Well, there’s good news! You don’t have to make that sickly sweet friendship bread out of it. There are other recipes out there. I’ve adapted one I found at Recipezaar.com for muffins. It’s included below.

Additionally, you can freeze the starter. Yes, you heard that right. Despite what the flyer people pass along with their starter claims, you can freeze it. You can also use metal bowls and utensils with it. I won’t re-invent the wheel here, so if you want to read more on that, see the excellent write-ups at My Sister’s Kitchen (be sure to read the comments!):

Amish Friendship Bread (Sharing a Delicious Recipe and Debunking a Few Myths

and Amish Friendship Bread part 2

Okay, now on to the recipe!

Healthy Oat Bran Muffins made with Amish Friendship Bread Starter

Adapted from JanuaryBride’s recipe at Recipezaar.

Oven Temp: 375 degrees
Bake Time: Approximately 30 minutes
Yield: 36 muffins, maybe a few more (standard 2 1/2″ diameter muffins)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups Amish friendship bread starter
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk*
1 cup unsweetened applesauce**
1 cup grated carrots, packed
1/2 cup natural oat bran
1/2 cup natural wheat bran
1 cup quick oats (not instant oats)
2 teaspoons salt
3 Tablespoons brown sugar***
3 cups King Arthur Flour white whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

Optional:

1 cup nuts, dried cranberries, raisins, etc.

Directions

Beat together wet ingredients til just mixed.

Add remaining ingredients and stir until just mixed (batter should be a little lumpy).

Fill greased muffin tins 2/3 full and bake about 30 minutes at 375 degrees, rotating muffin pan 180 degrees in oven about half way through. Cool in muffin tin on a rack for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack.

Notes:

* Powdered buttermilk can be used. Just mix 4 Tablespoons powdered buttermilk into 1 cup water.

** You can substitue pureed carrots or bananas for the applesauce.

*** Since Amish friendship bread starter already has sugar in it and both the carrots and the applesauce are naturally sweet, you may find you don’t need as much (or any) brown sugar. Before you add it, taste the raw batter and see what you think, then decide.

You can always use a little less flour and substitute more oats. I did this one time when I accidentally didn’t put in enough flour and they still turned out very nicely. Muffins are pretty forgiving!

As for greasing the muffin tin, I love Baker’s Joy spray. It is a non-stick cooking spray that contains flour. The muffins pop right out of the tins when I use this.

I ran across this online somewhere and had to chuckle.

2000 B.C. – Here, eat this root.
1000 A.D. – That root is heathen. Here, say this prayer.
1850 A.D. – That prayer is superstition. Here, drink this potion.
1940 A.D. – That potion is snake oil. Here, swallow this pill.
1985 A.D. – That pill is ineffective. Here, take this antibiotic.
2000 A.D. – That antibiotic is artificial. Here, eat this root.

This is true, yes?

Wait a minute…

Has something changed? Won’t diarrhea and vomiting accomplish the same thing as Slim Fast, that is, hastening weight loss through shedding primarily water weight and acting as an appetite suppressant? And all in a decidedly unhealthy manner?

Just sayin’.

I’ve been reading up on bread machines and learned that this gets good reviews for low-priced bread machines due to its many features. I’d seen this model on Amazon, but never bought it.

Howie and I buy good 100% whole grain breads, but they’re really expensive even when on sale. Last night we bought the basic ingredients for wheat bread and I’m going to try making my own.
Here’s the machine’s maiden voyage in our home today! I will post better videos later, but wanted to post something today and my phone was in my pocket.

This is the recipe. I made a basic 100% whole wheat recipe from Oster’s website. The only thing I changed was adding 4 tsp wheat gluten.

100% Whole Wheat Bread

Ingredients

- 1-5/8 cups water
- 2 tsp salt
- 4 2/3 cups whole wheat flour
- 4 tsp wheat gluten (not in original recipe)
- 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
- 3 tsp active dry yeast

Directions

- Measure and add liquid ingredients to the bread pan.
- Measure and add dry ingredients (except yeast) to the bread pan. .
- Use your finger to form a well (hole) in the flour where you will pour the yeast. Yeast must NEVER come into contact with a liquid when you are adding ingredients. Measure the yeast and carefully pour it into the well.
- Snap the baking pan into the breadmaker and close the lid.
- Press “Select” button to choose the Whole Wheat setting.
- Press the “Crust Color” button to choose light, medium or dark crust.
- Press the “Start/Stop” button

Source: Oster website

I’d love to hear your favorite bread machine recipes. Please leave links to your favorites in the comments!

I’m also going to take a stab at making frozen berry jam with this thing; I have a couple bags of frozen mulberries in the freezer, so what better use for some of them!

UPDATE 7:00pm – The bread is tasty! It has a very crunchy exterior, but is soft and moist inside. I think next time I’ll make it on the light setting instead of medium.

I’ve never been a politically active person. I vote, and I will talk about politics to a limited degree, but only with those I know well. I don’t like conflict. But this issue has made me do something, because we ALL have too much to lose. I have to do something, anything, to spread the word.

Listen. This is not gay marriage. This is not gun control. It’s not welfare reform. Those issues only affect segments of society. This will effect EVERYONE in our country. It may not at first, while private health care exists, but it will become the ONLY health care available.

