30 ingredients!

Earlier this week my son and I went grocery shopping. As we were getting things inside the cart, he suggested we buy these small sweet rolls that we used to buy a while back. Since we hadn't had them in a while I thought, why not? So we came home with a small package of sweet rolls.

While tasting one, I noticed the flavor wasn't as good as I remember. They didn't taste bad and were well within the best by date, but we hadn't had them in a while plus we have been eating a lot healthier, so my only explanation is that my taste buds have changed! They are learning to enjoy the natural and simple ingredients more than the packaged foods we can buy at the supermarket.

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My son, ever so curious about labels, started reading the list of ingredients. Flour, yeast, water, sugar, eggs, and then a list of names I suspect one needs a degree in chemistry to be able to pronounce them correctly. After he finished reading I glanced at the list of ingredients. Thinking about our homemade bread, I asked my son how many ingredients it takes to make bread at home. The most simple bread we make requires 4 ingredients: flour, yeast, salt, and water. Sometimes we like to add applesauce, wheat germ, seeds, or honey. So most breads have between 4-8 ingredients. I started counting the ingredients listed on the package for sweet rolls and finished at 30! 30 ingredients to make small sweet rolls. 30!!! And most of those ingredients I don't recognize as food! 
I had a hard time finishing the little bread on my plate and I have a feeling those won't be making their way onto the shopping cart any time soon!

Living more simple and healthier means also paying attention to the list of ingredients and making sure we are not putting inside our bodies things that are really not food. I searched some of the names on the ingredients listed and was sad to think that I've been putting inside my body synthetic wax and chemicals that are used in the production of fertilizers, plastic, pesticides, construction materials and so forth.

So, hopefully, lesson learned. I'm going to get me a recipe for sweet rolls with fewer ingredients and will use my freezer as preservative!

And since I'm talking about bread, I thought I would share the recipe for one of our favorite homemade breads. I do have a kitchenaid mixer, so I just add all the ingredients in there and let it mix it all for me. If you have to mix by hand just mix all the other ingredients and add the flour in the end. Enjoy!


4 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour ( you can substitute 1 cup of bread flour if you want a more fluffy bread.)
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 TBS yeast
2 cups of warm water
5-6 TBS apple sauce
1 tsp salt

Mix the yeast with one cup of warm water and let it stand for about 10 minutes. Then mix it with the rest of the ingredients. Add a little more water if you think the dough is dry. Place the dough in a loaf pan and let it rise for about one hour. Bake at 400F for 35 minutes.

Yumminess!

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