Below is a list of some of my favorite and most used sourdough supplies! Not all of these are necessary in order to make amazing bread, but they can help make the process a little easier!
It’s no secret that I have been a long time fan of sourdough bread. This is mostly because I love the crunchy outside and the tangy, chewy inside. It tastes delish on it’s own or can be the perfect compliment to a grilled sandwich. Not to mention how beautiful it is in artisan loaf form. My interest really peaked when I started hearing about the healing benefits of sourdough and how it fits into a healthy lifestyle. I wanted to learn more, so I researched as much as I possibly could and came up with a list of why sourdough is helpful to the body.
Nutrition Benefits of Sourdough
– Sourdough contains less sugar and more protein than traditional white bread.
-It is made with live cultures rather than packaged, dried yeast. This means it doesn’t have to fight off mold and doesn’t require the preservatives that traditional bread does.
-Sourdough bread has higher levels of antioxidants and folate than store bought breads. For the science behind this, click here.
Fermentation
Another benefit of sourdough is the fermentation process.
– The word fermentation used to gross me out. I remember saying there was no way I’d put fermented anything in my mouth. But I opened my mind to the idea and after a lot of research and experimenting, I’m all about it.
– In simple terms, fermentation makes food easier to digest.
-Sourdough bread is made using fermentation of naturally occurring lactobacilli and yeast. This lactic acid bacteria is also found in foods like sauerkraut, pickles, yogurt, and kefir. It sounds really scientific, but it’s simple because essentially it happens on it’s own when you mix the correct ratios of flour and water together. What a beautiful thing! Actually, it’s a little more involved than that, but you get the idea. 🙂
Why I’m a Believer
Over the years I have tried many different ways of eating. I went through a time after having our second baby where I wasn’t feeling very good. My energy was low, my allergies were going crazy, and I just wasn’t feeling like myself. This is around the time that I wholeheartedly began adapting a healthy lifestyle by using food to heal my body. I did a Whole 30 and transitioned to loosely following Paleo for close to 2 years. Still to this day I don’t really eat bread, except for sourdough, because I have witnessed firsthand the benefits. Every now and then I have a slice but I recently noticed that when I eat sourdough, I don’t have any adverse effects. I can eat it and feel comfortable. No bloat, no tiredness, nothing at all. Isn’t that amazing?!
So I learned all I could about it and finally bit the bullet to make my first sourdough starter so I can begin baking my own breads, pancakes, english muffins, whatever. Thus far, my kids and husband are loving my sourdough creations. Just the other day my 6 year old said, “Mom is this made from your starter?” I answered, “Yes!”and he said, ‘Hm, it’s pretty good!” WINNING!
Sourdough Starter Tips
My happy sourdough starter 🙂
In order for you to start experiencing to benefits of sourdough for yourself, you’ll need a starer.
-Embrace the process. There is a learning curve with sourdough but it’s fun and worth it!
-Name your starter (google it…it’s a tradition). You’ll be spending a lot of time with this thing. I know it might sound crazy, but I jumped on the bandwagon and named mine Mabel 🙂
-Have several glass jars on hand for the first few weeks of building your starter. These are my favorites!
-Invest in a mini spatula for stirring and scraping the sides of your jar at each feeding. I use these and LOVE them because they can fit into the narrow jars.
-Use a loose lid to cover the starter after feeding. This will allow the natural gasses to release.
-Get some rubber bands or a dry-erase marker. These are useful for marking where your starter is so you can see how much it rises.
-Find the darkest and warmest spot in your house to put the starter. Mine really took off when I did this.
-Don’t throw away the discard! I put mine in a jar and keep it in the fridge. I add to it each time I feed my starter and place it back in the fridge right away. You can use the discard starter for other recipes. Here are a few of my favorites:
As you can see, I am a huge fan of sourdough. If this post sparked some interest, I hope you are inspired to follow through and start experimenting with some sourdough baking of your own! If you have any questions, post it in the comments below. Can’t wait to hear about your experience with the healing benefits of sourdough!