The people who Obama put in charge of writing this bill hold some of the scariest beliefs out there. Read what

Please, take a little less than six minutes of your time and watch this video.

You can read the transcript of this segment in this Newsbusters.org entry.

How, indeed, are we to provide care to everyone in America, but with less money? Like the video said, the only way that happens is if you keep health care costs down by denying care to people. And the wait times the video reports are happening in the UK and Canada. I know people from Canada who are dealing with this system. They do wait months for basic services. And if you have cancer or some other life-threatening disease? Too bad!

If you want to read more about how this agenda is being introduced to Americans little by little, see George F. Will’s piece, The Stealth Single-Payer Agenda.

Defendyourhealthcare.us is an excellent read, too. Its author updates regularly with real-life scenarios and how this bill will impact people.

Want to read the bill? It’s all available online in a PDF: House Democrats Health Plan.

We do need health care reform in America, I believe that. But this is NOT it. Don’t let Obama’s oratory skills lull you into a false sense of security. Find out for yourself.

This particular film, Tell them I’m a Mermaid, is particularly interesting. In it, seven women – all physically disabled in one way or another – share their stories via song and spoken word. Originally begun as an acting workshop, it evolved into this complete production. The playright, Nancy Becker Kennedy, sings and acts in it as well. She is the woman who is quadriplegic.

What a great message these strong women give. All three segments are below. Let me know what you think!

Part 2/3:

Part 3/3:

I thought this was awesome! Each woman challenged me in some way.

The NY Times published a feature about it on December 5, 1983. There’s a great line about them in it: “The women are interesting because they are interesting women.”

What follows is an update about the petition and the issue, sent by Jeanette Nordstrom of the
National Center for Policy Analysis

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Friends -

Thanks to your willingness to support the “Free Our Health Care NOW!” petition where over 740,000 Americans have voiced their opposition to nationalized health care and the increased cost, reduced access and lower quality which it threatens to impose on us!

At his press conference Wednesday night, President Obama admitted that the government will be intervening between you and your doctor. Only to prevent “unnecessary” care, he said but it will be the government, not the doctor who decides what’s necessary. This is worrisome!

The nationalized health care plan proposed by President Obama calls for rationed care. Rationed care requires that patients forego medical procedures which fail to meet federal approval. Under nationalized health care, a bureaucrat will have the power to delay or deny care to a patient without regard for the patient’s medical needs or for the physician’s advice.

In Canada and the United Kingdom, both of which have adopted a nationalized health care system, patients’ access to care is far more restricted and wait times are far longer than in the United States. Consider the following wait times:

* Better late… In a recent survey of adults suffering from a chronic condition, 74% of U.S. patients met with a specialist within four weeks of scheduling an appointment. By comparison, only 42% of British patients and just 40% of Canadian patients were able to meet with a specialist in the first four weeks suffering from their condition.

* …than Never? In the same survey, 33% of patients in the United Kingdom and 42% of patients in Canada waited for more than 2 months before meeting with a specialist to address their chronic condition. In the United States, only 10% of patients waited for longer than 2 months before meeting with a specialist.

* Hazardous Delay. Canadian wait times exceed the clinically reasonable wait time for every medical specialty . For neurosurgery, for instance, although the clinically reasonable wait time is 5.8 weeks, the average Canadian wait time exceeds 31 weeks. Orthopedic surgery is even worse. The clinically reasonable wait time is 11 weeks; Canadian patients waiting on orthopedic surgery wait on average almost 37 weeks before they receive treatment. http://www.ncpa.org/pdfs/Canadian_UK_HealthSystems.pdf

Rationed care affects all patients. In Canada and the United Kingdom patients have reduced access to health care providers, longer waits for examinations and fewer available treatment options. As it has in Canada and the United Kingdom, nationalized health care in the United States threatens to reduce the quality of care and therefore, the quality of life for all Americans.

What can you do about this?

* Forward the petition www.freeourhealthcarenow.com to your friends, family and networks!

* Print the petition http://actionpack.ncpa.org and collect signatures, send to us.

* Use the Action Pack http://actionpack.ncpa.org to access our Learning/Teaching Tools about health care so that you can educate your friends, family and neighbors.

* Attend The Heartland Institutes Health Care Roundtables and meet innovative leaders promoting health care reform. http://www.heartland.org/events/Roundtables/index.html

* Send a copy of the proposed government-run plan to your lists http://docs.house.gov/gopleader/House-Democrats-Health-Plan.pdf

* Track the progress of the “Free Our Health Care NOW!” petition by going to http://actionpack.ncpa.org and clicking the ‘ticker’ link.

* Share the petition through viral networking by clicking on the icon of your preferred social media.

Thank you again for your support of the “Free Our Health Care NOW!” and for fighting against nationalized health care.

Jeanette Nordstrom
National Center for Policy Analysis
www.ncpa.org

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.”
~ President Gerald R. Ford
(not Thomas Jefferson)

Make your voice heard!

Waterfall, dappled willow, goldfish, stones,
windchime harmonies, hosta, crane. Bliss.

Posted via Pixelpipe.