The Domestic Bug

So lately I have had the "Domestic Bug". At least in the kitchen. I have become obsessed with canning, baking, and looking for ways to save money and eat less processed foods. This started a few weekends ago when I went on a canning and baking frenzy.
Canning was my first task. The local Mexican Market was having an AMAZING sale on pineapple, limes, tomatillos, jalapenos, and other veggies and fruits. So we stocked up. I wanted to make some tomatillo salsa I had made in the past. Robert got the pineapple to eat, but it was a little too ripe so I decided to turn I decided to turn it into jam.

My canning efforts

I made a double batch of tomatillo salsa, but still had a few tomatillos left, so I just canned those. I also wanted to try canning tomato sauce. And then the most beloved item ended up being the pineapple-lime jam. Robert says it is like sunshine is a jar. It is really good. I ended up giving one of our jars to some friends in our ward.

On Sunday (the day after canning) I wanted to bake some bread so I decided to go for a jalapeno cheese bread. I only had a recipe for cheese bread so I just added some diced and slightly blended jalapenos.

Braided Jalapeno-Cheese Bread

I added a little extra cheese since Robert loves cheese. The recipe made two loaves, but we had pretty much eaten the first loaf before I took pictures. The bread is excellent warmed with a little bit of cream cheese.

Monday I made whole wheat bread for our sandwich bread. I forgot to take pictures so you will just have to trust me on it. The bread was delicious and will be our new sandwich bread instead of store bought. The recipe I have is for two loaves but was a bit on the light side so I think next time I will try doing a batch and a half but still make only two loaves, that way it the bread is a bit more dense.

I plan on trying out more bread, canning and other recipes to help save money and to eat less peservatives and processed foods.