So this week has been National Bread Week…………rather than supporting the processed white stuff, here is some of the nice nutritious tasty stuff I made at home 🙂 We have got into the habit of making plain wholemeal / white bread for everyday eating so this week gave me the incentive to be a bit more creative and liven things up a bit!

My photos are taken on my phone, I am no photographer so these are nothing like the beautifully, gorgeous food pictures I have seen on so many other blogs. If WordPress did aroma-blogs or smelly-blogs, you would be won over I know! I can assure you, these were yum yum yum 🙂

So, here are my creations this week:

Wonky wholemeal and spelt loaf

Honey and sunflower loaf (made with 50% wholemeal, 50% white flour)

Pesto, onion and garlic loaf made with white flour only (wow this was yum!)

These were followed by a spiced fruit loaf but I must confess……we ate it!

Now this bread does not last as long as the mass-produced, pre-packed stuff but that doesn’t seem to be an issue in our house.  It doesn’t contain all the artificial additives and preservatives so the shelf life will not be  as long. But we know exactly what’s in it, we are in control of the ingredients and it actually has real flavour! Anyway, if we happen to have any left, it’s a good excuse to take the kids down to the pond at the park and give the ducks a tasty feast.

Funnily enough the Guardian food section had a page on baking bread today so here it is if you want to give it a go……….how to bake bread

It’s also incredibly therapeutic. Not that I knead my bread at the moment (as my machine does it for me, how lazy is that) but I have made bread completely by hand in the past. The more you bash the hell out of it, the more you work the gluten in the dough, the better your bread will be and the better you will feel! Just imagine your ball of dough is somebody’s head……that annoying person at work perhaps, or that idiot or who ran you down with their trolley in the supermarket. What or who ever it is that’s bugging you, vent your frustrations out on your dough. Trust me you will love it!

So this leads me quite nicely to next week’s mental health awareness week. I remember reading an article in the Independent newspaper last week called feeling depressed? maybe you need to knead. Making bread can have really positive effects on your mood. On Monday I will be posting something about good mood foods so keep your eyes peeled for that!