Where it all started....

Well, it started many years ago at a company called RPS. The company name changed and so did mine in 2001. From there, the road led us to the ATL and our own business. I left the road to have babies, but it sure is hard to take the trucker out of a Momma!



Saturday, September 15, 2012

Natural vs. Store Bought

I have been going along with the husband and his challenge.  We cheated 2 times last week and twice in one day, today.  Work life made cheating on Monday a given with providing dinner from Chick-fil-A for our drivers.  Friday was the girl's birthday and lunch with friends was fitting.  Today, we lunched with friends again and went out for a nice dinner as a family.  On the way home, we stopped at Trader Joe's for some groceries.  While I was putting them away, I had a moment of "AWE"!  Since starting his challenge, I have been baking our own bread.  I saved a couple of buns that were left in the bread drawer when we returned home from vacation.  Today, the tiny end of a loaf of homemade French bread was green!  It was about a week old.

On the left are the almost 2 mo. old rolls.  On the right, my homemade bread.

A close up:


So, what is in my bread?  Organic flour (a mix of white whole wheat and whole wheat), yeast, salt, water, olive oil and semolina flour (a dusting on the bottom to keep it from sticking while baking).  

Here is the ingredient list on the store bread:

Enriched, dough conditioners that are a lot of glycerides, monocalcium phosphate, datem......What the hell is all that stuff?!?  My husband is convinced it is what gives little girls boobs at 10 yrs old and is one of the reasons he wanted to change some things in our life.  Well, here is where I call in Google and Wikipedia!

  DATEM (diacetyl tartaric acid ester of mono- and diglycerides) is an emulsifier primarily used in baking. It is used to strengthen the dough by building a strong gluten network.

Calcium dihydrogen phosphate is also used in the food industry as a leavening agent to cause baked goods to rise. Because it is acidic, when combined with an alkali ingredient, commonly sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) or potassium bicarbonate, it reacts to produce carbon dioxide and asalt. Outward pressure of the carbon dioxide gas causes the rising effect. When combined in a ready-made baking powder, the acid and alkali ingredients are included in the right proportions such that they will exactly neutralize each other and not significantly affect the overall pH of the product.  **Note, if you look this up, it is also used as a fertilizer.  Great!


monoglyceride, more correctly known as a monoacylglycerol, is a glyceride consisting of one fatty acid chain covalently bonded to a glycerol moleculethrough an ester linkage.[1]
Monoacylglycerol can be broadly divided into two groups; 1-monoacylglycerols and 2-monoacylglycerols, depending on the position of the ester bond on the glycerol moiety.
Monoacylglycerols can be formed by both industrial chemical and biological processes. They are formed biochemically via release of a fatty acid fromdiacylglycerol by diacylglycerol lipase. Monoacylglycerols are broken down by monoacylglycerol lipase.
Mono- and diglycerides are commonly added to commercial food products in small quantities. They act as emulsifiers, helping to mix ingredients such as oil and water that would not otherwise blend well.[2]
The commercial source may be either animal (cow- or hog-derived) or vegetable, and they may be synthetically made as well. They are often found in bakery products, beveragesice creamchewing gumshorteningwhipped toppingsmargarine, and confections.[citation needed] When used in bakery products, monoglycerides improve loaf volume, and create a smooth, soft crumb.


I guess my moment of awe and realization that my time invested in the kitchen might be worth something will make me continue on the path of better eating.  We will still enjoy special treats from time to time, but try to stick with good old homemade as much as possible!


2 comments:

  1. Spoonfed recently did a series of posts about eating clean while on a road trip. You might find some tips in the round-up to help your cheats be less cheating. http://spoonfedblog.net/2012/09/11/real-food-road-test-the-round-up/

    ReplyDelete