No knead bread is the easiest method there is for bread making. I’ve made it plain, multi-grain, fruit & nut, whole wheat, and now I’m sharing my whole wheat Greek olive bread recipe. I use the overnight method where you take 5 minutes the night before to mix together the batter with cool water, let it stand on the counter top overnight, and the next day, you bake the bread.
Here’s how easy it is. You just combine the flour(s), salt, yeast, and olives in a big bowl. Greek kalamata olives come in a jar, already pitted, so I just coarsely chopped and patted them dry with paper towels to add to the mixture. Then you add the water, mix it together, cover and let it stand overnight. Five minutes of work! By the way, olives are a good source of heart-healthy fats. The next day, you bake it in a Dutch oven. My Dutch oven is enameled cast iron. Actually, I have two, a 3-quart and a 5-quart, and I have made no knead breads in both of them.
I made this hearty bread yesterday and had it with a big bowl of soup and today for lunch I used it to make a grilled cheese sandwich with my reduced fat cheddar. Here’s lunch:
I’ll be working on even more variations of easy no knead breads because I am such as bread person so the more variety the better. If you try the olive bread, keep in mind it needs less salt than other breads because the olives are salty. Click herefor the recipe. And if you’re Greek…. “Opa!” – Jenny Jones
Like most people, I’m often short on time to cook dinner and a stir fry is usually my solution. Last night I made my quick & easy orange sesame chicken. You should see the reaction I get when I serve it to company. “How did you make this?” “Is this takeout?” “It must take forever to make a sauce like this!”
Actually, it takes 20 minutes… not just to make the sauce but to make the whole meal. That’s why I love to cook Chinese for dinner. Making it at home is always fast and it’s never deep fried, at least not the way I make it. The chicken is briefly marinated and then lightly sauteed and the sauce is so simple you won’t believe it. I make it with…
– fresh orange juice – rice vinegar – soy sauce – garlic – sugar & salt. It’s thickened with cornstarch and once it cooks you drizzle on some toasted sesame oil at the end. Wow! Make sure you use toasted sesame oil and not plain because the flavor when it’s toasted is intense. Then a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds and you have something so much better than takeout and so delicious, it might be your newest 20-minute meal.
By the way, some steamed broccoli on the side goes perfectly with this. I love it! Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
Here is my easy one bowl recipe for a healthier banana nut bread made without butter and using whole wheat flour. You’ll need two medium size very ripe bananas (the riper, the sweeter) and some dark chocolate chips. I also add lots of toasted nuts and since I can never decide, I use both walnuts and pecans. I love baking without butter so I use oil in this quick bread. I prefer extra light olive oil but you can use any vegetable oil or canola oil.
I use a standard size loaf pan and it’s the best size for this quick bread to rise up in the oven. Mine is 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 inches and even though it’s non stick, I still grease it. You’ll get the best result with this size pan.
The prep is super easy and it bakes in less than an hour. What you get is a moist and yummy banana bread with nuts and chocolate chips. The chocolate chips are optional but… com’on… everything’s better with chocolate chips! Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
Here’s another super easy, healthy bread recipe and it’s by popular demand. My first “simple whole wheat bread” has been hugely popular but a lot of people have asked if they can eliminate the egg or add honey. YES and YES. This easy honey wheat bread has no egg and it’s made with… you guessed it: honey. The interior is nice and soft and it tastes really good.
It takes a little longer to make than my other whole wheat bread (the one with the egg) and it doesn’t rise quite as tall so if you want it taller or faster, try my Simple Whole Wheat Bread. But if honey-wheat bread is your preference, this recipe only takes a few minutes longer. And it works with either honey or sugar, and any kind of vegetable oil you like. I mostly use extra light olive oil.
Having a warm spot to rise your dough helps it grow faster and I’m lucky to have a warming drawer in my kitchen but I have some other ideas on where you can rise dough in my blog. I hope the bread industry isn’t mad at me because so many people have said, “I don’t buy bread any more,” and that includes me. Between my no knead breads and whole wheat loaves, I always bake my own bread and I’m saving money… and spending it on spatulas! I hope you’ll try my honey wheat bread and somebody send me a picture! Click herefor the recipe. – Jenny Jones
Do you miss Fettuccine Alfredo? Avoiding it because you don’t want to die? My Alfredo sauce has no heavy cream and no butter, in fact it’s made with 1% milk and it’s deeelish. And you can be eating it in five minutes. That’s how long it takes to make the easiest Fettuccine Alfredo ever, and the healthiest too.
This is the same sauce I use in my Creamy Chicken Asparagus Bow Ties recipe but if you just want pasta alone with a creamy, easy sauce, this is it. Alfredo sauce is traditionally served with fettuccine but today, I’m making Bow Ties Alfredo. Put it on bow ties, elbows, or any pasta shape you like. You won’t feel weighed down after this light sauce… or tired from all that 5 minutes of work! Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
Happy New Year to all my fellow cooks. I’m so pleased to see so many people using my recipes and I’m often surprised at which ones are the most popular. My simple whole wheat bread has been wildly popular with almost 1/2 million views on youtube and hundreds of comments here. One question I’m often asked is, “Can I make this with only white or all-purpose flour?” I decided to try it and the answer is… yes.
