Gluten, baby!

A month or so ago, Dan was reading about gluten flour. You add it to breads to make it rise more. Since we make a lot of whole wheat bread, we decided to get some and see what it would do to our bread. We got it at Winco, in the bulk section. As far as flour goes, it's more expensive than normal flour, but you only need one tablespoon per cup of whole wheat flour, so it goes a long way. I think it's around $3 a pound.

Well, we started using it and we LOVE it! It really does help the bread rise more and it isn't so dense. Here is some bread I made, with all whole wheat flour. Normally, the top of the bread would barely be over the edge of the pan.

Here, you can see just how much it's risen past the top of the pan.

It's great, and we love it. We've been adding it to our pizza dough, bagels and other bread stuff that we make. It does make the dough tougher, so you have to knead it more and add a little more water. The bread is lighter and not quite so heavy. The bagels I made were great too. I make them with half white, half wheat flour and they were so nice and fluffy.

Also, we got some more food storage. A lot more wheat and some white beans. I was reading that white beans can be used in place of butter and oils, so I want to try that out and see how it works.

I really lucked out with the buckets. I always get my food storage buckets at local bakeries. I just call them up and see if they have any with lids. Normally, they say, there is one or two I can have. Well, we had to go down to the Bishop's Storehouse in Sylmar two weeks ago. I kept forgetting to get buckets and the day of, I finally made the calls to get buckets. I went to Ralphs and Albertson's and scored 7 buckets! It was just enough for everything we got. I'm counting my blessings with that one! I just wash the buckets with a little bit of soap and bleach water and let them air dry. I finally got some oxygen absorbers. I started our food storage two years ago, but never got them. They're only ten cents a piece at the storehouse. I had to buy a 100, but I'll be using them all eventually.

My new goal with food storage is to build up our 3 month supply. It was originally really good, but over time we've been using it and haven't been replacing it as we should have. I need to start working on that.

I found this website a while ago, http://www.thecanorganizer.com/pantry.html

They sell can organizers, but they're made out of cardboard, so they're cheaper, but still sturdy. I'm thinking of getting some. They sell four for $16. It says shipping to CA is $8.70, but if you order more, it's cheaper, I believe. If anyone is interested in getting some, we could split shipping. Check out the site and let me know.

I've made a lot of posts today, so keep scrolling to read more! :)