Fresh Bread and 12 Minute Chicken

Lately, there are two things in my kitchen that I cannot live without: the bread machine and the Pampered Chef Deep Covered Baker.  Both have enabled me to cook good food for my family without consuming store-bought food additives. 

I inherited the bread machine from my husband's first marriage, along with a bunch of other really cool stuff and a sweet husband. Up until 3 months ago I never used it, probably out of intimidation. One day I decided to give it a try and it was so easy and fast - just dump in the ingredients and turn it on.  Now we don't buy store-bought bread.  Once you go to homemade bread, you won't go back.  It is just SO GOOD, especially when it is still warm.  We have saved so much money by making our own bread.  Flour, oats and yeast are very cheap at Sam's Club. I bought my ingredients in bulk about 3 months ago and have made 3-4 loaves of bread each week for the past couple of months for the cost of about 20 loaves of inferior store-bought bread - and I still have a ton of ingredients left!

Then there is the Deep Covered Baker.  Unfortunately, Pampered Chef doesn't sell them anymore, but I have found a similar microwave-safe clay baker at Sur La Table that would probably work just as well.  They can be pricey ($70 - 100), but well worth the cost in terms of durability, convenience, time you save cooking, quality of food and using the microwave instead of the kitchen-heating oven.  One might think the microwave would leave the food dried out and tough to eat, but food actually comes out very moist.  You can cook 3 chicken breasts in 12 minutes, a whole chicken in 30 minutes or a whole chicken with veggies for less than an hour.  I have also made some kick-booty baby back ribs and pasta dishes in the microwave in just minutes. We no longer buy chicken nuggets or frozen grilled chicken strips - we just cook the breasts in the microwave, divide them into portions and freeze them for healthy, non-processed food for our family.

If you have either of these items in a box in your closet - take them out and start using them.  You'll be so glad you did!  If you don't have either, they are certainly worth buying or receiving as gifts.