Can I bake my own bread as a working mom?

When I was still working outside of the home, I had to be very intentional about my time. One thing that was very important to me was baking our own bread. How on earth did I find time to do that? Here are 5 tricks that I used.

1. Baking Day: I used my days off wisely. Saturday became baking day. I would create my meal plan on Thursday and either get groceries delivered Friday or pick up on Saturday morning. I had listed exactly how many meals needed a side of bread or bread for sandwiches. I would bake for the entire week.

2. Not watching: I did other things while the bread rose. I made muffins or hung out with the kids or put the baby down for a nap. The longest part of making bread that I had to be present for was the putting all the ingredients together and kneading it.

3. Same recipe: I used the same recipe every week. There are lots of great bread recipes out there. I chose one that makes four loaves at a time and that my kids liked. Using the same recipe helped me become faster at making bread because I wasn’t stopping to read and reread the instructions or ingredients. There is also the benefit of knowing what it should look like and behave so you know if you forgot something in the recipe.

4. Freezer: I used the freezer to store bread that was going to be used in the latter part of the week. Bread typically does very well in the freezer and I would pull out the loaf for the next day the night before and it would be defrosted the next morning.

5. Intentional: Because making my family’s bread from good ingredients was important to me, I made the time on purpose. I got up and put my phone down and made bread. Did I feel like it every week? No. Did I do it anyway because it was important to me? Yes.

Do I have more time to bake bread now that I stay home? Yes I do but I still use the five tricks above. While I may be home more, I still want to use my time wisely and intentionally.