Recipe of the week: Homemade wheat bread

We're tackling probably the most feared and misunderstood recipe today: your plain, everyday, ordinary loaf of wheat bread. I had many failed attempts at making bread before I got this amazing recipe from a childhood friend. It's never failed for me!

This is how the bread starts for me. With my Kitchenaid attachable wheat grinder. This handy dandy tool attaches onto my mixer and does the work of grinding for me. I would suggest that even before you start gathering and storing wheat, you get a wheat grinder. You could still cook your wheat and sprout your wheat, but having a grinder is what will enable you to make breads, etc. if you need it!

I grind 3 cups of wheat which equals 4 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour. I then add to the wheat flour:
1/3 c. sugar
1 T. salt
1 T. powdered egg (a real egg could be used also)

Then onto the liquid ingredients!

Add 5 1/2 cups of hot water

2/3 c. oil

1/3 c. honey (use the same measuring cup you used for the oil, the honey will just slip out!)

Run your mixer for about 30 seconds while adding an additional 1 1/2 cups white flour.

Then add 1/2 c. gluten flour (The most economical way I have found to buy this is in the Morning Moo's #10 can.)

Run the machine until the batter is smooth. Then add 2 T. Saf instant yeast. This is the yeast that is sold in a 1 lb. package. The cheapest I ever see this item is when they have it on sale at Macey's for $2.99. It feels like a little brick when you buy it! This is only because it is vacuumed packed, as soon as you cut it open, the whole package turns soft. So, don't let the packaging fool you!

Next, add white flour 2 cups at a time until the total amount of flour used is 12-14 cups. The sides and bottom of your bowl should be free from batter.

Run the machine an additional 5 minutes to knead the dough. I like to add a little bit of flour here and there to keep the dough from getting too sticky. About an additional cup is used here.

Pour the dough out onto an oiled surface, with oiled hands. Do not use flour!

Separate the dough in halves, then into half again for 4 loaves of bread.

Form into loaves and place into pans. Put the loaves into a 150 degree oven to rise for 30 minutes, or until the loaves double in size.

Beautiful! Turn the oven up to 350 degrees and bake for another 30 minutes.

Since I opened the oven to take a picture of the raised loaves, my finished loaves dipped a little in the center. But, this is a picture of the first attempt I had at making this recipe:
Oh, the pride! I hope you'll get ready to make your first loaf, too, if you haven't already. So, so yummy and so, so good!

Oh, the possibilities!

You may hear of some amazing deals and wonder how people actually USE the things they buy? I wanted to show you how I've been using one item that was a real steal.

I recently scored a bunch of Mott's applesauce cups for 10 cents each! That's right, 10 for $1. I grabbed about 100, so cheap! I got these at a little store in Ogden, called "Carl's Super Saver." You may have seen it, but never dared to go in! At least that's how it was for me until I heard that they have some smokin' hot deals! Carl's is one of those store that buys close-outs and "scratch and dent" items.

I decided to get my courage up and try Carl's out one day. When I discovered the applesauce cups I was so glad that I did! The cups must have been discounted because they are sold individually, and not in their original packaging. They don't expire until July. (That is one thing that you do have to look out for at discount stores like Carl's, the expiration dates.)

So, I use these little cups for my daughter's "home lunches":

Along with the 35 cent Lunchables and 8 cent juice box, this lunch cost 53 cents! (Getting a Lunchables is an extra treat for them, they usually have ham or peanut butter sandwiches on homemade bread.)

I realize that there are 2 apple products here. To mix it up, I could have substituted a Juicy Juice juice box from Target. Target recently had both a manufacturer's coupon and a store coupon for their 8 packs of Juicy Juice. Each coupon was $1/2 8 packs. I used both coupons and got $2/2 packs along with the sale price of $2.25 and got 8 packs for $1.25 each! So, subbing the Juicy Juice of another flavor (Berry or grape for instance)- those were only 16 cents for each juice box! (We made the switch to juice boxes when our school district's milk price for one milk at lunch each day went up to 50 cents! CHOKE! I just couldn't pay that much for one milk.)

I was also recently asked to be in charge of a breakfast for about 45 kids and 15 adults. Guess what we're having?


More applesauce! Along with pancakes, syrup, jam and juice. These Lehi Roller Mills whole wheat pancake mixes were on sale for $1 each. Just add water! The syrup and jam I picked up at Albertson's awhile ago when they were on sale and with coupons, and the juice is a fruit juice mix in a #10 can from the LDS food cannery.

