind my own flour - but British shopping facilities don't tend to include the grains to do so and I have a typical British kitchen (ie too small) - so finding room to go that far down the road isnt going to be possible here ever:(

I'm starting to grow what I can of my herbs - rather than buying dried ones if I can avoid it. Unfortunately don't have the room in that tiny kitchen to hang up bunches of herbs to dry from anything - but am aiming to have fresh ones as far as possible..

sb44 - I guess the best way to explain what you mean to people (yep - I know exactly what you mean - but some won't) might be to talk about eating "naturally". ?
There's problems of possible misinterpretation even then - partly because of the tendency of some food manufacturers to say that things are "natural"/"homemade"/etc - when we know very well they arent.

Errrmmm...thinks....maybe "Food from Great Grandma's Kitchen" might give the "picture" of what is meant by you (and me) - ie ingredients that would be recognisable/acceptable/available to a "time traveller" from 200 years ago (ie pre-Industrial Age)(from some part of the world or the other - if not Britain).

Wow you really are cooking from scratch.

I do my version of from scratch for taste. So I'm happy to buy things that others make better than me, but I think most of the time home made is far better.

I don't buy jars or packets, I make marmalade but not jam as I prefer Bonne Mamans. I did make one lot of butter but I will stick to spreadable butter as they moaned about mine.

I make Nigellas chilli jam, but I buy mayo - as mine isn't better than Hellmans.

I bake all my own bread.

I plan to use railway sleepers to make a giant trough to turn into a herb growing box sometime. I want to put it where the shed is, so I need to move the shed first.

givememoney

I've never bought a ready meal which you stick in the oven.

Does this count?

ceridwen

5 MINUTE BREAD - update

I've had a former MSE poster send me a PM saying that they'd like to add the following comment (via me) about my recipe below:

They adapted my recipe and say:

"I adapted it by using what I had = 250gr wholemeal flour, 450gr plain white flour and a big handful of oats.

"...came out lovely ...best looking loaf I've made and that includes some very faffy sourdoughs...also a real soft pleasure to knead unlike most. Thanks for the backbone of the recipe."

ceridwen wrote: »

So - at the thought of people putting up with shopbought bread - I'll share my 5 Minute Bread recipe (as thats all it takes me to make it). I've been doing this recipe for years - and never had a failure yet with it:D. Its a no-knead recipe:D:

700 gr wholemeal bread flour
7 grams of easy-blend dried yeast (equates to 1.5 heaped teaspoons - so 1 heaped and 1 level does it)
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon of honey or molasses (you could use sugar instead - tho' I never have)
1 teaspoon salt
600ml warm water


- Mix flour and yeast in a large bowl.
- Put 300ml just-boiled water in a Pyrex measuring jug. Add the teaspoon of honey or molasses and stir to dissolve it.
- Add the oil and salt to the hot water as well.
- Top the water up to the 600ml mark.
- Pour that 600ml of water into the flour/yeast mixture and mix together with a fork.
- When its pretty much mixed-up - tip out onto lightly-floured work surface and lightly flour your hands too.
- Knead the dough together just enough to form it into a ball (takes about 2 minutes).
- Put the dough ball into a large size breadbaking tin.
- Cover with damp teatowel and leave to rise till double in size (about 40 minutes).
- Put into oven at 200C for 40 minutes
(its ready when lightly brown and the loaf can be tapped on the base and will sound very slightly hollow).
- Tip out of tin and leave on wire rack from grill pan of oven to cool.

TIP; I have found one added refinement that makes it even quicker/easier recently. I bought a couple of large silicon breadbaking "tins" from Lakeland and use one of them now instead of my rigid ones (put onto a baking sheet in the oven - rather than straight on the shelf!). With that - I have no problem at all getting the loaf out of the tin when baked - just tip carefully upside down, with the other hand on the top of the loaf and it comes straight out every time.

Easy-peasy....which suits me..

So - for anyone who is summoning up their nerve to try making bread for the first time....that's my recipe above again for reference:D

ceridwen

westcoastscot wrote: »

ceridwen you don't need oil in your bread but it does help it keep fresher for longer, and if you freeze it then it tastes better on defrosting - it doesn't dry out so quickly

I noticed that - ie one can do this bread without oil - but it didnt last as long. So - horses for courses = ie if one has a larger household and will eat up a loaf of bread quickly, then its perfectly possible to make without the oil. For my single person household - I've found it necessary to use the oil to ensure it keeps better. Though I do think the bread is improved by the addition of oil anyway - its a better texture with it and that little bit more "nutrition".

ceridwen

MRSE

Good luck with your herbgrowing. Thats one of my next little projects - ie learning more about adding fresh herbs to cooking.

So - I've got rosemary, lemon balm, thyme, chives and 3 types of mint growing so far. I've got my eye out for some sage and coriander plants as well (as those flavourings get used a lot in modern recipes). Wish I'd ever had some success with parsley and basil - I just can't seem to get them to grow:(

MrsE_2

ceridwen wrote: »

MRSE

Good luck with your herbgrowing. Thats one of my next little projects - ie learning more about adding fresh herbs to cooking.

So - I've got rosemary, lemon balm, thyme, chives and 3 types of mint growing so far. I've got my eye out for some sage and coriander plants as well (as those flavourings get used a lot in modern recipes). Wish I'd ever had some success with parsley and basil - I just can't seem to get them to grow:(

I'm going to use the railway sleepers to create sides (to contain it & make it easier for mowing) but leave the bottom open to the soil, otherwise your earth can run out of nutrients, like plants or shrubs don't grow nearly well in a pot as they do in the ground.

Thats why I can't build it now & move it when we move the shed, its more a raised bed with railway sleepers for little walls I'm planning.

I guess some herbs grow better in a hotter climate, but I thought parsley would do well here.

ceridwen

MRSE

I feed my plants with water with a bit of dried seaweed in - I figure if kelp is good for me, then seaweed must also be good for them (ie the minerals in it). The last friend to spot them (a couple of days ago) raised her eyebrows with surprise and said "They DO look good....".

Right...must go out and "visit with them". Cue "How are you? What's that nasty snail looking at you like that for? Don't worry - I'll deal with them...."