Jodi's Garlic Pull Apart Rolls -

*I made some adaptations to the recipe to compensate for using whole grains instead of all purpose flour....

1 1/2 C of hot water

1/4 C olive oil (or coconut oil would be fine)

2 T honey

1 T of yeast

5 C whole wheat flour (I used hard red, 7 grain and soft white mix that was left over from baking today)

1 T vital wheat gluten

1 T garlic powder

1 tsp sea salt

Combine water, oil, honey and yeast. Let sit until yeast is activated. Add 3 C of flour and gluten to yeast mixture. Stir and let sit for 15 minutes. Add remaining flour, garlic and salt. Knead. Make into "roll sized" balls and place them in a circle around the outer edge of the pie dish; then add an inner circle and one roll in the middle. I did grease the pan too. Bake at 350* for 30 minutes. The bread pulls apart nicely. This is fun for kids to help make. Jodi and Lisa report it is also great with cinamon and sugar mixture.

*I wasn't sure how this would work with whole grains. I added the T of gluten "in case", added the honey to be sure the yeast was well activated and then did the sponge too.....turned out great. The kids raved about this bread. We love spices so next time I'll dump some Italian spices in with it.

Reader's Digest version of the day

Today is the last day of our first week back in school. We did it. It is good to be back in our routine. Thursday was certainly unfortunate…and I won’t be doing THAT again – but otherwise the week went well. The boys were all done with their week of work by noon today! Yippee!

I got 5 dozen muffins made.

The younger ones and I have some crafts and cooking we want to do but we’ll work on that this weekend.

Arielle went over to a friend’s for a few hours this afternoon. When Josiah got off work we picked her and her friend up and headed to the base to go bowling. I called Mandy and told her we were going to the base to bowl and wondered if she and hers would like to join us. They did. I can tell her boys and Nolan and Zander are going to be good buddies. It was a fun visit.

Back at home Jamin whipped up our pizzas. I got to do the pan pizza again. I really like that pan pizza.

Everyone watched a few episodes of “Hogan’s Heroes”. Josiah headed to bed as he worked 13 hours today and works a full day again tomorrow. Jamin and Jared followed. That leaves the younger ones. They are watching “Chicken Little” and enjoying popcorn.

Jared's first science experiment of the year

Teething - can you tell what it is? Pineapple skin! She was sad when I took it from her and gave her a real piece of pineapple.

Oatmeal Crispies

1 C Butter
2 C Rapadura (could use 1 C honey/1 C rapadura or sucant or brown sugar)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 C ww pastry flour (soft white if grinding)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
3 C Quick Oats

Combine bake at 350* for 12 - 14 min until lightly browned. These do spread out. These are sort of plain but my kids love them.

Chocolate Chip Cookies (just for Beth - Southern Belle)

1 C rapadura (sucanat or brown sugar works fine)
1 stick butter
1 C WW pastry flour (soft white if grinding)
1 egg
1 tsp pure vanilla
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp soda
1 C rolled oats
1 C nuts (I use pecans!)
1 C Chocolate (or carob) chips

Combine. Bake at 350* for 10 - 12 minutes.

*My family really does like these. I've mailed them to the girls and they traveled well. I think you could use any whole wheat - but they'd be a bit more "heft" or "industrial" tasting. LOL

Adrienne's Oatmeal Banana Muffins

Combine:
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 C melted butter
1/3 C honey
1 egg
2 mashed bananas

Combine for 5 minutes
1 C plain yogurt (I use plain or vanilla) or Buttermilk
1 C rolled oats

Combine:
1 C whole wheat four (1:1 hard and soft white if grinding your own) I used only soft today and they didn't rise as well

1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix all together and spoon into muffin pans (I use 1/3 C for normal size muffin tins). Bake at 375* for 15 - 20 min (always takes longer for me).

*I always make 5x this recipe. I bake 1 doz plain, add pecans and make two doz and then today I added blueberries and made another two doz. Usually I do 2 doz plain and 3 doz with pecans.