Homemade Breads

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Homemade; should have the definition: how to save money.  Almost anything can be made homemade for cheaper than store bought.  Now I say almost, because some things are more expensive due to ingredients and the fact that large quantities of items made lowers the cost, but I digress.  So, if you re looking to save money, start looking at what you buy and see if you can start making it homemade instead. 

Recently, I've started making our bread homemade.  I've made homemade pizza dough for the last 5 years or so, but haven't' been adventurous as to make homemade bread.  Not going to lie, making anything homemade that uses a dough has always been something I'm leery of doing.  For awhile I just thought I could never make it right.  But over the last 5 years of making pizza dough I've learned something and can apply that to bread making.

First of all, bread making really is simple.  Honestly.  If you've never made bread just know if I can make it, you can.  I've had my share of problems when it comes to dough.  One year I even threw away good dough because it kept tearing and I didn't know how to make it better.  Seriously.  But now I know better. Bread dough is way more forgivable than you think.  So, in this post I want to share some tips and tricks to making bread.  Along with some different bread recipes that I make to help save some money.  

Tips & Tricks: 

1. The dough is sticky

    If the dough is sticky you can add some more flour.  Honestly, even if the recipe only calls for 3 cups and you end up using 5.  Humidity has a huge effect.  This is the dough I threw away one day.  I was so frustrated, my hands were covered, it was sticking to everything!  I had no idea I could add more flour.  Super simple way to salvage that dough.  Just add a little more at a time, I use an 1/8  cup and continue to knead.  I continue this until it is no longer as sticky.  Unless it's really sticky, then I add more at a time...like the dough I threw away, that would have needed probably another cup or so!  

2. The dough is tearing or having holes as you spread it 

First, you can always pull all your dough up from where your rolling it out and re-knead it.  This was something else I didn't know.  But, if your dough is tearing you can recollect it and re-knead it a bit.  If it's not a lot, you can take dough from places that there's more and just stick it to itself.  Really, it's that simple.  

3. Humidity 

Humidity plays a huge factor.  If it's humid out you can guarantee you will be adding more flour than the recipe calls for.  Sometimes it's not obvious, there's been times I didn't really think it was that humid, and yet my dough just was sticky.  So I added more flour and it worked.  

4. Wheat/White flour 

Want to make your recipe a little more healthy? You can always substitute some of your white flour for wheat flour.  I usually stay with a ratio of 1-2 cups white to 1 cup wheat.  Wheat flour can make it tougher to stretch out and knead, so I try not to go too close to 50% of wheat flour for the recipe. 

5. Water temp & proofing your yeast. 

So when I first started making pizza dough, the recipe said proof the yeast.  I had no idea what that meant. I had to look it up and see what proofing the yeast means.  So in case you are like me and this is all new, let me first explain what proofing the yeast means.  To proof your yeast you need to soak it in hot water for about 5 min. Okay so that makes sense, that's not that difficult, but some recipes say hot water, others say warm.  I don't know about you, but hot for me is hot! So how do I know what temp is best?  A tip from my great-grandma Gladys was the water should be warm, but not too hot that you can't keep your pinky finger in it for 3 seconds.  Cold is pretty easy to tell it's too cold, but if you can comfortably keep your pinky finger in the water for 3 seconds then it's a good temp. 

Recipes: 

1. Pizza dough 

    Like I said, I've only been making our pizza dough for about 5 years.  But it is so simple and easy to make.  Plus, now that you have some tips and tricks up your sleeve it will be even easier.  I was given this recipe from a friend and I'm not sure where it came from prior to that.  

1 Cup wheat flour

1 1/2 Cups white flour 

LOTS of Oregano, Italian seasoning, or Basil   

1 tsp garlic salt 

2 Tbsp Oil* (olive, sunflower, whatever your preference) 

1 cup water 

2 tsps active dry yeast 

*You can make it without the oil, so if you don' have any or you'd rather not you can leave it out. 

