New Year, New You with Your Bread Maker

Published on 8th January 2014

So, we've just enjoyed the holiday season and we all know what that means! Mince pies, chocolate, cheese boards, roast diners galore and assorted nibbles. It's heaven for the old taste buds, but not so cool when you try to get back into your favourite pair of jeans or get on the scales. In fact, let's just stay away from those dreaded scales for a few weeks, because thankfully help is at hand!

Bread is not the Dieters Enemy!

Well, OK, if you eat a whole loaf slathered in butter or oodles of melted cheese, you might fall down here, but remember, moderation is key! Besides, there are plenty of healthy bread maker recipes that can put you back on the straight and narrow for the New Year.

How about a nutritious bread that fills you up and satisfies that urge to keep on munching? Yes, you can make such a bread and when you feel full you don't want to eat as much. So, that's a good thing when you're trying to lose weight, right?

Recipe for Filling Bran Cereal Bread

You will need:

31 ml of skimmed milk
22 ml of olive oil
22 ml of sugar
A pinch of salt
120 ml of all-bran cereal
300 ml whole wheat flour
350 ml bread flour
A packet of yeast (If using dried yeast follow instructions on the packet and add the correct amount of water)

Directions:

For this most simple of bread recipes, it's simply a matter of adding the ingredients and sitting back, or you could go for a jog or a walk!

Just place your ingredients into your pan on the suggested setting for your machine. You'll need to go for whole wheat, with a medium crust. Then just press start. What could be easier?

bran cereal bread

Ta-daa! Delicious home made bran bread bread (image source: Remus Pereni on Flickr)

A word to the Wise

Once you have your loaf, try to cut thin slices, as this obviously saves on calories! Choose your topping carefully. Unfortunately, this means no jam, chocolate spread or other goodies. Nevertheless, thinly spread margarine or butter with Marmite is an excellent low calorie topping and one which give you plenty of B vitamins.

Of course, there are also plenty of healthy sandwich fillings such as chicken, tuna and salad vegetables, but just watch the dressings, as many of these can be hidden sources of fat and calories. So, enjoy your New Year resolution to be a healthier you and don't forget your bread machine!