Our trip down this road of healthy habits has steadily gained momentum. As Lindsay, the Happy Herbivore says, it is about progress, not perfection. After about a year of innovating recipes to make them vegan and swapping processed foods for whole foods, we finally considered finding preservative free bread.  Our family loves Food for Life Ezekiel breads.  Marc prefers the 100% Whole Grain Bread and Cinnamon Raisin (my favorite) because they are low glycemic.  They are made with sprouted grains and are packed with nutrition. Many grocery stores sell Ezekiel bread in the freezer section.

While I love Ezekiel bread and highly recommend them, sometimes I want a softer, lighter loaf.  So, I finally invested in a bread machine and a couple times per month I bake bread.  I purchased a Cuisinart CBK-100 programmable bread maker from Amazon (see the link below) and I love it.  I found my favorite, go to recipe for rye bread online at Hamilton Beach’s website:

http://www.hamiltonbeach.com/light-rye-bread-for-15-lb-loaf-breadmaker.html

There was, however, a bump in the road.  After baking a few loaves successfully, I became a little careless and did not use room temperature water.  I tried to guess at the temp of the water by sticking my finger in it and telling myself,”Yeah, that feels about the same temp as the air.”  Big mistake!  Check out this picture of the hard rock that I baked:

So, now I always leave my ingredients out for at least an hour to make certain they are room temperature. Here is a picture of what the loaves usually look like:

They are plump, warm, soft and make our house smell so good.

Let me know what bread recipes you like.  I am always looking for new ones to try.