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add oil if you are planning to.  Make a whole in the middle of the bowl.  Add the yeast in the middle and pour warm water over the yeast.  Let it set for about 5 min.  Then knead and roll into a ball.  Let sit for about 5 min. and then you can spread the dough out onto a pizza pan.   Finally par bake it at 475 for 5 min.  Then it's ready to add your toppings.  Cook at 425 for 15 min. 

2. Bread 

    This is the recipe I use for my homemade bread.  A huge perk of this recipe is makes 2 loaves. One to eat right away and one to freeze, which means you don't have to make it all the time!  Homemade bread recipe from The Recipe Critic

3. Buns 

    For homemade buns, I just use the same bread recipe as above.  But, after it's risen the first time divide the dough in half.  Then using a sharp knife cut each half into 12 sections.  You can cut the half into thirds and then each third cut into four pieces, then you have 12.  Grease the cookie sheets or use silicone baking sheets. Shape each dough into a ball. Place the dough balls on the cookie sheets.  Cover and let them rise again for about 30-45 min. Bake at 375 for 18-20 min. While warm rub the tops with butter. 

Be sure to watch out for my next post about how I make cinnamon rolls with this same basic bread recipe!  Plus, a more how-to with photos on how to make those buns! 

Last minute quick Christmas gifts

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AHHH! It's officially December and you have a few more gifts you need.  Want to save some money, give some awesome gifts and not have to spend lot of time on them? Well, you came to the right blog post! I have 3 awesome gifts that almost anyone would enjoy and they take hardly any time and money to make as well!  Plus, they are gifts that can be used so great for those teachers or co-workers who may get lost of stuff that they need to find a place for.  Instead these are gifts that can be used up after a period of time. 

First: Bath salt mix 

What a great relaxing gift to give to someone.  This is my favorite way to unwind at the end of the week, taking a salt bath.  What better than to give someone a way to help them make time for their own self-care. 

1/2 Cup of Epson salt 

1/4 Cup of Baking soda 

1/4 Cup of Sea salt or course salt 

This will make about 1 jelly sized jar.   I usually make 4 batches and get 4 jelly jars.  Super easy to make and doesn't take much time either! Plus, if you put it in a jelly jar the jar is decorative enough in itself!  So, double points! 

Second: Hot coco-mix: 

Who doesn't like hot-coco?  Okay, I know some people don't...BUT, most do.  And what a fun gift to get at Christmas! Plus it's a gift that can be used up!  This is great for teachers, co-workers, family, really anyone who enjoys hot-coco! 

I've been using this recipe from Eating on a Dime.  We have liked it and it's really easy to make.  Now the only thing I do different is I don't add the salt, but that's just a preference thing.  But this recipe is super easy and all you need is a mason jar to add it to!

We like to use mason jars for our gifts, but if you are wanting to send this to school as teacher gift they make plastic jars now too!  These are a perfect option for sending your little to school with a gift for teacher.  

Or we recently made these gifts for our mail carriers. Just use a party bag; add some marshmallows, a cute wooden spoon and a fun tag!  This would also be a great way to give this git to your student's teacher!  

Third: Lotion bars 

Lotion bars are a fun gift that can be used for almost anyone.  You can use a mini muffin tin for the molds.  We also bought these for crayon melting and they can work for lotion bars too!  I liked these ones because the pack came with different shaped molds so you can use them for different events.  But, back to lotion bars.  They are easy and quick to make.  

Equal parts beeswax pellets & Organic coconut oil

double boiler or a smaller pot and larger pot

essential ils (optional) 

Melt both in a double boiler, or if you don't have a double boiler you can use a smaller pot inside a larger pot of water. If you want you can add essential oils as well.  Once the coconut oil and beeswax has melted remove from heat and add the essential oils you'd like.  Pour the mixture into the molds.  Put in the fridge to Harden.  After about 20-30 min you can pop them out and they re ready to gift! 

