My mom gave me a bread machine months ago because I really, really wanted to get away from buying store bought bread.  Not only do I get tired of reading the labels on store bought bread, scanning for honey or any other hidden animal ingredients, but I find the packaging to be extremely wasteful and unnecessary.  Up until today, I was too afraid to try out the bread machine because (1) I’m lazy and (2) every single recipe in the booklet that came with it calls for nonfat dried milk.  So, really, I’ve been too lazy to either veganize one of those recipes or find a vegan recipe.  My friend, Trina, even took the time to email several recipes.

So, yesterday we ran out of bread and I decided that I was going to make some instead of waiting until I went to the store.  But, still being afraid of the bread machine, I made the Whole Wheat Bread recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking. Whole Wheat Bricks is more like it.

Sadly, these loaves are destined for croutons or bread crumbs.

Still determined to make my own bread (and mad at myself for being so lazy not to use the bread machine, which actually took more effort because I had to make the stupid things by hand!), I busted out the bread machine this afternoon and made this Light Oat Bread.

Now, this is what bread is supposed to look like.

It’s super fluffy and really good.  The loaves are pretty small, so I’ll probably have to make 2-3 per week.  I could kick myself sometimes for being so stubborn!