Hi Faith17!
I’m a new wife who had NO cooking background when I married. I was actually terrified the first time my husband showed me how to turn on the gas stove-top (I had grown up using only electric). However, I married a man of simple needs and a great deal of patience 🙂 He taught me how to cook a few simple things before he was deployed for a year, two months after our wedding. While he was gone, I learned to bake homemade bread (good suggestion 1butterflykisses!) and found a fun, inexpensive way into my man’s heart. He returned to fresh, whole wheat bread made each week. After nearly two years, we’ve only bought one loaf of bread, which he hated so much he threw out and washed the dishes so that I had time to make another batch!
Here’s my recipe, but I encourage you to experiment! This recipe makes three loaves, and takes 3-4 hours depending on rising time. You don’t have to be actively working on the bread that long, but you’ll have to be around to keep an eye on it.
Start by making a “sponge”: 4 cups warm (~98* or bottle temp.) water, 2 T yeast, let set for ~5-10 min to activate the yeast.
While the sponge sets, start adding your dry ingredients together ( I use a Kitchen Aid stand mixer for this, and I HIGHLY recommend it! I got mine as a bridal shower gift, and helped purchase one for my little sister when she got married.)
1 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup ground flax seeds
1 T sea salt
1/4 cup raw sugar or honey
1/2 cup olive oil
1 T wheat gluten (optional, to help the bread rise)
4 cups whole wheat flour
Mix all the above together, then add your water+yeast and continue mixing. (With the KA, I’ll usually put in two c. whole wheat flour, mix with the paddle on #2 speed, then add a 3rd cup & mix before switching over to the dough hook for the 4th cup.)
Then begin adding all-purpose flour (straight whole wheat would make the dough too heavy).
I end up adding between 4-6 cups all-purpose flour, depending on the batch. This one has to be done mostly by feel and experimenting. I was taught to continue kneading and adding flour until the dough easily pulls away from the bottom of the bowl. The dough should not feel sticky at all when it is finished. When it feels done, place it in a LARGE bowl for 30-45 min. in a warm place, until the dough rises and nearly doubles in size. Then, (fun part!) punch the top of the dough down & it will sink back to only slightly larger than it started. Divide the ball into 3 parts, and roll each part out in a long rectangle to remove any air bubbles (you’ll hear them “pop” when you roll over them with your rolling pin. Start in the center and roll all the way to each end in an even stroke so that the air bubbles are always pushed out.) You can roll your dough on a floured surface, but I’ve actually found that using olive oil is a great alternative, though it’s a little trickier in some ways. Your dough is more likely to “spring” back to it’s original shape with flour, but it’s more likely to tear using oil.
Once you have a nice, even rectangle of dough about 1/4″ thick, start at one end and roll the dough (burrito-style) as evenly and neatly as possible, pressing down on the ends of the roll with each turn (that will help keep your heels neat during baking). You should end up with a rolled loaf with neat ends that will fit into an oiled bread pan. Repeat that twice for the other loaves and place in a warm place to rise again for another 30-45 min. This time they may not double, but they will rise up to the top of the bread pan, and then you can put them in the oven for ~45 min @350*. When it is lightly brown, take it out and brush with butter for an extra-tasty crust 🙂
This is a fun way to feed your family fresh, healthy bread, but don’t be too critical of your first few attempts. You first loaf of bread will probably not be anywhere near perfect. Your loaf may get squirrelly during the second rise and twist or kink in the pan, you may miss an air bubble that will pop during baking and make your loaf look ugly. Don’t worry! It’ll still taste good, and every time you try, your bread will look prettier. I still have a loaf every batch that’s not as pretty as I’d like, and I’ve been doing this every week for two years. The main thing is to HAVE FUN! I’ve yet to meet a man whose heart won’t melt to come home to find his wifey in an apron, dusted with flour, pulling fresh bread out of the oven for that evening’s supper. And if they come out a little lumpy, you can have fun laughing over the shapes they make (I had to use an oddly-shaped pan after one of my bread pans broke–some of my husband’s favorite loaves were “plumber’s bread” because the loaf always kinked in the pan and looked like, well… 😉
Good luck! My other advice would be to learn garden-to-table skills. Learning to prepare a salad with fresh ingredients, trying out new dressings, and how to use fresh produce is the healthiest thing you can do for your family. I would recommend trying to make your own tomato sauce for pasta dishes and homemade pizza. Even if you don’t grow them, you can get tomatoes fairly cheap from farmer’s markets, etc. Just put them in the blender (we do this skins & all) and into a big stock pot, then boil and stir, adding whatever Italian seasonings your heart desires until thick and delicious. We usually add garlic and diced black olives to ours, along with parsley, oregano and basil.
Sorry this is so long, feel free to message me with any other questions 🙂 Good luck, and thank God you’ve chosen to start cooking before you walk down the aisle. I’ll pray for your success!