Back in the Kitchen, and Baking Porridge Bread!

Well, HELLLLLLOOOOOO THERE!

Kids these days seem to have very healthy egos, as they are forever taking off-center and blurry pictures of themselves and posting them all over the damn Internet. I thought I'd get all hip 'n shit and do the same. What the hell.

Anyway, I thought I'd fill you in on what I got in the Big Brown Box delivered by the courier with the gorgeous kneecaps...it was a box of samples from my buds at Sequel Naturals, the makers of Vega meal replacement bars and powders.

Are they any good, you're asking? Hell, I don't know. I haven't gotten around to it yet, but I plan on tieing into them later on today. I'll let you know. I certainly appreciate all the thought that has gone into the nutritional profile of these babies, and if they taste pretty decent (and not like a pile of dogshit baking in the sun) I plan on joining their affiliate program on my up-and-coming website. I'll fill you in soon.

In the meantime, let's talk bread. I had a craving for a slab of bread a few days ago. I wanted it to be oatmeal bread, hearty but not to heavy, and not sickly sweet like a lot of oatmeal bread is, due to the excessive amount of molasses in it.

So I started playing around. And in the end, I was chowing down on a super nummy nummy hunk of bread that has 117 calories, 2 grams of fibre and 75 mg of calcium per slice, which is a bonus for the bones. I used blackstrap molasses, which is much less sweet than the normal variety and has the added bonus of having about 60 mg of calcium per teaspoon.

This recipe makes two loaves of 16 slices each, and is most excellent with some natural peanut butter on top. The first loaf disappeared with eerie speed. (I think we must have a homeless person hiding in the basement who comes up at night and eats all the good stuff....)

High Calcium Porridge Bread

First, get a large bowl.

Add 1 cup very warm water, 1 tsp granulated sugar or maple syrup, and 2 1/2 tsp dry yeast. Allow to sit until foamy, about 5 minutes.

Then Add:

1 1/2 cups calcium-fortified plan rice milk

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

Allow to sit for five minutes.

Then Add:

1/2 cup blackstrap molasses

1 Tbsp healthy oil (like olive)

2 Tbsp almond butter

1 tsp salt

2 cups whole wheat flour

3 1/4 cups white flour

Knead into a smooth ball, about five minutes. Place in a greased bowl in a warm place to rise until double, about 1 and 1/2 hours.

Briefly knead again and divide into two. Knead into smooth loaves and place in greased bread pans. Cover with a towel and allow to rise for about 30-45 more minutes until double. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

If desired, you can brush the tops of the dough before placing in the oven with more rice milk and scatter oats on top. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes, and allow to cool on a wire rack.

What's Next: I got my portrait done yesterday for my business, and I'm heading into town to pick up the pictures. You can be sure I'll give you a peek at how they turned out....:0)

Peace!