First thing's first - Happy New Year, how are we feeling? What are you bringing into 2025? What will you be leaving behind? ! It's been a minute since I have written here, and it feels lovely to share in this space once again. So let's dive right in!
Lately, I have found the noise of the media enormously overwhelming. There are so many voices, so many opinions, so many claimed "facts" that soar around the web right under our finger tips, many of it remaining clickbait and waffle. As a newly qualified nutritionist, I will be honest in saying that I couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable contributing to this complicated and noisy space. The goal here is to, whole-heartedly, help those who yearn for long-term wellness with the desire to take control of their education and consumption around food and nutrition.
And how do we do that? Well that's the million dollar question isn't it. Personally, I think we need to embrace natural practices as much as possible.
Our lives have evolved to reflect business. Busy-ness. We are all running around, trying to make enough money to stay afloat, trying to make enough money to cater the lifstyles we want, without really valuing the true importance of simplicity. Valuing the importance of the actions we need to take to do things ourselves.
TO DO THINGS MYSELF
Make my own bread. Going forward, the goal is to consume more homemade bread than shop-bought bread. To many, including myself, that sounds quite daunting. But that's ok. There's a reason why bread is one of the highest-purchased items in stores. It's a craft, it's considerably time-consuming and it requires effort. The very thing that humans are hard-wired to avoid. If we can shortcut something, we will. But that's not always a good thing, is it? We buy, rather than bake. We drive, rather than walk. We manufacture, more than we make. It's a fast world where baking your own bread is not the norm. What if it was?
THE SIMPLE WAY
Its lovely to see so many people, from who have inspired me, baking their own bread and joining this movement of reducing our consumption of ultraprocessed food. Bread being one of the most ultraprocessed food items. White, fluffy, delicous, low in fibre, nutritious anything. Your gateway to sharp insulin production. These people I have seen online in this movement, mostly share this in common: sourdough.
Yes of course sourdough is delightfully attractive, sumptuous, and certainly a craft to master. Suddenly it feels as though the only bread worthy of creating and sharing online is sourdough. Undoutably, it has its health benefits, but can you make it? Have you mastered the craft? Do you want to?
Personally, having given it a go several times, I can't be bothered to master it. I know that I can, and I have certainly made some lovely loaves and sourdough products but its just too many things for me to think about. There will be people reading this thinking, "she hasn't tried this or that method", or "give it time, it's so rewarding" This may be the case, but for many its like taking a racecar onto a racetrack, without really knowing how to drive.
Why don't you make your own bread?
0%I don't have time
0%I don't know how to
0%I can't be bothered
0%Mine's never as good as shop-bought
So let's keep it simple. I have a few bakes under my belt having been a professional chef for 7 years and a food creator for over a decade. But even I want to find the simplest, easiest way to bake my loaf of bread. At least whilst I get the hang of implementing it into my weekly routine.
This is how I fit it into my day:
9:45am - combined the ingredients, set aside for 40 mins (5 mins)
9:55am - took my dog for a walk
10:30am- knocked back my dough, reshaped it and set aside for 1 hour (5 mins)
10:40-11:30am - Noo Noo Project admin, swept the floors
11:30am - shaped my buns (15 mins) set aside for 1 hour
11:45-12:45pm Noo Noo Project admin, made lunch
12:45pm - baked buns (took 18 mins) whilst I washed up and dishes from night before.
1:05pm - place on cooling rack, brush buns with melted butter (5 mins)
TOTAL TIME: 30 active minutes collectively, with 3 hours passive minutes (time you can spend doing something else)
I appreciate not everyone has flexibility in their day's schedule, but if you can find a way to fit it in, why not?
MATTHEWS COTSWOLD FLOUR
A recipe that is literally on the side of the packet. A mix of flours, perfectly designed to make a loaf high in fibre, in protein; a nourishing loaf that has great texture. That's what I want. I love bread, I don't want to give it up. I want the bread that I eat to serve me. And this was really absolutely lovely and so easy.
See below a brief overview of the nutritional differences bewteen shop-bought white bread and the homebaked Matthews Cotswold Crunch bread.
Nutritional Content per 100g | Shop Bought White Bread | Homebaked Matthew Cotswold | % Increase |
Fibre | 2.7g | 7g | +159.26% |
Protein | 9g | 13g | +44.5% |
Carbohydrates (to which sugars) | 5g | 3.9g | -22% |
Immediately, you can see a significant difference in the nutritional content. The fibre, that speaks for itself, an absoluet no-brainer. A 44% increase in protein intake from one type of bread to the other and a lower intake of sugar. Now of course, you can achieve similar differences by swapping out white for wholegrain. But by homebaking your bread, you are doing the following:
engaging in natural practices that make you more connected with what you eat
controlling the ingredients that go into your bread, eg. salt and additives
developping lifestyle choices more condusive to leading a life in absence of commonly seen health complications
This is a habit I certainly intend to maintain. There's something so special about making bread from scratch, but guys - the smell of freshly baked bread! Will always be a winner!
With love,
Noo Noo x
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