Let them eat bread!

Kevin and I have been working on our eating habits for about the last year. We had developed some pretty bad eating habits, and last summer I kind of hit a wall. So we have been buying almost exclusively organic produce, try not to get things that are processed, and making more wholesome meals. I stopped buying breakfasts and lunches during the work week, and bring my meals instead. A big motivator for me was of course the wedding. It's much easier to eat healthy when you know you're going to be standing in front of a whole lot of people in a white dress! Since last August, I've lost around 50 pounds, and I feel pretty great about that! I still have some work to do though, and am trying to find new motivation to keep my body healthy.

One of the ways that I'm finding to be really helpful is taking pride in making our own food whenever possible. As you all know, I've become a diehard fan of Eating Well, since it has such easy, healthy recipes. I also am loving growing some of our own food. This year, we made and froze several batches of pesto from basil we grew. We've also harvested tomatoes, awesome strawberries, lots of romaine and mixed lettuce, snap peas, tons of raspberries which we've frozen to enjoy through the winter, and made ten quarts of applesauce, plus 4 gallons of cider. I love making meals out of our backyard!

For our wedding, Adam and Erin got us a bread machine, and I have been dying to break it in since we got back from Hawaii. We finally had a normal grocery store trip this week, and got all the ingredients to make French bread and 7 grain bread. I made lasagna and the french bread last night, and boy were we in foodie heaven! It was delightful! I've never made bread before, and the bread machine makes it ridiculously easy! Just pour in the ingredients, turn the machine on, and presto, a few hours later you have fresh baked bread! Woo hoo! We used all organic ingredients, and I am so happy to be making it and knowing exactly what is going into it. No corn syrup, no extra sugars, all natural and delicious!

Kevin made the 7 grain bread this afternoon, and I am so excited to make a sandwich for lunch tomorrow to take to work! I love showing off things that we make! So thank you Adam and Erin, we will be enjoying homemade bread a lot!!!

Yummy!

This is Kevin's mom's recipe for lasagna, which I had never attempted to make for fear that it wouldn't live up to hers. I think I did a good job though, and actually made a double batch of the sauce. We froze half of it to enjoy sometime in the near future! And we did have salad, but we had it before the rest of dinner was ready :)

The wheat loaf! Turkey sandwiches, here I come!