Bagels!!!!

6 cups bread flour
2 cups warm water
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp yeast
1/4 cup olive oil
4 tbsp dry milk powder
1/4 cup potato flakes
1 1/2 tbsp salt
1 tbsp dough enhancer
2 eggs

Egg wash:
1 egg
2 tbsp water

Breadmaker version:
Put all of the dry ingredients, oil, and eggs into the breadmaker set on a dough only cycle. Put the yeast and the sugar into the two cups of warm water (110 degrees), stir to thoroughly combine and let sit for about 10 minutes or until the yeast water is bubbly. Pour into the breadmaker and let go through the dough cycle. At the end of the cycle, pull out the dough, knead a few more times and form the dough into a big round and smooth dough ball. Pull the dough into a big bowl (punch bowl size at least) with a couple of tablespoons of oil. Turn over the dough to completely to coat with the oil, cover with plastic wrap or a clean dish towel and let rise until it is about 2 1/2 times it's size or fills the bowl. Should be between 60 to 90 minutes total.

Turn on the oven to 400 and position two racks in the center part of the oven. The racks should have enough space between them to allow the bagels on the lower rack to bake without touching the upper rack. Punch down the dough, put back on the counter and roll it into a long log. Using a kitchen scale, cut off 4 or 5 oz portions. 4 oz dough balls will give you about 18 bagels. 5 oz dough balls will give you about 15 bagels.

Form each portion into a small dough ball and then flatten out into a dough disk on the counter. Using your finger, punch a hole into the middle of the disk then widen the hole by spinning the disk in between your two fingers.

Lay the formed bagels onto parchment lined half sheet pans. Allow them to rest and relax (raise) another 10 minutes.

Once all of the bagels have been formed, start dropping them into boiling salted water (2 tbsp salt to 3 qts of water) 3 or 4 at a time depending on the size of your pot, starting with the first bagel formed working until the last. Drop the bagels into the boiling water one at a time. Let them boil on one side for 1.5 minutes (90 seconds), turn them over and allow them to boil on the other side for another 1.5 minutes.

After a total of 3 minutes of boiling, place the bagels back onto the baking sheets and brush them with the egg wash when they have mostly dried off. They dry off fairly quickly so it won't take long. After all of the bagels have taken their boiling bath and been brushed with the egg wash, put both pans into the oven and bake for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, rotate the pans back to front, move the pan on the upper rack to the lower rack and move the pan on the lower rack to the upper one. Bake for another 10 minutes then rotate in the same manner. Rotation of the pans will ensure even baking/browning. Bake for an additional 5 minutes then pull them out. They should have a honey/golden color to them. Place the bagels on a dish towel or tea towel on the kitchen counter to cool. Once cooled, bag them up and leave on the counter or place in the freezer. Do not put them in the fridge as it will only dry them out!

Its That Time Again!

I know I have lots of posts to catch up on and post, and maybe in a week or two I'll sit down and do that. In the meantime, here is what I'm currently thinking about in the food department....

School Lunch Menu 2014-2015
	Main Dish		Dairy		Other		Drink
Day 1	PBJ Sandwich		Gogurt		pretzels		capri sun
Day 2	Bean/Cheese Burrito				tortilla chips		capri sun
Day 3	Pasta		String Cheese		beef jerky		capri sun
Day 4	Meat/Cheese/Crackers				treat		capri sun
Day 5	Deli Sandwich				granola bar		capri sun
Day 6	PBJ Sandwich		Gogurt		cheese nips		capri sun
Day 7	Pizza/Pepperoni sandwich				treat		capri sun
Day 8	Wraps		Yogurt Cup		chips		capri sun
Day 9	PBJ Sandwich		String Cheese		beef jerky		capri sun
Day 10	Hot Lunch
Vegetable		Fruit
Cucumber/Ranch		Watermelon
Carrots/ranch		Apples
S Potato/Ranch		Clementines
Olives		Coconut
Celery/PB/raisins		Grapes
Peas in Pod		Berries
Cauliflower/ranch		Trail Mix
Broccoli/Ranch		Pears

We'll see how that shows up with the blog formatting... hahaha....

But in case you can't tell, this is our plan for school lunches! I pinned a few of those "collection of ideas" and we used that for inspiration, and created this menu based on what our kids like.

Each Sunday evening, we'll prep all the fruit, veggies, snacks and dairy into bins.

We thought we'd make the sandwiches, burritos and wraps and stick them in the freezer, but that didn't work very well for the deli sandwiches. Instead, we grab everything in the morning, make the main dish, and toss it all in!

Each school morning the kids choose a prepped fruit and veggie, and otherwise follow the menu! Hopefully this will make things much easier for us all this year...I'll get back to you on that for sure, haha!