why bother with homemade bread?

bread set to rise!

this seems to be one of the most common question that i am asked about my bread making 

next to "how do you get it to turn out?".  these are both excellent questions actually.  i hope i have some some sort of sensible answers for both, but will just address the "why bother" today.
i've been making my bread consistently for about 4 years now and we never tire of it's goodness.  

we are very fortunate to not struggle with any gluten allergies in our family either! yet, i don't feel like we over do it on bread just because it doesn't bother our system.  I am especially careful not to eat to much! yikes!  i think it's important to understand that flour begins to oxidize immediately after being ground and therefore looses much of it's nutrients by the time you are scooping it out of the bag to make your bread. i know, what a stinkin' bummer right?  i was so sad when i found this out!  that is when i began researching flour mills and grinding fresh grains.  then came the next bummer.  these babies are expensive!  well, i got my husband to agree to buy me one if i made bread for two months straight and showed him i was committed (he kinda thought it might be a fad or something).  we never looked back and i got my mill!  i am so thankful for my sweet mill!  it is well used!  i wish i could buy one for everyone out there, but ya'll might have to go asking your husbands and promising fresh bread forever!  they might just say YES!  anywho, when you grind them beautiful grains up fresh you get yourself bread that is full of nutrients and goodness!  i know a mill might not be a realistic purchase for

some people, which is understandable, i'm just trying to explain my conviction for making the leap to get one myself.  so that is one reason for making bread at home, and the next is that you can make organic bread with only 5 ingredients for WAY less than you could EVER buy in a store EVER. PERIOD!  i haven't done the math for a while but it's something ridiculous!  money saving is always welcome here!  crazy grocery bills up in this home!

we built that counter just for the mill.  hehe.

here's another appliance that helps with massive bread production.  it's the Bosch mixer.  no it's not cute.  or vintage like a kitchen aid, i know.  i have had friends actually tell me they wouldn't want one

because of this.  but i love it anyway and would recommend it to anyone looking into making a mixer purchase.  it outperforms a kitchen aid like you wouldn't believe (no offense super cute-comes in every color of the rainbow kitchen aids out there).  i really look forward to posting more about how i get my bread to turn out (i promise it can for you too!) , my super simple recipe, and how i keep up with bread making!