Fabulous Homemade Wheat bread

Stephanie - I saw you started a post and never published it. I thought I would post this in case you were still looking.

This isn't 100% whole wheat but close enough. And we do think it is yummy. The original is done the old fashion way. I, of course, converted it to a bread machine. (I have no confidence doing bread by hand) Anyway, like usual I do the dough in the machine and then let it rise in a bread pan and bake it in the oven. The original recipe makes 6 loaves but I scaled it down to fit into my machine. This makes 2 big loaves or 3 smaller loaves.

2 1/4 cup warm water
1/3 cup veg. oil
1 cup quick cooking oats
1 cup white flour
5 cups wheat flour
2 1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 1/4 tsp yeast (you might want to experiment with that, depending on personal taste)

Put wet than dry ingredients in the bread machine. Set to dough cycle. Punch down, remove, shape according to desire and let rise. Bake at 350 for 35 min or so. Watch the top of the bread so it doesn't get too brown.

Oh, one other note. I have added wheat germ and flax seed to this without it changing the taste. Not too much, maybe about 3 Tbsp. It is worth experimenting to find your own personal taste.

Exquisite Pizza Sauce

We make homemade pizza fairly often in our house. This is our absolute favorite sauce and really ups the yummy of the pizza. Chaz finds it is a bit spicy but Brian and I love the kick so every other batch I leave out the cayenne pepper and pepper flakes. I can get at least two pizzas out of a batch. So I just freeze the leftovers and thaw them in the microwave when I need them.

1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
6 fluid oz warm water
3 Tbsp grated parmesan cheese (I have left this out with no problems but we prefer it in there)
1 tsp minced garlic
2 Tbsp honey
3/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp marjoram
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/8 tsp dried red pepper flakes
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
salt to taste

Mix everything together in a small bowl, breaking up any clumps.

Let sit for at least 30 mins, then spread over dough and prepare pizza as desired.

Request: hot chocolate mix

In an effort to save money and satisfy cravings, I want to make hot chocolate mix at home. I have tried several and will admit that they are seldom up to snuff. But I was hoping someone(s) here has one they make over and over again for me to try. Please and thank you.