I used the exact same recipe but substituted white flour for the whole wheat flour and I loved the result. The loaf rose just as tall as the whole wheat version and it was ready to eat in 90 minutes. My other “easy white bread” recipe is similar (and also quick) but does not use egg while this version uses an egg.
It seems that almost everyone is having success and loving my simple whole wheat bread recipe but when you want a similar, easy white bread that uses an egg, you can try my new Simple White Bread (with egg) recipe, which is exactly the same except it uses 100% all-purpose flour or bread flour. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
Here is the Christmas present I made for myself… or what’s left of it anyway. You don’t have to be Polish to love a slice (or 2 or 3) of makowiec (mah-KOH-viets). It’s usually a bread to be shared but this one is all for me! I made it without the powdered sugar glaze and opted for an egg wash and poppy seeds on the top.
The filling is made with ground poppy seeds, fresh orange and lemon peel, ground almonds and vanilla. It’s a Polish holiday bread for Christmas as well as Easter but I say make it for any holiday, or birthday, or laundry day, or tax day…. Click here for the recipe.
And Merry Christmas to all my fellow cooks and bakers. Thank you for all your comments and photos – I appreciate it so much when anyone takes the time to make a comment or send a photo. I have posted most of the recipes I make but I will try to add more as they make it into my kitchen. xoxoxo
There’s something addictive about these Christmas sugar cookies because I can’t stop eating them. So this will be my first batch because I’m not sharing. I’ll make more if anybody else wants some – but these are mine. I used a cookie press because it’s faster and I like that the cookies are tiny, no more than 2 inches across. So these are one-bite cookies but I am never able to eat just one.
For anyone using a cookie press, try to get very fine sprinkles because these mini cookies hold fine sprinkles better than some of the bigger cookie decorations, which seem to roll right off. I like mixing my colors and using blue and purple too. My recipe uses only half the butter of most others. These easy Christmas cookies keep really well. They can be refrigerated and stay nice and fresh for at least a week and I have frozen some for months and they are still good.
For me, Christmas sugar cookies are just part of holiday decorating but it’s decorations you can eat. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
My pumpkin pie is ready! There are three things I always do the day before Thanksgiving. One lesson I’ve learned over the years is: Do everything you possibly can in advance. So I already made my pumpkin pie, fresh cranberries, and I’ve made a pot of turkey stock. Here’s how… I roasted some turkey wings for an hour at 375 and then scraped up all the drippings. I put the wings, drippings, water, and the same vegetables and spices I use in my chicken stock into a pot, and cooked it for 2 1/2 hours. I let it cool down and it’s now in the fridge. Tomorrow I’ll skim off the fat use it for my make-ahead gravy and in my stuffing.
This year I’m trying a new way to roast turkey – at 500 degrees! It will be an adventure. I hope it turns out but no matter, it’s good to take occasional risks. But there’s no risk with my amazing pumpkin pie. The crust is made without butter or shortening so if you want to try it, click here for the recipe.
If someone invites you over for a homemade Thanksgiving dinner (turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, cranberries & pumpkin pie) no matter how good or bad the food was, you should lift them up, in their chair, and carry them around the neighborhood like the Rose Parade with everyone following and cheering for the cook. You might even build a float for them made out of plywood and turkey feathers, because cooking Thanksgiving dinner is a huge accomplishment for even the most experienced cook. After the parade, send them to Hawaii for a week. They’ll need it.
After every Thanksgiving turkey dinner I make, I always say, “Next year, we’re going out. I’m not doing this again. It’s too stressful!” But then we go out and the food is awful and I miss my home cooking so I do it again. All this is to explain why I have no turkey dinner recipes to share. But I do have sides and desserts!
I wish I could share a fabulous roast turkey or stuffing recipe but I’ve never made my stuffing the same way twice. I make a bread stuffing and sometimes I add mushrooms, sometimes shredded apple, sometimes walnuts, and sometimes all of the above. And my turkey? Well, I’ve roasted it upside down, right side up, brined it, bagged it, rubbed it, and I still don’t have a recipe I can share.
But I do have these four contributions to Thanksgiving cooks that I hope you enjoy. For my Fresh Cranberries recipe that cooks in 5 minutes, click here. For my Easy One-Rise Dinner Rolls recipe, click here. For my Healthier Easier Pumpkin Pie recipe that uses no butter, click here. For my Easy Pecan Pie recipe that you can also make without butter, click here.
No knead bread is the easiest method there is for bread making. I’ve made it plain, multi-grain, fruit & nut, whole wheat, and now I’m sharing my whole wheat Greek olive bread recipe. I use the overnight method where you take 5 minutes the night before to mix together the batter with cool water, let it stand on the counter top overnight, and the next day, you bake the bread.
I’ll be working on even more variations of easy no knead breads because I am such as bread person so the more variety the better. If you try the olive bread, keep in mind it needs less salt than other breads because the olives are salty. Click here for the recipe. And if you’re Greek…. “Opa!” – Jenny Jones
