A few minutes in the kitchen

Sometimes life seems so busy! I'm finding, though, that even a few minutes in the kitchen can pay big dividends. I tend to think I need to have a whole morning or afternoon in order to accomplish much in the kitchen. But that's really not so. I took about 15 minutes or so in the kitchen this morning, and made a large batch of homemade instant oatmeal, plus loaded the bread machine with the ingredients for a loaf of chocolate bread.

(Note: the above is just a generic picture; it is not the chocolate bread I made.)

So now, we have oatmeal for several weeks to come, plus a wonderful-smelling kitchen from the baking bread, and a real treat for snacks. Just now I spent about 10 minutes picking lettuce in the garden

and then another 5 minutes in the kitchen getting the lettuce into cold water. We'll have a fresh crisp salad with supper tonight due to those few minutes!

If you would like to try making your own instant oatmeal to keep on hand for quick breakfasts, the recipe can be found here: Homemade Instant Oatmeal.

Someone may be interested in the chocolate bread recipe, so here it is:

CHOCOLATE BREAD
1 cup plus 1 Tblsp. water
1 1/2 Tblsp. butter
1 egg
2 Tblsp. dry milk
1 1/2 Tblsp. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3 1/3 cups bread flour
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup chocolate chips
1 3/4 tsp. yeast

Place all ingredients in bread machine pan. Use the Sweet setting -- and I prefer using the Light crust setting.

During one of our visits out West, I copied this recipe from my daughter's bread machine cookbook. She has an older (bought at a yard sale, I believe) machine, but it turns out some great bread, and the recipes are wonderful.

This time, I added perhaps a half cup of raisins to the mix, and I think toasted chopped walnuts would be wonderful, too. It seems to me that a small amount of vanilla -- say, a half teaspoon -- would give this an even nicer flavor.

What can you accomplish during a few minutes in the kitchen?