Where does the bread go?

[TheInnerSea]

And how many loaves a week does your family get through.

I reckon we're using 10 sliced loaves a week, plus nice bread or rolls at the weekend and a couple of packs of tortilla wraps or pitta breads to ring the changes. There are four of us taking packed lunch most days, but not always bread, sometimes leftovers/salad/soup etc. We don't ever have any wasted bread, just the crusts sometimes, which I use for breadcrumbs for chicken nuggets etc.

Apart from it seeming ridiculous and the cost of it all, I'm not sure it's good for us to be eating so much what with the salt content etc. No-one here is overweight (well, maybe DH a little bit )

Just our house that had a secret bread eating monster then

Do you have teenage, rugby playing sons? That could easily account for it.

No!!My eldest is only 11 and already eating me out of house and home

Get a breadmaker! Doesn't answer the op, but would pay for itself v quickly and save you money.

Dear God!
There 6 of us, 3 teens ( 2 lots of packed lunches) we get through 2 sliced loaves, and usually 2 baguettes. Occasionally some tortillas ( once a month) same with bagels and burger buns ( buy once a month)

I have a bread maker, but it can't keep up!! Do you really think it saves money? I'm not convinced. Nicer bread, yes, but works out more expensive than big standard sliced, doesn't it?

Ah but you can make more nutritious loaves, with lower salt content.

Our white loaf today is a lovely golden hue due to added butternut squash. I'm very pleased with it, because we get butternut squash from the veg box and nobody wants to eat it.

Ooh,how does work ? I have butternut squash in my box this week......

I boiled it, pureed it (not necessary but looks nicer), and mixed it in with the flour and water and yeast - I had to reduce the amount of water. About a hand-scoop-full for about 400g flour.

I'll do the math live one the internet...

I need 1 brown flour and 3 white flour to make 15 loaves. A bag of (organic) flour is £1.99. So £8 of flour makes 15 loaves. This is 53p per loaf. I have no idea how much the electricity costs, but the other ingredients are pennies. So it is probably about 80p a loaf, with a very generous electricity allowance.

I haven't bought bread for years, but i believe it is well over £1 for a loaf these days...

If we used that much bread i would work out a timetable for how often i needed to make bread, the advantage you have is that it will always be fresh. I have a complicated eat some fresh/freeze some straight away/toast some the second day/toast or defrost the frozen stuff regime. Dp messes it up if he gets involved!

That sounds like a huge amount of bread.

We are a family of 4 and get through 3 (unsliced) loaves a week. but we do not have to do packed lunches.

Why not switch to bread you slice yourself - if it takes a bit more effort you might not get through quite as much.

We are a family of 6, all the kids are aged 5 and under. We get through 6 very large loaves of homemade bread a week, supplemented with the odd baguette. We waste none of it, breadcrumbs, and stale slices get frozen for French toast etc. The flour I get is organic and each loaf is less than 60p each in ingredients. Its healthy too, long fermentation (overnight) with less salt, and adding wheatgerm and rolled oats is delicious too. If I was to switch to artisan bread bought from bakery, I would be spending a bomb.

We are big bread eaters and good bread is not bad for you. Make it yourself!!

TEN sliced loaves? Wow.

i think people eat too much wheat and I try to minimise it in our diets (still very convenient & cheap, of course).

We get thru 1.5-2 loaves most weeks, family of 6, 3 of the kids (including teenager) have sandwiches most school days for lunch. DH eats lots of bread given half a chance, i eschew it.

Plus sometimes bagels, tortillas, crumpets, muffins, pancakes: they may add up to equivalent of another 1-2 loaves/week.

We had a breakmaker for 3 years, I found it expensive & rather inconvenient, plus DC preferred soft shop bread. But then I read what they put into even the very best shop quality bread

Sainsbury's medium sliced whole meal bread (reduced salt so shorter shelf life) is 74p/loaf, or sometimes on offer at 2 for 90p (another thread, I know). I can get about 11 sandwiches(?) out of each loaf. I can't make bread that cheap per kg (or slice the bread that thin, either).

Organic bread from Sainsbury's is £1/loaf, makes maybe 8-9 sandwiches.

I bet other supermarkets are cheaper.

maybe not cheaper but homemade would be better for you ...

Wow that it a LOT of bread

I agree that home-made can be hugely healthier, depends on quality of ingredients, too. Not a given.

For whoever doesn't use the butternut squash, have you tried roasting it with roast potatoes. Chop it into bitsize chunks, drizzle with olive oil, sea salt and black pepper and a little cumin. All of my lot said they didn't like butternut squash, all of them ate the lot.

Wow, we use max 1 loaf a week. Usually goes in the freezer and lasts over two weeks.

We all eat porridge/ fruit/ eggs for breakfast ( no bread)

It's probably eaten once/ twice each for lunch over the week.

Re: butternut squash - I've tried everything. It's the texture they don't like and you can't get rid of that whatever you do unless you puree it and put it in Chinese steamed buns and bread and pancakes and the like... Or in cakes. Even in cakes the smell develops unless you eat it within a day or so, but they don't seem to mind that.