I never really truly knew what the windowpane test was when it came to bread.  You’d see it everywhere, “when the dough passes the windowpane test, it’s ready”  But what was the importance?  When it comes to whole wheat bread, the windowpane test is extremely important.  When you make your bread dough and start kneading it, gluten is developed.  The more it develops the more stretch the bread will get.  When dough passes the windowpane test, we know that the gluten is developed and strong enough to “stand up” in the bread.  What does that mean for your bread?  It means that your whole wheat bread will be fluffier, lighter, with more air holes.  It will give you that store bought sandwich feel, not the heavy dense bread a lot have come to associate with homemade whole wheat bread.  It’s really important!  But what does it look like?  What are you looking for?

To perform the windowpane test, break off a gumball size of dough after kneading.  Work the dough and gently begin stretching.  When you can stretch it without breaking, almost like bubble gum, and almost see through it, your gluten is developed and you can move on to your first rise.

This sourdough sandwich bread from Whole Foods is awesome.  Recently, they were on sale so I wanted to buy multiple loaves knowing that we had company coming over and it makes a really great sandwich or panini. The bakery case was empty so I asked the lady in the bakery if she had more coming.  She explained to me that they arrive at the store par baked and frozen.  So then the store finishes baking and puts them out in the cases.  I told her I wanted about 4 of them and she gladly retrieved them for me, packaged in tie up plastic bags.  She also commented on how smart it was to buy multiple loaves while they are on sale and throw them in the freezer.  I agree!

This is a great way to save money at Whole Foods.  It is possible to eat whole, natural, foods on a small budget!  You just have to plan plan plan ahead!

Recently, we have been doing research and developing web sites about cookware, tools, and appliances used in the kitchen. We felt there was a need to help people find more information about certain items that weren’t being covered very well with existing websites. Take grain mills for example. When trying to figure out the best wheat grinder for our lifestyle, we went to many different websites, but couldn’t find one that had all of the information we needed to compare and contrast different models. We saw a need for a new site that could bring all the major grain mixers into one place. We called it Wheat Grinders and it was just the start.

We found similar circumstances to the wheat mill when searching for kitchen stand mixers. It seemed that there were a lot of sites about the products themselves, but not a lot of content different than what was already offered at the stores. We really wanted to compare and contrast the models in an analytical way so for our next site we wrote about sales on KitchenAid stand mixers, pointing out the best mixers for your dollar and how they compare to other models, for example. We believe Mixer Sales is now a great place to find the best mixers for your kitchen.

And finally, there was real need more in-depth knowledge about cast-iron cookware and specifically, cast-iron skillets. Sure, lots of people have frying pans that they’ve inherited from their parents or grandparents, got as wedding gifts, or bought on their own – but many people don’t know the health benefits or how to season and clean them. Also, many people are now buying the enamled cast-iron cookware not knowing that they cook much differently than aluminum pans. Cast Pots and Iron Skillets set out to help people find better cast-iron cookware and how to take care of it and use it once they had it.

Recently, I’ve been frustrated with the amount of food that my children were consuming in between meals.  More than that there was a lot of waste associated with this snacking.  Whole loaves of bread, entire packages of cheese, and big bags of apples disappearing in 24 hours.  While snacking is fine, uncontrollable snacking is just not an option in our budget.  Especially if they want to eat meals!  Not to mention I’d go in to make a meal I had planned for only to find that they had eaten all the cheese making it impossible to make mac n’ cheese and leaving me without a dinner plan.  Not good.

So after talking with my husband who said that we just needed to expect it and maybe I should shop for meals daily (ack!  not only does that make me shudder at the thought of going to the grocery store everyday with all of our children, it is most definitely not budget friendly!)  I came up with the idea of the snack basket.  Each morning I put out a new basket full of snacks on the dining room table.  They are welcome to eat anything in the snack basket that they desire during the day, but when the basket it’s empty – that’s it.  No more snacks.  So far I haven’t had anybody whining at 3pm because they’ve eaten all the snacks.  Somehow knowing how much they all have keeps them from binging.  Also they have been pretty good about making sure not to eat everything of one thing except the cookies.  My son has a cookie problem.   The contents of the basket are subject to change.  There is healthy in there was well as “treat” foods.  Currently in this basket there are 3 PB&J oatmeal cookies (found at the bread thrift store for an excellent price!), 3 apples, 6 individual portions of peanut butter, 3 individually packaged pieces of 9 grain bread, 3 individually packaged slices of cranberry cinnamon swirl bread, & 3 portions of colby jack cheese, and 3 little baggies of stick pretzels.  Now some might think “she’s leaving CHEESE on the table all day?” I reassure you that these were gone first thing.  Also, included in the basket is 3 IKEA kids knives and 3 IKEA kids spoons.  The reason is that you need a little knife for the PB to put on the bread.  And you also need spoons to eat the PB out of the little cups (a trick my husband taught them).  The “re-user” in me does cringe a bit at the packaging waste, but I thought it the best way to keep everything fresh (no hard bread) as well as making them realize how much one portion is.  And the cost of the baggies/cups still make it a savings over the entire fridge binging they were doing.  I also set out 3 IKEA cups on the table and they can fill those with water from the fridge door as often as they please.

And so far it has worked!  I think their snacking has actually been cut down a bit which is good because to much snacking is just not good.  They have control over what they are snacking on and when they are snacking.  I have a bit more control over the contents of the kitchen and freedom to meal plan again.  It’s something we all feel good about and they eagerly look forward to what is in the basket each morning.

As grocery prices go up, I know Erich and I have looked for ways to make sure we plan to make our meals healthy, nutritious, and budget friendly.  We’ve learned that planning our menus accomplishes that. Having the menu prepped ahead of time all answers the age old question: “what’s for dinner?”

I know though that meal planning can be tedious.  It takes a lot of thought to plan so that we aren’t eating the same things over and over each week. Plus, the same old stuff bores me and loses my interest to cook.  And as we our activities like homeschooling, tumbling, and art lessons start to take up more and more time, having a plan already made is priceless.  I recently found E-Mealz.  Recommended by Dave Ramsey, they call themselves your “mental maid”.  E-Mealz appealed to me because unlike other meal planning services, the meals are simple family friendly dinners.  Nothing gourmet and not a lot of time consuming meals.  The categorized shopping list also easily references what ingredients go with each meal, so it’s easy to cross off a meal that our family won’t enjoy. (Okay okay, I’m the picky eater in this family!) They also list the staples you’ll need for each meal such as flour, honey, or ketchup- so you don’t find yourself buying a new bottle every week. Each weeks menu involves different prep methods such as meals you make the night before and crockpot meals.  While some meals will repeat a few times in 6 months, each week is packed with a brand new plan so you are sure to have plenty of variety making meal time fun again.

And again, the recipe are delicious!  Tonight I made a simple grilled garlic ham and cheese sandwich and Magdalena declared it “better than Subway!” That’s what I call two thumbs up!  They have a variety of different meal plans including low fat, 2 person menu, points menu, and the standard family menu that serves 4-6.   They also have menus based on the sales ads of Kroger, Walmart, and Aldi.  I choose the “any store” menu since I like to shop at different stores for different things.

And last but not least, it’s affordable!  $1.25 a week and you don’t have to think about “what’s for dinner?” Please use my link to the right and go find your very own mental maid – you’ll be glad you did!

Cooking dinner, chicken on the left, mac n cheese on the right.