So, all together the breakfast cost breakdown is this:

60 applesauce cups= $6.00
6 boxes of pancake mix= $6.00
2 Log Cabin syrups= $3.10
1 Welch's squeezable jam= $1.25
1 #10 dry fruit drink mix= $6.60

Breakfast for 60? Grand total is $22.95!

I need to add on another success story for Family Fresh Foods here. Reader, Autumn sent this picture along with a message:

"I live about 35 minutes from FFF but had to make a trip in to Ogden to the Dentist. I decided to prep my shopping list and see what I could do. Not pictured here is 2 more rolls of sausage and a loaf of bread (which came free that day with a $10 purchase). My total after coupons was $22. Thank you so much for the heads up on this grocery store, I never knew it existed. If every week brings this magnitude of deals, it will be worth it to include this in my weekend errands in Ogden. BTW, I too was introduced to couponing through Grocery Smarts and it happened right about the time my husband was layed off. It has changed my family's life forever. I now spend less on groceries than ever before and have almost a year supply stockpiled in my basement in only 8 months time (this is on top of the groceries we consume daily). I have shared everything I've learned with everyone I know, and have an appreciation for those of you who spend the time blogging the deals I would otherwise not know about.Thank you, Autumn"
She later sent another message saying she left out of the picture 20 cans of Progresso Soup. That is included in the $22 she spent! Wow, Autumn, you are a savvy shopper!

I hope you all will continue to send in your stories and the deals you find, so we can share the joy! Please include your stories of how you are using your deals in real life situations. Send to: savvysistershops@live.com

Store coupons vs. Manufacturer coupons

A nice little coupon booklet from Smith's came in the mail yesterday! When you get your books of coupons, it's important to notice what kind of coupons they include. I took a picture of mine to show you some differences. Each of the coupons had the Smith's logo printed on it.

BUT, most of the coupons were store coupons- we know because it's printed 'STORE COUPON' right on the top of the coupon. (Those are on the left.) A few others are Manufacturer's coupons, again we can tell because 'MANUFACTURER COUPON' is printed on the top. Again, all of the coupons had the Smith's logo printed on the bottom. Does that mean that every coupon in the booklet has to be used at Smith's? No!

Any manufacturer's coupon can be used at any store you wish. This is because the manufacturer is paying for the product, not the store. So, in my case, I cut the Smith's logo off the bottom of the manufacturer's coupons. Why? So I can price match and get double coupon values on each of these at Family Fresh Foods! Instead of getting 55-75 cents off the three products on the right, they turn into $1.10 and $1.50 off at a store where they will double the coupons.

So, next time you see a manufacturer's coupon with a store logo on it- remember that you do not have to use the coupon at that store. They would like you to, because they get paid for it. Use the coupon at the store that works the very best for you!

And, if you happen to have a store coupon and a manufacturer's coupon for the same item available at the same store, you can stack these together and use both! (As in the case of the Special K cereal at Target in the post below.) You gotta LOVE it when that happens!

Special K cereal for 72 cents!

Print these HOT coupons to get Special K cereal boxes for 72 cents each at Target!

First, go to the Kellogg's Special K site here (register first) and print a coupon for Buy one Special K cereal, get one special K Granola cereal FREE.

Then, go to the Target site and print the $1/1 Special K Granola and the .50/1 Special K cereal coupons.

When you get to Target, this is how the transaction will go down:

•Buy 1 Special K Cereal for $2.94
•Buy 1 Special K Granola Cereal for $3.29
•Total is $6.23
•Hand the cashier your 3 coupons:
FREE Special K Granola coupon -$3.29
Target coupons -$1.50
=you pay $1.44 for 2 boxes or .72 each!

(Because there is both a Target and manufacturer’s coupon for the Special K, you will be able to use both on one item – this is called “stacking.” Thanks Kellogg's and Target for paying for our cereal!)

Thanks The Thrifty Couple!

Little boys will love this freebie!

Hey Moms! Your kids (I guess girls like legos, too!) age 6 and under, can get a FREE 2 year subscription to the Lego Jr. magazine when you sign up here. My son received his first copy last night and he LOVES it!

(Sorry, the FREE Lego club magazine for kids 6 and older has run out! I'll watch for when it becomes available again and let you know!)

Free Hogle Zoo Day tomorrow

Come one, come all! Hogle Zoo has FREE admission for everyone tomorrow (Wed. 1-27). Gates open at 9:00 a.m. This is one of four free days that they sponsor in the winter. You'll want to wear layers, bring your own lunch (the food they sell there is expensive), and be prepared to share the zoo! Many families come out for this free day. I heard there are many baby animals to see this year, my son is going to love it!

**There will be one more FREE zoo day this winter, on Wednesday, Feb. 24th