This is what the mother of a king was advising her son to look for in a wife. So obviously even a queen was expected to be industrious and intentional about how she used her time. I remember thinking that this list of things was impossible to do and then I realized she had servants! I don't have servants to help me with my work or do I? While I may not have people to help me with my work I do have something that the Proverbs 31 woman didn't and that is house hold appliances!
So There are some appliances that I especially love. My washer and dryer, blender, crock-pot, refrigerator, stove/oven and my dishwasher! They are like the modern servant/helper that make being a mother so much easier. One appliance I discovered that I really love recently is the bread machine. Before I was married I never used one. When I started to go shopping and looked at all of the ingredients in a loaf of store bought bread however I couldn't get myself to feed that to my husband every day.
The main problems I have with conventional breads are most of them contain high fructose corn syrup, genetically modified and or/pesticide sprayed wheat or grains, added gluten, preservatives/stabilizers and sometimes bleach. Not what I want to feed my family. Buying organic loaves is not really affordable for us so my best option is to make it myself. That takes time however and unfortunately, even then it may not turn out. You could end up with a lump of un-usable, shame that ruins your self esteem and haunts your dreams. I have had a bad go of bread, so much so that my husband gave up on me making a nice loaf. Then along comes the bread machine. I was magically able to make bread again! The problem was it was not consistent, sometimes it would be beautiful and other times...it was back to the lump of shame. After looking and trying a whole bunch of recipes I found one, that if I tweaked it a little, I consistently got that nice sandwich bread loaf that looks, smells and tastes wonderful! I make a loaf every week for Josh's lunches and he loves it! The only thing I have not been able to do with a bread machine is to soak the flour to neutralize the phytic acid. I am still working on that recipe but this is a good compromise and I still feel it is way better for our health than conventional breads.
Spelt Sandwich Bread
Ingredients:
- 1 1/4 Cup Warm Water
- 1 1/2 tsp Sea Salt
- 2 Tbs Organic Sunflower Oil or Melted Coconut Oil
- 3 Tbs Honey
- 2 Cups White Spelt Flour
- 1 1/2 Cups Whole Spelt Flour
- 1 3/4 tsp Yeast
- Place the ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed, making a well in the flour for the yeast.
- Set the bread machine on basic loaf, med crust setting, for a 1 1/2 lbs loaf.
- Press start and take a nap with your kids. Oops the nap is really optional :)
Now I generally wait till it is cool to slice it up for sandwiches. I find freezing the sliced bread makes sure that it doesn't spoil or get stale because it doesn't have all those added preservatives and stabilizers to keep it soft and fluffy and mold free. So if you don't have a large family or just want to eat a whole loaf right now I would recommend slicing and freezing.
I love this spelt bread, I love how it enables me to multitask using all my time to the max and being a little more like that Proverbs 31 woman/super mom. I have come to the conclusion that this passage is an idea of how productive we could be as mothers and wives. So I have decided I will not waste my time in idleness, I will find ways to be a good steward of our finances, health, and time, and I will not neglect to use the help I have been given to accomplish the awesome responsibility of being that wife and mother the Lord called me to be.
I hope you enjoy this bread as much as we do!
The Farmer in the Dell
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