Fresh-Start Challenge, Week 1, Day 4 -- make bread dough & snacks

Today, make Good Whisk Bread dough, let it rise for about two hours, and then refrigerate it overnight.

Bag up five days of walnuts and raisins (1/4 cup each per person) and two days of vegetable sticks:

• Plant-strong, make celery sticks
• Classic, make bell pepper sticks

Plant-strong folks, soak 1 cup of cashews in water to make cashew cream tomorrow.

For dinner, enjoy the second servings of the meal you made on Day 2:  pasta with tomato sauce and chilled Marinated Green Beans (aka green beans in vinaigrette). Plant-strong peeps, also have a Sweet-Sixteen Oatmeal-Raisin Bar as a snack.

Q&A

Q: Aren't bell pepper sticks plant-strong?

A: Of course they are! But the classic challenge option follows the 20 Minute a Day Starter Plan in Wildly Affordable Organic. The plant-strong version opts for less expensive, seasonal vegetables.

Q: Why do the plant-strong peeps get all the snacks?

A: With the classic 20 Minute a Day plan, you make eight servings of pudding on the first day, the most I could make in 20 minutes. (Milk takes a long time to boil!) If you are feeding four people, that pudding is long gone. But in just 16 minutes, I could get sixteen servings of the oatmeal-raisin bars into the oven, so they last four for days.

Q: I'm cooking for one or two. What can I freeze or make ahead?

A: This plan works beautifully when you are cooking for one or two.

• Cooked beans, plain or in a recipe, freeze beautifully.
• The Good Whisk Bread dough lasts for two weeks in the fridge, with its flavor getting more complex every day. Bake one loaf tomorrow, maybe even a half-loaf. Then bake another in a week and the rest of the dough in two weeks. You can also make just a half-batch of dough.