Eat From the Pantry Challenge

We have been doing well on our eat from the pantry challenge, but I have been so busy I have not had a lot of time to post pictures or recipes of what we have been eating. Last week I made this ham and bean soup recipe. I was inspired by the recipe here from the free cook book I told you about here.

But since it is pantry challenge month I altered it quite a bit. Here is what I started with:

Then I decided to add a can of chicken broth because I did not think there was enough liquid and I threw in 2 diced sweet potatoes that were going south in the pantry. (that's what soup is good for right!)

Here is how the soup turned out!

I also cooked up some barley separately, because I don't like how bloated it gets if you cook it in the soup and I made french bread for the first time ever!

Here is the recipe for the bread:

1 cup of water

3 cups of bread flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

cornmeal

egg white + 1 tablespoon of water beaten

*Put the first 4 ingredients in your bread machine (in the order your machine suggests) on the dough cycle.

*When the cycle is finished. remove dough, punch down, cover and let rest for 10 min.

*Then divide dough in half and on a lightly floured surface roll into a rectangle, then twist into a spiral, and seal edges.

*Place seam sides down on a greased baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal and brush with 1/2 egg white mixture

* Cover and let rise for 35 to 45 min or until doubles. Score top with 3 or 4 diagonal cuts and place in a 375 degree oven for 20 min.

* Then brush with the remaining egg mixture and bake an addition 12-15 minutes until the bread sound hollow. Cool on wire rack.

Here are my results (I made 2 batches):

I think I did pretty well considering it was my first time, and the bread machine really did most of the work! (I will try to improve on keeping the loves a consistent size and shape). I also used all purpose flour because I did not have any bread flour as the recipe called for. I can not wait to try with bread flour, I am sure it will be even better!

Our meal was yummy and HUGE it fed us 3 nights!

The next day I took the left over french bread and sliced it into 1/2 slices and put it in a bag overnight to get a bit harder. The next morning I made a french toast mixture of eggs, milk, sugar and cinnamon. and let the bread soak in it for about 20-30 min while I got dressed.

Then I cooked them in batches a skillet with a little cooking spray. They make excellent french toast "sticks." They are perfect toddler size and they freeze better than french toast made with regular bread!