Interested in working with a health coach? Read about my services here!
Some treats I bake are healthier than others. This is one of those treats that is healthier for your soul than your body and in my opinion, those are the best kind!
These are dairy free if you use dairy free chocolate chips (Enjoy Life brand are my favorite) and can be made gluten free if you use gluten free oats and marshmallows.
These bars have 3 layers- a cookie layer, a chocolate layer, and a toasted marshmallow layer with some added goodness on top to really bring it home 🙂
In other words, they ROCK! My trusty taste testers loved them, I loved them, and you’ll love them!
Here’s how to make them:
First, you will make your cookie layer. This is the part where you will use the almond pulp that you have left over from my almond milk recipe. If you don’t have almond pulp, no worries! Just use the same amount of almond flour and it will still turn out great. When I bake, I usually only use one bowl instead of combining all the dry ingredients then all the wet ingredients separately. I know in some cases it’s necessary but for this recipe, we’re just throwing it all in one bowl and calling it a day!
To a bowl you will add the oats, almond pulp, coconut flour, salt, beaten eggs, vanilla, coconut sugar, milk, and baking powder. Stir it until combined.
In a well-greased 8×8 baking dish, add the batter, pressing it down into a thin layer with your fingers. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Right after taking it out of the oven, while it’s still hot, sprinkle the chocolate chips on top. After the heat of the cookie layer melts the chocolate, spread it into a thin layer, covering all of the cookie.
Next, turn on your broiler. While it’s warming up and while the cookie layer and chocolate are still hot, you will sprinkle the marshmallows on top of the chocolate. Place the dish on the middle rack of your oven, under the broiler. Don’t walk away! This takes less than a minute so you will want to stand there and watch to make sure you don’t burn the marshmallows. Once they are toasted, take them out of the oven and sprinkle with a few tablespoons of mini chocolate chips and crumbled up graham crackers. The link to my homemade graham crackers is here.
You will want them to cool before cutting. But if you absolutely can’t wait (speaking from experience), you can cut them while they are warm if you don’t mind getting a little messy.
Print Recipe
Ooey Gooey S'mores Bars
These s'mores bars are the perfect indoor s'mores treat for you and your family (or just you).
They can be made gluten free and dairy free.
To a bowl you will add the oats, almond pulp, coconut flour, salt, beaten eggs, vanilla, coconut sugar, milk, and baking powder. Stir it until combined.
In a well-greased 8x8 baking dish, add the batter, pressing it down into a thin layer with your fingers. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
For the chocolate layer:
Right after taking the cookie layer out of the oven, while it's still hot, sprinkle the chocolate chips on top. After the heat of the cookie layer melts the chocolate, spread it into a thin layer, covering all of the cookie.
For the marshmallow layer:
Next, turn on your broiler. While it's warming up and while the cookie layer and chocolate are still hot, you will sprinkle the marshmallows on top of the chocolate. Place the dish on the middle rack of your oven, under the broiler. Don't walk away! This takes less than a minute so you will want to stand there and watch to make sure you don't burn the marshmallows. You will take it out when the marshmallows are toasted brown but before they are burnt.
Garnish
Once the marshmallows are toasted, take them out of the oven and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of mini chocolate chips and the crumbled graham crackers. Allow to cool before cutting. Enjoy!
With everything being so new with this blog, instagram, and
everything else, I figured it would be entertaining to do a fun facts Friday to
give you a little insight to who I am. I’ll keep it going for a few Fridays
until I run out of things to tell you!
#1- I have been married for almost 8 years to my handsome husband, Cody. We had a beautiful October wedding in the middle of nowhere and it was an amazing day to say the least!
This is my absolute favorite picture from that day.
