Old Fashioned Oatmeal Bread

Recipe:

Old Fashion Oatmeal Bread loaves with tempting homemade look and taste. This is great with pot roasts and other thick soups. Yummy!!!


2c milk
2c quick-cooking oatmeal or regular oatmeal (i have used both, prefer old fashioned)
1/4 c brown sugar
1tblsp. salt
2 tblsp shortening (or oil)
1pk active dry yeast
1/2 c warm water (110-115)
5 c sifted flour (about)
1 egg white
1tsp water
rolled oats for sprinkling


(REMINDER) This bread takes THREE rise times.....they go pretty quick but it does need THREE.


scald milk; stir in 2 c rolled oats, brown sugar, salt and shortening. remove from heat and cool to luke warm. sprinkle yeast on warm water; stir and dissolve add milk mixture and 2 c flour to yeast. beat with electric mixer on medium speed, scraping the bowl occasionally, 2 mins. add enough remaining flour, a little at a time, first with spoon and then with hands, to make a soft dough that leaves the sides of the bowl. turn onto a floured board; kneed until dough is smooth and elastic, 8 to 10 mins. place in lightly greased bowl; turn dough over to grease top. cover and let rise in warm place until doubled. punch down and let rise again until nearly doubled, about 30 min. turn onto board and divide in half. round up to make 2 balls. cover and let rest 10 mins. shape into loaves and place in greased loaf pans. let rise until almost doubled. brush tops with egg white beaten with water and sprinkle oats on top. bake in moderate oven about 40 mins. if bread starts to brown to much cover with foil after baking for about 15 mins. Makes 2 loaves

Menu Plan Monday

Yes, i am an entire day early, but i wanted to make sure i could do this!!!! This is my FIRST Menu Plan Monday that i am a part of. I love reading others and was introduced to it through my friend Candi and i am just sorta kinda figuring out this blogging stuff ;)

I almost always plan menus, otherwise i am a basket case trying to figure out what to feed my family. i NEED my lists ;) With my busy schedule with three kids in soccer, church functions, my husband and oldest daughter hunting (yes, it is archery and muzzleloading season), i have to be organized or my household falls apart and none of us are happy campers. On top of all those reasons, if i don't menu plan, my grocery budget goes through the roof! and we can't have that! Here is what i have planned. i was trying to stay very frugal this week and i only had to buy two items of meat!!! How cool is that?! I bought one cutup chicken and one pound of hamburger and that should do me for 7 meals! Here is my menu in no particular order as to the day of the week we will eat it:

• Wild Rice Chicken Soup (with lots of veggies and barley, Homemade Old Fashioned Oatmeal Bread.


• Pinto beans with green chilis over rice topped with diced tomatoes and cheese, a recipe of Katie's.


• Spaghetti, homemade french bread with garlic butter, meat sauce and salad (if i go and pick up the fixin's for salad - i never buy salad stuff until the day i need it, otherwise it may go rotten in my fridge because i don't use it fast enough).


• Chicken Casserole, steamed broccoli, corn on the cob, fried cabbage


• Poppyseed Chicken, broccoli and cheese, buttered carrots


• Marlboro Man Sandwiches from here, sour cream potato casserole. I will let you know how the sandwiches are. they sure look good!!!


• Lentil-Spinach soup from Katie again. I am willing to give it a try. Don't know how well my family will like it though :). I will make this along with some homemade french bread with some good butter.

I try to plan my menus around stuff i already have in the pantry or what is on sale, etc. I have a master list of my "cheapest" meals on my computer and when i need inspiration, i go check that. Then, i make up a list of seven meals, plan three things for breakfast to be rotated and after school snacks. I then underneath each dinner meal, i list the ingredients needed to make that meal, including spices, seasonings, etc. Then, i enlist the help of my girls and, while i sit and eat bon-bons on the couch (yeah right! in my dream world!!!), they go searching through the pantry and spice cabinet and icebox when i call off items i am not sure if we have. i mark through the items i do have and then create my shopping list off of the items that are not marked through. I usually use 2-3 sheets of paper when i make my shopping list. I am sure there are other computer guru's who can do all of this on the computer, but frankly, i am stuck in my ways, LOL.... sorta like how you can't really grocery shop if YOU aren't the one pushing the cart.....it just doesn't "feel" right, LOL.

Raw Milk

I finally went down to the small dairy farm near my house and picked up some raw milk.........at only 2 dollars a gallon.!!! You just bring your own container and come at milking time. I just can't wait to drink some....now i am wondering how much cream it takes to make a small amount of butter. I would like to try that some time. This farm is part of the Braum's co-op and so it is inspected regularly, etc. and DOES NOT use the growth hormones!! I will post and let you know if my family liked the taste or not tonight. Until then....

Some yummy bread

I am sure the majority of my posts on this blog will be about cooking in some form or another, it is what i do the best. My family loves homemade bread and this Oklahoma weather was just perfect for a good loaf. I put the makings of a pot roast on the stove and some Old Fashioned Honey Oatmeal bread out to rise. This is the finished product and boy was it good! I should have taken some pics of my family gobbling it down!

Beautiful way to start a Blog

For the first time in my life, my husand had flowers delivered to me!!! I didn't even have to give birth to a child :) What a Guy!!!