Pair both the lotion bars and the salt mix for an extra special gift!! 

Homemade ornaments

 

Homemade Ornaments 

We give our girls ornaments each year to represent something they did from that year.  In the past we've just bought them.  I've wanted to make them, but always ran out of time.  This year, I was talking about them with some friends and we joked about the different things I could tie in from our crazy 2020 year.  Two big things that I wanted to incorporate was toilet paper and perler beads.  Toilet paper for obvious reasons, and perler beads because we did A LOT or perler beads during quarantine and afterwards. 

If you are interested in the how-to on making toilet paper roll flowers.  You can follow the steps on an earlier post of mine here.  

I made mine into a flower shape this time. 

Then, I made my perler bead designs.  I made each perler bead design individual to each girl.  Arya played soccer for the first time this summer, plus she really enjoys her sports. Jensen, started Kindergarten, and Sadie can't get enough ice cream...one time she even ended up with an adult cone by accident.  Plus, we did a lot of DQ drive-thru and had ice cream in the van during quarantine.  

Sadie with her adult sized ice cream

Once they were melted, I just hot glued the perler bead design to the toilet paper flower.  

Finally I punched a hole through the top of the flower and thread some yarn through.  

That's it! It was really easy and a great way to tie in what we did this year. 

This post includes affliate links, which means if you click on the link I get a portion of any sales at NO COST to you.  See my disclosure page for more details. 

10 ways to reuse that egg carton

There are SO many ways out there to re-use that egg carton.  Maybe you're familiar with all the ways you can re-use it, or maybe it's totally a new thing for you.  Well I wanted to share with you 10 of our favorite ways to re-use our egg cartons. 

1. Jewelry holder

    It's perfect to hold all those small rings.  Plus, putting bracelets in them is pretty easy for little girls and it helps keep them from getting tangled. 

2. Christmas bulb holder

    We use this every year for our Christmas bulbs.  We've had these egg cartons for our Christmas bulbs for years and they hold up so well.  Plus, if they do break apart you can easily get another one.  

3. Card holder for little hands

    Ok have you seen this before?  I was so amazed when this one was told to me.  Have kids who have trouble holding all those cards during a game?  Take an egg carton turn it upside down and there you go an easy way for them to place their cards in.  

4. Paint holder

 https://www.momdot.com/mess-free-painting-egg-carton/

How cool is this, it even has a way to hold the paint brushes! I think this is one of my favorite ways to re-use the egg carton.  We just recently tried this and it works great!  

5. Easter gift: 

Add some eggs and use as an Easter gift.  We were given some egg cartons with fake eggs in them for Easter one year.  This is something you can easily reciprocate by just cutting up your egg carton in half.  

6.  Seed starters

    What a great way to start seeds. Egg cartons (cardboard ones) are compostable. They are a great way to start a seed and transfer it to a garden or bigger garden. 

7. Color sorting 

    Use your paints or some color circles to place in the bottom of each space. Then using some beads or small pom poms, have your preschooler sort the colors into each space. 

8. Counting 

    Write a 1-12 in the spaces. Then practice counting with your preschooler.  Also, if can use your beads or small pom poms again and count how many for each number.  I.e. 7 beads in the 7 space. 

9. Make a craft with it! 

There are so many crafts you can make out of egg cartons.  Here is just one site that has some fun egg carton crafts! 

 The Spruce Crafts, has over 20 different crafts for littles to make with egg cartons.  

10. Finally, re-use it for eggs

A while back I did an IG post on buying our eggs in bulk.  You can check out the post here. Our local Walmart carries them in huge box of about 6 dozen.  I save our egg cartons and use them to redistribute all those eggs from the box and it helps save room in my fridge.  Not to mention, the money it saves on eggs too.   Or, if you are lucky and have someone you know who has fresh eggs, you can always use those cartons then too.