I've been wanting to make a loaf of homemade bread for a long time, just because I had never tackled that before. I found this recipe and it's super easy for starters like me. I liked that it wasn't complicated and consisted of things I normally have on hand.
You can find the original recipe
here. This recipe bakes up two loafs.
I modified the recipe to be one loaf, in case it tasted like a fart, but it didn't. It was awesome. Here's my modifications.
1 cup warm water (110 degrees F)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast (about 2/3 a packet)
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 tbsp. honey
2 1/2 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour.
Directions:
1. In a large mixing bowl (use your kitchen aid bowl if you have one) dissolve yeast in warm water. Add honey, and stir well. Mix in whole wheat flour, salt, and vegetable oil. Work all-purpose flour in gradually. I stirred by hand until I couldn't get any more flour to mix in, then switched to my mixer with a bread hook. (The dough was a little smelly to me at this stage.)
2. Set to mix, with bread hook, at speed 2. Let it mix for about 10-15 minutes. Do not exceed speed 2. If you don't have a mixer with a bread hook, keep mixing & kneading with your hands for 10-15 minutes.
3. Start checking the dough for the "yeast window' at about 10 minutes. Grab a walnut sized chunk off your dough. Roll dough in a ball and then stretch the dough out like you are stretching a piece of bubble gum. Your dough should not pull apart or make holes easily, and should stretch leaving an almost transparent window. If it tears in the middle, leave it to mix/knead a few more minutes. Mine took 15 minutes to be ready.
4. When dough is smooth & elastic, place it in a well oiled bowl. Turn it several times in the bowl to coat the surface of the dough. Cover it with a warm damp cloth. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. (Some suggestions I read said, heat your oven to 170 degrees, then turn off. Place bowl & towel in oven to rise. Another person suggested running your dryer to heat it up, remove the clothes, and then put your bread in the dryer to rise. Just don't turn the dryer back on!)
5. Stick two fingers, up to your second knuckle in your dough. When you remove your fingers if the holes stay in the dough, it's ready for it's beat down. (My bread got a little bigger, but hadn't really doubled. It seemed ready by this standard, so I moved forward.)
6. Punch down the dough. Shape into loaf, and place into a well greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. Allow to rise until dough is 1 to 1 1/2 inches above the pan. (It took my bread 1 1/2 hours to rise in a warm oven, and it never got as tall as the top of the pan. After all that time, I was ready to bake this up.)
7. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.
8. I put butter on the top right out of the oven, while it was still in the pan. Ideally, if you can wait that long, you should cool your bread in the pan, on a rack, for at least 20 minutes so it can continue to finish cooking.
My mom got me a Clean Eating magazine. I've enjoyed trying out different recipes & trying new ingredients. I've recently tried Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah). It's a small grain that is similar in size to couscous, although the flavor is different. It's extremely healthy and you can substitute in almost any recipe you'd use rice or couscous in. 
