Rosemary Sea Salt Baguette and Weigh-in-Monday

You knew it was just a matter of time before I started baking bread again.   While yesterday wrapped up our 2nd week of Phase I of South Beach, the two things I missed the most were bread and fruit.  I am still going to be doing a lower carb meal plan, but I will definitely be having fruit and whole grain bread!

Tony and I didn’t get around to fixing breakfast until almost noon yesterday (baking bread was way more important than breakfast!).

Rosemary Flax Baguette (printer friendly version here)

Makes 8 loaves of bread.   Each loaf:  582 calories, 19 fat, 87 carbs, 6.6 fiber and 14.4 protein)  adapted from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes – I left out wheat germ because I didn’t have any, and not sure if the flax seed I have is exactly what the original recipe called for.

Ingredients

Directions

1. Mix together the flaxseed, flour, yeast, salt and vital wheat gluten. Put in a big bowl or lidded container.
2. Add the water, olive oil and 2 tablespoons of chopped rosemary. Wet your hands and mix well to make sure all the flour is incorporated.
3. Cover loosely, and let sit for 2 hours. This can be refrigerated at this point and used within 10 days.
4. On baking day, dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 1/2 pound piece – about the size of a large orange.
5. Dust the piece with a bit more flour and elongate the ball into a baguette shape. Allow to rest 40 minutes if from the refrigerator, 20 minutes if already room temperature.
6. Heat oven to 450 degrees – putting a baking stone on the middle rack and a metal broiler plate on the bottom.
7. I use parchment paper to transfer my dough to the baking stone. Add 1 cup of water to the empty broiler pan and quickly shut the oven.
8. Mix 1 egg white with 1 teaspoon of water.  Brush the bread evenly.  Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the parchment paper and let the bread cook 10 more minutes directly on the baking stone.
9. Cool before slices (if you can wait!)

Later in the afternoon Hannah and I met my Mom at Goodwill.  They already have their Christmas stuff out, and there were so many snowmen things!  I ALMOST bought this, but I put it back.

I hardly took any pictures around dinner time!  Too busy chatting with my Momma.  We opened a bottle of this wine – this is one red that Tony and I agree is delicious.  It’s not too bad, about $18 a bottle.

I made a classic pot roast – baked it in my dutch oven for 3 hours at 225 degrees.  I used this recipe.   I made two cheese polenta on the side and green beans.  It may not look like much, but this was delicious – how bad can gravy be?

After dinner I had to separate all my grocery store meat loot – I even tried to marinate one of the chicken packages with olive oil, garlic and rosemary – not sure if it will work out, so I only did one package.  I now have 14 chicken breast halves (each weighs about 9 ounces!) 4.5 pounds of Italian sausage, and 4 pounds of ground sirloin.

And now the moment you have all been waiting for (ha!) Weigh-in-Monday.  Two weeks ago I was 169.  Today I am:

For a loss of -1.2.  While I thought it would have been more – I cheated.  I did have wine on occasion and I know I still don’t drink enough water.   So I am just going to keep on keeping on.  Come back tomorrow for my recipe for Chickpea and Lentil Stew – its simmering as I type this and will be my lunch served over brown rice.

I need your help! My friend Mara is in the running for Next Food Network Star on Foodbuzz – she’s made it to round 7!  She had to make a video making a recipe.  She made maple bacon cupcakes people!  If you have a chance to vote for her, I would appreciate it!

Reminder: This Sunday, November 21, is a Chicagoland lunch meet up – we are meeting at Big Bowl in Schaumburg, Illinois at 12:30.  Send me an email if you would like to join me, my sister, Mara and Christina (and I think Mel?).  Should be fun before all the craziness of the holidays 😀

Off to put my food together for the day – make it a great day!