#2- I was a teacher for 6 years. Not 6 consecutive years,
though. I taught for 3 years, felt like it wasn’t the right career, took 4
years off to have kids and stay home with them. Then went back to teaching for
3 more years. Got confirmation that it wasn’t the right career choice and now
here I am! Whew! Talk about a long story short 😉
#3- Drink of choice? Margarita on the rocks. Not healthy,
but freaking delicious.
#4- I have an obsession with Papermate Flair Pens. I can’t get enough of them. I love the colors and the way they write and if they ever stop making them, I’m protesting. Who’s with me?
#6- I have 2 kids. Words wouldn’t even do it justice if I tried telling you how awesome they are. Just trust me that I gave birth to 2 of the most amazing people God has ever created!
#7- During the summer we go through one watermelon a week. I cut it up in chunks and it fills 3 one gallon bags. We eat it with breakfast, lunch and dinner and the snacks between. So, so GOOD!
#8- I genuinely enjoy working out. I love to wake up early and get it out of the way before the rest of my family wakes up. The endorphins are a real thing.
#9- I do all of my workouts in my living room. I haven’t had a gym membership in YEARS. I like to use the SWEAT app, Beachbody programs (I’m not a Beachbody coach), and YouTube videos. I do weights and cardio, and I just started dabbling with pilates and yoga.
That’s it for today! Hope you have a wonderful Friday! I’m off to go shopping with my beautiful mama.
Tell me: What’s something you want me to know about you?
My name is Chelsie and I want to welcome you to my blog! This has been a long time coming and I am sooo excited to FINALLY have things up and running.
I’m going to give you a little backstory to get you caught up on my journey and how I got here because it all plays an important part in where I am now.
I have been into healthy eating since my middle school days. That’s about the time that cooking shows started to become a thing (Hey, Emeril! BAM!) and I loved watching them! They didn’t always cook healthy dishes, but if I replicated a recipe in our kitchen, I would add my own little spin on it to make it healthy for me and my family (is it weird that I cooked in middle school? I just realized that it might be?). This continued into my adult years and I really started to take things seriously when I had kids of my own. During my first pregnancy I started paying extra close attention to what I ate because I wanted a healthy baby. Then, once I had him I had a strong desire to keep it going so I could be a mom that was active and present. I started learning about things like mindfulness, processed food and chemicals, antibiotics and all that stuff and knew I wanted to give my kids the healthiest start to life that I could.
I’ve exercised and eaten healthy(ish) most of my life (I’m all about balance and you’ll hear me use that word a lot), but I really began to feel good in my body when I started showing it some mad respect. I began feeling and seeing changes that made me believe in the healing power of food and movement. Through health and wellness I discovered that being healthy was so much more than being in a smaller body. And THAT lit a fire in me like never before.
Let’s just say I haven’t turned back! I knew I wanted to somehow make a career of this passion but it took me a while to figure out exactly how to do that. I felt a strong pull to help other people find their own definition of “healthy”; whatever that looks like for them.
So I decided to go back to school. I don’t have a degree in nutrition but I did a lot of research on programs available in the health and wellness world and discovered Health Coaching. With my degree in Psychology, I was qualified to enter into this field following a certification. I chose the Dr. Sears Wellness Institute and after about a year of classes, I am certified! I can now help people of all ages, from children, to seniors and everyone in between including pregnant and nursing mamas.
I will be focusing on food and recipe development because that is my passion. I cook almost all of our meals at home so you’ll be seeing a lot of what we eat as well as new recipes that you can try for yourself. Most of it will be healthy but you might see some fun treats sneak in now and then because all food is delicious and that’s just how I roll.
If you are interested in receiving health coaching, check out the “coaching services” tab on the homepage to see what I offer. Everything can be done virtually nowadays so even if you are far away from me, we can work it out.
Thanks to all my family, friends and followers for coming along on this journey with me.
Tell me: What’s your favorite food ?? (healthy or not, I won’t judge)
